This Poster Kills Artists: King Buzzo Screen Print

2014/06/272014/06/28 Doktor Ross Sewage1 Comment

King Buzzo of the Melvins has recently released a fucking amazing solo record of acoustic tunes called This Machine Kills Artists. He’s gone on tour and I got to do a poster for the gig in Seattle. What kind of gig poster does one design for the man with the most amazing distorted tone on the planet when he goes acoustic? Naturally, you make a poster paying tribute to one of the shittiest distortion pedals ever made.

Parodied on my gig poster for King Buzzo is the DOD FX33, the “Buzz Box.” According to lore (and King Buzzo himself) it was designed to emulate the Melvins guitar tone. DOD failed and instead designed something Buzz Osbourne described himself as “… totally worthless. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner.” It was never meant to be an officially endorsed pedal, but c’mon, it’s called the “Buzz Box.” I wanted to do a poster featuring this pedal for something Melvins related, anyway. The man himself dropping all distortion for his material seemed the perfect time to do so.

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Graveyard in Nilbog

2014/05/162014/06/28 Doktor Ross SewageLeave a comment

I was asked to do a poster for the Graveyard’s April tour series. I’m like… fuck yeah! Graveyard! Then they’re like, you’re doing Salt Lake City. And I’m like… I fucking hate Salt Lake City. Ugh. Whatever good came outta that shit burg area? I came up with precisely two things: the films Carnival of Souls and Troll 2. So, the word “good” is entirely subjective as used here. I decided to base my poster on one of those things. After doing a poll on Facebook, a Troll 2 poster won out.

What can I say? I think the Goblin Queen, Creedence Leonore Gielgud, is fucking hot. The glasses, the wisps of gray hair, the corn… what a bad-ass babe to put on a gig poster, amiright? Okay, maybe I’m not. But I can’t do anything seriously.

If you haven’t seen Troll 2 or the documentary Best Worst Movie, check them out. You’ll understand better why this poster had to be made. And in the documentary, look carefully during the scene where they screen the movie with all the actors in L.A.; I’m in that crowd somewhere! And if you want to buy one of these fine posters (and I know you do) here’s the link:
https://www.doktorsewage.com/product/graveyard-2014-04-22/

Screening for Vengeance: Ghoul Tour Poster

2014/03/212014/06/28 Doktor Ross SewageLeave a comment

I think Digestor from the band Ghoul is a fabulous artist. That’s why I decided to print, outside of my time working for Monolith Press, their upcoming tour poster. In no way did Digestor and the crew from Ghoul hold an axe to my throat and threaten to eat my family if I didn’t agree to do it. Nope, it was all because I believe in Digestor’s art. And that’s how they got this:

Digestor supplied me with the drawing and I ~~was violently forced to~~ happily did all the coloring and separations. Now, just because this was a poster for a ~~maniacal lunatic~~ guy whose art I really like didn’t mean I couldn’t make things a little easier on myself for the actual printing. Being a printer by day meant I had a few tricks up my sleeve to ease this poster along with minimal headache.

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There Can Be Only One High on Fire

2013/12/062013/12/06 Doktor Ross SewageLeave a comment

Justin from Secret Serpents was kind enough to ask me again to be in on a gig poster tour series for a favorite band of mine, High on Fire. I had a wedding coming up followed by a honeymoon, but Justin said I’d get some date late in December. I thought, hey, no problem. Then he gave me my date… it was before my honeymoon ended. The only way I’d get this poster done was to cram it in-between my blessed matrimony and my drunken adventures in Central America.

I’m happy with the result. I had maybe my goofiest idea yet for a poster and managed to finish it early and get it shipped off to Matt Pike and the boys to sell at their show. My copies are up for sale here on the site: https://www.doktorsewage.com/product/high-on-fire-2013-11-23/ Time constraints, however, meant that pen never met paper when I drew this poster. I had to get all Tron up in this bitch.

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Gross Anatomy: High on Fire poster

2012/12/282015/02/08 Doktor Ross SewageLeave a comment

Back in August / September, Yob was coming through town. I love Yob. They were playing on my birthday and I wanted to do a poster for them. I talked with the band and they were down. A week before the event, after just starting the inks, it was pointed out to me the promoter already had a poster. Shit. I didn’t talk to the promoter. I cancelled my job and enjoyed the show anyway. A month later, my friends at Secret Serpents offered me a spot in their High on Fire tour series. Well, why fucking let that art go to waste? I requested the date for the end of the world, December 21, 2012. This is what came of it.

Like all posters I’ve worked on, I don’t make a cent… unless I sell my own copies. This is the topsy turvy economy of the gig poster world. 35 of these bad boys went down to Santa Ana, gratis, for the band to sell. My copies are on sale on my website now. The process to get from there to here took longer than expected, but I was pleased with the results.

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STD Greeting Cards: You need these!

2012/12/072014/06/24 Doktor Ross SewageLeave a comment

My fiancee and I have been mulling about on a project for some time now. Probably, like, a year. Touring and stuff often gets in the way of fun stuff like this. Finally, however, I was able to make some time. It is here I am for the first time displaying our first ever joint artistic effort; STD greeting cards.

I’ve gone and screen printed four different cards, all featuring just the most adorable little animal I could draw. These are going to be sold as a set of four, bundled up all cute, and just in time for the holidays! What makes these so special, besides my amazing art and a wonderful four color screen printing job? The messages inside… each one has a different message declaring from the sender to the sendee an APOLOGY for whatever SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE you might have given them. You had to know the idea was gonna get sick at some point, right?

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Gross Anatomy: Melvins Lite Poster

2012/09/072015/01/28 Doktor Ross Sewage1 Comment

Freak Puke is the debut album from Melvins Lite, a more recent power trio incarnation of the Melvins. It features old stalwarts King Buzzo and Dale Crover joining with legendary bassist Trevor Dunn. They’re as “Lite” as a joke about 9/11; it’s every bit as heavy as any version of the Melvins. They are touring to promote Freak Puke, but this time, the tour is an event of Guinness sized magnitude. 51 shows in 51 days, every state in the union plus Washington D.C. This will be a record. I was pleased as punch to be included in the tour poster series from Secret Serpents. Yesterday, they played the second gig in Seattle, Washington. I commemorated the event with this piece of Sewage-style snarkiness.

I was a bit apprehensive at first, being handed the tour poster duties for Seattle. Being that this was such a geographically consequential tour, I wanted to do something to reflect the area they were playing. I couldn’t abide by putting the Space Needle in the art, but I couldn’t think of anything more unequivocally recognizable about the Emerald City. I set about looking for inspiration.

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Gross Anatomy: Impaled poster

2012/02/172014/06/24 Doktor Ross Sewage3 Comments

What kismet… As Sean and I display our art all month at Eli’s Mile High Club, we were booked to play a show with Impaled at the same venue. Well, if I’m displaying a mess of gig posters I’ve printed, I’d be quite the fool to not make one for this show.

Like a letter from Iwo Jima… well, a really crass letter. I’ve been thinking about hacking away at the iconic photo of the flag raising at Iwo Jima for some time. This seemed a good opportunity to do it. I’m not 100% happy with this poster, because, as usual, I was rushed. Still, I think I managed to use a few interesting techniques during the process of drawing and printing it that it’s worth sharing.

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