By: Press Release Question: What do you get when you combine work by some of skateboarding's most radtastic artists, an open bar, Leo Fitzpatrick on the turntables and the dudes from Slayer sitting at the table next to you? Answer: A hangover The first opening reception for the Volcomics Comic Book Project took place last Saturday night at Fuse Gallery on the lower east side in NYC. The hundreds of free comics and shirts disappeared in the first hour, but th vibe was great all night. The art show is a presentation of the originals from Volcomics issue #1 and additional drawings by Ozzie Wright, Michael Sieben, Travis Millard, Matt French, Haculla, Kill Pixie, Jamie Lynn, Mel Kadel and myself. While there are one-hundred and forty-five beautifully ridiculous original drawings to ponder the highlight of the show might be the 12-color Jim Phillips/Matt French screen-printed blacklight poster. They were printed in a limited edition of 200 and are a sight to behold. Great first show, thanks to all the artists that came out, to Erik Foss at Fuse and Steve Rodriguez for helping to put together a great night. Come out to the opening at the 126 La Brea Volcom store in Los Angeles on June 1st for the 2nd installment—Jim Phillips and VCJ will be in attendance. -Mike Aho
Here's what Matt French had to say:
After some damp good street skating and a radical sesh at the Autumn Bowl, it was time to arrive thrashionably late to the first stop on the Volcomics Tour. So, on Saturday, May 19, at about 9:30 pm, I straight rolled up into the opening show with Nick Trepasso, Darrell Stanton, Angel Ramirez (sans eyebrows), Caswell Berry (at one point, sans pants), and Volcom skate TM Steve Stratton. The wurd was, that an hour before opening, 100 people had already shown up. Needless to say, by the time we got there, the place was packed to the gills. The venue chosen for this occasion was the Fuse Gallery, located in the back portion of the Lit Lounge, on 2nd Ave, in fabulous New York City. With all the people dancing at the Lit, and the entire art monologue, it was hot in the spot! I kept thinking the place was going to reach it's kindling point and just burst into flame, but that actually didn't have anything to do with the temperature. People must have been just PUMPED on the show, because they powered through, braving the heat and the free booze to view extraordinary drawings by VC Johnson, Travis Millard, Mike Sieben, Todd Bratrud, Mike Aho, Mark Appleyard, Mel Kadel, Jamie Lynn, Neil Blender, Ethan Anderson, Ozzie Wright, Matt French (yeah, that's me), and a number of other super-talented artists I'm totally blowing it by not mentioning. Also on display, was a massive, silkscreened, blacklight poster version of the Volcomics cover art that I collaborated on with Jim Phillips. Keep your eyes peeled for the next stop on the Volcomics tour: June 1st, at Volcom's LA store. Pee Shout,Matt French For more info log in to www.volcom.com