If you know Muttpop products, then you are familiar with the amazing design work of Gobi, Bill, and Mense. The 3 talented artists were our inspiration for creating Muttpop. When Jerry was showing me the amazing character designs Gobi, Bill, and Mense were doing for his various Lucha Libre comics I demanded that we find a way to make toys of those characters. As with all talented people, the 3 artists continue to grow in skill and imagination. So much so that they've decided to share some of their wild ideas via their newly dubbed site CATFISH DELUXE.

I had the pleasure of helping them out with the English on the website. It was really fun reading descriptions of the different universes... and even crazier to later see those universes realized in their beautiful illustrations. I recommend... no, I COMMAND you to check out their site! :-)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE CATFISH DELUXE WEBSITE.

We're taught to believe that creative people dig deep into the recesses of their imagination to create something unique and personal. Through art they make their personal world a reality and (hopefully) find an audience that can emotively connect with their world. But is that really what its about? There is a language to everything that we do and, I'd argue, that without a genuine understanding of that underlying language, it's impossible to communicate to an audience that can genuinely understand your work. Pop Art aims to communicate in a language that most people are, at least, familiar with. As a person living in America there are certain things I do and objects that I interact with. A good American Pop Artist is able to exploit the similarities of such experience and communicate it to me in a way that I "get". Here are some immediate examples from (as seen from top to bottom) us (Muttpop), Kozik, Sket One, Shepard Fairey, and Kaws.

I'm pretty surprised how much buzz is floating around about Apple's announcement of a new Tablet product. With just an announcement, Apple's got the whole world talking about how they're going to change the business of publishing. And this is before a single specification regarding the product has been revealed. The world is ablaze with anticipation over the idea of an Apple "tablet". Crazy. Can Steve Jobs and team Apple meet the lofty expectations of the general public? I have my doubts. When the Buzz gets as frantic as it has, it's tough to meet expectations. But there's no denying Apple's instrumental impact on the last 25 years of technology. I'd argue that Steve Jobs and Apple are the most influential artists of the last 30 years. Time and again Apple single-handedly changes the way we interact with information and the world around us. At a time where access to information is instantaneous and infinite, it's difficult for things like a popular song or movie to have a significant affect on us. With attention spans becoming smaller ans smaller, the tool with which we access information and experience is becoming as (if not more) important than the cultures we choose to influence us. And if there is one company that has successfully established the foundations within which we access the digital world, it's undisputably Apple. Apple changed the way we access music. Apple changed the game of telecommunications. Now, people claim, Apple's on the verge of changing the game of publishing. It's a new world, my friend. One where we can all be stars to a devoted few and where the tool is as important a he/she who wields it.

Love, love, LOVE these beautiful yokai (Japanese Folk Monsters) illustrations by Shigeru Mizuki. Japanese folk tales and urban legends have some of the weirdest monsters you can think of. While us Americans have Bigfoot and Babe the giant Blue Ox, the Japanese have Kasa-obake (phantom possessed umbrellas) and Kappa (turtle-like water sprites with ponds for brains). There's a wacky folk tale for just about everything in Japan. For example, if you look carefully at the moon, the Japanese claim you can see bunnies making rice cakes. Do you ever see candlelights dancing on the edge of a hill? Those are the bobbing lanterns of a family of tanuki (Japanese raccoons) mischievously marching. During the many years I went to Japanese School on Saturdays I would be blown away by the morbid and imaginative folktales of Japan. Stories of a powerful boy growing out of an oversized peach and fighting horned demons on Troll Island (Momotaro)! Horrific tales of wicked old ladies cutting the tongues out of beautiful birds. It's a darn shame I didn't learn any Japanese (gomen!).

When it comes to Japanese Monsters, Shigeru Mizuki is one of the best illustrators. His style is the perfect blend of cartoony and spooky that makes these strange Japanese creatures beautiful and timeless. Mizuki-san is best known for his manga series GeGeGe No Kitaro, a gothic children's adventure comic about a zombie boy whose father was reborn as the child's missing left eyeball (a big eyeball head with a miniature naked human body!). It's a shame we haven't been blessed with an English translation of this fantastic series!

Just in time for Halloween, the wonderful PINK TENTACLE blog uploaded many fabulous illustrations from Yōkai Daizukai an illustrated guide of Japanese folk monsters by Mr. Mizuki. Below I have included 3 of my favorites. For more monsters and descriptions of the monsters below, be sure to check out the original Pink Tentacle blog post!

Here's a clever experiment in design. The talented folks from INFINITE CONTINUES blog successfully distilled the color and key design elements of our favorite videogame characters into beautiful abstract images. It's amazing how recognizable these characters have become. The basis of this idea is one that we have played with in our Pop Culture Lucha Libre toy series. When it works, it showcases the strength of a character's design and how successful it has penetrated the Pop Cultural consciousness. Nintendo and Marvel are two companies that have done a masterful job of keeping their slew of characters current. As a child raised on Nintendo games, its fascinating that the young children of today will most likely recognize Donkey Kong and Kirby as characters from the SMASH BROS. game (instead of the DONKEY KONG and KIRBY game series). That's not all that bad of a thing, though. Keeping those characters out in the Public's eye brings the more curious folk back to the classic games/stories of yesteryear. Heck, I would never have discovered Jack Kirby's genius if it weren't for the Marvel comics being published in the 1990s!

CLICK HERE for Infinite Continue's complete selection of videogame mascot minimalist designs.

I just wanted to give props to my good ol' friend Clark, one half of the Mura Mura Clothing team. Clark's a perennial student, philosopher, baller, and t-shirt pusher. During the many occasions I got my ankles turned by Clark's killer cross-over, I didn't know he had a t-shirt business brewing in that noggin of his. In the last year he's released a series of tees under his Mura Mura clothing line. I'm proud of the dude for taking the road less travelled. I'm SUPER proud that that journey includes one of the smoothest renditions of the fabled tanuki (hairless sack and all...) and a mighty fine blog on all things fashion, pop culture, and basketball. CLICK HERE for the Mura Mura blog and information on how to order your own Mura Mura t-shirt.