Pens Are My Friends

For the first time, British artist and illustrator Jon Burgerman's commercial, personal and collaborative works are collected together in this lavish and fun publication. Burgerman's brightly colored parades of monster faces and abstract glyphs have found their way onto a huge range of merchandise--toys, clothing (for Ripcurl), snowboards, exhibitions, murals, customizations, sketchbooks, even a sick bag--as well as galleries around the world (he is especially popular in China and Japan, whose graphic arts traditions his work draws on). Burgerman's personal pantheon of like minds includes Phil Frost, Mr. Jago of the Scrawl Collective, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Barry McGee--all of whom make sense as inspirations, and none of whom quite resemble his maniacal, over-the-top style. Accompanying the hundreds of pages of brain-melting doodles, drawings, characters and colors are essays by the Pictoplasma team and editors of Modart magazine, insights into Burgerman's working process and, of course, photos of salads. The included DVD is packed with animated goodies, documentary stuff and things to beautify your computer. Enter the world of Jon Burgerman's art, where no surface is safe from his meandering lines!