New 104 page softcover anthology (with throwback sticker). Collected pages from issues of Nat Rrain, and other assorted Nat Rrain projects & publications.

If you're interested in gettin' one, send me an e-mail for easy ordering details.

nat.rain@gmail.com

 

A tribute illustration to an old Turbografx-16 title..

A preview for interested parties, one of the Nat Rrain pages from Flip City magazine (issue #20). Have more pages coming in upcoming issues. If you enjoy cultural satire, subscribe, or pick up individual issues..

contact: nat.rain@gmail.com

 

Got around to creating some profiles for Greyskull & his band mates.. based on a old sketch..

^ this is the original sketch, with Greyskull, and his then nameless crew. They've been on a nostalgic tour, permanently & blissfully frozen in the late '90s.

If you get a chance, check out Flip City Magazine, I just had a couple pages in issue #20..

Flip City (About Us)

contact- nat.rain@gmail.com

 

For interested parties, Flip City (issue #20) published some Nat Rrain art recently. They sell both digital and print subscriptions (link enclosed). It's a publication stylistically similar to MAD.. but focused more on uncensored political satire than celebrity satire (tho most of my comics are apolitical).

https://flip-city-magazine.myshopify.com/collections/flip-city-subscriptions/subscription

contact- nat.rain@gmail.com

 

This is a cool hardcover collection of James Dean photos, taken by photographer Dennis Stock, shortly before Dean became famous. And their collaboration has an interesting backstory. Dean and Stock met at a party in LA, and after conversing some, Dean invited Stock to an upcoming test screening of East of Eden. 

Stock liked the movie and Dean's performance, and instinctively realized Dean was going to be a star. So he asked if he could spend a couple days with Dean, photographing his life (and essentially origin story), before Dean broke big.

Stock ended up traveling with Dean back to his Indiana hometown, & around to some of Dean's spots in New York, and constructed a photo album of Dean's life just at the end of its anonymity. There's a good movie that documents the time Stock & Dean spent together getting the photo spread titled Life (not the Eddie Murphy joint, this Life was released 15 years later, but..)

Some of the individual photos are iconic now, and probably recognizable from posters you see in Hollywood Blvd tourist traps, etc. But there are also some great deep cuts in the book. Random photos of Dean walking thru his small home town, and working on his childhood farm. Even setting Dean aside, it's a cultural document of 1950s Middle/rural America.

 

(both images are within the book)

contact- nat.rain@gmail.com

 

Some new & old Nat Rrain releases of signs and roadside attractions:

Early 90s Lynnhaven Mall (parking lot) sign, when they were still rockin' a brown tile look.

The day when they mounted the Great American Outlet Mall sign in Virginia Beach, circa mid 8os.

contact- nat.rain@gmail.com

 Just a quick upload.. A cool, detailed sketch my daughter finished recently, thought I'd share.

contact: nat.rain@gmail.com

 

In the mid 80s, there was a TV pilot for a never-realized series Condor. Set in the near future of 1999, it was based around a human agent (typical '8os cop meme, a maverick who plays by his own obnoxious rules) and his good-looking android partner. The old school agent predictably resents being paired with the new soul-less technology. But over the course of 80 delicious minutes, he learns to respect it..

Condor had a pretty good cast, including Fresh Prince's Uncle Phil, and Wendy Kilbourne as the beautiful robot..

An interesting element is 1985 conjecture on how the world would look in the near future.. oversized drones and urban three-wheelers were part of that speculation.. They did a pretty good job balancing potential progress with factors of daily life that don't change much. And this to me, is the most disappointing aspect of Condor not making it.. missing out on more of the futuristic aesthetic, because they seemed to put effort in to this part of the pilot. There are couple places now to stream Condor, and it is a cool cultural artifact of how some foresaw the start of the 21st century..

Part Maxwell Smart, part Dean Ween.. Christopher Proctor (a TV icon that could've been).

contact- nat.rain@gmail.com

 

 

It's common to hear about negative encounters with celebrities.. so for the sake of balance I wanna share a positive (throwback) celebrity experience I had..

Summer of '99 I was working at a sunglass retailer in Ocean City, Maryland. We were right on the boards, so there was a lot of foot traffic at night. And one night, Foo Fighter Dave Grohl dipped in.. It didn't surprise me, because I was aware he was from the northern Virginia area.. and the DC suburbs produce a lot of Ocean City's tourists. It was an unusually slow night, so I was working solo, and Grohl was the only customer in the shop then. He said he was looking for nighttime shades (I assume to cloak his identity). In the late 9os, as a Nirvana alum and current Foo Fighter, he was easily recognizable.

I didn't mention that I recognized him, and just talked him up like any other anonymous customer. I asked him about this forearm ink.. we talked a little bit about the store's bright yellow paint job. He noted that yellow was perceived as a uniquely unfriendly color for marketing. It was a cool conversation. And after he picked a pair of glasses, and paid.. he gave me a $20 tip, (that he wouldn't let me refuse). Which in that era was probably equal to 4 hours of work. So I was flattered and grateful..

Guess I was just feeling nostalgic, and wanted to show some love for the civilized celebrities. I had mixed encounters with different famous folks after moving to LA. Grohl stands out as decent.

Years ago, I briefly alluded to this chance encounter with Grohl in Natrrain #13.

contact: nat.rain@gmail.com