"Weird Al" Yankovic Strings Attached Tour Pittsburgh poster - some process pieces

Here's some fun and interesting (funteresting?) news: I worked on a poster for "Weird Al" Yankovic's current "Strings Attached" Tour! It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Al's, so it has been quite exciting for me to work on an official poster for the legendary artist. Since the poster has been formally announced, I thought I'd show a few process pieces and give a little commentary of how we got to the final image.

The short version of how I got involved with this project is that one of Al's tour managers contacted me and we talked about a few different ideas. Since Pittsburgh is my hometown, I asked to take on the poster for the July 7th stop at the Benedum Center in the downtown cultural district. Al played there in 2017 and it's a nice venue. Anyway, Pittsburgh is known for being the hometown of icon Andy Warhol, so we wanted to do something in that vein.

The first draft I put together combined a Warhol-esque grid that is reminiscent of a number of his prints, such as the Marylin Monroe grid below:

The poster was going to have Kuni, Gedde Watanabe's character in "UHF", leaping outward from the grid background, like so:

For this part, I called on my friend and frequent collaborator Jeff McComsey, and he came up with this image, which I really like. The text at the top and bottom of the poster were based on this promotional poster:

Once I found the font in question, I was able to duplicate it and create all kinds of images, such as...

I still like this one. Perhaps it'll still see some use? Anyway, the first draft got scrapped for a simpler, more iconic Warhol image of the Campbell's soup can. Warhol's original was made in 1962, so I found a few different labels from around that time:

And then I went about recreating the image as below. The final version only shows the relatively simplistic front of the label, but there is actually a full back as well.

Jeff then took the label and added it to his rough of R2D2 - that is to say, a version that is legally distinct from R2D2, or perhaps a parody (yes, that's it). Al is known for a number of things, including his two Star Wars-themed songs, so it doesn't take much to complete the reference, or at least I don't think it does. We were asked to remove the dome on top of the Droid's body to highlight the soup can part of it.

For obvious reasons, one of my favorite Warhol creations is this Superman print:

I really wanted to do something similar for the poster and pay homage to that particular image, but it wasn't to be - they wanted the simpler, more evocative image that ended up being the final version.

They were probably right to make that change, but I still like the Superman reference. Al posted the image of the final poster on his Instagram page on June 23rd:

View this post on Instagram

🎨: @jeffrey.mcclelland

A post shared by Al Yankovic (@alfredyankovic) on Jun 23, 2019 at 11:41am PDT

And I think people like it so far! The poster is part of the VIP package for the concert, so everyone with those particular tickets will get a print on the night of the show. I'll get a few copies for myself, too!

Al is also selling t-shirts for every single print, including this one.

I believe that these are made-to-order, so they should be available until at least the end of the tour! They come in different colors and both men's and women's sizes! You can order some here: https://www.jsrdirect.com/bands/weirdal/pittsburg-pa-july-7

As you might expect, this whole experience has been one of the highlights of my year so far. I've got tickets to the July 7th show, so I'll be there, nervously eavesdropping on VIP conversations to see if I can hear what people have to say about the posters. Maybe I'll grab them from angry and perplexed passers-by and sign them while they chase and beat me in an attempt to get them back! And then I will explain the whole thing and we'll all have a good laugh. It's possible.

Pictures from the 2015 Comic-Con International, part 5: Saturday (Game of Thrones, March, Nerd HQ and more!)

Well, two things have been established regarding this blog, I think: first, I can't stay away. Second, I will always have pictures from Comic-Con to post. Here are some more, even though it's January and I told myself (and Larry) that I wouldn't do this again this year. So much for that! Here are some pictures from the Saturday of the show, the busiest day of the event.

Let's start off with some Game of Thrones characters.

And follow that up with some more Game of Throne characters.

And finally, more from Game of Thrones. This last one is great. If they need a stand-in for Petyr Baelish, I hope they call this guy.

I managed to luck my way into line for a signing by the creative team behind the incredible graphic novel series "March", including Congressman John Lewis. This was one of the highlights of my trip to be sure.

These guys did a really nice job. They added in a few other references as well, which I appreciated.

Look, it's Wonder Woman, and...someone else! Wait...is that Rocket Raccoon? Yes, I believe it is.

C-3PO did a great job with this costume. There was a real live person in side and he even had a voice modulator to talk in the character's voice. Really incredible.

The Tick and Arthur came to the NEC booth. Townsend Coleman (voice of The Tick in the animated series) is in the center.

I, of course, had to get my picture with them before they left. I learned that these guys are actually from Pittsburgh. How is it that I don't know them already?

Jubilee and Captain America. I like this. That is all.

I got tickets to the Nerd HQ "Mystery Panel" this year. There were six guests from different ABC shows and Zach Levi.

The person in the middle was probably the only one I recognized? She played in "House" and was also Captain Kirk's mom in the 2009 Star Trek movie.

It was a fun hour.

I still need to watch...SOMETHING that Zach Levi is in. He does such a good job at putting this together every year, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy. Wait, I guess I did watch the Thor sequel. So there's that!

Taking a break after a long day at the convention.

Comic-Con after hours.

Weird things happen on the streets of Comic-Con after the show ends. I'm not sure how much is obvious from this picture, but there was a group dressed up like Buddhist monks (maybe they were actual monks? You can never tell at Comic-Con) dancing in a circle. Plenty of people joined in.

It was back to Nerd HQ to finish up the evening. Plenty of photo opportunities there, including this one of my butt.

I jumped into this picture at the last second. I don't know who anyone else is. But they were all pretty cool.

These folks danced around in these raptor half costumes for quite a while. It's a shame that they had to compete with this:

That's a full-size Chewbacca costume, complete with lifts or stilts or something. The guy in this danced for hours and must have lost ten pounds over the course of the evening. Every once in a while he'd take the head off and you'd see him sweating profusely. But he was a real trooper (haw) and kept at it. He got invited to the VIP section after a while. He worked for it.

Here's more Weird Al vandalism. I admit no guilt.

I hit a bit of a wall early on Saturday, and I don't think I took as many pictures as I did on other days. Comic-Con hours take their toll and I really felt it this day. But my second wind finally came during the afternoon and Sunday finished up strong.

Are there more pictures? YES! Will it be another three months before you see any? Hopefully not! See you soon!

"Weird Al" Yankovic's UHF movie screening, 5/31 in Greensburg, PA

Hey folks, it's been a long time coming, but I am finally ready to reveal my very first Kickstarter project: I'm screening a copy of "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1989 classic film "UHF" in Greensburg, PA on Sunday, May 31st.

If you've ever looked at this blog for at least one second, you probably realize that I'm a big fan of "Weird Al" Yankovic and all of the different projects that he undertakes.  UHF marks his only foray into moviemaking (for now) and it has become a cult classic in the years since its release.  Last year was the 25th anniversary of the film, and this year is the beginning of the Mandatory Fun tour, so I thought it'd be fun to put the two together and show the film before Al's May 31st stop in Greensburg.

The movie will be held at Latrobe 30 Theatre and Cafe, which is about 10 miles from Greensburg.  My hope is that fans will want to see the movie in the afternoon before going to see the concert later in the evening.

On this page I've posted a number of the Kickstarter rewards.  Directly above is an image for the full size movie poster, a 27x40 affair with art by Adrian "Bago" Gonzalez.  I'm really taken by it and hope that it's well received.

For those in the Pittsburgh area, I'm offering up tickets to the show itself, with four different images, each depicting a character from the movie with art by Rafer Roberts.

I realize, of course, that not everyone is from Pittsburgh (try it out some time, everyone), so there are a lot of rewards that can be had whether one attends the movie or not.  These pins feature 8-bit art of characters from the movie by artist Randy Riggs!  There's more of this 8-bit art to see if we hit our goal.

I might have shown this artwork before, but it's so great that it deserves to be shown again.  It serves as our opening, postcard reward with art by Pietro.

I'm also offering up several 11x17 prints, like this one with art by Caroline Moore...

...and this one, with art by Joe Badon.

I'm obviously very excited about this project and hope that it's successful.  If you'd like to view the project (and maybe even contribute to it!), just click on the following link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffmcclelland/uhf-movie-screening

Think of it as a love note to UHF, 26 years after the fact.  Take a peek and, if you can, share it with (close, personal) friends!