Concept sketch:

Illustration by James Heimer — check out more artwork on his website and his blog. Thanks for the great work, James!

I’ve been a jazz fan for a long time, and a huge fan of the classic Blue Note Records album sleeves designed by Reid Miles. Last weekend was Jazz’SAlive, our annual free jazz festival (not “free jazz” — just free as in “doesn’t cost anything”) held downtown, and so I finally got a chance to do an homage to the Blue Note style with photos of the headliners, Béla Fleck and Marcus Roberts. It was especially fun adding all the little details like the worn circle (from the vinyl inside).

“Queen Tin” by Alex & Felix, part of Fotoseptiembre 2012

No cats were harmed in the making of this cover, but many animals are still being harmed (i.e., put to sleep) because San Antonio is still not yet a “no-kill” city. I wanted to put a face on this topic, so I found the cutest, most innocent, wide-eyed kitten I could on shutterstock.com and had a little funeral for him. People asked me — horrified — whether or not Mittens was a real cat who got put down. Well, “Mittens” might not be “real,” but there are tons of cats and dogs like him, and they all need good homes … or else.

This cover was a lot of fun to put together. It’s been a personal goal of mine to create a cover entirely out of Lego (as a kid I used to build my own X-Wings and Batmobiles out of the stuff), and when the Team Better Block story came up, I knew this was a perfect opportunity.

To replicate Alamo Plaza and the surrounding city block, I needed to turn to the experts: The Texas Lego User Group. I saw their amazingly detailed and expansive train build at this year’s Texas Comicon, and knew they could help make it happen. Chris MacDougald, founder of TexLUG-SA (the local chapter in San Antonio), and founding co-chair of Brick Fiesta (an annual fan-run event that draws Lego master builders and thousands of Lego maniacs) created the Lego Alamo from photo reference (called “free build” in Lego terminology) and built up the rest of the city block around it. I had a hand in populating the city with mini-figures: tourists, locals, punks, construction workers … and then we threw in a mummy, Wonder Woman, an Ewok (yep, it’s in there), a gorilla, and other easter eggs. My own personal favorite — a Lego recreation of the Beatles’ Abbey Road cover.

Huge thanks to Chris and Connie MacDougald for their Lego expertise and hospitality, and to Steven Gilmore for the great photos!

My favorite easter egg: a Lego-fied Abbey Road!

An Ewok in the pet store, just because.

Hey, that Lego figure on the left looks … familiar …

Did a couple things with this one that I’ve never done before: I put the logo running up the side, and I did a full-on, unapologetic parody of Shepard Fairey’s iconic (to the point of overkill, admittedly) Obama “Hope” poster. (Not going to link to it, you know what image I’m talking about). The subject: San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, who was selected to give the keynote speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. (This cover came out when the news originally broke, I’m waaaaaay behind on updating this site, sorry.) There was a swell of SA pride going around (in some circles), with some people even claiming him to be a Latino Obama (I kept trying to coin the term “Latinobama” but it didn’t stick).

So I figured it’d be fun to play with all this and literally wrap him up in Obama’s imagery, but the tag at the bottom is undecided as to what Castro should be. President? Senator? A remake of the Schwarzenegger/DeVito classic Twins? (That last one is my favorite.) Regardless of whether you’re a fan of him as SA’s mayor, or his pretty-good speech at the DNC, the facts are that he’s not exactly qualified to be President of the United States in 2016. Eventual Governor of Texas, more likely.

With the exception of a few weirdly bitter haters (if they want to call it like they see it, so will I), this cover was hugely well-received. I think what people are responding to is that the mere idea of someone who looks like Castro (and his twin brother, Joaquin, obvs) being mentioned as even a hypothetical candidate for the presidency would not have been possible pre-Obama. As the cultural landscape changes (read: more and more Latinos), our politicians will change, too. That’s just how it works. This totally freaks out some people, but if it isn’t Julián Castro or his brother Joaquin leading the nation someday, there will be a Latino (or Latina?) Commander in Chief in my lifetime. (Just not Marco Rubio, OK?)