NORTH

My friends, I'd like to share with you all a project that I've most recently participated in and hope that you'll find to be fun. Whether you're a Pittsburgh-area resident, artist, both or neither, I think you'll like this.

The ToonSeum (located at the Children's Museum) has published NORTH: A Graphic Guide to Pittsburgh's North Side, a new comic-book visitors guide to numerous places of interest in - you guessed it - the North Side. Illustrated by a bunch of local cartoonists, illustrators and graphic artists (yes, including me!), it's a wonderful fusion of talent and vison. I just love it, and can't see how a city resident wouldn't do the same.

NORTH was conceived by Joe Wos (Founder & Executive Director of the Toonseum), edited by Harold Behar (of local marketing/design firm Behar-Fingal), and made possible by funding from The Grable Foundation as part of The Charm Bracelet Project Fund. The list of contributors brought a smile to my face when I first learned of them: Ed Piskor, Pat Lewis, Jim Rugg, Rob Rogers, and Scott Hedlund to name a few.



This project also marks the first official collaorbation between myself and my great friend Wayne Wise. We were brought on board at the last minute, and assigned to create a page showcasing The Mattress Factory. "What's that?" you may be asking. Well, read on and find out...!

NORTH will be made available throughout Pittsburgh. The official release party for this will be at the beginning of April, but copies are now ready for distribution.

Anyone interested in obtaining copies should contact Joe Wos at the ToonSeum (joe@toonseum.com) for more information. Or visit the NORTH webpage for additional details and to preview more artwork from the book.

I can't rave enough about it. It's such a local project that it was conceived, edited and even printed on the North Side. Hopefully we'll see additional entries in this series (we have to complete the tri-state area's compass gang!) and hopefully you'll enjoy it too!