questions about the artwork:

• how does the magic happen?
most of the drawings you see here on the site are first sketched out in a notepad, a sketch pad, on a napkin, shaved into a small animal, or sketched in the snow with urine or blood (occasionally my own) and is then painstakingly re-created with a pencil on a white index card, and then painstakingly inked with a regular papermate/uniball pen, and then pencil lines are mercilessly (and painstakingly) erased, and sometimes if i screw up i might (painstakingly) break out the whiteout pen, sniff it a few times, and forget about all of the mistakes i've made. a few hours later after regaining most of my motor functions the inked drawing is shaded with a Letraset marker, scanned, and magical computer gnomes deposit them here.

shirt designs, prints, and most color illustrations are created using a adobe's illustrator and photoshop products. some animation and interactive content is done in flash.


• do you come up with the caption or the drawing first?
usually the drawing comes first. sometimes i have the perfect title as soon as i've sketched out the artwork, other times i have to take a while to think of it. i try to be careful not to repeat myself but there are quite a few similar titles as i have a very limited vocabulary. andy hungry. andy eat food. urgh.


questions about using artwork:

• can i use one of your drawings on my site?
i appreciate people asking first, but as long as my drawings don't make up the majority of the content on your site, you provide me some credit and a link, and you're not running some sort of bizzarro clown love site, you'll probably be fine by me. i'm a reasonable human so please feel free to email meor use the contact form to send me the details of your request.

my works are copyrighted and i even legally own a company and all that fun stuff, so please don't make me sue you or kidnap your pets.

• can i use one of your drawings on my t-shirt?
merchandise such as t-shirts is one of the only ways i am able to support myself creating artwork, so please consider buying one of the shirts that already exist.

• can i use one of your drawings on my body?
want a creatures tatoot? go for it! the only requirement is that you send me photos! if you need a better version of a specific piece of artwork contact me and i'll see what i can do.

• i am in an awesome rock band and your art would be perfect for our new cd / t-shirt / video / poster / tour bus / private jet. can I use it?)
please have your agent or label contact me with more information. i occasionally do freelance illustration, design and animation if you are interested in paid commissioned work.


questions about the site:

• how often can i rate a creature, and why should i bother?
you can rate each creature once a day, votes are reset at midnight (est), voting will help me find out which creatures are the most popular for things such as wallpapers and t-shirts and other fun stuff. plus it makes the winning creatures feel good about themselves. 1 = BAD, 10 = GOOD. update: you people obviously hate me.

• why is your email address always a non-clickable graphic file?
it used to be a nice regular direct link, but the volume of spam i have been getting has become incredibly difficult to deal with, therefore all traces of my valid email address that could be collected by a program have been removed. please type the address into your mail program or use the contact form. sorry for this inconvenience.

• can i link to your site?
yes please do! i'd be delighted.. i love links of the non-sausage variety. please let me know if you link to me so i can check out your site too! i'm afraid i can't link back to everyone who links to me, but if your site is super enjoyable i will try to let people know about it. if you want a specific size button to link here just let me know and maybe i can whip something up, for now here are two button style ads from a long time ago... feel like making your own linking buttons? go right ahead, let me know so i can add them here!


• what is "dead zebra, inc" / "dyzplastic" / "dumbrella" ?
dead zebra is the name of the company i own that is legally/financially responsible for many of my projects,
dyzplastic is a division of that company responsible for the production of toys and collectibles.
dumbrella is a loose collective of web-based artists and writers of which creatures is a part.


supporting the site :

• i vomit forth considerable sums of money and i wish to share my valuable expectorant with you!
great! if you want to support myself as an artist or this site in particular please purchase some goodies from the store (shop.deadzebra.com) or you can even make a straight donation via paypal if you are so inclined.