So I did Taft in a badger suit and then a badger in a William Taft suit. So to follow up on that I did this - William Taft in a William Taft suit wearing a badger mask. And then below, I did the next obvious thing: a badger in a badger suit wearing a Taft mask. What's the next logical step? I'm all ears, guys.
A Badger in a President William Taft Suit: New Print on Etsy
This is just going to get sillier and sillier. You can get the print here.
President William Taft in a Badger Suit: New Print Now Up on Etsy
A continuation of my increasingly silly series involving President William Taft and a badger. No, I don't really understand it either. Here, Taft is taking a load off of his feet while in a badger suit. Is he taking a break from some bizarre Eyes Wide Shut-style festivity? A respite from an underground furry convention? You be the judge. And, if you're interested, you can get a print of this here.
Veeptopus on Huffington Post!
So the talented Ian Spanier came by the Veeptopus International headquarters a couple weeks ago. He took some pictures, shot some video and asked a bunch of questions that I managed to bumble my way through. Here is the final result.
Veeptopus Art Show!
I am really stoked about this. It will be the first time all the portraits (the originals, not the prints) will be shown in one place. Stop by and say hi. And if you can make it March 1, the pictures will be up until mid-May or so.
Teddy Roosevelt Rode a Moose, Or Did He?
Veeptopus Presidents Day Sale - Save 20%
Today is Presidents Day. So while you’re thinking about the sage wisdom and great sacrifice of some of our greatest Commanders-in-Chief, perhaps you could also spare a thought for some of our more forgotten vice presidents, men (and yes, they were all men) who came close to the mantle of power but who would remain forever obscure. Men like William R. King.
He died a mere six weeks into his term from Tuberculosis. He was so sick that he couldn’t make it to Washington for the inauguration. Instead, he was sworn in in Cuba, where he was convalescing.
Men like Henry Wilson, who while serving as Ulysses S. Grant’s veep, suffered a fatal stroke while in a bathtub in the basement of the Capitol. Yes, there used to be bathtubs in the Capitol.
And men like William A. Wheeler, who was so colorless and taciturn that his own running mate, Rutherford B. Hayes, had no idea who he was until he was placed on the presidential ticket.
In honor of these obscure leaders, these historical bronze metal winners, I am throwing the first ever Veeptopus sale.
Type in coupon code, VEEPSPRING2015 and get 20% off any item in the store. Act now because this sale ends February 18.
Aaron Burr - The First Vice President to Shoot Someone
Today is Aaron Burr's birthday. He might have been the third vice president in American history but he was the first VP shoot someone.
Below is hands down the coolest, most hard-boiled cinematic retelling of the infamous Burr-Hamilton duel. Listening to Burr's self-pitying, self-aggrandizing narration, written by filmmaker Dana O'Keefe, he sounds like a character out of a Scorsese movie.
And, of course, you want to commemorate Burr's birthday, you can buy a print here.
Veeptopus is on Boing Boing!
So apparently Boing Boing blogged about Veeptopus yesterday but I did notice until today. Very, very pleased with this.
74 Years Ago Today, Dick Cheney Came Into This World
74 years ago today in Lincoln, Nebraska, the moon hung heavy in the starless night sky as an unnatural hush fell on the prairie. Dick Cheney was born. Commemorate the event in any way you deem appropriate - cake, whiskey or the blood of puppies.
Veeptopus is Going to Be at Zine Melt This Saturday!
If you're in Los Angeles and you want to see a completely amazing art and zine fair then stop by this Saturday. I'll be the guy behind a table with all the vice president and octopus prints.
Vice President John C. Breckinridge
John C. Breckinridge: Vice President, War Hero, Fugitive from Justice
If there were ever a United States vice president who looked haunted, it was John C. Breckinridge. Look at those otherworldly eyes. You might be forgiven for thinking that he was descended from a raccoon. And indeed, Breckinridge had a life that was high in drama that led him on a long and winding road. It's also his birthday today.
John C. Breckinridge would look great on your mantle or bed stand
Breckinridge is America’s youngest ever vice president, where he was largely ignored by his boss James Buchanan. When Lincoln was elected, Breckinridge returned to being a senator for Kentucky until 1861 when he jumped ship for the Confederacy. The U.S. government was not happy about his decision. The U.S. Senate cast him out by a vote of 36-0 and charged him with treason. Breckinridge was made a Brigadier General for the South, and after distinguishing himself in battles like Shiloh and Chattanooga, he eventually was appointed the Secretary of War. So when General Lee’s army surrendered in 1865, he knew he had to get out of town or face his treason charges.
Breckinridge fled through the malarial, alligator-infested swamps of Florida, hi-jacked a sailing ship (which is a pretty piratey thing to do) and made for Cuba. Along the way, he fought off a pirate attack, survived two tropical storms and came close to starving before eventually making it to shore. From there he traveled to England. In 1868, President Andrew Johnson pardoned Breckinridge and all other Confederates.
You can check out a print of Breckinridge and many others over at the Veeptopus Etsy Store.
President Richard M. Nixon
Veep Week's Finale: Happy Freaking Birthday, Richard M. Nixon
Happy Birthday to Richard M. Nixon. He would be 102.
Nixon fought to be vice president, unlike many of his predecessors.
By the time that Dwight D. Eisenhower decided to run for president, Nixon had made a name for himself as being a dogged foe Communism, a friend to California’s monied class and an utterly ruthless campaigner. He seemed exactly the sort of young, vital politician that the Eisenhower campaign needed to balance off the ticket. Then two months after the Republican convention, the New York Post ran an article about an illegal slush fund for Nixon set up by some of his wealthy supporters. The allegation just about derailed his career. Eisenhower even suggested that he resign. That, however, wasn’t Nixon’s style.
On September 23, 1952, Nixon delivered this “Checkers” speech on national television – an absolute masterpiece of shameless political manipulation. After a detailed rundown on his finances, Nixon admitted that he had in fact received a present from his supporters – a beloved, and adorable, dog named Checkers. Many were appalled by the speech. Journalist Walter Lippmann called it "the most demeaning experience my country has ever had to bear.” Yet Nixon’s plea resonated. 160,000 Americans flooded White House switchboard in support of Nixon. Weeks later, the Eisenhower/Nixon ticket was swept into office.
While Nixon proved to be an able, active and informed vice president, his openly partisan style was also highly polarizing. Hoping for a smooth reelection, Eisenhower considered dropping him from the ticket. The president hoped that he could persuade his underling to leave voluntarily and even offered him the position of Secretary of Defense. Nixon, however, knew that such a career move would be seen as a demotion and declined the offer. Finally on April 16, after weeks of uncertainty, Nixon decided to force his boss’s hand. Summoning some serious brass balls, he walked into the Oval Office in front of his staff and announced, "Mr. President, I would be honored to continue as vice president under you." Nixon stayed on the ticket.
Millard Fillmore
Veep Week Continues: Happy Birthday Millard Fillmore.
Millard Fillmore's birthday was January 7. He served only 17 months as vice president before his boss, Zachary Taylor - a slave-owner from Louisiana and a hero of the Mexican-American war - suddenly expired. He died either from poison, possibly by fellow slave owners concerned that Taylor might sell them out, or he died from a stomachache after ingesting too much iced milk and cherries. Nobody really knows. They exhumed Taylor's body in 1991 to perform tests but the lab results were inconclusive.
Fillmore went on to be one of America's most forgettable presidents. He presided at a time when the debate over the future shape of slavery was particularly ugly. The compromises he oversaw, including the odious Fugitive Slave Act, probably kept the Union together for another decade, allowing the North to develop the wealth and industry to defeat the South, but they came at a steep moral cost that did little to burnish his legacy. When Fillmore died in 1874, his last words were reportedly, “The nourishment is palatable.”
Vice President Walter Mondale
Veep Week: Happy 87th Birthday to Walter Mondale!
Walter Mondale was easily one of the greatest vice presidents in American history and he got his job because he did his homework. By June 1976, Georgia governor Jimmy Carter had the the presidential nomination locked up. Frank Church, John Glenn and Adlai Stevenson III were all being floated for the number two spot. Yet when Mondale wowed his future boss during an interview because of he actually bothered to sit down and learn all of Carter's positions on every issue. He even read Carter's book, Why Not the Best? Before Carter offered him the job, Mondale made it clear that he didn't want to give up his powerful Senate seat to be just a political figurehead. He wasn't going to do funerals. He wanted to mold policy. Carter agreed. And in the process Mondale reinvented the vice presidency - setting the stage, for better or worse, for strong, politically powerful veeps like Gore, Cheney and Biden.
Of course, Mondale is also remembered for famously underestimating how much Americans want to be lied to by their leader. During his 1984 presidential campaign, Walter Mondale promised to tell the truth. “Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won’t tell you. I just did.” He was right. Reagan did go on to raise taxes. Mondale lost the election by a landslide.
President Andrew Johnson
Happy Birthday, Andrew Johnson
Happy Birthday to Andrew Johnson.
His first brush with national office could not have been more inauspicious. Recovering from bad case of typhoid, Johnson downed a glass or three of whiskey just prior to his inauguration. This proved to be a bad idea. Before taking his oath of office, he delivered a speech about his humble origins that quickly turned into a drunken harangue against America's monied class. The rant mortified the audience. One onlooker described Abraham Lincoln's expression as one of "unutterable sorrow." "I was never so mortified in my life," wrote Michigan Senator Zachariah Chandler, "had I been able to find a hole I would have dropped through it out of sight."
Johnson's drunken performance was so embarrassing that radical members of the Republican Party even considered impeaching him. They didn't this time around.
After Lincoln's assassination, Johnson presided during perhaps the most fractious, confused period in American history. Only the ablest and most skilled leader would have lead successfully -- and Johnson was certainly not that. He presided with a baffling stubbornness that frustrated both friend and foe and he ended up alienating just about everyone. So the radical Republicans, who thought he was too lenient with the former Confederate states, impeached him. He was just one vote shy of getting convicted by the Senate.
Though defeated, Johnson's immense stubbornness proved to be an asset later in life. After running and losing in 1870 for Senate in Tennessee, Johnson won in 1874. He was swore in by Ulysses S. Grant's second VP Henry Wilson along side fellow Lincoln veep Hannibal Hamlin, who was became the Senator of Maine.
You can get a print of Andrew Johnson here.
The artist and assistant with wares
Veeptopus at Renegade Fair
So last week, Veeptopus made it's first foray into the physical, non-net world. Earlier this year, my friend Ana and I were wait listed from the Renegade Fair. The event features vendors who all sorts of cute things that Etsy-shopping, NPR-listening type people like -- hand-woven scarves. Artisan soaps. Children's T-shirts that reference Japanese architects. S'mores with bacon. I was looking for new ways to get Veeptopus out in the market so I was bummed that we didn't get in.
Yet Ana, who runs the great site Cha Cha Covers - if nail art is your thing check it out -- and who is a veteran with the art fair scene, was undaunted. "Let's just show up the day of and see if there are any last minute cancellations." And on the day, after a tense couple hours waiting and haggling, we actually got in. We had a plot of a land at the corner of the fair wedged between a dog park and City Hall.
Lots of people stopped by. Most laughed at the concept. Many bought a print or two. One guy glowered at me as if I insulted him and walked away. He didn't buy anything. Overall, it was a very positive, if exhausting, experience. One that I hope to do again soon.
Veeptopus is going to take a break for Christmas but next year, I'm aiming to expand. Veeptopus T-shirts and a coffee table book will hopefully be a reality in 2015. Merry Happy everyone.
Veeptopus - Now the subject of a podcast on Workstew.
This past Friday, I was slogging through a dreary freelance writing project I was on the hook for (gotta pay the bills) when I got an email from Kate Walton who runs a great site called Workstew. It's filled with essay, articles and podcasts about finding meaning in work. It's an important and interesting subject, and one that I have plenty of opinions. But Walton didn't want to talk to me about my checkered sojourns into the workforce. She wanted to talk about vice presidents and octopuses. So an hour or so later, I'm on the phone with Walton. As she wrote on her site:
"For many of us, the past few weeks have been especially hard and depressing. As a nation, and as individuals, we are grappling with a host of painful issues. And grapple we must; bending that long arc towards justice is arguably the one job we all share. That said, it’s a tough job, making moments of comic relief not only acceptable, in my view, but necessary.
"Yesterday, my moment of comic relief came via the work of artist Jonathan Crow. My response to his Veeptopus series, which I glimpsed by chance in my Facebook feed, was to laugh out loud."
You can listen to the full interview here.
Happy Belated Birthday to Martin Van Buren
Happy Birthday to Martin Van Buren. Born in Kinderhook, N.Y., Van Buren’s nickname was “Old Kinderhook.” That was shortened to “OK” in rallies for his 1840 reelection campaign. Somehow, that abbreviation evolved into the ubiquitous idiom. You can literally say that Van Buren was OK. He was just an OK president too. He didn't win his re-election campaign.
CHRISTMAS MIRACLE! Holiday-Themed Veeptopus Now Available!
It's the holiday season. And whether or not you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or Festivus, you know that it's time of the year where are you socially obliged to start buying things for people. So whether or not your shopping for a loved one, a colleague at work you vaguely resent or your postman who reeked of marijuana, think about the gift of totally strange art. Think Veeptopus.
And to help you get into that holiday frame of mind, we here at Veeptopus international have painstakingly crafted some Christmas themed prints. And they are available only for a limited time.
What says Christmas better than a bevy of murderous badgers? Nothing. Literally. No thing.
St. Nick bedecked with an octopus? Sure. Why not? These are troubling times. Hollywood is making movies about board games these days. Board games. So why not celebrate that fact with this image of a beloved childhood symbol bedecked with a cephalopod? Should we call him Santa Cthulhu now? Or is this how St. Nick gets his jollies? You be the judge.
Three Santas are staring you down. They are very, very disappointed in you. You know what you did. And so do they. You are totally getting some coal in your stocking.
Three prints that will not only spread holiday cheer but are guaranteed to drive your neighbors into a jealous froth.* Get them now because when 2015 rolls around, they will be gone.
* This is not a legally binding guarantee.