Among the various illustration projects I’ve been working on but haven’t shared much about the last few months is a set of commissions I completed for Insomniac Events‘ commemorative magazine produced for the upcoming (and sold out!) 2012 Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Well, I just got a copy of the mag yesterday, so I figure it’s cool to share now.

The first (and primary) assignment was to create what was initially a one page comic illustrating the genesis of DJ Steve Aoki and Blue Man Group’s planned collaboration at EDC. I was paired up with writer Laura Mier, who did great work for me when I was editing Racket magazine. Laura had never written a comic script before, but she actually knocked it out of the park without needing much guidance, writing a fictional and humorous story based on the vague accounts she got from interviews with Aoki and the Blue Men. It was a lot to cram into one page, though, so I was pretty happy when the magazine’s editors asked for a two-pager instead. After a lot of behind-the-scenes wrangling, the product that made it into the magazine turned out pretty well, I think, and I hope I can do more “illustrated editorial” work like this in the future.

The other piece I did for this edition was a lot more straightforward: A coloring book-style portrait of DJ/remix duo Cazzette, which was honestly kind of a cakewalk for me. I framed the illustration with the beams of light, because I was actually trying to imagine what a kid coloring this would want: more elements to play with. And, of course, it played to my strength of clean, simple line art.

I’m not sure where the magazine will be available beyond EDC itself, but if you can grab it, do.* It’s actually a really nice-looking package, filled with vibrant photos and clever editorial ideas – the folks at Wendoh Media (the same ones who occasionally pay me to scribble in such pubs as Vegas/Rated and Vegas Seven) did a bang-up job, no surprise.

*Upon leaving the house, I discovered Insomniac is packaged with Vegas Seven this week, so I guess you’re all going to see it.