Insomniac: Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas 2013

insomniac edc 2013 magazine A lot of people don’t know this about me, but back in the mid-to-late 1990s, I was very into the Las Vegas rave/underground club scene. I not only attended a lot of parties in theaters, bars, dance studios, and the middle of the desert, but I also helped promote them and wrote about them. Actually, the few of you who remember my ‘zine from that period, Five/One, probably assume it was started to cover the live music/poetry scenes, but I originally conceived of doing an underground publication to cover the rave scene. My first (unpaid) web content gig, actually, was editing the underground party/rave section of LasVegasLocalMusicScene.com. And yes, I owned pants with stripes down the side.

All that said, I’ve never attended the Electric Daisy Carnival, which kicks off its third Vegas edition this weekend. I’m not a big fan of any sort of multi-day, outdoor festivals anyway (cough Coachella cough), especially not in the middle of June in the Mojave Desert, but every time I see photos or videos from EDC, the people look like they’re having such a good time, I kinda have to wonder if it might be worth exploring one of these days. Assuming I could afford a ticket.

So, until then, the closest I get to EDC is contributing art to the official Insomniac magazine for the event. As I did for last year’s publication, I teamed up with writer Laura Mier to create a two-page comic, this time documenting a sort-of “best night ever” that two bros reminisce over during a hangover brunch. I think it turned out pretty dope:

And, also similar to the coloring-book-style illustration I did in 2012, I also contributed a color-by-numbers drawing to accompany an article on taking care of your own well-being during EDC:

I had a lot of fun doing both of these, and I actually really love the way that paint-by-numbers illustration turned out. That’s no digital trickery, by the way — all those funky letters and everything were hand-drawn.

You should be able to pick up a copy of the magazine on Vegas Seven magazine stands around the valley … unless they’re gone by now.

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