Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: beer, Clown Shoes, entertainment, geek culture, Michael Axt

Talking With Head Artist Michael Axt At Clown Shoes Beer – A Booze Geek Interview

By Dylan Gonzalez

Michael Axt is the head artist at Clown Shoes Beer. His influences from comic books and videogames lend Clown Shoes their highly distinctive logos and bottle artwork. I sent Michael some questions regarding his history with Clown Shoes and his inspirations.

Dylan Gonzales: Before working as the art director at Clown Shoes, what was your background?  

Michael Axt: I wouldn't consider me an art director.  The labels are a very collaborative effort.  I may do the art but the ideas and inspiration come from the group.  Before being full time label guy I mainly was a freelancer.

DG: How did you get involved with Clown Shoes?

MA: I have a portfolio up on www.hireanillustrator.com.  It was a combination of liking my art and the fact I was also in Massachusetts.  My first label was for Crunkle Sam, which was at the time just a one shot thing.  They still had a relationship with the previous artist and I think they had a deadline issue and needed some art quickly.  They really liked the result and how quickly I got it to them.  They hired me to do the next one, which was Bombay Berserker.  After that I think we all just clicked and I just came on full time.  So now I handle all of the label work as well as the graphic design needs of the company.

DG: Clown Shoes has some very distinctly comic book and cartoon medium themed artwork.  What are some of your influences and who are your favorite artists?  

MA: I have been a comic book/fantasy/video game nerd most of my life so I am highly influenced by those mediums.  As far as comic book artists, I am a big John Romita Jr. fan, especially his Spider-Man stuff.  I also love Joe Madureira.  His run on Uncanny X-Men was amazing back in the day and Battle Chasers hit while I was in college and it blew my mind.  Nowadays there are so many great artists to be inspired from, especially in the concept art world that I have learned a lot from.

DG: What is the process for creating the art for the beer?  Do you get an idea suggested to you or do you work off of the title and what kind of beer it is?  

MA: There is no set way of going about it.  Sometimes Gregg (the boss) has a very specific vision for what he wants on the label and sometimes he just says "Here is the name, see what you can come up with."  In those instances I usually send a few rough sketches over and they pick which they like best.  There have been a couple times where the label has been completely done and it just didn't feel right so we scrapped it and started over.  That was the case with Space Cake and the label was better for it.

DG: Have you ever pitched an idea or created artwork resulting in a beer made based on it?

MA: Not yet but I totally should!  Maybe a wee heavy aged in Jägermeister and Goldschläger barrels.  OK, never mind I am terrible at this.

DG: What image are you most proud of?

MA: That's a tough one.  I think probably Ride the Lion.  Was happy to be able to draw a badass Scottish warrior woman riding a lion right at the viewer.  Simple and effective.

DG: Do you have a favorite beer by Clown Shoes?

MA: Exorcism at Sunset.  Love a good bourbon barrel aged stout.  This was a very limited run for MA only and only on tap at Sunset Grill in Allston, MA.

DG: As a citizen of New Jersey, I greatly appreciate the Garden State Rhapsody artwork.  It's just a shame I'll never get to try it.  What was your inspiration for that piece when you were working on it?

MA: Gregg came up with the name and overall concept of Crasher (our recurring monster hunter character) riding a Jersey Devil while killing demons.  Our Director of Operations, Matt Smith, also a Jersey native, came up with the monster types and setting.

DG: Obviously your bottle artwork is fantastic, but is there another body of work you would like to take a stab at in the future?

MA: A comic book definitely.  We have toyed with the idea of doing web comics for our site but nothing solid yet.  I have also been working on a book with a couple friends that we hope to do something with eventually.  It is just taking a long time to finish between work and family, etc.

Dylan Gonzalez happens to love beer and comic books and luckily found a place to write about both because he has no idea how to actually make money in the real world. He lives in a cave in New Jersey. Tweet him at @BeardedPickle, follow his own beer blog at http://boozegeek.tumblr.com/ or email him at dylan.gonzalez1990@gmail.com.

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