Ho Ho Ho! Mailly Christmas!

I count how long we've been in business by "holiday" cards. This year marks our fifth card.

Hopefully it bucks our downwardly spiraling trend of cards, each year being slightly less inspired than the last.

Since the Depression is on and everything, we decided to print the cards ourselves.

Here's Ryan DeCosmo at the press.

This year Christina Riley was responsible for the card. The first few ideas I came up with weren't very strong, and she did a nice, simple cut that works well (and matches the sign on our door).

Christina watches ink dry.


This is 2007's card.

Brian and I were in Mexico on a job when this was at the printer.

A few days before we left, I had a dream that I got into a fight with the printer. I never yell at people.

Sure enough, there was a miscommunication while I was gone and it was printed incorrectly. Sure enough, I was on the phone driving to pyramids yelling at the printer. A really expensive mistake. Printing is expensive, especially when you come up with these harebrained complicated cards.



The joke is that all the monsters that get "good" gifts like toy trucks and video games are sad, but the guy that gets broccoli is thrilled. Bizzaro world!

Here's 2006, by Joey Ahlbum.


We wanted this to open up a narrative triptych or one of those Mad Magazine back pages, where the full page is one image and the folded page another.

It doesn't exactly work, but Joey's art is great and the printing is excellent. Great color, strong blacks. Pleasing.

2005's is pretty good.

It doesn't have the wit that I'd like our cards to have, but it's a funny drawing. The monster has clearly been standing in the snow for a long time.

2004
The M that came to dinner is in the middle.