Dirk Strangely is a

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

artist based in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. He is frequently a guest artist at comic book, horror, and sci-fi conventions, and is featured often at art exhibitions. While primarily working with

ink Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. Thi ...

and

paint Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

, he also utilizes photography and film in conjunction with ink and paint to create

projects that are sold both in original form and reprints. His work is also seen in

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

s. He is the creator of many independent comics (i.e. '' Graveyard Girl''), and contributor to other comics, such as doing a featured

pinup A pin-up model (known as a pin-up girl for a female and less commonly male pin-up for a male) is a model whose mass-produced pictures see widespread appeal as part of popular culture. Pin-up models were variously glamour models, fashion models ...

for the 2nd volume of

Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed J ...

Legends of the Dark Crystal ''Legends of the Dark Crystal'' is an OEL manga published by Tokyopop, based on the 1982 Jim Henson fantasy film ''The Dark Crystal''. It's written by Barbara Randall Kesel and illustrated by Heidi Arnhold and Max Kim. The story is a prequel, s ...

Early life

Dirk was born in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

to John T. Carson and Charolette A. Carson. He began drawing in early childhood, and at the age of seven he learned to play the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

on an instrument he found in a crime scene apartment. He remained in the Las Vegas area until relocating to Houston in 2002, where he first met frequent music collaborator Andy VK. In 2004, Dirk joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in the supply department. While there, he came up with the pen name "Dirk Strangely" 2005 to remain anonymous, as he was painting using time, space, and supplies scavenged from the ship and didn't wish to have charges pressed against him. These early paintings were sold strictly on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

, which garnered him a greater income than his military paycheck.

Career

Shortly after being honorably discharged from military service in 2008, Dirk began work full-time as a multimedia artist. At first staying with family while pursuing his career, he was able to build a studio on family land. He quickly began appearing in Artist Alley at various conventions around the state, which lead to him expanding to the national level. In 2011 he moved to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

for a year while his work was on display in

Downtown Disney Downtown Disney (officially the Downtown Disney District) is an outdoor shopping center located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It opened on January 12, 2001; a component of the Disneyland Resort expansion project alongside the ...

in the PoP and Hoypoloi art galleries. He returned to

afterwards. Along with frequent appearances at comic conventions, Dirk launched an artist-centered social media platform, Artfarm.tv, that connects artists with patrons, and viewers, and other artists for live-art streaming and sales.

Music

Strangely was the lead vocalist and lead guitar player of Dirk Strangely and the Hatchetmen. The band was described as having a blend of surf,

psychobilly Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ram ...

, honky tonk, and

romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

musical influences. Dirk is currently writing a new album for his project ''Dirk Strangely and Friends'', a band heavily influenced by classic outlaw country artists.

References

American multimedia artists Artists from Houston Living people 1978 births {{Houston-stub