Recent Series
Tortured Scrolls A series of hand-drawn animated GIFs inspired by the internet phrase “doom scroll.” Reflects the tension between making disposable art and the relentless pressure to generate content. Medium: iPad, Apple Pencil, Looom App. Created: December 2024 – January 2025 [Link]
Moving Words A collection of 22 hand-drawn animated GIFs. Each short message plays with shifts in meaning—clever, uplifting, and occasionally bleak. Some were created with Emily the Strange in mind. Medium: iPad, Apple Pencil, Looom App. Created: January 2025 [Link]
Existential Night Flyers tells the story of Goth Cat, a brooding cat who is on his own but looking for connection. He sends his messages out to the world. Published 2025 [Link]
Strange Cat Art School
Stranger Returns: This Is How I Draw Emily Strange Now, 2019-2025
Experiments in trying to relearn how to draw the character again, after 20 years. Return to a character and reckoning with how we fit into each other’s life. Strange Cat Art School
I Have An Emily Strange Story
A Timeline history of my life with Emily The Strange by Brian Brooks.
Gets A Jobs
“…Gets a Job” is a series of booklets capturing my love of office, and culture, fan art, and memoirs. My first job was as a file clerk, and I’ve always seen office supplies as the ultimate art supplies.
Morrissey Gets a Job finds Morrissey joining the workforce. Office clip art meets Smiths and Morrissey song-title puns. First featured on Morrissey-Solo.com in 1999, then gained viral cult status after being reposted on various sites (Dangerous Minds, Post-Punk, Reddit) in the 2000s. 24 pages. Published 1999 [Morrissey Gets A Job]
Brian Gets a Job follows artist Brian Brooks as he moves across the country to begin work at Cosmic Debris, the company behind the Emily the Strange character and clothing brand. Chronicles the years 1999–2006, covering his role as illustrator, designer, and eventual art director. Published: 2024 [ Brian Gets A Job]
Emily Gets a Job follows Emily the Strange® as she brings her signature darkness into the workplace. A sequel in spirit to Morrissey Gets a Job, and the Brian Gets a Job series, draws from my love of office culture—my first job was as a file clerk, and I’ve always seen office supplies as the ultimate art supplies. Published 2025 [Emily Gets A Job]
Zines
Strange Cat Art School: Book 01 Professor Space Cat teaches art classes at Strange Cat Art School, where student-made Emily Strange posters are taken aboard his spacecraft and sold at an alien planet swap meet. Published 2024 [Link]
This Is How I Draw Cats Now: Book 02
Medium: Stylus and tablet; Adobe Illustrator on iMac
Date: June–December 2022 Format: 2.75 × 4.25 in., 32 pages [This Is How I Draw Cats Now 02]
This Is How I Draw Cats Now: Book 01
Medium: Ballpoint pen on index card; Adobe Illustrator on iMac
Date: April–June 2022
Format: 2.75 × 4.25 in., 32 pages [This Is How I Draw Cats Now 1]
Which me I am
I’ve had a lot of influences over the years. My media history.
Which me am I?
I post frequently on Instagram, from time to time. These are some of my profile pictures from over the years.
The Oopsy Show
The Oopsy Show – A silent, black-and-white cartoon star survives endless disasters in a looping, slapstick world—until the cameras stop rolling and she’s left wandering a collapsing reality where her only escape is at home watching the curated lives of her favorite influencers.
Clip Art Autobiography
I began documenting my artwork and growth as a cartoonist, and artist from the days I began through dating my drawings and taking notes and keeping diaries about my projects. I began this journey in junior high and continuing it to this day.
Rock N Roll Coloring Books
In the early 1990s I began making self-published books as a way to share my “artwork” in real life and connect with like-minded people—this was pre-internet. Creating weird fan art, interested me as a way of creating something of value, to certain people, ie; an existing fan base.
The series began as part of what I called the Paul McCartney Art Club: a purposeful indulgence in making self-indulgent fan art that were proudly out of touch and out of step with the fine art education I was receiving at the time. The subject matter was “brain dead,” culturally speaking—on purpose—but the obsession and dedication were completely sincere. [Link]
A few books from this series later gained traction on fan sites, leading to a SF Weekly write up that accurately captured a productive 27-year-old Brian.
Beverly Hills 90210
I fell in love with the show from the get-go. The show premiered 4 months after I had graduated high school, I seized the opportunity to replace the friends and community with the characters on the show.
I began creating fan art early on and have continued, now and again, to pay homage. The show brought me joy, stability, and a sense of belonging. It’s one of a handful of television shows that have truly impacted my life—another being This Old House, which brings me happiness just thinking about it.
One piece of fan art I made was Beverly Hills 90210 In The Wild West Coloring Book , created the year after I graduated college in 1997.
My Neighborhood Projects
A long-running documentation of the neighborhood [Temescal, North Oakland]—where I’ve lived over 25 years. Part hobby, part preservation, part obsession, part turning my surroundings into a fantasy theme park by celebrating the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Combines multiple mediums including: plein air paintings, field sketching, surveying, mapping, and demolition and construction-site observation. Read more about My Neighborhood Projects.
Neighborhood Guide
View the 2023 edition of Temescal Now guidebook to my neighborhood’s businesses and buildings. Follow along as I document the comings and goings of our local surroundings on Instagram @temescalnow.
What If? Books
What If? The What If? series is 3 volumes of my “what if?” jokes. Creatively silly and thought provoking entertainment for all ages. The first volume compiled the original 10 volumes of my What If? Illustrated. .The first three volumes of What If? are available for purchase on Amazon.
Cool Coloring Books
Cool Coloring Books Cool Coloring Books (5 book series) each with a different theme: One Cool Coloring Book, Too Cool To Color: Snake Lady And Tall Dog’s Coloring Books , Three’s A Crowded Coloring Book, Four-Dimensional Coloring Books, Give Me Five Coloring Book Coloring is entirely optional Published in 2015 by Smokey’s Tangle. Cool Coloring Books are available for purchase on Amazon
Brian & Emily
I first met Emily Wick in 2002. She was my high school buddy Andrew’s coworker. I courted her by leaving Emily™ stickers on her desk at work. We began collaborating on projects in 2005, and later opened a store-front studio space and art gallery on Telegraph Avenue…. [Link]
Smokey’s Tangle
Smokey’s Tangle 5 Yearbook (2014)
Smokey’s Tangle 5-Yearbook chronicles the first 5 years of Smokey’s Tangle, compiled and edited by Emily Wick. (30mb pdf Link)
Films & Videos
I sometimes enjoy creating quirky, fast-paced time-lapse films The vacant chocolate factory across from my house is one of my favorite place to film
The films, with no dialogue, rely on sound effects and beats to enhance humor and intensity, designed to engage a playful, non-human audience. The McDonald’s drive-thru patrons often witness the action from across the parking lot.
See more on the films section of this website. I post Instagram Reels, Vimeo, or YouTube channel.
Music
My music related endeavors can be found on Bandcamp.
There are currently two bandcamp pages for Breakfast With Idiots. One showcases our songs, and the other collects a few of our albums.
Breakfast With Idiots were formed in Phoenix Arizona in 1990, and relocated to Oakland in the 2000s.
I also, as it turns out, have another account for my solo albums, under the name “Sgt. Rick Sings”.
©2025 Brian Brooks