Recent Works
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]
This Is How I Draw Cats Now
This Is How I Draw Cats Now: Book 01 was begun on April 11th, 2022, as a creative exercise in reimagining the drawing of cats as a springboard concept. Each issue documents a shift in tools, approach, and sensibility.
Medium: Ballpoint pen on index card; Adobe Illustrator on iMac
Date Range: April–June 2022
Format: 2.75 × 4.25 in., 32 pages
[Link]
This Is How I Draw Cats Now: Book 02 was created using a stylus and tablet with Adobe Illustrator on iMac, this issue marks a shift from ballpoint pen to digital drawing.
Medium: Stylus and tablet; Adobe Illustrator on iMac
Date Range: June–December 2022
Format: 2.75 × 4.25 in., 32 pages
[Link]
Gets A Jobs
“…Gets a Job” is a series of booklets celebrating a love of office culture. My first job was as a file clerk, I’ve always seen office supplies as the ultimate in 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, Tumbler, etc.) 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: 2025 [Coming Soon]
Emily Gets a Job follows Emily the Strange® as she brings her signature darkness into the workplace. Created upon the 25th anniversary of Morrissey Gets a Job. Published 2025 [Emily Gets A Job]
Emily the Strange
My early career began as a key artist and creative force (1999–2006) behind Emily the Strange®.
View more about My Emily Strange History In 2019, after a 13-year break, I returned to the brand and started what they now call “creating content” in the form of new designs and animations for their Instagram Reels, using a stop-motion method I developed in Adobe Illustrator. Follow the @emilythestrange_official Instagram account.
Strange Cat Art School
Stranger Returns: This Is How I Draw Emily Strange Now, 2019-2025
Return to a character and reckoning with how we fit into each other’s life: calling, possession, ordainment, exorcism, exile, reckoning, and transendence. and a return to the character Strange Cat Art School
Strange Cat Art School 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 2025 [Link]
Rock n Roll Coloring Books
In the 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.
The Oopsy Show
Oopsy is a reminder to keep going—even when designed to fail.
To make matters worse, Oopsy doesn’t own her own image, she is a licensed character, and was created as such, there is no home, there is no salvation, she was born to fail.
Oopsy escapes from her troubles through getting lost on the content from her favorite influencers: Princess, Sidney, and Gora. They, or at least some of them, happen to be fans of The Oopsy as well.
See more about Oopsy Daisy. Or follow along @oopsyofficial on Instagram.
My Neighborhood Projects
A long-running documentation of Temescal, North Oakland—where I’ve lived over 25 years. Part hobby, part preservation, part turning my surroundings into a fantasy theme park.
Combines plein air, field sketching, mapping, and construction-site observation. Read more about My Neighborhood Projects in this in progress website.
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. Follow on Instagram @temescalnow.
Newsletter
I am working on a newsletter that I will be posting soon to Subscribe to Now That Looks Like Fun on Substack.
My main Instagram account is @briancharlesbrooks
Videos
I have gone through a few bouts of making video series. For a few years I explored creating “timelaspe movies” which were short films under a minute long, and that looped. these were made using the timelapse setting on the camera, with sound effects added for comical effect. Many of these are availble to view through the Reels section of my Instagram Account @briancharlesbrooks/reels Some of my videos are on my Vimeo site. I also have a Youtube Channel @briancharlesbrooks
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. We were based in Phoenix Arizona in the 1990s, and in Oakland in the 2000s.
I also, as it turns out, have another account for my solo albums, under the name “Sgt. Rick Sings”.
©2024 Brian Brooks