If you're looking for some retro-inspired brush work sketches, check out the work of Toronto cartoonist Michael Cho. He throws down some serious two tone gouache and ink works with some really well planned out interplay between light and darks. His style looks great with comic book characters and action heroes, and also brings to mind illustrations for paperback novels in the 50's. His best work includes more detailed renderings of Toronto's back alleys, to be published as a collection in an upcoming book from D+Q later this year.

This old print always pops into my head now and again...it didn't really turn out the way I wanted, but really probably better. Everything went wrong and there was some fixing up but the spontaneous accidents made it way more interesting. It's like Jackson Pollock used to say that there are no accidents in painting. Done during my do anything on top of old comic book pages period, and featuring a great pose, it's a real keeper

 Aside from being a powerful search engine, and ignoring its current omnipresence makeover, a cool thing about Google is never knowing how the logo will surprise you. Since for many the Google homepage means the start of their day, the creative methods of incorporating artwork into the standard logo can really set a tone of creativity. Usually the graphic is changed up to mark a special occasion or event, though sometimes a new one just seems to pop up out of nowhere.

There are probably exhaustive archives from day one and huge groups of followers who track every version, but here are a few of my recent favourites. A Houdini version, done in the classic magic show poster style, an interactive version to do some deep sea diving in honour of Jacques Cousteau and Jim Henson's 75th birthday graphic, a wacky assortment of Muppets and buttons that do who knows what

As 2012 rolls in and a New Year dawns, millions of people around the world can be happy for many things. Among them, is the sudden lack of surplus in evil dictators, thanks in large part to a healthy thinning out in the Middle East through most of 2011. It just wasn't a good year to be a vicious, undeserving, ruling jerk, as we said good-bye to some longtime heavyweights including Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and North Korea's Kim Jong-il. As we cast their repressive memories into the sky, here's to a new year, and new possibilities across the globe.