Lightning Bolt's Chippendale Preps Art Book

Who'd have thought that the Brians of Providence, Rhode Island noise duo Lightning Bolt were such Renaissance men? Oh, right: art school. Anyhow, when they're not melting faces on the floors of scuzzy venues around the world with their patented electro-shock assault, these boys indulge their artistic muses: Bassist Brian Gibson animates his kooky Barkley's Barnyard Critters rock cartoon series, while drummer Brian Chippendale, as it happens, has been trading his sticks for pens and markers, illustrating like a madman, and putting together a graphic novel for the past five years.

Ninja, as Chippendale's titled it, will see official release December 1 via Gingko Press, in conjunction with PictureBox (the company responsible for unleashing the Black Dice book Gore upon the world, as well as The Wilco Book). The 144-page hardcover tome boasts some 1,500 illustrations in all, with 80 of those pages devoted to a story "starring a Ninja hunted by the forces of evil," according to a press release. We hope the forces of evil in question are pirates.

The rest of the pages, meanwhile, collect assorted Chippendale pieces, including art for Lightning Bolt records and gig posters. The man's artistic prowess has earned him a few exhibitions, too, including one at New York's D'Amelio Terras gallery that opens tomorrow (November 9) and runs through November 25, and another at Tokyo's Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, open now. Finally, Rhode Island peeps can scope Chippendale's wares at the School of Design's museum in Providence, as part of the show "Wunderground: Providence, 1995 to the Present".