Credits
/You'll notice in the navigation bar above, a new page called Credits. I wanted to take this opportunity to recognize some of the people who have helped in some way with the creation or functioning of this site over the past 6 months. This post is an extended version of what's on that page, but that page is what will get updated in the future if need be.
Andrew Steele, AC Costello, Pat Hughes, Michael Sullivan - (The first two guys also go by Andy, but it gets confusing, so we use Andrew and AC.) These are four friends and amateur magicians who have helped me with the site since it was MCJ. They help with communication, technical support, inspiration, video shooting and editing, financial matters, trick testing, site maintenance, as well as identifying and working with some of the people below. Pretty much anything that is not the strict writing of the site, they help out with or take care of.
Alex Printz is the artist behind the spot-on faux Penguin Live caricatures. He's great and I'm sure he'd be happy to do one of you in that style. If you paid him, I mean. He'd be sad to do it if you didn't pay him.
Matt Dow created the The Love Theme From The Jerx which is used in a number of the videos on this site.
Colby Terry designed the mysextutor.com site from the post that started The Jerx. Check out his site to see what he can do when he's not mimicking intentionally bad porn web design.
And, finally, I want to shine as bright of a spotlight as I can on my friend, Stasia Burrington.
Stasia created the banner you see at the top of this site based on the famous Jinx artwork.
I met Stasia through one of the Andys mentioned above who she had worked with on a number of personal and professional projects. Since then, I too have worked with her on a number of projects and she has never failed to exceed the expectations I've had. She has a very strong personal style that is cute/sexy but she is able to work in numerous other styles as well. I can't recommend her highly enough if there is a commercial or personal project for which you need an artist. Let her know what you're looking for, give her some examples of the style you want, or let her take the reigns completely. She's an amazing collaborator and completely willing to take direction, even though her instincts are probably better than yours.
[But please, and this goes for any of the people listed in this post, if you're going to reach out to them and say you saw their work on The Jerx, for christ's sake, please don't embarrass me by being like, "Will you do my wedding invitations for $40?" If you don't know what a reasonable price is to offer for a project, then just ask for a quote. I work with freelance artists/musicians/actors etc., all the time and 95% of them will give you a very reasonable rate. And the people listed on this page are definitely in that 95%.]
She also created the banner for mysextutor.com.
Perhaps more interesting to those of you who don't have a need for a mid-2000s stye banner for a fake porn site, she has also created a hand-painted tarot deck for my friend Andy, and a hand illustrated deck of playing cards for me.
First here are some shots from her blog of the tarot deck.
I love The Magician. We may have to work on a Jerx limited edition print with her in the future.
And finally, here are some of the cards from the deck of cards she made for me. I sent her a blank deck of cards and a bunch of colored Sharpies. Yes... she did this with colored Sharpies. We are probably the only group of people on the planet who have an innate understanding of the nature of writing on playing cards with Sharpies and how unforgiving that medium can be. If I have to duplicate my own signature on two different cards I'm like, "Fuck that noise. That's impossible." But she was able to create a beautiful deck, some of which you can see below...
You can contact Stasia via her website. She also has a regularly updated etsy store.