Sunbeam on the Astronaut: A Private History of Sunbeams and Head Colds

A long-awaited collection of comics, art, and stories by artist Steven Cerio that explores silly, psychedelic, and strange worlds. Smiling cartoon critters carouse with threatening cutout whales against a shifting comic landscape in these unique illustrated stories. The psychedelic meets Saturday morning cartoons in stories with such intriguing titles as "A Private History of Sunbeams and Head Colds," "The Add Witch in The Berry Patch," and "Ninny Noonday Ninny."

Steven Cerio is a prominent rock poster and magazine illustrator. His work is best known from his ongoing collaboration with San Francisco-based performance art and music group The Residents.

Steven Cerio: Steven Cerio is an artist who has spent over two decades relentlessly documenting a universe devoid of death and decay. A prominent rock poster and magazine illustrator, his work is best known from his ongoing collaboration with San Francisco-based, performance art and music group, The Residents.

Cerio’s work spans all mediums from magazine and book illustrations to posters, iPod skins, gallery walls, film, animation and posters. His art was featured in the Annie Sprinkle HBO Special and his ＂Happy Birthday＂ animation ran every morning on the Nickelodeon cable channel for seven years. He has created screen-printed posters for several musical acts including King Crimson, Negativland, White Zombie, Pete Yorn, Yonder Mountain String Band and Man-or-Astroman. Three of his prints are featured in the set design for Comedy Central’s series ＂Workaholics.＂

His 1999 book Steven Cerio’s ABC Book -- A Drug Primer won a Firecracker Alternative Book Award. Cerio’s work has also been featured in various art compilation books including Next: The New Generation in Graphic Design by Jesse Reyes, Non-Traditional Design by Mike Quon, The Art of Rock and SWAG: Rock Poster art of the 90’s by Spencer Drate.

Steven has long been involved artistically with legendary San Francisco group The Residents, creating characters for animation, packaging, graphics and posters. He created vinyl toys based on the group’s costumes aptly named ＂The Classic Eyeball＂ and ＂Mister Skull,＂ which were produced by Toy Tokyo. His film and animation work with The Residents are included in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

He has created art and illustration for many clients, including Nickelodeon, Disney Enterprises, Guitar World, Guitar Player, Gary Fisher Bicycles, Condé Nast, Penguin Books, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Warner Brothers/Inscape, Men’s Health, Musician magazine, A&M Records, L.A. Weekly, Vibe, Roger Black Design Group, Details, Fantagraphics Books, The Village Voice, The Boston Phoenix, Funny Garbage, New York magazine, Topps Bubble Gum Cards, The Progressive, Feral House, MacSkinz, Outside magazine, Last Gasp Eco Funnies, Total T.V., In-Line Skater, Kidstar, Bill Graham Presents, Time.com, and Radar magazine.

Cerio’s art has been exhibited in FUSE gallery (NYC), C-POP Gallery (Detroit), Lauren Wittels (NYC), Exit Art (NYC), Brooklyn Public Library, CBGB’s 3030 Gallery, La Luz de Jesus (Los Angeles), Psychedelic Solution (NYC), Forbidden (Dallas), Altered Image (Cleveland), The Art Directors Club (NYC), Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland) as well as in several group shows throughout the United States and Europe.

Cerio was raised in Liverpool, New York, where he attended a high school of the same name. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1987 with a BFA. He now lives in Central New York where he continues to make art, film and music.