Photo: Joshua Bright for The New York Times

I’m sure everyone’s seen a BNE sticker slapped on a parking meter at one point or another.  Gav even offered a $2,500 reward on the stickerer’s scalp back in 2k6.

Today, the Chronicle pointed us to a New York Times interview with the unidentified artist who tags and stickers the letters “BNE” all over the world, from San Francisco and New York to Prague and Kuala Lumpur.  BNE takes his art very seriously, comparing his brand to that of Tommy Hilfiger, Starbucks, and Pepsi.

My favorite part of the article:

“You kind of isolate yourself, living this life,” he said. “You meet a girl and she asks, ‘What do you do?’ and right way, you have to lie.”

Zomg, BNE has a soft side!  Sucks he has to hide his true self behind a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.  The words “I slap stickers on shit, babe,” would be devastating for any girl to hear.

I kid, I kid!  BNE may sound sort of like a post-modern hippie, but he’s alright.  Not as cool as Dick Chicken, though.

Are you following EPA yet?  You should.  (link)

Unless Maakies creator Tony Millionaire has relocated to the Mission and given up cartooning for street arting, somebody’s biting his shtick. Tag looks like “Ghast”. Fantagraphics ought to look into this.