Analog Alien Featured in “Art of the Stompbox” by Chris Cassone

We have always believed that a great pedal should sound incredible and look like it belongs on a wall. So it means a lot to share that Analog Alien is featured across a multi-page spread in a new book that treats effects pedals as exactly that: art worth framing.

“Art of the Stompbox: Celebrating the Visual Artistry of Effects Pedals” by Chris Cassone gives our little Long Island operation a real moment in the spotlight, and we could not be more proud to be in it.

About “Art of the Stompbox”

Chris Cassone built the book around a simple idea that pedal people have known for years. The faceplate of a stompbox is its own kind of canvas, and the best builders treat graphics, names, and sound as one connected statement. To make the case, Cassone traveled the world to interview and photograph more than sixty pedal makers, from legacy names like Electro-Harmonix, ZVEX, and JHS to garage builders selling on Etsy and Reverb.

The result is a coffee-table book packed with high-resolution, full-color photography, paired with maker histories, artist and designer profiles, and the stories behind the art. It carries a foreword by Josh Scott of JHS Pedals and is dedicated to the late Ace Frehley of KISS, who wrote the testimonial on the back cover before his passing in 2025. For a book about the visual culture of guitar gear, that is about as fitting a send-off as you could ask for.

Our Pages in the Book

The Analog Alien feature opens with the story most of our friends already know. We are brothers Jack and Joe Napoli, and the company grew out of years spent running our family-built Cloud 9 Recording Studio. After shaping tones for clients in the control room, we started bottling those studio recipes into stompboxes, beginning with the FuzzBubble-45 and building out a boutique line voiced for classic ’60s and ’70s color. We still assemble in small batches and keep the mission simple: great sound, roadworthy builds, and friendly humans.

The book walks through several of our pedals, and each one gets the visual treatment it deserves.

The Alien Tone Dragon

The Alien Tone Dragon gets the full “museum label” spread, which is fitting since the artwork is the centerpiece. When we needed a faceplate for this flagship, our friend Ray Kryssing connected us with comic-book artist Bart Sears, known for his work on Marvel’s Captain America and The Falcon and DC’s Warlord. Bart took a shot at it, and the moment we saw his fire-breathing dragon, we knew he was the right fit.

The art does double duty. Our mascot Chip, the cheerful little space traveler with the bubble gun, marches through an icy mountain pass while the dragon’s flame sweeps left to right across the controls. The three footswitches sit right under the action, so the picture teaches the workflow: boost, shape, then add headroom. Under the hood, the Alien Tone Dragon is a true three-in-one analog pedal with a clean boost up to 18dB, the expressive Dragon Fire overdrive that runs from rich rock and blues breakup to a wall of fuzz, and a three-band active tone circuit to tie it all together. Released in 2023, it is the pedal that proves a faceplate can read like a poster and a signal path at the same time.

The Rumble Seat

The book also tells the story of the Rumble Seat, our one-box rockabilly and surf toolkit. It packs a Plexi-style overdrive, a slapback delay, and a spring-flavored reverb into a single orange-sparkle enclosure, with three independent footswitches and no menu diving. The name has a story too. A “rumble seat” was the flip-up bench on pre-war roadsters, mounted right over the exhaust, where the ride literally rumbled. That is the whole vibe: early rock, surf, and hot-rod grit.

The Joe Walsh Double Classic

No Analog Alien feature would be complete without the Joe Walsh story. Unknown to us, Joe Walsh had bought a Rumble Seat and put it on his Eagles board. He called the studio line, left a message about a few tweaks he wanted, and before hanging up added, “No, it’s really Joe Walsh.” One meeting led to another, and the friendship turned into the Joe Walsh Double Classic. The JWDC is a two-engine signature box with a rack-style compressor on one side and vintage-amp overdrive on the other, plus a Pre and Post toggle so you can choose your routing under your foot. A gold plate carries Joe’s autograph, and yes, Chip sneaks into the art with a wink.

The Alien Twister

Rounding out the spread is the Alien Twister, our fuzz aimed squarely at Stevie Ray Vaughan territory. It tips its hat to the late Cesar Diaz, whose Texas Square Face helped define Stevie’s sound, then pushes the idea forward. We called it the Twister because it can roar like a funnel cloud, and because Tornado Alley is part of the Texas mythology baked into those tones.

Why This Means So Much to Us

The book closes our section by noting the studio mementos hanging at Cloud 9, including platinum records awarded to us by Joan Jett and producer Kenny Laguna. The takeaway Cassone landed on is the one we hope comes through in every pedal we build. These boxes come from working engineers, not just a workbench. That is the Napoli through-line: studio ears, stage sense, and analog heart.

Being included alongside the makers we grew up admiring is the kind of recognition you do not forget. If you love guitars, gear, or great design, this is a book worth owning, and not just for our pages.

Get the Book and the Pedals

You can pick up “Art of the Stompbox: Celebrating the Visual Artistry of Effects Pedals” by Chris Cassone on Amazon here. It makes a great gift for the player, collector, or pedal nerd in your life.

And if the book has you curious about the pedals behind the art, take a look at the Alien Tone Dragon and the Rumble Seat, both born at Cloud 9 Recording Studio and built by hand.

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