Discover Printing

The Discovery Channel is releasing a graphic novel revolving around their 'shark week' series.  What a novel idea!  Read more about it here.

Tuesday Toon Up _ David Byrne

This was one of my favorite Talking Head songs.  Enjoy! 

Happy Birthday, Mr. Schulz

Today is the birthday of Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts.  I could write volumes about his accomplishments, influences and legacy, but I think this article does it better than anything I could come up with.  Mr. Schulz would have been 87.

Fortunately, Charlie Brown and Snoopy live on.

Pick Of The Week - Cyanide & Happiness

Let me start this post by wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  

This week's pick-of-the-week cartoon is Cyanide & Happiness.  Extremely funny, C&H has no boundaries when it comes to a joke, so reader beware if you're easily offended.  If you appreciate irreverent humor, this cartoon is for you!

The comic is written by four different individuals.  You can read more about the strip and the creators here.

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

A Ghost Of Christmas Past

 

This week's portfolio review goes back a long way.  I'm not sure if you can see the date in the top left corner, but this is a tear sheet from 1989.  I didn't know how to draw with a computer at this point, so the art was done with colored pencil and inked over top.  A black and white copy was pasted on to the page for placement with the galley of type in position.

The image was done on 9X12 bristol board.  I can't remember for certain, but I think this took about two days to complete.  An interesting note:  I still have this drawing and because of the waxy nature of the colored pencil, the ink has never fully dried.

Robert And Sophie Crumb Talk About Life As An Artist

Here's an interesting article on Robert Crumb and his daughter Sophie.   They seem incredibly normal - and happy!

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AL49C20101122

Tuesday Toon Up - Lady Antebellum

I confess, I'm a sucker for minor chords.  Most country music leaves me cold because it is so formulaic, but occasionally Nashville hits a bullseye in my cynical heart.  Enjoy!

Finding Sylvia

  I fell in love with Sylvia the first time I saw her.  The sarcastic, bathrobe-clad feminist was a wonderful buffet of social commentary, politics and spirituality.  While a lot of folks in the field of cartooning say 'Kathy' was the voice for women in the newspaper comics, I always thought Nicole Hollander usurped that throne.

Sylvia was recently dropped from the Chicago Tribune, so I thought I'd post a link to Nicole Hollander's blog and cartoon posts for fellow lover's of Sylvia.  Enjoy!

I'll Take The Blame

It's very early in the morning when I email my cartoons out to my subscribers and I accidentally emailed a prior cartoon this morning.  Since this career is a solo venture, I have no one to blame but myself.  But that got me thinking - what if I opened a business and its sole purpose was to take the blame for everything.  Watergate, the Edsel, Chernobyl, this season of The Office.

It would be like owning a funeral parlor...  Everyone would need it.  Give me a shout if you have venture capital.  When it all disappears, I know just where to place the blame.

Pick Of The Week - Bug Comics

I don't lead a particularly active or exciting daily life, so blogging about myself bores me to tears.  If it's dull to me, it will undoubtedly be dull to you.  So I decided to take Thursdays as a day to display cartoons that I like.  Some of these may be mainstream and others obscure, but they all intrigue me in some way.

Let me be transparent.  Not everything I read is PG13, so I take no credit or blame for the content.  I just think it's funny, but I will let you know if the cartoon contains material some people may find offensive.

Today's Pick-of-the-Week is Bug Comic by Adam Huber.  I'm always looking for gag-a-day cartoons and Bug fits the bill perfectly!  I love the simple iconic drawing and the writing is consistently superb.  I wish I could think this way, but, alas, I seemed destined to stippling hell.  Enjoy!

The Man Behind The Curtain

I had a recent surge of inquiries on Face Book about my illustration portfolio.  It occurred to me that, while I mentioned my non-cartooning work in my bio, I've never presented any of it.  So, every Wednesday, until I run out of samples, I'll post an old drawing I've done and give a bit of background on why I did it.

Today's image was for a feature story about how our memory works.  Originally, there was to be a photo to accompany the story, but, either the images weren't very exciting or (most likely) not shot at all.  The features editor gave me the copy and asked if I could come up with anything, so I sketched a rough for this in about five minutes and submitted it for approval.  The whole process from sketch to photo shop finale took about two hours from start to finish and ran the next day.

The Boss

Between the Beatles on ITunes and the new Springsteen box set,  I'm going to go broke buying music.  Oh, well...  What a great way to start the new year. 

Here's the boss on Jimmy Fallon.  Enjoy!

Tuesday Toon Up - The Beatles

Let's listen to some Beatles music today, since they're now releasing their music on I Tunes.  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Carl Stalling

I loved Warner Brothers cartoons when I was growing up.  A huge part of the delight was the soundtrack arranged by Carl Stalling.  Stalling was originally an accompanist for silent films.  He would average a soundtrack a week for 22 years, working on Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies.  Here's a cartoon from 1943.  Enjoy!

Tuesday Toon Up - I Don't Want To Grow Up

When I meet someone new and they ask what I do for entertainment, most of them seem a bit taken aback when I tell them I draw cartoons.  Simply put, I can't think of a better way to spend my time, hence today's video by Tom Waits.  Enjoy!

Tuesday Toon-Up, Numb

Today is election day and after months of acrimonious media attention, I thought I'd post a video that reflects my current political outlook.  The title says it all.  Enjoy!