I want my Me TV!

Here's an interview I did with Shanda Golden last Month!

My new book is available here.

Interview part 7

This is the seventh and final segment of the interview I did covering my artistic career, my influences, and many great, interesting, and sometimes hilarious moments along the way. In this segment, I talk about my views on web versus print, what I think makes a successful web cartoonist, and my advice to new cartoonists.

Interview part 6

This is part six of the continuing interview I did covering my artistic career, my influences, and many great, interesting, and sometimes hilarious moments along the way. In this segment, I talk about the characters themselves, Bud, Pearl, Junior, Peaches, and Ninja the Cat.

Interview part 4

This is part four of the continuing interview I did covering my artistic career, my influences, and many great, interesting, and sometimes hilarious moments along the way.

See you next week for part five!

Happy Birthday, Stanley Mouse

 Let's wish a happy birthday to Stanley Mouse!  His iconic artwork personified the sixties!

Paper Cuts

This popped up on my screen when I was surfing through Stumble Upon.  I thought some folks out there might enjoy it!

Edward Gorey on NPR

Here's a link to a story on NPR about the famous illustrator, Edward Gorey.  Enjoy!

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=133869853

To Hell With The Trophy! Give Me Money!

It's been a while since I posted anything from my portfolio, so I thought I'd write about an illustration I created when I worked at the Nashville Banner.  The story was about how to train your voice for public speaking.

My original sketch was a character doing a version of a bicep curl with his tongue.  One of my fellow designers suggested the speed bag work out on the uvula.  It was a much easier image for the reader to instantly 'get' and made for a far better page layout.  The final art was created in Macromedia Freehand and the page layout was QuarkXpress (I didn't design the page).

This image won an award from the Society of News Design, an organization whose recognition I found deeply flattering.  However, it didn't include a raise, much to my dismay.

Later, when I became a freelance artist, I took the vector file and imported it into PhotoShop and played around with it.  I still use this as a showcase piece when anyone asks about my prior career.

Video Post about George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat

Mike Lynch posted this short video on his blog.  It's a preview about a new book coming out about George Herriman.  Enjoy!

Toon Talk - Honing My Craft

A recent podcast by the Webcomics Weekly crew about an article in the Economist has created a rather heated conversation in the webcomics community.  The debate on the Daily Cartoonist revolves around the question, "What is a cartoonist?"

This got me to consider the craft of cartooning and what is important to me.  There are lots of cartoonists on the web I enjoy who don't display enviable drawing skills, but I get a lot out of their humor and their point of view.

Here's two examples of the same cartoon I did back in the nineties.  The first image is my original finished drawing.  This was ready to be printed, but something wasn't 'complete' for me.  I liked the idea, but thought the final gag lacked visual punch.  Because it seemed cluttered, the joke took too long to 'get.'

The second image was my final thought.  The artwork  stood out on the page much better with the solid blacks dominating the picture.  This particular cartoon was a turning point in how I looked at my own work and trying to figure out how the audience saw it also.

As for the online debate, I try to stay out of circuitous arguments.  There's merit to both sides, but the upside is, the conflict made me think about my craft, my presentation and what I value when doing my own work.

Drawing On The Past - Cover Up

One of the main problems I ran into when I was designing a newspaper tabloid, was coming up with fresh ideas on a yearly cycle.  Whether the subject was Christmas happenings around town, autumn festivals or Easter celebrations, eventually I would have to cover the same subject matter.  This weeks rewind was a cover about upcoming summer events.

The first image was something I created for my own amusement.  I had an acquaintance who told me a story about a relative in a vaudeville act and the novelty was playing giant harmonicas.  I was also studying music and was interested in examining harmony, so I created this image.  I was also immersed in trying different techniques in Photo Shop.  A major issue when working at a daily newspaper is the deadline, so the symmetry afforded speed in execution.

The second image was the cover I created based on drawing number one.  I was out of fresh ideas, so I borrowed an old concept from myself.  This was as close to an homage to psychedelic art as I was ever able to come up with.

I don't think my editor was too happy with the final cover, but it was quite striking when displayed in the distribution racks.

Toon Talk - Hitting The Big Time

Today's nostalgic rambling is significant for me because this cartoon was the first time I felt like I'd hit the big time.  What I mean by the 'big time' is when someone cuts out a toon from the paper and hangs it up.  Refrigerators are the MoMA for cartoonists.

I submerged myself in jazz for a while and had to order a lot of compact discs from a record store on the west end of my hometown.  I'd stopped in to pick up an order that had come in and went to the back office with the owner to pick up my purchase.  Taped to the wall next to the time clock was this cartoon.  He had no idea I was the artist.  He just thought the cartoon was funny enough to save and put up on the wall.

This particular cartoon is also noteworthy, because it was the first time my main characters came to life.  Although they would got through a lot of evolution before I decided on their final appearance, this was where the 'relationship' started.

The curlers in the woman's hair were based on the memory of my older sister.  When she went to junior high school, the style was to roll your hair in discarded cans from frozen orange juice.  While the wife would evolve over time to tighter rollers and simpler slippers, the husband is almost complete in how he looks today.

Happy Birthday To Walt Disney!

Today is the 109th birthday of the creator of Mickey Mouse.  Here's a link to wikipedia for a full article on his amazing career.

Tuesday Toon Up _ David Byrne

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

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.

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!

R.I.P. Leo Cullum

Leo Cullum, retired airline pilot turned New Yorker cartoonist has died.  Cullum was 68 years old.  Mr. Cullum was a combat pilot in Viet Nam flying over 200 combat mission.  Upon leaving the service, he began flying for TWA.

His first cartoon appeared in the New Yorker in 1977.  Thanks for the laughs and the inspiration Mr. Cullum.

Drawing Attention

There was a lot of talk at the Festival of Cartoon Art in Columbus last weekend lamenting the decline in employment opportunities for editorial cartoonists.  I tried editorial cartooning early in my newspaper career, but I was never very good.  How these folks are able to generate ideas so quickly, draw caricatures, etc. on a daily basis is truly an amazing skill.

Whether you love or hate a particular editorial cartoonist, at least they make you think.  Here's a video from TED.com about editorial cartooning.  Enjoy!

Like-minded People

I just returned from Columbus, Ohio where I attended the 2010 Festival of Cartoon Art at Ohio State University.  What a blast!  

Cartooning is a rather isolated endeavor, at least for me.  I was a newspaper cartoonist for 8 years and only met two cartoonists the entire time.  One was actually making a living at it.

Fifteen years later, thanks to the internet in general and Face Book in particular, I've made hundreds of people who share the same passion I have.  It's a great time to be alive!