Having A Funday

Here's a promotional video I made a while back.  I didn't realize, I'd not posted it here.  I hope you funsters enjoy this.  Thanks for reading my cartoons.

Finally!

It's been a long time since I posted anything to this blog.  By design, I lead a reasonably dull existence and reading about my failed diets or the latest amusements from my cat bores even me.

But today, I have something significant to talk about.  My cartoon officially started running in my hometown paper this morning and I couldn't be more elated!  You can read the story here.

This has been an interesting journey, from quitting cartoons entirely in 2000 - to 2009 when the bug bit me AGAIN!  In the last four years, I've created 583 new gags, reused some oldies I thought were still relevant and published two books.  What a long strange trip it's been.

My work is being syndicated by Bill Kellogg at Ink Bottle Syndicate.  If you're interested in publishing or reprinting my cartoons, his email address is bill@inkbottlesyndicate.com.  Thank you all for your continued support over the last four years!  It's your loyalty and support that has kept me going.  That and 5000 gallons of coffee.  

The best is yet to come!!!

I want my Me TV!

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

My new book is available here.

Book Signing at Taylor Books!

Yours truly setting up.

Lon Kelly, myself and Greg Florence.

Bill and Helen Craver.  Bill and I have known each other since we were eight years old.

Joe Bolyard is a Charleston artist I became acquainted with on Facebook.  It was nice to meet him in person.

Steve Hill and I.  We've been friends for about thirty years.  Steve is an extraordinary musician and plays bass on the Mountain Stage NPR radio show.  He was the person who told me I should be reading the Far Side.

Beth Chesney Frampton and I.  Beth's dad baptized me when I was a baby.  More than a few folks think it didn't quite take.

My stepmother, Ruth.

A blurry shot of Nathan Diller singing in the cafe.

 My brother rocking the house.

That's Rudy Panucci on the far left.  Rudy has been documenting the local music and art scene in Charleston for around ten years.  I think someone should write a story about him.  Not sure who the woman is, but she's having fun!

My brother Brian, my sisters Kathy and Charlotte and myself.

Waiting to film an interview for the television show, West Virginia Authors.

Show host, Gordon Simmons and I talking about cartoons.  I was much more nervous than I appear.

Happy Birthday, Berke Breathed!

Let's all wish Bloom County creator, Berkeley Breathed a happy birthday!  For more on his cartooning and film career, go here.

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.

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.

Scoop! Brenda Starr Retires

Brenda Starr, the cartoon reporter created by Dale Messick, is retiring effective Jan. 2.  Tip of the hat to Tribune for putting the the final issue to bed.

Drawing On The Past - From My Portfolio

I was the art director for an entertainment tabloid at a newspaper for two years, which afforded me a lot of freedom to do features illustrations.  This was a cover I did for a Christmas issue.  I drew the image on paper, scanned it and redrew it in Free Hand.  This way, I could scale the drawing to size once it was finished and not loose any resolution.  This image looks grainy when it's blown up because it was a scan from the printed page, rather than an archive of the digital art.

I then exported the file over to Photo Shop and put in all the dimensional shading with the dodge and burn tool.  The final tiff was imported into QuarkXpress and the type was set.

It's tough to remember how long this took, as I would start a Christmas issue somewhere around the beginning of October to give myself the luxury of time.  Also, the editors and myself were sure to be in agreement as to what the final product looked like.