Banner courtesy of Mark Evanier

Almost forgot. Apparently not many local Maui residents own gorilla suits. Hard to believe, I know. Still I did what I could. Here I am at the resort:

I can tell you that gorilla suits and high humidity are a recipe for disaster. I nearly passed out several times. Several old ladies screamed as I ran around the pool, although one tried to buy me a drink. A number of Japanese tourists insisted on getting their pictures taken with me… one at a time. That took about 40 minutes and I almost passed out again. Everything was going fine until I tried surfing in it. Did you know that when a gorilla suit gets wet, it gets significantly heavier? No kidding, it weighs a ton when soaked. I was trying to hang 10 but I only hung about 2 and a half then went down and stayed down. I managed to walk out onto the beach, soliciting a number of other screams and another offer of a drink from a different lady. The good news is I found several mahi-mahi in my pants when I took off the suit, so we are set for dinner tonight.

All in all, a good National Gorilla Suit Day. I hope you all had a happy one.

If there is one universal truth in the world of pop culture and media, it’s that when something becomes wildly popular with the masses it will automatically be shunned and ridiculed by “sophisticated” critics and consumers. It’s a mass mentality thing that seems to say if the great unwashed embrace something it can’t be good. Arguably the most popular prepared food on the planet, in terms of sheer consumption, is the McDonald’s hamburger. Is that good food? Uh…. no. That one deserves the disdain of the food snobs. Still, why is it that when something catches on and becomes incredibly popular it also becomes fashionable to dismiss it as trash? Personally I think it is more of a reaction to the media saturation that a popular item receives. When you can’t seem to turn around without hearing about something in your newspaper, on your TV or in your magazines, people begin to love to hate it. I also think there is a certain ‘hipness’ that is a need for some people that is lost when the Flanders next door start wearing t-shirts depicting what used to be their favorite band or start having parties around what used to be their favorite TV show. People love to believe they have something others do not… knowledge of something that is too cool for most people to understand. If that something becomes popular, then they distance themselves from it as the clique mentality is ruined. It’s a shame, really. While I have a hard time understanding why some things imbed themselves in the public psyche (like American Idol… I’ve watched it, don’t get it) other things become wildly popular because they are, well… GOOD. The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling are a prime example.

When our kids were younger, The Lovely Anna and I used to read to them before bed. In an effort to find books that were appropriate and fun, Anna picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which she had heard about from various sources. At the time only the first two had been released. These books have pretty long chapters, certainly much longer than our kids could stay awake for, so we would read only a part of a chapter until their droopy eyes succumbed to sleep, and we turned out their lights for the night. Then a funny thing happened… rather than putting a bookmark in the book to await picking up where we left off the next evening, we took the books downstairs and kept reading! Eventually we had two copies of the book, so we could both read them at the same time. We were hooked, and have been since.

I just finished listening to almost the entire Harry Potter series on audiobook in the studio, as far as getting deep into Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I finished that one while here on Maui, but I am saving Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for the studio next week, when I have a few jobs that will require inking and coloring. The audio books are superbly read by the talented Jim Dale, who like Frank Muller has a gift for subtle voice work that infuses each character with it’s own personality and instant recognizability. Even though these books are long they seem to fly by when Dale’s rich voice is relating the story to you. I’ve read them all before, of course. I revisit them occasionally on audiobook in the studio because even after several readings and listenings they remain eminently enjoyable.

What makes Rowling’s work so immersive and riveting? Well, in all fairness to many critics who dismiss her work as popular trash, it isn’t because she is an exceptional writer. Nobody’s going to mistake her for Capote, Hemmingway or Fitzgerald, but I think she is a good writer who has advancing plots, and makes generally good use of dialogue as well as foreshadowing and other techniques. Her books do suffer in places from repetitive dialogue and unnecessarily drawn out scenes… especially the many discussions between the main characters. There sometimes seems to be endless pages of Harry, Ron and Hermione discussing the same issues over and over, eventually drawing a conclusion that should have taken a few pages at most. This seems especially true as Rowling tries to inject Harry with anger, angst and frustration over his continual struggles against just about everybody. He flies off the handle at the littlest comment, creating long and numerous exchanges belaboring the same points over and over. I think several of her later books could have been much less long winded if the author would trust that her readers have gotten the idea that Harry is upset and frustrated with his destiny and lot in life. Then again, some people complain that her characters are cardboard cutouts with little depth and complexity. Harry seems to have a bit of a dark side but basically each character is an archetype and does not deviate from the mold very much. I say what’s wrong with that? Does a character need to be complex to be interesting and entertaining? Can’t we have good guys who are pure of heart and bad guys who are wicked to the core? Besides, I think Rowling is unjustly criticized for her lack of complex character development. Severus Snape is a character that nobody is quite sure about yet, and there is some complexity about Harry, belabored though it may be, that you cannot deny. Harry’s father was shown to be arrogant and obnoxious as a young man, very flawed it seems. Things are not as black and white in these books as some dismiss them to be.

For the most part her plots are well conceived and thought through, although when there is a hole in them, it’s a doozy. The biggest one, and one that bothers me immensely, is in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. SPOILER AHEAD: In this book, Harry is forced by a then unknown traitor in the school to compete in a contest called the Tri- Wizard Tournament. After months and a number of tasks, the winner is the first one to reach to the Tri-Wizard Cup amid a final maze of magical obstacles. The traitor has been helping Harry to win the contest, so he is the first to touch the cup. This cup has been bewitched into a “portkey”, a magical transportation device that whisks him away to a ceremony which needs his blood to bring his evil nemesis, Lord Voldemort, back to full strength and life. That’s all fine and well, but it takes all year for the contest to come to it’s conclusion, and if all they needed to do is have Harry touch a portkey to catch him, they could have made his toothbrush into one the first day of school and off he goes. Rowling should have established that the making of a portkey is a long and complex bit of magic involving months of incantations and preparations… but we later see that it’s the mere waving of a wand that does it. A big plot hole. Oh, well….

No, the key to what makes the Harry Potter books the engaging page turners they are is Rowling’s vivid and infectious imagination. The magical world she has created, that exists right next to our mundane real world, is rich with genuine, eye opening innovation and original ideas. Harry is continually presented with the cleverest of new magical concepts. For example, one way wizards travel is via bewitched fireplaces using floo powder amid the “floo network”. Interoffice memos at the wizard’s government offices, the Ministry of Magic, are paper airplanes that fly about irascibly in and out of elevators. Owls are the preferred manner of posting letters amid the magical community. The books are full of these kinds of brilliant and original ideas. Rowling’s magical world isn’t just a bunch of sorcerers that can do whatever they like with wands… she has built a wonderfully inhabitable place where some miracles are commonplace while others are still miraculous or impossible. She has established rules with regard to magic, imbibing the magical world with a king of logic even while making the illogical seem like it happens every day. My favorite parts of her imaginative storytelling are the little things that take place, seemingly without causing anything more than a raised eyebrow. The jokes and pranks played by wizards on each other, especially at Hogwarts, are hilarious. Students are regularly sent to the hospital wing with maladies like having sprouted antlers, endlessly vomiting slugs from their mouths, having boils that spell words like “sneak” break out on their faces or having a pumpkin for a head. There is also a kind of life and intelligence brought on by magically manipulating objects… when Harry and Ginny are chased from the library by an incensed librarian witch, Harry’s books and things follow them out repeatedly whacking them about their heads. If objects bewitched to do some task get interfered with, they seem to get angry about it and take it personally. How can someone not become absorbed in such a rich and enchanting world as that?

This June the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, hits the bookstores. It’s been a mesmerizing and enjoyable run. I am sure the final book will wrap things up nicely… Rowling is nothing if not thorough with her explanations and tying up of loose ends. It will be sad to finish that last page, though. Few things have captured the imagination of a new generation of readers, and those of us from other generations, as the magical world of Harry Potter…. and few things have deserved the immense popularity they have achieved more.

I’ve relisted the artwork for the entire Batman Begins parody on eBay. Previously I had listed it but canceled the auction after being advised by someone I greatly respect that this particular parody has a great deal of value because of the subject matter alone, and I should not sell it for so cheap. After I ended the auction I received further advice from an individual who sells MAD originals for a living that I would be lucky to get that much or it, an that only  Jack Davis, Wally Wood and Mort Drucker art from MAD sells at $300.00 a page.

Well, I’ve giving it a try again. I never let the auction play out last time. If it sells, it sells. If not, I’ll keep it.

So, If you’ve got the cash and are interested in owning a complete parody of a major motion picture that appeared in MAD, check out the link above.

I’m a baseball fan. Really. I have season tickets to the little team that could, the Minnesota Twins, and take my kids to ball games all summer long. I know the names of players as deep as our single A minor league teams that are on the fast track to the  majors. I even keep score and prefer to listen to games on the radio as opposed to watching on TV (the sign of a real fan). So, I was incredibly embarrassed when my art director told me I made an error on this image from last week:

Do you see it? Well, if two players are colliding in the field when trying to catch the same pop fly they would have one thing in common… THEY’D BE IN THE SAME UNIFORM, BECAUSE THEY ARE ON THE SAME TEAM!!

Ouch. That’s a bonehead mistake. I was so wrapped up in trying to separate the figures via color when they are so entangled visually that it never occurred to me they needed to be in the same uniform. No wonder I dropped so many pop flys as a kid… I must have been confused that another member of my team was nearby on the field.

The worst part was that my art director just fixed the art himself, rather than call me to make the changes. I scolded him about that. I didn’t care about his altering the art… I’m sure it looks fine. I was upset that he took the time to do it. It’s my job to deliver a final piece of art that is mistake free and what they were looking for. If I don’t do that, then I should be required to fix any issues with the image. That’s what I’m paid to do. My art director just laughed about it, and shrugged it off as no big deal. He said he and the other people in the art department got a laugh over it, and they razzed me about not being much of a baseball fan on speakerphone. When I mentioned my Twin’s season tickets, one guy asked me if I even knew the color of the Twin’s jerseys. I asked, “Do you want to know the color of the home, home alternate, road or road alternate jersey?” That shut him up!

I’d hope in the future that art director will make sure and let me handle any mistakes like that one. He has enough to do without needing to revise artwork that should have come in ready to use. I hope the freelance police don; revoke my artistic license.

Over on his excellent blog, Mark Evanier is busy shaming other cartoonist bloggers to get on board and help promote National Gorilla Suit Day, which as everybody knows takes place on January 31st each year. I am ashamed to say I have not done my part.

The banner above links to this article (links removed as Mark took down those pages) by Mark about the mysterious origins of National Gorilla Suit Day. It began, as almost all nonsensical and idiotic things do, with Don Martin. A series of cartoons in the 1964 book Don Martin Bounces Back! concerns the misadventures of Fester Bestertester and his railings against various gorilla suit companies and the holiday National Gorilla Suit Day. Mark’s article goes into the details.

The best thing about National Gorilla Suit Day is that there isn’t much that needs to be done to celebrate this very important holiday. There are no gifts to buy or exchange that will drive up your credit card balances. No painted, unfertilized poulty zygotes to hide or place in baskets with chocolate effigies of Oryctolagus cuniculus and other confections for consumption by children. No need to cut a living conifer from the forest, drag it into your domicile, festoon it with bits of glass and plastic and wrap it with lighted wires conducting dangerous electricity while the tree itself dies, dries out and becomes more and more flammable. No need to carve out and remove the seeds and pulp from large, orange gourds and then place live flames within them while small children walk around in close proximity wearing lightweight cloth costumes. There are no pesky lights or decorations to put up around the outside of your home, unless of course you have a giant inflatable gorilla you stole from the roof of a used car dealership when you were in college and you still have it in a box in the rafters of your garage…. not that I know anyone who ever did anything like that. If I DID I would say they are encouraged to inflate that gorilla in their front yard and, if approached by the local constabulary, claim you bought it at a garage sale years ago.

No, all you need to do is put on your gorilla suit and go about the neighborhood knocking on doors and spread the good word about National Gorilla Suit Day. Scaring the bejeezus out of some of the old folks wouldn’t ruin your day, either. So, on January 31st wear your mangy, moth eaten simian garb with pride, and just say “I’m wearing a Gorilla Suit… and I’m okay!”

Q: What’s the deal with “Mad Kids“? I’m curious what the target market is for Mad vs. Mad Kids or why they started Mad Kids.

A: MAD Kids is a recent addition to the MAD family. It’s a quarterly publication from the folks that bring you MAD that is geared towards a younger audience.

Why, you say? Isn’t MAD already geared towards kids? No, not really. The regular magazine contains some kid humor, mostly in the form of gross out jokes, but when you really get down to it, MAD contains pretty adult humor. There is no outright swearing in MAD, nor is there any overt nudity or x-rated content but there are plenty of adult jokes and themes, and MAD does a lot of political humor as well as satires of some racy subject matter. The parody I drew of “Gray’s Anatomy” had racy jokes that matched the show’s themes. It’s meant for teenagers or older readers, I think.

MAD Kids is definitely geared for pre-teen kids. The humor is kid-friendly, with booger and fart jokes as the worst offenders of one’s sensibilities. Think Nickelodeon Magazine but with MAD’s unique brand of humor and outlook infused. Alfred E. Neuman is present but in MAD Kids he’s a cartoon Alfred. The content is unique and while are some regular MAD artists and writers that also appear in MAD Kids, there are also some who work exclusively on that magazine. I’ve only done one job for MAD Kids since it’s inception… some spot illustrations that accompanied a “Sing to the tune of…” type article about the kind of people you run into as a school kid:

My ten year old son Tommy loves MAD Kids, although he is allowed to read the regular MAD as well with the rare exception of some articles that are just a little too adult. Mostly those jokes go over his head anyway, but not all. With MAD Kids there’s no problem and that’s nice for parents. I’m sure the folks and MAD started MAD Kids because they recognized MAD is not geared for that age group and they wanted to create something that was. I think it’s been pretty successful and maybe it will help warp a new generation of MAD readers.

Thanks to Shane Johnson for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!

Once a year The Lovely Anna and I take a vacation to Hawaii. We have a convenient timeshare on Maui that is like our home away from home. No kids… they stay home with a good friend of the family who moves in for a week. It’s our week away where we recharge our parental batteries and do some serious relaxing. As usual I had to pull some late nights to get all my jobs done before we leave. Mission accomplished. You’ll be able to read all about our gastronomic adventures on Maui on Anna’s blog: Anna’s Foodie Reviews.

Other than tomorrow’s mailbag I do not think I’ll be posting on the blog much while I am gone. Maybe I’ll get inspired and write something between Mai Tai’s, but it won’t be every day, that’s for sure. I’ll be back in time for next week’s Sunday Mailbag… but I am fresh out of questions after tomorrow. So, if anybody has any questions for me, now would be a good time to email them to me.

Aloha, and thanks for reading the blog.

Fellow caricaturist Ryan Biddle, who does caricatures in a resort at the Wisconsin Dells as well as personal commissions, murals and portraits, sent me these pictures from a trip he took to NYC some time ago.

These are six of my older samples on the closer board…

They redrew the body but the head is a Xerox

Naughty, naughty!

I recognize some of these also. There’s a Kruger, bottom left…

Chris Rommel’s Julia Roberts

I think this will be my last post on this subject, unless I see some in Timbuktu or some other far away place. It’s getting tiresome and it’s just the same thing over and over. As I’ve said before, these people are not doing themselves any favors, and they likely do not care. They are out to make a buck, and the art aspect of it is meaningless to most of them.

I’ve written several times about the Orphan Works legislation, and it’s implications on freelance illustrators. This post describes it best, but here it is in brief: The Orphan Works Act is a change to copyright law that allows any party (publishers, advertisers) to use a piece of intellectual property (a photo, illustration, cartoon, etc.) if the owner of the copyright of said piece of intellectual property cannot be identified or located. The law requires a ‘reasonable effort’ to search for the copyright owner, but does not define what a ‘reasonable search’ entails. The law also limits the money that can be recouped by the copyright owner even in they notice their copyrighted work was used without being contacted, and somehow prove the user did not make a ‘reasonable effort’ to find them.

I think anyone can recognize the problems here. There is no clear definition of a “reasonable effort” in searching for the copyright owner, so getting a court decision that someone did not make that effort will be tough. Because of the limit of money copyright owners can get in damages, the worst that can happen is infringers get caught and have to pay about what it would have cost them from the copyright owner in the first place. Finally even if some kind of database is created to organize a search for copyright holders (can’t see how that’s possible, especially with visual images) allowing image users to use any works they find laying about for free without fear of getting sued will discourage them from paying for the creation of new images, seriously decimated the market for creating new, original works.

Now that we have a new congress convening, the Orphan Works travesty is back on the stove. Here is the latest from the Illustrator’s Partnership:

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

Orphan Works Revisited

It appears that Orphan Works legislation will soon rear its head again. The word from Washington is that it will again be fast-tracked and its sponsors will resist “any significant modifications to the existing draft.”

Last year, visual arts groups came together as an informal coalition. We shared information and coordinated a letter writing campaign. Monday, Jan. 29 these groups are scheduled to meet in Washington to discuss a unified strategy. The groups (listed below) will formally be called The Imagery Alliance.

Each member organization has been asked to make a voluntary contribution to the Alliance. But since some groups are forbidden by their tax-exempt status to engage in lobbying, the Alliance must first determine the best way to collect and distribute money. In some cases, it may be necessary for groups to simply educate their members by directing those who wish to contribute to a tax-appropriate orphan works fund. We’ll update you when this has been determined. We believe that any money raised in this cause should be used specifically to improve Orphan Works legislation and not consumed in maintenance, administration or for other organizational expenses.

—The Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership

The Imagery Alliance:
Advertising Photographers of America (APA)
American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)
American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP)
American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP)
Association of Photographers (AOP) (UK)
Art Directors Club (ADC)
British Association of Picture Libraries & Agencies (BAPLA)
Coordination of European Agencies Press Stock Heritage (CEPIC)
Editorial Photographers (EP)
Graphic Artists Guild (GAG)
Illustrators’ Partnership of America (IPA)
North American Nature Photography Assoc. (NANPA)
National Press Photographers Assoc (NPPA)
Picture Archive Council of America (PACA)
Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS)
Professional Photographers of America (PPA)
Society for Photographic Education (SPE)
Stock Artists Alliance (SAA)
White House News Photographers Assoc. (WHNPA)

For additional information about Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists
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I hope legislators will listen to reason and understand this proposed law is paramount to creating a free stock house for photos and illustration out of the internet and will badly damage the ability of photographers and illustrators to make a living. It will also suppress the creation of new work. It’s bad for the creators of the works being used without their permission or compensation. It’s bad for those who are trying to make a living creating these kinds of works. The only parties it’s good for are the media giants who can cut the costs of publication. Let’s hope someone comes to their senses in Washington…. is that an oxymoron?

I’m still working hard on that MAD TV parody, but had to take a break Tuesday to wrap this poster job up:

Now it’s back to working on the color for the parody. The splash spread alone is taking a lot longer than a normal splash, as it has a lot going on in it. As I mentioned I cannot post any sneak peeks at the art, but it will be in issue #476, on the stands in March.