I’m still staying remarkably busy considering the dire state of the economy. Here’s what I have on the board right now:
MAD job- This one is still in the final pencil stage, as it sadly isn’t due for 6 weeks. Other stuff keeps cropping up preventing me from finishing it.
Stay Tooned! Cover- This for John Read‘s fantastic magazine. I will have this done today.
Book Job- Impossible deadline on a massive project I can’t talk about yet… so what else is new? I’m afraid you can expect to see the Dreaded Deadline Demon a few times in the next several weeks.
Comic book- This one is still vaporwork, but promising. Can’t be more specific.
In the meantime, here’s the latest Marlin Co. workplace poster I wrapped up on Monday. The job was to depict a father trying to blow up a large outdoor pool, out of breath, neighborhood kids looking on, lady running in to save the day with an old fashioned air pump:
Pencil roughs. The client wanted the lady running in to be thinner (but not
too thin), eyes open and carrying a bigger bicycle tire air pump.
Here’s another quick study attempt at actress Amy Adams. I did one a few months ago I was not too happy with. This one is certainly less of an exaggeration and still not quite on target. This was from a small picture where she is in her role of Amelia Earhart from the “Night in the Museum” sequel.
Update- Here’s a scan of the reference I used. My observations keyed in on her big, round eyes and small, thin mouth.
Image from Entertainment Weekly used
under Fair Use.
This past weekend I drove down to picturesque Lake Okoboji, IA to attend the 2009 Toon Awards Exhibition, held at the Pearson Lakes Art Center right in Okoboji (in the town, not in the lake). It was organized by Toon-Ed, a cartoon education group led by Sioux Falls cartoonist Ken Alvine. Veteran magazine gag cartoonist and Iowa resident Dave Carpenter and Ken did a fantastic job with the show, program and all the arrangements. The folks at Pearson also did a great job, especially Lissa and Danielle. It’s not easy setting something like this up.
Toon-Ed is dedicated to educating the student of cartooning and provides a chance to showcase students cartoon art that are enrolled in post-secondary schools, colleges, art schools, and universities. Cartoon art students were invited to participate in the TOON Award. Speakers did presentations on Saturday and an exhibit of professional cartoon art opened in the main lobby and landings.
The Cartoon Exhibit-
Cartoons hanging in one of the Pearson Center landings
This was pretty impressive. It included original works from a lot of big time cartoonists. There were original comic strips including work from Chris Browne (Hagar the Horrible), Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman (Zits), Greg Evens (Luann), Lynn Johnston (For Better or for Worse), comic book pages from Stan Goldberg (Archie) and many other great examples of professional cartooning being showcased. I have two original MAD pieces hanging right by the bathrooms were they belong! Some of the artwork was donated to the raffle conducted on Saturday night and some to a silent auction that ends with the end of the exhibit. The show runs until June 27th, so stop in if you find yourself in the area.
An original “Zits”
Artwork by Bucky Jones
An original “Luann”
An original “Hagar” Sunday
Some original garbage from MAD
The Student Competition-
Ed Baker pronounces judgement
College students 18 years of age or older were welcome to submit up to 3 pieces of their original works of cartoon art to the Pearson center for inclusion in the competition. The submissions were hung in a special gallery at the Art Center. There were only 13 artists with entries but some very enjoyable and solid work.
The work was be judged by a panel of professional cartoonists on Friday. The panel included:
Chris Browne of “Hagar the Horrible”
Ed Baker -Emmy award winning storyboard animator
Paul Fell- Editorial Cartoonist
Buck Jones – Humorous Illustrator
Tom Richmond of “Mad Magazine” (Hey… that’s me!)
Judging was not easy, there were easy arguments to be made for the worthiness of just about every entry. We each picked an artist for best work in comic strip, animation and illustration categories, as well as best overall work. Judging was fair and there was no bribery involved, much to our disappointment.
The artists recognized were:
Best Comic Strip- Eric Lee Johnson (Northern State University)
Best Animation- Katy Elder & Roman Serebryakov (Des Moines Area Community College)
Best Illustration- Roman Serebryakov (Des Moines Area Community College)
Best Illustration- 2nd Place- Alex Heberling (Ohio State University)
Award winner Alex Heberling
And the 2009 Toon Award for Best Overall Work:
Eric Lee Johnson (Northern State University)
Eric Lee Johnson and his award winning art
Congratulations to the cartoonists and all who entered. Your work looks great in that gallery.
Cartoonist Speakers
On Saturday there was be several workshops on cartooning by professional cartoonists:
Because there was also a “meet and greet” with the cartoonists upstairs I only got to catch Dave Carpenter’s talk, which was fascinating. Gag cartooning is both a great art form and an interesting business. Dave is one of the top gag cartoonists in the business, with a long list of frequent clients including the Harvard Business Review, Barron’s, Reader’s Digest, The Wall Street Journal, and many, many more.
Dave Carpenter talks cartooning
Chris Browne and fans
There was also a main speaker following the Saturday Evening awards banquet. “Nebraska’s Cartoonist” Paul Fell shared his work including his editorial cartoons, sports cartooning, caricatures and illustration. Paul also talked about the future of cartooning and the internet, and showed us his latest efforts in online cartooning including the free subscription service The Daily FellToon, and his new online Huskernutz store.
As expected, it was a fun time. It’s never dull hanging out with other cartoonists… illegal sometimes, but never dull.
The poker game website I did the artwork for just had a press release about new unique features like private tables, on-demand tournaments and other cool stuff.
Here is the full release:
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2009
Contact:
Alan Curtis
Info@5pmpoker.com
New Poker Web Application Features Free Private Tables
HERMOSA BEACH & HONOLULU – The new online poker site 5PMPoker.com officially launched today, setting itself apart from competitive sites with features such as free Host-Your-Own Tables. This feature allows online poker players to invite friends (and foes) to private invite-only games whenever they desire. The web application monitors each hand and keeps a running tally, so players can track their progress through the final winning hand.
5pmpoker.com also offers On-Demand Tournaments, which allows any player to initiate a global Texas Hold’em tournament-style game in which all players start with the same number of chips and battle it out to the last person.
The site’s continuously running Public Tables challenge players from novice to expert. In addition to poker basics, the site offers continuously updated information on individual hand strength, odds of winning the hand and, ultimately, the pot. The site’s leader board allows you to track your overall hand win/loss standing among all players. It displays who is on line, so you can join in and play with familiar or challenging players.
Powered by Google’s new GWT technology, the site uses highly optimized JavaScript which allows the site to have the look and feel of a downloaded application while running in the browser.
The site’s fun graphic environment was illustrated by MAD Magazine artist Tom Richmond, and its unique style gives visitors a clue as to how different the experience of using this site is from the experience to be had at other poker sites. Players choose from a variety of different humorous, caricature-style avatars to represent themselves at the table. Players communicate with each other through a chat function that displays the messages in Sunday Comics-style bubbles above the character’s head. A unique setting and amusing details add to the fresh look and feel of the site.
5PMPoker.com is a free online poker playing web application for all levels of players from beginners to experts. The site was created by Digital Beach Software Inc, with offices in Hermosa Beach, California and Honolulu, Hawaii.
For more information, visit www.5pmpoker.com.
#####
Visit the site and sit in on a game. It’s free and the game play programming is pretty slick! If you do, keep an eye on the environment elements like the bats, chests, etc. They get a little animated occasionally.
Clockwise from bottom left: Jeff Keane, Mike Luckovich, Michael Ramirez,
Dan Piraro, Stephen Pastis, Dave Coverly, Steve Moore, Eric Goldberg,
Drew Struzan and Cathy Guisewite.Click image for a closer look...
For the last 6 years I have been honored to do an illustration for the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Awards Weekend that they use on the official T-Shirt and sometimes on the tote bags, programs, in the Reuben Journal, etc. Usually it has involved the guest speakers and some scene related to that year’s event location. This year the Reubens will be in Los Angeles, AKA “Hollywood”, so I went with a movie set theme, and in addition to the guest speakers cartoonist Steve Moore (In the Bleachers), animator Eric Goldberg, movie poster illustrator Drew Struzan and Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez, we added award program emcee Mike Luckovich (another Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonist), NCS President Jeff Keane (The Family Circus) “Cartoonist of the Year” nominees Dan Piraro, (Bizarro), Stephen Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) and Dave Coverly (Speed Bump), and Reuben party hostess Cathy Guisewite (Cathy).
Above is the finished art, which was just released via a promo e-mail to members so I’m clear to share it here.
This is something I look forward to doing every year (or for as long as they want me to). The NCS has been very good to me and I am glad to do contribute back in even such a small way.
Here are the previous 6 years of Reuben illustrations. I don’t believe I have ever posted some of the older ones:
2008- New Orleans, LA
2007- Orlando, FL
2006- Chicago, IL
2005- Scottsdale, AZ
2004- Kansas City, MO
2003- San Francisco, CA
Sorry about that last one… the digital file disappeared into the black hole that was my destroyed hard drive some years back. This is a scan of a print.
Q: While in Syracuse, we listened to a pretty cool artist who complained of unfair standards in the publishing industry. She ranted about doing something for Playboy then finding out that Proctor and Gamble discovered it and banned her from their list of preferred illustrators. Do you fear backlash after doing something for Penthouse?
A: That thought did cross my mind. I do work for some kid orientated publications and having work in an “adult” magazine might be viewed by some as unacceptable to then be allowed bylines in their publications. That’s partly why I used a pseudonym on the last job I did for them.
Ultimately I decided I am my own moral police, and nobody is going to tell me what is appropriate and what is not. I would never do artwork I considered pornographic or that I would be embarrassed or ashamed of. Playboy and Penthouse are both publications that are rich in cartooning history and contain much content that is not objectionable to the mainstream. I would accept jobs from either publication as long as the content of those jobs is not something I would object to on moral or ethical grounds.
If that costs me jobs with other clients not because what I did was objectionable but simply because my name appears in Penthouse, then I guess I live with that. My concience is clear… I do not feel I have compromised any of my principals or beliefs in what is right and proper. If others feel differently I cannot control that.
Thanks to Michael Garisek 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!
One of the best things about running theme park caricature operations is getting to work with a lot of young, talented artists. Theme park artists often get a bad rap because there are a fair number of them that employ “cookie cutter” type techniques where everyone looks the same and the art quality isn’t very good. However there are just as many who do an outstanding job and who are very good, and in some cases incredible, artists. I’ve worked with artists who have gone on to success in comics, animation, fine art, illustration, design, publishing, etc. It’s always cool to see one of my artists become accomplished in some art field.
This past week I saw the above sculpture of the Hulk featured on a few comic book/illustration blogs (like DRAWN!), and was not surprised to see the sculpture was by a former artist of mine named Andy Bergholtz. Andy drew at Six Flags St. Louis for I believe two seasons, and eventually went on to sculpt toys and action figures for various companies. Today Andy is one of the best comic book/fantasy sculptors out there… as evidenced by this fantastic Hulk sculpture he did for Sideshow Collectibles.
Andy once got punk’d by some other caricaturists on a visit to my home in Minnesota in 1998. A group had come up from St. Louis for a year end party I was throwing at a local bar/restaurant. While I was elsewhere in the house, they were in the downstairs looking at my studio. Outside my studio door was a large blank wall. My daughter Elizabeth (who is autistic) was 8 at the time, and she was in a destructive phase where she scribbled on walls a lot. This wall was a favorite of hers. The other artists told Andy that I always invited visiting artists to draw on that wall and invited him to do the same. I came downstairs to find him happily drawing away and signing his name to the sketch. He was embarrassed when he discovered only autistic kids drew on walls in our house. That was a hoot.
Andy’s come a long way from drawing on my basement walls. Check out his other work here.
This is a job I did a few months back for Penthouse, now on the stands.
The assignment was an unusual one, and one I had to briefly consider if I wanted to do or not. Although I do not have a problem working for Penthouse (nor would I for Playboy) those would be the only two “adult” magazines I would agree to do work for… they have a certain mainstream acceptability that Hustler, etc. does not. Additionally, I would not accept a job even from them drawing nude women or a sexually explicit subject. I have zero problem with anyone’s right or willingness to do or publish work of that nature, but I would politely decline such jobs by personal choice.
This job did not call for that, but the subject matter was drug related. The subject was a list of 13 things a man can do and not be considered “gay” so long as they are stoned when they do it. Since I do work for several kids publications I was not sure I wanted to open that door, but I figured that is not far off from what you might see in MAD. Thus I accepted the job.
The list included things like “baking”, “buying shoes”, “swinging on a swing set”, “listening to 80′s pop music”, etc. The art director wanted to include several in a single image. We needed to show a macho guy stoned out of his mind doing stuff that was not very macho. Of course the problem was that many of these activities were done at different locations, so putting several in one scene was an issue.
Pencil Roughs
My solution was to use the smoke as dream-like balloons to show a couple of the list items from “off-site”. In an effort to make the guy as macho as possible, I made him muscular and square-jawed with a “Slayer” shirt on. Of course that’s a play on an old joke that says a man can be seen kissing another man, but as long as he pauses, throws up the devil horns hand gesture and yells “Slayer RULES!” he would not be considered gay. The actual joke is more graphic that that, but you get the idea. Anyway the baking stuff, bongos, “Duran Duran” on the stereo and the cotton candy cone are all list items. I was going to toss in a poster of Michael Phelps but we decided on the Grateful Dead instead.
Below are the inks and final art.
Final inks
Click for a closer look…
I actually used a pysdoneum credit on this job because of the drug related subject, but in retrospect that was silly. If I am willing to accept a job, it should be one I have no problem signing my name to. I won’t do that pysdoneum thing again… although the art director from Penthouse understood completely. He told me he has several artists who work for children’s entertainment companies that have contracts forbidding doing work for Penthouse, Playboy, etc. and they use other names for their credits when doing work for those publications. Interesting.
“The MAD Generation” is an exhibition of MAD inspired artwork showing at The Gallery at East Atlanta Tattoo in Atlanta, GA. It only runs for two weeks and the final three days are today, tomorrow and Saturday. The artwork in the show are tributes to MAD and the visual images that made it successful as seen through the eyes of about 50 different artists.
This looks like a fun show and I wish it was nearby. I don’t get to Atlanta anymore after having closed up my Underground Atlanta caricature location over a year ago… not that I would have happened to be in town anyway. Still it’s a cool concept and some of the art is really outstanding.
You can see much of the artwork from the show here, but if you happen to be in the Atlanta area it looks to be a very cool show… some great pieces. Check it out.
Pencil Roughs
