Comic-Con 2010 is “in the books” as they say and it was it’s usual exhausting but fun time. This year I did a lot of new things including being on a panel about MAD and the new cartoon show and participating as a guest artist in “Quick Draw” with regulars Sergio Aragonés, Scott Shaw! and host Mark Evanier.

There was a lot of interest in the MAD show on Cartoon Network, premiering on Sept. 6th and featuring some of my artwork. Here is an interview with producer Peter Giradi and head writer and producer. Kevin Shinick… you will spot me once or twice at the WB signing we did and on the panel:

Click here to view the embedded video.

That was pretty cool. Kevin and Peter are creative and funny guys and they really “get” MAD, so I hope the show will really take off. There are a few short clips in the video but none of the stuff I worked on.

My “Quick Draw” appearance was especially fun. Basically it’s an entertaining show where fore mentioned cartoonists Sergio and Scott sit up on stage with one other guest cartoonist (in this case William Stout) and draw on boards with projectors so the entire audience can see what they are doing. They then do super fast drawings around themes and games that have the crowd roaring. Usually Mark has three guest artists come up and play a game for a short time, and this year he asked me to be one of the guests… naturally I was thrilled and of course got mercilessly paired with Sergio. The game we played was … well, just read Mark’s post about it.

Other than that I got to hang out with some super talented cartoonists, do a little drawing and signing and drink a lot of beer. Here are just a few pictures:

Hey! It’s Bart Man!

Hey! It’s the guy who created Bartman! Jeff Keane with The Simpsons’ Matt Groening

Thought this was a great costume… MAD Eye Moody!

Jeff Keane, R.C. Harvey and Stephen Pastis

From the WB Booth’s loft… the floor’s other end is literally too far to see.

MAD show writer/producer Kevin Shinick and MAD Magazine editor
John Ficarra hangin’ in the WB green room

MAD artist and art director Sam Viviano

Well, here I am in beautiful and sunny clammy and rainy San Diego for Comic-Con 2010. The weather is suppose to improve as soon as this afternoon, but it looks like I might get wet on the way to the convention center this morning. I’ll be blogging from the convention floor and you have my promise: No “BIFF!” “POW!” or other sound effects will be lazily used in any headlines or posts.

I’m not sure exactly why I ever go to comic book conventions. As I have written here before, MAD is sort of the red headed stepchild of comics… yes, it’s got plenty of comics and cartooning in it but it’s still a fringe sort of thing, especially today. Whenever I sit at a table at a comic book convention and, when asked what I do I reply “I draw for MAD Magazine”, I always get the same few replies:

“Wow, MAD!… That still being published?”

“I used to love MAD… haven’t read it in 10 years!”

And my personal favorite:

“My grandpa loves MAD! He’s dead now, but still…”

That’s an exaggeration… but not much. I do have a few folks who drop by and actually have recent copies of the magazine for me to sign for them… and many are young kids. MAD isn’t entirely lost from the younger generation. That’s what makes the upcoming Cartoon Network show so exciting. I hope it brings MAD to a whole new generation of fans.

I’ll be signing free copies of MAD at the DC Comics booth (#1915) from 2:00- 3:00 pm today.

A little later today I will probably know my schedule at the National Cartoonists Booth (#1307), which is where I will be doing all my caricature drawing and hawking MAD originals. I brought a limited number of them this year, but they are all comic-book related… pages from the parodies of “The Dark Knight Returns”, “X-Men 2″, “Spiderman 2″, “Superman Returns” and “Watchmen” as well as a few pages from “The Big Bang Theory” and “30 Rock”. Ridiculously exorbitant bargain basement prices.

One of the books that sees a lot of wear on my bookshelf is The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression by Gary Faigin. It’s a very comprehensive look into what happens to the face when certain emotions come into play, and shows how to draw someone displaying those emotions. That’s a pretty important skill when doing visual storytelling, and caricature artists can learn a lot from it as well.

The author will be conducting a five day (FIVE DAYS?!?!) workshop on the subject this upcoming December at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, WA. The workshop must give thorough and comprehensive an entirely new meaning, because you can read the book itself in an afternoon… but no question Mr. Faigin knows his stuff so The workshop is bound to be enlightening. If you are in the Seattle area it might be worth a look see.

Here’s the official announcement… it says you can register online but I didn’t see it listed yet:

UNDERSTANDING & MASTERING FACIAL EXPRESSION
Five-Day Workshop | Mon, December 6 – Fri, December 10, 2010

Teaching Artist: Gary Faigin

Author: The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression
Lecturer: Industrial Light & Magic and American Academy of Plastic Surgery
Consultant: Animation Production Capstone, Computer Science Dept, UW

Despite our familiarity with faces, a discrepancy can occur between transferring the facial expression one sees in real life into the representation of one. Gary Faigin, artist, author and acclaimed lecturer will address this phenomenon and other common problems in a five-day workshop at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. While countless workshops offer instruction in depicting the head, this workshop offers forensic experts, animators, cartoonists, plastic surgeons as well as those curious to learn about the mechanics of a smile, a unique and comprehensive opportunity to understand facial expression.

Through a series of lectures, demonstrations and one-on-one instruction, Faigin offers students thorough instruction on how to convincingly portray emotion. Working at their own station, students are provided with drawing materials, a plastic skull, modeling clay and a mirror, and begin the week by drawing their own face in relation to the skull underneath.

Students also gain an objective understanding of the face through a systematic exploration of the muscles that control expression. Working with modeling clay, students form important muscles of various expressions which are later positioned onto a plastic skull. Using this foundation, students are then able to use their own face as a model to draw front and side views that highlight the various muscles in action.

Working in conjunction with Faigin, students also learn how to depict the six categories of emotion (sadness, anger, joy, fear, disgust and surprise) and progress to life drawing from an actor or model at the week’s close. Students also examine a variety of visual sources, including cartoons, master paintings and other artistic depictions of facial expression to inform their work.

At the end of the week, students leave with an increased understanding and command of facial expression, taking home their expression notebook as well as a completed clay-model muscular skull.

Register online at www.GageAcademy.org or call 206-323-GAGE (4243) or 1-800-880-3898

I think it’s safe to say this will be my official signing schedule for Comic Con:

THURSDAY, JULY 22

• 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Signing free copies of MAD at DC Comics Booth (#1915)

FRIDAY, JULY 23

• 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm: Signing free copies of MAD at DC Comics Booth (#1915)

SATURDAY, JULY 24

• 10:00 am – 11:00 am: Mad about MAD ! Panel discussion on both the magazine and upcoming cartoon Network show with MAD Magazine editor John Ficarra, MAD Art Director Sam Viviano, legendary MAD artist Sergio Aragones, me, MAD Story Editor/Producer Kevin Shinick and host, MAD Creative Exec Peter Girardi (room 7 AB)
• 11:-15 am – 12:00 pm: Signing free copies of MAD at DC Comics Booth (#1915) with other panel participants
• 4:15 pm – 5:00 pm: Signing something at the Warner Bros. Booth promoting the Cartoon Network show

SUNDAY, JULY 25

• 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm: Signing free copies of MAD at DC Comics Booth (#1915)

As I said before, I’ll also be selling MAD originals, signing stuff and drawing caricatures here and again at the National Cartoonists Society booth, schedules to be posted on site.

Speaking of Comic Con, here is an interesting article by Heidi MacDonald (hat tip to the Daily Cartoonist) about the possibility of it moving up the coast to L.A. or Anaheim after 2012, when the current contract with the San Diego Convention Center runs out. There have always been rumors about it moving but this time they seem serious. If you’ve been to this event anytime in the last 5 years, you’ll know why.

I love San Diego and love the convention in that spot, but it’s clear to me that this thing is just too big for that city. It has become impossible to enjoy properly with the ridiculous crush of humanity you have to endure to attend. Getting from one end of the main exhibit hall to the other is an exercise in major frustration. It’s nigh impossible to just drop by and talk to someone at a booth space without being jostled, banged into or just plain run over. Finding a hotel room at a reasonable price within walking distance is either impossible or ridiculously expensive. Getting a table at a restaurant in the surrounding area is a nightmare. Last year I took my teenage son to Comic Con with me, and walking the 2 miles back to our hotel one night we must have stopped at half a dozen places trying to find less than a 90 minute wait to get a table but no luck. We ended up eating at an incredibly expensive fancy restaurant that was only available because it was so pricey. I’d never consider going to the Con unless I had a booth of some kind where I could put a table between me and the rest of humanity when needed. I’m a reasonably patient guy (when necessary), love people and have no problem putting up with being physically put out a bit at events like this, but the SDCC has become out of hand.

It’d like to see the convention center magically double in size overnight as well as see about 4 major hotels with 600 or so rooms each grow like mushrooms within walking distance of the exhibit space… but that is not going to happen. It will take years and years and many, many millions of dollars for the infrastructure of San Diego to grow to accommodate the demands of this 4 day event, and that is not a realistic thing to expect anyway. As big as SDCC is and as many millions as it brings to the area it is still just 4 days and I do not think San Diego will be able to support all that infrastructure the other 361 days of the year. Maybe if 10 years ago the city and the hotels and restaurants around it had better embraced the Comic Con instead of rolling their eyes at it, things would be different today. Many of the local businesses do embrace comic con by welcoming attendees and doing their best to handle the crush of patrons, but in the several times I have attended the con, especially years ago, a lot of them seemed to turn up their nose at the con and had an attitude like it was a big pain in the ass for them. That kind of attitude is bizarrely still going on. Case in point- according to Heidi’s article linked above the Manchester Grand Hyatt… a hotel mere yards from the convention center, has scheduled a major health professional meeting featuring keynote speaker Al Gore at the SAME TIME as Comic-Con. That is beyond being indifferent and into the realm of a big F.U. Well, the Grand Hyatt and many others with similar attitudes may get their wish in a few years and that 4 days in July will have the quiet and peaceful tranquility they so desire.

I’d miss San Diego itself but I would have no problem attending the convention in L.A. or Anaheim. Hopefully there will be a way to figure out how to keep it in San Diego, but I am not holding my breath.

This just in: after only about two weeks of being in existence The Cartoonist Studio website has already significantly lowered it’s standards. Yes, The MAD Blog has learned that my virtual studio on TheCartoonist Studio.com was just added today, along with those of Chuck Ayers, Brian Crane and Jan Eliot… although their inclusion in no way demonstrates a lowering of standards. Here’s a direct link to my studio page on the site. Once there you can click on any of the pictures for a closer look, and roll over them with your cursor to read about this and that. This is a fun idea where you can see the workspaces of some of your favorite cartoonists (and me) and read about their process, etc. Go visit and check out the other a cartoonist’s studios as well.

I did a blog post about the website’s debut a few weeks ago. The initial unveiling of this site is a “soft” launch, and it the near future there will be other features like a cartoon store, auctions, originals for sale and such. This looks like a fun corner of the web for cartoonists and fans of cartooning alike. I’m happy to be a part of it.