Thought I’d just finish up with the Beatles by doing Ringo Starr before moving on to some other subjects. I’d already done John Lennon some time ago… …maybe I’ll do a same-era one as these others sometime during this series. For now it’s on to other classic rock subjects. READ MORE
Tom Koch, a veteran writer for MAD and yet another of the “old guard” I never got a chance to meet, passed away back on March 22nd. I’d have posted about this earlier but I didn’t seen any decent obits about him until today. Tom was a comedy writer for television and performers, and worked in the 50’s with the well-known comedy team Bob & Ray. His first few assignments for MAD were for the short-lived “Bob & Ray” feature in the magazine, featuring some of the earliest MAD artwork from a young, up-and-coming artist named Mort Drucker, back in 1957. He continued to write… READ MORE
An old pal of mine, Jeremy “Jert” Townsend is having an art show called “People Ruined the Internet” this Saturday, April 4th, at the Hodgepodge Coffee House and Gallery, 720 Moreland, Atlanta, GA. The show will feature a lot of Jeremy’s terrific, eclectic, whimsical, and sometimes downright creepy, illustrations as well as a selected number of the works of others, including a little piece of mine. A sizable portion of the sales of any originals there will be going to The Center for Children and Young Adults. This is the original I sent down there for the show: I wish I was going to be… READ MORE
Been a little too busy to do much superfluous sketching, but here’s another Beatle for my ongoing “Classic Rock” series of caricature sketches… the late, great, George Harrison. READ MORE
The National Cartoonists Society just posted the 2014 nominees for the “Silver Reuben” Divisional Awards. Here’s the complete list with nominees in alphabetical order: Advertising Illustration Kevin Kallaugher Ed Steckley Dave Whammond Editorial Cartoons Clay Bennett Michael Ramirez Jen Sorensen Gag Cartoons Liza Donnelly Benjamin Schwartz Edward Steed Magazine Feature Ray Alma Anton Emdin Tom Richmond Newspaper Illustration Anton Emdin Glen LeLievre Ed Murawinski Newspaper Strips Brian Bassett (Red and Rover) Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) Glenn McCoy (The Duplex) Book Illustration Marla Frazee “The Farmer and the Clown” Yasmeen Ismail “Time for Bed, Fred” Shaun Tan “Rules of Summer” Online Long Form Vince Dorse… READ MORE
Here’s what’s on the drawing board right now: Z-People Comic– Still hammering away at this 45 page comic for SitComics Trading card Illustration- for a corporate client as part of an ongoing educational campaign Half page ad illustration- This is a sort of personal project Big banner ad- for a super-secret public cartoonist’s event TBA!! Workplace poster– My usual monthly assignment This is the worst time of year for me. I am up to my eyeballs in preparations for the NCS Reubens Weekend and finalizing the awards, opening up my theme park operations, and my usual workload. Ugh. Speaking of workplace posters, above is the… READ MORE
Because of the way movie distribution and longevity in the theaters had changed since the 20th century, the MAD movie parody became a lot harder to do. I wrote extensively about it here, but the short version is that even big money-making movies seldom spend more than four or five weeks in theaters these days, and by the time the movie parody comes out (usually a three month lag) the film it spoofed is old news. For a few years in the early-mid 2000’s, MAD tried to do movie parodies in advance of the film’s release. We worked from trailers, bootleg movie scripts, books/comics… READ MORE
These are a couple of follow up questions I’ve gotten via Twitter or email on the subject of selling prints of copyrighted characters: You mention that making limited edition prints is allowed. I’ve never heard that before. Do you have any source for that? I would not say it’s “allowed”. I’d say it is better defensible under a First Amendment defense because “fine art” is better recognized as a traditional vehicle for free speech. That advice was imparted to me by lawyers I consulted in a Chicago based firm specializing in Right of Publicity and Copyright issues when researching an article I was writing. They… READ MORE
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