General
May 1st, 2009 | Posted in General
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories and 4 novels starring his famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his “Boswell” Dr. John Watson. They are collectively known as the “canon” to Sherlockians. These are his “official” adventures, treated as if they were his biography were he an actual person from history. Holmes’ adventures in fiction hardly stop there. It is said there have been more books written about Holmes and related characters than any other character in literary history. I have not been able to find even an estimate as to the number of non-canon works, but it certainly numbers near or over a… READ MORE
April 27th, 2009 | Posted in General
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… READ MORE
April 25th, 2009 | Posted in General
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… READ MORE
April 18th, 2009 | Posted in General
After a great week in London, The Lovely Anna and I are going home today. Back to reality… and a couple of jobs needing urgent attention. London was great fun. There are so many famous places and things to see that one week was no where near long enough. We could easily have filled another week and still only seen the major things. Still, we did pretty well and feel like we got a good feel for the city. I accomplished most of my goals, except I got tired of fish n’ chips after the third day so “eating fish n’ chips everyday” was probably… READ MORE
April 17th, 2009 | Posted in General
I was clearing out the old tear sheet files and came across this old job from 1992 that represents some interesting points about the dos and don’ts of freelance illustration. This was the first job I remember getting directly from my sourcebook ad in the “Directory of Illustration”. I almost turning it down because I was not sure ethically if I should do it, considering the circumstances. The client was a company called “Business and Legal Reports”, and as the name suggests they usually designed and printed business and legal reports. They had started what would be a series of comic book-like educational booklets meant… READ MORE
April 16th, 2009 | Posted in General
Mitre Square, site of the Catherine Eddows murder Yesterday The Lovely Anna played along and accompanied me on a “Jack the Ripper” walk through the Whitechapel area of London. Being somewhat of a “Ripperologist” I was looking forward to seeing the actual sites of the murders and walking the same streets where once walked the Ripper, his victims and those who sought to stop him. We were also accompanied by caricaturist Steve Hearn and his wife Wendy. Steve in fact had spent the day driving us to and touring with us Windsor Castle. Wonderful people. The tour was very entertaining and I highly recommend a… READ MORE
April 14th, 2009 | Posted in General
In Holmes’ sitting room London has no shortage of sights to see, and we have barely scratched the surface after only two full days. We’ve been to several famous sections of the city including Covent Gardens, Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus, Sloane Square, Regent’s Park, etc. Today we’ll be getting to some of the really big things like the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge and others. The Lovely Anna and I always assemble a list of things we want to see on any trip we take. it consists of “Tom and Anna things”, “Anna things” and “Tom things”. It’s history that interests me most… READ MORE
April 11th, 2009 | Posted in General
The Lovely Anna and I are on our way to London for a week of sightseeing and relaxation. We are travelling with her parents, staying in thier timeshare in the heart of the city. I’ve never been other than trapped in Heathrow wating for a connecting flight, and have always wanted to visit England. I’ll have some posts from the other side of the pond next week. READ MORE
