News
August 21st, 2010 | Posted in News
Last year I participated along with several other cartoonists in judging a show of college student cartoon work organized by Toon Ed. 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. It’s a great organization headed up by cartoonist and educator Ken Alvine. This year’s Toon Award Exhibition is officially announced and will be judged by memmebrs of my chapter of the National cartoonists Society at our fall meeting in Ohama, NE on Oct. 1-2. Heres’ the official press release: You can visit the Toon… READ MORE
August 18th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
This short promo just surfaced for the new MAD show on the Cartoon Network this fall: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEEzuhFDcrE[/youtube] Here’s another shorter one: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hlVYKw1sAg[/youtube] Neither feature any of my work. As you can see the style of animation runs the gamut from traditional cartoons to collage and highly stylized stuff. Many of the “skits” will be only a few seconds long with a single, quick gag. Segments like the TV show parodies I’ve worked on, the movie parodies and some ad parodies are a minute or two long and not part of these short promos. The show debuts on Mon. Sept 6th at 8:30 pm. READ MORE
August 6th, 2010 | Posted in News
I’ve operated a caricature concession business at the ValleyFair! amusement park in Shakopee, MN since 1991, and one thing that park has been missing is a real “character brand”… Disney of course has Mickey Mouse and co., Six Flags has the Warner Bros. cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as well as the DC Comics superheroes, Universal has the Hanna Barbera characters like Yogi Bear as well as Universal movie characters, a deal for comic strip characters, the Marvel Superheroes and now Harry Potter. Valleyfair had the Berenstein Bears and a couple of home grown characters called Colonel Ohmpa-pa and Chocolate Moose… no… READ MORE
August 5th, 2010 | Posted in News
Debuting today on the National Cartoonists Society website is Thursday “Member Spotlights”… brief looks at NCS members/ legends in cartooning. Fittingly enough, the first spotlight is on cartooning giant Milton Caniff, the namesake of the NCS’s “Milton Caniff Award” for lifetime achievement in cartooning. These spotlights are written by NCS member Leif Peng, and a new one will appear each Thursday on the NCS blog. I’ll be reminding folks to check them out… they are short and insightful glimpses into the work and behind the scenes careers of some great cartoonists and members of the National Cartoonists Society. As the library of spotlights grows you… READ MORE
July 30th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
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 Aragon?¬©s, 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… READ MORE
July 22nd, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
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… READ MORE
July 20th, 2010 | Posted in News
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… READ MORE
July 12th, 2010 | Posted in News
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… READ MORE
