Something funny going on here...

First of many clown based cartoons in this weeks contest at the CCGB forum. Oh well. With a caption like that, it was bound to happen.

ORIGINS

Here is a piece from a while back on a client who came from Switzerland to get a piece to pay homage to his Peruvian heritage.

SOUL SUNDAY

Here is another rare soul record that was recorded in the Trenton State Prison.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

Check out this French Gangster Film.. Catch it at your local Indie Theater!

G CODE

Here is a recent piece on a client who wanted to remember his 1962 Impala..

MARIOS AUTO WORKS

Young Albert from Marios Auto Works just came in for his first tattoo and birthday present from his Pops.

KISS OF LIFE

Our Homie J59 came through to pay big Respect and get a piece in memory of his Mother

WEEKEND RIDE

Here are a couple fliks from this past weekend.. We drove out to Ventura for California Car & Cycle Show.. Thanks to JaeBueno for inviting us out and Viejitos C.C. for having us.

Maine Comics Arts Festival 2010

Above: CCS Student Jen Vaughn draws a caricature of a little girl at the 2010 Maine Comics Arts Festival.

A grand time was had at the second annual Maine Comics Arts Festival, which was held this past weekend. Hundreds of families walked through the Ocean Gateway in Portland, ME. The above ins NOT the Gateway, but a view from the building toward some tugs. Fog sat on the Portland bay for most of the day. About mid-day, it began to lift.

I shared a table with my inky pal Mark Anderson, who flew in from Chicago. (EDIT: Mark has posted some photos at his Andertoons blog here.) We each sold some of our cartoon books and chatted with the people who came to see the cartoonists. There were a lot of families, and a lot of people who were just curious to see what this was all about!



David Jacobson and Jeff Pert shared the table next to us. David, the only professional glassblower/cartoonist I have ever met (or am likely to) has a series of these glass word balloons with different words on them. Each one was hand-created and they are tough and durable and easy to mount on a wall. Everyone in NE knows Jeff Pert's iconic cartoons about lobsters and moose! He was doing brisk business with cartoon postcards, magnets and posters.

Local graphic novelist Ben Bishop with a big, Hollywood smile!

One of the sponsors of the show: Cap'n Eli's Soda! Locally made and smilingly poured by the above team. All day long there were free samples of their root beer and other flavors.

While I was talking to Jennifer and Matt, we all found out we live within 20 minutes of each other! Small frakkin' cartoony world! Jennifer draws Squarecat Comics. Matt works for a design firm in the Seacoast area.

Above: the one and only Chris Mills, a writer extraordinaire, I love his Space 1970 blog, which focuses on Sc Fi TV of the 1970s. Chris has a number of other blogs as well!

You get a good feel for the room in the above shot. There are a large bank of windows looking out onto the bay, so you feel connected to the sea and sky.

Henniker, NH cartoonist Marek Bennett strikes a thoughtful pose. Whatever he's thinking about, you can bet it's something having to do with comics! I own one of those shirts behind Marek!

And, coming in from Queens, New Yawk, is the dynamic duo of Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman, making their first appearance at MECAF.

Brian Codagnone and Barry Corbett with their books. They came up from the Boston area. They were at the table next to us.

Oh, and as for me and Mark Anderson ...

I had a table there, with my pal Mark Anderson. Here he is during an afternoon lull, checking his voicemail or something with his iPhone. Mark also had his iPad with him and showed me some cartoons he had drawn on it. Yes, the iPad is cool. Even cooler when he showed me some Batman cartoons on it.

We had a great time and while I can't speak for anyone else, I did many times the business I did the year before. It was great to meet so many kids and adults who love cartooning. It was terrific to meet a couple of people who make read this and make this here cartoon blog a regular stop. Very kind of you to say hello. And it was great to see Colin Tedford (thanks for your mini!) , Jeff Lok, John Platt (ditto), Lenny Boudreau, and other people -- I am sorry there were a lot and I know I'm forgetting names!

Cat on the Keyboard

Warm Rufus, bathed in the morning sun coming through my studio's venetian blinds.

Normal blogging to proceed once the cat moves ....

EAST SIDE THANG

Here is a piece on Steve from Vans inspired by the East Side..

SOUL SUNDAY

Here is another classic soul record from The Imaginations off of their Good Stuff album.

Now do you believe me?

Latest cartoon in the CCGB caption contest. You may have also noticed that I've made some changes to the blog. I think it looks smarter. Thanks for visiting, and as always comments welcome.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

Check out the Homie Clifton Collins Jr. live up to sick self..

Come See Us at the Maine Comics Arts Festival on Sunday!

Mike Lynch and Mark Anderson will be at the Maine Comics Arts Festival all day on Sunday, May 23, 2010! Come on over and say hi and buy our comics, OK??? OK!!!

Apologies to Mssrs. Lemire and Wood for messing around with their poster above!

Walt Kelly: PETER WHEAT's Publishing History

Artist, Photographer amd fellow Kellyphile, Thom Buchanan, brings in his friend OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum to sort out the publishing history of PETER WHEAT by Walt Kelly.

PETER WHEAT was a promotional character created and drawn by Kelly beginning in 1948. He was part of an ad campaign for Peter Wheat Bread. The giveaway comic book THE ADVENTURES OF PETER WHEAT ran for 66 issues, with Kelly doing the art chores for more than half of the series, through 1951. It's a very rare book and Thom promises he will be reprinting some of Kelly's largely unseen early WHEAT stories soon.

Go and read the history at Thom's Whirled of Kelly blog. And bookmark it.

Love Bacon?

Available for purchase as a magnet via Design Dude on Etsy.

I have seen these signs, like millions of us have, and never thought, Yes, those wavy lines do look like the rivulets of meat and fat in BACON!

Ed Koren Profile and Gallery Shows

New Yorker cartoonist Ed Koren is profiled in the New York Times. He has a gallery show at alma mater Columbia.

Ken Johnson, writing for the Times, notes that it's

" ... worth visiting this show just to see the full-scale ink drawings on fine, heavyweight paper that are reduced to gray, postcard-size images in The New Yorker, in which his work has appeared since 1962."

Koren, who lives in Vermont now, draws his originals really, really big. I remember seeing these rather large boxes, a couple of feet wide on either side, postmaked from Vermont, in The New Yorker offices. The return address was Ed Koren. Inside: his HUGE originals.

The “Edward Koren: The Capricious Line” show is through June 12 at the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University

He also has another show in Chelsea titled “Edward Koren: Parallel Play, Drawings 1979-2010” through June 2 at the Luise Ross Gallery.

Cartoon Grammar

Did you know that there are rules and regulations when it comes to comic book grammar? I didn't! When I was a kid, EVERY comic book word balloon ended in an exclamation point! Really! Dialogue would go like this:

Pass the salt!

Here is the salt!

Thank you!

You're welcome!

No problemo!

And on and on. I was fine with it. And then, at some point in the 1970s, Marvel began experimenting with periods at the end of its sentences.

Really.

Periods.

Ho hum.

Hulk smash.

It's clobberin' time.

YAWN.

Pretty dull, huh?!?!?

I had no idea you could do this! Really! There are RULES! Like McEnroe says a million times a day in those commercials, You CANNOT be serious!!!!!!!!

Well, yes, fanboy, there ARE rules.

Blambot has a page of rules of comic book grammar to guide all of us who are still smarting over the exclamation point to period transition. And if you have any questions regarding balloon tails, captions -- well, Blambot has it covered.

Hat tip to Sean Kelly!



Related: Mort Walker's LEXICON OF COMICANA. Wikipedia page here. The LEXICON is a self-described parody, with made-up words describing cartoon conventions. For instance:

Agitrons

Wiggly lines around an object that is shaking

Blurgits, swalloops

Curved lines preceding or trailing after a character's moving limbs

Briffits

Clouds of dust that hang in the spot where a swiftly departing character or object was previously standing.

Hat tip to Marc Tyler Nobleman for serendipitously reminding me about the LEXICON this week. Seriously.

LUST, GREED AND ENVY

Here is a chest plate that I just finished working on. Trip out on the Lettering by Jack Rudy.

New TV Show Pitch: STAR TREK: THE RIKERS

Via IO9: Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes pitch a new sitcom for Counselor Troi and William Riker. Yes, a sitcom about them being married, and Geordi could be on it, and Worf ... but not "old baldy." It'll be "STAR TREK meets GALAXY QUEST," says Sirtis. They go on to talk about the show, their friendship and life on the set.



I think they are half serious and I would watch it. Well, at least I would watch the pilot.

Suggested show title: "The targ ate my homework."

Big hat tip to Mark Anderson!! Thanks, pal!



It'll be 23 years since THE NEXT GENERATION aired this September.

FRITZI RITZ by Ernie Bushmiller

Sam Henderson graciously scans in some very old Sunday NANCY strips. Actually, they aren't NANCY comics. These are titled FRITZI RITZ and are a bit racy, being all about Fritzi's obsession with men, many of whom ARE NOT her rather doughy, suffering boyfriend Phil Fumble.

NANCY would arrive January 2, 1933; Sluggo wandered in five years later. NANCY would, effortlessly, hijack the spotlight and name of the feature from her own aunt Fritzi!

NANCY is currently dawn by Guy and Brad Gilchrist.

Michael Maslin on Bernie Schoenbaum

New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin writes a remembrance of fellow cartoonist Bernie Schoenbaum

"There was a like-ability to Bernie's work. His soft lines and washes were easy on the eyes. He had his absurd moments as well. There was a memorable drawing of a man idly sitting in a book-lined room, startled by a book that's hopped off a shelf. The book says to the man, 'Read me.'"

The Bernie Schoenbaum cartoon sketch and finish are nicked from Robert Greenberg's site.

WHAT WAS BUGGING THE OL' PHARAOH? by Charles M. Schulz

Comicrazys presents some scans from the book WHAT WAS BUGGING THE OL' PHARAOH? by Charles M. Schulz, a 1964 collection of religious-themed cartoons. As Comicrazys points out, the book SCHULZ'S YOUTH collects many of his early cartoons.

WHOLE LOTTA LOVE

One of my client came through to pay homage to one of the Greatest Bands of all TIME!

Led Zeppelin!

Cell Phones Cause Cancer?

"I heard those things can kill you."

The NY Times has the results from a long-delayed study.



The above cartoon of mine ran in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Blowing it up, you can see that the cell is a hard-boiled egg slicer. I saw them in the grocery store one day and thought that, opened up like in the above drawing, they do look like cell phones. Making the businessmen all big, white Humpty Dumpty types cinches the gag.

The darn report says that people who use cells a lot are 40% more likely to get a type of brain tumor. But, hey, "overall there is no link between cellphone use and brain tumors." Uh ... okay then.

Time to invest in string and Dixie cups!

Video: Robb Armstrong

Cartoonist Robb Armstrong makes the kids laugh and talks about believing in yourself in this video.

Bernard Schoenbaum NY Times Obituary

The New York Times has an obituary for New Yorker cartoonist Bernie Schoenbaum. He died May 7, 2010 at the age of 89 in his home in Whitestone, Queens. The cause was cancer. Bruce Weber, writing for the Times, "adds significantly to what was publicly known about Bernie's life," to quote fellow New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin.

Mr. Schoenbaum was born in Manhattan on Aug. 8, 1920, to Jewish immigrant parents from Eastern Europe, and grew up in Manhattan and the Bronx, where his father, Abraham, started a number of small businesses. He attended James Monroe High School in the Bronx and the Parsons School of Design. In addition to The New Yorker, his work appeared in a number of publications, including Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal. For years, Mr. Schoenbaum also worked as a portraitist on cruise ships.

Hat tip to Michael Maslin.

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Here is the ruff sketch of the latest piece on the homie Rob K. that was inspired by his father.

These Little Golden Books Are Not for Children

Illustrator Josh Cooley draws pages in the Little Golden Books style from some not for children kinda movies. Great style and very funny.

Big hat tip to Sherm Cohen!

Mengxin Li Wins 2010 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship

Congratulations to Mengxin Li upon winning the 2010 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, according to Sandra Bell Lundy.

She is a Film and Animation major at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. Li was born in China and grew-up in Japan. She received the third place prize at the Beijing International Student Animation Festival and her comic “Wind Chevalier” has been featured in the Japanese manga publication, Shoujo Jump.

The annual Jay Kennedy Scholarship, in memory of the late King Features editor, was funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous donations from Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick McDonnell and many other prominent cartoonists. Submissions are adjudicated by a panel of top cartoonists and an award is given to the best college cartoonist. The recipient is feted at the annual NCS Reuben Awards Convention attended by many of the world’s leading cartoonists.