Thursday, September 30, 2010
OLD ROCK
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Preview: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Secby Jacques Tardi is being released in an English language translation by Fantagraphics this December. Publishers Weekly has a grand preview here.
The French graphic album is also a movie, released in April, 2010. There are no US premier dates as yet.
Monday, September 27, 2010
GQ Political Comic Strip Parodies
Here are some more comic strip parodies. These are from GQ Magazine (where I could find no direct link), and are the subject of this Comic Riffs entry.
A big hat tip to Myron M. Meyer! Thanks, Myron!
Ward Sutton: Tea Party Comic Strips
From "Teanuts" to "Dennis the IRS Menace" to "Nancy (Pelosi)," they're all here. There are twenty of these "Tea Party Takes Over Comics Page" strips by Ward Sutton for the Boston Globe.
Hat tip Comics Reporter.
Sardonic Salad.
© Sardonic Salad |
WEEKEND RECAP
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Fat Cats
Saturday night: drawing a fat, happy cat cartoon. Above are some warm up sketches. My favorite is the one at the top, with his tummy so round that his back feet have to splay out.
TRAILER OF THE THE WEEK
Friday, September 24, 2010
Video: STAR TREK Enterprise Pizza Cutter
What can I say but ...
An Ailing Halran Ellison Says Goodbye at MadCon
Wrenching news. Harlan Ellison, who is 76 years old and not in the best of health, says this weekend's MadCon will be his farewell convention appearance.
"'The truth of what's going on here is that I'm dying,' says Ellison, by phone. 'I'm like the Wicked Witch of the West -- I'm melting. I began to sense it back in January. By that time, I had agreed to do the convention. And I said, I can make it. I can make it.'"
Writer Josh Wimmer has more at The Isthmus.
Above: Harlan Ellison and his typewriter (now for sale).
Related: video: Harlan Ellison -- Pay the Writer
Hat tip the person who put this on their blog or Tweeted about it but whose name I sincerely cannot recall nor find.
Ed Stein's New Comic Strip "Freshly Squeezed"
Hilary Copsey, Features Editor for TCPlam.com, writes New comic strip explores dynamics of three generations living under one roof; a profile of cartoonist Ed Stein and his new comic strip "Freshly Squeezed," distributed by United Feature Syndicate.
Ed Stein talks about the feature and is asked if he worries about running out of ideas:
"I really try to design the strip as an ensemble. I go back to something that Charles Schulz once said, 'If you have enough notes, you can play anything.' You need enough characters, and enough different aspects of those characters, that you can play them off of each other. One thing I really try to develop is the interaction. There’s always something fresh going on."
Al Jaffee Interview in Mother Jones
MAD Magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee is interviewed by Michael Mechanic for Mother Jones magazine. The occasion: the publication of AL JAFFEE'S MAD LIFE, a memoir written by Mary-Lou Weisman ("She's an author and a more high-brow literary type."), with drawings by the Reuben Award winning Mr. Jaffee, natch! The book is due out from HarperCollins, in hardcover and eBook formats, on Tuesday, September 28th.
A MAD regular since 1955, Al recounts the life of a freelancer, then and now:
"No one knew that Mad was going to go on for 50 or 60 years. I figured, 'All right, I'll do the best I can with Mad for as long as it lasts.' When you live from freelance check to freelance check, your mind is always on 'What's the next piece I'm going to write, or draw, that'll pay this month's rent?' And so going out to play ball with my kids was a low priority."
His observations of adults fed his later writing:
"It doesn't take a brilliant mind to notice that adults are telling you what to do and then they do the opposite—I mean, I can't recall every stupid thing that adults were doing when I was six or seven. Some of it was the religious restrictions, where there were certain things that you were allowed to do and certain things that you weren't allowed to do, and I couldn't make sense of those things."
The rest is here.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
The Magic Whistle: SMOKEY STOVER Wednesdays
It used to be that if you visited Sam Henderson's Magic Whistle blog, you would get to read some new scans of Ernie Bushmiller's FRITZI RITZ every week.
Bad news is that Sam is out of them, but the good news is that he will run SMOKEY STOVER by Bill Holman every Wednesday.
Thanks, Sam!
CHARLOTTE'S WEB Original Art to Be Auctioned
Heritage Auctions will sell more than 40 pieces of original art by Garth Williams from E.B. White's classic CHARLOTTE'S WEB on October 15, 2010. Press release here. The seminal collection of drawings includes the iconic cover art. Click above for an amazingly large hi res image.
"'There are few people born after 1950, maybe even 1940, who are not intimately familiar with E.B. White’s timeless story,' said Barry Sandoval of Heritage Auctions, 'or with these amazing illustrations. The same cover image has been used for 58 years, and this may be the most-printed cover illustration of any book by an American author.'
"Now the Williams estate is making the art available to collectors for the first time. It was carefully preserved by the family in a bank vault since the artist's death.
"'When Garth started doing books in the 1940s, once he completed an illustration, those illustrations were forwarded to the publisher, used, and then returned to Garth,' says Williams’ friend and attorney Richard M. Ticktin, a spokesperson for the family."
THE OATMEAL's Matthew Inman Interview
There are some NSFW images and words linked below. Above: a recent OATMEAL cartoon.
Matthew Inman is best known as the cartoonist who draws THE OATMEAL. OATMEAL is described as "one of the Web's top cartoons" in this Seattle News Weekly profile by Abe Aboraya.
He isn't a waiter/cartoonist or a barista/cartoonist or a housepainter/cartoonist. He's not even a freelance computer geek/cartoonist. He stopped doing that work a year ago. Now, at 28, he draws comics, posts them to his website, sells merch, and turns a serious profit.
This is good news, and then the writer writes at length about Mr. Inman's cartoons. Sounds like Mr. Aboraya is a fan.
Now, what's a serious profit?
Well, here it is -- and this whole paragraph is just unbelievable:
Inman didn't know how much he was making until a few weeks ago, when he sat down and did some tallying for the Weekly. He estimates his take-home pay for 2010 will be just over a half-million dollars.
Uh .... if I was making that kind of money, I would know. It's hard to believe that a fellow as savvy as Mr. Inman appears to be has no idea that a half a million will be in his pocket this year.
Cartoonist Bill Roundy: ‘Get a dram at Dram’
The Brooklyn Paper's cartoonist Bill Roundy likes The Dram bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn so much that he had to draw about it. The rest is here.
I agree with the commenter: I do not know if this is an ad or a cartoon or both. All I know is $11 for a cocktail must mean The Brooklyn Paper's paying big buck to cartoonists!
And remember Bob Montana's advice: If you drink, don't ink!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Yves Saint Laurent ... Cartoonist?
Yes, Yves Saint Laurent. THAT Yves Saint Laurent!
Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent dreamed up a character called "Nasty Lulu" in 1956, and there was a book published in 1960. He
"created a character who swills scotch, poisons her classmates and sets houses on fire.In TheStar.com, Chantal Braganza writes about it in ‘Nasty Lulu' Yves Saint Laurent's little-known creation."Her name is Lulu.
"Did I mention she's still in grade school?"
The book, a rare collectible among Saint Laurent fans, has been reprinted. La Vilaine Lulu is available in the EU and Canada.
KAMPUNG BOY To Be a Musical
Lat's autobiographical novel KAMPUNG BOY, about growing up and becoming a cartoonist in Malaysia, will be a musical theatre production in Malaysia this December.
"Needless to say, its creator, iconic cartoonist Datuk Mohd Nor Khalid, better known as Lat, is in seventh heaven."... He advised budding cartoonists interested in animation to be creative and find different ways to feature the Malaysian culture.
"... To be staged in Bahasa Melayu, Zinitulniza said the musical would include the ups and downs of Lat's life as cartoonist, scenes from his cartoon works and his new ideas, which would be presented in a way to captivate the audience"
Monday, September 20, 2010
THE HYPEBEAST INTERVIEW
Video: Tea Party Express Derails GOP
Video: The Solo Adventures in 3D
The Solo Adventures 3D from Daniel L Smith on Vimeo.
Hat tip Forbidden Planet! And as they point out, there are both 3D and 2D versions at Dan’s Vimeo page.
ICE C.R.E.A.M
If you have been wondering what we got going on next year here is just a preview of one..
Click HERE for the full story..