Ink & Snow

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-13T00:52:00.001-05:00

Color panel for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (thanks to the readers who wrote about seeing it in the paper!). The sentiment changed somewhere between the doodle and the finished version. As often happens.
And yeah, there is also something to be said about not being a prick. But seriously, I love everybody.

"Haute Cuisine"

2012-02-12T05:08:00.000-05:00

Dovetailing with yesterday's panel, this is a common culinary occurrence amongst substance users in the Interior, or for that matter Maine and anywhere else that ungulates are eaten. For months.
Inspired by past server experience, perusing some of my favorite foodie blogs and the waiter scene in "American Psycho":

WAITER 
With goat cheese profiteroles and I also have an arugula 
Caesar salad. For entrées tonight I have a swordfish 
meatloaf with onion marmalade, a rare-roasted partridge 
breast in raspberry coulis with a sorrel timbale...

WAITER 
And grilled free-range rabbit with herbed French fries. Our 
pasta tonight is a squid ravioli in a lemon grass broth...

AK Culinary Delights

2012-02-11T20:20:00.000-05:00

Grandma called it "roughage." I'm convinced the lack a multi-chambered stomach accounts for my antacid chewing behavior as a sort of an urban evolution of a cud. Or at least this explains the subtle difference between ruminating versus mulling.

Sunset Hikes

2012-02-10T19:47:00.001-05:00

Sunset: Schoodic Point (View across Winter Harbor to Cadillac Mtn.)

One of the sublime rewards to spending a year hiking here in Acadia has been catching the "magic hour" at various viewpoints. While I've visited the Schoodic Peninsula portion of the Park numerous times, this happened to be perfect timing for a beautiful sunset. The view across Winter Harbor to Mount Desert Island and the profile of Cadillac Mountain capped a poignant moment. This shot wasn't filtered in Photoshop at all, not even the usual tweaking of tone, contrast and color: it's just a raw image that's only missing the wind and sound of the surf.

Sunset: Schoodic Point

Only a handful of times before have I been in the right time at the right place (plus with a camera) to see an unfiltered, perfect sunset as the last rays reach across the ocean and infuse the signature pink granite shoreline.

Basalt, Granite and Urchin

Another aspect of Schoodic Point is the geologic evidence of volcanic activity in the veins of ancient upthrust magma, known as basalt dikes. Follow this link to more studies of them from this outing, along with a recent batch of miscellaneous uploads from around the region.

Eastern View from Bernard Mtn.

Topping off the treks around Acadia was bagging the last high point left for me in the area, this one over on the Western Mountain side of Mount Desert Island, specifically Bernard Mtn. At 1,071' it's the sixth-highest in the Park, and normally considered "viewless" there are a couple vantage points off-trail. It affords one a different perspective on the comparatively higher-visited cluster over on the Eastern half of the island, and gave me a feeling of quiet satisfaction in knowing that I literally have boots-on-the-ground, intimate experience with virtually all points within sight of any given view in the Park.

That said, this was definitely by far the dumbest trip I ever took (well, over the last year) - due to what is by many accounts is the worst buildup of ice on most of the trails in Acadia within recent memory. A convergence of factors such as almost no snowfall coupled with warm days and night temperatures falling into the single digits have birthed a freeze/thaw cycle which might be perfect for maple-syrup tapping, but also creates conditions for both spectacular and intimidating overflows. Just last week I wound up bailing out on an attempt of another, smaller hike, where Bird-Dog and I climbed for about half an hour before bowing to prudence and retreating in the face of constant glaciers of thick ice sheets obscuring the route. Even the previously safe zones of snow were now treacherously glazed with a slick crust, which previously offered a little oasis amidst jumping from root to rock. This is normally dealable by bushwhacking and trying to parallel the trail, which is sometimes tricky since that also means not being in the line-of-sight for the blue blazes on treetrunks, which entailed many a time spent backtracking to try to recover the route. Though one can’t really stay lost for long anywhere in Acadia given the larding of civilization, many folks still manage to lose their way, necessitating the intervention of Park Safety Rangers, and occasionally EMT personnel for evacuations.

About 2/3's into this hike (approx. 4 miles) I ran into trouble with one particular stretch where the topography conspired to prevent me from any possible advance. It took some meticulous and strategic plotting and quite a bit of time striking out on a perpendicular route to find a safer way down the side of the mountain, and then angling back to reconnect with the original trail. This after at least a quarter-mile of Tarzan-ing hand-to-hand from tree to tree, with innumerable slips-ups along the way. I clearly remember the number of times (three) I actually wiped out completely, as slamming onto the ice tends to stick out in memory. Lucky, and stupid, and it's time to hang up the hiking boots for the season. While Mr. Alaskan Outdoorsman typically has a disdain for established trails, as it tends to detract from the moment and being consciously engaged with where you're at, the level of sustained focus required by the constant monitoring of each individual foot placement meant I spent the duration of the trip thoroughly in the Eternal Now. And tomorrow morning, after all these scratches and bruises flower overnight, I'll have a zen-like flashback into the Eternal Ow.

All told the trip took three hours, as in ideal trail conditions I tend to average 1.5 mph, which takes into account plenty of breaks and photographic interludes. Forecasted to reach the upper 40’s, the crisp, clear morning was only 26 when I started out. Reaching the trailhead by 9:30, it only took about a half an hour to start stripping down: first losing the hat, gloves, and windbreaker and then one of two fleece layers. The formerly flaccid backpack started to swell up with the additions to the camera, map, water, foodbars and miscellany. Not to mention the inner-tube of from a roll of toilet paper serving as a makeshift notepad.
Besides birds, the only other denizens who left signs of passing were deer and coyote, whose tracks crisscrossed the trail when and where there was snow. Otherwise it was another peaceful excursion and a much-needed break for solitude and reflection on all the excellent adventures I've had so far over the previous year here. An extra-special hat-tip to "Hiking in Maine with Kelley," which has been my favorite blog to follow during our residency here, as the author and his dog have documented all of the places I've had the good fortune to visit, and inspired me to dream of seeing many more.

Icefall: Great Notch Trail (Bernard Mtn.)

Building Snowmen

2012-02-10T08:25:00.001-05:00

As a side project DR Hunt and I are experimenting with hybridizing our work - her color sensibilities and use of media like watercolor wash and pencil is sublime, and so far above and beyond my crayola paint-bucket approach that it really transforms even a simple doodle into something entirely new and wonderful. Collaborative efforts are often a unique aspect of comics which is a potential avenue worth exploring for any artist, whether it's any combination along the creative continuum: concept, writing, penciling, inking, coloring etc. (as an example, the above image was from one of my sketches). Finding a balance in the synthesis is an awful lot like building a snowman, in that sometimes learning to play with others is almost just as much fun as it is working solo.

Residency PPS (Few More Faves)

2012-02-09T07:07:00.000-05:00

Still culling through the scans of student work... only fifty more beavers to go!

Gazing (Into the Abyss)

2012-02-09T05:45:00.001-05:00

(Reprinted in full from The Ester Republic)

One of the more prevalent stereotypes of atheists is just how damned angry they are. Far from being evidence of any spiritual incontinence, I usually attribute this phenomenon along the lines of the infamous bumper-sticker “If you’re not pissed you’re not paying attention.” Case in point being a recent upswell in the fame of one particular charlatan, Braco, an up-and-coming Croatian purveyor of woo who holds transcendent “gazing sessions.” These consist of The Great & Powerful Oz standing before a crowd of rapturous suckers and silently… staring… at them for only eight bucks a pop. This reaches previously unheard-of heights in swindling, as it is a classic song and dance routine: but instead updated without any singing or dancing. Genius!

Braco’s chicanery includes the usual unsubstantiated claims of spontaneous and miraculous healings from incurable diseases such as epilepsy, cancer, PTSD and toothaches. The afflicted abandon their wheelchairs or exchange their crutches to buy even more of his merchandise, and his powers of duplicity extend to working even through mere photographs of the afflicted, who will henceforth become free of paralysis, shrink their tumors, even clearing up stuffy noses and acne. Attendees of gazing sessions report a “tingling sensation” and “warm suffusion of love,” which is similar to what comes over my dog upon taking it outside first thing in the morning. And then there’s also “a big bubble of love” which I don’t really want to get into here.

Not surprisingly many of the more vocal critics of Braco’s New Age flimflammery are from hard-core adherents of the more established cults and religions. These more experienced snake-oil salesmen are no doubt jealous of such competition, as there is an uncomfortable “Emperor Wears No Clothes” angle that effectively undermines the legitimacy of pastors and preachers. They recognize the threat behind someone who conducts a much more powerful sermon by just shutting the hell up (notwithstanding attending some Quaker meetings). Maybe I’ve become somewhat inured to the experience of giving lectures in classrooms at eight o’clock in the morning when it’s forty-below zero outside, but meeting anybody’s eyes is a miracle, and they typically paying thousands of dollars for their enlightenment.

But how does it hurt anyone to let them indulge in innocent rituals of supernatural placebos? And why are you being such a big meanie? But what’s not just personally offensive but one of the closest personifications of evil is the literal praying on the gullibility of people who, in many cases, have legitimate and sincere afflictions. This is the fraudulent trademark of these holy con artists, who swindle their living off the hard cash and naive hopes of their victims. It also obviously includes the majority of pious politicians, but that’s another cartoon. Instead, it would be a far better “miracle” to establish an intimate, meaningful connection with the person sharing your space right now. So unless you are reading this edition of the Ester Republic in the outhouse, put it down for a moment and try gazing at your loved one or companion across the table or room. Soon you will realize the inherent superiority of the print media, especially newspapers, at hiding from such weird behavior. Note this technique isn’t particularly effective gazing at the cat or dog… excepting in reverse when the food bowl is empty or the litterbox is full.

Point is, some simple quality time looking at the people in your life would be time far better spent than being scammed by any such self-anointed gurus. Thank you, you’re welcome – and now you owe me a beer at the Golden Eagle.

Comic (Book) Tragedy

2012-02-08T09:54:00.004-05:00

Image: James Sturm

*Update: As if I needed another reason to not watch another shitty movie by Marvel.

Amidst the constant sound and fury of cinematic regurgitations from superhero movies that seem to have taken up permanent residence in movie theaters, comes the ramping up of "The Avengers." James Sturm (also see Center for Cartoon Studies post here) has a provocative essay up on Slate that broaches the subject of corporate ethics in regards to these endless Hollywood franchise cross-overs with comics, with a focus on the legacy of Marvel artist Jack Kirby.:

"What makes this situation especially hard to stomach is thatMarvel’s media empire was built on the backs of characters whose defining traitas superheroes is the willingness to fight for what is right. It takes a lot ofcorporate moxie to put Thor and Captain America on the big screen and have thembattle for honor and justice when behind the scenes the parent company acts likea cold-blooded supervillain. As Stan Lee famously wrote, “With great powercomes great responsibility.”

The ensuing comment thread (and many others) further expands upon the inherent moral minefield, one additional case in point being seminal writer and perennial industry critic Alan Moore's fear & loathing of DC's announced Watchmen prequel series. Moore's reaction is predictable given his longstanding and outspoken attitude towards lamestream publishers, but it is hypocritical when one considers his own fame and success in comics is in no small part derived from hinging works on already-established characters. Mark Hughes, among many others, points up the glaring relativism in a Forbes essay:

"Does anyone want to guess how the original authors of thosestories might feel about Mr. Moore creating a comic depicting those kids havingexplicit sex constantly in a comic book? They might be as angry as Mr. Moore isabout his comic getting prequels. (It’s also worth noting that Moore wasdismissive about the licensing claims made by the copyright holders of PeterPan due to his use of characters.)"

Corporate cannibals picking over the profitable corpse of pop media is no surprise, but what makes this interesting is juxtaposing Moore's criticism against Sturm's, and contrasting the relative merits of both positions. One irony is that Sturm's Fantastic Four book "Unstable Molecules" was one of the exceptionally rare instances which I not only bothered to buy a contemporary comic - the anthologized edition that collected all of the miniseries into one book - but really enjoyed it. The above-posted sample panel mirrors the deliberate aesthetics used in "Molecules," chosen as an homage to Kirby's original style (as illustrated by Guy Davis). So, fast-forward to today, there is quite a turnabout in position as compared to the criticism of The Avengers.

One salient point is left out: ethical issues aside, there's no need to boycott what you'll never see anyways, due to the overwhelming majority of comic book movies being just as predictably shitty as the source material.

And if you missed the Superbowl debut of the new Avengers trailer (only in the ADD world of sports + comics would sixty-five seconds be considered an "extended version") fortunately it is also now available on YouTube.

Calmly, Joyously, Recklessly

2012-02-06T02:10:00.001-05:00

Sound, sage advice (part of the continuing series) that applies to the arts, including cartooning.

Migrating (Where the river is windin'... big Nuggets they're findin')

2012-02-05T05:05:00.004-05:00

Who needs leprechauns at the end of a rainbow, or a guardian angel, when you have a one of these as a personal guide? Or maybe this is just what you start hallucinating after being lost in the woods for a few months. From the front cover of Alaska-Yukon Magazine (1909), dug up on one of my formerly frequent forays into the archives of the Alaska & Polar Regions Collection section of the UAF library. As of late we've been catching a slew of documentaries on the history of Alaska on a local Maine Public Broadcasting station here on Mount Desert Island. Which has been contributing to a creeping thaw of nostalgia and homesickness (except for the whole subzero temperatures and eternal darkness part). But this inspirational image is a metaphor for the motivation that is always simmering away on the mental back-burners. Or maybe it's just a tripping sourdough.

Call it a remix on the Homesick Alaskan (and the Homesick Southerner): while taking a break from that residency gig I doodled this out while sitting on a bench at Seawall in Acadia, in between ~~staring wistfully out over the ocean~~ being a poseur. Then, when I made a call on the cellphone, I noticed there was a message waiting. Turned out to be from the g-friend - it looks like we will officially be pulling up stakes and migrating back North.

Tentatively slated to hit the highway in early March. From Alaska to Maine to Georgia, then back to Maine, and now... back to Alaska. If there's a theme here, it's best summed up by Wash:

We'll be in the Anchorage area, so a little bit closer to the Interior, and nearby a whole new world of previously unexplored vistas. Seems to have been a most fortuitous serendipity to add coastal lexicon to the mental mulch-pile, which will surely come full circle into Pacific coastal cartoons. Having mastered lobsters and lighthouses, I suppose next up on the drawing board will be Dungies and dredges.
In all seriousness, it has been a simply awesome year here in Maine, full of incredible experiences and opportunities, and making some good friends and great connections. At least now my memoir is already written, or at least the chapter about Down East.

"Acadian Troll"

2012-02-04T04:42:00.000-05:00

"Who's that tripping over my bridge..."

Stemming from last summer's internship experience reviving pen & ink pieces along with exploring an altogether different and darker aspect of Acadia. Briefly alluded to the initial concept back in an earlier post: the original inspiration came about from a doodle done while out hiking around the park one fine day.

A similar/parallel thought processes went into developing this troll character as it did with the Squonk (backlink). The ol' moose-nose makes an appearance, along with the g-friend humoring requests for taking more weird reference photos (see below). Which in turn gave me no end of new ideas on what to do next Halloween... And as with another, earlier panel's philosophical/compositional framework, the depicted environment is largely an imaginary assemblage of different elements. Meaning, aside from the huge, hairy monster, it's all completely made up. Needless to say taking a hike with me can sometimes be an adventure, if not an exercise in make-believe. After investing some time on lots and lots of little dots - "stipple cripple" - I had some fun experimenting with random Photoshop filters. After flailing about for hours with different masks and blends, I discovered the joy of the "Apply Image" function, which yielded another bewildering host of variations on the theme. *Big hat-tip to photographer Jerry Jones and his fabulous Shadowhouse Creations blog for uploading cool textures to play with. Still, technological advances aside, can't fix stupid, digitally or otherwise - there are a couple glaring mistakes with the basic drawing (booyay for linear perspective) that are filed away under "next time I'll get it better." At the very least now there's another print to offer for sale at an upcoming exhibit, signing and/or convention table. Work like this always reminds me of my de-formative years, as I was brought up on fairy tales and mythology (the legendary Maine Minotaur?): perhaps one of the greatest influences for growing up a freethinker and skeptic as far as "modern" religion goes. On the artistic side, one of the most lasting inspirations from my childhood was the illustrations of the Swedish artist John Bauer, most notably his iconic trolls. Since I'm now well on my way to hoofing it across the majority of established trails in Acadia, as of late we've begun checking out the network of carriage roads where most of these photogenic stone bridges are to be found. Sketchbook and camera in hand, I'm collecting as much reference material while on these little sorties in hopes of generating a little side-body of work along this narrative. Maybe a cryprozoological field-guide of sorts of an unexplored, mysterious side to the Park. Soon as I gets me some more billy goats...

"Now I'm coming to gobble you up..."

"Guilty Breakfast"

2012-02-03T05:33:00.000-05:00

Shortly before Angry Birds, there's usually a Hungry Birds stage. Loosely based on some insistent chickadees around this neck of the woods. This is the second of the two panels I did as demos in front of the students for my recent Artist in Residency.

Residency PS

2012-02-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

The school put up a brief note about the Arts Week events on their website here.

Currently reformatting the many, many scans of student work for reposting!

Minicomic Demo

2012-02-01T09:16:00.000-05:00

From the Artist in Residency: Using one of those awe-inspiring Sharpie Magnum® Permanent Markers (don't try this at home kids) I drew some sample panels on an easel in front of the classes for the final day's minicomic exercise. Also helped illustrate the point about speed + economy of line being one important aspect of the medium.

Bonus: While at SCAD, our class had an assignment using a modified layout (template posted above) to create a minicomic that involves some cutting. Makes for a nice touch in presentation and is different than the usual way I do it, which I think is a little bit better suited for quick & dirty classroom situations.

"Harborzilla"

2012-01-29T05:54:00.030-05:00

Here's one of the two demo panels I did during the Cartoonist in Residence gig that was a hit with some of the kids - can't go wrong with dinosaurs. I stood corrected on the critical details for drawing a "dragger," which half the kids had intimate, first-hand experience with, and a few could even draw better boats than I ever could. The classes got to see the idea go from a sketchbook doodle to a penciled piece, then to the finished, inked panel. The evening before my last session I finished it up at home, and then brought in prints for everyone to have as a sort of memento.

Cartoonist in Residency

2012-01-28T05:04:00.000-05:00

Okay, actually an Artist in Residency - this time at the Tremont Consolidated School, one of four elementary/middle schools on Mount Desert Island (after which everyone attends the one big highschool) for their annual "Arts Week." This is when local folks from the surrounding community temporarily take over the school and expose students to different mediums and techniques outside the regular roster of art classes. There was also a woman doing paper mâché projects, plus also a guy who taught them drumming, and then myself.

I spent three days working with students from four classes, 5th/6th/7th and 8th grade (total of around 50+ total students). We met alternately in the library and in the art room, in 45 minutes sessions, with a break for lunch. I actually did score some tater-tots like the good old days, but kids these days sure have some healthy and hearty options at the cafeteria (even the chocolate milk was no-fat). I was super-impressed with the facilities and resources at this school, which is unique in that it actually occupies Acadia National Parkland. Also in Maine all the grade-school students are issued their own Apple laptops, so they were probably more technologically savvy than most adults are these days. No more annoying bells between classes either!

This also saw the resurrection of dormant skills used in going to class, mainly being able to function on little-to-no sleep, which really isn't any different than being a student, or a teacher... or for that matter, being an artist. So burbling coffeepot to the rescue + kickstart morning soundtrack (Dropkick Murphys “Shipping Up To Boston” & Satriani “Flying In A Blue Dream” does the trick).

In advance of the residency I spent some time culling cartoons, reshuffling the digital deck of images to concoct a customized show & tell for the students. This entailed some judicious and prudent editing of age-appropriate material, as most of my presentations tend to be for (im)mature audiences. Case in point being after copying one of the sample minicomics I had to do some quick self-censorship after noticing the one panel of me having a beer and a smoke - oops WHITEOUT! WHITEOUT!

Getting all the cartoons into a lineup for the initial show & tell is not unlike herding cats and juggling gerbils, and I eventually pared it down to 69 images. Started with a little bit of background and context as an Alaskan – FreezeFrame & Nuggets, plug the formal art aspect with promoting skills of reference sketching (reality), illustration, and also some samples of freelance work (never hurts to point out the practical career aspects), and recent stuff from the LowTide feature.

Usually I have a peripheral awareness of how to conduct these presentations, as there’s an element of, if not outright standup, then basic showmanship to entertain. At the very least holding the attention of an entire class can be a challenge - it helps to be big, loud and weird, and also not right after lunch or the very last class of the day helps too. But basically you are pitching a concept, selling the idea of drawing comics and cartoons. Everything hinges on the first impression, though some of the pressure is alleviated by simply letting the work itself do the work for you, as it were. Basically an extended director’s cut where you narrate the images by interjecting key points and emphasizing aspects that would be of particular interest to whatever group. Like poop jokes.

Funny how nomatter how many of these I do, there’s still a thin veneer of fear of flopping, plus for some reason I can feel a wee bit more intimidated in front of younger kids, as they haven’t mastered the diplomacy of polite laughter which helps smooth over the duds. One of the subtle distinctions between being a visual artist versus a performing artist – the game changes getting up in public as opposed to the relative security of working alone in a cave. While I don’t have a scripted performance, much like with a drawing, it’s a good idea to always have loose grip on the reigns, ie keeping it open enough to go with the flow, add in some impromptu ad-libbing, expand/contract. And just like sitting down to a blank sheet of Bristol, I’ve done it enough that it’s not intimidating, but there’s still enough nervousness, or more a residual excitement to always keep it fresh and new. Not to mention a little rehearsal of sorts, with a few reviews beforehand helps smooth over any rough spots or transitions, and in this case on day one I also repeated it four times in a row, which gave a good opportunity to refine it on the fly (speed up, slow down, and/or skip over segments). There's an extra-special bonus in knowing that just by default you might make a difference in being not necessarily a role model per say, but just simply serve as an example of someone who loves reading as much drawing, and instilling in them a seed of literacy (as per experiences volunteering with the Literacy Council of Alaska’s “Guys Read” program and the "Big Cartoon Kablooey").

So after picking out everything to show, and after a triple redundancy backup (jump-drive, CD, DVD), it was time to pack up the road show – demo materials, bag o’ books (graphic novels of varying styles and formats), portfolio (or cat pukefolio, as I found out unloading it in the parking lot and discovering the classy racing stripe), and off to the races. On-site with the kind help of the tech support staffer, setup the laptop projector and load the images, procure a dry-erase board and an easel, and copy the handouts. Then it’s the most important part – turning it over. Like one of my heroes always says: “Draw a crazy picture… Put something silly in the world... That ain't been there before” (Shel Silerstein).

All in all the three days went really quick: Day One being the general intro with a show & tell of selected samples, and materials & techniques demonstration + a practice session; Day Two was an overview of the many different kinds of comics and creators, and then we worked on character development, basic expressions, props and places and coming up with funny ideas along with the funny pictures (gag writing); and Day Three wrapped up with experimenting into strip formats, telling stories and making a minicomic.

Best part and highlight of the residency, besides seeing some good drawings (some of which I’ll be posting) and getting some great laughs, was surreptitious feedback from faculty that one kid in particular, who up till then was struggling with any interest in school at all, went on a rave to his other teachers after the first presentation: “I’m moving to Alaska – that guy’s really cool!” So I fully realized for the first time what a potent angle that was - turning into an de facto representative of the state like an weird ambassador. Now if I could only pull down the speaking fees of some of the more notorious exports currently profiting off the Alaskan brand-name image. Speaking of, lots of them were already fans of the local hero’s work by Maine cartoonist Jeff Pert, which was super cool to see. Word spread and several teachers sat in on some of the classes observing a few random sessions – the sublime satisfaction of seeing a small herd of fifth-graders all quietly immersed in their own worlds is a sight to behold. Another nice touch was dovetailing my work with their current assignment: reading “Sign of the Beaver,” a serendipitous bonus (go figure).

A very special thanks to the faculty & staff: as usual, every time I do one of these gigs I come away just completely in awe of these teachers, who are absolutely amazing with how much under-appreciated time and energy they invest in their jobs. That and after weeks of obsessive immersion in politics & drawing editorial cartoons it confirms how incredibly SMART kids are… especially compared to “grown-ups.”

Maybe we should elect 5th graders to run the government for a change…

How to make an indelible first impression: imitate a grizzlywith a tummyache

after he's eaten a hiker who had restless leg syndrome…

Squonk

2012-01-27T06:18:00.001-05:00

December 2nd, 1983: as a geeky teenager who was a couple years away from running away to Alaska, I caught one of the most epic concerts/ stadium-rock experiences ever: Genesis' "Mama" tour (North American Leg #1) at Syracuse, New York's Carrier Dome. One of my favorite albums for many years had been their '76 release "A Trick of the Tail," which marked a stylistic transition from the earlier Peter Gabriel catalog into their later, more pop-oriented incarnation. Like most other prog-rock titans (Pink Floyd, Yes, Rush et al) the sound of the band gradually tightened into a more contemporary format, in no small part due to the changing, stripped-down lineup, which lost them many fans. Myself, I've always enjoyed it when artists experiment and evolve creatively, so I love listening to everything from Foxtrot all the way to Abacab. But one particular tune always held a special place for me: "Squonk."

From a drawing on the album (sleeve design by Hipgnosis featuring artwork by Colin Elgie)came the first, small image of the the Squonk, along with an excerpt written by band members Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford that followed the song lyrics: "The Squonk is of a very retiring disposition and due to its ugliness, weeps constantly. It is easy prey for hunters who simply follow a tear-stained trail. When cornered it will dissolve itself into tears. True or False?" More can be found in the original source material for Lacrimacorpus dissolvens, the Squonk, in a 1910 book"Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods" by William T Cox: "Page 31 – The Squonk: A creature of the Pennsylvanian hemlock forests so ashamed of its upsetting countenance that it weeps constantly. J. P. Wentling once managed to catch one in a sack, but as he began to walk away he felt his load lighten. He opened the sack to find the squonk had dissolve completely into tears." There's even an accompanying illustration with the description by Coert du Bois (1881–1960; US Consul and forester):

And so with these two completely different visual takes on this mysterious creature, the challenge was to incorporate subtle elements of both into a totally new interpretation of the character. I spent spare time in warm-up/cool down sessions at the drawing board by doodling out many an idle sketch. Some of the influences that were explored were starting with a basic walrus and toad, maybe mixing in some Jabba the Hut/Duke Leto Atreides II (sandworm metamorphosis stage), a little Grinch/Gollum perhaps... basically concocting a critter that was somehow simultaneously both repulsive and cute. Part of the fun in projects like this is juggling of concepts and infinite looping of unexpected ideas with inevitable false starts and dead ends. And now that the character is in place, it's time to start spinning a tale...

The seeds for this were planted back in 2010 with this post ("Countdown: Empty Horn of Plenty"), and also after resurrecting another MFA piece ("Please, Please, Please") on endangered species Lots of other peripheral inspiration bubbled up, from documentaries like the PBS "Nature" episode "The Loneliest Animals" to blogger/cartoonist John Platt's recent "Extinction Countdown" series for Scientific American. Added to this was the continual exposure and immersion into a new environment by exploring Acadia, and wandering about the deep hemlock, cedar and pine thickets... wait, what was that?

"Old Xmas Tree"

2012-01-22T05:22:00.012-05:00

Don't know about anyone else, but an unsung aspect of the holiday season for me as a child was always the introduction of an outside element into the domesticity of our household. As in what a trip it was to haul inside a real tree and set it up right in the freakin' living room. No ornaments on top or presents underneath could ever eclipse the primal presence of this reminder that our species - speaking as a city-dweller at the time - has lost touch with our animal roots. Oftentimes I would sneak out at night and just simply hang out with it, taking in the thick, rich sappy scent that infused the room. But it was always an inevitable bummer to put an end to the daily cascade of dead needles carpeting the floor by dragging the festive carcass out to the back yard, where it would live out a second life resurrected as a playground shelter for birds. It's an annual melancholic mulling that since moving away from home, and especially after my mom not being around anymore, I haven't yet ever set up a tree of my own. I suppose when I do, it'll be symbolic of finally settling down, and I can open up the boxes of carefully stored family ornaments, and spend a night threading cranberries, and cook up some ceremonial lentil soup as per my grandmother's traditional German custom.
And leave the tree up as long as possible.

Santorum Sanitarium (The Master of Puppets)

2012-01-21T20:00:00.029-05:00

A new Ester Republic editorial panel: inspired by watching the recent Republican debates, where yet another group of Privileged White Men try and outdo each other on their professed hatred of the very same government that they are trying to get a job with. Hypocrite and self-anointed scam artist and Official Jesus Candidate® Rick Santorum has draped himself in the patriotic hairshirt-flag, flaunted briefly by Bachmann and Perry, to spread his sanctimonious message of divinely inspired, heterosexual love across the electoral landscape.
The "Second Amendment" sweater-vest is a nice touch though. Doesn't help cover up what's inside.

"Can't Get ANYwhere"

2012-01-21T06:18:00.002-05:00

A counterpoint to an earlier panel ("Got There"). Reminds me of the formal job description of my former Ranger gig: "The work is performed in settings in whichthere is regular and recurring exposure to moderate discomforts and unpleasantness." Which, come to think of it, could actually include the bathroom too.
Here it is, almost the end of January, and we finally got a second round of precipitation that is sticking around in the near-zero temps. Relatively balmy, as I'm still cultivating an obsessive fixation on monitoring the unending weeks of -40's (or lower) in the Interior.
But it sure is peaceful here in the morning, beautiful clear skies make for some absolutely gorgeous sunrises. I was contemplating this while laying on my back in the driveway yesterday morning, after slipping on the mini-glacier that currently coats the driveway while shoveling the snow from around the pickup. Very peaceful indeed.

Opera Fairbanks 2012

2012-01-20T05:55:00.001-05:00

One of the long-distance clients I've retained is doing the annual "Run of the Valkyries" tshirt/poster for Opera Fairbanks (see last year's design here). This one marked the 5th year anniversary of the event, and as such they wanted a remix of everything so far. So here's the whole gang... minus a sled-dog, who was sacrificed in the name of preserving compositional symmetry. Which worked out kind spiffy in the end, since a command decision was made to keep costs down for the tshirts by going with a one-color print, which in turn enabled the addition of a small tag-print on the back (see the cute little catch-up pooch posted below).

Concept sketch

Preliminary color proof

B&W Line art for Tshirt

Pulled a Promethean push on the ol' learning curve for Illustrator on this gig, more often than not juggling files between that program and Photoshop just to try and get something close to what I wanted. Times like this I really miss the old Freehand. Compounding the fun was discovering that somehow none of my original archived artwork for this particular client made the migration here with me, and so it meant starting all over from scratch, as opposed to the time-saving shortcuts afforded by recycling certain aspects. There was a last-minute revision with the addition of a new sponsor, and as per the usual MO in brainstorming ideas, a couple other good concepts were hatched and consequently mothballed for potential future usage. The initial pen & ink drawings and concept sketches were actually done amidst the last two weeks of the MFA insanity, and lay fallow for another month before picking up the trail of digital breadcrumbs again under more ideal conditions. In other words, not getting as much hiking done - but guessing it'll be life imitating art here pretty soon... (minus the viking helmet).

SOPA/PIPA Protest Day

2012-01-18T00:01:00.001-05:00

More info on this legislation and what to do about it here.

3-Year Post (Vanity)

2012-01-15T16:22:00.173-05:00

"Dam shortcuts!"

Way back on January 15th of 2009, Ink & Snow started out with a warts & all, experimental approach to documenting in-the-trenches experiences teaching a Beginning Drawing class at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Then it became infected by the Cartoon & Comic Art course the following semester, to mutate even further into the hybrid and erratic posting of random content it is today. Duly noted in 2010's milestone post (2011's was lost during the shuffle to Maine) these "New Years"-type retrospects are opportunities to recap and mull over where it's been and where it's going. Ever since the Blogger platform was changed, I've been doing a gradual and methodical comb-over, revamping older posts where the formatting is all wonky as they resurface in the archives. This has mostly been the resizing of images, as for some mysterious reason the older posts now display much smaller pictures than the improved, higher-resolution ones these days).

Stats have been steadily climbing as of late (over 6k last month), usually a couple hundred hits a day on the high end. Thometime in the nexth coupla months will come the momentouth thousandth post (no pressure but it probably ought to be something funny). No concrete goals beyond maintaining cruising altitude and diversifying into a couple other arenas. One aspect I've enjoyed pursuing has been interviews and more detailed process posts, and sooner than later I'll track down some more folks in this neck of the woods to pester and post about. And every so often I'll stick a shovel into the virtual mulch-pile of 50-odd backlogged posts that are incubating in draft form, turn 'em over and see if any fruiting bodies have sprouted up. Ew.

In the meantime, posting is now gonna down-shift to weekends only, as opposed to the M/W/F/Sat/Sun routine, so dropping a couplefew days off the schedule. I've been able to ascertain through monitoring of traffic that Fridays and Mondays are the main days for spikes in readership anyways (hmmm...). So look forward to new "Nuggets" and "LowTide" gag panels (plus the semi-occasional, vagrant classic dug up from the digital compost heap) will be interspersed with the intermittent essay and protracted mullings, unless, of course, something significant occurs that merits mention in-between all that. In theory I'm asserting some other priorities besides obsessive blogging duties, as in, make more damn art and take more damn hikes (not necessarily in that order). I sure appreciate the regular readers, and welcome again to all the recent visitors - like Life, it gets funnier eventually.

Virility: "Beat of a Different Drummer"

2012-01-14T13:14:00.001-05:00

Interesting occurrence the other day: for some random, unknown reason this particular cartoons went viral on Facebook. Based on the 50+ shares it "e-treed" virtually all over the state of Alaska, many to folks living in some villages I've never even heard of, which is very cool. Except it was one of the older panels that I haven't yet gotten around to re-captioning with a current website address bug up in the header. Even this version posted above is off - the original copyright text line was from 2005, and this one was from a second-run in the Anchorage Press. Let that be a lesson in marketing, and one of the reasons it's pretty much a reflex for me these days to leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs on everything that gets posted. It was still pretty awesome to watch: so far well over 10,990 people read it (more than half the total circulation of my host newspaper). Another, more recent panel ("Baby, It's Cold Outside") posted on Facebook has so far been shared to over 5k folks.
I've found it better to have separate images posted in albums on Facebook to make the sharing of images easier, as opposed to merely reposting a link from the blog on my wall. Even so, just (re)posting a link alone will have a noticeable impact on driving traffic to the site, judiciously intermittent enough so that it doesn't over-saturate. Investing a little effort and time (initial outlay + in maintenance "massages") to establish a viable internet presence is as crucial a skill for contemporary artists as it is/was making the rounds of galleries at openings. That said I just this morning emailed and printed out some files of new work for another batch of sampler cartoon panels to hand out to everyone and anyone I come across. That'd be the "old-fashioned," real-world, physical equivalent to posting work on-line... as in "here, check this out."
Even while I've gotten work from both Facebook and Picasa/Blogspot galleries, the fact is at the core of creating visual art is an amalgamation of professionalism, profitability and pleasure of having it be seen: so for a cartoonist it's sharing a laugh amongst friends, family and folks... whatever, whenever and wherever you can. The "series of tubes" is good for that, and it works both ways, as I've been able to stay abreast of many new efforts by friends in the field and other artists.

"Bad Clams" - The Book

2012-01-13T01:13:00.008-05:00

A collection featuring over fifty new panels (half in full-color), plus sketchbook doodles and illustrations, from the creator of Alaska’s longest-running cartoon “Nuggets.”“LowTide” documents the artist’s perspective on his adventures and experiences around Acadia and Down East after migrating to Maine.

Kind of excited about this project - going to try out Lulu's for the first time with a print-on-demand book that compiles the best stuff from the first year in Acadia. The majority of the cartoons selected for the sampler haven't yet found a home anywhere here in this neck of the woods, and so a handful of (appropriately themed) crossover panels were shunted up north to make their publishing debut rechristened as a "Nuggets." But for this specific collection everything will fall in situ under the new feature "LowTide." Probably half a dozen panels - sans header - have also run in Down East magazine, and the entire project concept pretty much springboards off last year's "Secret Harbor" MECAF minicomic. Regular readers will have seen everything already over the course of posting stuff here on Ink & Snow and in the Picasa web-albums (hence the decision to not bother yet with an "e-book" edition), but it's still a source of immense satisfaction to see 'em all coagulated into one physical object. Now all I have to do is get around to that limited "scratch & sniff" edition by marinating some copies in buckets of clam nectar. Which at least the cats will love...

"Bad Clams" tapped out at 36 pages and contains about 50-odd finished panels, approximately half of which are color cartoons paired with a black & white one - so two per page, excepting the occasional full-pager. Plus there's some miscellaneous sketches/random doodles and a couple pen & ink illustrations. The one massive, all-day layout session and a few follow-up editorial revisions were made infinitely easier with employing digital technology: culling the original artwork files, cleaning them up/reformatting etc. was a lot less labor intensive than the last compilation.

Aside from making a spiffy gift, this'll serve quite handily as a portfolio piece, and be something to have on the table for the next MECAF in May. Plus hopefully these will supplement an art exhibit as a sort of show catalog, maybe by also doing a book signing in conjunction... at the very least be an attractive addition to the sandwich board while standing out on a downtown corner.

~~Soon as it gets proofed I'll post more info on ordering...~~

*Update: Special to readers of Ink & Snow!

Here's a Direct Link to the page where you can preview and order copies. My proofs are in the mail, and I'll do a follow-up post on the results soon as I get a copy in my cold, clammy hands...

dun dun... dun dun... dun dun dun dun dun dun (etc.)

2012-01-11T06:04:00.000-05:00

TEASER! This panel was actually drawn up specifically for the inside cover of an incubating book project. In theory one should kick off a collection with the very best image, or specifically the funniest cartoon of the lot, so as to set the proverbial hook, but oh well... At least it forewarns the reader not to expect much in the way of intelligent, nuanced artwork.

"Shacking Up"

2012-01-09T08:32:00.002-05:00

So far, so good: some more results on successfully hybridizing Alaskana with Down Easterly material. That is, until the ice went out after drawing this panel and it got mothballed until this season. So now it's funny, or at least seasoned with age, not unlike some cartoonists. Actually a call went out from a local editor for more winter-themed material, but as of yet there's only been one snowfall in this neck of the woods, with even that paltry accumulation withering away under rain and temps in the 40's (no complaints). So much for the muse, or at least on wearing a parka for inspiration.
One of the regional peculiarities that stuck out to me upon arrival here was driving around the island and peeking out over all the views of little pockets of icy inlets, lakes and ponds. You can see the shanty-towns of little ice-fishing shacks set up like outdoorsy crack-houses which dot the area. Which always makes me wonder just how many of these are littering about underneath at the bottom of the water.

The original panel underwent a slight caption edit: nothing terribly vulgar, but enough of a speed bump to tuck under the fold... reminds me of this interesting perspective on the debate of adding of iffy words.

"The Final Stages"

2012-01-08T06:08:00.000-05:00

Oh snap: technically termed "paradoxical undressing," it's just an excuse to draw someone streaking across the tundra. Like you ever really need a reason.

"L'Absinthe du Beav"

2012-01-07T08:27:00.000-05:00

Backstory beneath the fold...

A couple years back I volunteered to participate in a fundraiser for the Georgeson Botannical Garden Society. They held a formal Victorian-themed Tea Party (sans any political protesters present to take our country back... at least to the 1800's). I played the part of a painting poseur complete with easel, beret and basket of artisan bread and cheese by my side. Being immersed in a sea of parasols and hoop skirts as they floating about the grounds to the strains of a string quartet was quite the surreal experience.

I did get to learn about both absinthe and Degas' original painting "L’Absinthe" which this panel is a ~~flagrant hack~~ homage to:

“In its first showing in 1876 it was panned by critics, who called it ugly and disgusting. It was put into storage until an 1892 exhibit where it was booed off the easel. It was shown again in 1893 in England … there, it sparked controversy. The persons represented in the painting were considered by English critics to be shockingly degraded and uncouth. Many regarded the painting as a blow to morality…” (Wikipedia)

This also brings to mind another, equally monumental body of work in art history that I recently learned some interesting trivia about. Monet’s iconic “Water Lilies” series was created in the midst of the artist losing his vision due to cataracts, which may partially account for the visionary nature of his works, and perhaps be the reason behind his destroying many of the paintings upon review with newly restored vision...

"Many accounts speak of Monet destroying incomplete abortive paintings; with the London series and the Water Lilies of 1903-1909 the destructions seem to have been very extensive. In 1907, when deferring his exhibition of Water Lilies, he told Durand-Ruel that he had destroyed 'at least thirty of them, to my great satisfaction'."

Incidentally, he was initially known for his caricatures, but an art dealer "encouraged Claude not to waste his talent with cartoons ... recommend(ing) landscapes instead." Rats.

Neurological and opthalmological interpretations of modern art is always interesting, whether the creator literally possessed a vision that transcended reality, used too much absinthe, or was going insane from syphilis. I always try and make a point to students that while aspiring to genius, it doesn't necessarily mean they have to use drugs and contract venereal diseases in their bid for immortality. In fact, the discipline of getting up in time for their 8am class when it's dark and forty-below-zero will entirely suffice.

"Shockingly Degraded and Uncouth"

Punctuation Post-Script

2012-01-06T08:15:00.000-05:00

A follow-up to the maledicta and cursive posts I was tipped off as to the existence of the "sarcastic font" - basically a backwards italicized Arial (as demonstrated above). After installing it, I noticed it completely replaced the normal font on my computer, which had unintended and rather funny consequences upon opening my resume.
There are some cryptic and novel symbols amongst the Omniglot ("Syllabaries" in particular), and via BuzzFeed comes a handful of "Punctuation Marks That You Never Knew Existed," including the "interrobang," "exclamation comma," and the "snark":

Coffeecoffeecoffee

2012-01-06T05:16:00.002-05:00

There's a strip over at Radio Free Babylon that's been making me laugh my heathen butt off over the morning grind: Coffee With Jesus. Normally clip-art comics lose me pretty quick after the initial schtick wears off, notwithstanding the deliberate stylistic monotony of a few other favorites, This Modern World, Red Meat and Basic Instructions. And while on the topic of caffeinated comics, let us not forget Too Much Coffee Man.

As of late I've been quaffing some good libations in this neck of the woods: Trailhead Cafe serves Batdorf & Bronson (the signature "Dancing Goats" is a brew of choice while camping out and coaxing the creative juices), local roasters Crooked Porch do a seasonal elixir called "Jingleheimer" that is fabulous (scored at the Global Beverage Warehouse which is staffed with some knowledgeable folks), and The Maine Grind over in Ellsworth features Rock City made in Rockland. *Update: mmm... Katahdin Coffee...
Still miss the ~~swill~~ hearty, robust pot Adam would put on at work, and still loves me some LuLu's eggnog lattes! Cheers!

"Baby It's Cold Outside"

2012-01-04T05:38:00.001-05:00

One for my friends up in the hinterland, who have been slogging through an epic cold snap this week with temperatures ranging from a balmy -25 to bottoming out in the "outlying areas" with -50's. Here in Maine the weatherman on the radio made a funny flummox in the forecast by mixing up sleet with freezing rain: "sleezing rain." Currently we're in the single digits, and the one factor usually absent from Interior conditions is wind chill - cuts right through the insulating layers of blubber, effectively putting a damper on any manly sourdough pooh-pooh of what a real winter's like.

The Big Secret

2012-01-02T05:55:00.011-05:00

First piece posted for 2012: this one done just for me: a sort of a fist-pump at the universe, and my personal philosophy as of late. Listening to almost twelve straight hours of Brian Eno might also have something to do with it...

Also partly inspired by some paintings I looked at last week by a local dude who (re)creates abstracted Acadian landscapes from memory: his ambient impressions of the environment evoke more of an immediacy and meaningful connection than 99% of photographs could ever hope to (or for that matter, realistic images from photo-reference).

So this panel has an amalgamation of perspectives from many of the hikes I've taken around the island, plus the sentiment is timely given the wrapping up of one full year away from home, and the launch of another.

New Year's Hike

2012-01-01T18:56:00.000-05:00

Took a short & sweet little stroll into Acadia and out along the coastal Loop Road, which is gated off for the season (so we saw only a solitary jogger and a photographer over the 2.5 hour/3+ mile hike) and necessitated hoofing it along a trail before reaching the road. Another mile took us to a secluded, quiet gem of a spot tucked in-between Otter Cliffs/Otter Cove and Seal Cove. Little Hunters Beach is a small stretch of cobblestone which sounds like a billion marbles cascading over a scrub-board with every wave. Almost all the lingering patches of snow are gone what with the recent rainfall, and cool temperatures were hovering in the 40's. It also happened to be an absolutely gorgeous evening with perfect conditions right at the "magic hour" - so I climbed out on the promontory to catch the sunset. The light was coming in low over the Atlantic (and just under a looming front moving in fast) and it made for some truly amazing color off the granite. A beautiful kickoff to 2012 - here's hoping all of you are warm & well!

(A few more pics are uploaded here.)

Woody's New Years 1942 Rulins'

2012-01-01T05:48:00.001-05:00

(link)

To me what is really inspirational are the accompanying doodles, which suggest this list would make for a great comic... hmmm...

Ziggy Harbordust + the Lobsters from Mars

2011-12-31T05:06:00.002-05:00

Definitely in the running for 2011's worst gag of the year (second only to this one). Convoluted confession: this particular panel's a great example of why, for me, letting gags incubate in a sketchbook beforehand is, in lieu of an actual editor, probably a better process than doodling directly out in ink. Below is the initial idea, punning on the Jim Bowie character, which turned out to be mixed-up with Davey Crockett anyways. Don't ask - chalk it up to yet another personal Alamo. So after completely messing up the trail of mental breadcrumbs, a quick cut & paste coupled with judicious editing finally got me to where I wanted to be: inspired by the iconic cover from David Bowie's 1973 album. Still probably too much of an obscure glam-rock reference (or, as a member of my ad hoc review board diplomatically put it: "Nobody ~~over~~ under thirty will get it").

Maurice Sendak: Fresh Air Interview

2011-12-30T10:56:00.001-05:00

Wow: I just caught a rebroadcast of an amazing interview on NPR with one of my all-time favorite artists, Maurice Sendak (it's also on-line here). It made me laugh, cry, think, and then get back to drawing. Now 83, Sendak is still producing work, such as his newest book "Bumble-Ardy." By far and away one of the most beautiful interviews with a true American icon in illustration. *Update: via BoingBoing:

"Maledicta Sciurus" (Talk to the Squirrel)

2011-12-30T05:21:00.001-05:00

One small, but very vocal difference in this new neck of the woods has been the Eastern Gray squirrels, which mass about twice as much as the familiar and native American Red squirrels did up in Alaska. And speaking of Alaska, why yes, I am still peeing off the porch in the morning, and that barbarian ritual incurs the wrath of the ruler of this particular patch of turf. Which is nothing compared to the apoplectic fit visited upon poor Bird-Dog - not that it matters much, as she's pretty much deaf as a post by now.

From cursive to curses: tangentially connected to the last post, more mulling over words, particularly swear words, which the verbal device of "maledicta" is used to circumvent the taboo. In cartoons these unique stand-in symbols were tagged as “grawlix” by cartoonist Mort Walker in his "Lexicon of Comicana."

The lazy way out is just using standard keyboard symbols, or swapping a key letter out with asterisks, but a more skillful and creative approach is to harness the unique powers of pictorial semiotics and information graphics theory to draw individual icons. This is reflected somewhat in the contemporary usage in texting with emoticons, which are now not just limited to adapting keyboard symbols but includes little characters. So far as I know I got just about every representative I could think of in this panel: along with the standard miscellany there's the classic bomb, stick of dynamite, skull, dagger, explosion, fist, handgun, grimace, mushroom cloud, planet, star, lightning bolt, splatter, tombstone and a hangman's noose. Let me know if I #!*ing missed one.

The (Cursive) Writing on the Wall

2011-12-28T06:49:00.000-05:00

A topic I mull over every now and then is the decline of basic handwriting skills amongst the general American public. Anecdotal observation over years, impromptu classroom surveys with my students, and common sense, all tell me this might be the swan-song of a quaint, cultural pastime, especially in the case of cursive script. More and more schools abandon teaching handwriting in favor of the more practical training proficiency at keyboarding. Most folks probably never set pen to paper anymore for any reason other than signing checks or contracts. But by this logic we don't need to teach math either, since everybody now uses calculators or computers, right?

Aside from the connected topic of instilling basic literacy, where I get curious is when it dovetails with comics, as writing/lettering is an essential attribute of the medium, hand-in-glove with the drawing. And just like a useless appendage that atrophies over the course of evolution this trait may join other such antiquities like actually drawing on paper, or for that matter, turning the physical pages of an actual book. Hopefully not, as I much prefer the aesthetics of a handwritten comic over any mechanically produced font. It reflects a degree of intimacy, intent, effort and skill not achievable by any typographical means. Even the faddish fonting of one's own lettering style ultimately results in a bland, anesthetized product. I mean, come on - if your so concerned about the amount of time it takes to spend on actually lettering a comic by hand, than maybe not wasting any precious time creating the artwork at all would be just as good of a solution.

Add to this a personal penchant for hand-writing in comics: the aesthetics are more intimate and engaging, and work together with the drawn images to impart, in my opinion, a decidedly more authentic flavor. At its most basic level, that's what handwriting represents: invested time spent focused on creating the work. That in turn asks the viewer to spend time with the piece, as reading commands more conscious engagement than superficially skimming an image alone. Hence the unique potential of sequential art to be more of a rewarding, engaging and participatory experience than, say, watching film.

One of the finest and highest points of pride I had in high school was the ability to write small enough and clearly enough on those cassette-tape box inserts all of the pertinent info about each track (song title, artist) for my mixes. Years later after a correspondence with my cartoon hero Don Martin, he crushed me with a critique about how illegible my handwriting was, which I took to heart and immediately set about improving upon. I consequently learned how there is a subtle difference between writing - largely unconscious flow - and lettering: the deliberate, meticulous rendering of each individual shape of a letter.

This is crucial communication for the cartoonist, as the average viewer spends only a few seconds skimming over items on a page, and should you throw up a speed bump and make someone struggle to decipher the text, it's functionally equivalent to a stand-up comedian mumbling their lines on stage. This butts up against another attribute of cartoons - everything is geared towards rapid dissemination of information: imparting all the visuals as quickly and cleanly as possible so as to seamlessly engage the viewer. Any hitch in the process and you effectively lose the reader, especially given the societal tendency towards ever-decreasing attention spans. This also accounts for the industry-wide adoption of standard fonts like Comic Sans, which homogenizes the task of reading to it's lowest common denominator and relegates it to a bland, background functional aspect (often similar to much of the tiresomely stereotypical styles of artwork).

From The Comic Sans Project

This contrasts with alternative, independent works where the lettering is as much of an integral part of the product as is every other aspect of the work. Whenever asked in the classroom about developing a personal style in cartooning (or art), I've often used a quick example of having everyone just sign their names, or write down a simple phrase on an index card, then post them all up on the wall and point out that this is a raw, unfiltered example of individual style. While I don't assign any more credence to graphology than I would astrology or any other such woo, but there is no denying this small, brief mark made upon a piece of paper can be just as symbolic as other elements of a drawing - a literal signature statement.

And then there's the opportunity to use sound effects as a way to explore how the individual shapes, sizes and styles of letters and words also contribute to constructing and understanding a narrative. I was really pleased to see a course taught at SCAD in the Sequential Art department specifically geared towards addressing this part of drawing comics:

SEQA 386 Hand Lettering and Typography for Comics Through lectures, demonstrations and studio work, students are introduced to the tradition of hand-lettering and typography in sequential art. The use of word and image in service to a narrative is explored as the students practice conventional and contemporary techniques. Emphasis is placed on skill-building and practical application.

This is so much more of an attractive option than resorting to the soulless cookie-cutter approach favored by most comics creators (Comicraft et al). Unfortunately, along with a corresponding decline in the general population, hand-lettering looks to potentially go the way of inking itself.

That is, until the power goes off, which all those years spent working in a cabin in the Alaskan woods has instilled a legitimate respect for.

It's Useless

2011-12-27T04:31:00.001-05:00

Snapshot of a directory posted in one of the local libraries that caught my eye...

Birthday Hike

2011-12-26T10:00:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we took a little walk in the woods to burn off the caloric load from too much cheesecake and coffee for breakfast: Hunters Beach Path winds down to a cozy little cove just down the coast from Seal Harbor. Even on a holiday weekend there wasn't a soul in sight, and the opportunities for exploring the Park in solitude and during an under-appreciated season beckoned us outdoors. The winding trail (.3m) was dusted by fresh snow which contrasted against bright green moss and dark, twisted roots that were poking up, and we followed the happy-dog paw-prints that paralleled a beautiful stream which had a lot of downed trees from recent beaver activity. The path came out onto the oceanside cove under overcast skies where a bitter breeze put some color in our cheeks as we wandered around the high-tide mark looking at the ice cascading off the cliffs. Slowly picking a way among the glazed cobblestones and boulders was challenging, but upon encountering sheets of ice farther up along the adjoining Hunters Cliff/Lowerday Mtn. trail, we prudently retraced our route back to the safer and saner path. Unfortunately much of the options for hiking in Acadia from here on out will be limited to the horizontally challenged, especially given the recent accumulation of snow.

More snapshots here.

Imitation Flattery

2011-12-26T06:19:00.038-05:00

One of my favorite cartoonists, Tony Piro (creator of Calamities of Nature) recently posted a heads-up on the viral spread of a hacked version of one of his strips, which is in turn a remix of a classic sequence from Charles Schulz:

"My use of the Peanuts characters, in a comic that I drew and wrote myself, is allowed as a parody. But when people grab my art, change a few words, and label it as their own, it amounts to theft. Of course people are free to make their own parodies, but they should use their own art and writing."

This once again brings up the topic of basic copyright, which does not cover ideas, only the execution of said ideas, ie only the drawings themselves are protected. But this is in turn preempted by usage of an image for purposes of parody versus derivative work (an example of this is in my recent conflation of Winslow/Simpson Homer in this panel). It's a tangled web of confusing legal and ethical interpretations, which has no easy or immediate answers. All this being said and done, I underwent major cognitive dissonance over the Piro piece, which I dug, in light of another recent parody of Peanuts, which I most decidedly did not. Heralded by many as somehow being creative geniuses for what I saw as a really really sad degradation of Schulz's work, "Peanutweeter" juxtaposed random tweets with selected panels:

No, nothing is sacred, nor should be, but pushing shock value for it's own sake doesn't counts for much these days, especially when the idea is incredibly lame and completely unoriginal. Gee, what's next, a mashup with Peanuts and porn? Wow, wouldn't that be funny (No, and yes, it's also unfortunately already been done). Point being mooted now by the inevitable legal takedown that ensued, which in itself prompted some enthusiastic debate on related comment threads. Under the guise of supposedly being "edgy" and "hilarious" this was created along the same continuum as Piro's piece, but it didn't even bother to redraw the art, just rip off and re-contextualize the original drawings, which was the underlying premise of what for many made it funny to begin with ("benign violation theory").

*Update: aaaand now here's Peanuts by Charles Bukowski...

**Update #2: Via a Facebook friend (h/t Anita) and Popped Culture blog comes R. Sikoryak's existential take on "Good Ol' Gregor Brown" from Masterpiece Comics:

Regardless of what one's personal opinion might be on the relative merits of either extreme, ~~only one of these~~ there are many examples that literally illustrate both the power of Peanuts and the First Amendment.

Roy Lichtenstein, Image Duplicator, 1963

Arguably this all started getting even fuzzier courtesy of the Pop Art movement, which as one of its hallmarks began to appropriate and re-contextualize derivative works, such as the poster-child of the movement Roy Lichtenstein. This "transformative" approach to art continues today as evidenced by the infamous Novak/Cano dustup and also Eric Doeringer's blatant copying. All three of these I use in classrooms as an excellent starting point on discussions about authenticity and originality. But as I've also documented here a few times, there is a literal line that can be crossed with stealing another artist's work and passing it off as your own (like in this former student's case).

“I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy mymistakes.” - Jimi Hendrix

Case in point: there's been a couple recent high-profile cases of plagiarism in the world of editorial cartooning. Jeff Stahler and David Simpson have both resigned their respective positions at their newspapers upon the discovery of plagiarized pieces which were cannibalized from the work of other cartoonists. In this way editorial cartoonists in particular are held to a different standard than artists, perhaps as they have one foot planted in the realm of journalism. These controversies prompted calls for an code of ethical conduct for editorial cartoonists, which given the evidently swift self-policing within the ranks and ensuing circular firing squad by fellow creators would be unnecessary. The witch-hunt is pretty severe, in many cases deservedly so, still it's more than a little disconcerting to watch the pile-on and trial-by-comment-thread - instead of the stereotyped image of a mob of villagers with pitchforks picture a bunch of cartoonists brandishingcrow-quills.

These issues of authenticity and originality affect the creator as being the only one who does everything in the production of a cartoon, to varying degrees along the continuum: using writers, pencillers, background artists, letterers, colorists, art by committee etc. - to the point where the original artist has nothing to do with the piece that bears their name (read Bill Watterson's 1989 "The Cheapening of The Comics" speech for more on that).

Several prime examples of sub-mental advertising, or, how to broadcast idiocy

As far as the overlapping (deliberate or accidental) of content goes, one of the more ironic experiences I had during the writing of a thesis in the Sequential Art MFA program at SCAD was actually being sent home by one of my committee advisers with a copy of Gary Larson's "History of the Far Side" with instructions to read it. My long held knee-jerk reflex to avoid at any cost any inadvertent osmosis of ideas from the Far Side feature ran smack up against the glaring omission of any detailed discussion of Larson's work in my research. Dodging discussion of the influence of one of the giants in the field, who cast just as big of a shadow across the industry as Schulz did for strips, was avoiding the 800lb gorilla in the room. This instinctual deflection of Larson's work in part stems from the innumerable and inevitable comparisons I've personally endured for over twenty-five years - "Oh - you're just like the Far Side!" Comments like these mostly come from encounters with well-intentioned folks that upon seeing my gag panels for the first time immediately try and relate the cartoons to what for them is probably their sole point of reference. They simply have no experience with any other creators or features in the field beyond the most famous ones, which is aesthetically equivalent to judging all music on the basis of having already heard Justin Bieber/Brittany Spears etc. This ignorance is understandable coming from the general public, but there are many others, even established cartoonists, who fail to discriminate between obviously different styles. Case in point being that anybody who says "everybody doing single-panels is just copying Larson" needs to turn a few more pages back in the history books (at least as far as Kliban), and furthermore, anyone with a basic grasp of comics history can trace the artistic lineage of the medium (and single-panel format) over hundreds of years from as many different creators.

“The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: Thebad artist seems to copy a great deal;

the good one really does.” - WilliamBlake

At times during the weekly sortie into the stacks at a local library I troll the waters for inspiration, but if any switches do occur it's so convoluted and removed from the original source material it is rendered unrecognizable. Studying a body of work from any artist will reveal habitual, repetition of content and execution which plays out into predictable patterns. Not unlike the music analogy above, more often than not this can eventually make one too bored to follow the artist for very long. But on the other hand, once a fan-base develops it can be a commercial deathwish to ever dare experimenting outside of an established repertoire, and many an artist has alienated or even lost their respective followings because they refused to keep cranking out the same old stuff. This "same old stuff" is also known as ones "style," and it's both a blessing and a curse. One person's groove is another person's rut, and there are many examples of cartoonists folding their funny tents before evolving into a self-parody that ~~runs~~ gags on fumes and has overstayed their welcome in the comics section (notably Larson's "Graveyard of Mediocre Cartoons" and Watterson's rant). At the other extreme are the "legacy" strips, syndicate tent-poles which maintain a death grip on the franchise (examples include Family Circus, Dennis the Menace, Hagar the Horrible, Shoe, Prince Valiant, virtually every single superhero in the DC/Marvel pantheon, and even the Peanuts zombie). Either way there is no time-line beyond the voluntary self-imposed ones, and the debate continues about the overall future of comics, but as long as there are artists who enjoy creating work, and there is a sustaining audience who enjoys reading it, the ink will flow.

“To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself ispathetic.” - Pablo Picasso

A Very Merry Everything from Maine!

2011-12-25T05:00:00.003-05:00

One use for recycled wreaths: this year's official holiday card, which I might even get out in the mail before 2011 is over. And a bonus snapshot of evidence that I've sunk a piling/dropped anchor in Bar Harbor - the panel got posted in the window of my favorite camping spot for creative juices...

Minchin'mas ("White Wine in the Sun")

2011-12-24T10:25:00.000-05:00

Xmas 2011

2011-12-24T05:08:00.000-05:00

Somebody's gettin' coal, which is cheaper than oil anyways. What's truly funny is how I drew this panel down in Savannah, and just for fun, vetted it off a coupla folks... too bad nobody down there (or probably here in Bar Harbor either for that matter) knows just what the heck a Monitor is. One of those name brands which in Alaska is as ubiquitous as Xerox, Ziploc etc.
Stay warm everybody, be safe... and remember: "It all comes down to the ones you love."

Nast-y Buisness

2011-12-23T06:09:00.004-05:00

In the spirit of the recently deceased Christopher Hitchens, someone else's work who's been dead for over one hundred years but is still pissing off people: the consummate cartoonist Thomas Nast.

This time it's over his nomination to the vaunted New Jersey Hall of Fame, which has aroused the ire of a 14th century relic, The Ancient Order of Hibernians. They, along with enlisted political hacks, are protesting the inclusion of Nast based on the content of a few of his panels which depict Irish Catholics in derogatory fashion. President of the New Jersey Order, Sean Pender, says “I find it is outrageous that the New Jersey Hall of Fame iseven considering such a bigot in these times for consideration” - a sentiment parroted by Assemblyman Wayne P. DeAngelo (D-Mercer): “We should not be honoring any individual who contributed tothe popularization of bigotry and prejudice in our country." While this by definition might preclude an awful lot of shenanigans relating to the Church, in the meantime this politician better make sure he isn’t ever caught using thedonkey symbol for the Democratic Party, or the elephant either for his Republican counterpart, Assemblyman David Rible: "As a state Assemblyman and an Irish Catholic I am appalled at the idea that New Jersey would seek to honor a man who openly conveyed prejudice and intolerance through his so-called art." And none of the protesting parties better use anything depicting SantaClaus or Uncle Sam either for that matter, lest they accidentally further contribute to honoring said individual’s media popularizations.

So much easier to attack the shadow puppet instead of thereal thing, or try and grapple with the societal circumstances behind historical events - much less what's going on right now - as cartoonists, and all other forms of the media, reflect the bigotry andprejudice of their times. To isolate them from their context results in censored stupidity such as, for example, thenew, anesthetized edition of Huckleberry Finn. And the supreme irony is how Nast, much like Hitchens, focused his ireupon the leading sources of bigotry and intolerance at the time, ie religion in lockstep with its political simulacra. Not much haschanged, and as any casual perusal of current editorial cartoons will reveal, there are many, many more artists that will be joining Nast in Hell, or at least never get in to the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Speaking of which: voting is open to all...

Like his art, Nast's thirty-year residence in New Jersey encompassed the good, bad and the ugly, and his body of work left an indelible mark upon American culture, despite the efforts of politically-correct censors who would do their best to erase the past. Which, in light of the continuing blemish upon the Church in Ireland, will take far more than the self-righteous indignation of apologists to overcome. The systemic, institutionalized abuse extends beyond any one country, even soiling the shores of Alaska, having reached remote Native villages and resulting in the bankrupting of the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks with payments last year of 9.8 million dollars to the victims of abuse. *For more on this, watch the Frontline program "The Silence" here.

Posted above is "The American River Ganges," one of the notorious panels by Nast that is attracting all of the attention: it recasts bishops as ...menacing innocent children. Hmmm. One of the hallmarks of a great editorial cartoon is how timeless it is, and this particular one should be rerun in conjunction with any press about this newest Nast-y controversy just to point out the hypocrisy of cherry-picking a few badapples, since everybody knows that not all IrishCatholic priests are pedophiles, right? Because it's simply just not fair to draw upon such negative stereotypes on the basis of a few, isolated instances.

One would think that suchan organization would not cast stones, especially in a (literally) stained-glass house: regrettably, being portrayed as drunks, reptiles or apes is probably themore benign caricatures that Irish Catholics will now be remembered as. They certainly seem to have adopted the convoluted right-wing logic of spinning any criticism into where not tolerating bigotry is somehow re-branded as being intolerant and bigoted itself.

Hat-tip to Mike Lynch for the initial post over on his blog with an article from a cartoonists POV.

Edits: "Sourdough Starter"

2011-12-21T06:32:00.009-05:00

Now that I am getting older (not so much maturing) whole new arenas of potential funniness are opening up. Unless you're the one waiting for me to hurry up, that is. Might not have an outhouse anymore, but good things, like big ideas, still come to those who wait.

This panel also makes a perfect post-script to this year's calendar piece, completely incidental of course.

Towing the Line

2011-12-19T05:49:00.000-05:00

Here's this year's (well, technically 2012's) colorized panel that will adorn another calendar for the folks at Parks Highway Service & Towing. One of the inspirations behind this one was the noted salvaging of the starter at one of my favorite restaurants when it burned down - yet Sourdough Sam's managed to preserve the lineage of their signature pancakes and has risen from the proverbial ashes again.
Plus posted below is the original print version as it appeared in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:

"The Mindscape of Alan Moore"

2011-12-18T02:37:00.005-05:00

For yer Sunday viewing pleasure: via post on BoingBoing comes a heads-up about an eclectic coagulation of videos assembled by TubeGnosis: one of which is a great short featuring writer Alan Moore - which is evidently excerpted from a longer documentary (read more on that plus a great interview with Moore here).
Henceforth added to the roster on the YouTube "Cartooning" channel...

"Single-Track Mind"

2011-12-17T06:15:00.000-05:00

Rounding out the week's impromptu theme of dog-powered posts, and remember: "Unless you're the lead dog, the scenery never changes!'

"LMAO"

2011-12-14T23:31:00.000-05:00

Here's a spiffy little last-minute stocking stuffer that perfectly sums up many a mental cold snap. Now available through the "Nuggets" Printfection store on a variety of apparel, including tshirts featuring the new "Burnout" and "Destroyed" line of fabrics:

"Rough around the edges has a whole new meaning with thisdelightfully distressed tee. Features a ground collar, sleeves and bottom hemfor a worn-in look with a timelessly edgy appeal."

Yeah, that's definitely what I'm shooting for is timelessly edgy appeal. Story of my life: delightfully distressed and burnt-out indeed. Order now and they might even arrive before 2012...

But wait: this fetching memento is also adorning 11oz & 16oz mugs, plus the official corporate logo (see profile) proudly emblazoned on the other side.

Where There's A Will...

2011-12-14T08:15:00.001-05:00

In keeping with the recent theme of posted panels, not to mention with all due respect for the Bird-Dog's eternal insistence on accompanying such outings.

Skijor Buff

2011-12-12T22:42:00.002-05:00

No, not buff as in a fan of Norwegian trivia, or waxing one's skis, or for that matter mushing in the buff. As an aside, I really like how the "Nuggets" header is completely obscured, which is some savvy marketing.

"Alaskan Bucket List"

2011-12-11T06:11:00.001-05:00

One of the spiffy things about being transplanted and traveling is you get to really realize what a special place you are from. Seems Alaska is on a lotta folks' "bucket list" and it assumes all sorts of mythic dimensions in the perspective of others, The Quitter notwithstanding. That said, all the years spent living in a dry cabin tends to give one an altogether different perspective (rhymes with "bucket"), further tempered by the extreme conditions (which just recently has made the national news).

Trivia: astute readers will note the seasonal shift between the doodle & the print version of the panel: this often occurs when I have a deadline during the winter season, and am caught culling from the compost heap where the original concept needs to be updated to better reflect current conditions. Also helps to keep me grounded whenever I'm someplace warm and ~~green~~ brown.

(More) Cartoonist Shorts: Interviews & Demos

2011-12-10T06:04:00.004-05:00

Alison Bechdel - screengrab from "Stuck In Vermont" vlog

Added a bunch more gems on the "Cartooning" YouTube channel while out trolling the series of tubes, and also a couple reposted from some other excellent web resources (hat-tip The Comics Reporter, The Daily Cartoonist and Mike Lynch's blog): Lynn Johnston, Ted Rall, Winsor McCay, Scott McCloud, Art Spiegelman, Johnny Ryan, Harvey Pekar, Mort Walker, Chris Browne, Roz Chast, Stan Lee (a few from him hosting the "Comic Book Greats" series with Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis, Jim Lee, Sergio Aragones and Will Eisner) + couple great little exposés on local Vermont talents Alison Bechdel (#109) and James Kochalka (#101) from a spiffy vlog called "Stuck In Vermont":

“ … focus on local artists, musicians and outsiders (all of whom are stuck here for one reason or another) and bring more attention to all the hip-n-hot VT art happenings and goings on 'round town.”

Sounds like a similar situation that happens a lot up in Alaska ("sourdough" = sour on the place but no dough to get out) and I'd include Maine as well except for all the off-season vacancies which speak otherwise as to being stuck. But what an awesome community oriented project to do, plus very cool to get a chance to watch some great cartooning in action. And coming off the recent rubbing of ~~shoulders~~ erasers experience with some giants in the field, demos and interviews like these are a major bonus when one is effectively marooned either in a cabin or on a remote island.

Also now as a result of running into the limit wall of 200 videos per channel, I split off Editorial Cartooning from Cartooning. Presumably this'll get parsed down even more as the collection continues to grow, but for now it's manageable with just the two subcategories. Enjoy... and feel free to also pass along any personal favorites you might have.

James Kochalka - screengrab from "Stuck In Vermont" vlog

"Restless Leg Syndrome"

2011-12-09T06:11:00.000-05:00

These ideas keep me up for half the night... so it's a good idea to keep some scraps, of paper, right next to the bed.

Making Faces II: Charles Addams

2011-12-07T06:12:00.000-05:00

Photograph by Al Fenn (1946)

Another image unearthed while ~~exhuming~~ researching the thesis was this one of Charles Addams, who came back to my attention (or, one should say, was resurrected) as a result of focusing on single-panel cartoons. Addams work, exemplified by his distinctive, signature style, can be held up as a prime example of the upper echelons of the medium. Aside from the weird and twisted nature of his panels (in league with Gahan Wilson), his popularity and position among the pantheon of cartoonist greats is evidence of Addams' influence and legacy. His lush, hallmark washes created pieces and iconic characters that were not just infamous because of their macabre subject matter, but also due to his craftsmanship and skill in creating often detailed compositions and subtle, if not outright creepy cartoon atmospheres. Many years ago my father gave me a copy of the huge hardcover tome "The World of Chas Addams" that was published in 1993, and it's a wonderful way to look over the cartoons in such a luxurious and large format, which only deepens ones appreciation for his work.

Along with the many other collections in book form, and the infamous "Addams Family" adaptations, he was probably foremost known as one of the flagship artists in The New Yorker magazine's stable of talent. For example, in the compilation My Crowd (1970 Simon & Schuster, NY), 185 out of the 189 drawings had originally appeared within The New Yorker. Another example spotlighting Addams' relationship with the magazine was the 2005 catalogue Art and Artists: New Yorker Cartoons from the Melvin R. Seiden Collection (published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science), where one of his panels is prominently displayed on page one. In an accompanying interview, current New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff says that "The more you look at a cartoon as a wonderful piece of art, the less it's doing its job as a cartoon. Cartoons are unpretentious, utilitarian art. They are art in service to another cause" and adds "Ultimately, I say that cartoons are only jokes; they have to be perceived as that. They shouldn't be overanalyzed. Let's enjoy them. They should be fun."

In contrast to functionally limited interpretations of the work of cartoonists such as Addams, one of the more exciting discoveries made during my recent studies was to stumble across a book in the sequential art collection of SCAD's Jen Library called The Comic Worlds of Peter Arno, William Steig, Charles Addams and Saul Steinberg (2005 The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore/London). Author Iain Topliss has written by far and away the best breakdown of the dynamics behind the single-panel cartoon that I've ever read to date. This book adds - if not single-handedly creates - a benchmark entry to the groundswell of academic interest on comic art as it relates to the study of popular culture. As one of the four creators focused on, Topliss investigates and explores Addams' cartoons in particular with a fascinating, scholarly perspective. As well as providing some unique insights about the artist himself, he analyzes and places the cartoons themselves within the context of a multitude of other factors. For example, Addams' work at times appears out of place or at odds with the readership demographics of the The New Yorker magazine, serving as more of a ghoulish and guilty pleasure for what, according to Topliss, is an "almost embarrassingly hegemonic document." From the perspective of a practicing cartoonist, it is humbling to recognize to what extent race and (middle) class play upon the field of cartooning - not just as the usual sexist catering to adolescent male markets, but the arguably narrow, solipsist appeal of your basic gag panel. It's one thing to tacitly admit the appeal of cartoons still has its detractors who think they are somehow beneath anyone's dignity and maturity, it's another to recognize one major reason why the medium has no connection with people not immediately inside of the "converted."

While Topliss calls Addams "justly famous as one of the best known, most influential, and funniest cartoonists of the twentieth century," he also wades into the reasons for why that is. Much is devoted to establishing the cartoons within the framework of psychoanalytical theories of humor, such as applying the Freudian terms of "tendentious wit" "mordant" and "gleeful venom" to Addam's panels. Transcending the label of "American Gothic" there is still a tremendous appeal behind Addams' work that crosses over into mainstream acceptance and still continues to this day, amongst both devotees and practitioners of the cartooning medium.

Severed hand-in-glove is the biography Charles Addams: A Cartoonists Life (2006 Random House, New York) by author Linda Davis (listen to an NPR interview here). A must-read for fans of the cartoonist and his work, Davis documents the life of a fairly unprepossessing fellow: kind to children, and a ladies man. Addams would often recount how disappointed folks would be upon meeting the master of the macabre for the first time, only to find out how relatively normal and unassuming he really was in person. The biography follows Addam's life from childhood, to his first panel printed in The New Yorker (1933) when he was twenty-two years old, and throughout the many successes in his career. In between relationship and marriage gossip the book is leavened with fascinating snippets of artistic insight, including his creative routine and behind-the-scene exposés of Addam's professional and commercial enterprises.
Ultimately both this book and Topliss' give an overall enthralling and insightful portrait of the man behind the infamous imagery and ghastly gags.

“I'm a wallflower.” - Lurch

Acadian Interlude

2011-12-06T06:24:00.017-05:00

St. Sauveur Mtn./Valley Peak/Southwest Harbor (from Acadia Mtn.)

Been hoofing it about the island a lot as of late: besides "smelling like a goat," rumor has it I sound like a broken record trying to get in "just one more" hurrah for hiking. Seems every day is surely the last one before it's gonna snow - which is not bad at all for this transplanted Alaskan... especially since it's December.

The past week has seen a few amazing treks on trails around Acadia: St. Sauveur Mtn./Valley Peak/Acadia Mtn. loop and the Perpendicular Trail/Mansell Mtn. loop over on the Western side of Mount Desert Island; the infamous Precipice Trail/Champlain Mtn.; plus even a little side-sortie over to Camden Hills State Park.
(More after the jump...)

Long Pond/Beech Mtn. from Mansell Mtn Overlook

One bonus aspect of off-season exploration that's particularly attractive has been the total absence of any crowds - as a matter of fact on all of the recent outings it's been either just myself or the ever-wonderful g-friend as a companion. This most recent trip up the Precipice Trail I heard and saw nothing besides a solitary buck sporting a magnificent rack, and the timely calling of a Red Tailed hawk upon reaching the summit of Champlain Mountain. About the noisiest critters have been packs of coyotes and wrathful chittering of Eastern Gray squirrels encamped around the house. What with the woods denuded of foliage you'd think the omnipresent background of traffic would intrude, except that most of the Park roads have been shut down for the winter, which necessitates accessing trails via side routes. And contrary to the flawless centerfold imagery promoted by the tourist industry, the views now are actually just as beautiful if not even more expansive. That would define the difference between eco-pornagraphy versus eroticism, where by virtue of omission the subtle peek-a-boo scenery reveals more with less, and one can better appreciate the many-faceted atmospheric moods of the place.

Camden Hills State Park (Megunticook Lake from Maiden Cliff)

The past few months of commuting by bicycle about Savannah evidently atrophied some key muscle groups, and it's been a brutal regiment of working out the kinks in my stiff legs and sore knees. Slippery rock and iron rungs were tricky to navigate on the Precipice Trail, but balmy temperatures in the mid-50's plus party-sunny conditions tempered any lingering logistical issues. No vertigo and a bit of an anticlimactic finish - the hype over the Precipice is probably more targeted to the middle-aged LL Bean demographic than jaded Alaskan trekkers, but still it was an immensely rewarding excursion that triggered nostalgic memories of the playground jungle-gym (excepting for the unnerving occasional broken rung). As with the epic stepping-stones up the Perpendicular Trail, there were several times I swore I heard Sméagol on the The Stairs of Cirith Ungol. The view from the top of Champlain remains one of my personal favorites anywhere in Acadia, second only to Penobscot and Pemetic Mountains - one reason being that by this point I've accumulated enough sweat-equity of the landscape to earn intimate, first-hand knowledge of exactly what it is I'm looking at over any given view. One hour for the "non-technical climb" to the top, including many a photographic pit-stop, for a total of two-and-a-half hours round-trip (returning to the truck via the Champlain North Face and Orange & Black Trails), and it was back to the ol' drawing board.

Precipice Trail: "Well-Rung"

This latest & greatest series topped off a spectacular season of experiencing Acadia National Park, notwithstanding working as a Ranger for most of it, plus the summer internship, and then bailing out to Savannah for what is arguably the most photogenic month - but that gives me something to look forward to next fall. There's still innumerable nooks & crannies to poke around that will keep us busy for the remainder of our tenure in Maine.

And as always, even more images are posted over in the "Down East" Picasa web-album...

Champlain Summit: Alpine Pool

"Cookie Jar"

2011-12-05T07:57:00.000-05:00

I don't know the exact ratio, but every so often, especially during times of high-output while cranking out a backlog of funnies, borderline tasteless stuff somehow just magically appears on the paper all by itself. I'm convinced it serves as a counter-weight to the usual content, balancing out the wholesome family entertainment with the occasional binge & purge of weirdness. That I've been loving me some Chas Addams ... more to come on that!

Books Range II: "Dipnetting in the River of Knowledge"

2011-12-04T06:48:00.002-05:00

Last year, right after moving from Fairbanks, I was tapped at the last-minute to do a cover for Greg Hill's second volume of his collected newspaper columns, which one can also read at the Open Writing website. Back in 2008 he commissioned me to do a series of spot illustrations for "Books Range," which was a fund-raising effort on behalf of the Library Foundation in support of the Noel Wien Public Library. I've written here before about what an important resource this jewel of a library is to our community, not to mention the phenomenal number of comics they have shelved in the collection.
(more after the jump)

(illustrations from Volume One)

For me, I always look at Greg's column as a sort of literary version of L.M. Boyd. Nothing beats talking to (or in this case reading the writings of) a reference librarian for a mind-expanding conversation. More often than not it's like interacting with a real live Google avatar - albeit one that will manually point you to some physical links which you can check out and take home. Note that I have a personal bias as to the staggering wealth of knowledge these folks have shelved in their mental archives since my own mother just so happened to be one. From the Good Reads review of the first volume: "Greg Hill has been the Fairbanks North Star Borough (Alaska) Director of Library Services for 18 years, and has written weekly library-related newspaper columns for a quarter-century without missing a deadline. Throughout that run "library-related" has been construed pretty loosely, because, rather than the usual "what's new at the library," Greg's intent is to lure readers by sharing some of the weird and wonderful information that constantly crops up at his busy public library. He's not above working in a bit of library lore, however, for he agrees with Jorge Luis Borges, who said "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library."

From a review in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner by local freelance writer David James:

"Hill is a relentless reader, and one of the first things that will impress anyone who picks up this collection is the sheer volume of books he mentions in his columns. This, coupled with his strong grasp of history and an ability to draw connections across the span of centuries, allows Hill to reveal how human knowledge builds upon (and sometimes rejects) itself. In the process, some fascinating nuggets from the past emerge." - Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Librarian’s columns come to life in ‘Books Range 2’

As I'm fond of frequently reminding students, you are the best model - cheap and on-hand at any given time - to to use for reference shots. Seems I'm always stumbling over tricky poses, especially with regards to details like proper hand placement (on that note, see here for an excellent example of a fail). Of course, this is where having a lot of experience in figure drawing can really help out, and is another reason to recommend if not enrolling in a formal studio class than at the least joining up with a local sketch group that offers open model sessions to stay in practice. That said, nothing beats dipnetting imaginary salmon in the living room (except, according to the cats, cleaning them). And please consider helping out the Library Foundation by picking up a copy of the book, or, check one out at the library!

Art Troll: Cobblestones

2011-12-03T05:53:00.076-05:00

Ha - some mysterious voyeur lurking deep in the Acadian woods caught an action shot (second image down) of mebeing a total poseur …er, I mean “cartooning en plein air.”

Photo: DRHunt/NPS

And for a big, hairy teaser to an upcoming pen & ink project (of the same sort as this past summer's internship), here's a scan of the reference sketch that I was actually working on...

"Who's that tripping over my bridge?"

Bonus detail shot posted below of this particularly gorgeous cobblestone bridge: by far & away my favorite part of Rockefeller’s 45-mile long network ofthe carriage roads are the sixteen stone bridges that span cliffs, road and stream throughoutAcadia National Park. Made from locally quarried granite these structures are impressive icons of stonecutter history. Rock on: a few more images in the Picasa "Down East" album.

"Mama Grizzly"

2011-12-02T06:03:00.000-05:00

Threatened/endangered, whatever. Point is the popularity contest is pretty much over: aside from the chewed-over cat-toy effect, a charismatic blessing endowed by the Quitter has about as much political appeal as a wad of stale gum stuck on a ballot, especially in my old neck of the woods. The defacto cheerleader and poster-girl for the Tea Party insurrection has effectively worn out even the ankle-biters - but I had forgotten all about this panel which resurfaced in the pages of the Ester Republic (I just received the April/May issue... there is a wee bit of a time-zone lag from Alaska to Maine). What's ~~funniest~~ sad is that even if the panel was done a year ago, like some folk's gullibility, it never gets old.

Season's Bleatings (Merch Repost)

2011-12-01T08:25:00.003-05:00

Only 389 days until next Xmas, assuming you forget this year. A ~~crass commercialism~~ cheerful holiday reminder about the classic "Nuggets" stuff available through the Printfection storefront, which can be seen by clicking on this link here. Thanks!

Also available through Printfection: the companion storefront for the "LowTide" feature - follow this link for more information....
New designs will be added over time, and feel free to comment with any suggestions or share feedback. This is a great way to support Ink & Snow if you are a reader, fan or friend - putting the fun in fundraising and all that. Thanks again!

Mikeo'

2011-11-30T09:27:00.009-05:00

(Cover by Scot Eaton)

"Celebrating 50 years of the Marvel era of comics! In 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby changed the face of comics forever - and Marvel's been doing the same ever since! This amazing overview covers the tumultuous history of the Marvel Universe, from the introduction of the Fantastic Four to FEAR ITSELF - and everything in between! An incredible walk down memory lane for longtime fans or the perfect primer for the uninitiated! Filled with hundreds of images from the superstars of five decades!" - marvel.wikia

A quick hurrah here for a former classmate from SCAD who has another project hitting the shelves as of today: "History of the Marvel Universe #1." Back in the day he professionally produced one of the best drawn strips for The District, SCAD's student newspaper, and his "Queer & Breeder" feature was one of my personal favorites to read. Mike's been a real inspiration to me personally to finish my own MFA degree, as he's one of the comparative few who continued on after graduating - not just in drawing but also teaching as a Professor of Media Arts at the Art Institute of Washington. Add to that a freelance business plus being a head writer and editor at Marvel's "Special Projects Department," and it's easy to see why he personifies the work ethic of a successful sequential artist. This is a case in point on a current topic of concern: that of the relatively long odds on a graduate continuing a career in the creative arts. Given grim anecdotal observations of the ratio of BFA graduates within my own class at UAF who still maintained an active presence in the arts community after completing their degrees, it is a significant challenge to not only produce artwork but to also actually earn a living at it. I recall reading the excellent and highly recommended (in fact the only textbook I ever assigned to art majors that I taught) book "Art & Fear" (2001 Ted Orland and David Bayles) which cites that 98% of art students will no longer be practicing within five years of graduating. I would look around the room of the 14 graduate students in the Sequential Art department (there are now approximately 40) and did the math... wondering who would still be ~~standing~~ drawing when the eraser dust settled. Not surprisingly Mike is proof it's possible.

"Sexting"

2011-11-28T08:45:00.004-05:00

Actually got my very first cell-phone a couple months ago for my Savannah hiatus, and it only took a few weeks to realize exactly why none of my calls were going through: something to do with a color-blindness and the dial vs disconnect thingy. Since returning to Bar Harbor the disconnect is easier to figure out, as there's worse coverage here on the island than in the middle of Alaska. Hooray for palm-sized marvels of modern technology, yet I still had to ask the reference librarian for old-school tech-support during my last visit: she sharpened my pencil.

Covert Winter Tourism

2011-11-27T06:02:00.002-05:00

Our mellow Thanksgiving consisted of a nice hike down a snowed-in road to explore the Pretty Marsh area on the Western side of Mount Desert Island. Afterwards, a stop at one of the popular (now deserted) tourist-traps - the iconic Bass Harbor Lighthouse. This diptych is after clambering down the rocks to stand in one spot, first turning left, and then to the right, to catch the sunset on the cliffside. It was inspirational and motivational to review the "Down East" portfolio of images after an extended hiatus, then lace up the hiking boots and break out the trail map again. Good to be back in this neck of the woods.

Hip Hip Hooray

2011-11-26T07:26:00.002-05:00

Damn it, now I have to shave my goatee: SCAD - now my official alma mater - made the cut for being one of the top ten "Hipster" schools in the nation. Still, they failed to give any mention to the hippest department - Sequential Art. Then again, being tagged by the Huffington Post pretty much guarantees automatic un-hipness... now the Fluffington Post on the other hand...

Making Faces: Carlo Vinci

2011-11-25T11:25:00.002-05:00

Photograph by Allan Grant (1960)

Came across this gem while trolling the image-search archives of LIFE photos (hosted by Google), which is always a great way to ~~waste~~ ~~lose~~ spend some time. The picture is of Carlo Vinci, a cornerstone animator with Hanna-Barbera, catching - or researching - the perfect expression for the character "Fred" from the feature The Flintstones (the studio also created Tom & Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, The Smurfs etc.). Via Boing-Boing is this classic Terrytoons short "Gyspy Life"(starring Mighty Mouse) showcasing Vinci's beautiful style:

Thanxsgiving

2011-11-23T06:03:00.007-05:00

"Homesick Southerner"

2011-11-22T11:22:00.000-05:00

Done as a pun on the original "Homesick Alaskan" panel upon returning for the first time from Savannah, this one is strictly for folks who've ever migrated from the swamplands of the South to the barren, hostile tundra (basically anywhere north of Virginia). Any additional editorializing about having one's head in a goddamned oven is purely coincidental: not meant to imply it's an experience similar committing suicide in a sauna.

Mark Streeter

2011-11-21T11:21:00.016-05:00

Twenty-four hours before leaving Savannah I took a last-minute opportunity to visit with Mark Streeter, who was very gracious in setting aside an hour of his time on what is the busiest day of the week at his job as the staff editorial cartoonist for the Savannah Morning News. Fridays are crunch-time for the funnies, as Mark puts in five days a week, but his panels run six days, necessitating a double-hitter at the end of the week. A member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists his work is routinely among the featured artists represented in the annual Best Editorial Cartoons collections, and here is an archive of current work displayed at Savannah Now plus more samples on Cagle Post.

A life-long resident of Georgia, Streeter grew up on Tybee Island, and his ~~roots~~ cypress knees are sunk deep in the community, which is in turn reflected by the awareness, sensitivity and connectedness of his drawings. Since both his father, and grandfather before him, were also in the newspaper business, one could say the printer's ink runs strong in the Streeter veins: right out of high school Mark began worked at an entry-level position for the Savannah paper in the engraving/platemaking department. Always wanting to be an editorial cartoonist, he started covertly adding in his own panels on the proof sheets of the editorial page - as the cartoon panel was the last page element added there was always a convenient blank space - and in this way his work caught the eyes of the editors as they proofed the page. In 1984 they finally ran his first panel, five years later found Mark moonlighting as a freelancer, producing three to four panels a week in the Evening Press edition. In 1992 a full-time position was created, which now sees him, thirty-seven years later, occupying one of the relatively few staff gigs in the nation associated with a newspaper as their official editorial cartoonist. Mark is humbled with the awareness of how exceptionally rare and lucky it is to have such a position, especially with a comparatively smaller-sized paper (approximately 75k Sunday circulation). But given his skill and passion, it's mutually advantageous: both the readership in Savannah and the publishers are extremely fortunate to have such a unique caliber of talent employed at their paper. This particular publication seems to be bucking the nation-wide trend where far too many newspapers are effectively racing to the bottom, aided and abetted by the cannibalistic business ethics of the syndicates, continually undermining and devaluing the cartoonist's trade.

Along these lines Mark's advice to folks starting out in the funny business is to "take 'em what they can't buy" - as local content is still a distinguishing aspect for a successful newspaper. This rewards of such an approach are obvious upon arriving at the stupendous new building for the Savannah Morning News: eight years ago when I first visited Streeter at their previous digs in downtown Savannah, his office was about the size of a closet. First thing I noticed in his current studio was the beautiful antique "Hamilton Economy" drafting table, which I promptly geeked out over by crawling around underneath it (same design as the hundred-year-old one I have in storage up in Alaska). Not to mention you'd think with all the new room there'd be a corresponding sprawl of the usual artistic clutter, but Streeter's lair mirrors his work: clean and well- organized but with touches of interesting detail.

Above is great example of one of Streeter's panels, showcasing his easy, loose style of contour line and distinctive lettering. Needless to say his pun on Alfred E. Neuman as the Bird ~~Girl~~ Brain was a huge hit in the Sequential Art department after the recent SCAD MAD events. Armed with an impressive array of Sharpies, dip-pens, inkwells (Phil Martin's Bombay Black) and a stack of Strathmore, Streeter first pencils his rough designs on newsprint and/or tracing paper before lightboxing the final composition onto 11x14" watercolor paper. In this way he can later complete the piece by had using ink wash for adding value to the original, but first, the linework is scanned into the computer where he uses a graphics program that I hadn't heard of - MultiAd Creator software - to add in a range of halftones for the print version.

Mark mentioned how oftentimes the easy part is when "you know what you're going to draw, just not how you're going to draw it." There's "no quota" as far as the ratio of local issues versus national topics, the content of Mark's panels are purely "news driven." One of the comments he made regarding the occasional aspiring talents who visit from SCAD that express interest in becoming an editorial cartoonist is how one of the particular, defining attributes of the profession is being a "news junkie." Even if one can draw, it doesn't necessarily translate into being an effective editorial cartoonist (as opposed to say, an illustrator). Streeter says it's a "24-hour mindset" that means working "not just in the office but all the time" where one is "trolling constantly" - be it watching television broadcasts, listening to radio programs, or reading websites and newspapers. Paradoxically many of these mediums have had a debatable effect on editorial panels, as political cartooning now faces competition from the plethora of different "avenues for satire," compared to back in the day when the editorial panel was the primary source of such opinionated entertainment in America. Nowadays "everybody has their own outlet," and unfortunately this has led to the current sad state of affairs in the hostile, confrontational and divisive style of discourse that stands for debate. All one has to do is skim the comment section of any news website to see examples of that in action.

Often providing a counterpoint to the prevailing position of the paper, Streeter sees his task is to either "illuminate or reflect" upon an issue, and the dynamics with the editors of the paper is one of a long-standing partnership: he "doesn't tell them what to write and they don't tell him what to draw." This symbiotic relationship is partly from practiced professionalism (as per Tom Richmond's "works well with others" factor), and a respect for his obvious skill. Evidence of this accomplished ease and trust in his trade is that "it's rare that they get spiked"- at best only put off, timed so as to not conflict with a stance of an editorial position published on that particular day. Easily approachable, and only an email or phonecall away from the public, the publisher, editor and Streeter himself are always aware of the impact, effect and connection his work has with the newspaper's readership. Mark recounted the satisfaction he has from hearing or seeing firsthand the appreciation someone has, often years later, for something he had drawn that touched them personally. This is always a special occasion, since he noted the occupational trademark of working in isolation, and it often seems the only time anybody bothers to offer feedback is when they are either offended or don't get the point of the panel. One of the fringe benefits to doing six editorials a week means he is occasionally afforded the luxury of catering to a comparatively smaller audience on a topic or issue that is of particular relevance to only them. This fosters an even more intimate connection with the community, which ultimately serves to tighten the publication's pertinence and relevance.

A true veteran of the volatile fortunes in the print industry, Streeter is currently on his fourth different publisher (yet still working with the same editor): over the years this time in the proverbial trenches shows he knows hat works and has staying power. Students of sequential art in the area would do well to learn from the wealth of experience that Mark has to offer, and duly note the habits and discipline of an established talent in the medium of cartooning. It was a kick in the creative pants to visit with him, and it made for a perfect capstone for my creative encampment in Savannah.

Also check out his book of collected works: "Direct Hits and Cheap Shots: It's all a matter of perspective."

Sample editorial page from the Savannah paper featuring one of Streeter's panels

"Migrate Home"

2011-11-20T11:20:00.001-05:00

This was my farewell piece as the comics editor at The District student newspaper in Savannah: a full page spread for my final issue, and being that this particular one was in full-color, I got the whole last/back page. It also doubled as a farewell to Georgia as I migrated back home to the Hinterland. And so it's equally fitting to put up this piece as a way to say so-long again to the South while heading back North (as of this posting), but this time to Maine, and who knows, ultimately back home to Alaska.

In many ways this was my grand-slam final for demonstrating everything that I had learned while at SCAD in the Sequential Art department. There are some subtle storytelling tricks used to advance the narrative and improve reader flow between the panels such as: some brushwork to vary the line-weight (never having picked up a brush before starting my studies at SCAD); deliberate arrangement of "pointer" elements (horizontal elements that lead the eye down the page); purposeful placement of caption boxes (also helping to guide the eye down & across the page); the composition of each panel and also the overall page design inc. the directions of figures therein (ex: I keep facing left until the end panel) along with use of white space and color (ex: the gradation used in the sky as a background). I also drew from the residual memory of all my favorite places that I'd done many a reference sketch of for other pieces, like Bonaventure Cemetery and the Barrier Island environments, along with signature species of flora and fauna in the form of my newfound friends and adopted/extended family.

This posting concludes the backlog of my old MFA material under the "SCAD" topic heading (though there's a few stray essays still in draft about miscellaneous tangents), and wraps up another Big Adventure. Looking back through the blog archives, a year ago I was safely ensconced in a snug little cabin in the middle of the woods in the middle of Alaska, teaching & 'tooning - then transplanted to an island off the coast of Maine, then down South to Savannah. At this point I won't be holding my breath as to what the future has in store, but safe to say I'm really looking forward to staying put for at least a while, and catch up on some larger, longer projects along with producing the usual nonsense.

"Moon River"

2011-11-19T06:17:00.000-05:00

Today's the last day of class! Tomorrow I leave and head north (only as far as Maine).
Lyrics from the Johnny Mercer 1961 classic "Moon River," and featuring the antics of my newly adopted roster of Southern critters, with a hat-tip to my personal oasis in Savannah, Moon River Brewing Company.

"Please, Please, Please"

2011-11-17T23:16:00.000-05:00

Lyrics adopted from the James Brown 1956 song "Please, Please, Please," which, while not necessarily being a particularly subtle tune, recasting it serves as a simple commentary on the sad state of affairs facing the other denizens of our planet. Hat-tip to John Platt's blog, "Extinction Countdown." And while you're at it, buy some condoms.

There ain't much in the way of progressive activism in music out there championing this issue (notable exception in Megadeth's "Countdown to Extinction"), but one of my back-burner projects is adapting the classic Genesis tune "Squonk" as it definitely resonates with the sentiment:

"In season, out of season
What's the difference when you don't know the reason."

- Banks/Rutherford