Don't Forget To Pay Your Taxes!

It's Tax Day! And Uncle Sam wants you to do your part!

Make sure you file those returns on time... or else Uncle Sam will get even, his way...

When he gets angry, he might even go on a rampage like King Kong...

And once the shirt comes off, there's truly no stopping him!

And if you still don't want to pay your taxes, as a last resort, he'll steal your children and sell them as slaves in a foreign land!

Better get those forms in order!

Did you say "Abe Lincoln"?

It's allergy season again, and last night was a hellride for Ol' Kingfish. I just couldn't stop sneezing. Hence, this illustration of the day.

God bless you, my friend!

Takin' Off Like Bob & Doug

I'm taking off tomorrow morning on a trip to Montreal, Canada (also known as "America's Europe"), so I thought I'd leave you with a little doodle I cooked up today. I'm not really sure how well this is translating, but basically the one guy is pulling on the other guy's tongue, and his skin is being pulled off from the inside as it is directly attached to the base of his tongue.

See you next week!

Ren & Stimpy Should Maybe Try Some Tums

Here's a Ren & Stimpy Doodle I just felt like doing today. I wanted to give them specific expressions, and right now it looks like they're both ready to throw up or something. It feels like in the last day or two I've been surrounded by sick people; maybe that's showing through a little.

Coming Soon To A Theater Near You

Look at these awesome designs for the new Yogi Bear movie. They look great, don't they- and they've cast Dan Aykroyd as the voice of Yogi, and Justin Timberlake as Boo Boo. I've always thought that a young cartoon bear cub should have the voice of a human man. And he's a huge pop star, too, so you know he'd be a great voice actor.

April Fool.


Not about the movie- it is supposedly happening. But obviously this entire concept is ridiculous. Why make this movie? What is the point of taking characters, designed in 2D by experts in a deliberately flat and stylized way, and trying to make them look "real"?


And the casting of Timberlake is so inappropriate, it's just embarrassing- obvious corporate pandering to a completely irrelevant demographic.

The original Ed Benedict design

Although I bet a ton of kids are going to flock to the theaters when they hear Dan Aykroyd is in it.


I hate to use this blog to rant, because I like it to remain more positive in tone (I don't want my wife to think of me as a curmudgeon either!), but I saw this and had to comment. What do you think?

Sketchbook to Strip

When I draw or illustrate, it's really difficult to get the finished version to look like the pencil sketch. The rough lines and loose drawing very often feels more lively, with more personality. However, the pencil sketches lack what the finished drawing needs- stronger layout, better-defined lines so the picture reads with more clarity. To look professional and suitable for print you need that extra step.

Below you can see what I mean. This is a comic strip- called A Case Of The Mondays- that I do for our internal company newsletter. This one is based on the premise that we have a lot of potted plants in the office.

I can't really say much for the joke, except that if you worked here you'd probably like it.

Anyway, I feel that the pencil sketches, particularly on the first two panels, have a great quality to them. I could have matched the poses up better if I spent more time on it, but with cartoons a certain amount of spontaneity is really important.

I'll leave you with a panel I cut. This would have been the second panel- but it actually kind of works by itself in a way, doesn't it? In a creepy kind of way. 

Frazetta

Here's a cool illustration I came across a few days ago on the Illustration Art blog:

It's by Frank Frazetta, who is primarily a science fiction illustrator but must have done this for a book or magazine or something along the way. For me, it's a shining example of what makes illustration stand alone as remarkable, underappreciated art form. The forms are rendered so well, showing real weight, movement and power. Positive and negative shapes are clearly defined to create a complete composition. And despite the broad, heavy brushwork, the details are all there (click on the image for a closeup- in particular, look at all the muscles and bone structure in the horse's face).

If you were to see this same scene in a modern art museum today, it would be made in primary colors and intentionally made to look like a six-year-old did it. Personally, I am much more impressed with expert craft than any abstract statement about the artist's life. A picture like this speaks to me and really turns something on in my mind.

This is my attempt to copy Frazetta... I figure if I copy guys like this it can only help me improve in terms of composition and contrast.

Above is my drawing laid on top of Frazetta's, to see how accurate I was. The horse is ok, but I admittedly spent a lot more time on it. The guy is more off- his leg is too long and not high enough, the arm not thrown back enough. Looking at my version on its own, though, I do still think it works.

Here, I digitally went over it in Photoshop just for kicks. (I actually think it may be an improvement on the straight pencil version.)

Above: From MAD Magazine #90, 1964. More on Frank here!