Archive for May 29th, 2010
May 29th, 2010 | Posted in General
Artwork by Patrick McDonnell The annual Reuben Awards from the National Cartoonists Society is currenty happening in Jersey City, NJ. I’m at the event all weekend, which is filled with speakers, seminars, parties and general mayhem. Tonight is the big awards banquet. Here, again, are the nominees: The Reuben Award for “Cartoonist of the Year”: Stephen Pastis Dan Piraro Richard Thompson TELEVISION ANIMATION Kevin Deters – “Walt Disney Prep and Landing” Mike Gray – “The Infinite Goliath” Seth McFarlane – “Family Guy” FEATURE ANIMATION Ronnie del Carmen – Storyboard Artist – “Up” Tomm Moore – Director – “The Secret of Kells” Barry Reynolds – Character… READ MORE
April 29th, 2010 | Posted in News
Yes indeed. This Saturday is the greatly anticipated annual Free Comic Book Day. The first Saturday in May your local comic book shop (most, anyway) give away free comics as part of this great promotion. The idea is to get people into the store to see that comics are still a great source of storytelling entertainment, and hopefully pick up a few new readers along the way. This year’s slate of free comics looks terrific, including familiar faces and some new and unique title ideas. I see the reboot of The Green Hornet from Kevin Smith is one of the lot… I wonder if this… READ MORE
March 29th, 2010 | Posted in General
Artwork by Anton Emdin Those who frequent The MAD Blog know I do not lightly recommend artist’s blogs or websites. There are so many good ones (and so, SO many bad ones) that singling one out is tough to do. However, I have no problem in recommending the spankin’ new blog of Australian cartoonist and illustrator Anton Emdin. Anton sat next to me at the Australian Cartoonist Association’s Stanley Awards: Anton and me down under … where he won a Stanley for Best Illustrator. As it happens he is also one of the nominees for the National Cartoonists Society’s divisional award for best Magazine Illustration/… READ MORE
January 29th, 2010 | Posted in General
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Uzvhok6N4 Here’s a little video from our recent visit to Cuba, courtesy of Lex Fajardo, creator of Kid Beowulf, artist/director at the Schulz Studios and one of our group of traveling cartoonists. It’s a short clip of me and one of the Palante! cartoonists drawing one another. Follow this link to read Lex’s thoughts on the trip. You can also listen to another cartoonist from our trip, MythTickle‘s Justin Thompson, talk about the experience on the latest episode of the podcast Comics: Coast to Coast. READ MORE
December 29th, 2009 | Posted in Tutorials
All these short tutorials are part of a larger and much more in-depth book I wrote on how to draw caricatures called The Mad Art of Caricature! now available to order online. One of the most common problems I hear about from other caricaturists is that women are harder to draw than men. Many struggle to make their caricatures of women look feminine, and often feel their female subjects look like “drag queens”. I think it’s a myth that women, particularly beautiful women, are harder to caricature than men. Women have the same sets of features that men have, but the need to differentiate the… READ MORE
November 29th, 2009 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Did you go to art school? If you did, which one? When I’m older, I want to go to an art university but I don’t know which ones are really good yet, or which ones teach cartooning. Do you even have to go to college to be a cartoonist? A: Yes, I went to art school (The College of Visual Arts, St. Paul, MN) but never had a cartooning class. I was taught traditional drawing, painting and illustration… there was virtually no such thing as a university that taught cartooning back in the 1980’s (except perhaps the School of Visual Arts in New York… READ MORE
October 29th, 2009 | Posted in General
Arriving at the airport in Kuwait City, I was prepared for some major culture shock. Traveling in Europe is one thing… usually you can figure out the meaning of things like signs based on the common nature of the Latin based languages, and they all use the same basic alphabetical charters which at least look familiar. Arabic, on the other hand, is totally indecipherable to one with no knowledge of the language. Every time I saw something written in Arabic I had the impulse to turn it upside down. The Kuwait Airport My fears were groundless. Almost every sign is Kuwait, especially road and direction… READ MORE
September 29th, 2009 | Posted in News
This past weekend the Southeast chapter of the National Cartoonists Society had a chapter event in Asheville, NC featuring a whole gaggle of members of the “Usual Gang of Idiots”, plus a bunch of other terrific cartoonists. I wish I would have been able to attend, but it was just impossible for me to get away. The lineup of speakers above is certainly stellar. However, due to the magic of the internet here are three YouTube videos featuring Nick Meglin and Jack Davis. Great stuff from two great guys: EDIT- Sadly somebody objected to the posting of these videos, presumably either Nick or Jack, and… READ MORE
