Sketch O’The Week

Have to cheat on “Sketch o’The Week” this week because I am swamped playing catch-up in the studio. This is from an old sketchbook, circa 1999. They are quick studies of cartooning legend Jeff MacNelly, of Shoe and multiple pulitzer prize winning editorial cartooning fame. He was a speaker at my very first National Cartoonist Society Reuben weekend in San Antonio in 1999, and I did these studies during his presentation. I’ve always been in awe at MacNelly’s immense talent, and it was a thrill to get to hear him speak. I remember at the time he was talking about how he was beginning to do more and more of his work on the computer, and that he thought it would be very soon that he and many other cartoonists would eschew paper and pen completely for digital. He seemed completely willing to give up the traditional tools to do the work on the computer, even if it meant he would never produce another piece of physical original art.

Sadly he never got the chance to see his prediction come true. He died of Lymphoma only a year later. As you can see he signed in my sketchbook, so I was lucky to get to meet him.