Mixed metaphors

Now, I don't wanna give too much away... but in the cartoon after the next cartoon, I have an overly mixed metaphor. There are a group of characters that protect the "Universal Economy," against intergalactic threats. They are a bit of a parody of the "Guardians of the Universe," from DC comics.

In the original script, they are more of a mix of the 7 dwarves and the Guardians. However, I started drawing them this Sunday, while John McLaughlin's voice was still ringing in my ears...and the leader ended up looking like the former priest turned talk-show mediator.

Then I ended up drawing the other "Guardians" as other Sunday talk-show moderators.

It does not make much sense, but it made me smile. Also, it gives them good voices for the voice actors to try and mimic.

The caricatures need a bit of work...but see if you can name them.

Speaking of weird; saw Chuck Norris this weekend.

I had a 4 hour Kung-fu seminar, and afterwards got some tickets from our teacher to go see the World Combat League, which is owned by Chuck Norris, who was in the crowd. It was pretty fun, then afterwards Mandy and I had a great meal at Cafe Jezebel here in Austin.

I'm off to read a little before bed, Mandy and I have been reading Fiasco by Tom Ricks recently, which has been pretty good.

Fidel-ities

So, Fidel Castro is in the script for the next cartoon. This got me thinking. Considering the fella's current medical condition and age; it may not be such a great idea. With my luck, he'd kick the commie bucket the same day the cartoon came out, and I'D look like the evil dictator who oppressed and destroyed a once proud nation.

Then I remembered this cartoon:

The cartoon is by Mike Peters, and is in the Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year: 1995 edition. This cartoon making fun of how long Castro has been a pain, is itself 12 years old. It is more about an overthrow and his government falling than the dinosaur dying, but is still kind of relevant. This only strengthens the basis behind the cartoons that are coming out over the next few months. By the way, the reason the cartoon above has a giant ink stain is because I started doing editorial cartoons for my university paper and a local paper in 1995. I carried this book with me everywhere. I was the prententious type of wanna-be-editorial cartoonist who did all my cartoons with a bottle of ink, and old-school pen nibs. This means I ruined lots of clothes, carpets, books, and 3/4-finished editorial cartoons.

I highly recommend the "Best of Editorial Cartoons..." series edited by Charles Brooks. I have most of the editions from 1975-2006. I'm not just saying that so that the fine folks at Penguin Press won't ask me to take these images down, but because they are great books for inspiration and design. Also, the books that Darryl Cagle puts out are great, as is his website.

Here are some more Castro toons I ran across today:

I also ran across this cartoon, which must have somewhat subconciously influenced me a bit in the next few scripts:

Looking at all of these cartoons today reminded me just how amazing an artform editorial cartooning is. It is a shame that it has been dying a slow painful death; and not just because of Islamic fatwahs on Danish cartoonists. Newspapers have been reducing budgets and the cartoonists are usually the first to go. I would say that becoming an editorial cartoonist might be the hardest job to obtain in the graphic arts. This is because there are so few positions out there, when somepme gets hired as an editorial cartoonists they tend to stay there for a while, and if they dont get fired the paper tends to remove the position when they leave. God bless folks like Mr. Cagle who are exploring ways to keep the artform alive in syndication and online.

So, I threw away my plan to really take my time with the design and spent about 30 minutes whipping out Castro for the next cartoon. And I a pretty pleased with it to be honest with you.

I included the crappy sketch to show how much better my life would be, and how much less paper I would waste if I had a Cintiq.

I was going to talk more about design influences and processes, but this blog took too long, and I need to get back to drawing before it gets to late...so I will leave that for another day.

Channel Frederator

So, "To bleep or not to bleep" is a part of the most recent installment of Channel Frederator.

I submitted the cartoon a long time ago. Over a year, actually. I think it was submitted it way back in Nov, 2005. So, when I got the e-mail saying it was going to be in the new podcast, I was very surprised.

Watching this cartoon is kind of painful now. I guess anything that you do, and see over and over and over again gets painful to watch, especially so long after the fact. Some of the animation is pretty rough...

Another thing, when I watched the podcast, was that the audible bleeps had dropped out for some. Hopefully that is not the case when everybody watches it. The bleeps really help the piece. They are in the name, and one gag doesn't really work without them. In a strange way it also makes the piece seem even dirtier to me.

All that being said, I am very glad to be a included in Channel Frederator...they have a great podcast.

New Years....

S'funny. I thought I was keeping up with this. Next thing I know I am more than 15 days behind.

I started working on the storyboards for the next cartoon. Gonna try to spend a little more time on the design process on this episode.

Admittedly, I have been taking it a bit easy, as far as working on Captain Capitalism is concerned, the past couple weeks. There is usually a big push finishing the cartoons. Since the last cartoon had a kind of deadline with the holidays, I let a lot of things slip. I spend a lot of time sitting in a chair. Since I am have my black belt test in a few months, I have been trying to get back in shape, to make up for the holidays and the last cartoon.

I am also trying to talk someone into sponsoring the shorts, in a way, and do the whole advertising in the cartoon sort of deal, like when Fred Flintstone would schill Winstons. I think it would be very fitting for the character.

A nice guy, Tom Luffman, has a nicer girlfriend. She bought him a bunch of Captain Capitalism merchandise, and keeping to my word, I did a sketch for him. Tom is a boxing writer, being a fan myself, I decided to do a boxing themed print for Tom. Called "K.O. of the Pinko."

I love George Bellows' boxing paintings. So I looked at several them before starting.
Then I realized I would never have the ability to create something like that , so I dismissed everything and made this rubbish:
then I tied the rubbish down:
which finally became this:

Been working from home the past few days...it has been terribly cold here, for Texas. It snowed. Something we don't see so often. Nikita (my husky) has become so Texanized, that despite her breed, she too was confused by the snow:


Here are some of those cake pictures I have talked about previously:
The cake pan is only two years younger than I am.

The abstract Captain America that was made for my 31st b-day.


Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, made immortal in cake for the last UFC pay-per-view:

Me and the champ-cake:

Hopefully I will be back with some boards soon. Apparently, "To bleep or bleep" is going to be on Channel Frederator this week...which is strange since it has been so long since that cartoon came out...but I will be back this week to talk about that and provide links.