One exciting thing that helps the Green Eggs & Ham show leap from the screen is the magnificent music of composer David Newman, a veteran composer of many movie scores over the years (Galaxy Quest, The Sandlot, Hoffa, Ice Age, etc.). I had the pleasure of watching him work his magic with an orchestra in the recording studio one day, and afterwards felt the urge to Seussify him.
David Newman is quite musical, Making melodies that are Seussical.
Later in the year, I snapped this second image of David onstage at The Hollywood Bowl where he conducted a concert of John Williams’ music. Film music royalty.
That night, John Williams spoke of his friendship with David’s father, Alfred Newman, the great composer and former head of music for 20th Century Fox (he wrote the fanfare in front of all Fox movies!)
Have any of you Netflix subscribers been able to catch any of the new Green Eggs & Ham show that unfurled last Friday? Did you like Green Eggs & Ham? Would you, could you watch them in a house? How about watching with a mouse?
Perhaps I haven’t talked much about it here on the ol’ blog, but I spent the last half of 2018 and the first half of 2019 working at Warner Bros. Animation on this terrific series in the story department! It was a blast to be able to work on an adaptation of my favorite Dr. Seuss book from when I was a kid.
I can’t show any of my actual work on the show since what I worked on hasn’t been released yet, but here’s a quick little ink & watercolor piece I did as a prize for our GEAH crew’s Friday night game night. Each Friday night after work, those who could would stick around for a game. One night I decided to contribute a mystery prize in an envelope for whoever the winner would be that night. It happened to go to Reem Aliadeeb, our show’s character designer!
What do fish sellers and cartoonists have in common? They both fill paper with fish.
Here’s a page from my sketchbook that I drew during a fall visit to Kitty Hawk, NC. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Outer Banks over the years beginning when I was ten years old. Ironically, I don’t fish when I’m there, but I have been known to do some crabbing once in a while. Take that however you wish.
Right now these fish are fresh, but not looking forward to when they start to stink.
My friend James Martin teaches at the Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida, where they are currently having an exhibition of work by a cartooning hero of mine, Jack Davis.
Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture shows a variety of Jack’s work over a 60+ year career and will be on display until December 6. What James alerted me to, is that an illustration I did as a gift for Jack thirteen years ago happens to also be in the exhibit!
I was from the North, Jack Davis was from the South, yet we were still friends.
If I’m not mistaken, it looks like the drawing to the left of mine could be an original Mort Drucker sketch, and on the right might be a Dan Piraro. Yikes! Heavy company to be in.
Let that be a lesson to you, kids – when you do a doodle for a friend, make sure it is the best doodle you can possibly do. It just might end up in a museum!
By the way, HERE is a very complimentary review by Marty Fugate in the Herald Tribune newspaper that shows some of Jack’s work in the show. If you are in the vicinity of Sarasota, Florida, get out to see this show!!!
They say it is Inktober beginning today – the month when many artists post an ink drawing each day. I don’t generally participate since I usually shake my fist at bandwagons, but I’ll likely have a few other ink drawings scattered around the next 30 days as I often do each month.
For an Inktober drawing to be valid, it has to be inked with genuine, real ink. None of this digital stuff. Donald here was inked primarily with my trusty ol’ Pentel brush pen, and a few other mechanical pens. Somehow, I managed to not require any white-out.
Would be so much easier to know what he’s mad about if one could understand his speech.
