The other day I was reading an article saying that some ocean archaeologists found what they believe to be the anchor from Blackbeard’s actual ship off the coast of North Carolina! I got all excited about it, and for days I was thinking about pirates! I even went so far as to sketch this one on a letter I was writing to a friend. (Yes, some of us still write real letters – it’s better than e-mail to give friends real sketches.) Then I went back and re-read the article, and found that it had been posted in 2011. So much for current events.
Well, I suppose that since the anchor was found in the ocean, that qualifies it for being a current event no matter how you look at it. (Can I have a rimshot?)
This may not exactly be the pirate’s chest you were looking for.
Welcome back to work after the long holiday weekend! You know that’s where you are as you read this. You were too busy relaxing and having fun over the Memorial Day holiday to bother keeping up with Facebook and other such time wasters on the net. We all know that’s what the first hour or two back at work is for anyway!
While others may be dragging in grumpy about leaving behind their weekend experiences to sit under the lulling pulsating hum of fluorescent lights and in the warm gentle glow of a computer screen with the hint of weak coffee in the air, take this opportunity to be the optimistic happy cat in the bunch.
There’s always one.
As for me, I’m at the beach today. My smile is genuine.
This year the National Cartoonists Society is having their annual Reuben Awards convention weekend in good ol’ Memphis, Tennessee. As part of the festivities, members were asked to create some Memphis-themed art that could be used for several purposes:
Decorations on the tables during the awards dinner.
Art to be used by a Memphis travel bureau to help promote the attractions of the city.
The choice was obvious – since Memphis is the home of Elvis (which is all I really knew it for, having never been to the city in my life), I chose to illustrate the Memphis Zoo with a slight nod to Elvis, of course. I present to you The King of the Beasts.
King of the Beasts
While this is not quite a velvet Elvis painting, it is a real painting nonetheless. I procrastinated a little in creating it, but ultimately decided it’s now or never. To ease your suspicious mind, I broke out my long-unused gouache paints, some of which needed a little reconstitution with the aid of some Kentucky rain. Basically the paints needed a little less conversation, a little more action. The only part created digitally are the words, so there is a nice painting there for one lucky bidder TONIGHT! Sales are final in benefit of the sick kids – bidders can’t return to sender.
Yes, that last paragraph was a little corny, but please don’t be cruel with your comments.
Very sorry to learn today of the sudden passing of Darwyn Cooke, one of the greatest comic book artists ever. I had little interest in superhero comics until I saw his work, work that is so tremendously inspiring to even fellow cartoonists.
Back in 2012, I attended a charity auction that was raising money, in part, to help the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation in the name of Dave Stevens, the creator of the Rocketeer who succumbed to the disease only four years before. Darwyn was working on his own take on “The Rocketeer” at the time, and donated this drawing to the auction of which I was very happily the winning bidder. It is original Darwyn inks over printed pencils by Dave Stevens. It seems especially poignant today since cancer claimed both men.
So, how was everyone’s weekend? Did you have a good time with Free Comic Book Day on Saturday and then Mother’s Day on Sunday? My weekend was pretty swell, too. Here’s a photo from Saturday…
Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, in the background editor Shannon Eric Denton, and myself on the right in Burbank’s House of Secrets.
Now, I don’t usually post celebrity shots here on the ol’ blog, but felt this was related to my profession since it happened in a comic book shop on Free Comic Book Day. I headed down to my local haunt, House of Secrets on Olive Avenue in Burbank, CA. (They are the shop that The Big Bang Theory based their comic shop on.)
House of Secrets had announced that Alan Tudyk was coming in that day to sign copies of his new comic book Spectrum, which just so happened to be one of the freebies that day. I had wanted to meet him because he has just been killing it with voices for Disney films of late. He was King Candy in Wreck It Ralph, the Duke of Weselton in Frozen, a brief cameo in Zootopia as Duke Weaselton, Alistair Krei in Big Hero 6, and he has a part in the upcoming Moana. While I did not work on those films, I sure have been impressed with his vocal performances, each sounding different from one another, and he continues to act in live-action productions such as the Jackie Robinson movie 42 (BRUTAL performance), and a little something coming up I like to call Star Wars: Rogue One.
The surprise to everyone that day, though, was that Alan brought along his pal from his days on a show called Firefly, Nathan Fillion. Nathan currently stars as Richard Castle on, oddly enough, the TV show Castle, and from what I have learned, he has a rabid fan following. This was learned when I nonchalantly posted this picture on Twitter Saturday night and it was immediately retweeted by about 30 people all of whom are dedicated to all things Nathan Fillion. I’m used to people generally ignoring my tweets, such as how all 52 people who liked this photo treated the rest of my tweets.
Today I thought I would use my abilities to indulge my secondary interest in filmmaking, which is film music. I enjoy film music so much that there is a whole category for it here on the ol’ blog.
I saw Disney’s new version of The Jungle Book on its opening weekend three weeks ago and was completely mesmerized. It has to be a pretty tough gig to take a beloved Disney animated feature, and create a new version of it that is live action, er, animated as well. Director Jon Favreau did a fantastic job of making something old new again not only with the story, but with the eye-popping visuals.
Aiding the visuals in a huge way was the music by veteran composer John Debney. The original Jungle Book was charming in large part because of the music that aided the storytellers. John skillfully wrote a beautiful jungle score of his own that immediately captures your attention, and then audibly gives the audience a nostalgic thrill by weaving in some of the well-loved songs from the original movie. It was enchanting.
It struck me that this was the fourth feature film collaboration between director and composer. Jon Favreau and John Debney first worked together on 2003’s Elf (a personal favorite Christmas movie), 2005’s Zathura, Iron Man 2 in 2010, and now The Jungle Book. Each outing has proven that they make beautiful music together.
I was so enamored with their latest collaboration that I felt compelled to get it down on paper. Ironically, I celebrate their digital masterpiece by using the traditional art tools of watercolor, gouache, and colored pencils. May I present to you, The Two Jons/Johns:
Jon Favreau as King Louie dancing in the jungle with frequent musical collaborator John Debney as Baloo.
I for one can’t wait to see what their next project together will yield, but you can be sure it will be a swingin’ good time!
Oh, by the way, this is the second time I have illustrated John Debney. The first time was when he worked on one of Jon Favreau’s earlier films Iron Man 2. If you’d like to see that painting, CLICK HERE!
Today is the British monarch’s 90th birthday. She is longest reigning monarch in Great Britain’s history, and the first sovereign to reach the age of 90. I wish her all the happiness one can possibly have with a life as public as her own.
Her Royal Highness
Believe it or not, I do happen to have my own Queen Elizabeth story. A few years back I was working on a TV show for Disney called My Friends Tigger & Pooh. It was a CG (computer generated) series that ran for two seasons on the Disney Channel, and became notorious for eliminating Christopher Robin and replacing him with a little girl named Darby (voiced by a very young Chloë Moretz).
As we were preparing the first season to air, we were told that an aide to Queen Elizabeth had called the head of the Disney Channel to voice an opinion on behalf of the queen. “Queen Elizabeth understands that the new Winnie the Pooh series does not include Christopher Robin. The Queen is not amused.” Apparently Queen Elizabeth had a certain fondness for Pooh Bear because, like the queen, he had also been born in 1926 when his first book was published. Queen Elizabeth and Pooh grew up together.
So, due to that phone call, we included Christopher Robin in just a couple of episodes to appease her royal highness.
Today I wanted to sing the praises of my friend Eddie Pittman. He has a brand new graphic novel for kids (adults will enjoy it, too!) that comes out TODAY!! It is called Red’s Planet, and features a little girl who has an exciting alien adventure. I’ll let Eddie’s YouTube video fill you in…
Eddie and I both worked for Disney Feature Animation at the same time, but he was in the Florida studio while I was in California. Our paths kept crossing over the years, and he even came out to work for Disney TV Animation for awhile on the show Phineas & Ferb as a story guy. (He even did the voice of Darth Vader in their Star Wars episode!) Then, last year, Eddie and I were fortunate to be on the same team of cartoonists from the National Cartoonists Society to travel to the Middle East with the USO to draw for U.S. troops! (You can see pictures of our adventures by CLICKING HERE!)
So, please check out Eddie’s fun new book safe for the whole family. You can find it in bookstores all over the country, but if you prefer doing your shopping online, Amazon has the hardcover book for a GREAT price! CLICK HERE to go THERE!
