Well, here it is. The grand finale of the week long Sketch Challenge between me and my friend Andy Heckathorne. Since tomorrow is Halloween, and this being the last day of the challenge, it seemed appropriate to break out the ink in grand style with a caricature portrait of the master of the scary short story – Edgar Allan Poe.
I always found it interesting that those tales of gothic woe came flowing from the mind of a man who looked like he could be the subject of his own stories. Perhaps when he wrote in the first person, he really was the subject of his own stories. Hmm, something to ponder.
Well, here he is with the title character of his most well-known story, The Raven, in ink and white gouache on a dark gray shade of Canson paper.
Is there another day in this Sketch Challenge? Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”
Thanks for tap, tap, tapping on your keyboards and mobile devices to come see my sketchy efforts. I hope you have enjoyed this week of sketch posts! And thanks to Andy for putting me up to the five day challenge. I hope I met your expectations, my friend.
When you work in and around Hollywood, you are bound to bump into famous folks now and then. Doris Roberts, who became highly recognized for her role of Marie Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, is one such person that I have unexpectedly seen at various events around town. However, a couple of months ago I learned that she was making a public appearance at a convention, so I prepared myself for meeting her this time.
It is hard to believe, but Everybody Loves Raymond filmed their last episode ten years ago. I don’t often get caught up in television shows, but that was one I enjoyed immensely. During that final season, I was inspired to create a caricature rendering of the cast in a Norman Rockwell setting.
“Everybody Loves Raymond” in watercolor based on Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want” oil painting.
The first time I bumped into Doris out in public was the week after I had painted this illustration. I found myself walking next to her down the hill after a Tony Bennett concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I was so startled to see her there, that the first words out of my mouth were, “Oh, hello! I was just painting you last week!” Her reaction was appropriately more startled by my strange greeting, and managed to walk much faster than I at that moment.
So, ten years later, I came up to her at this latest public function and presented her with a print of my painting. This time she seemed genuinely pleased and delighted. Whew!
Doris Roberts and Chad Frye
Well, hopefully next time there will be a chance to meet Brad Garrett who played Ray’s older brother Robert (barely seen in the lower right corner of the painting). A couple of years ago Brad voiced a character I designed for an animated production that has yet to be released. So in a way, I “worked with him,” though we have never met. That’s Hollywood for you.
“Hey, ho, hey!” That’s the greeting of the NCS LA. To those not in the know, NCS LA means the National Cartoonists Society, Los Angeles Chapter!
Cornelius the Bear in all his plaid angelic glory.
The NCS LA reorganized this year to become a pretty busy group of professional cartoonists. We used to have one gathering a year in December, but since this past December, we have been doing monthly activities where professional cartoonists can socialize with colleagues, learn something, and hopefully soon will involve some volunteer drawing for worthy causes.
Part of what the NCS LA has discovered is some of the history of our group. Our mascot has become Cornelius the Bear because back in the day he saved the life of Los Angeles cartoonist George Herriman, creator of the comic strip Krazy Kat, from a runaway toboggan. Cornelius is no longer with us here in the City of Angels, of course, so he himself is depicted in angelic terms on our official crest. I recently drew my version of Cornelius as seen above wearing the NCS LA uniform of a plaid sports coat.
That image of Cornelius was used on a flyer I put together advertising to our membership a field trip we took a few weeks ago to Revolutions 2, a fantastic museum exhibit of original illustration art at the museum in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA (go see it before it closes in early August if you haven’t already – it’ll knock your socks off!). Illustrator William Stout showed us around the exhibit, and was able to tell tales of his own art that is in the display. Afterwards, we went to lunch at a place where Walt Disney and his animators used to hang out (yes, that’s my Walt on the flyer, too).
The flyer for the first NCS LA field trip. (RSVP info removed since the event is over!)
If you are a professional cartoonist creating comic books, comic strips, illustration, animation, editorial cartoons, or any other genre in cartooning here in Los Angeles, or will be visiting our fair city in the future, please get a hold of me to find out when and where our next gathering will be! We’d love to welcome you here!
I thought it was time that I posted another selfie. No, not a photo of myself, but rather it was time to try a new version of my toony self by way of a self-caricature. It takes a little longer than holding out a camera and snapping the image, and it is much less blurry this way, but it is fun to see how far the image can be pushed and have it still look like me. Really, it all comes down to just wanting to make a new profile picture for Facebook.
If you would like to see past samples of self indulgence, CLICK HERE!
They say “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but I imagine this would inspire the Cliff’s Notes version.
In hearing of the passing of the great Stan Beck last week, my heart was heavy, but a smile crossed my face with the memories. Stan Beck’s Florham Park Pharmacy was THE genuine neighborhood pharmacy in my childhood town of Florham Park, New Jersey. Run by Stan with his wife Jean, and son and fellow pharmacist Jim, the pharmacy was much more than crutches and pills. It was a toy store with a play area in the back, it was a gift shop, a card shop, gag gifts, comic books, a seller of collectible figurines like Precious Moments & Hummels, and almost anything unexpected.
As a pharmacy, though, no one cared for the community like Stan. There were times even in my own family where there would be late night medical emergencies requiring medicine, and Stan or Jim would come open the store at any time to provide the necessary emergency meds. This was standard policy at the store, and as I read tributes online for Stan, many others had grateful hearts for this service. However, I have a much more personal tale to tell of the great Stan Beck.
While I still enjoy cookies, and can bake my old recipe from memory, I became a cartoonist. This is how I remember Stan Beck, our neighborhood pharmacist.
When I was 10 or 11 years old, I was ambitious. I wanted to find a way to supplement my fifty cent a week allowance with real money that would allow me to buy comic books and Star Wars figures. With the help of my mother, we baked cookies, and I would go door to door with my little red wagon filled to the brim with confectionary goodness selling them to the neighbors. Occasionally you had to be wary of an excited dog, or the random sprinkler system that would turn on at a most inopportune moment. And I did this alone – in those days, no one thought to be afraid of allowing little kids to knock on the door of strangers to sell them cookies.
One day I realized that all that walking, and the dogs, and the sprinklers were tiresome. People by the hundreds went to stores to buy their food, the stores didn’t bring it to them! How could I get customers to come to me? So I began the search for a merchant in Florham Park to allow me to set up shop in front of their store. At first my ambitions were big by going to the one large grocery store in town. They said “no.” I tried the post office, they said “no.” I asked a host of places, even calling owners of shopping centers on the phone, they all said “NO!” The harsh, cold reality of business was served full force to this kid.
One day I walked into Stan Beck’s pharmacy. His was a large private business, a pillar of the community even. He didn’t already sell cookies, so I had something new to offer. It was worth a shot. Stan raised an eyebrow, asked me a few questions, and with a smile he said “yes” to this earnest kid. That began a friendship and business association that lasted for about ten years.
Each summer I baked my cookies every Thursday and Friday, and Stan allowed me to sell my wares on his sidewalk. While he never asked for it, I paid him rent. Each day I was there, Stan received a dozen chocolate chip cookies. My family got into it with me. My little brother would walk up and down the sidewalk shouting out “Chad’s homemade chocolate chip cookies!!” at the top of his lungs while wearing a sandwich board sign I had made (which he may not have forgiven me for to this day), and eventually my sisters helped me sell them. Even after I graduated from high school, my sisters took over selling the cookies, but I was still the cook in the kitchen during my college years. Stan always got his dozen.
We fell out of touch over the years. I moved away after college, my siblings all scattered to their respective states, and about six years ago my parents sold the place we all called home for thirty-five years and moved to the countryside in another state. By that time I understand Stan had been long retired. I read in his obituary that he had been part of the Livingston Volunteer Fire Department for 59 of his 89 years, which didn’t surprise me. He seemed to just enjoy helping people.
So, it saddens me to hear of Stan Beck’s passing from my home here in California surrounded by all my Star Wars figures and comic books (some of which I bought from him), but I am forever happy and grateful for the generous act of kindness of that man willing to give this kid a chance.
During last year’s Monster Month, I introduced you to my neighbors, the monsters who live above me. (If you missed that post, CLICK HEREfor some context!) While their noise levels have lessened slightly by a decibel over the past year, they recently unleashed a torrent of audio pollution upon their unsuspecting neighbors that tops anything they were guilty of before. Yes, I speak of the event known as “the slumber party.”
When parents open themselves up to host an overnight gathering of little female monsters from all over town in their home, they know that it means very little sleep for themselves. This is fine for them to do when they own a house (so long as they keep the windows closed), but when one shares walls and floors with other people who are not celebrating the occasion with them, the word “inconsiderate” is not strong enough.
I learned something that day – little girls are highly capable of sustained energy. For four hours, one could clearly hear banging, thumping, squealing, growling (yes, growling), yelling, singing, loud music, and probably the slurping from a fresh kill. In my home, pictures were tilting, ceiling fans falling, cracks forming, book shelves twisting, glasses shattering, and nerves were rattling.
There is nothing like your own private four hour earthquake. Good times.
Once the trembles subsided that night,I went to bed. Somehow going to bed late does not mean little monsters sleep in late. Right at the crack of dawn the walls started cracking again. There was no escaping it – no matter where you went in my home you were assaulted by the continued revelry from above – even in what is usually the quiet sanctuary of the bathroom. Truly monstrous indeed.
So, if you live in an apartment, please be kind to your neighbors and figure out an appropriate way to celebrate your little monsters away from disturbing the rest of mankind.
We are in the final week of MONSTER MONTH! Enjoy and share these precious moments with your friends!
I often get asked “why monsters?” There are two answers to that: 1. the world of fantasy allows for as much creativity as one can handle, and 2.Jack Davis.
Jack Davis is the monster king. He has drawn many topics over his career for MAD Magazine, TIME Magazine, advertising art, movie posters, TV Guides, animation – you name it! However, his abilities with comic monsters have no comparison. While he has drawn the grotesque at times, it is his fearless work with a brush and ink on countless comedic takes on the creatures of the night that have delighted this fan for a long time. And which monster of his do they keep coming back for more? Frankenstein’s monster, naturally (or should I say “unnaturally”?).
On a rare recent visit with Jack, he told me that the Frankenstein monster is the one he gets asked to draw most often, and is it any wonder? Once he created that six foot tall Frankenstein poster in 1972 that captured the imagination of little boys everywhere while disgusting their mothers, he cemented his status as the king! I have had my own fascination with Frankenstein’s monster over the years, likely due to Jack’s influence. So much so that I include a Frankie every year in Monster Month! (Click here to see the collection!)
So, this year’s Frankie is a caricature of the monster king himself, Jack Davis, complete with his own zombie Georgia bulldog in a piece I like to call Jackenstein!
Jack “Frankenstein” Davis roaming the countryside and keeping away from fire.A little close-up so you can see the full hideousness of Jackenstein! Mwuahahaha!
If you are unfamiliar with Jack Davis’ almost 90 years of sketches, paintings and illustrations (he was born with a pencil in his hand of course), please CLICK HERE to see some great examples of his work!
Return again tomorrow to see how bees interact with monsters!
…otherwise known as “Monster Artist”. (Yes, I invoked the language of Latin in an effort to sound smart. Did it work?)
Welcome to the first of the new images for 2014’s MONSTER MONTH! Following the tradition of past years, our first selection of the month is a self-portrait. I don’t often take this form in my day-to-day life – unless I am driving on California freeways. Then this is the form that my Jekyl & Hyde personality takes on.
The thing that makes this most disturbing is that I am not wearing any clothes.
Come back again tomorrow and each weekday in October to see more illustrated creatures from my twisted mind.
