The Holy Grail of Forceful Cartooning

The Harvey Kurtzman exhibit last spring at the Society of Illustrators was amazing in every way, but for me the coolest thing in there was this fight sequence from Help #1. They had separated Will Elder's finished drawings from the Kurtzman marker roughs they'd been rubber cemented to, and displayed both versions together.





Marveling at these images in my drunken fog at the opening, I saw in a flash what a helpful warmup exercise they would make. Sketching freely in ink, I  try to reproduce as much as possible of the energy and vitality of Kurtzman's roughs, incorporating something of the wit and precision of Elder's finishes, while retaining the freedom to be playful and inject something of my own.

Kurtzman's

Elder's

Mine, take 1

Mine, take 2

Having toyed with this exercise for awhile, I've begun assigning it to advanced students in my figure drawing class. Speaking of which, the Illustration and Cartooning info session is coming up Tuesday evening at SVA. Come talk to me about cartooning. Cartooning is fun.

Draw Two Panels

In the months before launching Cartozia Tales, Isaac Cates invented a card game for cartoonists, Draw Two Panels, and got me playing it. One deals oneself random comic panels from an ever changing deck, and then draws new panels to make sense of the juxtapositions.

This is the starter deck I created following Isaac's rules, which include quoting from books, songs, Facebook status updates, and comics, drawing from life, doodling, and more:



Here are the strips I made so far. Some include cards drawn by Isaac, that he retired from his own deck:

The Cartozia project has distracted us both from playing this, but I hope to make time for it again. I was inspired to create a spinoff game that I'm calling The Deckless Wonder. I'll post examples from that one sometime. Cartooning games are fun.

New Brooklyn Rail comic and Web Exclusives

As we all order food over the holiday, here's a strip to celebrate:

But also, please have a look at The Brooklyn Rail website. For a few months now, we've been running exclusive, web-only comics from France, translated into English for the first time. Check out these great comics by top cartoonists:

Florent Ruppert & Jerome Mulot

Marc-Antoine Mathieu

Clement Baloup

Alfred

David Prudhomme

And we occasionally run work in color on the web that was black and white in print, such as these by 

Keren Katz

Devin Clark

& Jason Little

La Posada Calavera

This recent strip appears in the new issue, #45, of the comic anthology, World War 3 Illustrated. Many thanks to Peter Kuper for including my piece.

It's an homage to the Calavera broadsheets of Jose Guadalupe Posada. It ran in The Brooklyn Rail in time for Dia de los Muertos this year. Now it's in the "death issue" of WWIII.

Upcoming Art Auction

I donated these two drawings I made at Prospect Park to an art auction for my daughter's school.

The live event is this Wednesday, October 23, at Brooklyn Commune, 601 Greenwood Avenue, from 6 to 8 pm. Bidding online ends at 8 pm also.
The auction got coverage in the New York Times because they're auctioning a piece by Jeff Koons. Isn't that special?

Viva Cartozia!

These are images I contributed to a booklet on Cartozian magic published as a bonus to accompany  Cartozia Tales #2

An incantor named Hroner who specializes in finding lost objects, sometimes even ones that weren't really lost after all. Kudos to all who get the allusion. Be the first to call it in the comments below.

"Long exposure to harsh, strange, and potent materials sometimes makes older alchemists a bit peculiar."

I'm sipping champagne (okay, why pretend? It's Negro Modelo) in celebration of  the successful Kickstarter campaign for Cartozia Tales. Here are highlights from the copious press we received on the project, including one reviewer who loved everything about it except for me (Ouch!):

• http://comicsbulletin.com/interviews/6061/isaac-cates-can-cartozia-be-the-next-fantasy-harry-potter/
• http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic/2013/09/22/cartozia-maps-isaac-cates/
• http://www.usatoday.com/story/popcandy/2013/08/22/crowdfunding-kickstarter/2685373/
• http://comicsalliance.com/buy-this-book-cartozia-tales-kickstarter/
• http://comicsforgrownups.tumblr.com/post/60408561561/episode-22
• http://www.comicstherapy.com/p/interviews.html
• http://kellysue.tumblr.com/post/60935744268/okay-lets-see-where-do-i-start-how-about-with
• http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/09/12/seven-spx-debuts-that-are-like-crack-tales-of-the-night-watchmen-behold-the-killbot-rushes-journey-into-the-valley-of-whispers-the-black-feather-falls-cartozia-tales-2-vs/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
• http://edit.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/cartozia-turns-kickstarter-fund-kid-607343
• http://www.panelpatter.com/2013/08/spx-spotlight-2013-cartozia-tales.html
• http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/09/cartozia-tales-calls-out-to-kickstarter-to-fund-anthology-series/
• http://highlowcomics.blogspot.com/2013/08/more-worthy-kickstarters-star-fruit-and.html
• http://geekmom.com/2013/09/kickstarter-cartozia-tales/
• http://guttergeek.com/2013/09/cartozia-tales/
• http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=47464
• http://highlowcomics.blogspot.com/2013/09/maps-as-comics-cartozia-tales-1.html
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/52213/wednesday-new-comics-day#ixzz2c7JdrzXU
• http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/visual-arts/2013/09/13/meet-a-local-cartoonist-a-pre-small-press-expo-chat-with-michael-wenthe/
• http://www.inkstuds.org/jen-vaughn/
• http://seehatfield.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/cartozia/
• http://everypageofmobydick.blogspot.com/2013/09/cartozia-tales-kickstarter.html
• http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2013/09/bully-recommends-cartozia-tales.html
• http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/236200.html
• http://aukward.tumblr.com/post/60851828692/cartozia-tales
• http://www.savagecritic.com/podcasts/wait-what-ep-131/
• http://hu-mu.blogspot.com/2013/09/cartozia-tales.html

Scientific American, USA Today, Hollywood Reporter, podcasts, interviews with the artists, endorsements by a stuffed bull and some blog in France,... Margaret Atwood, Alison Bechdel, and Neil Gaiman tweeted about it (what's past tense of "tweet"? "tweeted"? "twat"?)... such enthusiasm all around. Holy smokes!

I've worked on a great many structuralist comic collaborations, including several launched by Cartozia's mastermind, Isaac Cates (I'll blog more about these hence). It's SO gratifying to see one capture the public's imagination.

The Kickstarter and its rewards are finito, but you can still subscribe via the Cartozia website.

Thanks y'all! 'S time to draw more episodes...

Before Cartozia

About 5 years ago, cartooning genius Isaac Cates launched an earlier attempt at the map jam comics approach that's since evolved into Cartozia Tales (and which, I beg of you, you really should subscribe to on Kickstarter so it can continue). That first take was called, simply, Mapjam.

The original Mapjam wasn't as focused as Cartozia Tales and it was more for adults, but the material was all really good. I was part of that first team. We only completed two rounds of the game, which were both collected in a single issue. After that, I think Isaac became too busy with new professorships to prod the artists into producing more. So the whole thing fizzled, only to be revived, sharper, now.

Here's one of the stories I contributed. It features a character who's also appearing in the new issue, Cartozia Tales #2. Meet Conan Doyle, Barbarian Detective:

Recent Plugs

I received a couple of nice plugs recently.

Salgood Sam, in his new release, Revolver #2, wrote a piece on comic jams in which he mentions my work and several friends and collaborators. Here's a chunk:

And he includes this sidebar image. Jams are fun.


And the newest podcast on Comics for Grownups gives a nice description of the project and mentions my piece specifically. Listen to it while making a pledge on our Kickstarter.



Addendum: right after posting this, I found a summary on The Rumpus of the workshop I conducted a few weeks back for the New York Comics and Picture Story Symposium.

New Tragic Strip: The Brick That Made a Offissa Out of "Pupp"

This is the latest installment in my Made Out of "Mac" series, more of which can be found by scrolling here.

It appears in the current issue of The Brooklyn Rail, on the stands right now. This issue, we're launching an expanded comics section exclusive to the website, on the fiction page. Please have a look. In addition to the comics from the print edition, it includes great comics from France by David Prudhomme and Alfred.

David Prudhomme will be attending this year's Brooklyn Book Festival, as will another contributor to this issue, Lebanese cartoonist, Zeina Abirached.

Student Spotlight: Earl Barrett-Holloway

Earl's been studying with me for awhile now and he's getting so good, it's scary! He recently completed my Figure Drawing for Graphic Novelists course for the second time. I was able to give him some higher level assignments. The one above came from comparing Harvey Kurtzman rough sketches to Will Elder's finished artwork in the quest for an ideal hybrid. Earl blogged about it here.




And here's his final project, a page from the second issue of his comic, The Squid:












Here are more examples of assignments Earl completed for me over the years:

From a model sheet assignment.

Studies from a live model.

Final project page: Aquaman vs a creature from the Black Lagoon.

Another project page.

Earl has a Tumblr, an Instagram, and a website. It's all worth following.

Fall Continuing Ed Courses at SVA

My fall courses in Figure Drawing and Cartooning are enrolling right now at the School of Visual Arts.
Come see me at the information session this Tuesday evening. Tell your friends 'n stuff like that, please.

Cartozia Locales

Here are some images of exotic places I've created for the Cartozia series. Here we see denizens of Microbia (a very tiny country) and scavengers in the land of Smithereens, where everything gets blown to.

These appear in the first two issues. Nifty, eh?
Cartozia Tales is an exciting comic anthology by a crack team of plucky, up and coming young talents, celebrity guests, and a token old guy (guess who?).
Cartozia needs you! Pledge to our Kickstarter so more issues can happen. Every person who pledges even a dollar gets a pdf of the first issue right away. Tell all your friends.
Pretty please.

Come Draw with Me This Monday

The fifty-fifth meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposiumwill be held on Monday, August 19, 2013 at 7:00 PM at Parsons The New School, 2 West 13th Street, in room 1104. Free and open to the public.

Scheduled Presentation:  Panel Sequence Workshop.  Cartooning instructor, Tom Motley, will present a slideshow and discussion on cinematic sequences in comics, followed by a related cartooning worksheet. This will be a fun sequential art exercise to stimulate comics professionals and fans alike. Drawing skills are welcome but not necessary.

Osamu Tezuka, Shintakarajima (New Treasure Island), 1947, revised 1984.

Cartozia Tales-- subscribe today!

By Thursday, we'll be launching a Kickstarter campaign for Cartozia Tales, at which point the subscription price will go up a few dollars to cover Kickstarter's cut. Subscribe before then and you'll give the project a boost and yourself a break. There'll still be crazy cool perks for subscribers to pledge for: original art, additional comics, cameo appearances, and more.

The Two Old Men of Kwantapafayo. What are the consequences of that game they've played for centuries?

Cartozia Tales #1

I just received my contributor copies of the first Cartozia Tales. It's a delightful project featuring outstanding contributions by Dylan Horrocks, Shawn Cheng, and many others. Order it from the website: http://cartozia.com

This is an illustration I did for one of our promo postcards. It'll run on the back cover of a future issue.