The Cartoon Fiend

Friends of the Fiend 31: Tim Harries

2006-08-13T21:00:00.000+01:00

Hello, I'm afraid I took an extended summer hol. I touched upon it on my blog, http://rodmckie.blogspot.com/ let's just say there were extenuating circumstances. Anyhoo,

apopologies to the Cartoon Fiend readers, of whom there are a few, I gather, and to my victims, er interviewees, many of whom supplied me with these details some months ago.

Today's Friend of the Fiend is the very talented Tim Harries. I love Tim's style of drawing because it instantly translates the idea he's trying to get across and it just plain looks good.

CF. Hello Tim.

TH. Hello Mr Fiend. That's a nice hat you're wearing.

CF. (Blush, realizes that large Guinness hat from rugby outing is still on head) Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

TH. I quite recently from a week-long 'Cartoon and Children's Rights' project in Turkey, organised by the Cartoon Foundation. I was in the company of some extremely talented cartoonists from the UK and Turkey and it was such an enlightening experience for all of us to work along with the children out there. I believe a book of the cartoons we produced and an exhibition in Ankara and London will follow later in the year, so I think that's a little bit exciting isn't it? No? Ok then ....

Regarding my regular work, the pipeline is pretty excitement-free, but it's always a pleasure to get paid to draw silly things. I've got a daily strip with the South Wales Argus, regular illustration jobs for a variety of computer mags and educational publishers and cartoons for business/corporate clients. I even do a comic strip for a childrens financial paper. I send the occasional batch of gag cartoons off though I have less time for speculative cartooning.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

TH. I was drawing from an early age, and was an avid reader of the Beano and Dandy, but I didn't even consider cartooning as a possible career 'til my mid-twenties, having already opted for more parent-pleasing office jobs. Like so many other UK cartoonists, I sent my first ever batch of gags to the Sun newspaper, who promptly bought one! 'This is easy' I thought, and then spent the next 3 months trying to get another one in, so it was a gradual process over a number of years building up the workload from part-time to full-time cartooning. Having an understanding wife also helped!

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

TH. Writing: Like young Royston, I write in silence and draw to music. Current favourites are XTC, Ben Folds, Ron Sexsmith and Elbow. If I'm out, I usually take a notepad with me to jot down random scribblings and ideas if inspiration strikes. I'm constantly scribbling much to the annoyance of friends who are careful what they say around me in case it ends up in a strip or gag.

Drawing: I draw my roughs on cheap A4 copy paper, and ink most of the final art on smooth surface cartridge paper. I'm a bit of a night owl and prefer working in the evenings though it's a bit anti-social and I try not to stay up too late.
Delivering the work: I live literally 5 minutes walk away from the paper, so rather than email the strip I just drop them in batches. Every other bit of work I do is sent by email, or uploaded to my website for the client to download. Email is a bit of a blessing and a curse these days. It's very quick to send jobs and saves a bundle on postage, but clients now expect everything yesterday. I've also got several clients I've never physically spoken to, so that can seem a bit strange.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

TH. I use mechanical pencils and a variety of pens - Faber Castell PITT Brush Pen, Pentell Brush Pen, Staedtler Pigment Liners 0.1 - 0.7, even a couple of cheapo Papermate Nylon Tip pens. I'm not loyal to any particular pen, so I'll use whatever I think is right for the job, be it a strip, illo or gag. However, I do recommend giving the PITT pens a go, they are great fun to use, disposable, fairly cheap and no mess. If Faber Castell are reading, I'd like a box of them for further review!

I'll usually pencil the roughs, whack 'em on the lightbox and ink on a fresh piece of paper. Scan the linework in at 600dpi, add any blacks, erase the numerous mistakes/spilled cake crumbs and add tone or colour in Photoshop. Artwork is reduced to 300dpi and saved in a variety of formats. I use a PC, A4 Wacom Intuos3 and a nice big 23 inch TFT screen. The occasional print I sell is produced on an Epson 1290 A3 printer. That all sounds a bit nerdy, perhaps we should talk about sports.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

TH. What's that got to do with sports? Bottom line - I create cartoons primarily for publication and to earn a living, so it's not something I consider too much. I love to see cartoons hanging on people's walls though so perhaps in that context I'd consider them art. Actually, I have no idea what i'm talking about ... next question!

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

TH. Perhaps the next literary cliche will be "everyone's got one graphic novel in them". If I had the right story to tell that would be something I'd like to tackle. I'd also like to make time to develop a strip and send it to the syndicates, though I'm sure that way lies madness. Oh and I desperately need to update my website which hasn't been touched since September 2004. The shame of it all!

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

TH. From an early age, I was a fan of the Peanuts collections my parents had, so Schulz is a great influence. I also remember spending many hours slavishly copying Reg Smythe's Andy Capp strips from the paper, complete with ciggy hanging from bottom lip (Andy, not me), and even more hours poring over the detailed depictions of valleys life by Welsh cartoonist Gren Jones in the South Wales Echo. Other Brits who's work I enjoy are Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl, Gorillaz) Pete Dredge and Roger Kettle - Pete's linework always inspires me and Roger's economy with words is something I'd love to achieve. Current American cartoonists I admire are Jeff Smith, Peter Bagge, Stephan Pastis and Darby Conley. Kazu Kibuishi is also a favourite - I've got a couple of his Copper prints on the walls and they look fantastic.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

TH. If I look at my obsessively large comic book collection, Bill Watterson seems to crop up the most. He had it all; superb writing, absolutely brilliant art and a big 'tache.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

TH. Yes, newspapers and books will dies out and the internet will take over everything. Large groups of big 'tached robots will rule the world and worship Bill Watterson.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

TH. Anything to do with Wallace and Gromit.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

TH. A lumberjack.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

TH. No problem.

Friends of the Fiend 30: Matt Buck

2006-07-05T22:56:00.000+01:00

Matt Buck, a former UK Young Cartoonist of the Year, spent his early years in reporting and then working in newspaper infographics. He finally abandoned the daily drudge (thankfully) and turned his talented hand to full-time cartooning, winning a place on a unique cartoon exchange with young South African cartoonists. An experience he describes as 'a magnificent learning experience'.
I like political cartoonists like Matt because, as I think is evident from the caricatures above, which he created for Sky News, he combines the right amount of love for his subjects, with a healthy dose of venom for those who have abandoned their ideals as they make the climb up the greasy political pole.

CF. Hello, Matt.

MB. Greetings Fiend.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

MB. I've always got dreams fiend - the problems tend to come turning them in realities. But, at the moment, the most exciting thing going on is the chance to draw caricatures of the bad and the evil at the Cannes film festival.
Shrewsbury cartoon festival was also great fun this spring.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

MB. A mixture. It suited both my character and my interests, although it took me a while to work out exactly what this combustible mess meant. The unpalatable consequences are becoming clearer year by year.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

MB. Um. I'm woefully undisciplined and my working methods are a bit prone to erratic turns, but broadly, I like drawing best and so, when I'm reasoning well, I tend to concentrate on this and do less colouring or messing about with the line.
I had an unhappy period when I drew entirely on the computer and although the stuff was fine, over time, I felt it lacked character and so now, I tend to use the computer only as a finisher and a colouring box.
Re-reading this, I realise that I've only talked about the technique here - and the important bit is really the writing. Tea, staring into space, extreme tiredness, running, rage, bile and suppressed childhood trauma all help fuel the actual creative process.

More Matt Buck cartoons here at Matt Buck. Com.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

MB. Pentel brush pens - I love the flexibility of line it gives. Any number of pencils (blunt), photoshop and a lot of patience. Formats tend to depend on clients. Although in a typical week I'll work on anything from single column gags to page holding A3 drawings. I like a challenge. Scanner, Mac, email, storage facilities etc,etc...

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

MB. Yes, it is an art form and it does have an impact - although typically I can't think of any quantifiable way to record it. I guess the best way is still the laugh and the occasional - You can't say that! Impact is entirely subjective but I think it's best to try and avoid too much critical opinion. Cartoonist Royston Robertson made a nice acid aside about this on his blog, in which he noted the shock horror newspaper story of an art critic actually going to learn to draw.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd liketo work in, if you can find the time?

MB. Oh yeah - pretty much all of it - but sculptural cartooning I think might be fun.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

MB. Not sure about influences, people I admire would include a bizarre range from Edward Sorel to Sempe, passing through Telnaes, Fleming, Bell, Calman, Brown, Brodner and Trog plus others too numerous to list.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

MB. Mel Calman - for his sense of humour... his famous Women's Lib drawing - one cross looking woman holding a sign - FREE WOMEN! - smaller man ... can I have one please?

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning,at some point.

MB. Yes and I think it already is, but there will always be a need for jokes.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

MB. Eek - um, dunno. Something that reminded people that we're more than just economic units.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

MB. No - how lucky is that ...

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

MB. It was a pleasure Fiend.

Matt Buck, Cartoonist www.mattbuck.com Tel: UK +44 (0) 1962 840216

Friends of the Fiend 29: Dan Collins

2006-06-13T23:59:00.000+01:00

Dan Collins began his cartooning career in 1976. Before that he attended Ohio State University's College of Art for two years followed by a year at Columbus College of Art and Design. Thousands of his cartoons have been published in magazines, newspapers and books in the United States and around the world. He has drawn magazine gag cartoons, newspaper editorial cartoons, comic strips, greeting cards, illustrations and caricatures that have delighted readers of all ages for nearly three decades. He is an on-staff cartoonist for Larry Flynt Publication's Hustler magazine and has been since 1977. From 1996 to 2004 he was the editorial cartoonist for the Delaware Gazette of Delaware, Ohio. Until 2004 the Gazette was the country's oldest daily newspaper continuously owned by a single family for 170 years. Being the artist for this distinguished news daily in it's final years as an American icon is a point of pride for him. Dan is currently working on a comic strip called Funny Paper as well as greeting cards that can be found in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Check out Dan Collins's hilarious Greetings Cards here:

CF. Hello, Dan.

DC. Hello.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

DC. My collection of the Captain Hard-On comic strips just went off to the printers in Singapore they tell me for the book Fantagraphics is doing. I'm working on a stand-alone line of cards for Noble Works Inc. and I want to finally get the Funny Paper strip ready for a submission to the syndicates.

Click image to see larger copy of Funny Paper, by Collins

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

DC. I always wanted to be one but never thought I would actually get the chance. I didn' think I was good enough compared to the artists I saw but I figured I could always mess around with it for my own amusement. Now after 30 years of doing it full time I think I just might be good enough. We'll see.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

DC. I try to think of something funny and then I draw it. I send it off to the magazine and they call back and tell me I must get funnier or they will fire me. Or they tell me I am a genius but still must be funnier or they will fire me.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

DC. I use most everything; markers, pens, brushes, pencil, watercolors, computer coloring stuff...I bounce around in styles so I can't really settle on one thing.

Look up the full range of Dan's illustrations here, at DanCollins.com

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

DC. It has always played second fiddle to the formal arts but people give it so much power that you have to consider it as a bona fide genre. It's an artform for the masses so the upper crust tend to sneer down at us while we look up at them and laugh.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

DC. It has been my dream to have a newspaper strip ever since I can recall. I don't know why, it just struck me as the thing I would most like to do. I remember laying on the living room floor with the funny pages every night reading the strips from the mid sixties; Peanuts, Lil Abner and so on. They would take you to a special place outside this world for a brief moment and the power to do that took hold of me. I wanted to live there. I wanted to take other people there with me.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

DC. All the usual suspects. We're all influenced in some way or other by every one of them. Schulz taught me how to write a strip. Capp taught me what to aspire to in drawing. Crumb ruined me for life in my first year of college in 1972. Searle showed me the art in comics.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

DC. I can't think of one who displaces the others. They all are a part of my cartoon experience. Sorry.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning,at some point.

DC. Not really. You can read a computer screen only so long before eye strain takes over. It's not 'real' either (physically). To hold that thing in your hands makes it yours. You can look as closely as you wish and see even deeper into the cartoon. See it's tiny little dots on the paper, see the fibers of the paper. It's all part of a cartoon. Of course it has affected cartoons and taken them into a new exciting direction which is good. People like to deal in absolutes; this is the way of the future and the old way is dead. It's a natural inclination but nature is never so pure.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work onanything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character,book, show, what would you like to work on?

DC. I would like to be the host of Saturday Night Live. I would suck but don't half the hosts? Or I would like to be a guest to fish with Hank Parker on his Saturday morning fishing show.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

DC. The all powerful master of time and space.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

DC. Thank you for inviting me. Are you suggesting that our time is over and I should go now? Sure...fine...pick my brain and then kick me out the door. If I was the all powerful master of time and space I bet you'd want me to stick around! Yeah. I bet you'd laugh at all my cartoons then! OK I'm going.

Friends of the Fiend 28: Brian Fray

2006-06-13T23:40:00.000+01:00

Brian's Fray's bio'.

CF. Hello, Brian.

BF. Hey, there, Fiend!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

BF. I have a lot of on-going work, such as my editorial cartoon for the local paper, a small gag panel I do called Fray's Way and several trade magazines I work on. Something different always seems to be coming in. I do lots of stuff for restaurants and breweries and various government agencies. At the moment I'm working on a series of cartoons for The World Bank. Also, I've just completed two books, DeVil's Riddle and Chef Pierre's Fresh Sheet. Too early to tell how they'll do, but hopefully OK.

I'm Trying to find the time to get a DeVil's Riddle website up and running to create interest in the book.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

BF. I always wanted to be an artist of some sort from the time I was old enough to hold a pencil. I studied fine art at university and I started out as a painter, but decided the starving artist route wasn't for me. So, I tapped into my humourous side and haven't looked back.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

BF. Pretty basic. For gags, I write, sketch and doodle first and reject the duds. Then I pencil, ink and scan. Clean up and colour on the computer and e-mail. For other more complex illustrations, I sketch in pencil, ink and colour with watercolurs, gouache and coloured pencils, then scan, clean up and send. Then I send the bill...my favourite part.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

BF. Depends on what I'm working on. I have a couple of different styles. If I'm doing gags, I draw with a Staedtler Permanent Lumocolor marker on sheets of matte coated stock that I purchased from printer. I scan and colour/clean up in Photoshop. If I'm working on an illustration for a story, I work with a Crowquill pen on Bainbridge 80 board and Windsor & Newton India Ink. I colour with gouache, watercolours and coloured pencils. I work on a Mac G4.

click for a larger version

See more of Brian Fray's work here, at BrianFray.com

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

BF. Absolutely! Cartoonists are definitely proper artists. I've been on both sides of the fence, as a cartoonist and "fine artist". Is something any less valid because it is humourous? I know a lot of fine artists, painters and sculptors, who are much less disciplined and skilled than many cartoonists. Cartooning involves not only drawing skills, but in many cases, writing skills, as well. Cartoons have a huge impact on society and culture. "DOH!" is firmly embedded in our modern vocabulary, to give a silly example.The nasty business with Mohammed and the Danish newspapers is anothernot-so-silly example.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

BF. I'd love to work on an animated film. But more on the character development and creative director side. Leave the repetitive technical stuff to the techies who are way better at it.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

BF. As a kid, I loved Don Martin's off-the-wall work in Mad Magazine. Also Kliban, Walt Kelly, the old Warner Brothers Looney Toons cartoons and a lot of Disney's earlier stuff. I also love Ronald Searle, Ralph Steadman and Brian Froud.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

BF. That's a toughie, because I admire so many of them. I guess I'd have to say Kliban.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

BF. Everything changes, but I think the creative process will remain the same. The media through which we preceive things is evolving, and the tools that we create with are evolving, but talent is still talent. Good drawing and writing will still rise to the top. The human touch is still essential. That won't change.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work onanything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character,book, show, what would you like to work on?

BF. I'd like to write and illustrate a series of books based on my DeVil's Riddle characters, which would spin into a movie...on which I would be the creative consultant.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

BF. Taller, thinner and younger...with more hair.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

BF. It was my pleasure and honour. Thank you for inviting me.

Friends of the Fiend 27: Dave Blazek

2006-06-03T14:55:00.000+01:00

Dave Blazek is the creator of Loose Parts, the panel and strip, syndicated by Tribune Media Services. Dave previously wrote for the comic Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, for Comedy Central. Dave came to cartooning later in life after a career as a writer, graphic artist, director and standup comic. He learned to draw in his '40s, just six years ago. Amazingly enough, even to him, he actually has a degree in journalism. Loose Parts is now seen daily in papers all across America, and in one very perceptive Malaysian newspaper. Dave has produced three books compiling his cartoons. The latest, two hundred some odd cartoons came out in 2006. Dave is a ninja. He also lives in Valley Forge, PA, USA with his wife and two teenage daughters. He's just had his large and small intestines removed and replaced with two medium intestines.

This is The Fiend's favourite Loose Parts collection. Find out about the new collection here, at Amazon.

CF. Hello, Dave.

DB. By the way, I just had the word 'hello' copyrighted. You owe me $50 just for using it.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

DB. Well, when you're syndicated, that's pretty much your current project all the time. I'm always working on Loose Parts. It's just part of my life. But I am involved in some other interesting things. The most interesting is an animated TV show I'm co-writing. Some friends and I were approached by a company with an established TV record to create a new animated show. I can't tell you who they are but you'd recognize the name of the show ... and the motion picture that came from it. So I'm spending a lot of my non-cartoon time on this project, and bopping up to New York now and then. The pilot script should be done tomorrow. Funny thing is, I'm certain they have no idea I'm a cartoonist. They think I'm a writer.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

DB. No, I never wanted to be a cartoonist. I lived my life for forty some odd years with the thought never crossing my mind. I worked as an advertising creative and at newspapers ... specifically The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. The cartoon editor was just strange enough to think I was funny and would run comic submissions from syndicates past me for my opinion. I kept saying, "I could do better than these." He finally said okay, do better. Matter of fact, be bugged me to try for, like two years. Then finally, I wrote about 30 samples and an artist friend drew them up. The editor showed them to a guy he knew at the LA Times Syndicate. The next thing we knew, some VP flies east and signs us to a contract over lunch. I had the fish. So we start Loose Parts. Soon after they ask me to write for Dr. Katz. So things are going cool. The the roof falls in. Dr. Katz is cancelled by Comedy Central to make way for South Park and I lose that gig. Then the guy drawing Loose Parts gets cancer and tells me he's pulling out. So rather than risk losing a toehold in the syndication world, I asked the syndicate if I could take over drawing Loose Parts in addition to writing it. They asked if I could draw. I said, no, but I could learn. They said okay. I went on a crash 30-day effort to learn to draw and six years and two thousand cartoons later, here I am. I know, I know ... someone begging me to get into cartooning ... a contract after 30 samples ... learning to draw in 30 days ... that sound you hear is striving artists hitting the floor. I can't explain it. But, hey, I wasn't a total neophyte. I spent years as a comedy writer, comedian and graphic artist so the form wasn't that strange to me. And since I spent years working at newspapers and in advertising, the deadlines of a syndicated cartoon seem normal to me.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

DB. I write for an hour or two, two or three nights after work. Then I draw and ink Saturdays and Sundays. I always, absolutely positively, don't go a week without having drawn and inked seven cartoons. Then once a month I crush a few long nights to scan and color and do separations and all. Then I repeat. Oh, and there's beer in there somewhere. But I work way ahead. Right now, my syndicate has all the Loose Parts for three months from now. And I have another 40 drawn but not put together. And I have another 20 or so written but not drawn.

Check out more of Dave Blazek's Loose Parts at Gocomics.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

DB. Pretty basic tools. I draw using a simple mechanical pencil. I work on 8.5 x 11 copy paper I buy at Staples. Then I ink the lines using Pigma Micron pens. Then I erase. That's my weakness. I'm a really bad eraser. If you look closely at Loose Parts cartoons, you can see lines I missed all the time. Then I scan the images into my Mac G4. I then use Photoshop to add tones and shading. I've worked hard to use some pretty harsh shadings on the edges of my people. It gives them a roundness and depth I find pleasing. I do have an office at home but I prefer to draw at the dining room table. That puts me in the midst of my family and makes me feel like I'm not locked away from life. I also like drawing outside on a wooden board I haul out to a table on my deck. I live in the woods so it's quite peaceful and lovely doing it that way.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

DB. I honestly don't know. I think I haven't been part of it long enough to say. I will tell you that the cartoon world was so much more than I thought before I got to be a part of it. For instance, I thought that a comic should be funny and that's it. I was stunned to see the impact of serial strips, comic novels and other forms of comics and the strong bond between those comics and their fans. But I still remain stubbornly biased. I think a comic should be funny. I don't think there's enough of it on the comics pages these days. Don't get me wrong. I think there are good comics in the comics; I just don't think there are enough that fall into the joke-a-day category. That's hard: writing a good joke a day. I'm proud to take on the challenge. I want my cultural impact to be that I made people laugh. That's it.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

DB. I'd love to give that New Yorker white whale a harpoon one of these days. I'd love to submit panels for that baby. But you know what? I'm not ready. I'm not good enough yet. I need a few more years. This cartooning thing is much much harder than it appears. The first level might be easy to hit. The small inceremental steps to get to the top just take time. I need to hone.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

DB. Well, a lot of my influences come from other corners of the comedy world. Your Woody Allen's, your Robert Kleins, your Monty Python boys, your Christopher Guest movies. Right now, I'm positively immersed in the stuff of a comic named Mitch Hedberg. Sadly, he died about a year ago but I urge everybody to go get his CD Strategic Grill Locations. That cat thinks like nobody else. Of course, there's Gary Larsen and the Far Side and before him, Kliban and Gahan Wilson. Lately, I'm spending of of time looking at New Yorker anthologies and just bathing in how much better all those people are than I am.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

DB. Gotta be Larsen. Our brains seem to be wired the same way.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

DB. Oh yeah, absolutely. In that playroom in the back of my brain, I'm always wondering how you could easily turn a daily panel into a daily little animated thing that would stream over a phone or welcome someone to a website. And for any advertising media people out there, I'm open to product placement in Loose Parts. Just remember, I hate to draw cars, but I think I could manage a Jaguar.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

DB. Well, I work on a lot of different things in my day job. As a matter of fact, twelve hours after I write this I'll be on a soundstage directing three TV commercials. I've worked on short films and on radio shows so I've had a taste of most everything. There's a whole world of people out there who only know me as an ad guy or a director or a writer. They have no clue I'm a syndicated cartoonist. I remember once shocking a particlarly prickly newspaper columnist who told me I had no idea how hard her job was by informing her I had, like, ten times as many daily readers as she did. That was satisfying. But I'd like to try writing for TV. In fact, I am trying that right now. And I do have a comic novel in my head. Check out some of Streve Martin's novellas. I think I could grow into doing something like that. Then I wake up and realize I'm an idiot ,and that puts a damper on things.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

DB. I'd love to do standup comedy again. I dabbled in it for about five years but quit just as I was getting good. Raising young kids and going to comedy clubs didn't mesh well. Like cartooning, standup is way harder and more nuanced than it appears. I find the instant feedback rewarding. In fact, I count the lack of instant feedback, or feedback of any sort as the thing I like least about cartooning.

You can find Loose Parts swag here, at the Loose Parts shop

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

DB. Visiting? Heck, I'm moving in. Where do you keep the chips?

Friends of the Fiend 26: Malcolm McGookin

2006-05-29T12:41:00.000+01:00

McGookin is one of those annoying people who are good at everything, you know, not only can he write and draw gag cartoons, but he can also turn his hand to editorial cartoons, illustrations, comic strips, character designs, and animation. I ask you - is that fair?

Malky's bio at Lambiek

For details about Danger Mouse and Count Duckula look here

CF. Hello, Malcolm.

MM. Hello. Sorry, couldn't come up with anything pithier.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

MM. OK, current projects....er...I'm working on a book about Bunyips (mythical Australian creatures), giving them a solid historical and zoological background, as though they were real. I also just finished a commission for a Sydney ad' agency which was a pain-in-the-butt but which paid a lot of bills.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

MM. Always WAS a cartoonist, but always wanted to be a pro footballer (soccer). Tragically my playing career was cut short in my early twenties after I was diagnosed as crap.

Click for larger image

Find out more about Malcolm's Eve strip here.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

MM. I work from home, which I have come to loathe. Sorry if I'm ruining some peoples' dreams, but after five years I was getting cabin fever and I've been a home-based cartoonist since 1997. I'm well on the way to the nut-farm. In fact they've reserved me a jacket. I need to get out and get a real job.
Process? Right. Pencil rough an idea, ink the drawing using a separate piece of (ordinary typing) paper on a lightbox. Scan into Photoshop for colouring, email to client.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

MM. I mentioned I only use ordinary typing/photocopy paper, right? Well, make sure you use good quality stuff to eliminate the "bleed" problem, folks. I don't hold with all that fancy Bristol board or Strathmore whatever it is. Too expensive. I draw my cartoon strips on A3, (two to a page) and my gag cartoons on A4, using an ordinary dip pen and black ink.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

MM. Is the cartoonist a proper...? WHAT??! I've killed men for less than that. Look, there are two types of cartoonist. Those who can draw properly (i.e. can draw landscapes, portraits, design porticos, etc) and those who just can't. The fact is cartooning is about writing. It doesn't matter if you're an Oliphant or a Callahan, we're all the same sad bunch of eejits suffering the same psychotic illness.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

MM. This is where I distinguish cartooning from cartoon illustration or comic art. Cartooning is about the writing, as I said, but cartoon illustration is mostly about the drawing. I'd love to draw Spiderman. I did draw him under licence for a computer games company in about 1999, but that wasn't the real deal.
Actually, I'd like to come up with my own comic book hero. I experimented with Captain Drunky some years back, who defeated bad guys with various bodily functions, but it was before its time.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

MM. That's a difficult one. I've had almost no artistic training (like many cartoonists), and as a kid I eschewed the British comics scene in favour of the Yanks, so the early Romita Snr stuff would have seeped in. His was themost effective style with seemingly the least effort. I also read many "how to" books by American artists who I can't name. Mostly I studied "proper" drawing, not cartoons. Anything from Da Vinci through Rembrandt to Rockwell.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

MM. I think the greatest living artist is a cartoonist, Ralph Steadman. However, I don't draw like him, though I tried to. It just wasn't me. My favourite cartoonist is in my opinion the best editorial artist ever, Sir David Low. I also have a grab bag of others who very few people have heard of, such as past masters like Bud Neill and Dudley D. Watkins, as well as better known artists like Wiley Miller, Stan McMurtry (Daily Mail, UK) Mike Lester and others who are all "up there". There's also a legendary gag cartoonist in the UK called Sax who deserves a mention.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

MM. Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: We don't yet know how the digital revolution will develop. It's a mess. There is a thing the media geeks are calling "convergence",which means that eventually content presently destined for your TV will haveto be configured so that it can appear on your mobile phone - or the digital chip you get implanted in your brain at birth. Unlike the world that the syndicates and newspapers have created, the Web won't allow stuff nobody reads to stick around for years pulling in a wage, but Web influences will eventually help displace the garbage which presently squats like a collection of old warty toads in our newspapers. Not quite yet, unfortunately, but whereas the word "blogger" was initially a term of contempt, it has now acquired a certain cachet. Good cartoonists, if they are web-savvy, can now use the web as a launching pad, where even as recently as two years ago that was just wishful thinking. Whichever way the Internet does influence print media, newspapers will stay.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character,book, show, what would you like to work on?

MM. Spongebob. The Simpsons. Family Guy. As a writer, obviously, because we now sub-contract virtually all our animation to Asia. Glen Keane is widely acknowleged as one of the great Disney 2D animators. Last I heard he was re-training as a computer animator. Very sad. Message to Disney: Your drawn animation was fine, idiots. It was your storytelling that stank.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

MM. I'd like to be the guy who does genital piercings on women. You notice those gigs are never advertised.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

MM. Is that it?

Friends of the Fiend 25: Mark Anderson

2006-05-26T00:36:00.000+01:00

I didn't much like Mark Anderson's cartoons when I first saw them. My wife did, but I didn't, until I saw one in colour and it was only then that the penny dropped. In colour, I could see, and appreciate the all important element in his drawings, his use of space. The cartoon that opened my eyes was one he drew years ago for King Feature's New Breed, it featured two trick or treaters talking about the fact that they were encouraged to talk to strangers at that time of year, and it made quite an impression on me.

These days I find myself popping over to his website every so often, just to laugh out loud at those 'Andertoons', and whilst I still really enjoy his colour work, I appreciate his black and white cartoons even more.

CF. Hello, Mark.

MA. Hey! What's shakin', bacon?

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

MA. always doing my gag work, but lately I've been doing a lot of custom cartoons for advertising, and a fair amount of greeting card work. Also I'm working on my own race of atomic supermen.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

MA. My range of career goals were/are as follows:

Age 4 - Running the cash register at the meat market
Age 6 - Fireman
Age 9 - Luke Skywalker
Age 12 - Luke Skywalker
Age 15 - Princess Leia (It was a confusing time for me.)
Age 17 - Cartoonist
Age 18 - Music teacher
Age 19 - Tombonist
Age 20 - Jazz trombonist
Age 24 - Screw salesman by Day, jazz trombonist by night, cartoonist on my lunch hour.
Age 26 - Anything but selling metal coil
Age 29 - Anything, please God, ANYTHING! (After some downsizing.)
Age 30 to current - Cartoonist

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

MA. I Read a lot of newspapers and magazine looking for little germs of stuff to make fun of. I daydream, write down some jokes, let them stew in a box on the shelf for a while, and then draw up the ones I like sometime later. From there I send them out and wait to see if anyone thinks I'm funny.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

MA. American Natural pencils, Faber-Castell Pitt Artist brush pens, Pigma Microns pens, & cool grey Prismacolor markers on Borden & Riley bleedproof paper. From there it's into one of my Macs, touched up in Photoshop with a Wacom tablet and into the mailbox. I don't keep to any standard dimensions, but I work really small.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

MA. Yes, yes and yes! (I put in an extra "yes" for emphasis.) I could rant on this for a good 10 pages, but I'll spare you.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

MA. Animation. I bought Flash some time ago and I'm still trying to find the time to teach myself to use the damn thing.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

MA. Peter Arno, George Carlin & Spiderman.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

MA. Oh goodness... Probably Bill Watterson. Honestly, every panel is genius through and through.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning,at some point.

MA. Traditional media's going to be forced to redefine itself in any number of ways online sooner or later. It's just a fact. The delivery method is always morphing, but the good news is cartoons fit pretty much anywhere.

See lots more 'Andertoons' on Mark's website.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character,book, show, what would you like to work on?

MA. Right now, probably The Daily Show. That's some consistently smart/ funny stuff!

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

MA. Good God, no! Drawing pictures in my polar bear jammies for a living is pretty much the pinnacle for me.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

MA. Tune in next week! Same Mark time, same Mark channel!

Friends of the Fiend 24: Paul Giambarba

2006-05-22T23:52:00.000+01:00

I am, I think, a little awed by Paul Giambarba. For a start that's a cool name, but it's the way he paints that I envy somewhat. He also draws today, as he did decades ago, with an almost angelic lightness of touch. His blogs are terrific, particularly his 100 years of illustration blog, and he has the most fabulous photograph of Edward Gorey on the photography section of his website.

Not content with just creating illustrations, cartoons, and strips, Paul was Polaroid Corporation’s first art director and continued with them in a very active role as a creator of product identity and as a design consultant for more than 25 years. His work has won awards from the Ad Clubs of New York and Boston, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and Gold Medals from the Art Directors Clubs of New York and Boston. He has lectured on Graphic Design at Cornell University and Wellesley College.

CF. Hello, Paul.

PG. Just got back from Italy so I'll say "Ciao." Thanks, for inviting me to participate as a fellow cartoon fiend.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

PG. I like print-on-demand publishing so I'll be putting together some illustrated books just for the hell of it, with no intention of selling them.I published a compilation of caricatures I did of the Clinton years, In Your Dreams, Ken, and was delighted to have been able to produce a few copies in full color, something we would not have thought possible a few years ago. It's a major technological development that I think we all ought to take advantage of.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

PG. I have wanted to be a cartoonist ever since my grandmother taught me as a child to draw cats. She drew them in the style of Steinberg, who had studied architecture in Milano. He, Riccardo Manzi, and my grandmother draw cats in a similar style. When I asked her why her cats all had their tails up in the air, she said it was to show their number plates. (She had a droll sense of humor.)

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

PG. I like the way a black Prismacolor pencil feels on Rives BFK print paper, but I sometimes use a medium grade tracing paper for its tactile feel, too. I'll use the BFK for watercolor that I will wash over the pencil line. I'll add Photoshop color to the line drawing on tracing paper after scanning the art. I use Photoshop to touch up scans made of the watercolor art in the way we used to touch-up a final illustration.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

PG. For the most part, a black Prismacolor pencil #935, WInsor & Newton artist's watercolors, Rives BFK paper or perhaps a sheet of Fabriano or Arches. However, I've used burnt wooden matches dipped in India ink when asked to do so by an art director.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

PG. Yes. Why not? I don't see much art in our culture. I see plenty of scribbles, sketches, and very few paintings -- and a lot of stuff that I would describe as pretentious garbage. It seemed to me to be almost as bad in Switzerland and Italy as it is in the USA as I looked around for inspiration during the last couple of weeks. Fifty years ago in those countries there were amazing poster hoardings, graphics and industrial design that can only be described as brilliant.
Those were the Golden Years of Leupin, Searle, Savignac, Peynet, Andre Francois,Tomi Ungerer and their colleagues.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

PG. I have always liked the challenge of caricature so I would like to do portraits that bridge the gap between cartoon and illustration.

See more Paul Giambarba art at his website

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

PG. There were many and each were of a different time, I guess. Milton Caniff's original Terry during WWII; Earl Oliver Hurst directly thereafter; your namesake Roy McKie whom I replaced in a Boston studio when he left to go national -- so to speak; then Lyonel Feininger and Max Beckmann when I got more serious about subject matter and techniques.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

PG. There are a lot of them: Ton Smits, whom I met in Eindhoven. Tom Henderson, Peter Arno, Charles Barsotti, Eldon Dedini, and - of course, Roy McKie - just to name a few.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

PG. Yes. I think that Bob Staake is one of the pioneers in the way his digital images appear so vivid and powerful in print, too. We are not going paper-less and are, in fact, using up more of the forest than before the digital revolution arrived.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

PG. The old Punch, and some of the Italian publications after WWII - Giovannino Guareschi had one of them called Candido. Leo Longanesi ("Two stupid people are two stupid people. Ten thousand stupid people are a historic force.") was another genius who was involved with his own publishing house and several very witty journals.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

PG. No question about that. I'd rather be a musician.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

PG. My pleasure, Fiend. Congratulations on a great concept.

Friends of the Fiend 23: Carolita Johnson

2006-05-18T15:00:00.000+01:00

Someone wrote a comment on my other blog pointing me to Carolita Johnson's web page. As soon as I got there I realised I knew her work from my sparse collection of New Yorker magazines. The more cartoons I saw while I was there, the more I liked her. Her not '...puffy enough for you' cartoon had me laughing out loud - an all too rare event for someone who has been drawing cartoons as long as I have - and I became an instant fan.

Her Newyorkette blog, I might add, is also a hoot. Do yourself a convulsive favour and drop in.

Nice article in the Daily Telegraph that mentions Carolita

Carolita Johnson goodies at Cartoonbank

CF. Hello, Carolita.

CJ. Hey big fella!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

CJ. Just the usual grind: the batch (seven cartoons, my personal goal) to submit to TNY every week. Though I've decided to work on my caricatures as well, hoping to get other kinds of artwork published. I've also always dreamed of doing some of the "spots" for The NewYorker. They've started hiring one artist to do weekly spots, instead of just mixing different artists' spots into one issue as before, so you actually get a credit now.

And I'm re-working my old manuscript (a book, and all I can say for now is that the title will be "Bug Juice").

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

CJ. I never WANTED to be a cartoonist. That's why I'm always puzzled by people who approach me with their cartoonist dreams. I've never"dreamed" of doing anything, in the way most people say they do. I just try something if I think I can do it well. And I've never doubted that I can draw, even though I've doubted everything else I did!

As a kid I drew all the time, and I had a little strip when I was a kid, inspired by Peanuts, called "Snurfuls" about a sheepdog. My dad reminded me of this when I started getting published in TNY. I'd totally forgotten about it.

A very early original Carolita Johnson drawing

I got back into cartooning (after 15 years of not drawing at all), encouraged by Crawford when I was trying to put an illustration portfolio together. I guess he saw something in my drawings. He suggested I give it a try while I worked out my illustration style, and I thought it would be good practice for drawing a lot and meeting deadlines, so I started submitting, not expecting to sell at all. But I did sell, within five weeks, much to our surprise.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

CJ. Since I'm one of the newer cartoonists, I have other jobs and run around town a lot and don't have the luxury of sitting around at an art table coming up with brilliant ideas! So, a lot of my ideas come to me while I'm running about, and are jotted down into notebooks or into the palm of my hand. It's awful when I forget to note something, because as soon as you lose one idea into the ether of forgetfulness, it seems to guarantee a sort of inspiration "blockage." Other cartoonists have observed this too. Very very important to write the ideas down as they come.

But it's even better when I sit down and draw something, and the idea comes to me by looking at the drawing. Many of the cartoons I've sold seemed to just appear under my pen like magic, with the idea forming as I draw. It makes me think, wow! Where did THAT come from? It almost makes me feel as if I shouldn't really take credit for it, because there was no real thinking process behind it, just a flash of inspiration.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

CJ. Actually hardly anyone asks! They assume I use watercolors for some reason. I use india ink, because it's waterproof, for the lines. I draw the lines using a pen and nib, I think it's a hunter 12. It's very hard to break that nib in, as it's not meant for what I do with it, and many are thrown out as duds, while one in ten last six months before they poop out. For the wash, I use water diluted with ink. That's why I need it waterproof, so I don't get any bleeding from the lines on application of the wash. I have three shades of dirty ink water for the wash.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

CJ. Yes and no. I think it all depends on the readers' perception. The New Yorker cartoon has had a certain style. I think it behooves TNY to keep it up and set their cartoons apart from other cartoons. We'reknown for having a certain kind of humor that is unique to The New Yorker. In that way, I think we do have an impact on other cartoonists, as well as on the development of the level of the sense of humor of readers.

I've also noticed that artists are incorporating cartoons or cartooning style into their work a lot now, as part of the insertion of pop culture into "serious" art. I'm not sure if that means cartoons influence art or if art influences cartoons, or neither!

And then there's people like David Mamet doing cartoons. It makes eloquent the current idea that anyone with an idea and access to an audience can be an artist. I guess because we've had some excellent cartoonists breaking the mold and drawing in a "naive" style about personal anxieties, like Roz Chast, it's encouraged people to do cartoons on banal subjects, whether they can draw or not. This is where the line gets blurry. Is it art? Is it not art? Who knows! I think it's part of a movement.

Schopenhauer said something like there used to be a great philosopher once in a century, but now schools are turning out philosophers by the hundreds! How can everyone be so brilliant? Everyone's a wiseguy! Anyone can reasonably aspire to be a cartoonist these days. My only snobbism is that a person should be a cartoonist only if they can't beanything else. That's the only meritocracy I believe in, in the cartooning world. Most of us at TNY are absolute failures ateverything else. That's why we have little sympathy for the David Mamets out there.

One last thing, I think that the David Mamets of the world are partly responsible for the shake-up at TNY: we've all been told to clean upour acts and draw better.
I've got nothing against it personally because it's helped me push myself, and I think now that the cartooning market is more open it means even the "naive" style cartoonists at TNY need to push the envelope further and keep on the edge we're supposed to be representing.

Find Carolita's work at The New Yorker store

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

CJ. Just other magazines maybe in the future. I'd love to be able to understand business to the point where I could do business cartoons! I like overcoming my handicaps!

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

CJ. Doré, John R. Neill. Toulouse-Lautrec. (sounds pretentious!) Dana Gibson. Hopper.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

CJ. Cartoonist: Too hard to have one favorite. Weber, Crawford, and Barsotti make a good triumverate for me, for one kind of cartoonist. Then there's Tintin, Little Nemo, and Rarebit Dreams for strips. I love little Nemo. (Notice I don't know the strip artists' names, just their work).

Writer: Same thing. Chandler, Melville, Capote, Lem, Maupassant,Tennessee Williams and Mark Twain .

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

CJ. On the cartoonist's side of that question, yes, there's already a cartoonist or two doing digital-only cartoons at TNY. On the reader's side of the question, yes, there's already quite a lot of cartoons being read and emailed back and forth online.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

CJ. My daydreams: I'd love to work on the Conan O'Brien show, come up with ideas for commercials, or do storyboarding, or paint portraits in the style of the northern artists. Maybe all of it at once! (I'm not used to having just one job and love multi-tasking, as each job inspires the other).

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

CJ. Nope. Or maybe the same thing but rich!

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

CJ. My pleasure!

Friends of the Fiend 22: Royston Robertson

2006-05-17T14:54:00.000+01:00

Royston Robertson, 38, is a freelance cartoonist based in Broadstairs, Kent, England. His gag cartoons have appeared in publications as diverse as Reader’s Digest, Private Eye, Prospect and The Oldie. He has illustrated children’s books for Scholastic Publishing, and his work has been commissioned by the BBC, Oxford University Press, and many other companies.

CF. Hello, Royston.

RR. Hello Mr Fiend, if indeed that is your real name.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

RR. Er, not exciting exactly. My next project is a series of cartoon illustrations for some careers textbooks. I can see you nodding off already, but that’s the kind of stuff you have to do sometimes. Obviously it’s always a personal triumph to get a cartoon published in a magazine that people you know might see, such as Reader’s Digest or Private Eye, but the bread-and-butter stuff is trade mags,
business training manuals, PR campaigns etc. Some cartoonists hate all that kind of stuff, but right now, as someone who only took the plunge to give up the day job a couple of years ago, I’m just happy to be drawing pictures for a living.

See more of Royston Robertson's cartoons by clicking here.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

RR. I suppose I always wanted to be a cartoonist, but for years I never really saw it as a viable career so I only ever dabbled, doing stuff for friends, college magazines and the like. For a short while after I left university I decided to make a go of it. I had a few strips and gags published in those poor Viz imitations that were around in the early 1990s, with names like Zit and Spit. But when I had difficulty getting money out of one of them I sort of lost interest. I didn’t have the drive then I suppose. It took ten years of doing a mainly office-bound "proper job" to convince me to give cartooning a serious go.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

RR. The usual thing: staring blankly out of the window trying to think up ideas. I tend to work in silence for the thinking part of the day. Then, when I’m drawing up cartoons I reward myself with some music on CD, or a bit of radio comedy from the BBC website.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

RR. I recently started using brush pens for the first time. A few years back I used to draw very precisely, over pencil lines that were later rubbed out, mainly because I started out doing strips rather than spot cartoons. In recent years I’ve drawn more loosely, on a piece of paper over a rough placed on a lightbox, but I carried on using the same Rotring technical drawing pens. They’re good for
precise work but the results were not always great with looser stuff.

Anyway, brush pens were recommended to me by a couple of fellow members of the CCGB (Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain). I use Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens. It’s been quite a transformation. They allow for a thicker, more confident line and they’re more fun to use, though you do have to get used to drawing quite a lot bigger. I still draw on A4 but the drawing now takes up the whole page rather than nestling in the middle. Now all I need is a pen to help me write
funnier gags.

As for technological tools, I scan my linework into my Apple Mac and colour on screen with Adobe Photoshop. Sometimes I find I’ll move elements around on screen, enlarge some bits, get rid of other bits etc, just generally improving the composition. But it ends up looking a bit odd, with different line thicknesses and so on, so I print it out, stick it on the lightbox and draw it again. That might seem a bit odd to some, but it works for me.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

RR. It has a huge cultural impact, no question whatsoever. Cartoons are everywhere. But as for the "A" word, that’s a tricky one. I suppose it’s the same as with any medium, some cartoons are art, some aren’t. If it’s drawn with a purely commercial purpose, i.e. for the money, it is probably compromised and therefore you can’t really call it art. But if it’s a pure expression of the cartoonist, and not
compromised, then maybe it is.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you’d like to work in, if you can find the time?

RR. I like the idea of doing a comic (in the US underground vein, I’m not that big on superhero comics except for ones written by Alan Moore) or a graphic novel, but not right now, that’s very much something for another day.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

RR. In the order that I became aware of them … as a kid I was well into The Beano and other D.C. Thomson comics, and also the more anarchic IPC comics such as Krazy and Cheeky; Viz Comic, which was like punk rock for an aspiring cartoonist; Oink! ; The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers; Gary Larson, who was the first person to get me into the idea of gag cartooning (I think that clearly happened for a lot of people); Robert Crumb and subsequently lots of other North American underground artists, namely Peter Bagge, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Chester Brown, Joe Matt and Seth. I don’t think many of these people affected my style as such (I wish!) but they all just really made me want to do cartooning. Since I've been concentrating on gag cartoons there are lots more cartoonists that have had an effect on my style of drawing and gag writing, but far too many to mention.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

RR. Mr F, you have stumped me with that fiendish question. Picking a single favourite is impossible.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

RR. I’m a bit sceptical about the disappearance of books and other printed matter (it’s still the best technology there is – easy to use, no compatibility problems and no dead batteries) but if it does happen, the proliferation of excellent cartoons on the web prove that cartoons have a healthy future.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

RR. The Simpsons movie.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

RR. Sometimes I think I’d like something that involves more travel, getting out and about and meeting people. Cartooning is a solitary profession. But then again, I think solitary suits me for most of the time, so probably not. I suppose the answer is: a more successful cartoonist!

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

RR. You’re very welcome.
Check out Royston's terrific blog, Back to the Drawing Board.

Friends of the Fiend 21: Benita Epstein

2006-05-15T23:00:00.000+01:00

I've never made any secret of the fact that Benita Epstein is one of my all-time favourite cartoonists. I have one of her original drawings in my collection, and it is just so small and delicate and perfect to look at, that the humour sort of creeps up on you. Her cartoon, below, is just about my favourite cartoon.

Hundreds of companies have published Benita's cartoons, including The New Yorker, Wall St. Journal, Barron's, Harvard Business Review, Prospect, Punch, Air & Space and several greetings card companies. Her drawings appear in cartoon collections, books, websites, newspapers and calendars, and her syndicated graphic panel, 'Drawing a Crowd' was distributed by Creator's syndicate. The NCS has had the good sense to nominate Benita for five Reuben division awards.

You'll find an interview with her here, on Moneypants, and find out a lot more about Benita Epstein here, on her website.

CF. Hello, Benita.

BE: Hi, Cartoon Fiend!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

BE: What do you call exciting? I'm working on deadlines for various greeting card companies and magazines. And every week or so, month or so brand new markets pop up, and I make a stab at those.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set outto become one, or was it a gradual process?

BE: Not at all. This is my second career. Previously I did scientific research. That's why you see a lot of lab scenes in my cartoons, or talking mosquitoes. I made an abrupt change after attending a one-day cartoon workshop. It was bye bye good salary, benefits and pension. Hello to an uncertain future.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

BE: I start out feeding my brain with newspapers, books, TV news, internet news, listening to conversations. Then I write, usually in the morning.
Gags comes out of nowhere. Even if it's silly or stupid or unusable I write it down. I can edit it later. I let the writing simmer. After a day, a week, sometimes years, I go back, fix the writing and pick out some gags to draw. Occasionally I have brainstormed via e-mail with other cartoonists. It works great and I can't ever remember when either of us wanted the other one's ideas, so we never really stepped on each other's toes.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, butwhat tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

BE: I make a primitive, rough outline of the people, main characters in a basic setting on crummy copy paper with a regular pencil. Then I put a nice piece of smooth HP laser paper over the sketch and ink over it on a light table. For crowd, bar, vegetation, beach and laboratory scenes I draw directly on the finished paper with no sketches because I draw fast and background scenes are loosely lined. I use Pigma pens and a brush, sometimes a Sharpie or a black calligraphy pen. Then I scan the drawings into Photoshop. If a company wants an original I ink on good watercolor paper and add a gray wash or watercolor. But in Photoshop I shade/color the drawing using a Wacom tablet. If I'm on vacation I can draw on tracing paper and save that to scan later, or photocopy the cartoons, send by mail to various companies then scan them when I get home. I like to have every single cartoon scanned so I can pull them up at a moment's notice and either print hard copies or send pdf's. I've been sending stuff via pdf for years worldwide and I think it's given me an edge over a lot of cartoonists who concentrate on the regular major markets here in the U.S.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

BE: Yes. Just because the cartoons end up on paper or a computer screen doesn't make them less valuable to our culture than fine art done on more permanent media. Also, just because cartoons are funny, doesn't mean they are less important to our culture than stodgy, boring paintings (some). A cartoon is a reflection on what's going on in life, just as some fine art or other artforms are. Just look at all the cartoons on baby boomers, retirement, technology, avian flu, blogs, makeovers, internet dating, etc. Obviously political cartoons have cultural impact, but magazine gag cartoons and comic strips do as well.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd liketo work in, if you can find the time?

BE: Animation, maybe, but probably not. I've done magazine gag cartoons (my specialty), humorous illustration, greeting cards, newspaper syndication, a daily cell phone cartoon, scientific illustration, three of my own cartoon collections and some advertising.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

BE: Chas. Addams, Edward Gorey, I used to copy my brother's cartoons, too. As a kid I read every single cartoon in the LA Times.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

BE: Well, Fiend, I've always loved your bold lines and humor (Fiend faints). And I loved Virgil Partch (VIP) and Chas. Addams and many other New Yorker cartoonists. My favorites change from year to year. Sam Gross and Arnie Levin are always at the top of the list.
As far as humorous writers I like David Sedaris and Jerry Seinfeld (Letters from a Nut and the rest of those he claims he didn't write are 'fall-on-the-floor' funny).

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'newdigital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning,at some point.

BE: Maybe. I don't know. People still like to read in bed with a good book (ideally a cartoon book). The paperless future has already changed how we do things, and sometimes this helps the cartoonist, sometimes not. Sometimes a great magazine will stop using cartoons and go online (or just stop using cartoons), but for some reason another market will come along. It always does. Also, one's website attracts all sorts of new markets that wouldn't have been possible, say, 30 years ago. Not to mention work appearing on websites themselves, cell phones, iPods, other digital media, etc.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work onanything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character,book, show, what would you like to work on?

BE: A movie that I wrote (would have written), a murder-comedy, maybe about an entomologist turned cartoonist? They say 'write what you know'. I'd have to study the murder part.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

BE: Not really. I wanted to be a writer as well as a cartoonist and now I don't think that sounds like so much fun. Being freelance, I can go anywhere, travel anywhere and not have to worry about being chained to an office. Also, whenever I meet someone they are very impressed that I am a cartoonist.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

BE: Thank you for thinking of me. All the best.

Friends of the Fiend 20: Rex May

2006-05-13T22:51:00.000+01:00

Born in 1946, in Terre Haute, Indiana. Rex May gained his Bachelor's in Russian Literature from Indiana State, in 1968. With U. S. Army Intelligence from 68-71, he went on to achieve his Master's in English from Indiana State,in 1973. He lives with his wife Jean ("that's her on my logo — I'm the one with the beard"), and has three kids — Freyja, Tyr, and Bjorn, and two grandchildren.

Writer/cartoonist/gag writer, Rex F. May is also the prolific, and very funny, cartoonist, Baloo, you'll find more of his cartoons on his website, Baloo Cartoons.

CF. Hello,Rex.

RM. Hello.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

RM. Trying to make the transition to working on the net, trying to find cartoonists to collaborate with (I'm a gagwriter, too — mainly a gagwriter, in fact), gearing up for retirement from my government job in 86 days, trying to hit the ground running. Meanwhile a comic book is coming out from Big Head Press.

Roswell, Texas, by L. Neil Smith, Rex F. May, and Scott Bieser, is published by Big Head Press

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

RM. I did when I was a kid, forgot about it for many years. Started writing prose for National Lampoon back in 74, got a copy of Writers' Market, saw that cartoonists needed gagwriters, and started doing that. Soon I had a few hundred gags nobody wanted, so I drew them myself and started selling.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell ussomething about the process?

RM. I get up at about six every morning, sit down with a stack of clips, and, in front of the Cartoon Network or something, write till I have 35 gags. That takes an hour to an hour and a half. I draw when I get around to it. Rest of the time trying to market this stuff.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, butwhat tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

RM. Flairs on half sheets. I used Koh-i-noor Art Pen, like Stephanie Piro, until all of mine wore out.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, doescartooning have the same cultural impact as some otherartforms, in your opinion?

RM. Sure, more than a lot. We range from doodlers to fine artists.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd liketo work in, if you can find the time?

RM. Always ready to do something syndicated. But for that I want to do the writing, not the drawing.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

RM. Bob Thaves, Dave Holle, Sergio Aragones, Thurber, Bob Zahn.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

RM. Gosh. Will Eisner, I suppose. Favorite writer... Terry Pratchett.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'newdigital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning,at some point.

RM. More than we can imagine.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

RM. I'd like to be on the Benny Hill Show. Alas, too late.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

RM. Not "rather", exactly, but I could've been a linguistics academic.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

RM. Mia plezuro!

Rex May can be contacted by email at:

rmay@mac.com

Friends of the Fiend 19: Noel Ford

2006-05-07T19:04:00.000+01:00

Noel Ford is a hero of mine. I just can't think of any other way to describe him. If I had never picked up a copy of Punch Magazine, with a Noel Ford cover, and with Noel Ford cartoons inside it, and been inspired by his humour and his drawings, I'd have given up cartooning after the daily newspapers over here (with the exception of one) started dropping cartoons. Noel's Punch cartoons were never invented for the single-column world that my work existed in, up until that point. They were made for a bigger canvas, and they were more sophisticated,in style and in humour, more like something that should hang on a wall. This was what I wanted to make, this was how I wanted to draw. I wanted to be Noel Ford, me and about a dozen other cartoonists I knew.

This cartoon, from one of Noel Ford's earlier collections 'Deadly Humorous', is a terrific example of what was so captivating about Noel's cartoons. The figures'are alive with movement; the joke is both historical (Stonehenge), and contemporary(concerning pressure groups and urban planning, and the Mob). It looks so modern it could have been drawn today, yet it was drawn over 20 years ago. Some things, like the outline on the inside of an upright pillar are insinuated rather than drawn, with the shading explaining the three-dimensional shape. For me, and some of my contemporaries, just looking at Noel Ford's cartoons was like taking a Masterclass in cartoon art.

The fact that he worked for IPC as a comic artist/writer, worked as an Editorial cartoonist, illustrates books for other people and writes and illustrates his own books, and now works entirely with digital media, of course, shows his versitility but it also demonstrates his ability to remain ahead of the game. Even today, he continues to inspire and even finds the time to encourage, and help, up-and-coming new cartoonists as a moderator on the CCGB Q&A Forum.

Noel now lives in a remote part of Wales ( his daughter describes the address as 'Ten mile from nowhere'). When they moved there, in 2000, they were welcomed by having a two sheep named after them.
A contributor to Punch and, to a lesser degree, Private Eye for many years, Noel is currently editorial cartoonist for several national UK publications, including the Church Times. He also draws cartoons for clients, worldwide and was, for 14 years, the freelance editorial cartoonist for the UK national newspaper, the Daily Star, since when he has avoided reading newspapers wherever possible.
Noel has won a number of cartooning awards, including Dog Cartoonist of the Year and a United Nations Award for his contribution to Cartoonists Against Drug Abuse and, last year, second place in the Australian Lindsay Awards.
He is a member of The British Cartoonists Association (BCA), The Cartooonists Club of Great Britain (CCGB),The Federation of Cartoonists Organisations (FECO), The Cartoonists Guild and was elected a Fellow of The RSA in 2003

CF. Hello, Noel.

NF. Hello, CF, and thanks for giving me the opportunity to take a ride on your blog - where web logs are concerned I'm just too much of a lazy blogger to do one myself.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

NF. There's always something exciting in the pipeline, though it's sometimes (like now) just a couple of bends away and not in direct line of site. This isn't wishful thinking, it's the way things have been, for me, for the last thirty odd years of cartooning. Solid, week in, week out editorial commitments, interspersed at regular intervals with the little gems that drop out of the blue to add the extra sparkle. So, at the moment, it's my regular editorial stuff, a few calendars (2007 and 2008), some other odds and ends...and one ear to the pipeline.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set outto become one, or was it a gradual process?

NF. Yes. Always (and I have vivid memories from when I was three or four years old, chalking cartoons on the pavement outside our house). However, like many in the creative business, I found it too easy to be diverted by other things. I was also pulled in the directions of music and writing (and also in he direction of having to earn a living). To cut it short, I was lead guitarist with a pro-rock band for some years, had some success writing fiction for magazines and BBC radio, but finally got my act together and gave cartooning a real push rather than the sporadic attempts I had made whilst doing the other things. These days, my cartooning is paramount but I have continued to have a little success in writing (children's fiction) and have, in the last couple of years, come back to my music.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

NF. My main editorial stuff comes in the first half of the week, and the stories to which my cartoons or illustrations are to relate are emailed to me. Some publications like to see a few roughs whilst other allow me to act as my own editor and just send a finished cartoon. This latter may sound nice (and it is) but I still like working under editorial control - a good editor can often bring out the very best in you.
Being slightly clairvoyant, I sense that you are soon going to ask that old question, the one that I've been asked millions of times, about what tools I use and what formats I work to, so I won't go into that aspect of my work process here.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

NF. I knew it!

Okay. I've been a wholly digital cartoonist since around 1998. I use Mac computers, Wacom drawing tablets and styluses and Corel Painter, by far the most versatile multi-media dedicated painting and drawing application on the planet. Photoshop? That's a great program in its own right (and many cartoonists use it) but it's NOT a dedicated painting and drawing program and has nothing like the range of media that Painter has to offer.
Because I am drawing entirely digitally, I draw to same-size format and almost everything I do goes out in highest quality JPEG format at 300 dpi, via email. I often work at 600 dpi for the finer working resolution and keep this higher res version in my archives.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, doescartooning have the same cultural impact as some otherartforms, in your opinion?

NF. You mean like proper artists who are so talented that they can rumple a bed, throw in some soiled underwear and, faster than art critic can prematurely ejaculate, produce a wonderful piece of art? Sorry, give me my Renoir (print) any day.
Actually, I regard cartoons as eighty percent writing, fifteen percent art and five percent undefinable, but certainly the finished pieces hold enormous cultural importance. Cartoons define and depict the day with an immediacy that many a serious historian can never quite manage.
But let's remember. Cartoons are a means to an end. If they finish up hanging on a wall, that's a bonus but it is not their raion d'etre. So let's not get too precious about them, eh?

Another timeless Noel Ford classic from Deadly Humorous. This doesn't look over 20 years old because of the variations of it that appear in some publications, even today.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

NF. I'm happy ploughing my own furrow. But it IS important to have several furrows to plough, so that you never get bored. I think I have half a dozen, at least.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

NF. I really can't think of any that stand out. I suppose I HAVE been influenced, but it must have been while I was looking the other way. Of course, my actual love of cartooning in general was heavily influenced by the British magazines like Weekend and Reveille, which carried tons of cartoons. And, also, by those terrific cartoon/gag books that you used to be able to buy on railway stations (for younger readers, this was in the days when railway engines had proper name and weren't just buses without steering wheels).

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

NF. Let's not get into writers, as I will just go off on an ever diverging series of tangents.Cartoonist? Well, I've always been so self-driven that I have tried to avoid cartooning heroes. I suppose, though, that my cartooning hero would have to be a sort of Frankenstein's monster (though with a few more laughs) - a sort of amalgam of those regular contributors to the aforementioned magazines, The Saxes, the Styxes, you know who I mean.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'newdigital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning,at some point.

NF. Hey, I've worked in a 'paperless office' for the last eight years and I still manage to fill a bin-bag with scrap paper every week!Anyway, much as I love computers for working, spare me from ever having to use them for reading! I love the tactile nature of a book (preferably a hardback). Sadly, inevitably, though, the answer to your question is, Yes.

See more illustrations and cartoons by Noel Ford on his websites, here, and here.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work onanything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character,book, show, what would you like to work on?

NF. I'd need more than a helicopter. I'd need a time machine. Then I could go back and redraw all that old stuff of mine that embarrasses me so much (not the gags, but the drawing). Of course, this would be a project akin to repainting the Forth Bridge, if you take my point.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

NF. Not if it involves real work.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

NF. Glad to oblige. Is that brown envelope for me?...

______________________________________________________

To contact Noel Ford FRSA, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 (0)1974 831468Fax: +44 (0)8700 518267
E-mail:
laugh@noelford.co.uk

noel@fordcartoon.com

Online Portfolio
http://www.noelford.co.uk

http://www.fordcartoon.com/

Friends of the Fiend 18: Grant Miehm

2006-05-06T00:36:00.000+01:00

Born in Canada, Grant received his art education in the New York City area. His freelance work includes assignments for DC and Marvel Comics, working on: Disney's: 'Gargoyles', Saban Entertainment’s: 'Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers’, and other features. Past clients include: Wal-Mart, McDonald's and The Sci-Fi Channel.
In January 2000, Grant took over the writer / artist chores on the long-running 'Scouts In Action' feature for Boy's Life magazine. Boy's Life celebrates its 95th year of publication in 2006.
In 2001, Grant received two Ace Awards for Illustration and an Icon Award in 2003.

Future assignments include continued book, advertising and magazine illustration and a serious foray into concept and character design for the video game market.

Grant Miehm's bio at Lambiek

CF. Hello Grant.

GM: Hey.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

GM. I’m still involved in producing: ‘Scouts In Action’ for Boys’ Life, as well as doing illustration for European-based clients. And I’m always developing some sort of comics project on the side, too.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

GM. I think I started-off wanting to be a writer. I recall being about 7 and investigating what I thought was the way children’s books were written then. Funny how I wound up writing much of the material I do now, given that initial spark. I do cartoon work, but it’s more accurate to call me an illustrator – I hope that’s not too pretentious. And definitely, it was a long process, born out of drawing for enjoyment, rather than serious study. That came later.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

GM. SIA ( Scouts In Action ) is akin to writing a news story. I review a lot of factual information – no less than 10 to 12 pages – detailing the rescue a given Scout is involved in. Then, I edit the details down to less than 100 words, bearing in mind the style that’s endemic to writing for Boys’ Life.

From there, it’s the usual process of getting a sketch and the pencil stage approved, after which the page is inked, scanned and colored digitally. I’m still using the traditional tools of pencil, ink, brush and pen and then digitizing that. When I paint, although I use the computer, I’m still approaching it like an illustrator. The computer is just another tool, which I believe is the way it should be used.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

GM. I’ll use whatever gives the effect I’m looking for – anything works if you use your imagination. Normally, it’s the standard Windsor-Newton brush and the 108 flexible crow quill. For a lot of advertising / commercial work though, I use Pilot markers or any super cheap Flair-type marker. You can create some beautiful fat lines and nice pseudo-dry brush effects using those.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

GM. Cartoonists are among the most versatile of all artists. Schooled ones, that is. Cartooning has an immense impact on other art forms. How many fine artists, for example, have created what are considered groundbreaking pieces, citing cartooning as a source? Many. Roy Lichtenstein is an obvious example, yes?

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

GM. I think I’ve been really blessed to have done at least some work in the areas that I’m interested in. Concept art and storyboard work interests me greatly at the moment. My major concern is being able to land assignments where I’ll have time to craft, as closely as I can, what I see in my head. I keep working toward that.

Grant's artwork has appeared in a variety of comic books, including The American, by Dark Horse. Click here for details about the comic.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

GM. Too many to list. Not only other artists, but I also think any creative person is influenced by everything around them. A neighbor of mine has a dog that’s the wildest, funniest critter – I’m often fascinated watching her play – the action of how she moves. Remembering that sort of thing as I work influences how I draw. So aside from artists who’s work I admire, life itself imprints upon the psyche of the artist, I think.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

GM. A ton of people, but I think it’s a toss-up between Alex Toth and Roy Crane. Their work suggests so much with so little. I wouldn’t presume for a second to be as capable as either of those 2 gents, nor show their influence in my work, but I’m very inspired by studying what they do.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

GM. I think it already has. However, I can’t see it replacing holding a comic book or the Sunday comics page. I think people will always want the personal, tactile experience that comes with reading what you’re holding in your hand.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

GM. I think I’d like to work in film. Being one of the creators behind an animated film like: ‘The Incredibles’, for example, would be a mind-blowing experience. To see what you had sketched or did as concept work, eventually becoming something intensely animated like that? Awesome!

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

GM. Nope. This is definitely my path. God knows it took me long enough to get on it correctly and I’ve never been even remotely successful doing anything else, so...

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

GM. No problem. Thank you so much.

Friends of the Fiend 17: Oliver Christianson

2006-05-03T14:38:00.000+01:00

Oliver Christianson is Revilo, creator of some of the funniest cartoons and greetings cards you'll ever see. He works for Hallmark greeting cards, but you'll also recognise his work from the glory days of National Lampoon, and some recent publications, and books.

I live in Britain, and our cards are a little, well, ordinary. I had never, ever, seen cards like those designed by Revilo. I am sometimes awed by his cartoons. My particular favourite 'Sheep' features here, in this interview. I pleaded with him to let me show you it.

Oliver Christianson's bio

And check this page out for his self-portrait

CF. Hello, Oliver.

OC. Hello!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

OC. In the pipeline? I have a book I've recently finished which will be available in Hallmark Gold Crown stores stateside this September. It's called "Funny Business" and of course, is about business. This is the third book I've done for Hallmark in the last three years and I'm really enjoying being an "author". I've been doing greeting cards for some thirty years now, so this is a nice change. It's great to be able to focus on something other than birthdays and your usual assortment of holidays.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

OC. My father was a cartoonist so it seems that it would have been the obvious thing for me to want to do, but I studied to be a magazine illustrator at university. I think I'd fallen under the spell of those ads in the Fifties comics and magazines for the "Famous Artist's School" with the photo of Albert Dorne sitting at his drafting table, tapping the excess water off his brush as he stared at you from under his enormous eyebrows. Behind him, you could see the New York skyline from his window. The reality of magazine illustration was something else again. I did all sorts of illustration- fashion, editorial, books, magazines...yes, I said fashion. I did fashion illustration and even taught it for awhile. Cartooning was something I started doing in school just to pay the bills and what I liked best about it was that I could do it by mail and not have to venture into the city to make the rounds of art directors.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

OC. I have an office at Hallmark cards in Kansas City and I work regular banker's hours. I usually have several projects going and I work on whatever I can get my head around at the moment.I've got about three new book ideas I'm working on as well as some material for a new website, some magazine work and some recipes. Yes, I said recipes. These are food illustrations which are different from anything that you've ever seen before.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

OC. As for a mark making devices, I use whatever is at hand. Sometimes a Sharpie or a pen of some sort. Then I scan the drawings and color them on the computer. Once in a great while I'll get ambitious and paint in acrylics to keep the memory green, but I don't do it often.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

OC. My opinion? All art is business. As far as cultural impact, I don't think about things like that.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

OC. I started out in magazines and once I got into doing cards full-time I quit doing magazine stuff. I've recently started selling to a publication and it feels good to be doing it again.

See more Revilo cartoons at Oliver's website

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

OC. VIP. Bob Holman. Charles Addams. I've always loved looking at other people's stuff regardless of the field of art they were in. Fine arts, fashion, comics, sign painting, you name it.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

OC. Kurt Vonnegut. No, wait, Jorge Luis Borges... I have lots of favourites and not all of them are cartoonists.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'newdigital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning,at some point.

OC. I don't see if happening for awhile. At Hallmark, once they moved in the computers, I think we actually started using MORE paper. Art directors and editors always want paper copies of everything for their records and for the dog'n'pony shows.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work onanything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character,book, show, what would you like to work on?

OC. I think I'd want to do a late-night radio show and play nothing but Doo Wop music. By the way, my current favourite groups is The Roomates, who are a contemporary British vocal group.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

OC. King of the World?

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

Friends of the Fiend 16: Dee Adams.

2006-05-02T14:06:00.000+01:00

Dee Adam's bio

News coverage of Dee Adam's Minnie Pauz

CF. Hello,Dee.

DA. Hi Fiend, thanks for asking me to be a part of such a great group! I always feel like I'm an imposter when I get around professional cartoonists!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

DA. I'm trying to finish my first Minnie Pauz book, but I've been working on this for about 6 years so who knows if it will finally get done.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

DA. Becoming a cartoonist (or an imposter cartoonist) was a complete surprise at about 49 years of age when I got the idea for a menopausal cartoon character.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

DA. My cartoon has grown into a business, Minnie Pauz Enterprises, so I actually spend more time working on my website and marketing than I do on cartooning. By promoting my cartoons to the appropriate market online, I have developed a following and created a community where women can discuss midlife concerns and share experiences. The large following, 15,000 subscribers, and top-ranking in the search engines has attracted advertisers and sponsors who are scrambling to reach this huge market segment, which has allowed me to make a living entirely from cartooning. No one is more surprised about this than me!

Interested in subscribing to the Minnie Pauz newsletter? Click here.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

DA. Very simple. I do a pencil sketch on copy paper, ink it with a Zig calligraphy marker, scan it and color it with PaintShop Pro. (still haven't learned to use PhotoShop with any skill). I save a high res copy for future use (in books or presentations) and have a low res jpg or gif for my website. When I first started though, I was in such a hurry to get a new cartoon on the website, I would forget to save a high res copy and now I have to find the original, rescan it and color it from scratch when someone wants to use certain ones.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

DA. I believe that anyone who has a creative thought and produces something tangible is an artist, so that would absolutely include cartoonists. The fact that cartoons have come through history as a form of self - expression, as a learning tool and as entertainment, tells me without a doubt they've had incredible cultural impact on society.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

DA. I would like to do Minnie Pauz as a strip, in addition to the single panel format. It's on my "too learn" list.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

DA. I didn't really have any until I ended up on the Wisen, looking for help on how to draw cartoons and how to market/price my services. Getting advice from some of the successful cartoonists on there has been a blessing.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

DA. I don't have a favorite, but I tend to study the women and their road to success in this business.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

DA. The internet has actually created my life as a cartoonist and I will be forever grateful.

Get your Minnie Pauz goodies here.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

DA. I wouldn't mind having Hallmark wanting me to start a complete line of Minnie Pauz products!

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

DA. Wealthy and retired.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

DA. Thanks for the opportunity to be here!

Friends of the Fiend 15: Brian Fies.

2006-04-30T16:52:00.000+01:00

The Cartoon Fiend is breaking with tradition, again, to say a quick word about Einsner Award winning cartoonist Brian Fies book, Mom's Cancer. Mom's Cancer is, in my opinion, one of the most important comic books, or graphic novels, to be published, ever. It ranks along with the work of Speigleman, Sacco, Burns, Ware, and Pekar, et al, in bringing about a new credibilty to cartoon art, as we enter a period where the 'graphic novel' is being firmly established as a leading form of artistic expression.

If you don't have this book, get it now.

Get Mom's Cancer, by Brian Fies, at Amazon today

Or here; if you're in the UK.

CF. Hello, Brian.

BF: Howdy.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline that you can tell us about?

BF: Tough question. I'm going to Hawaii in a couple of weeks to research a paper I'm co-authoring on solar photovoltaic R&D breakthroughs for the U.S. Department of Defense, but as excited as I am about that I don't think that's what you meant.

Seriously, what makes the question tough is that I still have a demanding day job and don't know where my cartooning ambitions fit right now. Mom's Cancer is out and I hear doing well, but it'd be irresponsibly reckless to turn aside paying work in anticipation of speculative cartooning income. It's still a spare-time avocation for me. Getting a book published is wonderful but it's not a career.

Despite such unseemly whining, I am pursuing a graphic novel idea I'm very excited about. I have to do some research and will know within a couple of months whether that idea will fly. If not, I have others. I've said before that Mom's Cancer and the Eisner Award have opened doors I've been knocking on my whole life. I don't intend to waste the opportunity.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

BF. Always always always. Drawing brought me great hypnotic transcendent joy as far back as I can remember. I clearly recall being a child, maybe age 5 or so, drawing and redrawing the abstract shape of the Superman symbol trying to get it right when it suddenly clicked in my mind that it was a stylized letter "S." The light bulb over my head blazed at 300 watts that day, I assure you! I think I submitted my first comic strip to a syndicate at age 14. One rejection slip came back with an editor's handwritten note that read, "Pogo-like strip," which I never knew to take as a rebuke or a compliment.

Unfortunately, I also wanted to be a lot of other things and I spent about the first 25 years of my life trying to realize them all simultaneously and none very well. I must confess I grew up loving writing and science (particularly astronomy) as much as I loved cartooning. My career and life since have been about balancing left-brain/right-brain interests that are about equally important to me. Cartooning exercises both sides pretty well.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

BF: Mom's Cancer was based on copious notes I took as my family went through the experience of my mother's diagnosis and treatment. Anything that struck me as interesting, surprising, or meaningful I tried to capture in a note or sketch. Weeks later I sorted through them to figure out what contributed to the story and what didn't.

This was the sculpting and shaping part, finding threads that ran through a hundred unrelated incidents and weaving them into a story. I was a brutal editor: if it didn't advance the story, it was out. You have to remember that when I began working on Mom's Cancer I had no idea how it was going to end, so there was also some improvisation involved. It was tough.

The notes became a script with thumbnails that I then sat down and drew with the tools I use in the format I work to.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, butwhat tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

BF: Glad you asked! I'm very traditional. Based on rough thumbnails, I pencil on two-ply Bristol board, letter with Speedball nibs B5 and B6, then apply Higgins ink with a small assortment of brushes and crow-quills. I have a fountain pen I like to use for borders and some linework, but I try to minimize my use of technical pens, felt-tips, or anything that lays down a line of unvarying weight. I find them lifeless. I gently erase the pencil and scan the pages into Photoshop, where I do whatever clean-up, editing, shading and coloring are needed. Anything I once would have done with white paint or razor blades I am very happy to handle in the computer.

When I started Mom's Cancer I knew I wanted to put it online as a Webcomic, so I deliberately laid out each page's aspect ratio to equal that of a typical computer monitor screen. This proportion turned out to be pretty hard to break into conveniently sized panels; I stuck with it, but don't think I'd do it again. When it came time to publish as a book, the horizontal layout was actually one thing my editor like about it. The shape makes it a little different.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some otherartforms, in your opinion?

BF: I think cartoonists are certainly "proper artists," but I also think we have to acknowledge and maybe embrace the profession's disrepute as well. It's part of the deal. Bill Watterson did a "Calvin and Hobbes" strip pointing out that a cartoon is bourgeois, a Lichtenstein painting of a cartoon is Art, while a cartoon of a Lichtenstein painting of a cartoon circles back to bourgeois. It does seem like we just can't win, but at the same time cartoons and comics have a kind of outlaw lumpen legitimacy that gallery art lacks.

I compare cartooning to popular music. Each combines two artistic media--words and drawings versus words and music--to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Dissect any song to look at the lyrics and melody separately, and they're invariably awful. The lyrics are poor poetry and the tunes are simplistic and repetitious. The music to "Louie Louie" is nothing special and the words are indecipherable, but put 'em together and you've got a great cultural touchstone. Same with cartooning.

If Woody Guthrie, Billie Holiday, and Jimi Hendrix are artists, then so are Charles Schulz, Will Eisner, and Robert Crumb. I think it's about that simple. On the other hand, Sturgeon's Law ("90 percent of everything is crap") applies to cartooning as much as it does anything else.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

BF: I'm pretty sure my autobiographical comics career is over. I believe everyone's life contains one good story and I told mine. Unless you happen to be an exile from revolutionary Iran, I think writing two or more stories about yourself is probably a bad idea. You're not that interesting.

Having said that, I'd like to explore an area I'd call "speculative non-fiction," bringing a journalistic approach to cartooning that might include a first-person point of view. Not quite a Joe Sacco globe-trotting journalism, but maybe more of a what-if gee-whiz journalism. I don't know, I haven't figured that out yet, and I haven't seen anyone doing quite what I have in mind. Maybe it's not possible.

I just re-read that and realized I am an enormous wheezy bag of hot gas. Sorry.

I would love to do a daily comic strip. I think I'd do a bang-up job developing characters, situations and themes, and I know I have the discipline to work alone and meet deadlines because I've done it as a writer for seven years. My only shortcoming, as I had one syndicate editor suggest, is that I may simply not be funny. Small handicap. I'm working on it.

Until I was in my early twenties I also had ambitions to draw superhero comics. I would still love to do an eight-page filler story like they used to put in the back of those 64-page summer spectaculars. Alas, I don't think that type of story exists anymore, and Marvel and DC have both moved too far away from anything I recognize as super or heroic.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

BF: I found this question so disturbing that I wrote a long blog entry of my own about it on my Mom's Cancer blog. Short answer: No one and everyone. Slightly more detailed answer: E.B. White and Chesley Bonestell. Satisfied?

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

BF: It's as hard to name a favorite cartoonist as it is to name a favorite food or most beautiful woman. You like different things for different reasons. I'm afraid my preferences are also sadly America-centric, but that's how I grew up. Of course my list includes Charles Schulz, George Herriman, Milton Caniff, Will Eisner, the usual. I find myself remembering Gus Arriola's work extremely fondly; "Gordo" was a graceful, clever strip that was beautifully drawn.

I also have a very special place in my pantheon for Winsor McCay. The first thing I did with the advance money I earned for Mom's Cancer was buy an original McCay cel from his "Gertie the Dinosaur" film, which had been a lifetime goal of mine. I could have afforded it before, but it was very important to me that I buy my McCay with "cartooning money." Otherwise, I didn't deserve to have it.

But since you asked a direct question I'll give you a direct answer: Walt Kelly. In my opinion he was simply the complete cartoonist who could do it all, including rip your heart out.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

BF: It already has, hasn't it? I've been in bulletin-board discussions in which I've been mocked as a dinosaur for my pathetic devotion to paper, ink, and those other tired relics of the 15th-century. We're probably a decade away from a time when it's all electrons for everyone, start to finish, and more's the pity for us.

But I don't really think newspapers, magazines and books are going anywhere for a long time, any more than radio disappeared when television was invented or painting went extinct with photography. I do expect them to evolve. I know that reading on paper taps into different parts of my brain than does reading on a computer, and the former is an experience that I and a lot of other people find greatly more engrossing and enjoyable. Eventually, I suppose we'll all carry around a flexible electronic screen and the media will become indistinguishable. And then I guess it won't matter much. Because I will be dead.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

BF: Put me in charge of redesigning Tomorrowland in Disneyland. It used to be cool. In my spare time I'll produce a new "Star Trek" television series.

Among comics, "For Better or For Worse" has a rich universe it would be fun to play in. I've never told anyone this, but Lynn Johnston was an indirect inspiration to me while I did Mom's Cancer. In the 1970s, before she began For Better or For Worse, she did a book titled David, We're Pregnant. People have asked if I was thinking about Pekar or Spiegelman when I did Mom's Cancer, but what I really had way in the back of my mind was Johnston, who preceded both of them. I kind of thought of Mom's Cancer as "David, We've Got Cancer and This Time It's Not Funny."

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

BF: Well, I'd really like to be a full-time cartoonist. I have no confidence that I could pull that off now and still feed my family. Maybe after another project or two. I also would have made a fine astronaut or middle-school science and art teacher. But I'm pretty happy with how things are working out, keeping in mind that I'd trade all of my recent success for my mother's life and health. I never forget where this is all coming from.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

BF: You're welcome. It beats working.

Friends of the Fiend 14: Nik Scott

2006-04-30T02:31:00.000+01:00

Nik Scott's bio at the NCS

CF. Hello, Nik.

NS. Hello Mr Fiend

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

NS. I've just published a collection of my strips at lulu called Web Junkie, so i'm attempting to market that. I'm working on a couple of book projects. I don't want to talk about them as the more I talk about my projects the sillier they sound.

There some nice samples from Nik Scott's new book here.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

NS. I fell in love with cartooning from seeing my father add little sketches to his letters. I started to draw cartoons at the age of eight when i did a weekly strip at school. I always managed to sit next to other cartoonists or artists in class and spent most of my schooldays 'duelling toons'. I spent many years self-publishing a series of angry raw mini-comix that I hawked around to bookshops. One bookshop used to stick my weekly editorial cartoon in its front window (often upside down) and a magazine editor waiting for a bus outside noticed my it and offered me a regular job. That was the beginning of my professional career. I'd never realised i could get paid for doing something that i did compulsively anyway. I then spent several years working part time, and going to art school before becoming a full-time cartoonist.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

NS. I have 'think' days and 'draw' days. Mornings are fresher. If i have time i like to have a think the night before and allow my subconscious to come up with the gags while i sleep. On a 'think' day i doodle in silence on a cheap A4 Layout pad, with a rotring artpen while slumped in an ergonomically unsound armchair. Sometimes the doodles guide the gag. I draw and render all my cartoons directly on the computer via my wacom tablet and Painter/Photoshop software. I love drawing with the computer. I don't miss having inky fingers, and I don't miss waiting for scanners to warm up.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

NS. Cartoons are more 'throw away' than the Mona Lisa, but they're just as valid in their own way. They are also funnier than the Mona Lisa, but arguably not as funny as Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe.

There's an archive of Nik's political cartoons at Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

NS. Part of me wants to learn to animate but the lazy part of me says, 'No way, are you nuts, you freak?!'

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

NS. My father initially, and then I discovered his Feiffer collection, which opened up a major cartoon addiction. Bill Tidy, Larry, Gahan Wilson, Kurtzman, Crumb, Shelton, Michael Leunig, Mary Leunig, S.Gross, Mary Wilshire, Lee Marrs, Justin Green, Frank Stack, Nicolas Bentley, Searle, Jenny Coopes, Steadman, Quentin Blake, Frank Dickens, Leo Baxendale, Kliban, McGill and Poelsma, Posy Simmonds, Bretecher, Sempe, Groening, Eisner,Aragones,Trudeau are just some of the many hundreds of cartoonists i continue to worship and that immediately spring to mind.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

NS. That'd have to be Larry (Terence Parkes). He nails the issue in the simplest, funniest, and kindest manner possible.

Nik Scott's blog

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'newdigital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning,at some point.

NS. People like cartoons, rather than the material that cartoons are drawn on. There will always be a place for cartoons in, or on, whatever the new medium happens to be.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

NS. I'd like to do something for kids TV - Something for toddlers. I'd loved to have worked on Sesame Street. I could think of nothing cooler than writing for The Count.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

NS. I'd like to be the kind of cartoonist who doesn't have to pay attention to the business side. I love cartooning, and i've got millions of ideas i want to work on, but I loathe marketing as it's time consuming, and takes me away from the creative process.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

NS. Thanks for having me.

Friends of the Fiend 13: Patricia Storms.

2006-04-28T09:55:00.000+01:00

Patricia Storms bio

It's hard to believe she can find the time to do so, but in addition to the cartoons, the illustrations, the book illustrations, the greetings cards, etc, etc, Patricia Storms also blogs the very popular Book Lust.

CF. Hello, Patricia.

PS: Hey there!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

PS: Hmmmm... well any kind of work is exciting for me, because, well.... it's work! I find getting paid to be very exciting. But if you want specifics...I recently finished some greeting card projects and am in the middle of working on some spot illustrations for a kid's mag that is published by Scholastic Canada. Lately I've been getting some work illustrating articles for The National Post, one of Canada's national newspapers, which is nice. I also just signed a contract with John Wiley & Sons to illustrate a small gift book about dogs; I'm very excited about that. Last year I wrote and illustrated a little gift book of my own, and I've got a NY literary agent who is out looking for a publisher for the project; I would be thrilled to bits if it got accepted by a publisher, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

PS: It was definitely a gradual process for me. I always loved to draw cartoons, but it really didn't occur to me that one could earn a living doing this until I was in my mid 20s. My art teachers in highschool didn't really encourage the cartooning stuff; they kept wanting me to turn my energies to 'finer forms of art'. And I haven't mentioned this too much before, but it really had a major impact on me regarding my artistic career: as a teenager I dated a guy who was also a cartoonist, and for whatever reason he continually criticized my talent, in both writing and drawing. It really affected me and for a couple of years in my late teens and early 20s I pretty much gave up art completely. I had zero confidence in myself. It was a cartoonist instructor that I met in my mid 20s who really helped me out; he had so much faith in me, gave me the push I needed to get my work out there. And I cannot say enough about how the people I met on the Wiesenheimer helped and encouraged me as well. I'm still utterly amazed that I earn my living doing this. And I still struggle with the confidence thing, every day.

You can see more of Patricia Storms cartoons and illustrations at her website.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

PS: I hate showing my roughs, because they really are such a mess. I'm a very messy worker. I tend to push my pencil much too hard on the paper, and there's always lots of eraser bits all over my drawing table. It's very embarrassing. If I have a good window of time for a project, I will do a fair amount of pencil roughs, and then use tracing paper to transfer the final image for inking and colouring (I know, I really should get a light table!). The work I've been doing for the National Post does not really afford me the luxury of doing too many roughs and using tracing paper; I usually get 1.5 - 2 hours in which to read the article, get an idea, send the rough for approval and then do the final. It's very stressful, but I love the challenge of working under such a tight deadline.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

PS: Very basic stuff. HB pencils, bond paper for most projects, Winsor & Newton ink, and a #2 Cotman Winsor & Newton brush. I colour a lot of my work in Photoshop, but I do use watercolours for some illustrations, mostly children's books. But I still have a lot to learn about using watercolours.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

PS: I actually get a bit fed up with this argument, to be honest. There will always be people out there who will consider cartooning and commercial art to be grunt work done by hacks, and no amount of discussion will change their minds. Of course cartooning has just as much cultural impact as some other artforms; that's why graphic novels are gaining in popularity, not just in bookstores but in schools and libraries as well. Not to mention that there have been quite a few movies made from graphic novels. And cartoonists like Schulz and Seth have had their work displayed in art galleries. Personally, I do think a cartoonist is a proper artist, we just also happen to make money from our art. When I go on cartoonist forums and read the discussions about whether cartooning is 'art' or not, I just get exhausted. Let those intellectuals argue the point; I'm too busy drawing.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

PS: I would love the write and illustrate a graphic novel one day. And definitely write and illustrate my own childrens' books. And I really want to get back to my comic strip Tart; I miss doing it. It really is just a question of finding the time.

Find out more about Tart here.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

PS: I was influenced a great deal by British cartoonists like Ronald Searle, Gerard Hoffnung, Thelwell, Giles, and David Langdon. My mom had a very British upbringing growing up in Jamaica, and so her tastes in humour tended to be British. That influence me a lot. I also loved all the old New Yorker cartoonists; I used to go to my local library and sign out all the New Yorker collections and read them religiously until I could afford to buy my own copies. Of course Schulz influenced me a great deal. And as a teenager I was a big fan of the early Doonesbury, and I just loved the work of Kliban and Edward Gorey.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

PS: Oy. That's really hard to answer. I simply could not name just one. I think Ronald Searle is bloody brilliant. As well as Saul Steinberg and Sempé. And I adore the work of Posey Simmonds.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

PS: Yes, I do, and not all for the good, I think. The more people work in a simply digital format, the less we are going to see beautiful amazing cartoon originals. Can you imagine not having any original Schulz cartoons, or Bill Watterson drawings? There is a lot to be said for drawing the old-fashioned way; I'm a bit of a luddite and prefer hand-drawn work. BUT, I do use Photoshop for a lot of my colouring work, so I can't deny the benefits of working digitally. And the internet is becoming a great market for cartoonists. So it is a double-edged sword, I think.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

PS: I'd love to do an animated cartoon of my creation Tart. It wold only be shown on HBO, of course!

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

PS: No way.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

P: Thanks, Fiend! It was a blast!

Friends of the Fiend 12: Dave Parker.

2006-04-26T11:46:00.000+01:00

Dave Parker's bio at Cartoonstock

The Fiend would like to break with tradition here and add a personal note about Dave Parker. When I started out trying to become a cartoonist, I would pour over the cartoons in the many publications that ran gag cartoons, in Britain, in the 1970s. I would buy Reveille, Weekend Magazine, Titbits, She Magazine, the Weekly News, the Daily Express, the Daily Mirror, the Sun, and almost invariably, I'd come across a 'Parker' cartoon. Dave's cartoons caught my eye because the drawings had a sort of angular quality that I liked. Also, he used the space really well, and even his signature looked cool. I'm very happy to know Dave Parker, a cartoonist I've admired for as long as I've been a cartoonist myself. He's 72 years young now, but you'd never guess that looking at those lines he draws. They are as striking today, as they were back then.

CF. Hello, Dave.

DP. Hello Fiend.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

DP. I am doing nothing exciting these days. I am now 72, and more or less semi retired. I just do the occasional Wisenheimer cartoon and a couple for the Jester(Cartoonist Club of Great Britain mag). I pop a couple into the Weekly News just to keep my hand in.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

DP. I've been drawing for ever-my first cartoons were in the Daily Sketch in the early fifties.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

DP. I'm enjoying resting - just drawing one or two gags a week nowadays. All good things come to an end and the cartoons markets in this country are almost ended - despite what others may say!

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, butwhat tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

DP. I've tried all sorts of pens in the past. In the fifties it was always nibs and india ink. Nowadays I'm quite happy with Faber Castell Pitt artists pens (thanks to you!). I draw in pencil, then use my home made light box ( a converted scanner), to ink them, then I scan them into my computer, print them off, and send them off. For colour work I use Painter, mainly using colour and gradient tools. It's simple but effective.

Buy original Dave Parker art here.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

DP. I suppose cartooning is art,the editorial cartoonist in particular probably has some sort of cultural impact, but I'm only a gag cartoonist, bottom of the heap!

'Bottom of the heap'? Not quite, at around about the age of 70, Dave broke into the highly competitive US market when he sold a cartoon to Readers Digest USA. A magazine that in 2004, reached an estimated 44 million readers every month.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

DP. When I left school in 1949 my first job was in a cartoon film studio as a colourist and then a tracer.We made films for the Ministry of Information and a cinema commercial for Andrews Liver Salts! If the firm hadn't gone bust a year later, who knows I might have become an animator!

CDP. Who were your major artistic influences?

DP. The cartoonists I most admire are or were; Ed MaLachlan, Larry, Handelsman, Mike Williams, Saxon, Dedini, Trog, Gary Larsen, Albert, Chic Jacob, Gross, Sax, George Price, Sempe, Booth, Chas Addams, and there are loads more who I will probably remember later.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

DP. I can't pick any one favourite, but I did like Dedini. For some reason a cartoon of his depicting a judge (towering over a little arty type) saying "A poet ? What kind of racket's that?" or words to that effect, still makes me laugh now! I don't know why!

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

DP. The computer has, so yes.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

DP. I don't have the time now in my 73rd. year!

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

DP. A lottery winner, so I can spread a little more happiness!

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

DP. You're welcome.

Friends of the Fiend 11: Rick Kirkman.

2006-04-24T23:47:00.000+01:00

Rick Kirkman's bio at Lambiek

Rick Kirkman at Amazon Books

CF. Hello,

RK. Hi. I just realized that when I agreed to do this, I thought it was "Cartoon Friend." Now I'm worried.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

RK. Actually, nothing I'm at liberty to discuss. (That sounds more intriguing than "nope.")

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

RK. I've drawn cartoons as long as I can remember, which these days, isn't very far back. There's evidence that I was drawing cartoons in kindergarten. I didn't really set out to be one, I just always was one, some way or another. It was more of a gradual process becoming a professional cartoonist. I went from drawing TVs and refrigerators for an appliance company ad department to doing Yellow Pages ads, then Art Director at a large local ad agency, followed by freelance graphic designer, freelance illustrator, freelance humorous illustrator, then finally syndicated comic strip artist...all the while dabbling in various disciplines of cartooning. At times I wanted to be an astronaut and and architect - though not at the same time.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

RK. This may be long and boring, so if you have a short attention span, you may want to skip over this part.

I work with a partner, Jerry Scott, who writes Baby Blues. In the beginning, a lot of material was culled from my life, and Jerry magically changed it into something funny. These days, he has plenty of firsthand experience to draw upon. Still, occasionally, I'll feed him ideas (germs for gags, really) from things I remember, or have observed, or that I've been told by friends. I recently spent some pretty productive time in an airport, a great place for ideas.
The actual process is that Jerry usually works up two weeks of gags at a time, and emails them to me. They're typewritten descriptions, numbered for each panel, with dialogue and stage direction if needed. I've recently changed my process for dailies (it's a work in progress). Before, I used to draw pretty tight "roughs" and fax them to Jerry. Now I do a very loose pencil sketch directly on the preprinted boards (strip size--approx. 12 x 3.75 inches, similar to 2-ply Bristol), and fax to Jerry.

We have a great collaboration, and a good deal of that success comes from having been friends for about 30 years. We know each other so well that sometimes it makes us wonder if we were separated at birth. If I feel I have any suggestions, I either make them in the margins or draw them, and point them out, or in the case of more serious concerns, we talk on the phone. Jerry looks at my drawings, and being the truly talented cartoonist he is, he makes suggestions about the drawings--expressions, layout, pointing out things I've forgotten to draw or dialogue I've accidentally left out. We basically edit each other. Nothing makes it out the door unless we agree upon it.

Visit the Baby Blues Store for goodies.

After that, I leave the boards on my drawing table overnight for the cartoon elves to finish, and they're waiting for me in the morning to approve. (Okay, that's wishful thinking.) I used to photocopy the tight roughs and trace them on a light box with colored pencil (Faber-Castell Polychromos)--the reason being that you can't erase the sketch lines under colored pencil...it smears. Unfortunately, using pencil has proved to be a painful work method. I was always much more comfortable drawing in pencil, but it is much harder on your hands because of the pressure it takes to make a line and hold the pencil, as opposed to a brush or pen. So now, the dailies (because they're drawn smaller than the Sundays) are drawn directly over the light sketches on the boards with Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens. I still use a little colored pencil for some shading and hair edges. The Sundays are still drawn in colored pencil (at approx. 21.75 x 7.25 inches on Strathmore 500 series Bristol) because the line quality of the pencil is so noticeable at that size.

I scan and add screens in Photoshop and email them to the syndicate. The Sundays are scanned, and I create a file on which I draw my instructions on a separate layer, and send them to my colorist, who follows the instructions, and does a fantastic job. When I get it back, I may make some tweaks to the color or add any special effects, then email the finished files to the syndicate.

Click to see larger image

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

RK. I told you it was boring...you must have nodded off during my last answer.

Visit the official Baby Blues sitefor details about the latest Baby Blues Collection.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

RK. Yes, I think a cartoonist is a proper artist. I think it takes as much creativity and focus as any other art. Maybe because the materials are so cheap, cartoons get a bad rap as real art. It certainly has cultural impact. Look at how various comic strips have influenced culture in my generation: Peanuts with Snoopy, Doonesbury with Nixon, Larson putting the spotlight on science, Dilbert's impact on the way people look at business.... I would venture to say that cartoons have MORE cultural impact than any other art form besides music. Other art forms tend to have more impact ON "culture" than have cultural impact, if you get my drift.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

RK. Not really. I started out doing magazine gag cartoons. I've done the comic strip, animation, greeting cards, advertising humorous illustration, magazine illustration, even a little editorial cartooning (if you could call it that). I suppose if there was anything, and I had the talent and opportunity, I love the idea of being an editorial cartoonist. But maybe my idea of it is more romantic than the real thing.

From Your Only Friend.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

RK. That's a big list: Charles Schulz, Walt Kelly, Jules Feiffer, Mad Magazine (especially, Sergio Aragones, Don Martin, Paul Coker, Mort Drucker, Jack Davis), the Nine Old Men of Disney, Jay Ward, Johnny Hart, Berke Breathed, Jerry Scott, Jim Berry, Hap Kliban, New Yorker cartoonists Weber, Arno, Addams, Booth, Zeigler, Chast, advertising illustrators Elwood Smith, Bill Mayer, Jared Lee, the painter Wayne Theibaud, Norman Rockwell...I'm sure there are many others.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

RK. Cartoonist - Sparky Schulz, simply because he had it all, the drawing, the humanity...he could be goofy, poignant, esoteric, tragic. He used the widest palette of any cartoonist I can think of, and mastered it all. Strictly as an artist, I have tremendous admiration for Robert Crumb.

Writers...that's a hard one. I don't really have a favorite. I have favorites at various times for various reasons: John Irving sometimes, Alan King, the comedian, David Sedaris, Steve Martin, Joseph Heller, Harper Lee, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury....

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning,at some point.

RK. My contention is that until digital content is easily accessible in the bathroom, newspapers will still be around. But I agree with Garry Trudeau's theory that cartoon content is going to have to change in its method of presentation at some point. He's experimented with live animation where an actor wears a suit with a number of sensors that detect his/her movement, then a computer translates that to movement to a CGI model of the character in real time. Once that sort of technology becomes cheap, and the ability to deliver it at high speed is ubiquitous, then comics as we know it will be changed forever. Luckily, like Garry, I don't believe that will happen during my career. But a generation or two of cartoonists down the road will have to deal with that sea change. I also think before that, electronic paper will come to fruition as a method of content delivery (remember "Minority Report"?). News, comics, video, etc, will be wirelessly updated live to a thin electronic page that will be almost as portable as today's newspaper. Comics won't necessarily have to change at that point, but it won't be long after that.

Baby Blues Daily Ink

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

RK. Assuming that I'd know what I was doing, I think it would be terrific to work on a Pixar project. It would combine my love of great acting and storytelling in animation with my computer-nerd side.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

RK. Besides independently wealthy and having a full head of hair...maybe a more talented musician and tennis player.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

RK. Thanks for letting me blab on about stuff. I don't get to talk to people very often as you can probably tell. You weren't so fiendish after all.

Friends of the Fiend 10: Peter Bagge.

2006-04-23T19:37:00.000+01:00

Peter Bagge's, eagerly awaited, Apocalypse Nerd #3, published by Dark Horse, will be out shortly, click here for details.

Preorder a copy from TFAW.com

Peter Bagge's bio at Lambiek

CF. Hello,

PB. What a fiendish question!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

PB. A new issue of my mini-series APOCALYPSE NERD is due out very soon,as well as a new HATE ANNUAL shortly after that.

You can get posters of some Hate titles at the Pod Gallery

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

PB. That was always one of my pipe dreams when I was a lazy kid, along with being a rock star or baseball star. As it turns out it was the only dream that was remotely do-able.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

PB. Sheesh! Just the usual: I write my stories out in script form first, then rough it out, then pencil, ink, etc.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

PB. I use brushes and technical pens on smooth bristol paper.

The Cartoon Fiend had to get a Bat Boy strip in here. The Fiend tried to buy an early piece of original Bat Boy art but couldn't work Paypal. Bat Boy, by Peter Bagge, was as funny as Heck. You can find original Peter Bagge art at the Comic Art Collective.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

PB. It has more of a cultural impact than so called highh art or "real" art, precisely because its so ephemeral, and part of the ebb and flow of everyday life.

"Real" "Art" is actually the name of one of Peter Bagge's brilliantly funny pieces for Reason's Online magazine. Click here to see the Reason archive of Peter Bagge art.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

PB. Other than having my own animated TV show, no.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

PB. Charles Schulz, Robert Crumb, Richard Scary, many of the MAD artists from the 1960s and early 70s.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

PB. Robert Crumb.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point?

PB. It already has, since people read comics on line more and more often, and there's no reason that trend won't continue.

Get these Peter Bagge designed toys at Kid Robot.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

PB. See the answer I gave 4 questions ago!

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

PB. Not really.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

PB. Thank you!

Friends of the Fiend 9: Mike Lynch.

2006-04-23T00:59:00.000+01:00

Mike Lynch's bio

Mike Lynch's site

CF. Hello, Mike.

ML: Greetings, Fiendish One.

CF. May I call you Mike? Mikey? Little Mikey?

ML: I bet you didn't goof around like this with Glasbergen!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

ML: Well, right now I'm waiting to hear back from a couple of major markets that are having their cartoon meetings right around now. I want to finish up some new gags for a visit to The New Yorker next week. I have a cartoon in Forbes, as well as a couple coming up in the Wall Street Journal. Oh, I was just rejected by THE REJECTION BOOK. All this is at my new Mike Lynch Cartoons blog.

Next week, I'm teaching some cartooning classes to 10 year olds, attending a couple of National Cartoonists Society get-togethers in NYC and Long Island, and having lunch with a New Yorker cartoonist. Then, off to North Carolina for the weekend to see some relatives and buy a new car. On top of all this, I really have to draw and come up with some new cartoons! A busy week!

In addition to being a prolific cartoonist and illustrator, whose work is published in publications as diverse as The Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, Reader's Digest, Prospect, the Spectator and the Oldie, Mike, somehow, also finds the energy, and time to Chair the National Cartoonists Society's Long Island Chapter, the "Berndt Toast gang."

Mike's commited to raising the profile of cartoonists, and helped to orchestrate The Overlook Lounge's (formerly Costello's) Cartoon Mural Event where, in exchange for some food and beer, some of America's finest cartoonists, including New Yorker cartoonists Mort Gerberg, John Caldwell, and Sam Gross, Mort(Beetle Bailey)Walker, Howard Huge, Lockhorn's John Reiner, Playboy's Don Orehek, and New York Daily News legend Bill Gallo, drew a gigantic cartoon mural.

(From left: Sam Norkin, Mort Walker, and Mike Lynch, November 20, 2005, beside the famous mural. If you're ever in New York, make a point of stopping by 225 East 44th Street, and dropping into The Overlook, some of your favourite cartoon characters will be there waiting.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

ML: I always wanted to be a cartoonist, ever since I was a kid. My dad was instrumental since he had some old Pogo books and a Barnaby book that he passed along. My mom would buy me a lot of art supplies as well. My relatives were all artistic; with jazz musicians, vaudeville acts, playwrights, fine artists in the family.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

ML: I write and draw doodles in my pad. Most of what I draw is useless. More than half is not useful. But out of the many ideas come a few good ones. I have little insight into the process. This is sad, but true. I draw in a pad so I can easily flip through months of ideas. Sometimes I'll see an old idea and know a better way to make it into a gag.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

ML: A Micron pen on letter-size typing paper. Maybe an ink wash. If you'd asked me 5 years ago, I was using pen and ink, as well as charcoal and wash. But that took too much time. I don't pencil very much at all. Sometimes I don't pencil at all. I thought this was "cheating," but I've since read that Patrick McDonnell has drawn his Mutts strip with no pencilling. It keeps the drawing process interesting to me and I think that the tension - of actually drawing on the paper instead of tracing - keeps the visual dynamic.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other art forms, in your opinion?

ML: Impact? You bet. Like I mentioned, I sometimes teach cartooning to kids. These 10 year olds are into the same stuff I was: Peanuts, Batman, etc. Cartoons are iconic. Love of cartoons endures for generations. Whether or not "us cartoonists" are "real artists" I can't answer.

I'm helping to plan a large gallery show of professional cartoonists' work that will open this summer. There's been maybe a half dozen gallery shows I've been involved in the past four years, so art galleries see cartoons as a draw. Whether an art critic would think we're "artists," I doubt it. But we're a big part of the Western culture.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

ML: I'd like to try a longer form, like a strip or graphic novel.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

ML: Sempe, Crockett Johnson, Percy Crosby. These are just off the top of my head. I love Don Orehek's work. I'm honored to call him a friend. We're all part of the Berndt Toast Gang, that legendary chapter of the National Cartoonists Society.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

ML: Walt Kelly. I love his inky line. I read his POGO books over and over when I was little. I even sweet talked a babysitter to read them as a bedtime story. You can read about this on my Mike Lynch Cartoons blog.

Like Watterson said, "It was the last of the 'enjoy the ride' strips." It was about the distinct personalties that lived in the swamp. The punchline was there -- but it wasn't always a joke. It could be an ironic comment or a subtle jab. A lot of fun to read and look at.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

ML: It will increase the markets. Hard to beat the portability of paper, and the fact it doesn't need batteries, WiFi, etc. The mere fact there are 6 volumes of hardcover Jack Cole Plastic Man stories tells me that there is an appreciative market for high-end books. There will be a new volume of Gasoline Alley dailies in June as well. What worries me is that there is not tolerance for new comic strip features that don't catch on quickly. And cutting edge humor, like Ted Rall or Aaron McGruder, gets labelled as troublesome by editors. We can only hope that the editor-less Internet will continue in the West.

I remember talking about cartoons at length with fellow cartoonist Nick Downes. He lives near me in Brooklyn, NY. It was a typical cartoonist bitch session: the markets are shrinking, harder to make a living, etc. And at the end we both sighed, and he pointed out, "Oh, well. Everyone loves cartoons." And it's true. Everyone still has cartoons in their cubicles, on the fridges. People will cut them out of papers and magazines and they become part of the family. That hasn't changed. As long as the love is there, the market - electronic, paper, whatever - will endure.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character,
book, show, what would you like to work on?

ML: It would interesting to tell stories in another medium, like television. There are shows that look like they would be challenging to write, like Battlestar Galactica (the new one) and Homicide:Life on the Streets. It would be interesting to get a group of talented people together and tell a series of stories. But, honestly, now that I've said that, I realize that a cartoonist is a solo effort. That's real comfy. Not having to coordinate schedules and egos with a lot of people to produce a final product is so damn attractive.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

ML: Nothing occurs to me!

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

ML: Thank you, cartoon fiend, you've been considerably less fiendish than Stephanie Piro told me you were!

Friends of the Fiend 8: Mike Baldwin.

2006-04-22T14:24:00.000+01:00

Read Mike Baldwin's bio at UComics

Visit Mike's website

CF. Hello, Mike.

MB. Hi. I've enjoyed reading your blog, good job.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

MB. This month marked Cornered's tenth anniversary, so that's kind of cool. I marked the occasion by taking a nap. I put a few books together on LULU which took some work. I hope to add to the collection later this year.

Buy the Cornered collections here.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

MB. I've always loved art and do tend to see the absurdities of life. Humour is a way of coping. In addition to 'fight or flight' we also have the 'funny' response. I drew cartoons for local papers since I was in my teens, and was fortunate to find full-time work, in other creative fields like the Visual Merchandising department at Sears. I was able to use cartooning in displays, signage, and later in newspaper advertising and editorial work. It's all been good – working, learning and surrounding yourself with other creative people. I understand the advice: don't get hung-up on newspaper syndication. There are so many other really rewarding ways to express yourself – and get paid for it.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

MB. I spend the mornings going through the newspaper, looking for ideas. These are rarely gags, but a turn of phase or words that act as stepping-stones to an idea. Later, I lock myself away for a few hours and try to come up with something. I sketch out a few and once I have something I think works, I draw it up. Another thing I should mention is the value of down-time. I find the creative process challenging, and find that if I can forget about cartooning for a few days each week, I come back recharged. I mostly turn down all extra projects for that reason. It costs in terms of revenue, but it pays off in other ways.

Shop for Cornered goodies, here.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

MB. I use 8.5"x11" copy paper and pencil to do a rough what ever size feels comfortable, usually portrait. Then onion skin and a black felt-tip pen to redraw it to scan into the computer. There, I clean it up further, auto-trace to get vector art and bring it into Freehand to crop, colour and caption. I then file it away until the end of the month.
When it's time to ship a batch to the syndicate, I choose the cartoons to run and add the date copywrite title etc, and send them along. About a week later I have a nice chat with my editor at Universal and she tells me what changes they need. Usually a spelling, hyphen, comma or some other grammatical thing.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

MB. They can be. Just like in any other 'entertainment' art field, be it music, writing or acting, etc. The question is, am I creating something that can touch, influence, enlighten, solicit viewer/reader reaction? Once created, how will it be interpreted, what can the viewer/reader bring to it? I'd like to think that at least half the time I'm doing work that gets there. The rest of the time I'll settle for silly.

Speaking of cultural impact, The Cartoon Fiend discovered that Mike, gets a mention in The Canadian Encyclopedia (Historica) in the excellent Cartoons and Comic strips article (along with Sandra Bell-Lundy, and other some other notable cartoonists.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

MB. I'd like to see Cornered animated, but given the lack of story line, I'm not sure what form it would take. Maybe shorts. But not too short. I see someone else doing the animation, with me shoveling cash into a vault.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

MB. Major Burns. And the whole cast of MASH.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

MB. I don't have just one. There are so many... Jim Unger, Gary Larson, Dave Coverly, Dan Piraro, Wiley Miller and of course, Roderick McKie to name the obvious.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

MB. It's a marketing issue. Designing your cartoon so it can work well on other media platforms is a good idea. It is happening. Newspaper markets are drying up so this offers some hope. Content is still the main deal. Finding your voice and having something to say; wherever.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

MB. I'd like to work on the Dr. Phil show, serving laced koolaid in the
greenroom.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

MB. A cat. My cat has no sense of humour and she gets along just dandy.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

MB. Thank you, and keep up the terrific work!

Friends of the Fiend 7: Kevin "KES" Smith.

2006-04-21T13:29:00.000+01:00

Hah, Kes's first book, Enchanted Crocodiles was at Amazon, but sold a little too well, the Cartoon Fiend has used his own copy to show you the cover. Hopefully the new collection of Kes cartoons, which in my opinion is long overdue, will be just as good, or even better.

Kes's bio at Cartoonstock

CF. Hello.

Kes. Hi Cartoon fiend.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

Kes. I'm still drawing and sending gags to the usual magazines and newspapers.

Hopefully, I'll be putting together a couple of books of my cartoons, one will be a compilation of my single panel gags similar to my first book; Enchanted Crocodiles. I haven't decided on a title yet but it'll probably be something to do with crocodiles and the other will be a collection of Skidlid Sid strips. Also, I recently published a children's book.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

Kes. I was one of "Maggie's (Thatcher's) millions", and I spent a great deal of my enforced free time in the local libraries. It was here that I discovered an old "How to be a professional cartoonist" book. I'm not sure if that was the actual title, but I remember it was an American book and the information was well out of date, for example it suggested that if you wanted to add grey shading to your cartoons you should indicate this to the typesetter by using blue watercolour or pencil. However, finding this book was the catalyst to my cartooning career and it did inspire me to seek out other "How to" books (most of which are useless). I didn't manage to get any of my cartoons published for about four years though, probably 'cause they weren't funny.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

Kes. I sit down with a wad of paper and start thinking. If I do this I can usually come up with plenty of ideas and if I'm lucky about five or six of them will be good. I tend to let anything drift in to my head; Cowboys, witches, superheroes etc, and then I'll put them in an alien environment e.g a cowboy being interviewed for an executive position, what are his references like? What kind of c.v. does he have (maybe it's written on the back of a wanted poster)? Or a superhero abusing his x-ray vision, sexual harassment in the office etc. Once I get into this kind of mind-set I'm away.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, butwhat tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

Kes. I always tend to go back to using the old fashioned steel nib and India ink, but I also use papermate and rotring technical pens. I'm intrigued by these koh-i-noor pens that I keep hearing about, so maybe I'll give them a try too. The paper I use is usually a good quality typing paper, cartridge paper and ivory board.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other art forms, in your opinion?

Kes. I'm not sure I know what a proper artist is, but Beryl Cook's art looks very cartoon-like doesn't it?

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

Kes. I'd like to work on the Simpsons... Failing that, animation of any kind. I'd also like to have a go at a graphic novel, and possibly do more comic strip work.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

Kes. Christopher Wood, Marc Chagall, Sidney Nolan, Vincent van Gough, Robert Crumb, Garry Larson.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

Kes. For the way he draws Robert Crumb, but for the humour Gary Larson.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'newdigital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

Kes. Probably at some point, but I can't see people's reading habits going completely digital for some time, if at all.

See more of Kes's work at his website.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

Kes. I pre-empted this question didn't I? The Simpsons.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

Kes. A lottery jackpot winner.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

Kes. Thanks.

Friends of the Fiend 6: Christine Tripp.

2006-04-20T13:47:00.000+01:00

Christine Tripp's bio at CANSCAIP

Find Christine Tripp's books on Amazon

CF. Hello, Christine.

C.T. Hi there Fiend!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the
pipeline - that you can tell us about?

C.T. I wish. At the moment I am just working on the bread and butter stuff. 1/4 and half-page cartoons for kids magazine markets. Nothing "exciting" I am afraid.
I have another educational book to illustrate for Scholastic coming in the next month or so but it's quiet right now. It's always nice to get a break, especially when the weather is getting so nice here, but of course, if it goes on for more then a week you begin to panic and think you will never work again:)

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become
one, or was it a gradual process?

C.T. I would say it was perhaps both. I had always done cartoons and comic strips etc as a small child. When the other kids were out side playing, I would hole up in my bedroom and draw to my hearts content. As for it being career though, I didn't think it really was. I had no idea people could make a living at drawing cartoons. I also didn't know there were woman in the profession and I was just on the edge of the days when young woman were going on to University and actually having a career. I didn't really become serious about my doodling becoming a full time job until about 8 years ago and after my 4 children were grown.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about
the process?

C.T. My main area of work is children's books now. It found me, not the other way around.

Typically, a publisher will call (email) me with a book project in mind. They will email over the manuscript in PDF format and then I know how much area on each of the pages is open for illustration, how much is needed for text.
I'll do all the sketches fairly tight, I don't like to sketch more then once. I never do thumbnails (I'm VERY lazy:) Then I will scan and post all the spreads to a seperate area on my web space and email the URL to the art director. They pass that on to everyone involved in decision making and get back to me with any changes. Most often there are very few.

I then clean up the sketch in Photoshop, lighten the lines, load the watercolour paper into my wide format printer and, in sepia, print the sketch to the paper. Voila, it is ready to paint. I do sometimes colour in Photoshop and supply digital art for board books but I really love painting the traditional way. I almost always paint with acrylics, occasionally watercolour. When all 14 spreads and cover are done, I Fed Ex them away.

See some of Christine Tripp's work at Great Art for Kids

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do
you use, and what format do you work to?

C.T. Oops, I think I answered this question above. I'll add a little more to it. For all my sketches I use the cheapest bond paper I can find. I use those basic yellow Eagle pencils and a Staedtler Mars plastic eraser. I love my electric pencil sharpener. For finished b/w line work for gag cartooning or spot art, I gave up on bottle ink and nib pens long ago and use Staedtler pigment liner. For book illustration outlines, I use colour pencil, either Ivory black, Chocolate or Burnt Umber. I love Derwent Studio pencils, they make such a buttery soft line.
I paint with the liquide bottles of Tri-Art acrylics. I actually use those clear plastic egg cartons for mixing my colours. I add a lot of water to my mix. I then keep the premixed colours that I will need through out the whole book in those "Stay Wet" palett boxes by "Masterson". They really do work. I have kept acrylics fresh and ready for use for over 4 months in those things.

I use Canson, 140lb watercolour paper, as smooth a finish as I can find.
I use 2 Winsor Newton brushes and they have been working day and night for me for over 3 years now. The brush is the most important tool I think, you can't go cheap on them.

I would also have to list the computer, scanner and printer as important tools.

See a wide selection of Christine Tripp's books here

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have
the same cultural impact as some other art forms, in your opinion?

C.T. All of the arts are no more, no less important then the other. I include in this, dance, music, acting, writing, illustrating, photography etc, and in there, is cartooning. Comics and cartoons have influenced our vocabulary, our movies, our politics not to mention just plain entertained us. Artists themselves discriminate, "fine artists" might look down on a "commercial" illustrator, the illustrator might snub the cartoonist. It is perhaps akin to a dramatic actor on broadway feeling supiriour to a comedic actor in Hollywood. To me one is not more important or influencial in our society then the other. When a "Calvin and Hobbs" sketch has a price tag of $16,000.00 on it, I think that says it all:)

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

C.T. It's not so much find the time as find the talent. I have over the years tried a little bit of everything, I think, and each time discovered I didn't have what it takes for this market and that. I think I have found my fit... children's books. I must say, a dream of mine would be to work with a publisher like Dutton, Viking, Random House, etc, on a big time trade book. Now that would be my ultimate!

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

CT. Starting from when I was very little, my father would read me the Sat morning colour funnies (they come in the Saturday paper here in Canada) My favorite was "lil Abner", the art was so detailed. My other favorite was Hank Ketcham. I loved the way he drew "Ruff":)
As a pre-teen I was a huge fan of Mad Magazine and all of it's artists. I loved the simple clean lines of Paul Coker Jr. For a long time I drew all my dogs and bears etc just like his. I loved Don Martin's wild people! Mort Drucker just made me upset, knowing I could NEVER be that good... amazing art.

For art now, it has to be Jim Borgman and "Zits".

CF. Who was/is your favorite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

CT. Lynn Johnston, on both counts!!!!

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

CT. Not really. It's affect on the way cartoonists work is astounding, cutting down on time and costs and opening up new ways to be creative but as a reader I would have to say that for me, nothing beats physically opening up the newspaper to the comics section.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on
anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book,
show, what would you like to work on?

CT. Land me in one of those big NYC publishers offices and hand me one of those 5 book, 7 figure contracts and I will be one happy lady:)

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

CT. NO!

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

CT. It was an honour, thank you.

Friends of the Fiend 5: Stephanie Piro.

2006-04-19T01:36:00.000+01:00

Pre-order Stephanie Piro's new book at Amazon

Read Stephanie Piro's bio at Lambiek

CF. Hello,

SP. Hi Cartoon Fiend!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

SP. I have a new book coming out in the fall called "My Cat Loves Me Naked", 70 cartoons in a current title "Love Me or Go to Hell", and I just finished a mini-comic called "The Night Tom Never Called". Plus, of course, there's my contribution to Six Chix.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

SP. I loved cartooning as a kid, and ALWAYS wanted to be one. It's a dream come true, except for the wealth and great riches part I thought went with it!

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

SP. I write, then draw. I need quiet, sometimes hard, with a country karaoke bar player next door!

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

SP. I use a Koh-i-noor Art Pen. The old, original 1970's versions with the yellow or black barrel. They were the perfect pen, so, of course, they were discontinued.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other atforms, in your opinion?

SP. Cartooning is a wide and varied artform. You have fine artists like Dan Piraro, the Hernandez brothers, web cartoonists, people who write graphic novels and comic books. Yes, I think cartoonists have a big cultural impact. Look at the Mohammed cartoons, or many editorial cartoons. Charles Schulz, for one, contributed to the general culture with many iconic images and characters. Animated cartoonists like Mike Judge with Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, and the South Park guys have huge impacts on the culture.

Stephanie Piro's business, the Strip T's Design Company, has been producing a line of award winning t-shirts, hand-made jewelry and other gift items since 1984.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd liketo work in, if you can find the time?

SP. I'd like to find the time to develop a strip. I did a strip called "TheTerrible Tea Time," which was too offbeat and abstract for syndicates in the80's. It would be fun to do something similar. I'd also like to getinvolved with animation, though I think I'd like to work with an animator rather than trying to do it all on my own. I'm not enough of a techie.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

SP. There were so many! Charles Schulz, Ronald Searle, Walt Kelly, Walt Disney's films like Bambi and 101 Dalmations, Edward Gorey, Archie comics, Charles Adams. I used to regularly read Brenda Starr, Dennis the Menace, Rivets, the Wizard of Id, B.C. I loved pen and ink artists. The whole black and white world. Plus color Sunday supplements.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

SP. I guess I'd have to say Charles Schulz. As a kid, we lived closer to the airport than to any other bookstores, so my parents would go there to buybooks, and my Mom would always buy the Peanuts books there. This was beforeI could even read, and before they appeared in our local papers, and she would read them to me. His beautiful drawings were deceptively simple butvery expressive. He was a brilliant writer, too. He was the whole package and then some.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

SP. I think there are already people walking around who are growing up on online comics. But I hope that there will always be newspaper and magazine cartoons, as well. There's a difference, too, in the fact that many people create cartoons with a computer instead of pen and ink. There's a warmth to pen and ink, a richness that I don't find in many computer created cartoons. That may just be my preferance.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character,book, show, what would you like to work on?

SP. I'd love to see my work in the New Yorker. I'd love "Fair Game" my panel, to find a new home with a syndicate. Self marketing is just too damn hard.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

SP. I can't think of anything more rewarding (spiritually, anyway) than cartooning. I've met some of the most talented, and kindest most generous people I've ever met in the cartooning world, and through the Wisenheimer.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

Friends of the Fiend 4: Randy Glasbergen.

2006-04-18T19:24:00.000+01:00

Randy Glasberben's bio on DBR Media

Randy Glasbergen's Cartoon of the Day details.

CF. Hello,

RG. Are you talking to me?

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

RG. It's something different everyday. One day I might be writing/drawing somecustom work for an advertising project, another day maybe a calendar projector something for someone's book. My career is pretty diversified with custom work and reprints for a pretty wide assortment of clients worldwide. That's what I like best about what I do...every day is something different and every day has the potential to bring in something new and exciting.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

RG. I was one of those kids who was always drawing. I was addicted to Popeye cartoons on TV and probably influenced by a steady diet of Jay Ward stuff.When I got a little older, I started writing letters to my favorite cartoonists and they wrote back with lots of valuable advice...these letterseventually became the inspiration for my book "How To Be A Successful Cartoonist". Around that time, a cartoonist sent me a Jack Markow book aboutcartooning and that's when I started submitting gag cartoons to magazines. Imade my first professional sale at age 15 (1972) and have gradually built upmy career since then, little by little, stacking one small accomplishment ontop of another, year after year.

Randy Glasbergen's books on Amazon

After two semesters of college, I left school to freelance full time at age19...it was a good choice because I could afford to live very simply with no family to support. I moved into a genuine slum apartment in Utica NY for $60a month. I was able to earn a living at that time selling mostly tomagazines like The Wall Street Journal, Good Housekeeping, New Woman andothers.

Since then, I've continued to diversify to more markets and in 1982 I started doing The Better Half (first for The Register & Tribune Syndicate,later for King Features). Putting my work on the internet turbo charged my freelance career in ways I never could have imagined ten years ago.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

RG. Write, draw, submit. Write, draw, submit. Repeat. It's pretty much as simple as that. I try to write about 10 gags a day and draw 5 or 6 each day. In a typical six-day work week, I'll do about 35-40 new cartoons, including 11 each week for The Better Half (6 daily, 5 panels on Sunday). I write all my own ideas. My favorites go up on my web site as my featured cartoon of the day and everything eventually gets put in the mail to magazines and other clients I submit to. I do most of my creative work in the morning, and afternoons are mostly spent on the computer handling the business end of things (answering e-mail and selling cartoon rights from my web site catalog).

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

RG. I draw on 8x11" heavyweight bond paper. First I pencil, then I ink over it with a plain ordinary Flair pen from the drugstore. I have a good Xerox machine, heavy-duty Mac, scanner, color laser printer, etc. I think it helps to have the best tools you can afford, so I don't skimp on technology.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other art forms, in your opinion?

RG. I'm not doing "art", I'm running a business. I try to do good work and if my gags are insightful or have some kind of worthwhile message, that's a nice bonus. But the bottom line is, will it sell? I try to create cartoons that others can find useful in their PowerPoint presentations, newsletters, seminars, self-help books, etc. I want readers to enjoy my work, but I also want the cartoons to have commercial value globally, that's how I earn a living and take care of my family.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

RG. I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing now. I really enjoy the variety. I'm involved in many different kinds of work already: syndication with The Better Half, magazine cartoons, greeting cards, advertising and special projects, I also contribute business and technology cartoons to many newspapers around the world. I'd love to see my style animated for a TVcommercial sometime...I think that would be cool.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

RG. When I was starting out, Russell Myers, Dik Browne, Mort Walker influenced my drawings. In magazines, Henry Martin and Sam Gross were humor influences. I think I'm still influenced by all kinds of cartoons and cartoonists,whenever I see something I really like.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'newdigital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

RG. I began self-syndicating "Today's Cartoon by Randy Glasbergen" on the Internet about ten years ago. It's been more successful than anything I ever did in print. The web isn't an alternative media, it's completely mainstream. Its impact on my career has been revolutionary. The internet is not "the wave of the future" for cartoonists...it's here and now and today.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

RG. I would choose to keep working on the stuff I do now. At home in my studio,up on the third floor of my creaky old house. In bare feet and sweat pants, listening to XM radio, drinking too much coffee. I'm always amazed at the stories my wife tells me when she comes home from work, the meetings she goes to, the 50-page grant she had to write...she's such a grown up! On the other hand, my day to day, stay at home lifestyle is much more similar to that of my two year old granddaughter.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

RG. Taller. Thinner. More hair. I think it would be nice to look more like Ricky Ricardo and less like George Costanza.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

Friends of the Fiend 3: Sandra Bell-Lundy.

2006-04-18T14:02:00.000+01:00

Buy Sandra's new book at Amazon.

Sandra Bell-Lundy's listing at Lambiek

CF. Hello, Sandra

SBL. Hello, Cartoon Fiend!

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

SBL. I am going to be part of a "Women of Comics" symposium at the Paradise Comics Comicon on April 29. There will be many very talented women cartoonists featured at this symposium. I will part of a panel on women in comic strips. The Comicon runs from April 28-30 at the National Trade Centre, Hall C, Exhibition Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I've begun to do speaking engagements. I've put together a light-hearted and fun presentation about where the inspiration comes from for my strip. I've chosen a number of strips that have specific stories behind them and coordinated them in a Point Point presentation. I also talk a bit about women in the comic strip business, letters from readers and what it's like to be syndicated cartoonist. I've been speaking fairly frequently lately and it seems to be well-received.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

SBL. I've always drawn cartoons but didn't think about actually becoming one until I was unemployed one time and had a lot of free time to begin working on putting some ideas together. I self-syndicated my strip to about 4 dailies in southern Ontario for a few years before I received a development contract from King Features. I worked with Jay Kennedy for about 8 months and after being accepted for syndication, waited for another 6 months for Between Friends to be launched. I guess you could say that it was gradual. Nothing happened overnight.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

SBL. I spend at least two days writing. I work in an assembly line fashion, draw all my strips (a minimum of a week's worth) in pencil, then do all the inking and then scan and finish up in Photoshop. I send my work digitally to Reed Brennan in Florida. I colour my sundays in photoshop and send them digitally to American Color in Buffalo. A b/w copy of the sunday goes to Reed Brennan first for editorial purposes.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

SBL. I use Strathmore bristol (series 400) at the moment but am planning to switch to a Canson bristol as soon as my supply of Strathmore runs out. I use a C-5 speedball, Koh-i-noor ink, a variety of brushes and rapidiographs. My dailies are about 12 x 4" and my sundays are about 15 x 7".

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

SBL. What's a proper artist? I would say a cartoonist is an artist who cartoons as opposed to say, doing fine art. I think cartoons reflect culture.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

SBL. I have an idea for a graphic novel I'd like to do sometime...don't know if I'll ever actually do it though.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

SBL. Growing up, I always loved Peanuts, B.C., Winthrop. I admired Lynn Johnston, not only for her talent but because she is a woman cartoonist and a Canadian.

CF. Who was/is your favourite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

SBL. Hard to name one. Like Chris Browne, I also enjoy Claire Bretecher's work as well as Marjane Satrapi. Kim Warp is one of my favourite gag cartoonists.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

SBL. Technology and markets may change but cartoonists will still have to do the basics of the profession which is to think and create. That won't change.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

SBL. I'd like to be the creative consultant on an animated "Between Friends" show that's making tons of money.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

SBL. Nope. This is it.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

SBL. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Between Friends Daily link

Friends of the Fiend 2: Chris Browne.

2006-04-17T16:25:00.000+01:00

Chris Browne's bio' at Lambiek

CF. Hello, Chris Browne!

CB: Hello, Comics Fiend

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

CB: I am continuing to draw Hagar the Horrible and I am writing and drawing several children's books and graphic novels. It's all very hush hush!

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

CB: It was genetic in my case. I got the fat gene and good hand-eye coordination in one package. I love to draw and I think it was always in the cards that I'd do something like this but I was tempted by screenwriting - in fact I wrote the treatment for a Columbo episode that aired. Evan Hunter like my writing so much he once asked me to be his apprentice. And I was almost an actor, did some rural theater work when I was thin and spry. And I have written articles for magazines. Cartoonists are easily distracted.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell us something about the process?

CB: Well, I'll talk about my process in working on Raising Duncan, because that's how I like to work. (Raising Duncan was a comic strip I wrote and drew from 2000 to 2004. It still appears on-line at raisingduncan.com). I would carry a sketchbook with me, write gags and character development and story arcs as I thought of them, drawing largely from life. Then I would edit those in my studio, select the best, and then scan those into my Mac. Then I would draw and redraw again and again until I felt good about it. I had the most fun artistically with Monday and Sunday pages where I could cut loose! Then I would send the work in digitally, by e-mail. I loved that!

Hagar is done by three people, a gag writer, penciler (me) and inker, on paper, sent by Fed Ex. Ideally, I prefer to work alone, like Charles Schulz and my dad did. That is how you achieve any sort of truth in your work.

Check out Hagar, by Chris Browne, at King Features Syndicate.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

CB: I use Black Warrior F and 2H pencils, Black Magic india ink, a variety of pen nibs, most of which you can't buy in an art store - you have to go to antique shows. Or Gillot 170’s and crowquils. Sometimes permanent markers on gag cartoons. But on my graphic narrative work- I do features in this style for Sarasota Magazine- I do those with a Wacom Tablet and my G4 Powermac and Photoshop 7.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other art forms, in your opinion?

CB: Cartooning is what it is... Hollywood steals or ruins so much of whatever they touch. Comic strips have generally been getting ruder and nastier, so I guess the culture is impacting the comics. I tried to bring something warm and accepting to the comics page with Raising Duncan. Readers liked it but editors didn’t give it a chance. A cartoonist can be an artist and an artist can be a cartoonist but it’s not a given. Cartoonists have to work and care and challenge themselves to be their best.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

CB: Yes, graphic novels, children's books, painting, sculpture and animation in that order. And I'm working on it.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

CB: My father, my brother, R. Crumb, William Joyce, Fieffer, Gahan Wilson, Kliban, Elder & Kurtzman, Tenniel, Kley, Lautrec, Schulz, Watterson, Kirby & Lee, Arnold Roth, Mel Lazarus, Johnny Hart, Mort Walker, Claire Bretecher, Herge, Mike Peters, Cathy Guisewite, Lynn Johnston, Dedini, Blechman... pant, pant...

CF. Who was/is your favorite cartoonist/writer, of all time?

CB: My dad. The world just doesn’t know how great he was.

Chris's Dad, Dik Browne's bio at Lambiek

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning, at some point.

CB: Everything effects everything. life is a rhythmic chemical sea. I suspect it will find it's own level. If it doesn't, creative people will move on to other venues. when art becomes a closed club, artists move on.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character, book, show, what would you like to work on?

CB: Part of me would like to be a writer on LOST. And I’d like to have a desk at Pixar, just to be in their energy field. It’s better to serve in Heaven than to rule in hell. Milton was wrong. The sap!

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

CB: Younger. I was once, but it didn't last.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

CB: In the word of Mel Gibson, the pleasure was Mayan!

For Raising Duncan goodies, go here.

Chris Browne's Blog.

The wonderful Raising Duncan

An excellent Cartooning 101 from Chris.

Friends of the Fiend 1: Rod McKie.

2006-04-15T00:36:00.000+01:00

Rod McKie Cartoons

CF. Hello Rod McKie.

RM. Hello, Fiend.

CF. Okay, what are your current projects, anything exciting in the pipeline - that you can tell us about?

RM. Well, I'm still drawing gag cartoons most days, but I try to find time everyday to either draw, or write, or research my other stuff, you know, graphic novels, mini-comics, puzzles, toy design, web stuff, whatever comes into my head really. I'm pretty excited about the toy market at the moment, it's changing. You know, Qees and Dunnies and the like, and the way that related merchandise is viralling (I think I just made up a new verb). I'm going to become involved in that area before long.

CF. Did you always want to be a cartoonist, and set out to become one, or was it a gradual process?

RM. I started drawing cartoons from a very early age, copying my comic books. Particularly Aquaman, for some reason. I stated submitting work as a teenager and by the time I was 21 I'd started working for the national press in the UK, then Punch and then IPC Magazines - the home of Judge Dredd. So, it was gradual, but I set out to become a cartoonist from the get-go.

CF. The work you do at the moment, can you tell me something about the process?

RM. It varies. I draw cartoons for The Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal and Prospect, amongst others, and I work in a different way with them all. HBR has changed, but for a while they used original art. I would submit hi-res copies, and if they liked a cartoon they'd request the original drawing. So I'd draw the cartoons that were going to them very carefully, very slowly, on good quality card, so that if they took one, the original would look nice and be firm enough to travel well. The Wall Street Journal works from hi-resolution copies, so I can draw the cartoons quicker, on thinner paper, but print the cartoon on good quality linen paper, so it looks sharp. Prospect jobs sometimes need to be done very quickly, so I might pencil a rough, scan it into the computer, ink it with a graphics tablet and pen, and send it in for approval. If it's accepted I'd spend more time cleaning and colouring before emailing them the finished cartoon.

CF. I know you've been asked this a million times, but what tools do you use, and what format do you work to?

RM. In the old days you had to draw on Cartridge paper, on a scaled ratio of 5"x3", 6"x4", and up to 10"x8", in waterproof Indian ink. Nowadays, thanks to the computer, and because all the print staff that used to exist between the cartoonist and the finished image have gone, we can pretty much work with any medium and more or less to any size we want, within reason. For instance, if the magazine wants a finished drawing to be 300dpi and no wider than 10cm at the widest side, you are not going to create a huge drawing. I think most of us still stick pretty much to the old guidelines.

Drawing tools have really changed though. I work with a variety of pens and brushes, and brush pens. I like Micron pens because they contain archival ink and are as easy to use as a felt tip. I also like Faber Castell Pitt artists pens, which are brush pens, and my Pental brush pen, which I fill with black FW Acrylic ink using a syringe. Colouring work controlling how the finished work looks and colouring digitally with Photoshop, though, makes a huge difference. At one point the printers at the newspapers controlled how our cartoons looked. We weren't even allowed to add tone, then the page paste-up people took over, but nowadays the artist is in control, thanks to Photoshop, and computers, of course.

CF. Is the cartoonist a proper artist? I mean, does cartooning have the same cultural impact as some other artforms, in your opinion?

RM. Of course it does. Cartoons are a form of Pop Art. Have you looked closely at Miffy, or Hello Kitty, or Charlie Brown? Cartoon characters cover wallpaper, duvet covers, t-shirts, gallery walls. Cartoon characters colour our lives from TV and cinema screens the world over. No other artform has as much cultural impact as cartoons. I think the Japanese 'Super Flat' art movement makes that pretty clear.

CF. Is there any other area of cartooning you'd like to work in, if you can find the time?

RM. Lots, and I'm trying to do a little of everything before I die. Seriously, I wish I'd started experimenting more when I was younger. Too busy trying to make a living, you see. I want to design toys, syndicate a strip, illustrate The Hulk, write some stuff, produce books, work on a sit'-com'. You name it, I'm planning to do it...or die trying.

CF. Who were your major artistic influences?

RM. Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Charles Shulz, Barry, Eisner, Charles Addams and Thurber, and Bud Grace, some British gag cartoonists, Heath Robinson, Honeysett, Sax and Noel Ford.

CF. Who was/is your all-time favourite cartoonist (or writer, comic stripper, comic book artist)?
RM. Ooh...all time favourite cartoonist? I'd have to say, Herge.

CF. There's a lot of talk about a new 'paper-less future' and 'new digital reading habits', do you think this will affect cartooning,at some point.

RM. I'm certain it will. I don't know when, or how, but some form of synthetic paper will be developed and that'll last for a while and then everything will be digital. Unless all our natural resources go tits-up and we end up drawing cartoons on cave walls.

CF. If you had the time, and you were helicoptered in to work on anything you chose, any publication, strip, panel, character,book, show, what would you like to work on?

RM. Some Dark Horse or Image title. No wait, The Goon. I'd love to draw The Goon.

CF. Is there anything you'd rather be?

RM. Than a cartoonist? Yeah, an Architect, not a jobbing one though, a really successful one.

CF. Thank you for visiting with us.

RM. Been a pleasure.

Hello Fellow Cartoon Fiends

2006-04-15T00:05:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd use this blog to interview some of my favourite cartoonists. Because I'm a well-connected fan-boy, and a fiend of course, I can get access to practically any cartoonist out there, so why not ask them the kind of searching questions every cartoon fiend wants to know?