CALLING ALL GIRLS-THE HEARTACHES

click these below to see the Heartaches in action!
http://boingboing.onlinestoragesolution.com/oldnavy-girls1.mov
http://boingboing.onlinestoragesolution.com/oldnavy-girls2.mov

Hi girls! Below are Roxy, Tia, Red and the Curly Fuzz Poodle.I've posted the story for the pilot episode of the Heartaches
and want you to tell me how you like it!

Now all you middle aged men reading it, this ain't for you!!
I have other cartoons with your needs in mind; this is for the girls, ok? Save your comments for the George Liquor posts.
-the management-

Curly Fuzz Trauma (outline)

Mom wants to throw out doll
It’s Spring cleaning and Mom and Dad are throwing stuff out. They enter Roxy’s room, and mother shakes her head in disgust. ‘Look at that girl’s mess. She has way too much stuff! Why Daddy, you just spoil her!!
She picks up the Curly Fleece Poodle. ‘Just look at this ragged old thing! Where the heck did you find this dirty beast anyways?’
“I got it at a swap meet. It’s from Roxy’s favorite cartoon show from the ‘60’s. The Curly Crew!”
Mom says, ‘Well, I think we should throw it out. It’s filthy, and besides, she’s getting to be way too old for that sort of thing.’
Dad says, ‘Oh, we can’t throw out the Curly Fuzz Poodle! That’s her favorite doll!’
Dad takes her out of Roxy’s room, ‘C’mon let’s go downstairs and clean out the basement.’
‘Mom says, ‘OK, but I don’t care what you say, I’m coming back to clean out Roxy’s room and that Poodle is out of here!’
The Note
The Curly Fuzz Poodle is devastated but prepared for his fate. ‘It was only a matter of time.’ He writes a farewell note to Roxy, knowing that his end is near.
He opens the window and hurls himself into the trash can outside.

Roxy comes home from school
She had a bad day and needs a hug and a heart to heart talk with her best friend who isn’t flesh and blood.
She goes in her room and sees an empty spot between her other newer dolls and yelps. ‘CFP! Where are you?’
She finds his pitiful note surrounded by clumps of multi colored poodle fluff.
‘Dear Roxy,
You have been my best friend in the whole world, but there comes a time in every old toy’s life when he needs to be recycled. Your Mom has decided that it is my time to be thrown out with the trash.
Goodbye forever,
love,
CFP’

Trash Collector
Roxy runs outside and sees that the trash is gone and she faints.
Mom’s in the dog house
That night at dinner, Roxy’s parents wonder why she’s looking so down.
‘As if you don’t know!’ she blurts.
Mom and Dad are perplexed.
‘You threw out my Curly Fuzz Poodle!’ she accuses Mom.
Mom says, ‘No I didn’t! I wanted to but your father convinced me to let you keep the dirty old thing, didn’t you Daddy?’
Father looks at Mom disappointed.
So now both Roxy and Father think Mom’s a meanie and the household enters an era of strife.
Ext. shot of colorful house as the whole scene turns dim.

Sad Roxy tapes Fuzz Clumps to her Person
We have a sad scene of Roxy sitting on her bed in her pajamas with the little mound of colored clumps on her lap.
She licks each clump and sticks it on her body somewhere-in her hair, on her shoulder, etc.
Next day at school she has the clumps taped to her and gets detention because clumps are forbidden by the dress code.

Bulldog
The next day, A bulldog is rooting through the trash at the county dump, looking for food.
He finds the Curly Fuzz Poodle and says, 'Hey! You’re cute. Lookit that fancy hair! You're one o' them big city dames, ain't ya? I’m gonna make you my wife!’
He takes the poodle home to his dog house and tries to make him happy.
The Curly Fuzz Poodle can’t get used to living in a dog house.
He’s used to the soft life.

At night he freezes.
He doesn’t like to go to the bathroom outside, even with his husband holding his hand.
Finally the Bulldog gets fed up and divorces him at dog court.

Beanie Baby
Mom sees Roxy getting more and more depressed and tries to cheer her up by buying her a lumpy ugly Beanie Baby type toy.
‘Roxy yells ‘Beanie Babies suck!’ She flings the beanie baby out the window and it hits Suzy Stuckup. ‘Wow! I’ve got Sammy Seal now! My collection is complete! I’m queen of the trends!’

Out on his ear
Curly Fuzz walks the streets alone, afraid and unwanted.

Roxy cries to Tia
She calls Tia and tells her that she’s lost her favorite doll.
Tia sympathizes.
Tia’s wall socket listens in on the conversation.
Tia hangs up the phone and leaves her bedroom to go to Roxy’s house.
The wall socket talks to the other inanimate objects in the room.
‘Hey Phone! Did you hear that?!’
Phone: Hear what? I wasn’t paying attention.”
Wall Socket: ‘Tia’s friend has lost her favorite inanimate object!’
A pair of Tia’s tights says, ‘How awful!’
The wall socket pulls itself out of the wall.
Wall socket: ‘C’mon gang, let’s have a conference! We need to help Roxy!’
The phone receiver jumps off the hook and rolls across the floor towards the wall socket.
The rest of the phone yells ‘Hey wait for me!’, jumps off the table and hops across the floor towards the others.
Fade out on the conference as Tia’s room decides what to do.
Puppet Show
Tia is trying to cheer Roxy up in her bedroom by putting on a puppet show.
She has a puppet on each hand and is doing silly voices and waving the pupets in front of Roxy’s face.
Roxy is wasting away, a shadow of her former bubbly self.
As the puppets come closer, she narrows her eyes and bursts out at Tia, “Stop talking. Those aren’t reaaall! They’re just puppets! Puppets! Puppets!!
Curly Fuzz Poodle Doll was real.”

Maynard the cat is sitting next to Tia. He looks up at her and says, “Tsk tsk tsk, she’s gone, man. She’s really gone. Too bad. She was a good master once.”

Skid Row
The Curly Fuzz Poodle ends up begging.
He begs people to pull his talking string; they do it, but his talk box is rusty and his speech is garbled. People feel sorry for him.

CFP is found
CFP decides it’s time to recycle himself, when a mailbox recognizes him.
The mailbox nudges a nearby telephone pole: ‘Hey! Doesn’t that guy match the description of that missing Fuzz character??
Telephone pole: ‘Yeah, that’s the way Tia’s phone described him to me.’
The telephone pole sends a message to Tia’s house: ‘We’ve spotted the Curly Fuzz Poodle, corner of 57th and 3rd, heading northeast, looking mighty ragged.’

Tia’s phone, wall socket, vestibule and tights wait around the corner for the Curly Fuzz Poodle to approach.
The tights jump on CFP and engulph him, tying himself up tight at the top. The tights walk home to Tia’s with CFP inside, and everyone is happy.

CFP gets fixed up
The socket observes CFP’s condition. ‘We can’t take him back like this. We gotta fix him up!’
A drawer in the vestibule opens and a needle and thread hop out. They begin to stitch up CFP’s holes.
The phone pulls his string to try and make him talk. We hear a rusty, garbled groan. ‘He’s all rusted up inside!’
A toothbrush volunteers to help. He sticks his brush into CFP’s ring hole and scrapes the rust off his talking mechanism.
CFP is sparkling and clean.

The objects take him to Roxy’s and shove him back in Roxy’s room through the window.

Mom and Dad argue
Back on Roxy’s bed, CFP just begins to settle in when he overhears an argument outside Roxy’s room.
Dad is accusing Mom of throwing out the Fuzz Poodle and Mom is flatly denying it.
Dad: ‘I can’t believe you threw out that poodle! Roxy hasn’t been the same since! How could you?’
Mom: ‘I’m telling you I never threw it out. You convinced me not to! I have no idea what happened to it.’
The Curly Fuzz Poodle gets an idea. He writes another note to Roxy.

Roxy comes home
She is completely depressed. She hurls her books on the bed and throws herself down for a good sob right smack on top of CFP. She starts crying but we see her back quivering from the agitation of the CFP as he is trying to wriggle out.
A little paw comes out under her belly pulling a talking string.
Roxy hears the string retracting as she has heard so many times before and stops crying.
She smiles as she realizes…she arches her back enough to look under her belly and we hear “Get off.”

She grabs the Fuzz Poodle and gives him a giant hug. She sees the note.
‘Dear Roxy, Your mom never threw me out, I threw myself out. She suggested getting rid of me, and I thought the end was near, so I took care of it myself. Your mom isn’t to blame. She even found me and fixed me up nice for you. So even though she thinks I’m a filthy, repulsive, immature pile of sawdust, she’s letting you have me anyways. That’s how much she loves you.
P.S. Please pull my string.’
She pulls the string. Fuzz Poodle says: ‘AND I LOVE YOU TOO.’

Happy Ending
Roxy runs out to the living room and yells, ‘Mom, thank you!’
Dad sees CFP. ‘Holy mackerel! Where’d he come from?’
Roxy beams, ‘Mom found him and fixed him all up for me!’
Dad looks guilty and gives mom a hug. Mom is dumbfounded.
Everyone hugs.
Hug hug hug love love.

The End

CALLING ALL KIDS-HE HOG THE ATOMIC PIG

Get me some kids to review this cartoon idea!

He Hog is the world's most powerful pig. He has the coolest super powers ever:
X-Ray nipples- they emit twin beams of laser energy that can slice through butter.
Finger and Thumb breath: He can flip light switches on and off with them.
Atomic smoothocity: So smooth is his perfect rind, that pants won't stick to him!
Ultra Tasteocity: He has the world's most sensitive taste buds, tasting substances never before discovered.
He can taste guilt-he frequently donates this talent to the Police Line-Up downtown.

He has super-suavity. Girls love him!
He only has one weakness. While kryptonite is the one substance that can weaken Superman, the only thing that can stop He Hog is marmalade on his butt. But try and get it on there!
This is his teenaged sidekick--Half Life The Decaying Molecule. He has no thrilling powers. He's just there so the criminals can kidnap him and hold him for ransom from He Hog. He Hog loves him as if he were one of his very own molecules-which actually he is!

He Hog has many arch-enemies.

This is Mr. Meat.
Mr.Meat has the power of meat. He was raised by meat. He can summon meat to his bidding. He is determined to free meats from all over the world and give them voting rights.
He has a love-hate relationship with He Hog. On the one hand, he loves him-because He Hog is the greatest collection of meats in the world-a mess of super meats!
On the other hand he hates He Hog for not releasing his meats... for enslaving them to his skeleton.
Mr. Meat is slightly unhinged.

Whattaya think kids? Wanna hear more?

Beautiful People 4

Here are some more Hollywood Gods and Goddesses to hold you over while I get some more He Hog stuff together for you!

Who are they?? See if you can beat Clarke!After you name my head, name my talent!

This woman and her pet primate is perfect because she looks just like George Liquor in drag!
What if you had a ping pong ball lodged in your chin?
You come up with a caption for these two dolls.
I am so beautiful, I don't need to have taste in men!

The Barber Shop 1-The Genius Of Mike Fontanelli

Hey folks! There's a new post under this one!
Scroll down to see some of my kid cartoon concepts!
Show them to your little ones!

Some of you commented on a page of this comic that I put in my George Liquor stories post.
I think I will slowly put up all the pages for you.

It was drawn by a great cartoonist named Mike Fontanelli-one of the original Ren and Stimpy artists.
It was inked by another of your heroes-the wonderful Shane Glines!
And the killer lettering is by Patrick Owsley.
Now and then I went in and drew some of the weirder drawings.
Look at Mike's amazing attention to detail and stubble!







This comic (believe it or not) has a powerful social statement. If I tell you what it is, some of the Spumco haters will be enraged, so I won't!
But feel free to try and discern it over the next few weeks as I unfold the incredible tale of American tragedy for you.

Before I forget!....If you wanna really treat your eyeballs some more go check out Katie's latest gorgeous girl drawings! She's hit another breakthrough! And comment on her blog too!

http://funnycute.blogspot.com/

CALLING ALL KIDS!

Hey, here are some pictures of a few of my kid shows. Grab some little brothers and sisters and ask them which of these characters they want to know more about.
I love to tell stories!

HE HOG THE ATOMIC PIG

THE HEARTACHES

WALLY MAN AND HIS IMPEDIMENTS

Beautiful People 3

Ever see that movie, Supersize Me, about what happens to your body if you eat too much junk food?
That guy oughtta make a movie about what happens to you if you watch too many modern cartoons.
If you are watching a lot of SP, FG, FOP, DT, and their ilk, the chances are you are dulling your senses-particularly your eyeballs, so I'm gonna help you retrain them with this little test.
See if you can recognize some of Heaven's gifts to the world.
Tell me in the comments who you think they be, OK?
You folks are pals.

I thought you had to be tall to have acromegaly.

Stop kissing your monitor, fellas!

OK, go ahead and kiss it

Here is a man who knows lack of talent when he sees it but has yet to demonstrate what his own is. So that's how you get rich in this town!


Ye Gods! My underpants were melting when I drew these 3 delectable Hollywood dishes!

How are the eyeballs doing? Listen...a good cure for them is to watch as many classic Looney Tunes, Popeyes, Bimbos, Betty Boops and Tex Avery cartoons as you can!
http://www.davemackey.com/animation/wb/1943.html
http://www.animationarchive.org/2005/10/filmography
http://www.cartoonresearch.com/warner.html
So keep coming back for more, folks, and once your eyes are back in good shape, I'm gonna run a really swell contest called:
"Who is John K.'s Funniest Looking Fan?"
And I will personally draw your own wonderful head and mail it right to your door.
So if you are a real visual wonder, start taking some pictures of your strangest angles-but don't post 'em till I give you the HEADS up!

-Dr. Kricfalusi, eye, ear and nose specialist

George Liquor Stories 2

YOU DID IT!
400 comments in a day and a half!
Hmmm....maybe I need to up my requests.
How about...if you wanna see the next bunch of stories it'll cost you...
72 virgins at my front door!
I guess that probably won't happen will it? There aren't that many left!
OK, how about this.Just one RICH fan who wants to fund some new cartoons and become richer?

Keep those comments comin'-and the LINKS. Keep tuned for more wacky stuff!

George Liquor Stories 1

Hey Fans!

This blogger thing is working! You are impressing some important people with your comments and enthusiasm!

So listen, next step is to get as many more people (not repeat persons, but new people) to comment AND I just found out that the more people who link to me, the better chance I have to get sponsors-and when I do I will make NEW cartoons for you!
I have more crap to show you, so as soon as I hit 400 comments...

This manly drawing was done by the incredible Jim Smith and clumsily painted by me. Go to his site and see more killer artwork!
http://www.jimsmithcartoons.com/

Well you made it way past 200 comments! Good job. And here's your first gift: A few excerpts from some George Liquor stories-now remember these aren't the whole stories, so don't jump on me with "We want 12 sub-plots!". These are just a sample of the flavor of what I want to bring to you full blown in some home-videos or web content!

And tell you what, let's keep impressing our future investors!
If I can squeeze 400 comments outta you this time-then I'll post some more stories! I'm getting greedy here.
That means you gotta spread the word and get more people to read and comment on my new blog, alright? Good!
You know your mission.
Read and comply!
Spread my love across the ether.

George’s Trophies

The neighborhood kids are admiring George’s animal trophies in his den.
It’s full of huge animal heads and furs.
When one kid pipes up that his mom says animals have rights too,
George agrees and goes on to explain what their rights are:
“They have the right to fill my stomach,
to compete for their own hides with me and my gun,
etc.”
While he is explaining this to the kids,
he is being stalked by a bear hunter who bags him
and gives him to his wife to wear as a human stole
around her neck.
Another female bear pelts her with an egg
for wearing a poor helpless human.

Domestic Abuse
George and his wife Mable get into a big spat about her smoking and stinking up the house. He tells her it’s ruining her health and she says she’s fitter than he’ll ever be and challenges him to a fight. They take their shirts off and have a knock-down drag-out fight. The cops come and say they’ve heard reports of domestic abuse. George hollers at them to take Mabel away because she just beat the living crap out of him.

Mabel Drops Dead

George Liquor’s wife smokes too much and it drives him crazy. He loves everything about her except the smoking. He warns her all the time that it’ll kill her and sure enough, this one last cigarette does the trick.
Then George has to explain death to the kids.
This story is rife with "heart' for all you Disney 'mos who love plot and artificial pathos!

George’s Crusade

A holiday weekend is coming up and George and the kids are discussing where they should go for a nice vacation.
The kids want Disneyland but George decides it would be much more fun to have their own little crusade.
He tells them about evil terrorists and how Bin Laden is still at large. “If the government can’t catch him, we’ll do it!”
He explains what an evil culture it is while he’s at it. “Their women are so ugly they have to wrap them in big bags, with a hole where only their mustaches can peek through!”
Slab “N’ Ernie can’t wait for the delightful weekend of fun.
They realize they have to soften Bin Laden up before they capture him, so they do that by exposing him to superior Western culture-they feed him McDonald’s burgers, hypnotize him with rap music, gouge his eyes with "adult" cartoons drawn by 3 year olds and make him listen to 3 Looney Tunes commentaries by Mike Barrier in a row. When he's all soft and stupid, they beat the crap out of him and end all wars forever.


Sody and Jimmy Stories

Sex Before Marriage
George Liquor comes home and catches Sody and Jimmy making out on the couch.
He freaks out, puts Jimmy the retarded boy in his room and proceeds to lecture Sody about morals.
“In our day, we waited till after we married before we had any hanky panky…in fact, 5 years after for Mabel and me…and we always apologized afterwards!”

Doin’ It With A ‘Tard
Sody Pop, the neighborhood's hottest teenager is having a get together with her girlfriends. They are playing truth or dare.
They dare Sody to do it with that ‘tard’ that lives down the street-George Liquor’s idiot nephew, Jimmy. “Ewwww!”
She does it though and then reports back that it was the best ever!
The girls come up with a theory that a ‘tard’ is man in his natural state. He’s like a caveman and that’s why he’s so good in bed.

They then decide that if only all men were tards, then women could rule the earth and there would be peace, love and cellulite for all.

The Weiners of caricature contests!

Boy do I have some talented fans! You make it hard for me to pick favorites!
But here's my pick for the weiner of the Tomkat caricature contest:



Now go to Corky's site and see some more hilarious Hollywood celebrities, and check out her other art too!
http://corkadork.blogspot.com/

There are lots more great Tomkat caricatures in the comments section so go ogle all those too!
Here's a gift from SOOP:


OK, I had a Helluvatime picking a weiner for the Angelina contest, but here it is!
Bob Risotto made this beautiful and pointy rendition of Hollywood's craziest looking family. Congratualtions. You are at the top of the universe today!


Here's #2 by Elliot. What an amazing sense of style and grace! Show us more of this stuff and explain your technique so everyone else can steal it!


#3 by Nathan Jones, a true master of the craft!


And here are some runners up:

Look what Gene made for us!


Attaboy Mitchell!


Here comes Brian Romero!


My man Vanoni!


Lookout Robert Risko, Chet is gunnin' for you!


And here is your reward for obeying my commands:







Hey weiners, repost your urls in the comments so we can see more of your stuff!

Now get back to the George Liquor program and get all your friends to post!
Thanks for having amazing talent and sharing it with the universe.

The George Liquor Program

Hey! Who knows who this guy is??



These are images from The George Liquor Program that I have been trying to get to you for years. It's my best prime-time show.


I want to test your knowledge of my crap...what can you tell me about these characters? Who knows their names? How many of you want to see this damn fine show about truth, ideals and the American way?




BTW, thanks again to Eric Bauza for digitizing the artwork and assembling the glorious splash page. He is also a great voice talent so if you have cartoon shows in production hire the goddamn genius! He does every voice.






And who are these fine bitches below?


Listen...I need to get this show to you somehow. Help me prove to distributors of either web content or DVDs that you are dying to pay good cash for the stuff or to watch commercials with my characters pitching the products.

Soo...tell you what, if I get over 200 comments on this topic, I'll start posting some of the storylines from the George Liquor Program. You better enlist your friends to help out!

Talk about anything to do with the characters-tell me their personalities, draw them-anything, but pile on the comments to impress the money folk. Pile, pile, heap, heap...

Deal?
You rule.

P.S. Did you ever wonder why all "adult" cartoons look like they are drawn by kids? An executive explained it to me once and told me my drawings were too ...

Katie Rice draws Girls Best!

http://funnycute.blogspot.com/

I know that everyone who posts here has impeccable taste in cartoons so I want you to go to my favorite blog and check it out!



Katie Rice is my best friend and she draws the cutest cartoon girls I've ever seen! She has all kinds of theories about it too and changes her style all the time.
You have to go to her blog to look at her beautiful drawings and glean all her secrets!
The link is in my links list to the right there.

Here's a bunch of her sketches from the "CALLING ALL GIRLS" post I showed you a couple days ago. They are aimed younger so have a little less 'tude' as TV executives say but are soooooo damned cute and appealing!
Aaaaargh! How does she do it? She just whips this stuff out too.









I'm lucky enough to be working with Katie on a number of projects right now, including a video for Weird Al. Not only does she draw girls great, but wait'll you see her take on my own pussy, Cigarettes the Cat! Maybe you can get her to post some of those drawings over there!

I'm amazed how many good artists are out there in blog land. I'm discovering more of you every day posting here, so go meet another one if you haven't already discovered the magic of Katie!

Check out all of her posts and fill her blog with nice comments! Lots of them! Let's clog up Blogger as you have doing for me.

You folks are swell.

http://funnycute.blogspot.com/

HOLY CRAP! I scrolled down her page and found out that you can actually buy some of her girlie art! Better get it now while it's still affordable! It'll be worth a ton of wad in a couple years when she's a big star!
Scroll down to "I made this for you".

Draw Angelina Contest

Hiya folks,

Here's a toughie. This starlet has so many unusual features crammed into one head that it took me awhile to figure her out. Now that I have, I'm gonna make it easy for you.

Below is my analysis of her. Follow it and see if you can impress me with your own rendition of this vision of Hollywood perfection.



It's fun to get some of her baby action in there too.











I want you to kill yourself on this one and after I look at each and every one of your pictures, the artist with the hottest sister wins.

CALLING ALL COOL GIRLS!

Listen up!
I’ve teamed up with your favorite girl cartoonist, Katie Rice to create and help develop new cartoon shows-some of our own, and some shows that others have created that they need wonderfully funny and cute pictures to go with their stories.

WE NEED YOUR HELP DOING SOME MARKET RESEARCH!
Help Katie and I aid science.

We are showing you some preliminary character designs from a new show in development. It’s top secret, so we can’t tell you the name of it yet or what it’s about.

BUT we do want to know from all the girl cartoon fans in the world whether you would like to see a show that looks like this!



I’m sure you are tired of all the namby pamby, talk-down-to-you types of purple and pink shows where all the girls look exactly the same and all they think about is combing their hair and sharing all their material wealth with friends and getting along.

OUR theory for a girls’ show is to make all the girls look and act different-you know, like REAL LIFE???!

So all you guys who read this blog of mine, get your sisters, daughters and Moms and girlfriends to look at these designs of hot chicks done by Katie Godess Rice and tell us what you think in the comments.

(Extra game: try and guess who this gal is based on!)


I think I will make this a regular feature! I’ll preview new show ideas and if lots of you tell us you want to see these shows, then I will have proof for TV networks that you are dying for some real cartoons!



*****By the way-to make this market research completely scientific, please enter your age, sex, race and religion then tell us how you like the characters. Believe it or not that’s what TV people think they need to know, so let’s give it to ‘em, folks! And if you have shows, hire me and Katie to make them look good!

Thanks

John-

Evolution of a Caricature

When I caricature someone I haven’t done before it takes me a few tries to get an exaggerated likeness.

Usually the first drawing is very conservative or realistic.


Here’s a photo-accurate drawing of Hollywood’s most gorgeous couple (actual size).
Once I start to become familiar with my subject’s features, I then can gradually get more exaggerated, but it takes quite a few tries till I get something that’s worth looking at.


Sometimes it helps to think of what animal the subject is most like. Obviously Tom is just like a turtle. Katie reminds me of a cute man-eating bug.


See the bug sniffing it's soon-to-be- turtle-lunch.



Here's thesilly bug by itself.


Soon I'm starting to feel comfortable with my subjects. I know them intimately. I worship at the same bizarre church.



By this time, I know them a little too well.



Eventually-and this is my goal (dwg-9)-I know the subject so well that I can draw him from memory without a photo or the person in front of me. Now I can do a more cartoony, simplified caricature because I'm not distracted by a lot of details in front of me.


Come back soon and see my analysis of Angelina and her herd.

By the way, comment as many times as you like and encourage all your pals to do it too-and don't forget Granny! I need her input.

The more comments I get, the more likely some genius will come along and realize that lots of fans equals a good reason to make cartoons for them!

Hey someone explain to me why the pictures won't line up with the text even though I put them together in my posting window. Goddamn computer programmers...

IMPORTANT DEMAND: Hey all you upstart would be caricaturists out there! Now that you know how to draw Tom and Katie, show me your versions!! and send links so that all bloggers can love you as much as I do.

Thanks and random pics

Hi Folks,

I'm overwhelmed! So many comments that I can't even begin to answer them all. And I thought you had forgotten about my ass.

Here's a drawing I did for my good friend Steve Worth who produced the Bjork video with me:

He is also the archivist at Asifa and is making the greatest classic cartoon/animation resource anywhere-you have to go there and see it! Steve, send me links to this and your hot dog site and I will add them!
http://www.animationarchive.org/ Real animation and cartoon fans need to go to this site and learn about all the best stuff ever done!


Here is a sample from my library of a million cartoon shows that every executive at every network laughed their butts off listening to, then refused to let you have. Eric Bauza put this cool collage of fun together.



By the way, Eddie Fitzgerald and I just had a pile of theories about blogs today. I want him to put one up. He is a hilarious and brilliant cartoonist and he has the most creative theories I've ever heard - and on every imaginable subject! Ask him about saliva and how couples look exactly the same.
I'll let you know when he puts his THING up. Study his every thought and enjoy his great drawings!

He thinks maybe blogs will help save the sorry situation in animation today. I hope he's right

But anyway thanks again for looking at my crap and I will keep posting as long as you are interested.

Cartoon Illustrations

From time to time, people call me and want me to do magazine covers or illustrations for them. They assume that all cartoonists can do all kinds of cartoons, and I hate to have to dissapoint them.


To me, a cartoon illustration is a painting- like in the old Golden Books by J.P. Miller, Mary Blair, Mel Crawford and Gustaf Tenggren-in other words, not just a cartoon drawing filled with flat color, but a real painting. Like they used to do thousands of years ago before culture died.



Unfortunately, I can't paint-for some reason, paint and brushes hate me and will only make messes under my direction. The extent of my actual paintings were in Big House Blues where I did many of the backgrounds because I couldn't find any real background artists at the time to help (except Bob Camp who did all the good ones in the cartoon). What a mess! Strangely enough, my splotchy, messy BGs caught on and became a style and now there are whole shows on network TV with messy sloppy backgrounds in them on purpose!



I admire people like Bill Wray (my favorite cartoon painter), Kristy Gordon, Nick Cross, Jay Li, Simon Dupuis, Scott Wills, Richard Ziehler-Martin, Vicki Jensen and the like who can paint real paintings with great skill and appeal in a cartoon style. Most can also paint straight paintings too.

Hey, check Pietro Vargas' stuff out! http://pipsqueakscorner.blogspot.com/


OK, bored yet? I don't blame you.
So my dilemma a few years back was how to make my cartoons look like real paintings without having to actually use paint.
I hated all digital paintings and still do for the most part-especially that Photoshop crap. Yeeesh!

I discovered another program called Painter which is a torture program, but at least it has a few variations of things they call "Brushes" that you can paint with. The strange part is, none of the things they call "brushes' look anything remotely like any real brushes. But what the Hell, I was able to at least make some kinda pseudo painterly looking pictures and the art directors at the magazines never complained!

So here are a few.


This one was done back when Fred Seibert just took over Hanna Barbera and was revamping it and turning the Cartoon Network into something real. I showed him a bunch of weird looking caricatures I did of Hanna Barbera characters, and he said "We gotta do something with this". So he had me produce a laser disk collection of the first 14 episodes of The Flintstones from 1960. I did all the cover and insert art with Craig Kelly doing layout and design. You gotta get this box set! It has the best supplemental materials ever! Commercials showing the Flintstones smoking Winstons' cigarettes, the original pilot with different voices, all the crazy off model toys from the 1960s-from my collection and Bob Jaques' too. Jerry Beck helped me find tons of rare commercials starring the Flintstones in the 1960s. Earl Kress helped me write liner notes for a special booklet. I show you how to tell one Hanna Barbera animator from another in special music videos edited by Henry Porch. The picture above is the cover to the insert.

Later Fred asked me to do the Ranger Smith cartoons, and then he hired other artists to imitate my f...-ed-up style of Hanna Barbera drawings to use for merchandise.



Here are a couple Spumco Comic Book covers:




The cover from Media Magazine:





Here's a tease from something I will tell you more about later:





Stay tuned to my and Katie Rice's Blog. I'm gonna paint one of her great girlie drawings with fake paint soon!

More Beautifuls

We should all strive to be this glamorous.

Beautiful People

Well since everyone else has a blog, I guess it's my turn.

Sometimes when I start getting in a drawing rut by drawing my own cartoon characters over and over again I look to my favorite cartoonist for inspiration and new ideas. God. He is the funniest designer in history.

Cartoonists tend to get trapped in their own cliches after a while and the best cure for that is to do caricatures. But the trick for me is to empty my mind of preconceived notions of what caricatures should look like.

I love Mort Drucker and Hirschfeld and Covarrubias and used to copy them when I was a kid. But I quickly realized that trying to interpret what someone looked like through another artist's eyes just complicated matters.

I learned that my "style" should be the style of the person I am drawing. I try as hard as I can to tailor my drawing to the subject in front of me, rather than a preconceived style of caricature.

When I started doing this, I began finding all kinds of new shapes and forms which I could then in turn apply to my character designs.

I have 2 basic goals when drawing a caricature:
1) Make it look like the person
2) Make it funny

I don't always achieve these goals but that's what I strive for.

Here are some drawings I did of the most beautiful people on the planet.