I love ’em both: Dancing with the Stars, and the debates. They’re both exciting, in their carefully preplanned, not really spontaneous way. This is a rough, in case you wondered.…
Hot Spots Posts
It’s a wonder those talented artists at Illustration Friday allow me in their group. The subject this week is CLIQUE. Remember when people thought wearing a Swatch watch meant you…
I am all kinds of thrilled that I’ve been invited to submit political cartoons about the election to a major publication!!
I’ve never done any editorial cartoons before. (My father used to suggest that if I did them, I would be a “real” cartoonist, but fortunately – I think it wasn’t until he held my first book in his hands – that mantra has stopped, or at least slowed down. Well, here I am, Dad!)
I don’t know any cartoonists who mix the genres, actually; you’re either funny or serious, and I always choose funny! (Plus, what about those arrows and signs and symbols and nametags and scrawling ink splotches all over everything in editorial drawings? Kind of messy.)
I have certainly made my opinions known about Los Angeles political figures in my Los Angeles blog, but I’ve never thought of cartooning as my favorite way to prove anything. Words are faster. So no LA cartoons…but national politics are easier to find the humor in, I find!
The Idea
This is from my self-syndicated series, Daily Special. It ran in the LA Times for almost 5 years, and I slowly expanded it to reach a dozen other major newspapers (like the award-winning Minneapolis Taste section!) and alternates, like Nashville Scene. Daily Special is all about restaurants. Don’cha love them? I still think it’s a treat when I get to go out and be served a carefully configured meal with a smile. I stroke the lovely tablecloth, or get out markers to draw on the placemats, whichever seems more appropriate. Hopefully they’ll give us special restaurant bread, as we start drooling when we read the menus.
The Drawing
I was so nervous by the idea that hundreds of thousands of people would read me every week in the Times – including people I knew, some of whom were critical (Marty Murphy) some who were better! (Marty Murphy)- that I did the thing I know really well – signs! (went to sign school, did them in the studios.)
I have this weird thing, where, when I color a cartoon, I often decide that there aren’t enough colors. Not that there aren’t enough colors in my paintbox or on…