SOUTH PAW SCRIBBLE

My mom always said she was so right-handed, her left hand was all but functionless -- "it's only there for show."  Every once in a while I try drawing with my left hand... with pretty sorry results (see above.)  Still, the lines in the picture do gain a certain energy of unpredictability... 

Whether you're a lefty or a righty, try it -- and surprise the non-dominant hemisphere of your brain.

THANKSGIVING...for THE LIST OF 7

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for, among many things,  great books I've read...

In the 90's fellow Minnesotan Mark Frost (of TWIN PEAKS and other TV/movie fame,) wrote THE LIST OF 7.  It follows a young Arthur Conan Doyle M.D. who is teamed up with a brilliant, super-deductive crime-solver (a character who clearly inspires the Doctor-turned-author to create Sherlock Holmes.)  Super-fast paced, enormously rich in period detail and a great story, this book's out of print, but available used.  Look for it anywhere and everywhere but Amazon.

As for the picture above... I doodled it at work and later realized it was inspired by Frost's novel.  (The book's better, trust me...)

CLASSIC JACK DAVIS

Before MAD Magazine went black and white in the latter 50's, the mag was in comic book color.  This panel is from the 1954 classic "BOOK!  MOVIE!", wherein the Mad guys compared a story as told in its best-selling novel form versus the glossy movie adaptation version.  In the book the troubled protagonist meets up with his mousey mistress and they get it on -- in the movie version, the protagonist simply wants to dance (in a safe-for-viewing-audiences way.)

I particularly love Jack Davis's trademark loose and incredibly vivacious style in this panel.

DRAGON AND M&Ms

Ah, to doodle with a ballpoint pen...

STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

Princess Leah shows what's she made of when Luke Skywalker tries to rescue her from her Death Star cell in in A NEW HOPE.  [From the collection of STAR WARS strips Craig McNamara and I drew long ago]

MUMMY FOR HALLOWEEN

A few storyboards I did for a movie idea a long time ago: KID CAIRO MEETS THE MUMMY. A 1930's story about a Detroit boxer who travels to Egypt and runs afoul of a mummy.

 



ZOMBIE FOR HALLOWEEN

A close-up from my previous "zombie road-trip" entry... just in time for October 31

WEREWOLVES FOR HALLOWEEN!

Just a couple of lycanthropes for the season.  The rough one was a production sketch for REAPER.  The other was just fun with colored markers and Corel...

THE 'REAPER' SPIN-OFF THAT NEVER WAS



The CW series REAPER was, and remains, beloved and admired during its two season run.  At that time I figured, in the event that somehow GOSSIP GIRL and the reboot of 90210 stumbled, we should be ready for the next logical step: a little kid friendly spin-off of the show.  Ben, Sock and Sam would lean on a brick wall and ruminate about their lot in life, ala Charlie Brown and co., but would have to maintain their respective beards to look enough like their real-life counter parts. 

Oh, and every cartoon needs a dog -- hence 'Rufus.'

A FUNNY JOKE THREE OR SO YEARS AGO COMES BACK TO LIFE!

A few years ago, my good Minnesota Daily fiends and I were yukking it up over the titles of the (then) recent sequel books to THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by the late Steig Larsson -- THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE and THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST.  We laughed that with such titles, the series was never-ending.  Off the cuff, the group tossed out potential future titles: THE GIRL WHO WORE WHITE AFTER LABOR DAY or THE GIRL WHO RAN WITH SCISSORS or this one, which I then I dummied up...

 

Putting this post together, I contacted the guys trying to recall any other funny titles and an e-mail chain began... and is still going, with everyone coming up with new ones.  Among the hot-off-the-press favs: THE GIRL WHOSE FACE STAYED THAT WAY... THE GIRL WHO ATE POTATO SALAD LEFT OUTSIDE ON A VERY HOT DAY, THE GIRL WHO TEXTED WHILE CROSSING AN INTERSECTION and one for American history buffs: THE GIRL WHO STOOD TOO CLOSE TO WM. MCKINLEY ON A MID SEPTEMBER DAY IN 1901.

 

SUMMER BOX OFFICE BLUES

The number-crunching is drawing to a close and it seems the summer's movie box office take failed to impress.  It's easy to see why -- do the math: if a film costs 100 to 200 million dollars to make and costs more than twice that to advertise and promote, it's hard for any film to see a profit.

 

Studios must follow the example presented in this New Yorker cartoon I cut out twenty years ago.

RISE AND SHINE...

Trevor's first day of school is next Tuesday and gone will be the mornings of sleeping late.  This picture seemed appropriate --  a rendering I did of Craig McNamara's proposed production company logo Monday Morning Productions.

WHO DOESN"T LOVE A DANCING ROBOT?

BATTERED MITT, POST WEREWOLF FIGHT

The latest from Twelve O'clock Somewhere.

RIP JAMES GARNER

 

Mourn as you see fit: watching your favorite episode of Rockford, or Maverick or pop in THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY or THE GREAT ESCAPE or THE NOTEBOOK or any of a dozen other of his films and be reminded of just how great he was.    

This drawing was done by Bruce Hannum, during our MN DAILY days.   

BEAT SUMMERTIME RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC!

 

Ever stuck in summer rush hour traffic and sit, wondering, "What would be the perfect vehicle to get out of this mess...?"  Above is my proposed design. 

WHALE

GRUFF

Designed this guy as the anti-hero contender in MONSTER RALLY -- an overgrown faun with a penchant for speed and full of bad attitude.  Since he's part goat, I thought the name was fitting...

HANNIBAL SEASON THREE BEGINS...

 

The writers room for HANNIBAL season three began on Monday last, hence the posting of my only drawing of a homicidal maniac.

ALL HAIL CHUCK JONES

Before I moved to Los Angeles, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis hosted a Q&A with the late, great Chuck Jones.  I bought a t-shirt to commemorate the evening, featuring his sketch "Nude Duck Descending a Staircase".  While the memories lasted, the t-shirt did not -- but before I pitched it, I cut out the artwork and copied it (hence the thread patterns visible.)

MAKE A TIGER FUZZY

Good ol' Corel Painter program.  Always finding new stuff on there.

Drew the tiger on the left and then "dabbed" it with Painter's sponge and got this phantasmagorical version of the original.

UNUSED MINNESOTA SCRIPTWORKS LOGO

DRAWING COMICS. LESSON #1

Drew this when I was, like seven, and it's clear I didn't know the first rule of drawing comic strips -- write out your character's dialogue BEFORE you draw the word balloons...

HANNIBAL SEASON TWO EPISODE 9 "SHIIZAKANA"

This was the initial sketch I came up with when we writers were putting our heads together, trying to come up with inventive bad guys for HANNIBAL.  I had this idea of a guy in a suit using a dire wolf skull strapped to his head to eviscerate his adversaries -- in stark contrast to the title character's own neat, urbane method of killing. 

For the picture, I started with an old phrenology chart for the human head and added the wolf jaws (cave bear jaws in the episode -- bigger, chompier...) to it.  Colored and "dirtied" it up to make it seem more old-world. 

And yes, dire wolves were real creatures that roamed the earth once upon a time...

CRAIG'S CORONER

These are some photo-phunnies my friend Craig McNamara sent me.  As he explained, these were shot back in his agency days, as illustration references for a layout... and Craig later pasted them together and made a story out it. Old gag, but so is the telephone... and the rich Polaroid highlights and skin-tones.  And that's Craig himself getting the bad news.

CRAZY MONKEYS!

Hand drawn T shirts rule!!  This was one of many identical shirts I drew for a birthday party game for one of Laird's parties.  'Crazy Monkeys' was the team's name, and the red splotches are paint -- no blood sport at a Vlaming kid  party.

BACK TO THE FUTURE I - THE ORIGINAL PLOT!!

 

 

Originally in BACK TO THE FUTURE, Marty McFly and Doc Brown never get their time-travel experiment off the ground.  Their endeavor is halted by Hill Valley Councilman Dick Winston (Craig McNamara), all part of the film's initial backstory involving the city's eminent domain junction against Brown's property.  "Originally we saw this as a taut drama," explains co-writer Bob Gale, "The story of  'an everyman-against-the-powers-that-be'.  The whole time-travel thing, that was just there to steer the story into the courtroom nitty-gritty."  In the original cut of the film, Marty and Doc return home to fashion a legal defense and leave Dick Winston to be gunned down by the Libyan terrorists...

 

If you don't believe it, enlarge the picture and look at the photo caption!

"BUENAS NOCHES, I'M ALFREDO HITCHCOCK..."

Okay, at the HANNIBAL offices, an amazing series of framed 50's and 60's Hitchcock movie posters -- some a giant 4'x6' - adorned the walls.  From the writers room I could see two of them and at slow  moments, I sketched the Master of Suspense.  For whatever reason, I blackened his hair and added sideburns and a moustache, the end result looking less like Alfred Hitchcock and more like character actor Miguel Sandoval. 

60's AD ART?

 

Not really -- this is a doodle I did at work and realized it's in that great sixties style you saw inTV  advertisements that used cartoons.  With my truty, dusty Corel program I fattened up the lines, dropped in the colors and added the very-60's san serif type. 

RAIDERS OF THE LAST LOST CRYSTAL TEMPLE OF THE CRUSADE

 

 

Actually these are all production stills from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ICEBOX, a super-8 spoof we shot during college and all filmed in Edina, Minnesota.  Kirk Mathison was great as a German baddie and my brother Jonathan played the lead character, Louisiana Jones -- professor, archaeologist... and gourmet.

 

 

Watch the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpBeq2OlLHM

 

LOST SCENE FROM 'RETURN OF THE JEDI'!

 

Word has it John Williams composed a stellar rendition of Pomp & Circumstance for this scene which, sadly, was cut from the final film. 

 

Written and rendered by my pal and STAR WARS STRIPZ co-author, Craig McNamara.

NOTES AND DOODLES

 

Whenever there's a lull in a concept call, the pen takes on a mind of its own...

'HANNIBAL' SEASON TWO PREMIERE DATE -- THIS FRIDAY, February 28th!

Instead of an official image from HANNIBAL's second season, I offer this painting I originally did to spruce up my REAPER office walls.   Needless to say, it was more fitting for my HANNIBAL wall.  

 

The second season of HANNIBAL premieres this Friday, FEBRUARY 28th...on NBC.  Check your local listings.  Until then, here are a couple of  TRAILERS sure to whet your appetite:

http://hollywoodlife.com/2014/02/06/hannibal-new-season-2-trailer-mads-mikkaelsen-hugh-dancy-return/
or
http://www.programme-tv.net/news/series-tv/47499-hannibal-saison-2-video/

BUY THE LEGO MOVIE NOW -- BUT NOT FROM AMAZON!

POLAR VORTEX -- THE SEQUEL: FORTIFIED

 

Pull on the flannel plaids, the sheepskin vest and the moose scalp hat and ride these low temps out

TORONTO SUBMISSION

Up in Toronto this week to prep my episode of HANNIBAL and I didn't bring anything to put up.  Pulled this, the latest page from 12 O'Clock Somewhere, to fill the space.

POLAR VORTEX--THE GAME

Trapped in a devastating netherworld of ice and snow, one intrepid robot must find the key to mankind's survival...
                                                   ...temps above zero and a hot cup of Peets coffee.

IF "AMERICAN HUSTLE" DOESN'T GIVE YOU ENOUGH 1970's FOR CHRISTMAS...

/

Craig McNamara, Saint Paul MN native born and bred, found this poster and gave it to me ostensibly because my next-door-neighbor Casey Jones aka Roger Awsumb was featured as a special guest (so was Barry ZeVan the weatherman -- but I didn't know him personally).  I loved the artwork and it was a nice piece from the past.

But then I got to wondering who the host of the parade, this "Super Mayor" was.  A little research gleaned from WFMU’S Beware of the Blog uncovered the following:

“From 1970 to 1972, the city of Saint Paul, MN was led by colorful Mayor Charlie McCarty who won the election as an independent candidate. He was both loved and hated by many for his unpredictable words and deeds, but never failed to entertain.

He earned the nickname "Supermayor" due to his penchant for patrolling the streets of the city at all hours of the night in his hand-picked Lincoln Continental (dubbed the "Supercar") which was decked out in all manner of police and fire radios… [using] the newly modern technology… that allowed him to switch red [street] lights to green while he tooled around town with his driver.

An incident where Mayor McCarty helped apprehend a disorderly patron at a White Castle restaurant was the genesis of a weekly "Supermayor" comic strip by Jerry Fearing in the local paper.” 



CHRISTMAS FRINGE

When I was on FRINGE, this is the card I sent everyone, from J.J. Abrams on down. I didn't watch the series in the last couple seasons, but lemme know if they ended up doing this episode. 

TOYS THAT INSPIRED, #37

When my brother Jonathan and I were kids, the local toy store at Clancy Drugs sold a series of little rubber cartoon figures made of this weird oily rubber -- a medium developed by mistake in some petro chemical lab, no doubt.  The design of the characters -- very Disney-esque -- had a big influence on how I drew animals and the like.  The above picture was found online but we actually owned these two guys back in the day...

THANKSGIVING'S GREETINGS

 

A re-run from last year...

REAPER -- THIS WORK BENCH MASCOT IS NO TOOL!

One episode of the CW series REAPER involved Tyler Labine's character Sock being punished and having to wear the Work Bench store mascot outfit... which ultimately leads to him embracing the job and facing-off with a rival hardware store mascot -- an ambulatory hammer -- and a fist fight that he wins -- only to find it's a retired old lady in the hammer get-up.

 

Above are the ideas I offered for the potential Work Bench mascot costume.  While "Wrenchy-Wrench" was the ultimate choice, I always loved the simplicity of the plum-bob design.

 

UN Havin a Good Time, Comrade?

Drew this during a Minnesota Scriptworks meeting.  Seeing as the Soviet Union was still in existence at the time, it tells you how many moons ago it was created.  The UN proceedings so boring the Soviet delegate is left to the imagination.

ALL THE PAST AND FUTURE HOLDS



A Photo from the LA TIMES shows a city councilman holding a life size cut-out of William Mulholland, the man behind the LA aqueduct a hundred years ago... ah, or is it a hundred year photo of Mullholland holding a life size cut-out of a councilman of the future?