Monday, June 15, 2015

SH-SHAAARK! JAWS forty years after its big splash...

 
Spielberg's second feature came out forty years ago this summer.  JAWS introduced the concept of Boffo Summer Box Office -- and you can see it again on the big screen!  June 21st and 24th, TCM is screening the film in movie theaters around the country.  Check if your city is one of the lucky ones! 
 
The above is a decades-old photo of a billboard a friend and I reworked to honor the film...

Monday, June 1, 2015

HANNIBAL SEASON THREE PREMIERES JUNE 4th

 
The entire season three staff wishes you a happy season three viewing, June 4th on NBC -- check your local listings...

Sunday, April 19, 2015

IN HONOR OF GAME OF THRONES, SEASON V, EPISODE TWO...

...Which airs tonight, I offer this old sketch I came across.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

GARY v DEMON

 
A storyboard panel I did for a WEIRD SCIENCE episode back in the day

Saturday, February 28, 2015

ASSORTED DOODLES

From top to bottom: 1) Back in my Minnesota script group, often people reading their script pages aloud would describe a contemplative character's action as "kneading their forehead..." I drew a pic of what came to my mind, 2) an easily impressed earthworm and 3) An amalgamated marriage -- I had drawn the telephone-antlered moose and on the same page I'd drawn the cranky old man and, seeing their juxtaposition, I completed the doodle so that the little animal was peering over the fellow's head -- his pet, or his muse... or a parasite.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Death's Head Script Cover

Years ago Scott Nimerfro and I came up with an idea for a feature -- what happened to Ebenezener Scrooge AFTER his visit from 3 ghosts?  Anyway, the title, for about 5 seconds, was taken from the last chapter title in A CHRISTMAS CAROL -- 'The End of It',  Naturally, I felt compelled to draw art for the script cover (a no-no in scriptwriting).  Clearer heads prevailed and we later changed the name -- but the artwork survives...

Friday, February 6, 2015

THE GANGSTER

Drew this while at The Minnesota Daily.  What's funny is it predates Stevie Van Zandt on the SOPRANOS, who looked pretty much exactly like this.  What May Day had to do with it, I dunno...

Monday, January 19, 2015

ABSTRACT, DOG


Two drawings for an art class in high school.  A "realistic" dog and its discombobulated abstract counterpart.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Monday, December 1, 2014

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.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

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...)

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

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.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

DRAGON AND M&Ms

Ah, to doodle with a ballpoint pen...

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

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]

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

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.
 


Friday, October 17, 2014

ZOMBIE FOR HALLOWEEN

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

Saturday, October 11, 2014

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...

Friday, October 10, 2014

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.'

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

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.

 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

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.

Friday, August 29, 2014

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.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

BATTERED MITT, POST WEREWOLF FIGHT

The latest from Twelve O'clock Somewhere.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

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.   

Monday, July 14, 2014

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. 

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Friday, July 4, 2014

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...