Posts Tagged ‘cartoon’

22 results.

On This Day Cartoon July 11th

by Frank on July 11, 2011 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
On This Day Cartoon July 11th

July 11th 1804 – Alexander Hamilton (former Secretary of the Treasury) and Aaron Burr (sitting Vice President of the United States) had a duel mortally wounding Hamilton who died the next day.

This is probably the most famous duel in U.S. history and the outcome killed one of the founding fathers of the U.S. and charging another one with murder in New York and New Jersey, although neither charge reached trial.

There is a lot of dispute over who shot first or how exactly how this all went down except most historians believe Alexander did fire his pistol but it is unclear if he intended to hit Burr or toss aside his shot.

Regarding the art – My original intention was to make a traditional comic about this event as I have done with other ‘On This Day Cartoons’ but somewhere along the line I liked how these three drawings of Alexander and Aaron came out and decided to create a fake movie poster instead.  I have always loved making phony posters and movie headlines for some reasons.  They are fun to come up with and love to see when it is done well by others.

Please let me know what you think.

Have a great week.

 

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[ 14 Comments ]

Tao Te Jetpack

by Frank on July 4, 2011 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
Tao Te Jetpack

Happy 4th of July.  Here is another Metaphysical Monday cartoon.

Many times when we are told what it takes to improve our situation or mood but we don’t listen or try and find a workaround. I think most of  us want to find a shortcut to success or to life in general and make it all about getting to the finish line when that is not what is truly important.

This very popular expression is actually part of the verse #64 in the Tao Te Ching written sometime in 500 BC.  There are many intelligent verses in the Tao but they can be very difficult to understand sometimes due to the writing style and references choices used at the time it was written.

I know I should have taken advantage of today being the 4th of July by making a 4th of July cartoon but I didn’t as you can see.

Have a great week.

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[ 15 Comments ]

Living in The Now

by Frank on June 27, 2011 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
Living in The Now

Welcome to Metaphysical Monday.

I came up with the idea for this cartoon awhile back which started the idea of making some cartoons about spirituality/metaphysical self help concepts and teaching.

Although I am poking fun at concepts  I am actually a firm believer in them such as “living in the now.”  I even believe “living in the now” is a cornerstone to a more fulfilled, enjoyable life.  I subscribe to a lot theories like which mostly echo through Eckhart Tolle’s two books the “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth.“   In those books he talks about the benefits and importance of being fully present in the moment you are experiencing along with a whole host of other ideas that I will not get into here.

Needless to say I thought it would be fun to look at the comical side of these positive concepts and document them in Animatic Press.  Sometimes the best satire comes from a place of admiration.  When it comes from hate or disgust; it still can come off as funny but there is a darkness and anger behind it that the reader can sense and it often comes across as bitter unless you are exposing the satire or ridiculous of it.  This can be very difficult to do.  I always thought Doonesbury was and still is a master at this

Hope you like this one and it makes you laugh.  Have a good week.

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[ 10 Comments ]

Speed Dating

by Frank on June 20, 2011 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
Speed Dating

I’m so glad I don’t date anymore.  I really stunk at dating and I would be no better at it now.  The incredible pressure some of us put ourselves in meeting new people.  It  is so unnecessary yet most of us still do it.   Even the whole idea of speed dating is a little ludicrous although at the same time I can see some benefits to it when the act of meeting new people happens so seldom in the normal course of our lives for a lot of people.

Art wise – I actually made this comic or a version of it awhile back.  The ending was originally a little different but I believe this latest version is a slight improvement.

When you read this I will be flying back to LA from Michigan after attending a spectacular event called KID READ COMICS.  It is an event for kids and teens (and adults too) to meet comic artist working in multiple areas of comics and pushing the medium in different directions.  Can’t wait to be there.

I’ll be very busy this summer working on an short comic adaptation for an anthology that should be published in about a year.  Between that, Animatic Press and other art projects I will be a busy boy.

Let me know what you think of today’s comic and share it with your friends

Thank you for reading.

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[ 12 Comments ]

Pasteurize Comic

by Frank on June 13, 2011 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
Pasteurize Comic

Yes another comic about making comics.

I wanted to write a comic the talks about voice in our head that questions how our creations will be interpreted by others.  To be honest I have this problem with this and always have.  I noticed it coming up while trying to write a comic for Animatic Press I decided to make the comic about that.  Questioning how people might react to something you create is almost always a bad idea unless you are making something directly for someone in which case I think this is something to keep in mind

But in most cases that voice that comes in and questions how the general audience will react to your comic or creation should not be your criteria for editing your comic.  You should do what YOU do and what YOU enjoy doing and use the enjoyment you feel while creating as you gauge to tell you if you are on the right track or not.  Your enjoyment will come out in what you create and people will respond to it.  And chances are if you enjoy something or think something is funny a few others will to.  In the comic I made the artist basically gives up chooses to not make anything rather than face the fear of making something that might make him look bad.  He would rather do nothing that risk of hurting the vision of himself that his ego has created in his head

Art wise I wanted to keep is really simple and graphic with a mid 20th century appeal.  I enjoy making wild and super energized drawings but I also love cartoon and comics that give simple shapes emotions with very little line work.  The strange this is; I do not always enjoy making that type of work as much as the exaggerated work but the end result sometimes appeals to me more.  Not sure why that is yet.

THIS WEEK – I will be in Michigan at KIDS READ COMICS.  An awesome event put on by a great group of people and attended by a lot of extremely talented artist and storytellers.  Please check out their website and see the amazing line up of events they have planned for this coming Saturday & Sunday (18th & 19th).  The event is FREE so if you are anywhere in the area you can’t lose by going to this.

Have a good week.

 

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[ 19 Comments ]

Bitter Cartoonist

by Frank on June 6, 2011 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
Bitter Cartoonist

I wrote this comic in a moment of artistic frustration; poking fun at myself and artist in general.

Looking at it now I think I should have left out the silhouette of the person talking to the cartoonist.  I think it might have played better.  The pacing and punch of the joke are not as strong as I had hoped either but maybe I have just lived with this joke for too many hours.  I do like some of the expressions I pulled off and the overall character design.  I also likes that I kept the character design consistent thru out pretty much with I usually do not do.  I employed a new technique to help me do that and fortunately it do not hurt the energy I like to inject into my work.

This is going to be a busy summer and I need to find a way to produce a quality comic every week that I’m proud of but that do not suck up all my time.  I have other artistic interest and commitments that I need to focus on as well.

Please let me know what you think.  Have a great week.

 

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[ 20 Comments ]

Tales Of Brothers 3 Guest Comic

by Frank on May 30, 2011 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
Tales Of Brothers 3 Guest Comic

This week’s comic is a guest comic for the great, family fun web comic by Joshua Hauke “Tales of The Brothers Three” that has been going for 2 years now.  I hope I make it that far.  This terrific comic can be found at www.brothers3comics.com.  You should check out this comic.  Joshua has developed some great characters in his comic which helps to make it very funny while at the same time keeping it about families and for families which is not easy to do.

I tried to take the characters of the two older boys and make up a quick adventure story capitalizing on their personalities and family dynamics.  Not sure if I pulled it off but it was fun to run with characters that are already developed and put them in a story driven mostly by there personalities.

Let me know what you think and head over to “Tales of The Brothers Three” to read some great comics and leave a comment as well.  Have a nice Memorial Day everyone.  A special thanks to all the people who fought and died for this country.  It’s a sacrifice we can never re-pay.  Take care everyone.

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[ 12 Comments ]

On This Day May 23rd

by Frank on May 23, 2011 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
On This Day May 23rd

May 23rd 1536 Pope Paul III installs the Portuguese inquisition.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (or so I found):

The Portuguese Inquisition, not to be confused with the Medieval Inquisition, Spanish Inquisition or Roman Inquisition was formally started in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, João III to Pope Paul III (The previous King Manuel I had asked Pope Leo X for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515 but it was never granted). The Portuguese Inquisition principally targeted the Sephardic Jews (Spanish Jews or Jews descended from the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula), whom the state forced to convert to Christianity.  Earlier Spain had expelled its Sephardic Jewish population in 1492 (see Alhambra decree).  Many of these Jews left Spain for Portugal only to be targeted again there as well.  Nice, huh.

In addition to the Jews, the inquisition also investigated cases of witchcraft, blasphemy, bigamy, and sodomy.  They also had  tribunals in Lisbon, Évora, Coimbra, Lamego, and Tomar in Portugal, and in Goa in Portuguese India. It was finally abolished in 1821 (285 years later…ouch!).

According to a 1578 handbook for inquisitors, the purpose of inquisitorial penalties was: (translation from the Latin) “… for punishment does not take place primarily and per se for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from the evils they would commit.”  How nice of them to look after their public like that….oh wait, weren’t the Jews part of the public too.  Small technicality I guess.

Ironically, forced “conversions” were never really convincing either to those converted or those forcing the conversions. The Portuguese Inquisition was designed to ferret out forced “converts”, called “Marranos,” who were only feigning the practice of Catholicism but privately maintaining their identities and practices as Jews. If no evidence was discovered in the form of Jewish paraphernalia, then torture was applied to the detained individual in order to elicit the requisite “confession” (naming names, reminiscent of McCarthy Hearings in the U.S. but much worse). Since being “Jewish” is both an ethnic and/or a religious identification, ethnic Jews could never escape the suspicion of also being heretics.

Over time this lead to many Jews to leave Portugal which some hostorian’s believe to be a major factor in precipitating the decay of the fortunes of Portugal in the latter half of the 16th century.  Before this time Portugal was in its golden age and prosperous.  The Jews at that time comprised a significant portion of the middle class of the country and were among some of the best educated and capable of the Portuguese citizens some say. It would be hundreds of years before Portugal would recover from that decision.

On a lighter side, the “Spanish” Inquisition was satirized by both Mel Brooks in the movie “History of the World Part 1” and Monty Python in Monty Python’s Flying Circus.  This was the type of humor I was going for and I used these pieces to help me find the satire in such a tragic in our human history.  It can be very difficult to create a humorous comic after you have researched the real event because many times the real story was so sad it is hard to find any satire in it.

Some references:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition#Portuguese_Inquisition

http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu-1078261/content_147301502596

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Inquisition

http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/k/inquisition/EncJud/21-methods-of-Inquisition-ENGL.html

On the art side, I struggled with the script on this one and originally had a longer version but thankfully my wife helped me edit it down and tighten it up and focus the joke more to what I was trying to say.  (Thank yoI was going to animate this comic and create an animatic style video but decided I did not enough time to experiment with it so I stuck with a traditional comic to tell this little story but  hopefully I can play around with animation comics in the near future and see what works and what does not.

Sorry for the long blog.  Please leave a comment letting me know what you think.

 

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[ 50 Comments ]

On This Day Cartoon May 16th

by Frank on May 16, 2011 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
On This Day Cartoon May 16th

May 16, 1929 – The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took place at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, in Los Angeles, California honoring the best films of 1927 and 1928.  It was a private dinner held hosted by AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks.  Tickets cost five dollars, 270 people attended the event and the ceremony lasted fifteen minutes.

The most interesting point is that the Academy Awards was created by Louis B. Mayer, founder of Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation that merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924.   Mayer was quoted in his biography as saying  ”I found that the best way to handle [filmmakers] was to hang medals all over them … If I got them cups and awards they’d kill them to produce what I wanted. That’s why the Academy Award was created.”  The story goes that Mayer was feeling the pressure from unions like the WGA and SAG and came up with the Academy and the awards to prevent his actors, writers and directors and others from unionizing.  This worked only for a few years but eventually the unions were successful and remain to this day as one of the most powerful unions in the U.S.

I struggled with this comic to hopefully make something funny without being bitter or cynical towards Mayer, Hollywood and big business.  I think comics are much more successful when they present their view point through satire and humor rather than blunt anger or cynicism.    Anger is easy portray.  It is much more difficult and rewarding to the reader show your point in a interesting, unique humorous way.   Hopefully I pulled this off a little.  I know it ain’t perfect.

Please comment send me an email via my contact page.

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[ 10 Comments ]

On This Day Cartoon May 2nd

by Frank on May 2, 2011 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
On This Day Cartoon May 2nd

Another history lesson of sorts.  I mention “lesson” as that is the word of the week for Illustration Friday.  This is a great website that allows users to create an illustration based on a topic/word a week.  I submitted this comic to this week’s work which was “lesson;” since in a way it was a history “lesson.”

May 2nd 1536 Anne Boleyn was arrested and taken to the Tower of London.  Her story is pretty well documented in history and it has plenty of tension, drama, sex, intrigue, betrayal, and be-heading.  If you want an easy cliff notes version you can see the “The Other Boleyn Girl” staring Natalie Portman as Anne and Sarlett Johansson as her sister Mary.

What is amazing to me is how quickly Henry VIII’s love or lust for Anne grew cold once it seemed she could not produce a male heir.  It seems crazy to put yourself in a situation that could cost her life, but I’m sure at the time it made sense to do and probably seemed like a chance of a lifetime, which I guess it was to a degree.   Luckily Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton’s marriage will most likely not resemble Henry VIII and Anne’s marriage at all.  We have come a long way, but we still have more to go.

Lastly, not sure if anyone will get the Cromwell reference in panel 5 but I was referring to Thomas Cromwell.  History has it that he may have engineered the arrest and execution of Anne to cover up his own corruption plus Anne became a threat to his power some historians say.

I could go on and on about this but it is better if you read all the sordid details yourself on some website or in a history book rather than get it third hand from me.

I hope you like the history comics.  I want to do more of them.  Thanks for checking out the site.  Please leave a comment if you can.

 

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[ 15 Comments ]