Month: December 2004

New Nomenclature Necessary?

andertoons11 Comments

Here’s my beef – with some notable exceptions, “graphic novels” seem to me to pretty much be your standard comic book renamed, repackaged, and recently reaping a lot of respect.

Is it that easy? The industry begins to refer to its product as “graphic novels” and suddenly everyone’s in love with them again?!

So what are the rest of us waiting for?! I say we rename gag cartooning something more artsy, sit back, and wait for the accolades!

I’ll get us started. How about “Illustrative Wit?” Or maybe “Comedic Short Subject?”

Any other suggestions?

“Teacher’s Pet” – Review

andertoons

Baseman's Doggie Style

Based on acclaimed illustrator Gary Baseman‘s fascinating work (think Cranium), Disney’s Teacher’s Pet is visually stunning, musically hysterical and just plain fun to watch.

Nathan Lane voices Spot, a dog who desperately wants to be a boy (dig the Pinocchio nod at the beginning of the film) while his boy, Leonard Helperman, desperately wants Spot to be a dog.

Spot comes across mad scientist Ivan Crank, voiced expertly by Kelsey Grammer, while watching a Jerry Springer-like show on TV and decides to disguise himself and hitch a ride with the Helpermans to find Crank.

Jerry Stiller and David Ogden Stiers also turn in wonderful performances as Spot’s pet compatriots that come to the rescue when Spot, thanks to the disparity between human and dog years, is turned into a hairy middle-aged guy with back pain.

In the end it all works out (it’s Disney after all) but the film veers far from normal so often that you don’t mind.

The music is simply wonderful throughout. The song in which Leonard and his mother, played with goofy glee by Debra Jo Rupp, go through every state in the union is especially brilliant and deserves at least a few viewings to catch all of the jokes.

But for me, the best part of the film was simply the Baseman vibe. It’s such a welcome departure from most animated films that it’s like a cartoon Altoid for your head.

While Teacher’s Pet is still certainly a kid’s film first, there are enough hip, intelligent, and deftly hidden jokes that observant adults will be rewarded too.

Andertoons Gets Makeover

andertoons2 Comments

Intel Botox Inside

What with the rash of makeover shows on TV these days, I figured it was about time our favorite cartoon site got a bit of a facelift too.

The first thing you’ll probably notice is some changes on the home page. I’ve added three thumbnails of my most recent cartoons below the green and beige text boxes, and a brand new blue area explaining how Andertoons.com is unique in the ever more crowded cartoon website landscape. I’ve also added a short snippet of the most recent Andertoons blog. So, for those of you in a hurry for your Andertoons fix, most everything you’d want to keep on top of, including the ever popular daily cartoon, is right on the front page.

I’ve also reengineered the main subject pages (business, family, etc…). There’s a new right-hand menu that will not only allow you to move to other popular cartoon topics more quickly, but often will include cartoon sub-categories related to the current page. For example, on the Sales and Business Cartoons page, you can now get more specific and browse sales cartoons, money cartoons, accounting cartoons, marketing cartoons, advertising cartoons and cartoons about stocks.

A brand new page is my popular article, “Business Cartoons Mean Business,” which has appeared on a number of different sites after initial publication on my blog, but now finds a more permanent home here.

There are also some subtle changes to the blog. You’ll notice an easier to read design and navigation layout, as well as the addition of links to my most popular cartoon topics, and some of my favorite blogs.

One change I’m really excited about is the addition of suggested cartoons on each cartoon’s close-up page! Let’s say you’re looking at a business cartoon about an animal sitting behind an office desk. Now immediately below you’ll find three thumbnails of cartoons in, for example, animal cartoons, office cartoons and business cartoons! (Click here for an example.)

The final big change is the addition of a new navigation menu at the bottom of every page. Now no matter where you are in the site, your favorite pages are only a click away.

Well, that’s about it for now. I hope you like the new changes, and if there’s anything you’d like to see in the future on Andertoons.com, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

“The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker” – Review

andertoons

100 pounds of cartoons in a 10 pound book

I just bought a new load of cartoon books from Amazon. A new Cullum, some Gahan Wilson, and a new Ziegler that I’m very excited about.

Part of my deal with myself was that before I ordered them I would have reviewed The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker.

Ahem.

So my new books are arriving tomorrow and I’ve amended my deal thusly – I will review it before they arrive.

And it’s a fairly daunting task. The book weighs almost ten pounds and boasts 68,647 brilliant cartoons from men and women I’ve admired for years.

OK, the book actually only boasts 2004 cartoons, but the accompanying 2 CDs carry every cartoon The New Yorker had published up its release.

Let’s talk about the book. Like I said, sure it’s big and heavy, but it’s hard to explain just how imposing the whole vibe of the book is. I mean, there it is, right on the cover. THE COMPLETE CARTOONS OF THE NEW YORKER. It’s like the cartoon library of congress on my bookshelf.

I can’t seem to get past the feel that it’s a weird sort of reference book, to be placed next to dictionaries, atlases and the like at my local public library. But it’s also a history text. No matter what “it” was, you can probably see what was going on and how we felt about “it” for the last 80 or so years. And then again it’s just this great big cartoon collection to be browsed and shown to my incredibly patient wife who’s trying to read her magazine thank you very much.

If you’ve been collecting New Yorker books all along, many if not most of the cartoons will be familiar to you. But the fun is reading along and recognizing old favorites and then discovering something new hidden amongst them.

The book is organized chronologically by decade and includes lovely introductions by the likes of Ian Frazier and John Updike. Also included are more in-depth looks at New Yorker cartoonists including Arno, Addams & Booth, as well as forays into popular topics like nudity and the space program.

Most importantly the cartoons are presented well and are just a hoot to read.

Now on to the CDs. (And you thought the book was daunting!)

On the inside front cover rest 2 compact discs chock full of some of the most brilliant cartoons ever made. Many of which you’d be hard pressed to find unless you have an 80-year old stack of New Yorkers in the next room.

The discs include Adobe Reader 6 and are fully searchable which is a great deal of fun. For example, in the 2nd disc alone I found:

20 cartoons containing “Anderson”

100 cartoons about or referencing a potato

7 cartoons that include a Volkswagen in some way (only 7?!)

334 hippie-related cartoons

and 32 cartoons pertaining to jazz

Pretty neat!

There’s so much stuff here that I could forage for weeks and not really be able to review the entire offering, but it’s a lot of fun trying.

My only complaint here is the appearance of the cartoons themselves. I know there’s only so much subtlety a monitor can show, but, as even Mankoff admits, there’s just no substitute for the medium that the cartoons were created on and for.

Still, they look good if not great, and the sheer cartoon overload helps to placate complainers like myself.

So, I’ve dared to critique The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker (just in time too!) and I think I was fair. If you’re a fan of the cartoon arts you probably own this already. If you’re not already a fan, borrow a friend’s copy and you soon will be.