Year: 2006

Spot the Frog – Review

andertoons1 Comment

Mhstf

I’d grouped my copy of Mark Heath‘s Spot the Frog with an older, harder-to-find book at Amazon and found myself in cartoon limbo. After many weeks of waiting, Amazon emailed to tell me they’d been unsuccessful at getting that second book from any of their sources, and that Spot was on its way.

Now that my wife and I have devoured it, I wish I’d ordered Spot by itself with next day shipping.

Listen, I’m not a great writer past a gag line or two, and folks on/in Mark’s book sing his well deserved praises better than I ever could (the comparison to Milne was especially accurate), but I’ll give it a shot.

Spot not only made me laugh, but root for him. The strips are gently funny, but far from simple or maudlin. So many comics (including all of my failed syndication attempts) brashly aim for the jugular every time, but Spot sneaks up and tickles you in a surprising way that you can’t help but fall in love with every line, written or drawn.

I think I’ve compared it to Watterson in the past, and it certainly well deserved, but Mark has birthed a wondrously silly and fresh voice all his own, and it’s something to behold.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy, and don’t skimp on the shipping.

Technorati Tags: , ,

“Your Dependable Hollywood Quote Whore”

andertoons1 Comment

200604171446

I ran across a fun movie review site the other day which describes itself thusly:

We at The Weekly Blurb believe that every film, no matter how good or bad, deserves a blurb – a nice, punchy, positive bit of praise that can be pulled out here and pasted in your movie’s advertising.

Why do they do this?

We don’t know. Maybe it’s some desperate need for attention, a strange cumpulsion to see our words in print. We’re not sure. We’re trying to figure it out. All we know is that if you have a movie, we want to be Your Dependable Hollywood Quote Whore.

I loved their review of Disney’s The Wild (which garnered 7-1/4 stars BTW). Here’s a taste:

The Wild is the debut film for director Steve “Spaz” Williams; and folks, it’s just the kind of comedy you’d expect from a guy named “Spaz!” A madcap assortment of crazy cut-ups live in New York City, and boy, is it ever a zoo-because they’re animals! Can you imagine? Keifer Sutherland shines as Samson the Lion, leader of a zany pack of animal kingdom wiseacres. Soon enough they must brave the big city and the jungle to rescue one of their friends who’s been shipped off to the wild. It’s a hilarious new twist on last year’s increda-hit Madagascar, and there’s even a bunch of zany penguins! Everyone knows you just can’t have a funny animal-ation movie without penguins!

See some movie cartoons at Andertoons…

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Dedini Line Art

andertoons4 Comments

Recently on a trip to library, I noticed among the new non-fiction a book entitled “On Cloud Nine” by Robert Wendover and Terrence Gargiulo. It looks to be about working with older/younger people in the workplace blah blah blah, and it has some good reviews over at Amazon, but the reason I checked it out are the illustrations are by Playboy’s Eldon Dedini.

What’s interesting is how different the illustrations are from the Dedini I’m used to. Sure, a book on office generational challenges probably isn’t gonna have a lot of nymph related material, but it’s very simple line art:

Eldon1

Here’s another:

Eldon2



Honestly, unless I’d seen Dedini’s signature, I dunno I’d have ever thought this work to be his.

Here’s a little of what I’m more used to (from 1961’s “The Dedini Gallery”:

Eldon3



Sure there’s a naked chick in it, but the line is so different!

I gotta wonder what the deal is…

Technorati Tags: ,

Clay Bennett Profile

andertoons

One of my fave editorial cartoonists, The Christian Science Monitor’s Clay Bennett, has a nice profile here, even if it is filed under “Kidspace.”

I think he’s got a great, somewhat more gentle, take on the normal topics, and his art is refreshingly different from the standard homogenized style; a nice blend of hand drawn and Photoshopped.

I dug the comparison of sketch and final art:

P19B



Honestly, you could almost publish the sketch if you added some text.

Anyway, check it out…

Technorati Tags: , , ,