2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning

2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning

This past weekend I attended the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning for the first time, but it certainly won’t be my last! (More on that later…)

It was an amazing weekend put together by John & Anne Morse Hambrock. I can’t imagine all the time and work (and cake baking) that went into this. And apparently there’s a lot of pent up demand for something like this because it was enthusiastically, overwhelmingly well-attended!

And it was so nice to see so many old cartoony friends and make some new ones too. Pretty much it was just awesome.

OK, on to the details and plenty of pics:

Gallery Show

First there was the terrific comic & cartoon art exhibition, More Than Funny 2.

2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning

Here’s just a sampling of what was on display:

2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Jules Feiffer
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Virgil Partch
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Todd Clark
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Terri Libenson
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Lincoln Peirce
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Scott Stantis
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Jack Kirby
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Tom Richmond
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Mort Drucker
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Sergio Aragones
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
 Bill Sienkiewicz

Guest Speakers

Then there was a great selection of cartoonists talking at length and answering questions about their art and careers:

2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Rick Stromoski
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Todd Clark
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Denis Kitchen, Paul Buhle & George Hagenauer
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Lincoln Peirce
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Terri Libenson
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Scott Stantis
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Jeff Keane

And I had a front row seat to it all! Mostly because of this:

2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning

There need to be more chairs like that everywhere!

Cartoon Auction

Then there was the auction of original art and more raising money for the Children’s Hospital Clinic and Open Wings school. Again, a sampling:

2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
Had I a place to put this in our home I would have totally gotten this. (I did draw on the back though.)
2014 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning
This and 2 other Andertoons cartoons sold. WOO!

I did end up winning two items: some original Big Nate art from Lincoln Peirce, and a Farley stuffed animal and two signed children’s books from Lynn Johnston. (The kids were thrilled!)

2015

And here’s the best news – not only is it happening again in 2015 (September 17-19), but I’m going to be a guest speaker!

So mark your calendars, and come on up and see me. I can’t wait to go again!

Wanna see more about the weekend? Click here, and here.

San Diego Vacation 2014

The family and I just returned from an amazing week-long vacation in beautiful San Diego so I thought I’d share a few (OK, a lot) of pictures. Enjoy:

LEGOLand

LEGOLand1

Loved these guys, and even the cacti behind them enjoyed the music.

LEGOLand2

Um, wow.

LEGOLand3

The animal sculptures in the Adventurer’s Club were amazing!

LEGOLand4

This polar bear comes right at you! Look out!

LEGOLand5

This wolf in Fairy Tale Brook is determined to get some bacon.

LEGOLand6

Loved him checking his iPhone!

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Part of the Las Vegas section of Miniland, probably our favorite part of the park.

LEGOLand8

A Miniland New Orleans jazz funeral.

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Love the stilt walkers in this parade!

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The architecture stuff in Miniland is pretty amazing. Even my wife was checking out some of the techniques used.

LEGOLand11

This is part of the new Star Wars section of Miniland, although it looks like it could be from the movie.

LEGOLand12

Unbelievable, right?!

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Love the little mini-Luke!

LEGOLand14

Laugh it up, fuzz-brick.

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Aren’t these great?!

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Part of the Enchanted Walk we found after gorging on Granny’s apple fries. (OMG!)

LEGOLand17

Loved the LEGO details on the walls while waiting to get into Pharaoh’s Revenge!

Cabrillo

Cabrillo1

The scenery here was just amazing. I took so many pictures!

Cabrillo2

Lighthouses are an Anderson family vacation fave.

Birch Aquarium

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Not too many pics here (mostly fishtanks inside), but this statue outside was incredible.

Botanic Garden

Garden1

We went here on Father’s Day figuring LEGOLand, the Midway and the zoo would be crowded, and we largely had the place to ourselves.

Garden2

I don’t know what these are, but wow!

Garden3

So pretty!

Garden4

Here’s me relaxing. Ahhh….

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What a great way to spend the morning!

Museum of Making Music

MakingMusic1

This place was such a little gem! We adored everything about it. I mean, you start out with a piano desk! PIANO DESK!

MakingMusic2

The brass player in me was soooo happy.

MakingMusic3

Trombones! WOO!

MakingMusic4

Did you know Steinway made a special piano during the war? Neat huh?

MakingMusic5

OMG, I had that exact Fender Rhodes.

MakingMusic6

For whatever reason, my 8-year-old daughter is really into the banjo, and they actually had a special banjo exhibition going.

San Diego Zoo

Zoo1

And of course we went to the zoo! That’s a red panda being uncooperative.

Zoo2

We went right to the panda section as soon as it opened and spent loads of time there before it got crowded. So nice!

Zoo3

Dust bath!

Zoo4

The capybara is one of my daughter’s favorite animals, and the zoo had tons of them!

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Koala!

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Loved this sun bear just hanging out.

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These were super loud. Every time they made a noise I jumped.

Petco Park

Petco

Another little gem. The 90 minute tour was fascinating! We ate a picnic lunch next to the wiffle ball field outside.

Children’s Pool Beach

ChildrensPool1

This was the last thing we saw and it was an amazing way to end the trip. Look at all the seals! Wild seals! Right there!

ChildrensPool2

This guy seemed to love having his picture taken.

Well, that’s it. That’s not even everything we saw and I took hundreds more pictures, but I hope you enjoyed this little peek into our trip.