Andertoons Cartoon Blog

"Your Dependable Hollywood Quote Whore"

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: animation, cartoons, humor, movies

Here's the Deal...

Saw this over at Boing Boing and I'd like to offer this up:

First person to get an Andertoons inspired tattoo (or, heck, even a pretty decent fake Photoshop one) and sends me a picture gets a free Andertoons Hot Sauce gift set! (See here for sauce details...)

GO!

Technorati Tags: andertoons

Dedini Line Art

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:

Here's another:

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":

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

I gotta wonder what the deal is...

Technorati Tags: cartoonists, cartoons

Clay Bennett Profile

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:

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

Anyway, check it out...

Technorati Tags: cartooning, cartoonists, cartoons, editorial cartoons

My Studio 90 Days Later

About three months ago I blogged about my new office in the Anderson compound.

Some other cartoonists both here at our favorite cartoon blog, and on various cartoon bulletin boards, admired the new digs, but suggested that my cleanliness wouldn't last. Some even suggested that without some messiness they had no idea how I got anything done.

So, here we are 90 days later, and I decided to just take a few pics without doing any cleaning, straightening, etc... to see how things were going:

Pretty standard for my work area. I made my top drawer on the table under the TV my pen/marker drawer so I can clean up with just a swipe of my hand. I tried to take a good picture of the drawing board's surface to show some of the marks from marker bleedthrough, but to no avail. (BTW, that's some "Battlestar Galactica" playing...)

Some clutter, especially in the ol' "In" basket on the far right, but pretty clean for the most part. There's some new additions to the top shelf: a Duplo fire helicopter and some Play-Doh for my son for when we bring the baby home. Yesterday there were some boxes with old printer cartridges hanging around, but those found their way to a UPS box this morning.

Some more additions to the other shelves on the other side of the room. We sorta ran out of shelves in the family room. Also, I just got the new iPod Hi-Fi, so my old speakers are waiting to be ebayed. Otherwise, except for the addition of a dozen or so new books, this area is still relatively organized too.

Some boxes have taken up residence over by the shredder.

The closet's a tad messier, but I can just close the door.

So, all in all, not bad! A far cry from some of the dank predictions most of the more slovenly in my profession predicted.

See some cleanliness cartoons at Andertoons...

Technorati Tags: andertoons, cartooning, cartoonists, office, studio

Bonnie 2 - This Time it's Postnatal!

Just another pic from a proud poppa...

Technorati Tags: andertoons

Please Welcome Bonnie Elizabeth Anderson

6 lbs 11 oz, 19-1/2" of bouncing baby girl as of 10:48 this morning!

See ya in a few days...

Technorati Tags: andertoons

Blog Stuff

You might have noticed some changes on the sidebars as of late. (OK you probably didn't but a blogger can dream, can't he?)

In addition to some housekeeping (goodbye drunken cruise ship photos) I've added feeds from some of my favorite cartoon blogs over on the left side. Instead of just links to their pages, you can actually see what their five most recent blogs are about and go right to those entries.

Check 'em out if you get a chance!

See some blogging cartoons at Andertoons...

Technorati Tags: andertoons, blogs, cartooning, cartoonists

The Ever Continuing Mailbox

In an effort to keep these more readable, from now on I'm just going to be spotlighting one email per entry. But enough meta, let's get down to some mail!

Do you have an affiliate program? How many orders do you fill each month? What is the most popular subject area? What trends or cycles present themselves through the year? How large is your in-house staff?

That's the entire email. No "Hi there!" No "I have a few questions if you don't mind..." Just, gimme gimme gimme. And some rather private info to boot.

But, since I'm such a super duper guy, here's your answers:

No. None of your business. I'm not telling you. Sod off. My wife, kids, two cats, a dog and numerous dust bunnies.

See some mail cartoons at Andertoons...

Technorati Tags: andertoons, mailbox

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes!

Part of being a cartoonist is drawing holiday cartoons during the Spring and/or Summer months.

Generally magazines, greeting cards and such are working at least 6 months ahead if not more, so I get to ponder jokes about Santa Claus while I'm getting the grill ready to go for the season.

It's weird, but you get used to it.

Recently I've been selling more and more greeting cards, and unlike most of my gag markets, they require color. I normally re-ink the cartoon from scratch rather than trying to remove my gray shading in Photoshop. I find it comes out a lot cleaner.

Anyway, a card company bought some of my older Thanksgiving stuff and I ran into sort of a weird little problem. Here's the original art as I submitted it:

(You can go here for the gag...)

This one is from much earlier in my cartooning career before my current style had set in.

Note the lack of noses on some characters, and the awkward nose experimentation on the others. The whole thing is kinda on a goofy angle too. And why I chose to cut the door on the left at that conspicuous angle I don't quite know.

Anyway, here's the problem: The greeting card company liked the cartoon and bought it, but I don't draw that way anymore. Do I redraw it in my current style, or redo what I'd done before, even though I'm not happy with the art?

In the end I decided to keep the same angles and basic composition, but updated the characters and line to my current style. Here's the line art:

And here it is in color:

Not bad in the end, but it does make you rethink sending out older art. Sure it's salable, but do I want the hassle?

I know some cartoonists go back and redo older cartoons in their current styles, but, honestly, once I'm done with a cartoon I don't even like revisiting it to color it for a paying client.

Anyway, here's hoping they like the final product...

See some thanksgiving cartoons at Andertoons...

Technorati Tags: andertoons, cartoons