Thoughts On Throwback Thursdays

Every so often over in Facebook land I participate in the "Throwback Thursday" thing, but instead of posting nostalgic photos I scan + clean up old cartoons from the Freeze-Frame era.
More below the fold...

Dancing Bears!

Hat-tip to Nicki!

A classic from daze of yore: my Alaskanized version of the Grateful Dead's "Dancing Bear" icon done twenty years ago in 1994 (here's a link to some more serious collector's info on the characters):

Dancing bears: A series of stylized marching bears was drawn by Bob Thomas as part of the back cover for the album History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice). Thomas reported that he based the bears on a lead sort from an unknown font. The bear is a reference to Owsley "Bear" Stanley, who recorded and produced the album. - from Wikipedia

A dear old friend long since migrated to the Lower 48 recently emailed a scan of this to me... the copy's been stuck up on a wall somewhere even after all her travels, an that just made my whole day.

"Coal for Christmas"

A classic from the archives: even after all these years it's still one of my favorites. Originally drawn in 1998 or thereabouts - the Freeze•Frame tag was added on afterwards - the moiré pattern is a giveaway that this panel hearkens back to the days of Zip-A-Tone used for halftones.

A bittersweet reminder to remember how much we really have, and how much need there is for other folks.

"Xmas 1997"

Fifteen years ago I herded cats and corralled the other cartoonists in Alaska to do a group shot of sorts for all our fans. I asked each of the creators (Robin Heller of "Mukluk & Honisukle," Peter Dunlap-Shohl of "Muskeg Heights" and Chad Carpenter of "Tundra") to draw a caricature of themselves and one of their bears. After everybody mailed me their drawing I rescaled them and pasted them up into a new "original" laser copy, which was in turn mailed to the newspapers. After looking back on all that manual, old-school prepwork it's pretty amazing to think how far the technology has evolved, to say nothing how our respective sense of humor skills have matured in the meantime.
One thing that hasn't changed would still be our wishes for you to have a safe and happy holidays!

"Inferno: The Ninth Circle of Hell"

 
Originally drawn in '06, this is an appropriate panel for yet another week of subzero (not unlike my age, the low forties has been taking a toll). Literary pretensions aside, and contrary to conventional wisdom, a particularly and perversely applicable interpretation of the lowest and final level of Hell in Dante's Inferno is instead a region of ice:

Satan is waist deep in ice, weeping tears from his six eyes, and beating his six wings as if trying to escape, although the icy wind that emanates only further ensures his imprisonment (as well as that of the others in the ring).

A "Divine Comedy" indeed. Happy Solstice everyone.

Gustave Dore's 1868 illustration

"Spring Breakup"

Raining again this morning, and rummaging through the archives for yet another show & tell when this old nugget was dug up from the mulch-pile. Man, talk about airing your dirty, old cartoon laundry. But then again, as I've said many a time, I have no sense of shame, or much pride, apparently. The top panel is, miracle of miracles, actually dated (in more ways than one): 1986 - that would be the year after my assuming residency in Alaska. This was one of a set of cartoons that ran in a now-defunct magazine by the name of "Alaska Today," a product of the Journalism department majors at UAF.

Virility: "Beat of a Different Drummer"

Interesting occurrence the other day: for some random, unknown reason this particular cartoons went viral on Facebook. Based on the 50+ shares it "e-treed" virtually all over the state of Alaska, many to folks living in some villages I've never even heard of, which is very cool. Except it was one of the older panels that I haven't yet gotten around to re-captioning with a current website address bug up in the header. Even this version posted above is off - the original copyright text line was from 2005, and this one was from a second-run in the Anchorage Press. Let that be a lesson in marketing, and one of the reasons it's pretty much a reflex for me these days to leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs on everything that gets posted. It was still pretty awesome to watch: so far well over 10,990 people read it (more than half the total circulation of my host newspaper). Another, more recent panel ("Baby, It's Cold Outside") posted on Facebook has so far been shared to over 5k folks.

 
I've found it better to have separate images posted in albums on Facebook to make the sharing of images easier, as opposed to merely reposting a link from the blog on my wall. Even so, just (re)posting a link alone will have a noticeable impact on driving traffic to the site, judiciously intermittent enough so that it doesn't over-saturate. Investing a little effort and time (initial outlay + in maintenance "massages") to establish a viable internet presence is as crucial a skill for contemporary artists as it is/was making the rounds of galleries at openings. That said I just this morning emailed and printed out some files of new work for another batch of sampler cartoon panels to hand out to everyone and anyone I come across. That'd be the "old-fashioned," real-world, physical equivalent to posting work on-line... as in "here, check this out."

 
Even while I've gotten work from both Facebook and Picasa/Blogspot galleries, the fact is at the core of creating visual art is an amalgamation of professionalism, profitability and pleasure of having it be seen: so for a cartoonist it's sharing a laugh amongst friends, family and folks... whatever, whenever and wherever you can. The "series of tubes" is good for that, and it works both ways, as I've been able to stay abreast of many new efforts by friends in the field and other artists.

 

"Creepy Face"

Somehow Alaska Airlines escapes any criticism of promoting yet another tired stereotype of the "noble savage" that one often sees being used for logos by sport teams. Posted below is what appears to be a subtle facelift that tweaked it into a more benign, weathered expression - it could be just the angle of the tailflap but for the corresponding nip-and-tuck to the right side of the mouth. 

Almost as interesting as the observation pointed out to me by a friend many years ago about another iconic Alaskan image: the official centennial license plate issued by the state. What's ironic is that what it actually shows is a long line of folks technically leaving Alaska for better employment opportunities.

"Headless"

Kind of an homage to Gahan Wilson's weirdness that infected me after re-reading his monumental and influential work...

"The Humble Beaver"

Another classic panel that by popular demand now adorns both tshirts & mugs on the Printfection store.

"The Homesick Alaskan"

Probably one of the top three signature panels I ever got known for, and one of the first cartoons to appear in print (1986 and again in 1988) after moving to the Interior. If it's one thing about Alaska, it seems that almost everybody was originally from somewhere else: many of the residents are either transient or transplants having roots from far away: so folks are always coming or going, so lots of people can relate.  And local or not, once you leave you'll always want to go back - something I can certainly understand.
Can't believe I was able to actually dig out the original from storage, and that it was still in fairly decent shape - enough to get a high-quality scan off of, and use as the flagship kickoff design at the Printfection store.

Moose Gooser

"Gangsta Ducks"

The backstory to this particular panel was a summer spent essentially homeless after getting evicted from a cabin by the new owners (such is my lot in the peasant class). Crashing on a couch gave rise to a rather abridged approach to getting the cartoons done: I briefly adopted a series of raw scans directly off the doodles as they were done in ballpoint pen from my sketchbook. Aside from basic cleanup and rudimentary shading they were essentially published as is. It was an interesting lesson in how all the little laborious details obsessed about in the physical creation of a cartoon are completely secondary to the joke. In other words, nobody really cares. But astute readers may notice the occasional "Sketchbook" piece still popping up in print today: I continue to use and firmly endorse the free black-ink ballpoint pens available at Gold Hill Liquor & Gas on the Parks Highway in-between Fairbanks and Ester.
Speaking of which, the Nuggets feature didn't run the last coupla weeks in the Fairbanks paper due to falling through the cracks after the illness of key personnel: thanks to the regular readers of both the print version and the on-line one who emailed me in total panic curiosity. Of course, flooding the editor's virtual desk with irate comments will probably get me fired, even after the big, fat raise from being an award-winning cartoonist and all. And their website Nuggets section is hopelessly outta synch with reality (not like that's a bad thing - works for me) so I have no idea which panel runs when up there anymore - if anybody gets the chance and catches the Sunday edition, shoot me an email on what runs and I'll owe ya something funny.

"Burritos"

"Katsam Sadie's" Unknown Comics

In 1997, I got a few pages (plus a free ad) in the inaugural issue of a short-lived magazine devoted to "undiscovered talent." Published by Comic Relief, I don't think it survived past this one opening shot, but like a lot of initial ventures I found it good experience to just keep trying, keep putting stuff out there in hopes of "making it." And in the meantime, just keep putting one big-foot in front of the other, building up a base until none of these ephemeral long-shots really matter anymore. And maybe then you can just do what you do, or at the very be better able to at least pick & choose which projects will occupy your time and energy, successful or not. One thing that I hope will stay clear after all these recent ancient-history posts is just how long, and how much it takes to see things through. Even if there's never a light at the end of the tunnel, maybe it's the tunnel-vision that's important.

Heartland: A Decade of Doodles

Heartland: "The Big Thrill"

Alaska Today magazine

In 1987, before the weekly "Freeze-Frame" panel would debut in the newspaper, my first ever appearance in print (up in Alaska) was for the final issue of the semesterly publication "Alaska Today." It was produced as a sort of boots mukluks-on-the-ground training for the UAF Journalism department, with some true luminaries in the ranks, many of whom would continue to maintain a presence in publishing. I remember being immensely full of pride over my official designation as "cartoonist" in the table of contents. Trivia - Associate Editor Todd Hoener would go on to found the international magazine "Mushing" after graduating, where many of my dog-racing related panels would reincarnate as "Iditatoons." These particular panels posted here would also undergo resurrection under the "Freeze-Frame" moniker. Not to mention concurrent recycling onto tshirts, cards and finally published in the first collection of cartoons.So milking maximizing your return on any given creation is always good, nomatter the medium. No better example than "The Homesick Alaskan" - I've probably gotten more mileage out of that one cartoon than anything I've ever drawn to date.

*snap*

Okay, whoopie: blogging about the damn weather... when even little things like the pop-up window on the computer telling me "Please wait: scanner is warming up" is almost funny in a quiet, despairing kind of way. And the irony is still warm after canceling my class only a few weeks back because it was around eighty degrees warmer. The only thing stupider now than saying "cold enough for ya?" is cracking dumb jokes about missing the recent rain Icepocalypse. 

Have I mentioned yet how much I'm gonna miss my outhouse? Remind me later. 

Actually looking forward to an elderly Godzilla versus Mothra scenario when this poseur Alaskan sourdough gets to bitch & moan to some crusty old-timer in Maine about what a "real" winter is like. Yeah, grrrr... at least up until the first coastal gale cuts right through my Carhartts and I whine like a puppy tied up out in the yard. *Note: I just Googled how to spell "Carhartt" before realizing I'm wearing not only a Carhartt jacket but also a Carhartt winter cap (yes, while sitting at the computer with my slippers Sorels on too).

One of the more crucial details in moving (along with realizing I had no can opener while making dinner last night) is packing away the faithful outside thermometer. Even if ignorance is bliss, there's still the on-line equivalent of weather-geek porn which tells me it's time to take a short drive up to the top of neighboring Ester Dome: the temperature difference in elevation (approx. 1,800 feet) due to inversion is over thirty degrees. This really is a nice little break, believe it or not, even if the local residents don't get my pathetic and weird refugee camp thing. Remember folks, it's all just a matter of perspective...

ANWR @ 50

In memory of Gordon Haber

Another one from the archives: editorial panel from 1992 dealing with the aerial killing of wolves. Can't think of a more appropriate hat-tip to the big anniversary. Originally inspired by the activist anthem "If I Had a Rocket Launcher."  

“I want to raise every voice -- at least I've got to try.
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.”
– Bruce Cockburn