Tribute: David Gildersleeve

2001 SEQA faculty (clockwise from bottom left): Ted Stearn, Mark Kneese, Paul Hudson, Durwin Talon, David Gildersleeve and Bob Pendarvis.

Cartooning lost another one when David Gildersleeve died on Sunday. In this snapshot from a 48-hour graduate review meeting at the Savannah College of Art & Design's Sequential Art department were my three committee members Mark Kneese, Ted Stearn (who also died earlier this year) and David. He would serve as my faculty advisor and chair again when I returned eight years later in 2011 to tie everything off/clean up my mess (ie research + write the thesis paper).

The tall, ponytailed Texan overall taught about a third of the classes I took over my time down in Georgia. Par for the course he would hand out scripts for assignments that required all sorts of outings to local community resources. Naturally most of them would somehow dovetail with his passion with muscle cars, or boats, trains and animals.This would in turn led to many a museum excursion, and our little band of fellow students would find ourselves following the leader from exploring the tombstones of Bonaventure cemetery (where he is be buried next week), to pitchers of PBR at a bowling alley – all in pursuit of the story.

Being on-site and making live sketches in conjunction with photo-reference is one of David’s hallmark attributes I’ve incorporated into my own classroom exercises. Another carryover is the omnipresent yellow sticky-notes on the back of everything I drew. In fact for the past forty-odd semesters whenever I use examples from my graduate work to show to my own students, every time a page is turned over in the portfolio show & tell, there’s another note to remind me. Same with the narration jotted down on the assignment overlays - still another aspect I admired and attempt to emulate: he paid attention to the details.

Plus he was just so nice – never heard him ever get angry - but could be tough and call you out when and where you could improve. I can hear his voice in the background each time I critique a page of student comic art, and it echoes even on my own work still to this day. For example, there’s not one time that I’ve ever drawn a tire without an immediate reflexive adjustment to account for the vehicle’s weight which has a subtle effect on the completely round perfect circle that I’d spent my whole artistic life drawing wrong until David dinged me on it. And don’t get me started on the pressure to get the details right when it came to automobiles. Also I’m not positive but pretty sure we must of had the only two pickup trucks in the entire city of Savannah, definitely at the college.

Same goes with all the subtle, subconscious cues employed by the artist - tricks of the trade he taught - to guide a viewer’s eye across a page: simple details such as re-orienting the direction of a character so as to ease the eyeballs to the next panel or encourage the turning of a page. I would argue with his compositional suggestions until finally admitting his was a much better way. And after the review Dave was always ready for a pint down the road at the local brewpub where he would share more insight and experience.

When I recently heard he was in hospice, I thought about mailing off a pack of recent stuff to cheer him up, as he made me feel so welcome way back when I was so far from home in a strange new land. Waited too long, and a week later it was too late. Just wanted to write a note here for his family and loved ones to know that his easy laugh and ready smile was big enough to stretch from Georgia all the way up to Alaska, and his lessons will live on.

Peace

Mikeo'

(Cover by Scot Eaton)

"Celebrating 50 years of the Marvel era of comics! In 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby changed the face of comics forever - and Marvel's been doing the same ever since! This amazing overview covers the tumultuous history of the Marvel Universe, from the introduction of the Fantastic Four to FEAR ITSELF - and everything in between! An incredible walk down memory lane for longtime fans or the perfect primer for the uninitiated! Filled with hundreds of images from the superstars of five decades!" - marvel.wikia

A quick hurrah here for a former classmate from SCAD who has another project hitting the shelves as of today: "History of the Marvel Universe #1." Back in the day he professionally produced one of the best drawn strips for The District, SCAD's student newspaper, and his "Queer & Breeder" feature was one of my personal favorites to read. Mike's been a real inspiration to me personally to finish my own MFA degree, as he's one of the comparative few who continued on after graduating - not just in drawing but also teaching as a Professor of Media Arts at the Art Institute of Washington. Add to that a freelance business plus being a head writer and editor at Marvel's "Special Projects Department," and it's easy to see why he personifies the work ethic of a successful sequential artist. This is a case in point on a current topic of concern: that of the relatively long odds on a graduate continuing a career in the creative arts. Given grim anecdotal observations of the ratio of BFA graduates within my own class at UAF who still maintained an active presence in the arts community after completing their degrees, it is a significant challenge to not only produce artwork but to also actually earn a living at it. I recall reading the excellent and highly recommended (in fact the only textbook I ever assigned to art majors that I taught) book "Art & Fear" (2001 Ted Orland and David Bayles) which cites that 98% of art students will no longer be practicing within five years of graduating. I would look around the room of the 14 graduate students in the Sequential Art department (there are now approximately 40) and did the math... wondering who would still be standing drawing when the eraser dust settled. Not surprisingly Mike is proof it's possible.

Hip Hip Hooray

Damn it, now I have to shave my goatee: SCAD - now my official alma mater - made the cut for being one of the top ten "Hipster" schools in the nation. Still, they failed to give any mention to the hippest department - Sequential Art. Then again, being tagged by the Huffington Post pretty much guarantees automatic un-hipness... now the Fluffington Post on the other hand...

"Homesick Southerner"

Done as a pun on the original "Homesick Alaskan" panel upon returning for the first time from Savannah, this one is strictly for folks who've ever migrated from the swamplands of the South to the barren, hostile tundra (basically anywhere north of Virginia). Any additional editorializing about having one's head in a goddamned oven is purely coincidental: not meant to imply it's an experience similar committing suicide in a sauna.

Mark Streeter

Twenty-four hours before leaving Savannah I took a last-minute opportunity to visit with Mark Streeter, who was very gracious in setting aside an hour of his time on what is the busiest day of the week at his job as the staff editorial cartoonist for the Savannah Morning News. Fridays are crunch-time for the funnies, as Mark puts in five days a week, but his panels run six days, necessitating a double-hitter at the end of the week. A member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists  his work is routinely among the featured artists represented in the annual Best Editorial Cartoons collections, and here is an archive of current work displayed at Savannah Now plus more samples on Cagle Post.

"Migrate Home"

This was my farewell piece as the comics editor at The District student newspaper in Savannah: a full page spread for my final issue, and being that this particular one was in full-color, I got the whole last/back page. It also doubled as a farewell to Georgia as I migrated back home to the Hinterland. And so it's equally fitting to put up this piece as a way to say so-long again to the South while heading back North (as of this posting), but this time to Maine, and who knows, ultimately back home to Alaska.

In many ways this was my grand-slam final for demonstrating everything that I had learned while at SCAD in the Sequential Art department. There are some subtle storytelling tricks used to advance the narrative and improve reader flow between the panels such as: some brushwork to vary the line-weight (never having picked up a brush before starting my studies at SCAD); deliberate arrangement of "pointer" elements (horizontal elements that lead the eye down the page); purposeful placement of caption boxes (also helping to guide the eye down & across the page); the composition of each panel and also the overall page design inc. the directions of figures therein (ex: I keep facing left until the end panel) along with use of white space and color (ex: the gradation used in the sky as a background). I also drew from the residual memory of all my favorite places that I'd done many a reference sketch of for other pieces, like Bonaventure Cemetery and the Barrier Island environments, along with signature species of flora and fauna in the form of my newfound friends and adopted/extended family.

This posting concludes the backlog of my old MFA material under the "SCAD" topic heading (though there's a few stray essays still in draft about miscellaneous tangents), and wraps up another Big Adventure. Looking back through the blog archives, a year ago I was safely ensconced in a snug little cabin in the middle of the woods in the middle of Alaska, teaching & 'tooning - then transplanted to an island off the coast of Maine, then down South to Savannah. At this point I won't be holding my breath as to what the future has in store, but safe to say I'm really looking forward to staying put for at least a while, and catch up on some larger, longer projects along with producing the usual nonsense.

"Moon River"

Today's the last day of class! Tomorrow I leave and head north (only as far as Maine).
 Lyrics from the Johnny Mercer 1961 classic "Moon River," and featuring the antics of my newly adopted roster of Southern critters, with a hat-tip to my personal oasis in Savannah, Moon River Brewing Company.

"Please, Please, Please"

Lyrics adopted from the James Brown 1956 song "Please, Please, Please," which, while not  necessarily being a particularly subtle tune, recasting it serves as a simple commentary on the sad state of affairs facing the other denizens of our planet. Hat-tip to John Platt's blog, "Extinction Countdown." And while you're at it, buy some condoms.

There ain't much in the way of progressive activism in music out there championing this issue (notable exception in Megadeth's "Countdown to Extinction"), but one of my back-burner projects is adapting the classic Genesis tune "Squonk" as it definitely resonates with the sentiment:

"In season, out of season
What's the difference when you don't know the reason."

- Banks/Rutherford

SCAD/MAD: Tom Richmond

Richmond's originals on display at the SCAD MAD exhibition

One last followup post on the roster of events surrounding the SCAD MAD weekend: as a graduate student in the Sequential Art department I had the opportunity to volunteer as an assistant to some of the various gigs, and I doubled up for one creator in particular. While Tom Richmond is a well-known illustrator for MAD magazine, his career and artwork spans across an incredible range of clients and publications. The chance to listen and learn firsthand from one of the top talents in the field was something not to missed, and attendees were rewarded with a personal and candid sharing of his experience, along with gaining insight on both his professional process and how the industry works. From Richmond's website you can check out his informative blog, which I've used as a teaching resource in my own comics classes, and now he also has self-published a book on caricaturing, which will be a must-read for anyone interested in the art of caricature, or for that matter, just drawing.

Richmond put in several appearances during the conference, including a portfolio review session, a workshop, and a public demo which I'll cover in detail below the fold.

"Sisyphus"

A peculiar ritual I observed being re-enacted over my time spent in Savannah was the labors of workers who would spend their days patrolling the sidewalks armed with jet-pack leaf blowers. It reminded me of Albert Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus," which underscored some of the same quest for meaning and existential crisis that was on my personal peripheral awareness at the time. Not to mention the proverbial Sisyphean task of graduate school.
(more below the fold)

NCS Notes

Having a special guest attendance opportunity at the annual Southeast Regional chapter meeting for the National Cartoonists Society was insightful and informative. SCAD Sequential Art department chair Anthony Fisher gave a brief presentation on the program (pictured above), one goal of which is to be the "Harvard of comics." There's even a couple Fulbright students in the graduate program now, but thankfully as of yet there's still no cartoonist frats.

Approval-Seeking Behavior

Simply put, the best sweetener for this morning's cuppa coffee. 

So, don’t ever let anybody tell you that you can’t fix your screw-ups, or that your ever too old or it’s too late to learn something new, try something different, take chances, or even change the past. From the perspective of a habitual self-saboteur, even if it seems it’s always been three steps forward/two steps back, well, that’s still making progress.

Now if there were only a cartoon to go along with that... 

Dedication & Acknowledgements:

"This crowning achievement is largely due to the sustained and ongoing efforts of Diane Rose Hunt, whose selfless partnership has supported my work and been a creative touchstone over the many years. I dedicate this paper to her with all my love and respect."

"Thanks are in order to Professors Mark Kneece and MichaelJantze for serving on my thesis committee, and especially to my committee chair Professor David Gildersleeve, for his longstanding patience and advice while shepherding my studies in the graduate program of Sequential Art at the Savannah College of Art and Design"

"Also a special note of gratitude for Dan Piraro, Harry Bliss and Mike Lynch for sharing their experience and perspective from within the industry, and Matt Toole for his generous hospitality in Savannah."

"The SEQA Department"

A mysteriously creepy vignette using reference sketches of the Sequential Arts building, and playing around with the evocative shadows cast from live oaks plus caricaturing a few of the folks in the department. Perhaps one of the best experiences I had taking classes at SCAD was the simple act of being able to put up a cartoon that I had drawn on the critique wall and have it be taken seriously. For someone who had previously failed many an art class for drawing cartoons, which according to the art teacher "didn't count," this was tremendously empowering and liberating.

Ultimately I incorporated much of what I learned at this institution through developing my own Cartoon & Comic Art course which I taught at the University of Alaska for six years: a condensed sequence of topics and exercises that sought to encapsulate my two year experience into one intense six-week studio class. And in so doing, come full-circle, albeit a shaky hand-drawn one. Now here I am again, starting anew by finally finishing...

Portfolio Books

"Some assembly required"

Ostensibly as a springboard into learning & using the Adobe InDesign program, we were tasked in class with creating a little mini- portfolio. This included assembling files from preexisting projects or from our archives (which by now graduate students have assumably amassed a decent backlog) and designing a small sampler of of our work as a spiffy hard-cover book. There is an irony in that I've done more "arts & crafts" type projects in a "Digital Issues" class than most other recent art studios.

The manufacture of hand-made art objects will never lose its appeal, and it's a nice, personal touch to give someone such a compilation. Coincidentally enough, this project dovetailed quite nicely with the MAD/SCAD events, so my compilation was pretty much custom-made for a target audience (in this case an art director). The content was a tad bit on the juvenile dumb gag end, so in other words, just perfect for MAD.

"Backyard Professional"

"Cassidy & Joni"

Once again, my principal instructor in the department had taken his graduate class out on a field-sketch trip so as to gather reference material for a particular assignment/script. This time we explored the Roundhouse Railroad Museum in Savannah, GA, a complex of historical structures which house a unique collection of antique engines and locomotives. Also included was a bonus reference to the teacher's penchant for muscle-cars.

SCAD MAD MAD MAD: More Pics

Sergio Aragonés: The World's Fastest Cartoonist

Here's a quick handful of some more images from the National Cartoonists Society/SCAD workshop that happened today. The event followed an NCS annual South Eastern Regional meeting, which a handful of Sequential Art Department students and faculty were allowed to attend as special guests.

"Nuggets" - Color Sunday (3 of 3)

SCAD MAD MAD MAD: Exhibition

The Usual Gang of Idiots: Paul Coker Jr., Tom Richmond, Jack Davis, 

Sergio Aragones, Sam Viviano, Nick Meglin (L>R)

Way too much going on at the moment to sort through and transcribe my notes of recent events, but here's a few snapshots of the reception for the MAD artists at Poetter Hall. Original artwork was on display, along with the Spy vs Spy student contest submissions ("iSpy: Boobie Trap" got in). What an amazing experience to get the chance at meeting in person your cartoon childhood cartooning heroes and some of the giants in the field. More workshops still to come!

"Nuggets" - Color Sunday (2 of 3)

"Nuggets" - Color Sunday (1 of 3)

Here's another sample set of strips for the "Nuggets" feature: part of a month's worth of material which ideally should have a few bonus colored works included.