Mickey Mouse and the Foreign Legion

I have a copy of a wonderful collection of out-of-print Mickey Mouse comics from the 1930s and 40s.

The strips are all signed by Walt Disney, but were in fact drawn by Floyd Gottfredson, a young Disney animator who inherited the newspaper strip from Walt after the first few strips and continued to draw Mickey's newspaper adventures into the 1960s.

Mickey Mouse was a favourite comic strip of Franklin D. Roosevelt among other important figures of the mid-20th Century. (Benito Mussolini, for instance, reportedly forbid the publication of all American comic strips in Italy except for Mickey Mouse. Hitler, on the other hand, hated him.)

I'll be posting the rest of this story and others from the collection in the future as time permits.

Sidney Sime

I wanted to post a few images by one of my favourite lesser-known illustrators.

Sidney H. Sime was born in 1867 in Manchester, England. A contemporary of Arthur Rackham and Maxfield Parrish, his work has so far not enjoyed the renewed popularity of those artists.

In his day, Sime was a frequent collaborator with the poet Lord Dunsany, illustrating many of his fantasies. The influence of his imagery has been noted by writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Ray Bradbury and echoes of his style can be seen in the work of artists like Dr. Seuss and Brian Froud.

Sime's use of Lampblack, a kind of charcoal applied with a brush and sponge, allowed him to produce black-and-white images of astounding delicacy. His mastery of this style is unequaled by any artist I have ever seen.

The images seen here are from the book Sidney H. Sime: Master of Fantasy by Paul W. Skeeters.

Sailing ships

Here are a few sketches for to practice drawing ships.

H.P. Lovecraft

These are a few Illustrations from the Cthulhu mythos. H.P. Lovecraft has quickly become one of my favourite guilty pleasures. The first picture is from the novel At the Mountains of Madness. The second is Ol' Squidface himself, Great Cthulhu. And the third is a Mi-go from The Whisperer in Darkness.

Moving on.

August 25th was my last day of work at AKA Cartoon, home of Ed, Edd, n' Eddy. I had been there for nearly 2 and a half years, and I'm extremely proud to have worked on and been a part of that show.

The time I spent there has left it's mark on me personally and on my art, making me a far better and more dedicated artist than ever before. Learning from great cartoonists like Scott Underwood, Big Jim Miller, James 'Wooty' Wooton, Joel Dickie, and of course Danny Antonucci was a privelege for which I am extremely grateful.

Those years were probably the toughest of my working life, but they were also the most inspiring. Danny and his crew restored my faith in what dedicated artists can do, even when the whole animation industry seems to want to destroy independent spirit and crush creativity.
Leaving was a very difficult decision to make.

On my last day I had a beer with Danny. He encouraged me to maintain my integrity, and pursue my own goals in the industry, rather than just become another wrist for hire. I hope I can live up to that.

Vive le Resistance, guys. I may not be an AKA man anymore but I fully intend to keep giving 'em hell.

Check out this blog!!

http://artbrute6.blogspot.com/ This is my old Calgary pal Tom Pajak's media blog. It's mostly film and TV reviews in Tom's inimitable style. He's a really funny guy, as well as being very clever and insightful. I'd like to take the credit for talking him into starting the blog, but heck, if he didn't publish online, I'm sure he'd end up publishing somewhere else. Enjoy...

More Signatures and Sketches

Here are a few more of my favourites from the Con...

Back from San Diego

Well, ComicCon wrapped up a week ago, so I've had a little time to process the whole experience. This was my first year at the Con, and it couldn't have been better. It was wonderful to finally have the chance to absorb some of the atmosphere of the pop-art world which I've been priveleged to be a part of for the last five years. I met so many of the artists I admire and hope to emulate. Sergio Aragones, Kyle Baker, Stan Sakai, Los Bros. Hernandez, Tony Millionaire, Dan Clowes, Mike Mignola, to name a few. My sketchbook was signed by 35 different artists in total, many of whom were kind enough to include a small sketch. I had a nice conversation with Brian Froud about book hunting. William Stout sketched a stegosaurus for my son, Daniel. I chatted with Craig McCracken and his wife Lauren Faust about a lost episode of the Powerpuff Girls that was never aired in the US (it's a Rock Opera!!) All in all it was a thoroughly exhillerating experience. I'm completely invigorated and I can't wait to go back next year.