Anatomy of an Eimertoon: Shopping

So, sometimes (not often), I'm asked how do I create those funny little drawings that eventually become an Eimertoon?

Coincidentally, as I was digging through my boxes of stuff a couple months ago, I came across a perfect example of this process - a cartoon that I had published a while back complete with all of the images from ideation to completion.

Well, good for you, dear reader, you can now witness the true anatomy of an Eimertoon.

PHASE 1 - IDEATION
Judging from the below sketch, I would say I was in some boring meeting that anyone who works in an office space is forced to sit through during any given day. Maybe it was a meeting about eCommerce or the purchasing demographics of a Target consumer. Or maybe it was a meeting discussing HR health benefits. It really doesn't matter.

But, what matters is, I was bored enough to jot down this quick sketch (approx 3" x 5" in size) that, obviously, I thought was funny enough to remember:

PHASE 2 - CLARIFICATION
While there are a number of ways to get your images from your brain to the computer and out into the real world, I would say my process is half old-school meshed with half new-school - so to speak.

That night, or perhaps months later (I can't remember), I came upon the above sketch and tried to work out the minor details including art direction, placement of characters and, of course, an entertaining punchline or joke. That said, below is a slightly bigger (8 x10) pencil sketch of the scrap of paper you see above:

PHASE 3 - FINE TUNING
Most cartoonists or animators who I know (which is few), or have witnessed on various shows and publications (which is many), have some sort of light table, which is a table that has either a clear piece of glass with a light shooting out of the bottom so you can quickly create reproductions of sketches in a moment's notice.

I have two light tables at my house. One is a desk that my father and I made waaaaay back in the early 90's. Another is a smaller, portable light table (purchased at Pat Catan's).

With the light table on at full blast, I lay another sheet of white paper on top of the above sketch. Then I take an ink pen (I use a fine or superfine Faber-Castell PITT artist pen by the way), I trace over the above image, eliminating the rough pencil sketches and strengthening the overall drawing. Eventually, I get to the below image:

PHASE 4 - SHADING, CROSS-HATCHING
I have four favorite cartoonists: Sergio Aragones (of MAD magazine fame), Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes fame), Peter Bagge (of HATE fame) and Don Martin (also of MAD magazine fame). By hours and hours of trial and error and insane attempts at emulating these four cartoonists, I've created my own unique style. Trust me, your style will eventually just happen as well.

Sergio Aragones, who inked his MAD marginals and very own comic book Groo the Wanderer for a while, has this great freeflow inking style that I truly appreciate. I also love Peter Bagge's use of thick lines to capture the characters in their very own angst-ridden shells. Watterson and Martin, of course have a fun inking styles as well. (Google all of these cartoonists if you don't believe me)

In terms of cross-hatching, I idolize horror illustrator Bernie Wrightson and his work. Truth be told, I can't even emulate his style. If you want to see some of his fantastic pen and ink drawings, check out his website, and also do a Google image search. See what I mean?

Voila! With a tip of the hat to my favorite cartoonists, you have the final inked version prior to scanning:

PHASE 5 - COLORING

Finally, I scan the above document on any flat-bed scanner I can find (work, home, neighbor's house, cellphone), save as a JPEG file at 300 dpi, then open up in Photoshop and begin the coloring process.

Yeah, Photoshop, I know, I know. Illustrator is much better. Also, you can get better line quality with Flash as well. But let me explain. Harking back to my days as an animator/inker for a local animation company in Columbus, we used Photoshop for virtually everything. Truth be told, it's what I know. Eventually, I'm going to pick up some tutorials or take a couple classes to learn the basics of getting those hi-res vector images that can go transfer fantastically to t-shirts, bumper stickers and posters, etc. However, until I can grab ahold of that much-needed tutorial time, I'm sticking with Photoshop.

After about an hour of intense coloring, I finally decide on a punchline. During the punchline writing/ideation phase, I like to picture 10 of my closest friends, and, basically, write to them. They understand my sick sense of humor. So, if they think the joke is funny, then I've done my job. If I get anyone else to laugh, it's simply a bonus.

After completion, I save a final version at 300 DPI then I save another smaller version which I shrink the image size down to about 2" at 300 DPI (the best effective online viewing size in my opinion) then post onto Facebook, Twitter, this blog (and hopefully other places) for the world to see:

So, there you have it. A quick, down and dirty way to get your cartoons from inception to conception in less than a day. The entire inking, drawing, scanning and coloring process takes, on average, a couple hours. For bigger, more-color intense projects you can double the time.

For antoher Anatomy of an Eimertoon T-Shirt Design, click here.

R.I.P Tom Wilson Sr.

I came across this article today where beloved, and sometimes hated, cartoonist Tom Wilson Sr. of Ziggy fame passed away.

I say sometimes hated because I know more people that hated Ziggy than loved him. However, from my point of view, any guy who can figure out a way to make it in the cartoon world, and make money at it, deserves some sort credit.

Despite how crappy the cartoons are perceived in some circles, the man gets my respect.

Wilson, who was a creative director at American Greetings for more than 30 years, first got his break at the age of 38 (which is good to read since I'm 39) when Ziggy first appeared in 1969 in a cartoon collection called When You're not Around .

Two years later and Ziggy was syndicated and, well, the rest is history.

When I worked as a copywriter for the Dispatch Marketing Deptartment in 2003, our VP of marketing had this brilliant idea to bring a local, award-winning cartoonist to speak at an account function hosted by the Columbus Dispatch.

Two or three months prior to this fantastic idea, we had the opportunity of seeing Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist and Mother Goose & Grimm creator Mike Peters speak at a separate Dispatch function.

Peters, a very great speaker and entertainer, took us through a number of his personal political cartoons and added a couple fun quips about each cartoon. He had the entire crowd laughing. I noticed a couple of Dispatch execs (who will not be named at this time) spit up coffee while laughing at Peter's on-stage antics.

So, our VP thought he could capture that lightning in a bottle once again by asking Tom Wilson Sr.'s son, Tom Wilson Jr. to come up and speak. Wilson Jr. took over the reigns of the popular comic strip in 1987 after his father Wilson Sr. couldn't complete the daily demands of writing and drawing Ziggy.

So, we made the phone calls, set up the times and sent out the invitations and three months later, Wilson Jr. was driving up from Cincinnati to give a speech in Columbus.

I first met Wilson at the Dispatch Marketing Building. To be honest, I was expecting an old man with gray hair, thick glasses and a humpback from drawing over his cartoon table for years and years. Of course, I was thinking about the original Tom Wilson Sr. and forgot that we invited Tom Wilson Jr. - the current Ziggy cartoonist over.

Tom Jr. was a tall, thin, fit-looking man. He had all of his hair and, surprisingly, it wasn't even white. We shook hands and proceeded to take a small tour of the facilities.

Then, Wilson Jr., the VP of marketing and myself hopped into a car and headed out to the Wolfe's private lodge where they conduct a number of private Dispatch functions. Think, the Eyes Wide Shut mansion without the hard-core sex and you get an idea of the place.

We talked about cartoons, the ever-declining newspaper industry, his new company Character Matters and - of course - his father.  When we arrived at the Lodge, a number of account reps and other people greeted him warmly at the door. We proceeded to eat a decent lunch and then it was Wilson's time to shine.

As nicely as I can possibly say this, Tom Jr. was no Mike Peters. He stormed out of the gates like Barbaro at the Preakness Stakes...awkward and clumsy. He wheeled out this pretty big overhead projector and drew one picture of Ziggy. That's it just one picture of Ziggy smelling a flower. Then he talked - more like mumbled - a little bit about the philosophy of Ziggy and the cartoon industry.

Put it this way, no one was spitting up any coffee by insane laughter.

However, noticing a lapse in the excitement factor of Wilson Jr. and his non-crazy shenanigans, our fearless VP of Marketing (or was it our fearless Marketing Director?) leaped into action and asked the crowd if there were any questions for Mr. Wilson.

I rose my hand and asked a question about the newspaper industry. Pretty much, it was the same thing we talked about on the car ride over. And he responded eloquently. The crowd perked up and started paying more attention. And some other people started to wave their hands to ask questions. And a couple more. And a couple more.

About 15-20 different people asked Wilson Jr. questions, to which Wilson responded in a lively, congenial and actually pretty funny manner. People actually laughed at his remarks - with the beginning of the presentation a distant speck on the horizon in the rear-view mirror.

At the end of the Q&A, Wilson Jr. received a healthy appluase and proceeded to draw customized Ziggy drawings for everyone willing to stand in line. The event ended on a high note and everyone in attendance was pleasantly surprised.

So, although I didn't meet Tom Wilson Sr. I did get a chance taste of cartoon royalty by meeting his son.

Which, I guess you can either respect me or pity me depending on what you feel about the cartoon.

Eimertoons - Passion of the Groundhog

Last night, I noticed that The Passion of the Christ was on TV. You know, that little Jesus of Nazarath film mixed with a little original Texas Chainsaw Massacre - directed by Mr. Mel Gibson.

Coincidentally, I've been reading a very interesting book by Richard Dawkins called The God Delusion, which is sure to put all Christian, Jewish and Muslim readers into a panic. (Very good book by the way.)

In any event, both of these occurences reminded me of a 10-page cartoon that I drew waaaaaaay back in 2006 - before my daughter was born when I was unemployed and living in Cleveland.

It's the longest of the three long-form cartoons that I have drawn - thus far. I should add that I took great pleasure and pride in creating this. If anything, it showed that I could tell a long-form story in cartoon form, which was a big break through.

Now if I only had time to do some more......

Check it out. And, as always, (click each image to enlarge).

The Interpretation of Time Through The Years

As I get older and older, I'm slowly realizing that time moves pretty fucking fast.

But, on the other side of the coin, why does an hour in a waiting room seem so freaking slow when you're six-years old compared to when you're, say, 36-years old?

Very weird, indeed.

Which sparked my mind about a Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon that I came across in the Columbus' Alternative Rag, The Other Paper, waaaaaaay back in 1997.

For some reason, it's stood the test of time inside my brain. And, thanks to the power of the internets, I finally was able to grab a copy online.

Check it out. I'm still not so sure why this strip in particular is so ingrained in my brain compared to all the other great cartoons out there (i.e. Calvin & Hobbes, Hate, The Far Side, Zits, etc.)

Click here for the cartoon.

A cartoon called FUCK

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Cartooning: The Most Deadliest Career

I always knew you could piss off a lot of people with a well-drawn, witty cartoon.

But who knew, you could get assassinated for it?

Yesterday, I came across this article concerning the arrest of three people who are suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists who drew political cartoons poking fun at the Prophet Muhammad.

Cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, 73, and his wife Gitte, 66, have been living under police protection because of this cartoon:


According to Islamic law, any depiction of the prophet Muhammed, even favorable, is looked down upon in the Muslim community. To some, it's even grounds for execution.

I'm sure Salman Rushdie can definitely sympathize with this guy.

I picture Westergaard and his wife in an old VW with a carload of Muslim extremists firing AK-47's at their vehicle. As Westergaard's wife fires off a bazooka toward the Muslim car, Westergaard is in the back seat (with his flak jacket on) dodging bullets and giddily drawing cartoons of the prophet Muhammed. All the while, attempting to make tomorrow's newspaper deadline.

"Hold 'em off honey," he yells to his wife as she pulls out a grenade, pulls the pin out with her mouth and tosses it out of the car. "I've got some cross-hatching to do!"

Eat your heart out Jason Bourne.

Talk to any political cartoonist, and they'll tell you that they appreciate the hate mail more than the praise mail.

In an odd sort of way, it makes them feel like they're doing their job.

In my opinion, it's even a bonus to raise the ire of an entire community. It's even cooler to get them so pissed off that they won't rest until your severed head is on a platter. That's a political cartoonist's wet dream.

Think about it. All this hubbub over a couple doodles placed on a piece of paper with a pen and ink.

Behold the awesome power of political cartoons!