Friday, May 6, 2011

Free Comic Book Day plus Cartoon Exhibit

Tomorrow is the day that I'm sure many of you wait all year for: Free Comic Book Day! I'll be posted at artstream Gallery (small a in artstream)where they will be featuring my originals and prints as well as that of some other artists.
Here's a link to an article on the event: Seacoast NH , and here are samples of some of  some of my favorite cartoons that will be available there. These are all prints. If you'd like one, check out artstream or contact me!











Thursday, April 28, 2011

Two Movies You Should See in the Movies

My friend Kyle and I recently saw two fantastic movies in the theater. I have been waiting for the movie "Hanna" since I first saw the previews and it is every bit as good as those previews predicted unlike many movies where the trailers are better than the movie. Saoirse Ronan is perfect as a girl raised by her father in the woods and trained to be an assassin. I won't spoil the story for anyone planning to see it, so let me just say that Hanna" is a stunningly beautiful film,and the score by the Chemical Brothers is an ideal match to the action. I hate intrusive over-orchestrated, heavy-handed scores that dominate a lot of movies so it's refreshing when the soundtrack actually compliments a film. Here's the trailer to entice you, because you really want to see this on a big screen:

The other movie we really enjoyed on the big screen was "Source Code" starring Jake Gyllenhaal. This is a gripping futuristic thriller where Jake is a helicopter pilot who suddenly finds himself inhabiting the body of Sean, a commuter on a train that in 8 minutes will be blown to smithereens. He then wakes up in a sort of space capsule where he is part of a scientific experiment that allows him to keep going back to the train for the last 8 minutes of Sean's life to try to find the terrorist. If you can, see this one in the theater, too. This is a gorgeous, classy film and if you love a good exploding train scene you won't be disappointed! Here's the trailer:

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!

It's time to to really celebrate the traditions,like chocolate and stuffed bunnies... and watching the best Easter movie ever, "Where the Boys Are" as my Mom and I used to do and Nico and I do when we can (which will be at Thanksgiving!)...

Drawing Easter Bunny cartoons is a tradition I started in '95 when "Fair Game" was launched by Chronicle Features. Here is my latest. Be sure to "Like" it! 
Flowers are also a sign of easter and SPRING, and believe it or not, we had SNOW yesterday, but today is sunny and the crocuses are actually open, sort of, anyway. Here they are in all their purple-ness.

Happy Easter! Hope your day is filled with fuzzy chicks and pink jellybeans!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happy Easter Bunnies

I love to draw Easter bunnies. My Easter bunny is a kind of door to door sales man. Here are 6 of my favorite Easter bunny cartoons. I hope you enjoy them. I'll post a 7th one tomorrow.



Friday, March 18, 2011

The End of the World: In 5 Days in 5 Ways: Part 5

# 5: "A.I."

Or "Artificial Intelligence" by Steven Spielberg, is a different sort of End of the World movie. The polar ice caps have melted and much of the coastal US is underwater. The humans left have created robots called mechas as servants. One company produces a little boy robot called David (perfectly played by Haley Joel Osment) who is adopted by a couple whose own son is in a state of cryogenic sleep until a cure for his illness is discovered. When David is activated he bonds completely with Monica, his adopted mother, who returns his affection. Happy Ending? Not in this movie. The real son, Martin, wakes up when a cure is found and he turns out to be the equivalent of  Eddie Haskell on "Leave it to Beaver", and is not very nice to poor, sweet David. One thing he does is get their Mom to read Pinocchio to them so that David gets the idea that with the help of a blue fairy, he, too could be a real boy. Not long after there is an accident at the swimming pool where David is condemned for trying to drown Martin, and his Dad insists David be returned to the company to be destroyed.  Monica can't go through with this and instead abandons David in the woods with an animatronic teddy bear. From there on, A.I. becomes an incredible journey as David meets other mechas, including Jude Law, and some dastardly humans on his quest to become a real boy and return to Monica. This is a gorgeous, haunting, heartbreaking work which features a look at the end of the world and a possible new one and not to be missed.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

The End of the World: In 5 days in 5 Ways : Part 4

Part 4: 28 Days Later
There have been many movies dealing with End of the World by Zombie Apocalypse. "Night of the Living Dead" is, of course, a classic, and then all those sequels.  "28 Days Later" is a more contemporary classic so I am using it here as an example of creepy virus infected zombies. Rage infected lab chimps are released by animal activists which then attack them and infect everyone. 28 days after this... a guy, Jim, (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma in the hospital, but ...where is everybody? There's no one to celebrate his recovery from whatever. He wanders out only to be chased by horrible zombies. He meets up with some other survivors. Eventually...they hope to get to a military protection area. Is there anything WORSE than zombies? This is a must see movie. The sequel "28 Weeks Later" is also terrific.


Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The End of the World: In 5 days in 5 Ways Pt. 3

# 3: Cloverfield
 New York has probably been destroyed in more end of the world movies than anyplace. It's always great to see those landmarks buried in sand or underwater. And, because I find it disconcerting to have Hollywood stars surviving (like Will Smith or Charleton Heston) I like the world to end with unknowns (to me, anyway). Like "Day the Earth Caught Fire" I originally saw "Cloverfield" in the movies (and you can catch it on Netflix) and found it riveting. The film starts very realistically with film recovered by the government in a location called Cloverfield... formerly CENTRAL PARK!!! First you see scenes from April 27.Twenty something Rob is filming a girl, Beth, as they plan to go to Coney Island. The film switches to May 22, Rob's brother, Jason, is using Rob's camera to capture testimonials from friends for a going away party for Rob. There Hud, a friend, grabs the camera to film. Interviews, interviews, Beth arrives ...OH, NO, with another guy!  Rob and Beth argue and she leaves with her date. Suddenly, there's an explosion, the Statue of Liberty's head is lying in the street. What to do? Journey through the scary stuff going down with Rob and friends as they make their way through devasted streets and subways in search of Beth trapped at her Dad's apartment uptown. And what IS going on?