The Story in an Image

If you know me at all, you probably know me as either a cartoonist or as an illustrator... usually not both.  You either have an image in your mind of beautifully rendered ships on magazine covers, or of goofy looking people sharing those everyday moments of life that we all can chuckle at.  To me it's all the same... stories told with pictures.

With a cartoon, the pictures and words work together, as partners, to tell a story and to conjure up some emotion: usually a laugh.  With an illustration, the image tells the story alone, and I must use visual clues, symbols, and carefully chosen props to convey what I want to say.  Lighting and weather play a big part in this, since a lot of my illustration takes place outside, usually on large bodies of water.

I'm trying to reconcile the two worlds, or at least bring them closer together.  They need to be separate, though, and since both are important to me, I guess I'm trying to bridge the two so that you, my audience, can see and enjoy both sides with me.

I'm not sure where I'm going yet, so your comments, likes, shares, and commissions are important to me.  I must do what brings me income, but I work within that framework, so that I'm happy with the work.  I appreciate the challenges that come from clients, and I do love telling stories, and I do love sharing my work.

So with that in mind, I'll be sharing some online galleries with you, and adding some new artwork as time permits.  I've got a new line of comic art coming out, that takes a cartoon one step further, telling the story not with words but with more elaborate illustrations, with more time and detail put into them.  Of course, there will be more stories to come, if things go well, and hopefully much more of my fine illustration.

And some other stuff, of course... photos, and art outside the other two realms.  And I have a great idea for this year's Holiday card, which I hope to find time to illustrate.

Meanwhile, I'll be at the Ohio Comic Con in Columbus this Friday through Saturday, with the new comic book, a new art print, and some special workshops for kids on Sunday.  So come by and say Hi and let me know what you think, huh?

Cheers,    JOHN :0)

Krazy & Ignatz: He Nods in Quiescent Siesta. A Review

Image from the Fantagraphics website. See more at their site.

Krazy & Ignatz, 1943 to 1944: He Nods in Quiescent Siesta, is the final book in the complete Krazy Kat reprint series from Fantagraphics. From the image above, you can get a hint at the beauty to be found in George Herriman's masterpiece, the eclecticly delightful Krazy Kat. If you are a fan, then this book is a must have, being the last book, and collecting the final two years of the strip.
Along with the strips is what makes each of these books special... extra biographical information about Herriman's life, personal photos, and a reference page explaining some of the words, phrases, and objects that made sense in the early 1900's, but are now forgotten by us here in the future. These historical references are not only useful in explaining the strips, but are pure candy to a history buff like myself. This book contains some fascinating biographical information that explains further some of the strips within.


These strips are all mostly in Herriman's bold colors. His work really speaks to me, and I can get lost staring into his drawings, especially the huge landscapes he created to sit under dark night skies. True beauty that I cannot explain... his pen marks, random squiggles that are actually Native American designs, pure colors in perfect balance, the living landscape itself... I can go on, but you have to see it for yourself. Any student of art is going to learn something from studying Herriman's Krazy Kat.

The only fault I have is in the introduction by Bill Blackbeard. he's a scholar, and we should give him much thanks in his work preserving these strips, but the introduction is really a bit much. Herriman suffered in his personal life, and supposedly had crippling headaches. His work was everything to him, and he continued to work until the end, and his final strips seem very prophetic. I've seen the final strips before, and the last Sunday does show what appears to be Krazy Kat drowning, and Offisa Pup carrying her body away from the water. It's not hard to read into that, and Mr. Blackbeard does just that, going a little overboard in interpreting these final strips. Sure, it makes a dramatic intro, but as a scholar, I believe he loses some objectivity here, and he actually bends the interpretation a bit in his analysis of the strips.

Still, that's my only fault with the book... two little paragraphs that you can easily skip over. The rest of the book is a grand finale to a terrific series. I own most, if not all, of the Krazy Kat books, and this is one of the best on many levels. Many of the final strips I have not seen before, and as Mr.Blackbeard points out in his intro, you can see Herriman's art being to degenerate. The characters become simpler in design, and even their words become simpler. Herriman, the master draftsman with a pen line to kill for, was beginning to lose his art. A tragic ending to a brilliant, and at times controversial, career.

Don't know about that career? Well, I recommend Krazy Kat: the Comic Art of George Herriman. It's my favorite biography ever, full of wonderful art, a look at the early 20th century, and the life of my favorite Cartoonist. The Fantagraphic books then add to this book with the complete strips, and extra biographical notes, and photos and so much more.

I became a Cartoonist because of one image I saw by George Herriman. I learned by studying the rest of them. Any art student can do well by studying this Master. Krazy & Ignatz, 1943 to 1944: He Nods in Quiescent Siesta, is a must have in this regard.

Cheers, JOHN :0)


You can see a very Herrimanesque landscape in this Knight and Day strip of mine... one of many tributes of mine to his art.