Salty 'Ham Slam 6 - On Reflection

Our sixth official powwow was smashing. We were back at the J this time. Tim Rocks , Kirk Creel, Frank Cummings, Tim Spinosi, Richard Haigler, and Ed Abernathy were there. And me, Chris Garrison. Plus several newcomers, which was awesome: Beverly Toole, Lorenzo Kirkpatrick (and wife Juline), and the not-yet-signed-up-but-hopefully-soon-to-join Walter Simon. Oh, and non-member Paul Godbey invited himself, yet again.

I didn't have any important points of order to discuss this time, so I let Spinosi hold court for most of the afternoon. He entertained us all with his musings on copyright loopholes, elephant poaching, and much, much more.

When Frank Cummings met Lorenzo Kirkpatrick's wife, Juline, he broke into Dolly Parton's classic tune Jolene (except he replaced Jolene with Juline, of course). He has quite a range, and he sang all three verses. It was really quite impressive. Here he is belting it out:


And here's everyone enjoying his rendition:

That's Juline on the left, Tim Spinosi at the end of the table, Walter Simon in the middle, and Richard Haigler in the foreground. On the upper right, you can see Frank's twin, Hugo, hanging his head in embarrassment.

Kirk Creel

Lorenzo Kirkpatrick

Tim Rocks

And an actual girl-cartoonist showed up this time, if you can believe it. That's Beverly Toole on the left.

Lovable grouch Ed Abernathy (somehow I didn't get a good picture of him) told us all how much he hates Conan O'Brien. And Jay Leno. Also Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and Jimmy Fallon. He's okay with Carson, but I failed to ask about Jack Paar and Steve Allen.

Ed also let us know about the Bilderbergs' plan to wipe out most of mankind, using the H1N1 vaccine. Hey, who can say it isn't so? But it turns out that Richard Haigler is related to the Rockefellers, so he and Ed got into a fistfight over it. Haw! You REALLY should have been there!

When it got to be close to 5 o'clock, most folks went on their way. Those remaining discussed how the fine arts world seems to think of cartooning as non-art. Even though cartoonists are much more capable of getting an idea or emotion across to a wide audience, in a clear way, that the audience can understand and enjoy. And isn't that what art is really FOR?! Whereas, in the fine arts world, it's almost like mass appeal is frowned upon. Coincidentally, I'd just seen a movie online of Doug TenNapel, giving a great lecture in which he discusses just that (among lots of other things). So if you want to see this very good, 52-minute talk I mentioned, that he gave to a classroom full of aspiring animators, go HERE.

Anyway, Walter Simon drew this guy in my sketchbook. I wonder if he's saying, "Don't stick your neck out.":

Kirk Creel drew this tree (check out the cool roots) while noodling around with my favorite brush pen:

Here's a comic jam:


We kinda ran out of time before the story could get going on that one. But it's a pretty cool start, don't you think? So maybe we can pick up on page 2 next time.

Yu-Jen: Samurai Flea! credits: panel 1 by Chris Garrison; panel 2 by Tim Rocks; panel 3 by Frank Cummings; panel 4 by Beverly Toole; panel 5 by Walter Simon; panel 6 by Lorenzo Kirkpatrick.

A now a one-and-a-half pager:


The Wishing Birdie credits: panel 1 by Chris Garrison; panel 2 by Beverly Toole; panel 3 by Tim Rocks; panels 4 & 5 by Walter Simon; panels 6, 7, & 8 by Richard Haigler; panels 9, 10, & 11 by Chris Garrison.

I drew this little bunny on the lower right of this next piece, then I passed it around for everyone to add another character to. My intention was that each character would have a pencil, so the finished product might resemble a Salty 'Ham Slam in progress. But I failed to actually tell everyone to follow the pencil rule, so they don't all have pencils. Oh well, good enough:


Slam Collaboration credits: witch by Kirk Creel; CoCo by Ed Abernathy; kitty cat by Lorenzo Kirkpatrick; through the heart by Tim Rocks; through the head by Frank Cummings; trucker hat bear by Walter Simon; tall bunny by Richard Haigler; girl in repose by Beverly Toole; short bunny by Chris Garrison; pencil face by Tim Spinosi.

I rearranged the characters a bit in PhotoShop, shifting their sizes and positions somewhat, so that they would fit together better in space. And I added the color to the pencils in PhotoShop, as well. I'm gonna use the piece on the Salty 'Ham Slam page, to replace this old one, that I dashed off by myself, a long time ago:


It's hard to remember for sure who drew what on all these things, so if I messed up on any of the credits, y'all please tell me.

All tolled, everybody enjoyed the slam, and much chortling was exchanged. So join us, won't you, for the NEXT Salty 'Ham Slam! (as yet unscheduled) (official members and invited guests only, please)

And you can look back at previous slams, here:

Slam 1
Slam 2
Slam 3
Slam 4
Slam 5