new illustration

salty ham friends --

i'm excited to (finally!) find some time to post. life has been busy with the arrival of the baby just a few weeks ago! feel free to check out my wife's blog here for a few pictures and updates on her etsy projects.

so, i wanted to share the news with everyone, as well as one my recent pieces:


i've also been busy with a couple of projects for sire press -- images of those designs will be posted soon on their site.

i've been playing with new illustrations, but no outlet for them really -- if anyone has some ideas, i'd love to hear it, and i'll try and post those sketches soon.

What up?

Hey guys, Derek Anderson here. Haven't posted in a while and thought I'd share some art projects I've been engrossed in of late. As some may recall, a while back, Garrison mentioned the guys at University Graphics were looking for peeps to work on their illustrated maps of different cities and businesses. I called those bad boys up and said, "Gimme." what follows is a crude representation of DeSoto County, Mississippi. Thats right, the famous home of Bullfrog Corner Package Store. Beware of imitators, accept no substitutes.
So this is the full color version which you'll notice has a weird, too bright, green color on the background grass. I believe this is because I used a gradient that included colors that were in the CMYK spectrum but not "web safe". This probably needs
some fixing:





The next couple of things are from a comic my buddy in TX is writing called, "Someone Else's Problems" we hope to finish up issue 1 soon. It'll be put out by a small indie publisher called
NerdBoy Comics out of Texas:

Episode IV: A New Cartooneesta

Welcome, brand new SHC J'Mel Davidson! Y'all may know him from Birmingham's improv comedy scene (like fellow SHC Christopher Davis), or from various other worlds in which he shows up and acts wacky.

Well, he likes to draw, too, so check out his post on Salty 'Ham Cartooneestas.

Bobsaur

On J'Mel's blog, he's posting a "creep a day," for a year. If you suggest a name for a creep, he just might sketch it. I managed to get 2 names of my own into his pantheon: Ricky Skeeball and The Either Or. I think we should all try to overwhelm him with suggestions.

Tim Hollis Book Signings!

Saturday, February 28 --

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. - Recently added SHC Tim Hollis will be at the Barnes & Noble at the Summit, signing his books Birmingham's Theater and Retail District, Birmingham Broadcasting, and Vintage Birmingham Signs.


Then,
1:30 p.m. to approximately 5 p.m. - Tim Hollis will be at Birmingham's What's on 2nd, signing Selling the Sunshine State: A Celebration of Florida Tourism Advertising and Glass Bottom Boats & Mermaid Tails: Florida's Tourist Springs.

. . . and now look what happened

SHC Tim Rocks let us know about Tim Hollis' Museum of Commercial Archeology (in the post below this one). I got in touch with Tim Hollis about his museum, and ended up recruiting him as a Salty 'Ham Cartooneesta! Check out his post here.


Maybe we'll do a post for his museum at some point, too.

The Tim Hollis Museum

Tim Hollis has recently completed the bulk of work on his museum of pop culture ephemera. Located in Dora, Alabama, the two-story structure connects to his house via the kitchen. It's loaded with rare and unusual items, including more Shoney's Big Boy comics than I've ever seen in one place. The museum is open to the public by appointment.

John Morse took these photos. To view the complete set, see his flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dystopos/sets/72157613843861101/

i'm alive!

holeeeeeeee crap, it's been way too long since i've posted. i'll admit to lurking and loving the work that's been posted but i must apologize for my absence. some co-captain i've turned out to be...

anyways, i've got a few irons in the fire. i'm working on a children's book w/ a friend as well as a couple other projects still in the beginning stages. towards the end of last year i did these:











i've got several story ideas to go along w/ this concept so i may move along further with it eventually.

i had mentioned imagicon a while back. the organizers gave me some pricing for tables, but frankly i didn't like it, especially for a first year con. however, imagicon contacted the great people at kingdom comics in vestavia and they in turn called me... so, i'll be sitting at the kingdom comics table doing sketches and hocking some old "hero happy hour" comics as well as sitting on a couple comics-related panels.

okay, enough self-pimpage. hope everyone is well.

Random Showcase - Chris Rosko

I've been noticing more continuity in the recent installments of Cartoon by: Rosko. Here's a 6-part series!:


To see more, click on Photos in Rosko's myspace.

All this pinching reminds me of an old sketchbook page of mine, from 1996, depicting a lecherous "Mr. Cat." -

Murder Most Foul

Check out this mystery game that SHC Stephen Smith put up on his Birmingham Free Press web site: Murder Most Foul


Roam the streets of B'ham as you try and figure out who murdered Anna Himalaya! The game features some lovely art by Stephen, and some very nice photos of the city.

The Anna Himalaya story was originally printed years ago (when the Birmingham Free Press was actually in print), with the futuristic date of March 12, 2009. Now that this date is nearly upon us, the Anna Himalaya issue will be returning to the streets of the city. Look for Birmingham Free Press boxes to start popping up in March.

Happy Anniversary to Us

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO YOU
...to us?
...well, somebody!
...anybody?
:-)

AND ANOTHER THING!!!

I'd just like to say I love that Frankie Fowl!

me again

In reply to Chris's comments here:

Actually a couple of other guys created the backstory and were developing that video game. I just did some artwork for them to put together a little demo. It would have been a pretty cool game, I guess. I am not into video games so I can't really evaluate them, but it seemed pretty cool to me. It was called "Space Cadets" and it had something to do with an alien Police Academy, if I recall correctly.

ANYWAY - no graphic novel coming from me on that one, but I have just started serializing a Crazy Boss graphic novel on jabberous. If I can stick with it, it will probably take about two years to get this thing finished, so wish me luck. In the meantime, I think it may be interesting to watch this thing slowly unfold backwards.

Happy Birthday SHJ!

See birthday info below. Which prompted me to get in here and post something. Here it is. A few years ago I worked on these paintings for a video game proposal that never made it beyond the development room of the company that was developing it. Last weekend I cut up all of the scattered little paintings and am going to group them into collaged paintings that I can sell at a con, or hang on a wall, or something... someday... I took this pic to remind myself how to arrange it all if/when I get back to working on it, then I stuffed them all in an envelope, where they will probably sit until doomsday, but hey, that's me, Unfinished Martin!

Fun fact - January 11 is my brother's birthday too! Now I will never forget Salty Ham's birthday again!

Our One Year Anniversary

Happy Anniversary, everybody! Salty 'Ham Cartooneestas is one year old. No, I didn't buy you any flowers. But I did make you this crazy quilt, from images on the main SHC page.

I put this image close to the top of the main SHC page, in the Mission Statement post.

There's a square for each member (38, so far, plus a square for the ham mascot, and a square for the Salty 'Ham Jam, so that it adds up to an even 40 squares). If you'd prefer a different image in your square, just email it to me, and I'll change it out. cgarrison[at]bham.rr.com Please make it 2" x 2", RGB, at 72 dpi.

At some point, I want to transform the main SHC page from a blog-style-thing into a real web page. Do any of you web-savvy cartooneestas have any ideas about that? I mean, suggestions about hosting or design, etc.? Offers of help, perhaps?

I want to keep up the search for new recruits, but I'm really busy on my current project. So please, if you know any folks you think should join up, send them to the site. You never know when it'll come in handy to have these connections! Maybe you'd like to visit some of the artists in this Coalition of the Unwilling list, and bug them about signing on.

Here are a few nice results from the existence of Salty 'Ham Cartooneestas, that I know of so far:

I went to see my fellow SHC Chris Fason at the local sci-fi convention, and I bought some of his comic books. I wouldn't have been in touch with him, if it weren't for the SHC page.

I thought about applying for a grant from the Cultural Alliance, but I'd pretty much decided my chances of getting it were too slim to even try. Fellow SHC Don Stewart encouraged me to apply anyway. Thanks to his goading, I applied after all, and I got the grant! I wouldn't have been in touch with him, if it weren't for the SHC page. (Of course he's shaking his fist in the air now, because I got the grant, and he didn't. This is why we should never try to help others.)

I hired my fellow SHC Tim Rocks to assist me on my grant project. I think Tim is enjoying the money he's being paid, along with getting an entree into the world of cartoon animation. I wouldn't have been in touch with him, if it weren't for the SHC page. Also, when Tim was part way through working on his recent comic story (Frankie Fowl Adventures), he put it aside and started letting it languish. I encouraged him to finish it, and he did! So now we can all enjoy the fruits of his labor, partly due to my bothering him about it. And it wouldn't have happened, if not for Salty 'Ham Cartooneestas.

I was able to tell some SHC's about some possible cartoon map jobs that were available. I haven't gotten the latest scoop, but last I heard, it sounded like a couple of them just might actually be taking those gigs. Chalk up more points for Salty 'Ham Cartooneestas! (unless those guys turn out to hate drawing cartoon maps or something)

Has anybody else made any helpful connections through the page? If so, please relate them in the comments below. Or shoot me an email about it. cgarrison[at]bham.rr.com Thanks!

Frankie Fowl clips

As you know, our fellow SHC Tim Rocks recently completed a nifty 20-page comic story, called Frankie and the Money Bags.

> cover image <

> read the full story <

In case any of y'all still haven't read it, I thought I'd just post some of my favorite bits, here. To whet your whistle. Tim, is this okay with you? I'm trying to avoid any real spoilers.

These are just a few of my favorite drawings and gags:








And that's just SOME of the fun to be had, when you read the whole thing.

Frankie Fowl comic now online

Plans to make actual copies of this comic probably won't happen, but I did post the story online here: http://www.kpcinema.com/timrocks/frankie.html

The 20-page story is a very serious analysis of a duck couple and their relationship. It's the story of what happens when two ducks come into some money, and the scheming interior decorator who tries to separate them from it.

Crusemas

Hey all, we just got this holiday greeting from (Honorary Ex-Pat) SHC Howard Cruse:


It came with this reminder:

www.howardcruse.com
Don't forget to visit LOOSE CRUSE: THE BLOG occasionally! — http://www.howardcruse.com/loosecruse/

Anti-Christmas Card

I don't have any holiday art this year, so I'll put up something I did last year. I'm a scrooge, but that doesn't mean I don't want you to have a nice day. So I drew this little guy:

merry christmas, from Cartoon By: Rosko!

I thought of this last year, right after X-mas, and have waited a long year to unleash this jolly bastard onto the world...

The Lord taketh away; the Lord giveth.

In the wake of our loss of Sarah White, allow me to introduce the newest Salty 'Ham Cartooneesta: Brian Ratigan!

Brian's the first one to embed animation in his SHC post, so check it out. He does stop motion stuff, like this:



He's also the guy that's working with Nolen Otts on the other animated short (besides mine) that got a grant from the Cultural Alliance. Can't wait to see me some of that!

imagicon march 2009

imagicon site
hey guys, the art director for the new imagicon contacted me asking if i'd like to be in their art show... well, i'm not really much of an art show guy but i did suggest that if they would think about setting apart an "island" of tables at a good rate, maybe a bunch of us cartooneestas could invade the con. any takers? you can sell some art and maybe take part in discussion panels and worksops. please comment if you're interested. maybe i can work something out w/ these guys...

Losing a Cartooneesta

SHC Sarah White is leaving us! As I understand it, she'll be somewhere in upstate New York, where her fiancee is stationed, for at least 2 years . . . perhaps never to return! I offered her Honorary Ex-Pat status, but she said let's just take her post down, and if she comes back to Dixie, she'll join up again. I'll keep it up for another week, so you can all revisit her links and such (click her name at the top of this paragraph to get to her post).



So long, Sarah, and good luck. You were definitely one of the shining stars of our little group, here.

Caricatures of Jewish Celebrities - 2

Check it out - SHC Garth Potts somehow got to exhibit a 2nd batch of his Jewish Celebrity Caricatures at the Levite Jewish Community Center! . . . I guess it doesn't hurt that he's the Executive Director of the place.


You know where it is, right? On Montclair Road, in B'ham. Here's the web site: bhamjcc.org
The show is up 'til the end of December, so drop in and see it!

Garth, you might take some inspiration for your third installation from Adam Sandler's now classic Chanukah Song (youtube link), where he names a whole bunch of awesome famous Chosen People.

Jenn & Bueno's First Book is Now On Sale!

Hey, look: SHC Andrew Willmore just put together a book of his Jen & Bueno pinup pieces. Nice, dude!


Order one for $21.00, and it will come signed with a quick Bueno sketch! Go here:
The Studio Bueno Studio Blog-o
and more specifically, here:
The post about The Jennifer & Bueno Collection

Happy Holidays

Tis' the season for holiday themed cartoons!!! Lets have 'em!