01/21/10 - Arts Advocacy Day 2010

Show KY Legislators Your Support for the Arts! This came to me today by email:

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Arts Advocacy Day 2010

Join us in Frankfort on February 10, 2010!

Come to  Frankfort to support the Arts! With the current funding pressures on  state government, elected officials are making tough choices right now.  This year will be crucial to make sure that the arts are supported in  Kentucky.

Who should come:  Arts supporters, Artists, Arts administrators, Arts organization board members, Arts educators... anyone with a passion for the arts.

When and where? February 10, 2010  at the Capitol building in Frankfort,  starting at 9:30am.

Agenda for the Day:

• 9:30am :               Rally for the Arts in the Capitol Rotunda
• 10:30am - 2pm :   Meet with Legislators
• 2pm - 5pm :         Arts Advocacy and Arts Education workshops (sponsored by Arts Kentucky)

For information on activities being presented by the Kentucky Arts Council,  click here <http://artscouncil.ky.gov/> .

Wear something that represents your area of the arts! (Blue if possible.) If you're an instrumentalist, bring your instrument! If you're a dancer, wear tights and taps!

More information about the event and what you can do to prepare is available at www.artsky.org/artsday <http://www.artsky.org/artsday> . Check there for directions, schedule, and more! 

The event is also on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=433394670312&index=1> . 


Please pass this on to other arts supporters and your organization's email lists!

A Good Cause

Check out the Comic Creator's Alliance Site. They are currently raising money to help fight human trafficking. More information can be found at the following link:

http://comicalliance.weebly.com/index.html

01/14/10 - Editorial Cartoons Haitian Earthquake

Daryl Cagle's excellent site:

http://blog.cagle.com/news/2010/01/13/live-blog-haiti-cartoons/

Some selected cartoons about the disaster in Haiti:

Helicopters - Cartoon by Daryl Cagle - msnbc.com

Helping Hand - Cartoon by Steve Breen - San Diego Union-Tribune

Voodoo Spike - Cartoon by John Cole - The Scranton Times-Tribune

Pat Robertson - Cartoon by Bruce Plante - The Tulsa World

This last is one is for real: see the link to the video:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-blames-haiti-earthquake-pact-devil

01/10/10 - Great Video Resource: Sketch Magazine at Comic Related

This mention is long overdue for work of two local friends: Sketch Magazine (Blue Line Pro, the publisher of Sketch,  is located in Northern KY) and comicrelated.com (Chuck Moore has made his fellow CCG members proud with the ongoing successes in the comic news biz).

Together these two have a Sketch Magazine blog on the Comic Related site that is becoming a great collection of online video clips that any comic/illustration/animation artist would find of interest. Thanks guys! This helps a lot!

01/09/10 - Three Cheers for Bobby Chiu and Stephen Silver!

Ever since 2008 when I attended the Frazetta Tribute by the NCS (link to past CCG blog post) I have been interested in bringing attention to the fact that many of our comic legends are aging and leaving this mortal plane without any legacy of their thoughts and working process. That is why I am so excited to see the latest offering Bobby Chiu's Schoolism.com - online lectures from several of comics and cartooning living legends! (Thanks to James Gurney for catching this and posting on his excellent blog "Gurney Journey"!)


Apparently Stephen Silver is the driving force behind the video lectures from:

• Mort Drucker (Mad Magazine artist extraordinaire)
• Stan Goldberg  (Archie Comics)
  
• John Reiner (Comic Strip artists for Howard Huge and others)

Thanks Stephen! And I hope many of you will share my interest and gratitude by letting the folks at Schoolism.com that you appreciate their efforts!

01/09/10 - Marvel Comics (Disney) Sues Jack Kirby Heirs

Marvel Comics is suing the heirs of comic legend Jack Kirby. The heirs had sent Marvel numerous copyright termination notices that stated many of their most profitable comic properties would revert to the estate starting in 2014!

Marvel contends that these characters were created as "work for hire" and that the heirs claims are baseless. What do you think? Is this fair and only a company protecting it's legal property or is the "Mouse" flexing it's legal muscles?

Here's a link to the January 8th NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/arts/09arts-MARVELSUESFA_BRF.html?scp=1&sq=Kirby%20Heirs&st=cse

01/07/10 - Some Excellent Video Tutorials

Happy New Year everyone!

I have discovered some really excellent drawing demo videos that  I think a lot of you will really enjoy and benefit from. I am just embedding the first video of each segment - these are multipart and should be viewed at full screen.

Steve Bissette demos inking for drawing monsters and dinosaurs. These are really well done! It''s really refreshing to see someone who really understands what they are doing - and able to do demonstrate clearly and effectively without the crutch of the undo button. Steve currently teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction VT. He is one the early graduates from the Joe Kubert School of Cartooning (1977) and veteran comic artists (see his great dino epic "Tyrant").

Mysterious Memphre (Lake Monster) Demo:


Dino demo #1:


Dino demo #2:


Woodland Scene Inking Demo:


I have tried to put these in order. If you have a problem or want to see more - just do a search on youTube for "Steve Bissette". Thanks to Cat Garza for posting these (check out Cat's excellent web comic "Year of the Rat"!).