tomversation

Wallace the Brave is a little taste of classic comics from the past

10 With Tom
10 questions in 10 minutes

I’m a big fan of Will Henry Wilson’s comic strip, “Wallace The Brave” comic strip which is published at GoComics daily. It’s not only clever, but I love the drawing style. It reminds me a lot of Calvin and Hobbes and Cul de Sac. There’s not usually a gag each day, it’s more of a slice of life. I recently interviewed Will about Wallace the Brave.

TOM: You have two comic strips, Wallace The Brave and Ordinary Bill. Ordinary Bill was simple line drawing and black and white, Wallace is a masterpiece of art and color. How did that come about? The change in look, I mean?

WILL: Ha, “masterpiece”… made me laugh. I created Ordinary Bill when I was in college. It was an incredibly limiting strip and my style and ideas were still developing. Throughout the years I was writing Ordinary Bill I felt it was important to keep the original look, even though my style developed. Eventually I ended Ordinary Bill and thought I’d start a new comic that better represented where I was. That’s where Wallace came from.

TOM: How far ahead do you work before a comic is published?

WILL: Legitimate year, maybe more. I even have two years of unpublished Wallace Sunday strips….slacker.

wallacethebrave — Wallace the Brave, courtesy GoComics

TOM: Do you draw digitally or the old fashioned way – pen and ink?

WILL: I’m a 32 year old dinosaur, it’s all pen, paper, ink and watercolor. I do color the comics digitally for the web, though…so yeah I’m hip.

TOM: Wallace is a “little maniac,” your words. Is he based on you?

WILL: I don’t believe I was THAT rambunctious as a kid. My mother may disagree.

TOM: There’s a lot of Cul de Sac and Calvin and Hobbes in your work, do you realize that?

WILL: Absolutely! I crafted Ordinary Bill to resemble the line work of Calvin and Hobbes and my original Submission to syndicates for Wallace the Brave had a heavy Cul de Sac influence. I’ve been drawing Wallace for a couple years and I think I’m just now developing a look that is distinctly me.

TOM: Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall?

WILL: Nothing beats summer in Rhode Island.

TOM: Friends or Seinfeld?

WILL: Honestly, neither. Arrested Development.

TOM: Other than cartooning, what talent would you like to have?

WILL: I’d love to be able to juggle. Not just balls, but chainsaws and torches.

TOM: What living person do you most admire?

WILL: Grandma Betty. You don’t know her, but she rocks.

TOM: What is your motto?

WILL: “Hold my beer”

Thanks, Will!

MTV – what’s old is new again?

The new head of Viacom, which owns MTV, wants MTV to get back to music and reality shows. He says, New Viacom CEO Bob Bakish said, “Music and live is going to be an element of our strategy.”

I remember when MTV first started, it was August 1, 1981, it was just music, all music videos, all the time. We had it on in our house all day and night, it was like having the radio on. I don’t know when it got into other types of programming or why. It’s sort of like the Travel Channel, which I love, but that channel is not much about travel.

When MTV was new, we didn’t have cable at our house yet and a friend was telling me about it. I couldn’t grasp the concept of just having music on the tv non-stop. I guess with all new things, until you see it, you can’t grasp the idea.

This Billy Squire video above, “Rock Me Tonight,” was shown what seemed like non-stop in 1984. I don’t know why, but I liked it at the time, now it seems silly, but it brings back so many memories seeing it. I also remember the first video shown right after midnight on 1984 was “Jump,” by Van Halen. I also remember calling up MTV on Friday nights for the Friday Night Video Wars, where they had two videos going up against each other and you would vote on one. I remember Duran Duran’s “The Reflex” as being number 1 for nine or 10 weeks in a row. Funny the things you remember.

The first 30 videos that showed on MTV can be seen here. Do you know the first video that was ever played on MTV without looking? That’s a common trivia question. It was the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.”

And remember the original VJ’s – Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter and JJ Jackson? I saw Mark Goodman and Martha Quinn on tv recently, they still look good.

Graphic design in the ‘old days’

A few friends shared this video on Facebook. It shows what graphic design was like before Adobe Illustrator was around. I remember the press down letters, but this wasn’t that long ago, was it? They make it sound like ancient history.

I remember using the letters for a bag company I worked for, I think I told the story before, I used to do the graphics for a paper bag company. At times I didn’t have the typeface I needed on our Compugraphic or Varityper machines so I would purchase the type on sheets and press them onto the graphic I was working on.

waxer

Compugraphic and Varityper, I haven’t thought of those names for years. They were huge machines where type came out sort of on reverse film, black on white. Then we waxed the back using a “waxer.” There was a machine with a roller, called a “waxer,” and it waxed the back of the film and it then was placed down where needed. And of course xacto knives and razor blades were in our hands at every moment. I preferred razor blades to xacto knives.

It was all “pasted-up” to make a complete page, image, advertisement . . .

It was all to get the work “camera-ready.” Yes, the stuff was all then shot with cameras and plates and negatives were made from that. Now camera ready means Kendall Jenner posing for Instagram.

I remember I could look at any typeface and know the name of it and the point size it was, just by eyeing it.

I remember in the 1980s when one of my bosses told me that “pagination” was coming in the future. This is where the whole page would come out as one piece. At that time we did the headlines as one piece, the text in columns as another, the photos were stripped in later in the camera room and there were so many steps to getting just one newspaper page done. I remember thinking that he was kidding, how could it all come out as one piece?

I also remember asking my brother Chris one time if it would be possible to typeset on computers and have different typefaces for different jobs. He said it was probably possible but something would have to be programmed into the computer to get that effect as it wasn’t something that was done at the time. I remember standing in his kitchen in the 1980s having that conversation with him like it was yesterday.

Am I dating myself?

NYC on Super 8 film

What do you make of this film? It’s New York City filmed on Super 8 film. Can you guess the year?

This video was taken by a guy named Willem Verbeeck. It’s New York City last summer filmed on Super 8 film. Yup, the summer of 2016! Clever thing he did there.

Harold Lloyd, Master Comedian

I bought this book on Harold Lloyd called “Master Comedian.” Harold was one of the top three comedians in the silent film era along with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. The book has such great stories of his life, his time in the movies and there are so many great pictures. The cover has a still of the famous clock scene, which I’m sure you have seen some time in your life.

I always read that Harold did his own stunts, there is another famous scene where the front facade of a house falls on him and he’s standing there and the windows go through his body, protecting him from the fall. (Correction – that was Buster Keaton). When I saw that the clock scene from the 1923 film, “Safety Last,” was “not real” in that he wasn’t hanging from a building as shown, that was only partially true, check it out here. He was hanging from a building, in Los Angeles, just not the way I had always thought. So this iconic scene that’s stuck in my head was sort of real and all done by Harold himself.

lloyd1 lloyd2

lloyd3 — This 1923 story from the Boston Post explains the stunt.

lloyd4 Harold Lloyd was an excellent comedian and filmmaker. The book explains how he came up with gags for the films and explains what a great businessman he was.

Also, his famous 44-room estate, “Green Acres,” is a part of the book. The house is part of Hollywood legend. And his eye glasses, the book explains why he started wearing them, which ended up becoming his famous trademark.

Warhol estates sues over Prince image

warhol2 Speaking of Andy Warhol (see the post below), I saw in the New York Daily News that the estate of Andy Warhol is suing a photographer before the photographer sues the Warhold estate.

Seems that in 1981, Warhol allegedly swipped an image of Prince and made it into a Warhol painting. Didn’t he do that often? I know he mostly took polaroids of people and then had them blown up and silk screened the image into usually four images, all the same but with different color schemes.

I read in the Andy Warhol Diaries that celebs would want their “portraits” done and Andy would try to sell them in foursomes, rather than twosomes, which many celebs wanted. If I remember right, they were $25,000 for each image, so of course, he would want to sell them as a foursome. All silk screened work – nice work if you can get it!

warhol3

Getting art (and comics) done

warhol

I posted this on Instagram, I had seen it somewhere online. It’s true. It reminds me of comics and comic strips, they need to be pumped out every day, almost like an assembly line in order to meet deadlines. But even though they are “pumped out,” they are still art.

I am still waiting for a certain platform to be completed so that I can start posting daily comics. They delay is killing me, but I am getting a backlog of comics done, so at least I’ll be able to meet those daily deadlines when the time comes. So like Andy Warhol says, “get the art done.” I am doing that. I’m just not getting them published!

I had hoped for a start date of January 1, it’s already past April 1, hopefully I’ll get things going by May 1! Thanks for sticking with me. 🙂

Sounds from the past

When I was writing the previous post about things that will soon disappear, it reminded me of sounds that are gone. Ever think of that – things you don’t hear anymore? When was the last time you heard an old fashioned telephone ring or even the sound that a rotary dial makes? You can hear it on cell phones as a mock ring, but what about the real thing? What about a busy signal? You don’t hear them often if at all.

What about the ding of a typewriter, when did you last hear that? And think about a printed newspaper being read; the quiet crinkle of the pages. Almost a thing of that past. The sound of chalk on a blackboard is probably a thing of the past. And the ding of a cash register as it opens. What about the flapping sound that was made at the end of a reel of film on a projector – and the projector sound itself.

There is a museum of endangered sounds. It’s a website, where you click on the image of items and you hear them! The sound of AOL dial-up starting up brings chills to my spine, I don’t know why. Sounds trigger memories like smell does.

One day I was lying out at the beach and every other minute it seemed that a plane flew overhead and I thought of what it might have been like years ago without that. Imagine the world 100 or more years ago. There was no sound of planes flying overhead or leaf blowers or lawn mowers or air conditioners or things like that. Life was peaceful, albeit it probably stank of horse manure every time you went out on the streets. But you would hear the sound of a babbling brook or horse shoes clopping on the ground or the wind blowing. There wasn’t much noise pollution 100 years ago.

Things that will soon disappear

paper_check Kipplinger has an article, actually, an annoying slide show, which lists 10 things that will soon disappear forever and 7 things that refuse to die. I still use some of those things that refuse to die, sort of like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The penny, I like it; the fax, I pay bills with it and checks, which I use to pay bills, maybe one bill a month, but I still need the checkbook for that. All the rest are paid online. Or by fax. I do use the fax online, I got rid of my home phone, which I only kept all these years for my one or two faxes a montht that I send, but now I use an online fax service and was able to drop the landline at home.

And one thing I’m not happy about losing, my internet privacy.

Here is the list.

Betsey Johnson just wants to have fun

10 With Tom
10 questions in 10 minutes

I had the honor of interviewing fashion icon Betsey Johnson. Betsey made a stop at Macys at Boca Town Center in Boca Raton, Florida, to promote the premiere of TLC’s Say Yes to the Prom hosted by Betsey and Monte Durham premiering on April 1. It’s a 90 minutes special, which is a TLC tradition where the network partners with Macy’s to help make prom dreams come true.

TOM: I just saw a tv show recently about you and your daughter, I can’t remember what it was, I think it was CBS Sunday morning. I’m a man who knows nothing about fashion, and I know you, what’s it like being an American icon?

BETSEY: Great, I guess! I don’t really consider myself that, but I can tell you that to become appreciated for what you do you need to work hard and create a following. The word icon just comes over time, the happiness comes from your fans. I love my fans, they keep me going!

TOM: They said your fashion shows are like a three ring circus but there has to be some part you don’t like. What’s your least favorite part of your own fashion shows?

BETSEY: I have no least favorite part. I used to be afraid of critics in the audience but now I feel they love and support me. The whole process of a fashion show is pure fun to me!

TOM: I know you do a lot of the hand-drawn art yourself at the shows and there are DJ’s. Do you choose the music yourself?

BETSEY: Not backstage, I’m too busy running around getting everything ready to make the playlist. Up front, I work with a very skilled musical talent to create the music for the runway. Backstage it is just fun and free to start the party!

TOM: Your signature move is a cartwheel. When was the last time you did a cartwheel?

BETSEY: Not that long ago, but these days I lean more towards the splits which are easy peasy. Cartwheels make me a little afraid because I never know what I’m cartwheeling on and what will happen on that surface.I do love doing them so I will every now and then.

TOM: What was Andy Warhol like?

BETSEY: Quiet. A man of few words. Sweet, gentle and private.

TOM: What’s the secret to your success?

BETSEY: Lots of hard work, but most of all luck! And being nice to everyone you meet.

TOM: Favorite decade? Why?

BETSEY: By far the 60s! And for so many reasons, The Beatles, The Stones, Dylan, the moon, pantyhose and all the geniuses that were around during that time.

TOM: At what point did you realize you were famous?

BETSEY: Today, actually! At the airport I’ve never had so many fans come up to meet me. I’ve never taken so many selfies! I’m always surprised when I remember I’m a little bit famous.

TOM: What song would be the theme of your life. I think I can guess.

BETSEY: “I did it my way.”

TOM: In my mind, it was “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!”

TOM: Please tell me about Say Yes to the Prom, is that similar to the tv show Say Yes to the Dress?

BETSEY: Similar, but so much better since it is so wonderfully charitable! It has been such an honor to work with all the kiddos picking out outfits (especially the ones that are super pink, puffy and sparkly) for their big day. It makes me happy making so many kids happy.

TOM: Thank you Betsey, good luck with the show!