tomversation

George Herriman and the Southwest

wetherill — A piece that George Herriman drew for his friends the Wetherills with that incredible Southwestern background.

I’m enjoying the George Herriman biography. It’s draggy in parts but quite good. He had an interesting life and was right at the height of cartooning when newspapers were basically the only source of news and read by everyone daily. He was a humble man and a rich one. He made a lot of money producing Krazy Kat.

I enjoy the parts where he visits Arizona, which is often. That landscape became such a big part of the Krazy Kat comic strip as he played with the vistas and the light in each comic. He loved it there, even though he lived in New York and Los Angeles for most of his life. He was born in New Orleans.

There was a couple near Flagstaff, Arizona, the Wetherills, John and Louisa, who hosted George and friends in the real Coconino County. They sort of ran a guest house, something like that. George enjoyed visiting them and spending long dinners at a long table at their house with fellow cartoonists who traveled with him including Rudolph Dirks, originator of the Katzenjammer Kids, and cartoonist and artist Jimmy Swinnerton, who moved to Arizona with his wife in 1906 for health reasons.

George Herriman would do a few Krazy Kat comics and submit them and then take the train to Arizona. He would also draw there between day trips around Arizona with the others and mail in the strips to King Features Syndicate. He visited New Mexico and Utah, too.

I like so much of his lifestyle. I enjoy the aspect of traveling and cartooning along the way, that’s one reason I gave up my Wacom Cintiq for a Surface Pro, so that I could draw on my travels.

Oddly enough, I’ve always been drawn to the Southwest even though I have never been. I like the idea of being in Arizona and New Mexico and when I was a child I used to pretend that my bedroom was a trailer out in the desert somewhere. I don’t know why, but that always intrigued me. I used to like the tv show “Alice” because it took place in Phoenix and I got hooked on “Breaking Bad” right away when I saw the trailer out in the desert for the first time. Did I live there in another life? Who knows, but I like that I have that in common with George Herriman.

On hold

So there will be a slight delay in the relaunch of my Tomversation comic. I had planned for a January 1 launch, which I loved since it was the first comic publishing on the first day of the year, but I had to delay it a bit. It seems that I may start publishing at a comics website and also I am in talks with a major daily newspaper. So it would make sense to have all the comics run at the same time on the same days rather than start it at different times.

I’ll update you as soon as I know what’s going on.

George Herriman

krazykat I’ve been reading this new book on George Herriman, the creator and cartoonist of Krazy Kat. I always wondered what the early days of cartooning were like and this is set in that time period. When George Herriman first started drawing for newspapers, for ads and things like that, the whole idea of newspaper drawings was new and at the turn of the century (1900) comic strips started.

It was the time of Pulitzer and Hearst and the New York World and New York Journal and Park Row in NYC.

I sort of wish I lived at that time, when anyone with talent could get a job cartooning because there were so many newspapers and syndicates that there was room for everybody.

I saw this image of New York City from the snowy winter of 1905, which is frozen moment in time (no pun intended), the period I’m now reading about in the book. These people in the photo read the World, Journal and all the other New York papers and they saw George Herriman’s work when it was new and fresh.

oldny

krazy_kat

Merry Christmas!

I’m just gonna leave this here . . .

Criminals on Canvas

The Riddler – $3000.

Batdog – $3500.

Penguin – $5000.

Mad Hatter – $6500.

Joker – $7000.

Batman!

December 22, is the last day of a three-day “Criminals on Canvas”exhibit in Sun Valley, Idaho. The great part is that the art is by TV’s 1960s Batman, Adam West, who lives in Idaho. The exhibit is at the Gilman Contemporary Gallery, where they describe the exhibit: “Gilman Contemporary is thrilled to present “Criminals on Canvas” and other works by Adam West. This three-day guest exhibition will feature original works along with newly created prints of the villains and characters from the original classic Batman Television show that rose to popularity in the 60s. Join us for an artist reception with the man himself December 21st.”

Love the work, this should possibly be a traveling show, maybe at ComicCons’ things like that. I think it would be cool to have certain characters, say from Star Trek, draw Star Trek criminals or characters from the show, same with other shows like Game Of Thrones, etc.

88-year-old Adam West’s work goes from about $6000 up to $10,000 per piece.

It’s not Christmas until you see this

My favorite Publix commercials

These are two of my favorite Publix commercials. My all time favorite is the Last Train Home commercial which they showed for many years in the 1980s and 190s. While it reminds me of that time in my life now, I remember loving it when it was new.

The music in Last Train Home is from Still Life (Talking) an album by Pat Metheny Group, released in 1987. This Publix commercial ran from 1987 to 1996.

To this day, when Pat Metheny is performing, he’ll refer to the song as, “The Publix song.”

And this year, I love this one below, which I think is from 2015, but they’ve been showing it a lot this year. Sorry about the Lovely Legs commercial on top of it, guess they feel they can steal the Publix commercials and make them theirs.

Andy Warhol sculpture

15369050_1283554348386343_8990520168532082350_o This cool Andy Warhol sculpture is in a remote area northeastern Slovakia at the Warhol Family Museum of Modern Art, founded in 1991. Love the hair.

More here.

Art Miami

It’s Art Basel week in Miami, or Miami Art Week – the difference is that the “real” Basel is in the convention center in South Beach and the satellite shows, dubbed Art Miami, are all over downtown and midtown, and the Wynwood area in huge tents. I prefer the satellite shows, but as Wynwood and midtown Miami get more and more gentrified, many of the tented shows have moved around and they aren’t all in a row on one street anymore. That hopefully will change next year, when a big part of the shows move to one location – the former Miami Herald site on Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami.

Anyway, here are some things I saw at Miami Art Week, I always love Chinese artist Li Hongbo‘s paper sculptures you see in the video above. Amazing work. The hidden element of surprise of course, is the best part.

And here is a collage of just a few things I noticed while wandering around.

Holiday time in Union Square

It’s not the holidays without a visit to Union Square in NYC. It’s one of my favorite places in the city – during any season. My favorite thing in the summer is a Mr. Softee truck on almost every corner surrounding the square. I’ve counted as many as seven trucks at one time.

But during October and November, Union Square comes alive. It starts in October with pumpkins and fall colors popping up all over. And in November, it turns red with all the Christmas stuff.

There is always a green market and in November, that is joined by a holiday craft bazaar, with the best hot chocolate. Mix that with chess players, Hare Krishnas, a fortune teller or two, art on the sidewalks and some odd protest or two and it’s all a perfect mix.