art – Page 30

Read my comics

tom-read8 So I’ve been working on comics, redrawing and refreshing some old ones and preparing for my Tomversation debut on May 4th. If you haven’t guessed by now, I chose May 4th because it’s May the 4th Day, you know, “May the 4th be with you.” I thought the anniversary of the debut would be easy to remember that day and it’s a scifi reference.

I’m doing the comics digitally, which I started years ago. It took a bit to go from pen and paper but it’s such a pleasure working digitally. There is only one drawback and that is there is no original art.

When I first went to digital cameras from film cameras, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t wrap my mind around not having negatives although I don’t remember ever needing negatives other than the first print. But it really bothered me not to have negatives, now it seems so silly.

Regarding the digital comics, I started right at the top with a Wacom Cintiq. I had a problem setting up the system and my friend Johnny came over and helped me out with it, but eventually I moved to a Surface Pro, sort of a downgrade but so much easier to travel with and maneuver. The Cintiq was tethered to the computer and there was no keyboard so it made some things difficult.

I keep toying with the idea of going back to the Cintiq from the Surface Pro, because the Cintiq is so much smoother and really is the top of the line, but I am still happy with the Surface pro and doing a single panel is easy and doesn’t need much room like a full comics page or strip would need.

Anyway, you can see Tomversation the comic at these three locations:
Online: TomFalco.com
Instgram: instagram.com/tomversation.toons/
Facebook: facebook.com/Tomversation.toons

I’ve been asked why it’s tomversation.toons and not just Tomversation – I do own Tomversation on Instagram and Facebook, but I’ve been using them for personal photos and things so long that it would be hard to transfer and switch names. I tried.

You can subscribe to my blog now. Receive Tomversation via email
each time I publish Click here.

Three stories about today

CBS Sunday Morning had some great stories this week, they were all feel good stories about the caronavirus and our sheltering in place. This first one is of interest to me because I’ve been thinking it – it’s about the backgrounds you see on people’s zoom reporting. It’s funny. I like the Lady Gaga one because she is always all out there being the most of the most and yet her home background is so plain – it’s her home office. Others go out of the way to show off awards and things like that.

I often wonder what I would show. I don’t zoom, I do Facetime, but with people who know me and have been here, so I don’t have to choose a background to impress.

Another story was about artist Nadir Nelson and his work. He’s an award winning artist and you can see why here.

Beven Strickland of North Carolina got up off her couch and headed to NYC to help in the hospital. It’s a beautiful story about a beautiful hero.

You can subscribe to my blog now. Receive Tomversation via email
each time I publish Click here.

Spring cleaning

books2

So I’m getting ready for the big move. No, I haven’t put my place up for sale yet and I haven’t been house hunting, but I have been cleaning out closets and draws, trying to lighten the load by getting rid of things I don’t need. Also, it’s something to do while cooped up at home.

I’m donating them.

Look at this book, very interesting, ended up at the top of the pile.

I never read it. I didn’t read most of these books. For a few years, I was receiving books daily, sometimes three to four books a day. They were coming from publishers who wanted me to review their books! I don’t know how I got on the lists, but all the big publishers sent me books – Doubleday, Random House, Simon & Schuster, etc. I didn’t know how to get off the lists so I kept receiving them and one day after maybe three or four years it stopped.

They are filling up the house. It’s time to get rid of them. Most books these days I read on Kindle. But to be honest, if I wasn’t planning on moving, I would keep them. It seems like all the people in the know have lots of books!

Our Boarding House

One of my all time favorite comic panels is Our Boarding House. I don’t know when I became aware of it but I’ve always loved it.

It was created by cartoonist Gene Ahern in 1921 and lasted until 1984 and most likely I remember the later ones, but lately I have been enjoying the ones from the 1920s which are published on Facebook daily and they are all done by Ahern, who passed the strip on to another cartoonist in 1936, so the ones below from 1927 are the best and in his prime.

I have always loved single panel comics and this one has a lot of text, which normally I don’t like, but Ahern has a way with words. The expressions he uses and the story line that continues each day in one single panel is something I really enjoy. Major Hoople’s nonsense at the boarding house run by his wife, is the basic premise of the panel.

Here are a few samples.

Show me the money!

So maybe I should have waited before mentioning the PPP debacle yesterday, or maybe it helped. It seems like after filling out dozens of forms of all sorts, I finally received a notification from Chase as you can see below. So I’m glad to know the application made it through. Now I wait.

I have been keeping busy. I sent a few cartoons to The New Yorker and I sent a few to Readers Digest yesterday. Some years ago I had a lot of comics published in various magazines, I’m going to start submitting again.

In the past I sold a lot of cartoons to a magazine called “American Life” or something like that. After years of them publishing, and paying me well, I learned that they were owned by American Tobacco. That didn’t sit well with me.

And years ago I submitted a bunch of my comics to the National Enquirer, they loved the work but didn’t like the fact that I used a computer to shade some of the work, only I didn’t use a computer, I used Ben Day by hand and to think that now, everything is done by computer – shading, coloring, even drawing.

chase — So at least I know they received my application

Selling my services; taking commissions

fiverr13 I’ve never been one to take commission work, but in these hard times where I don’t have money coming in, I am taking commissions. In the past I did a lot of work for newspapers and magazines – and books – single panel and editorial cartoons – and drawings for advertisements. I remember when I was in high school I used to do spot drawings for a local magazine. I still have all that published work somewhere, probably at my parents house in storage.

I’m also selling comics that I’ve sold before. What I mean is, take this Flintstones comic. Over the years I have sold this to numerous realtors.

I didn’t set out to sell it, I didn’t realize it was online anywhere. I may have posted it online a few years back and perhaps people shared it and it got around that way. My copyright info is at the bottom of the comic and thankfully the people who shared the comic left it there, as that is the proper thing to do when sharing other peoples’ work. But anyway, people reached out to me, they literally searched for my email address and asked to purchase the rights the comic. This has happened many times for this exact comic panel. Out of the blue I got emails, I blogged about it here.

I made a deal to sell them the rights, they purchased the comic and used it for their marketing – usually on postcards or business cards according to the buyer. And all of the buyers were realtors so far I think, except for a magazine publisher.

Anyway, I’m selling the rights for this and I’m doing commission work, starting off with low prices, until I get volume orders. I know my work is worth more, but I need to start somewhere and test the waters. It seems that every time you start a project, there are so many other people out there doing the same thing, especially on the internet. But the good part about cartooning, illustrating and art is that everyone has their own style and that’s what sells, rather than everyone competing to sell the same thing like a regular product or service.

colorize — Before and after colorization.

I am also recoloring old black and white photos. I learned how to do that with Photoshop so I thought I might as well make use of my “talent” and make a few bucks.

It’s amazing how this downtime is changing lives, people are doing things differently and thinking differently. Friends have told me they have taken up cooking and they are working out more and so many of us are doing Spring cleaning and so on. I have a friend who is doing workout classes online and it’s really such a renaissance for so many people.

Anyway, please reach out to me if you need art for anything – personal or commercial: tom@tomversation.com. Thanks!

Subscribe to this blog now. Receive Tomversation via email
each time I publish Click here.

Andy Warhol hoarding soup cans

andy-warhol

Saw this picture online titled, “Andy Warhol hoarding Campbell’s Soup Cans and Brillo Boxes.” I thought it was funny. I saw some of the Brillo boxes along with the paintings recently at the Whitney in NY.

I see he is in Gristede’s a NYC supermarket. I saw Carol Channing once in Gristede’s in NYC, it was years ago, on 59th Street near 5th Avenue, she was at the check out in front of me. The second she spoke she gave herself away – that voice!

Once Mary Wickes was in front of me in line in the supermarket here in Miami – I think it was at Grand Union. She commented on the Entenmann’s chocolate chip cookies I was buying. Her hair was snow white not like the jet black you know her as having.

Which brings me to Hello Dolly!, probably Carol Channing’s most famous roles, since I’m doing 6 degrees of everything – I saw Hello Dolly! a couple of summer’s ago, back in NY, with Bernadette Peters as Dolly.

I have been social distancing by staying home, but I did run out to get corned beef and cabbage at a local hang out. I got take-out, but I was quite surprised to see the place so full at lunch time. I thought the governor shut down restaurants and bars and only allowed take-out, but I guess that didn’t take place yet. The place was full of people, more than the allowable 50% and people were closer than 6 feet. I’m concerned as I want this freaking virus gone already – if we don’t stop infections it will never go away.

People need to stay at home to reduce the risk of spreading infection.

Social distancing

While I’m anxious about everything these days, this Tom Tomorrow tweet says it all – I’m feeling the same.

People keep asking me if I miss publishing the daily Grapevine. I don’t. Not even a little. For such a long time I was telling people I didn’t want to leave my house – they were more than welcome to send me photos of events and news so I didn’t have to attend events! I was joking about not wanting to leave my house – I’m not that bad and I don’t know if I could deal with a self-imposed quarantine, but I do prefer being alone and cartooning.

I told my friend Harry that this “social distance” thing is how I have always tried to live my life! He would put me down for it, he doesn’t understand that different people have different personalities. But it looks like my way of life – social distancing – is a thing now, although I hope it ends really soon and be a choice (mine) and not forced on everyone.

I’ve been ‘pumping out’ comics

tomversation-comic-friday2

I’ve been pumping out comics on a daily basis – two, three, four comics a day! And I’m still getting giddy after completing each one. I really love the single panel format. I enjoy having different characters all the time in different situations. So by “pumping out” I don’t mean it to sound like an assembly line – I am enjoying every moment of it!

tomversation-comic-friday1 All systems are go for May the 4th for daily publication to start. I chose May the 4th, because it’s sort of a pop culture sort of day – “May the 4th Be With You!”

Pretty soon, this page at Tomversation.com will turn into a gateway page for this blog and also for the Tomversation comic. You’ll see what I mean when it switches over, so you can read the comic daily here online or at social media sites:

Instagram: instagram.com/tomversation.toons/
Facebook: facebook.com/Tomversation.toons/

Go ahead, follow now so you won’t miss out on premier day!!

Subscribe to this blog now. Receive Tomversation via email
each time I publish Click here.

Single panel vs comic strip

I’ve been asked why I like single panel cartoons rather than comic strips.

I like to read both, I appreciate both, but for my own projects, I prefer the single panel. They both have their pros and cons to me.

A single panel comic might seem harder in theory, as each day is a single gag that has to be funny, where a comic strip can move the story along without being a belly laugh daily because once you know the characters, you don’t have to be funny every day.

With a comic strip or even a panel with the same characters daily, I’ve found that they write themselves after awhile. Their own personalities come out and you can have a character stare out into the audience and get a laugh without even saying anything. But I get bored drawing the same characters and basic situations day after day.

While a single panel may be a bit difficult where you have to come up with different situations and gags daily, I really enjoy that. I like having different characters and different situations; different time periods -future, past, whatever. As for coming up with the gags, I don’t seem to have a problem with that, I guess it’s just how my mind works. I’ll hear something or read something and I then sort of twist it in my mind and get a comic out of it. I don’t do that to get a comic, I just think like that on a daily basis!

The comic strips take me from three to four hours to complete each strip, where a single panel can take from 45 minutes to an hour. I was told one time by a comics editor that I work too fast, he could tell that by looking at my work, not watching me work, but just by looking at the completed comics.

I like the fact that with a single panel comic, it is easily shared on social media. You don’t have to know the characters, you don’t have to know the storyline, it is just a single gag that you might enjoy and share. I’ve had single panel comics shared on social media by thousands of people and liked by thousands, where I don’t know if that would be the case with a strip unless it’s Peanuts or Pearls Before Swine or something like that.

So I hope you’ll be following Tomversation daily when I start publishing my comic starting May 4th. You can follow here online (that’s a different address than this blog, or at Instagram: instagram.com/tomversation.toons/ and Facebook: facebook.com/Tomversation.toons/

Go ahead, follow now so you won’t miss out on premier day!!

Subscribe to this blog now. Receive Tomversation via email
each time I publish Click here.