Cat Fancy

I wasn't thinking of it at the time, but any of my ridiculous cat drawings are probably inspired by the great New Yorker cartoonist George Booth. I was working at a used book store in Chicago when I first ran across of book of his (Think good thoughts about a pussycat). I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. I could barely run the cash register.

The above is an exaggeration, of course, Topper is much fatter.

Faces and Species

A random assortment of facial parts. I do this sometimes when I'm in a rut, which happens even to geniuses like me.

Sorry for the delay, I was out for a few days with limited Internet availability.

The Monster Mash

Ball point pen renderings of monster mouths. I was probably thumbing through some images of late '50's Jack Kirby monster comics.

A Borrowed Cat

I was thumbing through a free comic my son had gotten of Jim Lee's Batman and decided to do some studies of his Catwoman. My main criticism with many of the modern comic artists is that they draw their females too lean. I much prefer a Black Widow as depicted by Gene Colan for example. That generation understood the value of curves.

The Pope, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover

Another face from the newspaper. This one was from Ireland at a mass where the congregation was given copies of the Popes statement on the child abuse scandal to read. I fell in love with the character in the mans face, and by the fact that he was wearing a suit. In America, church-goers wear polo shirts for special occasions and over-sized t-shirts with American flags on them or Nascar drivers for regular Sundays. Sleeves optional.

Gato Vato

Topper in a pensive moment with a ball point pen. I'm making amends for treating him so cruelly below. Actually, since we recently got a dog, Topper looks a lot closer to the images below than above.

On another matter, my hero Joe Kubert has recently published a 200+ page graphic account called "Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965". This was a nice surprise since I had no prior knowledge of it. It's the true story of a Special Forces team defending a doomed village early in the war. Joe's drawn it on toned paper in pencil with white highlights. It's gorgeous and I'm reading it in 5 page bursts to make it last as long as possible. Here's a link to an interview with the master on Comic Book Resources: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=26087

Joe Kubert's in his mid- 80's and still out-producing guys a quarter his age. I'll never forget the advice he once gave me in the halls of the Kubert School- "Watch your fingers!" ( I was using the paper cutter at the time).

Don Gato

Same night as previous, I think. I was using a ball point pen. The bottom sketch is why Topper must maintain his weight.