Of Stars and Footprints - more Reuben weekend photos

Well, we didn't leave the hotel much, but when we did we dutifully strolled up and down Hollywood Blvd. and the walk of fame. Sad to say, the walk has seen better days - it was a shame how much of it really needs to be repaired. Still, it was fun and we saw a lot of interesting star names.

Looking toward the Kodak Theater (where they hold the Oscars)
A better view of the Kodak and surrounding streetscape.

The entry where they have the red carpet.

The famous "stars"

One of my favs. :-)

Think about it.

John in front of Grauman's Chinese.

John Wayne's footprints will always be an "I Love Lucy" episode for me.

I had to take this one at a weird angle because there were simply too many people crowding around it. Probably something to do with a little movie they released lately.

You have to check your feet next to the stars.

Another of my personal favorites.

An oldie but a goodie.

I'm so lucky to have a dad that recorded a ton of Jack Benny radio shows for me to listen to while growing up. What great comedic timing.

Gotta love the pistol and the horseshoes.

For the "Citizen Kane" fans - Marion Davies was what all the fuss was about. As part of the Hearst Entertainment family, I take a greater interest in all things Hearst than I used to.

 

More Reubens pics - Cathy Guisewite's House

It was such a busy weekend, I'll be posting in stages. Here are some pics from Sunday afternoon when cartoonist Cathy Guisewite very generously opened up her home to the entire NCS. I did get to speak to her briefly and was able to finally thank her for her advice to John many years ago when he was breaking into the business, but it was a busy day and she was in high demand so I did not impose on her for a photo. Her home was lovely, the food was delicious (the salad alone was one of the best I've ever tasted), the music provided by a very talented guitarist was beautiful, and the company was terrific!

 

Cathy's parents Anne and Bill greeted everyone as they arrived. (No Cathy's mother does not customarily sport a mustache!)

A view of the house from the terrace.

The tennis court was nicely set up for eating and chatting and the umbrellas were a much appreciated touch - my Wisconsin winter skin was starting to get a little crispy by the end of a weekend in the California sun.

Surrounding the tennis court were these figures - each had the head of a cartoonist and his/her character. The stairs lead to the pool and a small guesthouse.

The pool. No one swam but, more surprisingly, no one got thrown in either. I must confess I rather thought Mike Peters might dive in but he didn't :-)

Cathy's home is filled with incredible art. 

Jan Elliot of Stone Soup

John with Hilary Price of Rhymes with Orange

There were two items for the cartoonists to sign - this piano and the pot below. Mell Lazarus of Miss Peach has a famous grand piano that has too many cartoonist's signatures to count. Cathy is trying to catch up.

Bill and Jeff Keene of Family Circus signing the pot.

Here are their faces but the shadows are pretty dark.

John signs the pot.

Edison nicely nestled between Pooch Cafe's Poncho and Mutts' Earl.

And I'll give Stephan Pastis the last word.

Reuben Weekend

I'll be writing in depth about our terrific time at the Reuben Weekend later today. In the meantime, here are a few photos.

John, Tom Racine (Tall Tale Radio) Norm Feuti (Retail) and Lucas Turnbloom (Imagine This!)
Vic Lee (Pardon My Planet - Award nominee), Brendan Burford (King Features), John

Jeff Corriveau (Deflocked), Rina Piccolo (Tina's Groove, Six Chix), me, Brendan Burford, Paul Gilligan (Pooch Cafe) Karyl Miller (comedy writer), and Jenny Robb (Museum of Cartoon Art)

Michael Meehan, Kieran Meehan (Pros and Cons) Norm Feuti, David Meehan

Me and Paul Gilligan (with Norm in the background)

My Other Life

Well, after ages of not having a website for my harp business, I have now taken the plunge into the 21st century. You can find my new harp website here.

It is only 75 % finished in that, I don't have that blog up and running yet, and we're still tweaking some things on the contact page, but it's mostly ready for public consumption. 

One of my main goals for this site is to raise money for breast cancer research through the sale of my original recordings. I lost my very best friend in the world to this disease 2 years ago and feel very passionately about the need to stamp it out or, at the very least, improve treatment options, survival rates, and quality of life for those in the metastatic stage. My hope is to really make a difference with these donations.

Even if you don't make a donation, you can listen to the music while you're on the site, and hopefully it will add something to your day.

Retail -Another Favorite

While, I have not worked in retail, I have done plenty of waitressing which, as a fellow service sector/minimum wage job, is pretty darn close. That may be one reason I am such a fan of Norm Feuti's strip Retail. It perfectly captures the madness that is trying to accomplish the impossible and the unreasonable every day. And for ludicrously low wages. What Dilbert is to the mindless world of cubicles, Retail is to your local big box/department store. If this strip isn't one of your daily reads, add it now! And tell every retail employee you meet to read it too!

Of Pooches

Another great comic is Paul Gilligan's "Pooch Cafe".  I think our local paper picked this strip up at its launch so I've gotten to read it for a nice long time. I always consider it in my morning top 10.

These are our pooches. 

The little terrier is not the brightest bulb and has a highly overdeveloped bark instinct. John says he barks at the wind. About the only trait he has in common with Pooch Cafe's savvy Poncho character is his appearance. 

The border collie, however, is extremely smart. She will actually fake us out by pretending to be asleep until we leave a room with unattended food. In a twinkling the food will be gone and she then puts herself into the bathroom for a time-out. In fact, whenever she does something she's not supposed to, she puts herself in time-out. I have never before owned a self punishing dog. "What are ya lookin at me for - I didn't do anything!" dogs yes, but guilt ridden dogs, no.

Fortunately for her, we also have a cat, so between him and the terrier, she has two other animals to herd and harass. Apparently border collies need this. Personally, I think Pooch Cafe needs more border collies - I hope to speak to Paul about it :-)

Real Life

Generally, I am not the model for Carol. No truly, I am not. But today's strip is from our real lives. Recently, along with many family members, we went to one of those "all-you-can-eat" buffet places and I, rather unsportingly, ate nothing but an omelette and a salad. Granted, it was a ginormous salad, but I was informed I was missing the point. 

Itty Bitty Food

When I mentioned that some strips take longer to color than others, this is the sort of thing I was talking about. I'm sure I take waaaaay too much time on these, but I really like doing them. As I was working on this one I realized it's like making miniature food for doll houses.

To Color Or Not To Color

Should daily comics be in color or black and white?  Until a few years ago this wasn't even a question that was out there. Dailies were in black and white, color was for Sundays. Period.

But things have changed quite a bit in the comics business of late and, while it doesn't get nearly as much press as the "webcomic vs print comic" debate, whether or not dailies should be in color is a huge question. Many many comic artists don't like color dailies. They are a lot of extra work to produce and they can completely change the tone of a strip. They also can be seen to degrade the specialness of the color when it appears on Sunday. A lot of artists draw their comic differently when they know it is going to be in color, they may even choose jokes in which the color plays a role. This is much more difficult to do with a daily as the artists typically has no idea how many people are seeing the daily in color vs black and white. 

So what has changed? Why has this issue even come up? 

One of the first changes happened in print newspapers when, with a decision I assume was designed to increase readership, some of them started to print all of their comics in color everyday. I have no numbers (and would appreciate them if any of you do) as to just how many papers out there are running their daily comics in color, but our local paper was one of the first. I want to say they've been doing it for at least 5 years.

The other change was the decision by syndicates to let syndicated material run on the internet. King Features specifically included color dailies in John's contract. It is probably no coincidence that King was launching their subscription service, dailyink, at almost the same time John's contract would have been being written. I have not checked every single comic King offers online but, aside from the vintage comics, they all seem to be in color.

I have addressed some of the issues of actually creating the color for these two very different mediums of print and web in an earlier post. (Color Conundrums) So, leaving that aside, I am posting a few strips in both color and black and white for your consideration. In some of these I think the color adds a lot to the overall look of the strip. Others, not so much. I will admit that, spending as much time on these as I do, and only seeing them in color every day - both in my local paper and on the web, I am always a little shocked when I pick up a black and white comics page and see the uncolored strips. Especially anything that takes place in the lab, as I use a very specific set or backgrounds for lab strips.

Honey I Wanna Be a Cartoonist Part 7

John has posted the latest installment in his syndication series here.

On The Nightstand

His:

Which makes it impossible for me to read anything because he's laughing out loud every 10 seconds. Since becoming acquainted  with Mad's Tom Richmond, John has been rediscovering his love for Mad - a childhood favorite. If you don't have a copy of this book, you should get one ASAP.

Hers:

These were some of my first reading - I don't think I understood a word of it at 6 but even so I was tremendously drawn to the art.  Mr. Feiffer also illustrated a children's book for a friend of ours (Florence Parry Heide - "Some Things Are Scary") and gave a chalk talk a few years ago in Milwaukee. Ms. Heide invited us up to the event, which featured a retrospective of Mr. Feiffer's work, as well as his most recent children's book. Ms. Heide promptly introduced John to Mr. Feiffer as an up and coming cartoonist (John was not yet syndicated) to which Mr. Feiffer replied, "I hope you know there's no money in it." or words to that effect.  These books are probably out of print, but if you can get your hands on them - library, used book store, amazon, ebay - you really should. They are groundbreaking.

Like Father Like Daughter

This was actually taken a couple of years ago. All our children have drawn comics (complete with gutters and panels) since they were little.