Jeffro's Blog

Berry & Beasley

2012-01-30T20:29:00.000-08:00

This past Friday was my parents' anniversary. Saturday was my Mom's birthday. My Mom has been gone 8 years on January 13th. Needless to say, January is never a great month for me. I haven't really come to grips with her passsing after all this time. I still remember things she said, the way she sang quietly in a high pitched voice. My memories of my Mom, for the most part, are idealized. I'm glad for that. Some days this world is a frightening and awful place without her. Then again, the world she left her mark on is sometimes decent and awesome. My Mom had an impact not only on her kids, but her grandkids as well. She had a special relationship with each one.

This drawing was done on sticker paper. I put it in my niece Erin's 2010 Christmas present - a fancy sketchbook. Erin draws a lot. When she was a baby and a toddler, my Mom would jokingly say that I should make a children's book about her and Erin called "Berry and Beasley in the Garden". Berry was her nickname for Erin. It seemed like a great and epic idea that lived in my Mom's brain, but I was never really sure what the story was about.

Erin seemed really happy to get this from me. All my nieces and nephews are great kids. They're charming. It's a pleasure being a part of their lives.

Artificial Dissemination 2 & The Resurrection of "Meet Your Neighbors"

2012-01-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

I created this piece for the Artificial Dissemination show this weekend at Phantom Hand. This 17" x 11" poster sized pen and ink drawing is a resurrection of my "Meet Your Neighbors" strip, a weekly true-to-life comic that ran on the Philly Turkey's website for almost two years. Most of the comics were a little meaner than my normal stuff, drawn in a thin-line style with no pencil. Every week, I would draw something or someone I saw in Philly that struck me as ridiculous, hilarious, disgusting, heartbreaking, or sometimes all of the above. This one was just heartbreaking. I learned a good lesson from this man, but the truth is I could not tell what kind of life he leads. For all I know, he might be happy just to be alive.

I will be donating all my proceeds from the sale of this piece to the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness. Make sure to stop out this weekend and see all of the awesome work hanging at the gallery.

Sketches of Fishtown # 107 - Big John Bosak

2012-01-25T14:20:00.001-08:00

It has been well over a year since I have created or published an issue of "Sketches of Fishtown". After the second book release, I just needed a little bit of a break. I also worked on some art shows and other projects. I will be publishing these drawings and anecdotes as often as I possibly can. I started the project back up because this one is very special to me. John Bosak was my gal Joannie’s uncle. I initially drew this portrait for Joannie’s mom for Christmas. But before I even knew Joannie, Johnny was always good to me. A few years back, when I would be sitting alone bartending on an empty Wednesday night, Johnny would see me through the window, come in, and keep me company. He also asked me to draw a congratulatory picture of his son for this paper a few years back, when his son came home from the military.

John Bosak had character and a great sense of humor. He was unique. Drawing John’s portrait reminded me of why I started this project eight years ago - because Fishtown, with all of its unique facets, history, and people, is a place worth remembering. It’s a place worth celebrating. If you have a memory, an event, or a person worth remembering and celebrating, please share your words and photos: sketchesoffishtown@gmail.com.

Chicken Brothers Shirt on Teefury - Jan. 19 Only

2012-01-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, January 19, 2012, Teefury will have a shirt up for sale that I co-designed with my buddy Mike Giacopetti. The shirt is inspired by Breaking Bad, a show on AMC we both watch and enjoy. If you've seen the show, you'll get the chicken joke - both how it parodies the restaurant and how it depicts the behavior of the main characters in the show from last season.

If you are interested in purchasing the shirt (for the low lo cost of only $10), PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Christmas Season 2011 - Part 4 - The Card

2012-01-17T12:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I forgot to post this here. I had it up all over facebook in December. This will be my last post regarding work I did during the holiday season of 2011.

I used the same characters on my family Christmas card this year as I did last year (Click Here to see). The elves are Joannie and her sons Brandon (with the ear gauges) and Aaron (jumping). Zoe, our insane puggle (ripping through the snowman's belly). I am the abominable snow monster, of course.

On the back, I added the newest edition to our family - our turtle, Murray. He's crazy.

My Main Man Bil Keane

2012-01-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

I wrote this article recently while reflecting on the passing of cartoonist Bil Keane. Bil helped me out a great deal in my life. I owe him a lot. I am very grateful to have known him, and I'm sad that he is gone.

CLICK HERE to read the article in Spirit Community Newspapers.

Drawing Soundtrack - Boddie Recording Company

2012-01-10T10:34:00.000-08:00

According to their website, Numero is a “multi-format media company, devoted to dragging brilliant recordings, films, and photography out of unwarranted obscurity”. I am a huge fan of their “Eccentric Soul” series of albums. They find work released from these amazing record labels that didn’t see wide distribution and they repackage and re-release them to a larger audience. A lot of these labels were run out of dance halls and neighborhood joints. The reason I like it so much is because I’ve heard all the work of Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, the Four Tops, etc. all my life. I love that music, but it’s great to hear these small-time groups who were taking their shot. It’s inspirational to me - mostly because I am a still small-timer myself, still trying every day to take a shot at my own dream.

I also like these CDs and albums because great care is taken in the design and production of the packaging. With the economy hurting and MP3 downloads and sales being an easier option on music consumers, it’s nice to see people earning the edge, giving you something extra to make you want to take something home from the store and put it on your shelf. You get something to read, something study and give you a feel for the music. To me, it’s comparable to the days when an album cover was worth studying, when it was a piece of art that would entice you to buy the album.

I treated myself recently to this 3-CD set from Numero: Boddie Recording Company: Cleveland, Ohio. Aside from the CDs, the set comes with booklets of information about the label, songs, and artists. It also has reproductions of show fliers and really cool photos. Music like this makes me eager to sit down at my desk and draw. It’s my drawing soundtrack for the new year.

Christmas Season 2011 - Part 3 - Portrait of John Bosak

2012-01-10T09:04:00.000-08:00

I did this portrait for Joannie’s Mom. It is her brother Johnny – Big John Bosak. John passed away last year. He was one of those big, strong, fun-loving Fishtown characters that everyone knew. If you ever met John, you did not forget him. He used to come visit me when I bartended at Moe’s a few years back. Wednesday nights were pretty slow after the pool team left, so John would come in and keep me company.

Joan asked me to draw this portrait and make prints so she could give them as Christmas gifts to all of her brothers and sisters. She also gave prints to John’s kids. We had the archival giclee prints made by Chris Wofford over at Giclee Today. Chris did an amazing job, and I plan on using him to do my giclee prints in the future. I gave Joan the original framed ink drawing for Christmas.

This will also be the drawing I use for the return of the “Sketches of Fishtown” project. I’ve had over a year off, but I plan on picking the project back up in the coming weeks.

Christmas Season 2011 - Part 2 - The Tattoo

2012-01-07T11:39:00.001-08:00

My big brother Scott asked me to design him a tattoo this year for his birthday in early December.

He wanted a drawing on a phoenix rising up, but he also wanted my mother's eyes watching over. He's really big on the phoenix metaphor. I'm not going to put his business on the street, but if you knew my brother and the adversity he's overcome in his life, you would know it is an apt analogy. We looked at several pictures of my Mom. Her eyes didn't change much throughout the course of her life, aside from wrinkles we all acquire with age. She had such bright eyes. We agreed to use the eyes from a high school photo of her as reference:

I drew the design in pencil first. Once he approved it, I went on to inks:

He had a great tattoo artist I know named Danny Emery do the work. Danny runs the shop called "Philly Ink" at Kensington & Allegheny.

I was happy to be able to design my brother's first tattoo, especially because it had such deep, personal meaning. It was a highlight of my holiday season.

Christmas Season 2011 - Part 1 - The Shirts

2011-12-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a little while since I posted. I have been busy doing stuff for Christmas. Some presents, some business. Some that wound up becoming both. But since a lot of my work runs that line, I wanted to showcase it here. First, below are the shirts I worked on during the Christmas season.

The first was a gift for Joannie’s youngest son Aaron. We both love the television show “The Wire”. Aaron is a smart kid who seems to get just how intelligent and important that show is. Joannie got me the complete boxed set last year for Valentine’s Day. Since I’d scratched up and lent out all my burned copies of the series, this was just about the greatest gift anyone ever gave me. It was even more awesome that Aaron also loved the show. Last year, as I would drive him to school in the morning, it’s pretty much all we would talk about. Since we hadn’t spent much time together before this, we didn’t really know each other well. But I remember being genuinely impressed by how smart and insightful he is. When he told me he wanted an “Omar Comin” black hoodie for Christmas, I got to work. Brian Potash over at DevilFish Ink did the printing for me, and took great personal care, even hand-painting some of the ink over the hoodie’s front pocket. Potash also took it upon himself to make a certificate of authenticity, letting Aaron know this shirt was one-of-a-kind. I knew I went to the right guy for the printing. Brian takes great pride in his work, and always takes the time to add a personal touch.

The shirt below is my Boardwalk Empire-inspired shirt for Teefury. I also love this show (although nothing really compares to the Wire). However, I still love all the old-tymieness. I was happy the shirt did pretty well on the Teefury sale and it still sells pretty well on my RedBubble site. I was even happier to see that my friend Andrea bought it for John, my future Father-In-Law as a Christmas gift. That was a pleasant surprise to see John wearing the shirt at Joannie’s folks’ Christmas party.

The shirt below I designed in tribute Ernie Koschineg, a hero to anyone who attended North Catholic during the past few generations. It’s hard to explain, but Ernie, as tough as he is, was the reason kids couldn’t cut class. He was North’s disciplinarian. All the students thought he was a fed, and he scared them to death. Yet at the end of every school year, Ernie would give a smile and a fist pump on the last day that would make the auditorium erupt with applause. After the school closed, instead of retiring, Ernie took it upon himself to work as a liaison to the schools that North kids transferred to. He rotates his schedule between all these other schools to make sure our students adjust well to their new surroundings. He acts so tough, but he cares for each kid more than they will ever know. I wanted to make a shirt that poked fun at Ernie’s legendary J.U.G. (Justice Under God), which is Catholic school’s detention. I tried to emulate the spirit of old Communist Propaganda posters. I also included a scan of a detention slip. Ernie was a good sport and gave his blessing for the design. He was most gracious when I delivered his shirt to him at Roman, and he actually wore it to the teachers’ reunion we had after Christmas. The shirt is still for sale at the Spirit Newspaper Offices at 1428 E. Susquehanna Avenue in Fishtown. If you want one, you can call: (215) 423-6246.

I will post more of the work I have been doing soon...

New Caddyshack-Inspired Tee on Teefury December 18

2011-12-17T18:24:00.000-08:00

This shirt design was inspired by my favorite scene in one of my favorite comedies of all time - Caddyshack. This is as close as I get to a golf course. I'm not a huge fan of golf, but I LOVE this movie. CLICK HERE to see the clip.

On Sunday, December 18, from midnight to midnight, the shirt can be purchased on Teefury.com. Click HERE to visit the site.

Peanuts/Grinch Inspired Mashup On RedBubble

2011-12-09T09:28:00.000-08:00

I have a holiday themed design up in my RedBubble store. If interested, you can get this design in various colors on tees, hoodies and baby clothes. Click Here to go to my RedBubble Store.

Harrow's Security Shirt up on Teefury - Dec. 5 Only

2011-12-02T07:07:00.000-08:00

I am a big fan of old-tymie things. I was really happy last year when I saw HBO had a show coming out about Atlantic City in the 1920's. The show has so many things I like. Scorsese is involved Buscemi is the lead. Who doesn't love that guy?. Plus all the sets, cars, suits, characters, music - this show is full of awesome stuff from my grandparents' heyday, when I would have preferred to live.

The one thing that really surprised me though was Richard Harrow's character. This lonely Phantom of the Opera/Slingblade type war hero took me by surprise and has turned out to be my favorite character in the show. He's that rogue, badass guy, kind of like Rorschach in Watchmen. I find these types of characters really interesting, and feel like they take stories in unexpected directions. Anyways, that's the inspiration behind this shirt design. I used old fashioned text, art-deco 1920's stuff. My buddy Mark suggested the light bulbs around the bottom text, like a marquee. I thought that was a nice touch.

Anyways, the shirt is for sale one day only, December 5, for $10 bucks on Teefury.com.

RedBubble Store Now Live

2011-11-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to post that I have some rare shirt designs posted on my RedBubble page. If you are interested in getting a shirt you can't get anywhere else, please CLICK HERE to look at the store.

Atlantic City Weekly cover

2011-11-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

A fella I used to work with named Craig hooked me up with this gig to do an illustration of Jay-Z and Kanye for the cover of Atlantic City Weekly. People who know me know I am about as hip-hop as Leon Redbone. However, I do love Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, N.W.A., and a lot of hip-hop from my youth. There is a lot of new stuff I like too, like Aesop Rock, and Wu-Tang and local guys like Black Landlord.

In spite of the fact that I am as gangsta as Alan Alda, I thought this was a great opportunity not only for exposure to a new audience, but also to stretch my legs as far as content is concerned. So I was happy to do it.

Historic Trauma - Zelda Fitzgerald

2011-11-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

This is an illustration of Zelda Fitzgerald for Merion Matters, Inc. This will be in Advance News Magazine's Nursing publications accompanying one of the "Historic Trauma" articles. I've done a few of these over the years. I really liked doing these themed portrait illustrations. They've made a nice little portfolio. If you'd like to see more, please CLICK HERE.

As I am moving on from Merion next week to pursue more freelance, this will probably be my last illustration for the company. It's been a great experience designing and illustrating for them. I met some great friends and had some excellent supervisors. Moving on is never easy. I am sad that I won't be seeing my coworkers on a regular basis anymore, but I also look forward to what lies ahead.

"YAT" Yard Art in New Orleans FRINGE Festival

2011-10-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

This was one of my favorite things I've done all year. It started from a small drawing in my Moleskine.

For years immediately following college, I worked in several different positions for a medical relief organization called Carelift International. I started as a warehouse worker, then transferred to the Development Department where I assisted in fundraising and also acted as a one-man art department (handling all photo, website, and graphic design work). After I started teaching at North Catholic, I went back to the warehouse part-time when the teaching day was done. Carelift is gone now, but that job was an amazing learning experience. I got to travel to Ukraine (more about that trip HERE), and I met some awesome people from all over who gave me a whole new outlook on the world. One of these people was Damon Rosenzweig.

Damon was in Ukraine with me, a great dude. He'd done work with other medical relief organizations prior to Carelift. He's from New Orleans, one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. I visited New Orleans a few years back and really love that city, almost as much as I love Philly. I recently looked Damon up, wondering what he's up to these days. Turns out he's back home working with the New Orleans FRINGE Festival doing all kinds of great stuff. We have a similar festival here in Philly, also called the FRINGE. After an e-mail or two, Damon asked if I'd be part of the festival's "YAT Yard Art Tour," an exhibition of outdoor art all over the city. I was psyched. I recently finished and got approval for the 3' x 5' design (shown above) that will be printed on a vinyl banner and hung outside in New Orleans for the FRINGE. I sent the file to the printer today. Damon said he really liked the design, so I'm happy.

I started with a brush & ink drawing, then had to scan and change the line work to vector, given the size of the final printed banner. All of the color was done digitally. I just wanted to capture something lighthearted and laid back that celebrates the yards of the city and sends my love to New Orleans. I put a bunch of Pops, Kermit Ruffins, Professor Longhair, Meters, Clarence Frogman Henry, and Preservation Hall Jazz Band on my Ipod, had a few beers, and went town sketching a dragon at the BBQ (I am a BBQ maniac myself). Given that dragons are fire-breathing, we can assume this is a charcoal BBQ, even though we can't see the grill. No propane in my yard.

Here is a link to the Google Maps of YAT 1. When I get the photos on the banner being hung and my work being put on the Google tour map, I will post some updates.

"Autumn Leaves" - music for drawing

2011-10-11T10:54:00.001-07:00

Been in an Autumn mood today. One great thing about living on the east coast is the changing of seasons. It's good to move forward and have reminders all around you that things are changing. Autumn is also a good time for looking back over the year.

Even though the lyrics of Autumn Leaves make it a sad song, I really like it. I have a bunch of different versions of it and like them all equally. I listen to this tune a lot while drawing this time of year.

This one by Mickey Baker is kind of upbeat and surfy. Still has a sound that's holding onto Summer:

CLICK HERE to get the song on Amazon.

This one by Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt is also very upbeat. Gene Ammons' playing reminds me a great deal of my old friend, Nate Wiley. Nate often spoke of Gene Ammons as being a great "melody man" and a profound influence:

CLICK HERE to get the song on Amazon.

And this one is very sad, but also sweet. It's on Duke Ellington's "Indigos" album. You can CLICK HERE to get the track. I inherited this on vinyl from my Grandpop, but the vinyl has a shorter version. It only has Ozzie Bailey singing in English. The CD I have has him singing in English and French. But in my opinion, the thing that makes this cut so sweet is Ray Nance's violin solo:

Pitbull Hoverboards Shirt on Teefury - Oct. 12, 2011 - Now You've Got Power!

2011-10-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

On October 12, 2011, I will have another shirt up on Teefury’s “one day only” sale. For this go round, I designed a “Pitbull Hoverboards” T-shirt. This design references the movie “Back to the Future II”. In the future, the only hoverboards that ride over water are the ones with “power”. Griff Tannen has a Pitbull Hoverboard, complete with little jet engines to keep him propelled as he chases Marty McFly over a pond and through the streets of Hill Valley in the year 2015. It’s 2011 now, so it looks like we’ll actually have our own hoverboards in just four short years. I can’t wait. The cost of parking in Center City Philadelphia is killing me.

The design is a pretty simple concept - a nasty pitbull riding a Pitbull hoverboard. I used a Back to the Future style font for the text. You can view a larger image of the shirt on Teefury’s website by CLICKING HERE on Wednesday, October 12.

Fishtown Drawing from 2007

2011-10-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

Rummaging through my files on the computer, I came across this image. Back when I used to bartend at Moe's Tavern on Wednesday nights, I would sometimes raffle off original drawings. My buddy Mike McCafferty won this one. It's just a noodly line Fishtown-themed drawing.I have fun drawing these organic types of buildings.

The Deadly Crocaroo and other things...

2011-10-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

I did this drawing while teaching at the University of the Arts’ Saturday Arts Lab last week. I teach cartooning and comics creation to 7^th and 8^th graders. The class is always awesome. Any kid that is signing up for a 6^th day of school is generally well-behaved and hungry to learn. These kids work really hard, and I am often amazed by the amount of talent and growth I see each semester. Plus I have two really great assistant teachers this go-round. I always get good ones. These courses always remind me why I love to teach art. I wish I had time to invest in more programs like this.

This particular drawing is my rendering of a “Crocaroo”. He’s part Crocodile, part kangaroo if you haven’t figured that out. If this animal existed in the real world, humanity would be in trouble. The title of the project is called “The Zoo of Your Imagination”. I swiped it from the book, “Drawing: For the Artistically Undiscovered” by John Cassidy and Quentin Blake. The book is an amazing activity book that really encourages artists of all ages to exercise their imagination, which is the one muscle you really need to be a good cartoonist. I have a bunch of wildlife kingdom photo cards from my childhood. So if a student is having trouble creating a brand new animal, they can take pieces of all different animals and combine them. One of my students this week said he had this project in a different class, but another teacher called it “Composite Animals”.

Speaking of that Blake book, my friend and Meathaus brother Chris McD has recently released an activity book that is also an amazing catalyst for the imagination. It’s “Sasquatch’s Big Hairy Drawing Book”. It’s quirky and fun and amazing. McD is an awesome cartoonist with clients under his belt like Adult Swim, Yo Gabba Gabba, Ralph Bakshi, and Spumco (Ren & Stimpy) just to name a few. If you’d like to learn more about his book, CLICK HERE.

“For All My Friends” Star Wars-inspired Shirt up on TeeFury – Oct. 3rd – One Day Only

2011-10-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

I did this drawing as a piece of fan art initially. You can read about the how and why by CLICKING HERE. After the Harry Potter/Dr. Who-inspired shirt I had on Teefury.com, I decided to try this out as a shirt design as well. I did some research. There are a lot of Cantina shirts available online, but they were more logo/sign ideas. Although it’s not the most original concept, I hope my drawing style puts enough of an individual spin to give it my voice. Aside from making this shirt just a parody of the Star Wars bar scene, I also wanted to goof on other bar-centric entertainment. So I decided to make a “Cheers” type logo. I also titled the shirt after a famous line of dialogue from Charles Bukowski’s “Barfly” script (another piece of hard-drinkin’ fun).

If you like, CLICK HERE to go to Teefury’s website. The shirt will be up for that marathon-type of sale for $10 from midnight to midnight only on October 3^rd. Then it’s as gone as the shot of Jameson’s I had with my breakfast.

Lizard and Girl

2011-09-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

Just posting this old Lizard drawing I did a few years back. I don't think I ever posted it here. If I have, I apologize for the repeat. It's one of my favorite drawings that I've done. I drew and colored most of it sitting at the bar at Bob & Barbara's by the light of the old tymie cash register.

The drawing was done in an old sketchbook with brush pen, Micron pen, and Prismacolor and Chartpak markets.

Collaborative T-Shirt Designs with Mike Giacopetti

2011-09-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

Throughout my life, I’ve been super lucky to collaborate with a lot of people – from co-workers to lifelong friends to other cartoonists and artists, even with students of all ages. I love mixing up work with folks and seeing what comes out in the end. There is always something to be learned. It is especially decent when you have a collaborative experience that flows seamlessly. Recently, I had an project like that.

A friend I work with, Mike Giacopetti, had ideas for a couple t-shirt designs. Mike is a good designer, and we have the same taste in teevee shows. He talked to me about collaborating on a “Sons of Anarchy” tribute shirt and a “Breaking Bad” themed shirt. I was eager to work with him, given the ideas. I’ve been watching Breaking Bad since it first came on. Sons of Anarchy is a show I just started watching that Joannie and her kids are really into. Tuesday has become our “Family Teevee Night” at 10 PM, especially since I never have work on Tuesday nights.

Mike came up with the concepts for both. He also designed the logo for the Chicken Brothers shirt. I did the illustration work using ink, Bristol, and tracing paper. I then scanned everything in and laid it out on the computer. All I had to do then was design a background (reminiscent of busted glass) and drop in the logo Mike designed:

As far as the S.O.A. fan art design, Mike did everything except the crow skeleton illustration. He designed a parody whiskey label reminiscent of the “Old Crow” bourbon label. If you click here, you’ll see he’s pretty dead-on. I did my ink illustration during Sunday’s Eagles game. Then all I had to do was scan it and drop it into place using Photoshop:

I am not sure if these shirts will ever get made, but it was fun working on them.

Groucho Birthday Card

2011-09-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

I did this really quick Groucho Marx birthday card for Mira, my supervisor and friend at work. She loves the Marx Brothers. Kinda cool because so do I and Groucho is always fun to draw.

Inside I wrote a quote from Groucho: “I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.”

I think I may watch Duck Soup this weekend.

Jabba's Palace Fan Art Drawing

2011-09-26T11:51:00.001-07:00

Think I've finally got Star Wars out of my system for a while. While finishing this drawing last week, I had Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi playing on my computer. It was neat visiting those movies, like seeing an old friend. It's been a really long time since I've watched any Star Wars movies. I forgot what a big part of my childhood it was, how huge those movies were.

This cartoon has all my favorite action figures from this movie from when I was a kid - except for the slave girl (I don't think they made a toy for her back then). I don't know if I will be able to use this drawing for anything. I just really wanted to finish it, since I also did one of the Mos Eisley Cantina creatures from the first Star Wars movie.

Looking Back at My First Book - PETEY

2011-09-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

In 1996, when I was attending Temple University’s film school, I didn’t sleep much at all. I don’t sleep much now, but back then, I was averaging about two hours per night. Needless to say, a good bit of my college memories are a blur. Some are very crisp, vivid, and intense though, like when I created the character Petey MacDew. Initially, I drew Petey in my sketchbook in 1996 while hanging out with Joe Wichert. Joey worked a night job with me at a bank Senior year. He also attended Temple U with me, but I don’t really remember which years we were at the school together. I just remember hanging out all hours of the night. After we’d knock off work, Joey and I would hang out drinking beers, bumming around, watching movies and cable access teevee. When I look back, even though my lines were shaky and crunchy, my life was like a constant stream on inspired work. I think my college years are when I started to feel at home in my own shadow and understand who I really was. This is when I realized I wanted to draw silly cartoons for the rest of my life, no matter what else I was doing.I toyed with the drawings of Petey in the sketchbook. It was a rough draft of a story. For some reason, Joey was very encouraging of this idea. I am embarrassed to say the name Petey came from an Alec Baldwin SNL skit, a soap opera spoof with twin brothers named Pierce and Petey.

I shelved the sketchbook when it got filled up, then picked it back up again in 1998. I was working at a warehouse at the time. I’d been working there since the day I graduated college almost a year earlier. I was frustrated and awake to the fact that a college degree does not land you and instant high-paying job. So I decided to give myself projects on my own time to try and achieve some progress. Petey was the first big project I took on. I made the story into a children’s book with a very dark theme – child abuse. At the time, a Buddhist friend of mine took me into the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center to do art and music projects with kids who were victims of all kinds of crisis. My life was changed. Although I was amazed at the obstacles these kids overcame on a daily basis, I was also very angry about the abuse life had thrown on them. So I finished Petey as a children’s book. Sonia Sanchez, an amazing poet, friend, teacher, and human being, was kind enough to look at the book and give me some notes. She told me the book was too frightening, too “downbeat”, that it needs a brighter end. She was right, but at the time I was exhausted by the project, so I shelved it again to take a step back.

In 2002, four years after I shelved Petey, I read about the Xeric Foundation (please click here to read more if you are a self-publishing comics maker). I couldn’t believe that Peter Laird (of Ninja Turtles fame) was giving away money so people could create independent comics. My mind was grasping for ideas until I realized that I have a project that could be reworked into a comic. I took Petey off the shelf and spent a month redrawing panels, scanning the original art, laying out the images as comic panels instead of full pages. Between 1998 and 2002, I had learned a lot about Photoshop and other digital art programs. I used everything at my disposal to make a 32-page comic book, and I gave it the uplifting pieces it needed to not be completely downbeat as Sonia suggested years earlier. Also, a few artists and writers helped me with language and pacing. Lucky for me, members of the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society were nice enough to give me pinup pages to fill in the extra space I had (thanks, Andrew Hart, Andrew Hoffmann, Chris McD, Bob Dix, Scott Derby, and Alan Thomas). I whipped together my six proposal copies, got a price quote from a local printer, and sent everything off to the Xeric board.

Unfortunately, I was declined for the grant. Could be my print quote was too high. Could be my work wasn’t good enough. Whatever it was, I didn’t make the cut. When I inquired about it, I even received an encouraging phone call from A.C. Farley at Mirage Studios telling me not to give up. So I didn’t. I asked around all the indy companies about the least expensive place to get comics printed. Drawn & Quarterly turned me onto Westcan printing in Canada. Back then, in that economy, Canadian printing cost a fraction of what it cost locally. So I decided to go with Westcan and self-publish. My Dad was nice enough to lend me the dough for printing cost, (and I paid him back the day I got my check from Previews, the comics distributor). A guy named Chris Young worked with me to make printing my first comic go very smoothly.

I was about to send everything off to the printer, but almost didn’t when I saw “Goodbye Chunky Rice” in Fat Jack’s. I thumbed through the book and saw a turtle with a bindle leaving home and looking for love, and Craig Thompson did it brilliantly. Luckily, I was with Alan Thomas at the time, who ripped the Thompson book from my hand and told me to read it after I made my own book. Alan said that I’d worked too hard on this since college. He was right. So I sent it to print. I dedicated the book to my parents and the kids and staff at the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center. My buddy Rich Marcej let me put the book on his Baboon Books imprint so distributors would carry it.

When I opened my first box of books – I’ll never forget that smell of fresh ink being unleashed from the box. It might be my favorite scent of all time (maybe even better than my Mom’s cookies or Christmas trees).

Sonia endorsed the book when I had a local release party, which made me feel pretty good. I officially released the book at the first annual Toronto Comic Arts Fest in 2003. I did okay with the Petey. It went to second printing, and eventually I even ran out of those doing festivals, conventions, and kids workshops. There was a time for a few years when I cringed every time I read it. Some of it is so young and so awful. The work shifts so drastically at parts because I took such long breaks in getting it to its finished state. But a few weeks ago, I looked for a copy and realized I had none left. I had to order a few from Mile High Comics. It’s been a couple years since I have seen the book, and I will tell you what – when I got that package in the mail, I got kind of psyched again. I didn’t cringe. I didn’t hate any parts of it anymore. It was my first solo book. I was proud of it, even with its bits of awfulness.

More than anything, Petey reminds me that I should be making another book.

"Glory Fades" Rushmore-inspired Shirt on RIPT Apparel Monday, September 19 - One Day Only

2011-09-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

On Monday, September 19, I will have a shirt released on the RIPT Apparel website. The shirt is a tribute to one of my favorite movies “Rushmore”. You can visit the site by CLICKING HERE. RIPT also makes their apparel in hoddies, kids' sizes, and baby onesies too.

Rushmore has some great subtle humor and dry wit. It’s still hands-down my favorite Wes Anderson movie, and always makes me laugh every time I watch it. If you have seen it, you probably get the jokes incorporated into the shirt design. I tried to incorporate some signature visual elements from the film, like the colors of the Rushmore Academy uniform, Max Fischer’s glasses and beret, and the style of lettering from the signage on the school’s fence. I threw all this stuff into a drawing with Mount Rushmore (which actually has nothing to do with the film except the name of the school) and used the words “Sic Transit Gloria”, the only Latin that Max knows and uses to try and pick up a teacher.

Rushmore is a great “Back to School” movie, and one of Bill Murray’s best performances. If you haven’t seen it, you ought to check it out.

Old Bob & Barbara's Art/Benefit for Howard Candie

2011-09-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

I was going through my files these past few days and found a lot of old stuff. I have posted on here many times about my love of Bob & Barbara's at 15th & South. The place has always been a neighborhood bar that Center City grew up around. The place precedes the gentrification of that area, and has been run like a neighborhood bar with affordable drinks for decades.

I don't spend nearly as much time there as I used to. But I still feel awfully welcome when I walk in the door. The bike messengers and hipsters may not know me. Neither do the kids who pack the place on the weekends, but the barkeeps and the locals do. I will always feel comfortable sitting and drawing cartoons at that bar. I found this piece from 2001 that was drawn at the bar while rocking cans of Pabst and shots of Jim Beam:

It was a flier for the bar. Frank, the manager at the time (and the guy responsible for scoring most of that vintage PBR swag way back when) wanted to do something nice to pay pack the bar's steady patrons. So he created "The Big Payback", a weekly event where he brought in free home cooked food. Sadly, the event started to draw a lot of starving addicts who popped out of the woodwork and disturbed steady patrons. So the Big Payback was a short-lived event in Bob & Barbara's history. But it was great that Frankie wanted to do that for his customers. Bob & Barbara's has always been diverse and experimental with their nightly events, from Bingo to Ping Pong to Pictionary to the Drag Show to live Jazz every week.

Above is a photo I took back around 2001 or 2002. I've sung the praises of Nate Wiley & the Crowd Pleasers many many times. They are my heroes. Nate and Cliff have passed, but Howard Candie, the greatest organist the band ever had, is still around. Lately, he has been having some health problems. So once again, Bob & Barbara's Lounge is giving back. Tonight, September 14, from 8 PM to 11 PM, there will be a fundraiser to help Howard and his family with their medical bills. Anyone who has ever heard Howard play has been amazed. He makes that Hammond B-3 shake the room like no other. If you know Howard's music, please come out and help him and his family out. They're great folks.

If you've never heard Howard, you can CLICK HERE to hear him on this documentary short made by local filmmaker Jim McGorman.

Remembering 9/11/2001

2011-09-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of people post/write/talk about their remembrances from that awful day, and I'm no different I guess. It was an experience shared by everyone. It's one of the only experiences like that in my lifetime, and it is definitely the most memorable.

I came across some work in a sketchbook I was keeping at the time that has only been seen by a handful of people. So I really wanted to post it here. I was with coworkers finishing a conference in Ukraine when the planes hit. I lost count of the days while I was waiting to come home, sitting in a tiny hotel room glued to cable news channels. Like so many others a world away, I was in anguish, hopeless, helpless. I drew the following image in my sketchbok. Weeks later when I was home, I photocopied and photoshopped in images from magazines and newspapers I collected in Kyiv and the airports on the way home.

I was asked to write about the experience for Spirit Newspapers. I also collected a bunch of neighbors' and family members' experiences for the paper. You can read the article by CLICKING HERE.

I have a few other images from that sketchbook. They all lack focus and none are complete. I was so depressed afterward, it took me a while before I really wanted to draw. However, the long flights home to Frankfurt, then to Philadelphia were so stressful. Everyone on the planes thought everyone else was a terrorist. So I had to do something to keep my mind occupied. I couldn't wait to be home. I drew this escapist piece of two drunk dogs staggering home through the streets, singing. Sadly, given what just happened, this was my idea of Heaven at the time:

"Phalcons" Limited Edition Baseball shirt now available

2011-09-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

Like the last “Falcon Beach” t-Shirt, this shirt was made in partnership with my family at the Spirit Newspapers. My cousin Tommy from the Spirit is also a proud Falcon. I have been drawing and writing for the Spirit for years. This neighborhood paper really captures the heart of Philly’s Riverward Neighborhoods (Fishtown, Northern Liberties, Port Richmond, Bridesburg, etc). It’s a very family-oriented paper and business run by the Milligan and Westfield families, two of the best families in Philly. My Mom was a Milligan, and my Dad always said he was very glad that he married into this family.

Anyway, I think my Mom would be proud to know I found a way to use my art to work with her family. She loved the Milligans so much. Every time I write a story or draw a cartoon for the Spirit, I feel like I am making her happy. So I am really proud to partner with my cousins on these shirt projects. I have the opportunity to work with my family. Also, in my own way, I get to carry on the spirit of the school that was my home for so many years. Plus my cousin Gene coached North Baseball for years, as did the legendary Larry Conti and my buddy Tim Murphy. But if I were to say anyone inspired this, it would be my grandfather Jim "Pop" Kilpatrick. Pop was a ’37 graduate who lived for North Baseball.

Meathaus GO FOR THE GOLD! 4 - Sketchbook Anthology

2011-08-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

Meathaus, a force of collective comics and cartoon energy (a group of which I am proud to call myself a member) is releasing it’s fourth “GO FOR THE GOLD!” book. GFTG is an anthology of sketchbook work from the groundbreaking independent and ever-expanding Meathaus Comics Collective.

You can pre-order the book now from the Haus. I believe it ships in about two weeks. To see a video with samples of the interior, CLICK HERE to head on over to the Meathaus site. Chris McDonnell edited the book and also did the awesome cover.

This is an amazing opportunity to pull back the curtain and see what raw thought and work goes on behind the scenes with amazing comics artists and cartoonists such as Dash Shaw, Jesse Moynihan, Thomas Herpich, Tomer Hanuka, Brandon Graham, Mu Pan, Jim Rugg, Chris McDonnell, Farel Dalrymple, and Jason Sacher. Here are samples to two of my pages, culled from old sketchbook work and mashed into pages for GFTG! 4:

3rd Annual Black Landlord BBQ Poster

2011-08-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

The following piece is a poster I just designed for Black Landlord. I have done work before for them in the past. You can view a gig poster I recently did by clicking HERE and a flier I designed a couple years back by clicking HERE. I love their music. I love that they rock a full-on funk band and have Maxx S. Williams as lead MC. It’s just really great music. It’s strong, home-grown Philly party music. But it’s also smart and well executed. So I am happy when Black Landlord asks me to do some work.

I’m always going on about music on here, about how it affects the lines I draw while I am working. Music is super-important to me and my work. I rely on it like fuel. So to have my work associated publicly with music that I really like is a great promotional portfolio piece for me.

This poster is for the upcoming 3^rd Annual Black Landlord BBQ. It’s pretty self-explanatory. The BBQ is a local summer music festival. I tried to portray Maxx (as I always do) as a larger than life party animal. I had a lot of fun messing with transparency gradients in Photoshop for the subtle smoke and charcoal layers. I know the subject matter is very simple, but I was pleased with this project. People who know me know that I am a BBQ maniac. I’m always rocking my Char-Griller and slow cooking ribs, chicken, etc. It’s nice to get a project like this. Even though there was a decent amount of work involved, the hours flew by because I had so much fun doing it. Plus it is for a great cause.

Jeff Kilpatrick Harry Potter vs. Dr. Who Shirt on Teefury.com Tuesday, August 9

2011-08-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the shameless plug here on my blog. I have been doing a good amount of T-Shirt designs lately. Some of the shirts I design and get made (like the North Catholic shirts). Sometimes I do these online submission sites. So far, Teefury has accepted two of my designs, this being the first. Teefury gets a whole lot of (but not only) fan traffic from sci-fi, fantasy film, television, and cult movie fanatics. And the folks who frequent these sites and buy the shirts are very passionate about their fandom.

There is a HUGE Dr. Who audience on the site, and there seems to be a big following of Harry Potter fans too. Anyways, the first design I tried my hand at was a combination/parody of those two characters. The reason being mostly was the scarves. It just seemed like a striking visual element to base the design on. Plus, one of the challenges of the designs for these sites is using a limited number of colors. The maximum number of colors Teefury allows is six. Sometimes, giving myself a very limited palette and a strict set of guidelines can be a good catalyst for finishing a project. Anyhow, the shirt is for sale only today, then it goes into the “Gallery” section if you’d like to view the design later.

Click here to see the shirt on Teefury.

www.teefury.com

Jeffro Kilpatrick is the "Geek of the Week" on Geekadelphia

2011-07-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hey, I am proud to call myself a Geek this week. I was interviewed by Geekadelphian Dave Goodman. If you'd like to read the interview, CLICK HERE.

Star Wars Fan Art - Mos Eisley Bar Swarm

2011-07-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

Chris Patchell asked me to post this original black and white ink drawing:

Not sure what's going to become of this piece. I think I posted here a while back that my favorite parts of the Star Wars movies are the monster scenes. I get kind of bored after the bar scene in the first movie. I also get kind of bored after Jabba the Hutt's court scene in Return of the Jedi. But those scenes are very captivating to me, and I believe they had a profound influence on me as a kid. I would play for hours with my Star Wars toys. My Godmother and Aunt Gerry gave me Greedo, Walrus Man, Luke Skywalker, R5-D4, and the Landspeeder for my 5th birthday. I was blown away, and I don't think I ever remember being so excited about a gift. I also have very vivid memories of getting my allowance and my folks driving us to the Toy Store for Star Wars action figures when I was a kid. At that young age, like many kids of my generation, I lived for my toys. And I think this is what led to my early fascination with monsters.

My fascination with bars and barflies came much later. I have done a lot of bar drawings since my college years. But as I look back, I realize they were all just a rehash of the Mos Eisley Cantina scene from the first Star Wars movie. So I wanted to do a drawing where all these creatures were just hanging out having an awesome time at the bar. Anyway, I did this initial drawing on 14" x 11" bristol board in ink. The colors I did in Photoshop and Illustrator. The font is just my own shaky, hand-drawn version of the Star Wars lettering. Maybe the colors will change. Maybe the text will change. I am not sure. But I finished this draft last night, so I am posting it.

Falcon Beach T-Shirt

2011-07-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

I recently partnered up with the Spirit Newspapers to create limited edition North Catholic T-Shirts. Every month or so, we will make a new North Catholic shirt to hnor the school that meant so much to us. If you are a follower of this blog, you probably know that I taught and worked for the school for 7 years, and I went down with the ship. The Spirit was always a really strong supporter of North. My cousin Tommy, one of the co-owners of the paper, is a graduate like myself. We wanted to keep North alive in some small way. During my time at North, I designed most of the shirts, including the annual Thanksgiving Day Game shirt. I figured we can make shirts in short run, no more than 150-200 shirts per design. That way we wouldn't risk losing too much money, and people who bought the shirts would have a limited edition product.

The guys at Awesome Dudes printed this shirt. Joannie's oldest, Brandon, went with me to pick them up. He was nice enough to humor me and model the shirt when we got them back to the Spirit offices.

The shirts are available for sale at the Spirit Newspaper offices (1428 Susquehanna Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19125). They are $15 apiece. We only made 150 shirts this time, so if you are interested, you should call: (215) 423-6246.

Update: Frédéric Chopin Historic Trauma Illustration

2011-06-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

I finished this piece for Advance News Magazines. I posted the pencil draft of the illustration HERE. Since there only seemed to be one photograph taken of Chopin shortly before he died, the reference I had was kind of ghoulish. Nonetheless, it was a fun picture to draw. I took a slightly different approach this time. I kept the original drawing in pencil in my sketchbook and did the inks on tracing paper. I actually did the inks on several layers of tracing paper and scanned them in as separate layers in Photoshop, giving me a little more play once I got into the colors.

Variations on a Theme: Wampa

2011-05-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

I have fond memories of Star Wars, but I don't think I get as nostalgic as most kids from my generation. Some folks turn simple entertainment from their youth into religion. I don't think those movies were created with that intention. I think they were just made to be fun adventures. To be honest, I loved playing with my Star Wars toys more than watching the movies. Sometimes I feel like my adventures were cooler, and they had less politics.

Thinking back though, I really only liked certain scenes in the movies - the scenes with the monsters. I remember being extremely bored with all the space ship fighting and politics. Chewbacca was always cool, but I remember being bored during the first movie once the bar scene was over. To be fair, that scene in the cantina was an influence that still weaves its way into my work. I also loved Jabba the Hutt's court in the third movie, then got bored when that scene was over. In the Empire Strikes Back, I have to say that the star of that film was the Wampa monster, at least for me. He was an awesome monster. Anyways, here are a couple Wampa illustrations I did recently:

Wampa vs. Chewbacca

A fake Wampa Collegiate Sports logo:

Also - as far as I am concerned, the new Star Wars movies were an awful waste of time and money. No one needed to see those movies.

Dead Legs - The Hobo Zombie

2011-05-21T00:27:00.001-07:00

With the PCS Hobo Day fast approaching, I figured I would put this one up today.

In 2008, I started meeting weekly with Roger Petersen and Mitchell Landsman to make plans for an ongoing anthology comic. Rog is a comics natural, a genius. And he is always trying to convince me to make more comics instead of static illustrations. We each had to pick a different classic comics genre. Rog picked Crime. Mitchell picked science fiction. I hate most superheroes (except the monstery ones like the Hulk and Thing or awesome villains like The Mandrill or Solomon Grundy). To be honest, I'd rather draw an ongoing romance or war comic than a superhero story. I was pretty stressed out. I thought, "If I had to draw something over and over again, it's got to be something I actually want to draw." I like monsters, so I picked the horror genre. But I was still up in the air about exactly what story I'd want to tell.

Over the next few weeks, I came up with an idea for a hobo zombie story set during the great depression. I love old EC Horror comics and other monster comics from the 60's and 70's. I love Hobos, and I have always been interested in the Great Depression and the conflicts people were faced with at that time. I called the zombie "Dead Legs". First I called him Leggsy after an uncle of mine that passed on a few years back. Leggsy was a tough as nails icon in my neighborhood. But my cousin convinced me not to, and said some would consider it a sign of disrespect. So right now, the project's working title is "Dead Legs".

The outline of the story went through several drafts. Over that year, Rog, Mitchell, and I got very busy and the anthology plans just slipped away. But the idea stuck with me. I had a beginning, an end, and a format that could give the story some legs (no pun intended). The basic concept is this: The zombie starts most stories getting off a train, traveling into a new town. He doesn't know who he is, although he is trying to find out. He has a few remnants of his past life in his bindle, and he is haunted by flashing memories of when he was alive - clues that push him along his journey. He's more of a voodoo zombie than a George Romero zombie (he's not contagious). At the end of each story, after some chaos and horror erupts, he's got to flee and get on to the next town. I did a lot of research on Marvel's "Tales of the Zombie" so I didn't indirectly rip those stories off too much. I also have an "Ahab" type character - a railroad bull who the zombie wrongs early in the story. This character is loosely based on Ernest Borgnine's "Shack" character from the hobo classic "Emperor of the North Pole". Anyhow, I guess it's inspired by my favorite influences in art and culture (monsters, hobos, old-tyminess), but also by some of my favorite entertainment as a kid (The Fugitive and Incredible Hulk teevee shows).

I tinker with the story from time to time. I keep a separate sketchbook for it. It's just tough to invest myself in any long-term project right now with several jobs. The reason I posted this long story is because I have been doing a bunch of "money-chasing" projects lately. I needed to remind myself that I still need to make time for the work I want to make - something that I would enjoy sitting at the table to do. Something fun that is a culmination of my own taste and influences, however off the rails they may be.

P.C.S. Hobo Day Illustration

2011-05-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a drawing I did to advertise the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society's upcoming "Hobo Day" event in June.

The original drawing was done in my sketchbook in pen and ink. I scanned it and re-worked it in Photoshop, changing the ink lines to a dark brown to give it a more rustic, old-timey feel. I also had to do a live trace on the sign logos in Illustrator before placing them into the Photoshop document. The hand-drawn logos in the original drawing were just too shaky.

The digital color palette was inspired by a book I was thumbing through called "The Designer's Guide to Global Color Combinations" by Leslie Cabarga. The book is really interesting, because it talks about how different color combinations evoke a different aesthetic response depending on the region or country. It breaks down by chapter what parts of the world use these color combinations in advertising and art. It even gives a bit of history on why these colors work well in different parts of the world. The book also gives the RGB and CMYK number values you can use to get these exact colors when using programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.

I didn't delve much into the meaning behind the color palette I chose. I just picked colors that seemed to fit my drawing. Still in all, the book is really cool and full of a lot of interesting information. Plus the writer has a great sense of humor.

Historic Trauma Cases # 3

2011-04-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

Recently I was given assignments to draw Steve Allen and Frédéric François Chopin for my job at Advance News Magazines. I thought it was interesting, both being piano players. I know very little about Steve Allen aside from the Tonight Show and the CDs I have with him playing as Jack Kerouac recites poetry. Steve is finished here in the style of all the other Historic Trauma illustrations...

I know even less of Chopin, but I like how intense he looks in the one known photograph that was thought to be taken in 1849, the year of his death. I referenced that photo, which can be found all over the internet. This drawing is still in its rough stages, but I wanted to give an early stage of the process before I pretty him up with ink and color. So this is Frederic as he now sits in my Moleskine sketchbook, waiting to become a final draft. This is usually what my final pencil sketches look like before I get feedback and approval from editorial staff...

I think I have John Lennon coming up in the next couple months. That will be some fun drawing time.

Fishtown Shad Fest 2011 - April 23 at Penn Treaty Park

2011-04-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

This coming Saturday I will be at Penn Treaty Park (on Delaware Avenue) for Shad Fest 2011. This is the 3rd year I'd reserved a table. I hope the weather holds out and brings a crowd. I will have new Fishtown T-Shirts and ladies' softball tees for sale. I will also have some of my comic books I'd be happy to sketch in.

By far though, I think the most fun item I will have at my table is a limited edition silkscreen printed gig poster I illustrated for Shad Fest's headlining act, Black Landlord. For those who don't know Black Landlord, they are a full-on funk/hip-hop group based here in Philly led by Maxx S-Williams (formerly of The Goats and Incognegro). There will only be 100 prints. Each will be hand-signed and numbered and up for sale at the festival.

I went over different concepts with Maxx. We discussed several versions. One was a spoof on "Where the Wild Things Are" with him in the wolf suit on a boat labeled "MAXX". But we decided this concept, inspired by Slim Pickens' famous Dr. Strangelove scene, was way more fun (except we had him riding a giant fish instead of a bomb). Joannie helped me out with the blue and orange color scheme. I wanted something festive that'd pop on the white background. The awesome dudes at AwesomeDudes are making the screens and will be doing the printing this week, so we can have them hot off the press by the weekend.

I am a patient boy. I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait...

2011-04-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

These past couple months I have spent many hours sitting in the waiting rooms of hospitals and doctors’ offices with Joannie, mostly Temple’s Foot and Ankle Institute. I can only play so much “Angry Birds” before my mind starts to turn to oatmeal. And I can’t bring any large-scale drawing projects with me, because there’s just no room for that kind of work. But I have started bringing a small Moleskine sketchbook. So in between bouts of spanking all of Joannie’s opponents in online Iphone Scrabble, I’ve been noodling around with “throw-away” drawings that don’t take too much concentration. Since January, I’ve been very gratefully gainfully employed at the University of the Arts, and also keeping part-time hours at Advance Newsmagazines. I am happy to be working, but my drawing time has definitely taken a hit. With everything around me being so regimented and work-focused lately, these waiting room visits have actually become a good time to come up for air. It’s been really nice to take this time to escape into quick and tiny sketchbook work, especially while sitting in a crowded waiting room. It’s sort of like hiding in plain sight. These moments make me remember that initial joy of drawing I had when I was four.

Anyhow, this piece was drawn in a small sketchbook while sitting at the Foot and Ankle Institute yesterday. I did it with colored Micron pens. It started out as a guy singing with a cat, but I decided to turn him into a gravedigger once I put the bowler cap on him, and the cat became a gas lantern. Please don't ask why a gravedigger would wear a tie. It seems like back in the old days, a lot of fellas wore hats and ties no matter what line of work they were in.

Sketchin' at the River

2011-03-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

Past few months have been kind of crazy between several jobs, freelance work, and family stuff. Sometimes life requires that drawing has to take a back seat to other responsibilities. It's cool though, because everything in life ebbs and flows. It's just the way it is.

So a couple Sundays ago, I found myself awake super early to run an errand. I could have went back to bed, because I had a couple hours to kill before running more errands that would last all day.

Instead I decided to take a moment for myself, so I grabbed a coffee at sunrise and went over to the old Greenberg piers on the Delaware River in my neighborhood. The tide was pretty high, but it looked like it was going out.

I sat at the edge of the pier listening to my Ipod, sketching away, and this is what came out on a two-page spread in the sketchbook:

I really like drawing old tymie deep sea divers for some reason. This guy is escaping. The words came from an E.L.O. song on my Ipod (at least that's what the lyrics sound like to me). Because I was tired, lost in the drawing and my Ipod was so loud, I didn't notice that the murky green water of the Dirty Del was rising to the edge of the pier. A tugboat cruised by on the channel and gave way to a residual wave that splashed over the edge of the pier, spitting onto my shoulder and head. I came out of a daze and realized that my feet were partly submerged. The tide was coming in, not going out.

I laughed out loud. It was one of the best drawing times I had in a while.

I picked away at the black lines in the background with a 01 Micron pen over a week or so on my lunch breaks. I could have used a brush or brush pen, but sometimes it feels good just to make little lines and get lost in a drawing. Afterwards, I did a scan and some quick and dirty Photoshop colors. This was the end of it...

I hope I have more awesome drawing mornings like this in the near future.

More Bottles...

2011-03-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

My buddy Kyle Margiotta bought these old bottles from a roadside yard sale a while back. For his birthday, his lady commissioned me to do handmade labels for them (much like the bottles from the World's Fair show last year). The fake elixirs the labels advertised were suggested by Kyle himself.

Since Kyle is such an amazing artist and friend, I am honored that my work will be kept in his personal collection.

AGE OF REPTILES

2011-03-18T11:10:00.000-07:00

The Age of Reptiles show (curated by Anthony Pedro) closes tonight. If you haven't been out to see it yet, please get there. A whole bunch of PCS members and Autumn Society members have some really decent work in the show paying tribute to what Dan Rather called "History's Greatest Generation" - the Dinosaurs!

Here is my contribution to the show:

"No Extinction" by Jeffro Kilpatrick

For more information and to watch a video of the show's opening, please visit the Autumn Society's site by clicking HERE.

Historic Trauma Cases # 2

2011-03-04T13:10:00.000-08:00

As stated here back in September, I have been drawing the spot illustrations for Advance News Magazine’s “Historic Trauma” articles. These articles run in several medical magazines and seem to focus mainly on cases of famous people’s deaths. It seems there are usually some kind of conclusive statements that express how the person’s life could have been saved if they were alive today or if their ailments were treated differently.

The editors have me work in with old-tymie sepia tones and antique cross-hatching and brush work. It’s always a challenge when doing portrait work to somehow make it your own, especially when you are looking at someone else’s photo(s) reference. After all, photography is an art form, and you never want to completely rip off another artist.

President William Howard Taft

The Apollo 1 Astronauts (Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Pilot Roger B. Chaffee, and Senior Pilot Edward H. White) who died during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at the Kennedy Space Center.

John Thoreau (Henry David’s Brother)

Father Vincent Robert Capodanno, Jr. (The Grunt Padre)

And Charles Dickens (my favorite of the bunch)

A Nation Of Evil Men @ Masthead

2011-02-05T08:56:00.000-08:00

Sam Heimer curated the latest group show at Masthead in Northern Liberties entitled "A Nation of Evil Men". The title of the show is self explanatory. Sam sent out a list of "evil" men and women from history. I picked Rasputin, who has fascinated me for years. When I look at this piece, I started to see the influence of Mort Drucker, classic MAD Magazine artist. I never realized how much those MAD Magazines have influenced me, but I've read hundreds in my youth. I guess I can't avoid it weaving its way through my work.

Season's Greetings 2010!

2010-12-22T21:42:00.000-08:00

Season's Greetings, Blog Followers. Sorry I've been kinda lazy with showing off my work lately. Sadly, I've been too busy doing work to show it off. And what's worse is most of the pieces I've been doing are Christmas presents...so I can't show them off yet.

It's been a year of ups (Joannie) and downs (North Catholic), but 2010 seems to be ending nicely. I was just hired as the new Development Coordinator at the University of the Arts. Since I have been teaching there part-time for years and they helped several of my high school students in the past (not to mention giving me a grant towards Sketches of Fishtown, Vol II), I am really happy to join the staff. I love the school. They treat me really well. It's nice to be attached to a mission I believe in.

Anyways, here are a few Christmas-related drawings I've done in the past few weeks. The first is my Christmas card, which I have included Joannie, Aaron, Brandon, and Joannie's dog Zoe in. Joannie very much wanted me to do a family-type card this year. I'm glad she did, because I think it's the best one I've ever done:

Here is an ornament I made for Joannie's Mom. Every year, my Mom sent out a Lion & Lamb card. So I wanted to include big Joan in that tradition somehow:

And here is a piece I did for Spirit Newspapers to accompany the article "Scrooge, the Grinch, George Bailey, & Me":

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and an awesome new year. Please keep in touch.

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-24T08:17:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to take a minute to say Happy Thanksgiving. I wrote the following article for the Spirit Newspapers with the help of several great Fishtowners who help me appreciate the neighborhood and life in general.

http://reach.inm.com/Viewer/index.asp?fileName=232/SPIRIT-101124.pdf&key=x323332603230303731313039313431323432602D313339303038383738

It's easy to get sidetracked and look at all the bad in life. So it's nice to be reminded that the things of real value cost nothing. Thanks.

Cancer Gremlin...The Evolution of a Character

2010-11-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

Recently, Marvin Bowe, Senior VP and Creative Director for the Navicor Group, contacted me with a really fun illustration gig. I was assigned to draw a little gremlinie-type monster to represent a certain kind of cancer that many doctors and patients overlook and forget to ask about. The character would have been used in ad materials for a medicine to treat that type of cancer.

The art team on the job liked some frog-like creatures I once drew in a Meathaus comic. They also gave me some very specific criteria and e-mailed over some microscopic photos of colorful cancer cells. The concept reminded me of the ads for Mucinex and even the Crest's Cavity Creeps and Raid's Bugs from past ad campaigns like that. They wanted a quirky character, but in a way, he needed to be sympathetic. Because we were trying to remind doctors not to forget to ask about him. Here were my initial pencil sketches:

They really liked Sketch A. It most resembled the characters that initially attracted the art directors to my work. I also liked the characters with less human proportions. The art team also asked me to make the character more mischievous and less sad. I took "neglected" to heart when doing these first drafts, but they wanted a character with a more "Tasmanian Devil" or "Gremlin" attitude. I was glad to hear that, because those guys are way more fun to draw. They also asked me to lose props like the signs. And since they liked the body shape on character B as well, they asked me to "Jabba the Hutt" him up a bit and add some horns.

So here are the final two drafts I came up with:
Unfortunately, the actual concept was not used by the pharmaceutical company. However, it was a great job. It was fun and Navicor treated me really well. Also, I got to vilify cancer (which I hate). All in all, it's been my favorite freelance gig this year.

Sketches of Fishtown books - price reduced...

2010-11-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

Gearing up for the holiday season. I am looking to unload the remaining Sketches of Fishtown books I have. If anyone wants to get some books for a gift or stocking stuffer, let me know. I am selling them for $3.00 apiece. I am selling each set (a copy of volumes I and II together) for $5.00.

If you're in Fishtown, they have them for sale at the Spirit Newspaper offices at Gaul & Susquehanna.

Or if you'd like to purchase one from me, I can draw a little sketch in the back and personalize it. I take paypal or you can e-mail me to discuss payment and shipping/delivery/pickup: phillytoon@yahoo.com

World's Fair Art Show at Shadow's Space in Kensignton - November Through December

2010-11-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

Below are my submissions for the World's Fair Art Show. I took old whisky bottles, boiled them, peeled the labels, and made my own old-tymie labels. I did my best to make them somewhat reminiscent of old times, but still have my own personal touch. Each bottle is named after or in some way connected to someone or something in my life. Some are inspired my things domestic (like Newton's Snake Oil named after my Joannie). And some are inspired by wanderlust (like the Hobo Fuel). And then some are inspired by people and places I've known internationally (like Victor Vovc, a brilliant Moldovan doctor who I used to work with). All labels were drawn and colored by hand on sticker paper. The photos don't really do them justice. There is attention to detail that can only be observed properly if you're close enough to fog them with your breath. So come on out tomorrow to the Fair!

World’s Fair Art Exhibition, 1st Stop: Shadow’s Space Gallery 1248 Front Street Philadelphia, PA November through December Opening Reception Friday, November 5th, 2010 from 6pm to 10pm (After Party downstairs @ Kung Fu Necktie)

CcTC Spookatcular 2010

2010-10-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE A SLIDE SHOW OF THE PCS SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN BAGS

As I have listed here in past years, the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society are always very generous with their time and art when it comes to worthwhile charitable causes. We've had a tradition of making these trick or treat bags for the kids at the CcTC (The Children's Crisis Treatment Center) now for over ten years.

In the past four or five years, these bags have become part of the 2010 CcTC Spooktacular, sponsored by Charette, the AIA Philadelphia and students of CHAD (Charter High School for Architecture & Design). The Spooktacular event provides kids at the CcTC (The Children's Crisis Treatment Center) a place to trick or treat and have a safe and happy Halloween.

This year, we had to spread out, but still got the job done. Along with the aid of family and friends, we completed 100 bags. Members and friends who worked on the project this year include: Christine Larsen, Andrew Hart, Melissa Lomax, Scott Derby, Dave Perillo, Christian Patchell, Tom Whalen, Val Costanzo, Kyle Margiotta, Joannie Newton, Brandon Heary, Valerie Deaton, Christine Venturis, Ben Cady, Jenny Drumgoole (and her students at Rowan University), and myself.

Making these bags every year reminds me that holidays can be fun, happy times even though I'm an adult. Just because we can't reap the benefits the way that kids do, there is no reason to leave behind the excitement and joy you can feel this time of year.

Special Thanks to Erike De Veyra for coordinating a great deal of the PCS end of this event.

Spirit Newspaper Article: Lacey's Law

2010-09-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share a link to a story I've written recently for the Spirit Community Newspapers about my cousin Lacey and her legacy. Please click the link below.

http://spiritnewspapers.com/house-bill-laceys-law-p1195-113.htm

On Sunday, October 10, 2010, we will be holding the Fourth Annual Lacey Day at Holy Name Church at Gaul and Berks Streets. It's always a huge fantastic block party, inside and outside. The Doo Wop group, The Exceptions will be singing live. There are great prizes, food, drink, and a huge group of positive people coming together to celebrate Lacey's life. For more information, please visit: http://thelaceyfund.org/

Caravan Festival Poster 2010

2010-09-27T14:00:00.001-07:00

Recently, my buddy Aaron Luis Levinson (Grammy-winning producer and all around music nut) hired me to design and illustrate this poster for the upcoming Caravan Festival he put together for the Electric Factory (Oct. 21, 2010). Aaron has a natural ear for great music, especially bringing artists together. I'd work with Aaron over and over again. He believes in music like religion. When he puts projects together, he always tries to bring people into the mix that can bring something unique and fitting to the table. He's proven this with his eclectic and popular albums "The Philadelphia Experiment", "The Harlem Experiment", and all the work he does for Range Records. We've talked time and time again about this community-based concept, not only for the music, but packaging and promotion as well.

Halloween Show at Proximity Gallery - October 1

2010-09-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

The Philadelphia Cartoonist Society and the Autumn Society are teaming up for a show at Proximity Gallery on October 1, 2010. This will be a Halloween-themed show with over 30 artists displaying work. please click on the photos below to see closer details from some of the pieces from the drop off day.

James Heimer, myself, and Sam Heimer (the curator)

Here is a detail from my piece, entitled "7 Crows":

Please stop by Proximity on October 1 for the opening or some time during the month of October when the gallery is open. Proximity is located at 2434 East Dauphin Street, Philadelphia, PA 19125. For more information , please contact Janel Frey at 267.825.2949 or e-mail: janel@proximityart.com.

PBR Crate - Final

2010-09-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

I finally got a chance to get these photos and scans up on the web here. I finished the Pabst Blue Ribbon vintage crate a couple weeks back. Thanks to my buddy Gravy for his patience and Pabst's generosity for all the sponsorship they've given me and the Philly Cartoonist Society over the years. I drew all the images on sticker paper, inked them with waterproof Micron pens, then colored them with waterproof markers, like Prismacolors. I also used some white colored pencil for highlights. Then I cut out the shapes with an razor and stuck the pieces to various sides of the crate. Then I used waterproof ink for the "Pabst" lettering on the top of the crate and the ink coming from the pen of the "Jeff" cartoon. Thanks to Joannie for challenging me to be a little more careful with the ink and not settle for laziness. When I was finished laying it out, I sealed the whole crate with about five coats of high gloss acrylic polyurethane. Since the sealant was water-based, I had to use all waterproof materials on the initial drawings. I used the water-based so it didn't yellow the sticker paper. Anyways, below are the final scans and then photos of how they look on the crate. Now I just have to get it back to Pabst...

Historic Trauma - Cleopatra

2010-09-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

With the "Cleopatra" exhibit currently at the Franklin Institute, I guess it's no surprise that Advance News Magazine for Nurses picked her for their "Historic Trauma Cases" section this month. I was a little worried, because a great artist and good friend of mine Paul Palcko used to do all of the illustrations for this section of the magazine. Those are some really big shoes to fill. I remember a painting Paul did of Bessie Smith for this section some months back that was awesome. I had to make it clear when I was assigned the illustration that I had a completely different style than Paul, and I couldn't even pretend to draw like he does. Thankfully, the editor and the Illustration department head understood.

I did the original illustration in pen and ink.

Then I touched it up digitally with a smooth vector halo and added warm colors in Photoshop.

Drawing for Tony Bennett

2010-08-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

I'm going to the Mann tonight with Joannie to see Tony Bennett live. I'm really looking forward to the show. I recently watched a documentary on him on PBS, and he seems like he still is great in concert. The more I find out about him, the more I like him. I've always been a fan of his music, but I only recently found out he was a really good painter and also was a civil rights advocate in the 1960's.

I know the chances are slim, but I am taking a drawing tonight I made for him. I'm going to try to hand it off to a stagehand or someone at the Mann to hopefully relay it to him. The drawing is of two people who are heroes to Tony and myself. Louis Armstrong and Charlie Chaplin are artists who had really hard upbringings, but tried very hard throughout their lives to make people happy. Chaplin wrote the song, "Smile," which is my favorite song of all time. Tony Bennett sings my favorite version of the song. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong is also a profound influence on my work. I've seen Tony Bennett talk about Satchmo in documentaries about how much respect he has for him.

Even if I don't get the art in Tony's hands, I'm still happy I took the time to make this piece. If I had a Mount Rushmore of artists, Chaplin and Satchmo would both be on it.

Our Gang Music

2010-08-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

Many years ago when I was still in school, I bought this CD - "The Beau Hunks Play the Original Little Rascals Music: 50 Roy Shield Themes from the Hal Roach Talkies". This group did a really good job recreating the music from those shorts. I was listening to it today while drawing and put it on repeat when it was over. 50 tracks of old tymie awesomeness.

When drawing, I like to play different music for different kinds of images. I used to love to watch these old tymie Little Rascals shorts when I was a kid and still do. A lot of the things that inspire me come from the time of my grandparents for some reason. I like all kinds of art, movies and music, depending on what kind of day I'm having and what kind of mood I'm in. Even the weather affects my taste. But it seems I come back to this era more than anything else when it comes to inspiration. I'd like to use the cliché that things were simpler back then, but they really weren't. Those were hard times. I'm really not sure why I feel at home with the taste of that era.

Two Books That Inspire Me To Keep Drawing...

2010-08-25T18:19:00.000-07:00

"Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking" by David Bayles & Ted Orland is a book that was recommended to me by Christian Patchell. It's an easy read, and I find it very inspirational. I often rebuy it, but never have a copy (because I always pass it on to someone else). There is a great quote in the book: "Vision is always ahead of execution...and it should be." The idea that the vision in my head is always perfect and never matched by the output on the paper - that may sound discouraging at first. But it's always true. The work you make can never live up to the work you dream up. If you did, why continue to draw? This book is a great pep talk about making art, and it gives an artist a sigh of relief, telling you that there is something to be learned from everything you make, even the mistakes. It also says that every piece of art is just a springboard in some way to the art you will make next. I love this book.

"Everyday Matters" by Danny Gregory is another book I really love. The author never started drawing until his wife had a crippling accident. So art was his form of coping and keeping his sanity. His drawings are wiggly and crooked, but very personal and beautiful in their own way. He talks a lot about how the art he makes is his own, even if it is not perfect. He uses art as a way to look at the world differently, a way to appreciate things in everyday life that might usually be overlooked. This is also a very touching and inspirational book that often motivates me to draw.

24 Hour Comic Day at Atomic City Comics

2010-08-21T10:43:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to take a minute and tip my hat to Pete, Colleen, Raph, Andrea, , Steve, and Brett for doing "24-Hour Comic Day" this year and to Atomic City Comics on South Street for hosting the event. Basically, the artists stay up for 24 hours straight and make a 24 page comic. No work is allowed to be done on the book beforehand. It all has to take place within that 24 hour period. It's a crazy amount of work, but a lot of fun. I stopped in to say hi after work at 3 AM, and I really wished I could have taken part this year. I haven't done a 24-hour comic since 2002.
All photos courtesy of Atomic City Comics. For more photos, click here.
Click here to read more about 24-Hour Comic Day at Scott McCloud's website.
For more of Pete's work, click here.
For Steve's work, click here.
For Andrea and Brett's work, click here to check out the Philly Comix Jam's website.

UARTS Pre-College Summer Illustration Classes

2010-08-02T07:46:00.001-07:00

This summer, I have been teaching at University of the Arts' Pre- College Summer Institute. I was asked to teach two Illustration classes. In my opinion, it's been one of the best courses I've taught. The students created custom logos, spot illustrations, and gig posters using traditional and digital illustration techniques. I am really impressed with the students in this program. Not only are they electing for more school in the summer, but they come to work.

Working with these students has made my summer. Their ambition and work ethic is inspiring. I find myself energized when I come home to sit right down at the desk and draw or take my sketchbook out to a park. These classes have been a great reminder of why I love to teach and why I love to make art.

My 9 AM Class:
My 1PM Class:
Here are links to some of their Art Blogs...

http://rainof1985.blogspot.com
http://unbuonfiglio.blogspot.com/
http://lestempsjeune.blogspot.com/
http://rudyinc.blogspot.com/
http://granolabarr.blogspot.com/
http://artedehannah.blogspot.com/
http://thisartkid.blogspot.com/
http://artsfartsndoodles.blogspot.com/
http://unlogic-theblogofkings.blogspot.com/
http://mutebat.blogspot.com/
http://morganbickmore.blogspot.com/
http://astridalbert.blogspot.com/
http://kristenhaines.blogspot.com/
http://ccsbaskingturtle.blogspot.com/
http://deer-in-headlights.deviantart.com/
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=140992

Wayne Elliss Memorial Horseshoe Tournament T-Shirt

2010-07-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I never got to know Wayne Elliss. From what all of his friends tell me, he was a great guy. I can tell when I talk to his best friend Wally that there losing Wayne was a huge loss to many people in Fishtown. So when Wally asked me to design this year's t-shirt for Wayne's Memorial Horseshoe Tournament, I was more than happy to oblige.

Wally had a very clear vision of what he wanted, very simple and direct. I've drawn a lot of t-shirt designs in my life, but I think this one may be my favorite because of its purpose and clarity. It's not often I work quick and simple, and do it for a good cause. I have to say that Wally is one of the better art directors I've worked with. And here I thought he was just my bartender.

The Wayne Elliss Memorial Horseshoe Tournament will be happening this Saturday, July 31 at 11 AM at Shissler Recreation Center. I believe the cost of entry is $20 a person or $40 a team. Food, beer, and good times will be provided. Folks should come out and support this unique memorial event. All proceeds go to Wayne's family's fund for a reward to help catch his killer.