Snowy Toronto Day

Here in Canada, during the winter, it is not unusual to see some snow... except, that here in Toronto,

we haven't experienced a really snowy winter in years.

This Christmas season, 2017 into 2018, has been a throwback and serves as a reminder, of what a white Christmas actually looks like.

Luckily, since the city has taken to clearing the residential sidewalks, with mini-snowploughs, my snow shovelling has been reserved, mainly, for keeping our driveway and paths clear.

It has left a lot of time, what with the minus twenty degrees C, plus the windchill, outside, to pursue my interest in cartooning and comic books.

Here is a photograph, originally posted by Deon de Lange, a comic book artist, of him using an artist's mannequin for anatomy reference.

The only three dimensional aid that I have, in my drawing room, is a life-sized, human skull, in plastic.

These muscle and skeleton mannequins, look to be very useful and the one he is using, appears to be the 11-inch figure, made by a company named 3dtotal and available from Amazon.

For some reason, in the good old USA, it would cost $100 but through Amazon.ca, here in Canada, it would cost $200 Canadian!

And then I wonder why I don't have one...

In keeping with my last posting, here is another page, of fairly basic advice, about drawing cartoons.

I am constantly surprised, when looking back through all of the How-To volumes that line the shelves in my room, how much time I wasted, in looking for the, "magic formula", that would miraculously turn me into a GOOD cartoonist.

When all I had to do, was actually grasp the importance of the basic advice being proffered, on pages like the one above.

When I think about how well the young Ty Templeton and Rob Walton, could draw cartoons, way back in the early 1980s 

they obviously GOT IT and a whole lot younger than I did. 

Here is a fairly recent example of Ty Templeton's work

and below, an example of Rob Walton's style from his relaunched Ragmop series.

They knew what they were about, when pushing a pencil across a page, all those years ago and I can only hope, that I have improved my abilities, since then.

I may not be a better cartoonist today but I would like to believe that I do have a better understanding of how to draw cartoons... if that makes any sense.

Mark Martin's Twenty Nude Dancers

Back in the late Eighties and the early Nineties, I would occasionally buy a copy of the tabloid sized,

The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom

and one of the items of interest in it,

was Mark Martin's comic strip.

Occasionally, he would make the strip a kind of simple tutorial and one of them, obviously, made an impression on me, to the point where I copied it out!

Once again, the information seems forehead smacking-ly obvious and yet, no less worth noting, since many young cartoonists overlook these basic ideas, in their quest for the "magic" that will make them great!

I know, because I was one of that unwashed mass!

The truth is, there is no "magic", there is just hard work and learning how to apply some basic principles.

Thank you for listening, to an old man ramble on.

Ty Templeton's Comic Book Workshop, Summer of 1989

In the summer of 1989,

I was finally free (having ceased to work for a company, where I was always working on Saturday and Sunday) to visit one of our local comic book conventions.

This particular show, I am fairly confident, took place

at the old Westbury Hotel, on Yonge Street, just above Carlton Street, here in Toronto.

The highlight, for me, was the chance to sit in on a, if memory serves me well, one hour, comic book drawing workshop, taught by the amazing Ty Templeton.

While Ty entertained and attempted to educate us, I made a few notes and the other day, I rediscovered them, in an old sketchbook.

So, for the edification of anyone with an interest and since Ty still holds regular classes, here in Toronto, 

as the  "Comic Book Bootcamp", someone must still be interested,

I present those notes and sketches here.

There is a lot of good, simple and straight forward, advice here, for anyone who wants to understand the mechanics of building a readable comic book page.

The amazing thing, to me, is that Ty had already absorbed and assimilated these grains of wisdom, at such a young age.

Despite the fact that he gave me, in that class, this information, it would take me another twenty years before I actually understood what he was saying and truly appreciate his gift.

Thank you, Mister Templeton, for being the tremendous teacher that you are and I apologize for being such a poor student.

Christmas Past, Present & Future

Christmas time is always, at least for me, a time of reflection and this year is no different.

I have spent the last fifty four years, on and off, being fascinated by art and cartooning.  In the main, it has been comic strips and comic books that have held me in thrall, much to the dismay of my mother!

Well, it would have been, except for a sidebar to the collecting mania, record keeping.  My handwriting had always been atrocious and because I wanted my lists of acquisitions to look smart... I tried, very hard, to write the lists well and that was seen, by my mum, as a positive thing.

I have been an amateur cartoonist for almost as long as I have been a collector.

The "magic" of three dimensional drawing and discovering that my father knew how to work that magic... and then disappointed me by demonstrating.  But all he did was draw lines on paper!

Aaargh!

I don't know what I truly expected but the mundanity of that box, drawn with lines receding to a horizon line, wasn't it!

It wasn't magic!

However, I also, never forgot that first lesson and I have built upon it, often far too slowly, ever since.

One of the cartoonists I have seen lately, who has impressed me and made the climb from inspired amateur into the ranks of the paid professionals, is

Jay Fosgitt.

I love the way he manages to do what I have always dreamed of doing, drawing engaging comic strips and doing it so well!

Even the lettering is crisp, clean and cartoony... 

Maybe, once, before I check out from this life, I will manage to do it too.  Who knows?

Thank you and good night!

Christmas is Coming

In general, it seems to me, that time is passing by a whole lot quicker than it ever used to!

The whole idea, that time hangs heavily for retired people is BUNK, at least in my case.  At the end of most days, I would like to request an extension to my day, except that I am already bushed and ready for my bed.

There is always more of interest, than I have the time and the energy to pursue and I end up portioning out my days, just to fit in a little bit of everything.

If you are retired and unhappy about that fact, then I am sorry for you.  A long time ago, a wise woman, who I later married, said, "If life isn't worth living it must be the live-er!", and she was right.

There have been a lot of people, some of whom I have known, who never got the chance to be as old as I am now and despite the occasional aches, pains and needing to wear glasses, I am thankful to still be around.

Merry Christmas to you all, whoever you are!

Vaughn Bode and the Detroit Triple Fan Fair

It is hard to be sure, but from the signature, this appears to be a Vaughn Bode sketch, of his trade marked Lizards in Nazi uniforms.

I just discovered it on the Blog,

"Cap'n's Comics"

http://capnscomics.blogspot.ca

I am still, despite the passage of the years, really angry about all of the comments and comic strips that Vaughn Bode never got to say or to draw.

In the intervening forty plus years, since his untimely death, I have met people who actually knew Vaughn, warts and all and at least one of them, thought that Vaughn was a self absorbed ego maniac.

Regardless, I still remember laughing myself hoarse, over the antics of Cheech Wizard, in the pages of The National Lampoon and I wish that there had been many more of them.

It is hard to believe that Mark Bode, Vaughn's son, is now twenty years older than his father ever got to be!

Nigel & Nostalgia and Comics

I met Phil Clarke through Pete Lennon and Carl Brooks, a while before Phil got around to opening his shop,

Nostalgia & Comics

in a kiosk, in the now long gone, Hurst Street Subway, in downtown Birmingham, U.K.

I bought my comics from Phil, right up until I left Birmingham and the U.K., in 1980.

It has always been a pleasure for me, to see that the store Phil founded, is still in operation, even though Phil sold out his interest in the business, a long time ago.

This past weekend, my old pal Nigel, dropped by the old store (he still lives in the area) and was kind enough to send me a photograph of one of their latest shopping bags.

It is the little things in life, that can mean so much and this was a touching gesture because there is no way that I will be getting one for myself!

As I said to Nigel, when I thanked him, it is the ephemeral stuff, the flyers, adverts, bags and badges, that often fall through the cracks of our lives because we always seem to think that they are unworthy of collecting.

In the final analysis though, it is often these things that stay resident in memory and niggle at the edges of our brains, making us wonder if they ever actually existed.  That is part of the reason why I write this Blog, to commemorate the passing parade of my collecting life.