RobotJohnny.com - home of illustrator and cartoonist John Martz

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Smartest Toys on Earth

Thursday, January 27, 2005 · 6 Comments

For anyone who doubted that Chris Ware’s complex cut-out-and-assemble dioramas actually worked. I’ve always been tempted to put one of these together, but of course I never wanted to cut up my books either.

Bonus link: an animated Jimmy Corrigan feature from Random House.

6 Comments

Business in the Front, Party in the Back

Wednesday, January 26, 2005 · 1 Comment

Mullets, the world’s first comic strip named after a hairstyle, written by Steve McGarry and drawn by my pal Rick, has gone to that big pile of barbership hair-sweepings in the sky. I guess the world just wasn’t ready for the shorty longback. (I certainly can’t blame their expert use of my font Turkey Sandwich!)

You can view the final strips at Darryl Cagle’s great site.

So long Mullets, we hardly knew ye.

1 Comment

Mostly Pillowy Girls

Tuesday, January 25, 2005 · 3 Comments

The other day at the Beguiling I saw that Dave Cooper has a new book out! It’s a sequel to Overbite: Drawings and Paintings of Mostly Pillowy Girls cleverly entitled Underbelly: Additional Observations on the Beauty/Ugliness of Mostly Pillowy Girls

It’s the perfect book if your idea of beauty is at once both Rubenesque and a little ghoulish.

3 Comments

Oscar Oscar!

Tuesday, January 25, 2005 · 18 Comments

Well, the Oscar nominations are out, and they’re a bit of a yawn. But every year I try and see all of the films with major nominations (picture, direction, acting, writing). This year I have more to catch up on than usual. I’ve crossed out the ones I’ve already got under my belt:

~~The Aviator~~
Finding Neverland
~~Million Dollar Baby~~
Ray
~~Sideways~~
Vera Drake
Hotel Rwanda
Collateral
Closer
Being Julia
Maria Full of Grace
~~Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind~~
Kinsey
Before Sunset
The Motorcycle Diaries
~~The Incredibles~~

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do… And speaking of the Oscars, is it just me or is this year’s poster and art direction absolutely hideous? Mixing Frutiger with Compacta? I guess the designer just chose fonts at random…

But I suppose it’s better than last year, when apparently the theme was “digital clip-art circa 1993"…

18 Comments

What a Drag!

Sunday, January 23, 2005 · 88 Comments

Conservative Christian groups in the United States are protesting that everyone’s favourite absorbant and yellow and porous cartoon character, SpongeBob SquarePants promotes homosexuality to children.

So SpongeBob’s a little light in the toes and likes to hold hands with his male friends while romping around in his tighty whities. So he likes to bat his long luscious eyelashes while singing songs about love and friendship. You would too if you lived in a pineapple under the sea.

If the group Focus on Family wants to plaster “Warning: Product May Have Come In Contact With GAYS” stickers on videos, I think maybe they should take a long witch-hunting heterosexual look back to the oh-so wholesome 1950’s. If you want “unnatural” sexual behaviour and “improper” gender identity, one has to look no further than the world’s most famous antiestablishmentarian gender-bending wabbit.

Watch, as he shows SpongeBob how it’s done…

Of all the cartoons he appears in on just the first two volumes of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Bugs flirts, kisses, and cross-dresses his way out of trouble more than 60% of the time.

Bugs, you tease!

Update:
Found a great reference source of Bugs Bunny in drag.

88 Comments

The Seasons

Friday, January 21, 2005 · 27 Comments

This week’s Illustration Friday entry. The theme was The Seasons.

27 Comments

Sketchventory

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 · 4 Comments

4 Comments

Please Stand Back from the Yellow Line

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 · 1 Comment

Thanks to Spacing, I can now recreate my daily subway commute—in buttons!

1 Comment

Balance

Saturday, January 15, 2005 · 12 Comments

I’ve wanted to take part in Illustration Friday for a while, but this is the first time I managed to get around to it. This week’s theme was “balance”.

12 Comments

New Kids on the Blog

Thursday, January 13, 2005 · 6 Comments

I’ve been gradually updating my links page with some new additions to the “Art & Comics Blogs” section. Here are a few of my favourite recent add-ons:

Learning Daily
A fabulous illustrated blog that I started seeing pop up in my referal stats. Cin has a great graphic style—I particularly liked her bubble-blowing robot.

The Ward-O-Matic
Ward Jenkins is an animator from Atlanta. He’s blogs with passion and is super nice guy (depsite the fact that I neglect to reply to his e-mails!)

Drawing Makes Zen-se
Dani�lle chronicles the minutae of daily life in a Moleskine and posts the pages online. She has a very endearing style.

Jared Chapman
Jared’s illustrations are very very fun. He’s one of those artists that makes me want to draw more (and post more drawings).

UPDATE:
Paul Giambarba has done it again. Three blogs weren’t enough for him; he’s started a fourth: Cartoons: An Appreciation

6 Comments

Wartime Sketchbook Journal

Wednesday, January 12, 2005 · 0 Comments

A new blog is publishing MGM animator Irv Spence’s 1944 daily sketchbook journal page by page throughout 2005. Check it out: Filboid Sudge.

link via Cartoon Brew

Teeny Tiny Apples

Tuesday, January 11, 2005 · 5 Comments

I guess the iPod mini was a success, as Apple decided to shrink it down even more! And why stop there? They also just shrunk the iMac.

But what has me really excited is this:

Finally! The latest version of iPhoto has hierarchical folders! Now I can actually organize things properly… Anyone know if this will be a free upgrade?

5 Comments

Daily Clicks

Tuesday, January 11, 2005 · 9 Comments

A while back I asked readers what other blogs they read on a regular basis. But what sites other than blogs do you check daily?

Patricia recently asked me, upon receiving some silly links from me, where I find that stuff. My question is, where do you not find that stuff? If you spend any amount of time on the Internet regularly, you tend to just absorb the bizarre and the linkable.

I poke my nose in at MetaFilter on a more-than-regular basis, and I’ll be honest, it’s where many of the links on my “Feed Me” sidebar originate from. Other daily clicks of mine include the news (both real and geek) and the popular index of del.icio.us. I also find myself at IMDb more than is probably necessary. But it’s like crack.

And like anyone with a website I check my stats and technorati profile daily.

What are some of your daily clicks?

9 Comments

Will Eisner 1917-2005

Tuesday, January 4, 2005 · 5 Comments

Will Eisner died yesterday due to heart complications. I’m lucky to have seen him speak this past summer. I almost didn’t bother going, but at the last minute I decided I might never get a chance to see him again, and I’m glad I got the chance. More info here

5 Comments

My Best of 2004

Sunday, January 2, 2005 · 9 Comments

Another year of media consumption has come and gone, which means it’s time for year-end lists. I’m not sticking to a rigid 10-item list, ‘cause I’m flexible like that, yo.

UPDATE:
I just got back from seeing A Very Long Engagement, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s follow-up to Am�lie, and I’ve added it to the movies list.

So step inside…

Movies