Links on a Thursday
Thursday, April 17, 2008 · 1 CommentSome quick links for this Thursday afternoon
More Yearbook Projects
I’m thrilled with the positive reception to my crazy yearbook project. I mailed nearly 40 books today, each with a drawing inside, and the orders continue to roll in slowly, so thanks to everyone! Now, I am not the first person obsessive compulsive enough to attempt an exercise like this. John Ralston’s The Liner, was the first such project I was aware of, and here are two others: Joshua Bienko’s The Girls of Delta Zeta, and most recently, The Beauty of Graduation by Justin White. I’m glad I’m not the only one with this obsession.
Cardiggins
Looking for greeting cards? My good friend Becca has started making cards with calm, reflective photographs on them: Cardiggins. Perfect for when you want to say, “Happy Birthday,” but also, “Relax, pal.”
Logo Design Love
I helped judge the Logo Design Love Awards, a competition for blog logos, and you can check out the winners, and read my commentary.
Plagiarized Illustration Book
This is disgusting: Darren Di Lieto was tipped off that hundreds of illustrators’ work and the interviews he conducted with them for the LCS have been plagiarized in a book. I’ve been interviewed by Darren as well, but it looks like the book was published before then, so my work escaped the poaching. Darren has photos of each page of the book. Ugh.
Yearbook Project: Excelsior 1968
Sunday, April 13, 2008 · 37 Comments
Last year I redrew my mother’s entire high school yearbook from 1968—over a thousand heads. Good cartooning, to me, is all about simplification, and this was a fun experiment in distilling each person’s likeness down to a simple cartoon version and learning to draw efficiently, with both speed and as few details as possible.
I’ve published the project as a book called Excelsior 1968, which I debuted at last summer’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival. You can buy the book from my new online shop, and you can see entire thing over at Flickr.
Bee Movie
Thursday, April 10, 2008 · 1 Comment
IMDb
2008 · Directed by Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith
With a title like this, there are tons
of reviews that are littered with puns.
Could anything be more unfunny
than “Buzz Kill!” or “Show Me The Honey!”?
Myself, I’m not prone to such junk;
I simply thought Bee Movie stungk.
I Am Legend
Thursday, April 10, 2008 · 0 Comments
IMDb
2008 · Directed by Francis Lawrence
A horrible virus has spread,
and a worldwide genetic mutation
has made the world’s people undead.
Pandemic-style zombification!
Immune to the zombies’ disease,
and alone, on the brink of insanity,
Will Smith, of the zombies, decrees
that “they’ve lost any sign of humanity!”
That’s not the impression I got.
Mr. Smith, do you think that perhaps
you missed, or just maybe forgot
‘bout the part where they learned to build traps?
Sir Mux-a-lot
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 · 1 CommentI finally jumped on the Muxtape bandwagon. Enjoy my mix...er, mux… robotjohnny.muxtape.com
- The Dramatics - Get up and Get Down
- Aretha Franklin - Save Me
- Solomon Burke - Cry to Me
- Otis Redding - Respect
- Carla Thomas - I’ll Bring It Home to You
- Shirley Ellis - The Nitty Gritty
- Lee Dorsey - Holy Cow
- Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Secondary Modern
- Nick Lowe - I’m a Mess
- She & Him - You Really Got a Hold On Me
- Leon Redbone - She Ain’t Rose
- Ike & Tina Turner & The Ikettes - Goodbye, So Long
Good Luck Chuck
Monday, April 7, 2008 · 2 Comments
IMDb
2008 · Directed by Mark Helfrich
At a friend of a friend’s, whereupon
someone else chose to put this one on,
‘twould be rude to just voice
that it was a poor choice.
I conceded, and thought, “Good luck, John”
Major site overhaul
Friday, April 4, 2008 · 15 CommentsWith several varying URLs and projects scattered across different sites, a major overhauling of my sites was long overdo. My blog, illustration portfolio, and neglected Machine Gum comics site needed, I felt, a more cohesive presence. So after months of wrestling with stylesheets and learning an entirely new CMS, I’m excited and relieved to finally launch this latest redesign. It’s not a major departure from the previous design; but I’ve managed to consolidate everything a little better with more uniform branding and navigation.
I’m not a professional web designer, but I am a fairly competent hobbyist I think. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the help of both CSSEdit and the Blueprint CSS framework, both of which help take most of the guesswork out of designing with stylesheets. Web standards geeks tempted to look under the hood will still find no-nos like empty divs, and a somewhat disorganized stylesheet, but whatever. I’m a cartoonist, not a bricklayer!
I’m crossing my fingers that those subscribed to my old RSS feed will seamlessly pick up this new one. The new feed contains blog entries as well as comics and my growing collection of warm-up drawings. Hopefully that’s not too much information overload. Should I have separate feeds for things like the comics section? Anyone even care?
And new to the site is, finally, a store page for my minicomics and original art.
Please click around and let me know if anything’s broken, or out of place. There are still a few details to take care of, but I finally think it’s ready to go live. After a few days of solid coding, and an unhealthy amount of both coffee and Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, I’m ready for a nap.
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RobotJohnny.com is the personal weblog of Toronto illustrator and cartoonist John Martz. Read more...
The blog is made up of regular entries, Cinema Toast movie reviews, and Warm-Up Drawings.
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