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I know that the robot was from a fellow creative Dave Roman. The sports stickers were from trips to Montreal and Chicago and then a trip to Stratford, On

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Stickers from fellow creatives include Simon Bisley and Matt Busch.

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Stickers from Matt Busch, The Dirty Show and one from me.

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I had some kind of procedure, maybe just an EKG, so I kept the sticker thingie. It’s a sticker, right?

From fellow creatives include Jim Anderson, Matt Busch and Denver Brubaker. Trips included the Czech Slovak Museum in Iowa, MAPS Air Museum in Canton, OH and Indianapolis.

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From fellow creatives include DJ Corchin, Matt Busch/Lin Zy, Ryan Tavarez and Rocket Ink Studios. Trips include Indianapolis, Nashville and Kalamazoo, MI.

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From fellow creatives include the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers (Motile Stormer, Peggy Christie), The Dirty Show and Wolf Baldasarro. One trip to Massachusetts.

W=hen I do another one of these, I’ll focus on the smaller moleskin sketchbooks and the like.

CREATIVE NOTES

READING: Surrealism: Permanent Revelation by Roger Cardinal & Robert Stuart Short and Batman Noir: The Dark Knight Strikes Again by Frank Miller

LISTENING: Frozen Charlotte by Jack White

The piece was carved out of a chunk on soapstone and this is much darker than it originally appeared. I applied some tung oil to not only protect it, but in an attempt to bring out the vibrant colors that would emerge once it was wet. It became darker than I thought, but I still like it.

Years ago, I took a stone carving class at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. The teacher for that class was a teacher that taught at my high school when I was there, but never had her as an instructor. So, it was nice for that full circle moment. I think that she appreciated my work ethic, as I was the only student there that left each session with a cloud of stone dust trailing behind me. I mean that I was literally covered with the stuff. As I told a fellow student, ‘it’s not worth doing if I can’t get dirty.’

When that class ended, my instructor invited me to sit in on her stone carving class at Wayne State University, for the next semester. Of course, I jumped at the chance. Emerging was the result of all that.

My initial concept was a bit different. I was actually mocked by the teacher for being ‘a figurative guy.’ I do mean mocked. I think that the rest of her class was kind of shocked by her treatment towards me, but I did get that kind of ‘honesty’ because I was part of the scene for quite some time. Maybe she just thought I was a doofus. It all brought back my high school years. Both her and my drawing and painting teachers were 70’s abstract expressionists who had very little patience for realism, cartoons, comic books, etc. At least, I had a sculpting teacher who balanced all that out for me. Not only did he know sculpting, but cartooning, the history of it even. Instant hero.

Anyways, here were the first sketches that I did for that carving. I had the idea a couple of years before.

The original working title was ‘Faceless.’ I think that I wanted the guy’s normal head to be somewhat nondescript and have this huge expression filled face on his back. I think that my teacher was offended by that big face. Not exactly a fan of surrealism, either.

Here is what the piece came out to be. All of these pictures were taken by a fellow artist who was rather good at photographing artwork, sculptor John Wood.

As you can see, much lighter. When wet, greens and reds would emerge.

Look, no face!

As I was working out the details, I did a sketch of how I was thinking that the legs should be.

I even did a sketch of it after it was done.

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: Lysistrata by Aristophanes Push The Wall by Frank Miller

LISTENING: Trixies by Squeeze

So, here’s some of those stickered up sketchbooks. I’ll start with the latest that I recently finished up. This sketchbook was an experiment in its own way, as this one isn’t made from trees, but limestone. So, I gave it a try. I liked it for the most part, but the paper was a bit soft and my pencil would snag occasionally. Nitpicking, really, but here it is:

The spine was kind of thick, so hence the blurriness. Stickers from fellow creatives include Ryan Claytor, Jeff Sornig, Emily Zelasko, James Gurney, Oliva and Trish Brockman.

These next ones are some early sketchbooks. Well, early for stickers. I used to just put one sticker on them and I have no idea why. Looked neat? I don’t know. Maybe to balance out the messiness of my sketchbook? Here’s one from 1987.

I was using the big hard cover sketchbooks during this time, 9x12, I methinks.

Here’s another one stickered book:

I probably took that off of some machine at the factory that I worked at the time. Hopefully, the workers understood the caution that was needed. The message applies to the sketchbook.

Now, you can tell just when my stickers accumulated on this next one:

That was the front. Now, the back:

My travels had taken me to Amsterdam, Vermont and maybe Tennessee during this time period. And, I was a disgruntled employee. Ask anyone. The only fellow creative on this one was by Aaron Bordner. I hadn’t realized that I met him before a few years ago. I’ll be sure to bring this up the next time I see him.

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Vermont and New York were trips the year before, but I did go to Boston with this sketchbook. No fellow creatives on this one. Can you tell that I like hockey?

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Cleveland and Canada were definite trips and no creatives here, as well.

Ok, maybe I’ll stop this here for now and resume these with a future post. I think that they are kind of fun, what say you?

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: The Expressions Of The Emotions In Man And Animals by Charles Darwin Encyclopaedia Of Hell by Martin Olsen and Tony Millionaire

LISTENING: Turkish Revelry by Loudon Wainwright

As a young lad and someone who had a big interest in that great big war that consumed the world a couple of decades before I was born and as an emerging artist, I was drawn (pun intended) to the cartoons of Bill Mauldin. But, these weren’t single paneled gags such as Dennis the Menace, Ziggy, or Herman (awesome, btw). This was history. Gags, to be certain, but first hand history. Documentation of actual events told in a humorous fashion. Such is the power of a cartoon. This was an early lesson with conveying thoughts and communicating them. And, to maybe bring forth a smile or a chuckle dealing with such subject matter is a strong skill indeed.

Bill Mauldin (1921-2003) was an editorial cartoonist to be clearer, but his strip could have easily run next to the best of the daily cartoons of the day. They were identifiable. He even won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work.

Enlisting in the National Guard in 1940, he began doing strips for his unit’s newspaper, eventually developing his signature characters, Willie and Joe. They represented the average soldier.

As part of the Army press corp, Mauldin landed in Italy with the invasion of Sicily. He then began doing his thing for the Stars and Stripes military newspaper. He was eventually given a jeep and he rode to the front collecting information and experiences. He did 6 cartoons a week.

What I liked about his cartoons is that he didn’t glorify war, as we Americans tend to do. He was there, he knew what those guys were going through. He wanted to represent the average guy, the grunt in the trenches, where there was no glory, mainly mud and blood. But, he could do that in a humorous fashion, as these strips were for those very grunts.

So, for me, not only a record of what was going on at that time, but lessons in storytelling, even though I didn’t know at that time just what I was absorbing, but I was. And line work, oh the line work. Most likely brush work (even better), but the lines that he could pull were incredible. Just look at the line/brush work on that tank!

“Able Fox Five to Able Fox. I got a target, but ya gotta be patient.”

I didn’t realize until recently just how much I absorbed from Bill. Not just the line work, but the balance of his figures, the weight of them on the paper. I have struggled more with this concept than others over the years, but it’s an oh so important skill to get right, to even be aware of. And for the observant, take note of the individual faces. And they are individuals. Each expression and feature belong to that man or woman, making them, in fact, individuals. This is important in most of what we do, but with these war era stories, that much more of an impact. They weren’t just Willie and Joe.

And, speaking of people that weren’t Willie and Joe, Mauldin included the women who were affected by war, as well. And, with that portrayal of balance and weight on the page, he did this with the ladies, too. The soldiers, the grunts, were mostly large, somewhat brutish, unshaven (will get into that in a bit), well guys. Especially guys with battle fatigue. With the women there were struggles of their own and how they handled the turmoil that was going on around them. And that all important line work, handled perfectly.

Some situations very light-hearted and relatable.

Some just trying to survive…

Thwarted attempts…

And some situations were downright brutal.

Now, back to that unshaven comment. Mauldin had his detractors, as well. General Patton seemed to have despised him with his portrayal of soldiers unshaven. That was unpatriotic to him and he wanted Mauldin removed from his job. However, Eisenhower himself, stepped in and told Patton that he was off limits and to leave him alone. Stars and Stripes wasn’t for the officers, it was for the soldiers. That’s a good story.

Here are some unshaven and ‘unpatriotic’ soldiers.

When I first saw the above toon, I thought it to be a bit cliched, but then the humor hit me just right. Maybe it was the goofy kid and what are probably his relatives. Perfect. The clean-shaven kid with glasses contrasts nicely with Joe’s (?) gruff exterior.

Even Charles Shultz admired Mauldin and his work, referencing him many times with his Peanuts strips…

If you liked these cartoons, check out his books Up Front and Bill Maudlin’s Army. Highly recommended. He definitely was an influence for me, and maybe you will like his work, as well.

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: Persepolis (re-read) by Marjane Satrapi and The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin

LISTENING: Led Zeppelin II by Led Zeppelin

Anyways, this is going to be a somewhat different kind of post, but one that I had fun with, nonetheless. You see, about a month ago, we were walking at the Edsel Ford Estate with a friend and there was this pile of goose feathers in the path before us. When I say ‘pile,’ I mean about four, or so. Still. That’s quite a collection of goose feathers. They looked good, so I picked one up and took it home. I dabbled in quill experiments when I was a youngster and thought, just maybe, I’ll try it again. Here is that goose feather presented to you all arty and stuff, because what says ‘art’ more than a perfect goose feather? Nature has a way of doing this.

The bottom crumpling was because I had it in my back pocket, forgot it was there, and sat down. Still, a hearty goose feather. As you can see, I cut the nib with a knife for drawing purposes. Just like our Founders intended.

I mentioned that I dabbled in Quillery when I was a kid. Is Quillery even a word? It is now. Anyways, when I was in elementery school, a favorite field trip was when we would go to Greenfield Village, Henry Ford’s history extravaganza, an outdoor/indoor museum of historic homes and buildings. I would have a limited allotment of funds for food and souvenirs and I always needed a souvenir. I loved history, even then and couldn’t get enough of it. So, one year, while in the general store, I think it was, I bought a quill pen. It was white, so maybe a snow goose or even a swan and it came with an old looking copy of the Declaration of Independence. Nerd overload. Here’s what that probably looked like. this pic being from the museum’s (actually, it’s from the Henry Ford Museum next door) website:

Now, I know that I experimented with writing, probably copying the Declaration itself. I’m sure that that didn’t go well. My penmanship with normal, modern writing instruments was and remains to this day… poor. My mother tried her best to make me practice writing and finally gave up and declared that I would have to be a doctor or an artist. Guess which one took? I also believe that I tried to draw with that quill pen and I know that those scraps are somewhere amidst my disorganized art scraps. Maybe I’ll find them one day. If you know me, you might know that I gravitate towards archaic things and methods. It’s where we came from, I want to know how and why it worked for them and could it work for me. We, as a people, tend to discard things willy nilly for the latest and greatest and that does not always work for me. So, I wanted/needed to create something as our forefathers did before us. My axe to bear.

So, back to that goose feather. I sketched out, you guessed it, a goose. I recently took a pic of one at the Detroit Zoo and used that as my reference.

Like I said before, I had sliced off the tip to form the nib. When I began to ink it, the nib was a bit wide and held a lot of ink.

The wideness of it all was very good with laying down thick and copious amounts of ink. But that wouldn’t serve me very well when getting into the smaller details. So, I cut a little more off and was rather successful in getting the tip that was needed.

The ink was thick and took a bit to dry, but it all came out quite alright.

A simple, but fun little exercise. Thanks for bearing with me on this little side trip and I do hope that it was somewhat enjoyable.

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: Bill Mauldin’s Army by Bill Mauldin The Asshole Survival Guide by Robert I. Sutton

LISTENING: The Hives Forever, Forever The Hives by The Hives

Here’s the piece:

9x12, scratchboard/clayboard and watercolor

Besides the tentacles and shark heads, I put in the some gulper eels, a deep sea fish because they are really cool looking. Maybe even menacing. The truth is that they are all of three inches, or so long. If that. But I like ‘em, so they went in.

My original idea was to submit a sculpture and then this one, if finished in time. the sculpture was started last year, originally to be a small pewter casting. Then, I was inspired by Alberto Giacometti and how he primarily worked in plaster and I have a lot of plaster chucks laying around the garage from various projects and thought that I could put one of them to work on this piece. If I want to cast in bronze at a later date, then that can be accomplished. So, I thought that I could adapt this already started piece for the Blue & White show with a few minor changes. I would tint the plaster blue and have those very same tentacles that you see in Oceanic Tendrils coming up from the base. I’ll finish it, but I did hit a wall with what seemed to be a simple object. When my friend and fellow artist Mary suggested getting together to work on some white clayboard ideas, it wasn’t a long stretch to take that idea from the sculpture and adapt that to this.

These are the first sketch ideas as to what I was going to do for the base of the sculpture:

Then, of course, I just had to add a gulper eel to the mix…

Then, my ideas for the scratchboard design were taking hold and a pattern of sorts was emerging.

Some hammerheads needed to be represented and then the final composition emerged, as well. Just a little bit of tweaking.

I then drew my design to the appropriate size. As you can see below, I had put a deep sea angler in there, but decided to take it out to balance the image just a little better.

The next step had me prepping the clayboard for scratchin.’ I probably put on a few more coats of watercolor than necessary, but I was trying to smooth out the streaks. A lost cause and I do think that that added to the overall look, so at some point I considered it to be applied.

Then, the transfer of the image was next. A red pen is a good idea, to keep track of where you are at and not going over the same area more than necessary. Plus, the red looks cool combined with the blue.

Let the scratching commence. This piece really took precedence over the sculpture. Working in this medium is very satisfying.

Scroll back up to the top to see the finished piece again in all of its glory. Or, you can head on over to the Holland Museum and see it in person.

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides Secrets of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery

LISTENING: Ol’ Diamondback Sturgeon (Fisherman’s Chronicles, Pt 3) by Primus

The Destroyer

Sinestro

Rango

Robocop

Green Lantern

Ghost Rider

Machine Man

Muck Man

I may put these up on my website and Etsy shop, but if anyone is interested in these, contact me at madplanet@sbcglobal.net. That way, you can avoid any fees from those shops.

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: The Naturalist on the River Amazons by Henry Walter Bates (just finished) Space Drawing, Volume 1: Perspective by Dongho Kim (just finished) Cursed Pirate Girl: Melodious Malady by Jeremy Bastion

LISTENING: The Green Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy by the Claypool Lennon Delirium

After the bumblebee that I did a few months ago, I focused on a gentoo penguin. I had recently done a penguin encounter at the Detroit Zoo where we could feed and interact with a few different kinds of the flightless birds. The gentoos were my favorite. They were a bit standoffish, but friendly and very curious. They didn’t like to be touched (I tried!), but they seemed to love eye contact. I would have five gentoos on the floor with me just staring into my eyes just a couple of feet away. They wouldn’t take any fish from me at first, but soon warmed up and ate everything that I gave them. They are such cool little critters.

As with the previous bumblebee piece, it all started with a sketch (based on a photo that I took while at the zoo) that was then transferred to the clayboard/scratchboard surface…

Using a red pen helps keep track of where you’re at and not unnecessarily drawing over the same line again and again.

Then, I added color, just a splash of orange as that is pretty much the only color besides their usual black and white bodies.

And, in case you missed it, here’s the bumblebee with color added via water colors.

The scratchboard piece that I recently finished has an aquatic theme, with tentacles, sharks and gulper eels. A friend recommended that I call it The Chomp! As I said, more on that later…

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: The Naturalist On The River Amazons by Henry Walter Bates Alberto Giacometti: The Museum Of Modern Art, New York by Peter Selz and Alberto Giacometti Moment To Moment by Rod McKuen

LISTENING: Singles 45’s And Under by Squeeze

So, I’ve done a few shows so far this year and those I’ll talk a bit about. I would like to add that last year was the best year that I have ever had doing comic cons and such. I was really expecting the worst, considering what’s being done to our economy, but people showed up, that’s for sure. The jury is still out on this year, so far. Anyways, here’s the shows that I’ve already done.

1. Warren Elks Comic Book Show on February 7th

This was my first show of the year and it was a pretty good one. And, as always, there was a good line-up of my fellow artists. It’s always good to pass the time in good company with interesting conversations.

2. Warren Elks comic Book Show on March 6th.

This one was a last minute thing and by ‘last minute,’ I mean the night before.

3. The Detroit Comic Book and Toy Show on April 4th

The show had an even bigger line-up of artists than the year before and it was good seeing some familiar faces.

Now, on to the upcoming shows.

4. When Time Stumbled gallery exhibition at Color Ink Studio in Hazel Park, MI starting on May 8th, with the opening on Saturday, May 9th from 3-5pm.

When Time Stumbled is a book of poems written by Mary Stebbins Taitt, with illustrations provided by various artists. The book is a tribute to Mary’s brother Tom, who passed away last fall. The show will have some of the pieces of art from the book. I did two pieces for the book, but only one will be in the show, as it is a small gallery from what I have heard, not ever been there. Here is my piece that will be in the show.

This was for the poem Into The Voices by Mary Stebbins Taitt. The exhibit will run to May 29th.

Next up…

5. The Cherry Capital Comic Con in Traverse City, MI. Well, technically, it is in Acme at the Grand Traverse Resort, but we’re splitting hairs here. This will be from May 22-24th. I go to this show just about every year, as it is one of the most unique cons out there. This is the only con where the volunteers know me by name. A true con-family affair. Some of the artists that are there, I see only when I come to this show and it is always a good time.

Ok, I’m going to list this next one, but it is tentative, as I haven’t submitted any pieces, as of yet. One of possibly two pieces. And the one that is finished, I am very happy with, so I hope that I get in. Of course, more on this later.

6. Blue and White exhibit at the Holland Museum in Holland, MI. The show will start on June 12th

And lastly (so far), another gallery show.

7. An, as of yet unnamed sports themed show at the River’s Edge Gallery in Wyandotte, MI. The show will start on October 16th and run to November 14th.

So, that is it for now. I’m always hopeful that I will sign on for a few more and I always update the shows on my blog in the Appearances window on the right hand side.

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: Surely, You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman One Piece, Vol. 110 Egghead, Part 5 by Eiichiro Oda The Naturalist On The River Amazons by Henry Walter Bates

LISTENING: News Of The World by Queen

And speaking of 'Before The Socials, up next are some sketches for a strip that I was developing way back in the 90’s. Back then, my friend and fellow collaborator, Darin Palmer and I would try to develop comic book stories and cartoons. We did a strip back then called Pipedreams and it looked kind of like this:

Those were the introductory strips featuring three of the main characters, Chili, Chester and Joe. The strip was about our lives working in a mattress factory and I do believe that every single character was based on someone real, including Chili (Darin) and Chester (me). The name Chili came from the movie Get Shorty with John Travolta’s character name was Chili Palmer. Darin’s last name. Chester came from the song The Weight by The Band. You know, the one… “Hey, wait a minute, Chester…” I was often heard saying that line because I thought it to be funny for some reason. Hence, the name Chester. Joe was actually, Joe.

Anyways, as I was scanning all those Workplace Cartoon stuff, I came across these next images. I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a spin-off from the Pipedreams strip, or what, but they are definitely Chili and Chester. Or they could easily be just Darin and myself. We were into metal detecting at the time. We were cool like that. So, the premise was, the guys would die doing something stupid and go to Heaven, a place that neither of the two really believed in, but would be inhabited by famous people and cartoon characters, instead of God or angels.

The above drawing is really why I wanted to do this post. I had a hard time believing that I did something that came out so well…

That’s as far as I went with this and didn’t take any further notes, so I’m not sure how any of this was supposed to play out. Knowing me as I do, I was just winging it anyways. Darin and I have been talking about taking those old Pipedreams strips and elaborating the stories some for animation. Perhaps something like this would work for something like that.

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt Empire Antarctica by Gavin Francis

Listening: Easter Lily EP by U2

The above cartoon was about an incident involving our maintenance man. It’s hard to recall the details, but there was some concern over some underage abuse. Like I said many times before, these were not good people. So, mockery was of the utmost importance.

This next one wasn’t so much a Koil Komic, but a general observational sketch. Weren’t they all? In this case, there was a somewhat attractive employee who knew she was all that and a bag of chips. Very snobby. Unfortunately, she had a personality that was rather toxic and just plain shitty. The attractiveness went away very quickly.

We had a string of CEO/presidents over the years. Each one was more corrupt than the last and eventually they had to be replaced. In this case, the president died. He was still a piece of shit human being, but management thought that he was a saint. I refused to go to his funeral. I did catch hell for that, but there was no way that I was going to be fake about it. He was a merch kind of guy. Rah, rah, and all that.

The other maintenance guy was just as bad as the first. Of course, they were buddies. I think that he crossed a worker, trying to be all tough. He kind of was taught that he wasn’t.

There was this one person who thought that she was special, but knew that she wasn’t aging well. Heavy drinker. She brought out a pic of herself from decades earlier and said that she used to be hot. The pic wasn’t all that different and there were a lot of scratching of foreheads.

My supervisor at the time was, well, going south mentally over the years. Her behavior at times was questionable.

With yet another CEO, there were some questionable behavior from both he and some of the employees. My disdain for corrupt, right-wing, authoritarian “leadership’ was strongly being tested during these years. This one had to be let go after a short stint.

Our tough maintenance man had it one day over all the disrespect that he earned. An explosion occurred.

New plant manager, new maintenance guy, same results…

The supervisor that I mentioned earlier was always having a moment or two about respect or some such things…

I’m not too sure just who the ‘lap dog’ was in this situation…

This guy was caught in a lie. He wasn’t too bright, hence the name Stupid Mike. There were three Mikes. Big Mike, Little Mike and Stupid Mike.

This was the last cartoon that I did and a month later, I was out the door, beginning my life as a freelance illustrator. What a trip.

Hopefully, I didn’t offend too many people with these toons!

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson Harpy by EPHK

LISTENING: The Great Satan by Rob Zombie

Around this time, I was tinkering with the idea of making a book of fairy tales and mythology that centered around the city of Detroit, trying my best to create some folklore for a city, that at the time I thought, had none. I was wrong, that stuff is there, but I just didn’t know it at the time. Check out Legends of Le Detroit from 1883. Good stuff.

Anyways, one of the ideas that I had was to do a minotaur that existed beneath the streets of Detroit and represented ignorance, or a lack of knowledge, and it needed to be destroyed. So, I took that idea, made a minotaur out of some polymer clay, painted it to look like a golden idol of sorts and brought it up from the labyrinths beneath the city. I placed my minotaur under a train viaduct just north of the Midtown section of the city.

Here are the sketches that I did while trying to configure just what it would look like.

Here are more shots of the minotaur sitting on its iron perch judging those puny humans mindlessly driving by.

These last few were taken at night. In a questionable neighborhood, too! I would take a trip down there from time to time and take a pic or two to show the weathering. Whenever a train went by overhead, rust and dirt would fall on the minotaur giving it a more industrial look. I was loving how it would appear over time. I haven’t been able to find those photos, as of yet, being old school 35 mm, and all. But I will find them!

Here is the spread of my piece and its location as it appeared in the CCS book, titled Spine.

It stayed up there under the tracks for about 8 years, or so. Then the viaduct needed repairs or something and I never saw it again. I’m hoping that one of the construction workers took it home and has it somewhere. Most likely, it’s in a landfill. So, I guess the minotaur might have been slain anyways…

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon E is for Edward by Michael Hischak

Listening: Bored by Destroy All Monsters

Here’s some sketches, as I was trying to work out some likenesses and ideas.

And the cartoon that came from those sketches…

The lenses came in these disk shapes and you had to select the closest one to the prescription at hand. I think that D-28 was the range of most prescriptions. I imagined them coming in loaf form.

The public could see us, so we had to have a certain level of decorum. No five o’clock shadow, no unruly hair, no splotches on our black pants. The problem? I usually have a five o’clock shadow my hair is always unruly and part of the process of smoothing out the lenses required a chalky white solution that splashed. Always. One day upon arriving at work, I was given a razor blade and a comb and told to go downstairs to do whatever was necessary to be so unruly. They stopped asking me to comb my hair after I demonstrated what happens with my hair right after combing. It would go back to whatever my hair does. They just stared at me, but at least they stopped telling me to comb my hair. Corporate America.

Ok, back to mattresses! So, fast forward a few years and I’m off the cutting table and operating a large quilting machine. Lotsa heavy lifting, but once everything was loaded up for a while, I could read a book, much to the dismay of management. No one really said anything, but I know they didn’t like it one bit. They probably didn’t complain too much because I got the job done.

There was this guy who set up the guys who put the mattresses together and he was a huge KISS fan. He was an awkward kind of guy and we wondered what his home life was like.

I mentioned that I was a quilter operator? Well, I think that I was the first such operator to catch my quilter on fire. That was a fun conversation when I required assistance from maintenance. It was funny as we were arguing as to just how I could do such a thing, all the while the thing is smoldering away.

It turned out that there was a bunch of fabric and foam that was getting stuck in the cutter and each time the circular blade was spinning, it was heating up and then…

Now, some of these next few are about the games that some workers played with each other to gain some sort of power, attention, whatever. Most of it, silly and annoying.

Tough guy/gal power plays. Some of these ‘tough’ types would try to collect an army of the more passive workers to do their bidding. ‘Dumbville is harsh and I’m punching down here. I actually liked most of these victims. Just frustrated at the situation and how gullible people can be, especially adults.

As with national politics, the workplace has its own set of such things. Management’s power plays, manipulations, etc. Just as some of the workers would collect their little armies, so would management.

The two guys shown above acted tough, but were really just boys trying to be men. They acted tough because they were allowed to and were protected. That never stopped us from mocking them, though. And of course, not listening to them at all.

There were always jokes before and after sporting events, depending on who were rooting whom and for whatever reasons. Mostly, done in good humor.

Ok, that’s it for now. I’m not sure how many of these I have left, but I only had about fours years to go before I quit. As always, stay tuned for more hilarity.

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: E Is For Edward by Gregory Hischak

2025 Sketch Book by Arthur Adams

LISTENING: Days of Ash EP by U2

I had a different design in mind, with my subject being a bumblebee. Earlier in the year, I had done a dinosaur with a specific design, based on the elephant head logo for the band Beat by Dan Ermey. I wanted to do something similar with this, but it just wasn’t flowing the way that I wanted, so I altered an old drawing that I did back in 2008. I was doing up sample CD cover designs, working just in black and white (of course!) and had this one of a bumblebee:

Bonus points for those that can get the joke on the band name… So witty.

The size was different than the clayboard that I had on hand, so a little photoshop alteration gave me the image that I needed. I then copied that onto the clayboard using some transfer paper that Mary had. You can see the red pen lines. Using red makes it easier to see where you left off and where you need to be.

This bee is not as chunky as the original, but still works for me. So, not nature’s little ‘gun ship’ so much as a more sleek flying machine.

I took a progress shot to show how things were going.

I didn’t use my official scratchboard tool and used a standard Exacto knife instead. The wings were fun to do.

Here is a pic of the finished scratchboard…

… and a line art scan.

CREATIVE NOTES

READING: Dr. Werthless by Harold Schechter and Eric Powell My Life With the Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall

LISTENING: A Toe In The Ocean by Adrian Belew

As I’m want to point out, the factory life can attract some interesting people from all walks of life. It was a challenge for me being a creative to navigate a world filled with people not curious about anything other than drinking and smoking. I wanted out. Most were content that they had a job. So, I cartooned my way through as a way to survive and to entertain myself. I was primarily working for an audience of one, first and foremost, me. There were probably two of us. I did have a partner in crime. I guess that I did punch down quite a bit, but would like to point out that I liked some of these guys and gals that I would lampoon. And they did seem to enjoy my antics somewhat, but were probably mostly confused.

Frank here was an alcoholic by his own admission. To his credit, he never drank at work. I even hung out with him and his wife from time to time. He was fun and personable, just had some inner demons.

This may seem mean, but I think he gave me that idea.

A lot of my toons were based on the comments that certain workers would repeat often. Then, I would take those comments and put those workers in a situation, such as being on Jeopardy.

Then, the ever popular Employee Profile, littered with actual sayings and doings. Well, popular to me, I guess.

This next one involved our Quality Control engineer, Keith. Keith was a good guy. This was done about the time that the film Anaconda came out and we wondered what Keith would sound like saying Ice Cube’s line from the movie. Then, it snowballed from there to being a Soul Brother wearing some crazy 70’s funkadelic outfit. We cracked ourselves up (that party of two that I mentioned).

Andy was a cutter for a while. I think that I took over for him after I had quit for a while and then came back (what was I thinking?!!). For a cutter, he had a weird way of using scissors that wasn’t very effective. And wanted to teach others of this method.

There were some animated and explosive personalities…

On this next one, I can’t recall just what I was lampooning. This guy was no fan of then Detroit mayor Coleman Young and he was no protester either, so I’m not sure what this was about. I thought the drawing was ok, so I included it.

Or maybe he did like him. I don’t know…

Once again, Big John was the target for hi-lo accolades. As I said before, I think that he got a chuckle out of these. I’m sure he thought that I was a little off.

This Employee Profile was about a gent from Oklahoma (in case that wasn’t obvious) who upon cashing his check every week, would go and buy porn to mail back to his friends. Apparently, it was illegal then. Life goals.

This next one, is kind of an Employees Profile…

One of the other hi-lo drivers was a nepo hire and let everyone know it. He would make fun of me for taking a vacation and not go anywhere. Away from there WAS somewhere. He didn’t get it.

More soon!

CREATIVE NOTES:

Reading: Designing A Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans Dimwood by Richard Corben

Listening: The Power Station by The Power Station

Back in December, I picked up an Alley Oop collection called Alley Oop Versus The Black Knight, showcasing the entire run of strips from 1983, minus the Sunday ones. I picked this one because of the cool bi-plane action on the cover. I’m sure that I read most of these strips back in the day, but how could I refuse an adventure involving bi-planes in WW I? Well, I wasn’t disappointed.

The Black Knight storyline is one of three that happen in this collection. The first being a tale back in the Kingdom of Moo, where Oop is originally from involving the invention of a game to placate a possible war and the last being a vampire story set in modern times with his scientist buddies.

Look at that line work! Just fantastic and I hope that Mr. Graue enjoyed drawing these tales as much as I did and do viewing them. He had a great sense of pacing and storytelling, as any good adventure strip would require.

I’m really drawn to the way that Graue drew the crosshatching on the uniforms of both the German and French soldiers. The panels that depict the fog are killer.

Graue wrote and drew the strip from 1971 to 1990. I came aboard somewhere in the mid to late 70’s and, although I do remember struggling with it early on, I was won over soon after. I wasn’t sure what to make of this time traveling caveman, which is really stupid considering just what I did love during those days (and still do!).

Sadly, the 75 year old Graue was killed in 2001 when his car was hit by a dump truck in North Carolina.

This is just a sampling of Dave Graue’s work on Alley Oop. I highly recommend a deeper dive into his work for those that are fans of adventure strips and great artwork.

It’s strange what I notice as I get older and see that, yes, I was heavily influenced by these strips in my own work without consciously knowing it at the time. I pick up pieces here and there that are now obvious that I was channeling this stuff. I’m happy about that, as I don’t really notice it at times. It’s nice to see that some good stuff was learned from those that came before me.

And yes, the Hollywood Argyles song Alley Oop was inspired by the strip. Although, at that time, original creator V.T. Hamlin was doing the strip.

I will be back next week (hopefully) with another highly entertaining post continuing with those Workplace Cartoons.

CREATIVE NOTES:

READING: Sand, Wind and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery The Uncool by Cameron Crowe

LISTENING: Live by Beat

All the best to my subscribers and casual visitors, as well! I sincerely hope that next year will be oh so much better than this one.

CREATIVE NOTES

READING: Albert Kahn’s Daylight by Chris Meister The Micronauts Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years by Bill Mantlo, Michael Golden and others

LISTENING: my Holy Shit! It’s Christmas playlist

Above is from a strip that I was experimenting with for awhile called ink.re.ments. A somewhat autobiographical (aren’t they all?) strip.

I was doing strips for the Belle Isle Aquarium for a while, in an unofficial, but endorsed capacity. Mostly to promote events and such.

And another aquarium toon…

I have no idea if this puffer fish (Otis) was even singing a Christmas song, but he had to have been… There’s ornaments, dammit! Wait, wait, I think that he is doing that ‘chubby bunny’ marshmallow thing that was going around for a bit. What this has to do with Christmas, is beyond me.

I have more, but perhaps I will save those for next year.

Creative Notes

Reading: Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

Wacky Packages with introduction by Art Spiegelman

Listening: Holy Shit! It’s Christmas! playlist

During these times, we were at war, as we are at all times, but here, the ‘military action’ in Somalia was going on. Of course, the Koil Krew had to go…

As you can see, all mattress companies from Michigan were sent to fight the war. There were to be more worker profiles, but, you know…

Just like back in my stained glass shop days, I put the copy machine to good use in mocking fellow employees. There was this guy who kinda sorta resembled Red Wings enforcer Bob Probert, but in a skinny, scrawny, toothless, googly-eyes kinda way. My wife/girlfriend at the time told me that ‘googly-eyes’ was offensive. I replied that she just didn’t understand what kind of guy he was. Like that helped.

And Darren really did get ecstatic if he could leave an hour early. Honestly, we all did.

Big John was back at it racing his big wheeled semi at the Silverdome. He never liked that I drew him in fancy cowboy boots and frills, but he did seem to like the sketches overall.

There was this guy who we called Clyde. This was not his real name. He had these impossibly long arms that seemed to drag on the ground when he walked. Instead of calling him a troglodyte (we liked him), we called him Clyde from the Everywhich Way But Loose movies with Clint Eastwood. He kind of liked the name, but did not like it whenever we said ‘left turn, Clyde!’ Which was pretty much everyday.

Ok, again, I don’t think that I was going for anything homophobic in these next two sketches, it’s just that these two spent an awful lot of time together, in and out of work. I can jest, because my coworker/buddy and I spent probably even more time together. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

I think that they bonded over being felons and such things.

And now we’re back to googly eyes…

This next one is of our plant manager. He was ok, but had to do the bidding of the president of the company. Management, what are ya gonna do.

And speaking of that president, here is one that he never saw. I learned my lesson from that early sketch, to not let him see anything ever again.

In case you didn’t guess already, those are little mattresses that we made as the marshmallows.

This last one is of the Quality Control manager that we had, just a caricature. He always looked mad as hell, but was actually a nice guy that one could shoot the shit with. Once, he came up to me and was yelling at me, but what he was saying wasn’t matching with his tone. I asked him why he was so mad and he seemed shocked that he was. He had no idea.

Ok, that’s it for now. I’ll spare you any more of these for next month and pick up with more in January. I hope that you are enjoying them.

Creative notes:

Reading: Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Frida Kahlo by Andrea Kettenmann

Listening: Are Forever by Ashes and Diamonds

So, October came upon us and hey, why not do something for Halloween. Last year a group of us walked around Kelly’s neighborhood while the kids did their thing and it was fun. Why not do so again this year, but wear big heads. Yeah!

We spent the couple of weeks leading up to Halloween crafting our heads in Kelly’s backyard. Here is the start of that process:

We took two large beach balls (the one that I had was way too small!), attached Saran Wrap to them, Kelly mixed up special paper (or is it papier?) mache goop and we cut up a bunch of craft paper strips (because we just didn’t have enough newspaper), and began coating those beach balls.

The deep sea diver is emerging. A few days before, I made the port hole thingies out of cardboard and attached them to the beach ball. Kelly is doing her best to get the hell out of range!

The face on Kelly’s pumpkin head is coming together, using tinfoil and masking tape.

The two heads making progress. The change on the table near the divers head is from Kelly’s daughter. I think that she was try to get me to by something, but I had to use imaginary money from my pocket to give her change and then ended up leaving all the money, imaginary and real and was gone. it was all very confusing.

Kelly had a mannequin that I put to good use while shaping the breastplate.

Kelly’s creepy pumpkinhead looking, well, creepy.

After all coats were applied, I took the helmet head home and attached the breastplate to prepare it for painting.

It took some tinkering and to figure out just what colors I wanted, but it all came together. I used a doorstopper thingie to use as the handle/knob for the faceplate. I intended to put rusty bolts along the edge of the breastplate, but I was running out of time. I had a party to go to that night and wanted to wear this to that!

Here we are, Kelly and I in our costumes on Halloween. Pretty cool, eh? While out trick to treating with the kids, some lady said that we looked great while under the streetlight. We had lights inside our big heads and as it became darker, our ‘faces’ emerged. We were a big hit with kids and adults alike.

Creative Notes:

Re-Reading: The Art Spirit by Robert Henri

Bloom County: Loose Tails by Berke Breathed

Listening to: Are Forever by Ashes and Diamonds