Anne Morse Hambrock: Kenosha Festival of Cartooning

Posted on May 14, 2012 by David Hurley

Anne Morse-Hambrock

Anne Morse-Hambrock is organizing the “Kenosha Festival of Cartooning”. The Festival is a 3 day festival of live presentations,  workshops, a gallery show, panel discussions and community outreach by some of the nation’s top cartoonists. Anne “wears many hats” from being a professional harpist, writing blogs, promoting cartoonist and coloring the comic strip “The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee” for her husband cartoonist John Hambrock, and the list of her activities goes on. I had the privilege of speaking with Anne about the festival and her life as a creative person and am thrilled to have her share with us here at “Don’t Pick the Flowers”.

David: Hello Anne thanks so much for being featured at “Don’t Pick the Flowers”. You have organized a festival called “Kenosha Festival of Cartooning”. Can you talk a little about Kenosha?

Kenosha is a great town located on the south east shore of Lake Michigan. We are nicely situated an hour and fifteen minutes north of downtown Chicago and forty five minutes south of downtown Milwaukee.

Some readers may have heard of “Franks Diner” which has been featured on the food network show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”. With a long history of auto manufacturing, Kenosha is a town that never left the 1950′s behind. What I mean by that is that we have a number of drive-in restaurants, complete with car hops, and a drive-in movie theater. It isn’t that these places were created to cash in on interest in the ’50s – they simply opened in the ’50s and have been open ever since!

After Chrysler pulled out in 1989, Kenosha began to redefine itself. The plant buildings along the lakeshore were torn down and the city began developing the lakefront with new parks and Museums. The Kenosha Public Museum- the location for all the public events during the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning – is right on the lakeshore and has a stunning view of the lake through the second story atrium.

We also have several restaurants and shops within walking distance of the Museum and a street car that runs from the Metra commuter rail line that extends up from Chicago. There is an open air market on Saturdays (that will be running just outside the Museum the Saturday of the festival) and a full service marina.

Kenosha is home to Carthage College, Gateway Technical College, and the University of Wisconsin Parkside and has a large artistic community. We have a number of art galleries and a Symphony Orchestra. The Kenosha Public Museum offers several classes to the public, one of the most popular being one on cartooning!

The local paper, the Kenosha News, has been a tremendous sponsor! It carries over 25 comics daily in full color and does a great job of balancing older and newer comics.

David: What are some of the events and who will be speaking at the Festival?

Tom Richmond speaking at 2011 festival. photo Kenny Durkin

Our guest speakers this year are:   Dave Coverly (Speed Bump), Hilary Price (Rhymes With Orange), Michael Jantze (The Norm), Greg Cravens (The Buckets), Norm Feuti(Retail and Gil) and Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine)

We have a jam packed schedule of events planned! I am still in the planning stages for some of the events – I had to make sure I could meet my fundraising goal before I set everything in stone. Once the schedule is finalized, it will be on the official festival website.

All the guest artists will be giving slide presentations or “chalk talks” that will be open to the public and will take place at the Kenosha Public Museum. Those presentations will be on Thursday evening, Friday evening, and most of the day Saturday.

Promotional easel for Tom Richmond's 2011 presentation. photo Kenny Durkin

There will be a children’s cartooning workshop Saturday morning. (This will be the only event to charge a fee and reservations are required.)

All the artists will be interviewed Thursday morning by Greg Berg on the local NPR affiliate WGTD.

The artists will be giving a number of presentations on the Carthage and UW Parkside campuses to art students.

There will be one panel discussion at the museum on Saturday afternoon and another for Carthage students on Thursday. I may be able to allow a limited number of folks to attend the Carthage lectures and panel – I’m still working through that one.

We will be hanging a show of original comic art at the Museum. The National Cartoonist Society Foundation has offered to be one of the principal festival underwriters and will be providing us with a number of original comics by high profile NCS artists to be auctioned for the benefit of children’s charities here in Kenosha.

And I am hoping to have all the artists speak, in a panel format, to an assembly of local high school art students.

As you can see, the artists are going to be quite busy!

David: You have launched a Kickstarter Campaign to help fund the festival. For those who possibly don’t know about Kickstarter, what are the incentives?

First, I’d like to mention how Kickstarter works for folks who might not know about it.

Kickstarter is a site that helps creative people crowd source funding for creative projects. Backers pledge at different amounts – sort of like NPR and PBS – and each pledge amount comes with a reward.

No money changes hands unless the target amount – in our case, $10,000 – is reached by the pledge drive deadline. Our deadline is May 22.

Once we make our goal, backers, who have used their Amazon accounts to make a pledge, will see a charge applied to their account. If we fail to make our goal, we lose all the money pledged!

We have great incentives at all pledge levels! My husband John (Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee) designed terrific posters of each of the guest artists last year and will do so again this year. Copies of these posters, signed by the featured artist, are available to folks who pledge at almost every level – from $10 on up.

John also designs a great program booklet that has the complete schedule of public events along with artist bios and a list of our sponsors. Copies of this booklet signed by all the guest artists are available to folks who pledge at several levels – starting at $20. ALL Kickstarter backers will be listed as sponsors in the program book – if they wish to be, I won’t put in anyone who wishes to remain anonymous – but only backers of $1000 or more will be listed as principal underwriters.

Sign for the Gallery Show "One Fine Sunday In The Funny Pages'" assembled by John Read, brought to Carthage College by Diane Levesque and the centerpiece of the 2011 festival. Photo Kenny Durkin

Backers at the $50 level can choose either a full set of signed posters (7 in all) or a signed book collection from one of the guest artists.

Other rewards available are personalized spot art drawings, original daily comic strips signed by the creator and a DVD of the panel discussions. (DVD for personal viewing only – the artists and the festival retain all broadcast rights, including the internet.)

For a complete list of rewards at each level, folks should go to the Kickstarter site for the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning.

David: You also do the coloring for the comic “The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee” for your husband Cartoonist John Hambrock and you run the website “Spot the Cartoonist”. Can you share a little about your life and the cartooning world?

The 2011 festival guests drew these for John and Anne.

I have always loved comics! When my husband John first came to me and said he wanted to try to become a syndicated cartoonist, I was completely on board. In fact, the first strip, which was called “Second Nature” was actually a joint venture between the two of us. We both contributed to writing and character development, but John did all the drawing, and we had both our names in the byline. Second Nature came close to syndication but didn’t quite get to the finish line. And, as much as we enjoyed working together, we agreed that it was very, very hard to have two cooks in the kitchen, as it were.

John continued to develop more comic strips on his journey to syndication and I, while I still function as a muse and sometime editor, stepped back and focused on other things. Once The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee became syndicated, we found out that, not only would Sunday strips be in color, each daily strip would have to be in color as well. That was time that John simply did not have. We used a talented college intern (Alyssa Abraham) for the first 3 months and then I took over the coloring duties and have colored almost every strip since. I think that’s over 2000 now!

The 2011 festival guests drew these for John and Anne.

Even syndicated cartoonists have to do a lot of their own marketing and that has been another of my big jobs. I wear a lot of hats marketing the strip – I try to give the strip as much visibility on the internet as I can and I do a blog on the Edison site.

While I was tooling around the internet for Edison and also attending cartooning events, I decided I didn’t like the way facebook and twitter announcements fell so rapidly down the newsfeed. So I started a website called “Spot the Cartoonist” that is devoted exclusively to listing places that the public can meet cartoonists. I list book signings, gallery receptions that will have the artist present, book tours, slideshows and festivals like the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning. Events are listed by place and date and are archived by month and by artist. There is also a search box if you cannot find what you are looking for. I recently added some great links in the sidebar to videos of cartoonists drawing, podcast interviews, and videos of Tom Gammill meeting cartoonists.

Apologies though, I put the site on hiatus this month when I launched the Kickstarter drive for the festival. I hope to be back on track with Spot the Cartoonist in June.

David: And to end, tell about your career as a professional harpist and artist.

Ah, the job I get paid for! I began my college studies as a double major in art and music. After my freshman year, my harp teacher retired and subsequently I changed schools. The new harp teacher was very hardcore and the art major got thrown under the bus! Since graduating with a degree in harp performance, I have been an active performer, teacher and clinician. I play all kinds of music, classical, celtic, pop and jazz and also compose. For anyone truly interested, I have a website that fully details my harp life.

Photo Kenny Durkin

As far as art is concerned, I got all those foundation classes under my belt and then set art aside for 3 years until, in my senior year, running out of music classes to take and maintain full time status, I signed up for a class in glass blowing. I was hooked! I have only gotten to blow glass sporadically since I left college – furnace time is expensive and furnaces are hard to come by – but it is still my favorite medium to work in. I also dabble in printmaking, fiber art, painting, drawing and jewelry making. Harp and comics keep me too busy to be consistently productive.

A few years ago I also started writing a humor column for my local paper. They asked me to describe myself and I said “I’m overbooked and underpaid!’  Later I decided that would be a great name for a blog for people who can’t say “no” and are always doing too much. So that, in true overbooked fashion, is another site that I work on!

Thank you so much for asking me these questions and for helping to promote the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning! We’re going to have a great time and everyone should come! (And Pledge!)

David: Thank you so much Anne! I appreciate you sharing about the “Kenosha Festival of Cartooning” and about your life. I am wishing you the best (in all aspects) with the Festival and KickStarter.

Now it’s your turn to check out the Kickstarter, Festival, and Anne’s sites. If you are a cartoonist or lover of comics this is a perfect place to help out the cartooning community. Check out these links: 

Kenosha Cartoon Festival Blog: kenoshacartoonfest.blogspot.com/

KickStarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/732284070/kenosha-festival-of-cartooning

Kenosha Cartooning Festival Facebook: www.facebook.com/kenoshacartoonfest

The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee Blog: edison-lee-blog.blogspot.com

Spot the Cartoonist: overbookedandunderpaid.typepad.com/spot_the_cartoonist

Writing, Art, Glass blowing: overbookedandunderpaid.typepad.com/overbooked-and-underpaid

Harpist: annemorsehambrock.com/index.html

 


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Mark Anderson: Andertoons

Posted on May 10, 2012 by David Hurley

Mark Anderson is the creative mind (and Artist) of “Andertoons”. Mark graduated college with a music degree and he found that a music career was impractical. Cartoons were a creative outlet he toyed with at his living room coffee table in his spare time; and he had once contributed to his high school and college newspapers. Mark had always loved cartoons and began submitting cartoons to magazines. Mark said it was a rough start but after refining his talents, working early mornings and late nights, he quit his day job and launched Andertoons. Mark now has an impressive clients list which includes IBM, Microsoft, Harvard Business Review, to name just a few. So let’s meet Mark Anderson, the man who turned a hobby into a successful career.  

David: Hello Mark and thank you so much for sharing “Andertoons” here at Don’t Pick the Flowers”. Can you share a little history of when you become interested in becoming a cartoonist and making comics your career?

Hi David! Thanks for inviting me! I think I’ve wanted to be a cartoonist since I was a little kids tracing the Sunday comics, but I really went to work at making it a career soon after my wedding.

I’d been a working musician, but when we got married and I got a day job, finding time, energy and motivation to practice was difficult. So I put music down and started drawing up cartoons and sending them out to magazines. It was something I’d always wanted to try, and it was a more forgiving artistic outlet all the way around.

David: Where do you draw your inspiration and what are the things that inspire your comics?

I read a lot. Blogs, newspapers, magazines, books, leaflets, skywriting, bathroom walls…  I also listen a lot to the radio.

I try to keep my ears open for turns of phrase or jargon that pop up. And when that’s not enough, I sit in my office and stare until I can find that sort of writing place in my head.

David: Who are some of your cartooning heroes and what do you consider makes a good comic?

 

Writing is job one. I see all sorts of beautiful art out there, but precious few who are really effective writers. Good art is gravy, good writing is essential.

You know pretty much everyone lists the same names over and over (Schulz, Watterson, etc…), and those people certainly influenced me greatly, but I’d rather spotlight more recent influences: Richard Thompson is the whole package and then some, Amanda Conner oozes joy out of every line, Darwyn Cooke is who I want to be when I grow up, and Mo Willems makes me snort milk out my nose, even when I’m not drinking milk.

David: What is it like in the “A Day in the Life of Cartoonist Mark Anderson”? Do you have a routine?

I like to do my writing and art in the morning, then save scanning, invoices and contracts and stuff for the afternoon. There’s no typical day, it just depends on what work I have.

I’m also a stay-at-home dad, so there’s plenty of dad duty to juggle in there too. It’s exhausting, frustrating, and fun at the same time.

David: What advice do you give to anyone who wants to become a cartoonist?

Don’t wait for inspiration or free time or whatever else to come. Just sit down every day and do the work.

David: Thank you Mark for sharing your work. It’s a true success story to take a hobby and turn it into a rewarding career.

Find out more of Mark Anderson and Andertoons at: 

www.andertoons.com

www.andertoons.com/cartoon-blog

twitter.com/#%21/andertoons

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Tim Green: “Vinnie the Vampire”

Posted on May 3, 2012 by David Hurley

Tim Green is the creator of a fantastic comic called “Vinnie the Vampire”. Vinnie is a typical teenager except he has a set of fangs. Tim came up with his characters back in 1993 but it was in July of 2011 that he launched “Vinnie” for the world to see. And what a delight it is to see his characters come to life. I had the privilege of speaking with Tim about his life and comic and here’s a little of that conversation with a truly remarkable and down to earth man.

David: Hey Tim, thank you so much for being featured at “Don’t Pick the Flowers”.  You have a great web comic called “Vinnie the Vampire”. How did the concept for your comic come about?

Click on image to enlarge

Tim: I always loved horror movies and comics. I tried several family type strips at first but they just didn’t capture my imagination. I first developed “Vinnie ” in the mid nineties. It sat in a folder for years before I got it rolling about a year and a half ago.

David: What are the things that inspire your work and what character do you feel you identify most with in your comic strip?

Click on image to enlarge

Tim: I have a strange way of looking at mundane, everyday situations. I just twist the simple things in life into my twisted little imagination. I would say I am the most like Vinnie. He is a small boat lost in a sea of chaos, I feel like that most of the time. Most of the characters are bits and pieces of me. I wish I could be more like Sunny. We all wish we could act on our most devilish impulses! Vampa is just the irrational side of me that gets angry at the dumbest things. Mom is a total control freak, I never feel in control of anything! Bob is the deep thinker in me. Belfry is just the daydreamer who floats through life, that’s probably the part I like most about myself.

David: Who are some of your “cartooning” heroes?

Tim: Old school : Charles Shulz, Will Eisner, Walt Kelly

Click on image to enlarge

More contemporary: Jim Davis, Bill Watterson, Gary Larson, Mark Tatulli

David: What is your cartooning routine like, a “Day in the life of Tim Green”?

Tim: I have a day job so I can’t just cartoon at my leisure. I usually write the comic first and pencil it out a rough in my “idea” notebook. I hand draw my comic and ink it on 100lb. bristol board with a medium nib marker. All the lettering is done by hand also. I scan it in my computer and color it with a photo editing program. I usually work only three comics ahead so sometimes it can be pretty stressful when I get writers block!

Click on image to enlarge

David: What are some of your future plans and what can we expect to see from you and “Vinnie the Vampire”? 

Tim: I would, someday, love to do “Vinnie the Vampire” full time, but what cartoonist wouldn’t? I guess my long term plans for Vinnie is just to spread the fan base and hope people will continue to love the comic as much as I do creating it.

Click on image to enlarge

David: Thank you Tim! Yes the life of a web cartoonist does seem like a lot of work and require another income. But I am happy to help spread the work about “Vinnie the Vampire”. You have a great comic and look forward to all that you have planned for the future.

Do check out more of Tom Green and his fantastic comic Vinnie the Vampire at”:

www.vinniethevampire.com

Twitter: twitter.com/#!/Vinnie_Vampire

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Eric Orchard: and the story of Marrowbones

Posted on April 26, 2012 by David Hurley

Eric Orchard is an award-winning Canadian illustrator/cartoonist whose art I am blown away by. Eric has illustrated critically acclaimed children’s books and been nominated twice for the Atlantic Book Awards’ Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award. He has done work for Top Shelf, Oni, Tor, and Scholastic, to name a few. He has also won the Silver Spectrum award for his Comic Book Art, and been featured in the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition. Eric has a new children’s book called “Marrowbones” about a little girl named Nora who befriends some cool ghouls at her Uncle Barnaby’sInn, which is a fantastic read for both children and adults a like. It was my pleasure to speak with Eric about his work and also have him answer some questions for me and I’m happy to share that with you at “Don’t Pick the Flowers”.

David: Hello Eric, I’m really thrilled to be featuring you here at “Don’t Pick the Flowers”. I love your artwork and style, to set the stage, when did you become interested in becoming an artist and decide this was the chosen path for you?

Eric: Thanks so much David! I really appreciate the opportunity. I love chatting about comics.

I always loved visual story telling, especially comics and illustration and from a very young age I was emulating my favorite cartoonists and illustrators. I just wanted to do what they were doing because I loved any kind of visual story telling and I still do. Early on I started copying comics like Star Wars and later I started turning my favorite prose stories into comics or illustrations. My first finished comic was a version of Mark Twain’s Canibalism In The Cars which I did in my sketchbook at about 14 or 15 years old  I started publishing mini comics in high school and fell in love with the whole process of making comics and even the business of getting the comics out there.

David: With that in mind, who are your artistic “heroes” and what are the things that inspire your work?

Eric: I think I’m as influenced by illustration, movies and fine art as comics. There are so many artists I love and have had an impact in my work any list I make is bound to leave out some important names.
But my biggest heroes are Arthur Rackham, Edward Gorey, Mike Mignola,Marice Sendak,AB Frost, the German Expressionists, the Romantic era of fine art, the Provensens, Brian Froud,George Herriman, Moebius, Tony Diterlizzi, I could go on and on….

David: You have an excellent new digital book called “Marrowbones”. Where did the idea for the story and characters come from?

It’s funny, I was actually traveling through Quebec during a huge thunderstorm when Marrowbones came together. My family was traveling fromToronto to visit my hometown of Halifaxand we decided to stop and stay in a place called Rivière Du Loup for the night. Rivière Du Loup means Wolf River, so while we were looking for an inn to stay at I couldn’t help but imagine that this place was run by werewolfs and that the clerk at the inn would be one. I did a sketch of Barnaby right there. A few days later I drew Ravensbeard Inn for the first time. After that I realized this would be a great place to tie together all the supernatural stories I’d been writing for years. It took me almost oaths to be able to get to it, though.

David: How big will this story get? And ideas on how many books there will be?

Eric: I’m not sure! I can’t seem to stop telling stories about Marrowbones; it seems an inexhaustible well of stories. I have another 5 or 6 books written, so hopefully lots. I have other books too that need to be done.

David: This is your first digital book. What can we expect in the future with you and your work?

Eric: Well, next year my first print comic will appear, Maddy Kettle from Top Shelf. So, my plan is to keep producing self published work as well as working with publishers. It’s really hard to predict how things will unfold. Just about everything I suspected about publishing has turned out to be wrong and just different from how it seemed from the outside. It’s an unpredictable industry and you have to do your best in it. Just keep telling stories and looking for an audience.

David: Do you have a favorite character in “Marrowbones” and do you have a favorite work you have done?

Eric: That’s a tough one! I love them all. I really love the qualities that Nora has. And I love Ollie. Visually I love drawing the ghosts. Mrs. Strumm is really fun to draw and Sally who is in the second book more. I think Barnaby is really cool. A lot of people like the Gord Brothers who are barely in it. Can’t wait to tell more stories about them.

David: You have also started an on-line community called “Springwinder”. Can you tell me more about this website?

Eric: Springwinder is new collective of cartoonists and writers who banded together to help edit each others work, either in a forum or one on one. It’s turned into an imprint as well, with myself publishing under it and others preparing books for it. We’re still figuring out where to take things but there is an enormous amount of talent behind it.

David: Eric everything you are doing is fantastic, from the new “Marrowbones” story to Springwinder.  I truly wish you continued success and absolutely love your work. 

Do check out more of Eric Orchard and his work (you will love it) at:

ericorchard.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/ericorchard

twitter.com/#%21/Inkybat

www.etsy.com/shop/orchard

ericorchardportfolio.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/pages/Adventures-Of-The-Flying-Boat/168937574775

www.facebook.com/pages/Marrowbones/289743597772089

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Mike Capp: and the playfulness of Monsters

Posted on April 19, 2012 by David Hurley

Mike Capp is a highly talented artist who brings playfulness to his creations of monsters, superheroes, and robots. Mike says there’s no hidden message behind his Art just inspiration from his children’s creativity and his own playful mind. And it’s just the kind of art I love. I count it a privilege to have Mike and his work featured at “Don’t Pick the Flowers”.

David: Hello Mike, when did you become interested in art and decide that was the path you wanted to take with your life? How long have you been painting?

Van Tyson

I became interested in art at an early age. Probably around 5 years old. I would watch my Dad draw in his sketchbook with markers. He was really into drawing wildlife at the time. My favorite subjects to draw back then were trucks and superheroes. I knew I wanted to be an artist when I grew up right away. To me the lifestyle of an artist is like being a rock star without all the fame and women. Wait…..what? I guess I’ve been painting all my life. I can’t think of a time when I haven’t been painting.

David: What are the things that inspire your work and do you have any artistic “heroes”?

Dali Joker

A lot of my work is inspired by what I was interested in when I was a kid. Especially in the 70′s. Kiss, Superheroes, Star Wars, Comic Books, Kiss and Kiss. All my artistic heroes are artists who created paintings that pissed a lot of people off. Picasso, Dali, Schiele & Ron English just to name a few. All my heroes are intelligent trouble makers!

David: Where do your ideas come from and do you feel you have a message with your art?

I basically paint what I’m in the mood for at the time.  I’ll wake up and feel like painting a mash-up of Salvador Dali and PacMan….so I’ll just do it. I try not to think about it too much. I definitely don’t have a message with my art. It is what it is…….and usually it is visual “punch line” of some sort. Sometimes they are funny and sometimes they bomb.

Soft-Construction with Gizmo

David: Of all the art you have created do you have a favorite or two?

I love all my paintings! They are all my babies! But right now my favorite would have to be my mash-up of Salvador Dali & Gremlins. It’s called Soft-Construction with Gizmo.

David: I hear you are also a stand up comedian, how has that influenced your work?

A lot of humor and weirdness are quite evident in my paintings and a lot of that comes from a stand-up comedy background. My stand-up and my art go hand in hand creatively. Part of my comedy act is actually presenting my drawings in a twisted portfolio presentation for the audience. It seems to go over well……..most of the time.

Heart Attack

David: Sounds awesome! Mike I love your art and style. Thank you for sharing a little about your work and life. I look forward to seeing what you will be producing in the future.

 

Check out more of Mike Capp and his art at: 

www.yessy.com/mikecappart

www.impsandmonsters.com/mikecapp.html

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1062924006

www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Capp-Art/215435981887626

 

 

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