I’m lucky enough to have some awesome friends in the likes of Clayton Weller and co. Clayton and I go a long way back, from collaborating on comedy to our work on whizARTbang. Clayton and the folks at Freak’n Genius are working on a really fun technology that uses the XBOX Kinect to create cartoons. So I can stand in from of a Kinect with a controller and move my body around to make an animated 2d character do my bidding.
I headed over to the Freak’n Genius offices in South Lake Union today and put together a couple videos satirizing the upcoming elections. Enjoy:
This first one refers to an article I wrote for The Melon.
My friend and CLAW-member RR Anderson was just featured in an amazing article in the Tacoma Daily Index about his upcoming book release. The article, written by Todd Matthews, presents a well-rounded vision of what RR is all about. Certainly RR has many secrets still up his sleeve, but this article does a fantastic job of exposing much of his genius to the Earth.
“I’m a traditional cartoonist,” he explained. “I think cartoons should be the most exaggerated possible. If you can make it even more exaggerated, that’s the cartoon you should have drawn. The Tacomic is about extreme exaggeration and hyperbole, [and going] over the top.”
RR will be releasing his new book 100 Tacomics: The Secular & Apolitical Cartoon Life of Tacoma and her Moral People(s) Monday November 15th at King’s Books in Tacoma. You can bet your ass I’ll be there.
Check out this video I made about RR a while back:
I have been tremendously honored by my friend, and fellow CLAW-mate, RR Anderson, who has included Bob the Dog in his 24 Hour Comic book “Learn 2 Draw in 3d“. RR has always been a great friend to me, and someone whose enthusiasm for my work has always been a great honor and a guiding force in my life. To know that I have RR Anderson in my corner, is a great honor itself.
RR is coming out with a new book next month (100 Tacomics) which features a bunch of his fantastic cartoons focusing on Tacoma, WA. He’s planning a release party on November 15th at King’s Books. If you can be there, you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to celebrate and give back to someone who has had not only a big impact on my life but the lives of many creative-types in Tacoma and the Northwest.
I can’t really say enough good things about RR’s creative genius, genuine personality and kindness. RR has done an impeccable amount ofwork for the city of Tacoma from sparking the Frost Park Chalk Offs to his cutting analysis and criticism of local politics.
Here’s what RR had to say about Bob and my old radio show The Melon:
One of my favorite comic strips of all time is Bob the Dog which ran forever in the University of Puget Sound newspaper (to my understanding). I first became aware of it listening to “The Melon” Electric Elliot & Chris ‘the wedge’ Van Vechten’s student radio show on KUPS while working in the HFW workshop. The Melon was the greatest show to ever run on KUPS (along side the campy/kids record lobster guy). These are truly the DARK TIMES for KUPS radio. None of the kids do talk radio… only play really ethereal Japanese sound-scapes or really bad rap music. Yet I digress… at one point Electric Elliot had printed his best strips for the first CLAW art show at Tacoma Art Supply… but here are some of my favorites (that I could find using the bare-bones archive system he has set up right now on BOB THE DOG COMICS DOT COM).. GAY ZOMBIES, Todd the Ghost… had real abstract cast of characters: Broken Bottle, Fried Egg, Chicken, Ant… is really painful thinking about it, so goddamn brilliant.
It has been a quite some time since I’ve drawn Bob the Dog, much to my regret. But it is inspiration like this that help put the fire back under my pencil (cartooning joke). One day, I know, I will pick up that scolding hot pencil again.
The CLAW is a cartoonists organization based in Tacoma which I helped found in 2009. We get together and draw twice a month, celebrate cartooning, provide a student scholarship for young cartoonists, distribute a zine, and of course await the rise of our robot overlords.
Some of its illustrious members include: RR Anderson, James Stowe and Mark Monlux.