The Times They Are A-Changin'

Our "Usual Suspects" gathered for our monthly lunch this afternoon. We talked about how the print industry is rapidly dying as more and more publishers gravitate to the internet. Morning and evening newspapers in city editions have all but disappeared. News magazines contain cover stories the network and cable news ran last week.

It's a sad fact. For those of us who grew up in the heyday of print publishing, it's like watching an old friend with a terminal illness slide away. I imagine this is much the way veteran radio performers felt with the advent of television.

The good news is, there will still be a need for creative illustration on the web. Whether or not the form will change remains to be seen. With electronic publishing, you are no longer limited to a static image on a page. So my advice to young illustrators would be to learn animation and interactive publishing techniques as well.

Going back to the radio -to-tv analogy, those performers who not only survived, but thrived, were those who embraced the new technology and explored the new medium's potential as innovative pioneers.

I'm Getting Excited...

We're coming up on our National Cartoonists Society honoring Frank Frazetta's lifetime achievements in illustration. This was a pipe dream of mine a few years ago-- no one in our organization had given him an award, yet he was an icon in our craft-- and then I just took the bull by the horns and assumed role of organizing the event.

I always wanted to meet Frank. I admired his work as a child. The first piece of his I ever noticed was a "MAD Magazine" parody of the "Breck Girl" commercials, and it had a caricature of Ringo Starr as the "Breck model."

Later, I was to find out Frank ghosted the comic strip "Li'l Abner" for Al Capp during a 9-year stint. You can see the influence of drawing the Yokum clan in posters Frank did for a few Woody Allen and Peter Sellers movies. He also contributed to several installments of "Little Annie Fannie."

Of course, everyone knows him for his fabulous fantasy art depicting Conan the Barbarian, Vampirella, and others of that genre. I am very grateful this tribute is at long last coming to pass and I will be able to see Frank's work in person and meet the man who has inspired many of us by his excellence.

Cartoon Maps

I do a lot of cartoon maps. As a child, I remember sitting in my pediatrician's waiting room seeing a huge cartoon map of Mother Goose Land on the wall. For a kid, it was an adventure to see how many nursery rhymes you could identify from the scenarios portrayed across the landscape.

Even today, I try to summon up that excitement when doing cartoon map projects for my clients, adding little mini dramas or fantasy elements to make them fun. The blog size can't do justice to the huge size of these maps, but here a few detail areas pulled out from the overall map above.







I'm getting requests these days from all over the world. One of the great things about the internet is how it has made the world your marketplace. I'm very grateful to be able to share with the world this type of fantasy and fun that I grew up with. To view this map in larger size on my website, as well as others, go to http://www.jptoonist.com/portfolio/MC.htm

Humor Conception 101

The best conceived gags involve the element of surprise. It's that act of being caught off guard that evokes laughter. Whether your style of presenting humor is verbal or visual, the objective is the same--to catch the audience off guard. In some ways it can be like a magic act. You're using redirection to lead the audience one way while pulling a rabbit out of the hat when they least expect it.

There are several devices that can accomplish this. But I'll focus on exaggeration/understatement for today. Exaggeration/understatement takes a concept and either overplays or underplays it for effect. The following is an example of exaggeration/understatement.

I've found this to be the easiest type of humor to use in illustrating serious subjects in a light manner. Simply take a fact from the article, and either exaggerate what is being said, or understate it in a way that drives the point home. Here is an illustration for a series I tied to the Atlanta Olympics. The concept of the series was "A Perfect 10 Olympic Trivia Facts." So each of the illustrations dealt with a sports fact related to the Olympics, exaggerated visually in each case. The item for this example was, "The first tandem rowing event in the Olympics was introduced by a team comprised of whalers."

illustrations copyright J.Pittman, 1994 and 1996

As an assignment, take a fact like, "No matter what your age, exercising can be beneficial." Think of an exaggerated or understated way of presenting the fact in a light and humorous way. It could be a workout gym scene in a retirement home, where a bunch of old codgers are preparing for a pole vault event with their canes, a lady with a walker is going at blurring speed on a treadmill, etc. The more elements like those that you add to the scene will heighten the absurdity of it all while still illustrating the fact of the benefits of exercise.

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

This is a question cartoonists are asked more than anything related to technique. That is a pretty revealing statistic. I think it points to the idea being more important than the execution. Not that an ability to draw isn't important, but a marginally drawn funny concept can fly where an exceptionally drawn unfunny idea will take a nosedive.

Some cartoonists think visually, so their idea session will involve multiple doodles. Others think verbally, so they may jot down words or phrases. Some, like myself, do a little of both.

For gags developed visually, the punchline is usually the drawing that first comes to mind. The following strip is an example of a visual punchline...

Verbally developed gags can begin with a word or phrase as the punchline... Then, some gags are a combination of the two approaches...all images copyright J.Pittman, 2004

More to come on the steps in creating humor...

Creative Friends

This is a late post because our monthly lunch of creative colleagues was today. We usually gather at Vic's Italian Ristorante and spend a few hours enjoying each other's company and hearing about what everyone's working on.

I'm very blessed by our creative group. In fact, MAD Magazine's editor, Nick Meglin, was just remarking to me afterwards what a joy it is to have such a great group of talented individuals to meet with regularly.

We have an editorial cartoonist, an animator, a sculptor, a graphic designer, a guitarist, a humor writer, my son, and myself. We also invite others from time to time, but the following are our core group:

Dwane Powell - editorial cartoonist at The News and Observer and nationally syndicated by the Creators Syndicate. We worked together at the paper for about a decade before I left to go free lance. He and I have the longest history together, and actually borrowed tips from one another as we were developing our craft.

Grey Blackwell - animator at The New and Observer. Grey was hired in the same job I used to have, but positioned himself to work in what really interests him--animation. Grey also has done work for MAD Magazine over the years. And Grey received a Best in Newspaper Illustration Award at the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Awards. Plus, everyone says we were separated at birth, even though he's really almost young enough to be my son. And those who say it still are either senile or myopic.

Joel Haas - sculptor. Joel and I used to be across-the-street neighbors for about 12 years. So we have had a lot of interesting philosophical conversations about the nature of being a creative free lancer. Joel grew up in a talented family as the son of the late novelist Ben Haas. And his mother owned her own theatrical costume shop for several decades before closing it to retire recently. His brother has won Grammy Awards as a classical music producer. Joel's sculpture is widely known and appreciated in private and commercial collections.

Walter Stanford - graphic designer. Walter drives all the way from Charlotte just to come to our meetings. He is exceptionally skilled in Photoshop and does most of his work digitally. But he is also an accomplished illustrator and fine artist in pastels.

Joe Albano - guitarist in Adjustyd Bluz, a band we play in together. Joe and Nick actually knew each other many years ago in NY as Joe recorded on a tune Nick had written the lyrics for. Joe's musical past is as diversified as my own, and he is a pleasure to include in our visual artists group. Here's Joe...

copyright J.Pittman, 2008

Nick Meglin - retired editor from MAD Magazine and current arts teacher, illustrator, author, and lyricist. Of course everyone remembers Nick as longtime writer and editor for MAD. What you may not know is Nick always wanted to be an illustrator and MAD was just a means for him to earn a living as he pursued art. But the sideline became his career, and he eventually came to realize his "bread-and-butter" work as humor writer and editor was his calling. After writing several books, and finally retiring from MAD to NC from NYC, Nick began teaching a creative workshop and is enjoying his first love, illustration, by doing portraits of composers for classical radio's monthly newsletter. Nick also is currently writing the lyrics to the musical stage adaptation of "Grumpy Old Men."

Jay Pittman - my son and illustrator of children's books. Jay, of course, grew up with a double dose of art in our family. He has assisted me, as have his other siblings, on numerous tv commercials and illustration assignments. And, to his own credit, has illustrated two children's books.

Me - well, you already know about me.

As I mentioned, it is a real blessing to meet with all of these creative talents every month-- one of the many things I am thankful for in my career and what makes the artist's life so interesting and rewarding.

We're Looking for People Who Like to Draw.

Those words filled me with excitement when I was a child. I saw the familiar ads featuring the likes of illustrators Norman Rockwell and Albert Dorne, and envisioned the thrill of taking lessons authored by them.


My parents were encouraging--still are--and so when I was in the 7th grade, they arranged for me to take the adult version (not the children's version, mind you!) of the Famous Artists Schools Cartooning Course. I was in for a treat for invaluable lessons on humor strips from Al Capp ("Li'l Abner"), adventure strip lessons from Milton Caniff ("Terry and the Pirates" and "Steve Canyon"), editorial cartooning from Rube Goldberg (our founding President of the National Cartoonists Society, and person for whom the Reuben Awards are named), and magazine gag panel lessons from Whitney Darrow, Jr., just to mention a few.


I learned so many things to help a budding cartoonist hone his skills and pursue a career with professionalism. About the same time, I also took a humor and gagwriting course via correspondence with Joseph Mahoney, a retired writer for Jackie Gleason and gagwriter for a host of magazine cartoonists.


Where would a young 7th grader in NC make such a NY connection? I had an insatiable desire to learn everything I could about cartooning. And, from multiple trips to my local library, scouring all trade journals on the field like Gag Re-Cap and Jack Markow's cartooning column in Writer's Digest, I found a few leads.


Eager to put my newly-learned skills to the test, I started submitting cartoons to The Saturday Evening Post, True, Esquire, Field and Stream, The New Yorker and waited with bated breath by the mailbox for all those checks to start rolling in. Of course, I amassed quite a collection of rejection slips instead, which were thrilling in themselves, as sometimes a kind cartoon editor would include a personal note of encouragement to go along with the form letter. And even the form letter said they hoped I would "consider them in the future." So, the door was still open!


But one of the first cartoon markets I approached before sending to the national publications was Carolina Country magazine. I sent a batch to them figuring I would have a better chance with a local market than hitting it big time with The New Yorker right off the bat! Alas, even my home state magazine sent the familiar, polite rejection slip.


Fast forward to the 1980's and 90's, after several years in journalistic illustration with Raleigh's News and Observer, I had finally gotten to the point where I was getting consistent calls for freelance work and left the paper to work from my home studio. Around 1994, I had a call from Carolina Country to do their cover for their corporate magazine. That cover, won me my first Best in Illustration award in the National Cartoonists Society's 50th Anniversary Reuben Awards.

cover for 1994 Carolina Country magazine

copyright, J.Pittman, 1994

It was a special victory for a kid who had persevered, despite being rejected by them and so many other publications years earlier.