Monday, December 18, 2006

Screaming Clown Spread

Another Packed Page

It seems that lately I've become quite the hog of vertical space. I'm like that selfish fellow George, who stole all the balloons. Or a greedy choir of Lumberjacks who down flapjack after flapjack, without any consideration for the hungry giant moose who fills out the bass section.

Some explanation required

Just so you have a little bit of a foothold in this page, I'll point a couple things out:

The Bearskinrug Actor's Guild

I had started doing something like this in a previous sketchbook, but the top left corner is sharing some of the talented performers who help me put together the various comics of Bearskinrug. Who can forget Tony Pole's groundbreaking work on Mojo #235? Or Sandy Roth's heart-wrenching performance in the classic, The Elevator?

Bill The Giant

I happened to be watching an A&E biography of Andre the Giant as I drew this part. I was struck by the documentary's claim that Andre was a human as opposed to an actual giant. Sure enough, it turns out Andre lived on the ground, instead of a cloud castle. But here I've taken the liberty of depicting an actual giant named Bill, moments before he selects a human to club, boil and feast on their bones.

Screaming Clowns

I decided to identify this spread by what turned out to be my favorite part of the page, the two screaming clowns that become the lapels of the smiling man when the page is flipped over. Why are they screaming? They're both afraid of clowns.

Bridge Troll

I've tried probably 4 or 5 times to make a successful one-panel joke about a troll living under a bridge. I know there's a good quick joke there, but I have yet to make one work as well as I'd like. Maybe someday I'll see a bridge in real life, and that'll give me some good ideas.

Baldwin/Lafontaine

These two gentleman are the last remnant of sketches that my trip to Ottawa jarred loose. There was a statue of these fellows outside of parliament; at one point Canada was two provinces — and these gentleman were "joint-premiers". I'm not sure which was from "Upper Canada" and which was from "Lower Canada", though I imagine the one with the big fur coat and earmuffs would be from Upper. As an interesting sidenote, Lafontaine's first name is "Louis-Hippolyte". Try going through elementary school with THAT. Even the wiener kids in Lumberjack Choir would wail on you.

Comments on this Article

There are currently 28 comments.

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1. Dibyo

12.18.06 | 6:24 AM

FIRRRRRRRRRST.

*Dances in the end zone*

2. Dibyo

12.18.06 | 6:30 AM

Oh, and AWWWESOME double-page feature.... except for the part where i had to turn my head to the right...

3. bearskinrug

12.18.06 | 7:42 AM

Just turn your monitor! ;)

4. Mearso

12.18.06 | 8:59 AM

Lovely linework.

For my sanity please tell me that you use some pencils and you didn't do all this flawless stuff without a net.

5. bearskinrug

12.18.06 | 9:05 AM

Haha :D

Don't worry - in this case I blocked out some of the things I wanted to draw with light pencil — you can still see the lines in places like the Bridge Troll's face and the moose.

Though simpler drawings, like the Lumberjack Choir, were just penned into the negative space I wanted to fill.

6. Gerren

12.18.06 | 9:25 AM

I love the bridge troll's face. pencil lines aside, you still did a great job inking it in. Whatever you do, keep working on him. I think that you are right and that there is something very funny in there...

7. Terry Tolleson

12.18.06 | 10:16 AM

That "G" is gorgeous. Your typography sticks out for me, once more, in this sea of ink and wit.

I especially like that you've given some lyrics, as it were, to the unsung job of Wig Sampling (Top portion, "My Dear"). This is a crucial and drastically declining art when one needs the latest in hairstyling.

"If your wig isn't delectable, it just isn't a Gunderson-Prost."

8. The Colonel

12.18.06 | 10:28 AM

While Louis-Hippolyte is most certainly a name to be dreaded, I think most other names pale in comparison to Bhutan's Royal Family's name: "Wangchuck."

You can't know just how much I wish I was kidding.

9. Jared

12.18.06 | 11:19 AM

Well, the Lumberjack Choir answers my question regarding next year's Halloween costume. I'm looking forward to devouring the host's flapjack supply and chopping down every tree in the neighborhood. Of course, we're going to have to learn some songs if we want to be taken as a serious choir group. What would you recommend?

10. bearskinrug

12.18.06 | 12:26 PM

Gerren - Thanks :D I shall keep at it!

Terry - OH MAN. That ad absolutely BEGS to be illustrated... and put into Harper's Weekly.

Colonel - Haha. It's almost a passable band name, though.

Jared - Oh, there's a couple of real toe-tappers.... "Your Heart's as Hard as My Wood", "Axe Me How Much I Care", "Sap To Syrup Boogie"...

11. Paul

12.18.06 | 12:30 PM

I love Professor Proofreader, as his simplistic, authoritative 'wrong!' speaks volumes of his character.

Also, the title of this post makes me think of some sort of horrifying non-dairy food product used on toast.

12. Benjamin

12.18.06 | 12:41 PM

I love the random man carrying a lion's head. I really like the organic curls next to the bridge troll's head. Very curly!

13. monkeyinabox

12.18.06 | 2:35 PM

Don't tell anyone, but even though I am considered the tech guy at work , I still turn my head to look at rotated images, rather than rotating them.

This was very worthy of the head turn.

14. dyedad

12.18.06 | 5:15 PM

you are one sick, twisted indivitual, and i bow to your genius. bravo! by the way, i'm scaredof clowns, too.

15. bearskinrug

12.18.06 | 5:45 PM

Paul - Yeah. I need a real-life professor proofreader. And hey... I could use a non-dairy product for my toast, as well.

Benjamin - The lion man is a Peoplemal... Though his peoplemal seems to have require much less effort than everyone else's. Perhaps because it was so hard to get a lion's head in the first place.

Monkeyinabox - I generally use the "head turning" filter in "Cornellshop" than rotating in Photoshop... I use the same technique to watch TV on my side.

Dyedad - Well... I'm not scared of clowns. Unless they're underwater clowns. Or clowns in very high places. Or clowns on a plane. Or clowns in tight, confined spaces. Or clowns in dark alleys.

16. Benjamin

12.18.06 | 9:33 PM

Well that man does seem proud of his new lion's head!

17. Shane Guymon

12.18.06 | 9:40 PM

I love the moose, and the fact that you wrote "Moose!" Makes i that much better.

I would love to see that in real life, like walk into someones house that lives in, let's say Alaska, and their is a stuffed moose head mounted to the wall and then directly underneath etched on a golden slab of well gold is, "Moose!"

That would be AWESOME!

18. RonaldB

12.19.06 | 4:11 AM

... or, for the less nature-savvy among us, if actual live animals in their natural environment would have floating subtitles spelling what kind of animal they are: Bear! Otter! Bluejay! Although "Bear!" should probably be bigger. And flashing.

Oh, and Kevin, how much I like your art work, could you include a image rotation function to your site? My collegues are giving me funny faces for tilting my head in all directions while, erm, "working"...

19. bearskinrug

12.19.06 | 4:24 AM

Shane - Yeah - "Moose" is one of those words brimming with inherent humor...

RonaldB - Man, I'd love to have a way to have these images rotate. Or talk. I'd like to have ALL images talk.

20. DD wishmore

12.19.06 | 9:43 AM

Actually, Lava lamps only ruin an otherwise cool decor... and I don't think that I want to know what else either you or Mojo use feathers for... It's nice to know I can blame my "wildness" and rebellion on the fact that my parents never took me yachting.