'TYPEFACE' by Miles DeCoster & Kevin McCloskey, 2012

Most of the Communication Design faculty traveled to Lead Grafitti in Newark, Delaware for a one-day letterpress workshop during winter break. We were joined by printmaker Evan Summer of the Fine Arts Dept. Lead Grafitti is a family-run studio that does fine printing (wedding invitations, for example), but also offers hands-on workshops. Our workshop involved creating a bound hardcover book in a single day and printing it on their antique presses.

Ray Nichols & Vicki Meloney on press, photo © 2012 Miles Decoster

Ray Nichols is a former University of Delaware professor, reincarnated as a letterpress guru. Ray taught visual communications for years before he led a UD summer course to England. A chance visit to Alan Kitching at the Royal College of Art’s letterpress studio changed Ray’s life and he decided to build Lead Grafitti. Ray and his wife Jill shared a number of fascinating projects including their Kickstarter funded series based on the Tour de France.

Inked bike chain becomes map of France, from Tour de Lead Graffiti.

They also showed us a beautiful limited edition book of Bruce Hornsby’s essay on Bruce Sprinsteen’s Thunder Road illustrated by Jill.

Lead borders at Lead Graffiti, photo © Evan Summer

In the history of graphic design we talk about Ottmar Mergenthaler’s earthshaking 1884 invention, the linotype machine. From Gutenberg’s time until the linotype, printers needed thousands of individual pieces of moveable type to print a page. The linotype allowed an operator to type a line, then hot molten lead flowed into a brass matrix to create an entire “line o’ type.” We all got to work on an Intertype linecaster for a few minutes, which is essentially the same as Mergenthaler’s machine.

Tray Nichols explains linotype operation to Kevin McCloskey. photo: Evan Summer

Those of you who studied typography or graphic design will recall a colophon is, “the statement at the end of a book giving details about its authorship and printing.” The colophon below was cast from hot lead and lists participants and instructors at the Lead Grafitti workshop.

Colophon, the printing credits, at the end of our book.

Thanks to Profs. Ann Lemon and Vicki Meloney for arranging this worthwhile experience. I found it more fun than Disney World, and the lines were shorter. Lead Grafitti offers workshops year round and will customize an event based on your group’s experience level and particular interests. Info at: leadgrafitti.com

Ann Lemon and Miles DeCoster checking their type. Photo by Evan Summer

KMc: I am impressed you are going to dental school, like the poet William Carlos Williams keeping his day job as a pediatrician.

Grant: Thought about your William Carlos Williams comparison before, but I think dentist/cartoonist sounds less noble than physician/poet. Also, Osamu Tezuka went to medical school while simultaneously becoming the god of manga, though he never practiced medicine.

Your work reminds me of one old, and one new artist, Otto Soglow and Kevin Huizenga? Are you familiar with them?

Grant: Definitely. I’ve read Otto Soglow’s cartoons in some old New Yorker cartoon collections, and I’ve read a couple of Kevin Huizenga’s books and followed his work closely in comics annuals. That’s a flattering comparison – Soglow’s cartoons have some of the most beautifully efficient line work ever drawn. And I can identify very closely with Huizenga’s “Glenn Ganges” stories – especially the middle-class suburban-Midwest adult-male protagonist. They’re everyday life drawn with incredible attention to detail, and he experiments with comic format and convention in a way that adds great depth to the story.

Who are your influences?

Roz Chast, Matt Groening’s “Life in Hell,” and Tom Gauld have probably influenced my comics the most. Edward Gorey, Bill Watterson, Chris Ware, and B. Kliban are four cartoonists I greatly admire, but they would be very difficult to emulate. Designer and illustrator Christoph Niemann has genius graphic ideas and is a huge inspiration, though I doubt he considers himself a cartoonist. This American Life keeps my brain occupied in the long hours spent drawing and probably subconsciously influences my comics. I also frequently look to children’s books and music for ideas.

Does your online poster shop pay enough to cover your time at the drawing board or is Incidental Comics a labor of love?

Labor of love! It’s very nice when people like a comic enough to put it up on their wall, but if I tried to break down the hourly wage of time spent at the drawing board I would quickly become depressed. My comics appear weekly in the newspaper in Kansas City (where I went to dental school) and biweekly on GoComics.com (also based in Kansas City) so I get some compensation that way as well. It’s never been my intention to make it a full-time job, though I plan on pursuing my dual careers (cartooning and orthodontics) as far as they will take me.

Could you share some sketches?

I included some pages from my sketchbook that eventually became full-fledged comics (“Jazz,” and “The Diabolical Botanical Garden”). I use my sketchbook mostly for working out ideas and rough sketches, though there’s an occasional bit of life drawing or journaling. It’s full of false starts, but I sometimes come back to a long-unused idea and manage to spin it into a new comic.

Can you give any advice for aspiring web or print cartoonists?

Focus on writing and ideas! If you are excited about an idea, you will find a way to make the drawing and layout work. Nothing is going to look how you want it to when you first start, but if you make new comics consistently your drawing style will develop and improve. Some of the best cartoonists have idiosyncratic (or even “bad”) drawing ability, but their drawings look amazing when coupled with great ideas. Share your work early and often – try to get into your school newspaper, start a webcomic, print out mini-comics and give them away, don’t keep it hidden in a sketchbook until you’ve achieved some imagined level of perfection.

Thanks, Grant for thoughtful answers and great advice. Wonderful to see the sketches, showing that even great ideas need to be refined. The sketch below became “The Diabolical Botanical Garden.” Most of Grant Snider’s cartoons are available as $15 prints from his Poster Shop.

Sketchbook pages & all art reproduced above ©2011 Grant Snider

Poster by Jeffrey Smith, 2011

There are at least 2 great illustrators named Jeff Smith. One is a Pennsylvania-born cartoonist who moved to Ohio and started cartooning for the Ohio State Lantern. In 1991, Smith self-published a small black and white comic book called Bone. Bone went platinum, with such a fanatic following that it was picked up by major publishers, and has since sold millions of copies. I know the other Jeff Smith.

Bone cover, artwork © 2011 Jeff Smith

By the way, Columbus, Ohio is fertile ground for cartoonists. The brick Victorian home of James Thurber, the New Yorker cartoonist best known for his short stories, is worth a visit. Milt Caniff, who drew the aviation adventure strip Steve Canyon lived in Columbus. Caniff’s original artwork, along with that of many others, is housed at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum on Ohio State’s campus.

Cover for a Smokey Stover comic, courtesy of Wikpedia

Years ago, I visited the Cartoon Library and Museum. I was told there was no public exhibition at that time and the collection was only open to comics scholars. I said I was scholar with a specialization in screwball comics. (If you are ever challenged about your comic scholarship, this response works wonders. I was a college dropout at the time.) The librarian gave me a pair of white gloves and opened up a flat file. I was permitted to hold original art from Bill Holman’s Smokey Stover. It was just india ink on bristol board, but Wowie-Zowie, the ink was in all the right places. I was in screwball scholarship heaven.

Clang! Dang! Clang! I digress. The other Jeffrey Smith is a friend of mine. Here is an invitation from the Society of Illustrators to see his work. Go ahead. Click on it. You are invited, too. January 5, 2012. I know, it costs $20, but this is your chance to get into the exclusive Members’ Hall of Fame and the Society of Illustrators lays out a nice spread. Smith is illustrator of Shadow Nights: The Secret War Against Hitler. He will discuss the project including his research trip to Paris to visit the places where Churchill’s Special Ops Unit fought their secret war against the Nazis.

Shadow Nights is part of a new series called Pulp History from Simon and Schuster, which looks to be a fascinating mix of  history and edgy graphics. There is another volume, Devil Dog, illustrated by legendary underground cartoonist Spain Rodriguez.

Shadow Nights Illustration © 2011 Jeffrey Smith

This other Jeff (as I call him) Smith and I were classmates at the School of Visual Arts. He teaches at Art Center of Design in Pasadena. He studied with illustrators Phil Hayes and James McMullan, both outstanding watercolorists. The work he has done for Pulp History shows their influences. Stylistically, this new work also reminds me of my old thesis advisor, Julian Allen. Jeff’s illustrations have appeared in Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and G.Q. He deserves his success. I hope to make it into the big city next week to celebrate his Shadow Knights exhibition.

I picked up a copy The Penny Magazine of  the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. I got it at  Renninger’s, the Kutztown Farmer’s Market. This magazine was published in 1834. It cost me one dollar. Consulting an online Historical UK Price Convertor reveals one British 1834 penny is today worth nearly .97 pound sterling, or about $1.51 U.S.. Wow! I saved 50% I’m not an antique collector. I actually started to reading the cover story about mangoes and found it fascinating.

“The Mango-tree is a native of India and the southwestern countries of Asia, and also grows abundantly in Brazil and the West Indies. …It is a large tree, attaining a height of thirty or forty feet…” The author tries to describe the taste that “melts in the mouth with a cooling sweetness that can hardly be imagined by those who have not tasted the choicest of nature’s delicacies.”

Photography was in its infancy, so this illustration is an engraving, probably on steel. The tree is drawn with confidence. One curious detail is the tiny figure, who looks to be smoking a bong. The text goes on to inform us the “Hindoos” use mango wood on their funeral pyres. The diffusion of useful knowledge continues. There is a note about mango chutney, and directions for eating the fruit. We are advised if we ever transport mangoes by sailing ship “they should be covered to defend them from the water and the spray of the sea.”

The little magazine is just eight pages. There is a review of a concert at an inn in Sussex, that concedes “England is now not a musical country.” Next comes the magazine’s longest article on the history of the East India Tea Company. It is illustrated with an engraving of the company’s London headquarters, so large that one has to turn the magazine sideways to see it.

There is a fascinating story about “The Cat Painter,” Gottfried Mind, born in Switzerland in 1768. The critic tells us Mind’s “drawings of cats were so admirable as to entitle him to the honourable, but rather awkward title, of The Raphael of Cats.” Unfortunately, this one story is not illustrated. I never heard of him, did you?  I found an illustration of Herr Mind’s art at Wikipedia. One of the scholarly references cited is an 1887 article by Franz Wiedemann: Der Katzenraphael.

Art by Gottfried Mind, "the Raphael of Cats," courtesy Wikemedia.

There is one more illustration on the last page of the Penny Magazine that I must share, below. This sort of image reminds us that England not only gave us the Encylopedia Brittanica, but she also gave birth to Monty Python’s Flying Circus!
Speaking of WIKIPEDIA: I would be lost without Wikipedia. Not only did Wikipedia help me investigate the Raphael of Cats, but it came in handy many times when I was putting together Powerpoint lectures for my History of Graphic Design class. I just made a tiny painless Paypal donation to Wikipedia. Happy Holidays, Wikipedia! You make me happy! The Diffusion of Useful Knowledge goes digital!

illustration © 2011 Jen Nye (detail)

We didn’t get a lot of real holiday cards this year. The loveliest illustrated card came from Jennifer Nye. I tore the top edge off my card as I opened it. (I get impatient near Christmas.) I asked Jen to send me the digital file and give me permission to share her charming image. WordPress provides a plug-in for this blog that adds the snow effect. It makes Jen’s drawing look like a frame from an animated film.

Holiday Card ©2011 Jennifer Nye

Jennifer Nye is a 2005 Kutztown University graduate. She did her internship at Crayola. Today she is a freelance graphic designer, illustrator and fine artist in Lancaster, PA. Jennifer started her own freelancing business three years ago and works for a wide range of clientele. I think her web site looks great at nyedesignstudio.com. She feels it is time for a website update and has changes planned for early 2012.  I promise to let you know about when that update happens.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Wishing all illustrators a very Merry Christmas,or Hannakuh, or Diwali, or any sacred day you may celebrate. Happy New Year! If any of you, not just Jen, has an updated website or any illustration success to share, please drop us a line.

Black is back. Twenty years ago at a party in Hoboken I overheard a young punk mother complaining because she couldn’t find black baby clothes for her toddler. Today black is back. I got two presents wrapped in black. One was a brilliant new calendar from CD alum Ross Moody’s greeting collective, 55his.com. It couldn’t have come at a better time. Spoiler Alert: 2011 is ending in a less than 3 weeks.

Sketches lifted from 55hi's blog about illustrating the 2012 calendar.

The Monster Calendar includes illustrations by Sock Monkee, Chris Sandlin. I got an artist’s proof, but the calendars available at 55his.com are part of a limited silkscreened edition. Illustrators will want to check out the 55hi’s blog to see the entire process of putting this work of art together.

If you want to help save the U.S.Post Office, get over to 55hi’s for all your greeting card and gift needs.

Or maybe save some money to spend at  Sean Starwar’s site. The 2012 calendar picks up exactly where my Sean Starwar’s 2011 calendar leaves off. (see below.) Sean Starwars is one my favorite printmakers. Kutztown grad Jason Urban recently featured Starwars year-long printmaking project on the Printeresting site. Starwars grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania, but now lives in rural Mississippi. I’ve met him a few times, and he is the nicest hyper-guy you would like to meet.      Sean has a voracious appetite for Mountain Dew. Somewhere on the internet there is a Youtube video where he demonstrates how to add your own caffeine and sugar in an emergency when your local Piggly-Wiggly has nothing left on the shelf but the diet caffeine-free version!

Sean Starwars did a woodblock print every week of 2011. That’s over 50! Let that be an inspiration to you (and me.) Sean is having a holiday special sale at his Etsy page. Sean Starwar’s Etsy store page may be the only one that includes all three of these descriptive tags, “Mountain Dew” and “Christmas Sale” and “Rebel Scum.”

Remember. If you buy a calendar, always, always, check the date!

Hannah Stephey is a sophomore. She just published a remarkable comic book through Lulu.com. Lulu is a print on demand publisher. In other words, when someone orders a book, Lulu prints and ships a bookstore quality book or, for ebooks, sends a pdf file. Hannah’s comic book is called “I (Heart) Captain; A Paper Space Opera!” I asked her to write a little bit about herself and how the project came together.

Cover of I (Heart Captain) : A Paper Space Opera ©2011 Hannah Stephey

“I was born in a town almost as small as Kutztown called Chambersburg, PA, but I always felt like I belonged somewhere else. When you’re an only child in a stale environment like that, your imagination is your best friend! I was always weird, and from age 6, I had a whole cast of characters based on my stuffed animals that I would draw in “books” (xerox paper stapled together).

My whole life I’ve been drawing characters in books. Finally when I was 10, I made the leap to comic books, and at first they weren’t too attractive, but I pursued the craft and have been pursuing it for 10 years. Over the summer, I put together the fruits of two years of character design and story development and called it “I (Heart) Captain; A Paper Space Opera!”, a title awkward enough for the bizarreness within.

Right now I’m working on sequels in between school projects. Someday I want to write and design for my own TV show on Adult Swim. If they put “Squidbillies” on the air, surely I’ve got a chance!”

“I (Heart) Captain; A Paper Space Opera!” is available at Lulu.com. For more info or to order Hannah’s project in ebook or full color comic book form, click here.  Here is a partial plot synopsis: Lieutenant Zish Biscuit is a scrawny, sleep-deprived young soldier for the planet Emperia. His quality of life is about to go from bad to worse once his dream job is plucked out of his hands by a nightmarish girl, Mala, who can’t even dress herself. The planet Emperia is in deep…

HIV/AIDS Poster by Sadbi Aziri of Macedonia

WORLD AIDS DAY

December 1 is World AIDS Day. I knew AIDS before it had a name. In the 1980′s I lived in San Francisco in a household that included gay men. It was a time of palpable fear. Years later, when the scourge had a name, I lost a dear friend, a gifted photographer, Daniel Cohen, to AIDS. Today it seems the fear of AIDS has abated, but we must not become complacent.

Woodcut illustration poster by Matt Fink, KU CD

Kutztown Communication Design students have turned their talent and attention to this difficult subject. Four Kutztown CD students are honored as finalists in the 2011 Skopje International poster competition. Skopje, Macedonia is in Eastern Europe. Macedonia is an ancient country, but for much of the 20th century it was part of communist Yugoslavia. It reformed as an independent republic in 1991.

One of 3 Skopje HIV entries by Casey Glidden © 2011 Casey Glidden, KU CD

The Skopje exhibition organizers hope to “inspire and provoke students to create and communicate a more truthful, inclusive perception of HIV/AIDS.” They also want to “promote prevention and compassion and as well to recognize and renounce stereotypes.”

Poster illustrated in scratchboard ©2011 Wyatt Glennon, KU CD

Over 2000 posters were submitted from 38 countries. There are 50 finalists worldwide. Only 4 are from the U.S.A. and all 4 of the U.S. finalists are from Kutztown University. They are Casey Glidden, Matt Fink, Daniel Gaingiulio, and Wyatt Glennon. The winners and honorees will be announced on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1st, in Skopje and posted on the exhibition website. 12/2/11 Update on Award-Winners: Anna Klamczynska and Jan Bajtlik of Poland won First Prize. Morteza Farahnak of Iran won Second Prize. Christoph Buettner of Germany won Third Prize. Congrats to the winners. The Kutztown University students are to be commended for reaching the finals.

A second Skopje selection by Matt Fink

One-Day Kutztown Exhibition: 12/1/11

KU Allies is sponsoring AIDS Day events in the SUB Multipurpose Room from 3  to 10 p.m.  CD student Arren Dawinan has organized an exhibition of  many of the posters entered in the Skopje HIV/AIDS competition. The Graphic Design 1 teachers who worked with these students include Profs Elaine Cunfer, Kate Clair, and Vicki Meloney.

Poster © 2011 Daniel Giangiulio, KU CD

The Skopje HIV/AIDS Poster Exhibition will also travel in 2012 to Warsaw, Poland and Istanbul, Turkey. These Kutztown University students are getting a lot of of international exposure. They deserve it.

Another strong design by Casey Glidden chosen for the Skopje Exhibition.

On Main Street one can’t help but notice a big change in fashion for this year’s students. Female freshman are wearing extremely short black dresses. Very, very short. Even my wife noticed. At first, I attributed this fashion statement to global warming, but the bare legs are still evident even on cold November nights. The girls sometimes wear huge boots called Uggs, or more often, black high heels of the sort made famous by Jessica Rabbit. These young ladies seem to be shopping at Fredericks of Hollywood, or the Berkshire Mall.

Meanwhile, guys apparently scavenge their wardrobes from the lost and found box at a public pool. They wear plastic sandals over socks. There is some variety of trousers, including nylon clam diggers that resemble 1950′s basketball shorts. Other guys wear distressed sweat pants. Still others go out in flannel cartoon-print pajama pants.  Guys generally wear hooded sweatshirts plus ball caps. The hoodies are marked Hollister or A.F. I admit some sense of relief that they are not wearing the Kutztown University logo.

This really doesn’t have much to do with illustration, so I did the cartoon sketch above as an excuse to blog about clothes. Watch for our Spring Kutztown fashion update.