Mike Shapiro's Cartoon Blog

Finally, More New Stuff

2011-01-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

More New Stuff

2010-09-09T12:01:00.001-07:00

New Stuff

2010-09-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

Beach Sketches

2010-08-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

Did some caricatures in my sketch book while at the beach last week. Here's Richard Petty.

Today's WSJ

2010-08-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

Cartoon

Me featured at the Wasting Paper blog

2010-08-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

David Paccia featured me in his cartoonist survey feature on his great blog:

Click for Interview

Today's WSJ

2010-08-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

Cartoon

The Great Chuck Close . . .

2010-08-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

. . . by the not so great me.
Did this one in my sketch book while waiting for my car to be serviced. Also read half a New Yorker and part of an Elmore Leonard novel . . . it took a while. The car, that is.

One More

2010-07-29T22:42:00.000-07:00

New Stuff

2010-07-29T22:38:00.000-07:00

Here's one of the cartoons I've recently done for the Wash. Post's Capital Business.

Me on 60 Minutes

2010-06-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, that's a lie. But I was on Arlington, VA public access television.
Interview

Harry & Elvis

2010-06-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

Just finished the late-night grad party season . . . yawn. Here's a random page from my sketchbook.

Book Smarts

2010-01-24T14:37:00.000-08:00

This cartoon was recently reprinted in a text book titled Social Psychology(10th edition, McGraw Hill) that my friendly UPS guy dropped on our front stoop the other day. It's loaded with cartoons by my esteemed colleagues. This cartoon was featured in the chapter; Social Psychology and the Sustainable Future. I have a feeling this book might wind up being the sleeper Valentine's Day gift of 2010.

Back to The Future

2010-01-19T11:15:00.001-08:00

Here's a cartoon from 24 years ago. It was published in Relix magazine. They were the first publication that actually paid me for using my cartoons. Relix, at the time, was primarily devoted to the Grateful Dead and other related bands. These days in addition to covering the projects of the surviving Dead members I think they cover the whole jam band scene. I recently heard from Toni Brown, Relix's former publisher and editor. She was nice enough to send me a copy of her new book 'Relix, The Book' which chronicles the thirty or so years she worked on the magazine.

As you can see from my cartoon I wasn't big on punctuation back then. Still, the gag ain't too shabby. For those interested, I no longer resemble either one of the guys in the cartoon.

How'd I do That? Pt.3

2010-01-11T22:58:00.000-08:00

In the unfinished drawing (see previous post) I was dissatisfied with the bearing of the guy talking. Since he's supposed to be in charge I wanted him more physically imposing than how I originally drew him. I also felt his expression didn't capture what I was going for. You can see that I pretty much used the sketch of the head I made on the unfinished drawing as a model for the finished drawing.

Although I didn't scan the penciled drawing I did scan the unerased inked version which will allow a glimpse of the pencils below.

Ok. That's it. Lesson's over. Really. Thanks for stopping by.

How'd I do That? Pt.2

2010-01-11T22:25:00.000-08:00

Well, of course, I forgot to scan the rough pencil. Luckily, for the purpose of this exercise, when I was half-way through inking the rough I realized the character doing the speaking wasn't working and that I needed to start over. If I don't like a drawing, or feel some element isn't working, I'll usually correct it before I start inking. In this case I must have been distracted while inking and by the time I realized the drawing wasn't happening there wasn't much I could do except cut my losses and redraw it. Since I do my drawings on relatively light paper-24lb laser jet-I can easily trace the layout of an inked drawing without a light box which really speeds up the process in a case like this.

How'd I Do That? Pt.1

2009-12-30T09:25:00.000-08:00

Ninety percent of the people who contact me want to know the same thing. My reply is always the same: You'll get paid as soon as I have the money. Occasionally someone will also ask about the process I go through when creating a cartoon. They'll usually say something like 'If I sat around all day I couldn't come up with a single joke.' While this is meant as a complement it always strikes me as somewhat less than well thought out. It makes want to find a surgeon and say that if I had an entire afternoon I wouldn't be able to figure out how to transplant a kidney. Not that I'm comparing cartooning to surgery. For instance it's probably a bad idea to perform surgery while siting on your couch in your pajamas.

Anyway, the first step in creating a cartoon is coming up with a joke, or, as those of us in the business say, a gag. This takes time. I either sit around with a pad or do something else, like my taxes, with a pad in arm's reach. During this process I'm thinking about phrases or topics that might lend themselves to gags. I'll sometimes listen to the radio or read the paper with the hopes of getting my brain going. When I do get rolling-and this is important-I write down anything that seems like a gag I might want to use. I don't trust my memory in this situation. As soon as something else enters my mind, like another joke, a screaming offspring, a screaming wife, a police officer asking why my entire family is screaming, the gag will be pushed out of my mind and into oblivion.

For this exercise we're going to focus on the gag at the bottom of the page I've scanned. It reads: "I'm not interested in things that don't kill me but make me stronger. I'm interested in things that don't kill me and make me rich." I sometimes wind up changing the wording, but for now, that's the gag. Tune in in a couple of days and I'll post the rough pencil drawing that will be miraculously transformed into a soon to be classic cartoon.

Less is More . . . Unless it's Less

2009-12-19T14:52:00.000-08:00

By now careful readers of this blog will have picked up on my schedule; new posts every day for about two weeks, then nothing for 3 months. At least I 'm sticking to a schedule that doesn't overwhelm the blogosphere. Too much of a good thing can be a real problem.

Here's a recent cartoon.

Reasons to be Cheerful

2009-09-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

I'm really glad I don't work in an office.

Website

Career for my Next Life

2009-09-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

When I'm not busy making millions cartooning I dream about making millions making music.

In my next post I promise not to use the word 'making' quite so often.

website

WSJ

2009-09-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a cartoon that was in the Wall Street Journal last month. My work has been appearing in their Pepper & Salt feature for over 20 years.

The cartoons in the WSJ tend to have a business slant and usually no political component. That's a good thing because as someone who tends to lean to the left I'd probably be a bad fit for them if politics were an issue. That said, I used to do a lot of work for the National Review. At one point I was in every issue for over a year. Shortly after that they got a new editor with a whole new sense of humor and taste in cartoons. That happens in this business. One day your a valued contributor to a major political journal, the next day you're just some poorly dressed dude working in your basement.

Website

What's His Face from U2

2009-09-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

Just put together my daughter's first bed. Probably should have waited until she, my son, and our beagle puppy were not around. Big mistake.

This caricature of Bono is from an old sketchbook. I think it was done one or two years ago. I should probably date my sketchbook drawings.

Website

2009-08-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

A while back the local sports talk radio station- ESPN 980- here in DC asked me to do a series of cartoons for their website focusing on their afternoon drive show; The Sports Reporters. This was a cool gig for me because I listen to that station, and in particular, that show, in the late afternoon when I'm sort of half working/half hanging out with my kids. The show is hosted by Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban (he also does the Fox morning sports show). Anyway, one of the hosts killed the project because he wasn't crazy about being made to look sort of goofy. My feeling is that if you don't want to be portrayed in tights and a cape you have no business hosting a radio show. It's possible I could be wrong about that. This was my favorite of the bunch.

Website

2009-08-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to be updating this thing every day. I'll probably shoot for a few times per week. Nevertheless, here's another cartoon that I drew a few days ago. Maybe for my next post I'll scan a caricature from my sketch book.

Okay . . . back to work.

Visit my website

Now What?

2009-08-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

I had some trouble deciding how start my first blog post. I considered:
"It was the best of blogs, it was the worst of blogs . . ." Too literary.
"Call me Ishmael" Too whale-like. And finally, "Why is this blog different from all other blogs?" Too Jewish.

Anyway, since the purpose of this blog is to increase my web presence and hopefully move my website up in the Google rankings to generate more business, here's a cartoon.

Click to visit my website.