CLAW: Describe your methods of art production. Do you use a wacom tablet directly in Photoshop? Or do you sketch then pen+ink first?

STAN SHAW: Basically, I use tricks learned while traveling with Circus folk and grifters. But I do favor a few tools. My personal favorites are crow quill pens, Hunt 102 and the Intel Mac. I’ve worked conventionally (pen and ink, brush, cow chips, airbrush, pencil) and digitally (Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter, Sketchbook Pro, and InDesign) switching between a mouse and a pen stylus. I give clients fairly tight sketches for approval or feedback then develop from there using whatever tool or method works best for the project.

As far as comics go, look and speed are two big factors. For an Oscar Wilde story in Graphic Classics, I did very, very rough, tiny thumbnails in pencil, then went directly to producing final art in Painter. That went blindingly fast. (Thanks for reminding me.) For “Near Art” in City Arts, there were a bunch of steps: rough sketch, script, rough with lettering, tight pencils, blue-line pencil, corrections, inked art, colored art and finally, lettering. Slow going: two hours vs three days.

When I create art for myself, I work however. There’s usually some procedural experiment going on. Or inebriation.

CLAW: You have worked with graphic giants like Art Chantry; your name invokes trembling from within the creative forces behind Beautiful Angle. How did you get to be so awesome? PART II: On a scale from 1 to awesome, how awesome are you.

STAN SHAW: Part I: Clean living and vitamins. Part II: Awesome is like a box of chocolates. There’s always the unexpected nut inside. Or, god forbid, some unidentifiable goo. I think Art, Lance and Tom are awesome. I find what they do so inspiring that it makes me want to do better stuff. (I feel a tremble coming on.)

CLAW: Stan Shaw is a name synonymous with attractively drawn people, especially the ladies. Describe your moral perspective when it comes to nudity. Where do you draw the line (if you know what I mean)?

STAN SHAW: Moral perspective about rendering nudity? People are more willing to laugh at nudity than drool over it. Except for fans of internet porn (Mark, you know who you are.). Off the record? My cartoon characters look better in clothes.

CLAW: What projects are you currently working on? What are some of your favorite projects? What is your take on the Obama with Hitler-stash phenomenon popular with republicans and other crazy people?

STAN SHAW: Current Work? Top secret wet work covert operations for a certain large software company to the north.

Fav Work? I like fun. I like cool. I like to think and challenge my abilities. I’ve been illustrating a weekly political column for The Village Voice. That’s interesting. Mostly, though, I like work that pays since, you know, Illustration is how I make my living.

And I’m always looking for work: Please contact hey@drawstanley.com for a free estimate. Or share your budget, we’ll figure something out.

The Obama with the Hitler stash is real old school political cartooning stuff. But it lacks any real creativity. You can put a Hitler-stash on anything. (Try it at home! Kids, ask your parents first!) A more creative move had Obama sporting Vulcan ears.

For the record, I turned down a gig that was Obama-hatin’.

CLAW: Why wont you join CLAW already? What are you afraid of… ? Stowe?

STAN SHAW: We should all be afraid of Stowe. He’s permanently connected to a computer via his Wacom. Maybe he’s a cyborg? Besides, HE DECORATES CAKES! That can’t be a good sign. And you’re mistaken. I am a member of CLAW, just not in the way most members become members, you know, by actually joining. And I don’t wear the fez or pay the dues or go to all the meetings.

for more information on Mr. Stan Shaw visit http://drawstanley.com or subscribe to his blog feed here at http://www.drawstanley.blogspot.com/

But wait there’s more!

SPECIAL ‘STAN SHAW’ BONUS ILLUSTRATED CLASSIC LITERATURE COMIC (pdf download)

Electric Elliot

• http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug
• http://www.smbc-comics.com/

RR Anderson

• Dr. McNinja
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
• The Pain: When Will it End?
• Red Planet
• David Horsey
• MS Paint Adventures, (was really into Problem Sleuth – like obsessed)
• the TACOMIC
• The Comic Critic
• Log Jam
• Bob the Dog
• Return of Stickman
• Space Moose

Mark Monlux

• http://www.unshelved.com
• http://www.littledee.net
• http://www.overcompensating.com
• http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com
• http://www.jump-leads.com
• http://www.theaterhopper.com
• http://www.questionablecontent.net
• http://www.ellieconnelly.com
• http://www.octopuspie.com
• http://www.mylifeinacube.com
• http://blog.wpmorse.com
• http://hijinksensue.com
• http://cad-comic.com
• http://blog.krisstraub.com
• http://www.bobwhitecomics.com
• http://riphaywire.com
• http://www.erichobbsonline.com/awakenings
• http://www.pvponline.com
• http://www.evil-comic.com
• http://logjamcomic.blogspot.com Jeff Hawley’s Comic!
  
• http://www.girlgeniusonline.com
• http://lifeofronnie.com
• http://www.jeffschuetze.com

Stowe

• DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary — http://darcomic.org
• Diesel Sweeties — dieselsweeties.com
• Girls With Slingshots — daniellecorsetto.com/gws.html
• Good Ship Chronicles — goodshipchronicles.com/
• Misery Loves Sherman — miserylovessherman.com/
• Penny Arcade — penny-arcade.com
• Pvp — pvponline.com
• Questionable Content — questionablecontent.net
• The System — notquitewrong.com/rosscottinc/
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (thanks RXR) — smbc-comics,com
• Sheldon — sheldoncomics.com
• Shortpacked! — shortpacked.com
• Starslip (previously Starslip Crisis) — starslip.com
• xkcd — xkcd.com

Jeff Hawley (neo-member!)

• I like receiving comics automatically via email, e.g., I get the weekly Tom the Dancing Bug, by Ruben Bolling, and receive daily comics from Comics.com.   Pretty cool site, that.   They will email you a daily bunch of comics of your choice.

Stanley Shaw (false-member)

• Man! You guys have TIME to read online comics? Hey, remember how in the Olden Tymes the sunday pages featured  huge pages of comixs? CLAW could do an online comic like that and charge for small ads. A nominal fee of course. Set up as an additional page to the website, static. Content could change weekly with set sizes to make said changes easy. Is that easy, or I could be wrong.Stan ”He Who Has Not Joined” or ” Notonavus”By the way, I’m still a a fan of Stowe’s bio comic from a few weeks ago!

Adam Botsford (cadet)

• Hmm. The only daily cartoon I read is Mutts.
  I’m more of an artblog follower myself.

We came across the works of Derek M Ballard on a flickr stream an age ago. Possibly some of the most provocative erotic/underground zine work we’ve ever seen.  According to his myspace page his heroes are listed ” SHE-RA, HE-MAN, THUNDARR, JAYCE AND THE WHEELED WARRIORS…y’know, motherf**kers who don’t put up with bullshit.” The CLAW was lucky enough to catch up with Mr. Ballard for this brief and haunting interview.  Enjoy!

CLAW: Describe your methods of art production?  Do you use a wacom tablet directly in Photoshop? Or do you sketch then pen+ink first?

DMB: Usually, I have no idea what I’m trying to do. I start out by just drawing lots of random shapes with pencil. From there I can assemble the shapes into different things on my light table, and trace them onto vellum for inking. Once I’m done, I scan the images into Photoshop, clean up, and color.
I’ve never actually used a wacom before. It’s funny, a lot of people think I do. I wouldn’t even know how to begin.

CLAW: One of the striking things about your work is your I would describe as cubist-exaggerated characters & environments… is this style tied to any philosophical agenda?  Is there a better way to describe your signature cartooning style? (I think your art is ultra-awesome)

DMB: As a teenager I was a big fan of Thomas Hart Benton, Egon Schiele, and Max Beckmann. I was really into German expressionism in film, too. So, that stuff probably shows up a lot in my work.

As far as a philosophical agenda, I would rather not go into it too much and sound pretentious. I like to leave things open for each person’s own interpretation. I will say there’s a lot sub-level of stuff going on, lots of layers, and an intentional calculated placement of subjects, but I’m sure doesn’t come through for anyone but myself.

CLAW: A colleague once told me that the worst clients were church groups and tv stations. Tell our readers about your experiences with the adult entertainment publications…  Is this a niche market worth pursuing?

DMB: Working with adult publications was just about the best job ever. SCREW in particular was an amazing mag. I’m always surprised you don’t hear it mentioned more often. Fantagraphic’s EROS line paid well, too.  Unfortunately, the internet killed the demand for printed masturbation material and ads for hookers.

It’s good work if you can get it. I think Hustler Humor might still publish, and they have decent page rates.
I was fortunate enough to catch the last bit of the cartoonist’s gravy train for the better part of the last century that was porno mags. Life goes on I guess.

CLAW: Tell us about your zine projects.  Do you find zines to be the best choice to communicate with cult followers?

DMB: The dirty, DIY small press stuff is way more fulfilling to me. Plus, it’s really satisfying to put out work on a regular basis. Mini-comics and zines are the best option I have right now to serialize my work.
I enjoy everything about zines and mini-comics anyway. That’s where my interests lie. They just feel more real, more exciting, and more fun.

You can find all the coolest drawing in zines, and I LOVE drawing. If you look at all the zines I’ve been in you can see that they’re full of people who really enjoy it as well.
Nobody’s paying anyway, so why not do the cool stuff?
I’m just sayin’.

CLAW: Any other advice you’d like to share with our members and other aspiring cartoonists?

DMB:
Be happy.
Work a lot.
Do your own thing.
Make good decisions.
Use your time wisely.
Use your time wisely.
Use your time wisely.
Use your time wisely.
Be radical always.

CLAW: Citizens! The adventure doesn’t have to stop here. Keep up to speed with Mr. Ballard’s adventures via Myspace and Flickr

CLAW:  Can you tell our readers a bit about your illustration process? Do you start with a sketch? Ink/Color or Scan directly into photoshop, use a wacom etc?

ZS: I do a sketch the old-fashioned way: pencil on paper. I print out photo reference, if I have it, in black and white; I’ve tried in the past printing out ref in color but the color of the photos is distracting, I find. Then, depending on the piece and how much time I have and how I’m feeling about it, I’ll lay down some washes and stuff in gouache and scan that in and finish painting it digitally, or simply scan in the sketch and paint it entirely digitally.

I’m a very early riser, and pretty much all the campaign pictures were done between 3 and 6 in the morning, before I settled down to my regularly scheduled assignments for the day.

CLAW:  Adding Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket is considered by many political cartoonists a boon or a gift from god. Your Palin illustrations are obviously divinely inspired… can you friggin believe that?

ZS: What I can’t believe is that McCain chose her as his running mate. The painting I did of them entitled “The Morning After” truly illustrates what I think they both felt on November 5th. I know I’ve felt that way myself on more than one occasion!

By the way, I collected all my campaign satires into a book called “The Party’s Over”, available on Blurb and all the paintings can be seen in the Politics section of my website, in case your readers would like to see what we’re talking about.

CLAW: How much of a role does anger play in your political illustrations?

ZS: Plenty! I think anger is a great spark. When people tick me off it’s easy to skewer them, and to come up with ideas on how to do it.

CLAW:  Above all other political cartoonists you have managed to capture Mrs. Palin’s berserker snarl with frightening accuracy. Have you ever been to Alaska? (full disclosure: I’m from Juneau, Alaska).

ZS: No, I’ve never been up there, though if the place it littered with Palinesque individuals…well, I ain’t making plane reservations anytime soon.

About the insanely meat-eating expressions I did for my Palin satires: I used myself as a model for all her expressions. I’ve always used myself as the model for facial expressions. I have a hand mirror that I’ve grimaced and growled and snarled into for years.

CLAW: Many of our members/readers are intense fans of science fiction. Are there any behind the scenes stories you can share with us about your [Norman Saunders] dad’s Mars Attacks cards?  Does a science fiction background help you articulate (in illustration form) the horrors in real-life politics?

ZS: Hmmmm…well, I can tell you that my dad didn’t take Mars Attax seriously at all (it was just a job of “bug-eyed monsters” for him), and he was shocked when he discovered,at the one and only comic convention he ever attended, that he was a revered iller.

I have a little anecdote that I’ve often told about me and my dad’s paintings when I was a little kid. And it’s a true one. Here it is:

I used to “correct” my dad’s paintings, when he was away from his drawing board. Usually that would involve painting extra glamorous eyelashes on his damsels in distress. Years later, in my 20’s, I asked Dad if he knew that I used to do that and he said, “Of course I knew! I’d just go back in and paint them out.” It blows my mind, how patient he was about that. I’d kill a kid for doing that to my stuff!

CLAW:  Any money making/saving advice you’d like to share with your fellow artisans  (example: I recently purchased a pencil extender handle which lets me continue to use the pencil all the way to the nub)?

ZS: Hey! That’s funny you mention that pencil extender thing! I teach a senior thesis illustration class at The University of The Arts, and one of my students hipped me to that extender thing just last week. I’d honestly never seen one of those before!

Hmmm…trying to think of other tips… well, not buying stuff is a good way to save.

CLAW: Thanks for your time Zina!

Thanks for asking me to blather on!

CLAW: for more information on Zina Saunders visit ZinaSaunders.com

Full Stowe video (rhymasaurus) coming soon.

Full Monlux-tastic bio piece coming soon!

Tim Kreider* was born and educated in Baltimore, Maryland. His cartoon, The Pain – When Will It End?, has run in the Baltimore City Paper since 1997 and has also appeared in the Jackson Planet Weekly, The New York Press, The Stranger, and Philadelphia Weekly. Fantagraphics Books has published two collections of his cartoons, The Pain–When Will It End? (2004) and Why Do They Kill Me? (2005), and he was included in Ted Rall’s anthology Attitude 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists (2004). His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Film Quarterly, The Comics Journal, Jump Cut, and Lip.  He divides his time between New York City and an undisclosed location on the Chesapeake Bay. *official bio text

C.L.A.W.  was intensely pleased to sit down with Tim Kreider to talk with  him about his glorious craft.

C.L.A.W. How do you make your cartoons? Do you pencil then ink/scan or do you draw them into photoshop with a wacom tablet?

T.K. I draw with pens on pieces of paper and then scan them in at unnecessarily high resolution. Wacom tablets are very handy for jiffying up mistakes in Photoshop, but I imagine it would be about as easy to draw a fine, controlled, expressive line with one as with a wood-burner or a garden hose.

C.L.A.W. Have any of your cartoons been censored and does it hurt your feelings?

T.K. I can only think of two times that the City Paper refused to run cartoons of mine. One was the “New Design for the World Trade Center,” which I sent them the week after 9/11. This was actually an uncharacteristically affirmative, boosterish cartoon for me, and not that dissimilar to the photoshopped image of the rebuilt WTC giving the world the finger that circulated on the internet around that time. But the publisher’s feeling–not my editor’s–was that any representation of the World Trade Centers at that time would be inappropriate. His actual words, which I have not forgotten, were that it “would jeopardize our standing in the community.” I was like, Jeez Louise. Nevertheless they ran the same cartoon a week later, after everyone had started to return to sanity. I wasn’t pleased at the time, but I can’t say I was all that hurt or indignant, either. I had more important things on my mind and it was a very weird week–people reacted in all kinds of strange ways and I’m sure everyone was trying to do what what felt right at the time, whether it was volunteering for the Red Cross in Manhattan or censoring cartoons or hiding at airbases in Louisiana.
The other cartoon was “Me, the Freeloadin’ Negro,” which I sent them a week after some other cartoon, which wasn’t actually about race, had inadvertently caused outrage in the letters pages among some African-American readers. Again, the issue was mostly timing.
Come to think of it they never ran “Graveyard Shift at the Pussy Juice Factory,” either, but this is a drawing I would expect no respectable publication ever to run anywhere in the civilized world.

C.L.A.W. Does having an enemies list on your website increase loyalty of your fan base?

T.K. You would have to ask the fans. I don’t think anyone’s reading my cartoons week after week for fear of ending up on my bad side, if that’s what you’re getting at. In truth it’s been a long time since I’ve even looked at the Enemies List–doubtless it’s in need of updating. It did my vindictive heart a lot of good to create it years ago, but now that I am middle-aged  I’m trying to become a less rancorous person before I end up a bitter little old man and I think, from time to time, of eliminating it. I would advise everybody to make up an enemies list for fun and then tear it up.

C.L.A.W. How do you know when a cartoon is a hit?  What are the indicators?

T.K. My only real indication is the number and enthusiasm of emails and letters I receive in response. Of course it’s possible this is an indicator not of a cartoon’s popularity but of its provocativeness. Some of them just provide more fodder for discussion than others. Webmaster Dave keeps a list of the all-time most popular cartoons but I myself don’t know how to measure this. It’s sometimes a mystery to me why people like the cartoons they do–the same way, I’m sure, it’s a mystery to a comedian when one of his lines becomes a national catch-phrase. The most popular of my cartoons don’t necessarily correlate to the ones I think are the best. Sometimes, I’m sure, people like them because of superficial or random reasons. As with any kind of art, all you can do is throw it out there and hope it’ll resonate with somebody.

C.L.A.W. What are elements that you look for in a provocative freethinking cartoon/comic?

T.K. I’m not sure whether you’re talking about my own comics or other people’s, but perhaps my answer is the same in either case. I don’t usually try to reverse-engineer a cartoon that’ll illustrate an abstract idea or argument when I draw; I just try to think up funny things. Similarly, I don’t have any criteria for cartoons that I seek out or like; all I want is not to be bored. I have to confess I don’t have much interest in comics per se and don’t read that many of them. Obviously I like cartoons that are intelligent, artful, and preferably hilarious. I think the best political cartoonists from the last dismal eight years have been Steve Bell and Ruben Bolling. (But bear in mind that I haven’t read two Doonesburys in a row since the Vietnam War ended and I never even bother to look at any daily newspaper editorial cartoons, so it’s not like I know what I’m talking about.) The only one of my colleagues’ work I check in on on a weekly basis is Emily Flake. I would say that Emily and I share what you might call a Baltimorean sensibility (a city where she and I have both spent significant parts of our lives): a certain preoccupation with the sordid and the unwise–with drunkenness, ill-advised sex, poor work habits–and what Frederic Raphael, in speaking of Stanley Kubrick, described as “an amused pessimism at the notion that people are capable of change.”  [not 100% certain of the accuracy of this quote]

C.L.A.W. Thanks Mr. Kreider, god bless!

T.K. You are welcome; we will see.

Extra  Credit Reading – That’s Not Funny: Rage, Laughter, and Political Cartooning After 9/11

Mr. Kreider’s book Why Do They Kill Me? can be purchased locally through Fantagraphics Books.