Whack-a-Mole

Here's my cartoon for this weeks Stoutonia. I had a lot of fun with the image, but ran out of time with the color. I'll probably go back in and do more rendering, but with the deadline looming, and many other projects on the drawing board, I'm going to have to settle.

Stoutonia Cartoon

I've done a couple of cartoons for the Stoutonia (our school paper) this year, and this is the latest one. The opinions editor asked me to do something to accompany an op-ed piece about our campus wide tobacco ban, which as I've stated before, I am not in favor of. Well, the opinions editor highlighted a couple paragraphs in the piece that he thought I should incorporate in my cartoon. I really didn't want to do that, because that would pretty much turn an editorial cartoon into an editorial illustration, and thats not my job. So, I really wanted to take the opportunity to give a couple jabs at our Chancellor and Stout Student Association president both of whom are beating a dead horse with this thing. The tobacco ban went into effect at the beginning of the semester, and since then, I have only seen three people smoke on campus. Now the Chancellor and SSA are threatening violators with citations. I just think there is something else they could be doing with their time other than concentrating on a very small portion of the student population. Tobacco isn't a problem on campus anymore. Move on.

New Illustrations

Here are a couple of spot illustrations I recently finished up. I guess I'm a little out of practice with watercolors. I haven't picked them up in over a month, and these two were a little frustrating.

Don't Drink the Punch

The eloquent Carl Paladino is a clear example of a nasty anti-gay sentiment in this country. Rather than going into the specifics of this cartoon, I'll just say that I plan on writing a piece about the homophobia, and persons reluctant to tolerate a sexual orientation unlike their own.

As far as the cartoon goes, I really liked the idea and the rough sketch I drew up. But as is common lately, I'm not nearly as enthused about it anymore. And I just finished coloring it about five minutes ago. This really bugs me, and I'm not sure if I'm just getting tunnel vision with an idea that really isn't as good as I initially thought, or maybe I'm just rushing the drawing. Meh.

Mr. Anderson

Here's a work in progress doodle of my cousin Lars. He's set to graduate this December from UW-Stevens Point.

Ink-slinging of another sort.

Preparations for my senior exhibition have begun, and I'll most likely be suffering from subsequent sleep deprivation and some level of dementia. However, one project that I'll be coming out with is a short-ish book that I'll be hopefully co-writing with my good pal Kyle. I'll add illustrations and topical cartoons as well. I began this idea a year and a half ago, but after some time, Kyle and I put it on the back burner. But now It seems appropriate that we revisit it.

For now it's going to be a series of short editorial pieces and essays with the illustrations or cartoons staying relevant to the text. I still don't have a solid outline for the book yet, but this morning I wanted to jump in with both feet and start writing. I know my writing abilities aren't up to par with Kyle's as you may find out later, but below is a quick piece that I hope you'll enjoy. Comments are welcome.


A Better Business Model
By Marc Anderson
10-5-10

As most college graduates, or anyone trying to get into a higher paying job knows, there is a strange dichotomy between remaining ethical and true to yourself in a job search and actually finding any work at all. As an artist just starting out, I feel this doubly so. Anyone worthwhile wants to see your published work before hiring you, yet in order to get any published work, you are forced to work for a pittance or on a supposed wage of “exposure.” I would indeed work for exposure, but exposure, given a dollar amount in relation to the art industry, has a negative value. It’s a way of undercutting a sea of other professionals who require higher payment to survive, thereby inflating the worth of the profession. I once inflated an inner tube and much like working on an exposure basis, it was exasperating, and I my reward was a light-headed euphoria followed by a splitting migraine. Damn inner tubes.

This sort of frustration is not limited to my pity party. The entire newspaper industry is more than likely far worse off than I, never mind, the light-headed euphoria and migraine it will likely experience. Which factor has been most pivotal in the decline of newspapers you ask? Well, disregarding newspapers’ falling readerships during much of the ‘80s and ‘90s, we see that the internet hasn’t done them any favors. It would seem that the internet is a great venue for news writers to reach hungry news readers, and it is. The possibilities with web-based news are almost as great in numbers as pointless, amateur, blogs. It’s a close one there, but blogging about kittens is the last great source of untapped revenue and billions of bloggers know this. Streaming videos, instant news updates, links to other high interest sites, and catchy little animations are all being employed on bigger news sites. The list could go on forever, but for the sake of saving us both time, you can read a more extensive coverage of the topic on Wikipedia. The great thing about web-based news media is that it is brought to you for the low cost of… FREE. Sure there are a few regional newspapers that charge a nominal fee comparable to a subscription to the print version, but the only people who pay for anything online are Netflix users, online gamblers, and one middle-aged, man in northern Montana who peruses Ebay trying to piece together his nearly complete Beanie Baby collection. The idea of paying for content on the web has become such a foreign concept to most. How then can a legitimate news source expect to procure a sustainable profit? We should probably just destroy Craigslist, and that would take care of a lot of advertising sales issues. Or if someone deleted the word frugal from the online dictionary, readers would be less hesitant to pay for web-based reporting.

While I’m still struggling to get work published, I have met limited success here and there. I have been guilty of doing work for next to nothing, just so that I could see it on a nice glossy page with this fine print text adjacent: “Illustration by Marc Anderson.” I’d hate to think that that is what larger newspapers are doing on the web. They definitely don’t need the kind of validation that a scrawny 23 year-old from Wisconsin does. If the bulk of web-based news outlets can band together and adopt a functional business model that still allows for competition and affordability, maybe they will survive this e-advent. If not, we’ll all just have to take in and enjoy that light-headed euphoria and then preemptively take a handful of Advil.

Passing on Paternal Wisdom

Of several drawings I've done of Kim Jong Il, I think this is may favorite. I tried to add a bit more volume to his face and explore all the forms in it. When drawing him, however, I felt there was a strange resemblance to Larry King, and in a panicked frenzy I thought I not only lost the likeness, but drew some crazy old guy who's big shoes need filling.

And Now for Something Completely Different...

According to a recent survey done by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, atheists are more knowledgable about religion than other religions. I find that funny, but not so much surprising.

Figure Drawing

I finally got a chance to go to an open life drawing session tonight. It was a lot of fun, but I'm definitely a little rusty. I wanted to go with a more exaggerated approach this time around and I think it went well overall. I feel like it helps me understand poses, the human figure and anatomy better by doing this, plus it can create some pretty interesting drawings.

This Gubernatorial Race is Uber ridiculous.

With November and my premature absentee ballot to be filled out this weekend, I can't say that I'm all that excited about the Gubernatorial candidates this election. Both are promising job growth, tax cuts, a solid budget etc.: the usual pandering to voters. In this instance, neither candidate has outlined a feasible plan to accomplish any of it.

Wisconsin Toons!

I'm just working on some more local cartoons at the moment. Below are gubernatorial hopeful Scott Walker, and Governor Doyle with a rather frisky DA from Calumet county. I liked how the inks came out on the bottom one so I thought I'd post them as well.

She Wore and Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny....

Long Island City

I've always wanted to do one of those high 3/4 angle cartoony maps, the type you'd find at an amusement park or the like. I just finished up work on this bad boy, a map of Long Island City in New York, and I can safely say that I'll be okay if I don't do one for a little while. It was a lot of work. It would have been a hell of a lot more work if it weren't for google earth and the street view features (which are pretty fricken amazing).

Dig Baby Dig

I had a good rant that I wanted to accompany this drawing, but alas, I have zero time at the moment. Maybe I'll circle back to it in a day or two.

Impassioned Zealots

In the last year and a half, the UW-Stout campus has imposed several new sanctions on tobacco and alcohol. The tobacco referendum started with smoking on campus, which is understandable. Second hand smoke is annoying and unhealthy. Plainly speaking, it affects a lot of people on campus. Drinking can be a problem for most college campuses, but from what I can tell, its more a phenomenon of the age group. However, the college atmosphere does facilitate some bad drinking habits, but they are overdramatized more often than not. In some respects I agree with Chancellor Sorensen: smoking is bad, drinking excessively can lead to academic, health, and social problems, and chewing tobacco is unsightly. The latest ban on ALL tobacco, including chewing tobacco, snuff, snus, and anything else out there, just went way over the top and has been paraded around as some sort of progressive victory over ignorant, unhealthy, simpletons. The reality is that very few students chew on university property, almost never outside of the dorms. Never-the-less, Sorensen brags up the fact that Stout is the first four year school in Wisconsin to be completely tobacco free. With regards to alcohol use, there have already been several house parties busted after only a few days of the start of the semester. All this has been done in the name of good health. As we are all aware of the effects of tobacco and alcohol, the mandated coddling is just insulting.

$50 Billion Job Express

$50 billion for Roads, Rails, and Runways: I can't say that I think any potential or subsequent economic booming will be enough for Democrats to recover any lost ground before the November elections. The GOP's success in the polls, if I can call it that, really can't be attributed to their platform of fiscal responsibility. The Tea Party and the small government crowd support the laissez faire sort of doctrine that not only put the economy in its current state, but would have done nothing to repair it(if left to their devices, republicans may have worsened the whole ordeal). They became the party of "NO," and since a sluggish struggling economy hasn't miraculously bounced back, the democrat majority is going to feel the pinch. In the event that the GOP does win big in November, their partisan political games will be rendered useless, and (fingers crossed) they'll be forced to cooperate with the Obama administration.

Extreme Makeover

The oval office just got a bit of a face lift, which I would classify as piddly, who-gives-a-damn, news, but it took place presumably for Obama's oval office speech addressing the pull out of Iraq. Thusly I thought I could make some sort of connection for a cartoon.

Back To School

Since congress has appropriated $10 billion to save jobs for teachers, cops, and the like, the respective employers either received the funds too late, or are saving the money for next year in the event the economy and suffering state budgets do not recover. That would seem to make sense, but one, I doubt school boards would start a new hiring spree next fall regardless of the budget, and two the funds were given specifically to save jobs now.

Phat America

One more drawing for today!

Almost 20% of Americans think Obama is Muslim. It says one thing about our overall intelligence, but says something else entirely about the effectiveness of spreading falsehoods and fear-mongering.

Glenn Beck: A Real Man of God and A True Patriot!

It comes as absolutely no surprise that Glenn Beck is very adamant about there never being a Mosque built near the ground zero location in New York. But apart from many aspects of Beck that I'll never fully understand(nor do I want to) I do have to marvel at his latest rally of note given in front of the Lincoln Memorial on the 47th anniversary of MLK's "I Have A Dream" speech. He had said that it was merely a coincidence and that those who criticized were just trying to smear his good name. I'll leave you to judge, but I know how I feel about him.


Colored cartoon


And the inks

Bucket Mouth Biden

I caught a rather funny picture of Biden in todays NY Times and had to sketch it up.

200th Blog Post!

Alas, I have reached my anticlimactic 200th blog post. It might be fitting to show a bit of a recent accumulation of freelance work. I just finished up doing 10 illustrations for a special issue of "The Capitol." They were pretty fun to do. I used graphite and photoshop, and I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

Photoshop Phun

I decided I hadn't picked up my Wacom in far too long, so I did a couple caricatures of myself and Melissa. It was the first time I did any monochromatic portraits in photoshop, and I think they turned out pretty well.

Sam Springs a Leak

There's been yet another oil spill, but this time far from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This time our misfortunes struck right here in the midwest. A US-Canada oil pipeline sprung a leak spilling upwards of 800,000 gallons of oil into the Michigan countryside. How many more instances like this will it take before we seriously reconsider our oil intake?



And Arizona... This was fun to draw. Anyone remember when George Carlin was the conductor at Shining Time Station?

Giddy Up

I have to say I'm very surprised at the US and South Korea for their aggressive initiative in their war games. In an attempt to flex our military muscle for North Korea, we've gotten threats of war and other very hostile responses. So what's the point of all this? We're already invested militarily around the world way more than we want to be. Do we really need to be playing around the hornets nest so recklessly?

H.O.R. Whore?

So apparently there are some disgruntled staff over at the House of Representatives. There have been harassment settlements totaling to the tune of some $14 million over the last decade and a half. Money well spent eh?

As far as the cartoon goes, I liked the gag, but I hate hate hate the fat guy representing the House. I don't know why, but I really struggled to get a look I wanted, and finally after a bit of frustration, I gave up and just inked the pencils I had on the paper. I've drawn plenty of fat guys in the past, and for the life of me I don't know why this one was giving me trouble. Perhaps its time to go to Walmart and sketch some fat people on scooters.

Cover Illustration!

I got this gig for "The Capitol" magazine. It'll be on the cover of the their August Issue, and I'm pretty excited about it. I really took my time on the watercolors in hopes that they would look awesome, and for the most part it was going really well until a few slip ups right at the end. But overall I'm happy. Now I'm just hoping that the muted watercolors will print well.

More Cross Hatching than I ever care to do again.

I love me some guns just as much as the next Wisconsin boy, but I'd say the NRA is doing some meddling.

I read an interesting article in the NY Times today that outlined the history of BP and went into fair detail about the last decade or so. It was quite appalling to see several specific instances cited where major safety precautions, slip ups and design flaws caused disasters. The government has fined them on several occasions for safety violations a few of which totaled over $20 million a piece.

All that aside, I give you Icarus Hayward. This drawing was my first four panel editorial cartoon, and I'm not too sure how well it worked. I definitely dont like the look of Tony Hayward in any of the panels. Below is an earlier sketch I did of him that turned out much better.

Unemployed Roadkill

Oh congress and that silly recession...

Divine intervention!!

The Pope is in a very unusual position. I feel that on one hand he is perceived as a divine human: an intermediary between us sinners and God. Does that make him and his church leaders above the law? I mean human laws? How about laws of common sense? Don't fondle little boys. Straight and to the point. Even less wordy than those pesky 10 Commandments.

The Tweet is mightier?

Palin is at it again! In a twitter post she praised a conservative column that compared Obama to Hitler. Who's going to be the next historical villain that she's going to compare Obama to? I read most of the afore mentioned column and the parallels that the writer and Palin were trying to make were in a word laughable.

Editorial Toons!

Jan Brewer's comments about her suspicions of what types of characters are sneaking across the Arizona/Mexico border are the type of misleading stereotypes that feeds to their racial profiling immigration laws. It's unwarranted hate mongering that has no basis, and dissuades the moderate population from thinking rationally.




Also, amidst all the chaos that has been going on in the last... long span of time, Guantanamo Prison is still around. Wonder if that's on anyones to-do list...

Freelance Illustration

Here's a quick freelance illustration I finished today. The art director asked me to do it in the graphite/digital style I've been putzing around with lately, so it was fun to see it in action. I'll probably keep pushing this new process and see where it goes. Anyway, this is NY state assemblyman Brian Kolb as Sisyphus.