Dearly beloved…

She & Him

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy….

The Ramones

With the recent passing of Tommy Ramone, the original quartet is gone – a sad reminder that life is oh, so fleeting.

I saw The Ramones twice back in the day, both times at the old Cleveland Agora, circa 1978-80, in essentially, a packed room. This was the ‘Marky’ era, as Tommy had moved on to concentrate on production etc.

I had the distinct pleasure of being crammed up against the left side of the stage staring up at Johnny Ramone slashing away on his Mosrite guitar, and to his left, the impossibly tall Joey at center stage, Dee Dee throttling the bass, and Marky in the back on drums.

Yeah, it was loud.

I’ve seen a lot of bands over the years – in just about every musical genre – and The Ramones were, to put it mildly, stunning to watch and listen to.

There was punk before The Ramones – much like there’s a sketch before a painting.

But punk as we know it – in all it’s distorted, DIY power-chord glory, came into crystal clear focus with The Ramones’ first album in 1976.

They’re in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a damn good reason.

 

Jack White

Some recent caricature/illustration work – love the new album, “Lazaretto”…

Buh-bye 2012!

Well, Happy New Year’s and all that stuff! As we hit the finish line on 2012, all of us here at…well…my cartoon-blog-thing…want to wish everyone a great 2013 and beyond…hm…that sounded kinda Buzz Lightyear, but hey, you get the idea.

Anyway in the spirit of ‘year end’ wrap-ups, I thought I’d roll out some of my favorite cartoons over the past year. Not just because I personally think they’re funny, but also because I’m lazy and I always wanted to do a ‘year in review’. There’s a real limited window of opportunity for this stuff and, by golly, I’m takin’ it!

So, here we go – the “Lake Effect Year In Review”:

May – 

Apparently, many people go to the movies for all their social networking needs.

Headstone humor…I wonder if Venn was, in reality, cross-eyed?

The witch would’ve been better off seeing a dermatologist about the whole green skin thing.

June – 

Haven’t I read this stuff before? Like in a Penthouse magazine I found under Dad’s bed in 1973?

It’s amazing what greeting cards are able to do nowadays. Buy some. It keeps me working.

July –

We all have goals. Mine is to see “Django Unchained’ at some point this week.

Zombies: trending down…

August – 

Ever have one of those days? Like, every day?

I liked “The Dark Knight” better.

September –

I figured ‘Jack Russell’ sounded funnier than ‘Bichon Frise’.

October – 

I think a cool app would be one that turns every day into Friday. Or, better yet, eliminates Mondays.

November –

The Americana music trend is now officially everywhere, including fashion. God help us, if the next trend is, say, 80’s techno…Kraftwerk, anyone?

OK, that oughta do it – I could post more, but it’s time to go crack open some champagne.

Happy New Year’s Everyone and see you in a few days – hey, I’ll need to recover from all the revelry of falling asleep in front of the TV at 11:30!

Clothes Call

All That Jazz

Amy

More caricature work…

Loved Amy Winehouse and still do. I rank her up there with the greatest singers of all time – what a voice.

And what a loss…

Face The Music