The Song is from “Pirates of Penzance”
Next Time: Sawin’ Logs
Comment
The Jumbo deLuxe Blog
A synopsis image for the whole show
Earlier this week, the folks at Portland Opera invited a bunch of cartoonists and bloggers to attend dress rehearsal for their newest production, with complimentary drinks and food beforehand. I’ve had the pleasure doing this twice before* and each time it’s been great fun. Due to some bad planning on my part and a few mishaps at the hands of Tri-Met, I completely missed the eating and drinking portion of the evening and snuck into the backstage tour at the last minute. I was beginning to feel a lot like Candide myself.
I scribbled like crazy during the rehearsal and returned home with about 9 pages of wildly incoherent pages. On the train ride I came up with a sort of synopsis image of the entire show and added this to my sketchbook. The next day a combed through my favorite doodles, traced them and added a bit of color. I probably would have done more if I had the time. I posted my favorite drawings to my flickr page.
The Portland Opera’s production makes for lively fast-paced entertainment. Anyone who is familiar with Voltaire’s Story and Bernstein’s music will not be disappointed. A bit of background to the story may be necessary if you don’t know it. It’s very fast and wickedly funny. Since the action takes place in many locations around the world, the scenery directors have employed some ingenious techniques with projected images, and a stage made of surface like Lego ™ .
Portland Opera have a page which collects all the artists’ work. There were many talented people involved and they have produced some really beautiful work. I’m told a lot of it will be on display in the lobby during the show. Writers / bloggers in attendance posted some delightful and hilarious tweets; you can read them on twitter, tagged #pdxcandide
*Since 2010 I have attended comic artists’ nights for Hansel and Gretel and Turandot. In addition, I’ve colored some drawings made by my pal S.W. “Conch” Conser who attended an event which I missed.
Here’s some new and ‘classic’ work from Jumbo deLuxe fans. I can’t say how much I love getting this stuff.(click on each image to view larger)
3D Emily by Laura Laine
This remarkable 3-D clay sculpture of Emily was made by my good friend Laura Laine 10 or more years ago. She’s using a monochromatic and taller character design based on Emily’s appearances in a student newspaper comic strip that pre-dated the full color webcomics we all know today.
Jumbo deLuxe Tea Party by Neal Skorpen
Neal Skorpen is a webcomics veteran, mentor and longtime pal. He’s probably best known for his comic strips Introvert Manifesto, Muddlemarch, and graphic novels Island of the Moths, and his latest project, Æthernaut. Here he’s drawn the usual suspects having tea and getting all ladylike.
Yogurt Cultures drawn by S.W. Conser, Color by Adrian J Wallace
Another longtime pal S.W. “Conch” Conser apparently likes the Yogurt Cultures. I haven’t got the heart to tell him that I have no plans to use them in any future comic strips. You can hear S.W. “Conch” Conser on KBOO radio where he interviews the hell out of the world’s finest cartoonists and animators.
In an earlier post, I shared this lovely fan art made by Ken Koral.
Oh! Chimpanzee That.
Sci-Bot 9000
Cort and Fatboy
Drawing can be lonely work, that’s why many cartoonists like to listen to music or some background chatter while they work. Podcasts provide laughs and learning better than any new media, and since they’re usually offered to the internet for free, I feel obliged to pay them back with a silly drawing or two.
So far I’ve made doodles for Ricky Gervais (with his pals Karl Pilkington and Steve Merchant), The Sci-Guys, and most recently Cort and Fatboy.
Give any of these a listen because they’re great fun, though be warned that this is the internet and you might hear some swearing or bathroom humor once in awhile. If you like them, do them a favor by subscribing to their itunes feed, buy their swag, simply telling your friends, or make some fan art for them.
I haven’t made a sketch for HP Podcraft yet, though they’re another favorite.
Ken Koral is a busy guy. He has kids & stuff and he’s also managing to write and draw the twelve bazillion page graphic novel Eventy Seven which he posts over at his site, KenKoral.com. Like Jumbo deLuxe, his protagonists are clever children living in a world where things are slightly askew. Actually, the world in ‘Eventy Seven’ may be a lot worse, since it’s a tiny town in rural Oregon in 1981. They’re still wearing bell bottom pants and poor Evie has to contend regularly with ghosts, annoying brothers, terrible grown-ups, a time traveler from the future, and possibly the end of the world. It makes for some exciting and compelling storytelling, and Ken’s full-color artwork is beautifully textured and emotionally nuanced. Ken drew our own Emily and Nathan meeting his characters Evie and Ryan for the first time. They appear to have hit it off very nicely.