placemat doodle I did at 200 fifth ave bar. in Park Slope. Julian told me to shoot it.

It’s a great place for takeout, but if there is a game or a fight on tv, prepare yourself for some ruckus if you want to sit in and eat.

After a long hiatus… I’m gonna get right back into it!

I’ll be signing at the vertigo booth today. Signing what is the question I asked myself. I guess I’ll find out when I get there.

I picked up a few great books the otherday,“Tophats and Flappers” , “Dear John, the Alex Toth Doodle Book” and “Black Panther, the Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas”. If you know me, these purchases won’t come as a big surprise.

“Tophats and Flappers” is a decent collection of the artwork of Russel Patterson, a cartoonist from the first half of the 2oth century. Honest, frank lines and plenty of long legged girls. A blueprint for modern fashion sketching and cartoon pinups. He was a master of combining black fields in shadow and local color to manipulate negative and positive space.

Which Brings me to “Dear John…” which I couldn’t find on Amazon; I picked it up at “forbidden planet” here in the city. This book is fireproof! More of that classic use of of black fields to really balance and design the page. Another thing these guys share is an excellent use of mechanical tone. In a way I’d even say that Toth is a step down the lineage of Patterson. These books are must have for narrative designers.

“Black Panther…” is a collection of the work of Emory Douglas. I recently got into Douglas’ work. This is a great poster book. I won’t go on to waste words describing it… give it a look, it’s well worth it. It’s also a great piece of Black Panther ephemera.