Ed Benedict

Early Hanna-Barbera cartoons have had a big influence on my drawing style. I had assumed that Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera designed their own classic characters, but they didn't. This amazing cartoonist named Ed Benedict designed most of them, including the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Huckleberry Hound. Ed's characters incorporated design concepts you still see in cartoons today: The delineated beard growth on Homer Simpson and the stubby hind legs that anthropomorphic dogs and cats chase each other with are evident in the earliest sketches Ed made for H-B way back in the fifties.

To celebrate my new discovery of this old pro I wanted to show you a tribute to his creations from another hero of the cartooning world, John Kricfalusi. John K is best known as the creator of Ren & Stimpy. He now runs a blog dedicated to the craft of animation and is often quoted in articles about Ed. In fact, Ed is listed as layout artist in the opening credits of this short. Check it out:

A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith


You can see some of Ed's original sketches of Fred, Barney, and Yogi Bear at John's blog. This particular article is one I have studied heavily to help me understand what is working and not working in my own cartoons.

New comic! Yay!

We just got back from a very nice weekend visiting our friends upstate. So, while I do have a comic update for you, I unfortunately didn't have time to write too much in my blog. But you'd rather see new cartoons, right? Good, that's what I figured. More next week.

Did you miss me?

It didn't take long for me become what I dreaded most - a web cartoonist who devotes half his blog posts to apologizing for never updating his comic. Maybe I can look at that as a milestone?

I had a great summer at Fire Island (Um... doing research for my comic...) during which I was able to hear Rihanna intone UMBRELLA ELLA ELLA five hundred gazillion times -- about twice as many times that Nicole from the The Pussycat Dolls asked me if I wished my girlfriend was hot like her only two summers earlier.

Now summer is over and I will console myself by spending as much time as possible inside Cartoon Fire Island until another cold wet New York winter breaks and my housemates and I can start fretting over our schedule again.

Speaking of Cartoon Fire Island, check out this Family Guy clip. That's right, I'm sending you to some other Fire Island cartoon because I have nothing else to say about my own. I'll be back next Monday with more hi-jinx, though. Now g'wan, get outta here. Scoot.

Almost there

Chris and I are catching a train at Penn Station in less than an hour so I will make this posting short and sweet. My season at Actual Fire Island is winding down and I will now have more time to work on Cartoon Fire Island and to updating this site on a regular basis, starting September 17.

See you then!