One of the most informative and dedicated Muppet fan site I’ve ever come across is ToughPigs, for Muppet fans who grew up. The slogan is perhaps a bit misleading. I’d rather say Muppet fans who NEVER grew up. Or maybe I’m just speaking about myself…
ANYWAY, I let out a spontaneous WOKA WOKA yesterday when I got mail from Joe Hennes, co-owner, senior contributor, and editor of ToughPigs. They made a spot for my Muppet fan art! It’s great to see the pieces displayed as a whole like that. Makes me want to make more. More I say. More! And I’d love to make a whole exhibiton of Muppet fan art sometime.
Thanks a million to ToughPigs for featuring my work on your great site, and special thanks to Joe for your support and kind words!
For me, the new year begun 1 Feb when I moved into my new office Södra Esplanaden, a creative studio right in the heart of Lund. Before SE there was a record store here called We love music. But for the Lund citizens the place is mostly known for its classic art gallery, Anders Tornberg Gallery. We’re opposite the cathedral, next to the bar Café Ariman. Convenient to have God and decadence at an arm lenght’s distance…
Lund’s cathedral, some years ago.
Contemporary Café Ariman.
In my new studio I will continue drawing bears, rabbits, turtles, muppets and what nots. Hopefully I’ll be animating too. I’m totally excited about my Södra Esplanaden colleagues, a creative and diverse group of graphic designers, illustrators, art directors, journalists, web designers, project leaders etc. As cartoonist and animator I’m kind of the wild card of the bunch (hopefully not the black sheep). The future looks promising. I believe this could be the start of a beautiful friendship!
If you’re in the vicinity, drop by for a cup of coffee. I cleaned the coffee machine yesterday, so it’s good now. Visit Södra Esplanaden’s website (mostly in Swedish) if you want to know more:
A cartoonist needs to have some fun every now and then. For no particular reason. When I want to have fun I always return to the muppets. I’ve been discussing starting up a Nordic muppet fan art blog together with a Norwegian colleague. Sorry Norway, but there’s only one possible character to host such a noble project…
While enjoying myself shamelessly making this picture, I also wanted to learn some new techniques. One was trying to mimick a water color effect digitally. Not sure I succeeded, but I quite like the texture I achieved in the clouds.
Another technique was importing patterns into cartoon artwork. Never knew how to do that before (it was really easy!). Neither did I know how to give the muppets a furry texture. I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of ways to do it better, but I think my method at least works. This would be my cover for a Muppet Show story featuring the chef. He’s been awarded a price for outstanding achievements in the muppet kitchen (against all odds!), now getting ready for the ceremony.
I would love to draw the muppets professionally at some point. I was really inspired by Roger Langridge’s Muppet Show Comic Books, and some of the other muppet titles from Boom Studios. I also got my hands on the Gilchrist brothers’ first collection of 80’s Muppets strips recently. That REALLY made my day. Digital coloring is great, but nothing beats a well drawn, well inked strip in glorious black and white.
I’m a member of Svenska Tecknare, a kind of union for Swedish cartoonists, illustrators, comic artists, animators etc. December 6 we had our annual meeting in Malmö Form/Design Center amidst the exhibition “En bit av mig”, displaying samples from 50 years of feature film animation by Per Åhlin, a living legend in Swedish animation.
Special guest (and also member of the organisation) was none other than the grand old man himself, and his long time collaborator Pelle Svensson who curated the exhibition. I took some crappy iPhone pictures and put togeher a little something to pay tribute to the humble master. The soundtrack is me playing the theme of Karl-Bertil Jonsson’s Julafton, Per Åhlin’s and Tage Danielsson’s classic short film, shown by Swedish television every christmas eve since 1975. The title photo of the film was taken 11 years ago, when I interviewed Per for the Växjö youth magazine Zalt. Unfortunately, I don’t think he remembered this momentous event…
The music was written by Gunnar Svensson (1920-1995) and played originally by another legend, Swedish saxophone player Arne “Dompan” Domnérus (1924-2008), compared to whom I’m just a simple amateur. Our version was recored at Lund’s Stadsteater 27 Nov at Bobbe Big Band’s All That Jazz – a Christmas Jubilee, a concert celebrating Bobbe Big Band’s 5 years of existence, with symphonic extension and a gospel choir (!). Peter Isberg and Martin Nilsson at Sonatina did a great job recording us. Thanks guys!
If you happen to be in the neighbourhood of Form/Design Center, the Per Åhlin exhibition “En bit av mig” is on until 9 Jan 2011. Thank you Per Åhlin for all your wonderful characters and stories through the years! And to all of you, God Jul & Gott Nytt År! See you next year!
Andreas
All drawings in this post are ⓒ Per Åhlin and Pennfilm
My friend and colleague Jimmy Wallin recently started a brand new Popeye comic strip. It’s in Swedish, thus the name Karl-Alfred (Popeye). As December approached, Jimmy wanted to make a digital Popeye Christmas Calendar, so he talked some of us unsuspecting comic artist colleagues into making it for him. How could you say no to Jimmy Wallin? So, now the world gets one comic artist and one Popeye character a day until christmas. Isn’t that just terrific?
Today it’s my turn. I gave Poopdeck Pappy (as he was originally named) the digital treatment, something he wasn’t too happy about.
Even if you don’t read Swedish, you don’t want to miss the old black and white Fleischer cartoons from the 30s (in English!) posted at the blog. I can’t tell how much I love these! Today you can watch Popeye saving his dear ol’ pappy from the land of the strange Goon creatures, in Goonland from 1938.
One of the most informative and dedicated Muppet fan site I’ve ever come across is ToughPigs, for Muppet fans who grew up. The slogan is perhaps a bit misleading. I’d rather say Muppet fans who NEVER grew up. Or maybe I’m just speaking about myself…
