Tuesday, July 18, 2006

TWO KILLER JOHN CARICATURES



Here are a couple more caricatures that John did of me. When I think about the John drawings of me that I've posted up till now I'm amazed at how many ways there are to draw just one face. There's the optimistic me, the seedy me, the retarded me, the rat me, the eager me... it goes on. A number of the ways of thinking about me required John to try a different kind of line or a different design concept.

I don't post these drawings out of ego, because I'm the model. I do it so this aspect of what John does will get into the historical record and so that these techniques won't be lost. And since history is watching I'll cop to accidentally cutting off the final "D" in "dreaded."



Here's me in pantaloons and cod piece. I'm stupid-looking here so the "V" of the head in the disdain drawing is inverted so the wide part is on the bottom, as if my head is too stupid to resist gravity. I like the tiny soda under the soft, rubbery upper-lip flap. The five o'clock shadow looks like it's made of toothbrush bristles. Tiny granny glasses cover the seedy eyes and the long, thin spectacle arm extends all the way back to the hay-filled ear. Warts, of course.

I like the restraint involved in making the wart on the end of the nose tiny and understated. If it had been bigger it would have taken our attention away from the elegant, sloping line formed by the nose and forehead. This long, continuous line is the true focus of the picture.

26 comments:

David Germain said...

John charges people $100 dollars to do to them what he did to you for free. Do you feel privileged........... or cheap? ;)

But anyway, yes I agree that there are no two ways to caricature someone just no two impersonators impersonate a celebrity the same way. On SNL there was a huge difference between the way Ronald Reagen was impersonated by Charles Rocket, Joe Piscipo, Harry Shearer, Phil Hartman, and Robin Williams (when he hosted). Of course, I think the British puppet show Spitting Image did the best job of making "the Gipper" look ridiculous, but that's open to opinion I guess.

Yes, I'd say that John nailed you. (And afterwards drew a picture of you. :D )

Craig D said...

So, Eddie...

Where are your drawings of John?

Ryan G. said...

Yeah Eddie.. We need to get John..Post some good reference picts of John so we can have a field day..

Anonymous said...

You look so dapper in the first pic! You were obviously born to have some sort of show or corner- not unlike this one!

Your poor balls look bloated in the second- ah!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

s.g.a., Craig, Ryan: I like the way the discs look but I'll look for the color bias that you wrote about.

When I'm able I'll post some John reference and I'll even draw a picture of him. John draws me a lot better than I draw him.

Ryan G. said...

Actually, there are some pretty good shots of John on the featurette of the first R&S dvd.. hmmm.. Any good footage of the spumcanites on the lost episodes?

Anonymous said...

No caricature machine could have produced these, mister Uncle Eddie.

Anonymous said...

John K is tough to caricature for the same reason Sinatra was - he changed so much over time.

Anonymous said...

The name eludes me, but the first caricature reminds me of the Ernie Kovacs poet character, Percy something-or-other.

Anonymous said...

Dovetonsils. Percy Dovetonsils.

Anonymous said...

hey uncle eddie,
someone at the imdb said you were the "most annoying person on the planet". Jerry beck said you were one of the nicest people he knew, however. Did you have to work on "Disco droopy"?

JohnK said...

Hi Eddie

you are the perfect subject. If only I could paint.

You should be in the Louvre.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Charlie: Most annoying on the PLANET!? Really? Surely there's a few people more annoying! I worked on Droopy cartoons at Filmation a million years ago but I don't remember anyone there calling the show Disco Droopy. BTW, what is imdb?

Mike: So true! John has nothing to fear from the caricature machine.

Kali: Thanks!

Ryan: Several Spumco people are on the Lost Episodes DVD!

Anonymous said...

it stands for internet movie database
http://imdb.com/name/nm0280222/

Jesse Oliver said...

Hi Eddie

I bought the Lost Episodes DVD the day it came out and I have to say.........

"THIS DVD RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

All six episodes are PURE CLASSIC and all the Bonus Material is FRIGGIN AWESOME!!!

I really love all the Ralph Bakshi storys that you and the guys told. They are SO HILARIOUS!! I love the one you told about the keys and the one about the pizza. You really know how to tell story Eddie.

This DVD was worth EVERY PENNY!

You are right, John is really ready for a Feature Film. His Feature Film should be the Ren & Stimpy "Life Sucks" story. I would LOVE to see that in theaters.

I also hope that people will buy so many copies of this DVD that John will get to make more R & S cartoons. I would really love to see "Wilderness Adventure" with George Liquor in production in the future.

Jesse Oliver

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Charlie: Come to think of it, maybe I am the most annoying human on the planet! I'll bet the guy who said that is thinking about my 11-minute solo laughathon on the special features section of one of the previous Ren & Stimpy discs. OK, that was an experiment that went awry and I admit that I probably deserve to be beaten up for it. Fortunately you can watch the cartoon sans the laugh track. It was nice of Jerry to say what he did!

Thanks for the link. It left out a lot and attributed something to me that I never worked on but it's still interesting.

John: (Blush!)

Jesse: Man, you're making me want to drop everything and watch it! John certainly is ready for a feature!

Jesse Oliver said...

Hey Eddie

I noticed in "Stimpys Pregnant" that in the laugh track scene after Stimpy pukes I can hear your laugh.

Anonymous said...

Greets to the webmaster of this wonderful site! Keep up the good work. Thanks.
»

JohnK said...

>>Surely there's a few people more annoying! I worked on Droopy cartoons at Filmation a million years ago but I don't remember anyone there calling the show Disco Droopy.<<

Hi Eddie. I worked on Disco Droopy with Jeff John and Franco!

Every now and then I would catch it on Cartoon Network and shudder.

glamaFez said...

Eddie, your solo laughathon on the first DVD set is a groundbreaking thing. The best part is your reaction to the "bludgeoning oar" scene.

Anonymous said...

"Disco Droopy" was the one that John drew a whole lineup of cool, well-designed characters for and then a certain layout supervisor redrew them in the house Filmation hack style. All the toothpaste coming outta that tube had to look the same. This film was an anomaly in that disco was only about two years out of date when Filmation tackled it as subject matter, downright adept for them. It's the peak of irony that many of the original Technicolor MGM Tom and Jerry and Droopy camera negatives got destroyed in a 1950's warehouse lot fire while Filmation's crap remains unburned.

Marlo said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Mad Max Winston said...

Yo Eddie!

Yeah, I think your laugh track on the Man's Best Friend episode is hilarious! ME and my friend were watching it and we cracked up every time you did, it was fun. I like when you seem not able to take it anymore as you're describing something and just bust up laughing, it's great.

This is a strange thing though, to critique a laugh, ha. Just gotta say too, I met you a couple of times and had some small discussions and you seem like a swell jolly fellow, so that imdb guy must be a deep-fried finger sandwhich or something.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Mad: Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I want new Looney Tunes directed by John K & produced by Spumco!
John Kricfalusi is a real genius...who loves classic Looney Tunes (Avery,Clampett,Jones & Tashlin)
and he have a dream-team in Spumco (Eddie Fitzgerald,Vincent Waller, Jim Smith,Richard Pursel,Fred Osmond, Katy Rice and Nick Cross)

Try this --> http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Eddie,

Does anyone ever say that John K. looks like (or is beginning to look like) Cliff Robertson? Also sometimes, Lloyd Bridges.