The highest compliment one artist can give another is to say that he "owns" something. In other words, he draws something so well that it's definitive; no other artist is ever likely to draw it as well. In that sense I think most of us would agree that Wally Wood "owns" craters (above) and bullet holes.
Here's a few real craters (above) for comparison. Wood's craters are better than the real thing!
Of course Jack Davis owns knuckles. If you were thinking of competing, forget it. Knuckles are covered!
In my opinion John Kricfalisi owns lumoxes. Nobody draws a beefy, intimidating guy better than John. Come to think of it John may own crotches too, I mean crotches of clothed figures. He seems to think it's funny that men have to carry all that plumbing with them, sometimes in tight pants, and everybody who talks to them has to pretend not to notice.
Anybody else care to venture an opinion about who owns what? I believe my daughter may be the world's foremost neck hair specialist. I'll post the drawing the claim is based on as soon as I can find it.
I totally agree - JohnK totally owns lumoxes and guys with big meat-baskets My call? - Katie Rice OWNS "girls". I mean there have been some brilliant cartoonists who draw "females" and "women" really well, but I've never seen anything like Katie's take on girls. Marlo Meekins is a very close second I'd say... In fact I'd probably pay to see them arm-wrestle for the title... doooo iitt....
ReplyDeleteFrank Frazetta owns buttocks. Mainly round, soft women's buttocks.
ReplyDeleteArthur Rackham owns fantasy illustration. Forests, mushrooms, hair in water, hill people, you name it.
I think you own hands...
ReplyDeleteEverytime I attempt at drawing a hand I think in my head "Would Eddie Fitzgerald approve"?
Seriously.
You make drawing hands look so easy breezy.
Plus they are always so expressive whether they are pushing a button, Dipping, or drinking tea in a snooty fashion.
I say that Chuck Jones owns eyes. Noone before or since has made eyes more expressive than Chuck Jones. Yes, he was quite adept at showing complex expressions with the rest of the face too but the eyes were the features that really made the emotions hit home. Pretty much every picture of Wile E. Coyote he ever drew is proof of that.
ReplyDeleteHey Eddie,
ReplyDeleteThanks alot! You're comments are invaluable.
I'll try not to bug you any more with critique requests, but thanks again.
Vincent Waller "owns" the nipple.
ReplyDeleteCrumb owns big women!!!
ReplyDeleteOh Eddie, I drew something for you...
...tee-heee...
Oh by the way....you spelled John's name wrong- go edit it before he sees!
ReplyDeleteI thought of another one: Marlo Meekins owns lines.
ReplyDeleteYeah yeah "Who DOESN'T draw with lines?". However, Marlo's lines are amazing. They don't merely guide your eye around the drawing, they put your eyeballs on a diesel powered roller coaster and crank it to full throttle. THAT'S what makes her pictures so exciting to look at.
Vincent Waller owns three nipples!
ReplyDeleteLynne Naylor is no slouch with lines, either.
ReplyDeleteJack Davis owns feet even more than he owns hands.
ReplyDeleteI'm just discovering Frank Frazetta! I like the ladybuttocks better than the conan torsos generally, in his world, anyway.
ReplyDeleteDelacroix owns frightened horses.
Gosh this is valuable insight... perhaps to gain notoriety, I need to focus on some obscure bodypart and depict it compulsively until I can claim ownership...
Tex Avery owns the 'wild take'
ReplyDeleteRobert McGinnis owns being awesome
Al Capp/Frazetta own sexy female legs
I can't think of anymore but HOLY SHIT THAT DRAWING OF ANTHONY'S DAD IS *SUPER GOOD*!!!
You've GOT to post more from 'Visit To Anthony' if you have them! What an awesome design & technique for simplifying muscles/anatomy. Not only that, but the drawing itself is majorly appealing! damn
i love it
"Vincent Waller owns three nipples!"
ReplyDeleteActually Gabe, it's Four.
Vincent
Hayao Miyazaki owns flying machines
ReplyDeleteWho owns 'invertebrates depicted in comical human situations?' I am not talking about heavily-anthropomorphized Disney insects. I mean (for example)lobsters with all their appendages. I also mean drawing animals nobody even thinks about.
ReplyDeleteIf no one has claim to this niche, I'll claim it. (This is the Uncle Eddie's Cartoon Patent Office...right?)
Walt Kelly owns props. He can make telescopes, rowboats, pot bellied stoves, circus trains, hats, clothes, shoes, feather boas, alarm clocks, and just about anything else in this category. He also owns checkered tablecloths.
ReplyDeleteHey Eddie
ReplyDeleteDoes John K really own BIG fingers in cartoons? Because I have a habbit of drawing BIG fingers in my cartoons. But if there is one thing I always avoid drawing is flat characters.
Jesse
"Ape Lad" owns hoboes.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the plural of lumox "lumii"?
Wait just a flippin minute. I have to play devils advocate here. I mean what's the point of doing anything if there's someone who's perfect at it?. Just cause there's a good someone at something means you should give up?
ReplyDelete"Of course Jack Davis owns knuckles. If you were thinking of competing, forget it. Knuckles are covered!"
Who says that anyone else in the world can't draw good knuckles, or lumoxes, or craters or armpits or basketballs, etc. Why must you limit everyone else in the world by saying no one else can ever be better, or even equal. Shame
Can't we just give praise where praise is due?
The nine old men lay claim to character appeal.
ReplyDeleteKali: LOL! Thanks for the great caricature! And thanks for the warning about the typo!
ReplyDeleteDanne8a: Me...own hands!? It's very, very nice of you to say it but people like John K and John Sibley beat me by a mile.
David: Jones did great eyes but what about Clampett/Scribner's eyes? Clampett's energetic, oblong shields with the stretched-out pupils get pride o place on my list!
Well, they may own those things, sure, but that doesn't mean we all can't "borrow" a thing or two when the need arises....
ReplyDeleteDavid: Jones did great eyes but what about Clampett/Scribner's eyes? Clampett's energetic, oblong shields with the stretched-out pupils get pride o place on my list!
ReplyDeleteGood point. However, that's just one eye shape. Jones did more eye shapes than even he thought he could imagine. That one expression in Feed the Kitty when Marc Antony is given the cat shaped cookie, did Jones make 300 some attempts to get it right?
I may never "own" anything...but i plan on renting as much stuff as i can as a young artist! :)
ReplyDeleteI think the plural of lummox is "lummoxen". Or if it isn't, it should be.
ReplyDeleteWalt Kelly owned props, alright. Plus swamp scapes, mammal fur, politicians caricatured as animals, circus typefaces, and TREES!
Milt Gross owns cross-eyed characters, and fat ladies in polka dot dresses and pillbox hats.
Cliff Sterrett owns throw pillows, wallpaper, flower pots and checkered floors.
Willard Mullin owns professional athlete body types of every size and shape.
George Herriman owns Monument Valley, and all of Arizona and New Mexico.
Mort Drucker owns Charlton Heston, Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino and Barbara Streisand.
Al Hirschfeld owns everyone else, except Eddie Fitzgerald. (John K. owns Eddie!)
Mignola owns zombies.
ReplyDeleteMike: Good Lord, you're right! My image is "owned" by another artist! You're lucky because you "own" yourself. you also own Henry Gilroy's nose!
ReplyDeleteCarlo Vinni owns dancing mouse harem girls. And don't youse forget it!
ReplyDeleteSome interesting reactions to this theory. I agree, Eddie F. owns cartoon hands in my opionion as well. I would say Jim Smith owns "lummoxen." Vincent Waller owns fingernails, toenails and wrinkles. Chris Reccardi owns cars. I own a motorcycle, a lot of books and records.
ReplyDeleteSimon Bisley owns bad-ass-looking.
ReplyDelete