The Comic Heroes of Drew Friedman

"The Comic Heroes of Drew Friedman" (catchy title) This is my interview for the current issue of the National Cartoonist Society's newsletter "The Cartoonist". I'll be a guest speaker at their annual convention in May, this year in beautiful Pittsburgh, where I'll be discussing all things Old Jewish Comedians, Sideshow Freaks, NY Elevator Men and Comic Book Legends.

Drawing Chris Rock

Today is the great comedian Chris Rock's 48th birthday, so I thought I'd show some of the illustrations I've created of him over the last few years

C.R. For Premiere magazine. His pick for which movie made him cry was Annie Hall

C.R. for the cover for the NY Observer

For Entertainment Weekly (drawn with a black Prismacolor pencil), L to R: Robin Williams as Groucho, Chris Rock as Chico, Ellen DeGeneres as Harpo, re-imagining the "stateroom scene" from A Night at the Opera

C.R. Bar Mitzvah entertainer,  for MAD magazine (click to enlarge)

TV IN SIGHT by Murray Olderman

TV IN SIGHT was a weekly series of cartoon features created by the popular newspaper sports columnist and cartoonist/caricaturist Murray Olderman. Each installment highlighted a different television show or special during the 1959-60 TV season. The images, beautifully rendered by Olderman, (drawn on coquille board with pen, brush and Prismacolor black pencil), were distributed by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) to local newspapers across the country to be used in their TV sections http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Olderman

Hollywood Homes of Comedians Postcards

see just where the movie & television comedians called home. Vintage Hollywood "Homes of the Stars' postcards from the 1920's-50's...

Abbott & Costello

Jack Benny

Bob Hope

Burns & Allen

Charlie Chaplin

Danny Thomas

Jimmy Durante

Groucho Marx

Harold Lloyd

Jack Lemmon

Jerry Lewis

Joe E. Brown

Milton Berle

Buster Keaton

Lucille Ball & Desi Arnez

Red Skelton

Eddie Cantor

Will Rogers

Eddie Rochester Anderson

Toot's Shor's Bar by Willard Mullin

In the 1940's, The New York World-Telegram and Sun sports cartoonist Willard Mullin painted this beautiful tribute to his regular hang-out, the legendary Toot's Shor's circular bar. He featured many of the regulars including Joe E. Lewis and Joe DiMaggio, the giant saloon keeper Toots himself (in the foreground) with his tiny wife "Baby" and various newspaper journalists, columnists, sportswriters and fellow cartoonists:

                                thanks to Mike Lynch, Tom Stemmle & K. Bidus

All of Frank Fontaine's album covers

             
                all of the album covers of Frank Fontaine, aka Crazy Guggenheim