Drawing Leonard Nimoy.

The actor Leonard Nimoy, best known for playing Vulcan Mr. Spock has died. Although he wasn't a comedian, he was old (83), and Jewish. And... I drew him several times:

Golden Throats 2/Celebrity Rock Oddites
LtoR: Cassius Clay, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis, Jr., William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy sang "Put a Little Love in your Heart" on this CD,
first issued with a 3-D cover from Rhino records

for EMMY magazine, an article on why science fiction TV shows
rarely win Emmy awards

Leonard Nimoy, shutterbug

drawn for Entertainment weekly when Nimoy became a photographer

technically not Leonard Nimoy, but Barack Obama posed as Mr. Spock,
along with John McCain as Capt. Kirk,  For the New York Observer

Big Eyes cover for Written By Magazine

This is my new illustration for the cover of the Writers Guild magazine Written By, depicting the screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, whose new film BIG EYES directed by Tim Burton opens on Christmas day.

I was asked to channel the artist Margaret Keane's "Big Eyes" paintings. The film is a biography of Margaret and her late husband Walter Keane, who falsely took full credit for decades as the creator of the iconic Big Eyes paintings.

the finished art

 my initial pencil sketch

the printed cover, art directed by Ron Tammariello

at the NY preimiere after-party for BIG EYES on 12/15
I had the pleasure of meeting Margaret Keane,
and showed her my illustration of
Scott and Larry. She was delighted with it and told me
I had a future in art.

Bob Dylan channels Frank Sinatra

Blowin' in the Summer Wind...

Bob Dylan will be releasing his tribute album to Frank Sinatra in Feb 2015, Shadows in the Night. To celebrate the occasion I created this image of Dylan posed in an iconic Sinatra pose. The illustration will soon be released as a limited edition print:

http://www.drewfriedman.net/prints/Dylan-as-Sinatra.html

Jeff Newelt for HEEB magazine writes about the art here:
http://heebmagazine.com/heeb-exclusive-drew-friedmans-debuts-dylan-sinatra/53766

Ol' Jew Eyes is Back

my initial rough pencil sketch

tighter pencil sketch, before painting

and the unofficial cover that could have been, art directed by Todd Alcott

my last drawing of B.D., for the Wall St. Journal, when he was about to turn 70

Jack Davis draws THE MONKEES

Jack Davis art created for TV Guide announcing
the Monkees debut

When the comedy/music show The Monkees premiered on NBC in 1966, the great  Jack Davis was the artist hired to create the first illustrated images of the new musical comedians for NBC promotion and for TV Guide advertising. When I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack several years ago at the Brooklyn Comics Festival about his career, and knowing that he had drawn The Monkees on a few occasions, I privately asked him if he was a fan of their music. "Nope". I then asked him if he was a fan of the Beatles, "Not particularly". No matter, Jack's early depictions of the Monkees are the first and still the definitive caricatures of the singing, comedic foursome.

Created by Jack Davis in 1966 to announce the debut of the Monkees,
and distributed to local NBC affiliates.
This color version was never published

The image ran in B&W in various show business trade publications

From TV Guide, from a spread announcing
NBC's 1966 fall lineup. 

TV Guide ad announcing the Monkee's debut

At the height of Monkee-Mania, Jack was hired
to draw the cover and interior art for this paperback

some page spreads from the book featuring Jack's art:

The Monkees in concert in 1966 with Jack Davis's
 initial Monkees image mounted to the front of the stage

Robert Orben's Gag, Joke and Patter Pamphlets

Robert Orben

In 1946, an 18 year old aspiring comedy writer and magician named Robert Orben, self-published his first "Gag book", a pamphlet called The Encyclopedia of Patter, and sold it in the magic/conjuror's shop in New York where he was working demonstrating magic tricks. Professional magicians who patronized the store began using his gags to add humor material to their acts, as well as professional comedians who would occasionally come into the store. The book also caught on with fledgling magicians and comics, (a young Steve Martin was an Orben fan), and with emcees.

The book sold well, leading to several dozen gag, joke, and patter pamphlets over the next decade, written, designed and published by Orben, mainly sold in magic and novelty shops in Times Square and along Hollywood Blvd. Most of the covers used handy, available clip-art, some featured crude drawings drawn by Orben's cartoonist friends, yet they all have a lively, self-published charm to them which I've admired for years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Orben

Orben's first book

Orben photographed in the 1970's

Robert Orben also wrote material for comedians, among them Dick Gregory, Jack Paar, (for the Tonight Show), and for the 1960's Red Skelton show. Orben was hired as a consultant for Vice President Gerald Ford in 1973, and when Ford became President, Orben became his head speechwriter.

                                                   Special thanks to John Wendler