Froggy Went a Courtin'

I'm in the middle of my editing process with this sketch dummy I'm working hard on getting out this week (hopefully by tomorrow). In the interim, I'd like to show, here, some drawings I did recently pitching myself for a forthcoming picture book title at Simon and Schuster (by a kickin' author, I'll not yet name). Here's what I came up with. And happy to say, these sealed the deal! Very psyched about it. My awesome agent, Rosemary Stimola, was way instrumental. Thanks, Ro!

You asked for it, You got it!

Another video of the inimitable Bob Dylan, again at his best. Just kidding, actually, about the "asking for it" part. No one here has asked for more Dylan, but I found this on YouTube and thought you should see it. (A favorite song, a timeless performance, and a rather disgusting look.) Vids are a quick blog post. Besides, things are kinda hectic right now. Julie and I are prepping to go to New York, where she'll receive a top award for GET WELL SOON (read where I blogged about it back here). I'm in full throes of sketches for my first picture book offering as illustrator AND author. And a couple of Euonymus shrubs in our front yard have been all but devoured by an annoying parasite called "scale". Trying to figure that out.

So ride this out with me and feast your eyes and your ears on some "Idiot Wind."

Dupuy and Berberian on the cheap

I just picked up this book from a seller on ebay. Though the picture above shows the overseas cover, I, of course, bought the English language edition. (I couldn't find a quality image of the English language version. It's the exact same, it just says "The Complete Universe of Dupuy Berberian" instead of "Tout L'Univers de Dupuy Berberian".) THE COMPLETE UNIVERSE OF DUPUY AND BERBERIAN is a showcase of the full spectrum of two of my favorite cartoonist/illustrator collaborators, Phillipe Dupuy and Charles Berberian. Talks about how they got started working together and walks you through all the amazing illo and cartooning they've done over these 20+ years. They're huge in France (they're French) and have gained acclaim over here in the last few years with recent editions of their books in English translation--particularly with Montreal-based comics publisher, Drawn and Quarterly. I love the books D+Q have put out of theirs. The cartooning is so bright and fresh and stylish. Their writing is very light-hearted. And it's honest without being terribly pessimistic.

I've been eyeing this book for about a year now since it came out. It's hard to find here cause it was pubbed in the Netherlands, and usually goes for anywhere between $35 and $50 when you can find it (I think cover's $55). This seller on ebay's got 11 copies up for only $8.99, buy it now price! Well, there's 10 now cause I just bought one. What a steal!

No, I'm not getting any kickbacks.

Blog-o-rific!

Holy Mother! After a solid week of fightin' the Great Blog War, there has come a cure. A fellow burned user on the Blogger Help Group discussion boards figured this all out. This is really bringing out the geek in me. So, I'm posting this piece here not just to celebrate, but also to validate that this thing is back in bizness!

Amen, y'all!

p.s. Second most boring blog post. But humor me this one.

Blogged Down

This may be the most boring post I've ever published here to the ol' blog. But here goes. For over a week, my blog host (Blogger, aka Blogspot) has had issues with publishing to my FTP server. In simpler terms, in order to have my blog show up at http://www.matthewcordell.com/blog, I have to publish it to my FTP server which is over at Yahoo. Well, there's a bug up in there somewhere and nobody seems interested enough to fix it. It's a hot topic with Blogger users in my situation right now. White hot.

Cutting to the chase, my blog will be, for the time being, published on the Blogger (aka Blogspot) website and found here:

http://matthewcordell.blogspot.com

If you go to the old address (matthewcordell.com/blog) there should be a page there that I made with a link that sends you to the right place.

If you made it this far, thanks for following me here!

Jacky Backy

Here's an image I’ve been trying to post for the last 7 days.

A recently finished jacket illustration for my forthcoming picture book, TOOT TOOT ZOOM! (written by Ms. Phyllis Root). This pic will go on the back of the book’s jacket.

(Click image to zoom.)

"Here's your throat back, thanks for the loan."

I love everything about this clip. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Hittin' the Books

Freshly plucked from my sketchbook. Character sketches/scene studies from my very first picture book offering as both illustrator AND author! To come from Feiwel and Friends. Needless to say, I'm so psyched about this. It's been a dream of mine. Years in the dreaming. That's all I got to say about that for now. I reckon I'm a little bit the superstitious type.

Yes, I'm blogging about the Beatles.

How many blog posts must there be about this band?

I never got too much into the Beatles. I mean, growing up, I heard the hits on the radio (how could you not?), and I liked what I heard (how could you not?). But I never dug any deeper. In a way, with how saturated radio is with Beatles music, you don't have to dig. It's just there. Furthermore, I was rocking the metal or punk or hardcore or indie rock.

But later in life, I decided to give the Beatles a closer look--and listen to albums as albums, not just pop songs one at a time. And I had to admit that they were/are amazing songwriters/performers, and were/are painfully creative and inventive. And John Lennon had a crazy good voice.

The whole reason I took this closer look was when I first heard this song on the radio. "Don't Let me Down". It sounded like the Beatles, but I hadn't heard it before. I remember the moment. I was in Los Angeles on a business trip. I was riding around in this silver convertible Mustang that one of my fellow out-of-town co-workers had gluttonously rented (it was during those late 90's glory days of the internet boom). The song came on the radio and I was blown away. After a bit of research, I found out it was recorded during LET IT BE, but was released as a b-side on a single at the time. I think that's accurate?

Then, I forgot about the whole thing.

Then, a couple of days ago, I remembered it again. And I looked and found this video of the song/performance on youtube. Dang. It's so good. Everything about it. The song. The look of the band on that day (they're like some kind of weird superheroes or something in those strange clothes, fuzzy coats, nasty locks of hair... and shaggy Paul just in his suit alone). The quiet commentary of the normal-looking spectators on the side. And how tightly they perform this song and how much fun they seem to be having making it happen. I'm not sure, but I think, just after this, everything started to unravel for them. Seems weird, seeing as how cool they seem to be with each other here. Moments to enjoy:

Paul's shuffle around 00:53-00:54.
Some dude in the background mock-drumming at 01:22.
Ringo's stalling, ramping up, and mouthing along at 01:32.
The shameless snickering of George, John, and Paul at the lyrics around the 02:30 mark.

I know, it's dorky going on like this. And who hasn't said great things about the dang Beatles after all? Well, even if you've seen it or heard it, it's worth taking another look or listen.