sketches

two sketchbook pages

Curious George

I made this pic for the "Illustration Friday" theme "Little Things"

Goodbye Conselyea

We went into contract on a brand new condo at 63 Conselyea, in Brooklyn, waaay back in March. It should be ready by the end of April they said. In June they said it should be done by the end of the summer. The last week in July we got an email: "Pack your bags, you'll be getting your 30 day notice to move in." A few days later we were told that was a mistake. It will be done by October at the latest. Also, they claim to have their Certificate of Occupancy, but our inspector said it's impossible. There were dozens of code violations, the outlets didn't work yet, no sinks in the bathrooms and missing appliances. All sorts of things required for a Certificate of Occupancy. So, things will work out, we thought. It seems like such a great place and we'd have a back yard and lots of space and live happily ever after, as soon as this place is completed. At the end of October, we went by the place and saw them putting in new toilets ( that's what they said they were doing ) but almost none of the other violations were fixed yet. During this whole process, we're waiting for their lawyer to contact our lawyer. She called and faxed their lawyer repeatedly to no avail. About thirteen hours ago, Lauren and I went to see the place. Below are the pictures.



The garbage that's strewn all over the place - not really that bad. They can clean that up quickly. But the holes and scratches in walls and ceilings, the uninstalled toilet - all of that plus the dozens of violations they haven't tended to yet - it's insane. We called our lawyer and backed out of the deal.
This sucks a lot. We really wanted to live there. If only the builder made it possible for us to do that.

2 Books, The Beatles & a Turkey

What hasn't happened since my last post?
2 book release parties, a Thanksgiving week with laws and in-laws, dinner parties AND my wife and I accidentally moved to NJ.

New Yorker cartoonist and Harvard Oompa-Lampooner Zach Kanin has written The Short Book, a damn funny book about being short. The perfect little stocking stuffer.

I got to see Strawberry Fields, the Beatles tribute band at B.B. Kings on Thanksgiving. It was good show. If you closed your eyes and listened closely you'd swear you'd been transported back in time to a Beatles cover band concert. And it makes you wonder, if John Lennon were alive today, just how big would his waistline be?

(this pic stolen from seanp284.typepad.com - thanks seanp284)

Matt Diffee , New Yorker cartoonist and Dictator of his own island nation, has edited
The Rejection Collection 2: The Cream of The Crap, available at crappy bookstores everywhere. Great stuff. Lots of cartoons and cartoonist profiles.
It's no small coincidence that the afore mentioned Zach Kanin is also in this book.

Aside from working on my own perpetually rejected cartoons, I'm trying to create a couple of comic strips. One for newspapers and/or other print media based on the hilarious hijinks of Evan & Lauren Forsch. Based on. NOT lame autobio comics. Really, this will be lame, "based on" autobio comics.
The other comic is political. I was going to call it The Race of Our Lives, as in Days of Our Lives and the tag would be, "Like oil in an hour glass, this is the race of our lives." Fortunately I thought of a better title. But I'm not going to share that with you yet. I'll be posting the political toon soon enough. Probably.

Last Laugh

Last night at the NY Historical Society I learned absolutly nothing about history. But I did get a copy of Last Laughs, a dynamite cartoon collection edited by Mort Gerberg. The pic above is a drawing of Mort and Marisa (MAH-REESA) Acocella Marchetto who put on a little show with Jack Ziegler (who I didn't sketch because his back was to me the whole time - but I won't take it personally Jack) and then signed the book with other cartoonists like Sid Harris & Sam Gross who are probably also in the book, though sometimes they just like to sign stuff.

some old sketchbook pages

Comics Events 11/1 & 11/2 '07

A few big events this past week. On Thursday, four legendary New Yorker cartoonists, WARREN MILLER, SID HARRIS, LEE LORENZ, FRANK MODELL had an opening of their work at The Phoenix Gallery in Chelsea. Good stuff. Check it out, but don't expect cheese with your wine.

On Friday night, a big book signing at Jim Hanley's Universe for the brand spankin new anthology House of Twelve Goes to War in which I, your humble blogger, have a four page comic story. Get one today!! And tell them Evan sent you for a 0%percent discount.

From left to right Editor and Cheese- Mark Hasselberger, Dave McKenna, Miss Lasko-Gross, Alex Robinson and Mike Dawson. Mr. Robinson, the only one here not in House of Twelve Goes to War is rumored to have not been in the book because he's busy working on the movie version of Box Office Poison with Terry Zwigoff. This rumor is exclusive to this blog because I just made it up.
Also, this past Friday, coincedently celebrated after the signing at Jim Hanley's was Dave McKenna's 40th Birthday!


WooHoo! Party like your old. Sorry Dave.

Happy Halloweenie

One of the Halloween parties I did caricatures at this year.

random subway sketch

2 authors on CSPAN

Two guys pushing their books on CSpan2 Sun. 10/28/07. On the left, Charlie Savage who wrote a book about Imperial Presidency and on the right some right wing loon named Jack Cashill.

Random Folks on the Subway

Sylvia's Restuarant

Above is a sad attempt to draw my friends Sid & Filipe from memory.
Last week Sid tried to rouse the weekly cartoon crew from their rut; always having lunch at the same place. He thought he'd created a coup and got lots of folks to join him up town at the legendary Sylvia's Soul Food, but it seems some New Yorker cartoonists are a little shy when it comes to traveling north of Central Park. What started, I think, as about ten people, turned into three. Their loss. It's a great place.

bot001

Dr. Cosby I Presume?

I've never been mistaken for a celebrity but, like a lot of folks, I often hear, hey... you look just like that famous guy. For me it's Bill Cosby. I get stopped almost daily by folks who say I look just like him. People who know me well don't see it. They say, "Cosby? That's ridiculous. You're so much younger than him." True. But it happens.

I just emailed an application to the producers of The New Newlywed show. Hopefully Lauren and I will get picked as contestants and win all kinds of fabulous prizes. Perhaps a brand new car? And what's a new car with out TurtleWax? One of the questions they asked is how we got engaged. This is what I told them:



After dinner, (a work function) Lauren and I went to a bar, waiting for some of her co-workers to show up. We already had plenty to drink at dinner and were sipping some new drinks while we waited. I was lost in thought, probably trying to solve world hunger or working on my design for wedgie-proof underpants (patent pending) when I felt Lauren’s warm vodka breath on my neck and heard her say, “ Are we ever gonna get married?”
I looked into those heavenly blue eyes of hers and noticed her left contact lens was a bit off center. I didn’t mention that. Instead, I thought of spending the rest of my life with this brilliant, beautiful woman; thought about waking up everyday holding this gorgeous creature in my strong left arm and slightly less muscular right arm. Staring into her contact centered right eye, I smiled and said, “Okay.”
We clinked glasses and ordered another round.
About a month later, I proposed a little more formally, with an engagement ring and some help from The Big Apple Circus, but that’s another story.

You can't go home again

You can't go home again, even if that home is a brand new condo.
The countdown to 11/15/07 is on. We have to be out of our UES apt on 11/15. Either we move into Conselya St's LUCE building, or find a place to rent or move in with Momma & Poppa Forsch. Why wouldn't we move into the brand new condo we've been waiting for, for eight months? Our inspector found 20 or 30 serious problems that need to be fixed and the fine folks at Apartments and Lofts won't help us. We want to move in, but with all the problems were having before we've even closed, it looks like that would be a very, very bad idea. We wanna move in! Fix the place up already. The pic above is what this place looked like back in February.
It looks a little better now but there are still vents that need putting in, that landing half way up the stairs is made of two flimsy boards instead of one solid board, the bathroom sinks are on back order, and that's just the tip of this real estate iceberg.

Suffice to Say

Pity me for I am currently sans Photoshop. Our laptop died and with it went our copy of Adobe's finest product. So, I'm on our desktop trying to make do with Apple's Preview but all I can make with that is do-do. Here's another batch of sketches from that long ago trip to AC.



Also going through my piles of cartoons to find 3 to send to
The Miami Herald for their cartoon contest. Who could know more about what Miami readers want than Jersey/Brooklyn boy?
AND as if all this isn't enough for one day, I must also go to the post office. I won't bore you with the details of why I'm going.
Suffice to say(check out #'s 2 & 3) it is a mission of great import and my wife told me I have to do it.

Formula 4 Funny

So I'm surfing around and end up at McSweeny's. I start reading their witerary material and realize it's just like Family Guy.
Instead of The A-Team and Gary Coleman, McSweeny's uses Aristotle and Franz Kafka but it's the same thing. Is this formula actually funny? What does Ruth Buzzi think?

¡Hola!

It's me, your old pal Evan. I've moved back to Blogtown and hope to post lots of nonesense.
I'll start right now - Here's a bunch of sketches from 4/14. I went to AC with Lauren & Karen. They gambled and I sketched.

Ran into my old pals Elgin Bolling. and Alison Gelbman at Barnes&Noble yesterday. We chatted about drawings and cartoons and cartoons. And then talked about drawing. Good times! Above, the first two are drawings of me by Elgin and the third is by Alison.

Ran into my old pals Elgin Bolling. and Alison Gelbman at Barnes&Noble yesterday. We chatted about drawings and cartoons and cartoons. And then talked about drawing. Good times! Above, the first two are drawings of me by Elgin and the third is by Alison.