Arnie Dillo Approves
My first project of 2021 for my online stores is converting scans of handdrawn card designs into print ready card designs.The original art was simple and I suppose it could have been used without changes but I’m a fan of bold loud colors so …
This fellow is Arnie Dillo. I originally did a version of him back in the 20th Century as one of a group of cartoon characters meant to promote work safety and environmental responsibility. Here he’s just cheerfully giving his approval for whatever is on your mind. He’s not a judgmental guy.
The version of Arnie below is more vibrant and slightly resized to fit standard 5×7 greeting card dimensions.
Most of the critters featured in these card designs were making their debuts. Arnie was an exception and so is Aunt Hortense. She first appeared in the Moe and Detritus minicomics and calendars I did back in the early Nineties. She’s always fun to draw.
Going UP!
You’re a cat. You have daggers on your fingers. You like getting atop the highest thing in the room. What do you do when that thing is slippery and keeps going up? Careful with those claws!
I love monsters so I thought it would be fun to do a series of card designs of funny animal versions of famous monsters. Batula here was my first stab at doing a Creepy Cute Critter.
My Big Sister has many skills and talents. She was already a wizard in the kitchen before she started taking cheffing (probably not a real word) classes. During these plague times she hasn’t been able to go to classes or invite folks over for dinner. She still tries out new recipes and puts together wonderful meals. I know because she drops “Corona Coolers” of goodies at our door on a regular basis.
She had a birthday last week. As a gift I upgraded an earlier birthday picture to fit a large soup mug. She should have gotten that yesterday. Below is my process GIF showing the image from sketch to finished design.
And yes, as a soulless capitalist I’ve made the mugs available for sale. But Big Sister got hers first.
In 1977, Santa Rosa hosted Octocon, its first science fiction convention. My brother and I attended. I don’t remember much about the event. The biggest thing that sticks out is that I saw the work of Ken Macklin. Most specifically I saw him creating art in person. He had a table at the con and he was doing sketches, customized convention and other things. He specialized in what was then called funny animals – anthropomorphic cartoon critters – the sort of things I’m drawing in those greeting card designs up above. His drawings were slick and polished and way beyond anything I had the skill to create at the time. He did them using felt markers. That made a huge impression on me. I knew about painting and I’m sure I’d used felt markers before but until then I didn’t realize that there were markers other than the poster making things I’d used in school. Those things were crude. Macklin’s markers were magic wands in comparison. They were also way more expensive. We were a poor family. I generally stuck to the cheapest tools I could when I made art. My spending money came from delivering newspapers. Seeing what Macklin did with those markers convinced me that I had to have some of my own. Little by little I collected art markers and incorporated them into my work.
I’ve got a huge set of markers now. You can see that I use them.
Macklin is still actively producing art. He teaches with Integrated Awareness and has an Artstation gallery here. Below is a sample of his work. No markers, watercolor and acrylics. 
Back Door
Star Wars Macklin Style
Forest Friends
I didn’t talk to Macklin at Octocon. While I wasn’t a shy kid I wasn’t exactly outgoing either. I watched him draw when I could, when I wasn’t being distracted by other things.
I met Macklin in the early Nineties when a mutual friend had a few of us over for a creative brainstorming session for a project whose details I’ve now forgotten. He was a friendly guy and fun to work with. I can’t remember if I thanked him for his earlier inspiration.
These Days …
I went to Zazzle this morning to upload some images and found this message –
“This past week the world witnessed the crossing of the line- where democratic freedom of expression transgressed into a call for violence and mayhem. At Zazzle, our belief in creative expression is equally supported by values of integrity and heart. We do not tolerate or accept hate. Zazzle cannot allow for content that is patently harmful and inaccurate to exist on our site. As a result we have made the decision to take down all current and future messaging and designs brought to our attention that suggests or implies that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged or stolen, or riddled with voter fraud.
As an open marketplace, we firmly believe in freedom of expression. We embrace our members’ creativity and their enthusiasm for their passions, but we choose not to display content that perpetuates false information and/or may incite violence. As a private company, we can and we will continuously work on the Integrity of the marketplace and how to use our technology resources and human capital to ensure a marketplace that is free from violence, hate and misinformation.
If you have any questions regarding this announcement, please reach out via support@zazzle.com. We value and appreciate feedback from our Independent Designers.
Thank you for your continued efforts
Zazzle Team”
Interesting. This notice is dated for the 12th. There’s an awful lot of stuff on Zazzle that I haven’t seen. It doesn’t surprise me that the site would be used to make and sell conspiracy oriented material. I’m fine with Zazzle choosing to delete any material that it doesn’t want being sold on its site. The 1st Amendment is about preventing the Federal Government from censoring the peoples’ expressions. Zazzle is a private company. They don’t have to produce anything for anybody. If tomorrow they decided they weren’t going to print images of cartoon animals, well, I wouldn’t like it but I’d just move on.
One of the reasons I have my own website is so I can post whatever I feel like posting without worrying about “community standards”. I’m unlikely to post anything offensive, much less seditious, but I like having a space of my own. I also recognize that, at best, I’m renting that space from a host and, if that host decides to boot my site there’s not a lot I can do about it.
Freedom of expression does not, to me, come with freedom from responsibilty. The more power and resources one has, the more responsiblity one has to use that power and those resources to improve the world. Human beings are cooperative animals. Nothing we have accomplished has been done solo. Yes, there have been many talented human beings who accomplished great things but their successes came with the support of their community. And those horrible individuals who committed heinous acts? They also had cooperation from their communities.
There’s a long essay to be written about human interconnectedness that I won’t be writing today. My time is short and I’m guessing you came for the pictures not the philosophy. I did. And it’s Friday and time to let this newsletter out into the world. Thank you for reading. Please share this letter with anyone who you think would be interested. Wear your masks. Stay physically distanced but social engaged. You make the world a better place by being in it. See you next week!
