Puppeteers Guild party

Warren and I closed the evening at the the annual Puppeteers Guild party in the SF Bay Area. The evening was filled with amazing performances of all sorts including the hysterical marionettes of Ernie Fosselius. A good time was had by all.

Muraleando

Here are few more examples of murals and sculptures in Muraleando in Cuba where trashed out areas have been transformed by public art.










Detail from bench:

Cuba highlights Part 1

I will sprinkle in a few images every day until I can capture a taste of our Snoopy Goes To Cuba tour. We were greeted at the humor publication Palante with an array of welcoming cartoons featuring Schulz characters.


One day we toured a community called Muraleando where they've cleaned up the streets and transformed the area with countless murals and sculptures. One could fill a book with the imagery.


Another day we sat down with Perfecto Romero to see his historic photos of Fidel, Che and Camilo Ceinfuegos from the time of the revolution.


Another day we visited the animation studio of Cuba. This mural contains a montage of their characters. The beauty and quality of their current projects was stunning.


We also toured the enormous cemetery in Havana where I found the tomb of Ibrahim Ferrer of Buena Vista Social Club fame.



Stay tuned for more postings.

More Cuba

Tom Richmond has done a masterful blog account of our Cuba trip. Have a look at http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/2010/01/25/cartooning-adventures-in-cuba/

Thank you Jeannie!

What an amazing adventure. I'd say we crammed one month into a week as the Snoopy Goes To Cuba tour rolled through Havana. Our little squad of American cartoonists visited with Cuban counterparts at newspapers, animation studios and design schools. We dropped in at Hemingway's house but he wasn't home. We even looked for him at all his favorite bars in downtown Havana but he wasn't there either. The Cuban people couldn't have been sweeter, prompting my new expression: "You don't meet people in Cuba...you fall in love with them." The narrow streets of the city are filled with people (as opposed to cars), not to mention music and dancing. I have never felt so safe walking around in dark alleys at midnight. The poverty and deprivation are obvious everywhere but are not enough to dampen their spirits. These photos include Jeannie Schulz and me with old Havana in the background.

Cuba bound

I leave in the morning with Jeannie Schulz to join with four other American cartoonists in the SNOOPY GOES TO CUBA 2 TOUR. It is a sobering time with the catastrophe in neighboring Haiti. As if those folks don't have enough problems. Good grief!

Latest book

I just got a proof of the latest book I've illustrated and it looks great. It contains five poem/stories including the title story, the tale of a musical mouse.

So long Dan...

It's not every day you lose someone you spent twenty years in space with. That's Dan O'Bannon I'm glaring at in this scene from Dark Star. We were never close, even though we did share a very cozy control room on that space ship. Nevertheless, I was always impressed with his talents, which ran deep in a various directions. I remember reading an interview where he described watching an early screening of Dark Star in which the audience wasn't laughing. It upset him that they didn't realize it was a comedy so he set out to scare the crap out of them instead...and wrote Alien. That worked! I'm obviously glad that Dark Star came to find cult status over time. Dan's name should always be mentioned in the same breath as John Carpenter when Dark Star is mentioned. I have no doubt that when I die Dan will be waiting to torment me with a rubber chicken once again. He was that kind of guy.

Finally! Some rain.

Much needed rain turned the park into a swamp today where my little friend Cooper decided to school me in the fact that the word poodle comes from the German word for puddle hound (or water dog, if you will). I am pleased to report that Cooper was not snow white before he got there.

The new Warren Peace

He's bigger. He's golden. That's what kibble and peroxide will do for you. This evening Warren makes his debut at the annual meeting of the SF Bay Area Puppeteers Guild. But first things first. He had to be vetted by the members of the local dog park.