Oh say can you see?...

Oh say can you see?...

Reagan’s deregulations

Bush’s private war

Wall Street’s immunity

Monsanto’s rule

Halliburton’s profits

The NRA’s bloody legacy

The Senate’s cowardly vote

They say you reap what you sow.

From the look of this tired flag

I’d say we have a lot of sewing to do.

BITE ON!

I've created many characters in my day but Crabby Trojan is the first one I will ever wind up eating.

What's new at the zoo?

Last year I volunteered with other USC alumni, repairing the African savanna exhibit at the SF Zoo. (They removed most of the animals first) It rained the entire time. I've signed up again this year but will be better prepared.

The Refarmation

Last night we watched a documentary called FRESH. Like others I've seen, it points out the lemming-like nature of our big-agra food production model. Unlike other films, it focuses on real world examples of sustainable, organic solutions. Very encouraging. If you study the state of water, soil and the fisheries (as I've been doing for a current book project) it is easy to fall into despair. I recommend this documentary as a glimpse of light from the end of the tunnel. It inspired me this morning to create the following bumper sticker.

Available at:   http://www.cafepress.com/narelle.774629946

People Are Like Lollipops

 
The book I recently illustrated, PEOPLE ARE LIKE LOLLIPOPS by Annie Fox, is now available (for young children). Check it out at any of these links:

Print via CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/4121961
Print via Amazon: http://bit.ly/printlollipops
Kindle via Amazon: http://bit.ly/kindlelollipops

AARP

After years of solicitations from the AARP I've decided to fight back and create my own organization.

Life imitating art

On the heels of the latest Daddy Ducktape book, an unruly passenger was restrained and gagged on board a flight today by fellow passengers and crew using duck tape. Life often imitates art...but I didn't see this one coming!

Christmas message 2012

 I just discovered a 17 minute film that is a sort of WayBack machine to 1932 when Meher Baba delivered an address on the spiritual responsibility of the motion picture industry at a reception in his honor at Pickfair in Hollywood, home of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.. Long before I knew about Meher Baba I graduated from USC Film School, totally unaware that it was established by Fairbanks and Pickford. In 1983, while returning from a pilgrimage to Meher Baba's tomb in India I encountered Steven Speilberg and all the producers of Star Wars, ET, and Indian Jones in Bombay. I subsequently shared this message with all of them. This is the first time I have heard the address read in its entirety. It is my Christmas gift to all of you. 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVZu9wMZkCo

Daddy Ducktape rides again

I just received a copy of the second DADDY DUCKTAPE book I've illustrated and I must say there's a family in Chicago with way too much duck tape on their hands. (I'm not really complaining. They are way fun to illustrate.)

Swami Time

The Swami From New Jersey will be performing this Saturday along with his sidekick Swami Dog at the Community Center in Sebastopol CA to celebrate the end of the end of the world and usher in whatever comes next. They both look forward to being her now, then.

Charlie the orangutan

 I recently wrote a promotional video to raise money for orphan orangutans in Borneo for the Global Animal Protection Society (GAPS). It is narrated by my wife Robin and features footage shot by producer John Gallucci in Borneo.

                                TO SEE CHARLIE'S VIDEO CLICK HERE

Upper Heaven

Every year we head down to Ojai for Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws. Every year I drive to the top of Sulphur Mountain to visit Meher Mount, a retreat established by Meher Baba in the 1950s. It overlooks everything, including Larry Hagman's palatial home that he referred to as "Heaven". Obviously Meher Mount must be Upper Heaven. It sure feels that way.

Last Friday I announced that I was driving up the mountain to visit Larry Hagman (merely meaning that I was headed for Meher Mount). I only learned later in the day that Larry had just died. I can't vouch for any afterlife heaven...but I can tell you that Larry and I have shared a slice of it right here on Earth for a while.

Salmon chanted evening...

A rafting trip down the Yuba River was a real eye opener. The environmental damage from gold mining in the 1850s still haunts us today. We studied the life cycle of Chinook salmon and explored their habitat. We were blessed with glorious weather.

Those distant mountains are not mountains at all, but rather the tip of the iceberg when it comes to accumulated rocks from gold mining in the 19th Century that have washed down out of the mountains.

Amongst our salmon studies was the investigation of macro-organisms in the water, in order to gauge the river's health. It passed. 

 After salmon swim up river to spawn they die. Not much profit to be made here in online dating services.  Word of advice...I don't recommend picking up stinky dead salmon...but its a free country.

Puppet uprising

Romney has created quite a stir with his threat to ax Big Bird. This kerfuffle has not escaped the watchful eye of Glenn Beak.

To watch his latest episode CLICK here. 

The facts are coming!

On September 20, 2012 in Washington DC, Dennis Kucinich is hosting a Congressional Briefing on nuclear safety issues. My cartoon will be gracing the cover of the press kit. Paul Revere rides again.

RIP Stephen

I just heard that my childhood buddy Stephen died. The last time I saw him was 26 years ago. And that was after not seeing him since high school. In the interim it appeared he'd been to hell and back, by way of Vietnam. All I know is we were deliriously happy to see each other. He hugged me so hard he almost broke ribs. I will treasure the memory of more innocent times.

Coup d'etat

I took my cartooning student Dawson to meet Mad Magazine's Tom Richmond at the Charles Schulz Museum this weekend. Jeannie Schulz then took us back to the actual studio where Peanuts was drawn for decades. Look who's taking over.

This week's caption contest

The real Narelle

I recently found this picture of the burial of "Queen Narelle" in 1895. She was the wife of Umbarra, leader of the Yuin tribe of aborigines in SE Australia. Three years later my grandmother, who grew up nearby hearing legends about her, decided to adopt her name "as a talisman". Molly Ryan (Callaghan) divorced and became Marie Narelle and went on to world fame as a soprano (The Queen of Irish Song). My father adopted her stage name and the rest, as they say, is history.

Umbarra, who lived on Merriman Island, was also known as King Merriman. He outlived his wife.

My grandmother died in England in 1941 after a successful international career that include nine years under contract recording with Thomas Edison. 

 
I am proud of the fact that my grandmother was singing out against racism and injustice a hundred years ago. No wonder I wound up with a black woman's name.

National Day of Unplugging

I am excited to hear about tomorrow's National Day of Unplugging. It follows closely on the heels of my new tablet invention, the iMactuallyhere. Devoid of battery issues, sporting remarkable clarity and affording the most natural of "friending" possibilities (sticking your arm through it and shaking hands), the iMactuallyhere has the potential of a very long shelf life compared to every other device on the market.

Climate oddness

In June we had winter weather (rain, wind and cold). In January we have summer weather (dry, calm and pleasant). Running barefoot at Stinson beach with a glassy calm ocean. I don't know about climate change but I'm certainly becoming familiar with climate oddness.

This week's caption

Sad day in Tennessee

Tarra the elephant at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee just lost her best friend Bella, the dog. It looks like the work of coyotes. It appears that Tarra picked up her lifeless body and carried it back to the sanctuary headquarters. A while back when Bella was ill and cooped up in the office for two weeks Tarra stood nearby at the fence and refused to go anywhere without her buddy.

In addition to all the pro bono cartooning I've done for the sanctuary over the years whenever there was a problem, I was thrilled and honored a few years ago when Carol Buckley, the founder, commissioned me to do a special color illustration of Tarra and Bella together. Though I never got to meet them in person I've always felt a special bond with this devoted pair.

This week's caption

I started submitting captions in the local paper's contest several months ago. This week's winner is number eight for me....and, it totally surprised me in the paper on my birthday. A double whammie.

My THINKAFEELADOO comic, a mental health primer for young children is now available online. http://www.thinkafeeladoo.blogspot.com/  My hope is to find a publisher and/or backing to create a whole series of comic/workbooks for therapists, parents and teachers to use with kids. Volume One is already in use by top therapists working with abused kids.

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE

Caption Contest

While I have never penetrated the hallowed halls of the New Yorker, I have scored six times in the local paper's Cartoon Caption Contest. My lastest....

Temple Grandin

I met Temple Grandin today and got to thank her for inspiring me to train KT, a rambunctious golden who's greetings could knock you over. I taught KT to go between my legs where I would put the squeeze on her with my knees, which calmed her down immediately. After a short scratch on the butt I give her a tap and she runs off to keep playing. I told Temple that without what I've learned from her I would have been knocked over a hundred times by now.

Time to vote!

It's time to vote in the Union of Concerned Scientist's political cartoon. Click on the link above to view all twelve candidates. Mine is number one. (That is both literally true and a semi-subliminal plug). This could be the year I earn the coveted cover position. It's all up to you. No pressure.....

               CLICK HERE TO VIEW CARTOONS AND VOTE

Living In Vertical Time goes digital

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT IN THE iTUNES STORE

I'm still reading books by turning paper pages of like a troglodyte. For those of you actually living in the 21st Century I am pleased to report that my book is now available paperlessly through the iTunes iBookstore. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go rub a few sticks together and make a fire.

Choked up

Going to my first horror film festival in Kentucky proved to be a very moving experience as you can see by how choked up I got.

I even met some relatively normal people there such as young Addy Miller who played the younger version of Dakota Fanning in The Secret Life of Bees. Addy is a sweetie.

Photo credits: James R. Zorn  jameszorn@gmail.com

Grandma

Every now and then a family treasure pops up. This poster of my grandmother, the Queen of Irish Song, is one of them. She's wearing the Brooch of Tara given to her by the mayor of Dublin around 1902. Being born long after she was gone it is sweet to collect bits of history such as this.

The horror...the horror

Robin and I survived the crippling heat and humidity of Kentucky as well as the Fright Night Film Fest where I was a celebrity guest, signing Dark Star posters and the like.

Along the way I got to show off my nine year old student Dawson's mummy shirt. I fit right in.

Robin's coming along on this adventure adding to everyone's enjoyment, including her own. When we watched a skinny kid in a Darth Vader outfit shuffling through the lobby dejectedly we nearly wet our pants laughing. Just one of a thousand unique moments.

I drew a lot of cartoons for folks over the course of the three day festival. Eventually I realized I needed to draw one for myself. After all, a journey this long deserves documentation....From Sesame Street to Elm Street...

San Diego Comic Con

With the San Diego Comic Con getting under way I pause to appreciate the cartoon Sergio Aragones did for me in 1976 down there. It hangs over my desk, chastising me daily.

Last year's logo

I attended the county fair recently and came across a logo I created last year for their Wine Garden. It was designed for buttons and stickers. I was surprised to find it so big.

Upside down

I was teaching young Dawson about the anatomy of the eye today and how images are initially flipped upside down on the retina after passing through the lens and then rectified within the brain. He began staring at my head intently in order to invert it. You gotta be careful what you tell kids these days.

APPREHENDED!

View this photo at your own legal risk. I have just been apprehended by the Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising Legal Department for violation of intellectual property. The owners of the dogs pictured already have their t-shirts. I hope they won't be hunted down as well. The irony in all this is that years ago when I was Supervising Animator and Sequence Director on TWICE UPON A TIME we brought a 19 year old on board as a camera assistant by the name of David Fincher. Now if I can only talk David into autographing my friend's t-shirts they'll be worth a fortune.

That fateful day

I think I just discovered a photo of the day I decided to be a cartoonist. I don't think I've worn a suit and tie since then.

Caption Contest

Last week I learned of a local cartoon caption contest. I entered. I won. What did I win? The right say I won. A quick victory lap and then back to work.

So that's where I am!

Empire, the British film magazine, answers the question WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The answer is, "right here typing this blog entry". This page is from the April 2011 issue and reviews the recently released DVD version of Dark Star that contains a massive amount of extras. Thanks to Volker Engel, Oscar winning FX genius behind Independence Day, for scanning this and sending it to me. (The April issue of Empire has yet to make it out here in the hinterlands yet)

My mummy shirt

Now I'm sporting my very own Dawson mummy shirt. This kid will probably have his own clothing empire by the time he's 10.