Alfred E Newman Picture

CCI: Art of Design, AKA Comics & Design

Moderator Chip Kidd opened the "Art of Design" panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego by appropriately renaming it "Comics and Design." Once he had taken care of that bit of business, Kidd went on to introduce his guests from the world of comic book graphic design, along with interesting factoids about each of them; Mark Chiarello (born on Halloween 1960, vice president and art director of DC Comics, author of "Heroes of the Negro Leagues"), Seymour Chwast (co-founder of Pushpin Studios in 1954, now director of the Pushpin Group, author of the graphic novel "Dante's Divine Comedy"), Craig Yoe (AKA C.E. Yoe, worked on toys like "Cabbage Patch Kids" and "My Little Pony," was creative director of "The Muppets," now director of "Yoe Studio") and Michael Gross (art director of "National Lampoon," consultant to "The Muppets," producer for films and television shows, including "Ghostbusters," for which he created the iconic "No Ghosts" logo).

Kidd then explained the format of the panel: he had selected five examples of each panelists' work to discuss. "None of these guys know what I'm going to show of their work, so it's going to be like a little game," Kidd told the audience before turning to the assembled artists. "I will just show an image and then you just talk." Not planning to put anyone on a hot seat he wasn't willing to sit on, Kidd kicked things off with his own work.

Opening with his "Batman: Year One" cover, Kidd called it, "One of my favorite comic books/graphic novels of all time. It was quite an honor to work with David Mazzuchelli on doing this ultimate compendium of 'Batman:Year One.' DC [Comics] let me go out on a limb and completely slice off the jacket; the red piece of paper there was cut like that. It was sort of a metaphor for Batman cutting through the corruption of Gotham City."

Moving onto "Alex Ross Mythology," Kidd simply offered, "This was a book that I was able to put together on the work of Alex Ross," before shifting to his "Bat-Manga" book, which he also wrote. "This was a great sort of passion project of mine, collecting and recovering these Batman Japanese comics from the 1960's which had sort of fallen into obscurity."

Next, Kidd discussed his covers for Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's award-winning "All-Star Superman" which he described as "one of my favorite comic series from the last 20 years. I think it is truly amazing. And also I should say that there has been a video online of me sort of like making fun of this, which was purely done for fun. I mean, this is one of the things that I'm most proudest of in the last 10-15 years of designing comics which is a great honor.

TriKingGator: I saw Alfred E. Newman at the Midway

The Midway is by default a retro diner that was last renovated when the Captain Kangaroo went off the air. Located on a street that once was a going concern,in Barrie, Canada, the Midway serves in my opinion the absolute best breakfast. There are several to choose from, but guys, the one you want is the "Lumberjack". The service is attendative and prompt. Coffee is re-filled quickly and before you know you need more. There are many regulars. The Owner accepts cash only. Parking is limited. The Midway's loyal following is so true blue, that there are Seniors who are no longer able to drive, will take the Barrie taxi at heir own expense to break themselves loose of their retirment homes just for a good ole meal, a cup of joe and some down to earth conversation. As I was gulping down my lumberjack breakfast i studied the 5 X 7 print of Alfred and recalled my elementary days whereby i would race down to the local variety store for the next month's edition of "Mad" magazine. The first Mad Magazine i ever bought did a satirical version of Clockwork Orange a Stanley Kubrick movie that just had made it to the theatres. Yesterday, I saw Alfred E. Newman.

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