A new project!

[Simon Beck]

A childhood friend of mine in America, Susy Christopher, has written a collection of poems for children, "Wicked Little Poems for Bad Little Boys", and I offered to illustrate them for her. Some of them are (deliberately) slightly rude or yucky; others are just silly or even a little bit sentimental. Here is some work in progress. The font I used is Century Schoolbook, because it reminds me of being at school in America back in the late 1960s.

[pauland]

Interesting project.

One thing does intrigue me.

Sometimes I see adverts on TV and I think that the target demographic might be slightly differrent to the people who came up with the ad and they haven't really factored that in. It's usually a clever reference to an old TV series or something that the younger demographic probably won't get.

I wondered the same thing about your last illustration. How many children will know that the little shed is an outside toilet?

I'm not sure that it matters - most parents should get it, or I might be completely wrong.

I showed my son the illustration and he didn't know what the building was.

[Simon Beck]

Interesting project.

One thing does intrigue me.

Sometimes I see adverts on TV and I think that the target demographic might be slightly differrent to the people who came up with the ad and they haven't really factored that in. It's usually a clever reference to an old TV series or something that the younger demographic probably won't get.

I wondered the same thing about your last illustration. How many children will know that the little shed is an outside toilet?

I'm not sure that it matters - most parents should get it, or I might be completely wrong.

I showed my son the illustration and he didn't know what the building was.

You have got a point there. The outhouse with the cutout moon on the door is a "trope" - you see them in movies, cartoons and on TV, but I'm 51 and I've never seen (or used!) a hillbilly outhouse in real life. Google "outhouse" and there are hundreds of photos, some quite recent. But a lot of my illustrations have references that the children won't get but the adults probably will. For example "Beetle plays the bass guitar" is a deliberate reference to Paul McCartney:



and how many kids will know about Charles and Ray Eames or Andy Warhol?



Or Dave Brubeck?



I've got two sons aged 11 and 14, and they always like to learn new things from their parents. Even if those "new things" are actually pretty old!

[gwpriester]

Years ago, Shel Silverstein, a cartoonist whose work appeared in Playboy in the 60s (maybe longer) came out with a book called Uncle Shel's ABZ's which purported to be a children's book. I always remember F. F is is for Firetruck. Do you like firetrucks? Firetrucks only come where there is a FIRE! And the other 25 letters where illustrated and written in much the same manner.

Great work as always Simon. You have a wealth of talent.

[Simon Beck]

Years ago, Shel Silverstein, a cartoonist whose work appeared in Playboy in the 60s (maybe longer) came out with a book called Uncle Shel's ABZ's which purported to be a children's book. I always remember F. F is is for Firetruck. Do you like firetrucks? Firetrucks only come where there is a FIRE! And the other 25 letters where illustrated and written in much the same manner.

Great work as always Simon. You have a wealth of talent.

Thanks! Shel Silverstein is one of my heroes. As well as a cartoonist, humorist and author, he was also a very talented songwriter. He wrote "The Unicorn" (The Irish Rovers), probably the first record I ever bought; "A Boy Named Sue", famously recorded by Johnny Cash, and many hits recorded by Dr Hook and the Medicine Show.

I have a Playboy cartoon album from the 1960s which has a hilarious collection of his illustrated "monster" poems. For example:

"The Graveyark

See the Graveyark in his cage.
His teeth are sharp; his claws are double.
Thank heavens he's locked up safe inside
Or we'd all be in terrible trouble!"

illustrated with a picture of an empty cage, its door and padlock hanging open.

[Simon Beck]

A propos nothing in particular, here is one of my own songs. It's a satirical take on modern technology, from Twitter to computer games to Auto-Tune. I'm playing Wurlitzer electric piano, double bass, organ and synth brass as well as rhythm programming, vocals, arrangement and production.

It's called "Genie".

http://snd.sc/1cWbhHc

[wizard509]

The outhouse with the cutout moon on the door is a "trope" - you see them in movies, cartoons and on TV, but I'm 51 and I've never seen (or used!) a hillbilly outhouse in real life.

You are not missing anything Simon. Those are not the most pleasant of environments. I do enjoy outhouse cartoons/art though. My Mom told stories of bees chasing her on the way to and from the "outhouse" when she was little.

[gray]

Good stuff, Simon. Outhouses used to be common in the old camp grounds from a few years ago.

[Simon Beck]

Here's another page. Very Shel Silverstein-esque, this one.

It took me a while to find a long boy's name with no i's, j's or t's in it. Think about it...



Oh, and horses are pretty tricky to draw. I just found that out.

[wizard509]

Yellow in the snow, that's funny. Reminds me of where the huskies go.