i just popped over to the spectrum site to see when the deadline was for this year and was met with this lovely painting by one of my personal artistic heroes, peter de seve:
gosh.
to be absolutely clear here: i'm not accusing peter de seve, the fenners, or anyone associated with spectrum of anything. i will say only that i guess great minds really do think alike.
and, peter, i got there first. (winking sideways smiley face)
UPDATE: i guess charles addams got there first. (see comments)
UPDATE, THE SECOND: de Sève speaks! ... and says some very nice things. thanks for being a good sport, peter.
15 comments:
Homage to Fowler FTW!
First The Walrus?
Finely Tuned Weasel?
Flatulent Terrier Woofing?
actually there is also a comic by Charles Addams of a man looking at his watch with the addams family around him... If I have some time this weekend I will see if I can find the box my Addams books are packed in and find that one and scan it...
i concede to mr. addams.
(and i'd love to see it!)
thank you mr. duck.
Just came back to do a follow up post, got a little worried that the previous one came off as me saying you ripped off Addams. That was not what I was doing I was just adding to the "great minds think alike" pattern. It appears from your response that you figured out I wasn't ripping on you though so I already feel better...
I will do my best to find the books this weekend, but since I still have half of a two car garage full of unpacked boxes that might be a challenge.
no problem at all. as i'd mentioned in the post, this isn't something i'm getting terribly worked up about. it happens. call it the cultural id. i'd still love to see that addams cartoon if you can find it (so i can update the post)...
you've also managed to exactly describe my garage.
(Funny Tom Winkle?)
the real sad thing about it is that we have lived in this house seven years now and that is how much is still unpacked... I think if I could be sure that there wasnt anything personel in there that I would just donate the whole lot... I mean if I havent needed it in this long do I really need it???
I tried to do a google image search for it but had no luck.
For The Win!
Sorry... I spend too much time online.
or i don't enough.
it's always worth remembering that my knowledge/facility/interest in technology is roughly equivalent to that of your grampa's.
Great jobs!
Granted I may be a wee bit bias, but I quite 'prefer' yours. It's the "Walk" Signal sign that does it. Oh, the other one is great, don't get me wrong, but why does a fairy need to take a subway?
Dangnabit. Why can't I just compliment without antagonizing?
well, peter does get to draw new yorker covers. so ultimately he wins...
Dear Tom,
Trust me when I say I was horrified to discover your beautiful piece recently in copy of Spectrum I was thumbing through. It was well after I sent off my drawing to Arnie and when I saw yours, I almost fell off my chair. I can't honestly say whether I subliminally ripped off your piece or as you say, we geniuses think alike, but if I had any conscious memory of it, I would have immediately gone with an alternate idea. I do remember not being able to decide on a genre to tap since Spectrum covers so many, so I went with a kind of kitchen sink approach which would allow me to riff on a lot of them at the same time.
Amazingly, or not, this is the second such apology I had to write regarding the poster. The other was to my friend at Blue Sky Studios, Mike Lee, who definitely had shown me his piece ( which I also somehow forgot) and it bears a terrible likeness to mine, down to the big guy wearing the fedora. If you go to totoroforestproject.org you should be able to find his.
This kind of thing has happened to me in reverse as well. My very first sketch for a New Yorker cover was politely rejected and I could see why when the next issue arrived in my mailbox. Ed Sorel did an almost identical picture, and I'm positive he could never have seen my sketch beforehand.
Anyway Tom, you have my admiration for a piece well done and I dare say, more inventive. My hat is off to you.
all the best
and Happy New Year.
Peter
(de Sève)
...and there you have it.
thank you, peter, for your note. as i'd mentioned above, there was never really any harm done. i chalk it up to the cultural id.
having been an enormous fan of yours for well over a decade (my parents still clip your new yorker covers for me), it's more than a little flattering to learn that in some small way our minds work alike. (and, according to some of the comments above, charles addams' as well!) it's also worth noting that when i created the "mean streets" piece it was intended to be my go at a new yorker cover.
finally let me thank you for many years of beautiful illustrations. i think its easy to see that you've been a huge influence for years.
cheers peter.
happy xmas and merry new year to you as well.
tom
Thanks, Tom, you're a gent.
all the best and again,
Happy New Year.
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