Rob’s Blog

Archive for July, 2009

July 29, 2009 - Ranger Art!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.29, 2009, under What's New?

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I realized I never posted the final version of this artwork.

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July 27, 2009 - Book Cover Art!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.29, 2009, under Books

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Here’s some art from a few books I picked up. Above is from the old ChildCraft series. This inside the cover of Volume 14- Science and Industry. Below is uncredited art from ‘The Case of the Fugitive Nurse’ by Earle Stanley Gardner. Beside that is Robert McGinnis art from ‘The Seven Sirens’ by Carter Brown.

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July 26, 2009 - Caricature and Ken!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.28, 2009, under Florida Restaurants, What's New?

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Here’s a sorta fuzzy fellow with his equally fuzzy caricatue.

Later met with Ken Culotta and Marsh Moreno.

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July 19, 2009 - Drawing and gagging!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.23, 2009, under Florida Restaurants, What's New?

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Another caricature! I hadn’t done a triple in many, many years!

Later I met with ol’ Ken Culotta workin’ on some political gags. Below is part of the work space. The pad has a sketch Ken made for Tuesday editorial cartoon that I was sorry to set aside at the last minute.

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July 17, 2009 - Newest Book I’ve Illustrated!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.23, 2009, under Books, Cartooning, Florida Restaurants, What's New?

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I met with author John Scolaro, who passed on to me his new book that I illustrated. Above John stands holding the books in front of a major character in the book, The Waffle House.

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July 15, 2009 - Dan Singer’s Birthday!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.15, 2009, under What's New?

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Sandra and I wish our dear friend Dan Singer a very

HAPPY   BIRTHDAY!

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July 11th, 2009 - Palm Beach County Parks!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.15, 2009, under Florida Outdoors!, Sandra, What's New?

Sandra and I made our way through Palm Beach County to visit a few parks in the area. We started off at Serenoa Glade Park. The posey below is from there.

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From there we visited Sugar Sand Park. The sketch to the right is of a very rare plant sprouting from a sabal palm. We also stopped at Blazing Star Preserve.

The film above was shot at Grassy Water Preserve. Below is the sketch I made.

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On the way home we saw this was the weather we encountered.

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July 14, 2009 - Inked drawing!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.14, 2009, under Cartooning

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Here’s the black and white of a developing Lone Ranger- like request. Color tomorrow.

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July 10, 2009 - First Amendment Foundation Award!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.13, 2009, under Books, Caricatures, Cartooning, Editorials, Florida History!, Florida Restaurants, Friends, Sandra, Various, What's New?, What\'s New?

2009-0710-breakers-colorI attended the Friday luncheon of the Florida Press Association at historic The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. During the luncheon the Florida Press Association presented awards to those of the daily papers. Also given were awards from The First Amendment Foundation. The Pete Weitzel/Friends of the First Amendment Award was given to Pat Gleason, who is an assistant to Governor Charlie Crist on many things including open government. She is a great lady. She assisted Sandra and I when visiting the Governors Library & Sandra donated many of her books. Governor Crist was at the luncheon to present the award. Below is a fuzzy photo of Pat Gleason speaking, to the right of the photo.

I was honored to receive the Sunshine Award for my editorial cartoons on the subject of Sunshine Week. Below the photo are the two Sunshine Week cartoons. My time at Orlando City Hall greatly helped my constructing these two cartoons. Director  Barbara Peterson was a big help!

To the right is a colored sketch of drapery in The Breakers.

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While at the Florida Press luncheon I met Mark Mathes who once editted a ton of cartoonists when he was with Tribune Media Services. Amongst those is cartoonist and editor, Dick Kulpa. Dick was one time editor of the infamous Weekly World News.  I once penciled a week of comics strips for Dick’s comic strip ‘Ghost Story Club’ many years ago.

Anyway, Mark invited Dick over and we went to dinner. Dick and I drew each other and a photo of such is below.

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July 9th, 2009 - Books- The Miami Herald, Jane Reno and The Executioner!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.12, 2009, under Books

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More books about the Miami area.

Knights of the Fourth Estate

Very well written story of The Miami Herald. Smiley covers the beginnings of The Herald in the early 1900s to the early 60s. The profiles are very well done of staff and owners. Better still are the various stories behind the stories throughout. This book is out of print.

The Hell with Politics

Very good set of stories of Jane Wood Reno, mother of former US Attorney General Janet Reno, amongst other successful children. It’s obvious, though, in this set of nearly disjointed stories that Janet, or Janny Baby, was Jane Wood Reno’s very favorite. Oddly a real fleshing out of her relationship with her children is not included. Jane Wood Reno could be considered a more modern day pioneer in south Florida as she blazed trails in journalism, interaction with the Seminole and Miccosukee indian tribes, etc. The writing of her experience in the disastrous 1926 hurricane is particularly interesting and haunting. The last chapter is a short biography of her life. The author to this is not mentioned, but would assume it’s her grandson and editor of the book. Not just the lack of this credit, but placing dates on the essays included are missing, making it difficult to associate the stories and their place in time. Otherwise well written and lots of south Florida history!

The Executioner - Miami Massacre

Though you would think this book is of pretty predictable stuff, it’s not. A whole other element comes in and becomes a solid part of the adventure of Mack Bolan wiping out the mob at an electric pace. Pendleton really did a good job pacing a story and creating characters. Though, rather forgettable characters and most who don’t survive the story. Thus making the character creation a practical effort that still gives way to not knowing who lives and dies. As always, an exciting time with Mr. Bolan. By the way, on the Miami side, Pendleton did more than a cursory glance to the area. He even mentions the well known Crime Commission effort by Dade County. Though that really was more in force in the ’50s. Also, adding an element to the story that well illustrates a current mood at the time of the late ’60s of a certain people in Dade County. Compared to others, Pendelton does a very nice job of getting a sense of place and being rather accurate.

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July 9, 2009 - With Dick Daniels at Chelsea Coffee!

by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.09, 2009, under What's New?

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Met up with Dick Daniels at Chelsea Coffee to talk shop. Here is Dick and I going over a project he’s working on.

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