Tampa: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow by Michael Bane and Mary Ellen Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is more of a sales book of Tampa than anything else. There is certainly plenty of history here and that part is very well written. Then the book steers into the future and suddenly statistics and construction plans fill the pages. Seems the first and second parts were written by two different people, which would explain the two authors.

There are plenty of photos strewn throughout. All black and white except for a few center pages of color.

The history presented is mostly complete, though sections are missing. Little is mentioned of the mob activity or anything at all about the black community.

The book is best as a time capsule of life in Tampa in 1980. So very much is written about upcoming projects at the time, community committees planning the future, construction firms and banks.

Bottom line: I recommend it to anyone wanting to know of Hillsborough County’s history.

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Because I keep politics out of the web of this website, this is a pantomime performance of these cartooned characters set up for this week’s editorial cartoon. Feel free to caption this yourself below!

This was penciled on paper, inked the same, scanned and colored.

On January 28th I was part of a symposium about the condition of our springs in north Central Florida. My part was to illustrate each of the speakers. This is one of the set of Dr. Bob Knight, one of our most knowledgeable experts about water in Florida. Knowing Bob helped me play more here than i did with the others.
Bob opened his talk by announcing he had more bad news. I took it from there.

I’ll be posting the rest over the next week or so.

Last night I was part of a Florida springs symposium with a wide variety of speakers updating the audience about the current status of our natural springs and about upcoming legislation.

My role was creating a unique painting of each speaker during their presentation. A few are on the table below. I have a bit of cleanup to do with each and I’ll post them here in the next week.

Here’s a page from the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Melbourne’. Swampy and friends off to construct everything in sight as so many did around Melbourne in the 1950s. The book should be available in two months through The Knowledge Exchange.

Here’s a preview of the Swampy’s Florida cartoon coming Sunday.

A set of Swampy’s Florida Valentine cards coming soon.

This is one of the drawings being proposed for a set of Swampy’s Florida Valentine cards. I’ll post the color version as it comes along.

This is one of the drawings being proposed for a set of Swampy’s Florida Valentine cards. I’ll post the color version as it comes along.

I inked this on the 11th and colored on the 12. Thought I’d include the finished cartoon.

Here’s the link to the Swampy’s Florida cartoon post: ow.ly/svLEQ</a>

As i signed a couple sets of Swampy’s Florida books for the Silver River Museum to sell, I added a critter or two along the way. You can get your copies by going by or contacting the Silver River Museum. Click here to learn more. Here’s a happy raccoon. I have no idea what he’s so happy about. That’s what psychiatrists are for.