The Home of the Creative Mind

Welcome to PooBahSpiel, the online voice and home of the creative mind of Mark Monlux, Illustrator Extraordinaire. Prepare yourself for an endless regaling of art directly from the hand of this stellar artist. And brace yourself against his mighty wind of pontification. Updates are kinda weekly and show daily sketches, current projects, and other really nifty stuff.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

The Return of Stickman #467

Sure, I promised that I will put Stickman back in his cubical, but have I done it? Well, I have a few more funeral-related strips lined up. Then I have a few about, well, I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Yesterday I attended the SPGA/Seattle Chapter of the Graphic Artists Guild. It was a pretty busy luncheon. I was asked to write two articles and to write up an estimate. The speaker, Larry Coffman, is a pretty amazing guy as well. I took a lot of notes on his Success Secrets.



Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Perfect Posture by David Paul

Today I’m showing you the cover of a book for which I did a ton of illustrations. It started as just an illustration project, then it grew and grew… I ended up working with the client for two years as he went back, revised, and tweaked until it was just what he wanted. Now it’s finally done. When I showed him my blog site, he wanted one just like it for his book.



Friday, May 25, 2007

The Return of Stickman #465

This The Return of Stickman strip comments on how checking the family roster is a universal pastime at funerals. So does learning about forgotten, or more often, unmentioned family history. Right now, I wish I could put Stickman back in his cubical, but I have a few more days of funeral-related stuff to purge from my system.



Thursday, May 24, 2007

The Return of Stickman #464

This The Return of Stickman strip is not based on real-life, just inspired by it. When family members grieve, they look to ease that pain with a bit of humor. One wonderful moment of levity can make the whole day bearable, not to mention provide a cartoonist with plenty of material for future strips.



Friday, May 18, 2007

The Return of Stickman #463

This The Return of Stickman strip is based on a real-life situation. Looks like I’ll have a lot of funeral-related material to use in the near future. It’s coming in so fast that I’m having a hard time writing it all down. That —and a string of jokes about toenails.



Thursday, May 17, 2007

The Comic Critic Reviews Jurassic Park

I know it sounds a bit trite to mention over a decade later just how Jurassic Park revolutionized movie special effects with its combination of CGI and live action animatronics. It redefined the “Dinosaur” genre. Now I can only watch my old dinosaur movies with the same nostalgia I have in riding a big wheel. Now, I feel like I’m just to grown up to sit in the child sized seat anymore. And then there are all those wonderful cultural snippets that have been parodied to no end. Like the “Objects in rear view mirror might appear farther away than they actually are.” or the “Flashlight beam in the eye” scene. All of them now iconic.  Any movie that has such a profound effect on the movie industry and our pop culture deserves all the kudos that it receives.



The Return of Stickman #462

This The Return of Stickman cartoon is based on a real-life experience I had back in college. Only the noises came from next-door rather than upstairs. It was just a bit surreal. Just what did my neighbor want an axe for? I never did ask. Sometimes it’s better not to ask questions. Especially when the questions involve an axe.



Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The Return of Stickman #461

I think I will start my first entry by showing you The Return of Stickman strip I drew for today. This strip started when I got an email from my old high school friend, Chris. We would spend study hall time drawing cartoons and coming up with elaborate stories. The trouble was that study hall was so short that I never had time to finish anything I started. One day Chris said, “Just draw a stickman.” After that, we had a lot of fun. So, when Chris sent me an email and asked me if I still drew Stickman, I pulled out my clipboard and quickly drew up a strip to send to him. Only this time I had some degree of maturity, a college degree, decades of professional experience, and a deep understanding of comics, as clearly seen by the quality of this strip.