Brilliant draftsman, master painter and imaginative composer of pictures, Frank Frazetta passed away yesterday. Frazetta was an illustrator's illustrator who was as proficient with pen and ink as he was with oil paints. From cartoon strips to movie posters and book covers, Frazetta was a rock star.

A few years back I, like so many illustrators, made the pilgrimage to the Frazetta Museum in Pennsylvania and I was fortunate to meet Mr. Frazetta. As admired as he was for his art, Frazetta was a regular guy who'd rather be playing baseball than working at the easel. In his youth he dreamed of playing professional baseball and even tried out for the New York Giants.

Unfortunately the legal battle for his legacy started before he passed.

Read his Obit in todays NYT

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Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Illustrator Don Ivan Punchatz has passed away at age 73. Don's work is familiar to everyone having created the first Star Wars film poster, the cover of the Doom video game, science fiction book covers, campaigns for Exxon, Anheuser-Busch and Pepsi, illustrations for Playboy, Esquire and Rolling Stone as well as classic National Lampoon covers.

Punchatz suffered cardiac arrest without having health insurance, To help his widow pay his medical bills, donations can be made to Sandra Punchatz, c/o Lewis Glaser, TCU School of Art, TCU, Box 298000, Fort Worth TX 76129

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Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Today illustrator Larry Roibal was arrested and charged with copyright violation. Authorities have been building a case against the illustrator for posting his doodles over copyrighted newspaper articles. The raid took place at seven am this morning as the illustrator was sitting at his kitchen counter in a t-shirt and crocheted slippers, doodling on his morning paper. Arresting officers were forced to taser Roibal when a ball point pen was mistaken for a weapon. Detectives posing as workers for the Recycling Agency have been collecting evidence against the illustrator for a little over a year. Lawyers for the defendant claim the illustrator never profited from the doodles and his blog is mainly a way of saving on therapy bills as he has two children in college.

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The Stone Pony has stood as the Mecca of the Jersey rock scene for decades. I burst with pride the first time my son Andrew and his band played there. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny, Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, Jefferson Starship, Elvis Costello, Peter Frampton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Russell Crowe, and Patti Smith are just a few of the acts that have graced the same stage of the famous Jersey club. A tribute was held last night at the Stone Pony for Danny Federici who was an original member of the E Street Band. Federici lost a battle with cancer this past Thursday, he was 58.

To Donate to the Danny Ferderici Melanoma Fund.

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Everyone on the pro tour has skills, but on Sunday it's the golfers nerves not their skills that are tested.

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I think investing in the intelligence of our future generations is probably the most important expenditure for securing peace and economic strength as a people. I'm going to give ten dollars to Miramax. Not just because I'll probably enjoy a movie of, by and for smart people, but to stimulate more of the same and maybe raise the level of culture.

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Today I had two photo shoots for book covers I'm working on. That means a commute into the city. I think New Jersey Transit coaches might have the worst suspensions of any moving vehicles still in operation. Besides making it challenging to read a newspaper, it makes it very difficult to draw a picture...but not impossible. I did this doodle on the train. You have to abandon all hope of placing the pen down and moving it exactly where you'd like, in short, forget about line and think like a painter scribbling in mass and form.

After my shootings I stuck around and went to see James Gurney Lecture at the Society of Illustrators. This is the second time I saw him lecture at the society. He is a perfect cocktail of talent, intellect, imagination and dedication,...and I'm not just saying that because he was gracious enough to sign my book and add a doodle of his own. Thanks James!

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There's still hope that Jon Corzine's legacy as New Jersey's Governor will be that he balanced our wasteful, corrupt government's debt, but more likely it will be to remind us all to buckle up.

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After I graduated from Parsons I started to get book cover work from Simon and Schuster. I loved going there to drop off work. Before the digital age, art departments were filled with racks and racks of original art by all of my heros in the business. But while I loved looking at the work, I also realized I needed to step up my game if I wanted to stick around in this field. So, even though I was keeping busy with commissions during the day, I started lugging my french easel up to the Art Students League at night. Forty years earlier, before he got his break in films, Charlton Heston was an artists model at the League. I'm no fan of the NRA, but you could see why the camera loved him. He had great chiseled features and I would've liked to have been around forty years earlier to paint him.

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