Seems I've been on a Wall Street Journal binge lately, thanks to WSJ AD Orlie Kraus, who, along with the editors, insists on making each assignment a barrel of fun for me. Here's the latest front page opener for yesterday's edition. A few of the steps along the way to arriving at this are shown below.

These were very fast roughs done while Orlie and I spoke on the phone. Although it looks more like a sunrise here, I imagined a setting sun denoting a time near the end of a career. I usually try to weasel my way out of doing a lot of quick thumbnails, worrying that the client will pick the weakest idea (which I think this one is). When this happens, you can sometimes find you've created a monster of a problem!

Thiis one's getting there. I like the confrontational situation between the couple, which gives them personality -- an ingredient that creates characters instead of just drawings. A touch of the animator in me, I guess.

This one brings a ton of energy to the image, and it's interesting how close to the final solution it is. The "clock" has turned into some sort of Age-O-Meter, and the couple are really going at it. As I developed a tighter drawing, it quickly occurred to me that the meter should show retirement-age possibilities rather than years.

An example of my laboriously rendered presentation pencil drawings. I can't explain why I work this way, but an upside is that it helps editors easily visualize what they're getting.

The pencil drawing placed in Orlie's supplied layout. I've emphasized the circular meter with some quick dark tones to make it obvious that the circle is the frame that will be holding all the other elements together. The computer makes such touches fast and easy. I was pretty sure about the motion lines, but finally decided they were just too much and had to go.

Speaking of computers, here's the front page of the iPad edition of yesterday's Journal. Editorial art... not exactly your father's Oldsmobile anymore.

A crowd gathers on the street below. You'd think they would have thought of an elevator to the top floor of The Cuhsic Voh Hotel! Subsequently, not many people stayed there. Printed in U.S.A. by Progressive Publications, Inc. Date unknown.

© 1931 by Dynevor Rhys and Delineator

What better image to capture the feeling of the night before Christmas? I suddenly have the urge to dress for late dinner, make a pitcher of martinis, and walk Asta. I found boxes of these some thirty years ago while driving back to New York from Maine in a little roadside one-room store.

Hardly anything is still remembered about Delineator, one of the smartest most fashionable mags of that most fashionable era, and even less is remembered about Dynevor Rhys, the illustrator who painted this cover for the December 1931 issue. It's reassuring to know that most all of us won't be remembered in 75 years either. So, why worry? Walk Asta, hoist that martini while looking into Myrna's eyes, and here's to Dynevor Rhys, Delineator, and many more Christmas Eves to come!

Once and for all, here's how to give the official "Lou" sign. Just smile, hold your right hand up and make the sign of the "L"... that's all there is to it! A good way to make friends at home, at the office, or when you're being patted down by a police officer. Obviously, don't use your left hand... it makes a "J", and, for all you know, they'll think you're making reference to some artist named "Jacques."

Coming soon: The lyrics to the Official Lou Brooks Song, "I Wanted to Paint Her in the Nude, But She Made Me Wear a Robe!", the same song Lou sings at parties and in the checkout line!

The Teaserooo Flip Strip was another ingenious invention by none other than Soren Sorensen Adams, "King of the Professional Pranksters." Adams began his career by launching the Cachoo Sneezing Powder Company, later changing the name to the S.S. Adams Company. He went on to invent hundreds of items, including the dribble glass, the snake nut can, itching powder, the stink bomb, the squirting nickel, the bar bug in an ice cube, and perhaps the company's most enduring item: the joy buzzer.

Adams died in 1963 in Asbury Park at the age of 84, leaving behind a legacy of over 600 novelties he had dreamed up (many of which he had patented), including the postcard-sized Teaserooo Flip Strip shown here from 1945. Each Teaseroooo in the series featured a picture of a lovely pin-up girl along with an amusing titillating limerick. Various layers of her clothing were printed on three celluloid overlays which could be flipped out of the way for greater viewing pleasure. For more on Mr. Adams and novelties in general, take a gander at Mark Newgarden's classic great book Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelty Item (Abrams).

Occasionally, I'm going to do a show & tell on a book from my own personal book shelf... at least any book that really really really blows my skirt up. Here's the first, and watch for others!

I met both Bill Plympton and Harvey Kurtzman at the same Playboy party in 1978. I got to know Harvey a little bit. A party here and there, and lunch once in a while. But Bill and I seemed to latch on to one another that evening, and we've been good friends ever since. Back then, he wasn't the King of Animation yet (he wasn't even a duke or anything). He was an editorial cartoonist for the long-gone Soho News.

It's near impossible to write about Bill Plympton and tell you things you haven't already heard. Fans idolize him. Media people such as Leonard Maltin love him. He's been given life-time achievement awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards. His frequent newsletter makes it seem like most all of his time is taken up by flying in a jet to the next gala event, and it's astounding he's managed to find the time down here on the ground to turn out the body of completely hand-drawn film projects that he has.

Model sheet for Bill's second Academy Award-nominated short film, "Guard Dog" (2005).

With the exception of a few live-action projects, every cel for every frame (well, actually for every third frame) of every feature and short he's created over the last 25 years has been hand-drawn by Bill Plympton. I remember in the old days stopping by his old Lower Eastside apartment, and there he'd be, sitting at his kitchen table, drawing like he's setting the woods on fire.

For the last dozen years, I've lived out in California, and Bill and I have sort of gone our separate ways, I guess. But right from the inspirational introduction that takes place in Bill's apartment (whereby he says no to a lucrative Disney contract and shows the lawyer the door), his new book, Independently Animated: Bill Plympton (Rizzoli/Universe, 264 pages) brought so much of it back to me. He mentions me in it, which I thought was great, considering all he's accomplished and all he needed to write about.

The film that started it all. Cel drawing for Bill's first Academy Award-nominated short film, "Your Face" (1987). From here, it took him five years to complete his first feature, "The Tune."

My favorite drawing from the book. For the short film, "Sex & Violence" (1997).

Art for Bill's feature-length film, "Mutant Aliens" (2001). For a 28-episode (!) online behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of "Mutant Aliens," go to: http://www.mutantaliensmovie.com/main.html

Glory daze! Back around 1980, a bunch of us started an all-cartoonist band which I named Ben Day & the Zipatones: Elwood Smith and Bill on guitars, Mark Alan Stamaty (world's only Elvis impersonator impersonator), Leslie Cabarga on keyboards, and NatLamp AD Skip Johnston on drums. I wrote songs and tried to pass myself off as a singer. Left to right: the Zipettes on back-up vocals, Leslie Cabarga on piano, and Bill and Elwood go at it on guitars. We sold out Irving Plaza and raised 5,000 bucks for the Graphic Artists Guild. Bill's suit was a $14.95 special from 14th Street. Lots more about our adventures in the book.

One of many pages from the book showing Bill's early mastery of caricature from his earlier years as a political cartoonist. His exquisite draftsmanship shines through! The drawing of Reagan upper right is one of my all-time favorite Plymptons.Independently Animated: Bill Plympton is crammed with full-color art throughout, and is written by Bill along with David B. Levy, president of the New York Chapter of the Association International du Film d' Animation. Foreword by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam.

 Buy Independently Animated at Amazon.com now!

Check out Bill's films here!