The Cartoonist

Saturday, April 12, 2003

In the know. Just to let you know: I'm off to Belgium and Germany until the 25th of this month. No more entries until I'm back in London. Good gracious. Probably a few more links tomorrow. Who knows. Why can't I get a proper job in London? Why do I have to work all across Europe? Racism? After all I'm German. Hey Maurice Saatchi, hey Mr Hegarty, gimme a proper job! Silence there. 10:21:22 PM     |

German. Advertising. Photography. German ads from 1925-1988 are here. I actually did a google search for 'Axel Hinnen', who coined the term 'schreIBMaschine'; and then I ended up there. It's all GGK and DDB anyway. Good old times. And - that's your Cartoonist there on the left. Ages ago. From a time when you bought a magazine like 'Der Stern' just because of the ads. Whatever happened to Axel then? I can't find him. Looks like I'm wearing a wig. Good Grief. 6:54:55 PM     |

schreIBMaschinen. They're all here - old ads and more at The History of the IBM Typewriter. Fantastic. 6:45:35 PM     |

YesYesYesYes! Old ads, old ads, old ads. Here are Swanson TV Dinner Meals. Fire up the microwave. Now. 6:34:42 PM     |

Home. This is the history of Dortmund, the town I was born and lived until about 1982. A fascinating webpage initiated by one Kurt Endrikat (my grandparents lived in Kronprinzenstraße) with many pictures out of Luise von Winterfeld's book about Dortmund, which is the book about Dortmund, the bible, the best book about the town. Funny: her niece (Grand niece? Great-grand niece?), Elisabeth von Winterfeld used to be my assistant when I worked for FCB Hamburg (she probably hates me). Strange world. Now where's the history of the Humboldt Gymnasium? 3:40:37 PM     |

Over and out. October 2003 marks the end of world's most famous aeroplane. Here's the Definitive Concorde Site with history, prototypes, technical specs, pictures and lots more. 12:31:54 PM     |

Revolution. Children's Books of the Early Soviet Era is a nice exhibition of illustrated Russian children's books. I can't help it, I just love that style. "link" 12:15:59 PM     |

More old toys. More memories. Here is an online archive of old Elastolin catalogs. Elastolin manufactured highly detailed plastic figures of knights, cowboys, etc. No, without any movable joints. No, they aren't 'action-figures'. But fun they were. On Nick's Elastolin page is another catalog from 1980. And here are the knights and castles. 11:05:52 AM     |

The collector. Wilbert Swinkels in Holland collects old toy catalogs and brochures. And he's got lots. Hundreds in fact. And they are all on his website, categorised by manufacturer. Nice galleries that bring back childhood memories. 10:42:20 AM     |

The 'untidy' freedom. Rumsfeld is an - well, you know what I mean. Baghdad 'in chaos'. 7.30am: Widespread looting· Rumsfeld: freedom is untidy· Date set for talks [Guardian Unlimited] "US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said looting was part of the transition process and accused media reports of exaggerating the scale of the chaos. "Freedom's untidy," he said." 8:16:47 AM     |

Blunt. Interesting. A museum of old card games 8:13:22 AM     |

Sharp. Horst will like this link. He's a razor-fanatic. Here is the Internet Museum of Safety Razors. Don't cut yourself. 8:04:39 AM     |

Friday, April 11, 2003

Mad. I'm still mad about a TV production company stealing one of my illustrations. If anybody's interested, this is the mail I sent them this morning (German, sorry, but they're based in Munich): Hallo Herr Reichenberger, Ich finde es toll, daß sie einen neuen Raumpatrouille Film produzieren. Ich finde es nicht so toll, daß eine meiner Raumpatrouille Illustrationen auf ihrer Trailer Website als Teil eines 'Covers', 'Plakats' oder 'Bilds' Verwendung findet. Mein Original ist hier: http://www.kag15.dial.pipex.com/gallery.html Hat man mich gefragt, ob ich diese Illustration zur Verfügung stelle? Nein. Wird irgendwo auf der Trailer-Website mein Name erwähnt? Nein. Nun bin ich durchaus nicht auf Geld aus, aber ihrem Designer (oder ist das etwa sogar ne Agentur?) gehört gehörig auf die Finger geklopft - Urheberrecht scheint ein Fremdwort für diese Person zu sein. Ich erwarte Namensnennung auf der Website sowie auf allen gedruckten Materialien, auf denen meine Illustration abgebildet ist. Das ist ja nu das mindeste. Mit freundlichen Grüssen aus London, Ralf Zeigermann That should be ok. Or what? Majo? Jörg? 11:11:24 PM     |

Model Sheets. Model sheets are for animators to keep the animated comic characters consistent. So that Yogi Bear always looks like Yogi Bear, although he is being drawn by gazillions of artists, each with their own style, Yogi Bear needs to be Yogi Bear (I could tell you a story about the Dentagard Beaver here, where it didn't work thanks to the Creative Director, but that would be telling). Anyway, my mate Reimund found a website with hundreds of those model sheets from Disney Studios, Anime, Universal, Hanna Barbera, Dreamworks... Guys, this is ART! And it's all handmade. With pencils and stuff like that. No computers. Honestly. 10:19:09 PM     |

It happened on German TV. 1966: America encountered pointy ears. Old Europe encountered pointy bras. There's a new Space Patrol movie in the makes, 90 minutes long and with additional music by the composer Peter Thomas. More infos and a trailer (Quicktime and Media Player) are here. I should be really happy now, but, as a matter of fact, I am really pissed off. See the image on the left? That's taken from their website. See the spaceship Orion? Well, that's one of my Orion renderings. Has anyone asked me for permission to use my illustration? No. Does my name appear anywhere on the website? No. If I don't get an answer very quickly to the email I fired off this morning, I'll get a solicitor on the case. Very quickly. 9:18:41 PM     |