Hey Tough Guise...

Welcome back to the wonderful word of McBlahg.  Today I am going to post an Illustration I have on the current issue of Utne Reader.

I was contacted by the wonderful Editor of the mag, Christian Williams, who gave me another opportunity to create a cover for their next issue.  They were knocking around ideas for the March/April ish which had a feature about masculinity.  Basically its about how the old image of a tough guy/men who don't deal with their emotions, can be damaging or dangerous.

To convey this image, Christian proposed "Mad Men" character and symbol of a cool tough guy, Don Draper in his office reading the landmark book on feminism "The Feminine Mystique" with tears runing down his face.

Jon Hamm who plays Draper has such a great face to draw.  The man has a gift for expression.

There is a ton of reference for Mad Men out there, I tried to nail his office as best I could.

This was another great job, I had a lot of fun working on.  Thank you once again to Christian and the good folks over at the Utne Reader.

OOHHH YEEAAAA!!

   Bout time I got around to updating the McBlahg.  I've decided that whenever I get a little bit of free time , I will post something, whether it is new, old or random.

Today I am posting an illustration I did for a friend who harassed me for over a year to come up with a tribute to his favorite fallen wrestler. Yes indeed, I'm talking about the great Randy "Macho Man" Savage.

Now my friend was quite shaken by the death of his childhood idol.  I think he may have actually shed a tear when he snapped it to a Slim Jim that sad day.  He asked me to come up with a tribute painting, something that would immortalize the only man who could get away with wearing day glow, cheetah print spandex and still kick the crap out of you.

After a year of "thinking it over" I was finally prepared to take on the challenge.  My wife and I laughed about a couple ideas as I sketched them on a scrap piece of paper.  his way I could tell my friend I had actually started on his masterpiece.  

Initially the idea was to have Macho Man riding a rocket propelled Slim Jim up to Heaven while playing a  Harp which has Slim Jim's for strings.  That idea was nixed for being too "jerky."

Instead I simplified it, added some Angel wings and a WWF championship belt.  I couldn't make a mockery of this enigmatic gentleman.

Macho Man Goes to Heaven.