Have a favorite cartoonist video? Show us your links

More and more, Comic Riffs is sent video. Or rather, video links. Here's a cartoonist peddling a book. Here's a cartoonist inking a panel. And oh look, here's a cartoonist inking a panel at a comic-con while telling amusing anecdotes between taking audience questions -- in order to peddle a book.

Some of these videos, though, distinguish themselves in eye-catching ways. For instance, "MAD" cartoonist Tom Richmond -- whom we interviewed recently upon his return from his USO tour to the Mideast -- has posted this short clip from the trip. The comic-book panel effect is stylish enough that I wish the video were longer. Here's the travelogue taste that leaves me wanting more:

TOM RICHMOND's USO TOUR:

Another video link 'Riffs was recently sent is part of cartoonist Tom Gammill's continuing video series, done with a self-aware shtick. The grabber here is the piano of "Momma" and "Miss Peach" cartoonist Mell Lazarus -- the baby grand is covered with the sketches of some well-known cartoonists. As Lazarus explains: "We had a bunch of drunken cartoonists in the house one night, and they just, you know, destroyed a perfectly good French provincial baby grand piano." 'Riffs fast-forwards to the one-minute mark, just to glimpse this instrument in all its doodle-graffitied glory:

MELL LAZARUS'S "CARTOON" PIANO

And to reflect the range of video links that come our way, 'Riffs re-posts this Spanish-language interview with Eduardo Barreto ("Judge Parker" et al.). (If you don't speak Spanish and would like to read the accompanying translated article, you can click here.)

THE WORLD OF EDUARDO BARRETO:

The reason Comic Riffs posts these trio o' videos today is because there are so many cartoonist-featured videos out there in the cinesphere, and so little time to find the interesting, the compelling, the flat-out funny. So this is an APB to comics fans: If you've got favorite videos featuring cartoonists, we'd like to see 'em. We welcome all such video links, and 'Riffs will spotlight some of them in the weeks ahead.

The theater floor is now yours.

ELSEWHERE...

THAT DOG'LL HUNT: So this is actually going to happen. Many a comic gets optioned, some get genuine studio backing -- but how many get to the point of having household-name actors sign on? (Yes, that was rhetorical.)

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting this morning that "MARMADUKE" the Movie has just landed Owen Wilson -- yes, he of recent "Marley and Me" success -- to voice "the rascally Great Dane."

The live-action/computer-animated movie, based on Brad Anderson's long-running comic, will follow "a slobbery pooch who creates chaos wherever he goes," Fox says. (And somehow that sounds terribly like a parody of itself -- as it the studio is cribbing straight from the Comics Curmudgeon.)

Other talent signed to voice "the family comedy" due next June includes Judy Greer, Lee Pace, William H. Macy, Fergie, George Lopez, Damon Wayans, Marlon Wayans,Emma Stone and Steve Coogan. Who knows: Perhaps Wilson got career advice from Wes Anderson castmate Bill Murray: "Take the animation gig -- it's an easy paycheck." Murray, of course, voiced the big-screen "Garfield" -- all the way to the bank.

.

By Michael Cavna |  November 3, 2009; 11:05 AM ET  | Category:  The Comic Strip , The Holly Word , The Video Shelf
Previous: Should 'Red and Rover' roll over? Time to Defend That 'Toon | Next: Henry Allen speaks: When the reader reaches a tipping point