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Show May 4, 2000 ' & ' Is x '' k I s WHAT'S WRONG WITH JtXJR I TONGUE, NOFAKES vcu CAUGHT A WHATT SID TATHE IKE? r CATHMG . m? HEV .. y s'1 r - s 15 BIG ONE SOMETHING ABOUT THIS 5EFMS ODD... 5: T Airmans cartoons recall home by Steven R. Ford Hilltop Times staff Artist and cartoonist Senior Airman Jason Davis has been drawing as long as he can remember, but it took his Air Force skills to bring life to Shady-brook- e. Oddly enough, cartooning is a rather recent devel- opment in my artwork, Davis said. For years, I focused on mastering techniques to sketch the human form. Davis; a videographer with the 367th Training Sup- port Squadron, said that he was making cartoons in 6th grade and can remember doodling as far back g from fuels, as kindergarten. But, after Davis said the skills he learned for video production helped his cartooning immensely. I doodled with it, and the cartoons looked junky. Cartoonist cross-trainin- Airman had an unusual childhood, Davis laughed, and it became the fuel for Shadybrooke. The more feedback I get, the more I do it. Its one of those things that goes with my morale. If Im feeling good, the cartoons are just flowing. Admitting little formal art training, Davis attributes much of his cartoon style to the work of Bill Watter-son- , the creator of the newspaper comic strip Calvin I and Hobbes. Im a huge fan of Calvin and Hobbes, Davis said. Watterson is my hero. My wife says I was mimicking him for a while. Every person has their own style, and I think I just built mine from someone else. Davis is hardly alone in his worship of Wattersons work. Calvin and Hobbes has influenced artists and cartoonists for nearly 15 years since debuting November 18, 1985. Like Davis, cartoonists like the late Charles Shulz of Peanuts fame have regarded the eremitic Watterson as a legend in the world of comic strips. run with a final comic; Watterson ended his Dec. 31, 1995. Calvin strip in the Sunday papers 10-ye- ar and Hobbes ran in 2,400 newspapers nation wide, and it has been estimated that Watterson grossed $12.5 million per year with the edgy comic strip, a figure which would, no doubt, appeal to Davis. Shadybrooke is what Id love to do,andDavis work said. I wish I had more time to develop it I time if as every with it. With my job, it seems I come back, get a good idea, I go TDY. By the time cartoon that anymore, do to mood Im just not in the but if I could get into newspapers, Id love to do that. Davis first sketched a caricature of his Visual Information shop while stationed at McConnell AFB, Kan., as a way to remember the people with whom he worked. The recent sketch of his Airman Lead- ership Class, which graduated April 6, has gener- influ- ences can occasionally be seen in his artwork such as this Calvin and Hobbes-esqu- e cartoon, above, showing a young boys fantasy as the king of the snow- I wanted to be able to document my life, and it looked wrong. It bugged me. Then I went to video school, and they taught me things like proportioning, how to compose things and how to arrange things in the frame. When I redid the cartoon, I used that stuff and it looked great, and I was able to tell the story I was looking for. Once I told the story, people would say, Hey, this is pretty good. For some time, Davis has been developing his own comic strip, Shadybrooke, based on his experiences growing up in a small city in Illinois. The strip is named after the district where he used to live in his hometown of Danville, two hours south of Chicago. Many of the characters come directly from Davis childhood, and the situations are familiar to those who know the cartoonist. Senior and Jason Davis men. Davis artwork is hardly limited to cartoons, and he has quite a portfolio of fantasy and science fiction art such as this barbarian, right Senior Airman Jason Davis ated requests for similar work from the ALS instruc-tor- s and his own flight and from military personnel as far away as Mis-aw- a, Japan. My classmates thought a class cartoon would be a great way to remember the variety of personalities. The finished prod- uct turned out even better than expected. When people say, hey, Id like one too, that tells me I did something right, Davis said. request of his c'assmates, Davis drew a caricature sketch of the April Leadership School graduating class, 00-- At the The naturally talented artist has investigated the world of both comic book and comic strip art and knows the uphill battle he faces as well as the difficult lifestyle. Comic strip artists like Watterson, for instance, work year round and rarely get breaks or vacations. Because some artists do all the work themselves, they become reclusive, even withdrawing from the outside world. Mort Walker, who created Beetle Bailey nearly 50 years ago, recently said that a cartoonists solitary work tends to create a focused reality in which the artists lose track of the real world. Its demanding, Davis agreed. Its pretty thankless because youre a loner, so you usually spend a lot of time locked up in your house. And they find that some people become antisocial. They withdraw into themselves and deny reality, and thats kind of scary. But Davis is thankful that he has his wife and two daughters to keep him grounded and focused. Davis admits to watching cable TVs Cartoon Network with his four and olds, Hanna and Josie. six-ye- ar 6 Airman D. icon Scooby Doo for He admires Hanna-Barbar- a its longevity, but he and the kids love The Power Puff Girls. My daughters and I kick the wife out of the room saying its Power Puff Girls time, Davis said. Ill doodle while Im doing it. Thats how I practice. Davis works on his craft when hes able and applies the skills he learns on the job to his art and vice versa. But when his Air Force career comes to an end, he hopes to transition to the outside world of commercial art. Davis has a few projects other than Shadybrooke that he would like to market to the public, including an untitled science fiction-theme- d comic book. Im lucky enough to have a job which correI As learn Davis said. with lates my pass-timnew job skills, I can find ways of applying them to my artwork. Im hoping that, once Ive done my time in the Air Force, Ill have enough built up in my portfolio to go out into the real world and get established. e, |