wolfpackcartoons

06.30.10 | posted by Mark McLawhorn |

We’re poppin’ off for Independence Day!

Oh brother, I’m a buzzboy!

Got a call on the ol’ telephone do this week’s Technician cartoon, so I took it as a chance to try yet another experiment in style and whip up some new free desktop wallpapers. That said, if you happen to see the version printed in the July 1 edition, you’ll see that this illustration is much more developed.

Seems once I turned it in, I realized it wasn’t done.

But that’s just part of the story.

While doing some research on past university logos and marks, I came across a 1962 Agromeck in the NC State Archives. The logo juxtaposed with the Memorial Bell Tower on the title page was incredibly striking and had that certain 60′s cool that all the kids love thanks to things like Mad Men.

So I flipped through a couple of pages to take a gander at the typography and I came across some cartoon wolves that had a swell, lean-mean attitude to them.

I’m not sure who drew them, though I did see that there was a Tom Chipley credited in the yearbook as the Technician cartoonist, so there’s a chance that it might have been him.

I Googled Tom and found out that he works as an artist and designer and lives about 20 minutes from where I grew up in the Virginian Shenandoah Valley.

Small world.

I guess I should drop him an email and see if he actually drew these little badboys.

But anyways, i jotted down some designs in my sketchbook and put it down for a couple of hours, not sure what I was gonna do with it.

After dinner, I got thinking that some of the 1962 Agromeck illustrations reminded me of the 1930′s-40′s Walt Disney and Tex Avery wolf designs. I mused on that, while I sketched out a couple drawings of this new wolf riding a giant firecracker.

Listening (as I often do) to Golden Age radio, it just sort of hit me to put all of this together into a sort of design that leaned heavily on 1940′s-50′s airplane nose art used by American military bombers and jet fighters. It also helped glue the 4th of July theme I was also working on.

And that’s the lovely meandering story about how I came up with this illustration.*

So enjoy the wallpapers and have a happy, safe Independence Day!

Wallpapers for 070410 – right click to save

1. 1024×768
2. 1152×864
3. 1280×960
4. 1280×1024
5. 1600×1200
6. 1680×1050
7. 1920×1200

* and yes, those are “sheep kills” on the left of the metal’s surface