The Ink Stained Wretch #184- 5/7/25

Another Sketch in the Wall, Insult Comic Dogs and Dog Comics, MAD Streaming, and a Wee Braw Workshop!

It's time for another of the embarrassing, empty-headed, erratic piles of ecch that are these newsletters! This week's sketch is comfortably numb, we share an ambiguously gay commission, get ready to stream some MADness, and announce a bonnie auld workshop...on with the 'Wretch!

Sketch o'the Week: David Gilmour!

Click here if you are interested in this original sketch.

Pink Floyd was one of those bands where I needed to be in the right frame of mind to listen to their music. In high school I usually needed my tunes to rock harder, but when in a contemplative mood Floyd was just the ticket. They refused to be put into a genre classification. Some songs were heavy metal and some rocked pretty hard but most were impossible to label... and why would you want to? While "The Wall" was the band's Magnus Opus, and "Dark Side of the Moon" was their most successful and probably signature album, my favorite album was always "Wish You Were Here". I thought Gilmore needed to be added to my "Classic Rock" series. I had already drawn Roger Waters years ago.

As always, Premium Subscribers to the 'Wretch get to bore themselves silly watching me draw this sketch. Video at the bottom of the newsletter!

Good job, friend-of-friends!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a bit about how I started out my illustration career using traditional media, and how I still pull out the watercolors and other stuff for the occasional piece or commission now and then. I shared a few watercolor pieces and my video that week was of me working on a personal commission in ink and watercolor. The above was that commission.

That's comedian, writer, director, producer, puppeteer, etc etc Robert Smigel. He turned 65 back in February and this was commissioned by a mutual friend for his birthday. In fact that mutual friend is William Gaines' daughter Wendy Gaines-Bucci, who went to school with Robert. Now that he's gotten the art all framed up and everything, I thought I'd share it here.

Going to the Dogs

I’ve got to take a brief moment to plug a new book by my pal Jason Chatfield and his writing pal Scott Dooley called “You’re Not a Real Dog Owner Until…”. Jason is hands down the hardest working cartoonist I know. He’s a fantastic artist and writer, a fellow member of “The Usual Gang of Idiots” at MAD, a New Yorker cartoonist, did the now retired comic strip “Ginger Meggs” for years, former president of both the National Cartoonists Society and the Australian Cartoonists Association, a stand up comic, actor, performer… I’m getting tired just listing all the things he does and does well. He also has an incredibly successful Substack that I never miss.

Oh, yeah… and he co-wrote and illustrated this book that just dropped. It’s laugh out loud funny, and beautifully drawn. If you love dogs or known someone who does, this is for you. You can get a copy here from publisher Andrews McMeel, but better yet Jason offers a signed copy complete with a sketch of your pooch in it! Here’s mine:

That’s the late Dr. Watson on the left and the never-late-for-his-dinner McCartney on the right. Hopefully Jason with actually SIGN HIS NAME to your copy… I’m meeting him today for lunch, will bring this with, and ridicule him for not doing that. Then I’ll have the complete edition.

What, Me Streaming?

Big news for those dozens of you out there who want to see the documentary When We Went MAD but have been inexplicably frustrated. This was just announced by the creators of the film:

June 24th, 2025 is the day we can ALL finally GO MAD!

Details are still coming in - but we know it will start on Amazon Prime and Apple Movies as a Video On Demand - a small rental fee will be required to view. A preorder should be made available soon. Deals with the bigger platforms, the Netflixes and Hulus of the world, are in the plans, but nothing is imminent.

How much will this set you back? Unknown. But all joking aside it's a terrific documentary and will be worth a couple of bucks and 90-ish minutes of your time to watch.

It’ll be a skoosh!

I'm headed to the Highlands (well, actually the Central Lowlands but it’s more fun to say “Highlands”) of bonnie auld Scotland to do a workshop this fall! This is not just my only workshop overseas this year, but my last one in 2025. If you want to join us in Glasgow this October 21-22, click the link here for all the details. This in the first workshop I will have ever done on weekdays (a Tuesday and Wednesday), but as the fall is peak wedding season in the UK/Europe, I thought it would give some professional caricaturists a chance to take it without having to give up any good paying gigs. I’m looking forward to having a few pints, maybe a dram or two, and a roll on square sausage while there!

Regular Subscriber? That's it for another lame issue of the 'Wretch! Thank you for being a subscriber! As always, if you liked what you saw please share it with others. I'm always looking for feedback, questions for the mailbag, and suggestions for future Sketch o'the Week subjects. Just reply to this email with any of the above, or leave a comment on Substack! And always remember... it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide!