First Published: June 16, 2008
As a teenager, a poor reproduction of "Dogs Playing Poker" briefly hung in my room. I can't remember what happened to it.
Jackson Pollock makes his second "appearance" in the strip. It's easy to shrug off photographs of his action paintings. When you stand in front of one of these things, it's a different story. It's a bit like confronting the monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey" – an unrefusable challenge. Its mere dimensions are utterly overwhelming.
I shamelessly stole the phrase "Quality is for suckers" from Stuart Immonen. Serves him right for coining it in the first place.
The contours of the Coolidge painting were mostly traced, the shading applied by hand. The linework for "Van Gogh's Head Explodes" is an edited tracing of a photo of the original portrait.
"Pollock Creating Art" is a product of my own folly. Jon Q. Arbuckle and Dilbert were drawn from reference.
More on the artwork quoted above: