On Monday, Richard Codor wrote about his cartoon education. Check back on Friday for his final post.
The idea for Too Many Latkes! came from one of my fondest childhood memories. My mother was the office manager of our synagogue and in charge of organizing the annual “Latke Fundraiser.” She would always say, “This year we’re going to make a mountain of latkes!” Every year, all the latke cooks would gather at the temple on Hanukkah and fried huge amounts of latkes. They never quite made enough latkes for a mountain but the image stuck in my head.
It became a big hit at Hanukkah and every year inevitably some body would ask when is it going to be a book. By the time I got around to seriously making it into book form, the nature of publishing and even drawing had changed. I no longer worked on paper. My drawings were done with a stylus in programs on computer screen. To keep the feeling of the large original black and white marker drawings on newsprint, I had to reduce, scan, color and touch up the drawings in PhotoShop. A lengthy process but well worth it since, the digital images loose little when published in paper or Ibook form.
Now I can do book readings using a computer slideshow, drawing tablet, speakers, projector and HD screen. However, there are places that are just too intimate for all those gadgets. So from the digital files, I’ve printed out again black and white images and made a new flipbook.
Some things never change.
Richard Codor’s work is featured in the books The Big Book of Jewish Humor (Collins), All You Want To Know About Sabbath Service (Behrman House), and in Israel, the social satire classic, Zoo Eretz Zoo (E.L.S. Editions.). His storyboards are used in numerous multiethnic, politically correct and incorrect movies, TV and Internet media such as “Doug”, “Lizzie McGuire”, “Robots” and “Queer Duck”. He is a recipient of multiple Jewish Press Association/Rockower Awards for Cartooning and the first Charles Schulz Prize.
Richard Codor’s most recent book, Too Many Latkes!(Behrman House), is now available.
A Cartoon Education
Too Many Latkes!: Twenty Years in the Making
Adventures in the Cartoon Trade: Israel, US, and Everywhere Else