Omar

For this new issue of Letter from… column, we asked toonpool artist Omar Momani about his life and begged for some photographs of his working place and the city he lives in right now, Amman. And if you ever travel there and you see a man wearing a giraffe as a scarf, he would probably be Omar. Read the interview below to find out why.

01. Which movie/tv character you see yourself as and why?
Well, I see and also many friends see me as Harry Callahan from the Diry Harry movies, because I don’t give a damn about what it is no worth to me in the world.

02. What was your New Year’s resolution?
To finish my first short animated movie, this means that I must finish it this year.

03. What bores you the most?
Routines and phony compliments, I also add chemistry cos i’ve never understand it

04. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?
I love cities that are on seashores (which is not Amman’s case)

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?
For sure I can do a better disguise; it’s so obvious that Clark Kent is Superman!!!!

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?
Probably I would wake up in the woods, next to an owl on a tree.

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party?
I’ll just wear my underwear, and with a snickers

0

8. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.
Once I told my friend that if he drinks water every day he would have the water pox, so person must 
drink a day and a day not, so my friend believed that, till he exposed that and everyone laughed on 
him, and sure he kicked my butt

.

09. How to ruin your vacation?
Sleeping all day and not doing anything, I really hate myself when I am in apathy.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?
I will fold it and hide it in my closet as a new scarf.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!
I will enjoy drinking the other half.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for
talking with Omar Momani

Carolyn Hiler

Carolyn Hiler makes A Zillion Dollars Comics, and she has been a toonpool member since June 2011. Carolyn lives at 4400 feet in Mt Baldy, CA, a town of 300 people located in the Angeles National Forest, about an hour east of Los Angeles. When not cartooning, designing goofball products, or hiking with her two adorable mutts, she works in private practice as a psychotherapist and art therapist. A Zillion Dollars products are available at http://www.etsy.com/shop/AZillionDollars.

Which fictional character are you?
From the Wizard of Oz, I am the Wicked Witch of the West. I love monkeys, and the color black, and flying. I am also Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The vampires are the enemies of a creative life. I slay them all the time! When I’m feeling a little more pensive, I’m Kermit the Frog, always wondering about things like rainbows, and trying to write sweet memorable songs.

What’s in your refrigerator right now?
Leftovers from a big launch party I threw last weekend for these new tote bags I made. If you live within a 30 mile radius and are interested in some extra mozzarella, goat cheese, feta, romano cheese, tomatoes, peppers, basil, artichoke hearts, arugula, pizza dough from Trader Joes, tortilla chips, and other fixings for grilled pizzas, you should come on by with some tupperware.

What bores you the most?
The idea that life was better in the good old days. Anyone who has it all figured out. The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

What do you do when you see the glass half empty!
I paint the words “half empty” on a drinking glass.

Today you might feel one way, tomorrow another

Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?
I love my place and I would also like to live somewhere else. Pros of living in Mt Baldy: Pristine mountain air, delicious tap water, creeks running by our house, view of the stars, total silence, and novelty snow. None of those things are available in nearby Los Angeles. Cons of living in Mt Baldy: No good restaurants, art stores, or easy access to my best pals. A significant amount of isolation. Pros of isolation: Extreme productivity. Cons of isolation: Insanity.

What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?
Couples therapy.

If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?
At the airport boarding a plane to New York, my city of origin, where I also live at this exact moment in a parallel universe.

What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party?
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Thinking up cartoons is hard work and takes time

Studio table with trusty pal

Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.
I seriously cannot think of any pranks I’ve ever done. I’m way too nice. I prefer to limit my mockery of other people to quiet,private endeavors such as cartooning.

How to ruin your vacation?
Bring along, an uptight, miserly, control freak. Or someone who thinks you are.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?
First, I would talk to the giraffe and see if it really wanted to hide or if it wanted to be out in the open. We would go over the risks and benefits of hiding vs. exposure. I would talk about how vulnerable one feels when putting one’s giraffeness or one’s artwork out there every day, but how it’s actually worth it, because life is too short to spend too much time hiding or worrying about what other people think or trying to be something that you’re not, like not-a-giraffe. Then we would sing an inspirational song together about the freedom that comes from being oneself, and about how you can make fun of clichés and believe them at the same time. After that, the giraffe would probably prefer to embrace its giraffeness and risk going public. But because I’m such an incredibly accepting and respectful person, in case the giraffe still preferred to be hidden, I would stash it up on my roof, where the only creatures who would see it would be the mountain chickadees and the Search and Rescue workers in the helicopters flying overhead looking for lost hikers.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for
talking with Carolyn Hiler

Her beautiful illustrations stand out because of the particularly stylish artistic view, full of mystery and wonderful chromatics! Check them out on Queenio’s Toonpool gallery!

Touch

01. Which fictional character are you?
The girl who chased a rabbit in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, I even can’t take my eyes off the rabbits and I get lost easily.
 
02. What’s in your refrigerator right now?
I have Green tea Chocolate, Coconut Chocolate and Black Chocolate. I bought them from   Malaysia.
 
03. What bothers you the most?
In the summer: I hate the mosquitoes. Hummm, and I always lose something when I need it and I waste a lot of time to find it….. and……
 
04. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?
I lived in New Zealand for 1.5 years. Now I am on the way to go back China. I like both New Zealand and China, but I will keep moving until I find out where is the best place for me that I would like to settle down in.
 
05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?
Well, all the things only for female I guess.
 
06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?
Swimming pool or airport.
 
07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party
Swim suit
 
08. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.
My cousins and I made some weird dumplings for the Chinese New Year party filled with salt, pepper, strawberry leafs, sugar… … and mixed them with normal dumplings on the plate….
 
09. How to ruin your vacation?
You can ruin it by closing my bank account.
 
10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?
I would paint it into pure white and leave it in the park as a moving-sculpture.
 

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!
It depends on what is in it.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for
talking with Queenio

For this new issue of “Letter from” column, we asked toonpool artist Kim Maxine Frost about her life and begged for some photographs of her working place and the place she lives in – Seattle, also known as “the The Emerald City”. Kim (Frostyhut) joined toonpool on July, 2009 and she wishes to double her toonpool gallery by the end of the year. Kim works as a radio announcer at Classical KING FM 98.1 (have you seen her classical music inspired cartoons?).We are also proud that Kim writes for us, so we invite you to read her great review-interviews on toonpool’s blog!

Kim

01. Which movie/tv character you see yourself as
and why?

I am totally Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl. She’s awkward and kooky, but it all works out. And she gets to meet James Mason! She dislikes him in the film, but he’s the best thing in it.

02. What are your New Year’s resolutions?

To get 200 drawings posted to toonpool.com. And now (gulp), I guess I really have to!

03. What bores you the most?

In the past, the most boring thing was that my work life and my creative life were split up. That’s changing though. My job just commissioned some drawings, which is nice.  For the first time it’s all starting to blend together.

04. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?

Yes, I’ve never traveled. I love Seattle, but I fantasize about being somewhere warmer. Or just different. The radio station where I work airs a piece called Nights in the Gardens of Spain by Manuel de Falla. Every time I hear it, I want to go there.

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?

Draw Superman? That reminds me – a couple of years ago I heard German pianist Bernd Glemser when he toured the States. He inspired me to create a character called Bernd von Mimzer, a concert pianist with superpowers. He had nipples that could shoot deadly flames. I drew about sixty pages of the comic, and then I got a full time job. I need to carve out the time to get back to Bernd. I miss him!

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?

Well I’m obsessed with accessories, so my unconscious mind would probably take me to some shop filled with shoes and handbags. I’d love to wake up inside a Hermès store!

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party

In Seattle, it’s hard to shock because anything goes. I’ve seen kilts at the symphony, jorts (jean shorts) at the ballet. I’d probably try incongruity in the same outfit – a bikini with combat boots, maybe!

08. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.

I can’t think of a prank I pulled on someone else, but I remember a trick someone played on me. At an office Christmas party that was held at a nice hotel, one of my co-workers grabbed some silverware from a table setting and stuck it in my purse. I walked around all night with this silverware sticking out of my bag, and nobody told me! That’s the part I still can’t believe!

09. How to ruin your vacation?

Hot tubs have never worked out for me on vacations. Either there’s no heat, or the jets aren’t working, or both – and then you find yourself sitting in a big tub of tepid bacteria. The bacteria should at least be, you know, moving around.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?

That reminds me of a line from one of Donald Barthelme’s surreal short stories: “And the giraffe’s on fire in the kitchen, but you don’t care!” Good question. I’d try to recreate the giraffe’s natural habitat, and paint the entire area to look like a jungle. Maybe do one part of it in a giraffe pattern, so the giraffe could just blend in with the background when it wanted to.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!

When the glass is half empty and I start to feel down, I just buy stuff. I love pens. Right now my favorite is the Dr. Grip gel pen by Pilot. I don’t draw with it, I just make tons of lists (that I instantly lose). But I love those pens. I have them in a bunch of colors – pink, purple, emerald green. I go online and buy refills for my pens, and I feel much better.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for
talking with Kim Maxine Frost

The Adda river nearby

01. Which movie/tv character you see yourself as and why?
There is a TV show, “Scrubs”, where the protagonist tends to imagine unreal situations to distract himself from reality. Sometimes I distract my attention from reality like that.

02. What was your New Year’s resolution?
I’m on a course for a new total different work..I hope to be promoted!

03. What bores you the most?
Listening to stupid politicians it’s what bores me the most. Berlusconi was the worst of all. But there are more… Monti and company aren’t different.

04. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?
I live in a small village in the countryside, a perfect place for children to grow “into the wild”, but I personally hope to move to a place just in front of the sea, somewhere, someday.

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?
Superman can’t give people the intelligence to make this world the paradise that could be.

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?
On a train…

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party
No idea..perhaps a black sensual dress with tennis shoes

08. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.
Usually the victim…is me! Maybe because I’m too ingenuous!

09. How to ruin your vacation?
Vacation…what does vacation mean?

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?
I would hide it among other giraffes.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!
I go in front of the mirror and give a speech for the half full part!

More photos. Please click them to enlarge.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for
talking with Cristina Bernazzani

Please click on the images to enlarge.
The interview you find below the picture gallery.

01. Which movie/TV character you see yourself as and why?

Well, I never identified myself with those heroes-superheroes-antiheroes and their daring lives fraught with danger and emotions, too much stress…Who on earth lives like that in the real world?

Of course I would appreciate it if I slightly resembled the great Totoro or Ponyo or one of those Forest Spirits appearing in the movies by the great Miyazaki. I like that kind of character which is aloof from human morality, where nothing is good or bad in itself, where everything is small and big at the same time; they exist just like mother nature. They are little pagans who incarnate the rebirth of the savage „rewild“ and many other sentiments which the human being forgot about a long time ago, one last opportunity for humanity.

They are the primary harbingers of a new manner of understanding the relation between man and the planet, and with regard to this huge task, I like the idea that I have to put in my little grain of sand,too.

02. What are your New Year’s resolutions?

To keep on trying…which it not little. Trying not to lose ilusion and hope in this black future we’re bound to experience. Paraphrasing the great Robert Crumb: Keep on Trucking!

03. What bores you the most?

I’m bored with the discinlination to progress, the passivity of the society in view of the injustice and inequality. The arrogance and malice inherent to power make me despair.

And I’m terrified to live on a planet ruled by ignorance and the egoism of the Great System which is devouring us little by little without any prospect of us being able to or rather wanting to do something in order to avoid this process.

04. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?

You are in many respects a reflection or product of the place where you live, with all its defects and virtues. Like a huge tree, firmly fixed to the soil with its roots to nurture it. No one can know himself without knowing his soil, no one can love himself without loving his soil and no one can hate himself without hating his soil.

If I had been born somewhere else, I wouldn’t be me. Therefore I’ve learned to cherish and enjoy this place. The landscape, the silence, the sunsets, the flatness and the holm oaks are the great gifts of La Mancha which I wouldn’t change for anything in this world.

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?

I can eat Kriptonyte, join an anti-system group, dine with my family on Sundays, crap on the flag of the United States, I suppose a  lot of things, huh?

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?

I would probably not go very far, I remember that one time as a child I woke up totally disoriented under the living room table and I was quite frightened, I much rather travel dreaming, that’s safer.

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party?

A white tie? I prefer to avoid parties where I’m not well received, a penguin party would probably be a good example.

08. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.

The biggest prank I did on a friend was convincing him of precisely translating all of my cartoons and comics to English – I have a slight problem in the language department-, I hope the effort and inconveniences will someday come to fruition and compensate for the work.

09. How to ruin your vacation?

The vacation is irretrievably ruined the moment someone begins to work.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?

It would definitely be far away from man, and quite possibly in company with many other giraffes.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!

Finish it and serve me another one.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for talking with Mortimer

Click on the images to enlarge

1. What was your dream last night?

I think I was being chased by a gang of gangster clowns. We exchanged some heavy pie shooting and… wait, no, that was before. Last night it was something about butterflies in the ice-cream. They were singing tarantellas to me… no, wait… break-dancing camels. I was in the desert when… hmmm… Sorry, I seldom remember my dreams… Think those I said were actual events…

2. Next plans or ideas?

There’s a plan going on for a book with all the cartoons I published in my first year of collaboration with Ponto Final, a newspaper from Macau, the place where I’m living since 2009. Maybe we can organize an exhibit for the launching of the book, probably by the end of this year.

3. Your food today?

For lunch I’ll probably invent something with rice, eggs… and whatever I have in the fridge (I love creative cooking). For dinner, I hope I can make the time to go to a restaurant called Nga Tim (the best in Coloane village) and have my favorite spicy clams cooked with black beans in Macanese style. Let’s see how that goes…

4. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?

Both. I like very much the life I have in Macau. But I’d also like to try some other places in the future. The thing is that working at home (God bless the Internet), in theory I may live wherever I want. I don’t know where I’m going next. Maybe, New Zealand…

5. What was the huge mistake in your life you (unfortunately) never did?

I didn’t join a football team when I was a kid. Or a political party when I was a teenager. Today I could be a very rich man…

6. Who are your neighbors?

They are mainly Chinese. Some are locals, some from Hong Kong, Guangzhou and other parts of China. But there are also some friendly people from Portugal, Australia, USA and others. I can’t name them all, cause my building is 47 floors high (I live in the 45th). Each floor has six flats. You do the math…

7. Tell me the shortest joke you know

Berlusconi. The guy is a joke. Not a very funny one, sometimes. But pretty short.

8. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.

Once I told a friend that if he did ride his bicicle in circles around the city he could actualy be transported to another dimension after 50 laps (don’t ask me where I got that from). He believed. He was about to finish the last lap, when I called him and said that was a joke. He was furious cause he had to pedal back. That was fun.

9. How to ruin your vacation?

I don’t want to give you ideas, but… if I’m on the beach and you perform a “rain dance” you may actually ruin my vacation. But not that many people can do it. Please, Native Americans, stay away from the beaches I go to.

10. In 1977 NASA has sent orbiters Voyager 1 and 2 into space which will never stop to fly through the universe by gravity. They contain the Voyager Golden Records with many testimonials of whole mankind, greetings in 55 languages introduced by US president Jimmy Carter (“This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings….”). The Golden Records with a lifespan of 500 million years at least are including drawings of a naked man and woman, detaild genitalia, many scientific graphics, sounds of planet earth and music by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart – and Chuck Berry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3haYAbqKjA

Maybe aliens out there will be shocked in some million years! But in case such a NASA mission will be replayed: which (1) of your artworks should join it ?
This one (and I hope they have a good sense of humor): http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/iPhone%204_87695

11. Please give us an answer to a question we didn’t ask!

My mom.

Credits go to Nicoleta Ionescu for conducting this interview.
Find all our “Letter from” interviews here:

01. Which movie/tv character you see yourself as and why?

Kim Possible, she’s the most adorable super-heroine on TV.

02. Who’s Secret Santa would you like to be this year?

I would like to be Santa’s Secret Santa and jam all my small socks and jammies in his boots. If it weren’t for him, who would get the idea to serve you candy in used footwear?

03. What bores you the most?

The waiting rooms. They should have roller coasters, fireworks and cotton candy to make them more bearable.

04. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?

Yes, almost anywhere else, but with internet facilities.

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?

I can wear high hills and kryptonite earrings to a party.

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?

On the milk box.

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party

Two white ties or maybe that toilet paper wedding dress that seems to be awkwardly popular on the internet.

08. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.

Not the biggest prank, but the only one I can tell: once, I called a classmate and put the loudest alarm clock on the phone even before she got to answer.

09. How to ruin your vacation?

By putting it to an end.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?

I’d hide it in the following Two and a half man episodes.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!

I would freeze it, not to evaporate (also increasing volume).

1. Which movie/TV character you see yourself as and why?
The movie character I see myself as would probably be the lead part in the film ‘Chocolate ‘ for so many reasons!!!

2. What are your New Year’s resolutions?
My new year’s resolution was to eat more chocolate and exercise less, or was it the other way round?  I choose not to remember.a

3. What bores you the most?
My day job bores me most at the moment.

4. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?
I love living in East Anglia and probably won’t ever go too far from it if I can avoid it.  I have tried but always seem to end up returning here.

5. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?
Things I can do that Superman can’t, have a baby, go into the Ladies toilets, walk into a phone box without changing costume.

6. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?
If I were sleep walking I would probably wake up in the nearest chocolate factory/ sweet shop/ ice cream parlour.

7. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party
I could wear a cocktail dress and still get thrown out of a cocktail party.

8. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.
The biggest joke I ever played on anyone was one of my ex managers. We had no staff and it was very difficult, but me and two of my collegues wrote out really ridiculous letters of resignation and handed them to him altogether.  He went white.  Five minutes later we watched his face change as he opened the first letter, then he realised it was April Fool’s Day.  The letters went right round all the managers at our supermarket, we’d written we were leaving to become strippers or prostitutes or something!!!!  All very ridiculous stuff.

9. How to ruin your vacation?
I’d have to get food poisoning or a tooth ache to ruin any holiday.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?
I would hide a giraffe in the middle of an English supermarket with a sign round it’s neck saying ‘I’m a giraffe’.  English people don’t see anything in front of them and certainly don’t read signs.  They just complain if there’s not a sign. We’re a strange breed.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!
What do I do with a glass half empty?  Depends what’s been in it.

Click on image to enlarge

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for talking with Kerina Strevens

The circles portraits, the Pencil vs. Camera series or his strong expressed views on the world communicated trough art – all are part of Ben’s artistic universe and really make you wonder about the man behind this.

Le Petit Julien’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis) clothes are a perfect inspiration for what to wear to a black tie cocktail party ! Read more fun stuff on the following letter.

01. Which movie/tv character you see yourself as and why?

Maybe The Joker, because he is the opposite of what he pretends to be.

02. What are your New Year’s resolutions?

I have the bad habit to not follow my New Year’s resolution… So I don’t take any…

03. What bores you the most?

I hate doing administrative stuff, you know… I’m very bad at it and never understand why it’s important.

04. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?

I’d love to move away, very far. But maybe if I was living somewhere else, I’d want to come back…

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?

Die, sadly.

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?

50 km away, in the countryside… where the air is fresh.

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party

I’d come naked 

08. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.

I’d better not reveal it… Too dangerous.

09. How to ruin your vacation?

No sun, no girls…

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?

I’d cut it in pieces and eat it, lol.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!

I’m usually somebody optimistic, so I’d be cool and happy until the glass is totally empty.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for talking with Ben Heine