Art Department Weekly | Issue 85 Vol. 12

ADW art department weekly issue 85 Vol. 12

Staycation going new places only in our imaginations

mini boArD so eXciteD

Luis hasn’t been able to put down his phone since announcements began rolling out of Toy Fair this weekend, but I saw a few reveals on Thursday morning TV. My laundromat plays Channel 7, so first I saw Good Morning America show off the animatronic baby Yoda, letting him babble, blink, twitch his ears, and use the Force. Then later on Live, Ryan Seacrest asked Kelly Ripa if she was a fan of The Mandalorian. She started a rant about how she ordered the Child for Christmas, but has not received it—and she’s a Disney employee! Then Seacrest pulled out the Build A Bear plush to her genuine surprise. It came with guards, though, so, like all the rest of us, Ripa’s wait continues for them all to hit the market.

—MV

let ’em breAthe

snAck AttAck

Luis saw the video I made to promote getting to be a fly on the wall at Global Wholesale Flowers and said, “I can’t wait to see the rest!” And I was confused because he had already seen the whole issue. So, I took a picture of unboxed flowers for him this week...

—MV

I used to work at a magazine that asked celebrities what they carried in their handbags, so I needed to click the headline saying I’d never guess what Julia Butters was smuggling into the Academy Awards ceremony. A turkey sandwich.

She was carrying a turkey sandwich.

share with us what you’re thinking about and creating on twitter @addubs or dubbsubs@yahoo.com

That sounded so Anna Kat (her regular character from American Housewife) and she was wearing Christian Siriano. I had to fangirl and illustrate the moment as I pictured it from the story’s text.

—MV

Art Department Weekly is published by Dinosaur Girly Productions, 184 Bay 26th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11214. The entire contents of ADW are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without expressed written consent of the publisher. ADW accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and/or photographs and assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. ADW reserves the right to edit, rewrite, refuse or reuse material, is not responsible for errors or omissions, and may feature same in other mediums for any and all purporses.

lAst to knoW Walking down Northern Boulevard the other day, I passed so many raised grates, I finally had to Google what the story is. As David W. Dunlap beautifully writes for The New York Times, “Made of hammered stainless steel and available in three different heights, their almost sculpturally undulating form is a deliberate reference to the problem they are supposed to help solve. ‘You’re aware that this is here for storm water,’ said Rob Rogers,” whose firm designed the grates after a storm completely flooded the subway system in 2007.

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thunDercAts noooooooo

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When I heard Cartoon Network was working on a new version, I instantly thought of the brilliant but short-lived Thundercats relaunch from 2011. While that version gave a truer characterization of the core group, the new version, titled Thundercats Roar, is jokier and absurdist, more in line with Teen Titans Go (but more ridiculous). Lion-O doesn’t know how to use the Sword of Omens. While I was finally able to enjoy Teen Titans Go, I see myself taking a hard pass on Roar. —LV

From the tribute to Kobe and Giana on 2/24/20

“In places where Kobe would be booed on the court, Kobe is missed” -Jimmy

“I’ll start with my baby girl” -Vanessa the title character’s joyful nightmare where she performs a full blown musical number with everyone she knows

zoey Doesn’t WAnt to sing—or heAr you I like musical television. I watched Rise hoping it would be the next Glee. If you do not want to see high schoolers singing competitively, you’re in luck—Zoey’s Extraoridnary Playlist is about a coder (Zoey, played by Jane Levy) who can suddenly hear people’s inner most thoughts in musical format after San Francisco suffers an earthquake while she is getting a brain MRI. Glee was campy fun, but Zoey is more wicked—the musical numbers are over the top amazing moments where people pour out their hearts but Zoey doesn’t want to hear them and has to act like she doesn’t know what the performer is thinking after. Her top two co-stars (Alex Newell from The Glee Project and Skylar Astin from Pitch Perfect) are charming standouts. For a small look at how this is perfectly executed, watch the “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” number from Episode 2. Zoey is hands down my favorite new show of the TV season.

—LV

“He made it okay to play with an edge that borderlined crazy”

February 25, 2020 • Art

-diana

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hidden risk On February 12, Alexa Meade painted real life heart attack survivors to look like they were part of murals in The Oculus. Bayer teamed up with two heart health nonprofits, Mended Hearts and WomenHeart, for this campaign. Bayer donated money to both groups for every AR selfie shared with the #YourHiddenRisk hashtag.

kal cooks Kal’s created a food monster for his art elective’s sewing project. While we haven’t seen the sewn creation yet, he has carried on the monster’s kitchen adventures in a few new comics, making bacon pancakes and flossing while frying a smaller version of himself.

The food monster is a combination of mostly oatmeal and seaweed but also whatever other foods he consumes.

—MV

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Art Department Weekly • February 25, 2020

Who was the best president?

As we passed President’s Day and are in the current (and contentious) Presidential election cycle, it led me to think who were the best fictional presidents of all time. After thoroughly researching (and forgetting President Grant from Scandal) I came up with the below bracket. I personally had President Palmer going all the way, but the masses (the 10 people who filled out the bracket at Meredith) spoke and had him placed third.

The runaway winner was President Marshall from Air Force One. I guess everyone liked a tough president who stood up to terrorist and snarled “Get off my plane.” Marshall was followed by Shepherd, Palmer, and Bartlett.

—LV

February 25, 2020 • Art

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imagine that toy preview There were many surprises in the Hasbro booth at Toy Fair this week that I can’t wait to share in the next issue of the Dubbs, but here are three everyone should know about now: North from FurReal This snow

Boom is obsessed with Transformers. His favorite thing to do is ask for access to the internet so he can shop for more obscure versions of his favorite toys. His next favorite thing seems to be using the smallest Legos available to create his own Transformers. Not only do parts flip around to change them from vehicles to standing robots, but they all combine to form more powerful Legos. He doesn’t like to talk, but he might be willing to tell you all about Crash Combiners.

—MV

leopard cub shivers until you cuddle him. His crytal changes to let you know how he feels.

Black Series Snake Eyes Even

without the extra swag, I had to preorder this 6-inch version. lightning collection ranger slayer With her Bow of Darkness and

premium paint, she’s a standout. —LV

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Art Department Weekly • February 25, 2020

picturing something different we had some fun in the city with digital paints

The expanse of blue sky behind Burger

King’s “$1.00 Taco is Back” sign left a lot of room for me to think how funny it would be to see a giant taco on the roof.

My plans to catch the subway to a more touristy spot went in the trash and I started looking for more scenes we could re-paint.

Kal, Boom, and Betty each painted two photos in this story, starting with this Transformer on First Avenue created by Boom, and then I added on bits.

—MV

On this page, Boom turned an Astin Martin into a Transformer. Betty decorated a First Ave. tunnel and Queens Toys’R’Us. Opposite, Kal added a natural climber to the 59th Street Bridge.

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Art Department Weekly • February 25, 2020

February 25, 2020 • Art

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I asked Kal to decorate the billboard using inspiration from the Kawaii doodle book, and he knew he had to do sushi. I wanted a picture of pigeons so I could have them attacking toast, but the pigeons just weren’t that into it.

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Art Department Weekly • February 25, 2020

Why not the zoo? pace yourself. there’s a lot One year I signed up for IDNYC and made the trip to the Bronx Zoo so I could take advantage of the free Wildlife Conservation Society membership offered with the ID. Between the trip up there and the amount of whining about how much walking is required inside the zoo (it’s 265 acres), it was our only trip on that membership. Everyone is bigger now and Betty specifically requested to visit a zoo, so I decided we could do this again...

As soon as we were inside the zoo, we were greeted with the sounds of scream-crying tantrums. Three separate families facing everything from “I don’t want to leave” to “I don’t want walk.” I stuck hard to the idea that we were going to move slowly and we might only see two things.

I think the kids saw more of the fish in the tiger’s pond than they saw of the tiger. The biggest pay off was probably taking them through Mouse House because it was dark and usually they could find what they were supposed to be seeing running on toy wheels, which is super fun and hilarious.

The plan is to go back at least once more when exhibits re-open with the warm weather. They can’t say they’ve already seen everything before, so hopefully they won’t.

—MV

(clockwise) Fish live on Tiger Mountain; everyone watches to see where the tiger will settle down to sunbathe; Betty and Boom hunt field mice.

February 25, 2020 • Art

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five things from playtime with betty

2nd place trophy I packed up dozens of Happy Meal toys to get rid of, and they have all magically been unpacked, but this one is not for play. It’s a fantasy footbally trophy Never chapped This caticorn twists open to

reveal a sparkly lip balm for Betty Well-used toys Luckily dominoes was not

the only game included in the Dinsey Princess box set. I think Boom ate this one as an infant It leaked Obviously, Betty did not use one Sharpie to color the other Sharpie... cross-over play Before re-dressing 16

Monster High dolls, three of them were wearing Calico Critters dresses—and I realized they looked like re-imagined Power Puff Girls

Monster High dolls remove their hands to get dressed

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Art Department Weekly • February 25, 2020