Viking_Yearbook_93

PSU doodlers' drawn into stardom Portland Review Monthly Portland State University’s Art and Literature Magazine November, 1985 “The Night of the Living Reformed Smokers ” The actual drawing of the cartoon only takes an hour to and hour and a half. “It’s just a matter of picking the works and condensing it down to make a point,” he said. Wells started drawing when he was in the third grade. His father brought home a school-sized chalk board and a big box of colored chalk. “I used to work out my issues on it,” he said. It’s taken him two years to get accepted to the California Institute of the Arts. When he first applied, he was told to practice his drawing. And Wells practiced. He said he went to the zoo everyday and drew sequential drawings of animals moving. He sat in the park blocks and drew people playing hacky sac. Sometimes he would spend six hours a day drawing. He also took a class at the Northwest Film Center where he made three short portfolio films. He sent all his films and drawings down to the Institute in Spring 1993 and was finally chosen. Out of the 1,000 students who applied, only 80 were accepted. After his animation training, he said, “I hope to work for a large Los Angeles studio and then go on to produce my own films of social comment.” Wells doesn’t see any correlation between being at Portland State and making cartooning his life’s work. “But I do find it interesting that many talented artists have springboarded from here,” he added. Callahan began drawing at the Vanguard, with no prior experience. and now his cartoons are seen around the world. Cartooning just came to him naturally, he said. He is printed regularly in the L.A. Times, the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, the NY Daily News, Willamtette Weekly, Penthouse, Harpers, Mother Jones, the London Observer, The Titanic in Germany, etc. And he said he hopes to get picked up by a paper in Australia soon. Callahan said that cartoon ideas just come to him unconsciously. He looks at the world and at television characters and sees the human condition. “I just think a lot,” he said. “I draw at night in bed.” Callahan is now doing a four or five minute animated film titled, “I think I was an alcoholic.” “It chronicles my alcoholism and recovery in cartoon form, with a heavy emphasis on the vomiting aspects,” he said. The toughest part about being a cartoonist is, “being persecuted by the political correct assholes of the