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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Illustration’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

June 15: Virginian-Pilot’s Wes Watson previews the ‘Superman’ movie with an illustration

I received a handful of Man of Steel movie-themed pages but not enough, really, to make a decent blog post. So, as you may have noticed, I skipped the topic. Until now. I spotted this from Wesley Watson of the Virginian-Pilot on Facebook this morning and it knocked my socks off. Click for a much larger look. Wesley tells us: [...]

June 11: An important historical anniversary observed, Sam Hundley style

Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Civil Rights icon Medgar Evers. He was cut down by a white supremacist in the front yard of his own home in Jackson, Miss. The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk ran this as its features front today. Click for a much larger look. The illustrator and designer of this piece, Sam Hundley, tells [...]

June 5: Cool illustration alert

The Rolling Stones might still be searching for satisfaction. But I’ll bet there were plenty of Cleveland Plain Dealer readers who were mighty pleased to find this on the front of their Sunday arts section on May 19. Click for a larger view. The illustrator is Ted Crow. The Not-So-Plain Dealer blog posted: The Stones are kicking off their half-century [...]

May 24: Fun summer cover illustration alert

For your consideration: The front of the new issue of Huffington, the iPad app published by the Huffington Post. One wonders how long you’d have to search through Google maps to find a water park shaped exactly like that. You think you’ve found one when you look closer and it says “Best Summer Breeblesnorf.” In fact, that’s an illustration by [...]

May 15: What, you can’t find a Star Trek geek to art-direct your t-shirts? (5)

An old friend, Dewayne Matteson, points out this interesting Star Trek T-shirt design. It’s a gorgeous design and lovely colors. But look a little closer at the artwork. Longtime Star Trek fans will spot it right away. The silhouette of the ship is what fans refer to as the Enterprise-A — the original starship commanded by Capt. Kirk and then [...]

May 14: Two cool Sunday sports fronts from San Diego

This page caught my eye Sunday in the Facebook timeline of U-T San Diego. Click for a much larger view: Design director Peter Nguyen tells us: The concept actually came from Anthony Tarantino (former sports designer, current A1 designer) during one of our group brainstorms. Brainstorming is an important part of our process, because I feel the best ideas come [...]

May 12: Forget the ‘feel good’ Mother’s Day story. This one is heartbreaking and powerful. And important.

As you might imagine, the Plain Dealer today led with a look back to the huge story of the week, adding details, updates and perspective to the horrifying story on the three teenaged girls who were kidnapped and then held in chains and ropes for up to a decade. These stories are powerful and I recommend them highly. But what [...]

May 10: Let’s go surfin’ now. Everybody’s learning how. Come on a safari with me.

Wednesday, the newspaper I work for — the Orange County Register — ran a terrific graphic on the back page of sports that explains some of the finer points of how to surf. First, put on some Ventures or the Beach Boys. And then click this for a much larger view: These graphics were reported, written and drawn by the [...]

May 9: A skinny governor of New Jersey, thanks to a page-one photoillustration

One of my blog readers asked Wednesday: This seems…wrong. Do you have thoughts? The page she was referring to was this photoillustration afront the Asbury Park Press. That’s New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is famously overweight and who had banding surgery on his stomach earlier this year in hopes of losing weight. The illo — by Jeff Colson of [...]

May 6: Move over, Batboy: Meet Van Meter’s winged ‘Visitor’

My old pal Nathan Groepper, creative director of the Gannett Design Studio in Des Moines, Iowa, writes: I thought this might appeal to your offbeat sensibilities. The Des Moines Register [ran on Saturday] a story about a sighting of a giant winged monster in a small town in Iowa 110 years ago. The mysterious creature was discovered in a coal [...]

May 5: A look at this weekend’s Kentucky Derby front pages

Both Lexington and Louisville went with illustrations on the covers of their Saturday newspapers to advance yesterday’s 139th running of the Kentucky Derby. The Lexington Herald-Leader put this wonderfully graphic illustration by Chris Ware on the front, showing roses falling upon the downs. Meanwhile, the Courier-Journal of Louisville went with a photoillustration of a trainer who had five horses running [...]

May 3: Two fun ‘Iron Man 3′ features treatments

A couple of fresh Iron Man 3 pages for your Friday reading pleasure… — DAILY MAIL Charleston, W.Va. Circulation: 17,879 News and design editor Philip Maramba writes to say: As all the Charleston Daily Mail‘s comic book nerds have gone on to other papers or been bumped into middle management, it’s been a while since we’ve had a front devoted [...]

May 2: Victoria, Texas, has some fun with the new summer super-hero movies

Assistant presentation editor Luis Rendon of the Victoria (Texas) Advocate, writes to show us what he and the crew of Get Out — the Advocate‘s weekly entertainment tab — did for today’s edition. Luis writes: We originally had planned to focus on a Cinco de Mayo story, but changed course when we realized that Iron Man 3 was coming out this [...]

May 1: Our first ‘Iron Man 3′ features treatment

My pal James A. Molnar of the Toledo (Ohio) Free Press Star writes: I’m excited to share with you our Summer Movies package. Once again, Iron Man is center stage.   I found a cool photo of Iron Man sitting on a couch and thought I’d add popcorn, as if he’s watching a movie. My editor, Michael S. Miller, asked [...]

April 24: Martin Gee’s take on Superman

Here’s master illustrator Martin Gee with his take on Superman. Click for a much larger look. Martin gives quick-hit bios for the Man of Steel and his associates: Snappy journalist Lois Lane… …Daily Planet employees Perry White and Jimmy Olsen… …a nice old couple from Smallville, a number of supervillans and one one certain mild-mannered reporter. Martin drew this for [...]

April 19: I second the motion

  Way to go, RedEye, for putting into words — and visuals — what all of us are thinking today. RedEye, of course, is the free commuter+youth tab published daily by the Chicago Tribune. Its average daily distribution is about 250,000. That front page is from the Newseum. Of course.

April 19: A little TOO close (7)

I understand the concept of finding a page and then re-using the idea. I really do. I think nearly all of us have done that at some point. But when you use someone else’s idea, please try to vary it just a bit more than this: On the left is the Huntsville Times from April 8, 2010, designed by the [...]

April 15: Ryan Huddle’s take on the new Rob Zombie movie

My pal Ryan Huddle of the Boston Globe sends… …this week’s Sunday page we did on Rob Zombie and Sheri Moon Zombie. It is based on Zombies new film, The Lords of Salem. Click for a larger view: Ryan writes: I also made a movie poster for it when I  had down time. I really like doing these. Not bad. [...]

April 12: Pro tip: Never made a ‘mud hen’ angry

The Toledo Free Press — located in Toledo, Ohio, home of the famous minor-league Toledo Mud Hens — pulls out all the stops every spring for its baseball preview edition. On the left, here, is the free tabloid’s 2010 cover. The other two are the paper’s two 2011 front covers: The one in the middle is the actual front cover [...]

April 12: Everything you ever wanted to know about the visitors’ locker room (1)

Talk about finding a fun story in a place where you’d never think to look! Sharon Henry — a former “visual columnist” for the Orange County Register who moved away but then returned to the paper last winter — took her amazing sketchbook skills into the locker room at the California Angels stadium this week. The visiting locker room. Where [...]

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