Todd Umbarger: October 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

Not Adopted

From the hometown rag, The New Milford Times:

Unlike Ms. Pratt and her colleagues, New Milford Republican and former mayoral candidate Jay Umbarger, who first offered his services to the McCain team in the summer of 2007, will not campaign out of state for the Republican senator and presidential candidate in the waning days of the campaign.

"I am not going to go to New Hampshire to campaign because New Milford and Connecticut are where I live. I'm not going to go somewhere else and inject my local viewpoint onto someone else," the Republican said.

He expressed his disillusion with a campaign that, he said, has seemed to proceed in fits and starts. "I was a bit taken back in the summer of 2007 that they really weren't that organized," he said, noting that the campaign seemed to hit its stride early this year but then, as he put it, the wheels came off.

"I am a Republican and proud of it. I'm not one for party dogma. I'm not a dogmatic person. There seems to be too much dogma in both parties. If you want to help a candidate out, it seems you have to help the entire party. I'm candidate-focused," he said, explaining why he will not be among those making telephone calls from a New Milford phone bank this weekend. "Can they win here? I don't know, but you have to try."

Mr. Umbarger's convictions on the national race, however, seem less buoyant than those of his wife, Lynn. Earlier this year, the couple made reservations in the nation's capitol for an inauguration they had hoped would celebrate a Republican victory in the presidential race. "I'm in the cancel mode right now," said Mr. Umbarger at mid-week, acknowledging that his wife had not yet called to cancel the hotel reservations near Washington, D.C. presently held in the couple's name.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

New Work: New Haven Advocate/Fairfield County Weekly Cover

Hitting the newstands across southern Connecticut today are the New Haven Adovcate and Fairfield County Weekly alt-weekly newspapers, featuring my "Wizard of Oz" election cover. This is without a doubt the most exposure I've had in my 5+ years as an illustrator and hopefully also a stepping stone to even bigger clients. Thanks in advance to everyone from my home state picking up a copy!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Wisdom of Bush 319

LC Shave

Did anyone else see this? I caught LC & Brody's commercial for the AT&T LG Shine cell phone the other night and was amazed by the clarity of its mirrored front:

PREVIOUSLY: The Wisdom of Bush 217

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

New Work: "Dethklok"

Metalocalypse has quickly become one of my favorite shows of all time. My teenage self would've had a better life knowing that the future included a hilarious gore-filled cartoon about a death metal band. The second season finale's Adult Swim intro featured a call for Dethklok fan art and I'm sending this portrait to the brilliant Brendon Small in hope of some brief airtime. Or a job at Mordhaus, at the very least.