{"id":38512,"date":"2022-08-11T07:54:48","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T11:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=38512"},"modified":"2022-08-11T07:54:48","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T11:54:48","slug":"chambers-of-commerce-eat-drink-and-be-merry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/08\/11\/chambers-of-commerce-eat-drink-and-be-merry\/","title":{"rendered":"Chambers of Commerce – Eat, Drink and Be Merry!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Long before fine dining in Philadelphia took place in makeshift shacks made of forklift palette wood and plastic tarpaulins haphazardly situated on the pavements and streets outside of the actual brick-and-mortar restaurants, people read newspapers. They were actual newsprint newspaper and printed with ink and were available everywhere for a couple of coins, and it was how people got the news. In addition to the news, there was also sports scores, movie listings, comic strips, celebrity gossip and horoscopes. People enjoyed the paper whether it was broadsheet or tabloid. These cheaply printed conglomerations of events and fluff made money back then. When the newspapers made money, they had money to spare on illustrators like yours truly<\/em> to provide illustrations to break up all of that boring text with cartoons like the one above. The editors and publishers thought it worked. Who was I to argue with them?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"It was 1997 and Philadelphia seem to be experiencing a burst of energy as far as nightlife was concerned. Flashy restaurants and watering holes were sprouting up around town and packing patrons in. Philly was no longer a podunk town that rolled up the sidewalks at 6:00 pm once the commuters got the hell out of Dodge upon clocking out of work. There was a vibrant nightlife in the city and The Philadelphia Daily News<\/em> wanted to report on some of the hotter hot spots in their weekend edition, and they decided to bring me along for the ride as the illustrator. Again, who was I to argue with them?<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t remember whether it was my or the editor’s idea to specifically feature illustrations of tattoo parlors<\/a>, gentlemen’s clubs and martini bars. I don’t think the article was ready for me to read. Writers could work until the last minute, but I could not. I think they gave me a vague notion of what they wanted, and I had fun with it.<\/p>\n

This was before I got my first Mac<\/em>, my first scanner and all of the software that went with it so none of it is digital on my part. It was drawn and inked on hot press water color paper and painted with water colors and color pencils.<\/p>\n

I didn’t have internet access yet so I didn’t take it seriously. At that time and in my mind print was still king. I miss that time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long before fine dining in Philadelphia took place in makeshift shacks made of forklift palette wood and plastic tarpaulins haphazardly situated on the pavements and streets outside of the actual brick-and-mortar restaurants, people read newspapers. They were actual newsprint newspaper … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,7,700],"tags":[5413,158,17,8,43,3661,5,354,3669,63,5416,480],"class_list":["post-38512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blast-from-the-past","category-illustration","category-pixels-versus-pigment","tag-5413","tag-analog","tag-cartoon","tag-cartoons","tag-humor","tag-illustration","tag-joe-williams","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-restaurant","tag-the-philadelphia-daily-news","tag-usa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-a1a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38546,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/08\/17\/the-wonder-of-white-bread\/","url_meta":{"origin":38512,"position":0},"title":"The Wonder of White Bread","author":"Joe","date":"August 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This was another cartoon spot illustration that I did for The Philadelphia Daily News as part of \"The Secret Life of Food.\" It ran with the shivering banana that I featured here at Willceau Illo News recently. Similar to the banana, the black ink was shot as a photostat on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Wonder-of-White-Bread.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Wonder-of-White-Bread.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Wonder-of-White-Bread.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20455,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2016\/03\/16\/looking-west-from-broad-and-spruce\/","url_meta":{"origin":38512,"position":1},"title":"Looking West from Broad and Spruce","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"March 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking out the back or West side of the Atlantic Building which was known as Anderson Hall at the time and housed the Philadelphia College of Art. The 20 story skyscraper that once was a business office for the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company became The Philadelphia College of Art when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/schoolcatalog198081phil_bw-10.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/schoolcatalog198081phil_bw-10.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/schoolcatalog198081phil_bw-10.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43419,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2024\/06\/18\/scratching-a-scratchboard-itch\/","url_meta":{"origin":38512,"position":2},"title":"Scratching a Scratchboard Itch","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"June 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The recent closure of The University of the Arts has set me careening down memory lane like a runaway train crashing into memories of my days at The Philadelphia College of Art. The Philadelphia College of Art mutated into the Philadelphia Colleges of Art when it merged with the Philadelphia\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Illustration"","block_context":{"text":"Illustration","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/illustration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/scratchboard-cover.jpg?fit=640%2C857&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/scratchboard-cover.jpg?fit=640%2C857&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/scratchboard-cover.jpg?fit=640%2C857&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38418,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/08\/03\/chambers-of-commerce-get-a-tattoo\/","url_meta":{"origin":38512,"position":3},"title":"Chambers of Commerce – Get a Tattoo!","author":"Joe","date":"August 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Back when tattoos were still novel and newspapers had readers and thus advertising revenue and thus budgets to hire freelance artists, I did this cartoon for The Philadelphia Daily News. My illustrations accompanied an article entitled Chambers of Commerce which promoted new, hip and happening eateries, bars and small businesses\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tattoo-guy.jpg?fit=640%2C699&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tattoo-guy.jpg?fit=640%2C699&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Tattoo-guy.jpg?fit=640%2C699&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20959,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2016\/08\/10\/sam-eric-theater\/","url_meta":{"origin":38512,"position":4},"title":"Sam Eric Theater","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"August 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This isn't really part of The Photo Elective series in that it wasn't part of that elective course that all illustration majors at The Philadelphia College of Art were required to take, but I did use the same SLR camera and it was part of a school assignment. Rather than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philadelphia"","block_context":{"text":"Philadelphia","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/philadelphia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sam Eric Theater","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8730\/28596140220_945926c875_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8730\/28596140220_945926c875_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8730\/28596140220_945926c875_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3629,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/08\/18\/mini-comic-madness-how-we-made-the-monkey-bird-mini-comic\/","url_meta":{"origin":38512,"position":5},"title":"Monkey & Bird Mini-Comic! 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