PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Illustrator• Taught Digital Synthesis at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Spring 2015.• Designed and illustrated Griffin logo for Grif-fin Cider Works. Did illustration of Lemonhead character for a cider label that won a first place national award.• Penciled several weeks of the comic strip “Funky Winkerbean” for cartoonist/writer Tom Batiuk (“Crankshaft”) that resulted in taking over full-time drawing duties for the comic strip “John Darling” (Distributed by King Features Syndicate)• Illustrated innovative comic book art for the highly regarded autobiographical book “Ameri-can Splendor” written by Harvey Pekar. Recog-nized by celebrated artist Robert Crumb for a fresh approach to comic book art in the forward

Illustrator SupervisorAdobe Creative Suite

PhotographyGraphic DesignerEditor

CartoonistWriterDigital images

Adobe PhotoshopAdobe IllustratorAdobe InDesign

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PROFESSIONAL CAREER SUMMARY

Award-winning Illustrator/Designer with career emphasis on developing creative solutions for clients and corporations.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

From the moment Gerry Shamray got his first box of Crayola Cray-ons as a child, he’s been creating

bright, colorful images and imaginative stories. The crayons may have been replaced by a Wacom tablet and mixed media but Gerry’s inventive imagination continues to be fresh and youthful.

Gerry has worked at Cleveland’s Sun Newspapers as their Graphics Editor where he has won over 24 national and statewide awards. He also picked up a Regional Emmy while working at PBS

station WVIZ-TV.

He is best known for his sketchy life-like drawings of Harvey Pekar in the comic book “American Splendor” that was later turned into a hit movie starring Paul Giamatti. He’s also worked with legend-ary comic strip artist/writer Tom Batiuk (“Crankshaft,” “Funky Winkerbean”) on the nationally syndicated strip, “John Darling.”

Gerry lives in Cleveland with his wife Tracy along with their two cats and dog. He loves to visit restaurants that leave crayons on their tables.

9217 Ansonia Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44144 . 216-661-3191 . shamray@hotmail.comIllustrator/Graphic Designer /WriterGERRY SHAMRAY

of Doubleday book “American Splendor.”• Acclaimed character actor Paul Giamatti recognized my Harvey Pekar illustrations as “the most useful thing” used in forming his award-winning film performance of “American Splendor”• Created “American Splendor” artwork that was placed in the highly regarded “De Superman au Chatd du Rabbin.” This in-ternational art show opened in Paris and traveled throughout Europe for two years. • Created illustrations which were published for the follow-ing books: Comic Relief, F.L.Y.E.R.S., American Splendor, More American Splendor, The New American Splendor Anthology, Best of American Splendor, The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar and American Splendor-Our Movie Year• Referenced/listed in the following books: Professional Pho-toshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction (5th Edition) by Photoshop Hall of Famer Dan Margulis, Comic-Book Superstars, Who is Who Among Comics Creators (Comics Buyer’s Guide), Comic Books as History and The Book of Games• Recognized and inducted into the Brooklyn High School Hall of Fame in the Cultural/Performing Arts category • Developed caricatures of celebrity Clevelanders for the Cleve-land Press comic strip “Cleveland” that became the topic of a Dick Feagler column called “The Shamray Effect”

Graphic Designer/Writer• Created promotional photos and photo illustrations for Griffin Cider Works. Photo illustrations included a popcorn tree and a human lemon head which lead to an award for best cider label for Lemon Blues. • Wrote a restaurant column for Patch.com which included photography and videos, one which won a first-place award in the Cleveland Press Club’s Excellence in Journalism awards. • Developed, designed and edited “Weekend,” an entertainment weekly published by Sun Newspapers (Ohio’s leading weekly newspaper) that successfully grew from a single advertise-ment zoned edition to five editions• Created cutting edge newspaper graphics, digital photo illustrations and illustrations that have earned 26 national and statewide awards including 9 first place awards• Contributed both bold page designs and en-tertainment articles/reviews/columns for Sun Newspapers’ “Intermission” section (movie re-views, interviews, etc.). Section’s success gener-ated over $200,000 a year in ad revenues• Supervised, proofed and approved pages for over 20 editions of Sun Newspapers

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• Created editorial cartoons that won a first-place national award from Suburban Newspapers of America• Awarded an Emmy for a TV segment written and co-produced on Superman’s connection to Cleveland for the WVIZ-TV series “Dimensions”• Wrote movie reviews that generated quotes in national movie ads and appeared on the nationally acclaimed web site www.rottentomatoes.com. Illustrated movie review that looked like a page from a comic book for “Sin City” which then became a feature story in the highly regarded publication, “Editor & Publisher”• Skilled observations and knowledge of animated films that lead to the article, “The Hidden Frames of Roger Rabbit,” in the highly regarded national movie magazine, “Premiere”

PROFESSIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE

Shamray.com 2009 - PresentFreelance Graphics/Illustrations

Cleveland Institute of Art 2015 - Present Teaching Digital Synthesis

Patch.com, Strongsville, Ohio 2010 - 2011Freelance Writer/Photography/Videos

Sun Newspapers, Valley View, Ohio 1988 - 2009Graphics Editor

OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE

Illustrator for John Darling Comic Strip” with Tom Batiuk, Medina, Ohio

Illustrator for American Splendor Comic Book with Harvey Pekar

Graphic Designer for WVIZ-TV EDUCATION

Cooper School of Art - Design and IllustrationCuyahoga Community College - Art 2 years

CONTACT

Samples and references are available upon request. Please feel free to contact me with any further questions.

-Gerry Shamray