David Cowles

From This Might Be A Wiki
Self-portrait
A caricature of John & John by David Cowles

David Cowles (pronounced "coals"; born November 3, 1961), renowned caricature artist and illustrator, has directed, produced, and designed many videos for They Might Be Giants.

Cowles first met the band around late 2005, when he was producing a pilot, Skitterville, for Playhouse Disney, and needed a band to make the theme song. TMBG's theme song was ultimately left unmade however, as the Playhouse Disney executives vetoed the idea due to the band already working on several projects for the network. The pilot was eventually dropped in June 2006 due to lack of interest from the focus group, but he and the band remained in touch over the rest of the year for any potential projects to work on.

Cowles then first worked with the band in December 2006, when he directed and designed the video for "Triops Has Three Eyes" (from Here Come the 123s), with animator Phil Lockerby and the studio Flickerlab, both of whom coincidentally also worked on Skitterville. Since then, Cowles has produced numerous music videos for They Might Be Giants, most frequently with collaborator and co-director Jeremy Galante.

In 2013, the video for "Icky" from Nanobots (directed by Cowles and Galante) previewed at a show in March at The German House in Rochester, NY—Cowles' hometown—and Cowles was given a special tribute at the show. Much of the photo material in the video, including Mr. Icky himself, was collaged material from Cowles' and Galante's friends and family.

Cowles directed numerous videos for the 2015 and 2018 iterations of Dial-A-Song. In this period he also worked with the band to create the Escape Team concept and characters, and created the associated comic book.

Cowles' daughter, Alison Coté (née Cowles), is also a character designer and illustrator. She provided the illustrations for TMBG's fifth children's album, Why?, and its promotional material, including the animated music video for "Moles, Hounds, Bears, Bees And Hares".

Videography for They Might Be Giants[edit]

Miscellaneous music videos[edit]

Here Come The 123s (2008)[edit]

Here Comes Science (2009)[edit]

Dial-A-Song (2015)[edit]

Dial-A-Song (2018)[edit]

External links[edit]