Me In the Sordoni Collection of American Illustration & Comic Art Catalog

Just got an email from my friend Adrian Sinnott who shared these photos with me. The first pic is of the Sordoni Collection gallery show catalog cover (above), and the next is a page with my cartoon original (below), which is part of the Sordoni Collection of American Illustration & Comic Art show going on now. There I am, on the same page with Bringing Up Father and Moon Mullins. I am very honored.


And a public thanks to Andrew Sordoni III who sent me my own catalog as well.

A better view of the cartoon. This is the color version as published in Reader's Digest:

My Cartoons on Display at the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival

Very "chuffed" to announce that three of my cartoons are on display at the UK's fifteenth annual Shrewsbury Festival this year.  The theme is "transport."

I posted all of cartoons I had sent them last week, asking you to take a look and pick one that you would think was best. I did this because, at that time, I didn't know which one they had picked -- and now I am happy to say that they picked THREE. Wow.

These are the ones that they picked. Thanks to the Surreal McCoy for letting me know! These are her photos from the exhibit, followed by a JPEG file of the image.

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Help Us Kickstart Maine Cartoon Book LOBSTER THERAPY

So happy to finally announce this book of cartoons is out. It's called LOBSTER THERAPY AND MOOSE PICK-UP LINES and has almost 200 great cartoons by me, John Klossner, David Jacobson, Jeff Pert and the one and only Bill Woodman. 

We have started a Kickstarter to help cover expenses to promote the book. This helps with traveling to the Book Expo in NYC, and doing conventions and so on. Your money goes to us, the cartoonists. You get signed books and originals and other one-of-a-kind items. Take a look. 

Here's the background:

Last year, I was in Portland, Maine, visiting Bill Woodman. Bill's drawn cartoons for Playboy and The New Yorker for years and years. My friend, the New Yorker cartoonist John Klossner, was also with us. As usual, we ended up talking shop - mostly about magazine cartoons.

I said that we should put together a proposal for a cartoon book about Maine since we all lived in Maine. Well. OK, except for me. I actually live in New Hampshire, a mile from the Maine border. So … as penalty, they put me in charge.

I asked two other Maine cartoonists, David Jacobson and the late, great Jeff Pert (thru his brother, Jon Pert), to join us. The proposal went out to about a dozen publishers.

We were fortunate to reach an agreement with Down East publishing to print and distribute the book. LOBSTER THERAPY AND MOOSE PICK-UP LINES is set to be published soon.

But, as you probably know, there's not a lot of money in publishing these days unless your name is Kardashian or you're writing a political tell-all. This Kickstarter is our attempt to get some additional funds to promote the book and maybe give a little extra to the cartoonists. If you want an opportunity to buy something special, please take a look at what we are offering.

Thanks for your time. And thanks for supporting the arts – and supporting great cartoonists who live in Maine – and one who lives just across the border.

"Lobster Therapy" Maine Cartoon Book by Maine Cartoonists

Mike Lynch Transport Cartoons

I'm pleased to have a cartoon of mine on display at the Shrewsbury Festival this year. It's on the theme of transport. So, I sent on a bunch of cartoons. But, I still don't know which one of the batch of my "transport" themed cartoons they picked. I sent a bunch. I'm looking forward to my friend Surreal McCoy telling me which one made it when she's there this weekend.

In the meantime, here is everything I sent. If you want, tell me which one you would include in your gallery show.

Happy 80th Anniversary, Superman!

Here are photos of your two dads, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Video: Pulitzer-prize Winning Editorial Cartoonist Steve Breen Highlights California's Homelessness Problem

From the PBS News Hour:

Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist Steve Breen is using his drawings to highlight the growing problem of homelessness and the housing crisis in Southern California. Jeffrey Brown gets a first-hand look at the cartoonist and newspaper’s efforts to humanize and complicate the public’s understanding of the problem.

Video: Alison Bechdel, James Kochalka, and Edward Koren in Discussion

Vermont Cartoonist Laureates Past and Present: A panel discussion held April 8, 2018 with Alison Bechdel, James Kochalka, and Edward Koren via RETN:

Trailer: Editorial Cartoonist Mr. Fish Documentary "Cartooning From the Deep End"

From the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival:

Mr. Fish, a successful, outrageous editorial cartoonist, finds that his profession is dying. Can he support his family and maintain his unique defiant voice when biting satiric humor has an ever-diminishing commercial value. Ultimately CARTOONING FROM THE DEEP END examines the compromises a radical artist makes (or refuses to make).

Meredith, NH: Bob Montana "Archie" Statue Dedication August 9, 2018

Photo by Morgan Karanasios.

Did you know that Bob Montana, the fellow who created Archie, lived in New Hampshire? 

From the Laconia Daily Sun:

Montana drew the first comic strip featuring Archie Andrews while renting a cottage on Lake Waukewan in 1942, and the strip would go nationwide in 1946. Two years later, he bought a 60-acre farm on Meredith Neck, and the town became the basis for many of the people and locations that would appear in the comic strip, even though Archie’s high school was based on Montana’s three years as a resident of Haverhill, Massachusetts.

In 1967, he bought the former Esso station on Main Street and converted it into a studio and gallery. He thought it would provide a quiet place to work, but his fame soon made it too popular a place for visitors and he retreated to the farm to work on the comic strip. 

The popularity of the character led to the renaming of the company that publishes the Archie comic books to Archie Comics, and the creation of a television series further enlarged the franchise.

From the Greater Meredith Program site:

GMP has commissioned from sculptor, Valery Mahuchy, a life-sized bronze “Archie” statue. The statue will honor Meredith resident and artist, the late Bob Montana, as part of Meredith's 250th anniversary celebration in 2018. Not only will the comic strip character find a permanent place in town; but also, it will serve as a tribute to Bob Montana's many contributions to Meredith. Among those contributions were protecting the waterfront from commercial development (Save the Bay), promoting Meredith as supportive of the arts, and preserving the village character of Main Street. In addition, Montana played an instrumental role in making Meredith's 200th anniversary celebration in 1968 a smashing success prior to his sudden and premature passing at 54. GMP welcomes the public to gather with the Montana family August 9th, 2018 in Community Park on Main Street. The statue will be commemorated there, across the street from Montana’s former gallery and frame shop.

Lions Club representative Marie Valiere presents a check to Greater Meredith Program Design Committee co-chairman Chris Williams and Archie statue subcommittee chairman Jim McFarlin in front of a model of the bench that will be built for a life-size Archie statue to recognize the town's connection to Bob Montana, creator of the Archie comic strip. (Courtesy Photo)

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EDIT:

 

I have problems with that article.

 

If you click on the Laconia Daily Sun link, you can read an article that recounts the story of Archie's success in a way I have never heard before. The Sun's version is that Archie, was, a comic strip, created by Bob Montana. And it was very successful. So successful that Archie Comics changed their name. Well, so far as I know, Montana pitched the idea at the request of one of the big MLJ owners. The comic book came first, and then, later, a daily strip. And it was a team effort. Granted, Montana ran the comic book/comic strip in the beginning, but there were many talented people who left their mark. There is mention in the article of a TV show hit series, but I'm at a loss to recall anything other than the animated 1970s Saturday morning TV series from years ago (which was based more on Dan DeCarlo's later Archie look, than Montana's), and the new Archie TV show that kinda is a dark take on the whole thing. So dark as to be unrecognizable.

 

Here is the story of Archie as I have been told:

I was fortunate enough to hear the story of Archie from Joe Edwards himself. (Joe drew the "Li'l Jinx" series in the Archie comic books.) Joe was there, in the MLJ offices, with Bob Montana and John Goldwater, as they were hashing out ideas. This was around 1940. Publisher Goldwater (whose first name was the "J" part of the "MLJ" publishing acronym) wanted a new comic book story, maybe something like the Andy Hardy series of movies. But what would it be? What do teenagers want? How do you appeal to them? 

He turned to the then-twenty year old Joseph Edwards. 

"Joe, you're a young guy. What do you want?" asked Goldwater. 

"Three things," said Joe, counting on his fingers. "Girls, of course -- money, so I can take girls out -- and a job, so I can make the money to take out the girls." 

Bob Montana created the initial look of Archie Andrews, Jughead and Betty Cooper for Pep Comics #22, December 1941. By the next year, Archie had his own title.



Related:

THE NEW ENGLAND LIFE OF CARTOONIST BOB MONTANA by Carol Lee Anderson