1987 B. Kliban Interview by Heidi MacDonald

 

From 1987, here's an interview with gag cartoonist B. Kliban conducted by Heidi MacDonald (and it's copyright that year by her) from SPLAT! #3, SPLAT! sports a cover by Howard Cruse and was published bi-monthly by Mad Dog Graphics, a division of Strnad Publishing and Tom Mason.

What's amazing here is the backstory to his Cat book, which was and still is a big deal. It almost didin't happen at all. Kliban was just doing weird cat drawings and filing them away. One day Playboy cartoon editor Michelle Urry just happened to drop by his studio and open the drawer of cat drawings. She loved them. It was she who said these should be published. 

Michelle was a great editor and much missed by Playboy cartoonists. Playboy was, after all, a premiere cartoon market that was very difficult to break in to. I remember getting a rejected cartoon from Playboy in the mail. (This was back in the day when submissions were mailed, natch.) There was a note from Michelle to me that she thought it was a good, funny cartoon and disagreed with Hef who had decided not to buy it. That's what is called a "good rejection" in the business. 

Here's this terrific interview by Heidi MacDonald:

From the Dick Buchanan Files: The Life and Cartoons of Tom Henderson

Tom Henderson's single panel magazine cartoons were everywhere. Within a year of his first sale, he was a top-selling gag cartoonist. Here's Dick Buchanan with a lot more about Tom Henderson's life, work, and, also, of course, many samples of his work. Thanks and take it away, Dick!

TOM HENDERSON
(1920 – 1970)




Tom Henderson. “What’s Funny About That?” E.P. Dutton Inc., 1954.


Tom Henderson was a cartoonist and illustrator best known for his work in The Saturday Evening Post.
He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but grew up in Chicago where he attended Wabash College and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. 

Henderson sold his first cartoon in 1945 and he was top cartoonist in point of sales to five largest magazines for 1946. He contributed to the Saturday Evening Post. Collier's, Look, This Week Magazine, True Magazine, Popular Science and1000 Jokes Magazine among many others.

In 1956 Henderson created a weekly feature, “Fan Fare,” for This Week Magazine. This series appeared weekly featuring one of Henderson’s favorite targets, the wealthy, entitled, clueless members of the upper crust.

Like many other cartoonists Henderson, in addition to drawing gag cartoons for magazines, had many advertising clients. He created illustrated advertising campaigns for clients including General Electric, Shell Oil Co., American Express, Yale & Towne, Pennsylvania Tire Co., and Johnson & Johnson, among others.

Here just a few of the gag cartoons Tom Henderson created over the years . . .

 
American Magazine April, 1945.

 

 

This Week Magazine April 1, 1945.

Liberty Magazine August 10, 1946.

True Magazine August, 1946.

This Week Magazine April 27, 1947.

American Legion Magazine March, 1947.

The Saturday Evening Post September 27, 1947.

The Saturday Evening Post February 21, 1948.

Holsum Advertisement, week of May 28, 1949.

The Saturday Evening Post July 1, 1950.

The Saturday Evening Post February 7, 1951.

The Saturday Evening Post June 21, 1952.

This Week Magazine July 13, 1952.

The Saturday Evening Post June 6, 1953.

The Saturday Evening Post October 23, 1954.

Collier’s July 8, 1955.

American Legion Magazine March, 1956.

This Week Magazine August 4, 1957.

Look Magazine April 29, 1958.

The Saturday Evening Post November 21, 1959.

American Legion Magazine January, 1964.

Boys’ Life November 1968.

 

Related:

Tom Henderson's son has a site here.

Virgil (VIP) Partch: How an Animated Film Is Made

From Animation Magazine's Spring 1988 issue, here's "How an Animated Film Is Made" by Jerome K. Muller and with drawings by Virgil (VIP) Partch. Hat tip to Antonio Marques for this!

Winter Is Coming

 

It got below freezing here in New Hampshire and, according to the live Mt. Katahdin cam, it's even colder up there. Mt. Washington already has had its first snowfall, and the other day, plows were out on the Kancamagus Highway that traverses the White Mountains. I live in the foothills. No snow here yet but am I glad I brought in a couple of outdoor plants into the house last night. Phew!

The Garden As of Mid-October

Between the fall colors and the aurora Thursday night, it’s been a beautiful week. Technically, the only pic of the garden is this first one below, where you can see the zinnias and the trees. Everything that was planted this year - the tomatoes, cucumbers, basil - everything is gone now. Temperatures are in the upper 30s the last couple of nights. The zinnias will hang on until the first hard freeze.

 

 

Remembering Kay's Bookstore in Cleveland, Ohio

 

It's a rainy day and on a rainy day it sure is nice read a book while you're feeling snug and warm and it's all wet and cold outside. Here's the exterior of Kay's Books, a Cleveland landmark bookstore for many years -- now gone. I remember taking the old Rapid Transit train from the East Side, getting off at the last stop, Terminal Tower, walking along Euclid Avenue, past the May Co. and Higbee's and entering the Colonial Arcade. Inside the Arcade, after a stop into to Tony Isabella's Cosmic Comics, I would walk out of the other side, on shady Superior Avenue, cross the street and into Kay's. Kay's had floors of books and magazines. So much to look at and ponder about. I still have some books I bought there as a teenager, in particular some Harlan Ellison paperbacks and some early Winsor McCay collections. This mammoth bookstore has, by now, been gone for a while. It still exists in my memory as a place to browse and discover. There is nothing better than a leisurely bookstore browse session on a rainy day.

Restoring the Silent Film Version of Sherlock Holmes

 

The BFI National Archive’s major new project – the restoration of a series of films starring Eille Norwood, Conan-Doyle’s favourite screen Sherlock – will be presented with a live score at Alexandra Palace as part of the BFI London Film Festival. -- BFI 

 

New to me and over 100 years after the fact: there is a series of silent movies (45 two reelers and two features) that adapt Sherlock Holmes stories. Conan Doyle himself was approached for the rights by a British film company in the early 1920s. 

From the BFI YouTube page:

"How is the BFI National Archive bringing Conan Doyle's favourite screen Sherlock back to cinemas? The BFI's Curator of Silent Film, Bryony Dixon, dusts of the casebook and reveals all in our latest 'Inside the Archive' video."

 

Small Press Expo 2024: Single Panel Gag Cartoon Panel

From the SPX YouTube Channel, here's video of a panel of gag cartoonists talking about what they do.

The surreal world of single-panel gags is one that’s easy to enjoy and difficult to conceive on one’s own. Moderator Sofia Warren leads a panel of fellow New Yorker cartoonists consisting of Lonnie Millsap, Sara Lautman, Amy Kurzweill, and Hilary Campbell on the art and science of perfecting an art form with a deep and venerated sense of history and tradition. 

Panelists: Lonnie Millsap, Sara Lautman, Amy Kurzweill, Hilary Campbell 

Special Guests: Lonnie Millsap and Sara Lautman

 

 

Michael de Adder Let Go by Postmedia

 Via Daily Cartoonist:

"Earlier today Michael de Adder let us know via X/Twitter that the remnants of Atlantic Canada’s Saltwire network would no longer be using his editorial cartoons:

"'I just got let go from the Halifax Chronicle Herald after almost 30 years.'

"Michael explains that he isn’t sure his last cartoon for them will be published:

"'I sent this in and got the call. My last cartoon [below], I think, in the Chronicle Herald. It’s not published yet.'

">update edit: the cartoon was published<

"This has all happened just days after the Association of Canadian Cartoonists’ convention. Was it timed so?

"The Halifax Chronicle-Herald was part of the Saltwire Network. Saltwire applied for bankruptcy protection earlier this year and then major parts of the group was bought by Postmedia a month ago. Postmedia is Canada’s largest newspaper publisher but is majority owned by the U.S. hedge fund Chatham Asset Management. Chatham is also the majority owner of US-based McClatchy newspapers which last year fired their three staff editorial cartoonists and has given up on political cartoons on their papers’ opinion pages.

"Michael de Adder, who less than two months ago won a Silver Reuben for Editorial Cartoons from the National Cartoonists Society and has won Canada”s National Newspaper Award multiple times, began 2024 by losing his freelance gig with The Washington Post and is ending 2024 by being left out of The Chronicle-Herald.

"As far as we know Michael still has the occasional Toronto Star and Hill Times sales, but The Post and The Chronicle were his major sources of income. Michael’s Deep State Substack is an alternative revenue stream.

"The status of Saltwire’s staff editorial cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon is unknown at this time.

"This is a developing story."