Berndt Toast Gang Meeting October 26, 2006

(Illustrations by Sandy Kossin, part of the Halloween Cartoon Trade.)

Our October lunch featured the Annual Halloween Cartoon Trade. We brought in original spooky drawings and, handed over a dollar bill with our name written on it. The money to be donated to the Milt Gross Fund. We had a table full of illustrations and paintings and gag cartoons. This event is usually handled by Bill Kresse, but Bill was unable to attend at the last minute. So Mike Lynch, along with able associate Tony Cerezo, tried to manage in his absence.

Tony held up a random cartoon to the assembled as I read names off of the dollar bills. Here are a few of the cartoons ....


Joe Giella draws Batman and ... aw, heck, I don't need to tell YOU who THOSE guys are, do I?


A single panel cartoon by Mike Lynch from the Barnes & Noble 2006 Dog Cartoon calendar. Gag line: "Do you have anything bigger than 'King?'" OK, maybe not a 'spooky' drawing, but it would be scary to me to have this many dogs sleeping in my bed, OK? OK!


Captain Marvel, bordered by some "Cheesed"-off pumpkins, by a guy who worked with C.C. Beck: Emilio Squeglio.


Sy Barry shows THE PHANTOM, posing heroically between a horrible apparition and the viewer.


Bill Goshgarian and Joe Edwards. Bill and Joe used to work together and lost track of each other many decades ago. They reconnected just in the past couple of weeks, through a fluke. The story:

Joe and his wife Eda were talking to a pharmacist, and Joe's cartooning profession came up. The pharmacist said he had a relative that had worked on the Popeye cartoons for Paramount as a freelancer, among other gigs. Within minutes, Joe heard the name "Goshgarian," the name of a guy he hadn't seen in 50 years. They reconnected, and Bill came to lunch. Bill and Joe got a warm round of applause. What a small cartoony world.


Sandy Kossin and John Reiner.


Sy Barry, Joe Edwards and Joe Giella. Or, if listed by their work on iconic characters: THE PHANTOM, LI'L JINX and BATMAN/MARY WORTH.


Simmy Barry, Helen Murdock-Prep, and Stan & Pauline Goldberg. Stan is always surrounding himself with beautiful women.


And here's Playboy's Don Orehek and Trade Loeffler.