The Saturday Evening Post, February 28, 1959 UPDATED

Here we go, paging through a Saturday Evening Post from 1959. Let's explore this world of 1950s duplicity and dullness. Below: a gag cartoon by John Albano in which a cross, angry bald man has inappropriately placed another fellow's wife on his lap.

Below: A good gag, although today the big boxer would sport tattoos and piercings. You do get the immediate sense of where his is (a boxing ring, natch!) even though the cartoonist (whose name I can't make out) is only showing 2 of the 4 corners.


The great Chon Day gives us this bizarre gag. Now, did the guy just walk out of the car and happen to open the hood and walk THROUGH the grill? I like how the background (grass, bush, mountains) are drawn in 4 lines and that's all you need for a feeling of place. Economy, kids; Mr. Day has it!

Below: an advertisement against Generic brands! Buy things made by large corporations with logos and Madison Avenue ad campaigns!


Bill Harrison's cartoons shows us the lovable dope of a husband that, to this day, is the staple for much middle-brow humor. I think that this is the same fellow who, in the same year as this issue of The Post, began Harrison Greetings.


Veteran gag cartoonist Edwin Lepper gives us one of those "the moment before chaos" cartoons. I like cartoons where you imagine what will happen in the next couple of seconds later. It may have been more fun to draw a couple of brawling brides, but the choice of this nanosecond before their mutual discovery was, I think, the funniest choice. The non-reaction from the groom is a nice touch.


Below: Some great wash effects. Cartoonist Kirk Stiles' wash efforts reminded me a bit of Jack Cole's brush work, and that's the best praise I got. The gag, though, is a bit silly.



A color ad below: This looks kinda like an anime version of a bee. It reminded me of the character design in the BEE movie that's opening this week which, like this 48 year old bee below, is similar and not pretty.


Below: Bob Schwartz Schroeter gives us "blogging" 1959-style. I like how the regular guys are all in shirt sleeves and "management" sports grey blazers. A subtle way of reinforcing the power structure that you need to perceive understand in this gag.


Stiles and Lepper and Schroeter are three cartoonists who have scant Web presence. I was not able to hyperlink any bio info.

Below: One of the most boring stories I have ever read, and I have to wonder why it saw the light of print. Dull, dull, dull. I said there was dull, and here it is. The only silver lining: It's a good excuse for nice illustration by Boris Drucker; a piece of art that conveys more action and mayhem than the actual story of these two farmers ever had ever, ever in a million, jillion eons.

I said there would be duplicity today (other than the gag with the 2 brides). Below: Echoes of that earlier cartoon by Chon Day! This is a good gag by Joe Zeis, but the fact that Day's similar gag precedes it cheapens the effect.


This being the Saturday Evening Post, the last cartoon you get on the inside back page is HAZEL by Ted Key. Looks like HAZEL has lost her license (probably a DUI conviction) and now must bank via one of the kids' bikes.




Orlando Busino, cartoonist extraordinaire, just wrote an email and makes these corrections to my errors:

The boxer gag on your blog whose signature was hard to read was done by Jeff Monahan and the cartoon attributed to "Schwartz" is really Bob Schroeter's work. Bob was cartoon editor for the King Feature's Laff-a-day panel for quite awhile. Both cartoonist have passed away.

I thank him for graciously correcting my errors! Thank you, Orlando! And happy belated birthday, sir!

Dangerous Graphics

Just bought a Sears Craftsman snowblower with the above warning sticker on it.

I can only imagine the dialogue across the Sears conference table:

"We have to show how dangerous machine can be. Should we show a limb in the process of being severed? What about blood?"

No blood in the final version, but I bet, over coffee and a nice spread, those corporate intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded the visual depiction of the moment of limb mutilation in a series of serious, humorless meetings.

Heck, maybe there was a motion (made by a junior exec., I bet) to require a certain proficiency of customer IQ test results before allowing someone to buy a snowblower. But, well, this is America, and stupid people got money and Sears needs money, gang!


It's the jagged edge on the wrist that simultaneously horrified and startled me.

Cartoon Look Day: Memos from Gurney Williams

Via Eli Stein comes more cartoons by 1950s gag cartoonists for 1950s gag cartoonists drawn for the insider cartoon industry "Memos from Gurney Williams" newsletter. Go and click and see!

Above: Mrs. Virgil Partch imparts that month's cartoony mission statement to Mr. Virgil Partch.

Related threads from Eli's blog and this one:

How Not to Get an Okay part one

How Not to Get an Okay part two

Cartoon Look Day

Paul Giambarba

Photo: Mike Lynch, Paul Giambarba

Had the pleasure of a (all too short) visit from illustrator, caricaturist, designer, cartoonist and bon vivant Paul Giambarba, who was vacationing in the White Mountains, near where we live. He graciously got in his car and battled touristy traffic to get out of the Ossippee area just to chat with me.

Paul's a guy who's done the Wednesday Cartoon Rounds (more about that tradition in general here), worked as a designer (he created the well-known Polaroid look as detailed here), drawn childrens books, is a wonderful photographer and has more talent than allowed by law.

I love Paul's use of color, particularly his watercolors. He uses such a warm, natural palate. Anyway, we chatted, as I said, for too short a time and I appreciate his inviting me to his Massachusetts studio for some more shop talk and bay scallops ala Giambarba some time in the near future!

If you want to read more, check out my pal Rod McKie's interview with Paul here.


Above: a page from Paul's sketchbook from a 1955 trip to Europe.

STAR TREK II The Wrath of Khan/MONTY PYTHON

It's the death of Spock ala The Holy Grail! This runs about a minute.

Via Mark Anderson: OSU Cartoon Fest Live Blogging UPDATED

The OSU Cartoon Festival is Friday and Saturday, and what' s the next best thing to being there? Mark Anderson live blogs!

Day One

Day One Pics

Day Two

Graphic Novels: Threat or Menace?

From Tom Tomorrow's blog on The Huffington Post comes "Graphic Novels: Threat or Menace?"

He sums up what's happened with the teacher in Guilford, CT who gave a comic book (Eightball #22 by Dan Clowes, a respected graphic novelist whose latest work is being serialized in the NY Times) to a kid and was forced to resigned.

Pictures. Little drawings on a page. People are afraid of 'em! This is why I'm in a high risk profession.

H/t to Journalista!

Cartoon Batch Mailing

"What do you mean when you say you send in a 'batch?'" - syndicated cartoonist to me.

A "batch" of cartoons is the industry slang, among those in the gag cartoon industry, for a packet of cartoons. My batches can vary between 10-20 cartoons per mailing. I talked about this in my Selling Cartoons to Magazines entry last month.

I want to talk about the SASE, the Self Addressed Stamped Envelope, and what to do when there's no response from an editor.

SASEs:

I put a code in the corner of the envelope ("GH 10/1/07," for instance, letting me know that the SASE envelope (when/if I get it back) is from Good Housekeeping and I mailed it on October 1, 2007). This helps if there is no note inside from the editor.

There are no rules about SASEs.

No response from editor:

In the past year, it seems that about half of the markets are bad about returning batches. I have a SASE, and cartoonist Mark Anderson has a preprinted postcard with postage for the editor to return. He wrote about it on his blog, if you want to go Googling. We both get the same crummy 50% response rate.

I don't think that the editors are trying to send a message, I think that a lot of editors do a lot of tasks during the day. Cartoons are not as big a priority as some, and they can get back burnered and become forgotten.

I wait 30 days, and if there's been no response, I'll print off a dupe of that batch and mail the same batch to another, similar market. I do go on and keep sending for a couple months even if a market has not returned my SASEs or responded in any way. If I have a market that goes a couple months of me sending and no response, I'll call to ask (in a friendly way) have they seen my cartoons and can we have a short talk about their cartoon needs. Sometimes I get a nice person, sometimes I get someone who really doesn't have the time. A lot of times, I talk to a voicemail.

I've had long discussions with cartoonists about sending out the same batch (called "simultaneous submissions") after 30 days to another market, and some disagree with me. My take: 4 weeks is long enough for a professional editor to open my stuff at that first mag I sent to and respond. It's only by continuously moving your product that you can see sales.

Seminal Bill Watterson Art

A gallery of Bill Watterson's college work and early Calvin & Hobbes promo drawings are at Tim Hulsizer's Rare Bill Watterson Art page. I'd seen his work for Target magazine, but most of the promotional pieces and the art for Kenyon College, where he went to college, is new to me.

H/t to Journalista!

Creig Flessel to Receive "Sparky" Award

From Editor & Publisher: Creig Flessel will be awarded the "Sparky" award (named after Charles Schulz) on Sunday.

Mort Gerberg Interview at Publishers Weekly

Above: a Gerberg Sandwich; Mell Lazarus, Mort Gerberg, and editorial cartoonist & GRIMMY creator Mike Peters from a photo I took at the 2007 Reubens Convention.

Upon the occasion of the Mort Gerberg-edited cartoon collection LAST LAUGHS: CARTOONS ABOUT AGING, RETIREMENT ... AND BEYOND, comes a Publisher's Weekly interview with Mort written by none other than Calvin Reid.

Here's a quote from Mort about his career:

Finally, in the late 1960s I got a chance to start with the New Yorker, but it took a long time. You had to pay your dues to get in there. Bob Weber, one of the great New Yorker cartoonists, submitted cartoons for a year before he got in—and he didn’t even get a rejection note back during that time.

Link to AP story "Cartoonists Take Aim at Aging, Dying" by Malcolm Ritter.

The good thing about this book is that there will be cartoons in it that no one has seen before; i.e., it's not entirely a book of New Yorker leftovers.

My favorite "death cartoon" is this one by the great Lee Lorenz.

H/t to Tom Spurgeon over at the Comics Reporter.

Cartoonist J.M. Bosc Site

French Cartoonist J.M. Bosc (1924-1973) has a wonderful site (click here for Google translated version) that was lovingly put together by Bosc's nephew, Alain Damman.

Bosc is, for us US readers, one of those names that would appear in those big "Best Cartoons" collections that Lawrence Lariar would edit every year. Sadly, those days are gone -- but if every cartoonist had a nephew like Alain, then we would be able to see so many of these cartoon through the years!

My thanks to Alain for alerting me to this extensive site -- a trove of cartoons and information. Thanks, Alain!

Accident

Personal note to the friends and colleagues who read this blog: I had a car accident yesterday. I'm OK. No one else was hurt.

My car may be totalled. Heckuva way to start out the week, but it means no blog for a time.

Doggy as "Shrek"

Saw the above while in a department store. Look, cartoonist William Steig wrote SHREK. SHREK is now a hit series of movies. Do not do this to your dog in the name of William Steig, OK? OK!

STAR TREK Fotonovels

There used to be these books, called Fotonovels, that were basically "screen captures on a page," with dialogue balloons. Of course, nowadays, you just pop in a DVD or buy an episode over at iTunes and you get to see whatever you want. But in those dark 1970s, you only saw the TV that the TV programmers wanted you to see. One of the few ways to linger over a fave TREK episode was to buy a TREK Fotonovel.

Bully, over at his Bully Says Comics Oughta Be Fun blog, showcases these TREK Fotonovels and shows many examples. All in all, they are creatures of their time. And they were the only way to re-experience a favorite episode.

And stick around Bully's blog. If you like comic books or TREK or Wodehouse, it's a nice place to visit. Take it away, Bully ....

Stan Lee in THE ATLANTIC

Just to show how mainstreamy comic books are as of 2007, Stan Lee contributes to the 150th anniversary issue of THE ATLANTIC:

Joyce Carol Oates, Cornel West, Bernard Lewis, David Foster Wallace, and others reflect on the future of the American idea; Robert D. Kaplan pictures America’s elegant decline; and more…

Mr. Lee gets his name on the cover, along side some serious literary names.

"America is a Dream," with art by Anthony Winn, is spread across a gatefold of this month's mag. You can read the first couple of panels at that first link above. You can see the whole thing online if you're an ATLANTIC subscriber.

The Executive Coloring Book (1961)

From Johnny C.'s A-Hole-in-the-Head blog, comes a parody titled THE EXECUTIVE COLORING BOOK circa 1961.

Part one

Part two

A great find, Johnny! Thanks for sharing!

AMERICAN MASTERS Good Ol' Charles Schulz

A 3 minute promo for Monday's 90 minute AMERICAN MASTERS episode chronicling the life of Charles Schulz.

More Schulz from the Charlie Rose show here. It starts about 20 minutes in (after Bill Richardson). He talks about the death of his mother, using the names of friends in PEANUTS, cartoonists "not worthy of being in art galleries," the process of doing a comic strip, and so on. I'm guessing that the date on this is about 1994.

MAD's Greatest Artists: The Completely MAD Don Martin

Above: a set of stamps from the Fall 1975 Mad Special (which I bought in downtown Lawrence, KS back in the day) by the late, great Don Martin, reprinted in THE COMPLETELY MAD DON MARTIN. Is his family compensated for this?

To have a collection of all of the cartoon work that Don Martin ever did for MAD Magazine would be wonderful, right? All of us fans would shout, "Thank you, God!" just like the Lucky Boy character in Animal House when blonde Babs Jansen hurtles thru his window, landing on his bed. This is an unexpected fulfillment of a want we got!

And it's here, in a fancy schmancy 2 volume, slip cased edition on better paper than Gaines ever thought of buying, with photos and extras from MAD's Usual Gang of Idiots. THE COMPLETELY MAD DON MARTIN set, which retails for $150 (but can be bought for under $100 from discount places), has all of Martin's cartoon work from 1957 to 1987. Yeah, another grand hardcover set, like the now precedent setting slipcased FAR SIDE, and the CALVIN & HOBBES collections. The place that put the book together is the same place that did the C&H collection.

Martin left MAD in the 1980s over a dispute about money and rights. Mr. Martin has since passed away. Twenty years later, I wonder: is Time Warner cutting a check to the man's family?

If I'm buying it, without the cartoonist's family getting a serious cut, I am making a statement with my purchase that this is all just peachy keen.

If all of the dough is going into Running Press' pockets and Time Warner's, then I would rather not help. This isn't an indictment on the idea of the book. It's a grand idea for a book! And it was wonderful to read at Craig Yoe's Arflovers blog, in his interview with Running Press publisher Jon Anderson, that it's sold out, with no chance of a reprint pre-Holiday season.

But I haven't read anything to assure me that the creator's heirs are seeing money.

As I wrote earlier this year, PLAYBOY and NATIONAL LAMPOON are putting out complete DVD editions of their mags without compensating the people who actually created the content. If that's the future of content providers like me, then I won't support that. Nope. No sir. No, thank you -- God, or Time Warner. No thank you!

Mayerson on Animation: Marjane Satrapi at the New York Film Festival

From the Mayerson on Animation blog comes video of Marjane Satrapi at the New York Film Festival.

She co-directed the movie version of her graphic novels PERSEPOLIS and PERSEPOLIS 2, which are coming of age stories of her life, growing up in Iran. As Mark Mayerson suggests, it's worth watching that first clip for insight into her story and why she chose to an animated story instead live action.

PERSEPOLIS is a very good graphic novel and the movie version is scheduled to be released in the US this fall. It is France's Academy Awards entry.

Sony Pictures PERSEPOLIS movie site.

Review: SISTER MARY DRACULA by Gerry Mooney

SISTER MARY DRACULA by Gerry Mooney, 28 pp comic book; color cover, B&W interior; contains comic strip GOO AND ROO. US$3.00

Gerry Mooney has written and drawn the beginning of a graphic novel in his SISTER MARY DRACULA comic. It says "Chapter 1" right there on the cover. Gerry sets the stage for the adventures of a couple of young kids at a Catholic school (protagonist Terry Malloy, his pals Stevie and Kenny) where Sister Mary Immacula may or may not be a vampire.

Terry likes to draw. No, scratch that. Our main character Terry loves loves loves to draw. He won't go out and play with Stevie and Kenny until he finishes his drawing.




Above: page 2 of SISTER MARY DRACULA

Gerry keeps the story trained on Terry as he, in the next scene, worries to his friends about a scary encounter with SMD. But, when Stevie changes the subject, asking Terry how his drawing turned out, Terry immediately shifts into a state of excitement. It turned out great! I thought this was funny and believable. Kids can shift moods quickly.

I enjoyed the fantasy sequence (with a conscious or unconscious nod to Spaceman Spiff) when Terry rode his bike. When you first get your bike, and your parents allow you to ride it -- then your whole world gets bigger. The bike ride is a metaphor for expansion here, but the book (and this is my only serious criticism) is stifled by its length. Those 20 pages went by like a swift ride downhill on a kick ass Schwinn with trick tires and a banana seat. I wanted more.

There isn't nearly enough of the title character, but she does get talked about by the boys. She is, at least to Terry, the boogy man.

I liked the book and would like to see more. I though that the world that Gerry showed -- being a kid, playing outside with your friends, life in the 'burbs -- all rang true. The only thing is that it's a portion of a larger work, and it left me with a serious bit of the want for more story. Or, as Ulysses Everett McGill puts in OH BROTHER WHERE ART THOU, "One third of a gopher would only arouse my appetite without bedding it down." This quote only makes sense if you change out "one third of a gopher" for "part of a graphic novel."

Creator Gerry Mooney is the opposite of opaque. At his site, he'll show you the Flash animation that he did of SMD (which premiered at the San Diego Comicon in 2004), as well as tell you how he draws the comic.

I look forward to SMD #2.

UPDATE: The Flash animation of SISTER MARY DRACULA was completed in 2001 and shown at the San Diego Comicon in 2004 (not at the 2001 Con as I originally wrote). I've corrected the review above.

The comic book has 24 interior pages. I traditionally count the front and back covers, as well as interiors, since in many cases there is content there. That's why I note that it is 24 pages in length.

My thanks to Gerry for these corrections/clarifications.

Get Well Soon, Marie Severin

Marvel Comics artist and colorist Marie Severin is in the hospital. Dirk Deppey, reporting for Journalista! has the details which I'll cut & paste here:

Above the Fold

• [Top Story] Eric Reynolds reports that legendary comic-book artist/colorist Marie Severin has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke last Thursday. Few details are available at the moment, but get-well cards can be sent to:

  Marie Severin, patient
  c/o Huntington Hospital
  270 Park Avenue
  Huntington, NY 11743

Stop or I'll Scream!

There is nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about with gag cartoons, to heavily paraphrase Ratty from The Wind in the Willows.


STOP OR I'LL SCREAM, a collection of cartoons from Collier's edited by its cartoon editor, Gurney Williams, was published by Robert M. McBride & Company in 1945. "An Album of more than 300 funny drawings by nearly fifty of Collier's cartoonists," says the interior frontispiece. Regardless of me bandying about $5 words like "frontispiece," here is, for your blog reading pleasure, but a wee fraction of the interior.



George Lichty's style always looked like his ink line was just slightly out of control. His eccentric characters would later get daily exposure with his Grin & Bear It syndicated daily panel.

Bo Brown's cartoon reminds me that not that much has changed with bus interiors in 62 years. We still got the straps, the poles, and the rude drivers.



Sam Cobean contributes a wordless adventure. Like I mentioned yesterday, he would have been better remembered to today had he not passed away too early in a car crash.

Another Cobean. Lovely touch: the dropped hat & cane.

Virgil Partch or "VIP." Another cartoonist killed in a car wreck! At least VIP had a couple more decades' of work out there and he's still well remembered today. Just go and Google the guy! A great, unique gag. Someone should do a hardcover collection of his work one day.


Reamer Keller contributes a pre-sexual harassment era gag that would garner rejection after rejection these days.

By the end of the war, a lot of the ladies were involved in running industry -- but then again, if you didn't all ready know that, then you picked it up painlessly from the cartoon, didn't you!?



Dead pan, spot on Chon Day shows us the power of simple lines and a bit of wash.

Woman's Day March 1951

This little kitty (who reminded me of our new kitty, Trout), a 3 month old cat that belonged to the photographer, graces the cover of the May 1951 WOMAN'S DAY magazine. I picked this up in an antiques shop in SW New Hampshire. Mags back in the day used more cartoons and illustrations than ever, and let's just shine a spotlight on a few:


New Yorker cartoonist Sam Cobean puts meat on his table by schilling for Ken-L-Ration dog food, made with "100% real meat!*" Sam Cobean puts lovely energy into his cartoons. It was a tragedy when he died in a car wreck in Watkins Glen, NY at the early age of 38.

Take a look at his site. It's one of the best.

"*U.S. Government Inspected Horse Meat."



Above, an ad that was probably put together by the Johnstone & Cushing company, a firm that specialized in comic strip ads. In this installment, our title character get a buzz from Lipton that allows her to deal with the "Terrible Twins," Pete & Pat. Better living thru chemistry!

Actually, looks like Petey and Pat met up with some chick in the background of panel 5, and, off camera, she force fed the little terrors a couple mega doses of Ritalin.



In the middle of an article you get, as a lovely page break, a poem, with a hippo drawn by Richard Scarry.



This short story, "I Married a Folding Woman" by George Alna Brastow, complains of his wife's obsession with folding things and putting them away. Yeah, that's our man's biiiig problem: his woman folds stuff. The Eisenhower years! Ack!

Tom Funk's illustration is nicely done. The folded page isn't really folded -- it's all an illusion and an intentional part of Mr. Funk's illustration.



Above: THEY'LL DO IT EVERY TIME ala 40% Bran Flakes! Al Scaduto continues the panel for King Features. Al started with King right outta high school in 1946!


Clear sunny, yellow margarine is the key to good food energy ... unless you live in one of those states where it's banned.

Some energetic figure work by an uncredited commercial artist.



When you are really want to impress those snobby ol' Thurston Howell types, serve soda crackers. Yeah, right!

We all know that if you want to impress those classy rich people, serve Ritz! It's named after that ritzy hotel, after all!

Click above to super-size, and ask yourself the same question I did upon reading the bottom line of this ad: Why oh why does Richmond, VA hate the Keebler elves?


This is all messed up. Give a dog a piece of dog candy and then he will stop being a dunce? Weird. Dogs are kinda dopey to begin with. Sweet, but dopey. Candy will just get a dog hepped up on sugar and he'll wee all over the lawn. Oh, and then there's the doggy dentist bills!

And what is the graph that's in the corner? Oh, I guess it's Charge Healthful Dog Candy's market sales.



Corporate America once again using the youth of this country to schill its products.


Above: I had to look at this for a minute before I figured out that the ghost is carrying out an old timey outhouse.

Above: ordinary housewives (you can tell because they're all in glorious B&W) agree that Fleischmann's Yeast is "Wonderful." Today, this ad would've been handed off to a celebrity like Paris Hilton whose reference to yeast is, well, entirely different.

That's it. I'll say no more.

Watterson on Schulz Bio

Go read now!!!!!

Bill Watterson writes of review of the new Charles Schulz biography by David Michaelis in today's Wall Street Journal. And there's an excerpt from the book here.

The WSJ is usually a pay site, but today their content is free. I expect the WSJ/Murdoch firewall to come down promptly at 12:01am EST tomorrow. Like I said, read now!!!!!!!

Big hat tip to Elena Steier! Thanks, Elena!

Introducing Trout

Above: Samson (B&W) and Trout (tiger stripe) in a living room chair last night.

In the tradition of blogging about cats on Fridays (and there is such an odd tradition out there in blog land; but at least it's not as odd as that lame Talk Like a Pirate Day thingy), above is a photo of good ol' Sam the cat, and, sleeping next to him, is our new little baby cat named Trout.

And below is my wife Stacy, recounting now, for posterity, the story of Trout adopting us during our healthful walk in the country. Ah yes, it was a lovely afternoon here in NH, and there we were, minding our own business Monday afternoon, ambling along ....

So, Mike and I were out for a walk yesterday and were walking past this dairy farm where about a dozen cats hang out/live/work. We always look for the cats. Anyway, Mike spots this tiny, tiger kitten and points her out to me. As soon as the kitten saw us, she came racing over, purring and purring. Now we were walking in the street and it's a country road but the cars that do come down it, come flying. So I told the sweet kitty to go on back home and carried her over to the other cats...but she followed us again...and again...and again. By this time, the guys working in the barn had seen us and came out to see what was happening. They laughed and said, "take her". I protested that we already had 2 cats and didn't need any more. They said that someone had dumped her there just that morning (that happens to them alot, as it's a dairy farm and they have a lot of barn cats). So this kitten is not letting me out of her sight and purring and purring and keeps trying to follow us...and we decided to take her!

We quarantined her from the other cats (Rufus and Sam) until she had gone to the vet for her shots and made sure she didn't have any airborne diseases that our adult kitties could get. The vet checked her out -- dewormed, defleaed, and our wallets a little lighter -- she was given a clean bill of health. Even though she weighs a wee 2.1 pounds, the other guys were, at first, a little scared of her. But, as you can see above, she has settled in nicely. Yikes! Now we got 3 cats! That's the limit!

Stacy sums it up:

So that's what I get for going out for a walk. Moral of the story: exercise is BAD!!!!!

Compliments of Your Volkswagen Dealer Part 2

Part 2 of the 1961 Volkswagen giveaway book from 1961. Part one is here. This book is a collection cartoons, as well as humorous essays by Jean Shepherd, Roger Price and others, all tailored around the VW. These scans are but a portion of the book's contents.


Henry Martin. His daughter learned to become a hard-working, talented freelance writer from watching her Dad's work habits. When Henry Martin's little girl grew up, she wrote THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB series of books.


Al Ross always has this out of the sketchbook feel to his published art. I love his loose style and characters. If you like Al Ross, then check out Al Ross and His Cartoon Style and/or this essay on his "plate of spaghetti" style in Cartoonist Al Ross.


Charles Addams, who drew the cover of this book (see page one), looks a little grim -- but what do you want? I men, isn't there a touch of Gomez or Lurch in there? As many know, his bio came out last year and, grim countenance or no, he was quite the high rollin', skirt chasin' man about town.

George Price who, like Addams, was a New Jerseyite, had a style that at first I did not like. I was a fool! I admire his drawings, although I have been told, from a couple of close sources, that he did not do his own gags. (Ditto Addams -- but that's more or less an open secret.) Some of his cartoons were brought in without captions for a NYer mag writer to puzzle out a funny line. Here's his 1995 obit from the NY Times.



John Gallagher, who is best known for his work on the Heathcliff syndicated panel with his brother, had a really fun line. By "fun line," I mean one that is full of life and great to look at. You get the sense of movement from his work. His gag cartoons deserve to be better remembered.

Charles Saxon, maybe the preeminent NYer cartoonist stylist of the 1960s and 70s. The story goes that Saxon came in, week after week, showing his cartoons to the NYer cartoon editor. No sale, week after week. So, Charles Saxon went away. He was away for months

And then, so the story goes, he reappeared at one of the NYer's weekly "Look Days." He had a new, consciously developed style. And then he sold a lot. This is the way the story goes; this is the way I've heard it -- although I never saw it written anywhere.

His neighbor in New Canaan, Ct was writer Vance Packard who was quoted in the NY Times obit for Mr. Saxon:

''I think it's important to say he was sardonic even to the end,'' Mr. Packard said of Mr. Saxon. ''At home, when he had his heart seizure, in the process of falling down he knocked down a lamp. He seemed to be pretty sure he was dying, and when the medical technicians were taking him out on a stretcher, he said, 'I guess I'd better die; I just broke our best lamp.' ''

Bill Hoest was one of the hardest working guys in cartooning. Here's all the cartoony plates he had up i nthe air: he was an NCS president, cartoonist on syndicated features (THE LOCKHORNS, AGATHA CRUMM, BUMPER SNICKERS, WHAT A GUY!), one of Hef's favorite cartoonists, as well as the regular couple of gag cartoons and HOWARD HUGE in Parade Magazine titled LAUGH PARADE! The guy was a powerhouse.


And here's Charles Martin or C.E.M. as he signed his work. I'd like to find out more about him. He painted dozens of New Yorker covers, and his painterly style shows in the ease of those washes.

TREK Links

In honor of Ms. Nichols' appearance in the HEROES TV show on Monday night, here is her first appearance ("Introducing Nichelle Nichols" says the credits), in a pre-TREK Gene Roddenberry created/produced TV series titled THE LIEUTENANT. There are other TREK people on both sides of the camera as well.

Gary Lockwood smiling his Pepsodent smile into the camera at the end of the titles is now very funny and even a little creepy. It reminds me of the stuff they did in the POLICE SQUAD comedy series. Here's a link to all of the endings of this 1980s comedy. Click on that link and hang in there for the "And neither did Sally" line at 40 seconds in to see what I mean.

And, under the what's-old-is-new-again motif, is this bit of news:

The 2-part STAR TREK episode "The Menagerie" will be shown in hi def in 200 movie theatres nationwide. Yeah, go to the movies and see an old TV show! Aw, c'mon! It'll be fun! Press release here. And while we're on the topic of disfigured former captains of the Enterprise, Scott Meyers' Ask Captain Pike Web site is the place to go and ask Captain Pike a question! It's kinda like a Magic 8-Ball toy, but, you know, with a radiated captain! It's fun!

Some more TOS video links you may have missed:

And here is the entire TOS cast in what I guess would be its last appearance together (well, edited all together) from a year after their last movie together: an MCI phone company commercial.

No, wait, there's more ...

About an hour of video of Shatner, Nimoy & Kelley on Merv Griffin promoting STAR TREK IV. Parts one, two, three and four.

Gene Roddenberry's routine "Letter to a Network Censor;" a speech he would perform at conventions. And much more from Trekdom's YouTube page.

"After They Were Famous," a 2002 British TV documentary in 4 parts: one, two, three and four. More at ENTERPISENX01's YouTube page.

Saving the best for your blog reading digestif: some of the best TOS Web sites which deserve a moment of your clicking:

The Guide to the Gold Key STAR TREK comic books of the 1960s and 70s. Wonderful stuff here.

STAR TREK - Behind the Scenes Restoration is one my favorites. Curt McAloney preserves unseen shots, missing footage and missing scenes from TOS. Some amazing stuff here. It's the only site where I read everything there was to read and then, started over. If you're a TOS fan like me, then this, baby, is just so much catnip!

Cartoonist Richard Thompson on Drawing a Funny Cartoon

Great stuff. Go here. Do not read the text above the cartoon as it contains spoilers to the cartoon itself.

Big hat tip to Comics Reporter!

Compliments of Your Volkswagen Dealer

It's a book that was given away by VW dealers in 1961 titled either THINK SMALL or COMPLIMENTS OF YOUR VOLKSWAGEN DEALER. Both of these titles are used. This was a cool marketing gimmick, and full of the great humorists of the time. If VW did this today, who would they ask to contribute? The New Yorker cartoonists? Jon Stewart? The Simpsons?


The great thing about this book is the editors decided to put a photo of the cartoonist next to his work. By the way, Christopher Wheeler has a huge site that does that today -- enter and much time will be spent!

Above: Chon Day always looked like a nice guy, but who would know if they saw him walking down the street that he was a cartoonist draftsman of the first order? He looks more like a dentist or an accountant.


James Stevenson is one to learn from. Just look at the verve in those lines. Those cops look like they are really working, really feeling the weight. A bit more about Mr. Stevenson here. He also draws and writes the "Lost and Found in New York" occasional feature for the NY Times. Unfortunately, these are not preserved by the NYT online!


Virgil Partch looks like he is looking amusedly at his creations. "VIP's" style of cartoon and sense of humor was uniquely his, and his fan base grows still, with many links that you can easily Google.


William Steig; I like those photos that look like the subject was too busy/distracted for a formal stand-up-shoot-'em-down portrait.


Gahan Wilson looks pretty much the same to me now.


Joe Zeis, another prolific cartoonist that's appeared in this blog before. Take a look at this Saturday Evening Post gag cartoon blog entry for a link to more Zeis goodness.


And here's Lee Lorenz, who would become The New Yorker's cartoon editor. A couple of years ago, I had a wonderful experience in current cartoon editor Bob Mankoff's office where he pulled a number of large (because Lorenz works very large with a relatively thick brush) originals so we could look at ho he (Lorenz) draws crowd scenes. They're just bops and swirls and lines -- but they completely do the job!


The late, great Phil Interlandi -- a favorite of Hugh Hefner -- with a wordless, multi-panel cartoon. His daughter runs an Italian restaurant in Cottonwood, AZ. You can read a lovely bio of Mr. Interlandi at the restaurant's Web site, and you can order Mama Interlandi's pasta sauce online too. Interlandi's Pasta Casa site.

More at Compliments of Your VW Dealer Part 2.

Signing Your Rights Away

I wrote about Mike Strang on June 16th. I don't know Mike. Mike is a cartoonist.

Mike had an idea for a comic and signed a contract with Platinum Comics. He gave away his rights in the contract. Platinum Comics fired him or let him go (I'm not clear on the facts), and retooled the idea. That's what I wrote about in June.

This week, Platinum Studios unveils Mike's strip; his idea, drawn by somebody else. He blogs about his feelings here.

I used to have that Indian prayer on a plaque on my desk when I was a kid. You know the one: "Great Spirit, grant that I do not judge my neighbor until I walk a mile in his moccasins." My Catholic Grandmother gave it to me when I was maybe 9 years old.

I can only guess at the feelings that Mike has. He is better than I ever would be at showing us his anger toward everyone involved. I would tend to see this as a lesson learned, and put my anger into a new project -- and never sign away my rights ever again.

It's terrible when you get your heart broken, and it happens to most all of us multiple times for multiple reasons. No avoiding it! You can do all the right things in your life, but bad things will happen. And sometimes it's just because it's a dreadful accident or you were naive.

Now we get to the judging and walking bit ....

Mike still has his creative mind and, so far as I know, his health. I wish him luck on his career. He should have a good one, if he can continue his output and walk away from this. He should be judged for his comics work, not for this one business misstep.

Hat tip to Dirk Deppey over at Journalista!

GORDON'S JET FLIGHT

Today, we look at travelling the skies of 1961 -- when flying in a plane was something that you got dressed up to do. This is GORDON'S JET FLIGHT, a Little Golden Activity Book, by Naomi J. Glasson, with pictures by Mel Crawford. Golden Press, New York, 1961.



Above, this is the way it used to be: you walk off the jet, onto the tarmac, waving like you're on an old newsreel. I note that Gordon's flight did not have any people of color aboard.




Above, you can see that the "authentic 707 Astrojet* to punch out and assemble" was long since torn out, played with and lost; thereby destroying the collectability of the book! And, yes, gentle blog reader, you guessed correctly: this is our title character, dressed as a corporate businessman, looking up at the 707 Astrojet.

"This Little Golden Book is for every boy and girl who wants to know what it's like to travel by 'jet.' The story and pictures were carefully checked by one of out leading airlines." Aha! Corporate propaganda!



Uh ... so where is Homeland Security and the X-ray machines?

"There was a blue truck with oil, and an orange truck with cargo. A green truck brought water for the passengers to drink." I hope those silly workers don't get the trucks mixed up! Good thing they're union!



It's creepy that Dad and son are wearing the same Van Heusen overcoat. Later on, and creepier still: we see that Gordon's blue blazer sports a prissy little crest over its pocket.


Here is an opportunity for a "B" story: what is Daddy doing while he stays home? That would have been intriguing. Perhaps a torrid affair with one of the union ground crew? Ahh, that story, alas, would never be told.


And here is, what they call in movies, the beauty shot of that Astrojet.*


Everything looks so spacious and everyone is so happy. Gordon pushes his chair back, and experiences real Astrobus* comfort. Of course, the poor slob seated behind Gordon gets his vodka tonic spilled in the process, natch.


Gordon looks at the train, far, far below. "Only little people take the train, Mummy!"

Please note how he delegates the responsibility of amusing himself by ordering his mother to get a magazine for him.


My frame of reference for the above picture on the left is, of course, Peter Graves as the pilot in AIRPLANE! (1980) who incessantly asks the little boy visiting their cockpit if he likes "gladiator movies."

On the facing page, our well-fed, well-dressed, over-privileged title character is given a "pilot's ring." A ring? I guess it's that other airline that passes out those pins.


The airplane appears to be emitting some kind of transmat anti-particle beam from its fuselage. At least that's what's Geordi LaForge, in his best technobabble, might remark upon seeing this picture.



Illustrator Mel Crawford, who worked for Disney, is alive and well. He has a gallery show opening on October 27, 2007 in Washington, CT. More of Mel Crawford's work is here, at the ASIFA blog (scroll down a bit). His Lambiek page has bio information.

*Service Mark of American Airlines, Inc.

How Did You Become Successful?

From Sandra Bell-Lundy's Between Friends blog, comes this great entry that talks about success and how does one get started actually being successful. She approached a guy who sold real estate -- one of the most successful people she knew:

"He told me that when he first started in real estate he was completely green as to 'HOW THINGS WERE DONE.' He had no idea what the protocols were for networking for contacts and finding clients. He was ignorant, motivated and starting at ground zero...and he told me that, in his enthusiasm, he went out and did everything he wasn't supposed to do. Apparently, that worked very well for him."

What to Do When You Sell a Magazine Cartoon

It's great when you get a sale from a magazine. There might be a note in the mail (sometimes in the same SASE you sent to them), you might get an email, you might get a phone call. I'm putting these modes of communication in descending order of probability. Most sales I've gotten I've either learned about via regular mail or email. I receive more email in the past 5-6 years, now that I'm in more editors' Rolodexes.

So, those silly little drawings with the captions under them that you sweated over and mailed out -- one of them sold!

OK, so, congratulations! Now what?

Now, you have to get your cartoon to them and get paid.

Sometimes, the magazine may have all ready pulled a copy of the cartoon from your batch and they will print from that. Other times, you'll get it back with a note that they want to buy it. Sometimes, they'll ask you to redraw it. For instance, the Wall Street Journal always wants my cartoon to be drawn square and in a bold line -- which tells you right there I'm a wimpy line/horizontal kinda guy.

Most magazines do not have size restrictions. Only one (Playboy) tells their clients how many picas high, how many picas wide a cartoon should be. I remembered "picas" from journalism class. I had to call the cartoon editor and ask for a translation into inches. It was no problem. (Most of the time when I call an editor with a question about a sale, they're happy to help.)

Anyway, with most mags, like the old wheeze goes: size doesn't matter. More than half of the editors have little or no opinion about whether you should just sell the cartoon that they say, or draw a "finish" of that same cartoon.

Back in the day -- the 1950s & 60s, when cartoonists would go in person, from magazine to magazine, every Wednesday, doing the "rounds" -- he would drop off roughs at the mags. If one of them sold, he would draw a finish.

I don't mail out roughs. What you see is what you get. There is more than one mag that tends to go through cartoon editors every 18 months, so I always try to do my best job, thinking that there may be someone who is looking at these cartoons and they do not know who I am. So, no faking a sketchy looking drawing.

If the editor has provided contact information, then I contact the editor (I usually make a phone call, especially if I don't know the editor) to (a) say thanks for the buy and (b) ask if I can email the cartoon. I usually email a 300dpi JPEG.

Most publications will want you to invoice them. An invoice is a bill and it doesn't matter what it looks like, so long as it has information I tell you about in my Cartoon Invoices blog entry from June!

Festival of Cartoon Art Adds Speakers

The 2007 Festival of Cartoon Art (October 25-27, 2007), held on the OSU campus in Columbus, Ohio has added three speakers to its schedule : Paul Pope, Arnold Roth and David Saylor.

It's kind of a "three in, three out" situation, with the cancellation of previously announced guests Jules Feiffer, Guy Delisle and Mark Siegel.

It should be noted that the first day of this event (Thursday) is titled "Graphic Storytelling: Academic Perspectives," and it's at the Blackwell Inn, on the OSU campus. No transportation is provided. I called the library a couple of months ago and they told me all this. Glad to see they've added the info. to their schedule. The other days' events are held in the Columbus Renaissance Hotel, where most everyone will be staying. It's too bad that there is no money for a shuttle between downtown and the Blackwell for Thursday's events.

The New Jersey National Cartoonists Society blog has more information. Thanks to Mike Arnold and NJ NCS chair Tom Stemmle for posting this.

This is going to be a great event, with a lot of great cartoonists -- on both sides of the dais. If you get a chance to hear Arnie Roth, do it. He's a swell entertainer! And you can still register too!

Unused Music from STAR TREK TMP (1979)

One of the coolest things that happened to me in the 1990s was I got to sit within a couple of feet (or meters, if you're reading this across the pond) of film composer Jerry Goldsmith while he conducted an orchestra rehearsal of his STAR TREK march. This was thanks to horn player Ricardo Cox, who is (a) a NYC pal and (b) just happened to be one of the musicians in the short-lived group that called themselves "The New York Filmharmonic;" a collection of classical and studio musicians. Like Ricardo, I am a TREK fan. Even better, I was a huge fan of Goldsmith. Unfortunately, I did not know what to say to the man when given the opportunity to say hello, so I just stated quiet, and watched him work.

The march was originally composed for the STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE, and Gene Roddenberry liked it so much it was used eight years later as the theme music for his new NEXT GENERATION series.

Goldsmith and STTMP Director Robert Wise had different ideas on the music. Since Director outranks Composer, Goldsmith went back to the dots, returning with the now-familiar tune.

This above clip, however, shows us the first time the new Enterprise successfully gets into warp, and the music here, while different than the music in the final cut, is not so big a difference ... and the march is not in there. Goldsmith's orchestrator on STTMP was the original composer of the TOS theme: Alexander Courage.

You can hear a small cut of that earlier, "wrong" music, on the STTMP "Director's Edition" DVD extras. Goldsmith says he felt Wise was correct to criticize. It's got the "march beat," but no recognizable theme. If I can find a video of that bit, I will post.

The Music of Star Trek ... well, there's a lot of it. And there's even a book, THE MUSIC OF STAR TREK, natch! But my fave music is the fight music from the "Amok Time" episode. It was written by Gerald Fried. You know the episode; where Spock goes into heat and has to get to Vulcan and take a mate or die.

The music is so versatile, it was reused in the series from time to time. And there are a lot of places it's resurfaced to comedic and dramatic effect: THE CABLE GUY movie (directed by TOS uber-fan Ben Stiller), video of some housecats fighting (aww, they're jes havin' fun), in this fan-made clip from the LAND OF THE DEAD movie (where it works in byootifully dramatic fashion), and here it is replacing the original music track for the DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS INVASION special. I'm also sure it was in a couple of FAMILY GUY episodes, but I'm not a fan.

Trivia: Were there lyrics to the original TREK theme? Snopes has the answer here.

Unseen Kurt Werth Drawings

Illustrator Kurt Werth (1896-1983), whose work I blogged about before, was known for his children's books. I liked his drawings a lot, and hoped that I would find more. I didn't have to go out and find more drawings; more drawings found me.

I received this email from Randy W.:

Mike: i found your posting about Kurt Werth cartoons while looking for information on him. I have a friend that has a few small personal "caricature" drawings by Kurt done on personal letters to a friend from the early 1980s. I have been asked to look into them to see if they have any value to collectors.

So, here they are. If you are interested, and can give some advice, please send Randy an email to rjwensman [at] qwest.net.



I can only guess at who the stylish woman is, but she appears in most of these drawings which look like pen and ink and watercolor.


Heaven knows why it says "Lousy!" Looks OK to me. Look at that pose and the smile. If that's a pair of scissors next to the drawing, then this is a rather small drawing -- all the more impressive for its skill.


Unfortunately, some of the text at the bottom is cut out of this photo.


A lovely portrait. "To Ann," it's dedicated, and signed "Werth 1980," when he would have been 84 years old.


Just reiterating: Randy is looking for anyone who can guide him as to what to do with these.


And there you have it. I love casual, personal sketches -- but these are practically finishes. If I owned them, I could not part with them!

Isaac Asimov on The Golden Age of Science Fiction

For your perusal: A short (just over 3 minutes) bit of film from 1971 with Asimov talking about John Campbell's influence on science fiction writing.

PEANUTS Debut: October 2, 1950

According to the official Schulz timeline at the Charles M. Schulz Museum site, today was the first PEANUTS daily. The strip debuted in seven newspapers on October 2, 1950. Other "this day in history" type sites say that the strip initially appeared in nine newspapers, but I'll place my trust in the Schulz Museum's site. He made $90 for the first month's worth of comic strips.


Above: Charlie Brown's debut, 57 years ago.

Submitting Cartoons to Magazines

There was a reason I drew magazine gag cartoons: my other projects did not work out.

I was going to draw a graphic novel, but decided that it was a lot of work for probably not a lot of money. Then, I tried to get syndicated. But, like zillions before me, I was not successful.

So, gag cartooning it was!

Still ... it took months before I sold my first magazine cartoon. I would show friends my cartoons. "Do these make sense to you? Do you think they're funny? Would you buy them?" If they said anything encouraging, instead of thanking them, I would continue to press their patience, whining about some more about getting rejected.

Of course, my friends had hung up the phone by now.

Every month, I mailed out a batch to all of the major cartoon markets. We talked about batches here, and why I was mailing paper, and not just emailing JPEGs.

OK, even if I had not heard back in 30 days, I mailed in ten more. For a SASE, I just mailed a folded 9x12 envelope with enough stamps on it for it to return to me. (If you put one of those preprinted post office postage strips on, it doesn't work. The postage is only good for mailing on that day.)

To find markets, I went to the bookstores and libraries. I'd write to the art director, and send the package of 10-12 cartoons to the address of the magazine. I'd include a cover letter, letting them know who I am and any credentials.

Anyway, so half a year goes by with all this toil. I was coming up with 8-12 cartoon ideas a day, throwing most of them out, and then drawing up the rest of the good ideas.

What I didn't understand was that a lot of my submissions were being opened up and looked at seriously. The editors just weren't buying ... yet.

By the time the beginning of my seventh month of being a non-selling gag cartoonist, I began to get buys. I decided -- right or wrong -- that maybe the editors were waiting me out, to see if I was going to be a regular contributor. And to watch and see that my work was of consistent quality.

Some of the editors sent an email, others would send a note with the SASE, to let me know there was a buy. For most buys, I email a hi res JPEG, along with an invoice.

Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun!: The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby (one of a series)

Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun!: The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby (one of a series) is a great blog entry by what's becoming one of my favorite blogs around the ol' blogiverse! And don't miss A Wodehouse a Week!Here's the latest: BARMY IN WONDERLAND.

There's more, but I would be Mr. Spoiler-of-Your-Discovery, and that's no good.

Bill Mauldin's WILLIE & JOE Collection

Tom Spurgeon has a bunch of information here on the 2 volume, slip-covered edition of WILLIE & JOE: THE WWII YEARS, which will be out in February from Fantagraphics Books.