"Cartoonist legend Mel Casson, the writer and illustrator of the comic strip Redeye, died on May 21 at his home in Westport, Conn. He was 87."
I met Mel a couple of times at the CT NCS chapter get togethers. He was a great guy and full of great stories.
Below is a sampling of some of his gag cartoon work that he did for the book EVER SINCE ADAM AND EVE, edited by Mr. Casson and Alfred Andriola and copyright 1955 by them as well.
"You and your bright ideas. We haven't sold a painting in two days."
"Any volunteers to bisect a curve?"
"Which of you is Mr. Bingham?"
I love you too, Roger, but how will I explain to my family?"
"This is the reason I gave up playing with dolls."
"Three parts gin ... one part vermouth ... and a dash of aphrodisiac."
"Harvey, remind me to pick up a quart of milk on the way home."
"I just came across your old address book. Explain this 'deadbeat' next to my name!"
Here's some cartoons from the BEST CARTOONS OF 1964, "being a selection, by the artists themselves, of the best cartoons they drew for the leading magazines in the country for the past year." It's copyright 1964 by the series' long time editor Lawrence Lariar. The nice paper cover has long since been landfill, so here's the frontispiece.
Bob Weber's cartoons are always fun. Full of lowlifes, full of action -- and there's always an old timey cartoon touch to admire. In this case, I'm admiring the little puffs of smoke behind the hubby. This guy gets snaps for escaping the police and running through town without losing his stogie!
Here's a nice pen scratchy Joe Farris cartoon. It's only by letting my eye wander for a moment, keying in on what the shrink is looking at, that I was able to see those patient's fingers.
George Dole is one of the greats. I like his wide-eyed characters and easy, quick sketch style.
I like how the kid's hand is at his hip. So theatrical. Bo Brown has made a good point.
Jack Tippit with a prescient cartoon. Lariar wrote in his introduction that, "The past year may well go down in history as The Year of the Unleashed Libido." This cartoon certainly qualifies.
Arthur Henrickson with an early raw food market cartoon.
The one and only Don Orehek with a dopey cop. Note how his black spotting gets your eye bouncing between the 4 "Budapest String Quartet members" and the foreground.
Vahan Shirvanian (who just had a cartoon in yesterday's Wall Street Journal) gives us a 2 panel take on an old idea. I laughed at it. Maybe you saw it coming, but I didn't!
Do kids even know what a divining rod is? Here's another multi-panel by Jack Tippit. You can never have enough Tippit.
Michaud made me laugh out loud. Another "Year of the Libido" cartoon, for those who are counting! Look at the lovely little details of the room, and that easy, sweeping wash.
Jim Whiting reporting on the wild, drunken parties. Nowadays, a quick phone call from one of the kids' cell phones to Child Protective Services would bring about a swift end to this behavior!
This is maybe a dated and silly gag, but look at the composition: a sea of frowns as we look from left to right -- and then we see the exception, and read the gag line. All done in an economic 2-3 seconds.
Announcing a new graphic novella, serialised in The Times every Monday from June 2nd for the next six months:
The Trial of the Sober Dog by Nick Abadzis
Everyone one had one: the person at school who was thought most likely to succeed. A chance encounter at a private view sees friends Marco and Petra encounter their old school rival Joe Chase again after many years. It seems he has indeed lived up to his potential… but things aren’t always what they seem. No matter how it seems to observers, nobody can have it all…
Told through observations, anecdotes, flashbacks and musings by different narrators, each episode shows a different aspect of Chase and multiple reasons why he might still be nicknamed The Sober Dog…
The Times relaunch on June 2nd features The Sober Dog as its new T2 Monday strip in full colour. Every episode will be available to read online, the day after publication, here:
Just for fun: 20 seconds from the TREES TO TRIBUNES documentary showing Frank King at work as well as the real life inspiration for GASOLINE ALLEY's lead character Walt Wallet:
The man who will be best remembered as the composer of the original STAR TREK TV theme music had been in declining health since 2005. Mr. Courage passed away on May 15, 2008 at the Sunrise assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades, CA.
"Courage himself was a genial man with an impish sense of humor. His Trek cue titles are marked by odd puns and inside jokes like 'Monitor Gizzard,' 'Lurch Time' (for a ship-shaking scene in 'The Naked Time') and 'Banana Farm.' After Courage wrote the Star Trek theme music Gene Roddenberry offered to write lyrics to the tune—an arrangement that earned the Trek creator half of the royalties on the oft-played theme and cost Courage quite a lot of money, particularly given that Roddenberry’s lyrics were never given any authentic recording or performance until Nichelle Nichols recorded a version late in her career. Stung by the arrangement, the cheeky Courage would sometimes sign Roddenberry’s name when asked for his autograph.
"I have this very deep urge urge to make fun of sensitive issues. I can't help myself. If you laugh, you are not afraid."
Just posted: a February 28, 2008 interview with "Gregorius Nekschot" in Dutch, German and English. Mr. Nekschot was arrested in his home for posting offensive anti-Islamic cartoons on his blog. A quote from the article linked above:
"Prosecutors said eight cartoons by Gregorius Nekschott considered reprehensible had been pulled from his website for 'exceeding the limits' of freedom of expression."
Cartoonist Jim Sizemore has a new blog, the Doodlemeister blog.
Like a fool, I publicized it here. Yes, it was a foolish thing to do: publicize a blog that is one day soon going to eclipse mine big time!
Well, anyway, Jim has been doing some great work and I have no choice but to bring to your attention today's entry about Bob Weber, the man behind King Features' Moose & Molly newspaper strip since 1965.
Bob's a great guy, and exemplifies the kind of graciousness and kindness that is all part of the pro cartooning world. Thanks for sharing this, Jim.
" ... [T]he Dutch Secret Service apparently have a division dedicated to checking all the cartoons being published in the country for their political correctness."
"I'm going to go through this piece of shit with you, because I'm sure a lot of aspiring cartoonists read my blog and I want to do my part to help you all have a future.
"Read my bloggy lips: if you sign this contract, say goodbye to THE FUTURE."
It seems a lot like the online Zuda contract: Tokyopop's "Manga Pilot" venture wants all rights and no liability. As Bryan points out, there are waaaay too many other, better ways to get your work out there. Do not sell yourself out just to get published.
The weather report for New Orleans was for hot, hot, steamy, rainy weather all weekend. But it only rained on Thursday and by Friday the rain was intermittent, leaving only the hot, hot & steamy behind ....
I am placing these photos here randomly since if I got them organized, it would be days later before I could manage. See below for some more links to more sites with more organized pictures.
Above is the one and only legendary Jack Davis and me, Mike Lynch, in a photo taken by his wife, Deena "I take very bad photos" Davis. Really. She warned me. Mr. Davis made fun of her cutting off the tops of our mutual heads.
Richard Thompson and Rob Rogers. It was at the till-all-hours meet & greet on the first night there. All are bleary and tired, but happy.
Um, ask Mark Tatulli about The Great American Comic Strip Suck-a-thon. It's for real and it's coming in June 2009.
All in all, an excellent and massive dose of fun. I was involved in some meetings and behind the scenes stuff. At one point, it had been over 2 days and I'd not stepped out of the hotel. Too busy! Related links:
"'She was the inspiration for all of my success,' Bil Keane, 85, told the Associated Press from his home in Paradise Valley on Sunday. 'When the cartoon first appeared, she looked so much like Mommy that if she was in the supermarket pushing her cart around, people would come up to her and say, 'Aren't you the Mommy in 'Family Circus?' And she would admit it.'"
Bil's son Jeff is the current National Cartoonists Society president. My condolences to the Keane family on this sad loss.
I am back home in rural New Hampshire after five days away at the National Cartoonists Society Reubens weekend in New Orleans. Wonderful to see spouse & kitties & garden again!
I'll be posting some of my photos from the 2008 Reubens soon.
I'm off to the National Cartoonists Society's annual Reubens weekend. I don't do live blogging. I know it's very 1990s of me, but I want to hang out, talk shop, etc.
I was having a phone conversation with a book publisher. When I mentioned the upcoming Reubens, she wanted to sell her (cartoonist oriented) book at the NCS convention. No, it's not that kinda event, I tried to explain. No huckster room. (Do they still call it that?) This is a pro-to-pro annual get together. There are some presentations, some dinners (including the black tie Reubens banquet Saturday night), but the best thing is meeting a lot of people who do the same thing that you do ... and hanging out with them.
See you next week with some photos and stories.
The above grand Rube Goldberg self portrait is from the cover of the 1972 revised edition of the NCS Album, edited by Mort Walker. The "Reubens" are named in Mr. Goldberg's honor.
"In summer ’09, we also have a book by cartoonist Lynn Johnston, who is the author and artist of the long running comic strip For Better, for Worse. It is a full-color picture book for children from four to seven years old. It is about a dog who loves to eat and doesn’t care about what he is eating, and he gets lost following one delicious scent after another, and then after a day of being lost he comes home. You will see that the family in For Better, for Worse is in the pictures. Although they won’t be identified as that, but it will be appealing to the readers of the strip."
Above: From the May 17, 2008 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Wonder Woman, Joe Wos, Betty Boop. A big tip o' the hat to Dr. Lynch for cutting this out of the PG and sending it along.
Last month, I had the chance to visit Joe Wos at the Toonseum, which is part of the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. Joe was kind enough to show my wife and I around, and we all went to Joe's office to peek at some treasures. So, here are a few behind the scenes photos.
Joe took us up to his office. On a table were a couple of boxes and plastic bags full of HALF HITCH originals by Hank Ketcham (with an able uncredited assist by Dick Hodgins, Jr.). These are all awaiting cataloging.
These are gorgeous strips, and deserve to be seen. Above is one wonderfully illustrated panel. Ketcham had donated these originals to an armed forces facility. The personnel discovered that they could not file the strips away in traditional filing cabinets -- so they cut each original down so it would fit. Arrgh! So, not only do the strips need to be cataloged, first they have to be matched up and affixed together.
Joe has an amazing story about this lightboard that I am totally forgetting. I'm sorry Joe! I know it's an animation lightboard from the 1930s and some seminal animation was done on it. Arrgh! again.
Above: Joe Wos, Mike Lynch (Photo by Stacy!)
He's collecting cartoonists' drawings. One day this board will be full of original doodles!
Above: a closer angle. You can see Dan Piraro, Morrie Turner, Robb Arnstrong, Mike Lynch ....
Above: just a portion of Joe's bulletin board with all sorts of fun stuff; originals by Dan Crum. Tom Yeates, a lovely photo of Mssrs. Wos & Guisewite. Click to super-size.
My thanks to Joe for the time he took out of his schedule to show us around. There is a new exhibit of titled Just Kidding Around!: Children in Cartoons and Comics opening June 7th, featuring original art and rare items related from newspaper strips and kids TV. The exhibit runs through August 3rd.
At least there's one editor out there that listens.
According to Editor & Publisher, Tennessee paper The Daily Times will make their Sunday comics bigger beginning this Sunday in response to reader's complaints.
"Hi, I'm doing rights clearances and I saw a photo/cartoon of [name of cartoonist] on your blog so can you tell me how to find him/her/the estate of this cartoonist so our publishing house can buy a cartoon for our publication/textbook/whatever."
I've had three so far this week and it's only Tuesday morning.
There seriously must be a tiny boom in textbook publishing somewhere. (Most of these queries are for textbooks.)
And it's nice to see the diligence and integrity of these professional rights-clearances people. They really want to find the person who owns the rights to the cartoon that they want to purchase.
Cartoonist Kieran Meehan has a spanking new site. Meehancartoons.com is up and operating as of this week, just in time for the Reubens (which are coming up this weekend).
Kieran is syndicated with King Features (the newspaper comic strip" Pros and Cons;" formerly "A Lawyer, A Doctor & A Cop"), and he also produces a daily cartoon panel for the Evening Times, in Scotland (which is also where he lives).
Congrats, Kieran, on a great site -- and continued success! I look forward to seeing you at the Reubens!
From the 1967-68 series HE AND SHE, comes this weathered promo.
Real life husband and wife Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss played Dick & Paula Hollister. Dick was a cartoonist, whose successful comic strip "Jet-man," had been made into a successful TV show. Jack Cassidy co-starred as the uber-egotistical star of the "Jet-man" show.
The first episode, The Old Man and the She (airdate 9/6/1967), is below, chopped up into YouTube bits
Celebrating the cartoons of J.W. Taylor, a cartoonist that's not well remembered at all, except by me. Andmaybe, after a moment of looking at his gag cartoons, you'll like his work and remember as well.
Like a lot of gag cartoonists, I discovered his work in collections of gag cartoons. I began to recognize his style and I loved his sense of humor and his broad, bold, economic ink line. When Tom Spurgeon at Comics Reporter asked his weekly "Five for Friday" question yesterday (Five For Friday #120 -- Name Five Archival/Translation Projects That Aren't Happening Right Now (As Far As You Know) That You'd Love To See), I emailed a list:
1.The Complete SKIPPYby Percy Crosby
2. The Complete Virgil "VIP" Partch
3.The New Yorker Cartoonists Do Newspaper Strips (WHITE BOY by Garrett Price, THE SMYTHES by Rea Irvin, etc.)
4. WHERE'S NEMO? The "Other" Dream Strips (NIBSY THE NEWS BOY by McManus, MR. TWEE-DEEDLE by Gruelle, THE NAPS OF POLLY SLEEPYHEAD by Newell, etc.)
5. The Complete J.W. Taylor(a great unsung British gag cartoonist for PUNCH)
I could blog about any one of those five topics, but it's the last one on the list -- the relatively unknown Punch cartoonist -- that I want to talk about a little and then show some of his terrific cartoons.
Who was J.W. Taylor? I'll share what little I know. First, his cartoons (especially the talking dogs ones and the beer ones) are very funny.
John Whitfield Taylor was a full-time schoolmaster who also cartooned. He attended the University of Manchester, and was head of the art department at Portland House School.
These J.W. Taylor cartoons are from two big hardcover collections from the 1950s: THE BEST CARTOONS FROM PUNCH (copyright 1955 by Bradbury, Agnew & Company, Ltd., the US proprietors of PUNCH) and CARTOON TREASURY edited by Lucy Black Johnson and Pyke Johnson, Jr. (copyright 1955 by the Johnsons).
Above: perhaps his most reproduced cartoon.
"All of his drawings are done at weekends, but throughout his working week he makes copious notes and rough sketches in a notebook which he always carries around with him. 'I attend seriously to business at educational conferences and head teachers' meetings, but I have sometimes been known to doodle on the agenda paper.'" Weekly Illustrated, The Artist and His Humor Series #14, June 1955 article by David Clayton.
"Full-time comic artists, far from resenting the success of an amateur in a highly-competitive field, are full of praise for his work. One professional, Bernard Hollowood ("Hod"), says, 'I collect genuine 'Taylors' as a connoisseur. His captions are slick and economical. The disarmingly simple brush lines of his drawings match the captions in clarity and vitality." - ibid.
"So we bought a couple of hens and I was to write a humorous best seller about our misfortunes -- but it didn't work out."
Above: parents don't change.
"All right, Brannigan -- we know you're in there!"
Above: one of my personal favorites.
Above: a rare multi-panel.
"One misses a lot -- being brought up to appreciate it."
The above gag works if you understand there's a can of Sterno with an open flame under that coffee pot!
I hope you enjoyed seeing this man's work. J.W. Taylor deserves at the very least a salute for his modern, breezy brush style, spot-on expressions and great gag writing.
Above: the Weekly Illustrated article, with cartoons.
Some really fun material here. Gene Byrnes' book on drawing is here, as well as scans of cartoons and comic strips; profiles of cartoonists and old comic strip ads, etc. This is all part of the UK-based The Cultural Archive.
My pal and syndicated cartoonist Tony Murphy married his sweetheart Sina in Manhattan today. From my studio to yours, buddy: I wish you many years of happy domesticity!
Above: a desert island gag (which will soon see print in WSJ), the number one gag cartoon cliche as voted on by Mike Lynch Cartoons blog readers.
Well, the votes are in, and, out of a list of 15 cliches, the top winners of the gag cartoon cliche genre are:
Desert island
Psychiatrist's couch
Grim reaper
The big losers (a 3-way tie for last place):
Eye chart
In/Out boxes
Man crawling thru desert
Above: the #2 cartoon cliche, from a time when I was drawing in charcoal and wash. This appeared in Funny Times.
Above: Gahan Wilson saw this cartoon one day and told me he liked the way I drew the skull. I was very happy at the unsolicited kind words from one of the masters of cartooning.
Some Edward Ardizzone drawings from the book MY UNCLE SILAS, a collection of stories by H.E. Bates. This edition was published in 1947 by the Reprint Society Limited, and, although there is no copyright (!), I would guess it's copyright 1947 by the same.
MY UNCLE SILAS is a collection of the 14 short stories about Uncle Silas, a devilish sort who
"got gloriously and regularly drunk, loved food and the ladies, and good company, was not afraid to wear a huge and flamboyant buttonhole, told lies, got the better of his fellow-men whenever the chance offered itself, used a scythe like an angel, was a wonderful gardener, took the local lord's pheasants, and yet succeeded in remaining an honest, genuine and lovable character."
Above is 93 year old Uncle Silas working in his garden from the story "The Lily." All of Ardizzone's finished drawings look like pages torn out of his sketchbook. The ink flows freely and easily, and the composition is so subtle; drawing you in, in this instance, to our man Silas.
"There was no sound or movement from anything except the bees, droll and drunken, as they crawled and tippled down the yellow and blue and dazzling white throats of the flowers."
Above: tales told in the pub. I like how everyone is leaning; on the bar, against the wall. All that inky noodling makes it look cozy.
Above: In the story "The Race," Uncle Silas boasted he could beat a local blowhard named Goffy in a foot race. One problem: the chap is fit, and Silas is old and not in shape. In the drawing, Goffy is about to come upon Silas, lying corpse-like in the middle of the village path. Did Silas collapse -- or it a ruse?
Just looking at the foliage, you can see how overgrown it is. When you read phrases like the bees buzzed lazily and the sun was hot, etc., you see the feel of the country in Ardizzone's work
All of the stories are told from the point of view of Silas' great-nephew Edward. In this drawing you see a bit of the hills and dales of the country, with not even a hint of a straight line of tamed flora from Ardizzone -- the ground is swelling upward, and bristling with growth.
Above: a country fair.
"Care for a mouthful o' wine?" is a phrase Silas uses a lot. And there's an abundance of the beverage at the fair. Climbing a forbidden high wall. There are dozens of illustrations in the book, of which only a handful are here. I'd like to think that he would have been a great graphic novelist if he were alive today.
Bates described himself "lucky to have the collaboration of Mr. Edward Ardizzone, whose crabbed and crusty pictures are so absolutely and perfectly in the spirit of every page they illustrate." The housekeeper dresses Silas. Silas yells at her a lot. In one story, Silas and the nephew have come in to Silas' house after a hot day in the garden for a mouthful of wine.
"'Woman, if you're down the cellar bring us a bottle o' cowslip.'
"'I'm upstairs,' came a voice.
"'Then come down. And look slippy.'
"Fetch it yourself!'"
This goes on for a bit. After a page or two, the housekeeper relents, retrieves the wine and the glasses, but Silas insults her speed and then, her general appearance, until she leaves, vowing never to come back. The nephew sees all this and remarks --
"I said, 'You've done it now,' and he winked back at me again, knowing that I knew that she had been leaving every day for twenty years, and that they had quarreled with each other day and night for nearly all that time, secretly loving it."
MY UNCLE SILAS was made into two series for ITV, seen in the States on Masterpiece Theatre with Albert Finney. Below are the titles and the first scene from one of the episodes of the first series, "Silas and Goliath:"
It's TOM JONES, 40 years on.
Above: from TIM AND TOWSER.
When I was a kid, I found Ardizzone's Tim books at the local library. The Tim series of books began in 1937 and have never been out of print. Like a good cartoonist, Mr. Ardizzone wrote and drew and watercolored all of them. I have liked his work ever since I first saw it.
The more I read about him, the more I find out. Case in point:
Related link: Ardizzone was a 2nd Lieutenant in an anti-aircraft battery when Sir Kenneth Clark appointed him as a full-time official War Artist by the War Artists Advisory Committee.
Will Elder, famous for his work with Harvey Kurtzman on the old Mad magazine (back when it was a comic book) as well as the Playboy feature Little Annie Fanny, passed away. He was 86 years old.
Above: Trout (tiger cat) with a look of bliss as her mate Sam (B&W cat) gives her a bath.
Our little girl cat Trout is a little girl no longer.
Trout went into heat sometime around 3am. It was disruptive, and it confused our neutered male cats, Roo & Sam. And there was not much shut eye for the people as well.
We were bad for not getting her fixed beforehand.
Off to the vet she was taken first thing this morning. We will be without our stripey cat with the funny fish name until tomorrow, when she gets picked up, a little groggy with a shaved belly, so we may all return to our status quo.
"The show includes many of the rough sketches that precede the inked cartoons, providing a window into Oliphant’s process. He’s a natural draftsman whose loose drawings contribute a lot of the comic appeal to his finished work; the pencil sketches show how easily the humor flows from his pen. And to emphasize the point, there’s a big charcoal sketch that Oliphant did directly on the wall of the gallery space."
I love seeing the roughs, the doodles, the bits behind the scenes. This is a great opportunity to see a major editorial cartoonist's retrospective. If you're going, I'll come along and help with gas money, OK? OK!
Anyway, if you are going to vote, please click one of your favorite cartoon cliches and join in the fray in the vital and important topic to the American working folks.
UPDATE: The gag cartoon poll has ended. The results are here.
"NO COMMENT" by Vahan Shirvanian, a prolific cartoonist who lives and works in New Jersey, was a primarily wordless strip. It's copyright 1981 by King Features Syndicate.
Above: a lazy dog and one of those machines that shakes your belly. Does anyone have one of these any more? Is there a company that makes them still? Just wondering.
"No Comment" is a "whimsical, preposterous" strip, with maybe only a few characters that reappear from time to time. The emphasis here is on a four panel wordless gag coming out of left field. For instance: the magical bunny's whistle gets our magician a cab.
And the next day, we're in the African veldt watching an explorer do ... uh ... paperwork. I actually am looking for one of those big tack things for my desk for all my receipts. Again: are these even made any more? Do they have a name? I don't know.
Above: a racy result from the vibrating gong! I had to look twice to understand what the heap was in the bottom right hand 4th panel.
Above: one of my favorites with, what looks like, our big silly dog again. Always looking for ways to ease his life. These drawings are bold and look like they could take the drastic newspaper shrinkage no problem.
Again, back in the jungle with an odd bit of a gag. I like the ape's expression as he is looking forward to his lunch.
A nice touch: the cat standing on tip toes as he CLANGS! the cymbals.
Above: anything can happen in NO COMMENT.
Mr. Shirvanian is alive and well, and lives in the beautiful wilds of Northwestern New Jersey. His cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, Reader's Digest, Harvard Business Review, Playboy and many, many other publications. He is now in his 62nd of a professional cartooning career!
He taught fighter pilot gunnery in WWII before enrolling at Seton Hall University, where he majored in English while attempting to sell cartoons at the same time. His first sale was to The Saturday Evening Post in 1946, and he has been a success ever since (he has been named best cartoonist of the year ten times by Highlights for Children and the National Cartoonists Society.) Shirvanian enjoys hiking the trails of New Jersey and watching old movies in his free time. - from the Reader's Digest Meet the Cartoonists page.
Some magazines, like Collier's and Look, fade away. Others, like Esquire, change with the times. Once a major market for cartoons, Esquire troops on today, with no cartoons.
"My other boss always gave me a raise when he got fresh — you just got fresh."
The cartoons range in age from the 1930s to the 1950s. By her bobbed hair and his attire, the above cartoon looks like one of the older ones. I like her playing with her hands on her knees. I can't make out the signature of the cartoonist.
"No, no Miss Balcom — this model buttons up the back!"
By now, you're beginning to get the idea: high end drawings coupled with the NYC fashion/business/partying lifestyle. Gilbert Bundy drew this with the touch of a commercial illustrator. Paul Giambara writes about Bundy here.
Above E. Simms Campbell, one of my favorites. He was one of the few people of color whose talent plowed the way. Simms was a very successful cartoonist whose work appeared everywhere. Esquire signed him to a big contract and his work appeared in every issue from 1933 to 1958. More information at The Pioneering Artists of Color site.
"When I'm reasoning with you, you shut up!"
Above: the one and only Sid Hoff contributes a big wife v. little hubby cartoon. I like the fellow's lightbulb-shaped head.
"The liquor has run out, sir!"
Gregory D'Alessio with a lovely drawing. The book designers for some reason spotted some of the cartoons with color -- or rather, blotched the whole thing in a block of color. Robin's egg blue is pretty, but unnecessary. It doesn't add anything. Mr. D'Alessio was married to Hilda Terry, another cartoonist, who may be best know for her feature TEENA.
Above: you begin to see that some of the cartoons are pretty wacky -- not only in subject matter and point of view -- but in coloring as well. Robert J. Lee was a precursor to Gary Larson.
"Now that was what I call a skirt sale."
Esquire was then and is now -- never short on the cheesecake. Jean Van Saun shows a masterly touch at the feminine figure, and packs in a lot of character, in this one.
"Say the words that will make me the happiest man in the world — say you'll be mine, Mr. Swejckowski, for $62.50 plus overtime."
Ahh. Life before NAFTA and China! Ned Hilton (Doesn't he have a cool signature?) with an accomplished line drawing of our polish-named blue collar worker getting begged by Mr. Capitalist.
I love Hilton's ink line.
"I pass."
Another lower class/upper class cartoon. This time, it's a good gag about urban life. I think the signature is of Irving Phillips, but I can't be sure.
"That's what I love about a big city — everybody minds their own business!"
Prolific cartoonist Henry Boltinoff shows that he can do the ink and wash magazine gag style as good as the rest of 'em.
"Of course I can live on $1000 a month — but what will you live on?"
Above: Barbara Shermund has a wonderful sense of color. The daffy-looking blonde seems pretty savvy. The befuddled look on the face of our man there is going to be his look for life.
It was refreshing to see plenty of non-white male cartoonists in a magazine whose audience was probably pretty darn white.
Just wanted to post this lovely photo by Art Frisch of cartoonists George Lichty and Jack Kent that's for auction at eBay (ending tomorrow). I have nothing to do with the auction, but I sure liked the photo. It's always fun to get a glimpse at what these guys looked like!
Ms. Barry recently gave a class about what she does. Here's a description by the Times' writer Carol Kino:
"On a table behind her she had laid out scores of scribbled 3-by-5 note cards, each of which held a nugget of information that she would relay over the next several hours (like 'Don’t read it over' and 'An image is a pull toy that pulls you'). On the blackboard was a chalk drawing of Marlys, the spunky pigtailed kid protagonist of 'Ernie Pook’s Comeek,' the strip about growing up that made Ms. Barry a star of new-wave comics soon after it began running in alternative weeklies in 1978."
Ms. Barry's new book(full of all new material) WHAT IT IS, describes her process and point of view. PDF preview here.
This is an interesting article because of what it doesn't day: she doesn't stop cartooning when corporate acquisitions of the alt-weeklies in the mid-90s caused her "Ernie Pook's Comeek" to dwindle from 75 papers to only six. She continues to persevere, thirty years later. What it is is persistence!
I have most of her books and I was surprised that most have gone out of print. Here's hoping that, as announced, Drawn & Quarterly will print up all of her work, in sequence, beginning next year.
It's spring time! The snow is off the lawn, the lark is in the meadow, and a brand spanking new book of cartoons is aborne in the new spring day! Fa la!
The 108 page book jammed with his Andertoons trademark humor. There is also a forward by yours truly.
Mark and I are very much like cartoony brothers. We met after we saw each others' work in print and online. After a couple of phone conversations, we found out that we're both:
from small towns in Iowa,
self-taught cartoonists,
cubicle life escapees,
big nerds for comics and sci fi,
dashingly handsome lads,
and we each have very, very patient wives.
Okay, seriously -- He's one of the most successful cartoonists of the 21st century. His cartoons are everywhere: magazines, Web sites, phones, and, as I write this, Andertoons are probably being beamed across the Neutral Zone into the emerging Romulan market. I'm not kidding!
This is a chance to see his first collection of business cartoons. A worthy addition to your shelf and a worthy way to start off Spring 2008 with a laugh.
TOPSYS & TURVYS by Peter Newell (1862-1924) was originally published over a hundred years ago. It's the same with all of Peter Newell's work: all published over 100 years ago and all of his six "novelty books" ( such as THE SLANT BOOK, THE HOLE BOOK) are still in print. He also wrote and drew a newspaper comic strip titled THE NAPS OF POLLY SLEEPYHEAD (1906-07). There were, at the beginning of the 20th century, a slew of fantasy strips -- of which only LITTLE NEMO is remembered today.
Above is the cover of the Dover edition ("designed for years of use!") and it includes selections from TOPSYS AND TURVYS (1893) and TOPSYS AND TURVYS - NUMBER 2 (1894). No copyright information at all in here.
"The Elephant leans o'er the fence and wonders why it is"
The idea is that you look at Newell's drawing and read the line -- and then, turn the book over:
"The Ostrich has a longer neck and smaller mouth than his."
And you see a different picture, with a rhyming conclusion. Note: other blogs would just snidely tell you to turn you monitor upside down, but here at Mike Lynch Cartoons, we're all about customer service. Below is the same picture, upside down. No need to strain, gentle blog reader! Thank you and have a nice day.
"This troop of soldiers, all in a file, are looking near and far"
"To find the famous Forty Thieves, each hid within a jar."
Most of the time, I look at that first picture and can't figure out what the upside down version will be and how it relates. Some wonderful work.
"Peter Newell liked to say that he and the Civil War both broke out in this country at the same time. He was born near Rice's Corners, McDonough County, Illinois, on March 5, 1862, the fourth child of George Frederick Newell, an Ohioan, and Louisa Dodge of Chautauqua County, New York. His childhood years were spent in Bushnell, a small town in west-central Illinois."
"A hermit with a long red beard dwelt in a lonely place"
"The squirrel gazed with wonder upon his gloomy face."
"By the spring of 1883 he had moved east to New York, where he enrolled in classes at the Art Students' League while hoping to find steady employment as an illustrator for periodicals. His work had been published in the New York Graphic and Harper's Bazaar by the fall of 1883; the appearance of his simple line drawn comics was the beginning of a career in humor that would make Peter Newell one of the more prolific and best-known illustrators of his day."
"Fernando bears his cradle in, a cradle strong and deep"
Newell had good timing.
"By 1893 the development of halftone reproduction had made possible the style of illustration for which Newell is best remembered, the continuous tone drawing. His single-frame comics underscored with short, whimsical rhymes began appearing in Harper's Monthly and other magazines at this time. He was catapulted to fame by one in particular, "Wild Flowers," which appeared in the August 1893 issue of Harper's Monthly; several of these comics were compiled in one volume as Peter Newell's Pictures and Rhymes, published by Harper in 1900. Soon nearly every issue of most of the Harper magazines, as well as some Cosmopolitan, Metropolitan, McClure's and Collier's, carried a Newell comic or a Newell-illustrated story by authors such as John Kendrick Bangs, Stephen Crane, Philip Curtiss, Burges Johnson, Frank Stockton and Mark Twain."
Ahh! Those were the days!
"Then, placing it upon a rug, he rocks himself to sleep."
In 1894, the successful illustrator Newell and his family moved to Leonia, NJ.
"Over the next twenty years Leonia grew to become an illustrators' colony much like the one centered around the Pyle-Wyeth group near Wilmington, Delaware. The lively community of artists formed clubs, theatrical and lecture societies, and held exhibitions, costume parties and pageants. The Leonia School of Illustration was opened there by artists Harvey Dunn and Charles Chapman. The Newell family participated in all aspects of the intellectual, musical, religious and social life of the community. Peter Newell was a founding member of the Men's Neighborhood Club of Leonia and served on the village's first Board of Health. He played the cello, though apparently not well, and was a popular toastmaster and lecturer known for his "chalk talks" and other impromptu presentations. Both of the Newell daughters married illustrators, and Howard and Josephine Newell McCormick became leading members of the second generation of artists to live and work in Leonia."
The house wasn't just any house. It was featured in an article in Scientific American and a picture postcards as well!
"Why do these scurrying, frightened hares come coursing through the vale?"
"Because they know three hunting dogs are close upon their trail."
He traveled quite a bit. Like a lot of artists of the time, there were "sketching trips" to Europe. He was deeply grieved upon his only son's death in The Great War. In 1923, the Newells moved to Little Neck in Queens, NY.
"By the end of that year Peter Newell had become physically crippled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and was unable to work; he died in his home on January 15, 1924, at the age of 61."
Related: Cartoonist Gustave Verbeek also tread the same ground with his latter comic strip THE UPSIDE DOWNS in which he drew a six panel Sunday page which your would read all the way through and then turn it 180 degrees to read the conclusion. Barnacle Press has many of the strips here.
My thanks to Dan Danglo himself who forwarded this to me out of the blue. I don't have much to go on, but it looks like a reproduction of the original from a later newsletter. Read the blurbs on the right hand side. If Dan has some more information, I'd be glad to update this.
---
UPDATE: From Dan Danglo:
"Re the Santa I sent....When I worked at Terrytoons in 1942, my first friends there were Milton Stein and Jim Logan...I went into the service in 1943...I got out in 1946..I had kept up my correspondence with Jim and sometime in the course of the correspondence he sent me a copy of the Santa..On a visit to Jim and Elly (sadly they're both gone now)..we went out to dinner with animator, Dave Tendlar and his wife..Dave did the Santa drawing...If you are interested, I believe I have a file, or I loaned it to Howard Beckerman, of most of the pre Terrytoon strike, union bulletins. I'm a real pack rat. Best, Dan"
--
Heck, I'd sure like to see more from that time! Dan adds these 2 photos as well:
Dan adds:
"These pix were taken at Animation House...The two civilians on the left were from an agency."
Editorial cartoonist Kevin "Kal" Kallaugher of the London magazine The Economist talks about his cartoons in a series of films honoring his three decades with the magazine. Here are the first couple that have been posted on YouTube:
Attention gag cartoonists: It's May, so prep your cartoons for September! Suggested topics from the Cartoon Consultants Calendar for May: back to school, Daylight Savings Time ends, ordering coal and oil, etc.
Actually, I do have to order some oil, but I'm putting it off as long as possible in the hope is that the oil cartels will lower their prices before the election.
And remember: get your batches out in the US Mail before Monday BEFORE the postage hike. Yup, postage is going up. Lovely.
Graphic: Former gag cartoonist then syndicated cartoonist Mr. Ketcham hard at work at the board from a photo headlining the "How to Be a Cartoonist" feature from the DENNIS THE MENACE comic book #42 in 1959. This was originally posted on The Greatest Ape blog by Doug Gray.
Cartoonist Jim Sizemore adds his voice to the blogosphere at his Doodlemiester blog.
"My plan for the blog is to expand the definition of doodling to include—in addition to visual crafts such as photography, cartooning, illustration and graphic design—play writing, prose (fiction and non), and anything else (woodworking? ironing?), that invades my brain pan. A little of this, a little of that—the whole blog becoming one big doodle."
Welcome, Jim! Now ... get blogging!!!
Edit: Jim has changed the location of his blog to this site. The link has been corrected above.
Above: Central High School (Madison, WI) girls watch in awe as the one and only Walt Kelly draws. The individual in the off-model Pogo outfit is unidentified. Don't you wish you had one of those great sketches? Wouldn't you wrestle a sweet Wisconsin school girl to the ground until she cried "Uncle! Uncle!" for one? Yeah, well, me too.
From 1947: Cartoonist Ken Ernst sketches Ruth Schmitt whom he selected to represent a new character in his MARY WORTH comic strip. Ms. Schmitt was one of the eight "Badger Beauties" at the University of Wisconsin.
“When I was Badger Beauty in 1947, I thought that was going to be my ‘fifteen minutes of fame,' and after fifty-six years, it has proven to be just that."
Aww.
Indiana-born cartoonist John T. McCutcheon with his Wright Model B airplane, probably photographed at Cicero Field, probably around 1911. His front page Chicago Tribune editorial cartoons covered three wars: Spanish-American, World Wars I and II.
Pogo impersonator (always unidentified), Mr. Walt Kelly, and, in the middle of the Pogo sandwich: Jo Ingelfield, slated to be the First Lady in Pogo's administration upon his winning the presidency. The fellow on the far right is Carl Reich. These photos all date from 1952.
"The one and only Walt Kelly draws one of his famous cartoon characters for an audience of veterans at the Veterans Hospital." All of the photographs (except for the one of McCutcheon) are credited to Arthur M. Vinje.
Even when the poor sot takes off the hot, sweaty Pogo mask, we are not told who he was. Mr. Kelly has drawn the evolution of Pogo for him. I would wrestle that Pogo impersonator to the ground for that drawing ....
POGO ran in the Star, but then it folded. Here he is in his own words talking about taking the strip around, trying to find a new home for POGO:
"One lady editor insisted that she did not want to buy a duck. Kelly pointed out that it was a possum [s]he had by the tail. The lady said you can't even tell one animal from another, let alone draw one. Another editor offered Kelly a job taking care of his comic book division. A third editor laughed, which only encouraged Kelly. Then he said nobody would understand the strip. 'Try it out on ordinary people,' he roared. 'You'll see.'"
And, ordinarily I'd hit the SAVE button and post this thing ....
But ... a few of the photos are not categorized correctly. These photos are not tagged under the "cartoonist" category and deserve to be looked at -- particularly since I'm a sucker for anything having to do with Walt Kelly:
Walt Kelly on stage (and out of view) at West High School (Madison, WI). This was all to do with his I GO POGO book tour.
"Students in the Rathskeller on the University of Wisconsin campus listening to a presentation by cartoonist Walt Kelly on his book tour."
Above: one of my favorite photos by Mr. Vinje, despite the fact that the cartoonist does not appear in it: Veterans Hospital patients peeking out of their rooms, waiting to meet Mr. Kelly.
It intrigued me that we could read his thoughts in the strip, but on TV he never spoke or showed us his thought balloon. But Snoopy did occasionally make sounds; wild weird sounds that I weren't sure were even made by a human. Most of the time, he went "Bleah!" which was, upon initial viewing of A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS as a wee tad, one of the wittiest moments in TV history. It's still good today, 44 years on.
Years later I found out the voice belonged to the fellow who produced all those Peanuts TV specials and movies: Bill Melendez.
Here are a series of clips featuring Snoopy going "Bleah!" This is to Snoopy as "D'oh!" is to Homer Simpson. Selected scenes from:
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Boy Named Charlie Brown
Snoopy Come Home
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show: Lucy Baseball
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show: The Manager
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show: Snoopy and Woodstock
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show: Truffles
Thanks to DreamDancer82 for editing these together. What fun!
Above: the first collection of HAZEL cartoons sold 500,000 copies.
Ted Key, best known for creating the cartoon panel HAZEL, passed away on Saturday at his Tredyffrin Township, PA home. Mr. Key was diagnosed with cancer of the bladder in 2006. He had suffered a stroke this past September. He was 95.
All I wanted to add were a couple of images to demonstrate that he really was a master of media. Heck, the fellow kept up Hazel while serving in World War II as a Master Sergeant.
From the AP story:
"Key literally dreamed up the concept of his wildly popular maid cartoon.
"'Like a lot of creative people, he kept a notepad near his bedside,' Peter Key said of his father. 'He had a dream about a maid who took a message, but she screwed it up completely. When he looked at the idea the next day, he thought it was good and sold it to the Post.'"
And this is from the Times:
“'He picked the name Hazel out of the air,' Peter Key said. 'But there was an editor at The Post who had a sister named Hazel, and she thought her brother came up with the name and she didn’t speak to him for two years.'”
Editor & Publisher credits him with creating idea of the cartoon-a-day calendar in 1951. Jack & JillMagazine published his long running "Diz and Liz" series of cartoons. Mr. Key also created the time-traveling boy & dog "Peabody and Sherman" for Jay Ward's Bullwinkle TV show. Ward was a friend of Key's brother.
MILLION DOLLAR DUCK, GUS and THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE were three of his screenplays that were made into movies.
According to several of the obits, the family is finding all sorts of notes and sketches for ideas and gags all over the place. From the Inquirer:
"'He executed a ton of ideas, but he still didn't have time to execute them all,' Peter Key said."
Image of the HAZEL book cover from the University of Syracuse where " ... the Ted Key Papers extend to twenty-three linear feet and include more than twelve hundred original cartoons, correspondence, book and screenplay manuscripts and production records, published cartoons, and other printed material."
Above: a teeny tiny box heralded the announcement of the move.
I should have known something was up when George Jartos called me on April 22nd to tell me that he couldn't find my cartoon on the Wall Street Journal editorial page ....
The Wall Street Journal's “Pepper ... and Salt” daily cartoon panel has moved from its current editorial page position to the next to last page in the paper. This is not the first time that the cartoon has moved. Here's a quote from the NY Times article by Cate Doty:
“'Pepper ... and Salt' moves to Leisure & Arts, said a box on April 22, wedged in the corner where the cartoon used to be. And there it was — smaller than before, featuring a woman welcoming her husband home with the news that she had figured out how to make her cat’s purr serve as her cellphone ring tone."
Ms. Doty asks about an impending Murdochian cartoon agenda, quoting Rex Rabin (“Murdoch’s papers are known for their great editorial cartooning.") and Ted Rall (“The Wall Street Journal editorial page is a showcase for conservative opinion. ... You could see possibly Murdoch having some fun with it in some ways.”).
The Times uses a “Pepper ... and Salt” cartoon by Roy Delgado as illustration.
The cartoon was, for a time, cut to three days a week. It's been back at it usual five times a week strength the past couple of years. Since WSJ business coverage has been cut 50%, with a rise in political stories in the paper during that time, it's hard not to agree with Rex & Ted.
Free Comic Book Day was a rainy, grey Saturday in Southern New Hampshire. As we drove in to Rochester, NH, we saw groups of teens walking the downtown streets. Everyone had a comic in his/her wet hands.
I've never been to the Jenny Wren Gallery, but thanks to FCBD, I did. There were a lot of terrific things to buy there by local artisans, and at inexpensive prices. We went there for the free Archie comic book. There were different comic books at different downtown stores. And my wife bought some cool earrings (that were not free, natch, but reasonably priced).
So, the only way to amass all the free comic books was to take a walking tour of Rochester and enter many of the participating businesses since there were different free comic books at different downtown stores. Jetpack Comics had a list of what stores you could go to at their Web site. By entering the stores and grabbing your free comic, you could qualify for even more free comic book-related goodies from Jetpack.
Jetpack itself is a small shop and was honestly so crowded I could not get in. There was a large tent set up in the back parking lot with tables of cartoonists to meet and stuff to buy. I met Anthony, one of the team that puts together a local comics zine Severed Head Presents. These guys are all working hard, making their own comics. And I met 35-year veteran comics writer Ron Fortier, who lives nearby!
All day long, kids, teens, families with strollers, etc. were out walking down the main drag, going in and out of the downtown Rochester shops. Free Comic Book Day may have started out as a nice promo for comic book shops, but here in Rochester, it turned out to be a good day for downtown businesses.
“2) SPIN POSITIVE. It’s possible that you will be asked ‘Why is this event being held? Are comics selling THAT badly?’ While no one questions Baskin-Robbins’ fiscal health on Free Scoop Night, many folks cynically assume the worst when your store gives something away for free. The best answer is a positive answer: ‘We want to remind people of how great comics can be. You know, as a culture our reading rate is dropping drastically. Ask anyone who works in book, magazine, or newspaper publishing: People are reading less. So we’re trying to get people reading again, with great stories told by talented writers and artists.’ Such an answer negates the assumed negativity in the question and puts forth a positive image. It also adds context, pointing out that most traditional print media are adjusting to the digital pop culture dynamic.”
Above is a photo from GQ of all the leading ladies from Battlestar Galactica dressed up in cool science fictiony, 1960s-looking, Barbarellaish outfits. Much more at this link.
"You to watch as boys become men and Marion Ravenwood's hair goes through about six different lengths.
"Also, there was a lot of audience discomfort during the sexy scenes.
"This is the first 10 minutes, (ending with the boulder scene). The boulder was made out of fiberglass and rolled down two telephone poles in the kid's garage."
Above is the view from my studio window of our newly snow-free yard. It's been about 2 weeks since the white stuff left New England. The grass returned quickly, and it's terrific to see our woods get green again. The titmice and chickadees (who stayed all winter) were joined by other birds at the feeder: red and yellow finches, cow birds, jays.
And then -- surprise, surprise -- this pair of mallards flew in to snarfle in the grass. I was going to write "to nibble on the grass," but I can't tell what they're doing really.
Every evening they'd fly in, circle the house twice, and land in the back yard.
The male you can see easily.
The female is more blendy.
Last week, I heard the flutter of wings, and saw the female land. Instead of beginning her snarfling routine, she waddled around the back yard, alone, looking here and there and quacked, quacked, quacked. After 15 minutes, she flew away.
She returned at dusk, again all by herself. Again: quacking, quacking, until it was nearly dark. Then she flew away.
No sign of her mate. It was very sad and there was much speculation of tragic Elmer Fuddcentric endings for the boy duck.
The next afternoon, the male mallard flew in. He was alone. He quacked and quacked. I leaned out of my window and talked to him. Yes, I actually talked to a duck. I reassured him and told him that he should stay there. His girlfriend was looking for him all yesterday. He looked at me, quacked, and then flew away. Stupid bird. The only way to get found when someone is looking for you is to stay put.
Then there were a couple of sad days without a visit from any ducks. We worried.
Then, one recent morning, there was that big flutter of wings and the two mallards flew in together. They were both quacking and snarfling. Recently, this past week, she's been waddling in front of him, and he waddles, watchfully, behind her. I don't see them fly in any more. They walk in from the woods or from the neighbor's yard. I think she's with eggs.
Welcome to the Mike Lynch College of Gag Cartoon Knowledge. Spit your gum out. Sit up. Get inky.
Today's question about magazine cartoons:
Should you submit the same cartoons to the same markets all at once?
It's tempting ...!
I always send my submissions, wait for 30 days and if I receive a rejection, send on those cartoons to another market. If I don't get a response from the editor after a month, I will still mail the cartoons to other markets.
That's right. I don't wait on an editor to answer.
If someone wanted to buy my stuff, they would get back to me within a month. It sounds sensible. But even the best laid plans don't work.
For instance, here is something that happened to me one time, just a few years ago:
A major market called me (GOOD HOUSEKEEPING), wanting to buy a cartoon. Hooray! That's GREAT NEWS! I had not cracked that market yet. Sweet!
Only one problem: I had just sold the exact same cartoon a few days before to a rival mag, FIRST FOR WOMEN.
Now, this is no good. Magazines do not want to buy the same cartoon. When you sell a cartoon, they usually want what's called first-time rights; exclusive rights to publish your original never-before-seen cartoon.
I knew, even as I was talking this editor (who is not longer there), that this was all wrong. She COULDN'T have just gotten my submission batch. I quickly looked at my Excel spreadsheet of what cartoons get mailed when to what markets. I can search by a word in the gag line or description or by the individual cartoon number that I give each cartoon.
I had mailed it to FIRST five weeks ago.
That same cartoon was mailed to GOOD HOUSEKEEPING some three or four months ago.
When I told the editor that she was looking at a batch I mailed several months ago, she corrected me, arguing that I was wrong because she just got it on her desk that day.
Oh, great. Now an editor's angry at me and thinks I'm a liar.
I told her that GH could buy secondary rights if they wanted.
Well, of course they don't want cartoony leftovers. No sale!
Not only no sale, I now had a peeved, suspicious editor who just hung up.
Well, that's not my fault.
If you are sending magazine cartoons out, then waiting a month is sufficient. And the editor was wrong to blame me for her taking so long to look through her piles of submissions. Does that sound judgmental? Yes, it is.
Point being that if you send out the same batch simultaneously to several markets at once, this could happen pretty much all the time. While my method isn't without its flaws, it's been the one that works for me.
Resolved: Cartooning is not for the Caspar Milquetoasts of this world!
Hat tip to cartoonist Gary Barker for suggesting the topic.
Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday May 3rd. It is more than what you think it is. If you think you just waltz in to a comic book store and you can walk out (legally) with some special free comics, you're only partially correct.
Above: Ralph DiBernardo, of Jetpack Comics ran into some problems last year. Apparently, he "misplaced" an invoice for one of his droids. Courtesy photo from the Rochester Times.
Even here in little old New Hampshire, Jetpack Comics of Rochester, NH, the whole town is getting into the act. There will be Star Wars characters walking around and actual people who draw comics will be here, scrawling autographs on comic books. At the local Rochester Opera House, you can get your photo taken with Jabba the Hutt for $5.00. Jabba the Frikkin' Hutt, man!
"DiBernardo expects more than 750 people to attend this year's event. And 14 local establishments, including Jetpack, will join in the fun too as Rochester celebrates the comic book, in all of its guises.
"... Free comic books will be available at the other associated businesses too, including Elegant Touch Hair Salon, Tri-City Bicycles, Carney Medical Supply, Cocheco Equipment, Jenny Wren Gallery, Rochester Opera House, Subway on North Main Street, Distinctive Forest Creations, Fat Tony's Italian Grille, Chicken Roost, Hanson Street Grille, Alaire's Second Hand Shop and Rochester Public Library."
Tom Heintjes, the man behind the Hogan's Alley magazine, writes to offer even more FREE STUFF:
I wonder if you think your readers would be interested in knowing about our free Hogan's Alley offer in conjunction with Free Comic Book Day.
Anyone (in the U.S.) who e-mails us a request on this Saturday, May 3, will receive a copy. No strings attached! Just send a mailing address to hoganmag@gmail.com and make sure we receive it on May 3 (not before May 3, and not after!).
We love Tom, but Tom is going to go broke. Send him a nice card when he gets carted off to debtor's prison!
Mike Lynch is a magazine cartoonist.
His clients include Reader's Digest, Playboy, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, the New York Daily News and many others.
He's the National Cartoonists Society National Representative.
King Features reports the death Mel Casson. From their press release:
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