See You Soon

I'm away, teaching some cartoon classes in NY and dropping in on some cartoonists and hanging out at the old neighborhood (which includes saying hi to Alex & Mary at the Rocketship comic book store).

The blog will return late in the week.

Creig Flessel Round Up

Above: a caricature of Creig as The Sandman, by my friend and Berndt Toast Gang chair, Adrian Sinnott.

Here are a few unseen photos of Creig, as well as (at the bottom of the page) a round up of links saluting this artist of the Golden Age.

Creig Flessel drew comic books, comic strips, magazine illustration .... He was an active guy. Heck, he even went on camping trips with the kids and grandkids until he was 92 years old!

One of the many things that he did in addition to all of the above was to run the National Cartoonists Society Long Island chapter (the "Berndt Toast Gang"), a (non-paying, volunteer) job he only stopped doing when he moved to the West Coast to be nearer his grown children. (My late friend Bill Seay took over the Gang when he left, I chaired from 2003 to mid-2007, when Adrian Sinnott took over as ringleader.)


Above: a 1989 BTG visit to Mort Walker's Connecticut studio. I think that's Adrian there, behind Creig. Creig presents Mort with a BTG sweatshirt. Will it fit?

No problem, Creig.

I happened to find some photos from 1989, scanned in from an old album. Here are a few with Mr. Flessel. They are, so far as I know, unseen until now.


Above: Christmas 1989: Mrs. Gill, Creig Flessel, Tom Gill and photographer Jerry Jurman. Jerry took all of the photos (well, except this one, arguably).


Above: Creig in action at the Huntington Township Art League.


Creig drawing Jerry Jurman.

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OK, here's a round up of links:

Ger Apeldoorn shares some DAVID CRANE comic strips and much more art (more every week now).

Video: 2007 Sparky Award to Honor Creig Flessel (hosted by Andrew Farago)

Interview in Marin County Journal from March 17, 2007

Andrew Farago Remembers Creig Flessel from The Comics Reporter

Michael Jantze Remembers Creig Flessel from The Comics Reporter.

Mark Evanier on the life of Creig Flessel.

Tom Spurgeon writes about Creig Flessel

The Comics Journal Journalista! on the passing of Creig Flessel

UPDATE: The Comics Journal has posted a career-encompassing interview conducted by Gary Groth online. This giant 2002 interview originally appeared in the print edition of TCJ #245. A big hat tip to Dirk Deppey for letting me know about this as soon as it was up. All my thanks, Dirk!

Drawing Cartoons with Stephanie Piro

"What does everyone love to do? Draw cartoons, right? Let’s get started. Got your pens and paper ready? First, what is the most important part of a cartoon? Believable characters. Your character must come alive for your readers. OK."

I loved Stephanie Piro's cartoon-filled entry about drawing cartoons at The Six Chix blog! (No permalink, but it's at the top of the blog queue now.) Stephanie hosts a popular local cartoon club for kids and just by looking at her entry, you can see why it's popular! So much FUN!

Cartoonist Art Supplies

Self described "cartoonist, educator, hobo" Ben Towle asks DickBlick.com: Where Are The Cartoonist’s Supplies?

He details a surprising number of items that cartoonists would want to have that the leading online art supply store does not stock, with guidance where to get it.

New Yorker Cartoonist Dean Vietor 1931 -2007

Above: a Dean Vietor cartoon for a business publication.

Some late, sad news:

Cartoonist Dean Vietor, who contributed over 300 drawings to The New Yorker, passed away in Phoenix, AZ on August 20, 2007. He was 76. No cause of death specified.

Michael Maslin has much more here. And my thanks to Michael for letting me know of his passing.

Robert Walker on Getting In at Marvel Comics

The Voice of America 's reporter Paige Kollock interviews comic book artist Robert Walker, who draws O-MEN. The O-MEN is a superhero team book, but the difference here is that each hero is HIV positive.

Stay tuned to the video. At about 2:10, he tells about visiting Marvel Comics every day in search of a gig with the #1 comics company. He was getting nowhere until ... well, watch Robert tell the story:

WSJ Editorial: Batman Is President Bush

The Wall Street Journal says so (via HuffPo)!


H/t to Stacy!

BOBBY SOX by Marty Links

Marty Links drew the panel BOBBY SOX in a specific and graceful way from 1944 to 1979. In 1951, the strip changed its name to EMMY LOU, since the bobby sox fashion had gone the way of the previous generation's fur coat, straw hat and ukulele.



Here are a few samples of BOBBY SOX (subtitled THE LIFE AND TIMES OF EMMY LOU) from the Popular Library paperback collection. It's copyright 1954 and 1955 by Marty Links. She dedicates it, "To my own future teenagers: Alex, Elizabeth, Victoria."



Most of the gags are about concern Emmy Lou's obsessions for boys and shopping. Her boyfriend is Alvin, which is an on again, off again relationship.

Above: Link's simple use of black spotting draws our eye to look at Alvin, who has committed the sin of omission to poor gullible Emmy Lou.




Here's Don Markstein on Marty Links (born Martha Arguello in 1917):

"By the way, if you happen to be confused by the the given name of the cartoonist, you're not alone. So, apparently, was The National Cartoonists' Society, of which she was one of the first female members. Correspondence from the Society was addressed to 'Mr. Marty Links' even after she'd given birth to her first child. She offered to send them her bust size."

The thing to watch for, over and over, is the specificity of the clothes, the locations and the people. Just look at the awning in the above panel cartoon. It helps frame the picture, it tells us where we are, and Ms. Links adds that unique fringe to it. This all adds to the value of this unique world.



All of the kids in BOBBY SOX are lanky and energetic. Again: black spotting draws us to the speaker in the cartoon.

Another one of the cliches is the gulf of understanding between child and parent.

I liked seeing all that pen noodling to make the Christmas tree. Emmy Lou's parents do look a bit like her, but with a doughy addition of a few pounds.



The graceful folds in the drapery, the small candle on the table, with its specific holder -- all of these delicate touches add to the authenticity of place.



Above: another example of Links' mastery of composition and perspective. As you can see in the blow up of the above cartoon, there's a thin line around the left side of the picket fence and a thick line around the other. A subtle touch to get a feeling of depth that adds to the perspective.

In the MERCHANT OF DENNIS book, Hank Ketcham shows us his behind the scenes reference drawings of the interiors of the Mitchell and Wilson homes. These are specific of what the Mitchell doors look like, the Wilson's living room chairs, the kitchen, etc. I can't help but think that Marty Links must have done the same thing for BOBBY SOX.


When I bought this paperback collection, I didn't know what to expect. Sure, the jokes have not aged well, but the art is the opposite of the time-worn gags. There's a lot of skilled, knowledgeable drawing to admire in Ms. Links' cartoons.

Unseen TV Characters

Apologies. This is a complete time waster and not at all about cartoons, but it was fun to do.

There are a number of TV characters who are only known by what the other TV characters in the show say about them. These are the UNSEEN CHARACTERS OF TV. Within a short time, I came up with a list of unseen TV characters.

In no particular order:
















Heather Sinclair, frequently trash talked girl at Degrassi TNG.















Lars Lindstrom, the dull, Swedish husband of Phyllis. This unseen character was killed off (off screen, of course) in the pilot of the PHYLLIS sitcom.





















Sara & Juanita, the phone operator and diner waitress, respectively, in Mayberry. Juanita was the "go to girlfriend" if Barney's regular girl was not available. In one of the episodes, Barney recited a poem he had written to her (she is unseen, as he talks to her on the phone):

Juanita, Juanita,
Lovely, dear Juanita,
From your head down to your feet,
There's nothing half so sweet,
As Juanita, Juanita, Jua-neet.

Oh, there are things of wonder,
Of which men like to sing.
There are pretty sunsets and birds upon the wing,
But of the joys of nature,
None truly can compare,
With Juanita, Juanita, she of beauty beyond compare.
Juanita, Juanita, lovely dear Jua-neet.

Reverend Feltcher, who Archie would mistakenly call "Fletcher."

Edith (correcting him): Fletcher.

Archie: Whatever!

Charlie from CHARLIE'S ANGELS was not seen.



















Maris, maybe the best unseen character.
















Carlton Your Doorman

























Sparky (M*A*S*H)








Belker's Mom from HILL STREET BLUES, who would always call when he was booking a suspect.
























Orson (Mork & Mindy)



Now we get into a murkier sub-area. There are certain characters that referenced for years and sometimes in some shows, they eventually are cast with a real actor and come to life. For instance:

















Johnny Paul Jason, a frequently referenced friend of Opie. The character finally appeared in a handful of episodes beginning 4 years into the series.
























Mrs. Columbo was the pretty much always referenced wife of Lt. Columbo. While she never appeared on any of the Peter Falk-starring programs, there was a shortlived series titled MRS. COLUMBO (sans Falk).














Pickles was the memorable name of Buddy Sorrell's wife in THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW. She was eventually seen as the series went on.















And, of course, the Big Giant Head -- the frequently named leader in THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN, who finally showed up, played by the and only William Shatner. My favorite clip: Shatner & Lithgow first meet and reference the same TWILIGHT ZONE episode.



After playing this little game, I found this:

Wikipedia's Unseen Characters page.

Oh well! It was more fun to come up with these on my own. If you have any to add, or if I made mistake, please comment.

J.K. Rowling Harvard Commencement Speech

Above: a screen capture of J.K. Rowling from her Harvard commencement speech.

Last month. J.K. Rowling gave a graduation speech at Harvard. Part of that speech was about failing. We all know, thanks to the HARRY POTTER books, the movies, the toys -- that Ms. Rowling is not a failure. She has touched people's lives by persevering and not letting rejection make her stop. As many know, there was a time when she was a single parent, "as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless."

"Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.

"... Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

"So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

"You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.

"Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies."

Text is copyright Ms. Rowling.

I remember reading somewhere that one of the first criticisms of her HARRY POTTER manuscript was that it was set in a school and kids do not like school, therefore the market dictates that children will not buy a book set in a school.

No Hogwarts? Egads!

There must have been hundreds of moments when it was easier to set her writing aside -- put it in a drawer or in the fire -- and try for a regular, workaday life.

Making a living by your wits isn't easy, and the struggle to achieve it is not a "fairy tale." It's hard work, and there is, as Ms. Rowling puts it, no light at the end of the tunnel; just you and your ideas and your willingness to persist, persist, persist.

A big hat tip to my dear old Dad for the link -- and for standing by me, passing along advice, as I made mistakes, before finally achieving some success in what I wanted to do. Thanks, Dad!

DAVID CRANE by Creig Flessel

Just wanted to let everyone know that my old friend Ger Apeldoorn has been showcasing Creig Flessel's work for weeks. Above is a DAVID CRANE Sunday strip, but Ger has also unearthed many pieces of art, including some of his paintings. Please go take a look to get an idea of the breadth of this man's talent.

Video: 2007 Sparky Award to Honor Creig Flessel

Here is some wonderful video of the 2007 Sparky Award ceremony, honoring the one and only Creig Flessel. The event was co-sponsored by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and the Cartoon Art Gallery. Andrew Farago, the curator at CAM, hosted this October 2007 event.

Below is the first of four videos where we'll see a slide show of some of his work, and then Andrew settles in to interview Creig about his career:




And here is the whole list of all of the parts:



Creig Flessel - Sparky Award Part 1 (above)
Creig Flessel - Sparky Award Part 2
Creig Flessel - Sparky Award Part 3
Creig Flessel - Sparky Award Part 4

My thanks to cartoonist Alexis E. Fajardo for posting these videos on YouTube.

Allan Holtz on THE PRINCE VALIANT PAGE

Allan Holtz has a wonderful site titillatingly titled the Stripper's Guide. It's about comic strips.

He recently reviewed the new PRINCE VALIANT book titled THE PRINCE VALIANT PAGE, which features great art by the current artist, Gary Gianni.

"Gianni shows several of his early PV pages along with Murphy's comments and corrections. Murphy's corrections are heart-rending in their constant admonitions to Gianni to drop details and shading that would turn to mud in the printed form. If only these damn newspapers would give strips like Prince Valiant some space! What a glorious page Gianni could produce for us if only they'd give him some elbow room. As it is Gianni's work on Prince Valiant is terrific, but oh, what it could be!"

There is a lot of behind-the-scenes material, as well as several pull out gatefolds. This all comes as welcome news to me and I'm glad Allan has posted his review. Now I want it too!

The book has a foreword by Mike Mignola (the guy who created Hellboy) and an introduction by Robert Wagner (the guy who was PV in the movies).

Twitter Artist Interview

Everyone who's on Twitter knows about the "fail whale" image. The artist who drew that image is Yiying Lu. She drew the whale being supported by birds and licensed it to a stock house. Here's an interview with this award winning Australian designer from the Drawn! site.

First Thing This Morning

I did an impression of Dick Cheney sneering at the toast & coffee, and the cat got all puffed and ran under the couch in fear.

"Comics Curmudgeon" on JEOPARDY! Game Show

Josh Fruhlinger is scheduled to be on the TV game show JEOPARDY tomorrow, July 22, 2008. Josh writes the highly trafficked, notoriously snarky Comics Curmudgeon blog.

H/t to E&P.

GREETINGS, DEARIE!

Here's an odd little 1962 paperback titled GREETINGS, DEARIE! (A CONNOISSEUR'S COLLECTION OF HUMOR FROM HALLMARK CONTEMPORARY CARDS), a collection Hallmark cards, produced and edited by Hallmark and copyright that same year by Hallmark.



The juxtaposition of the red cover and black ink makes it look crummy so far as my Canon scanner is concerned. In real life, the cover is very readable. The drawing in the upper right is of a nebbishy fellow in a top hat in a bubble bath perusing what looks like a greeting card. The column of text reads: "This being an [sic] truly timeless eternal utterly unforgettable (yes) collection of more that 100 and fifty of the absolutely funniest Hallmark Contemporary Cards, many of which have never been seen before (or since)." and, then, in small print in the bottom, right-hand corner is the word "Yes!"




Dean Norman in his book STUDIO CARDS: FUNNY GREETING CARDS AND PEOPLE WHO CREATED THEM is the only reference book I know of about this subject. All I knew about Hallmark's Contemporary Card line is that Paul Coker was the Art Director. Mr. Norman's book concurs.



Above: a card by Paul Coker, Jr.

I knew Coker's work from MAD Magazine, and I was always fascinated by his distinctive clean yet jerky coffee-nerves pen line.


Greeting cards that were funny was a new idea. Before these post-war funny cards, Hallmark's best selling card was this:

"Pansies always stand for thoughts
At least that's what folks say,
So this just comes to show my thoughts
Are there with you today"

Uh ... yeah. Squaresville, daddio.


Here's a snippet from a 2006 interview with Dean Norman by Pamela Zoslov from the Cleveland Free Times (and that's also where I snagged the pansies poem above):

"I never dreamed of doing greeting cards," says Norman, now 70 and retired from a 30-year career working for the two greeting-card giants, Hallmark and American Greetings. By the time he graduated from the University of Iowa in 1956, general-interest magazines like The Saturday Evening Post, Look and Collier's were folding, and the once-lucrative market for freelance cartoons was drying up. Fortunately, executives at Hallmark spotted a cartoon series Norman drew for his college newspaper, and offered him a job. "I kept thinking someday I'd break into newspapers. I never did," he says, laughing.

Norman came into the industry at an interesting time. Greeting cards, once limited to sentiments like "Pansies always stand for thoughts/At least that's what folks say,/So this just comes to show my thoughts/Are there with you today" (one of Hallmark's all-time best-sellers) were beginning to reflect the subversive Cold War humor of the 1950s. Comedians like Mort Sahl, Bob Newhart, Ernie Kovacs and Lenny Bruce, and publications like Mad Magazine, were lampooning the uptight post-Sputnik culture with irreverent, sardonic humor. Hallmark, the very traditional Kansas City company that practically invented the greeting card, created its Studio department to tap into the emerging zeitgeist. They hired creative, offbeat artists and writers to produce funny cards with a modern twist.

These silly, raucous cards may have reflected a bit of the non-mainstream, pointed humor of Mort Sahl or Lenny Bruce, but the fact is that they were being offered to the great Wonderbread heartland of America. And the heartland voted with its wallet.

Here's Mr. Norman from the introduction to his STUDIO CARDS book:

There were few funny greeting cards before 1946. OK, if you were born after 1946, that's ancient history. But, consider this -- in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, there were lots of funny radio shows, funny movies, funny books and funny cartoons in magazines and newspapers. So why was there so little good cartooning in greeting cards?

Mr. Coker, again, with another reminder of the time is how funny drinking was! Would these would sell today?!


Coker and Norman were both Midwestern boys, so maybe they knew, somewhere deep down, that America was ready for antisocial, hostile and shocking humor in its greeting cards.


From the GREETINGS, DEARIE! introduction:

Sentimentality is absent in these cards and in this humor. But sentiment is always present. Strong feelings about certain this -- including the right way to express one's feelings in greeting cards -- have made this style of humor almost as popular in some quarters as the funnies and cartoons are in others.

The introduction to GREETINGS, DEARIE! is credited to "The Editors of Hallmark Cards." Unfortunately, the editors do not give page by age credits to the writer(s) and artists(s) of the contents.



Above: another by Paul Coker. I love that pile of beer cans, all at different angles.

Coker graduated from the University of Kansas in 1951. He drew advertising cartoons for the paper, but never drew cartoons or comic strips for them. He didn't believe in doing free work. Advertisers paid, the student paper did not.



Above: Coker again, with a groaner. But I like this groaner. And it's funny if you never heard it.

I like the little puff of a zoom cloud below right as the patron zips away from the barstool, and the teary expression and waving of the dainty wash rag from the bartender just makes this one a terrific, characterful drawing!


There are a lot of cards reproduced in GREETINGS, DEARIE! and this is a small sample from one section that dealt with drinking as a funny topic, as if you didn't know by this point in the blog entry.



There's so much material in the book, and so much information that I didn't know, that I think I'll revisit the topic in future. I never considered the history of greeting cards.

Mr. Norman's book, without which I would have no context for these scans, is self-published. From the Amazon page:

Unable to find a publisher willing to even look at his manuscript, Norman decided to go the self-publishing route, investing his own money to have the book printed. "I figured even if I didn't sell any books, I can afford it; I'm retired now. I may lose [money], but no one else is going to write this book. And the people I write about are so pleased to have the stories told."

And check out this book COLLEGE CARTOONS, for more great self published cartoons by Dean Norman, Frank Interlandi and Richard A. Watson

Creig Flessel 1912-2008

Just got the sad news that Golden Age comic book illustrator Creig Flessel passed away yesterday. Creig suffered a stroke on Friday, paralyzing him on his right side. He passed away peacefully in his Mill Valley, CA home on July 17, 2008. His wife Marie was by his side. He was 96.

More information as it becomes available.

UPDATE:

Mark Evanier on the life of Creig Flessel.

Tom Spurgeon writes about Creig Flessel

Cartooning How To: Hack Your Pen by Rod McKie

How do you beat the high cost of drawing supplies? Hack 'em!

My friend and fellow cartoonist Rod McKie offers money-saving step by step instructions, complete with visuals from his own studio, of how to extend the life of your brush pens.

Beginner Cartooning Questions

My thanks to all the cartoonists who send me emails. I try to respond in a timely manner if at all possible, but I am a one-man operation here and I am not able to reply as quickly as I'd like.

Below are a few recent questions that I thought I'd answer here on the blog. Most of the questions are about gag cartoons. If you're a cartoonist wannabe or a new cartoonist or just thinking about a career in cartooning, then this blog entry is for you.

When you draw/ink a gag cartoon, do you do it inside of a pre-drawn panel?

No.

Should I even be concerned about this and just draw the cartoon on an 8 1/2” x 11” paper?

No, you shouldn't be concerned and yes, draw it on a piece of letter-size paper. If the editor likes it and wants it resized (this happens occasionally, not always), then the editor will ask for a redraw and he/she will give you the specs.

I've never heard of an instance where an editor like a cartoon but didn't buy it because it was the "wrong size."

Since you have a website showcasing your work, do you submit to magazines, greeting card companies, etc., in the traditional manner or do you just refer the cartoon editor to your web page?

My Web page is just an extension of my business card. When I send a submission to a new market, I always send paper. I prefer to send paper. On every piece of art (whether it's a gag cartoon or a greeting card or syndicate submission, etc.) I have ALL of my contact information printed in a discreet corner:

NAME
STREET ADDRESS
PHONE
EMAIL
WEB SITE
BLOG

I used to place my contact information very discretely. I put all of it on the back of every submission page. I read that that was the way to do it somewhere (probably in one of those "Hot to be a Pro Cartoonist" books). But then there was one time a national magazine published my work, yet they did not pay me. Weeks went by. No check. I finally tracked down the person in charge of payments. I was told that I hadn't gotten paid because they "didn't have my contact information." Well, ha ha! They did, it's just that they just did not turn the art over to hunt for it. Of course, it was silly to think someone in accounting would have read that same dang cartooning book I did and turned it over.

Um ... where was I?

If the editor wants to, s/he can look at my site. I think the only reason to have a site is to show the quality & quantity of your work, and to get a better idea of who you are. A specific submissions package shows that arrives on an editor's desk shows you have the commitment to craft your work in a commercially viable way.

I don't think anyone starting out in cartooning ever sold a cartoon by emailing an editor and telling them to click on their site. If you have, please tell me. And I'll want proof (a signed notarized statement from the editor please)!!!

And remember, when you send submissions out, immediately produce more. There's nothing worse than getting a "We like what you sent us, please send more" note from an editor and not having any of the more they want right now!

End of speech. Go draw.

Bob Staake: Is There ANYTHING This Guy CAN'T Do???

Bob Staake writes about building his own cupola for his studio in Cape Cod.

"When I designed my new studio two years ago, my intention was to crown it with a cupola. For a year I researched different models online, and I found that they were too ugly, too curvy, or just too damn expensive. I think the one I liked best was $2k, and while I'm certain it was worth every penny, the cheapskate in me said 'You know, I know exactly what I want in a cupola, so I'll just build it myself.'"

He's FEARLESS! I love reading stuff like this! Congrats, Bob, and thanks for sharing!

Mort Walker Packs Up His Cartoon Memorabilia

Mort Walker is interviewed by the Wall Street Journal Digital Network in this video piece, posted today. Mary Pilon is the reporter and it was produced by Jeff Bush.

Mr. Walker talks about trying to create a national cartoon museum, and how his collection, valued at $20 million, is now moving to its new home at Ohio State University, where it will join the already huge cartoon collection there. There are many shots of originals and it makes me want to look at all of his collection.



UPDATE: Mark Evanier has more video.

H/t to Gerry Mooney!

NEW YORKER Cover Controversy

Yes, well, I've never seen something just get chewed over and over like the above Barry Blitt cover to this week's New Yorker.

I agree with what Ted Rall said regarding brain cells and lack of context in Dave Astor's E&P article Cartoonists Not Fond of Obama Art on 'New Yorker' Cover:

AAEC [American Association of Editorial Cartoonists] President-Elect Ted Rall said "everyone with two brain cells to rub together gets" Blitt's cartoon, but the drawing is "shallow and non-contextual."

"If The New Yorker wants to get into the political cartoon business, it ought to hire some political cartoonists," added Rall. "Until they hire some smart editors, The New Yorker ought to stick to what they do well: gag panels about Upper East Siders at cocktail parties."

What's Obama think? From China Daily:

Obama said he's developed "a pretty thick skin" running for president and has "seen and heard worse."

"I do think that, you know, in attempting to satirize something, they probably fueled some misconceptions about me instead," he said. "But, you know, that was their editorial judgment. And as I said, ultimately, it's a cartoon, it's not where the American people are spending a lot of their time thinking about."

Daryl Cagle's Web Log (no permalink, but it's at the top of the page as of now) shows us several cartoonists' parodies of the Blitt cover. He also comments on the cover in the piece below it.

Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter posts many reactions here. My favorite is my pal Rod McKie's comments, which were so sparklingly written I can only cut and paste and say, "Uh huh. You go, Rod!" Here's his concluding paragraphs:

The New Yorker's target readership will get it because they can contextualize it in a second. The subscribers who have the thing delivered are not the problem though; the problem is that many, many, people won't get it because they are not hard-wired that way -- most cartoonists and satirists and John Stewart fans and arty types are, and the regular New Yorker readers are. But the problem is the thing has effectively moved from being Private Art -- for a select few -- to Public Art -- on display on newsstands and that means it is open to an infinite amount of interpretations. And the deliberate misinterpretations that Danny Hellman alluded to.

We should bear in mind that it's not just stupid people who can't read and understand visual language. A panel of literary critics on BBC radio were recently talking about how they don't know how to read, or interpret, graphic novels. They didn't know whether to read the words first and then look at the drawings or do it the other way round, or read them all together. I made light of what I saw as their stupidity at the time, because to comic book and comic strip fans like me, interpreting these things is second nature.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in July 16, 2008 WSJ

"I can't hear you. Try texting me!"

My cartoon in today's Wall Street Journal is a Rapunzel joke. I like the Rapunzel idea as gag fodder. I've done a number of Rapunzel cartoons, even using Rapunzel as a cartoon class exercise. I'm not the only cartoonist who ever got excited about Rapunzel.

Back when we lived in Brooklyn, when I would take the subway to the Conde Nast building for the New Yorker's cartoon look day (every Tuesday), I would hang out in the waiting room, chatting with some other New Yorker cartoonists. Everyone was waiting for their turn to go in and sit down with cartoon editor Bob Mankoff. The New Yorker is the last place where cartoonists show up in person once a week to pitch their cartoons in person, one on one, with an editor. We talked about look day on Monday.

Back to my little story. I don't know how it came up. I must have had a Rapunzel cartoon submission that day; part of my usual batch of 10-12 cartoons. So, I'm talking about how Rapunzel can be endless fodder for gags. Rapunzel can say all sorts of things.

"I can't hear you. Try texting me!"

"Sorry, mister -- you want Rapunzel. Two towers over."

And so on.

The one and only Gahan Wilson happened to be listening in. This is easy to do since the waiting room is dinky. I was saying that maybe next week, I was going to bring in all Rapunzel gag cartoons and drive Bob nuts. Gahan thought this to be a wonderful idea! He added that Rapunzel cartoons are easy to draw; just a guy, a girl and a tower. Easy! He said he would do all Rapunzel gag cartoons next week if all of the assembled cartoonists (who were now all listening to Gahan) would do it too. This became a topic for maybe 5-10 minutes, with Gahan repeating the ease of drawing all of the cartoons and all of the variations for gag potential. Another plus: it was a form of cartoony civil disobedience!

Well, of course cartoonists do not get organized and it didn't happen. A darn shame.

THINGS I WOULD CHANGE: The cartoon is drawn in with an all-too wispy pen. The guy's expression down below is lost, and Rapunzel's mouth and phone are lost in her hair. For some reason, the redraw of the above panel, drawn in bolder line, did not see print.

I don't like to criticize cartoonists, but this Mike Lynch Cartoon could have been better!

THE OFFICE PARTY Drawings by Whitney Darrow, Jr.

One of the disappointments in the Mike Lynch Cartoons favorite gag cartoon cliche poll was seeing just how low down the gag totem pole the classic Boss Chasing Secretary gag was. OK, I guess it's not politically correct in 2008. But, back in its heyday, the book THE OFFICE PARTY must have been on the stands.

THE OFFICE PARTY is a hardcover book by Corey Ford, illustrated by Whitney Darrow, Jr. It was published by Doubleday in New York in 1951, and the copyright is 1951 for Mr. Darrow's illustrations, and 1950 & 1951 for Mr. Ford.


The conceit in the book, which I'm sure you all ready understand by the cover, is that 1950s white collar office workers act like crazed baboons at office parties. Their ids are outta control!


I'm sure that that TV show THE OFFICE would be higher rated if only they had a couple of office party scenes.


Above, old Mr. Murgatroyd dances in his boxer shorts. Look at the terrific figure of Murgatroyd; body swayed back, arms akimbo, and all looking so correctly balanced on his one tippy-toe foot.


Passion runs high in the office of Mr. Freem. Darrow's line work (or rather, brush work) is relaxed and solid. We get a swift sense of motion from the pitch forward of Mr. Freem's secretary, even though Darrow does not draw her legs. I like how the hands work: four manicured, nail polished fingers hold the paper -- but her right hand is a suggestion of the shape of a hand. And it all works just fine.


Above: one of my favorite drawings, with the ironic title "Just One Big Happy Family." It's still true of most offices over 50 years later. I keep looking at the liberal wash effect. Is it charcoal? Watercolor? Fingers smearing charcoal?

Sidebar about pro cartoonists: The nice thing about cartoonists is that they are friendly and there is no irony in the happy family scenario. For instance, cartoonists from the New Yorker, Mad Magazine, freelancers, editorial cartoonists, animators -- they all rub elbows at the annual Reubens, with no sense of a pecking order. Of course, alcohol helps the friendly atmosphere at the annual Reubens.


Bill W. could have set up a full-time Alcoholics Anonymous kiosk at one of these parties.

I find bottles difficult to draw. Darrow comes up with so many here that look correct. Nice little details: the corks on the table, the bubbling of the alcoholic punch as it becomes more than the sum of its parts, and the half-drunk evil scheming look in the wassail-mixing gentleman.


Above: Mr. Trench indulges in a little boss-chasing-secretary action. Look at those breezy action lines.


Above: now say this to yourself in a Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom voiceover: "At last we see the predator corner its prey, playing with it. All she can do is watch in anticipation now that the pursuit is over."


Above: You can tell who the boss is: he always has a mustache and a stogie and looks well fed. Lovely touch here: all four feet are floating above the ground.


And within minutes, Mr. Furbish & Miss O'Malley are live-blogged! A wonderful juxtaposition of expressions.


Above: Mr. Murgatroyd: the morning after!

Who Drew This?

On May 16, 2008, we had a "Who Drew This?" entry and not only was the artist identified, but the artist's granddaughter wrote in to confirm. My thanks to all who made comments or emailed me.

Now, two months later, we have a lovely color advert for Phillips 66 from 1966 that a Master's Thesis student is trying to ID.

So ... who drew the below cartoons?


One guess is "Buck" Brown, best known for his Playboy cartoon work. But I don't know enough about advertising art to know and I'm hopeful there's someone out there who will either leave a comment or email me so we can help solve the mystery. There's something about that cowboy's profile and expression that looks darn familiar to me. I'm wondering if whoever did this also freelanced for Mad Magazine.

Thanks in advance for your time, everyone ....

Death Parody in PEARLS BEFORE SWINE

Stephen Pastis's PEARLS BEFORE SWINE newspaper comic strip parodies the killing off of a character trend in comics, specificall referencing the death of Lisa in FUNKY WINKERBEAN. As E&P writes in its 'Pearls' Comic Gets 'Funky' With Death Spoof:

The Rat character and a cartoon version of "Pearls" creator Stephan Pastis have seemingly died. While on the clouds, they meet a Phantom-of-the-Opera-looking guy reminiscent of the guy who "escorted" the Lisa character to her death (from cancer) last year in "Funky Winkerbean."

That "Funky" story line made the King Features-syndicated Tom Batiuk a Pulitzer Prize finalist this April.

The PBS (that's Pearls Before Swine -- NOT the Public Broadcasting Service) storyline begins with the July 7th, 2008 strip (above). Here's a link to the strips at Comics.com, where you can read the entire story.

Seminal Cartoons at Eli Stein Cartoons

Cartoonist/blogger/friend & colleague Eli Stein has a terrific blog that not only showcases his own published gag cartoons, but also talks about the history of gag cartooning.

For instance, every Wednesday used to be "Look Day" at the major NYC mags. You may all ready know about "Look Day." Gaggles of pro cartoonists would walk up and down Midtown Manhattan sidewalks, going from one market to the next, with their roughs. the rule of thumb: start with the best paying markets early, ending up at the $5-15 per cartoon mags by the end of the day.

If you were a regular, you'd get a quick sit-down with a cartoon editor who would shuffle through your cartoons. Yeah, you, the cartoonist, would sit there, waiting and watching the face a of an editor as he looked at your cartoons right there in front of your face! Daunting, but true!

The editor might pull a couple (hopefully) and hand you the rest -- with the understanding that you would be back next week with more, fresh roughs and the magazine would either return the holds or (hopefully) buy them.

One of the cartoon editors, Gurney Williams, put together a regular publication. Eli Stein has been sharing some scans from these memos, including some great cartoons about being a cartoonist, below:

Memos From Gurney Williams
More “How Not to Get an Okay”
Even more “How Not to Get an Okay”
Three Fines, two Tippits and a VIP
More “How Not to Get an Okay” cartoons by Stan Fine

One of my favorite features is his “We All Have To Start Somewhere” Department, wherein we see Jurassic-era cartoons from many pros. Here are the 10 names so far:

Mischa Richter
Chon Day
Ted Key
Charles Schulz
Charles Saxon
Tom Wesselmann
Leo Garel
Bud Handelsman
Don Tobin
Johnny Hart

It's funny to see Johnny Hart sign his gag cartoons with a little heart shape!

My thanks to Eli for posting (and continuing to post) so many items of cartoony interest!

Congratulations Jonathan Rosenberg & Judith Hansen

Just saw this over at Heidi MacDonald's THE BEAT:

The long running Web comic GOATS by Jonathan Rosenberg was picked up by Random House for a publication deal courtesy of "über agent Judith Hansen" (to quote Heidi).

Good to see a Webcomic picked up by a major publishing imprint without the creator giving away all rights to his/her work (like the terms of the Zuda and Tokyopop online contests). The deal for GOATS is for a series of titles to be released every six months.

One more thing to add: Judith is very genuinely excited by good work and a true supporter of the medium.

Today's LITTLE NEMO-Related Item: The Whiffenpoof Song

Just found out this little factoid: The word "whiffenpoof" originated in the 1908 opera Little Nemo by Victor Herbert, based on the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay.

The word is not from the strip itself. "Whiffenpoof" was actually an ad-lib by an actor in the Little Nemo opera. The ad-lib remained, but The Whiffenpoof Song itself was yet in the future. Anyway, one of the people who was in the audience in 1908 was a fellow with the name of Goat Fowler, a student at Yale, who liked the nonsense word very much. From the Yale Web site:

It was Goat Fowler who suggested we call ourselves The Whiffenpoofs. He had been tickled by the patter of one of the characters in a Victor Herbert musical comedy called "Little Nemo" which recently been running on Broadway. In a scene in which there was great boasting of terrific exploits in big game hunting and fishing, comedian Joseph Cawthorne told a fantastic tale of how he had caught a Whiffenpoof fish. It seems that Cawthorn had coined the word some years before when he and a fellow actor were amusing themselves by making up nonsense verses. One they particularly liked began: "A drivaling grilyal yandled its flail, One day by a Whiffenpoof's grave." Cawthorn recalled the verse in making up his patter for "Little Nemo" and put it into his act.

Whether the word meant fish, flesh or fowl was irrelevant to our purpose when we chose it as our name. "Whiffenpoof" fitted in with our mood of free and exuberant fancy and it was adopted with enthusiasm. As Carl Lohmann later explained: "We were Whiffenpoofs because if your infuriated us with food and drink, we came up and squaked." The word quickly caught on with "our public," and the name stuck.

Here's the song:

Mike Lynch Cartoon in July 11, 2008 Chronicle of Higher Education

I have a cartoon in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education.

"Dr. Peters celebrates an outstanding enrollment report via modern dance."

The thing about a guy wearing a suit like Dr. Peters does above (a serious, dark, pin striped suit) is that he gives the impression by his choice of clothing that he's one darn serious professor! It's Dr. Peters' hands, doing that overhead hula wave action, that makes this cartoon cook, and gets you interested in what's going on. Since he is the darkest figure in the picture, your eyes naturally rest on him as the center of interest.

Today's cartoon is an example of two things:

1. a niche market gag cartoon, and
   
   
2. cheating.

Let me explain.

CHE is a weekly tabloid that's aimed at post secondary administrators in our places of higher learning in the US of A. They also publish gag cartoons. You can find it in most college and university libraries. I've also seen it a big, well-stocked book stores occasionally. My Dad was a college professor and a dean, so I had seen the Chronicle -- but not since I had moved out of home. When I first started cartooning, I remembered CHE. I managed to find a couple of recent issues in a library and I looked at them. Not only did I make a note of the kinds of cartoons that were published (and I was much relieved to find out they were STILL publishing cartoons!), but I also skimmed some of the articles and wrote down buzz words. Doing this, aided me in writing my cartoons for the publication.

And the cheat is here:

"Mr. Johnson celebrates an outstanding earnings report via modern dance."

Above we have a serious, dark, pin striped suited Mr. Johnson. As you can well see with your very eyes, it is the exact same drawing. But now there are different words. Now it's a business gag. I've "plagiarized myself," as some have may say.

Not true. And it's not a cheat. Not in my eyes. It's now a different gag for a different market.

My pal Rod McKie (whose excellent, intelligent Rod McKie Illustrations and Cartoons blog omnivorously looks at manga, the gag cartoon market, his own terrific work, and the art of cartoons) writes here about coming up with different gags for the same visuals. (He's also busy contributing to the Forbidden Planet blog. Congrats, Rod!)

It's rare for me to be able to rewrite a gag line for a new market. I wish I could just draw up 10 cartoons and come up with 4 good gag lines for batch of the 10 drawings. That would be GREAT! But I just can't.

BTW, the above business version of the cartoon appeared on an online business site.

And, no, after thinking long and hard, I don't really know why I picked the name of Peters for an education cartoon and Johnson for a business cartoon.

Factoid: the chairs in the drawing are Star Trek-style briefing room chairs. Look for more in my other drawings.

Camping in Grand Manan

We went camping last week. The nice thing about camping on Grand Manan Island is that you can camp in the woods, on the edge of a cliff and right on the ocean all at the same time.

Above is our camp. The overexposed area in the background is the Bay of Fundy, the bit of Atlantic Ocean between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. You have to travel by ferry to get to the Island. It's over an hour to get there. Since you're out to sea, you can easily view dolphins and whales. The rare Right Whales come here to spawn in the fall. During this time of year, Humpback pods are seen.

But, there's no wi fi, no cell phone access (at least not for my Virgin Mobile cell) and very little shopping (shopping is the #1 vacation pastime according to studies). So, nothing to do but sit in a chair, spray some bug repellent on, and have a wee glass by the ocean. And that's just fine with me.

Muchas Smoochas for Captain Kirk

For your Friday viewing pleasure ....

To the tune "Beyond Antares," composed by Wilbur Hatch, with lyrics by STAR TREK producer Gene L. Coon, and sung by Nichelle Nichols herself, we watch the women of STAR TREK original series getting some sugar from Captain Kirk for about 2 minutes:



All this, of course, brings to mind this lovely exchange between from STAR TREK II:

DAVID MARCUS
Remember that overgrown Boy Scout you used to hang around with?
That's exactly the kind of guy...

CAROL MARCUS
Listen, kiddo, Jim Kirk was many things, but he was never a Boy Scout!

My thanks to "laylacalif," who put the vid up on YouTube!


Related: Maggie Thrett, one of "Mudd's Women" (she's the one above left), was also a singer whose song "Soupy" (yeah, "Soupy") hit the pop/soul charts in 1965. Here's a video tribute to her with that song.


Photo from The Galactically Hot Women of TOS Flickr set by Poletti, first reported on the ol' Mike Lynch Cartoons blog waaay back on December 20, 2007.

Also related: A Tribute To The Beautiful Women of Star Trek at Gerald Gurian's STAR TREK Prop Authority blog.

ComicsPage.com is Down

Tribune Media Service's ComicsPage.com, which featured TMS syndicated comic strips (BRENDA STARR, SHOE, RAISING HECTOR, DICK TRACY, SYLVIA, etc.) and editorial cartoonists (including Dick Locher, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Matt Davies and others), was taken down on Sunday, June 29th.

"'The site had been housed on a server for a company TMS no longer owns and we were unable to move the database that generated the posting of the daily comics to this site,' replied the spokesperson."

The page now directs readers to other sites. Dave Astor at Editor & Publisher has more.

NHNG Cartoon Classes

At the end of the day, I take off my glasses. They're filthy; full of little specks. Must be the pollen. No, it's not pollen. Pollen season has come and (hopefully) gone. Besides, these little mystery specks are white, not that pollen yellowish green.

It's chalk. Flecks of chalk, from teaching cartooning classes for the New Hampshire National Guard kids this week! I did a lot of drawing on the board for the 80+ kids enrolled the the annual week-long summer camp. Above is a photo of me (looking a little tired) and the last class of the day.

We learned how to draw a lot of things, like: a word balloon (write the words FIRST, then draw the balloon -- something that took ma year to figure out when I first started cartooning!) and how to draw a happy face, sad face, mad face -- and a UFO and a dragon and a big cartoon fight (BIFF! BOOM!) -- and lots, lots more. The time flew by.

The NHNG kids are the greatest. Eager to draw, bright and inquisitive. My thanks to all who were part of this. I'll be teaching in New York later this month. I hope I have half as much fun!

Goodbye SPOT THE FROG

SPOT THE FROG, a daily newspaper comic strip by Mark Heath, is no more. I was sad to hear this when I knew it was coming. I had heard about it. I first read that the strip was over in my cartoonist pal Mark Anderson's blog.

The strip, only four and a half years old, was an all-ages friendly, gag-a-day comic that was slyly crafted.

I say it was sly because Mark made it look easy. Look at Spot! With those big, expressive eyes, and dinky little frog body. Look at the colors on the Sunday cartoons or on the two covers of the SPOT collections, published by Andrews McMeel. Just wonderful to look at. And it was silly and inviting.

The loss diminishes the comics page. A strip like SPOT is a tentpole feature, that appeals to young readers and helps develop the habit of going to the funnies every day.

It was Mark's decision to stop. I don't know the reasons, and I don't want to extrapolate why. But I do want to ask here: why do so many strips go away after a couple of years? Why are these individual voices stilled? Some of them, like DIESEL SWEETIES, are gone because the creator has decided that the newspaper syndicate model wasn't generating enough income to justify the toil of a daily strip. (Gary Tyrrell writing for the FLEEN blog interviews "rstevens," creator of DIESEL SWEETIES, here.)

Anyway, sorry to see SPOT go. But, thanks to the Internet, it's there. Here's Mark, writing the first post-SPOT blog entry on Sunday:

"There’s a Spot the Frog-shaped hole in certain newspapers today. With luck the papers will fill the space with something other than ads.*

"Here’s the interesting thing about media. As NBC once trumpeted during summer reruns, if you haven’t seen it [the episode], it’s new to you. Or something like that. For readers who came to Spot in the last few years, you have a thousand or so strips you haven’t read. It’s like the light from a dying star. You can enjoy the glow of an exploded sun for years.

"* Your Comic Strip Here."

On his home page, you can add your name to a list of people who would be interested in seeing a third collection of SPOT. There's also a nifty song about bullfrogs. I'm hoping that Mark Heath will continue to create and let us in on more cartoons in future.

HOW TO DRAW STUPID by Kyle Baker

Cartoonist extraordinaire Kyle Baker not only has written a book on drawing (HOW TO DRAW STUPID), but he's also created a funny video (I laughed out loud a couple of times) to entertain and educate you on how to draw, stupid!

Have a Great Weekend!

Above: view from our campsite in Grand Manan. That's a fishing weir in the middleground there.

See everyone sometime next week. I'll be enjoying this view this weekend.

TOPOLSKI'S PARIS LOST 1930s Sketches

It's not cartoons, but it's some great work ....

If you're in the vicinity of the British Museum this weekend, drop by the Abbott and Holder Gallery to look at these wonderful inky sketches by Felikz Topolski. The exhibit, titled PARIS LOST: Drawings from the 1930s by Felikz Topolski R.A. (1907-1989), runs from July 5th until July 31st.

A big thanks to Claude H. for emailing me about this. I didn't know of Mr. Topolski's work until seeing at the above Web site. Just some wonderful, loose sketching. Really makes me wish I could wander over and peek at them in person.

A VISIT TO AN AGRICULTURAL FAIR COLORING BOOK

I was over at the Maine Welcome Center, which is three miles from the ME/NH border on I-95 North. I was just going to wander a minute and look around. Since moving to southwestern New Hampshire, we haven't done nearly enough exploring. I picked up the above Maine Department of Agriculture, Food & Rural Resources AGRICULTURAL FAIR COLORING BOOK just to look at it. The drawings were so wanting that I just could not believe that this was out there, representing the same state that boasts Wyeth and McCloskey.

This book will inform your child about agricultural fairs and it will then break your child's heart, if your child is (God help him/her) a budding cartoonist.



Above is the first image of Gabriella and her cousin Mason who is "fours [sic] years old and loves John Deere tractors ...." You can see right away, that Mason's torso is too long for a 4 year old. And there's the beginner's cheat of hiding 2 of the 3 possibly visible hands.



I don't like the look of these characters. Maybe I'm in the minority. I didn't like any of those E.T. plush toys either.

It's hard to put 100% of the blame on the uncredited artist. I know whoever drew this had to submit roughs. Many roughs. State employees sat around tables, ate donuts and drank coffee, and probably fussed over the content for some time. If there was an intriguing original vision, it was watered down through the committee process.



Above is a typical page. You can see that Mason just doesn't look "right." By placing Gabriella's head in the foreground, the artist did not have to draw the cow's legs. I find this lazy.


And finally, a call to the kids to submit their own art!!! What fun!!! But, look here, kids -- you are assigning your rights to the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food & Rural Resources and there will be no compensation even if your art is a HUGE hit and people are wearing it on t-shirts or it's a catchy new bumper sticker or if it'll be used in a BIG TV ADVERTISING BLITZ. All you get is glory. Well, you may not get that. The person who drew the drawings in the coloring book certainly went uncredited. Isn't this all heartbreaking? Well, there's a little life lesson learned, eh, kid?

Related: Tom Richmond writes eloquently in What's Going on with the Orphan Works Actl?

STAR TREK II: Shatner, Nimoy & Kelley on 1982 Merv Griffin Show

This one will take you back, even if you only have a minute or two to peek at the video below. Slog past the poky couple of jokes in the monologue (one of which Nimoy complains about to Merv), and then you'll be reminded that this was waaaay back when there were only the original 79 episodes and that one movie.

The big question about the TWOK in 1982 was, Does Spock die??? The rumor began before filming, and that may be one of the reasons Spock is "killed" in the first five minutes during the bridge battle simulation.









Related: STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN TV spots.

I don't remember seeing these spots since 1982! Watching them again, I'm reminded how exciting the movie was. In a series of interviews at Trekmovie.com, Ronald D. Moore, who wrote and produced several later incarnations of TREK, as well as the first 2 NEXT GEN movies (and of course the new BSG), said that when they were writing the movies, the template was always WRATH OF KHAN.

" ... [A]t that point in time the gold standard was Wrath of Khan and everyone wanted to do Wrath of Khan by some other name. Even in Generations we were talking about Wrath of Khan. Wrath of Khan says ‘here is how you do a Star Trek movie.’ It’s action-adventure. You’ve got a big villain. You’ve got themes of aging and great little character moments, small moments of humor interspersed throughout. It embraces all the characters. You laugh with them, you cry with them. It ends on a bittersweet but hopeful note. It is just a great movie and it really stands up."

Ronald D. Moore interview (in both podcast & transcript formats): part one, part two and part three.


And, if you made it this far down in this entry, here's a special 1982 interview with Gene Roddenberry from Nickelodeon.

John Stanley and Jack Cole Links

Some great links:

LINK ONE: John Stanley is the fellow who wrote and pencilled many, many issues of the old LITTLE LULU comic. He also did other comics, including THIRTEEN GOING ON EIGHTEEN. There are many pages of this kid-friendly, fun comic book. For some reason, the Livejournal site may ask you to confirm you're over 14 years of age. I don't know why. These are scans from a squeaky clean 1960s Dell comic book, for heaven's sake!

LINK TWO: My friend Ger Apeldoorn pretty much outdoes himself every day. His blog is a tremendous showcase of cartoon history. All this week, Ger talks about Jack Cole.

H/t to Journalista!

God's Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack T. Chick Movie Trailer

Here's a trailer for the new documentary titled God's Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack T. Chick. You know who Jack Chick is. He's the guy who has produced those religious cartoon pamphlets like the one above. I haven't seen the documentary. The last thing I heard was it was touring the festivals, on the lookout for a distribution deal.

Off Topic: How Our Garden Grows

After a couple decades of living in Brooklyn, NY, we moved to rural New Hampshire. We now live on a ridge in the foothills of the White Mountains. It's great fun to actually have a yard and a garden!

Above is a stitched together photo of our 3 raised beds. The photo was taken on June 3rd.


And here is a photo of all three beds. That's a pile of compost in front. This shot is also from June 3rd.



And, above, the same 3 boxes (again, stitched together photos) as of this week. What we are growing in those raised beds: tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, turnips, escarole, radishes, beans, green peppers, eggplant, strawberries.


The bushy tomato plants are in the foreground.


Above is a closer shot of the bean trellis. A work of messy folk art if ever I saw one.


Obligatory photo of what the cats do while we are outside, working hard, weeding and watering. This is Sam, in the sun, sleeping on a fleece in the windowsill. His leg hanging off is in blatant defiance of the law of gravity.

The World is Changing

When you are old, you will be able to tell the grandkids about

• actually leaving the house, going outside, getting the car, and driving a couple miles to go and rent a video tape, and then having to repeat the process to return the tape;
  
  
• life without LiveJournal, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, the Mike Lynch Cartoon blog (*sniff!*), etc.;
  
  
• and, sadly, what it was like to read a newspaper printed on paper. Related: from the AP: In 'survival mode,' newspapers slashing jobs by Seth Sutel.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in July 1, 2008 WSJ

The Wall Street Journal's Pepper ... and Salt daily cartoon picks one of mine for its online editorial page. It should be in the print edition as well.

There is a lot of detail and black spotting in this and I remember when I was drawing the final version I was wondering if I could get away with this kind of detail. It's a lot of noodling and detail for the tiny 1.5 inch square that we're alloted. The expression on the guy's face was my favorite thing about this one.

Lynn Johnston Juvenilia

Above: a self portrait of Lynn Johnston, 1964

From the For Better or For Worse site comes a page full of early art school sketches by Lynn Johnston.

Graphic Novels Are the New Big Thing

It seems like these "Graphic Novels Are the New Big Thing" articles roll around every month. Staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor Matthew Shaer writes Graphic Novels, All Grown Up in the June 30, 2008 edition.

He cites that the graphic novel market hit $375 million last year, according to ICv2.

I don't know what a graphic novel is so far as that figure is concerned.

Is it a literary graphic novel like the ones he writes about? Is it bound editions of superhero comics (new and old)? Is it comic strip reprint books? I looked at Amazon to define what a graphic novel is. It's a mixed bag. Below are today's hourly best-sellers.

Top Sellers in Graphic Novels

1.		Watchmen by Alan Moore $19.99 $13.59
2.		Y: The Last Man, Volume 10: Whys and Wherefores by Brian Vaughan $14.99 $10.19
3.		Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney $12.95 $10.15
4.		Wanted by Mark Millar $19.99 $13.59
5.		Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller $14.99 $10.19
6.		Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore $17.99 $12.23
7.		Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) by Jeff Kinney $12.95 $10.15
8.		Drawing Words and Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond by Jessica Abel $29.95 $19.77
9.		Astonishing X-Men Vol. 4: Unstoppable by Joss Whedon $19.99 $13.59
10.		Fables Vol. 10: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham $17.99 $12.23

H/t to Dad for the CSM link! Thanks!!

More NCS New Orleans Photos

Above: Mike Peters and Tom Stemmle at the 2008 Reubens convention.

There's the old saying. You know it: "You want it GOOD or you want it TUESDAY?"

Well, we got it good and good things are worth waiting for. Here it is: a huge batch of photos of the 2008 NCS Reubens convention courtesy of the New Jersey National Cartoonists Society chapter. My thanks to the talented and handsome Chapter Chair Tom Stemmle for letting me know!

My fave: Mike Peters showing off his Superman tattoo!!!

Best place to see all photos and news items related to the 2008 Reubens: the Comics Reporter's Collective Memory: 2008 NCS Meeting (New Orleans) and 2008 Reuben Awards.