Shaenon Garrity on Cartoonist Anne Cleveland

Shaenon Garrity writes about fellow Vassar alum Anne Cleveland and her legacy at Vassar.

Ms Cleveland is a cartoonist whose work IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR SHOES OFF was featured here at this blog in November.

Shaenon provides more information on a cartoonist whose work we'd like to see more of. Her article is heavy on photos, like the one on the left with her at the Alumnae House pub, which "is entirely decorated with murals and paintings of college life by Anne Cleveland."

A big tip of the hat to Brian Moore for this!




Some scans from the Mike Lynch Cartoons blog of Anne Cleveland's book IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR SHOES OFF:

IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR SHOES OFF Part One

IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR SHOES OFF Part Two

Some Music Cartoons

Here is an example of some niche market cartoons. Most of these have proved to be popular reprints.



I think this joke/pun is good and the cartoon was turned down everywhere when I first submitted it. BBC Music Magazine (a classical music magazine) finally saw it and bought it on the spot. It's been reprinted a couple of times in other places.



The above risque cartoon never got bought by the good folks at BBC Music Mag. A matter of fact, I don't think anyone bought it, but I always liked it. No reason concert goers can't have a moment of raw, animal emotion!

OK, it's that moody Beethoven guy getting the ladies to feel sorry for him. The sad thing is the ladies can tell him they can feel his pain, but he cannot hear them. An unsold cartoon. Perhaps there are too many people out there that can't take the big B off his pedestal!



Wall Street Journal ran the above odd one and I think it was in an overseas mag as well. Look at all those small pen strokes I was using at that time.

(My Vista program is interfering with my cartoon file log and I cannot open it, otherwise I would be able to talk more specifically about where these cartoons appeared, darn it.)


Above: I thought this was a dopey joke about a famous Schubert piece. But, to my surprise, it got printed and reprinted. I guess the guy has a point.


Above: a perennial that's been used a number of times. Most recently is was used in a scholarly paper in The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Sciences.

Yes, really!

I like the blank look on the dog's face.


Above: an early, inky, wordless cartoon showing our then sweet kitty Opie walking on the keys. This was bought by Reader's Digest but I've never seen it in print.


Above: The Macaroni Trio. This odd cartoon got a couple of buys. Sometimes it helps to imagine inanimate objects behaving like people; toasters playing baseball, dancing cigarette packages, etc.


Above: this is a true music factoid. Did you know that bass players have to pay for an airplane seat for their mega-size cellos??? True!! The above cartoon has seen print many times in music publications.



Above: the Chronicle of Higher Education ran the octopus cartoon, which was subsequently reprinted in a couple of other places. This is from years ago. I remember doodling the octopus with all the instruments and then his agent, forcing him to perform. And then the logical, scientific part of me remembered that octopi need to be in sea water, so the octopus would, of course, be dying if he was in, for instance, a theatrical talent scout's office.

SNAFU: the writing on the door should be backward.

The Way I Started my Day

I was reading Mad Magazine #493 this morning and laughing out loud at Sergio Aragonés' cartoons.

Nice to know some things never change.

Web Cartoonist Business Model

An August 18, 2008 Publisher's Weekly's article on Templar, Arizona Web cartoonist "Spike" (Charlie Trotman) focuses on the long-form story in the strip as well as her ("Spike" is a woman) business model.

Here's a portion of this informative article by PW writer Brigid Alverson:

"The income stream for Templar has three elements. The first part is ad sales on the site, through three different networks. 'Depending on which one I’m talking about and how good a day it is, I can make 76 bucks from one of those ad networks or I can make 40 cents,' Trotman says. 'It runs the gamut.'

"... The second element is direct donations. 'I found the best thing to do with the tip jar is to offer bonus pages—if you give $100, I will update four times this week,' she says.

"The print edition accounts for the lion’s share of her income, however. Trotman starts by taking pre-orders, so the book is already in the black by the time it goes to print."

Read the entire PW article here.

Helpful link: New to Templar, AZ?

Above graphic from An Interview with Spike by Xavier Xerxes.

Hat tip to Journalista!

QUINCY by Ted Shearer

Ted Shearer's comic strip QUINCY ran from 1970 until he retired the strip, 16 years later. Ted was a cartoonist with a wonderfully grounded knowledge of illustration. QUINCY deserves more than a quick look, it deserves to be remembered.

The cartoons reproduced here are from the softcover collection QUINCY, copyright 1970, 1971 and 1972 by King Features.


Quincy was, in the tradition of the 1930s strip SKIPPY, a scrappin' philosopher. It was kid-friendly, and a beautiful thing to look at.



Jamaican-bone Ted Shearer (1921-1996) grew up in Harlem. He sold his first cartoon at the age of 16 to the New York Amsterdam News. He studied at Pratt, in Brooklyn, NY. He served in the army in WWII, in the 92nd Division, achieving the rank of Sergeant. He was a regular Stars & Stripes contributor.


Since 1937, Ted had been drawing features for the Black newspaper press. Some samples here, from Ted Jackson's great Pioneering Cartoonists of Color site. After the war, you could see Mr. Shearer's cartoons in leading magazines. He began working full-time for the the prestigious BBD&O advertising firm in the 1950s, becoming an art director there.


But he left his career for QUINCY. One of a group of new, post-war kid strips (along with WEE PALS, TIGER and MISS PEACH, to name a few), but the difference here was the look and the tone of the feature.


One source says that he achieved those painterly swooshes of dots by using some kind of Benday (or "Ben Day") paper; a specially treated art paper, popular among editorial cartoonists, that you could brush a clear fluid onto it and then dots or lines (depending on the kind of paper & the kind of fluid) would appear. It's still available, but I have been told that it's (a) expensive and (b) all those chemicals are not good for you.


Above: this is what I like about the strip. Here's a conversation that has nothing to do with running down a Harlem street and shooting some hoops; but it does no harm to show that. It's also just like kids: they talk and talk, throughout the day, no matter what they're doing. I like the kids' point of view; a low angle -- in the first panel. That bit of fence on the right, in the second panel, is just enough to let us know that they're on a playground in the city. The swooping grey Benday clouds give us the sense that this is a gloomy and/or dirty place.


The reason I wanted to show these strips is because of Ted Shearer's mastery of place and composition. By looking at the above 4 panels, we can see 4 different views that show us who these characters are and where they live. The third panel, with the city angling over Quincy and his friend Sneeze, is gorgeous.



The juxtaposition of light and dark, and the different shapes -- the jagged lines of the grass, the rectangles of the strips, the jagged stones of the fence -- all combine to give a personal, even a painterly, depiction of the park.


Mr. Shearer enjoyed painting and was in many gallery shows. He also created the BILLY JO JIVE series of books with his son.

The drawing of Quincy, Viola and Sneeze, walking away in the final panel, is an example of good cartooning. Here we are, looking at the backs of 3 cartoon characters, and we can see they are alive; each walking in a different angle, their bodies at slight pitches. And that lone hydrant next to them -- it's Ted Shearer reminding us these are city kids.

Mike Lynch Speaks

Here's the press release:

Cartoonist and prominent cartoon blogger Mike Lynch will give a talk at the Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy on Saturday from 12noon until 3pm on Saturday, September 13th, 2008. Prices are from $25 to $15.

Mike will be talking about cartoons; the craft and the business of cartooning. He will emphasis some of the hands-on issues a cartoonist faces: how to be consistently creative, self-promotion, dealing with clients, negotiating contracts, invoicing, finding markets, and other topics.

The Cartoonist's Academy is in Simsbury, CT, which is near Hartford. Reservations can be made in advance by calling the Academy at (860) 651-4400. If you need directions, don't hesitate to ask.

... And, just in case, I may have to use this site to accentuate any humorous stories.

KING KOJO with Illustrations by Marge Part 2

Some more rarely seen illustrations by LITTLE LULU's creator, Marge.

Here are another handful of scans from the out-of-print children's book KING KOJO.

Part one is here.




KING KOJO was written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, best known for continuing to write yearly installments of Frank Baum's OZ books after his death, with illustrations by Marge (Marjorie Henderson Buell), who created LITTLE LULU. The book is copyright 1938 by the David McKay Company.


KING KOJO is a nice guy; a good king, but a little bumbling ala McLean Stevenson's Colonel Blake in the TV series M*A*S*H.


In some but not all of the drawings, there's a little "M" somewhere at the bottom to let you know it was Marge Buell who drew these. Marge is the only cartoonist I know who can show you any expression without drawing a mouth. Case in point: the expression of the mouthless horseman above.


It wasn't until the third time I looked at the above illustration that I noticed that everyone's hand is a series of unclosed lines.


Some nice mastery of line to add value to the drawing. Our man in the lower right ("Pogo," the jester) has no mouth yet he looks pouty. A technique she used a lot with Lulu and Tubby.


OK, here's what I mean: here's a fellow who is obviously displeased to see his own mug on a "Wanted" poster. Who wouldn't be? And, as you already noticed, he has no mouth; just that pout-- and that's all we need to telegraph that he is pretty darned cheesed off!


Marge was a friend and a fan of author Ruth Plumly Thompson's since she was nine years old, according to the OzClub page on Thompson.

Marge was 34 years old when this book was published. These series of KOJO stories were first serialized in King Comics, which David McKay edited.

Here's a bit from her bio at the Harvard Web site:

While drawing "Little Lulu," Marge continued to draw other cartoons. In 1936, Ruth Plumly Thompson became the editor of King Features, which published monthly magazines of humorous stories and comic illustrations and strips; Marge often illustrated Thompson's stories published therein. A serial entitled "King Kojo," written by Thompson and illustrated by Marge, was first published in King Comics, then published as a book by David McKay in 1938. Thompson regularly wrote a humorous verse entitled "Sis Sez" for the back page of King Comics; Marge illustrated these as well. By 1943, however, Little Lulu's expanding horizons meant that Marge could focus only on her.

Lovely bit of shock on the guard's face here -- and notice how everything is drawn in a hurry. Even his buttons are drawn quickly, almost sloppily. I'm reminded of what veteran gag cartoonist Lo Linkert said about style:

"Work fast because speed gives you a distinct style. Slow lines look stiff."

Aside: I wrote more about Lo Linkert (1923-2002) during a guest blogging-stint at the Andertoons blog here.



I like how the King's whole body goes into a shocked take -- bent knees, hands frozen, body shaking.

Just look at those swishy action lines around the explaining hands. Deftly done.


Above: if you click on the image above, from the endpapers of the book, you get a nice Chip Kidd super close up effect. You can see the of drawing Kojo, the word DISCARDED at his feet, and a handwritten note above: "Edges mutilated." Yes, this was one well-loved volume.

Video: Interview with MISADVENTURES OF A ROVING CARTOONIST Co-author Tim Lasiuta

Here's a short local TV interview with Tim Lasiuta, who edited and co-authored my friend (and long-time Lone Ranger comic book artist) Tom Gill's autobiography THE MISADVENTURES OF A ROVING CARTOONIST.




Related links:

Tom Gill Stories

Tom Gill: a Personal Remembrance

George Dole Cartoons

Here are some cartoons by George Dole that appeared in the above book PEPPER ... AND SALT CARTOONS FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, copyright 1984 by Cartoon Features Syndicate.


I know little about George Dole. The only thing I know is his work. All of his cartoons I have seen are gag cartoons. They are all good. The one above, a 24 year old cartoon, still works -- especially in light of this week's Democratic Convention.


I like the sketchiness of his finished drawings. I mean, the top of the boss's desk is three disconnected lines. And it all works.

On a personal note, many years ago I had a regular day job career. I was good at my job and brought money into the place. For six years, like everyone else, I took a vacation for two weeks in the summer. One year, I was told I could not take my vacation from my 9 to 5 job because I was "irreplaceable." I laughed and then I quit.



I like looking at those little lines over the foot to signify sandals. It's very basic and works fine. I like Dole's eyes as well. They are sometimes small, sometimes big -- and always in the moment.



I like Dole's use of language. The quick shapes of the glass and ashtray impress me because they are (a) so sloppy but (b) they still "read" as a glass and ashtray.

"Go on in Harry -- What are you waiting for?"

Several cartoons in the collection have straight borders around them, like the one above. This reveals one of Dole's great stylistic choices: no one stands straight. Even the 2 salesmen stand slightly akimbo.



Above: a true cartoon if ever there was one. Look at those four doodly lines in the background to denote rocks. The unibrow line over eyes of the caveman speaking shows us that he's one tough guy.



Above: I like this one and it would sell today I think. Or is it offensive to Muslims? I don't think so at all.

Cartoonist George Dole whose contemporary, fast sketch style I love. I wish I knew more about you!

Clear Days in the Pittsburgh Symphony Advertising Department

The Pittsburgh Symphony has the above gorgeous, slick, full color ad for its Sunday Ovation Series. The layout and colors and typography all just look lovely. Lots of time and lotsa money was spent on that ad. Lotsa people involved too, I bet. They're a class operation. Hoo boy.

Too bad there is a glaring error in there. I didn't see it for about 30 seconds, but then it hit me. Maybe you don't know your classical music musicians, but if you do, then you'll spot it. And there's a "tell" in the photo too.

I'll tell you the mistake after the spoiler alert header:

SPOILER ALERT

OK, there is a simple error that should have been caught during the initial proofing of this ad. The "tell" is that Joshua Bell is holding a violin. You can see the scroll of his fiddle in his hand. But the copy reads, "Joshua Bell, Piano."

Joshua Bell is one of the biggest names when it comes to classical fiddle, gang!

A big thanks to dear ol' Professor Lynch (AKA Dad) for spotting the glaring mistake and sending this clipping. Even though he had written on a sticky "Clear days in the advertising department!" right next to it, I just could not believe whatta dopey mistake this was.

True Ink: A Mini Graphic Novel by Stephanie Piro

Via The Six Chix blog: here is True Ink: A Mini Graphic Novel About Love, Revenge … and Optimism by Stephanie Piro.

I laughed out loud, Steph! Fun stuff!

WOMEN'S WORLD August 25, 2008

Sometimes I hear people ask why more magazines don't print single panel gag cartoons. Here's a profile of one that uses hundreds a year.



Here's the August 25, 2008 issue of the supermarket mag WOMEN'S WORLD, which is on zillions of racks at the checkouts of many, many grocery stores and supermarkets.

Just looking at its masthead by first name (Stephanie, Nuna, Amanda, Maria, Kathleen, Andrea, Deborah, Kristin, Jamie, Nancy, Taryn. etc.) -- dozens and dozens of names, all female, except for its Creative Director -- we see that it's by women for women.

The table of contents boasts these article titles, all ending in an exclamation point. No kidding! Here are a few of them:

• Corn-on-the-cob cupcakes!
• The belly fat cure!
• Lose 7 lbs a week on Oprah's 21-day detox!
• Dinner under 99 cents!
• Which new fall handbag is perfect for you?
• Miracle Girl - Suzanne's baby needed a hear transplant -- thankfully, she had angels on her side!

WW is also a regular cartoon market. They publish weekly. That's 52 issues a year (no taking a week or two). They pay $150.00 per cartoon upon acceptance and there are in this issue 6 cartoons. If we take that on average, then that comes to $46,800 paid out for 312 cartoons per year. This tells me that someone at Bauer Publications (Stephanie? Nuna?) likes cartoons and feels they're worth having in the mag.

The cartoons appear in the front of the magazine (page 3) and the inside back page.

While I'm glad that they have cartoons, I have some concerns about the editorial choices and layout:

• The cartoons appear on the amateur pages. Readers may assume that the cartoons are by amateurs as well. Ron Morgan, who drew the "dinnertime minutes" cartoon, is a full-time cartoonist whose work has appeared in magazines for over 30 years. (I pulled the informaiton about Ron from his Blogger page; no Web site found, but if anyone knows of one then I'll hapilly post it here.) Aaron Bacall, whose fat dog cartoon is my favorite, is a prolific cartoonist whose work has appeared in books and magazines for years. The third cartoonist, well, who knows who drew that one? It was either unsigned or cut off by the layout person. I would know who it was if there were credits. Which brings me to:
  
  
• No name credits, like "Cartoons by John Smith." The regular people who send in jokes, stories and their baby photos get credit, why not cartoonists?

• Harley Schwadron is one of the best cartoonists out there. Why oh why did he get a block of text pasted almost in the middle of his cartoon? A little respect, please.

I was surprised at that last choice, because it is a choice to plaster a gag line directly on top of a visual. And it made me angry that WW chose to do that. The editors should not -- and a light -- even this wee dinky Mike Lynch Cartoons blog light -- should be shined on it.

I mean, do we really want the above?

Above classic seal bark cartoon by James Thurber is copyright by Conde Nast I believe. The WW content is copyright 2008 by Bauer Publications. If the cartoonists crossed out the all rights paragraph in their WW contract, then the cartoons are copyright the respective cartoonists.

And now we'll see if I ever sell to WW again after this criticism. Hmm ....

Thanks EDITOR & PUBLISHER

.. for the announcement about my forthcoming talk at the Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy.

1,455 Postings and Counting

Above: the daily grind ... a cartoon I did within a month after quitting my day job.

It just crept up on me without me noticing. I have written 1, 455 Mike Lynch Cartoons blog postings since February 7, 2006. Wow. I had no idea. That's amazing. That's a lotta yakkin'!

Thanks for being there, and for taking the time to read. Your comments and emails are catnip.

Mike Lynch Speaks at Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy

Hey, it's me, Mike Lynch, reminding you that I'll be giving a talk (complete with cartoons and pizza) at the Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy on Saturday afternoon, September 13, 2008.

It's going to be good. I'll talk about cartoons for a bit and then we'll get into the nitty gritty of the business of cartooning.

Prices are $25/$15 per person. Call the Academy for reservations: 860-651-4400

TCM: Saturday All Day Laurel & Hardy UPDATED

Tomorrow (Saturday) Turner Classic Movies presents Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy shorts & features all day long. The films are uncut and uninterrupted (and, usually, the best darn print available).

Below is a clip of Laurel & Hardy dancing from WAY OUT WEST. Look at the pacing. It's just a couple of minutes where no plot is moved forward, no explosions, no getting hit in the crotch -- it all reminds me of a far off time as I watch these two relaxed professional icons (wearing, of course, their suits & bowler hats in the wild west), dance a dance that's equal parts silly and elegant. (The look that Stan gives is to their off-screen mule --unseen in this clip -- who has begun tapping his hoof to the music.)



Here's the schedule of movie showings (all times EST) for the day:

6:00 AM	Short Film: Night Owls (1930)
	Two vagrants try to help a police officer save his reputation. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy. Dir: James Parrott. BW-21 mins,
6:25 AM	Short Film: Blotto (1930)
	Stan steals his wife's secret bottle of liquor so he can have a wild night out at the Rainbow club with Ollie. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy BW-26 mins,
6:55 AM	Short Film: Brats (1930)
	Two fathers try to spend a quiet night despite their raucous offspring. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy. Dir: James Parrott. BW-21 mins,
7:20 AM	Short Film: Hog Wild (1930)
	Two friends try to install a radio antenna, with disastrous results. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Fay Holderness. Dir: James Parrott. BW-19 mins,
7:45 AM	Short Film: Be Big! (1931)
	Two married men feign illness so they can ditch their wives and attend a lodge party. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Anita Garvin. Dir: James Parrott. BW-28 mins,
8:15 AM	Short Film: Laughing Gravy (1931)
	Roommates try to hide a dog from their grouchy landlord. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charlie Hall. Dir: James W. Home. BW-31 mins,
8:50 AM	Short Film: Our Wife (1931)
	A man tries to help his best friend elope. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Babe London. Dir: James W. Horne. BW-21 mins,
9:15 AM	Short Film: Pardon Us (1931)
	Selling homemade beer lands a two friends in prison together. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, June Marlowe. Dir: James Parrott. BW-55 mins,
10:30 AM	Short Film: One Good Turn (1931)
	Two vagrants try to repay the kindly old lady who helped them. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mary Carr. Dir: James W. Horne. BW-21 mins,
10:55 AM	Short Film: Beau Hunks (1931)
	After being dumped by his girlfriend, "Jeanie-Weenie," Oliver makes Laurel join the Foreign Legion with him. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy BW-37 mins,
11:35 AM	Short Film: Helpmates (1932)
	A married man has to get his house back in order before his wife returns. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Bobby Burns. Dir: James Parrott. BW-21 mins,
12:00 PM	Bonnie Scotland (1935)
	Two Americans in search of a Scottish inheritance wind up serving with the British in India. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson. Dir: James Horne. BW-81 mins, TV-G, CC
1:25 PM	Short Film: Fixer Uppers, The (1935)
	Comedic duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy have a no fail plan to help a jealous wife woo her husband, but somehow things go wrong. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy Dir: Charles Rogers BW-20 mins,
1:50 PM	Them Thar Hills (1934)
	When they go to the mountains for a rest to cure Ollie's gout, the two accidentally get high on moonshine dumped into the well by local moonshiners trying to evade the law. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch. Dir: Charles Rogers. BW-20 mins,
2:15 PM	Tit For Tat (1935)
	A Laurel and Hardy sequel to Them Thar Hills - they open an electrical repair shop and discover that their neighbor/grocer are the same couple they had a run in with in Them Thar Hills. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch. Dir: Charles Rogers. BW-19 mins,
2:40 PM	Short Film: Live Ghost, The (1934)
	A sea captain hires comedic duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy to trick sailors into working on his supposedly haunted boat. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy Dir: Charles Rogers BW-20 mins,
3:05 PM	Devil's Brother, The (1933)
	Two wannabe bandits are hired as servants by the real thing. Cast: Laurel & Hardy, Dennis King, Thelma Todd. Dir: Hal Roach. BW-90 mins, TV-G, CC
4:40 PM	Short Film: Me and My Pal (1933)
	A groom and his best man get preoccupied with a jigsaw puzzle on their way to the wedding. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson. Dir: Lloyd French, Charley Rogers. BW-20 mins,
5:10 PM	Short Film: Their First Mistake (1932)
	After adopting a baby to save his marriage, a man discovers his wife has left him. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch. Dir: George Marshall. BW-21 mins,
5:35 PM	Pack Up Your Troubles (1932)
	Two World War I veterans try help a comrade's orphaned daughter find her family. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Don Dillaway. Dir: George Marshall, Ray McCarey. BW-66 mins, TV-G
6:45 PM	Short Film: Scram! (1932)
	Two vagrants ordered out of town take up with a drunken tycoon. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Richard Cramer. Dir: Ray McCarey. BW-20 mins,
7:10 PM	Short Film: County Hospital (1932)
	A hospital visitor wreaks havoc during a routine visit. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Billy Gilbert. Dir: James Parrott. BW-19 mins,
7:30 PM	Short Film: Chimp, The (1932)
	A jealous husband thinks two tenants sneaking a pet chimp into their apartment are carrying on with his wife. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Billy Gilbert. Dir: James Parrott. BW-25 mins,
8:00 PM	Music Box, The (1932)
	Two men running a moving company have to get a large piano up a daunting flight of stairs. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Billy Gilbert. Dir: James Parrott. BW-29 mins, TV-G
8:35 PM	Sons of the Desert (1933)
	Two friends hatch a harebrained scheme to attend a lodge convention over their wives' objections. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase. Dir: William A. Seiter. BW-65 mins, TV-G
9:45 PM	Way Out West (1938)
	A pair of tenderfeet try to get the deed to a gold mine to its rightful owner. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sharon Lynne. Dir: James W. Horne. BW-64 mins, TV-G, CC
11:00 PM	Swiss Miss (1938)
	When they're swindled, two salesmen have to work off their debts in a Swiss hotel. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy Walter Woolf King. Dir: John G. Blystone. BW-65 mins, TV-G
12:15 AM	Block-Heads (1938)
	Chaos erupts when a man tries to help an old war buddy. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Minna Gombell. Dir: John G. Blystone. BW-57 mins, TV-G
1:15 AM	Flying Deuces, The (1939)
	Two bumblers join the Foreign Legion to forget a beautiful woman. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Jean Parker. Dir: A. Edward Sutherland. BW-65 mins, TV-G
2:25 AM	Chump at Oxford, A (1939)
	When they accidentally capture a bank robber, two street cleaners are given a scholarship to Oxford. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardey, Wilfred Lucas. Dir: Alfred J. Goulding. BW-63 mins, TV-G, CC
3:30 AM	Saps at Sea (1940)
	Two factory workers accidentally set sail with an escaped killer. Cast: Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, James Finlayson. Dir: Gordon M. Douglas. BW-58 mins, TV-G, CC
4:30 AM	Air Raid Wardens (1943)
	A pair of bumblers stumble upon Nazi spies on the home front. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy. Dir: Edward Sedgwick. BW-67 mins, TV-G, CC

UPDATE: The one and only Mark Evanier (a L&H uber-fan) posted all about this as well. He's much more knowledgeable about "the boys" than I am and he adds his own notes on all of the film descrips. Go look.

PARADE OF COMICS 1966 Newspaper Comics Council Coloring Book

Many terrific unseen drawings by Harold Gray, Irwin Hasen, Neil Adams, Mell Lazarus, Al Capp, Milton Caniff and others courtesy of the Hairy Green Eyeball blog. So many, it's been sliced into 4 digestible bits:

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

H/t to Comics Reporter for this gem!

Some Food Cartoons by Mike Lynch

Above: even when dying of thirst, some will opt for only the most conspicuous, trendy remedy.

I was recently asked for some cartoons about food, and I honestly could only think of maybe one or two that I had that were appropriate. When I began to look at my thousands of cartoons in my inventory, I found a lot more than I thought.


Above: you need to click on this one. I like the practical joke and it's almost feasible if you were able to starch up some of the alphabet in the alphabet soup. Tired mom is as amused as she can get. The little bit of kitchen detail top right helps give us a sense of place.


This really happened a couple years ago. I was in a grocery store with Stephanie Piro and we were looking at desserts in the bakery section. No nutritional labels were found!


Sometimes I get a nice wash effect.

The nice thing about drawing cartoons for a while is that soon you have a whole bunch and you find you have cartoons on a lot of topics. The above is not only about food, but it's about relationships too.



Food stores are getting categorized with non-food names. There are names on aisles like wellness section, personal growth section. Food is being labeled like drugs; this food will boost your metabolism, this food will decrease your bad carbs or whatever.






Above: 2 whales having breakfast on their apt. balcony. This one never sold -- maybe because eating children is considered too horrifying. I think the idea of 2 whales on a balcony is structurally scary. If I lived in that building, I would never park my car under their balcony.


There are already disclaimers in the parking lot (RESTAURANT NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR VEHICLE OR ANYTHING INSIDE); soon, they'll be inside as well.


Above: maybe it isn't food, but it's gardening. A silent cartoon with a gardener clown. One thing I forgot that I had added: the woman's daisies have fallen down, but the novelty squirty flower water has the juice that makes the clown's daisies grow tall.


This cartoon wrote itself. These are some of the least cute slugs ever. It does beg the question of how a slug could actually pass some salt across the table ....


Above: a catholic joke. I've heard that Ritz crackers are sometimes used instead of official Host wafers. The cartoon has never been sold or held by anyone, but I think it's funny.



Above: a multi-panel silent cartoon from I think maybe my first year of full-time cartooning. Part of a batch that was sold to BBC Music.


One of my few swear word cartoons.


Above: eating is considered passe on the Upper East Side.


Above: the level of political involvement for some. I don't know why, but my choice of colors seems particularly garish.


There you have it -- some cartoons about food! Now, to go have a mid-morning bit of peanut butter toast and a glass of novelty squirty flower water.

Big Twomorrows Sale

Spreading the good word from John Morrow over at Twomorrows Publishing: Select magazines are up to 50% off!

Twomorrows publishes an array of great magazines focusing on the comic book industry and the creative process. Go take a look at this sale.

Mike Lynch Speaks at Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy

Here's a friendly non-monster-eating-you reminder to come on over to Simsbury, CT to talk cartoons with me, Mike Lynch, at Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy on Saturday, September 13, 2008.

I'll be talking about cartoons: the craft and the business of cartooning. I'll show some of my cartoons and maybe even doing silly drawings (like the one up top, blown waaay up from a thumbnail sketch) just for fun.

Ten years ago, I was working 9 to 5 in a job a I didn't like. I decided to quit and cartoon full-time. Cartooning is hard work. It's a job, but it's a job I love.

I'll talk about how I started out, and how I deal with a lot of hands-on issues a cartoonist faces: how to be consistently creative, promoting yourself, dealing with clients, invoicing, finding markets, etc.

Anyway, this will be a chance to say hi and have a slice of pizza ("Yes," Guy assured me, "there will be food.") and talk cartooning in a classroom setting.

Details here.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in August 2008 CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Above: no, not the cartoon. It's a rough sketch for the cartoon from my sketchbook. Looks like I was calling Guy Gilchrist that day. Yeah, I tend to make notes on my cartoons and sketchbooks. Digression & Plug: I'm giving a talk all about cartooning at Guy's Cartoonists School next month! It's in Connecticut, on a Saturday. More details at the link.

OK, back on topic:

The sweat shouldn't show in a good cartoon. A good cartoon should just be funny and look effortless. This cartoon of mine, in this week's CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, was full of effort and grunt. I knew what I wanted to do, but it just wasn't funny at all in the early drafts.

This is the kind of gag where you apply a formula and then see how funny it is. This is just off the top of my head, but I could have drawn the seven dwarfs of politics (Photo-Oppy, Reactionary, Progressivey, Whacky, Waffley, Stay-the-Coursey, Changey) or the seven dwarfs of cartoonists (Webby, New Yorkery, Syndicatey, Graphic-Novelly, animationy, caricaturisty, Gaggy) ... well, the list goes on.

It was a challenge to come up with these names, and, especially, the last two, which give a final bit of a gag to end it. Click to super-size.

I wanted to draw the dwarfs in a non-cuddly manner, and I think I succeeded. They still have big noses and cute beards, but they all look real world kinda tired. Not the sort of cutesy-poo figures anyone would license as a toy.

I don't always know when my cartoons are printed. My thanks to Brian at DePaul for the heads up!

Are Rival Syndicate Reps Telling 'Half-Truths' About the Future of 'For Better or For Worse'?

Are some syndicate salespeople -- in the hopes that newspapers will buy comics from their syndicates to replace "For Better or For Worse" -- hinting that "FBorFW" will end completely Aug. 31? Or are these salespeople exaggerating how much old material will be in Lynn Johnston's strip when she goes to "new-runs" Sept. 1?

Read more here in this article by Dave Astor at Editor and Publisher.

Related: In her own words: Andrews McMeel video interview with Ms. Johnston here.

FBoFW News blog here.

UPDATE: Tom Spurgeon's reaction.

Dream On

I don't usually remember my dreams, but this one was different. I had a dream last night where the Sunday New York Times arrived complete with three large color comics sections, as well as inserts like a Comics Buyers Guide, The Comics Journal, Hogan's Alley and a cool TOS STAR TREK mag. Now that's the way to increase circulation!

Unfortunately, I woke up before I could read any of them. *&^%#%!!!

The above drawn with a tempermental Penstix pen (0.7mm) on Canson paper.

The Garden as of Mid-August

Continuing to chronicle the first garden we have ever had -- since we used to live in NYC and had concrete and trash cans and a stoop where a yard should be.


Above: the first of our three raised beds filled with compost. We have zucchini, tomatoes and (obscured by zucchini) cucumbers.


Turnips, chard, lettuce, watermelon, cantaloupe, carrots and some mixed salad greens.


Growing up the large right homemade trestle are beans, in the back on the store-bought trestle are blackeyed Susans. In the middle: okra, peppers, eggplant and strawberries. The red bean blooms are VERY popular with bumblebees and hummingbirds.

Related: from July 2, 2008: Off-Topic: How Our Garden Grows.

Bear Creek by Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley

I just read this jam comic Bear Creek by husband and wife cartoonist team Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley.

Hope (an award winning graphic novelist whose book CHIGGERS was released this past spring) and husband Bryan (whose own award winning SCOTT PILGRIM series of GNs is being made in to a movie) have their own styles and ways of telling a story. Both work together in this Web-exclusive strip with beautiful images and colors.

Big h/t to Comics Reporter.

KING KOJO with Illustrations by Marge

Way back in the back of a local hardware store is a small area with maybe 1000 used books. Most of these were Reader's Digest Condensed Books, various editions of the old Time Life series of books, romance fiction, Babysitters' Club books, and so on. But on a pile of library discards there was the hardcover, well worn book below, KING KOJO.


KING KOJO was written by Ruth Plumly Thompson with illustrations by Marge (Marjorie Henderson Buell). The book is copyright 1938 by the David McKay Company.



This edition was a discard from the Rochester (NH) Public Library, and is much read.

Ruth Plumly Thompson was a well known name. She wrote the WIZARD OF OZ series of books after Frank Baum passed away. She wrote an OZ book a year from 1921 to 1939.


Above: Ms. Thompson's generous dedication to all who helped create KOJO and all who read it.


Above: the warning label sewn into the binding by the Rochester Library reads:

DO NOT turn down the leaves of this book
— Use a bookmark

DO NOT mark or mutilate — Others want to read it

DO NOT stain with food

DO NOT expose this book to rain, snow or dust — Please wrap it

PER ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES

Of course, as you can see in these unretouched scans, the Trustees were ignored on all counts for 70 years.

The illustrations are by Marge, who just three years earlier, in 1935, created the character of Little Lulu for the Saturday Evening Post. Not only was Marge one of the rare female cartoonists of her time, she also retained all rights to Lulu — rarer still for the time. I can only think of one other cartoonist of the 1930s (the one and only Percy Crosby) who did the same.


The book is about the benevolent but slightly inept King Kojo who rules the Kingdom of Oh-Go-Wan. If puns make you groan, the book is a groanfest. The stories feature the King's jester Pogo, as well as the usual assortment of knights, wizards, robbers in the woods, ogres and so on.


Above: the color really helps make the illustrations. I had no idea that Marge had ever done anything beyond Little Lulu!



Above: looks like a proto-Tubby chasing "The Girl Who Came Out of the Sea."


I wish the book was still in print. Once you get used to the way it's written ("Between Big Enuf Mountain and the Rolantic Ocean lies the long lovely kingdom of Oh-Go-Wan ...," etc.), it's a lot of fun. Besides, one look at these stained, well worn pages and you can see it was pretty popular.



ADDENDUM: I found a good photo of what the book looked like before all those little Rochester Library patrons got their grubby hands on it. Below is a scan from the Oak Knoll Press:

Felipe "Feggo" Galindo Interview

Above: a "Feggo" cartoon from Reader's Digest.

Courtesy of Bob Eckstein's Freelancer's Lament blog comes an interview with cartoonist and animator Felipe Galindo. You may know him as "Feggo," the name that he signs his cartoons that appear in places like The New Yorker and Nick Magazine.

Freelancer's Lament: Do you have a philosophy at being successful at cartooning?

Felipe Galindo: I believe you have to feel successful every time you do a cartoon, every time you come up with an idea and put it on paper, even if you don’t sell it. Success lies within the process of making the art. I also think success is a relative concept, I don’t take anything for granted.

Felipe Galindo site

Video: Lynn Johnston on the Future of FBOFW

Lynn Johnston talks about finally ending the new FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE and then "beginning the strip again," in which she is drawing new old FBOFW strips in her "retro style." She's going back in time and starting the strip over; all redrawn, with "about 50% new material for the first year anyways."

Here's her explanation:

"I don't have a name for it but it's -- it's 'new run,' I think. It's not 'rerun' because everything is new. The drawing is new, the punchlines are new, everything is new. The only thing that is 'retro' is the way I'm drawing everything, because I want it to flow into the classic material seamlessly if I can and it's a challenge but I'm really enjoying it."

Video from Andrews McMeel:

Blogless

Oh no! No blog entry!

My Dad's in town so I'm showing him the sites. Real sites, not Web sites.

Don't worry. There will be more blogging next week.

Mike Lynch Speaks

Hey there! I'm a special guest speaker next month at Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy. Here's the official info:


Cartoonist and blogger Mike Lynch will give a talk at the Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy on Saturday from 12noon until 3pm on Saturday, September 13th, 2008. Prices are $25 to $15, and there will be food (pizza and nachos).


The Academy is in Simsbury, CT, which is near Hartford. Guy's been at that location for four years. The place is terrific and Guy has his mouthwatering framed originals from his personal collection all over the place. We're talking original Caniffs (below) and the like.

The Academy is a place for anyone who wants to learn how to be a cartoonist. The good news is that Guy is running it, so if you go and take a class then you have one on one contact with a real working cartoonist. The bad news is, as Guy will tell you, it takes a lot of work to be come a pro.




I am honored to be part of their special guest program with a line up of talents that I admire, like Frank McLaughlin and Scott Roberts.

Guide to Marvel & DC Treasury Comics

When DC acquired the rights to Captain Marvel, they launched a comic SHAZAM! with a big push. The advertisements for the book had Superman introducing Billy Batson and explaining for all of us that all Billy had to do was say the magic word "Shazam!" and he'd turn into "the Original Captain Marvel."

I bought all the issues of SHAZAM! for a couple of years.

When I was browsing the periodicals in the Dillons grocery stores in Lawrence, KS waay back in the summer of 1973, I saw a SHAZAM Treasury Edition. It was HUGE. Bigger than my head! I had to have it.

I was exactly the right age when those big Treasury Comics came out. These were oversized (10 1/2" x 13 3/4") perfect bound comics that were printed by DC and Marvel, and I wanted all of them.

And now there's a whole site devoted to the treasury editions of DC and Marvel.

I still have a good number of these treasury editions around, but I haven't looked at them for years. The fun thing about most of them is that they are reprints, usually by great artists, blown up at or near the actual size of the art. To me, this was catnip, baby!

So, take a peek around Rob Kelly's great site. And then check eBay for some of these affordably priced treasuries.

Big h/t to Sandbox.

Cartoon Roughs

"If you send in pencil roughs and we like the idea," so says a solicitation for Boy's Life, "you will be contacted to do a finish."

"Once these roughs have been approved (and any changes made) I finally get to colour the story," says my friend, illustrator Patricia Storms in this interview at Sandbox World. (Patricia says "colour" on account of she's a Canadian.)

What are "roughs?"

A rough is a pencilled cartoon on inexpensive paper.

How rough is a rough?

A rough should be clear enough for someone to tell what's going on. It's OK for people to see construction lines.

But I do not advise sending a rough. Not to an editor who doesn't know who you are. Even if that editor asks for roughs.

I advise to send finished cartoons that show you at your best.

I've done this ever since sending out my first batch of cartoons. That way, when they do buy from you, then you just send them a print out of the cartoon (or email them a hi res version).

One problem (especially at Bauer Publications) is that the people who edit cartoons tend to change, and you'll sooner or later get someone who doesn't know your work at all. That's when sending something that is finished really helps.

My thanks for Chris over at the Andertalk Forum for bringing up this question.

Cascão by Mauricio De Sousa

Above: a couple of issues of the Brazilian comic Cascão.

Mauricio De Sousa is the name of a cartoonist whose work I did not know. This was a guy who had a good job at a newspaper in the 1950s, but quit it to pursue cartooning. He succeeded in a big way.

When I first saw a pile of comics that a cartoonist friend had in his studio, I had no frame of reference for Mônica or De Sousa. I didn't know that De Sousa's comics about "Mônica and Her Gang" sold millions in South America, outstripping the usually strong international sales of imported Disney comics. Perhaps that's why Disney chose to advertise in its rival.

Mr. De Sousa's early work at the Lambiek link above looks much like the John Stanley version of LITTLE LULU. And the content is similar.

Well, I don't speak the language, but below is a nice sampler from one of the comics. This is a comic about Mônica's friend Cascão. Most of Mônica's friends received their own books. Mônica, by the way, is the name of one of Mr. De Sousa's real-life daughters.

The character of little Cascão is, so far as I can tell, such a fan of garbage that he gleefully swims in it ala Scrooge McDuck swimming in his cash. This is so disgusting that one of the real world cartoonists refuses ... well, go and read for yourself ....

This is from Cascão #92 (the cover is the one on the right, above) which was printed in 1986 and (I am pretty sure) is copyright 1986 by Mauricio De Sousa.






Mr. De Sousa was an admirer of Will Eisner. Below is from the Mauricio De Sousa Web site:



Below: some of these comics by Mr. De Sousa were originally mailed to Will Eisner.

Walt Disney's SIN CITY

Via Journalista! (Welcome back, Dirk!) here's Curt Rapala's version of SIN CITY movie posters if Walt Disney produced it.

Cool Retro Sci Fi Posters

Via Drawn! here's a lotta recently created retro-looking sci fi posters from the Blue Tea blog.

I think I want them all.

Happy Birthday, Don Orehek

Above: a recent color original Don sent to me. There's a whole story about the image, but it's Don's story to tell.

Birthday boy Don Orehek is, in the words of one blog commenter:

"Orehek is God! He was the King of Shut Ups in Cracked magazine!"

The above quote is from The Eerie World of Don Orehek, a scan of a 1960's gatefold from the magazine Monster Howls #1. Take a peek at some great, vintage Orehek cartoons courtesy of Karswell's The Horrors of It All blog.

When I was a kid, I read some of the joke books he illustrated, as well as his work in Cracked magazine -- especially those SHUT UPS pages. When I got older, I knew his magazine gag cartoon work.

It was a pleasure to finally meet him at a monthly NCS get together about eight years ago. After a couple of months, he would walk up to me at one of these get togethers, or I would come up to him, and ask, "Where are you sitting?" Whenever we attended, we would always sit together. To think that a great cartoonist who I only knew by his trademark signature as a kid would now be a friend, sitting, right there, next to me! Wow!

It was a pleasure to sit next to him and his wife at the most recent NCS Reubens dinner. Don is a master, award winning cartoonist whose work I admired as a kid, and still admire today.

To Don Orehek: a cartoonist master who I admired as a kid and still love today. Many years of happiness and health and great cartoons, Don!




Above: a St, Patrick's original that he sent in the mail as a surprise, signed "Donnie O'Rehek."

Build the World's Smallest Cartoonist's Studio!

Bob Staake, who, as I pointed out in the July 17, 2008 blog entry titled Is There ANYTHING This Guy Can't Do???, is not only an illustrator extraordinaire, but he also built his own studio. Today, at no cost, you can delight in having your own model of the Bob Staake studio!

"Now you can enjoy your own miniature-sized Staake Studio model in the privacy of your own home:

"It's a do-it-yourself replica of Bob's Cape Cod studio -- and it's yours to play with. Print it on card stock and within minutes you've got yourself a snazzy little model (and we DO mean little) of Bob's studio (actual size Bob not included within the building)"

Just download and print and put it together.

Hat tip to renaissance-man Bob himself.

Jack Kamen 1920-2008

Brooklyn-born Jack Kamen, best known for his work at EC Comics in the 1950s, passed away on August 5th. Cancer was the cause of death.

Coming more out of a tradition of accomplished commercial art, Kamen was one of the best of the stable of talented EC artists.

Here's Tom Spurgeon:


"Scripts that flattered Kamen's ability to draw female characters were created and sent his way; they frequently featured women in domestic battles or going off the deep end."

Links:

Tom Spurgeon on the life of Jack Kamen

Mark Evanier remembers

I had no idea that Mr. Kamen had been living in New Hampshire, the same state I moved to, since 1982. Mr. Kamen's son Dean is also well known as the creator of the Segway.

Homer Davenport Days

It isn't every day that hundreds of people turn out for a day honoring an editorial cartoonist, particularly a mostly-forgotten cartoonist born in the 19th century.

Above: these athletic young women perform energetically in this year's Homer Davenport Days, an annual event held in Silverton, OR honoring editorial cartoonist Homer Davenport. I'm sure he would have admired their lithe forms.

Yes, the whole town of Silverton has a parade in honor of cartoonist Homer Davenport (1867-1912) and hundreds turn out according to this article in the Statesman-Journal. There's even a (non-rights grabbing) cartoon contest. The winners are here.

Homer is from Silverton and, despite roaming the world and working in both San Francisco and New York, he remained quite attached and sentimental about the small town.

When he was little, Homer had a bout with smallpox and his face remained scarred by the disease. His Mom died young, a victim of that same smallpox epidemic. Her dying words to Homer's Dad were "... my prophecy … my dream … [is] my little son will be a cartoonist. Give him every opportunity" according to a wonderful bio by Walt Curtis here.

Small town boy Homer was sent to San Francisco in 1892 by his Dad, to study art formally and get a job. Despite being scoffed at by the staff at the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner for his home-spun, unschooled style, Homer stayed on. Story has it that Hearst and Davenport became like brothers. Hard to believe that someone like Hearst would get on famously with a kid from the sticks, but there it is. His provocative cartoons were liked by both the people and Hearst. In his day, Davenport was, in the tradition of the great editorial cartoonists, like the Jon Stewart of the day.

He was perhaps responsible, maybe in an Oprah-supports-Obama way, for championing Teddy Roosevelt for President. Hearst did not approve of Roosevelt and the story goes that he and Davenport had a parting of the ways about it. (Especially since Hearst himself was trying to get nominated for the Democratic presidential bid.)

Homer was making $25,000 a year, and his work was syndicated nationally.

Davenport died at the height of his popularity. He and Hearst had patched up their friendship, and, despite illness, Davenport was rallying. After Hearst sent him to interview survivors from the Titanic, he drew a seminal cartoon of a hand reaching out from the water to pull the ship down.

From the bio by Walt Curtis:

"He suffered a nervous collapse, and was convalescing at the home of Mrs. Cochran… well known in mediumistic circles as ASSONATH NEYPA. [Homer believed in Spiritualism.] At the end, the eight doctors in attendance couldn't save him from pneumonia. He died on May 2, 1912 at 45. Was fatalism at work? Every element in his life was coming together. Yet suddenly Davenport is dead, one year after his father's demise almost to the day."

It was touching to run across the short news article about this festival out West, held in the town that Homer Davenport was, according to his biographers, always homesick for. The drawings endured, the prophecy of Mom came true, people remembered.

Cartoon Contests & Cartoonists' Rights

Above: a drawing I did for the National Cartoonists Society to protest the Orphan Works Bill. This is a snapshot I took with my camera when I was finished with the cartoon, resting on a table outside of a Ritz Carlton conference room at the 2008 Reubens. That's why you see Sharpies at the top of it. Here's a link to the Illustrators Partnership's Legislative Action Center.

I want to talk about rights for just a second.

I urge you to go to the above link and, in just a few clicks, send out some emails to your senators and House rep. Let the people in our government know that the Orphan Works Bill is a bad thing.

Oh ... what is the Orphan Works Bill? It's a way that corporations can steal your work legally if this bill becomes law. The proposal is that there will be a national registry of illustrations, cartoons, etc. There may be more than one registry. You may or may not have to register with all of them. Every artist must submit all of their work, properly digitized, to this registry. If they do not, it is considered "orphaned," and anyone may use it. There is no clear plan about these registries. There may be a fee to register. Unless you comply, so says the bill, you will not own the work you create. This will happen automatically. Tom Richmond has more here. Here's an FAQ.

I'll digress for a moment ....

Just saw in today's Editor & Publisher that there's another organization running a cartoon contest.

Cartoon contests are a great way to get known and receive some free press. And there are a number of them.

Sometimes I get asked if I'll help let people know about a cartoon contest. I won't publicize this contest here since the organization that's sponsoring it wants intellectual rights to all submissions, regardless of whether the entry wins or not.

So, any cartoon you send to them becomes their property. All rights. Locked in. Forever. That's not right.

This is becoming the norm.

And what's disappointing is that sometimes pro cartoonists are involved. I hope that some will become aware of the usury nature of these contests and withhold their participation.

Not having rights is what the corporations desire. This way, your work can be used for free. And you will not own it nor get paid.

And here's more about the movement against the 2008 Orphan Works bill.

Related: the State of Maine will pretty much destroy the burgeoning dreams of an aspiring cartoonist by taking all rights.

More "How Not to Get an Okay" from Eli Stein

More great cartoons by and for 1950s-60s gag cartoonists from the Eli Stein blog.

"We're gonna be the Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo of animation!"

Above: husband and wife Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, with EL TIGRE in the background, in a photo nicked from today's Diversity/Careers article Computer graphics and digital animation: exciting fields for techies by Laurel McKee Ranger.

Animation World Network interviews my lovely and talented friend Jorge Gutierrez, who co-created the hit Nickelodeon show EL TIGRE with his lovely and talented wife, Sandra Equihua. My favorite quote:

"We're gonna be the Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo of animation! [laughs] And she kinda went for it, and here we are. ... without the, y'know, cheating and the trains hitting you part."

Hat tip to Andrew Farago, the very fellow who conducted the interview and the Big Man at the Cartoon Art Museum! Thanks, Andrew!

Some MAD Magazine Political Ads

Good ol' MAD. Fifty years on and still sending out those zingers. More from Bryan Young at HuffPo.

H/t Comics Reporter.

New Brian Fies Blog

Above: Mike Lynch (to the left, with Don Orehek's cartoon in the background) and Brian Fies (on the right, with a large Phantom by Sy Barry on the wall behind him) in front of the Overlook Lounge cartoon wall in NYC

Award winning graphic novelist, professional writer and my good friend Brian Fies has renamed his blog The Fies Files! Go and see Brian at the Comicon. Go and see him in a photo with the likes of Craig Yoe and Jaime Hernandez. Go and bookmark now!


Above: from October 10, 2006: Brian adds his work to the wall.

Most Influential Cartoonist of the 20th Century Poll Results

I think that my friend Brian Fies was right when he commented in a previous entry on the word "influential" (not "most successful" or "most famous") as an interesting choice in the heading of the latest poll. Below is the top five cartoonists according to the learned readers of this Mike Lynch Cartoons blog:

1. Charles Schulz (a landslide)
   
   
2. Jack Kirby
   
   
3. Bill Watterson
   
   
4. Gary Larson
   
   
5. Milton Caniff

Early on, Schulz and Kirby were neck and neck. And I wondered, what with all the Marvel movies, would Kirby eclipse Schulz? But, no, with 31% of the vote, Schulz won the poll.

It's nice to see that there are two living cartoonists listed, but sad to note that both have left the daily comic strip production grind. The comics page, and comics fans, are all the poorer.

The bottom:

• Bill Mauldin received no votes
  
  
• TAD Dorgan and Scott Kurtz got one vote each
  
  
• R.F. Outcault, James Thurber, Rube Goldberg, Alex Raymond, Jim Davis and Herblock each received 2 votes

All of these men are very important, with TAD being my favorite overlooked cartoonist. Without TAD's encouragement, we might not have had Segar or Herriman. But the years have passed and TAD is not a well remembered name.

It was fun to see Osamu Tezuka and Walt Kelly get exactly the same number of votes (9 votes; 7%). Both are masters of very different kinds of storytelling!

My thanks to everyone who participated.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in July/August Harvard Business Review

"Find a way or make one," is what polar explorer Robert Peary said.

I have a cartoon in this summer's Harvard Business Review. Here's the story of the cartoon and why Peary came to mind:

I had this great idea for a cartoon. The idea had nothing to do with being the first man to the North Pole. It was a gag about the art in corporate offices.

Okay, most of the framed art in corporate America is abstract. Just blobs of color and so on, right? So, my idea was to have a lost looking businessman looking at some of this art that's hanging in a corridor, mistakenly believing that he is looking at a corporate organizational chart.


Above: Some random actual org charts from a Google images search.

So, I drew up the cartoon, and, well, I'll be darned, but it just didn't look right. The thing that the businessman was looking at did not "read" as a piece of modern art at all. It looked like this poor lost businessman was looking at a really big, ugly, complicated org chart. So, I drew a couple more pieces of modern art around it, but now it all looked like the fellow was surrounded by big org charts and not by modern art that just "looked" like org charts.

!@!!!(*(&^%!!!

The great idea for a cartoon was not going to work.

But I liked the drawing a lot and I wanted to save it. Sure, I had failed in my initial attempt, but I had to make a way to create a sellable cartoon gag!

But there just was no way.

And then I remembered when, in 1987, the New York Times reported that Peary may have faked his diary entries -- a rumor that I had heard before, but the Times made it official.

Oops! So someone (I think it was Dad. Hi Dad!) suggested a new Peary quote --

"Find a way or FAKE ONE," would work here. So, I quickly decided that our bizman had been looking at that org chart for days and days ....

"I'm on my third day of trying to figure out which little square I am."

Ahh! Through perseverance, and abandoning my original idea, I was able to save this and sell it. Whew! Not as tough and cold as trying to get to the pole, but a minor cartoony challenge nonetheless.

My thanks to Pletch who told me my cartoon was in HBR!

Bunny Hoest Interview "Life On and Off the Funny Pages"

Above: Bunny Hoest and cartoonist Chari Pere on the terrace in Bunny's back yard, overlooking the Long Island Sound, from the 2007 Bunny Bash.

Bunny Hoest, who co-produces THE LOCKHORNS with John Reiner, was interviewed by Claudia Gryvatz Copquin for Newsday on Saturday. This is the only time that I've read about Bunny's life before meeting Bill Hoest.

Still, after raising three children and dissolving an unhappy marriage, starting over on a new path with a new husband was tricky. "Marrying Bill meant taking on a whole different kind of life, a new direction with much responsibility. He needed a working partner as well as a marriage partner. It was scary and challenging," she says. But with typical resolve, she adds, "I thought, what the hell, I'll give it a shot."

So once married to Bill, in addition to helping him run the business end, Bunny Hoest also began writing captions for "The Lockhorns," which she said came naturally to her. "He concentrated on the drawing. He was a master of design -- brilliant," she says.

Related: Some photos from the most recent annual "Bunny Bash," which draws many cartoonists to Bunny's lovely Long Island home for an afternoon of shop talk.

Big hat tip to Joe & Bob.

Related: 2006 Bunny Bash

Editorial Cartoonist Mike Luckovich Video

Pulitzer Prize and Reuben Award winner Mike Luckovich in a short (1:05 minutes) video from a speech to the 2008 Management Seminar for College Newspaper Editors.




He describes one major advantage of being a cartoonist: no meetings.

Norm Feuti's Comic Strip Submission

The great thing about the Web are people like Norm Feuti. He's showing us his entire new comic strip submission titled GILL. He's already mailed to all of the syndicates. Two of them have passed on it, including King Features which syndicates his current strip RETAIL, and he's still waiting to hear from the others.

Take a look and you can see a solidly formatted submission. Thanks, Norm, for sharing this and letting people in on your process.

H/t to Comics Reporter.

Most Influential Cartoonist Poll Closing Today

Thanks to everyone who participated so far. If you don't know who to vote for, then you can actually vote for more than one. Yeah, that's right: the poll is designed for the wishy washy flip flopper.

And there are some other contender cartoonists (Kliban, Crumb, Spiegelman, Hanna and Barbera) who are NOT in the poll. As many people have pointed out in their private emails to me, they SHOULD be in the poll.

Well, yeah, and Outcault and Crane should be higher in the numbers in my opinion. Grumble. grumble ....

And I left out a personal favorite: Percy Crosby. I can only hope that one day his work will be reprinted and he'll be rediscovered.

*Sigh*

Cartoon Class: Long Island Museum

Can you draw 1 and 6/10ths of a cartoon character every minute? We did!

Wow! The kid cartoonists that attended the Long Island Museum's intensive 3-day cartoon classes this past week were some of the most enthusiastic and best. I had the pleasure of teaching 10 great beginner cartoon artists.


Above: one of my favorite images drawn by one of the kids: a cheesed-off bunny, looking right at YOU! No Cadbury chocolate eggs, buddy. Get outta my furry face.

Anyway, we drew A LOT. We drew expressions, hands, feet, people in motion, we made up stories, we did gag cartoons, we did backgrounds, foregrounds and told stories with sequential art. And we took the Draw 80 Characters in 15 Minutes challenge TWICE.

This is an exercise that I made up where the student cartoonist gets a grid of boxes on a sheet of paper. In each box is a name, and, above that, a nice blank box to draw that item. Here's what you do: you pick one box, draw the image, and you then pass the page to the next cartoonist person to fill in another box, and so on, round robin, until all the grids are filled.

The timed record to draw 80 character was 15 minutes, held by the Milton, NH High School cartoonists in April, 2008.

The first time the LI Museum class did it, it took 23 minutes. On Wednesday, the last day, I took out those sheets of paper with the grids and asked them if they could break the record.

They smashed the record.

Except that the LI Museum class had twice the number of people as the Milton class, so I doubled the number of grids.

That means that 10 beginner cartoonists drew 160 cartoon characters in 10 minutes.

Above is another one of the drawings from the grids, large size. I put some simple words (dog, cat, penguin) and offbeat words (Abraham Lincoln, Fast Food Employee, etc.) in these grids. Half of the class knew what a goth was, the other half didn't. Then, half of the class talked at once to inform the other half what exactly a goth was. There was little consensus except that they wore black.

On the last day, the kids did a drawing for me.


Above: Ben captures some serious expression on the head and on the shirt in a drawing he made for me.


Above: a portrait of Mike Lynch by student cartoonist John. He wrote on the side of the caricature:

"You're not mad in that picture. You're happy as always!"

At the end of the class, I traded one of my original sketches for one of theirs. The above two, as well as the cartoons below, are some of them.








Above: William has drawn a 3-D gatefold, where the monster's mouth opens and closes, like in a pop-up book. Wow!



My thanks to Lisa & Betsy at the museum, as well as Maura, who assisted with the class for all three days, and Alexa, who pitched in on the last day.

And last but by no means least, my thanks to the Berndt Toast Gang chairman and great cartoonist Adrian Sinnott (and Pat & Dotti) for letting me hang out at his place.