New Andertoons.com Launches Tomorrow

Ooh! My inky pal Mark Anderson launches his new revamped Andertoons site! I drew up this wee tribute in my scketchbook:

No, wait. He launches it tomorrow. No launch today. My bad.

How embarrassing.

Related: New Andertoons.com Launches Tomorrow

Video: Krazy Kat

Here's an animated short that the good people at Cartoon Snap! have posted today. It captures the Herriman look, for sure.



Big hat tip to Cartoon Snap!

Video: Cartoon Research Library

One of the great things about the Internet is it can taker you a lot of places. P. Craig Russell takes us to the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. He's taking a bunch of his CORALINE-related material there, as he says he has with 95% of his output.

We get to see some great originals on the wall, and Lucy Caswell (professor and curator, ad one of the nicest people I know) shows us around. I've always been curious to see the library. Although I've met Lucy saveral times, it's never been on her OSU home turf. Thanks, Mr. Russell, for the peek!



Many more videos at Mr. Russell's site. He's a wonderful comic book artist who lives in Ohio.

Background: CORALINE is a 2002 novel by Neil Gaiman, and is soon to have its motion picture release. Mr. Russell drew the graphic novel adaptation.



Related: Wayne Alan Howard has a documentary on Mr. Russell for sale here.

Have You Seen This Cat?

Let me know if you have seen "Puddy." She got away from her owners (who are our neighbors) and ran into the woods behind the Milton vet's building. If you know Milton, NH, you know that's on Route 125, near 75. There's a big woods out back. She is shy and her family misses her very much.

Video: Canadian Cartoonist Yardley Jones

I like how cartoonist (and painter) Yardley Jones decided to move to the small town of Sarepta, Alberta and cartoon about it. With cartoons in the local paper, the school, signs, all over Sarepta -- the whole town celebrates Mr. Jones and his work. The 3 1/2 minute video is produced by Travel Alberta Live.



Related: the STAR TREK town of the Canadian prairies: Vulcan, Alberta.

Advice

"Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn."

Advice is great. You can ask anyone -- a relative, a friend, a complete stranger -- and usually they will have some on hand to give to you.

Since I draw cartoons full-time, sometimes people ask how they, too, can become cartoonists.

"How can I succeed?"

I have some advice, but first, below is a video. That's not me in the video. No, no, no. It's not me. I found it on YouTube. That's an illustrator named Dan Page. I don't know Dan.



What's YOUR definition of success? I am going to assume that you want to succeed commercially, OK? You want to be paid for drawing.

You want to make a living from being a cartoonist.

Now, Dan is right that you need a portfolio. But the people at ExpertVillage, who, I assume, spent good money to get this fellow propped up in front of the camera, did not get the right guy for their How to Succeed as an Artist video. Here is his sum up:

• build up portfolio,
  
  
• submit your work to the "different groups or companies,"
  
  
• you will receive "an opportunity,"
  
  
• and from there, it's all what you do with it.

Above: Diane Franklin as Monique Junot from BETTER OFF DEAD.

I couldn't help but think of BETTER OFF DEAD's lead character Lane Meyer (John Cusack) who, when asking for guidance on skiing the difficult K-12 slope in the movie, was told advice so general (see that opening quote from Charles DuMar and Monique Junot above) that it was useless.

You have to seize the opportunity, like Dan says, but -- like one of the commenters on YouTube wrote -- "Isn't that how to become a successful anything? This is so general that it doesn't help anyone."

And that's why I'm here.

First off, talent is cheap. I can walk into any art school and see lots of people better than me. Most of those art students will not succeed. This is because talent has little to do with success.

How do you get that opportunity? You know, the one where Dan makes a fist and "seize that opportunity" right at 1:28?

Your talent may help, but persistence is key.

If you want to draw single panel magazine gag cartoons, draw 20 every week, throw away the weak ones and mail the rest of them out. Do this every week.

When I started I knew NOBODY. No editors, no other cartoonists. And I didn't know what I was doing. I got addresses from the magazines I looked at in the library and the bookstore. I took the addresses from the masthead of the magazine. It took me 6 months, but I began selling.

Do you want to draw comic books? Graphic novels? Comic book conventions always have an "artists alley," where you can meet professionals.

Meeting professionals at conventions is the best. I was just in Portsmouth for a comics convention last month and met a good number of pros and soon-to-be pros who were there. Very friendly get together.

Advice from a friend or teacher can be helpful-- but to meet and talk with a professional is sooo much better. Especially if you are looking to be come like them; to make a living from drawing and writing.

That said, I'll be starting up cartoon classes locally in Southern New Hampshire next month. And if there are snow days and no classes, well then -- we'll all ski the dang K-12 together, OK? Not successfully right off the bat, but maybe by July ... ?

Movie: WALTZ WITH BASHIR

I'm very curious to see WALTZ WITH BASHIR. A.O. Scott has a review here.

NY Times: George Burns' Favorite New Year's Eve

Today's NY Times is rerunning an article that George Burns originally wrote in 1988, My Favorite New Year’s Eve — So Far:

"When I was starting out in show business the thing I want most for New Year's Eve was a booking. If you were booked on New Year's Eve, it meant you were doing O.K.

"... But of all the New Year's Eves I've spent, the one I remember most was 1926. The previous Christmas Eve, Gracie had finally agreed to marry me. I don't think I'd ever felt as wonderful; there was something very special about feeling that I was really going to be booked for the rest of my life."

The complete story at the NY Times site today.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in December 29, 2008 WOMAN'S WORLD

Here's a new cartoon by me. And there is a mistake in it. Do you see it?


I have a wordless cartoon in the issue of WOMAN'S WORLD, now on the stands. By wordless, I mean a cartoon without any printed gag line below or any words in the drawing itself. These kind of cartoons are, in my opinion, the hardest to come up with successfully.


Bauer Publications produces WOMAN'S WORLD weekly, and it's distributed to pretty much every darn grocery store checkout area I've ever been in. This issue has 8 cartoons in it. Above is page 3 of the December 29, 2008 issue. Somewhere between "hug away stress!" and the recipe for Spanish Smoked Paprika Wings is my cartoon.

For wordless cartoons, you have to come up with universal themes and characters that are known throughout the world. There's a lot of material in fairy tales and popular culture.


Above is the version as printed. WW is very insistent that they do the coloring. You can see all the noodling that the person did who colored this. They really spent a lot of time.

Above is a scan of the original art. I like her eyes here; half closed in thought. She is enjoying looking at these froggy princes.

Did you notice the mistake? I did not sign it. Not good! This happens every once in a while.

One time an advertising exec saw a cartoon of mine in a magazine. All he saw was my last name. He wanted to buy the cartoon for an ad campaign. By using a search engine, he was able to contact me quickly and we worked together on a series of cartoon ads. Always remember to sign your cartoon!

More Cartoonists' Holiday Cards

More Holiday cards from cartoonists to be seen via the BCC Cartoonbooks blog here.

Some Cartoonist Holiday Cards

I love mail. Sometimes getting mail is like getting little presents. It sure is at this time of year. Here are some of the cards from cartoonists that I've received in the good old fashioned regular paper US mail. All of these cards are copyright the respective artist.

Above and below: an original ink and watercolor card by Don Orehek. Don is a pal and one of the best ever.


National Cartoonists Society NJ chapter Chairman Tom Stemmle:


Cartoonist Elena Steier with an incredible series of drawings of her Goth Scouts:

Pibgorn and 9 Chickweed Lane cartoonist Brooke McEldowney:


A friend of the family who does this wonderful calligraphy. Those expressive Santa drawings are by her son:


The one and only illustrator extraordinaire Sandy Kossin:



Gag cartoonist Gregory Kogan with a fun New Yorkery bit of wordless multi-panel humor:


Batman and Mary Worth (Whatta combo!) artist Joe Giella:

Anne Gibbons with a spot-on political gag:



A gorgeous and thoughtful pose of Santa by Paul Giambarba:


My pal, graphic novelist Brian Fies:

Gag cartoonist Dave Carpenter:



Mad Magazine and New Yorker regular John Caldwell:

From the syndicated strip Six Chix, Isabella Bannerman:




The best pal a boy cartoonist ever had - Mark Anderson:



And the interior of Mark's card:


And finally, Cleo, Don Orehek's cat, snoozing on his drawing board.


My thanks to all of you for these little gifts in the mail. I love these cards!

Merry Christmas

Video: Ton Smits House Museum

Let's go visit the Ton Smits House in Eindhoven, one of the smallest museums in the Brabant region of the Netherlands. Here is a video tour of the place. Even though the Dutch born artist/cartoonist passed away in 1981, the contents of his home-cum-museum are still being cataloged and preserved. I don't speak the language of this 1:43 piece, but I sure would like to visit the place one day.

Mr. Smits' cartoons were bought widely in major US markets, including The New Yorker and The Saturday Evening Post. He visited the United States once. His bio page picks up the story:

"After the first cartoon in 1949 hundreds followed and were published in The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Look, and This Week Magazine.

"Invited by The New Yorker Ton Smits visited The States for some months in 1955 and 1956. At that time he was the first cartoonist of the European Continent to have his cartoons printed in The New Yorker. With the money he earned in the first few years, he had a magnificent house and studio built at Eindhoven for his elderly mother and himself. For a long time he was a confirmed bachelor. Three years after his mother's death in 1970 - she lived to be 88 - he made up his mind to get married."

Klein museum gewijd aan cartoonist Ton Smits:

Who is Ton Smits? Related: some Ton Smits cartoons in the BEST CARTOONS OF 1964 book.

The 12 Rejections of Christmas

This is not a Christmas card for everyone. Heck, it's not even a NICE Christmas card. This is for cartoonists. And these are all true things that were said to me in 2007.

Everyone has experienced rejection, but cartoonists experience it regularly.

And it's normal. The important thing is to persist, as gag cartoonist Roy Delgado has in regard to submitting the The New Yorker. (19,000 cartoon submissions, all, as of this date, rejected.)

Every once in a while, the Berndt Toast Gang (the National Cartoonists Society Long Island chapter) would have a "rejection show," where successful professional cartoonists would bring in their rejected comic strip ideas, rejected proposals, rejected illustrations, and so on. There was a lot of gorgeous work. All of it unseen.

"If we ALL brought in ALL of our rejections," the late Joe Edwards (Archie, Li'l Jinx) told me, "the room would be FULL to the rafters." Joe was right. And we were in a pretty large banquet room at the time.

So, keep plugging away. You gotta have the misses to get the hits. And remember, to quote Red Green, I'm pullin for ya. We're all in this together!

Related: Rejection is the Key to Success.

Video: Charlie Brown Christmas - Schroeder Plays Jingle Bells

Mike Lynch Cartoon in December 23, 2008 Foster's Daily Democrat

The local paper, Foster's Daily Democrat, prints a special Christmas story that I drew for them. Aaron Sanborn's article "No chimney, no problem: Milton man's faith fulfilled by visit from Santa" gives you the background. Here's a snippet from Aaron's piece:

"How will Santa get into the house?

"'From very early on you're told how it works and certainly by the time you're 21⁄2 or 3, you can be quizzed up and down, where does he live? How does he travel? How does he get in? So we all knew all the answers to those questions,' he said. 'But this was the first time I ever thought of how he's going to get through the heater grates.'"

Below is a clickable version of the cartoon that you can blow up nice and big:

My thanks to Aaron and photographer John Huff who came up to Milton to interview me and take my photo.

A Sneak Peek at Michael Giacchino's STAR TREK Scoring Sessions

I really enjoyed Chad Frye's drawings of Michael Giacchino conducting the score for the new STAR TREK movie.

Snowblowing After the Big Snow Storm

We had a big snowstorm here, about a week after the big ice storm. It dropped about 2 feet of snow, with some 3 foot drifts. It snowed all day yesterday and into the night. Above: a photo I took from the door of the snow-covered car at about 9pm.



Above: as the morning light peeks into the Lynch basement, you can see the trusty Sears snowblower, ready for its first big challenge of the 2008-09 winter!


And here I am, my back to the road, with a snowblower POV shot; looking down the long driveway that seemingly gets longer every blessed year. The little lump in the distance is the snow covered car.


Above: the cut into the yard, going to the birdfeeders. We have many juncos, titmice, woodpeckers, finches and chickadees.



And, more than an hour later, the job is done. And what, you may ask, did my assistants do?


Trout slept.



Sam slept.


And Roo ... well, who could be angry at Rufus? He just wanted some pats. That's it, lean into it!

(Note little drops on his nose: he is the sloppiest water drinker!)

POWER by Stephanie Piro

My cartoonist pal Stephanie Piro lives in the next town over, which means that they got the big ice storm as well. Trees were down, power went out to 1.25 million people, and everyone was slipping and falling.

After the big ice storm, she drew a story about her experience titled POWER, which you can read in its entirety at her site. While we lost power for about 14 hours, Steph and her husband John lived in a dark house for days, with nothing but their woodstove for heat.


Please note that when "friends Mike and Stacy stop over" that (a) we bring wine and (b) the power comes on!

My thanks to Stephanie for posting this. I had no idea that she had drawn this involving non-fiction comic about their experience, much less that we had a cameo in it! Thanks, Steph!

My one note: please post the story LARGER on your site. It was hard to read ....

Video: South African Cartoonist Zapiro

"This is what satirists do in democratic societies" - editorial cartoonist Zapiro to Jacob Zuma (see second YouTube video below).

The Sunday Times' (South Africa) professional editorial cartoonist Zapiro has been sued not once, but twice, by African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma, over a cartoon he (Zapiro) drew. Zuma is also suing The Times. More here at Zapiro's site.

Posted today on YouTube: Zapiro talking about the pending suit and issues of a free press.



Related: Zapiro calls in to a radio interview show to talk to Zuma directly:



My thanks to Tom Spurgeon for continuously tracking this story.

Buy Mike Lynch Cartoons Stuff

HYPE: You can still express mail out some Mike Lynch Cartoons swag to friends, enemies and total strangers.

Dean Haspiel "Snow Dope" on the NY Times Blog

More here.

Cartoon Statues

We all know Popeye, Superman, Andy Gump, Tintin and Steve Canyon -- but what we all maybe don't know (well, I for sure did not know) is that each of them has a statue. The Three Men in a Tub blog shows us more.

I snagged the photo on the left of the Popeye statue in Chester, Illinois from dvdbarrett's Flickr page.

The plaque below is from the Chester Illinois Resource Guide. Photo taken by Thomas J. La Rosa.


Let's all rent a bus and go on a cross country cartoon statue road trip!

Time Waster: TV Show Christmas Episodes

Let's celebrate Christmas by watching holiday-themed sitcom episodes from the 1960s and 70s over at the Classic Television Showbiz blog! At least it's a better use of your time than watching, let's say, for instance, Melissa Joan Hart in "Holiday in Handcuffs," OK?

Hat tip to the WFMU Blog via Journalista!

Related: The Twelve Episodes of Christmas Television Gave To Us

In case you had too much tryptophan last month: My pal Brian Fies posted That Classic WKRP Thanksgiving Episode on his Fies Files blog.

Not That I Mind, but ...

... Why am I on the blogroll links for the Today with President-Elect Barack Obama blog?

It's a Wonderful Life NOT

Wendell Jamieson writes about IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE for the NY Times. He points out that not only is the title, at best, ironic, but also, the story is a complete downer. I've read this kind of story before, by Mr. Jamieson ticks off a good number of horrors. Here are just a few:

"George’s brother, Harry (Todd Karns), almost drowns in a childhood accident; Mr. Gower, a pharmacist, nearly poisons a sick child; and then George, a head taller than everyone else, becomes the pathetic older sibling creepily hanging around Harry’s high school graduation party. That night George humiliates his future wife, Mary (Donna Reed), by forcing her to hide behind a bush naked, and the evening ends with his father’s sudden death."

Another good point: Bedford Falls is the kinda sleepy place where they roll up the sidewalks at night, while the parallel universe Bedford Falls, "Pottersville," is full of hot jazz, hot women and booze all night.

I love this movie too, as does Mr. Jamieson, who gives a lot of food for thought. Some good movies, like WONDERFUL LIFE, just get better and more nuanced as we age. Certainly its evil rich banker guy, played by Lionel Barrymore, is a prescient caricaturization of our current Vice President.

The only lesson I take from the movies is that there are other people in this world, people who love you, who will take advantage if you don't speak up and tell 'em you're gonna go after your own dreams now.

My favorite image from the movie.

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

Quotations marks! When to use? This gallant blog shows us the goofuses who do not know.



Big hat tip to Matt Forsythe!

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry 1932-2008

Majel Barrett, "Nurse Chapel" and the real life wife of Gene Roddenberry, passed away this morning. She died in her home in Bel Air, surrounded by family and friends. The cause was leukemia.

The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in her name to the CARE Organization or Precious Paws both of which share Roddenberry’s love for animals and dedication to animal rescue.

Trekmovie has more.

Kirk "KHAAAAANNNNNNNNN" Action Figure

For the first time anywhere, you can get STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN's Kirk in mid-"Khaaaaaaannnnnn!!!"

More at Trekmovie.

Gotta go write a letter to Santa now. Bye.

Enough with the Shoe Cartoons

OK, enough!

But, well, maybe just one more -- like this one by Frederick Deligne, which may be the best of the large bunch of shoe cartoons:



© 2008 Frederick Delign

Hat tip to Daryl Cagle!

The Great Ham Caper

My wife, Stacy, wrote a poem way back in Christmas 2006. The poem is about us and our cats, Rufus and Sam.

Stacy's poem got a lot of very nice emails, and I've rerun it since then. Hard to believe that since then we've moved and gotten another cat.

For auld lang syne, here it is again:


The Great Ham Caper
Words by Stacy Lynch
Pictures by Mike Lynch

’Twas the week before Christmas
When Rufus and Sam
Hatched a devious scheme
To make off with the ham!

The ham that would grace
The holiday table!
Roo was the brains.
Sam, wiry and able.


They devised a plan
Of Goldbergian proportions
With pulleys and weights
And kitty contortions.

And on Christmas day
They’d eat until stuffed
(The very idea
Made their tails slightly puffed!)

’Til then, they’d lay low,
Little angels to see.
But that made us suspicious –
Wouldn’t you be?


So we snooped and we sleuthed
And uncovered their caper -
“The Ham-Stealing Plan”
Diagrammed on a paper!

“No silly cat’s gonna
Steal my roast beast,”
Exclaimed Mike. “Just watch,
I’ll ruin their feast!”So he countered their scheming
With mad plans all his own
And all I could do
Was inwardly groan!

Who’d win this contest
Of wits they were planning?
Would Mike, Roo or Sam -
Be last man or cat standing?

As Christmas day dawned
The four of us waited
For the ham to be served
With breaths that were bated.

But before the main course
Could even be plated
Their plans took a turn.
Some say it was fated...

What happened to stop them
So cold in their tracks?
Why, cat-nip and husb-nip
(in big canvas sacks)Was all that it took
To stop their foul warring.
And they rolled and purred
And drooled on the flooring.And as long as I kept
My fingers and toes
Away from a hubby and two cats
In nip’s throes -
My own Christmas day
Turned out merry and calm;
The ham moist and succulent,
The champagne, a balm.

When they “awoke”,
hostilities abated,
We all ate some ham
And went to bed sated.

And such peace we wish
To you and to yours:
An end to fighting;
An end to wars.

Happy Holidays!

Mike and Stacy and Rufus and Sam

UPDATE: and Trout.

Video: Alison Bechdel "Stuck in Vermont"

I really liked this 7 minute interview with Vermont cartoonist Alison Bechdel. The Stuck in Vermont people do it right.

Godless and Penniless - A Christmas Story by Gopian & Heatley

Husband (David Heatley) and wife (Rebecca Gopian) team give us this day's NY Times Op Art piece Godless and Penniless - A Christmas Story.

"And so we find ourselves at a crossroads. No jobs, no benefits, lots of potential, but very little security, the economy crashing ..."

Rebecca (story) and David's (art) story is well done and insightful. The rewards with a creative career can be great, but it's not a 9 to 5 job, and there is not some well-worn path to a bright, secure future.

Vintage Cartoon Ads

From the Found in Mom's Basement blog.

A tip o' the hat to The Cartoonist!

Bill Woodman

I want to tell you a bit about Bill Woodman, who is one of my favorite cartoonists. The best introduction to Bill is to show one of my favorite cartoons. I like a lot of his cartoons. They are sketchy, loose and very expressive.

Above: The man, impatiently looking at his watch, as his self-obsessed dog tries on a variety of hats is funny. What puts it over the top for me -- what made me love this cartoon -- was the smile of the dog. It's just a short line -- but very expressive. The dog is delighted with his hats and this is a fun decision.


Bill is a Mainer, which means he was born in Maine. After a stint in the navy, he went to New York City. From his bio:

Upon discharge, he took the next bus to New York, knowing that that was the place to start his cartooning career. He says he didn't know how bad he was so he began submitting his work.

He worked for years in New York City, drawing cartoons and children's books. He is still working, and has returned to Maine. Bill just had a couple of cartoons in recent issues of Playboy. Cartoonists never retire.

I can attest to the above winds along Casco Bay, where John Klossner and I have visited Bill for lunch a couple times.

Above: click to supersize this one. A great gag.


Above: there used to be days like this in NYC, but milder winters have been the norm in recent years.


The amazing thing about those subway girders is that, yes, in real life, you COULD put shelves in them.

I hope that Bill doesn't mind me posting just a few cartoons from his site Bill Woodman Art. Take a look at some of his paintings as well. A multi-talent, this guy is.

Power Outage

I had power and then I lost it and not I have it again. I hope to have some more regular updates shortly.

Mike Lynch Cartoons T-shirts!

Mark Anderson bowled his best game ever while wearing the Mike Lynch Cartoons Penguin Bowling Pin t-shirt!

Mike Lynch Cartoons t-shirts, cards, magnets & Stuff.

Perfect for holiday giving and a wonderful wedding, bar/bat mitzah gift or memorable way to peddle your influence to the power elite!

Ice Storm 2008

I had no idea how big the ice storm was until we got the power back about 30 minutes ago. The NY Times says 1.25 million from PA to ME without power!

Here are some photos from our place along the Maine/NH border:


Here's the back of the car and a bunch of ice-laden birches, laying over the long driveway. Those little snowflakey looking things are bits of sleet. It sleeted all night and into the day.




It's a long, long driveway.


A shadowy landscape of ice on the front yard.


Birdfeeder icicles.


For many trees, the weight of the ice made them bow down.


Our 3 raised beds and the trees all leaning over.


A windowbox perched on one of the raised beds, with one of the bowed trees hanging over it.






A series of shots of the driveway, and the trees leaning over it.


At the end of the driveway: a fallen pine tree.


Thank goodness for the woodstove! There is one pot of sauerkraut and one pot of tea warming.

Forgotten TV Christmas Specials

Here are 3 TV specials from 1969 to 1977 that I don't see listed in the regular holiday line up.

There are a number of Holiday TV specials that I remember that seem to have disappeared. It's hard to believe that any TV show can disappear what with all those cable channels, so please correct me if I'm wrong. I think these specials are pretty much gone from the broadcast & cable spectrum:

THE HOMECOMING - with Patricia Neal, Richard Thomas and Edgar Bergen. This 1971 TV movie was the pilot for the series THE WALTONS. Based on North Carolina TV writer Earl Hamner's book of the same name, he narrates the story of his Father missing on Christmas Eve. The movie has the requisite good and not so good child actors, and there are different actors as some of the Walton adults (with Patricia Neal doing a fine, very fierce Eugene O'Neill take on Mrs. Walton, as opposed to Michael Learned's mellower characterization). I got a kick out of Edgar bergen listening to Fibber McGee in one scene.

Maybe the movie is too much of a downer. These are poor people who can't afford anything and the reason Dad is missing is because he has to commute many miles to where the jobs are. Downtown Walton's Mountain has no industry.

Below is part 1 of 10 of the TV movie, which includes location shots in Jackson, Wyoming, standing in for Walton's Mountain. Here are links to part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine and part ten.



THE LITTLEST ANGEL - with Johnny Whitaker, Fred Gwynne and E.G. Marshall as God. This was a real star-studded (Cab Calloway, Tony Randall, John McGiver, George Rose, Connie Stevens, James Coco) 90 minute live action program, taped (yes, it's on videotape) at the height of Johnny Whitaker's child star power. This was a major production at the time, even though the money was not spent on film or decent quality effects. There was even an album released. Yes, Herman Munster sings on it! But I digress ....

SPOILERS for THE LITTLEST ANGEL follow after the clip.

Below is a 4 minute clip from the show where all the angels are lining up to give presents to God in a badly chroma-keyed version of heaven.




My opinion: The reason for this special not being aired today (although you can get it on DVD) is for one scene where Johnny Whitaker, who fell off a cliff chasing a white dove and died, returns home in ghost/angel form and tries to hug his mom. Now, no one knows he is dead yet and his Mom can't see him. It's all very nightmarish, with little Johnny crying, and Mom not hearing him because, you know, the kid's DEAD and all. (I looked for this clip, but did not find it.) At the end, when greedy God has all of his presents (see the clip above), there's Whitaker, staring happily at the dove; a happy, dead kid whose now-grieving Mom is down on Earth. Not the stuff of cheery TV specials that inspire one to go buy Chinese crap at Walmart.


A COSMIC CHRISTMAS - a 1977 special, inspired in equal parts by the Bible and STAR WARS. With pretty darn gorgeous animation & character design by Canadian animation studio Nelvana, this 22 minute prime time special caught the attention of George Lucas, who worked with the company on several STAR WARS projects, including the now-unseen STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL (except online and its many bootleg copies).



COSMIC CHRISTMAS has some hammy dialogue. The aliens land and ask, What is Christmas? What is Bethlehem? All of the adults are pretty corrupt and disgusting. Some of the animation and little character moments seem like a nod to Bakshi's best work (this is a good thing). All of this is fine with me. Above is the entire special, which is unavailable on DVD.

Like I said, please feel free to correct me if these are on TV this year. Or if you have your own missing holiday specials to add.

NSNC Alters Its Bylaws to Welcome Freelancers

Above: a snapshot of today's National Society of Newspaper Columnists home page.

From Editor & Publisher:

"The board of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, in a meeting Tuesday evening, amended the organization's bylaws to include as regular members freelancers, self-syndicated or independent writers, or writers published on the Internet in any medium as online columnists or in blogs."

Video: Shaun Tan THE LOST THING

Above: a screenshot from the video of Shaun Tan's studio.

Even if you do not know who Shaun Tan is, please take a look at inFrame.TV's 5 minute documentary on Mr. Tan and his work on animating his book THE LOST THING.

I forget how much I admire his work, and enjoyed seeing him for the first time on video. The short animation looks like a labor of love. I agree with him regarding creativity: it's a difficult process.

A big hat tip to Journalista!

uclick Hopes to Roll Out Hundreds of Comics for iPhone

Above: image from uClick's home page today.

Here's an article by Heidi MacDonald from the December 8th edition of Publishers Weekly about putting comics on the iPhone.

"Each issue of a comic costs just $0.99, although eventually longer stories may have higher price points. The uclick store already carries titles from IDW (the just announced The Thief of by Always by Clive Barker), Image (Elephant Men and Godland), Papercutz and Mirage, as well as comic strips—Pibgorn—and self published titles—Jeff Smith's Bone. By next year uclick hope to have hundred of new comics available on iTunes, says CEO Douglas Edwards, and creating original content is not out of the question."

Hat tip to Comics Reporter.

Regardless of recent graphic novels sales declining, newspapers folding -- people still love comics. But will they pay for this kind of content on the iPhone?

Andrews McMeel Holiday Sale thru December 19th

Prominent cartoon book publishers Andrews McMeel (CUL DE SAC, BABY BLUES, PEARLS BEFORE SWINE, LIO, need I go on?) announced they will offer 35% off all items at their site plus free shipping. More here.

We realize the importance of family and friends this time of year and would like to thank you for all of your support. Begin your holiday shopping at andrewsmcmeel.com and get 35% off your purchase and free shipping on all items on the site from now until December 19th. Simply enter the code AMUDiscount in the Coupon or Gift Card entry field when you are ready to check out.

New Mike Lynch Cartoons Santa Mug

Mugs are $4 off until 11:59pm PST tonight over at the Mike Lynch Cartoons Zazzle Store.

The fine print:

$4 discount applies to orders of one or more qualifying mug items. The coupon code MUGSONZAZZLE must be entered during checkout to receive the offer. Offer is valid from December 9, 2008 through December 9, 2008 at 11:59pm PST. Your order must be placed during that time to qualify for this special promotional pricing offer. This promotional offer may not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or discount offers.

Above: the penguin loves bowling pin mug, and, below, the Santa mug.

The Kid on Mall Santa's Lap mug is brand new as of today.

Save the Words

Above: a screen capture at the site.

Save the Words. Worth clicking on. Worth letting it load. I'll say no more.

Except: hat tip to Ralf Zeigermann!

Video: COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL Kurtzman, Stan Lee

Here's a clip from the documentary COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL, now 20 years old, with Harvey Kurtzman, Bill Gaines and Stan Lee.



Veoh has the whole documentary, you can find it via ugoq's channel on YouTube.

Bob Staake: Best Cover of the Year

Above: Bob Staake's New Yorker cover.

Time Magazine names Bob Staake's November 17, 2008 New Yorker cover as the "Best Cover of the Year" in its Top 10 Everything of 2008 list.

Congratulations, Bob!

More about the cover, including video, here.

Sixth Finger Commercial

Above: What TV is all about, from MAD Magazine's on-the-mark "Howdy Dooit" parody by Kurtzman & Elder. Image pulled from the Gatochy Blog's Will Elder tribute, wherein you may read the entire parody and more.

I remember wanting some odd things that TV told me to buy when I was a kid, but I had never been exposed to the commercial below. I can't imagine desiring a little peach colored piece of plastic generating such passion.

But, hey, in the 1960s, there wasn't as much going on. At least not in Iowa ....



Unrelated, of course, that OUTER LIMITS episode.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Auction

If you ever wanted your own life-size Cylon Raider ship, now's your chance. Bidding begins next month in a BATTLESTAR GALACTICA auction! All news here.

The final BSG season begins January 16th.

Hat tip to Trekmovie!

When Was This NANCY Strip Published?

Mark Newgarden & Paul Karasik need to know.

Read all about it here.

Forrest J. Ackerman Passes Away at 92

Forrest J. Ackerman passed away peacefully at his home (the "Ackermansion") in Los Angeles on Thursday. He was 92.

From the AP story:

His greatest achievement, however, was likely discovering Bradbury, author of the literary classics "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles." Ackerman had placed a flyer in a Los Angeles bookstore for a science-fiction club he was founding and a teenage Bradbury showed up.

One of those kids who also showed up was my Dad, who was -- and still is -- a science fiction fan.

Alternately referred to as EEEE, Forrest DeJacques Erman, 4E, -- Ackerman was, from all the descriptions I've heard, a jack of all trades, whose legacy may not only be discovering Ray Bradbury, but also publishing Famous Monsters of Filmland for many years.

Dennis Cozzalio at his Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule blog has a wonderful tribute, complete with home movies of his visit to the Ackermansion.

Hat tip to Sean Kelly. Thanks, Sean. Scan of FM cover from Dennis Cozzalio's site.

Northern New England Cartoonists Holiday Party December 6, 2008

When I lived in Brooklyn, NY, I was spoiled. There were cartoonists in every borough, as well as New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island ....

I found out was that there are many cartoonists here in the northeastern US. The comics community is very active, despite the cold and snow! And so I thought I would put together a gathering of cartoonists. I picked out the restaurant, priced the menu and spread the word.

I hope that those who were able to attend enjoyed the event.


Above: a card that I drew up for holiday party goody bad insertion.

This past Saturday, on a cold and cloudy New England afternoon, about 20 cartoonists and their friends and loved ones got together at a local pub for the first Northern New England Cartoonists Holiday Party in Rochester, NH.




Above: Rochester Times News Editor John Nolan (who was named "Columnist of the Year" by the New Hampshire Press Association last month) chats with Peter Noonan, THE HIPPO newspaper's resident cartoonist. Peter drew the cover of this week's edition of THE HIPPO.

Above: some sketches from the participants of the party.

About 90 minutes into the party, Peter, having eaten his appetizers, salad, Irish stew & dessert, announced to the room at large that he wanted to draw. A piece of Bristol Board and a Pigma Micron pen was produced. Peter is "still working on his Obama" caricature. He drew Obama, as well as a little guy pulling Obama's ear. He began drawing our State governor John Lynch (no relation), and someone started talking about Jimmy Carter, causing the pen to move in Jimmy Carter lines rather than John Lynch lines.



Above: journalist Amy Miller, gag cartoonist for Playboy and The New Yorker Bill Woodman, cartoonist John Klossner, Mike Lynch, NON SEQUITOR cartoonist and children's book creator Wiley Miller.

Amy & John, Bill and Wiley all drove in from Maine to be with us.

Above: a sketch by Wiley Miller, drawn at the party.

Wiley, John and Bill talked about all those last minute cartoonists; guys who, through the years, have flown last minute flights to the syndicates (this is back in pre-Internet days), inking on the plane; arriving at the syndicate, still inking in the lobby. I remembered a story that Jack Davis told about his wife Deena driving Jack into NYC, with Jack in the back seat, furiously erasing his pencils from his Mad Magazine originals, minutes before deadline.


Above: The couple behind the syndicated OFF THE MARK newspaper cartoon panel Lynn (the brains) & Mark Parisi (the funny).

I was talking to Mark Parisi about Christmas cartoon gags. I'm bad about Christmas. New gag ideas are hard to come by and I groan just thinking about even trying to come up with anything new. How many times do we see a cartoon with Rudolph getting his red nose from his drinking problem or Santa's elves threatening to unionize and go on strike and so on. Having to be fresh all the time is the challenge of a good cartoonist.


Above: Brian Cogdanone of Corbett Features, John Bradley, Patricia Hurd listen to Mark Parisi. Not in the shot, but at the table there out of range: Barry Corbett (also of Corbett Features, natch!) & cartoonist/author Peaco Todd.

Barry and Brian pointed out that under the clear plastic table pads were that day's newspaper funnies section. Mel Flanagan's Pub put them there just for us. Very nice of them! Barry and Brian went around before people got seated, reading all of them. Once a funnies fan, always a funnies fan.




Above: the New Hampshire contingent (minus me, of course): THE HIPPO newspaper's cartoonist Peter Noonan, Marek Bennett of MIMI'S DONUTS, SIX CHIX and FAIR GAME syndicated cartoonist Stephanie Piro and Denise Bennett.

Marek was awarded the prestigious Xeric Award this past Spring, which is why he looks happy. Either that, or Stephanie is pinching him.


Above: Juana Medina, RISD design major who won the first King Features' Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship this year, Mike Lynch and Stephanie Piro. Juana and her friend Pablo drove all the way from Providence, RI to be part of the evening. She's a terrific cartoonist.

Above: a cartoon of Little Red Riding Hood naively walking to grandma's house, drawn by Juana Medina. Since we are all wearing red in the above photo, her drawing of LRR came to mind.

By the way, the Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship is accepting submissions for 2009. Deadline is February 6.

Special "above and beyond the call" big XXL thanks to cartoonists Mark Anderson, Marek Bennett, Brian Cogdanone, Barry Corbett, Wiley Miller, Stephanie Piro, John Nolan, and Mark Parisi for contributing their own mini-comics, books, calendars, buttons, newspapers and cards to the holiday goody bag. Everyone who attended was able to take home a wonderful bag of cartoony goodness thanks to your generosity.

Video: Brian Duffy on His Unceremonious Firing

Des Moines Register editoral cartoonist Brian Duffy was fired from the paper on Wednesday. The Register's cartoonist since 1983, Duffy was part of a large number of cuts by Gannett. Here's a video from local WHO-TV. It's about 3 and 1/2 minutes:



Hat tip to Rob Tornoe via Daryl Cagle.

James Stevenson

I don't know why, but James Stevenson's NT Times series of Op Art pieces, titled "Lost and Found New York," seem to fly below the radar. He's done the same sort of work for The New Yorker. I never hear anyone talking about them and haven't run across a blog about them.

I love stumbling across his occasional piece of historical nonfiction in a weekend edition of the paper. Here's his latest, Ice King, about a Bath, ME born financial titan/corrupt businessman Charles Wyman Morse. In sketchbook style, Stevenson lays out the financial successes and immoral excesses of a a guy who went to NYC, had it all, made millions, and what it all meant. It takes a couple of minutes to read.

I like how hand-drawn and and-lettered the piece is. It is like looking at Stevenson's Moleskine. Sadly, there are no hyperlinks at the Times to his other "Op Art" items. This is a shame. They're all good non-fiction cartooning.

An Internship with MAD's Tom Richmond

Ever wanted to be a cartoonist? Ever wanted to draw for MAD MAGAZINE? A high school student named Luke got a chance to "job shadow" Tom Richmond in his studio.

"My niece Brittanie called me up and said she had a classmate who was an aspiring artist and wondered if he could job shadow me one day… like TOMORROW. I was trying to beat a deadline on a MAD job and was on the final stretch of the inking, so I thought that would work out well. The next day a young man named Luke showed up at the studio and spent about 4 hours watching me ink while we chatted about freelance illustration, cartooning, caricature, MAD and in general what it’s like to try and make a living with a pencil and a drawing board."

Tom reports all here.

If I was in high school, this would be absolutely the coolest day of my life.

Scott Wegener Interview

Fellow New Hampshire cartoonist Scott Wegener, who draws the Atomic Robo series of comic books, is interviewed by Dave Eisenstadter in the Monadnock (NH) Ledger-Transcript. Scott talks about working with writer Brian Clevinger, and the team of 4 people who produce Atomic Robo.

"'I can't write my way out of a paper bag as far as dialogue goes,' Wegener said. 'We're comfortable enough with one another to trust that each of us has our best interests in mind, so it works out really well.'

"Wegener and Clevinger work closely, but not close together. Clevinger lives in Orlando, Fla. Rhonda Pattison, their colorist, lives in Canada and Jeff Powell, their letterer and logo designer, lives in Brooklyn."

Above image pulled from Scott's site. A tip o' the hat to Dirk Deppey at Journalista! for this.

Willard Mullin

Cartoon Snap shows a variety of scans by sports cartoonist Willard Mullin. Mullin is one of those guys that was forgotten, and now, thanks to bloggers and fans, is getting his due as one of the best cartoonists around. Look at the life in those inky lines.

I want to hat tip someone but I forgot where I first saw the link.

Roy Doty's Christmas Cards 1950-2007

Courtesy of Hogan's Alley comes this gorgeous online gallery of cartoonist Roy Doty's perconal Christmas greeting cards through the years.

"When I did my first card in l946, the year I started freelancing in New York, all the artists did their own cards at Christmas. It was a tradition to do so. Over the years fewer and fewer cartoonist do them, though there has been more of them lately now that they can print them out from their computers."

Hat tip to Steve Smallwood!

Christoph Neimann: Coffee

I always enjoy Christoph Neimann's work. Today: his story of his relationship with coffee from today's NY Times.

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE Swipe at Cartoonists

Above: an excerpt from the Sunday PEARLS BEFORE SWINE.

Sunday's PEARLS BEFORE SWINE takes a swipe at veteran cartoonists, demanding that there be "no more gags from 1952!"

Cartoonist Stephan Pastis (who is also a lawyer, so I have to watch what I type now) has made fun of cartoonists and their strips before. I agree with the beseeching donkey that cartoonists should be relevant. Of all the comic strips in the Sunday paper, I read very few now. But it's the same way with TV: 200 channels and I (like most people) watch only a couple.

Hat tip to some guy named Stephan Pastis.

Above: from his NCS profile page.

Shatner's RAW NERVE

William Shatner's new talk show RAW NERVE begins tonight, with 2 of the half-hour programs back to back. First, he interviews 70s sitcom girl/21st century weight-loss diva Valerie Bertinelli and then, Tim Allen, who played a swaggering, overbearing spaceship captain in the GALAXY QUEST movie. There are clips at the above link, which I have not looked at. I have no idea what to expect.

Related: Trekmovie has renamed this month Shatember. Shatner talks about RAW NERVE here and even more (Takei, Abrams, etc.) here.

Orphan Works: A Lame Duck Countdown Part 2

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIP

Orphan Works: A Lame Duck Countdown: Part II. The Legislative Blueprint 12.02.08 The "legislative blueprint" for the Orphan Works Act was not drafted by the Copyright Office after their year-long Orphan Works study, but before it, by law students at the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic. Their Copyright Clearance Initiative (CCI) is the document that first proposed the "limitation on remedies" that would radically change international copyright law. From page 5 of the CCI proposal: "Under no circumstances will Sec. 504(c) statutory damages, attorney's fees, damages based on the user's profits or injunctive relief relating to the challenged use be available against a qualified user." http://copyright.gov/orphan/comments/OW0595-Glushko-Samuelson.pdf This is the premise the Copyright Office adopted with only slight modifications: where the law students had proposed capping infringement fees at $100, the Copyright Office proposals changed that to an ambiguous "reasonable fee." And how did the student authors describe their study of the orphan works issue? "On April 11, 2003, the Clinic held a symposium with scholars, academics and other interested parties to discuss this issue. Since then, the work of CCI has focused its efforts on devising the blueprint for a legislative solution to the 'orphan works' problem...and has been in close contact with various non-profit organizations, intellectual practitioners and academics..." A footnote names the eight "clinic students" who contributed to the "legislative solution." And among the "interested parties," the authors cite Public Knowledge, a group now actively promoting the Orphan works bill. Copyright holders were apparently not considered interested parties, as none are listed among those invited to participate. The Clinic authors submitted their blueprint to the Copyright Office March 24, 2005. They cited no effort to survey the potential impact of their legislative solution on commercial markets - nor did the Copyright Office three years later, when they adopted the "limitation on remedies" and proposed it to Congress in their 2006 Report on Orphan Works. The Director of the Glushko-Samuelson Law Clinic is a long-standing critic of existing copyright protections. In 1994, legal scholar Peter Jaszi wrote that in the new "information environment" created by the internet, authors, artists and others "may not need the long, intense protection afforded by conventional copyright -- no matter how much they would like to have it." Copyright, he wrote, is rooted in outdated concepts of "possessive individualism." The "romantic myth of authorship," he argued, is a vestige of the 18th and 19th centuries "in which entrepreneurial publishers...[and] entrepreneurial writers...played out their shared conviction that the "individual [is] essentially the proprietor of his own person or capacities -- and thus of whatever can be made of them." Professor Jaszi has criticized the US for joining the international Berne Copyright Convention, calling it "an international agreement grounded in thoroughly Romantic assumptions about creativity." And he noted with disapproval: "The first Act of this preeminent 'authors' rights' treaty in 1886 represented the culmination of a process which got underway in the mid-nineteenth-century with Victor Hugo's vigorous campaign for the rights of European writers and artists. Other famous 'authors' rallied to the cause: Gerhard Joseph suggests that the manic energy with which Charles Dickens championed international copyright stemmed from the novelist's private insecurities about his own 'originality.'"* Note the scare quotes around "authors rights" and "originality." The Professor appears to subscribe to the postmodern cliché that all art is a form of collage and that authorship and originality are merely covers for one writers "vigor" or another's "manic energy" and "insecurities." Maybe so, but a working author might guess that Dickens and Hugo were merely protecting their copyrights because that's how they made a living. Citing the authority of postmodern critics, Professor Jaszi laments that their "critique of authorship" "has gone unheard by intellectual property lawyers." "However enthusiastically legal scholars may have thrown themselves into 'deconstructing' other bodies of legal doctrine, copyright has remained untouched by the implications of the Derridean proposition that the inherent instability of meaning derives not from authorial subjectivity but from intertextuality. Above all, the questions posed by Michel Foucault in 'What Is an Author?' about the causes and consequences of the persistent, overdetermined power of the author construct -- with their immediate significance for law -- have gone largely unattended by theorists of copyright law, to say nothing of practitioners or, most critically, judges and legislators." -Page 12 The Construction of Authorship* Or to put it in plain English: why hasn't Congress harkened to some collectivist literary critics and written their debatable theories into US copyright law? With the Orphan Works bill, maybe they will. Yet if this were one's goal - to impose a collectivist agenda on US copyright law, wouldn't forthrightness be the better policy? Shouldn't you say "we want to change the laws governing a citizen's ownership of his or her intellectual property" - then present the case frankly and debate it publicly and transparently? Wouldn't that serve the public interest better than concealing the agenda behind a claim that you're only amending the law to "find homes for the poor orphan works" or making the world safe for folks to duplicate pictures of grandma? Tomorrow: How many letters did it take to trigger the Orphan Works Bill? Would you believe 215? *Quotes from the Introduction to The Construction of Authorship: Textual Appropriation in Law and Literature by Martha Woodmansee, Peter Jaszi, Editors, Duke University Press, 1994 http://books.google.com/books?id=dpRKltgJYYwC - Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators' Partnership ______________________________________________________________ Over 80 organizations oppose this bill, representing over half a million creators.

Video: Al Jaffee

Here is some video (taken from a handheld device) of the one and only Al Jaffee. The uncredited fellow on the left is none other than influential Abrams editor and bon vivant Charlie Kochman. This is from a Barnes & Noble talk. My guess is that it was part of the "meet the author" series at the Upper West Side B&N last night. Mr. Jaffee explains the origin of his "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions." It's a great story that I had not heard. It runs just under 2 1/2 minutes.



Related:

A collection of Mr. Jaffee's comic strip TALL TALES (with an introduction by Mad fanboy Stephen Colbert) is available in hardcover. TT was syndicated by the Herald Tribune Syndicate and ran from 1957 to 1963.

"Jaffee conceived of Tall Tales while in desperate economic straits, and hit upon a winning formula for breaking into the lucrative comics syndicate game: rather than drawing a traditional horizontal strip that would compete with the existing material, he opted for a seven-inch-tall vertical strip, which gave editors a lot more flexibility as to where in the paper the strip would run. The tall format is a natural for wordless "double-take" sight-gags whose effect lies in the fact that your eye can't take in the whole strip in one go, so there's a little comic shock that comes after studying the page for a second or two."

- from Cory Doctorow's review at Boing Boing.

My friend Ger Apeldoorn has some TALL TALES Sundays here.

March 30, 2008 Al Jaffee NY Times profile (complete with an ever-so-cool multimedia fold-in gallery).

Al won the prestigious Reuben Award last May. This is my excuse to run the below photo of Al Jaffee and me, looking absolutely dashing in the soup & fish. This is just an hour after he was awarded the Reuben. More on the 2008 Reuben Awards event, with tons of photos & linkies, here and here.

Penguin T-Shirt by Mike Lynch

Hello there! I'm offering the above Penguin t-shirt for sale. Please consider buying one. It comes in both men's and women's sizes. And there's FREE SHIPPING today only.

This is first year I've done had a Zazzle store, so please feel free to suggest any ideas you have.

Orphan Works: Lame Duck Countdown

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIP

Orphan Works: Lame Duck Countdown 12.01.08 Part I. Little Known Facts Congress will reconvene for a lame duck session next week. That means Orphan Works backers may try again to pass their bill by suspending the rules. We believe this bill is too controversial to be passed by backroom dealing. It would let commercial interests harvest and monetize the personal property of ordinary citizens without their knowledge. The bill can be improved, and we've offered amendments that would improve it. But there's not enough time to improve it during a lame duck session. The bill should be held over until the next session of Congress, when those whose livelihood it will threaten can have the opportunity to present their case. Over the next few days, we'll highlight some little known facts about the way this bill has been conceived, drafted and promoted. We believe these facts raise serious questions about the legislative process that has brought this legislation to the brink of passage: 1. The "legislative blueprint" for the Orphan Works bill was not the result of the Copyright Office's year-long Orphan Works Study. It was drafted before the study began, by law students who made no apparent effort to survey its potential impact on commercial markets. 2. The blueprint was drafted under the guidance of a legal scholar who opposes current copyright protections. He has written that authors in the internet age "may not need the long, intense protection afforded by conventional copyright -- no matter how much they would like to have it." 3. The Copyright Office received barely 200 relevant letters to their Orphan Works Study. Although they testified to Congress that the number was "over 850," they failed to acknowledge that more than 600 letters had to be dismissed as irrelevant or too vague to determine their relevance to orphaned work. 4. In their Orphan Works Report, the Copyright Office failed to acknowledge a unified statement submitted by 42 national and international visual arts organizations. This statement called for the maintenance of existing copyright protections and warned that a bill drafted too broadly would spread uncertainty in commercial markets. 5. The Copyright Office studied the specific subject of orphaned work, yet concluded they had discovered a widespread "market failure" in commercial markets. But since they didn't study commercial markets, there's no evidence for this conclusion in their report. 6. The principal author of the Orphan Works Report has acknowledged that their true goal was to "pressure" working authors into relying on registries to protect their work. He said this was necessary because artists and photographers have "failed to collectivize." 7. The first commercial Orphan Works domain name was registered by an anonymous party more than two years before the Copyright Office announced their Study. Did this anonymous party have a crystal ball? How did he know the Copyright Office would ever study orphan works? How did he know they'd open the door to commercial usage? And why did he register anonymously? 8. Two of the key players in the legislative process have already left government service and gone to work for companies that stand to profit from passage of the bill. On the other hand, one of the parties who testified in favor of the bill has already gone to the Copyright Office. She's now in charge of orphan works. We think these and other little known facts give lawmakers sufficient reason not to pass this bill without a thorough vetting. Tomorrow: The Legislative Blueprint: How a copyright critic and his students tackled the "orphan works issue." - Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators' Partnership ______________________________________________________________ Over 80 organizations oppose this bill, representing over half a million creators.

A Free Gift from Mark Heath

Cartoonist Mark Heath offers a free book of his syndicated comic strip Spot the Frog to anyone who would like one. Free. Postpaid. Just ask.

Here's Mark letting us in on his gift to all of us, the collection IT'S HARD TO COMB A GRASS TOUPEE:

So, until my supply runs out, anyone who would like a free copy of It's Hard to Comb a Grass Toupee, postage paid, with my thanks, let me know. Without readers, a cartoonist is only one hand clapping. Or drawing. Either way it's a lonely noise.

Hat tip to Mark Anderson!

WORLD'S FINEST by Ivan Brunetti & Evan Dorkin

Started out my morning reading this.

Big hat tip to Journalista!