Maira Kalman: In Love With A. Lincoln

Writer and illustrator Maira Kalman writes and draws about the Lincoln of then and the "Land of Lincoln" today in this wandering, beautiful mediationa from the New York Times blog.

Video: SITA SINGS THE BLUES Now Online

Nina Paley's animated film SITA SINGS THE BLUES, which has been touring many, many festivals, can be streamed online now.

Hat tip to Matt Forsythe!

QUINCY by Ted Shearer Part 2

Here are some more of Ted Shearer's gorgeous QUINCY comic strips.



Above: a 4 panel gag sequence with an opening establishing angle of the interior of Quincy's home, a close up of angry granny, a medium close shot of Quincy's reaction with Granny in the background, and a final panel emphasizing Quincy's expression in a medium close up. Shearer gives you a real sense of place and character.



Quincy is one of the few comic strip characters to consistently address the reader directly. In the first 3 panels, we have the set up; and three different angles, as Quincy says his prayers. And, in the final panel, we are looking straight on at Quincy, and he meets our gaze, as he shares his realization with us.



Every character is in motion. Granny is moving a pot, and even Quincy, seated at the table, looks around while he complains. I like the painterly use of the grey tone, especially on the middle panel, as it's "splashed" haphazardly on Granny and the background.



Pragmatic Quincy may want to conspicuously consume, but he understands the bottom line better than his pals.



Above: another one of those kid conversations where lofty philosophising meets grounded economic concerns.

Above: a strip from 1971. Money, or the lack of it, makes these strips seem timely right now in 2009. Here is Quincy, working part-time in a store, chatting with his white friend Nickles. I like the bits of the store that Shearer draws in the background. Note that there is rarely an inanimate object that is horizontal. The counter, the cash register; all are at a slight angle to make the picture a touch more dynamic.



Above: a deceptively simple strip. Look at that first panel. The whole set up is there. Shearer juxtaposes the rickety, home made "Soul Express" with the bikes, seen behind the glass window. The kids have to lean a little bit up just to see these objects of desire, emphasizing visually how out of reach they are. Like in the previous strip with the car, the items are shiny and new; the antithesis of the dark, jaggedy lines of the slums.


There is a lot of life in Quincy. Even when he's talking or eating, his body is usually moving.


This is the second time that I've showcase Ted Shearer. More QUINCY strips by Ted Shearer are here, along with biographical information and more links.



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

Jules Feiffer Profile

Photo of Jules Feiffer and a few of his pets by Leslie Reingold.

Cartoonist Jules Feiffer is profiled by writer Tom Clavin for 27 East (The East Hampton Press & The Southampton Press).

"'Most of them don’t know who I am,' said Jules Feiffer of his students at Stony Brook Southampton. 'They know I’m famous for something, but they’re not sure what.'"

Hat tip to Michael Maslin!

Ernst & Saunders, Kelly, Lazarus, Schulz, Walker: "Comic Strips They'd Really Like To Do"

Above: Mort Walker writes and draws an adventure strip for Mad #89.

Found on eBay:

From left, counter clockwise (do you really need to know who these guys are?): Mell Lazarus, Mort Walker, Ken Ernst, Charles Schulz, Allen Saunders, and Walt Kelly.

In 1964, MAD Magazine asked top cartoonists to draw their "dream" comic strip.

Chaos, obviously, ensued, in the 4 page feature titled "Comic Strips They'd Really Like To Do:"


They are all funny and intriguing, with Mell Lazarus' contribution maybe the most visually arresting. Here's a scan of the original art:


And below is Ernst & Saunders' version PEANUTS, complete with a MARY WORTH cameo:


These three pieces of original art are offered for sale by the Lewis Wayne Gallery on eBay this week.

I'm not associated with the Gallery. I just thought theses were some unique and (to me) unknown pieces of American cartoon art.

Video: Mell Lazarus Cameo on MURDER SHE WROTE

Above: a screen capture from MURDER SHE WROTE with Patrick MacNee and Mell Lazarus.

Did you know there was an episode of that old war horse TV series MURDER SHE WROTE (1984-1996) about cartoonists? Did you know that MOMMA and MISS PEACH cartoonist Mell Lazarus had a cameo in it? The gang at the Blog Flume blog sure did and they share a short video here.

The episode "The Dead File" aired on November 15, 1992. Mell appears in a small scene at the beginning of the clip linked above. In addition to series star Angela Lansbury, the clip showcases its guest cast which includes, in addition to Patrick MacNee, Harvey Fierstein and Jon Polito.

A big hat tip to Comics Reporter!

Related video: Mell Lazarus speaks at the Charles M. Schulz Museum.

Pat Bagley's Herblock Award Winning Cartoons

Salt Lake Tribune editorial cartoonist Pat Bagley won the Herblock Prize this year. Daryl Cagle showcases the portfolio of cartoons that won.

Dead to Rights UPDATED

Starting my day reading 2 stories of rights going down the dumper. And, along with that, an artist's ability to be be compensated.

Amazon's new Kindle 2, which is that electronic tablet wherein one may download books -- many books -- may not pay an author for audio rights. Kindle DOES pay authors when a consumer downloads a book.

"But there’s another thing about Kindle 2 — its heavily marketed text-to-speech function. Kindle 2 can read books aloud. And Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio rights," writes Roy Blount in the NY Times.

Musician Richard Gibbs, profiled in the Christian Science Monitor, who has seen the trafficking of free, illegal downloads escalate in the past 10 years, suggests a day of sharing for all:

"Richard Gibbs argues that holding an international 'Day of Sharing' would be a radical gesture on behalf of the beleaguered music industry.

"How would it work? 'Order your favorite meal, eat it, and walk out,' he cites as an example. 'Test drive a car and simply keep driving. Fill your pockets with candy from the 7-Eleven.'"

In the future, you'll get your music and cartoons and movies for free, but it'll be created on the side, part-time; by people who have to work in another industry. And, to quote my pal Brian Fies, there won't be anything good left to steal.

Hat tip to Dad for the CSM link. Thanks, Dad!

UPDATE: a bright spot from today's NY Times: iPhone users are willing to spend money in ways that Web users are not by Saul Hansell.

Photoshop Disasters

Oh no! Go look!


Hat tip to Paul Söderholm!

New ZIM Book Forthcoming

Above: One of Zim's covers to Judge around the turn of the last century.

From the ASIFA Web site comes news what a collection of Eugene "Zim" Zimmerman's cartoons is coming along. Zim was a major name in cartooning way back in the days of Puck and Judge magazines. His work was gorgeous and meticulous. He also depicted racial stereotypes.

If you can place his content within the context of the times, and just look at the skillful drawings (some people can, some people cannot), his art deserves to be better showcased.

I was fortunate to visit the Zim house in Horseheads, NY in the early 1990s. It was a treasure trove. He designed it and his daughter, who never married, maintained the house as he had. Up in the attic were these little lead bits, and when I tuerned them over, I saw they were castings -- lead castings -- that were used to print his cartoon course.

Glad to hear that ASIFA is cleaning up his series, perhaps the first "how to cartoon" correspondence course.

Video: Harry Bliss

Do you want to sell a cartoon or a cover painting to The New Yorker? Cartoonist Harry Bliss has done both, and in this video, he shows us a challenge involved in selling to a magazine that has been publishing cartoons for 84 years. Content highlights: this video includes foul language directed at a fellow cartoonist, and a peek at Harry's bookshelf.

Maine Comic Arts Festival: Tables Sold Out

The Maine Comic Arts Festival has sold out of exhibitor tables in less than 6 weeks. The good news is that convention organizer Rick Lowell has a waiting list.

The Festival is Sunday, May 17th, from 10am to 5pm at the Ocean Gateway (photo above, snagged from the MECAF blog) in downtown Portland, Maine.

The idea behind this event is to emulate such indy creator friendly festivals as MoCCA Fest and SPX. Rick Lowell, who is putting this together, has been working hard to make sure all goes smoothly for this, the first event of its kind in Northern New England.

The whole place is going to be full of people who make comics; comics of all kinds.

I'll be there. It should be a wonderful time.

STAR TREK Retro Lunchbox

More retro TREK items to see at Trekmovie!

Gluyas Williams

Start your day with some of these masterful line cartoons by Gluyas Williams. Much more, and insightful commentary, at my friend Ger Apeldoorn's The Fabuleous Fifties blog.

"Stylistically Gluyas Williams was as modern as they get. His humor may not be as biting and sarcastic as the best of the 'new' post-war cartoonists, but his observational cartooning is up their with the best."

Gluyas Williams official site.

Andertoons: Cartoon Conversations

If you ever wonder what it's like to talk one on one with a professional gag cartoonist, then look take a look at this 90 second video of Mark Anderson talking about three of his cartoons.

NY Times Censors Political Cartoon

Above: the original cartoon by Michel Kichna.

When the Times buys your cartoon, that doesn't mean the editors get to stick their finger in your cartoon pie, destroying its message.

Michel Kichna, drawing a cartoon commenting on the vote removing term limits so that current Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez may run for reelection in 2012, had all of the meaning Photoshopped out of his editorial cartoon.

Below: the Photoshopped version that ran in the New York Times:



Hat tip to Journalista!

Blogless Monday?

Up to 18 inches of heavy, big flakes of snow clinging to trees & powerlines & bird feeders. I don't know if we'll have power on Monday. So, here are a few photos of the storm so far. Above: a bird feeder with an enormous cap of wet snow at about 11pm. The snow is so wet that it can sling to the side of the metal shepherd's hook.

Another bad photo taken with the flash as the snow continues to fall. I opened the door, stuck my hand, with the camera, out the side door and quickly took a shot. The blob in the bottom of the above photo is the car. You can barely make out the birches behind it, bent to the ground; weighed down by heavy snow.

Matt Forsythe: Ojingogo Book Cover Design

Cartoonist Matt Forsythe talks about designing the cover of his graphic novel OJINGOGO.

"I was also taking photos of book covers wherever I went. ... Ray and I did book launches together in Toronto. He told me he originally wanted to silkscreen white ink onto the cover - similar to Dash Shaw’s Bottomless Bellybutton cover."

Hat tip to Matt himself for his blog entry.

Want! The Gorn Bobblehead

The nice thing about a big, new STAR TREK theatrical movie hitting the screens on May 6th is that there are a lot people making a lot of toys -- and some of the toys from TOS (The Old Show, my favorite). Trekmovie has more.

A Salute to TOONERVILLE TROLLEY's "Powerful Katrinks"

For Sale: BoycottTheNewYorkPost.com

Hate that chimp cartoon? You can bid on the Web URL Boycottthenewyorkpost.com at eBay.

Buy it now price: $21,000,000.00.

Video: TORCHWOOD Interviews: Euros Lyn & Eve Myles

Above: the special five-part TORCHWOOD series preview "Children of Earth."

Below are three videos that were recorded when TORCHWOOD director Euros Lyn and series costar Eve Myles were attending this month's New York Comic Convention.

TORCHWOOD Director Euros Lyn:



TORCHWOOD costar Eve Myles Part 1




TORCHWOOD costar Eve Myles Part 2

A Day in the Life of J. Caleb Mozzocco

Columbus, Ohio-based freelance writer and "(extremely) amateur(-ish) artist" J. Caleb Mozzocco draws a day in his life.

Hat tip to Comics Reporter.

Jerry Dumas on the Lucca Festival

Comic strip cartoonist Jerry Dumas writes about bad comics (graphic novels) and good comics festivals (the Lucca Comics Festival) in an article in yesterday's Greenwich Time (yeah, it's singular; Greenwich Time not "Times") titled "When Cartoon Artists Had their Time In the Sun."

On THE BEST COMICS OF 2007 book:

"I glanced at was so abysmal that it made most cartoonists I know wince. It was all graphic novels, full of narcissistic meanderings and pathetic, amateurish artwork. The editor, in his introduction, acknowledged that most artists in the book were personal friends, and the title was, frankly, misleading. Thanks, and we knew that."

On the Lucca Comics & Games Festival (Google translated site link here):

"I was told that all I had to do was show some slides, give a speech, draw pictures at an easel and participate in a panel discussion. I gave the speech but did none of the rest. It turned out that there were too many participants and that many of them could do little or no participating. I heard about a bumpy meeting involving the American delegation and the Italian organizers.

"'You bring Americans over, pay their way, then you don't use them,' was the complaint.

"'Not enough time!" said the organizers. 'Let them just have fun in Italy -- meet, drink, laugh, talk.'

"The cartoonists were happy to oblige them."

Mr. Dumas, along with Mort Walker, produced the fan-favorite comic strip SAM'S STRIP. Fantagraphics has a wonderful preview of its forthcoming SAM'S STRIP collection here.

Hat tip to Comics Reporter.

Lichty, Steig & Thurber: Free and Spontaneous Drawings

Blogger David Apatoff really likes great pictures. It says so right in his profile. In Wednesday's edition of his Illustration Art blog he showcases 3 cartoonists (George Lichty, William Steig and James Thurber) whose loose, casual style he admires.

Hat tip to Journalista!

Video: Sean Delonas Cartoon Protest in NYC

Video Here.

The Daily News has video of the protest against Sean Delonas' cartoon in front of Rupert Murdoch's New York Post. (You can view the cartoon, which appeared in the Post's Wednesday edition, here.) Above: a screen capture of my pal, cartoonist Tony Murphy, from the video

Here's Tony with an announcement for any cartoonists who can make it to Manhattan tomorrow:

HEY CARTOONISTS

Tomorrow there's going to be another protest in front of the Post:

Friday, February 20 -- 5 PM
In front of Murdoch's News Corp building
Avenue of the Americas between 47th & 48th

I went to the one today: hundreds of people, really great -- tomorrow should be bigger.

I carried a sign saying "Cartoonists Against Racism." People definitely liked that, but it wasn't strictly true, since I was the only cartoonist there.

For more info, call or e-mail me

Tony Murphy
347-602-1584
my strip

FORWARD THIS TO ANY CARTOONISTS YOU KNOW

Video: Michael Maslin & Liza Donnelly CARTOON MARRIAGE

This past Sunday, February 15, 2009, CBS Sunday Morning broadcast a profile of New Yorker magazine cartoonist couple Michael Maslin and Liza Donnelly upon the occasion of the publication of their collection CARTOON MARRIAGE. Titled "Drawn Together," this 6 minute segment was produced by Judith Hole.

What's On Your Shelf?

A busy day here, full of about 1/2 cartooning-related stuff and 1/2 snowblowing.

I have a lot of shelves here in the studio. Here are four of them. They are woefully untidy, but I thought they may be of interest.


Above: the top shelf is for mostly older paperbacks containing single panel gag cartoons. I've scanned in some of these for blog purposes in the past.

On the second shelf: newspaper comic strips (MUTT & JEFF from NBM's "Forever Nuts" series, PEANUTS, WALT & SKEEZIX) and manga (of which NANA and YOTSUBA&! are standouts).


And here are 2 more shelves. The top shelf is a general pile that needs sorting. A cat walked on them, causing them to tilt at the same angle that all those bad buys were filmed in the old live-action BATMAN TV show. (It's called a "Dutch Tilt," by the way.) You can see all my interests: old comedy movies, graphic novels, comic books, even a cookbook (for the cool retro illustrations).

The bottom shelf is part oversize magazine gag cartoon collections and part learn to cartoon books. No New Yorker books here. They are in the living room, available to page through.

Unseen: at least 8 more shelves of books and ephemera.

A hat tip to Robot 6, where I got the idea to show my shelves.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in March 2009 Reader's Digest

Like everyone, I've had bad jobs and crummy bosses.

On payday at one of my restaurant jobs, employees ran to the bank as soon as they were handed their paycheck. I mean this literally: they were sprinting. The company never had enough cash to cover payroll, so the sooner you deposit, the less likely your paycheck bounced.

I used to have a wisecracking boss. When asked, "May I have a raise?" the boss would smile and reply, "Well, you can always ask! Ha ha ha ha." He was not a well loved man.

I have a cartoon in the print edition of Reader's Digest and it's also on their Web page today. One of their 10 recession cartoons.


When the call went out just a couple of weeks ago for these cartoons, I really didn't think the above cartoon would appeal. It's rather mean. But, it's also truthful.

Bad jobs, crummy bosses -- when it's all said and done, my friends, I would rather work for a solvent company, ya know what I mean?

Now please excuse me while I call up some clients about some outstanding cartoon invoices. I hope their phone numbers are still working ....

HUMBUG is Here

The 2 volume hardcover slipcased collected HUMBUG is here from Fantagraphics.

It's Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Will Elder, Al Jaffee, & Arnold Roth. Look at the links below for much free cartoony greatness.

Between MAD and Annie Fanny, Kurtzman’s biographical summaries will note that he created and edited three other magazines, Trump, Humbug, and Help!, but, whereas his MAD and Annie Fanny are readily available in reprint form, his major satirical work in the interim period is virtually unknown. Humbug, which had poor distribution, may be the least known, but to those who treasure the rare original copies, it equals or even exceeds MAD in displaying Kurtzman’s creative genius. Humbug was unique in that it was actually published by the artists who created it: Kurtzman and his cohorts from MAD Will Elder, Jack Davis, and Al Jaffee, were joined by universally acclaimed cartoonist Arnold Roth. With no publisher above them to rein them in, this little band of creators produced some of the most trenchant and engaging satire of American culture ever to appear on American newsstands. At last, the entire run of 11 issues of Humbug is being reprinted in a deluxe format, much of it reproduced from the original art, allowing even owners of the original cheaply-printed issues to experience the full impact for the first time.

Complete slideshow/vid here.

32 page PDF free preview here.

My Organic Business Model of Cartooning

I was chatting with my pal Mark Anderson yesterday about the cartoon markets. Even though we compete for the same markets, he's a great friend.

Speaking for me: the big change that I am seeing is that either my sales are small (a cartoon sold to an individual for a presentation, a dollar from a t-shirt sale) or they are large (drawings for an ad campaign). I'm no longer selling a couple hundred dollars here, a couple hundred dollars there. I think this is because those sales, mostly to magazines, are rarer. Obviously, traditional print gag cartoon markets are not buying as many. Heck, last week's New Yorker had only eight cartoons in it!

But people still love cartoons.

When I quit my real job 10 years ago to cartoon, I thought I would have this model for business:

MAGAZINE GAG CARTOON BUSINESS MODEL

You draw those one-panel cartoons and mail them out.

But I found out that there is an organic process to all this. Here's what I mean: a cartoonist friend was editing a cartoon-a-day calendar for Barnes & Noble. Would I like to submit some cartoons? An editor called me; Reader's Digest was publishing a book. Would I like to be in it? So, now I had a

MAGAZINE, CALENDAR, BOOK GAG CARTOON BUSINESS MODEL

and it was all because my cartoons were getting seen. And then I got an email from a fellow in London who had seen my cartoon in a magazine during his lunch hour. He didn't buy the magazine, but remembering my name, he went back to his office, Googled me and found my site. His UK company was going to do a big ad campaign, and would I be willing to draw some cartoons for it? And so now the

MAGAZINE, CALENDAR, BOOK, ADVERTISING ILLUSTRATION GAG CARTOON BUSINESS MODEL

was in full swing.

And the more revenue streams, the more places your work is seen, the better.

Ban Comic Sans ... But Not Dogsledding!

Above: a Ban Comic Sans bumper sticker in the Comic Sans font.

The Ban Comic Sans Web site has been around for a while. If you know the Comic Sans font, then you know how dreadful it is.

From the site:

In 1995 Microsoft released the font Comic Sans originally designed for comic book style talk bubbles containing informational help text. Since that time the typeface has been used in countless contexts from restaurant signage to college exams to medical information. These widespread abuses of printed type threaten to erode the very foundations upon which centuries of typographic history are built.

I do not like the font, but I do see it here and there -- especially for kids friendly signage. So, I was surprised to see it on the sign at the State of New Hampshire Department of Corrections Lakes Region Facility:


Off topic time: We saw this while attending some dog sled races in Laconia.


The starting/ending line was right across from the Comic Sans font prison sign. It was a sunny day, with temps about 32 degrees F.


These are one-doggers.


One doggers are kids with, of course, one dog pulling the little sled.


I like how these people are leaning over on the right.



Some of the dogs did not want to stop and had to be grabbed at the finish. All the kids had serious padding and helmets.


And here's a Mom & a couple little ones, all being pulled by the family dog.

I don't have a dog or a dogsled, but it sure was fun watching this. The only dark cloud was that it was under the shadow of the poky sign with that dreadful font use!

A tip of the hat to my wife for spotting the Comic Sans sign!

OBJECT OF DESIRE by Stephanie Piro

In just 32 panels, my cartoonist pal Stephanie Piro writes and draws an autobiographical Web comic titled "Object of Desire," a story of passion kindled, then thwarted, and then ....

He's Just Not That Into Your Income

"Sanders, I just sold your soul. You weren't using it were you?"

I get email. Some of them ask for cartoons. Like this one:

I wish to add your cartoon to a Powerpoint presentation.

OK. I write back:

Hey, that's great that you would like to use my cartoon. My fee is $20 per image, per presentation. I accept Paypal and credit cards.

Oops. That's not at all what this person had in mind:

Unfortunately I shall not use your cartoon if it means paying for it. I thought I would just try and do things by the copyright book. Thanks anyway.

And I respond:

No hard feelings. I'm sure neither one of us can afford to give away his/her professional work.

A friend -- a fellow cartoonist friend -- quipped, Yeah, they wanted to ask you for it before they stole it.

Is taking a cartoon stealing?

Yes. A cartoon has value. A cartoon is called "intellectual property."

Composer Tom Green, writing for First Drafts - The Prospect Magazine Blog, writes about the "Music industry in crisis: you gets what you pays for:"

Fans at my gigs offer home-copied CDRs of my albums for me to sign, not real ones, and think nothing of it. MySpace “friends” send me emails praising my music to the skies, and then say that they’ve sent multiple copies of it to all their friends, and then they expect me to thank them for this unsolicited “promotional activity.”

People who like Tom's music are just not that into his wallet concerns.

I was just reading this morning about how so many of those free alt-weekly papers are scrubbing ALL of their comics. At the City Paper, they got rid all of them except one: a cartoon titled Dirtfarm by Ben Claassen. How did it escape the fate of the others?

Dirtfarm survives because Claassen said he’d do it for nothing. “City Paper feels like family to me,” Claassen explains. “I called the publisher and told her that I would rather have it run for free than to not have it run at all.”

Well, it's sweet to have those feelings for a business --but family should not let you starve, Ben.

When fans who like your work, and the companies that buy your work, all ask you to work for free. What do you do?

For more and more people-- it means you produce the work for free, in your spare time. You can no longer afford to do it full-time.

When I get an email telling me "I shall not use your cartoon if it means paying for it," I remind myself that I'm fortunate that, for now, I have corporate clients who do pay. I'm also fortunate that I do not have children, a big house, 2 cars or outstanding medical bills (for now).

My plan: I will continue to persist in finding new markets, and proactively getting my work out there (and not doing business with people who want me to work for exposure).

Consumers will continue to have art and music to consume, but more and more, it will be produced part-time; by people with day jobs.


NOTE: As of this time, the Prospect blog is down. I've sent am email to a Prospect Magazine editor about it. Hopefully, it's getting fixed.


Related: NYCC 2009: Intellectual Property Primer by Dennis McCunney. (Hat tip to Journalista!)

Also related: If you Give Away Your Cartoons for Free, You Won't Make a Living as a Cartoonist.

Back in New York City

Below is a page of impressions as I traveled to the NY Comicon this past weekend. It's a quick (no pencils) page from my sketchbook.


It was nice to be back in New York City, where I lived for a long time. Above are some moments while I was in town. My thanks to my pal Trade Loeffler and the one and only great gag cartoonist Don Orehek for putting me up in Brooklyn and Port Washington, respectively.

Above: Smith Street in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn; my old neighborhood.

Tom Spurgeon has an amazing NYCC round up if you want to see photos, vids & write ups on the convention.

AP Video: Lincoln, Darwin and ... Schulz

The Associated Press' "Today in History" video notes not only the births of Lincoln & Darwin today, but also the death of Charles Schulz, nine years ago today.

Mike Lynch Cartoon Penguin in Love T-shirt & Mug

Perfect for a Valentine's Day gift: the penguin in love with a bowling pin cartoon! Stupid penguin!

Sure, you can spend your money on big corporate stuff from big corporations, but remember that here at Mike Lynch Cartoons, we are a tiny, little company that isn't too big to fail.

Thanks for considering buying.

Oh -- if you order today -- you get a FREE 2-DAY UPGRADE on $35+ orders Use code: LOVEUPGRADES.

NYCC: Chip Kidd Video Tour

Taken from Brian Fies site here.

Designer Chip Kidd offers a good overview of what a big, huge, giant, crazy comic convention is all about these days. It's about dressing up like a Wookie, literary comics, reprint projects, small press, artists alley and smuggling in beer.

And Mr. Kidd is correct: nerdism is recession-proof, with the NY Comicon selling out this year.

And thank you to Brian posting this.

Video: Gary Baseman's Influences

"White Canvas + Gary Baseman" profiles the cartoonist and illustrator Gary Baseman, with lots of footage of his sketches, as well as finished paintings. Gary himself, talks about why he draws what he draws. It runs under 6 minutes.



I think of him as more artist than a cartoonist. I admire him being able to be guided by his id in his work; drawing from that deep, dark part of the brain, and being able to then articulate that he's trying to find the bittersweet truth of the human condition.

The video is from Whitecanvas.com.

Dave Coverly Interview

My friend SPEEDBUMP creator Dave Coverly is interviewed about his work habits and his sense of humor in Saturday's Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY).

“Sometimes, I get three ideas in an hour,” Coverly said. “Sometimes, it takes me all day to get one, or zero. You definitely hit dry patches.”

The devil is in the details. “The hardest thing is not the joke, because that’s kind of easy,” Coverly said. “The hardest thing is coming up with stuff. Everything seems like it’s been done.”

The piece by Gazette reporter Jeff Wilkin is good, but I wish that instead Mr. Wilkin writing detailed descriptions of a good half dozen SPEEDBUMP cartoons, that the Gazette just ran the actual cartoons.

SPEEDBUMP at Comics.com.

Hat tip to Journalista!

Video: Pat Oliphant

Above: a screen capture fro "Sketching History," a 13:50 video report by Australian telejournalist David Brill for the Special Broadcasting Service's program DATELINE hosted by George Negus.

Here is some video (and a transcript of same) of Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist Pat Oliphant, with lots of good close ups of him drawing with a dip pen, as well as sketching onstage with P.J. O'Rourke at the University of Virginia, where there is an exhibition of Oliphant's work, as well as Daumier's, through March 8, 2009.

I couldn't get the video to work on that SBS page above, but this link played it automatically.

REPORTER: So there's the completed cartoon for today of the end of Bush's... End of eight years in the White House.

PAT OLIPHANT: Yeah, and, of course, I have mixed emotions about it. It's a dichotomous thing because he's given me a great 8-year ride with a match-up of just the perfect villains. And cartoonists, as you know, depend on villains. And so I'm losing probably the best cast that I've ever had and one thing I just have to remember is that politicians will never eventually let you down. They're going to come through with something. Bye Bush.

Another big hat tip to Comics Reporter!

Tom Wilson ZIGGY Autobio Book

Did you know that Tom Wilson wrote an autobiographical book out about him and his Dad, who created ZIGGY? I didn't. It came out last month.

ZIG-ZAGGING: LOVING MADLY, LOSING BADLY – HOW ZIGGY SAVED MY LIFE is a 212 page inspirational autobiography of Tom Wilson, sprinkled with ZIGGY cartoons.

Here's an excerpt from the Universal Press site:

In his new memoir, ZIG-ZAGGING: LOVING MADLY, LOSING BADLY – HOW ZIGGY SAVED MY LIFE, Tom Wilson describes the game he would play as a boy with his father, Ziggy creator Tom Wilson Sr.

"This game of ours always began the same. Dad would draw a picture of Ziggy happily strolling along, unaware of some horrible misfortune about to befall him. Ziggy might be zooming off a cliff, walking unknowingly into an open manhole, or oblivious to a meteor plummeting head-on his way. After Ziggy had been drawn into one of these dire circumstances, Dad would flip the placemat around, hand me his pen, and say, "Tommy, it's time for you to SAVE ZIGGY!"

By the mid 1980s, with his father in failing health, Tom really would step in to save the character his father created, which he has been writing and illustrating for over 20 years.

But years later, the younger Wilson was hit with a series of struggles: his leg was crushed in a car accident, his wife died at age 44 of breast cancer, and he was left with their two sons and his seriously ill father. Wilson’s faith was overtaken by depression.

With his trademark humor and self-effacing wisdom, Tom invites you into his intimate life as he searches for hope and strength to overcome his own life detours. In an ironic twist of art imitating life, Tom reveals how Ziggy's own weekly syndicated quest for answers was the unforeseen catalyst that enabled him to say yes to life again and face his greatest challenges.

Below: Tom Wilson's hand draws a 35th anniversary sketch of ZIGGY for a 2006 MSNBC report. Another cartoonist who uses a Pigma Micron!


Big hat tip to Tom Spurgeon!

NYCC: Bus Critic

Here's a freehand true-life story from my NY Comicon sketchbook. (Which is why the panels are all wonky.)

The first thing I have to do, to get to the NY Comicon, is get a bus to take me from the New Hampshire mountains to the megalopolis that is Boston. Like Jean Shepherd's "Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss," most of the fun of getting somewhere is the journey.

Just 15 minutes into my 7 hour trip, I overheard this story, told by the bus driver, about a colleague. It reminded me that creative people are not the only ones who are criticized.

How Do You Come Up with All Those Cartoon Ideas?

One of the questions I get asked is about cartoon ideas; how do you get 'em? Where do they come from? I don't have a good, blanket answer. But I can offer up three examples below from a blog entry I wrote on March 2, 2006:

How Do You Come Up with All Those Cartoon Ideas?

"Let me ask you something. Where do you get your material?"

"I hear a voice."

"What kind of voice?"

"A man's voice, but he speaks in German so I have to get a translator."

OK, that's the way that Seinfeld said it. That's entertaining, but not helpful.

A lot of it is habit, so says fellow cartoonist Randy Glasbergen. Things happen. You start to "think funny." And I don't just mean putting baloney slices in your shoes.*



I was lost in JFK. I couldn't find an information booth for the longest time. It seemed like I was in an uninhabited sector of the airport. I finally find this little counter. The sign said INFORMATION, but no one was there. I looked around. There was only one person I could see: a woman, a passenger I guess, reading People magazine. So, the only information near the information booth about JLo. The cartoon appeared in Punch magazine, back when it was around.



I had to come up with some law cartoons. I had no ideas. I started to think of the most tried and true cartoon cliches in magazine cartooning. You know: the two guys on shackled on the dungeon wall, caveman inventing the wheel, talking dogs, etc. And then I drew a desert island, and then doodled people on it. And then I thought, who are these people? Well, it was pretty easy to draw a dozen and call them "the most sequestered jury." The fact that they're part of some silly tour came a little later. This was sold to the second market I sent it to.



One day I was reading the NY Times Book Review. I don't remember where I was, but maybe it was in the bathroom. The writer was fond of using the above kinda phrases. Putting the words in the kids mouth made it all look pretentious and silly. An editor did too, so that one sold. Mrs. Berg, by the way, was the name of my first grade teacher.

A lot of my time is spent doodling or looking at the wall. I don't know where ideas come from, but they can be teased out. And you can make money from them.


*Steve Martin

My First Blog Entry: Meet a Cartoonist February 7, 2006

Below is my first blog post from three years ago; February 7, 2006.



This cartoon of mine appeared in Punch Magazine, before it folded. thought it was an appropriate thought to start this, my first blog entry.

I'm a full-time freelance cartoonist living in NYC. Mostly, I draw what are called single panel or gag cartoons for magazines. I've got a couple of cartoons to draw for Wall Street Journal. WSJ approved a couple of roughs and now I have to draw finishes. I don't like drawing finishes since they never look as good as the roughs. So, I was putting it off, reading blogs, and I read Jim Salicrup's blog. I like Jim and his blog was really interesting --even just the lists of stuff he bought at the comic store. And then I thought, what the heck, I'll defer drawing for even longer and start my own blog!

I better go draw now. After all, it's 3 weeks till rent's due! More cartoon talk another time ....

Award Winning Cartoons?

I'm away right now, but here's a rerun from my old MySpace blog on February 10, 2006. It's weird to think that now I'm now the National Cartoonists Society Awards Coordinator. I never though that would happen to me! As such, I do not enter the NCS Division Awards contest at this time.

Award Winning Cartoons?
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

I sent out the requisite 6 cartoons today for National Cartoonists Society Gag Cartoon Division Award consideration. The rules are to send a half dozen cartoons that were published between December 1, 2004 to December 31, 2005. I've been entering since 2000.

Choosing 6 was hard to do. But I narrowed it down to these.

This was in the Chronicle of Higher Education:



And this is from Worthwhile Magazine:



Wall Street Journal:



Wall Street Journal:



Brandweek Magazine:



Reader's Digest:




Every year I enter and every year I try to forget about it as soon as I enter. If I get nominated, that's nice. But I try not to think about it too much. The gag cartoon field is full of some terrific cartoonists, so competition can be fierce!

A Typical Cartoonist's Day

I'm out of town right now, but here's a slice of NYC cartooning life from 3 years ago, when I would go up to The New Yorker in the big, fancy Conde Nast building in Time Square every Tuesday for "look day."

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Valentine's Day in Midtown Category: Jobs, Work, Careers Double knotted the snow boots and trundled off to the subway. Took the F train to 42nd Street. Stopped at the ATM, then to the Conde Nast building. My ID didn't work, but security called Stanley, the 20th floor manager, and I got cleared to take the elevator up to the New Yorker offices. The elevators have those little TVs in them that flash news and headlines. They're from a company called captivate.com. I don't look at them because I don't like them. A cartoonist colleague of mine tried to sell them his cartoons. Captivate was interested in his work. It got so far as them talking about money, and they laughed, saying they do not pay for content. Jerks. So, I silently avert my eyes and grit my teeth. When I got off the elevator, I was in an institutional hallway. This was weird, since normally -- for years at least -- there is a wonderful art gallery on the 20th floor that Stanley runs. One time there were paintings by cartoonist Sid Harris. Another time Stan had framed originals of Ed Koren. Wonderful stuff. Stan told me that the gallery is closed. The Big Boys (He didn't give me any names) will bolt some framed NYer cover prints on the wall permanently and that's that. A sad day, said Stan. Dropped off a batch at the New Yorker. I've been going to Cartoon Look Day for a couple of years now. Decades ago, all magazines had one day of the week when cartoonists would do the rounds in person. NYer is the only place to keep that tradition. I mailed cartoons in for a couple of years, and have been coming in person since 2002. I have yet to make a sale. Cartoon editor Bob Mankoff's assistant renewed my ID, and I left. Sometimes I stay and see Bob and then go to lunch with some of the cartoonists. But I don't feel I have the time this week. Walked to the post office, where I was going to use one of those automatic kiosks that weighs your packages automaticallly so you don't have to stand in line. It was broken. Stood in line. When I got to a real postal employee, she weighed the envelopes and then put on three 83 cent stamps, and then searched and found three 4 cent stamps, and put them on. Why she didn't have one of those machines that spit out the exact postage on a sticky I don't know. Heck, I got a drawer full of stamps. I could have done this at home. Well, OK then. 3 more batches to 3 other magazines mailed out. Hope springs eternal!

Larson Not Laughing

I wrote the below piece on January 3, 2007, and it's become one of the most clicked-on single entries at the Mike Lynch Cartoons blog. I wrote about fair use and creators' rights. Here it is:





Blogger/Motivational Speaker Graeme Codrington (bio here) has a problem with Gary Larson. Gary Larson has asked him to not post Far Side cartoons on his (Codrington's) Web site. Graem responded online:

"Now, Gary Larson, in a nice enough way, has asked us to remove the page. What I don’t get is his logic. His argument is all about his emotional attachment to his cartoons, his desire to exercise control over their usage and the fact that they are 'his children.' Sure. But what about the 20 Larson books I have in my library? Why isn’t he concerned about them? I’ll be honest and say I don’t think I’ve dusted them in over a year, and one or two may have torn pages. Does that make him sad?

"Why can’t he just be honest and say, 'Hey punk, if you didn’t pay for the pictures, you can’t use them.' I did actually pay for them - the pics on the site were all scanned from legal copies of his books that I own."

Link here.

There are some comments from readers on his blog. Some are on Graeme's side. And, although the blog entry is from October 2006, I only recently saw it, and I wanted to talk about getting cartoons for free on the Web, and the rights of cartoonists.

Graeme feels he's entitled to take the work from Larson becuase he's bought a lot of Far Side merchandise over the years, and "contributed to what I assume is a fairly wealthy man’s fortune." And he assumes that having bought the book entitles him to using the man's work to his own ends.

OK, a lot of people clip out a cartoon and put it up in their office or school locker.

Taking cartoons is one thing. Taking them for profit is another.

Here's Graeme again:

"A website I own hosts a number of talks that can be used in youth groups. ... One of the talks was about how to use Gary Larson’s cartoons to teach young people about God. It was a fun talk, and it included some examples of his cartoons."

And Graeme has stumbled on the whole key: fair use.

At the Carnegie Museum, in one of the back rooms, there's a cartoon of mine (the one above) that someone taped to the door. My dad's a docent there, and when I saw it, I thanked him. He told me that he didn't put it there.

Someone else -- someone not related to me -- saw it in WSJ and liked it enough to bother to clip it and tape it up to cheer up the messy Museum break room.

Now, if someone was, for instance, using the cartoon to sell something -- that would not be OK with me.

This person would be using my cartoon as a tool to help them personally profit.

"As an author and presenter myself, I accept that people use my work," Graeme writes. " ... I don’t pursue the copyright I own and am entitled to. Is that just me? I’d like your opinion."

Well, that's his business. But as far as cartoonists are concerned ....

A cartoonist giving away his or her cartoons is a hot topic and has lit up some pro and/or amateur cartooning boards. But some do offer their cartoons for free to Web sites. How do you make a living giving away your cartoons?

One side of this debate says EXPOSURE IS GOOD and the other says YOU KNOW, PEOPLE CAN DIE FROM EXPOSURE.

And then there's the YOU'RE RUINING THE MARKET BY GIVING AWAY YOUR CARTOONS!

If someone's taping up a cartoon of mine in their school locker or their MySpace page, then that's fine with me. That's personal use. But if someone is using another person's creation without permission for business purposes, then that's wrong.

I don't think it's wrong to a cartoonist give away their cartoons. It's their business. And most of the gag cartoonists who do give away their work are only giving away a portion of their output. (I can't speak for Web cartoonists who tend to put 100% of their product out there for free.) A lot of businesses give away stuff (free t-shirts, pens, 2-for1 coupons). It's a way to drum up business and remind people you're out there. But I also believe that it's up to the creator to choose which way to go on this issue.

But it's flat out wrong to use cartoons for a commercial purpose without making an agreement with the cartoonist.

Christoph Neimann: I LEGO N.Y. and Mark Anderson's Steampunk Cylon

Simple: From today's NY Times Abstract NY series.

More advanced: Mark Anderson's Steampunk Cylon, now featured at The Brothers Brick.

Video: Charles Schulz (1963)

When you draw a comic strip, if you're going to wait for inspiration, you'll never make it.

Here's 4 1/2 minutes of a 1963 documentary on Charles Schulz, with some good advice about getting ideas:



His advice — about becoming professional enough to sit down, and deliberately come up with ideas at will — is true.

When people who are not cartoonists find out that I am a cartoonist, they will often say how wonderful it must be to be creative all the time. Sometimes I nod and agree, but really, the truth is that it isn't wonderful.

It's a job.

It's a job I love, but it's real work.

To produce regular, consistent, commercial work requires discipline. Even if don't feel funny that day, or you don't feel "inspired," the work has to be done, you have to market it, you have to pursue the sale.

Lots of Walt Kelly at ASIFA

The ASIFA blog has a glorious display of many Walt Kelly pieces.

Big hat tip to Comics Reporter.

Magazine Market News UPDATED

In the past couple of years, several magazine markets have stopped using cartoons; Better Homes & Gardens, The National Enquirer. Other markets for gag cartoons, like King Features' The New Breed and Cortlandt Forum, are dim memories!

Below are some recent magazine gag cartoon market demises and changes, just to get you informed if you don't know already:

First for Women - no cartoons in its latest issue. They usually run at least 2 cartoons. This is a concern; see Woman's World.

Good Housekeeping - In 2008, GH replaced its original cartoon content with The New Yorker's Cartoonbank cartoons, and then, apparently, cut cartoons altogether. The last time I saw gag cartoons in the magazine was this past fall.

Time Magazine - which ran a page full of a half dozen gag cartoons beginning a couple of months ago, has suspended the feature until further notice. Titled Time's Drawing Room, the page showcased new work for Time Magazine by New Yorker cartoonists.

Woman's World - (like First, owned by Bauer Publications) reduced its rate from $125 per cartoon to $100 due to the "economic conditions."

If any pro has anything to add/correct, let me know.

Playboy, one of the premier cartoon markets, is undergoing a management shift. (CBS Sunday Morning had a profile of Hugh Hefner and outgoing Playboy Enterprises CEO Christie Hefner yesterday. Video below.) So far, I haven't heard anything regarding its gag cartoons. Heck, Gahan Wilson has 2 in the new issue, and there are wonderful cartoons by regulars like Nick Downes, Don Orehek, and many of the usual gang.



UPDATE

Forbes - The magazine's weekly print cartoon has been cut, but they will buy cartoon content for their official Forbes blog --however, at a reduced rate of payment. The only silver lining I can find here: This is better than some magazine blogs -- mags that pay cartoonists for their printed publication -- that have solicited me for free blog content.

The Nation had a small (about a quarter page) feature that quietly started up last summer. I believe it was titled "ComixNation," and it featured a revolving group of cartoonists including Steve Brodner. No announcement was made, but I haven't seen it since December 2008.

The Village Voice has cut ALL of its cartoons. No Tom Tomorrow, no Life in Hell, etc. And the Voice owns a lot of alt weeklies and ALL of them (Dallas Observer, New Times Ft. Lauderdale, Houston Press, LA Weekly, Minneapolis City Pages, Nashville Scene, OC Weekly, Pitch Weekly, Denver Westword, Seattle Weekly) are getting rid of their cartoons. Tom Tomorrow has more here, and his blog has reactions and comments from fans and colleagues. Thanks to Comics Reporter for the info.

Reader's Digest Association let go some of its employees last week according to Advertising Age (Reader's Digest Association Adopts 'Recession Plan'). No news yet regarding impact on cartoonist freelancers.