Sketchbook: Airport

Here are a few sketches I did while waiting for airplanes last week. Most everyone locked in deep concentration, checking his/her phone. A few are staring into space. Everyone has a tower of carry on luggage next to them. My favorite: the fellow whose head is obscured by the handle of his carry on. I wound up sitting across from him on my last flight home.

Video: Dwane Powell - N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame induction

Here is Dwane Powell, editorial cartoonist for The (Raleigh) News & Observer, inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame on April 21, 2013.

1960 Video: "To Inform and To Serve" Buffalo Evening News

Home of two Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonists: Bruce Shanks and Tom Toles.



Public domain film from the Prelinger Archive. Hat tip to YouTuber Jeff Quitney. 

Video: Bill Gallo Bust at Gallagher's Steakhouse

Gang’s all here as (l. to r.,) Dolores Gallo, Daily News VP of promotions John Campi, sculptor Carl LeVotch and Dodgers’ Ralph Branca welcome bust of Bill Gallo, the late Daily News cartoonist and columnist who brought Geezers to Gallagher’s. New York Daily News photo by Richard Corkery. 

The New York Daily News cartoonist Bill Gallo was part of that newspaper, and part of the city, for seventy years. He died in 2011. In 2012, Gallagher's Steakhouse unveiled a bust of Mr. Gallo. And, finally, here in 2013, here's a short video of the Gallagher's ceremony.

Video: Scott Stantis at C2E2

Chicago Tribune editorial cartoonist Scott Stantis talks with Chicago-area cartoonists at the fourth annual C2E2 convention: Jenny Frison, Chris Burnham, and the one and only Jill Thompson

Kevin "Kal" Kallaugher: DAGGERS DRAWN: 35 YEARS OF KAL CARTOONS AT THE ECONOMIST

A new collection of Kevin "Kal" Kallaugher's editorial cartoons is now available.


DAGGERS DRAWN: 35 YEARS OF KAL CARTOONS AT THE ECONOMIST culls his over 4000 editorial cartoons and 140 ECONOMIST covers, coming up with a 196 page over sized coffee table book of

 over 300 of his award winning works along with essays discussing his time with The Economist. In this book Kal has pointed his keen eye and sharp pen at the important world events from the past 35 years. You will find cartoons lampooning international leaders from Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to Barack Obama and Angela Merkel. This is a must for any cartoon enthusiast, history buff or art lover.

Related: NPR Podcast interview

Off I Go

I'm away from the blog for a couple of days. Please talk amongst yourselves ...

Back soon. Keep well.

IN FRANCE NOTHING IS SIMPLE by Jean-Jacques Sempé

From the hardcover collection of cartoons IN FRANCE NOTHING IS SIMPLE by Jean-Jacques Sempé. Copyright 1964 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

If there is a shortlist of great living cartoonists, Mr. Sempé is at the top. Seeing his work always makes me smile, and then I stare at his mastery of line and detail.

George Clark Originals

From THE NEIGHBORS by George Clark: kid to Dad: "I'll fill you in on the plot, Dad. The bunny keeps socking clownie on the schnozzle." Date of publication: 11/30/64



George Clark (1902-1981) drew THE NEIGHBORS, a syndicated newspaper panel, from 1939 to 1976. The feature won a National Cartoonists Society Division Award for Best Newspaper Panel in 1961. Known for his confident, breezy style, here are a few close ups of his originals.

These are for sale, for the next day or so.

"Dad always gives the same advice to everyone -- 'I wouldn't go out on a limb if I were you.'"

Wonderful brushwork, with a graying effect by moving a dry brush over slightly pebbled bristol.

"I'm afraid your mother was right, dear. I DON'T make enough to support a wife and family."

"I could throw a tantrum and get to go to your house. But I'm saving that for something more important."

BEDTIME STORIES A PUPPET STORY BOARDBOOK

Here's an oddity: BEDTIME STORIES A PUPPET STORY BOARDBOOK. Illustrations copyright 1970/1981 by Tadasu Izawa and Shigemi Hijikat, published by Little, Brown.

There are three stories.

• The Little Old Woman has, I am sorry to say, no third act. She purchases a bone (from a spooky vendorless cart) and then her house becomes haunted. The story ends with her screaming.
• The Wonderful Pot: the lesson here is if you are going to have a Magic Pot in the house, it's best if EVERYONE knows how to use the thing.
• The Friendly Raindrops is just silly. The corn involved in this story is obviously not Monsanto corn.

All of these are done in those 3D puppets, like what you would see in a Rankin-Bass TV special. Rankin-Bass has its fans -- but to me the character design is creepy.

New PEANUTS 3D Movie

There will be a 3D CGI version of PEANUTS hitting the big screens in 2015. Jerry Beck at IndieWire has all the information.

While there are no images from the new version produced by Blue Sky, this is an excuse to look at a decades-old Viewmaster reel cover of maybe one of the last times that Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang were rendered in 3D.

Related: Viewmaster Booklets online.

70 Gromits, 10 Weeks, 1 City

Above: WALLACE AND GROMIT creator Nick Park and many Gromits.


From the Gromit Unleashed Web site:

Led by the internationally renowned Aardman Animations, Gromit Unleashed is a public art exhibition in the city of Bristol. Giant fibreglass sculptures of Gromit, standing 5ft tall, will be 'unleashed' onto the streets of Bristol and the surrounding area. 

Each sculpture will be individually designed and created by invited artists, creating a trail of seventy unique pieces of art and will form an art exhibition for ten weeks over the summer of 2013. 

At the end of the public art exhibition, the sculptures will be auctioned to raise funds for Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children's Hospital Charity.

Holding Company Creates "Lotta Value" Comic Book

Loews, an investment holding company, had a problem: boring reports.

Chief Executive Officer Jim Tisch had a solution: a comic book.


Noah Buhayar, for Bloomberg Business Week, writes about Loews' new comic book, "Lotta Value Investment Hunter." It's just been rolled out on April 11th.

One reaction:

Mark Rothwell, an individual investor who looks for stocks he thinks are undervalued for his personal portfolio, may be the kind of person Loews is targeting with the comic. “I’m just sick of reading annual reports,” he says. “You don’t understand what they’re trying to say, or what they’re obscuring.” He thought Lotta was a good refresher on Loews, a stock he once owned but doesn’t now, and says the comic makes him want to trust Tisch’s company more.

How is "Lotta Value Investment Hunter" as art? Art Spiegelman responds:

“You’re really working with a medium that’s as dumb as some people think it is, or really brilliant. But really brilliant requires a real understanding, and this doesn’t display that.” The Loews comic “just looks dead. And the content is about as interesting as reading the ingredients on a processed food label.”

Mary Skafidas, VP for investor and media relations at Loews, says "the company didn’t aspire to produce work at Spiegelman’s level."

The entire story is here.

Lowes site with PDF of comic is here.

Lowes made a full cast recording (with music and effects) of the "Lotta Value Investment Hunter" comic book:

Happy 75th Anniversary, Superman!

BBC 1981 Documentary "Superman - Comic Strip Hero:"

Video: Pulitzer Prize Winner Steve Sack

Video: Max the Explorer

Guy Willems, better known as "Bara," created MAX THE EXPLORER, which ran for over 9,000 comic strips from 1955 to 1998. The bumbling Max also appeared graphic albums, as well as magazines like Spirou and Tintin. 

Here's a very short 30 second cartoon that is wonderfully done. It has the slightly off-registraion of color, like you would see in the Sunday funnies. There is also the yellowing of the edges of the frame, simulating aging newsprint, and slight crackle of an old record added to the music track.


Max el Explorador / Max L'explorateur from El Pelusa on Vimeo.

More MAX THE EXPLORER cartoons here.

Video: Carol Tyler "Draw. No matter what."

January 31, 2013: Carol Tyler speaks to University of Southern California Provost's Professor Henry Jenkins and students as part of the USC Visions and Voices series.

Tyler, who teaches a class on comic, graphic novels and sequential art at the University of Cincinnati, recently published a three-volume graphic novel YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, to tell the story of her father's experience as a World War II veteran and how it shaped her family's history.

This runs about 90 minutes.

MAD MAGAZINE: The Rejection Slip by Tom Hudson

From Letters of Note: Here is cartoonist Tom Hudson trying his darnedest to get rejected by MAD Magazine. 

SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL New Trailer HD

Yup. Pretty amazing. This has got to be one of the best trailers I have ever seen.



Hat tip to Joe Dator!

ED FISHER'S DOMESDAY BOOK

Ed Fisher's work, his line work and gag lines, was wonderful to look at. Here are a few samples of his cartoons, in the many styles that he used, from his DOMESDAY BOOK, contents of which are copyright 1961 by Mr. Fisher.

Here's an almost bare bones sketch, employing strong lines and just enough detail in that background to get a strong sense of place.

And here's a more finished ink and wash piece:

His economy of line to give us shape and attitude in the drawing below is beautiful. He knows all the right lines to leave in and the ones to discard.

Here's a cartoon that, like some in THE DOMESDAY BOOK, look like roughs rather than finishes. But it works very well. I am guessing this is some kind of crayon on paper.

Again, very sketchy with quickly laid out ink lines.

Adding a wash really enhances the drawing.

One of my favorites. With a fine nib and then a quick brush to give some black spotting.

Another simple drawing that looks like a rough:

Fisher's cartoons sometimes assumed you knew as much about history and mythology as he did ... and that was a lot.

Another wonderfully sketchy one:

The loose lines give so much life to a cartoon.