I'm Away From My Drawing Board ….

I may be some time.

More anon.

The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld

The New-York Historical Society presents the gallery show "The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld" from May 22, 2015 to October 12, 2015.

"Now for the first time, nine decades of his art are collected in The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld documenting Hirschfeld's life and career and, to a great extent, the history of the performing arts in the twentieth century and beyond."

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 gives us shape and attitude in the drawing below. He knows all the right lines to leave in, and the ones to discard.

Below is a cartoon that, like some in THE DOMESDAY BOOK, looks like a rough rather than a finish. 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.

-- An edited version of an entry originally blogged on Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Heath Robinson: HOW TO BE A PERFECT HUSBAND

From HOW TO BE A PERFECT HUSBAND by Heath Robinson and K.R.G. Browne. First published in 1937 and copyright by The Estate of W. Heath Robinson.

Video: At Home with Roz Chast

At Home with Roz Chast from NewYorker on Vimeo.

Hat tip to Michael Cavna!

LAUGH-IN Comic Strip by Roy Doty

Roy Doty's run of LAUGH IN comic strips is featured on Ger Apeldoorn's blog.

Some interesting graphics, but, as Ger points out, the strip did not have permission to show the likenesses of the actors on the show. Maybe that was due to contractual matters, but common sense-wise, doing a LAUGH IN strip without being able to use some of the well-known characters from the show hampered its success.

Video: TIE FIGHTER

Sweeping the heavy cyber-chatter of the online nerd community (that's MOST of the Internet) is this new fan-made 1980s-style anime "TIE Fighter" short. It takes place in the STAR WARS universe, and is a labor of love by OtaKing77077.



More info:

What if there was an Empire-focussed short Star Wars animation, drawn with the crazy detail and shading of classic 80s anime that's all but vanished from Japan nowadays? 
Well, I tried my best. Apologies in advance for not living up to Venus Wars standards.
Drawn and animated by yours truly over 4 years' worth of weekends, with music by the living guitar solo Zak Rahman and sound design by up and coming audio technician Joseph Leyva. Fans of Lucasarts' seminal 1994 TIE Fighter game may notice a few familiar sights and sounds. That “incoming missile” noise gives me horrible flashbacks to this day...

Official poster art: http://mightyotaking.deviantart.com/a...
“Interdictor,” the music track: https://soundcloud.com/zakrahman/tie-...
Story/character info pdf file: http://www.mediafire.com/view/cpnc1oj...

Special thanks to the good folk at Lucasfilm for encouraging people to get creative and make these kind of projects. It's thanks to their extremely fan-friendly nature that we can enjoy IMPS: The Relentless, TROOPS, etc.

Don't support me on Patreon, because I don't have one! And don't donate to my Kickstarter, because I don't have one of those either. Instead, if you enjoyed this, give someone at your workplace, uni, school or whatever a random bar of chocolate or can or Coke or something. Seriously, it'll probably make their day.
That would totally make my day.

Jim Berry 1932-2015

(Photo of Jim Berry via Christopher Wheeler.)

Jim Berry, creator of the long-running syndicated panel Berry's World, died Friday. He was 83 years old. 

Berry's World, which was syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association, ran from 1963 to 2003, peaking at 1000 papers. He received the National Cartoonists Society Newspaper Panel Division Award for 1965, 1966, and 1972. He also received other awards from the NCS, the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists and the National Headliners Club. He was also president of the AAEC.


I regret never running into Jim Berry, whose panel was in my local paper, The Plain Dealer, when I was a kid. I would look at his ease of line and solid writing. He had a bold, no-nonsense style with a great sense of black-spotting and composition. I am sorry I never had the chance to tell him.

Above from Dave Karlen's Original Art site.


Links: Washington Post: Michael Cavna remembers Jim Berry

The Evolution of Batman in Cinema

The Evolution of Batman in Cinema from Jacob T. Swinney on Vimeo.

A compilation of Batman from the movies from the 1940s serials to the recent trilogy by Christopher Nolan, as well as Batman's supporting role in THE LEGO MOVIE.

Here's the list:

Batman (1943 serial)
Batman and Robin (1949 serial)
Batman: The Movie (1966)
Batman (1989)
Batman Returns (1992)
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Batman Forever (1995)
Batman & Robin (1997)
Batman Begins (2005)
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
The Lego Movie (2014)

True Story: Dirty Money

This really happened to my wife on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at a store in Manchester, NH:

The Longest Single Shot in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

Here's the longest single take shot in the entire RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK movie. It runs 101 seconds and, hey, I really never noticed that this very long take was there in the movie. Was it the same with you? Take a look. You'll know the scene. And watch the information being presented here -- including the introduction of a new character, and saying goodbye to another -- all in one nicely paced, well choreographed scene.

Via Vashi Nedomansky.

The Longest Raider.mp4 from Vashi Nedomansky on Vimeo.

Maclean's: Inside the Cartoonist Seth's Curated Home

Canadian graphic novelist Seth invites Maclean's Magazine's cameras into his house, which he describes as a "post-war Canadian drab" home.

BBC Radio: The Adventures Of Tintin - "Explorers On The Moon"

Radio adaptations of the TINTIN book series are online via BBC Radio. Here's my favorite, "Explorers on the Moon."

More information and a review at Tintinologist.

Larry King: Charles Schulz Interview

Here's a Larry King radio show in which he interviews PEANUTS creator Charles Schulz. The date is April 28, 1988:

Larry King: Hank Ketcham Interviews

Here are a couple of radio interviews that Larry King did with DENNIS THE MENACE creator Hank Ketcham:

Cartoonist Hank Ketcham made his first appearance on the Larry King radio show on July 28, 1986 to discuss his cartooning career and his famous comic strip DENNIS THE MENACE.


DENNIS THE MENACE creator and cartoonist Hank Ketcham made his second appearance on Larry King's radio show on October 8, 1990 to promote his autobiography THE MERCHANT OF DENNIS.

Roy Doty 1922-2015

Prolific cartoonist/illustrator Roy Doty died today. The prolific cartoonist/illustrator was 92 years old. He had been in failing health the past couple of months, and had recently been admitted to an assisted living facility near his home of Dublin, Ohio.

He was a beloved cartoonist whose career was long and prolific. 

Most people know Roy's work from his syndicated long-running (over 50 years) "Wordless Workshop" cartoon feature which was published in Family Handyman magazine. The first thing I did when I moved from an apartment in NYC to a house in New Hampshire was to buy a collection of his "Wordless Workshop" cartoons.

He was honored with ten awards from the National Cartoonists Society, and was at the drawing board through 2014. To quote Roy:

"What could be nicer? I sit and draw funny pictures and people send me money."

He had many, many advertising clients, and was a busy children's book illustrator as well. 

He was among the first cartoonists (maybe he WAS the first) to have his own TV show THE ROY DOTY SHOW on the Dumont Network in 1953. 

Here's an episode of the Danny Dee Show from 1954:

Roy was much beloved by his peers.

My friend, and chair of the Berndt Toast Gang, Adrian Sinnott, characterized Roy today as the "cornerstone of the Great Lakes Chapter [of the NCS]."

NCS Great Lakes Chapter member and gag cartoonist Dan Collins wrote on Facebook today:

"He was like a father cartoonist figure to us. His legacy is immense and he will always be remembered with great fondness by me along with the whole NCS."

"The Pajama Diaries" cartoonist Terri Libenson:

"Everyone always comments on the imagination and intricacy. He'll be very missed."

The Today's Inspiration blog site, run by the inestimable Leif Peng, held a weeklong forum on all things Doty upon the occasion of his 85th birthday in 2007:

9/4 Roy Doty Draws a Crowd

9/5 Roy Doty's Coronet Page Toppers

9/6 Roy Doty: Crowd Control

9/7 Happy Birthday Roy Doty!

Here's Roy and his entourage, after being awarded the NCS Gold Key Award in 2011:

Art by Charles Geer: THE MYSTERY AT REDTOP HILL

THE MYSTERY AT REDTOP HILL is a Whitman Tween Age Book ("In-Between Books for In-Between Readers") by Marjory Schwalje and illustrations by Charles Geer. It's copyright 1965 by Whitman Publishing Company. I had no idea that the term "tween" had been around for more than fifty years!

Nancy, Tod and Steve are the protagonists in this mystery. I am sure it's good, but I have not read it.

I found this in a second-hand shop in Laconia, NH. Like I said, Redtop, schmedtop. I didn't care about the mystery, or the kids. I just fell in love with the illustrations. They were slapdash, confident and showed enormous life and skill.

Charles Geer (1922-2008), born in Long Island and educated at Dartmouth College, served in the US Navy during WWII. Afterward, he attended Pratt.

He illustrated many books, and enjoyed painting. He moved to Rockland, Maine, where he painted watercolors, and enjoyed sailing. He even built a couple of boats. Sounds like a guy I would like to hang out with!

Here are some of his illustrations from THE MYSTERY AT REDTOP HILL. This isn't quite half of them. And there are a good number of full page, gatefold illustrations. Lots of energy in these drawings and it made me a Charles Geer fan.

Silent Penultimate NANCY Panels by Ernie Bushmiller

Here are some silent penultimate comic strip panels from Ernie Bushmiller's NANCY strip. These are the next to last panels that are devoid of text.

Pulled out of any context, these become moments of zen comic art.

NANCY is copyright United Media. The strips are from Brian Walker's landmark book THE BEST OF ERNIE BUSHMILLER (Comicana Books, 1988), which used a silent penultimate panel for its cover.

Related post: 1969: All of the PEANUTS Silent Penultimate Daily Panels 

Mr. Bushmiller in his later years, from the back cover of THE BEST OF ERNIE BUSHMILLER. From the collection of James T. Carlsson.

Related: 1969: All of the PEANUTS Silent Penultimate Daily Panels

-- This entry originally appeared on March 5, 2012.