Arnold Roth Record Cover Art

Run over to Drew Friedman's great blog today to see many wonderful LP covers by the one and only Arnold Roth! 

Myfanwy Tristram: "How I experienced the life of a model, with Gudrun Sjoden"

Illustrator and cartoonist Myf Tristam scans her sketchbook diary about her experience being chosen as a "non-industry standard" fashion model:

"I haven’t exactly been blessed with the looks of a model, so no-one was more surprised than me to receive an offer to be photographed for a fashion catalogue. In fact, my first reaction may have been a snort. 

"But it all makes sense when you find out that the invitation came from Gudrun Sjoden. They regularly photograph their clothes on models who are “non-industry standard” — older, more characterful or larger than most brands would touch with a bargepole. (Makes perfect sense to me: their clothes are made for all ages and spread across a massive range of sizes, so why not reflect customers’ own looks?) 

"In this case, the shoot was to feature ‘friends of Gudrun’: bloggers, artists, novelists and other creative types. I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved with some events in Gudrun’s London store, and that’s what put me on the early plane to Stockholm for two of the most pleasurable days I’ve had in a long time!"

Hat tip to Nick Abadzis! Thanks, Nick!

A Gag Cartoon Batch Question and Answer Forum

(Above: some cartoons from this week's cartoon batch, drawn in ink with wash. I drew them with a Micron Pigma pen on good quality typing paper. )

I thought that I would talk about a magazine cartoon batch: what it is and where it goes. Essentially: how a gag cartoon goes from the drawing board to being inside a magazine for everyone to see.

A cartoon batch is usually about ten or 12 cartoons. This batch is shown to an editor. For a lot of editors, I email my submission. If not, I mail copies of the cartoons.

I just got this question this week:

"How do you get your gags, do you use a formula, just start drawing funny pictures or do you ever get any from God?"

My stock answer is that I sit and write. I try to think of popular phrases or new buzzwords and see if I can make those into a funny picture. Sometimes I just think of something in the news that makes me mad and see if I can turn that anger into something funny. Yes, sometimes I will just draw something because I feel like drawing something. But these methods are not formulas. To come up with an original, funny idea still takes me time. Do I get any ideas from God? If you mean, do I ever have a cartoon idea that falls into my lap? Sometimes. Most cartoonists I know are thinking about cartoons all their waking hours and so, in the back of their head, they are always on the lookout for something funny. Sometimes, because your brain is always addled in joke-writing, something can happen and you may have an "Eureka!" moment where it all comes together like magic. But that only happens to me once every 400 or 500 cartoons. So I cannot depend on it.

So ... let's say you are a cartoonist and you have had a productive week: a cartoon batch of yours is done.

Now is the time to send them out in the world.

"How do you decide where to send your cartoons?" was a question I got at a panel discussion in 2005 on making cartoons for a living.

I send them to the place where they pay the most money, and then they go to the place where they will make the second-most money and so on, down the money food chain so to speak.

"Will you send them to The New Yorker?"

Maybe, eventually. The New Yorker is not the highest paying national market for freelancers.

"Why can't we see the captions in that above photo, Mike?"

I sell first rights to my cartoons, so, in other words, these fresh cartoons are only for the eyes of the editors for now. If they want them, then they get cartoons that people have never seen before. So, I have to "Wite-Out" some of the gag lines for now.

"How many did you sell?"

Early days yet. Maybe we should come back to this in a while and see how this particular batch fared. Some of them are already on hold -- but that means nothing.

To be continued!

The First Cartoonist I Ever Met: Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones was the first cartoonist I ever met.

He was giving a presentation of some of his Roadrunner and Coyote shorts at a West Coast University Film Association conference in the 1960s. My Dad taught radio/TV/film production and was a member of the UFA (now renamed the University Film and Video Association). I remember being taken by the hand, lead down the aisle to the stage, and being introduced to Mr. Jones by my parents. He looked into my eyes. He was very tall. (I was very small.) He paused, smiled and shook my hand when he was told that, "Mike likes to draw."

Mr. Jones proffered a deal: I mail a letter to his MGM offices and he would mail back a drawing for me and my baby sister. After a couple weeks of my Mom badgering me, I finally sent him a letter. I didn't know what to say and I don't remember what I finally wrote. Anyway, Mr. Jones, a man of his word, replied with this:

-- From a March 24, 2009 blog entry.

How to Graduate from Art School (Animation)

I like people who cartoon, but I don't like people who put on airs about drawing.

Here's a short animation of an art student talking "artspeak" for about a minute. Such gobbledygook. Such balderdash. So true.

Maybe talking like this is encouraged in art school, but it ain't gonna help you find a job.

Please just shut up and draw.

Thanks to ProbCauseTV:



Hat tip to Anthony Owsley

THE GIRLS by Franklin Folger

Franklin Folger (1919-1977) was born, lived and worked in Cincinnati, Ohio. Except for five year stint in the US Army beginning in 1942, he was a mainstay, devoting his time to the Cincinnati Art Academy, where he initially went to school after graduating Withrow High School. He studied commercial art, painting and cartooning. Cartooning won out. His comic panel THE GIRLS originally appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer, and then was syndicated nationally by the Sun-Times—Daily News Syndicate (later, Field Syndicate). 

THE GIRLS were well-to-do, active middle aged women of an upper middle class background. It's solidly in the tradition of Helen Hokinson's women. These are ladies who lunch, ladies who form committees, ladies who put on amateur theatricals and so on.

According to the Branches and Rain blog, there were seven collection of THE GIRLS published by Doubleday in the 1960s. Here are a handful of cartoons from what I believe is the first collection. 

My sincere thanks to Randy Michaels who found this book, with its first 16 pages ripped out, at a recycle center in Rangeley, Maine last month. He figured I would like it and he figured right! Thanks, Randy! I am guessing it's copyright Field Enterprises or Mr. Folger. 

Vintage Sam Norkin Record Album Covers

Newspaper caricaturist and illustrator Sam Norkin's rare album cover art is showcased over at the Drew Friedman blog. 

Sam was a career newspaper illustrator. Drew points out that he had 4000 published drawings of NYC performers to his credit during his seven decade career.

Here's Drew:

Norkin was also the most well-known of the various imitators of the legendary theatrical caricaturist, the great Al Hirschfeld. The good natured Hirschfeld even laughingly refers to Norkin in the documentary "The Line King" as his imitator. 

From 1940 to 1956, Norkin's Hirschfeld-esque illustrations were featured in the New York Herald Tribune and then from 1956-1982 his work was featured weekly in the New York Daily News.

Sam was a member of the Berndt Toast Gang, and would regularly drive out to Huntington, Long Island from his West Side apartment. He began taking the train in 2004 when he was in his 80s. He didn't want to take the train, but his wife and doctor insisted.

So, the last Wednesday night of the month, my phone would ring. "Mike? This is Sam. Are you going to the lunch tomorrow?" Of course I was. "Would you mind if we met and could go in together?" He wasn't happy about not driving, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from going to the monthly lunches with cartoonist colleagues.

So we would meet at Penn Station and take the train to Long Island.

So, a couple of stories, and then I have to get going:

I remember one time he told me about a description in THE GREAT GATSBY of the giant piles of old ash; remains from millions of Manhattan coal stoves and fireplaces. I didn't know the passage, having last read the book in ninth grade. Well, they used to be right there. He pointed out the window of the LIRR train. He remembered actually seeing them in real life when he was younger. They were huge, just like Fitzgerald described them. Hard to believe, he added, that they were gone.

He was a gracious fellow, always interested and curious. I remember having coffee with him and another cartoonist. We were waiting for the train back to the city. We were, of course, talking about drawing for a living. I guess that's the number one topic at these lunches. Sam said, "I can't do what Mike does." And then he went back to his coffee. We asked him what he meant. And he said that he  could draw, but he "couldn't do gags like Mike and other gag cartoonists do."

Maybe it was an offhand remark, but, regardless, it was a very kind thing to say. Sam was frank and did not say things he didn't mean.

I miss the those days, and I miss traveling with Sam Norkin.

Petition: The LA Times Should Reinstate Ted Rall

A couple of people have asked me about this. You can sign here.

It was created by Susan D. Einbender, Ph.D. on July 30, 2015.

At this time, there are 343 Facebook "likes" but only 191 signatures. Go figure.

From the site:

Petition Background (Preamble):

On July 28, 2015, Nicholas Goldberg, the Editor of the Editorial pages at the Los Angeles Times posted a statement informing readers that the newspaper would no longer publish the cartoons of Ted Rall because a story written by Ted Rall at the Times' OpinionLA blog on May 11 contained facts about his experience with the LA Police in 2001 that could not be substantiated. Although there was no evidence offered to contradict Ted's story, Mr. Goldberg claimed that this was sufficient reason to terminate publishing his political cartoons.

We the undersigned respectfully request that Mr. Goldberg reinstate Mr. Rall and his cartoons immediately. We fail to see any relationship between a personal recollection of an event that took place 14 years ago to Mr. Rall's cartoons, and are troubled that an esteemed newspaper reporter used subjective and illogical justifications to terminate using Mr. Rall's cartoons.

Mr. Rall's cartoons are consistently brilliant and offer the Los Angeles readership and cartoon fans who read his work a unique and important perspective that would be lost should Mr. Goldberg's decision be allowed to remain in force.

The Los Angeles Times has proven, time and time again, that it holds its reporters and staff to the highest possible standards of ethical behavior. Mr. Goldberg's decision is an aberration and violation of these tenets.

Please reverse this decision immediately.

"Pasadena Weekly" Editor Pressured by the Police Department, City Officials to Drop Ted Rall's Cartoons

(Above: Ted Rall's cover to this week's Pasadena Weekly.)

The Pasadena Weekly editor goes on record about the police asking him to drop Ted Rall's anti-cop editorial cartoons. 

When I first wrote about this, ten days ago, I was one of the few colleagues who were publicly calling for cartoonists not to remain silent. I'm glad to see that others have now joined in, as well as the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists.

It's an admittedly odd story. Here's some background:

Being fired is something millions of people have had happen to them, and it's usually just the boss, the security guard and you that are involved in that fateful day.

But ...

"When your boss later writes in the LA Times that you are a liar, and that the Los Angeles Police Department has proved it -- and THAT is why you were fired, well, that's different. You've been humiliated publicly by one of the biggest newspapers in the country. And with the support of the LAPD. 

"Ted Rall, who is maybe the most divisive political cartoonist of the day, was fired last month by the LA Times. Why? Because he wrote a column about being ticketed for jaywalking 14 years ago. (Ted writes as well as draws for the LA Times.) The LAPD said that Rall's version of the 2001 arrest was wrong and then produced an audiotape of the incident. (Yes, even in 2001, people were being recorded without their permission/knowledge.) 

"Nicholas Goldberg, the Times editorial page editor, wrote

"'An audiotape of the encounter recorded by the police officer does not back up Rall’s assertions; it gives no indication that there was physical violence of any sort by the policeman . . .'"

-- from LA Times Fires, Publicly Humiliates Ted Rall

The audio tape, which was 20 minutes long and mostly static, was tampered with and/or spliced, said audio experts that were hired by Ted after the fact. The LA Times never vetted the tape with an outside source before he was fired.

I still see people who say that Ted Rall has gone too far and deserves what's coming. Ted is a divisive cartoonist.

This is, of course, completely wrong.

When the police collude with the media to destroy a cartoonist, it should be big news. The tepid reaction is a surprise and a disappointment.

From Ted's site today:

"Even after the Assocation of American Editorial Cartoonists issued a formal statement calling for an investigation of the LA Times’ firing of me as a favor to the LAPD because I criticized police brutality, I found it difficult to get support from, well, everybody. Because one of the defining aspects of satire is that, eventually, you end up making fun of everyone. Who end up hating you."

Another thought from ANewDomain:

"Does the fact that a big chunk of The Los Angeles Times is now owned by Oaktree Capital, an investment firm that itself is powered by billions in investment from the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Fund, have anything to do with this?"

My story: I have met Ted a number of times, at a National Cartoonists Society Reubens weekend and at the Small Press Expo. We always shook hands and chatted. It was always very cordial. I don't do editorial cartoons myself, but I respect what he does. I have bought several of his books with my own money.

I know there are other people out there who do not like him. I don't really know why (Like Mack White writes, "I don't have a dog in this fight."), and that's not my point. It's about the next fight.

Who will the police or the politicians come after next? What editor will they convince to not only fire another cartoonist or writer -- but also publicly humiliate them with a damning editorial in their publication? This kind of collusion of power to go after creative people is not tolerable and not what this country is about.

Your silence -- whether you are a cartoonist or a regular person -- says this is OK.

Ted will be on the Project Censored radio show, which is carried by Pacifica, at 1pm today.

Some 2015 Sketches

Above: a little girl discovers a back store room full of toys in a North Carolina thrift store.


I have been traveling a lot this year. Sometimes for family, sometimes for business. And when I have a moment, I will whip out the sketchbook and draw some people.

This is one of those small sketchbooks, 3.5 in. x 5 in., that fits in a pocket easily. None of these people ever noticed I was drawing them, which is a good thing. I like to be a fly on the wall.

These are, with the exception of the first one below, all from 2015.

Dude who sold me this sketchbook in Virginia really wanted to get me on some kind of list. I told him I was from far away. Dude still kept asking me.

A big man who said this several times to his kids. The mother, who was much smarter, was not to be seen.

When you have a fanny pack hanging off your gut, you really just do not care about how you look.

The above man was a beer brewer and he performed a five hour soliloquy on hops, yeast, water, and the beers of the world on the way from Portsmouth, NH to NYC. I was very happy to get off the bus.

Great t-shirt. I saw this guy a couple of times on the DC Metro.

Sitting and chilling in the Ronald Reagan airport.

A pilot with his sack lunch.

Cool beachy looking man at the Goodwill in Topsham, ME.

A couple of sketches of people working the night shift.

Thanks for looking. Let me know if any of these people is you!

Roger Ebert Remembers Mike Royko and BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

I guess we all know who Roger Ebert was. He reviewed movies, and maybe we also all know that he wrote the screenplay to a sexy/violent Russ Meyer B-movie titled BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.

What I didn't know was that his friend, Mike Royko, reviewed the movie in his column on July 10, 1970 and was not nice about it!

Maybe not so many people know who Royko is any more, but, like Ebert, he won a Pulitzer, and he was widely syndicated. I remember reading his columns in the Plain Dealer when I was in school in the 1970s. Mike was a great writer and a master at his column.

The essay, "Over and Out, Roger!" was reprinted in the book LIKE I WAS SAYIN', a collection of Royko columns from 1966 to the 1980s. I snagged it at a second hand store this past weekend. What a fun book. What a great writer. I thought I would see if the Ebert piece was online so I could share it.

I found something better.

Here is a 1999 video of Roger Ebert reading Mike Royko's column condemning BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. The occasion was the posthumous publication of ONE MORE TIME: THE BEST OF MIKE ROYKO. He talks about meeting Mike, an idol of his, and then reads the 1970 review.

Take a look.




Thanks to Media Burn for this.

How Snoopy Killed Peanuts by Kevin Wong

(Charles Schulz in 1966.)


Umm ... no.

Kevin Wong's "How Snoopy Killed Peanuts" is hard to swallow, and it's an over-simplification. He posits that the strip began its downfall when Snoopy became the strip's most popular character. Go and read it. Here's my take:

I mean, there's a big difference in Charles Schulz of 1950 and Charles Schulz of the 1990s. He's going to write differently, of course, as the years go by. I'm not sure that Mr. Wong understands that the strip was the creation of one guy in front of a drawing board for about a half a century. 

(Snoopy and Woodstock in a preview poster for the new Peanuts Movie opening in theaters this November.)

By the way, Mort Walker is on the record for thinking Schulz crazy for making Snoopy the World War One Flying Ace. That's OK, that's his opinion. 

But Mr. Wong's idea that the strip was an unsparing look at the cruelties of childhood, and that that was the BEST thing about it -- and that Snoopy diluted that and diminished the strip -- is baloney. 

Snoopy, for most people, MADE the strip. He was the id of the feature and its breakout character. And the strips were more nuanced, with more going on than "brutalizing Charlie Brown." Anyone who has read the strip (and I think that's pretty much ALL of us) knows this. Kevin Wong is cherry-picking what made the strip great. That's his opinion, of course, and he's wrong.

The Garden As of Mid-August 2015

There are some green tomatoes like the ones above, but more and more are turning red.

Above is the garden, looking a little washed out now. Some of those leaves on the squash (foreground) are over two months old. Everything, even the trees, are starting to look a little dull -- but all of the greenery is very full.

Yeah, it looks like someone sprinkled talcum powder on the squash leaves. It doesn't help that the squash got attacked by the squash borer bug.

Above are the Romas. They are small and meaty and maybe are my favorite. The sticks have been pounded into the ground to help keep the tomato plants upright. There's a lot of tomatoes on these.

Here are the bigger, heavier heirloom tomatoes. They are great for slicing and putting on your burger.

And now, the parade of flowers:

All of the sunflower seeds that the birds have tossed to ground under the feeder have been allowed to grow this year.

Related:
The Garden As of June 1, 2015
The Garden As of Mid-June 2015
The Garden As of Early July
The Garden As of July 15, 2015

The Garden As of Early August

Memorial Celebration for Randy Glasbergen

There will be a viewing for Randy Glasbergen, who died suddenly on August 11, 2015, at the Burgess & Tedesco Funeral Home, 10 South Main Street, Sherburne, NY today, Friday August 14th, from 2-4 and 7-9pm.

A Memorial Celebration will be held at 10am Saturday, August 15, 2015 at the First United Methodist Church, Chapel Street, Sherburne, NY, followed by internment in West Hill Cemetery, also in Sherburne.

A Celebration of his life will continue at 12:30pm on Saturday, August 15 at Magro's Banquet Hall 110 Sanitarium Road Sherburne, NY. The family urges everyone to attend.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the Chenango County SPCA 6160 County Road 32 Norwich, NY 13815, or to the ABC Basset Hound Rescue PO Box 272 Buffalo, NY 14225.

Here is the text from the obitsforlife site:


Randy J. Glasbergen, 58, of Sherburne, NY passed away Tuesday, August 11, 2015 at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, NY.

Randy was born February 20, 1957 in Norwich, NY a son of the late John G. and Florence Hummel Glasbergen. He was a graduate of Sherburne-Earlville High School and attended Utica College of Syracuse University. On July 9, 1977, Randy married Karen Harris in Sherburne.

Randy was a cartoonist and humorist whose professional cartooning career started when he was 15. His works appeared in magazines, newspapers, greeting cards, and scores of other media outlets. His panel The Better Half was syndicated by King Features Syndicate for 32 years from 1982 to 2014 and published seven days a week all over the world. His “Glasbergen Cartoons” feature is syndicated online by GoComics. He was also the author of three bestselling books about the art of cartooning, along with several other books of his cartoons.

Above all, Randy was a devoted family man. The times spent with his children and grandchildren were most precious to him. His wit, humor, love of music, incredible talent and countless “Randyisms”—DHS, JTPYO, and SH&D—will be greatly missed by his family, friends and innumerable fans all over the world.

Randy is survived by his wife of 38 years, Karen; his children, Jennifer and Erin Ashton, Christie and Frank Busce, Candace and Ryan Gayfield, all of Sherburne, Samuel Glasbergen and Erin Himes of Earlville, NY; grandchildren, Tanner, Lillie and Amelia Ashton, Adam Busce, Abigail, Nolan and Alexandra Gayfield; a brother and sister-in-law, Terry and Antoinette Glasbergen of Rochester, NY. He is also survived by his step-mother, Jacquelyn Glasbergen of Sherburne; his father-in-law, Russell Harris of Sackets Harbor; in-laws, Linda Harris of Arlington, VA; Stephen and Shelly Harris of Sherburne; Cheryl and Fred Boyson of Hubbardsville, NY; Joy and David Mazzetti of Walkill, NY; several nieces, nephews and cousins. Randy also left behind his beloved Basset Hounds, Tootsie, Maxine and Seymour.

A Memorial Celebration of Randy’s life will be held at 10am Saturday, August 15, 2015 at the First United Methodist Church, Chapel St., Sherburne, followed by interment in West Hill Cemetery, Sherburne.

Friends are invited to call at the Burgess & Tedesco Funeral Home, 10 South Main St, Sherburne on Friday from 2-4 and 7-9pm.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the Chenango County SPCA 6160 County Road 32 Norwich, NY 13815, or to the ABC Basset Hound Rescue PO Box 272 Buffalo, NY 14225.

A Celebration of his life will continue @ 12:30 PM on Saturday, August 15, at Magro's Banquet Hall 110 Sanitarium Road Sherburne, NY. We urge everyone to attend.

Can You ID the Comic Book Artists?

Caitlin McGurk, of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, asks for your help in identifying these uncredited comic book artists:

Cartoon Library friends and fans, we need your help! 

Recently, we’ve had the sheer joy of cataloging a large collection of original art from old romance comics, all published by the long-defunct Toby Press. While many of the works we came across were immediately recognizable, there are a few that have us stumped. 

Can YOU identify the artists for the following six romance stories? 

Note: These images are only the covers of the stories, though we do have the inside pages available if they will aid in your sleuthing. The first page of the story has been used where the covers were not available. 

Leave a comment at the Billy Ireland blog here.

UPDATED: Randy Glasbergen 1957-2015

My colleague, veteran gag cartoonist Randy Glasbergen, has died. I had heard that something had happened this past weekend, but have no details.

UPDATE: Randy died August 11, 2015 at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, NY. The cause was a heart attack.

There will be visitation today, Friday, August 14th, at the Burgess & Tedesco Funeral Home, 10 South Main Street, Sherburne, NY from 2-4 and 7-9pm. A Memorial Celebration will be held at 10am Saturday, August 15, 2015 at the First United Methodist Church, Chapel Street, Sherburne, NY, followed by internment in West Hill Cemetery, also in Sherburne. A Celebration of Life is scheduled for 12:30 that day at Magro's Banquet Hall 110 Sanitarium Road Sherburne, NY. The family urges everyone to attend. More details here.

Contributions in Randy Glasbergen's memory may be made to the Chenango County SPCA 6160 County Road 32 Norwich, NY 13815, or to the ABC Basset Hound Rescue PO Box 272 Buffalo, NY 14225.

UPDATE: Alan Gardner has posted an email from Randy's wife, Karen, about his final days. Here's Karen:

He was fine on Thursday morning [August 6, 2015] when I left for work, felt ill at 10:00, took him to the doctor’s at 2:00, one hospital by 4:00, transferred to another by 1:00 AM Friday. He had some kind of infection that they were trying to identify, at 9:30 Friday night he had a cardiac arrest that he did not recover from.

He was 58 years old. Randy's wife, Karen Harris Glasbergen, posted on her Facebook page that Randy passed away Tuesday afternoon.

This is very sad and unexpected news. My deepest condolences to his family and friends. I am dumbstruck.

Before I heard, I was making some calls yesterday (August 12, 2015) afternoon, talking about him with a couple of cartoonists, including Dan Collins. Dan had seen a note on a chat board that Randy was ill, in "a battle for life and death," and needed prayers.

UPDATE: You can see a portion of the obituary on his local paper's site. The majority of the story is for subscribers only.

UPDATE: A complete obituary is here.

UPDATE: August 12, 2015: Karen Glasbergen posted this on Randy's Facebook page:

We are sad to announce the passing of Randy Glasbergen on August 11, 2015 at the age of 58. Randy was a husband, father and grandfather, but also had a huge impact on the world with his humor. He mentored many aspiring cartoonists and made everyone laugh every day. 

His planning for the future included a large data base of cartoons that could be sold for years to come. Glasbergen Cartoon Service will be available in the next week for business as usual.

Thank you all so much for your outpouring of love and support. 

Karen Glasbergen and family

She has also stated that the family will continue to run Randy's Cartoon Services business.

Randy Glasbergen loomed large in the field of cartooning. A prolific presence, with a client list of thousands, whose book, HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL CARTOONIST, impacted a generation.

From his bio:

Randy began his professional cartoonist career at age 15 and began freelancing full-time after a year of journalism studies in Utica, New York. Aside from a year spent as a staff humor writer at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, he has been a full-time freelance cartoonist since 1976. Randy lives in a small town in rural New York State with his wife and an assortment of dogs, cats, guinea pigs and fish. He works at home in a cluttered studio that occupies the third floor of his creaky old Victorian home (formerly a boarding house for local school teachers). When he’s not at the drawing board or computer, Randy enjoys walking his basset hounds and spending time with his family. He is a collector of Popeye, Monkees, and GI Joe memorabilia and a fan of amateur women’s roller derby.

Randy took over the long running "The Better Half" comic panel for 32 years (1982-2014). Even though the King Features panel was in 150 newspapers, Randy retired it to concentrate on his Glasbergen Cartoon Service. Two of his features, "Glasbergen Cartoons" and "Thin Line," appear on the GoComics site. 

The Evening Sun, his local Norwich, NY newspaper, posted the above cartoon on its Facebook page along with these words: 

Proof that one person really can make an incredible difference. Thoughts and prayers are with the family of Randy Glasbergen, an all around good man and longtime friend and contributor to The Evening Sun.

Related:
Obituary