Remembering the National Cartoonists Society's Latisha Moore

There's a saying that the National Cartoonists Society is great since it's run by cartoonists. It's also problematic because it's run by cartoonists.

There needs to be someone who helps organize their annual convention. In the beginning, that was Marge Devine, who was working there at King Features in 1946 "along with founding fathers [who] gave birth to illegitimate child called NCS." Marge managed the behind the scenes work in getting the cartoonists together for decades.

In the 1980s, NCS President Bill Hoest hired a professional management company. At the time, this was a controversial approach: bringing in outsiders who had no connection to the group. But Bill was right. The NCS needed professional organizers.

By the time I served on the board, in 2005 or so, Latisha James was part of a group of professionals who handled the nuts and bolts of the annual conventions. Within a few years, the group had shifted. She started her own company and became the primary backbone of this process and handled membership questions and, well, heaven knows how many queries by members and people who wanted to be members. Her contact information was all over the NCS site. Anyone could pick up the phone and call. She was the go-to. She was the glue. 

Always cheerful and with a fierce memory (She knew EVERYONE.), if Latisha couldn't help she would find someone who could. If she said she'd get back with me about a question I had that she didn't know the answer to, she did. When she wasn't at the sign-in table at the Jersey City Marriott for the most recent Reubens, I was surprised. There were some blank Bristol boards on the table. "Sign a get well card for Latisha?" By the end of the Reubens, there were many cards, filled up, with so many sketches and wishes for recovery and love. 

 From the NCS:

 

"The National Cartoonists Society has suffered a great loss this week. As the temperature drops and winter looms on the horizon, we’ve felt a deeper chill, one that cuts to our very souls. Our Management Executive, Latisha Moore has lost her valiant battle with cancer.



"Most organizations have that one person who works tirelessly behind the scenes, often unsung and unnoticed, who gets things done and makes the people she works for look great. For the NCS, that was Latisha. She began working with us several years ago as an employee of our previous management company, but when that firm folded she established her own company. We already knew how wonderful she was and naturally hired her to keep on getting things done and making us look great.



"For most of us, Latisha was the first person we met when arriving at the registration table for the annual Reuben Awards weekend. Hers was the beautiful, smiling face that welcomed us as she or one of her assistants handed us our goodie bags, T-shirts, and badges. She answered any questions we had and made us feel at home and comfortable. If anything went awry with the hotel, she handled it. If we needed transportation to an off-site event, she arranged it. She ordered the awards and made sure they were shipped to the hotel on time, and all accounted for. While we were attending seminars, catching up with old friends, sightseeing, and partying, she was working hard to make sure that every one of a thousand details came off brilliantly.

"… Latisha has been described as 'the heart and soul of the NCS,' 'the glue that holds us together,”' and 'the oil that keeps the machinery running.' And she was all of those things, but the thing that made Latisha really special was that she cared about the NCS. Managing the organization wasn’t just a job to her, and the evidence of that is how she continued to work to the best of her ability in the midst of her devastating illness and hospitalizations. She even attempted to travel to Jersey City to perform her duties at the Reuben Awards earlier this year, until she finally had to face the fact that her body just wouldn’t allow it."

A Memorial Service will be held at 11am, December 16th

at 455 28th Ave, Vero Beach, FL  32967 

Latisha’s daughter, Chasidity, is assembling a slideshow and would appreciate

any photos or messages to be sent to her via email (chasiditymoore@yahoo.com)

If you would like to mail a personal note, please use 3707 Conroy Rd. #1721, Orlando FL 32839

 

 

 Related:

The Daily Cartoonist

Search Engine for U.S Print Magazines About Comics

Via Paul Gravett:

WORK IN PROGRESS: SEARCH ENGINE FOR U.S. PRINT MAGAZINES ABOUT COMICS 

"Out of these titles - Amazing Heroes, Amazing World of DC Comics, The Comic Reader, Comics Feature, Comics Interview, The Comics Journal, Comics Scene, FOOM, Hero Illustrated, Marvel Age and Wizard Magazine - , Lars Ingebritsen announces: 'There’s now seven magazines indexed and available for searching at kwakk.info. Now, I previously said that the search interface on kwakk.info is geared towards research, and not reading, so it deliberately makes it difficult to download full magazines, and only gives you five pages at a time to read (for each search result). I still thinks that makes sense for The Comics Journal (where Fantagraphics is selling access) and Amazing Heroes (news possibly upcoming), but for the rest of these long-out-of-print magazines, that doesn’t seem to make much sense: The only way you can read these magazines is by shopping on eBay. So I’ve now added buttons to allow you to page through an issue (starting at where your search landed you, of course) for all of the non-Fanta mags. (This only works on the desktop version of the site).'"

https://kwakk.info/

Stephen Fry Reads Nick Cave's Letter about ChatGPT and Human Creativity

Musician Nick Cave is not impressed with artifical intelligence. He says that ChatGPT's AI attempt to write Nick Cave lyrics 'sucks'.

 

Via Letters Live:

In August of this year, as part of his Red Hand Files correspondence project, legendary musician Nick Cave was asked questions about creativity and ChatGPT by two fans, Leon and Charlie. 

Nick replied with a single letter, which Stephen Fry joined us to read at the 10th anniversary Letters Live show at London's Royal Albert Hall in November 2023 .

David Sipress Zoom Event Tonight

 

New Yorker cartoonist David Sipress will talk about his new autobiography What's So Funny and his creative process in a free Zoom seminar tonight at 9:30pmEST. Link to preregister here.

"David Sipress will discuss the central role that humor played in his memoir and how humor—and creativity in general—has helped him to navigate difficult life challenges. He hopes to shed light on the art of writing a memoir, including the challenge of memory (what’s true and what might not be entirely true). He hopes to also discuss his creative process as a cartoonist.

"Sipress, a staff cartoonist at The New Yorker since 1998, has published nearly 700 cartoons in the magazine. His personal history essays appear often on www.newyorker.com. He has lectured widely on cartoons and cartooning. His memoir, WHAT’S SO FUNNY?, was published in 2022. The New York Times called it “an endearingly vulnerable tale of being molded by one’s family of origin, then crawling out from under its suffocating weight.”
www.davidsipress.com

Happy National Illustration Day, Edward Ardizzone

It's the first ever National Illustration Day in the United Kingdom today, so to honor the day, here are a few of my favorite illustrations from one of my favorite British illustrators, Edward Ardizzone (1900 - 1979).

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Winter and Holiday Gag Cartoons 1943 - 1964

Dick Buchanan has delved into the great gag cartoon clip file that's in his Greenwich Village apartment. I picture him jumping into a large pile of clipped cartoons like a kid jumping into a heap of fall leaves. Anyway, he had retrieved some cold weather favorite single panel cartoons, and asked if he could share them with everyone. Of course the answer is yes and THANKS! Now, take it away, Dick!

---

WINTER & HOLIDAY GAG CARTOONS
1943 – 1964

It is time once more to dip into the seemingly bottomless Cartoon Clip File. (By the way, the Clip File is not bottomless, it’s side-less.) We have searched for seasonal gag cartoons drawn by the top cartoonists of the mid-century era and we have found a few to share, so, through sleet, snow, and pestilence, from Thanksgiving and beyond, here are some “blasts from the past” . . . .


1. GEORGE WOLFE. Collier’s November 24, 1951.

 

 

2. CHARLES SHARMAN. American Magazine December, 1952.

 

3. VAHAN SHIRVANIAN. Look Magazine February 13, 1962.

4. PHIL INTERALNDI. The Saturday Evening Post January 10, 1953.

 

5. TED KEY. Collier’s December 29, 1951.

 

 

6. FRANK BEAVEN. Collier’s December 25, 1943.

 

7. STAN FINE. Collier’s March 11, 1950.

 

8. LEONARD DOVE. Look Magazine December 29, 1964.

 

9. DICK CAVALLI. The Saturday Evening Post December 24, 1949.

 

 

10. BOB BARNES. American Legion Magazine.

 

11. BOB SHROETER. American Magazine December, 1953.

 

12. CHON DAY. Look Magazine December 31, 1962.

 

13. TOM HENDERSON. The Saturday Evening Post November 6, 1954.

 

14. DONALD REILLY. The Saturday Evening Post December 22-29, 1962.

 

15. LARRY HARRIS. American Magazine February, 1950.

16. DICK SHAW. True Magazine February, 1950.

17. DAN KILGO. American Legion Magazine. December, 1946.

 

18. ROBERT DAY. This Week Magazine December 19, 1954.

 

19. RAY HELLE. The Saturday Evening. December 24, 1949.

 

20. KENNETH MAHOOD. Punch Almanack for 1959 November 3, 1958.

 

-- Edited from a blog entry of November 16, 2020. Happy Holidays!

Cartoonist Michael Ramirez Speaks Out After Washington Post Pulls his Work Mocking Hamas

The Know-How Of Cartooning (1946) by Ken Hultgren

 

Ken Hultgren's The Know-How of Cartooning, a seminal 1946 how to cartoon book, is available as a PDF.  Here are a few sample pages.

Related:

How to Cartoon Book: "Points on Cartooning" by George Carlson (1937)

Wally Wood: Krazy Little Comics (1966)

From 1966, here are some Krazy Little Comics drawn by Wally Wood. These came in a package of bubble gum. The freelancer's life, moving from job to job, brings many pleasures and trials. Wally Wood, who had worked for Mad Magazine and Marvel, created these fun illustrations. Perhaps not as memorable as some of his other work (certainly nowhere near the level of Kurtzman's Mad parodies), but still very much worth a call back. The humor is .... iffy.