Thursday, August 29, 2024

The Aspiring Cartoonist: The Craft and Business of Gag Cartooning (1998)

 

The Aspiring Cartoonist, "A publication for the professional, non-professional, and curious in the cartooning community," was edited by co-publisher Marty Jones for Yendi Boox Publishing, Inc. and is copyright 1996. The magazine was around here and there in the 1990s. I probably bought this at Forbidden Planet in NYC when it was published. 

This issue is all about gag cartooning and there's good advice here, but a lot of it has become historical/hysterical artifacts of another time. For instance, Bart Roozendaal says,

"As I answer this question [about the advent of computer cartooning and the Internet], there are already 1500 separate entries on the Internet under the heading cartoon, and no doubt the number will increase."

Anyway, a lot of the information is still of interest, like how many cartoons do you do a day, what kind of art supplies do you use, who influenced you, etc. The worry that overshadows all is the then-recent advent of the internet (spelled with a capital "I" back then) and if it will diminish paying markets. Mostly, it's a fun time capsule with these great gag cartoonists. The one rule for all of them was that they had to be veterans of gag cartooning, with ten years or more in the business.

The Aspiring Cartoonist's Gag Cartooning Round Table consists of these six industry veterans:

Art Bouthillier

Randy Glasbergen

Ted Goff

George Jartos

Bart Roozendaal

and George Trosley.

Bob Mankoff is also highlighted in a sidebar.

As you know, right click on these things to open them up in a new page so they're nice and big and readable.












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