Remembering Art Cumings

"You have a funny line."

That was, I think, one of the best compliments I had ever received.

This was Art Cumings telling me this, and then asking, "Do you know what I mean?" And he explained that he meant it literally: some people who drew had a fantastically energetic line, and others had a dead, lifeless line. I was in the former group.

Art died last month at the age of 90. He was a children's book illustrator, as well as a frequent contributor to PENTHOUSE and OMNI Magazines with his Balloonheads and The Artist full page cartoons. He was a friend and a fellow Berndt Toast Gang member.

Art was not only professionally inclined when it came to illustration and cartoon art, he was an intellectual powerhouse about it as well.

My friend, the cartoonist and fellow Berndt Toast Gang member Don Orehek agrees. He sent me a note to share:

"Art was an interesting guy and always good to talk to about cartooning. His birthday was the same as my wife Suzy's, so it was easy to remember. I would call him on his day and say, 'Happy Birthday.' He would ask, 'How did you know?' every time. Then we'd get a big laugh out of that.

A few memories from last month's blog entry about Art have stuck in my mind:

The Cumings' next door neighbor Chuck Landrey talked about Art on the "Legacy dot com guest book." I have been thinking about this story, and it is pure Art:

"One of my fondest memories is of Art and I strolling the halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I assumed he would critique the paintings. Instead, he would stop in front of a painting and discuss how what was going on in the artist's life and times affected their work. I've never looked at a painting the same way since that day."

Illustrator and fellow Berndt Toast Gang member Sandy Kossin:

"He had begun doing series of simple humorous drawings and when I saw them I told him how much I was overwhelmed by the concepts and simplicity!  They were amazing, and I knew he was onto something great, and he felt he'd found his niche.  Both as a humorist and writer.  And he was so hungry for esthetic information that we would spend hours on the phone just talking and asking questions.  He couldn't get enough."

I wish the best to the Cumings family. Art will be dearly missed.

Don Orehek and Art Cumings at a Berndt Toast Gang lunch, February 22, 2007.

Cartoonist Self-Portraits

Ger Apeldoorn shows us an ad for the cartoonists then appearing in the Sunday Supplement section of THIS WEEK circa 1950.

Video: Gerald Scarfe and "Rude Brittania"

Related: Rude Brittania gallery show at the Tate

Related: More Gerald Scarfe video

Related: Video: Al Jazeera interview Scarfe

NCS Reubens Weekend: Link Round Up UPDATED

Above photo from 1948, via the Fred Waring Cartoon Collection.

Here are some links to cartoonists' blogs and sites, where one can see more photos / comments / etc. to the recent 64th annual NCS Reubens weekend. First: here's the List of Award Winners.

There are a lot of photos on Facebook, but the ones I've looked at do not have a "general public link" and are closed to anyone who is not a FB friend of the poster. My personal thanks to those whose photos I snagged for this updated entry.

Please email me if you have a link to add. Thanks!

VIDEO: Opening movie

VIDEO: Tom Gammill at the Reubens

"Tea Berry-Blue"

Above photo of NCS Division Award and Award winner Steve Brodner via Steve Brodner

Steve Brodner

Michael Cavna

Barbara Dale cartoon jam


Above photo via Anton Emdin; from left: Stan Goldberg, Anton Emdin, Adrian Sinnott

Anton Emdin Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Tayo Fatunla


Above photo of the one and only Mort Walker in all his finery via Chad Frye

Chad Frye Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Shaenon Garrity

John Glynn


Above photo of the Reuben Award via one of its nominees, Richard Thompson

Steve Greenberg on Dan Piraro's Reuben win.

Alex Hallatt

John Hambrock Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Above: Alex Hallatt and Don Orehek, via Mike Lynch

R.C. Harvey "Carping about the NCS Awards (Again)"

Taylor Jones

Above photo of Joe Kubert and his Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award via Tayo Fatunla

Mike Lynch

NCS NYC Metro Chapter

Rina Piccolo


Rick Kirkman and Tom Richmond. Above photo via Chad Frye

Tom Richmond

The Six Chix

Jeff Stahler


Above photo stolen from Mike Lynch. From left: Mike, Sandra Boynton, George and Dione Booth, Mo Willems

Dan Thompson

Richard Thompson

Closing night's Gag Cartoon Smackdown.

Rude Britannia: British Comic Art

Above: a rude cartoon by saucy postcard cartoonist Donald McGill.

London's Tate Gallery's latest gallery show celebrates 300 years of British comic art and is titled Rude Britannia. The exhibition runs from June 9, 2010 to September 5, 2010



The exhibit includes Alice in Wonderland illustrations, Donald McGill’s smutty seaside postcards, Aubrey Beardsley, Cruikshank, Gerald Scarfe, Steve Bell, Rowlandson, Gillray, the Spitting Image's damning Thatcher puppet and the cartoonists from Viz.

Put together with some the country’s best-known cartoonists and comedy writers, this exhibition explores British comic art from the 1600s to the present day. Bringing together a wide array of paintings, sculptures, film and photography, as well as graphic art and comic books, the exhibition celebrates a rich history of cartooning and visual jokes.

Related: The Guardian's slideshow

Lunch with David Jacobson and Jeff Pert

Above: cartoon detail by Jeff Pert.

It was a lovely March day when I made the 2 hour drive north to Brunswick, Maine to have lunch with fellow cartoonists Jeff Pert and David Jacobson.


Above is © Jeff Pert. All rights reserved.

We had all met at last year's Maine Comics Arts Festival. (And we will all be there for the second year of the Festival, on May 23, 2010, in Portland, ME.)

Jeff is well known in the area as the Bob Lobster Guy." His cartoons, in particular the "Hey Bob! How's the water? Bob? Bob!? BOB!!" cartoon, are on magnets, t-shirts and other products. I first saw his work in 2007 at the York Trading Post. There were a bunch of postcards by Jeff and I bought some. All along 95 and Route One, you can see Jeff's cartoons for sale.

Above: "James Joyce's Refrigerator," a New Yorker cartoon by David Jacobson. Copyright © 2010 The Cartoon Bank. All rights reserved. The list goes like this:

1. Call bank
2. Dry cleaner
3. Forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race
4. Call mom

David Jacobson may be a well known, award winning artist who creates "Contemporary Glass in the Venetian Tradition," but he is also a cartoonist, and has sold to The New Yorker. He lives about 90 minutes further north, and has a studio in Portland. Check out David's glass at his new Etsy store.



We had a great meal at the Brunswick Diner. Really. One of the best burgers I've had. And they have a Facebook page.

We had long conversations about cartooning and meeting some of our cartoonist idols. We talked about the challenge of sitting alone in a studio, trying to come up with ideas. We also had a great meal. I know I just said that, but it was really good food.

We talked about making a living, which people now like to call "monetizing your cartoons." In the middle of this talk, sure enough, the waitress came over and asked for a free cartoon drawing! We chatted with her for a minute and found out that she likes to paint. I told her that I'd trade a drawing of mine for a drawings by her. She left and the trade was not mentioned again. But I was serious!


Anyway, it was great to see David and Jeff and talk cartoon talk for a couple of hours. The bill came, and we split it three ways, leaving a generous tip for the patient, artistic waitress.



Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo.

Fortunately, we did draw an impromptu cartoon triptych on the back of that check of a diner. This greasy spoon does not represent the fine establishment that we dined in! This is a work of parody! From left to right: art by Jeff Pert, David Jacobson and me, Mike Lynch. All rights reserved by the respective cartoonists unless you really want to monetize us.

Edwina Dumm & CAP STUBBS AND TIPPY

Above: a 1918 advertisement for CAP STUBBS AND TIPPIE by Edwina Dumm.

The Yesterday's Papers blog showcases a 1937 Evening Gazette (Xenia, OH) portrait of cartoonist Edwina Dumm.

"Edwina, the petite young artist who draws 'Cap Stubbs and Tippie,' a daily comic strip, that appears in the Gazette, is one of the few successful cartoonists of her sex.

"When her identity is revealed to anyone who has studied her work, the usual comment is 'Impossible. A girl couldn’t draw, convincingly, about boys and dogs.'"

Hat tip to Comics Reporter.

Matt Jones: An Afternoon With the Searles

Animation artist Matt Jones blogs about his visit with Ronald Searle and his wife at their home on the French Riveria.

National Cartoonists Society: April 29, 2009 Metro NYC Dinner

Jim Salicrup and Mike Lynch


Rina Piccolo and Flash Rosenberg


"Ruben Bolling," Mike Lynch and Marc Bilgrey

Jermaine, Matthew Moss, Derek Mainhart and Doug Bratton.


Ed Steckley and Trade Loeffler.

Hello to Sam Viviano and Bobby Timony who ran off into the night before the camera started clicking.

FULL AUDIO: Al Jaffee, Arnold Roth & Gary Groth HUMBUG Panel

Now this is exciting!

Thanks to the Daily Cross Hatch, there is full audio (as well some video and still pictures) from the Al Jaffee & Arnold Roth talk, moderated by Gary Groth, that took place on April 14, 2009 at The Strand, NYC.

A big hat tip to Journalista! Thank you DCH and Dirk Deppey!

Maira Kalman: So Moved - And the Pursuit of Happiness Blog

Illustrator Maira Kalman walks through time and geography, meditating on how tolerance can work in a democracy in The New York Times' So Moved - And the Pursuit of Happiness blog.

Barbara Shermund Appreciation by Michael Maslin

Above: A Shermund original from the Library of Congress' Cartoon America exhibit, now online.

Michael Maslin profiles the career of New Yorker cartoonist Barbara Shermund (1988-1978) in his essay Revisiting Barbara Shermund.

Since Ms. Shermund passed away during a newspaper strike, her death was not noted in the "paper of record," the New York Times, or, anywhere else, except for a scant, four sentence obit in a New Jersey paper. Michael comments:

"For someone who contributed hundreds of cartoons and eight covers to The New Yorker Magazine, then went on to become a mainstay at Esquire, four sentences seems a bit slight. Here then is another notice, a little late, and a little longer."

Mr. Maslin goes on to correct the matter, 31 years on. The rest is here.

Thank you, Michael Maslin, for shining the light on Ms. Shermund!

DEATH DRAWS THE LINE by Jack Iams

Above: the lurid cover of DEATH DRAWS THE LINE by Jack Iams, A Dell paperback #457, copyright 1959 by Mr. Iams.

"Death mysteriously strikes down top-flight cartoonist -- twelve unpublished comic strips disappear -- a nude woman holds a supernatural rendezvous in a dead man's studio -- a blue sedan roars down upon two persons in a cab ... purpose: death for two -- and murder strikes again and again in this exciting mystery which reveals some unusual trade secrets of the men who create newspaper comic strips."

Ooh! Yup, just another day in the life of a cartoonist! This is a fun paperback mystery from 1959, one of the series of "map" mysteries where (bug duh) there's a map on the back.

Now, why isn't this old Dell paperback still in print? It's got a wonderful cover by artist Harry Barton. Dig her pearls and nice hairdo! This girl's high maintenance. This guy's strip must've been in 2000+ papers for her to be that well-coifed!

From Chapter 3, "Cartoonist in a Tailspin:"

"... [I]t got so he was too drunk most of the time to do the drawing."

You see? One of those little trade secrets revealed! "Drawing While Drunk" is one of the regular symposiums at the Cartoonists Association get togethers! Why, this tale is as contemporary a story as when Mr. Iams wrote it 50 years ago!

Note: Cartoonist "Zeke Brock's" apartment is in the West Village. This ruins the believablity so far as modern day cartoonists are concerned! This is back when a cartoonist could afford to live in Manhattan!

Did you notice "Tim Costello's" bar in the upper right hand corner? This is now the Overlook Lounge, where many real-life cartoonists hung out. The Daly News was nearby then, so this watering hole was full of writers and cartoonists. There are some great cartoon murals there, one from 2005, and another from 30 years earlier. I was fortunate to help organize the 2005 event, where cartoonists from the tri-state area converged & put together the new mural.

Tim Harries blogs about his visit.

A version of this blog entry originally appeared when I was guest-blogger over at my pal's Mark Anderson's Andertoons blog, way back on March 30, 2005.

Sketchbook: Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle's Secret Sketchbook!

H/t to Comics Reporter!

Maira Kalman: In Love With A. Lincoln

Writer and illustrator Maira Kalman writes and draws about the Lincoln of then and the "Land of Lincoln" today in this wandering, beautiful mediationa from the New York Times blog.

Jules Feiffer Profile

Photo of Jules Feiffer and a few of his pets by Leslie Reingold.

Cartoonist Jules Feiffer is profiled by writer Tom Clavin for 27 East (The East Hampton Press & The Southampton Press).

"'Most of them don’t know who I am,' said Jules Feiffer of his students at Stony Brook Southampton. 'They know I’m famous for something, but they’re not sure what.'"

Hat tip to Michael Maslin!

Video: Canadian Cartoonist Yardley Jones

I like how cartoonist (and painter) Yardley Jones decided to move to the small town of Sarepta, Alberta and cartoon about it. With cartoons in the local paper, the school, signs, all over Sarepta -- the whole town celebrates Mr. Jones and his work. The 3 1/2 minute video is produced by Travel Alberta Live.



Related: the STAR TREK town of the Canadian prairies: Vulcan, Alberta.

Some Cartoonist Holiday Cards

I love mail. Sometimes getting mail is like getting little presents. It sure is at this time of year. Here are some of the cards from cartoonists that I've received in the good old fashioned regular paper US mail. All of these cards are copyright the respective artist.

Above and below: an original ink and watercolor card by Don Orehek. Don is a pal and one of the best ever.


National Cartoonists Society NJ chapter Chairman Tom Stemmle:


Cartoonist Elena Steier with an incredible series of drawings of her Goth Scouts:

Pibgorn and 9 Chickweed Lane cartoonist Brooke McEldowney:


A friend of the family who does this wonderful calligraphy. Those expressive Santa drawings are by her son:


The one and only illustrator extraordinaire Sandy Kossin:



Gag cartoonist Gregory Kogan with a fun New Yorkery bit of wordless multi-panel humor:


Batman and Mary Worth (Whatta combo!) artist Joe Giella:

Anne Gibbons with a spot-on political gag:



A gorgeous and thoughtful pose of Santa by Paul Giambarba:


My pal, graphic novelist Brian Fies:

Gag cartoonist Dave Carpenter:



Mad Magazine and New Yorker regular John Caldwell:

From the syndicated strip Six Chix, Isabella Bannerman:




The best pal a boy cartoonist ever had - Mark Anderson:



And the interior of Mark's card:


And finally, Cleo, Don Orehek's cat, snoozing on his drawing board.


My thanks to all of you for these little gifts in the mail. I love these cards!