Cartoonist Photos

UCLA's Department of Special Collections has a bunch of photos just put out on the Web -- and some are of cartoonists -- like the one above of Mell Lazarus and Mama taken in 1973. Most of them have not been seen since they were originally published in the LA Times and La Daily News. Cartoon Brew has the story.

Wednesday: Cartoon Look Day

It's a sea of crew cuts, horn rims and Botany 500 suits!

I know it's Monday today, but it's my blog and I want to write about Wednesdays ....

Veteran gag cartoonist Eli Stein at his Eli Stein Cartoons blog talks about "look day" and shares the above 50 year old photo of cartoonists from the Saturday Evening Post.

"Look day" used to be on Wednesdays; every Wednesday in NYC. That was the day when magazine cartoonists would walk from cartoon editors office to cartoon editors office (usually along Sixth Avenue). The practice stopped sometime in the 1970s. Of course, by that time, a lot of the magazines that used cartoons had either dropped them or the mags themselves bit the dust.

Although I'm too young to have been part of the Wednesday ritual, I love hearing stories about those days. (I'm fortunate enough to know a lot of gag cartoonists who have told me about those days. "There were so many markets, even a mediocre gag cartoonist could make a living!")

The only magazine to keep the look day practice going is The New Yorker. But, at some point, for some reason, they moved the day back to Tuesdays. And you can't just walk in off the street. You gotta be "approved" to get past security. In my case, this meant submitting by mail for a couple years before I asked if I could come in person.

Despite the happy faces in the above photo, doing this kinda thing requires some serious backbone. When you get into the editor's office, you hand him or her a batch (10-20 cartoon roughs). You sit and watch while the editor goes through them, one by one, separating them out into two piles. You look at those piles and hope that the larger one of the two are the "holds." After being handed your rejections, you walk out of the office, and up the street, to the next highest paying market. Your holds stay at the magazine's offices.

The next week, you do the process all over again. Hopefully all or some of those holds are handed back to you and you're told that they have gone from "hold" to "a buy." You can always tell a buy when you see the editor's "OK" on the rough. You, the successful cartoonist, will then be asked to do a finish by next week.


Above: an autograph from New Yorker cartoonist Ed Fisher, with one helluva kind sentiment. He wrote it in ED FISHER'S FIRST FOLIO, which I had brought in to the NYer office on one Tuesday some years back. FISHER is an unappreciated cartoonist in my opinion, who had a stellar style.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Your MD graphic: a cast photos from the CBS sitcom of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER!

Happy Birthday, Katharine Hepburn

“The artist, since the beginning of time, has always expressed the aspirations and dreams of his people. Silence the artist and you have silenced the most articulate voice the people have.”

William Mann, who wrote KATE:THE WOMAN WHO WAS HEPBURN, writes about her in today's NY Times.

Ms. Hepburn would have been 100 today.

UPDATE: I misspelled "Katharine" and have corrected it now. Hat tip to Stargirl!

Schulz on Cartooning COMPLETE

On Thursday I posted part of a speech by Charles Schulz.

My thanks to the astute people who let me know that the entire, complete 1994 NCS Schulz speech is available at the Hogan's Alley site. A rep from the Schulz Museum contacted me as well. My thanks to all.

My thanks to Tom Heintjes over at Hogan's Alley for keeping this on the Web!

Irwin Hasen Doing Well

Irwin Hasen, who's been in the hospital for about two weeks, is doing well as of this writing. He'll be out in a couple of days. He was genuinely surprised and gratified that many people -- in the real world and cyber world -- are concerned!

No word about whether or not he had a stroke. On April 25th, after taking a group of students (from the Joe Kubert School, I believe) to the Bronx Zoo to sketch, he felt tired and flushed. He was going to join the NYC NCS chapter for dinner that night, but he declined. He checked himself into a NYC hospital.

From my source (who talked to Irwin yesterday), the doctors feel that Irwin's heart is strong and he doesn't need a pacemaker. Irwin is an energetic guy, so hearing that makes me think that he is in good health and out of danger.

But at his age, you gotta be careful. Nothing is for sure.

But, let's shove that dark cloud away ....

For now, "I'm gonna be there for (the Joe Kubert School) graduation!" is what he's saying. And that's scheduled for next week.

Go Irwin!

THE BEAT has get well wishes and the hospital address to send cards.

Craig Yoe has some wonderful art and kind words.

Mark Evanier's kind words here.

(Above: Mike Lynch, Irwin Hasen, Arnie Roth from December 2006.)

PS I don't mean to be mysterious about my source, it's just that some people are more shy than others.

What exactly do you do with a $30,000 diploma from cartoon college?

The Christian Science Monitor's Teresa Méndez writes about the first graduating class from the Center for Cartoon Studies.

Image from the CCS home page.

Hat tip to the Comics Reporter and my Dad.

Peanuts Mural

Five years ago, at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, artist Yoshiteru Otani designed a couple of installations. One of the permanent exhibits that Otani created was the above giant mural, made up of 3,588 dinky, tiled Peanuts strips.

This video here -- despite it being a low res, shakey, home video -- shows how amazing the scale of the thing is. It runs about half a minute.


Above: the artist gives us a sense of scale during construction. Photo taken from these CMS Museum pages that record the installation of the 17 x 22 foot mural.

Charles Schulz on Cartooning

It's a tower of Schulz!

"Sparky Talks Shop" is from a 1994 NCS comics industry publication. It's a transcription of a speech. Maybe it's in print in the CHARLES SCHULZ INTERVIEWS book, which I foolishly loaned out and may never see again. I just don't know. It was new to me.

Mr. Schulz spoke about cartooning as a career, and touched on the now near-forgotten greats Roy Crane and Percy Crosby. I only have a clickable scan of the article. There's a second part that's alluded to and I don't know if it was ever published.

Percy Crosby was one of the best ever cartoonists. I can only hope that one day there will be a series of books collecting Mr. Crosby's SKIPPY. One of the absolute pleasures in my life has been in knowing his daughter Joan, who maintains the ownership to the character. There's a lot to see at the SKIPPY site which she maintains.

Cartoonists' Panel Q&A June 10, 2007

Time & place: Long Island Museum Sunday, June 10, 2007 from 2pm to 3pm.

From the press release:

Whether you enjoy cartoons, or want to be a cartoonist yourself, this is a rare opportunity to meet three working professional cartoonists who live in Long Island. They'll talk about the business of cartooning, as well as post-war Long Island suburban life.

Archie Comics are created right here in Long Island. STAN GOLDBERG, the principle ARCHIE artist, drawing over 200 issues (and counting) of the flagship title, will attend.

THE LOCKHORNS co-creator BUNNY HOEST will talk about the process of writing the feature which appears in 500 newspapers including Newsday. The award winning newspaper panel, which started in 1968, was initially titled THE LOCKHORNS OF LEVITTOWN.

Magazine cartoonist MIKE LYNCH's clients include Reader's Digest, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy and other publications. He's the chair of the National Cartoonists Society Long Island chapter (the "Berndt Toast Gang").

There will be a meet and greet afterward.

Nick Nertozzi at Rocketship

Details at the Rocketship comic book store/art gallery blog.

Frank Springer Interview

Frank Springer talks to Sherwood Olin about his life in today's Lincoln County News (ME).

Frank is a true pro and very modest. He doesn't mention that he's won the NCS comic book division awards three times, and also held the post of President of the National Cartoonists Society. He's run the NYC marathon and has done that big bike race across my home state of Iowa seven times. This talented guy also designed the Berndt Toast Gang logo.

Big hat tip: Dirk Deppey at Journalista!

Above: a November 20, 2005 photo of Frank and Ashley Smith-Piraro. Behind him is the Overlook Lounge cartoon mural in progress. You can see the head of Phoebe Zeit-Geist bottom left. By the way, I heard a rumor that one of those NYC tour companies stops at the Overlook to look at the murals.

Tom Richmond's Cool Batman Stuff

MAD magazine's Tom Richmond shows off his collection of Batman toys at his blog. My friend Ray Alma also gets a nod for best PLANET OF THE APES and G.I. JOE collection. (C'mon, Ray! Show us some photos of your cool APES nightlight and your G.I. JOE Kung Fu Grip Jar Opener!)

Oh, there's a cool "how I make those big Mad Magazine splash pages" how-to here. It's all incredible stuff. Bookmark Tom, buy his handiwork -- so he can buy more Batman toys!

Caniff Focus of OSU Festival

The OSU Festival of Cartoon Art is coming in just five months, and they will be honoring Milt Caniff who would have been 100 years old this year.


October 26th & 27th in Columbus, Ohio, the Cartoon Research Library will focus on the art of graphic storytelling. I hope that they will soon post who's going to be giving presentations!

Online Cartoon Auction to benefit 'Cartoons for the Classroom'

The American Association of Editorial Cartoonists is having an auction to benefit the educational program "Cartoons for the Classroom." Details here.

The list of participants reads like a who's who in editorial cartooning: Nick Anderson, Tony Auth, Rex Babin, Clay Bennett, Steve Breen, Jeff Danziger, Matt Davies, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Kevin Kallaugher, Mike Keefe, Steve Kelley, Dick Locher, Mike Luckovich, Jimmy Margulies, Jim Morin, Jack Ohman, Joel Pett, Bruce Plante, Ted Rall, Michael Ramirez, Rob Rogers, Steve Sack, Ben Sargent, John Sherffius, Ed Stein, Ann Telnaes, Mike Thompson, Tom Toles, and Signe Wilkinson.

Wow!

It's not every day you get to bid on a cartoon original by a Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist!

Hat tip to Ted Goff!

Winslow Homer

Reading Paul Giambarba's blog is always a pleasure. His concise eyes makes me linger on the images he chooses and reminds me of how much I don't know. I'm indebted to him. Today he writes about Winslow Homer in the Tropics.

A Cavalcade of Collier's Cartoons

Some cartoons from the book A CAVALCADE OF COLLIER'S.

"Double Martini."

Virgil Partch, September 13, 1947

One of the great Partch's many bar room cartoons. He really was one part cartoonist and another part surrealist.

"Oh, no, I think you dance very well for a horse."

Irwin Caplan, September 27, 1947

Horse Joke #1.

The prolific Irwin Caplan recently passed away. I think he had the fanciest signature of any gag cartoonist.

CAVALCADE is primarily a collection of Collier's Magazine (b. 1888, d. 1957) articles, with some pages of cartoons tucked into the back. Kenneth McArdle, the mag's last editor, assembled this posthumous tome.

Otto Soglow, February 8, 1941

Horse Joke #2. Love Soglow's line. Why isn't he getting the hardcover, high production value collection treatment? Soglow was a New Yorker mag regular, had a syndicated strip and was there at the beginning of the National Cartoonists Society. Plus: he had one of the great naive styles.

"Pssst -- alternately, Schultz!"

Virgil Partch, January 16, 1943

Another Virgil Partch cartoon. "VIP" -- one of the great cartoonists who died suddenly in a car crash (along with Sidney Smith and Sam Cobean) -- was another original cartoonist. But, despite submitting over the years, the man never got into the New Yorker. There are a lot of theories on this. One that I hear is that he drew lower class characters, but that never made sense to me since NYer mag great like Syd Hoff and George Booth have done that. Another theory is that VIP drew nostril holes and the NYer does not show nostril holes in its cartoon characters. This theory pretty much falls to the ground since the above cartoon is distinctly nostril hole-less.

Eric Ericson, March 20, 1948

Makes me laugh every time. Another one of those prolific gag cartoonists who is all but invisible on the Web -- at least my searches come up nil.

Bernard Wiseman, January 11, 1947

Mr. Wiseman's name came up in conversation on Saturday. I only know the name from his cartoons, but Bob Weber and Orlando Busino knew him. This is a great pantomime gag. I needed a few extra seconds to get it. Click for the bigger picture.

It was my pleasure to be part of "The Funny Side of the Street," a 50 year retrospective of Wall Street Journal "Pepper .... and Salt" cartoons, along with many great gag cartoonists. Mr. Wiseman was among them.


"It's great having you home, Kilroy. Sit down and tell us where you've been."

Hank Ketcham, March 29, 1947

This joke depends on understanding the phrase "Kilroy was here." "Kilroy" is so old that the Google spellcheck does not recognize it, giving me the red wavy line under the thing every time I type it. Google suggests I change Kilroy to "Elroy," "Railroad," or "Uniroyal." For those who want to know, I pass along the Wikipedia entry.

A collection of Hank Ketcham's gag cartoons titled WHERE'S DENNIS? (Get it? There's NO DENNIS in these panels 'cause they're Mr. Ketachm's magazine cartoons) will be out in August 2007 courtesy of Fantagraphics, the same publisher that's reprinting his DENNIS THE MENACE panels in hardcover.

And my friend Leif Peng has a lovely appreciation of the Ketcham line technique in his Today's Inspiration blog.

Press Release: "Salicrup's Section" at MoCCA

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy! Below is from Jim Salicrup's MySpace blog:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MUSEUM OF COMIC AND CARTOON ART (MoCCA) CELEBRATES SALICRUP THIS MAY

NEW YORK (April 19, 2007) – The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) today announced that it was beginning preparations for the opening of "Salicrup's Section," an exhibit that will celebrate the long and varied career of comic book writer and editor Jim Salicrup.

The exhibit, which opens on May 4th, 2007 as part of the New York Artist showcase, will be curated by Matthew Murray, MoCCA's Managing Director and the lead curator behind MoCCA's recent featured exhibit, "Saturday Morning: Art and Artifacts from a Golden Age of Television" which closed on April 16, 2007 after being extended due to popular demand..

In 1972, James A. Salicrup, then a 15 year-old high school student began a career at Marvel Comics in a position that would now be referred to as "an intern." In his twenty year stint at "The House of Ideas," Salicrup carved out a unique career and worked on the company's flagship books throughout the 1980s becoming an architect of the "Bronze" and "Iron" ages of super-hero comics. His achievement as the editor of the best-selling Spider-Man comicbook of all time was recently recognized in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records.

Salicrup left Marvel in the early 1990s to become the editor-in-chief of Topps Comics, later he became a writer and senior editor at Stan Lee Media, and he currently is the editor-in-chief of Papercutz, a company that specializes in producing graphic novels for all ages.

In his 35 years on the comics scene Salicrup has worked with a pantheon of industry greats. The list includes not only his own heroes such as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas and Steve Ditko, but current industry giants whose career "Slim Jim" helped foster such as Kyle Baker, Kurt Busiek, Fred Hembeck, and Todd McFarlane.

Salicrup, himself, is an occasional artist, who can often be found selling his self-professsed "lousy sketches" on the comic convention circuit while promoting his new titles and the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – an organization of which he is a trustee.

"Salicrup's Section" will be on display throughout the summer, with a private invitation-only reception to be held to honor the creator. The Museum is currently seeking monetary donations to help support the mounting and marketing of the exhibit.

(Above: Jim Salicrup and Stan Lee)

Tony Cochran Video

The Our Ohio TV series recently interviewed Tony Cochran about his life. The video is here.

Tony really started out to be an illustrator. Tony was one of the first cartoonists I ever met at an National Cartoonists Society get together. He was very kind and thoughtful about the business. His strip AGNES had only been out for a year or so, and the local NY Daily News had picked it up. I liked his work, and he drew a little Agnes on the back of his business card for me to take home to my wife.

A lot of what AGNES is about, he says, is perseverance. She's not rich or anything, but she tries hard and she gets knocked down and she gets back up and tries again. Not only a good philosophy for a person in general, but also for a cartoonist specifically.

SPACE:1999/TREK Mash Up

LiveVideo has Rick Kelvington's STAR TREK titles as if they were done in a SPACE: 1999 style. And there are other TOS videos there as well which are particularly interesting if you're following the TREK REMASTERED series.

Newsday's Comic Strip Article Full of Mistakes

There was a very big section in Newsday newspaper about the comics.

This is a nice sentiment, and there's a lovely write up about my friends Bunny Hoest and John Reiner and their King Features' strip THE LOCKHORNS.

And then it goes bad.

Bill McTiernan writes about old comic strips in his "Still Drawing Us In" article in Newsday. I commented on Thursday at the Newsday site about how full of wrong information it is. Mark Evanier does a fact-check at his site.

I've been innocently thinking that there would be a correction posted at the Newsday site. I thought that I would post the article and the correction at the same time. It's been a couple days and I'm still waiting.

It's deplorable that an article like this, with so many facts wrong and out of date, saw print. What makes it smart is that so many of these strips are being drawn by local Long Island cartoonists. It's sloppy, unprofessional and a slap in the face.

UPDATE: Mark Evanier writes that Newsday has printed a correction -- and about all the mistakes in that correction -- and here's another thought he has on all this.

*SIGH*

Irwin Hasen Suffers Stroke

... But he's recovering, says Mike Gold at ComicMix News.

Irwin is so active -- at so many conventions, he teaches, he's at most NCS get togethers -- it's hard to recognize that he is getting older.

Hat tip Journalista!

What Did You Do on Cartoonists Day?

I had lunch with some cartooning greats in Connecticut this past Cartoonists Day: Frank Bolle, Orlando Busino (whose cover to the fondly remembered, short lived TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU BATS #10 comic is reproduced right over there on the left and is taken from this other blog), Bob Weber, Ron Goulart as well as Marshall Terpening, Walt Needham and Bob Perliss.

I thought I'd write some about the stories that were told around the table, but I'll only relate a few things since Bob Weber warned me twice: THIS BETTER NOT APPEAR ON YOUR BLOG. If you ever met Bob Weber, then you'd know that he built like a bull. And I want Bob Weber as friend. Or, at the very least, as a guy who will not beat me into an inky pulp ala Sarge beating on Beetle.

Frank Bolle showed some watercolors that he's been doing for fun. Just gorgeous work that I regret not grabbing from him and taking copious photos of to share here. I admire people who do different kinds of art. There are a lot of cartoonists who do non-cartooning art. I'm not one of them.

I mentioned I'd been watching the HAVE GUN -- WILL TRAVEL series on DVD. What a great show that was! Ron Goulart talked about when he had a lunch meeting with a friend in Hollywood. This was in the 1950s when he lived on the West Coast. The friend had the pilot script to HAVE GUN with him. He handed it to Ron and his then-writing partner. "Have Gun -- Will Travel? What kinda title is that?" asked Ron. The show had not aired yet, and was looking for writers. But Ron and his writing partner were looking to write comedy. An agent told them, "No comedy. Cowboys and Detectives -- that' s what sells. Cowboys and detectives."

At one point one of the guys was telling a story that referenced a bird, specifically a small woodpecker. I can't recall the story because of a rapid-fire quip by one of the men sitting next to me. "Charlie McCarthy had a small woodpecker," he said under his breath. I smiled at the line and then shook my head and laughed. The storyteller had not heard and continued on. But I'd lost the thread.

Orlando and Bob Weber talked about old movies. Bob remembered seeing PSYCHO with Orlando, and Orlando ruined it by saying who the murderer was. "But it was so obvious," added Orlando, laughing.

Like I said, I regret taking a few photos, but I thought maybe I wouldn't be an obnoxious photo-taker for once and just sit back and enjoy the company of these great guys.

Personal thanks to Orlando three times over: (1) for letting me know that the gang was meeting for lunch, and (2) welcoming me to crash the lunch -- as well as for (3) the very kind words about this here blog.


And also a thank you to Walt Needham who gave me a photocopy of his article "Herman Brix, Filmdom's Most Enduring Tarzan" in the latest BIG LITTLE TIMES, the bimonthly publication of the Big Little Book Collector's Club. There was also a remembrance of Johnny Hart, who was once a BLBCC member. References to BLBs were in some of his strips (above).

Above: the fate I mentioned I wish to avoid! From Mort & Greg Walker's BEETLE BAILEY. The Walkers also live in CT.

Happy Cartoonists Day/Free Comic Book Day

And happy Cinco de Mayo too! A confluence of happy stuff, all beginning with the letter "C!"

May 5th is Free Comic Book Day, when the local comics shop is just giving stuff away. You can't get those freebies at the local Borders, you gotta go to a comic book store. Don't know where that is? There's a "comic book store locater" at the above link!

The cool thing is the sheer number and variety of comic book offerings. So, if you're not into those muscley spandex-adorned guys, then see if they have any of the special free comic books by Charles Schulz or Lynda Barry.

Today in history, the first comic strip THE YELLOW KID appeared: May 5, 1895. And so, it is Cartoonists Day. This is a day when cartoonists can walk into any home, unannounced, and be treated to fine food and drink and massages, oo la la!

Have a good weekend!

Police Come to Web Cartoonist's Home; His Comics are "Borderline Terroristic Threat"

The story is all over the place today. Here it is on Boing Boing. Go read.

Guy gets fired from his job, writes about it in his ongoing Web comic, police arrive at door on the basis of that comic being a "terroristic threat." If what I've been reading on several sites is true, then I am just flabbergasted at this. And flabbergasted isn't a word I bandy around willy nilly.

It's really gone from saying the word gun in airport will get you taken away, to saying the word gun in the workplace will get you fired. And now, drawing a gun will get men with real guns to your door.

Canada is looking better all the time!Above graphic can be ordered as a shirt, magnet, etc. at the Funny Times Gift Shop.

The Shatner Show

It's the Summer of Shat!

Or at least it will be at the Uppercase Gallery in Calgary from June 15 to August 31, 2007:

An exhibition and publication of artwork depicting William Shatner, featuring the work of over seventy artists of diverse illustrative styles from Canada and the US.

But, if you can't go, you can console yourself with the Shatner Show blog, and of course, there will be a book!

Hat tip to Drawger and Zina Saunders' blog!

Space:1999 as Architectural Design

There are certain times in your life when something happens. It's a surprise and you are touched and maybe affected deeply. Maybe it's a piece of music, a novel, a movie -- whatever it is, you are moved by the experience.

Who knew that someone would be so moved by a 1970s British TV space show as to recreate the sets and then live in them.

A while ago, I posted about a fellow who lived in a STAR TREK apartment.

And now ... there's a woman who took the set designers of SPACE:1999 to heart. Catherine Bujold Sorellarium 13 is going to live in Moonbase Alpha, gang. Go, look. She's lost her mind, bless her heart. But she seems to have found her joy, which is more than most.

I remember the reviews for the show. One was titled "Space:1999, Marked Down from 2001." It was not a mass-audience hit, but now there is a kitsch factor going for it. The title sequence is still a lot of fun. The theme, by Barry Gray, is full of cool guitar licks. You'll see that in the middle of the titles there's a placard that says THIS EPISODE and you get quick cuts of all sorts of action/explosions/running/explosions/ray guns zapping/explosions previewing the adventure, a practice that the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA show has borrowed in its own titles, Ron Moore, the BSG producer, has openly credited 1999.

Hat tip to Eye of the Goof blog.

Star Trek Fan Film Circa 1976

Just for fun: here's some video of a 31 year old 8mm STAR TREK fan film.

Now, listen up kids, this was back in the primordial 70s, when no one knew if this show could ever come back. It was the Dark Ages of Trek fandom.

And it was back when if you wanted shot of the Enterprise in orbit you had to --

ask mom to drive you to the hobby shop

buy a model of the Enterprise

glue it together

buy a beach ball

cover the beach ball in some lumpy oatmeal and paint it

attach fishing line to the model and the beach ball.

Not like today, when it's all in bits and bytes in the ol' hard drive.

Anyway, this short film was awarded second place at the 1976 Star Trek Bicentennial Convention. It runs under 2 minutes. I wonder if the person who posted the thing to YouTube was one of the guys who did the movie!

Image of the ALL ABOUT STAR TREK FAN CLUBS mag taken from this blog site.

Free Comic Book Day/Twomorows Free Downloads

From the editors at Twomorrows:

Who says you can't get something for nothing? On Free Comic Book Day (this Saturday, May 5), stop in your local comic book shop and ask for a free copy of Comics 101, our new primer created just for the event. If they don't have any, then order yours at our webstore (www.twomorrows.com) by Sunday, and it'll only cost you enough to cover our printing and postage costs. After Sunday, we're going to start charging more for it, to help recoup our expenses (but it'll still be a bargain!).

Also, this weekend only, you can download FREE PDF COMPLETE ISSUES of the following mags, just by logging in and putting them in your shopping cart:

Alter Ego #65
Back Issue #21
Jack Kirby Collector #47
Write Now #14
Draw #12
Rough Stuff #3

Because of contractual obligations, we can only give these away this Saturday and Sunday, and then we've got to take them down. So if you're never sampled all of our mags, here's your chance to try an ENTIRE ISSUE, absolutely FREE! Go get 'em, and enjoy!

Best regards,
John Morrow
TwoMorrows

Will Eisner: Preventive Service Monthly

Above: front & back cover of P*S issue no. 125, 1963 series.

Will Eisner, whose documentary premiered yesterday (with another showing on Sunday, May 6) in the past week, was a prolific guy. Eisner ran a number of studios, moving from comic books to comic strips to graphic novels with ease. One of his long-running efforts was PREVENTIVE SERVICE MONTHLY, or P*S, which he helmed for years.


Above: back cover of P*S issue no. 102, 1961 series.

P*S was not as glamorous as a costumed crime fighter or gritty stories about the city, but it deserves a bit more than a footnote. P*S was designed to remind the soldiers of the importance of doing the preventive maintenance and installation jobs the right way and contained a lot of information on stuff like:

Installing bolts and cotter pins

Grounding radio sets in trucks

Missile and rocket cable connections

G758-series vehicle spark plugs

Proper tools to use on UH-1 chopper engines


Above: back cover of P*S issue no. 33, 1955 series.

I'm not an expert on Eisner ... but I did have these couple of P*S mags. Each one has a poster on the back page, and it seemed ashamed to not share them.


Above: back cover of P*S issue no. 119, 1962 series.

A real true sentiment, in or out of the military.

The mag used to be called ARMY MOTORS, and Eisner had been highly successful combining cartoons with instruction for it. Although ARMY MOTORS ceased publication after WW2, the Army approached Eisner to revive the publication, now retitled as PREVENTIVE SERVICE, for distribution during the Korean conflict.

Eisner helmed a studio, and entered into a private contract relationship with the Army. The PS work was produced for over 20 years beginning in 1951, with his hands-on oversight. His assistants included Murphy Anderson and Mike Ploog.

Today, P*S continues on, with Joe Kubert at the helm.



Above: back cover of P*S issue no. 132, 1963 series.

Spooky, busty snowgirl!

Each issue has this at the bottom of its contents page: "Use of funds for printing of this publication has bee approved by Headquarters, Department of the Army, 4 April 1962. DISTRIBUTION: In accordance with requirements submitted on DA From 12-4."

Hawthorne Comic Convention, Saturday, May 12, 2007

Last month I got an email from a guy -- a talented guy -- who wanted to make it in the comic book biz. He asked:

How do I get started drawing comics?

One answer is the Hawthorne High School Comic Convention.

One way to get started is to approach a pro comic book artist at a convention. Bring a portfolio of your work.

Now, a lot of these cons are busy and it's difficult to get a minute of quality time with a pro. Hawthorne is a small con in Hawthorne, New Jersey, with some real big legendary names (see below). It promises to not be as crowded as a big city con -- and the admission price is only $3!

Nice thing is that at the above linked site are some easy directions to get there if you are a car-less city dweller!

Here's the vitals:

Saturday May 12th, 2007

10am – 4 pm

Hawthorne High School, 160 Parmelee Avenue, Hawthorne, NJ 07506

Admission is still only $3!

Guests Include:

Gene Colan (Dracula, Daredevil, Batman)

Irwin Hasen (Dondi)

Jim Salicrup (Editor Papercutz, Marvel)

Danny Fingeroth (Editor Marvel, Write Now)

Mark Schultz (Cadillac's & Dinosaurs, Prince Valiant)

Joe Sinnott (Fantastic Four, Spiderman)

Ian Dorian (painter, penciller, sculptor)

Guy Dorian (painter, penciller)

Scott Roberts (Pattycake, Nickelodeon, Prince Valiant)

Tania Del Rio (Sabrina)

Joe Giella (Tent.) (Batman, Green Lantern, Flash and America's sweetheart Mary Worth)

Rudy Nebres (Vamperilla, Creepy, Eerie)

Doug Baron (penciller, Kubert School teacher)

Tommy Castillo (Batman, Toe Tags, duCret School teacher)

Paulo Rivera (painter Marvel)

Daniel Reed (Retro Dead)

Mark Romanowski (painter, duCret School instuctor)

Mark Sparacio (painter, Miss Liberty)

John Workman (Heavy Metal, letterer extraordinary!)

Bob Wiacek (inker Marvel, DC)

Paul Banono (penciller)

Dave DeVries (painter, creator of Monster Engine)

Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art

Bob Smith (Batman)

Mercy Van Vlack (Richie Rich, Evolution Comics)

Ken Gale (Creepy, Good Guys, Nuff Said)

Chris Moreno (Sidekick, WW Hulk: Frontline)

M. Sean McManus

Rob Garnito

Jon Cooke (Editor of Comic Book Artist Mag.) (Tent.)

Dennis Calero (X Factor)

Rich Buckler Sr. (almost every character at DC & Marvel!!!)

A big tip of the hat to Jim Salicrup!

Big Boy Comics & Craig Yoe

Grand stuff! An interview with Craig Yoe conducted by Steve Heller about Big Boy Comics!

Here's Craig's descrip (Craig's not into upper case, OK?):

steven heller of the new york times interviews craig yoe of the new yoe times about the big boy restaurant comic book on the AIGA website.

revelations including:

there's over 500 issues

stan lee wrote the 1st one

bill everett and dan decarlo were past artists

the origin of the double-decker

big boy now has super powers

what famous animator invented the character?

check it out.

Big hat tip: Craig Yoe!

Graphic taken from his Yoe Studio Web site.

Video: Mark Anderson Draws

My pal Mark Anderson has a video of him drawing a cartoon, from pencils to inks, in real time at his Andertoons blog.

Mark shows you the drawing process; just the one of the many steps in cartooning -- but the part that people tend to really like. I admire Mark's work, and personally think it's brave of him to show this! I especially like the "fix this" in PhotoShop notes he writes to himself on the original. It's shown in real time and about 8 minutes passes from blank sheet of paper to finished cartoon (excepting that minor PhotoShop fix).

One caveat: Mark makes it look easy. It isn't! With thousands of cartoons under his belt, he draws efficiently and quickly for us.

Above: The line "Ooooh! It must be WONDERFUL to be CREATIVE all the time" is what a client said to me once.

It's not always so WONDERFUL -- as you can see by the mounds of paper with things crossed out in my above doodle. Heck, to be a cartoonist you gotta draw, write, be able to deal with clients, manage the money, find new markets -- and you gotta do this every day. The creative part is shackled to the commercial aspects of producing appropriate material.

R. Crumb Video: "The Bean Effect"

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Robert Crumb, dressed as a doctor, explains his personal vision of the perfect female form, and draws a bean.

Although this is from the 1987 BBC documentary, The Confessions of Robert Crumb, it was new to me. I remember seeing some of his originals -- beautiful work -- in the Carnegie Museum last year and wondering if they were going to bring up his treatment of women in his comics work. The show did not, if I remember correctly, have any of his comics where he rode women around or any of his nastier stuff. This clip does not, but Mr. Crumb does tell us the kind of physical woman he likes.


I admire Crumb's artistry, but he never was a personal favorite. But, hey, ya gotta be a little bit in awe of any cartoonist who can trade a couple of sketchbooks for a villa in France.

"His status as the bull-goose legend of underground cartooning meant that in the early '90s he was able to trade six of his sketchbooks for a house in the South of France."

-- Steve Burgess, Salon.com

Tom Spurgeon Interviews Brendan Burford

Brendan Burford, the new comics editor at King Features, and all around swell fellow, is interviewed by Tom Spurgeon at the Comics Reporter site.

Battle of the Cartoon Moms!

Blondie vs. Elly Patterson! Mary Worth vs. Sally Forth! Who can beat up who?!

Craig Yoe will tell us when he presents AMERICA’S TOP TOON-A-MILF–BATTLE OF THE CARTOON MOMS! More here at Craig's always terrific Arflovers blog!

Left: an old Kellogg's Pep pin of "Mama," from the Katzenjammer Kids. She's my pick for the winner. Mama will beat you seneseless (unless you can convince her that you're a little dollink)!