YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW! Part Five

Here is the fifth part of a selection of gag cartoons from the book YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW!, edited by Lawrence Lariar and published by Dodd, Mead & Company. It's copyright 1955 by Mr. Lariar.




















Here are links to all of YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW!

• Part one
• Part two
• Part three
• Part four
• Part five
• Part six
• Part seven
  

Conrad Obit: Not the Whole Story

In Conrad Obit: Not the Whole Story, LA Times columnist Bill Boyarsky writes about " the unforgivable way he [Paul Conrad] had been treated" toward the end of his tenure as editorial cartoonist.

"The editorial page became bland and more conservative. Conrad, the opposite of bland and conservative, was out of place and out of highly placed friends and supporters.

"In 1993, Conrad accepted a buyout and was replaced by a conservative cartoonist, Michael Martinez.

"Conrad and readers were told that he would continue to appear in the Times. But as it turned out, he ran only sporadically. The impact of his daily cartoons was gone. He was just another of the syndicated cartoonists the paper occasionally used. Readers didn’t know when he would appear, or where on the pages his cartoons would run. Angry, he often called the editors, demanding to know why his cartoons weren’t being run. He couldn’t get straight answers. America’s greatest political cartoonist was being treated as if he were a rookie freelancer."

Posy Simmonds' "Pole Dancing Research"

Via today's Independent:

"... Posy Simmonds, revealed she'd been researching her next graphic novel by attending pole-dancing classes. 'It's terrifying,' she told me. 'Terrible, truly ghastly. People look like complete arses doing it.'"

Photo of Posy Simmonds by Christian Sinibaldi for a Guardian 2008 Posy Simmonds interview.

Stephanie Piro: Harvest Time 2010

My friend and neighbor, Stephanie Piro, tells us in cartoons all about the big tomato harvest at their place. Her husband, John, is an amazing gardener and they have a large garden -- yielding many crops.

The harvest can wreck havoc on scheduling time to cartoon. And, there is, of course, the ever present menace of getting tomato juice on valuable originals! Go look!

Worst Celebrity Children Names by Johnny Hart

Above: actor Jason Lee and son Pilot Inspektor via Babble.

The Managing Editor of The Rocky Mountain Collegian, "the Student Voice of the Colorado State University since 1891," has the same name as a famous syndicated cartoonist.

"... I do have the misfortune of having the same name as a famous syndicated newspaper cartoonist –– I used to tell my gullible friends that I drew it. By the way, extra credit to whomever finds the strip."

In Johnny Hart's column (the editor, not the cartoonist), he focuses on some very bad names celebrities have chosen for their offspring.

Related: From the NY Times: Why Stars Name Babies Moxie, Moses and Apple by Alex Williams

Bill Gallo and "House of Steinbrenner" Documentary

Above: Yogi Berra, Barbara Kopple and cartoonist Bill Gallo at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center.


Award winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple's HOUSE OF STEINBRENNER, which is about memories of the old Yankee Stadium and George Steinbrenner, and the transition to the new stadium, new owners -- premieres this month on ESPN.

After a showing at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, Yogi Berra, Barbara Kopple and cartoonist Bill Gallo held a panel discussion.

Spencer Fordin, writing for MLB.com, reported on the relationship between Steinbrenner and Daily News cartoonist Bill Gallo:

"But his long interactions with George Steinbrenner reveal the man in all his complexity, a man who didn't even mind being portrayed as a Prussian general in print.

"'Frankly, he loved it,' said Gallo. 'And the reason for that is I never did it in bad taste. It was always lighthearted. Sometimes I pricked him a little, but even then he liked it. ... We had a good relationship'"

Yogi Barra and George Steinbrenner as depicted by Mr. Gallo. Copyright Mr. Gallo and/or The Daily News.

Image from NY Yankee fans chat board.

YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW! Part Four

This is part four of a selection of gag cartoons from the book YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW!, edited by Lawrence Lariar and published by Dodd, Mead & Company. It's copyright 1955 by Mr. Lariar.



















Here are links to all of YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW!

• Part one
• Part two
• Part three
• Part four
• Part five
• Part six
• Part seven
  

Languid Leary and his Wonderful Tomato Can

"Best Comic Strip Title Ever!" writes Allan Holtz, of the Stripper's Guide. Allan, via Cole Johnson, shows us scans of a 1902 obscure short-running comic strip titled LANGUID LEARY AND HIS WONDERFUL TOMATO CAN by Walter "Brad" Bradford.

Languid Larry would stroke a tomato can and, ala Aladdin's Lamp, some magic would ....

Aw, go read it yourself!

Video: Virtual Japanese Girfriend

Via The Wall Street Journal: Here's a report on "LovePlus+" (pronounced just "Love Plus," natch!), a Japanese interactive video dating game. While there is no sexual content, the players (which all seem to be heterosexual males who have "no romance in their lives") can kiss their virtual anime gals by tapping a stylus on the screen.

This report runs about 3 minutes (after an inescapable short ad). It's mostly English with, so you can watch it at work with no sound, English subtitles.

Paul Conrad 1924-2010

Three-time Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist Paul Conrad died today at his home in Rancho Palos Verde, California. According to his son, David Conrad, he died of natural causes, with his family around him. Mr. Conrad was 86.



One of the major cartoonist stars of his day, Conrad covered the presidencies from Truman to George W. Bush.




From the Associated Press obituary:

"Conrad's favorite target was President Richard Nixon. At the time of the president's resignation, Conrad drew Nixon's helicopter leaving the White House with the caption: 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest.'

"'He always said he was most proud of being on Nixon's enemies list,' David Conrad said."

Memorial plans are not set at this time.

Related: The PBS Independent Lens documentary, Paul Conrad: Drawing Fire, can be viewed online below. It runs 56 minutes.





Related: College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, CA, currently has a Paul Conrad exhibit, I Con, The Brilliant Work of Paul Conrad, through September 30th.

MOON MULLINS "The Kidnappers"

The Hairy Green Eyeball II blog shares a MOON MULLINS adventure from 1931.

Ultra Man vs Mozart: Pop Culture Comes to Life in 'Magic Flute' at Tokyo Nikikai Opera

From The Daily Yomimiuri online:

"Anime characters clad in colorful costumes take to the stage and sing as Ultra monsters make a brief appearance. This is Tokyo Nikikai Opera Theatre's production of Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute), Mozart's last opera, scheduled to open next week for its third run in Tokyo. It was premiered in 2005 under film and stage director Akio Jissoji (1937-2006), one of the creators of the Ultra Series.

"'Jissoji was a devotee of Japanese pop culture--including manga and anime--and he wanted to combine the subculture and [Mozart's] music,' Reijiro Kato, a cartoonist who designed the costumes and stage props, said in an interview with The Daily Yomiuri."

The rest is here. The article is written by Hiroko Oikawa.

Vaughan Bode's COBALT 60 Movie in Development

Film director Zack "300" Snyder talks to Jeff Jenson of Entertainent Weekly about future projects.

One of them is COBALT 60, "adapted from a cult classic comic by the late and revered underground cartoonist Vaughn Bode."

Related: Some COBALT 60 stories from Golden Age Comics Book Stories.

FYI: If you are new to Mr. Bode's work, please note that it's NSFW.

David Collier Draws 20 Page Graphic Novel for Luke Doucet's New CD

The Ottawa Citizen has an article about Luck Doucet's band and how illustrator/graphic novelist David Collier wound up drawing a 20 page "graphic novel" to be inserted in the new CD, titled Steel City Trawler. Here's a snippet of the article by Mark Medley:

Doucet, who was introduced to the world of comics by his wife, and stumbled onto Collier's work while browsing Montreal comic publisher Drawn & Quarterly's website, gave Collier complete freedom. In fact, after their first meeting the pair barely spoke.

"It wasn't even important to me what the content was -- I knew David was going to come up with something great," he says. "Whether it be specifically about me, or about Hamilton, or about David and his family, would have been fine. If he had handed me a comic that was about him and his family that had nothing to do with my record, that would have been OK."

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Comic+effects/3471571/story.html?cid=megadrop_story#ixzz0yNh1JEUj

NY Times: The Last Days and Legacy of Harvey Pekar

The New York Times profiles Joyce Brabner, the widow of comics writer Harvey Pekar, as well as some of the conflicts between her and the artists involved in his work -- particularly Tara Seibel.

So much of this was news to me and I was uncomfortable reading about it. This is all so much dirty laundry. I wish all of these people well and I can only imagine what Ms. Brabner is going through what with Harvey gone and the race by others to cobble his legacy into a legend.

CARTOONING BASICS and Owen Beale

There is so much cartooning talent. It's too bad that I can't travel to every school and library in the world to teach cartooning.

But I do have this book about drawing cartoons.

Here is one drawing exercise from my how to cartoon book CARTOONING BASICS and then, some sample cartoons from one talented 4th grader:



When we draw in cartoon class, we draw together. I draw 2 circles, and the class draws 2 circles. Then we put dots in the circles.


Put a cucumber shape over on the left and an inverted letter C on the right.



And we begin to build a face.


The bigger the mouth, the funnier it is.



This fellow is really upset.



Now that we add some hands and feet, we can see that he is in motion.

Some zoom lines complete the feeling of motion.



And above is the finished picture, showing where he is and what he is running from.

But some people, like Owen Beale, live far away and cannot get to one of my cartooning classes.

Fortunately, he had a copy of CARTOONING BASICS which shows you, step by step, how to draw!

Here's his version, drawn and colored by Owen:


Owen is nine years old. He's been drawing since he was three, his Mom tells me.

He received a copy of my how to cartoon book CARTOONING BASICS this past spring. (HYPE: There are a few copies remaining. Order here. It's $3.99 in the US and includes an original drawing!)

EDIT: THIS BOOK IS NOW SOLD OUT.


Above: The Other Nature by Owen Beale. This great cartoon made me laugh out loud.


While Owen loves cartooning, he isn't sure is he's going to be a professional cartoonist like his grandpa (the one and only Don Orehek), or a pro soccer player.

Owen is very active. He's on the swim team and holds a a black belt in Taekwondo.

His mother adds:

"His favorite comic strip is Pearls Before Swine. He made up one using Stephan Pastis' characters and my folks showed it to Stephan at the Reuben Awards and Stephan signed it saying 'To Owen, you're better than me!' Owen has it framed on his wall. They said Stephan is a really nice guy."

Above: Owen's PBS strip.

Tool talk: Owen's favorite drawing tools are pencil, a thin sharpie and colored pencils.

J.D. Crowe Meets J.D. Crowe

One is a Grammy award winning banjo player and the other is an award winning editorial cartoonist. And both J.D. Crowes grew up within 50 miles of each other in Kentucky.

"'I'd be the first to admit he's a little further up the Google chain than I am,' the cartoonist said about the musician. 'To me, he's the number one J.D. Crowe in America.'"

The Kentucky.com article by Jeff McDanald goes on to describe the editorial cartoonist's upbringing:

"'I was drawing before I could talk,' Crowe said. 'My mom figured out early on if she just tore open an old brown grocery sack and laid it flat on the floor and kept my pencil sharp, I'd be a good kid.'

"'I had picture stories in my mind. I would draw all day. I would fill up both sides of a grocery sack, and I guess that was as good a baby sitter as they could have gotten.'"

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/09/01/1415598/name-recognition-tricky-for-ky.html#ixzz0yHU9r99J

An archival print of the above Crowe editorial cartoon, referenced in the article, now hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame.