CARICATOUR #1 May 1968 Part One of Two

CARICATOUR #1, "Put-downs and put-ons on what's up," was a short-lived satirical magazine published by Art Pottier. This is the first issue, dated May, 1968, and it's copyright 1968 by Contemporary Publications, Inc.



The highlights include Charlie Rodrigues' "Allen Ginsberg for President! Bob Dylan for Vice President" centerfold feature, as well as the above uncredited PEANUTS Spoof, "Chestnuts."

Despite so-so production values (B&W newsprint with a newsprint two-tone cover), the roster of great cartoonists who contribute is top flight: Legoze (Luis Goyenechea, the South American cartoonist who drew the terrific cover); New Yorker gag cartoonists Sid Harris, Ed Fisher, and Al Ross; Jules Feiffer; and veteran cartoonist Charlie Rodrigues (Cracked, New Yorker, National Lampoon, Stereo Review, etc.); international cartoonists such as Nitka, Mahood (The Times - London), Picha (Belgium), Waite (The Times - London); as well as Art Pottier (Cracked), himself.

This is the first of 2 parts. My thanks to the one and only cartoonist extraordinaire Don Orehek for this copy of CARICATOUR #1.

Video: The Solo Adventures in 3D

Here is the award winning entry from the 2010 STAR WARS Fan Movie Challenge. It's put together by Daniel L. Smith and 2010 graduates of The Dave School. It's just over 5 minutes and very fun and if you have those red/cyan 3D classes, even more fun. I didn't have any glasses, but it's still a snappily written dun (and funny) bit of animation. Really worth seeing what The Dave School can do!

The Solo Adventures 3D from Daniel L Smith on Vimeo.

Hat tip Forbidden Planet! And as they point out, there are both 3D and 2D versions at Dan’s Vimeo page.

Jean-Philippe Peyraud Speed-Draws MRS DALLOWAY

I just made up that word, "speed-draws."

"Speed-draws" describes what happens in the video below: a pilot for proposed French TV documentary series wherein a cartoonist takes a page from a classic book and, before our eyes, lays it out, draws, scans & colors.

The format: the cartoonist gets to choose from 3 books. After choosing one, he picks a page to draw and listens to a bit on tape. Then, the drawing begins.

The end result is an adaptation of a page from the novel. In the video below, the cartoonist is Bande Dessinee creator Jean-Philippe Peyraud, who draws a page from the novel MRS. DALLOWAY by Virginia Woolf.

For people (like me) who love to watch other cartoonists' process, this speed-draw exercise is a must-see. It's 7 minutes long and in French.


Figure libre : programme pilote avec Jean-Philippe Peyraud
Uploaded by Futuropolis. - Independent web videos.

A big thanks to Rod McKie via Ulf K! Thanks, Rod and Ulf!!

More about the series at the Figure Libre site.

Jim Benton's Dress Designs for Lady Gaga

Writer and cartoonist Jim (Happy Bunny, DEAR DUMB DIARY) Benton proposes some new dress designs for the diva pop star.

YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW! Part Seven

This is the seventh and final 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.




























Frank O'Neal's HONEY, I'M HOME cartoon became the title of a collection of Saturday Evening Post cartoons. I wrote about that collection here.


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
  

AXLE AND CAM by Bud Sagendorf

Sherm Cohen's Cartoon SNAP! showcases AXLE AND CAM by Bud Sagendorf, a back up feature in the POPEYE comic book.

Stephen Fry iPhone Application

So much for being a linear reader. Now you can read Mr. Frye any way you want.

Big tip of the Jeeves bowler to The Cartoonist!

Cartoonist Jayarama Udupa Quote

From a profile of Jayarama Udupa in the Express Buzz:

”Making a cartoon which brings out this duality in nature - good and bad, life and death and war and death - is a challenge. Every work has to be different and should offer some food for thought.”

Indian caricaturist and cartoonist Jayarama Udupa currently has a gallery show of 100 works at the Indian Art Gallery in Bangalore. The show ends Saturday.

More information here.

Video: Schulz Museum Sketch-a-thon

This past Saturday, the Schulz Museum had a bunch of cartoonists in for a public sketch-a-thon.

Many cartoonists were there: Brent Anderson, Michael Capozzola, Rhoda Draws, Alexis Fajardo, Brian Fies, Shaenon Garrity, Mike Gray, Debbie Huey,Greg Knight, Jonathan Lemon, Paul Madonna, Brian Narelle, Thien Pham, Lark Pien, Dan Piraro, Frank Roberson, and Justin Thompson.

My pal Brian Fies was kind enough to write all about his experience at his blog. Do take a look at his grand and touching tribute to Charlie Brown near the end of his post.

The Museum produced this 90 second overview of the events of that day here:

Video: Bob Kane Interviewed by Stan Lee

From the series of Comic Book Greats videos, released by Stabur Home Video on VHS in the early 1990s.

Dixie Riddle Cups Commercial (1973)

Dixie Riddle Cups. Is it time for a comeback? I don't know.

Just imagine, a couple of today's kids, reading off some corny old jokes off of 5 ounce paper cups. Ha ha ha! Well, that was entertainment. At least it was in 1973, waaaaay back in those pre-MTV, pre-iPad days!

Now here's the problem: the first thing ya wanna do is open up the box (the cups came in a box, not in a clear plastic bag). True riddle fans will want to get their grubby mits on each and every cup, thus destroying any reasonable level of sanitation Mom wants.

And here's the other problem -- no -- not a problem ---actually, the ugly truth behind the Dixie Riddle Cups: there weren't hundreds of unique riddle cups in that box. After six or eight cups, the jokes begin to repeat. Pretty chintzy, huh?

Here's a commercial for Dixie Riddle Cups, as well as (for some reason, I don't know why) a minute or two of a BEWITCHED episode.



Image of Dixie Riddle Cup package at top from The Imaginary World, which is a gallery full of "food packaging featuring characters, unusual packaging and misc. premium offers."

I couldn't find a site that had the actual, readable cups to give you a sample of how the jokes, but they were about on par with:

What gets whiter the dirtier that it gets?
A chalkboard

What is the moon worth?
$1, because it has 4 quarters.

What has no beginning, end, or middle?
A doughnut.

What has to be broken before it can be used?
An egg.

LIO Attacks BEETLE BAILEY, THE DOOZIES Defend His Honor

Syndicated newspaper cartoonists Mark Tatulli and Tom Gammill take on BEETLE BAILEY.

LIO by Mark Tatulli attacked the venerable BEETLE in this September installment:




And Tom Gammill's THE DOOZIES enters the fray today, defending BEETLE's honor.



A very large tip of the Camp Swampy helmet to Ruben Bolling for this.

Rina Piccolo: More Twittoons: Your Tweets Cartooned!

I really like this new set of cartooned Tweets by Rina Piccolo.

Rina takes real Tweets from different Twitter uses and doodles up an image. The results are surreal, funny and thought provoking.

Jerry Grandenetti 1926-2010

Comic book artist Jerry Grandenetti passed away on February 19, 2010. Cause of death unknown. Mark Evanier, who confirmed Mr. Grandenetti's passing, writes about the comic book artist's life.

Related: prolific writer Jim Amash reflects on Grandetti's career
Related: a 2008 interview with Mr. Grandenetti.

YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW! Part Six

This is the sixth 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
  

Richard Thompson's BLONDIE

Richard Thompson, my friend and extraordinary cartoonist, shows us not one but three parodies of BLONDIE, which turned 80 last week.

Love those old dialogue balloons littering the floor.

The Business Model is Dead, Long Live the Business Model

Nate Anderson writes about the XKCD Web comic by Randall Munroe in his Ars Technica piece titled Disruption: How One Webcomic Welcomes the Future That so Many Fear.

"Munroe's approach to 'protecting' his content might be best defined as 'lenient'

"'You are welcome to reprint occasional comics pretty much anywhere (presentations, papers, blogs with ads, etc),' he writes. 'If you're not outright merchandising, you're probably fine. Just be sure to attribute the comic to xkcd.com.'

"Somehow, giving the comic away for free has turned into a lucrative business for the now full-time cartoonist."

More here.

Related: Randall Munroe draws Cory Doctorow ("who likes to draw me as a superhero in cape and goggles") for the cover of a new limited edition book of Doctorow's.

Jack Davis Album Covers

There is so much to love in a Jack Davis drawing: the energy, those crazy caricatures, how alive those pen lines are. These are works of art to linger over in awe. The Hairy Green Eyeball blog shares some of his grand album cover art from back in the days of LPs. Go look.

Bob Dyer: Unsolicited Rants in Your Inbox

The Akron Beacon Journal's Bob Dyer writes about people who send you VERY IMPORTANT STUFF in the email -- information, they inform you, that has been ''totally ignored by the mainstream media."

Bob points out that there are some simple ways to check this out. The first one, is, please, USE YOUR EYEBALLS.

Case in point:

"Awhile back some clown sent me a bunch of political cartoons critical of Barack Obama and other Democrats that was headlined, 'AUSTRALIAN CARTOONS NOT SEEN IN AMERICA.'

"It ended with: 'These cartoons are not of USA origin. Thanks, Australia. Pass them on. The liberal American press will not.'

"If you looked closely at the credit lines on the cartoons, you'd see one of them was published by The Times Picayune, the biggest newspaper in New Orleans. Another was from the North County Times, a daily near San Diego. Two others were drawn by an American whose syndicated work — featured in the Washington Post, the L.A. Times and the Chicago Sun-Times — was nominated for the Editorial Cartoon Award in 2007 by the National Cartoonist[s] Society — our National Cartoonist[s] Society.

"If those cartoons were published in Australia, somebody in Australia was legally obligated to send money to the United States for the right to do so.

"There are plenty of good reasons to dislike the 'mainstream press' without dreaming up total fabrications that ruin your credibility."

Related: Rob Tornoe: Chain-Letter’s Claim of Australian Conservative Cartoons False

Related: Daily Politics has all of the cartoons here, as do a lot of other blogs. Most of the commenters quickly recognize the names of the US papers and US cartoonists.

THE SOUNDS OF STAR WARS

Chronicle Books' new THE SOUNDS OF STAR WARS book contains a sound module for the 250 sound effects included with 300 photographs and behind the scene stories about the distinctive sound design for the STAR WARS universe.

From the Galleycat blog:

"Here's more from sound designer Ben Burtt, explaining how he created noises for the robot R2D2: 'I would close my editing room door and curl up in a quiet corner with the tape recorder and mic and generate baby talk ... I put myself into the mind of an infant and acted out a scene with a droid's intentions. I'd whistle and coo, I would sigh and groan, and at the same time I'd move the oscillators of the synthesizer.'"

J.N. "Ding" Darling and the Conservation Federation of Missouri.

Bill Crawford, 92, shows off a drawing made on a tablecloth by editorial cartoonist J.N. "Ding" Darling. It was doodled by Ding during the first meeting of the Conservation Federation of Missouri in 1935. Crawford is the only living attendee from the first meeting and will be a speaker at the 75th anniversary dinner on Friday.

Eva Dou, writing for The Missourian, cites the 75th anniversary of the first meeting of the Conservation Federation of Missouri.

"The Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist, J.N. 'Ding' Darling, was there, as evidenced by his doodles of ducks and fish on the paper tablecloth. The drawings were saved from the trash by then-Columbia Tribune editor H.J. Waters and later framed by Crawford."

Entire article here.

Interview with Cartoonist Posy Simmonds

The Islington Tribune posts an interview with Posy Simmonds. She talks about her graphic novel, TAMARA DREWE, and her reaction to the new DREWE feature film.

"'It is weird,” says the Bloomsbury-based artist. 'I used real life and turned it into 2-D drawings. Stephen Frears has taken 2-D drawings and made them into 3-D people. The metamorphosis is odd to watch, but he is very, very faithful to the book.'"

Dan Carrier writes the article and also reviews the new movie.

Above image from the Teaser-Trailer site.

Universal Uclick to Distribute PEANUTS

The PEANUTS comic strip has moved from United to Universal.

The Universal press release is here.

A big hat tip to Anne Hambrock for the heads up. Thanks, Anne!

PEANUTS Leaving United Feature Syndicate

Image copyright UFS for now.

United Feature Syndicate and the PEANUTS gang are parting ways after 60 years effective February 2011.

Michael Cavna, writing for The Washington Post's Comic Riffs blog, has the story:

"As Comic Riffs reported in April, United's parent, E.W. Scripps Co. had reached a deal to sell its United Media Licensing business -- including "Peanuts" -- to Iconix Brand Group for $175-million. And this past summer, Scripps sold the Peanuts property to Peanuts Worldwide LLC.

"'We at United Feature Syndicate have been involved in negotiations with Peanuts Worldwide for the right to continue to syndicate and distribute the Peanuts comic strip to newspapers,' the syndicate said in its announcement. 'Unfortunately, we were not able to come to mutually agreeable terms, and as a result, United Feature Syndicate will no longer distribute the 'Peanuts' comic strip to newspapers, effective February 26, 2011.'"