Art Cumings June 9, 1922 - August 28, 2012

Art Cumings, my friend from the Berndt Toast Gang, best known as an illustrator and cartoonist of children's books (for Dr. Seuss and other books), and creator of "Balloonheads" and "The Artist"  for Bob Guccione's Penthouse and Omni magazines, died on August 25, 2012. He was 90 years old.

He leaves his wife Alda, whom he met in art school, and their sons, Brian, Peter and his wife Laura, and Steven and his wife Danielle, and four grandchildren. I extend my deepest sympathies to Alda and the entire family.

His Newsday obituary is here.

Above: a 1953 magazine illustration by Art Cumings. More here.


Berndt Toast Gang (the Long Island chapter of the National Cartoonists Society) chairman Adrian Sinnott called Art "a quiet genius," and he was.

My take: he was an illustrator's illustrator and a cartoonist's cartoonist. He always asked me more questions about myself and art and drawing than I ever asked him. And I have scant knowledge of where he was born (I think it was Vermont), where he studied, or anything important about him!

Above: "The Artist," copyright the respective copyright holders. Scan courtesy of Adrian Sinnott.

Here's Sandy Kossin, his friend and colleague:

Art Cumings, HUMORIST, knew me from the days that we were MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATORS.

Except, he wasn't happy with the work he was doing, and in his confusion, he found my work to have the artistic merit he was looking for, especially since I was doing magazine spreads and HUMOROUS work for magazines and advertising.  So when we met (don't remember where),  he immediately wanted to discuss art and humor and writing. I told him everything I know (took me about five minutes) and I finally had a fan! And a good friend!

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.

Even as we aged, and we're retired, he'd still phone me "just to talk art"....and, typically, it turned out I was
doing the learning!

Arthur, I will miss those sessions and miss you most of all.  You were a great COMMUNICATOR!

There are some "Legacy dot com guest book" entries remembering Art here. Sometimes these sites go away, so here are some of the comments from that site as of August 30th:

August 30, 2012
 

To the Cumings Family, Our prayer are with you all. Don't know where to begin. My, our, times during the summers @ Cedar Hill Terrace. That he was always about with a great big smile, on the porch, on the beach path w/ his beach chair, the the large striped towel drapped over his shoulder, and on the beach. Alway around with a wonderfil greeting. Always made you feel special. He even extended himself to my son, on a visit from Kansas to Cedar Hill, my son Johnny had mentioned how he liked to draw, and Art took him to his upstairs Studio. Gave him the tour, spent some time showing him some drawing techniques. My son was walking on air as we left. He still speaks of those days visiting Miller Place. What a great man, God bless you Art Cumings. You'll always be in our prays, Johnny and Melissa Munz

~ 

John J Munz,

Bucyrus, Kansas

August 30, 2012

What a wonderful man. I grew up next door to "Mr. Cumings" who was a kind and quiet presence. He happily endured we kids often invading his studio. In later years, I had long and wonderful conversations with Art that would always go off in unexpected directions. 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.

My deepest sympathies to Alda, Peter, Steven, Brian and their families.

Offer it up!

~ 

Chuck Landrey,

Old Saybrook, Connecticut

August 30, 2012

To the Cumings Family, we are so sorry to hear about Art's passing. Our prayers are with all of you. Lauren and Bill Plage

~ 

Lauren Plage,

Centerbrook, Connecticut

Chuck Landry's memory is typical Art! He was so full of knowledge and love for not only the result but the process. He will be sorely missed by his friends.

Below is a selection of his Balloonheads feature from some 1970s Penthouse magazines, copyright the respective copyright holders. My thanks to Leif Peng for these scans:

TEENSVILLE U.S.A. Edited by Lawrence Lariar Part 1

There is nothing like a teen. They hog the phone, they date, they listen to their 45s, they hang out at the malt shop. And none of them have heard of an iPhone ... at least that's the way things were in the hardcover gag cartoon collection TEENSVILLE U.S.A., which is copyright 1959 by prolific gag cartoon collection editor Lawrence Lariar.

My thanks to my friend Adrian Sinnott for his copy of  TEENSVILLE U.S.A.

New on DVD: Gene Roddenberry's THE LIEUTENANT

 Above: Gary Lockwood as William Tiberius Rice adorns the cover of the new DVD release THE LIEUTENANT.

Gene Roddenberry's pre-STAR TREK TV series THE LIEUTENANT is available on DVD for the first time. The one season series stars Gary Lockwood and Robert Vaughn.

Christopher Mills at DVD Late Show writes about it:

Exceptionally well-written and produced, with consistently good direction by a slew of TV veterans including Richard Donner and Don Medford, THE LIEUTENANT is engaging and compelling drama. The guest casts include a number of familiar television faces like Bill Bixby, Rip Torn, Norman Fell, Neville Brand, Linda Evans, Richard Anderson, Barbara Bain, Ricardo Montalban, and future TREKkers Leonard Nimoy, Majel Barrett, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig - all of whom do extremely good work here.

THE LIEUTENANT was well-received, but lasted only one season as the escalating conflict in Vietnam made the subject matter too risky for NBC. As with TREK, Roddenberry's desire to address controversial subject matter also made the network uncomfortable - NBC refused to air (or pay for) an episode dealing with racial bigotry starring TREK's Nichelle Nichols.

The rest of his review is here (including a link to order the series, as well as THE LIEUTENANT made for TV movie).

Like a lot of these manufactured on demand DVDs, the price is more than a typical DVD. But given the video and audio quality, and the absolute scarcity of the series (it's been virtually unseen since its 1963-64 network run), it's worth considering economizing a bit for a while so as to justify the purchase if you're a fan. 

I'm not sure, but I think this means that pretty much all of the television work that Roddenberry ever did -- from his first scripts for HAVE GONE WILL TRAVEL, to his 1970s TV pilots -- is on DVD.

EDIT: As of October 18, 2012, THE QUESTOR TAPES, Roddenberry's 1974 pilot about an android in search of its creator, is now available in on-demand DVD format from the Universal Vault. 

Harvest Time

We have hundreds of pounds of tomatoes. I've made a couple of quarts of sauce, but freezer space is limited. So, for the first time, we are canning some of them.

Well, "we" aren't. My wife, Stacy, is dong the canning. I'm just taking the photos of the tomatoes' journey from raised garden bed to the inside of a Mason jar. Above: they are all in their 45 minute boiling bath.

And here are the first jars of Roma tomatoes, which will be eaten in the dead of winter.

Interview: Kieran Meehan "Nowt So Daft"

There is that old business joke sign that says "You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Work Here -- But It Sure Helps." For cartoonists, it's a necessity.

For British-born Kieran Meehan it's a good kinda crazy.

After some bad exam results, a teacher told young Keiran that he was a fool. After a move from London to Glasgow, a St. Charles Primary School teacher noticed correctly that he was short-sighted. This explained why things like seeing the blackboard and team sports were "an unhappy experience."

Kieran read a lot of comics, THE BEANO and THE DANDY among them. He also liked to draw comics. His parents, recognizing his talent, sent him to weekly classes at the Glasgow School of Art.

Kieran went into advertising and design as a profession. He would continue this path for twenty years, but cartoons were a constant. He began to draw single panel cartoons, sending them out en masse to magazines in the late 1980s. He also sent them to King Features, where they caught the attention of Comics Editor Jay Kennedy.

It was a long struggle, and now Kieran is a regularly published cartoonist, with cartoons in many publications and a King Features syndicated cartoon feature 'Pros & Cons.'

His new book NOWT SO DAFT is a collection of his single panel cartoons.

Here's my August 31, 2012 interview with Kieran about his life and his new book:

 
Did your parents encourage your art? Did attending the Glasgow School of Art help you draw better? Looking back, was art instruction helpful to you being the cartoonist you are now?

My parents encouraged and paid for me to attend Saturday morning classes but I suspect it was just an excuse to get me out of the house. I'm certain I became more accomplished thanks to the lessons I received then and later. I might still have become a cartoonist without tuition but the drawings would have been very different.

What were your favorite comics when you were growing up? What are your favorite comics/cartoons now?

As a child my favorite comics were:- The Beano, The Beezer, The Dandy, Oor Wullie, The Broons, Popeye and Beetle Bailey. As an adolescent, Look & Learn and Tell Me Why. About the only genre I couldn't relate to was the superhero. I never counted Popeye as a superhero. What superhero is obsessed with a healthy diet and yet displays a flamboyant disregard for the dangers of smoking?

Of the many comics and cartoons I now admire:- Cul de Sac, Calvin and Hobbes, Retail, Andy Capp, Hagar the Horrible, Speed Bump, Dilbert, Doonesbury, The Duplex and Pooch Cafe immediately spring to mind. I'm certain there are many more great comics and cartoonists I've missed, or have yet to discover.

When you look back at the years from 1989, when you began mailing out single panel cartoons to various magazines, to 1991, when you made your first sale to Private Eye magazine (they bought three) -- what do you think kept you going during those years of rejection?

I made several false starts to my career in cartoons prior to 1989. Each time I had received multiple rejections and these experiences stood me in good stead for my final push. Because I anticipated rejection on a grand scale I had prepared dozens of cartoons and placed these in stamped addressed envelopes. As soon as I received a rejection I mailed another batch off. I'm only thankful Private Eye threw in the towel before I did.

NOWT SO DAFT is not a common expression in the States. What's the story behind the title?

'Nowt (nothing) so daft (odd) as folk' was a common Lancashire/Yorkshire phrase and something my Mother said regularly. She would often abbreviate this to, 'Daft' when I showed her one of my cartoons. I interpreted this to mean she was trying to stop herself laughing and it was a good cartoon. When she laughed and THEN said 'Daft' I interpreted this to mean it was a excellent cartoon. 

NOWT SO DAFT seemed the logical title for my first collection of single panel cartoons.

What drawing tools/paper do you use?

I used to put my faith in Rotring Art Pens but after a protracted period flooding, blotching, jamming, squirting and cursing, I swore I'd never use Rotring again. I now use Rotring Isograph pens. I'm not one to hold a grudge. I draw on either 'Daler' cartridge paper or 'Seawhite of Brighton' Layout paper.

What's next? Will there be more books? Are you thinking about maybe doing other forms of cartoons like a graphic novel or animation?

There are two more NOWT SO DAFT pocketbooks in the pipeline. I've also produced a 132 page graphic novel based on the characters in 'Pros & Cons,' my daily comic strip. 'Trial and Tribulation' will be published early next year. I'd love to work in animation but the art form is so wonderfully accomplished, refined and sophisticated I don't think I could add anything to the art form.

My thanks to Kieran Meehan for agreeing to do this interview. You see? He isn't so daft. Please consider supporting his terrific cartoons by buying his book.

The Garden As of September 1, 2012

The nights are getting cooler now. Thursday morning, the heat came on. Some of the trees are already showing their browns, yellows and reds. What with the early spring, it's been a long summer for them.

And it's harvest time in the garden.

Above: the raised beds.

Above: the winter squash and sweet potatoes.

Above: green peppers and sweet potatoes. Some of the squash from the neighboring bed has wandered over.

Very big peppers!

Above: the tomatoes.

These are the heirloom tomatoes. They are big and ugly -- but great tasting.

Kale is doing well too.

Prolific cucumbers continue to defy growing vertically.

Some of the flowers:

The winter squash vines invades the yard.

Video: DOCTOR WHO "Pond Life" Entire Series

Every day this week, there has been a new mini-adventure in anticipation of the new DOCTOR WHO Series 7 premiere on Saturday. Here is all five episodes together. But hat tip to Life, Doctor Who and Combom for this: