Brattleboro Museum and Art Center QuickDraw Friday May 12, 2017

Friday night we had a "QuickDraw." 

Above is a photo the live QuickDraw that was run by Hilary Price at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center on Friday night. I'm in the middle, and on the left is Maria Scrivan and on your right Mo Willems.

WHAT IS QUICKDRAW?

It's like live improv comedy but with cartoonists drawing. In this case, Hilary was the emcee and she ran the event. She had a series of questions, sometimes asking the audience for their input, and the three of us had to draw up the answers, as quickly as we could, live, with people watching in real time.

FOR INSTANCE

Hilary would ask a question of all three of us like, "Draw what your occupation would be if you were not allowed to work in the arts."

I left all of my "quicksketches" there in the Museum, so I will recreate my answers here. I drew something like this:

ANOTHER FOR INSTANCE:

Hilary asked an audience member what their job is. An elementary school art teacher was at this event with her family. Hilary asked each artist to draw a scene from her day.

I drew this:

OK ONE MORE

Hilary came up with some great situations for the panel to draw. For instance:

"Indications that the person living next to you might be Batman."

Of course, Mo and Maria did their own hilarious answers to these questions as well.

IN CONCLUSION

This is just a small part of what went on. If Mo Willems' estimate is correct -- that each of us created a drawing every four minutes on average -- we created nearly fifty drawings between the three of us. And this is only one small part of what went on. It was a lot of fun for everyone.

 My thanks to Museum Director Danny Lichtenfeld for making us welcome and putting this event together.

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon Files: Cops and Robbers Gag Cartoons 1945 - 1968

Dick Buchanan has delved into his beloved stockpile of old magazine gag cartoons and unearthed some gems today Thanks so much, and take it away, Dick:

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COPS & ROBBERS - 1945 – 1968

A popular genre of cartoons in the 1940’s and 1950’s were the “Cops & Robbers” variety. For the most part, the criminals were lovable stumblebums and the victims took their experience with no ill feelings. On the street stickups and home burglaries were comical experiences, all in fun.

Here are a few examples from the file titled “CRIME DOES NOT PAY! -- except for cartoonists.”

1. SYD HOFF. The Saturday Evening Post. June 2, 1945

2. CLYDE LAMB. Lamb began cartooning while serving two 25-year terms in the Indiana State Penitentiary. His cartoons often reflected a different perspective. American Legion Magazine. March, 1953

3. HERBERT GOLDBERG. American Legion Magazine. October, 1955

4. VIRGIL PARTCH. American Legion Magazine. May, 1949

5. JOSEPH MIRACHI. The Saturday Evening Post. 1960

6. BOB WEBER. 1000 Jokes Magazine. September-November, 1964

7. HANK KETCHAM. When Mort Walker began editing 1000 Jokes, he began the magazine’s custom of publishing roughs and they are a great example of his method. 1000 Jokes Magazine. circa 1949.

8. SALO ROTH. True Magazine. April, 1948

9. LARRY REYNOLDS. Reynolds was a contract cartoonist with Collier’s. Butch was a popular feature in the 1940’s. When Collier’s folded, Butch followed editor Gurney Williams to Look Magazine The popular panel continued into 1960’s. July 7, 1958.

10. TOM HENDERSON. The Saturday Evening Post. June 5. 1954.

11. JOHN DEMSPEY. Collier’s. December 7, 1956.

12. VIRGIL PARTCH. Collier’s. December 14, 1946.

13. HANK KETCHAM. Finished work, near perfect, as always. Collier’s February 26, 1949.

14. B. WISEMAN. Bernie Wiseman left gag cartooning grind in the early 1960’s for the world of children’s books, with Morris the Moose. January 21, 1955.




15. TANN. Marvin Tannenberg updates Syd Hoff’s gag and we’re back where started. The Saturday Evening Post. September 22, 1962.

 

More of Dick Buchanan's great gag cartoon collection:


Dick Buchanan's Cartoon Files: Gahan Wilson: Early Gag Cartoons 1954 - 1964

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: Inkyfellers' Gagzette

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: The Years of Al Ross - 1947 – 1968

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon Files: New Yorker Cartoonists Abroad 1966-1968

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: 1945 - 1962

From the Dick Buchanan Files: "How I Create Humor" from 1950s - 60s Gag Cartoon Insider Journal "The Information Guide"

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: 1950s Color Magazine Gag Cartoons

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: Funny Vintage Magazine Gag Cartoons 1946 - 1963

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: Wordless Gag Cartoons 1944-1964

1953 George Booth Drawings for American Legion Magazine

Dick Buchanan: Winter/Christmas/Holiday Gag Cartoons 1940s-60s

Dick Buchanan: Some PUNCH Magazine Cartoons 1948-1963

Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1946-64

Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1947-62

Dick Buchanan: Some Favorite Magazine Gag Cartoons 1940-60s

Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1931-64

TOPSYS & TURVYS by Peter Newell

TOPSYS AND TURVYS by Peter Newell (1862-1924) was originally published over a hundred years ago. It's the same with all of Peter Newell's work: all published over 100 years ago, and all of his six "novelty books" (such as THE SLANT BOOK, THE HOLE BOOK) are still in print. Newell also wrote and drew a newspaper comic strip titled THE NAPS OF POLLY SLEEPYHEAD (1906-07). There were, at the beginning of the 20th century, a slew of fantasy strips -- of which only LITTLE NEMO is recalled today.

Above is the cover of the Dover edition ("designed for years of use!") and it includes selections from his books TOPSYS AND TURVYS (1893) and TOPSYS AND TURVYS - NUMBER 2 (1894). No copyright information at all in here.

"The Elephant leans o'er the fence and wonders why it is"

The idea is that you look at Newell's drawing and read the line -- and then, physically turn the book over:

"The Ostrich has a longer neck and smaller mouth than his."

And that's the gimmick: you see a different picture, with a rhyming conclusion.

Note: other blogs would just snidely tell you to turn your monitor/iPad/whatever upside down, but here at Mike Lynch Cartoons, we're all about customer service. Below is the same picture, upside down. No need to strain, gentle blog reader! Thank you and have a nice day.

"This troop of soldiers, all in a file, are looking near and far"

"To find the famous Forty Thieves, each hid within a jar."

Most of the time, I look at that first picture and can't figure out what the upside down version will be and how it relates. Some wonderful work.

"Peter Newell liked to say that he and the Civil War both broke out in this country at the same time. He was born near Rice's Corners, McDonough County, Illinois, on March 5, 1862, the fourth child of George Frederick Newell, an Ohioan, and Louisa Dodge of Chautauqua County, New York. His childhood years were spent in Bushnell, a small town in west-central Illinois."

- from the Peter Newell Family Papers at Yale University; bio by Sandra J. Markham

"A hermit with a long red beard dwelt in a lonely place"

"The squirrel gazed with wonder upon his gloomy face."

"By the spring of 1883 he had moved east to New York, where he enrolled in classes at the Art Students' League while hoping to find steady employment as an illustrator for periodicals. His work had been published in the New York Graphic and Harper's Bazaar by the fall of 1883; the appearance of his simple line drawn comics was the beginning of a career in humor that would make Peter Newell one of the more prolific and best-known illustrators of his day."

"Fernando bears his cradle in, a cradle strong and deep"

Newell had good timing.

"By 1893 the development of halftone reproduction had made possible the style of illustration for which Newell is best remembered, the continuous tone drawing. His single-frame comics underscored with short, whimsical rhymes began appearing in Harper's Monthly and other magazines at this time. He was catapulted to fame by one in particular, "Wild Flowers," which appeared in the August 1893 issue of Harper's Monthly; several of these comics were compiled in one volume as Peter Newell's Pictures and Rhymes, published by Harper in 1900. Soon nearly every issue of most of the Harper magazines, as well as some Cosmopolitan, Metropolitan, McClure's and Collier's, carried a Newell comic or a Newell-illustrated story by authors such as John Kendrick Bangs, Stephen Crane, Philip Curtiss, Burges Johnson, Frank Stockton and Mark Twain."

Ahh! Those were the days!

"Then, placing it upon a rug, he rocks himself to sleep."

In 1894, the successful illustrator Newell and his family moved to Leonia, NJ.

"Over the next twenty years Leonia grew to become an illustrators' colony much like the one centered around the Pyle-Wyeth group near Wilmington, Delaware. The lively community of artists formed clubs, theatrical and lecture societies, and held exhibitions, costume parties and pageants. The Leonia School of Illustration was opened there by artists Harvey Dunn and Charles Chapman. The Newell family participated in all aspects of the intellectual, musical, religious and social life of the community. Peter Newell was a founding member of the Men's Neighborhood Club of Leonia and served on the village's first Board of Health. He played the cello, though apparently not well, and was a popular toastmaster and lecturer known for his "chalk talks" and other impromptu presentations. Both of the Newell daughters married illustrators, and Howard and Josephine Newell McCormick became leading members of the second generation of artists to live and work in Leonia."

The house wasn't just any house. It was featured in an article in Scientific American and a picture postcards as well!

"Why do these scurrying, frightened hares come coursing through the vale?"

"Because they know three hunting dogs are close upon their trail."

He traveled quite a bit. Like a lot of artists of the time, there were "sketching trips" to Europe. He was deeply grieved upon his only son's death in The Great War. In 1923, the Newells moved to Little Neck in Queens, NY.

"By the end of that year Peter Newell had become physically crippled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and was unable to work; he died in his home on January 15, 1924, at the age of 61."

More: "Peter S. Newell, Cartoonist," an article by Mabel Hall Goltra that appeared in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984) Vol. 41, No. 2 (Jun., 1948), pp. 134-145

Related: Cartoonist Gustave Verbeek also tread the same ground with his latter comic strip THE UPSIDE DOWNS in which he drew a six panel Sunday page which your would read all the way through and then turn it 180 degrees to read the conclusion.


-- Edited from an original blog entry dated May 9, 2008.

Ann Telnaes: The barometer of a free press

The Washington Post prints a version of Ann Telnaes' speech that was delivered as the keynote address at the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom luncheon in Ottawa on May 2, 2017. It's funny, stunning and true. And it's still going on today. Read her opening salvo below, and go read the entire speech here.

"It was 1903 and Pennsylvania Governor Samuel Pennypacker had had enough. After a year of being depicted as a parrot by the cartoonist Charles Nelan of the North American newspaper, the governor wanted the satirical drawings stopped. The reason for Pennypacker’s frustration was that the cartoonist was using this visual metaphor to portray him as a mouthpiece for special interests. The governor did not take kindly to that and had an anti-cartoon bill introduced into the state legislature in order to silence his detractor. The bill proposed a ban on 'any cartoon or caricature or picture portraying, describing or representing any person, either by distortion, innuendo or otherwise, in the form or likeness of beast, bird, fish, insect, or other unhuman animal, thereby tending to expose such person to public hatred, contempt or ridicule.' Pennypacker’s attempt to silence his critic backfired, though, when another cartoonist proceeded to draw the governor as a tree, a beer mug and a turnip."

She goes on to point out the cartoonists incarcerated because of their critical drawings.

• Ali Ferzat’s hands being broken over his critical cartoons of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad;
• Atena Farghadani from Iran, who was beaten and interrogated for nine hours at a time and was also forced to undergo a so-called “virginity and pregnancy test;"
• Zunar has been harassed and arrested several times during the last few years for his critical cartoons calling out the corruption of the Malaysian government and is now banned from traveling outside the country;
• Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart and over 120 other journalists detained (jailed) as part of an overall crackdown on dissent by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan;
• Iranian cartoonist “Eaten Fish” has been held for three and a half years bt the Australian government, suffering from mental illness and sexual abuse while detained in terrible conditions in a refugee detention camp at Manus Island, Papua New Guinea.

In the United States, it's economic. I know of editorial cartoonists whose income has shrunk due to newspapers dropping their work, replacing their cartoons in favor of middle-of-the-road, less controversial cartoonists. I know of editorial cartoonists who have received emails from their own editors asking them to back off of certain subjects.

Worse, was the LA Times' treatment of editorial cartoonist Ted Rall. Ted was terminated and the paper printed lies about him on the Los Angeles Times editorial page. He is suing the LA Times, but had to come up with $75,000 to have his day in court. He raised the money through GoFundMe.com and the case is slowly moving forward. The plan, which is one we have all seen before, is for this large corporation to bankrupt Mr. Rall if he seeks a legal remedy. Even today: a big bully is after a regular person who draws funny pictures for a living. Ted's GoFundMe is still active. I have given him money to help support his legal fight.

As Ann Telnaes points out:

"White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said in a recent interview that libel laws are 'something that we’ve looked at.'"

Freedom of the press is in danger.

Video: Turkey: Musa Kart and More Than 120 Other Journalists Still Incarcerated

Members of the European Parliament have called for jailed journalists in Turkey to be freed.

There are more than 120 reporters in prison there, says Amnesty International.

The wife of an incarcerated cartoonist, Musa Kart, spoke at the European parliament.

He is accused of supporting terrorism and could be jailed for twenty nine years.

Germany also protested because of the detention of a Turkish journalist with German origin Denis Yücel.



More here.

National Cartoonists Day Videos from Nickelodeon: Butch Hartman, Chis Savino, Ciro Nieli

National Cartoonists Day was started some years back and sometimes there is a push to get it recognized and sometimes it gets forgotten. And, like we say around my house, EVERY day is cartoonist day! Ha ha ha.

Nickelodeon Studios has a series of videos with some of its creators that they posted on May 5, which was the official National Cartoonists Day. So here are there belated videos.

National Cartoonists Day: Butch Hartman | The Fairly OddParents & Bunsen is a Beast | Nick Animation





Happy National Cartoonists Day w/ Chris Savino! | The Loud House | Nickelodeon Animation





National Cartoonists Day: Ciro Nieli | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Nickelodeon Animation

Vermont: Join Me and My Cartoonist Pals at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center Quickdraw Show Friday, May 12 7:30PM

Brattleboro, VT: Friday, May 12 at 7:30PM! I'll be helping with a fundraiser for the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center.

(Above art by Hilary Price!)

The Brattleboro QUICKDRAW! May 12, Friday, 7:30 p.m.
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center

Watch three speedy cartoonists go Sharpie-to-Sharpie to outdraw their opponents as they answer zany challenges by Quick Draw Quizmaster host Hilary Price (Rhymes With Orange). See hilarious cartoon art cooked up right before your very eyes!

Modeled on the famous crowd-pleaser at San Diego Comic-Con, this event showcases the talents of Mike Lynch (Playboy, The Wall Street Journal), Maria Scrivan (MAD, National Lampoon), and a VERY special award-winning Mystery Guest!

Cash bar provided by Whetstone Station Restaurant & Brewery.

ADMISSION: $10. Space is limited. Call 802-257-0124 x101 or reserve tickets at http://bit.ly/2oY34C1

1956 Comic Book Ad: Monsanto Sponsored "Win a Trip to Disneyland" Contest

Here's an ad from the back of LITTLE LULU 1956. It's for a Monsanto-Sponsored "Win a Trip to Disneyland" contest. Yes! MONSANTO! Its cash value: $2,000. What is that in today's money? A LOT!

The gimmick was that you would have to finish a poem about Monsanto Plastics' toys which, I would guess, were full of lead paint and red dye #3, then you could win "Five Family Trips and 1010 other exciting prizes in Monsanto's Easy Jingle Contest!"

The new toys of plastics are my favorite kind
Their bright colors make them easy to find
They're smooth and they're tough -- as real as can be
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Let me know if you want to come up with a last line, just for fun.

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon Files: Gahan Wilson: Early Gag Cartoons 1954 - 1964

Below is my friend Dick Buchanan with a story of the early days of the well-known gag cartoonist Gahan Wilson. Plus: many unseen-in-over-fifty-years gag cartoons by Mr. Wilson. 

During the first years that Gahan Wilson slogged up to the Midtown NYC markets for Wednesday, "Cartoon Look Day," he was told that his cartoons, while funny, were probably not fit for the midcentury sensibilities that the cartoon editors were looking for. I have heard this story from Gahan himself -- and Dick picks it up below, reminding us that persistence in deed and vision can pay off. 

Thanks, Dick, for these rare early gag cartoons of Gahan Wilson's!



GAHAN WILSON
EARLY GAG CARTOONS 1954 – 1964

After graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago, Gahan Wilson moved to New York City. From his apartment in Greenwich Village he made the trek uptown for Wednesday rounds only to learn that the prevailing opinion among cartoon editors was that readers would not understand his cartoons.

His big break came when famed cartoon editor Gurney Williams left Collier’s to work for Look Magazine. In the interim, Collier’s Art Director assumed cartoon-editing chores, but not realizing Wilson’s cartoons were not for the masses, bought them anyway and the rest, as they say, is Cartoon History.

This is a selection of Gahan Wilson’s early cartoons, published during his first decade as a gag cartoonist, when his fabled career was in its delightfully demented infancy.



1. At last a major market cartoonist, Gahan Wilson cartoons began appeared regularly in Collier’s until they ceased publication. COLLIER’S. October 15, 1954

2. COLLIER’S. January 7, 1955

3. COLLIER’S. January 21, 1955

4. The masses may have been bewildered but Cartoon Editors were beginning to get the message. TRUE MAGAZINE. May 1955

5. TRUE MAGAZINE. August 1955

6. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. c. 1955

7. COLLIER’S. September 16, 1955

8. COLLIER’S. January 20, 1956

9. COLLIER’S. March 16, 1956

10. COLLIER’S. March 23, 1956.

11. COLLIER’S. July 6, 1956

12. When Collier’s folded, Cartoon editor Gurney Williams welcomed Wilson to the pages of Look. LOOK MAGAZINE. July 22, 1958

13. Many of Wilson’s best gag cartoons appeared in Look Magazine in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. This one was a classic. LOOK MAGAZINE. December 3, 1963

14. Dell Editor and cartoonist John Norment was a friendly editor who happily promoted Wilson’s early work, publishing many cartoons, several spreads, and cover art for his two Dell publications. FOR LAUGHING OUT LOUD. October-December, 1963

15. 1000 JOKES MAGAZINE. June-August, 1964

16. FOR LAUGHING OUT LOUD. 31 1964

17. FOR LAUGHING OUT LOUD. July 1964

More of Dick Buchanan's great gag cartoon collection:

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: Inkyfellers' Gagzette

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: The Years of Al Ross - 1947 – 1968

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon Files: New Yorker Cartoonists Abroad 1966-1968

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: 1945 - 1962

From the Dick Buchanan Files: "How I Create Humor" from 1950s - 60s Gag Cartoon Insider Journal "The Information Guide"

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: 1950s Color Magazine Gag Cartoons

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: Funny Vintage Magazine Gag Cartoons 1946 - 1963

Dick Buchanan's Cartoon File: Wordless Gag Cartoons 1944-1964

1953 George Booth Drawings for American Legion Magazine

Dick Buchanan: Winter/Christmas/Holiday Gag Cartoons 1940s-60s

Dick Buchanan: Some PUNCH Magazine Cartoons 1948-1963

Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1946-64

Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1947-62

Dick Buchanan: Some Favorite Magazine Gag Cartoons 1940-60s

Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1931-64

Bob Mankoff Named Cartoon and Humor Editor of Esquire Magazine

Press release from the Association of Magazine Media:

NEW YORK, NY (May 1, 2017) – Hearst Magazines today announced that Bob Mankoff has been named to the new role of cartoon and humor editor for Esquire. The announcement was made by Jay Fielden, editor-in-chief. Mankoff begins his new role today.

Mankoff will be responsible for reviving the decades-long tradition of cartoons in Esquire, which numbers more than 13,000 cartoons and dates back to the 1930s when they were published regularly until the early 1970s. will also edit humor pieces, provide editorial story ideas, draft cartoons himself, and recruit a new generation of humorists to Esquire and Esquire.com. In addition, he will develop ways for Esquire to make its trove of original cartoons available for prints and licensing.

“Bob is one of the funniest, most creative people I know,” said Fielden. “What he’s going to do is invent an entirely new look and sensibility in cartooning by upping the aesthetics and embracing a wide set of fresh voices. La La Land proved an old form can become a new sensation. That’s the ambition here.”

Mankoff was cartoon editor of The New Yorker for 20 years until this past April, where more than 950 of his cartoons have been published, including the best-sellingNew Yorker cartoon of all time (the harried businessman at his desk with a phone to his ear, reviewing his calendar and saying: “No, Thursday’s out. How about never—is never good for you?”). Mankoff has also edited dozens of cartoon books and published four of his own, including the memoir How About Never–Is Never Good For You?: My Life in Cartoons (Henry Holt  and Co., 2015), a New York Times bestseller. In 2014, an offbeat documentary about humor, art and the genius of the single panel featuring Mankoff called Very Semi-Serious premiered on HBO. The film won a 2016 Emmy for Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming and was nominated for Outstanding Documentary Editing. Mankoff is also founder of The Cartoon Bank, a business devoted to licensing cartoons for use in newsletters, textbooks, magazines and other media.

“Esquire was home to some incredible cartoonists and humorists over the years, and it’s a real thrill to be able to reintroduce and reinterpret that legacy for a new audience,” said Mankoff.

When asked what that really meant, he drew this cartoon [above] as a hint to the direction the cartoons and the humor would be taking.

Don’t get it? Mankoff will be happy to explain it to you. He’s been doing that sort of thing for years.

Under Editor-in-Chief Jay Fielden, Esquire’s satirical and humorous nature has re-emerged, first with the launch of the SPY pop-up website during the last 30 days of the 2017 presidential election and, more recently, with the reappearance of the “Dubious Achievements Awards,” a perennial favorite for decades.

Mankoff said that re-emergence under Fielden caught his eye, making him think that it was time for another great American magazine to have great cartoons.

He added, “I’ve known Jay for 20 years and have always admired his wit, style, and choice of hair products. I’m looking forward to bringing the funny back to Esquireand having fun in the process.”

About Esquire

Esquire [1]creates engaging conversations that drive the culture, with a unique mix of intellectual showmanship, hilarity, impeccable style, visual punch and extraordinary writing. Esquire is the most-honored monthly magazine in America, with 26 National Magazine Awards, including one for its iPad app, and 88 nominations. In its digital expressions, Esquire.com has an audience of 11.3 million (comScore), and a social media following of more than 2 million. In addition to its U.S. flagship, Esquire publishes 27 editions around the world. Follow Esquire on Instagram and Twitter at @Esquire.

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-- Hat tip to Keith DuQuette. Thanks, Keith!