Have a Great Week!

I'm off to the 2010 Festival of Cartoon Art to hang out with cartoonist pals.

See you next week.

Above: "Staff Meeting," a drawing by Joseph Keppler, Sr. from the March 2, 1887 issue of Puck.

Tom Warburton Interview: How I Created "Kids Next Door"

1969 Charlie Rodrigues Interview

From May 1969, an interview with gag cartoonist Charlie Rodrigues that appeared in LAUGH PARADE magazine, Vol. 9 No. 3 issue, published by and copyright 1969 by Magazine Management Company, Inc.












Related: a great 2 page spread of Rodrigues cartoons from CARICATOUR #1 " "Allen Ginsberg for President! Bob Dylan for Vice President"

Links to more Rodrigues cartoons.

LAUGH PARADE May 1969: Wild West Gags

Some "Wild Wild West" gag cartoons from LAUGH PARADE magazine, May 1969, Vol. 9 No. 3 issue, published by and copyright 1969 by Magazine Management Company, Inc.

"The farther west our cartoonists go the wilder they get. It must be because they're quick on the draw."

Video: Charles Schulz 60 MINUTES Profile

From 1999: a profile of Charles Schulz from 60 MINUTES, with a new introduction by reporter Steve Kroft for this, the 60th anniversary month of PEANUTS' debut.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in October 2010 FUNNY TIMES

"We're Living In ... FUNNY TIMES" so says the header of each issue of the humor monthly.

The essence of humor is surprise. I know this because that's what Rob Petrie told Richie's class on Career Day. So, as a comedy writer I am trying to thwart your expectations. And that's not easy. We're all media saturated know-it-alls who've been there and LOLed at it.

One of the hardest thing to do when writing gags is throwing out the crummy ones. You really have to NOT fall in love with every little thing that comes out of your pencil. I come up with a lot writing, and a lot of it gets tossed. Knowing when an idea's stale or been done before is important. Most people and most editors have are smart and know a stale old cartoon when they see one.

Here is my cartoon, below, wherein heaven just does not work out; heaven isn't heaven at all.

"Okay, fine! So add to your list of mortal regrets that you didn't pay for elite check-in status."

If you are interested in cartooning, I still have some of my CARTOONING BASICS books for sale for $3.99 US delivery ($4.50 Canada, $5.00 rest of the world), and that includes an original sketch. I'll mail these out as soon as I'm back from the New York Comicon!

EDIT: SORRY TO SAY THAT CARTOONING BASICS IS SOLD OUT

Editorial Cartoonist, Other Journalists, Sued by GOP Candidate

Westchester County GOP candidate Jim Russell has called out editorial cartoonist Matt Davies, as well as other journalists and even two fellow Republicans, suing them for $1 million each for calling his views racist.

"Jim Russell, the disgraced GOP House candidate in Westchester — who penned an article warning of the evils of interracial mixing and movies like Save the Last Dance, and then gave a really sweaty and nervous interview about it that made us uncomfortable for days — is suing various journalists and Republican officials for $1 million each because they 'smeared his name' by pointing out how racist he is.

"The lawsuit names Journal News columnist Phil Reisman, reporter Leah Rae and political cartoonist Matt Davies. It also named John Goff of News 12, Richard French of RNN, Justin Elliott of Salon.com, Douglas Colety of the Westchester Republican Party, Alexander Carey of the state Republican Party and Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center."

New York Magazine has more.

LAUGH PARADE May 1969: Desert Island Gags

Above: the cover of LAUGH PARADE. The biker is whispering in her ear, "Honey, when you're with my friends, watch your language -- don't talk clean." The stunning thing to see is the casual placement of the swastika on the bike and his jacket.


Here are some desert island gags from LAUGH PARADE magazine, May 1969, Vol. 9 No. 3 issue. It was published by and copyright 1969 by Magazine Management Company, Inc.

"Shipwreck a cartoonist," the editor writes, "and he'll float a laugh."








Above: this one was my favorite. Hard to read the signature, but it looks like the cartoonist's name is Tann.












Above: a gag cartoon by Brad "Marmaduke" Anderson.

SISTER MARY DRACULA by Gerry Mooney

My friend Gerry Mooney has finished his SISTER MARY DRACULA graphic novel. He sent me a copy, which I read and liked very much. I'm posting some information and links below that Gerry sent. Please consider looking at SISTER MARY DRACULA.

Take it away, Gerry:

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press release
For immediate release

Sister Mary Dracula Halloween Treat, No Trick!

For the month of October, you can read "Sister Mary Dracula", the graphic novel by Gerry Mooney, online at www.sistermarydracula.com.

The 103-page story, in the works for 4-1/2 years and completed this summer, tells the tale of Terry Malloy, a ten-year-old at St. Egregius the Stricter Catholic School, who is convinced that his teacher is a vampire. Even his best friends think he's crazy.

Sister Mary Dracula began as a Flash animation created in 2000. It gained a following online and was selected to be shown at the San Diego Comic Con's Independent Film Festival in 2004. The animation can still be seen on the Sister Mary Dracula website.

Gerry Mooney has been drawing funny for most of his life, doing humorous illustration in the New York market for 20 years for such clients as Forbes, Parents Magazine, American Express, The Daily News, Newsweek, Mad and lots more, including a dozen covers for The New Republic.

His humorous feature "Mooney's Modules" (www.mooneysmodules.com) appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine for three years and spawned the now-legendary Gravity Poster (www.thegravityposter.com) which has sold over 4,000 copies and has been cited in Scientific American.

Lately Gerry has moved into animation and is developing independent projects as well as being involved currently in two online animation jams, one of which is Bill Plympton's "Guard Dog" animation jam, a project that includes 70 animators from all over the world, each one animating a single shot from the five minute short.

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A real paper edition of the graphic novel will be available later this month.

Related: I reviewed the first chapter of SMD when it was released as a comic book in 2007.

CARTOON LAUGHS Part Five

This is the final selection of gag cartoons from CARTOON LAUGHS, Vol. 8 No. 5, Sept. 1969 issue, copyright 1969 by Magazine Management Co., Inc.

Some weight lifter cartoons, and then we segue to miscellaneous risque cartoons.











More CARTOON LAUGHS:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
  

Rent-a-Friend

Above: a cartoon of mine from a few months back.

I just saw this BBC News piece by Claire Prentice in which she reports firsthand on her "renting a friend" experience.

Now this is just plain wrong. And it sounds like a rib or something a business student makes up for class.

OK, renting a power washer, sure. Renting a car, yes. But renting a person to take to the ballgame or talk politics with is cuckoo nuts.

There are about 285,000 friends available for rental all over the world on the Rent a Friend site. They come in all colors, and, according to the home page photo, all seem to be well scrubbed, nicely attired and in their 20s. None of them LOOK like creepy loners. And it's not a dating service or an escort service or anything like that. How these people are vetted, I don't know. I didn't see anything about background checks on the site. My question: if I tip a renty friend, will he laugh harder at my jokes?

Turning friendship into a commodity is, as one of the owners of this enterprise says, just, kinda, sorts and extension of Facebook.

Yeah, right. Go read.

CARTOON LAUGHS Part Four: Real Gone

Here we go with another selection from CARTOON LAUGHS, Vol. 8 No. 5, Sept. 1969 issue, copyright 1969 by Magazine Management Co., Inc.

These cartoons touch on the subject of death, handily categorized as "Real Gone" cartoons.







Above: Due to the rag content of the newsprint, it's hard to see that the license plates read HIS and HEARSE.







Above: Charlie Rodrigues always makes me laugh.

More CARTOON LAUGHS:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
• Part Five