Veteran cartoonist Eli Stein has a Web site. Eli made his first big sale, to the Wall Street Journal, 50 years ago. He is still drawing. I've seen him in the New Yorker offices from time to time, on Tuesdays, the "cartoon look" day.His Web site recounts past gag cartoons and he will, every once in a while, throw in a paragraph about the gag.
He also has some photos -- including one of a fellow I have talked to on the phone over the years, and never, ever met: Charles Preston, the WSJ cartoon editor. Thanks, Eli, for the opportunity to connect name to face.
The WSJ, through Mr. Preston, was my second sale to a major market when I was starting out.
(Above: Charles Preston and Eli Stein at the 50th anniversary of the WSJ cartoon event at the World Trade Center in 1999. This was before I was a full-time freelance cartoonist. I was working, somehwere above these guys, in one of the towers, wearing a shirt and tie running the graphics division for an investment bank. Yeesh! Anyway, the exhibit of WSJ cartoons was expertly positioned in a public walkway so thousands of people would walk by and see it. I remember looking at the cartoons and wondering if I would ever, possibly, maybe be cartooning full-time ....)
Mike, I found a 1961 cartoon strip series called Kermit the Hermit by a cartoonist signing Eli. Could that be this guy? I'll post the cartoons as soon as I have scanned in my copies of a 1960 unsold strip called Kermit the Hermit by Harvey Kurtzman and Elliot Caplin.
ReplyDeleteKERMIT THE HERMIT and the latter revised strip using the same characters, NORMAN (plus also another strip...Sunday only ? ... DAWN PATROL are all by the late cartoonist Eli Bauer. he lived in New Rochelle, NY and was an animation storman, creating HECTOR HEATHCOTE at Terrytoons. He passed in 1998 at age 69 and was a dear friend of mine; I still miss him.He was also a magazine panel cartoonist in his later years.
ReplyDeleteBill Janocha Stamford, CT
The cartoonist behind KERMIT THE HERMIT, its latter version NORMAN and even a third syndicated strip (Sunday only ?) DAWN PATROL was Eli Bauer. He was an animation storyman for Terrytoons, where he created HECTOR HEATHCOTE. He then freelanced for Paramount 1960s cartoons, co-founded a commercial animation studio Ariel and in his last decade was a magazine panel cartoonist. He lived in New Rochelle, NY and died at age 69 in 1998. The Google photo of him at Terrytoons is with Jules Feiffer, not their boss. Gene Deitch. Eli was a dear friend and I miss his generosity and sincere friendship ! Bill Janocha Stamford, CT
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