Bunny Hoest, Stan Goldberg & Mike Lynch at the Long Island Museum

Bunny Hoest, Stan Goldberg, Mike Lynch and Howard Huge


There are 3 ages of cartoons for me. When I was a kid, I first read comics in the newspaper that came to our home. When I was a little older, I made money mowing lawns, and I spent my money on comics. And later on, when I read magazines, I always liked the ones that had gag cartoons.

Above: Bunny's characters: Howard Huge, Leroy Lockhorn

We had all three of these kinds of cartoonists at the Long Island Museum on Sunday, June 10, 2007.

Above: Bunny Hoest

Bunny Hoest showed 23 cartoons of THE LOCKHORNS and LAUGH PARADE (the 20-year old gag cartoon feature in the Sunday supplement Parade Magazine). She talked about how she and Bill Hoest would see couples in real life, sniping at each other. "How can they do that to their best friend?" they wondered. Bunny pointed out that the strip was not based on her marriage to Bill, but rather on other couples they knew. She also made sure to credit John Reiner with drawing the strip since Bill Hoest passed away.

An audience member asked about the tiny and hard to read reproduction of THE LOCKHORNS in Newsday. Bunny had to tell the person that she had nothing to do with that -- and encouraged them to write or call the paper.

Above: Stan Goldberg

Stan Goldberg showed a couple dozen slides of his work, from MILLIE THE MODEL to ARCHIE, as well as some commercial illustrations. When I introduced him I reminded everyone that this was the guy who decided on the "look" for all of the Marvel characters. It's true: primary colors for Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and all the heroes. The villains get all the purples and the browns.


A quick doodle of Archie. Stan has drawn about 280 consecutive ARCHIE issues.

When it was my turn to get up, I said that I did truly 21st century cartoons. I draw cartoons for people who have no time to read comic books, no time for a whole three-paneled comic strip. My gag cartoons have to work in 4 seconds.

I told the crowd that I come up with 10-15 cartoons per week, mail them out. Then I do the same the next week and the next, until there are hundreds of cartoons out there. I showed about 20 cartoons, telling some stories about them.

The epitome of the angry boss -- the closest I get to an iconic image.

It was great to look out and see Mort Drucker and veteran gag cartoonist Eli Stein in the audience. Thanks for dropping by, guys!