Thursday, February 19, 2009

What's On Your Shelf?

A busy day here, full of about 1/2 cartooning-related stuff and 1/2 snowblowing.

I have a lot of shelves here in the studio. Here are four of them. They are woefully untidy, but I thought they may be of interest.


Above: the top shelf is for mostly older paperbacks containing single panel gag cartoons. I've scanned in some of these for blog purposes in the past.

On the second shelf: newspaper comic strips (MUTT & JEFF from NBM's "Forever Nuts" series, PEANUTS, WALT & SKEEZIX) and manga (of which NANA and YOTSUBA&! are standouts).


And here are 2 more shelves. The top shelf is a general pile that needs sorting. A cat walked on them, causing them to tilt at the same angle that all those bad buys were filmed in the old live-action BATMAN TV show. (It's called a "Dutch Tilt," by the way.) You can see all my interests: old comedy movies, graphic novels, comic books, even a cookbook (for the cool retro illustrations).

The bottom shelf is part oversize magazine gag cartoon collections and part learn to cartoon books. No New Yorker books here. They are in the living room, available to page through.

Unseen: at least 8 more shelves of books and ephemera.

A hat tip to Robot 6, where I got the idea to show my shelves.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:44 AM

    Fascinating and impressive library, Mike. Let's see the other eight shelves!

    Sean

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  2. I should ass that the second photo, the metal shelves, are from Sears. I believe my Dad bought them in the early 1970s.

    Yeah, I should make this a complete retrospective with all the shelves, but they are very messy.

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  3. Ah, someone else who owns The Cartoonist's Muse. I spent over a year tracking down a copy of that book for under $100.

    What is that Cutco Cook Book on the top shelf in the second photo? A collection of tips for paste-up artists? Or an actual cookbook?

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  4. Anonymous10:23 AM

    I recognize a number of volumes from my own shelf, including "The Cartoonist and Gagwriter's Handbook," by Jack Markow! One of the first cartooning books I ever purchased, as a teenager, through Writer's Digest. Ah, the good old days!

    Jeff P.

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  5. I meant "I should aDD" not "aSS."

    Hmm. Anyway ....

    Yeah, Bob, that Cutco book is a real cookbook, the one with the cool retro illustrations. I bought it for $2 at an antiques mall in Maine.

    A good friend mailed me a free copy of CARTOONISTS MUSE, a hard to find and expensive book!

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  6. WEll, my shelves are full of books, magazines, comics... since I've not an studio, but a part of the living I share them with my wife (let's say she fills 30% of the shelves... or less).

    BTW, Abebooks has 4 copies of the Cartoonists Muse for 20$ or less.

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  7. Mike
    I want to know one thing....how come your library looks EXACTLY llike mine?
    I had to go into my studio to make sure you hadn't dropped by with a book mobile and robbed me blind. :)
    haha
    Dan

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  8. Shelves loaded with cartoon books... this makes my day.
    I see some nice books I have on my shelf at home. If you weren't living so far away from here, I certainly would come over once to take a look in those interesting cartoon books.

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  9. Thanks for your comments.

    Jan, anytime you want to come over, I'll have a chair, a reading lamp, and a nice glass of wine waiting for you.

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