Long Island Museum Cartoon Class

The week long cartoon classes at the Long Island Museum are winding down. I have had the privilege of teaching cartooning for the past five years. Here are a few of the many, many drawings that this year's talented students have produced:

On the Road

I was going to write "Vacation," but that's wrong. I'll be busy with cartoon classes and meetings in New York. The blog, though, may or may not be on vacation during this time. Regardless, have a grand week.

HE DREW, SHE DREW Gallery Show

 

Rochester, NH: Last week for the HE DREW, SHE DREW original cartoon exhibit featuring Mike Lynch (that's me) and Stephanie Piro.

1970 Sergio Aragones Interview

From Cartoonist PROfiles #7, August 1970. Interview by Jud Hurd, photos by Jim Ruth. Art copyright 1970 E.C. Publications, Inc.

This early issue of PROfiles sports a gorgeous Aragones wraparound cover of the fantasy and reality of MAD Magazine back in the day when it was selling millions.

More HE DREW, SHE DREW 3

Here are the last of the HE DREW SHE DREW cartoons, with me doing the male set up on the left hand side and my friend Stephanie Piro providing the female point-of-view zinger on the right. These roughs were originally drawn for a proposed series. More here, here and here.

CHINA'S GOT TALENT Winner Wants to Be a "Cartoonist Who Can Dance"

Hey, here's video of the 2011 winner of CHINA'S GOT TALENT, Zhuojun. Yes, I didn't know that there was a CHINA'S GOT TALENT show either, but the point is that there is one and that this fellow won.

And, now that you've won -- what are you going to do now, Zhuojen?

He's gonna be a cartoonist.

Xu Junqian, writing for the China Daily, has the background:

"I was surfing the Web in an Internet bar when someone showed me a clip of Michael Jackson's music video, Dangerous," Zhuo recalls.

"It was like my body was electrified. I've never forgotten the rhythms and moves."

But, after the TV spotlight and the awards and fame ... he's going to draw instead. From the China Daily article "A Dream In Motion:"

"All kinds of people have been calling me, asking what I'd do if I won. I just want to show my dances to people in my hometown and go back to school at the end of summer."

He plans to become a cartoonist after graduation, and stay out of the entertainment industry.

"It's too complicated, and I don't need that much money," Zhuo says.

"I'll be a cartoonist who can dance. That's all."

Zhuo's prize from the show is a year's use of a Peugeot car. He plans to give every one of his village's 70 residents a ride, he says, even though he can't drive.

Video: Lost 1926 MUTT AND JEFF Silent "Playing With Fire"

Thanks to Silencebound who adds:  

I am very extremely proud to showing a recently found long-lost oldest 35mm cartoon classic starring Mutt and Jeff. I bought it from the States thru eBay few years ago, but I've not joined YouTube during at that time. But it is the big opportunity to expressing my discovery of the lost films and here's the one that is awaiting for the YouTube presentation. This public-domain B/W 35mm film is Nitrate element, and is very dangerous to be projected by a conventional 35mm movie projector (due to the excessive screening light which is very deadly) and left the theatrical-released film almost unscathed which is widely unseen for more than 80 years. Nowadays, very few Mutt and Jeff cartoon shorts is existed today, most notably it can be found on DVDs, but doesn't mentioned about this newly-founded 1,000 ft film, 'Playing With Fire'. I used my 35mm Steenbeck editing machine to playback this lost film along with low-stressing projection light which is major recommendation for Nitrate films. Watch this nice animated-paced funny masterpiece to experience yourself at the focusing element of the lost film classics. Rated far much better than Walt Disney's 'Steamboat Willie' (1928) which is two years away.

eBay Sale Ends Today

EDIT: Everything sold out. Thanks! I'll be putting more up for sale very soon.

Selling a few cartoony things on eBay, including 

• Cartoonist PROfiles
• Plastic Man hardcover
• Superman stamps
• Manga lots (Scott Pilgrim, Monster, Deathnote, Nana, etc.)
• Jordan Crane
• Milton Caniff/Jules Feiffer
• Old gag cartoon mags & books

Video: AQUARIUS TV Show 14 August 1971

Also titled HOW TO HIT AN ANT WHEN ITS NOT LOOKING.

Never saw this before. This is a rare look at couple of great British comedians, Eric Idle and John Cleese, in a London Weekend spoof of a football telecast. It begins at about the one minute mark. This is classic Python-era Idle & Cleese.



Thank you to MrDazeBear.

TROUBLE ON THE ARK by Walt Kelly

The Hairy Green Eyeball Blog 3 shares a complete scan of an early Walt Kelly book titled TROUBLE ON THE ARK. Created under the pseudonym Tony Maclay, this rare item can be bought as a package of reprints from The POGO Fan Club.

1964 Swag Find: DOCTOR WHO Original Theme From a 45 RPM Record

Thanks to Sids60sSounds!

The Garden As of Mid-July 2011

Above: the vegetable garden: a series of raised beds ... going crazy.

The garden is out of control. The tomato plants are as tall as I am. The cucumbers -- there are five plants -- produce about one cucumber for each plant per day. The peppers are doubling in size every night.

Above are the strawberries. No longer producing fruit, this aggressive plant, whose aim is to take over the garden, the lawn, the driveway with its strawberry empire, needs to be cut back. I know, I know. Strawberries are so sweet and delicious! Who could believe they want to dominate the world? Who could hate them? Looks can be deceiving, bud!

Above: the dense thicket of tomatoes. I've never seen tomatoes so tall, so leafy and so many flowers. They're over five feet tall now. This time next month, I'm going to be making sauce like Chef Boyardee.

The yellow squash, getting tall and blooming its large yellow flowers. Last month, this was a raised bed of dirt. The sweet potatoes did not sprout. Ah well. There's always 2012.



Foreground: last days for the lettuce, just now beginning to get tall (and when it gets tall, it blooms and gets bitter).  Background: the cucumbers and peppers. The cucumbers are climbing OUT not UP, despite the trestle. Like the tomatoes, they are dense and bushy. They are now producing enough for each cat in the house to have his/her own cucumber a day. If only there were tuna flavored cucumbers.

I'll end this gardening blog entry with some shots of the lilies in the flower garden, and the mysterious purple globe flowers that I have NO IDEA what they are. But ain't they pretty?

 

Even the birds garden: sunflowers blooming under the feeder. Taken at sundown over the raised garden beds.

Related:
The Garden As of July 1, 2011
The Garden As of Mid-June 2011

The Garden As of June 1, 2011

The Garden As of May 1, 2011

 

Video: Lynn Johnston Talk at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, Sunday, March 27 2011

Interview: Cartoonist Wilbur Dawbarn

Above: a cartoon by Wilbur Dawbarn from Private Eye.

UK cartoonist Wilbur Dawbarn talks to The Bucks Free Press' Rebecca Cain about his career.

“You have got to persevere- you have really got to come to terms with rejection as a cartoonist.

“When you become more established you still get rejected on a regular basis. There are so many people producing cartoons for so few slots.”

The rest is here.

COLLIER'S COLLECTS ITS WITS: 66 Cartoonist Self-Portraits

COLLIER'S COLLECTS ITS WITS is a large trade paperback from 1941, which may make it the first trade paperback. As the cover splash says, the book contains

339 colossal cartoons by

103 extraordinary artists

 enthusiastically edited by

GURNEY WILLIAMS

with 66 life stories and 66

devastating self-caricatures

It's the self-caricatures that I wanted to post. Here are a few highlights:

Reamer Keller:

Charles Addams:

Syd Hoff:

Helen Hokinson:

And, below, are the 66 stories and caricatures of some of the great COLLIER'S cartoonists:

Above: the back cover.