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The Cartoonists and Illustrators School, now known as the School of Visual Arts, had a newsletter back in the day and this is the sixth issue of Caranill from October 1948. ("Caranill" being a "condensation of the words cartooning and illustrating;" a word that was devised by then-SVA student Arnold Izenberg - who won $5 for the name (see page two).)
Cartoonist Scott Taber's daughter sent this four page newsletter to me out of the blue and it knocked my socks off. A wonderful piece of history from the first class of SVA. And I'm told that the SVA library has more, which is always good to know.
There are a number of "before they were famous" names that are mentioned here. "Scott is mentioned in a column written by fellow classmate, Jerry Marcus. It looks like it was a pretty wonderful school that trained and turned out many good working artists," write Judith Taber. Also in this issue of Carnill: an illustration by Sid Couchey; mentions of some professional cartooning/illustration sales by then-students Dick Cavalli as well as the aforementioned Scott Taber; Paul Gringle is the subject of the "Student Spotlight" column; Al Herman (who may or may not be Al Vermeer) writes about visiting cartoonist Ted Key, creator of Hazel. There are mentions of Silas Rhodes, Burne Hogarth and Tom Gill as well, of course. At least read the exciting "Six C&I 'Gringos' Return from Mexican Painting Tour."
Thank you so much, Judith.
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A very cool find. I didn't realize SVA was that old. Aside from the names, both famous and obscure, the newsletter captures a lot about the times (e.g., when a night in a Mexican jail was considered a joyful romp). It's also a snapshot of artistic style: single-panel cartoons done in heavy grease-pencil, and everyone else trying to draw like either Capp or Caniff. There was a comics revolution a-coming, and I don't know how many of these kids were ready for it. Neat!
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