Mike's eBay Sale

 My eBay sale continues. Here are a few items. I combine shipping. Go look!!!

 

 

1971: Outta Sight, Luther! by Brumsic Brandon, Jr.

 

Brumsic Brandon, Jr. (1927 -2014) created the long-running Luther newspaper comic strip. It was originally syndicated through New York Newsday beginning in 1968. 

 

Lambiek:

"'Luther' revolves around a group of small children. Luther is a bright, slightly sarcastic black boy. His best friends are Hardcore, little Pee Wee, Mary Frances and Oreo and the white girl Lily. Luther's name was a tribute to Martin Luther King who was assassinated the same year the comic made its debut. Hardcore owed his name to the term 'hardcore unemployed,' while Oreo was slang for people who act 'black' on the outside, but 'white' on the inside. They live in a typical U.S. urban working class neighborhood. Much like 'Wee Pals' the series has a satirical undertone and features striking social commentary about racism and multiculturalism. In one episode Hardcore is late for school, but it turns out he was stopped in the street by a white cop. While critiquing white racism, usually through the invisible character of the kids' third-grade teacher Miss Backlash, Brandon also addressed discrimination of whites by blacks and prejudice within black communities themselves. He avoided coming across as heavy-handed by using a children's point of view, much in the tradition of Charles M. Schulz' 'Peanuts.' He was determined to 'tell it like it is,' but by using child protagonists he could keep his messages simple and gentle. 'Luther' also dealt with more universal human drama like the struggle for survival in a tough world. In one episode Luther notices his shabby apartment has a hole in the ceiling and mutters sarcastically: 'Open housing.'"

 

The feature would run for eighteen years. Here are a few from the collection Outta Sight, Luther! They are copyright 1971 by Brumsic Brandon, Jr.

 

His daughter, Barbara Brandon-Croft, is also a cartoonist. She created the Where I’m Coming From feature, which ran from 1989 to 2005.

 

Ed Steed Cartoon Collection "Happy Hour" Fall 2026

 

Via Drawn and Quarterly:

"Well, Executive Editor Tom Devlin wasn’t at San Diego Comic-Con, but we have a few books from his desk to announce. First off, considered by many to be the best single panel gag cartoonist in a generation, Fall 2026 will see the release of Happy Hour, the follow up Edward Steed’s first D&Q collection, FORCES OF NATURE. Both books are available in two colors, the closest D&Q will ever get to doing variant covers.

"Steed combines scratchy drawings harking back to the golden age of New Yorker drawing—think Steig and Steinberg—and a deadpan absurdity that makes each drawing open up like a bitter flower. A cartoonist’s cartoonist if ever there were one and a one-man argument for the viability of the gag panel form."

US Postal Service's 250th Anniversary Stamps by Chris Ware

 From Block Club Chicago:

CHICAGO — What’s older than the Declaration of Independence? Believe it or not: the United States Postal Service.

The organization now known as the USPS was established in July 1775 — one year before the 13 original colonies declared themselves to be their own nation. This week, the agency celebrates its semiquincentennial with a creative new stamp design featuring artwork by local cartoonist extraordinaire Chris Ware. 

The stamps will be released Wednesday, along with a 32-page prestige booklet to commemorate the USPS’ 250 years of service.

The postal service noted in a statement that Ware created the stamp artwork and co-designed the pane with Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS

Short Documentary: A Piece of Life with Cartoonist Feggo

 

 

Via filmmaker Lisa Martinez:

 

"A Piece of Life with Cartoonist Feggo is just that, a piece of life with artist Felipe Galindo Gomez who invites the viewer to his home and studio. He gives us an overview of his work, early beginnings, and getting published in The New Yorker. A charm and warmth is exuded from Feggo as he recounts on the trajectory of his career and what it means to be an artist."

 

Original Screen Tests for Lois Lane - Superman: The Movie (1978)

 

I guess this is from a DVD extra. Anyway, it's new to me. Here are the original screen tests for Lois Lane from the Warner archive, or, to put it another way, here are the actresses who did not get the part that Margot Kidder did.

Sy Barry Receives Segar Award at 2025 National Cartoonists Society Reubens Award Weekend

Congratulations to Sy Barry, my fellow Berndt Toast Gang member, on receiving the National Cartoonists Society's Elzie Segar Award.

Via the NCS web site:

At the National Cartoonists Society’s 79th Reuben Awards, comic arts legend Sy Barry will receive the Elzie Segar Award, presented by King Features, in recognition of his enduring influence on the art form.

Named after Popeye creator Elzie Segar, this prestigious honor is awarded to a creator whose work has made a unique and outstanding contribution to the profession of cartooning. Barry’s extraordinary career exemplifies artistic excellence, elevating the adventure strip genre and inspiring generations of cartoonists.

Born in New York City in 1928, Barry studied at the School of Industrial Art before launching his freelance career in the 1940s. He became known as a gifted penciller and sought-after inker, working on classic titles such as Flash Gordon and Tarzan among many others. He also illustrated the landmark 1957 civil rights comic Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, a work that later influenced Congressman John Lewis’s March trilogy.

In 1961, Barry was tapped by King Features to take over The Phantom. Over his 33-year run, he enriched the strip with clarity, motion, and narrative depth. His cinematic storytelling and expressive line work captivated millions of readers and helped define the modern adventure comic.

Now in his 90s, Barry continues to teach, paint, and create—embodying the vitality and passion that are the spirit of the Elzie Segar Award.

The award presentation is part of the annual Reuben Awards, this year on August 15, 2025, in Boston.

 

 

Ten Books That Influenced Me

Thanks to my friend Mark Ricketts, I heard about this meme: pick ten books that influenced you and let us all know about it. And don't spend a lot of time messing around. Just pick 'em as they pop up in your head.

My head is a large and musty place, so it took a little doing, but here goes. It's in no particular order, here are the books:

PLAIN SPEAKING by Merle Miller
Truman is one of my favorite historical figures. Ask anyone who's dropped by and seen my bookshelves. I have a shelf devoted to him.

THE ANNOTATED ALICE by Martin Gardner (and Lewis Carroll, natch!)
I used to carry this around in my backpack in high school. I was such a nerd boy.

BARNABY AND MR. O'MALLEY by Crockett Johnson
Forever grateful to Dad for passing along his copy of this great comic strip.

BATMAN FROM THE 30s TO THE 70s
The first book I bought with my own money. It was a lot! I think it was $10. I used to copy Dick Sprang's Batman a lot.

DINOSAURS AND OTHER PREHISTORIC REPTILES
My go-to dinosaur book, finally bought for me when I renewed and renewed the book from the Iowa City Public Library. I still have my copy, which I would tote to Roosevelt Elementary School for show and tell. And there's still a "Mike Lynch, Mrs. Panje, 2nd Grade" written in it. I wonder where Mrs. Panje is now?

The LITTLE TIM books by Edward Ardizzone
I love Ardizzone's work. Some of the best drawing around. A prolific illustrator back in the day. He was Great Britain's Official War Artist! Only recently I have learned he was never formally trained in illustration!

THE POGO PEEK-A-BOOK by Walt Kelly
I have all of Dad's Simon and Shuster POGO books and this one gets singled out for the "Account of the Wooful Frog" piece. Kelly is the comic strip touchstone for me. None better.

THE COMICS by Jerry Robinson
The one that hooked me. And when I visited Ger Apeldoorn, he showed me his copy and told me that that was the book that got him interested in comics and their history! That was it. Friends forever!

THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Maybe the best account of an expedition. In this case, it's Robert Scott's last Antarctic expedition. Another book recommended by Dad. It's a wowser!

SKIPPY by Percy Crosby
If there's a close second to POGO, it's SKIPPY. Highly popular in its day, and now the focus of a reprint series of books authorized by Percy Crosby's daughter, Joan Crosby Tibbetts. I got to know Joan over the email, and then we met in person at a National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards weekend. Anyway, SKIPPY was Charles Schulz' favorite comic strip growing up and even now, decades later, it crackles with life for me.

That's ten for me. How about you?

Some Vintage Paper

 

I was at the Arundel, Maine flea market on Sunday and bought a few old postcards and a business card. All are from the turn of the last century and all feature some comic art. Above is a postcard of Alphonse and Gaston by Frederic Burr Opper. It's copyright 1906 by the American Journal Examiner. 

The two terribly polite Frenchmen Alphonse and Gaston began five years earlier, in Hearst's New York Journal. 

Wikipedia:

"Their 'After you, Alphonse.', 'No, you first, my dear Gaston!' routine ran for more than a decade. Alphonse is short; Gaston is tall. The premise is that both are extremely polite, constantly bowing and deferring to each other. Neither can ever do anything or go anywhere because each insists on letting the other precede him.

Though never a daily or even weekly feature, Alphonse and Gaston appeared on Sundays for several years. In addition to Hearst collections and licensed products, it was adapted into a stage play and several comedy shorts. In 1909, not-yet-famous director D.W. Griffith made a short (two-shot) split reel comedy for the Biograph company, featuring the characters, titled 'The French Duel.'"

Norway, Maine is a town I go to every now and then. There's a good framing/art supply shop there, the 100 Aker Wood, and I wonder if maybe W.C. Pierce was the guy who started it. What the fellow (Mr. Pierce?) is doing up a tree is kinda lost on me, but I liked the drawing a lot. 

 

Mr. Jack by James Swinnerton was a long-running (1903 - 1935) strip about an always-on-the-make tiger who always sported fine clothes and a cigarette in a holder. He's a cad and enjoys life. See him winking at you? It's credited as the first newspaper strip to feature an anthropomorphic leading character. Jack was criticized as a bad moral example for children and was moved off the funny pages into the sports section after 1904. It appeared sporadically after that as Swinnerton was focusing on his other comic strip Little Jimmy. Fantagraphics reprinted Little Jimmy in a beautiful over-sized volume this year. Go get it before it goes out of print.

Here's just something else that I have no idea what the context is. The joke being that it's not the swear word, but it sure sounds like it when you read it or say it out loud. It's a post card, but there's no description of what it is or who drew it.

Documentary: "A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant"

 

Via Variety:

"Magnolia Pictures has acquired Bill Banowsky’s 'A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant,' a documentary about the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist who satirized presidents, popes and business leaders with his art. The film world-premiered at DC/DOX. Magnolia has U.S. rights to the film, which will release in theaters on Sept. 5. The indie studio is also debuting a new trailer ... and poster."

 

File Sharing Site WeTransfer Wants All Rights

 

The file sharing site WeTransfer has updated its terms to grant them all rights to all the material that you upload. Do not use WeTransfer to move large files (like I do with hi res cartoons when sending to an editor). This content becomes theirs in perpetuity for them to do with as they wish forever.

 WeTransfer has since clarified their position after backlash, but this is still a hard no for me.

My thanks to Anthony Taylor for the news.

One comment from his post:

"Let's hope the USPS doesn't get wind of this. 'If your nana ships a birthday card through us we're entitled to the five dollars she sent with it.'"

I'm really dismayed. I am sure there are alternatives out there but I have not tried them. 

 

The Garden As of July 15

 

The garden as of July 15th. Everything is growing so fast.