Inspired By Cats by Nava Atlas with Drawings by Bob Eckstein

 

My friend Bob Eckstein has illustrated a new book, Inspired By Cats: Writers and Their Mew(ses), written by Nava Atlas. Seeing as I, too, am inspired by cats, this sure looks interesting. Here's Bob:

"I’m excited to announce a new book I have coming out this Fall with good friend and Literary Ladies Guide and The Vegan Atlas writer Nava Atlas published by Countryman Press at W. W. Norton & Company.

"We captured the endearing relationships of 60 famous authors and their beloved feline companions…"

 

 

Mort Walker Comic Art

 

Just came across this and wanted to share. Some rare Mort Walker comic art, which is now selling on eBay (NOT my sale). There's even a letter from Mort about it. 

 

I did get confirmation that the image is part of the 2025 book by Bill Janocha, The Life and Art of Mort Walker.

Saul Steinberg Drawings: "View of the World From 9th Avenue" and More

 

Some drawings by the great Saul Steinberg (1914-1999), the Romanian-born cartoonist/artist, whose work still resonates. His most famous piece is the cover of the March 29, 1976 issue of The New Yorker, "View of the World From 9th Avenue." But there's a lot more.

 

 

STRANGE ADVENTURES No. 237 "The Skyscraper That Came to Life!"

Above: obviously, a mint collector's edition, huh? This well-loved comic with an anthropomorphic Empire State Building was one of the first comics I bought. I got rid of it in 1986 when I sold a lot of my comics and, seeing it for sale years later, bought it back again for 2 1/2 times its 20 cents cover price at a NYC comic book store.

This is STRANGE ADVENTURES No. 237, July-August, 1972. It's copyright 1972 by National Periodical Publications. Now, this story, "The Skyscraper That Came to Life!" by John Broome, is by no means a classic in literature, but it had a unique take on alien invasion.

The 7 page story is actually a rerun, having been originally published in STRANGE ADVENTURES #72 in September 1956.

 

 

You can see the serious spine roll in this read and re-read comic book.

 

 

So, here's the "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" moment: the invading aliens have CGI (or, at best, really, really good PowerPoint animations). 1950s Earth does not!

 

 

After seeing that uninvited couple crash the White House event last week, the idea that any slob (human or alien) can walk into a movie producer's office and get a Hollywood deal is more believable.

 

 

All of the aliens look like they work at Sterling Cooper.

 

 

"The invasion of Earth is cancelled!" Well, there you have it. 7 pages of fun and, for me, happy memories.

 

And, of course, what's a comic without the ads!



I wonder if this "Cartoon for Money" correspondence school ever had any famous grads?


Oh, and it looks like there's this little convention in San Diego. Might be worth going to. Hmm.

Postscript: Reading this comic when I was a tot living in Lawrence, Kansas, I never thought that one day I would actually know one of the guys who drew it. I first met Joe Giella at a Long Island Chapter National Cartoonists Society lunch way back over 20 years ago now. There were many lunches and get togethers after that. Such a nice guy.

Small cartoony world! I think I'm growing to love and admire this planet!

 

-- Edited from a December 7, 2009 entry.

Video: Walt Kelly's "We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us"

 

On Earth Day, which was first established on April 22, 1970, Walt Kelly drew this famous drawing, which became a print, above. 

 

He also made a short movie about the topic. Nancy Beiman, who met and became friends with Walt Kelly's wife, Selby, posted this on her Facebook page on April 22, 2021. Here's Nancy and then a link to the short film: 

"In 1970, for the first Earth Day, Walt Kelly released a 12 minute animated short film with his wife Selby Kelly called WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US. I saw it in our Environmental Science class in high school. Kelly's animation is stunning. He was one of the all time greats. Selby was art director and her son Scott Daley wrote the final music.

 

"In 1979 I started working for Zander's Animation Parlour in New York. I was 21 years old. One day our production manager told me that one of the assistants wanted to speak to me. I figured that they wanted to complain. No. The assistant was Selby Kelly, and she wanted to know who this young female animator was.

 

"We became friends. One day Selby said casually, 'Kelly and I made a film together. Would you like to see it?' (She always called him Kelly).

 

"Of course I would love to see the film again, I replied. I had a 16mm projector in my apartment and invited Selby for dinner and the screening. I saw something odd about the reel immediately. WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY was only 12 minutes long, yet this reel was a full 30 minutes (Before digital media we could measure the length of film by how much space it took up on a reel.) 

 

"I checked the first 30 feet for bad splices (another quaint custom.) 'There seem to be a lot of them,' I remarked.

 

"'Oh, this is the work picture. There are no copies,' Selby replied. My guts turned to ice. I checked the entire reel. I had to make one new splice.

 

Then I threaded up the projector and worried...but I had nothing to worry about. But I sure had something to look at.

 

"This was not the same film. Not at all. It was a Leica reel or story reel with filmed storyboards and Kelly reading the script, and a 'needle drop' track. (canned temp music) And it was twice as long because it had a horrific dream sequence and decidedly downbeat ending.

 

"Walt Kelly could not get anyone to produce this version. No TV studio in the USA, then or now, would have produced it. He got backing from a NGO for a 12 minute version, cut out the horror sequence and gave it an upbeat ending. The 12 minute version still exists, but not on YouTube.

In 1991 I was working for Warner Brothers New York. Selby was planning to move West and leave the city.

 

"I contacted producer Greg Ford and said 'We have to transfer this to tape before it disappears forever.'

 

"Greg did this and gave the Kelly family the Beta tape. 

 

"They released the film on VHS in 1992. Here it is.

 

"A word about the soundtrack: Kelly couldn't afford a session director. So the soundman in the booth never told him when to cut or do a retake. 'He read the script cold, and was getting madder and madder, because he wanted the man to tell him when he made a mistake,' Selby told me. (Kelly was a big bear of a man who took absolutely no crap from anyone and he obviously terrified the sound man). Kelly read the entire script in one take. He did indeed make mistakes, but kept on going. This is what a good animation story pitch man does. I was amazed by how effortlessly Kelly switches between character voices.

 

"And this is the only recorded example of a Golden Age Disney Studio Story man doing a pitch.

Watch it. The shorter film has some dialogue cuts that help it, and Kelly made some lovely layouts that 'plus' the visuals. But this film is the more powerful version. It pulls no punches.

 

"There is no happy ending."

 

 

EDIT: The YouTube version, which I previously posted, has been pulled, but here's a 13 minute version from Archive.org: 

 

 Link to the longer "Leica Version" here.

- This is an edited version of a blog entry from April 22, 2021.

Mark Zingarelli 1952 - 2025

 

Mark Zingarelli has passed away. No further information is available at this time.

His career spans over five decades, and includes work in indy comic books, graphic novels; as well as The New Yorker, Scholastic, Nintendo, AT&T and many other clients.

Born in Pennsylvania, he attended The Ivy School of Professional Art, then transferred to the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in art and film production. He moved from Pennsylvania to San Diego upon graduation in 1975. He soon became a full-time freelance illustrator. Five years later, he moved to Seattle where he created a comic strip review column "Eatin' Out with Eddie" for The Rocket newspaper. He began contributing to the Robert Crumb-edited Weirdo Magazine. Crumb introduced him to Harvey Pekar and Art Spiegelman. Zingarelli's art began appearing in American Splendor and The New Yorker. In the 1990s, Mark and his family moved back to Irwin, Pennsylvania, where he had grown up. 

 

From his David Wasting Paper interview in 2011:

"If you could give one piece of advice to someone who wants to pursue drawing as a career what would it be?
"Make sure you really, really love it and be prepared to never stop learning from the experience. A lifetime isn’t enough time to do all of it so enjoy the time you have and make the most of every second you are able to draw."

 

2015: Mark Zingarelli in his studio. Photo by Danielle Fox for the Pittsburgh Paper. 

Related:

House of Zing website

Lambiek profile 

The Garden As of Mid-April

 

 

Mid-April garden looks the same as it did two weeks back. Still asleep. The daffodils are coming up, buds on the trees, and Fergus, inside, “helping.”