CUL DE SAC Wins Harvey Award

Richard Thompson's CUL DE SAC won the Harvey Award for best syndicated strip on Saturday night.Congratulations!

Also from the official CUL DE SAC blog this week: Richard shares some "early, embarrassing versions of Cul de Sac [see above for the proto-Alice Otterloop] that I never even showed my editor" from 2003.

Interview: Kieran Meehan "Nowt So Daft"

There is that old business joke sign that says "You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Work Here -- But It Sure Helps." For cartoonists, it's a necessity.

For British-born Kieran Meehan it's a good kinda crazy.

After some bad exam results, a teacher told young Keiran that he was a fool. After a move from London to Glasgow, a St. Charles Primary School teacher noticed correctly that he was short-sighted. This explained why things like seeing the blackboard and team sports were "an unhappy experience."

Kieran read a lot of comics, THE BEANO and THE DANDY among them. He also liked to draw comics. His parents, recognizing his talent, sent him to weekly classes at the Glasgow School of Art.

Kieran went into advertising and design as a profession. He would continue this path for twenty years, but cartoons were a constant. He began to draw single panel cartoons, sending them out en masse to magazines in the late 1980s. He also sent them to King Features, where they caught the attention of Comics Editor Jay Kennedy.

It was a long struggle, and now Kieran is a regularly published cartoonist, with cartoons in many publications and a King Features syndicated cartoon feature 'Pros & Cons.'

His new book NOWT SO DAFT is a collection of his single panel cartoons.

Here's my August 31, 2012 interview with Kieran about his life and his new book:

 
Did your parents encourage your art? Did attending the Glasgow School of Art help you draw better? Looking back, was art instruction helpful to you being the cartoonist you are now?

My parents encouraged and paid for me to attend Saturday morning classes but I suspect it was just an excuse to get me out of the house. I'm certain I became more accomplished thanks to the lessons I received then and later. I might still have become a cartoonist without tuition but the drawings would have been very different.

What were your favorite comics when you were growing up? What are your favorite comics/cartoons now?

As a child my favorite comics were:- The Beano, The Beezer, The Dandy, Oor Wullie, The Broons, Popeye and Beetle Bailey. As an adolescent, Look & Learn and Tell Me Why. About the only genre I couldn't relate to was the superhero. I never counted Popeye as a superhero. What superhero is obsessed with a healthy diet and yet displays a flamboyant disregard for the dangers of smoking?

Of the many comics and cartoons I now admire:- Cul de Sac, Calvin and Hobbes, Retail, Andy Capp, Hagar the Horrible, Speed Bump, Dilbert, Doonesbury, The Duplex and Pooch Cafe immediately spring to mind. I'm certain there are many more great comics and cartoonists I've missed, or have yet to discover.

When you look back at the years from 1989, when you began mailing out single panel cartoons to various magazines, to 1991, when you made your first sale to Private Eye magazine (they bought three) -- what do you think kept you going during those years of rejection?

I made several false starts to my career in cartoons prior to 1989. Each time I had received multiple rejections and these experiences stood me in good stead for my final push. Because I anticipated rejection on a grand scale I had prepared dozens of cartoons and placed these in stamped addressed envelopes. As soon as I received a rejection I mailed another batch off. I'm only thankful Private Eye threw in the towel before I did.

NOWT SO DAFT is not a common expression in the States. What's the story behind the title?

'Nowt (nothing) so daft (odd) as folk' was a common Lancashire/Yorkshire phrase and something my Mother said regularly. She would often abbreviate this to, 'Daft' when I showed her one of my cartoons. I interpreted this to mean she was trying to stop herself laughing and it was a good cartoon. When she laughed and THEN said 'Daft' I interpreted this to mean it was a excellent cartoon. 

NOWT SO DAFT seemed the logical title for my first collection of single panel cartoons.

What drawing tools/paper do you use?

I used to put my faith in Rotring Art Pens but after a protracted period flooding, blotching, jamming, squirting and cursing, I swore I'd never use Rotring again. I now use Rotring Isograph pens. I'm not one to hold a grudge. I draw on either 'Daler' cartridge paper or 'Seawhite of Brighton' Layout paper.

What's next? Will there be more books? Are you thinking about maybe doing other forms of cartoons like a graphic novel or animation?

There are two more NOWT SO DAFT pocketbooks in the pipeline. I've also produced a 132 page graphic novel based on the characters in 'Pros & Cons,' my daily comic strip. 'Trial and Tribulation' will be published early next year. I'd love to work in animation but the art form is so wonderfully accomplished, refined and sophisticated I don't think I could add anything to the art form.

My thanks to Kieran Meehan for agreeing to do this interview. You see? He isn't so daft. Please consider supporting his terrific cartoons by buying his book.

Segar: POPEYE Hires a Cartoonist 1934

Here's a 1934 daily sequence from E.C. Segar's THIMBLE THATER, wherein the Popeye has decided to run a newspaper. Chaos, as only Segar can do it, obviously follows.

This was, at least, the second time Segar poked fun at newspaper cartoonists. The first such story appeared in 1928, a year before Popeye appeared in the strip.

The sequence was pulled from Rick Marshall's NEMO #3, October 1983.

Richard Thompson Ends CUL DE SAC

Above: a "SELF-PORTRAIT: RICHARD THOMPSON" / Special to The Washington Post from Michael  Cavna's 2011 interview with him.



Sad news from a beloved cartoonist. My friend Richard Thompson will end his award-winning CUL DE SAC comic strip next month.

From his syndicate, Universal Uclick:

“The last year has been a struggle for Richard. Parkinson's disease, first diagnosed in 2009, has so weakened him that he is unable to meet the demands of a comic strip. For a time, he worked with another artist, but the deadlines became too much of a task.”

Richard talks about the decision in Michael Cavna's Washington Post interview today:

"I’ve known for a year or more that I was working on borrowed time. My lettering had begun to wander off in 2009, but that could be fixed easily enough. But when Alice’s and Dill’s heads began to look under-inflated last winter, I figured I was losing control of the drawing, too. When I needed help with the inking (the hardest but most satisfying part of drawing the strip),well that was probably a tipping point. Parkinson’s disease is horribly selfish and demanding. A daily comic strip is too and I can only deal with one at a time. So it was a long, gradual, sudden decision."

CUL DE SAC appears in 250 papers, The last strip will appear on September 23, 2012.

I send Richard all my best and wish this was not so. CUL DE SAC is beloved by many regular people and so many cartoonists. The CUL DE SAC books are perennials and will stay in print forever. Otterloop lives!

 


Above: from the 2009 OSU Festival: Tom Stemmle, Mark Anderson, Mike Lynch and the one and only Richard Thompson.

Tom Armstrong: 30 Years of MARVIN

Above: Tom Armstrong at work on a MARVIN Sunday page. Photo by Richard Dymond for the Bradenton Herald.

Tom Armstrong reflects on his career in this profile written by Richard Dymond. All this week, to honor MARVIN's 30th anniversary, the baby Marvin will meet the 30 year old Marvin.

"I decided to show Marvin at 30 because people continually ask me if Marvin is ever going to grow up," Armstrong said with a smile. "So, I wanted to do it just for awhile. I think he looks pretty handsome. But after the series he will go back to being age two."

On cartooning:

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/07/30/4134437/its-been-a-fun-30-year-romp-through.html#storylink=cpy

"There are only 200 people in the world who make a living producing syndicated daily cartoon strips. What's really unbelievable to me is that I am one of those 200, am doing what I love and it's paying the bills."

The entire story is here.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/07/30/4134437/its-been-a-fun-30-year-romp-through.html#storylink=cpy

Sandra Bell-Lundy: Buy Your Kids Art Supplies and Leave Them Alone

Sandra Bell-Lundy shares some of her childhood drawings (like the "Mad Whirly Bird: comic above) and tells parents about encouraging talented kids:

Buy them wads and wads of paper and pencils and pens and Sharpies and whatever else is their drawing tool of choice....AND LEAVE THEM ALONE. 

Let them draw whatever they want.  Weird perspective, inaccurate body dimensions, scratchy nothingness, uneven lettering...whatever and however they doodle, it's not wrong or something to be "improved upon".  Let them have fun.  Let them be immersed in their own world.  Let them be minimalist or realistic or crazy-detailed or mimic other cartoonists.

Al Capp Photos 1946-71

Some rarely seen press photos from the life and career of Al Capp.

July 14, 1946: HOME FROM EUROPE - Al Capp, creator of "Li'l Abner," and Mrs. Al Capp return home after a trip to England and France. Capp said he let the country to escape good-natured reader wrath when he refused to draw the face of Lena the Hyena from Lower Slobbovia, the ugliest woman in the world. Capp was overseas seeking background for new adventures for his comic cartoon family, the Yokums.

You can see some of the brush strokes around Capp to pop him away from the background. Close up of photo:

April 29, 1948: GETS CARTOONISTS' 'OSCAR' -- Al Capp, creator of Li'l Abner," which appears daily in the Daily News, receives the Billy deBeck Memorial Award from Mrs. Billy deBeck, widow of the creator of Barney Google. Capp was given the award in New York by the National Cartoonists Society for outstanding work during 1947.

November 20, 1950: Members of the [Chicago] Daily News Keen Teen Press Club interviewed the creator of Li'l Abner at the Blackstone hotel Saturday and learned hos his famous characters came to be. "Who inspired you to create Daisy Mae?"

"Actually, it takes constant research," said Capp, smiling at all the girls. She's sort of an ideal girl,." They smiled.

I was curious what the Chicago Daily News Keen Teen Press Club looked like and I found the below photo dated Feb 29, 1952, the 6th anniversary of the Press Club. This explains Capp's smile. The fellow in the middle is dancing star Gene Nelson. Second from left is Val Lauder, the Daily News Keen Teen editor. The Keen Teen Press Club can be read on the comics page.

1953: Al Capp reads fan mail:

 

September 29, 1959: WASHINGTON: The Advertising Club of Washington honored United Features cartoonist Al Capp on his 50th birthday and the 25th anniversary of his "Li'l Abner" comic strip here on September 29. Here, Lawrence Rutman (right), Vice President of United Features Syndicate, presents a citation to Capp - one of several awards he received for public service.

November 20, 1964: Distinguished citizens receive citations from four of the nation's top cartoonists at Immigrants' Service League dinner meeting. The cartoonists (from left) are Al Capp, Allen Saunders, Milton Caniff and Chester Gould. Those honored are (from right) Mrs. Alfred T. Abeles, Ignacia Torres, Lee C. Teng, Samule Levine, Ali Bulent Cambel, Hilda Rubin, Parla and Louis Lukanic, and Judge Samuel B. Epstein. (Photo by Edmund Jarecki.)




1971:

Jim Unger 1937-2012

Jim Unger, creator of the long running newspaper panel HERMAN, died in his sleep on May 29, 2012, after a long illness in Saanich, British Columbia. He was 75.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been made. In lieu of flowers and cards, Unger¹s family has asked for donations to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Cartoonist Adrian Raeside said of his friend:

"If, like me, you're feeling down about Jim Unger's passing, go pick up a Herman book. I guarantee you'll start giggling at the first cartoon. I think that's how Jim would want to be remembered."

Ottawa Citizen obituary by Clare Clancy here.

Bado has a remembrance at his blog.

Leigh Rubin: If My Wife Says My Cartoon Is "'Sick,' Then I Know I Have a Winner."

Cartoonist Leigh Rubin, who draws the RUBES newspaper cartoon panel, is interviewed in the Modesto Bee.

Who's your sounding board? And do most of the ideas you come up with end up in "Rubes," or do you toss away two for every one we see?

I do have a growing pile of random concepts that never quite jelled. To become an official "Rubes" cartoon, a drawing must pass a battery of strict tests.

In addition, my wife must give it the final approval. If she says it's "sick," then I know I have a winner.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/22/4506301/rubes-cartoonist-to-give-answers.html#storylink=cpy

Lost Recording: James Swinnerton Interview

 

 1932 photo of Swinnerton at his desk from the fotosdecomics blog. 


James Swinnerton (1875-1974) was one of the early giants of American cartooning. Four years before THE YELLOW KID, Swinnerton was drawing a little bear on the San Francisco Examiner every day. The bear cub became a hit and the Examiner's owner, William Randolph Hearst, asked "Swin" to move to New York to join his New York World bullpen, which included Tad Dorgan, George McManus, George Herriman and others.

Swinnerton created a lot of characters and was an early experimenter in comic strip narrative technique. An early success was THE LITTLE TIGERS. The naughty Mr. Jack became his breakout character, and the strip was later renamed for him. His longest running comic was LITTLE JIMMY (1904-1958).

Around 1905, this successful cartoonist was diagnosed with life-threatening tuberculosis. He was told he had a short time to live, and he should move out to the desert, where the air would be better for him. Swinnerton did this -- but he also defied the doctors by living for another 69 years, healthy and productive, continuing cartooning and painting his desert environs.

Below is the background on the 1963 interview and the audio itself. The video has a lot of rare art and certainly begs to be watched full screen:

In 1963, Milt Kagen arranged for Master Sergeant Percy Brown, Jr. to interview legendary cartoonist Jimmy Swinnerton for a program that was broadcast by shortwave to troops overseas.

A lifelong comics fan, Mr. Kagen carefully preserved the tapes of that interview and is now making the program available to the public.

Links:
OSU site
Coconino County page
Spectatorship and Framing in the Strips
Animation Resources
Illustration Art
STWALLSKULL

Fran Matera 1924-2012

 Above: A STEVE ROPER AND MIKE NOMAD Sunday strip courtesy of Comic Book Catacombs.

Francis "Fran" Matera, best known for drawing King Features' STEVE ROPER AND MIKE NOMAD, died at his home in Safety Harbor, Florida on March 15, 2012. The cause was complications from prostate cancer. He was 87.

He is survived by his three sons, Fran Matera Jr., Chris and Guy Matera, and four grandchildren. Services, according to the Tampa Bay Times, are 2:15PM. March 30; Bay Pines National Cemetery, 10,000 Bay Pines Blvd., St. Petersburg.

Mr. Matera delineated the adventures of STEVE ROPER AND MIKE NOMAD for twenty years beginning in 1984, until the last day of the comic strip, December 26, 2004.

Through his mentor, local comic strip artist Alfred Andriola, Matera found a staff position with Quality Comics after graduating high school in Connecticut. Eight months later, he interrupted his art career when he served in the Marines during World War II. While serving on the USS Augusta, he drew a portrait of visiting President Harry Truman.

After his 1947 discharge, he assisted Andriola on KERRY DRAKE. After that, he took over the Milton Caniff-created DICKIE DARE comic strip.

Matera's line up of comic strip and comic book work is tremendous: LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY, REX MORGAN, the 1981 INDIANA JONES movie tie-in comic, ghosting strips such as JUDGE PARKER, APARTMENT 3-G, REX MORGAN; he drew hundreds of comic book stories for Charlton, St. John and the Catholic comic book series TREASURE CHEST. Fran Matera also drew THE HULK and TARZAN for Marvel Comics.

In 2009, Sherri Ackerman profiled Matera for The Tampa Tribune:

He married the love of his life, a beautiful blonde named Patricia, and moved her south to Delray Beach where the couple lived in an old two-story house on Swinton Avenue nicknamed White Haven. There, they raised three boys, Fran Jr., Chris and Guy. The family eventually moved to Safety Harbor, where Patricia died in 2004. Matera's sons live nearby. One day, they'll inherit their dad's famous portrait, though Matera has heard more than once that it belongs in the White House or a museum. A copy of the original resides at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum Independence. MO. Some friends have even suggested Matera sell his sketch with its famous signature, a moment in time that still leaves Matera wondering: Did Truman realize then how valuable that piece of paper would

one day become? "I don't see how it could ever be sold," Matera says. "It's priceless."

Fran Matera Web site
Fran Matera Wikipedia page

Video: Richard Thompson at the 2011 National Book Festival

From the Library of Congress, here's my friend, the Reuben Award winning Richard Thompson, who appeared at the 2011 National Book Festival on September 25, 2011. A full transcript is at the link. This video runs over 42 minutes.

Remembering Bil Keane

Above: a 1970 self-portrait.

Remembering Bil Keane, who died at the age of 89 on November 8, 2011.

Here are a few Bil Keane photos and drawings from National Cartoonist Society publications:



1968:

1966:

1966, Bill Mauldin and Bil Keane:

1967 Awards Dinner page from the NCS Cartoonist magazine:

1975 Award winners:

1968 Award winners:
:

1972:

1975:

1977:

1976 Hall and Register Syndicate ad:

1976:

1976, Bil Keane and Jack Lebo: