1947 Dick Tracy "Be a Cartoonist" Record

eBay has an auction for a near-mint 1947 2-record set of Dick Tracy. It ends by tomorrow. Bidding starts at $69.00. Not owning a record player, this intrigues me and it would be fun to have -- but how would I listen to it?


The fun thing is that you, the listener, get to "be a cartoonist." You get to:

1. LISTEN TO THE RECORDS

2. WRITE THE STORY

3. COLOR THE COMICS

Click the above graphic for a super-size version!

Wouldn't it be fun to hear this and see some more of the graphics? Well , doing a quick ol' search, I found that Kiddie Records has done just that. You can download the MP3s, or stream it, and you can also download the graphics. Have fun!

The Great Ham Caper

The Great Ham Caper
Words by Stacy Lynch
Pictures by Mike Lynch

’Twas the week before Christmas
When Rufus and Sam
Hatched a devious scheme
To make off with the ham!

The ham that would grace
The holiday table!
Roo was the brains.
Sam, wiry and able.







They devised a plan
Of Goldbergian proportions
With pulleys and weights
And kitty contortions.

And on Christmas day
They’d eat until stuffed
(The very idea
Made their tails slightly puffed!)

’Til then, they’d lay low,
Little angels to see.
But that made us suspicious –
Wouldn’t you be?



So we snooped and we sleuthed
And uncovered their caper -
“The Ham-Stealing Plan”
Diagrammed on a paper!

“No silly cat’s gonna
Steal my roast beast,”
Exclaimed Mike. “Just watch,
I’ll ruin their feast!”





So he countered their scheming
With mad plans all his own
And all I could do
Was inwardly groan!

Who’d win this contest
Of wits they were planning?
Would Mike, Roo or Sam -
Be last man or cat standing?



As Christmas day dawned
The four of us waited
For the ham to be served
With breaths that were bated.

But before the main course
Could even be plated
Their plans took a turn.
Some say it was fated...

What happened to stop them
So cold in their tracks?
Why, cat-nip and husb-nip
(in big canvas sacks)

Was all that it took
To stop their foul warring.
And they rolled and purred
And drooled on the flooring.

And as long as I kept
My fingers and toes
Away from a hubby and two cats
In nip’s throes -















My own Christmas day
Turned out merry and calm;
The ham moist and succulent,
The champagne, a balm.

When they “awoke”,
hostilities abated,
We all ate some ham
And went to bed sated.







And such peace we wish
To you and to yours:
An end to fighting;
An end to wars.

Happy Holidays!

Mike and Stacy and Rufus and Sam

Tove Jannson

Tove Jannson was, according to what I've heard, not so big in the U.S., but really big in Europe. This is our loss.

Artist Adam McCauley posts at the Drawger site about Jannson's influence, with a couple of great scans. Go look!

A collection of Moomin strips has been translated and Fantagraphics has published them. Are these all actually drawn by her?

Watch 101 Classic Christmas Videos Online

From BoingBoing:

101 Christmas Videos Online

I think we all feel a tug at our hearts with such programming as the Mythbusters Christmas Special, The Ali G Christmas Message, and The Naked Chef: Christmas Comes Early.

Seriously, did anyone see the Charlie Brown Christmas Special on network TV this year? Be glad if you did not! They had an hour block for the special (it's padded out with some new Peanuts animation). From Wikipedia:

"Since airtime versus commercial has decreased since the 1960s, it became impossible for all of A Charlie Brown Christmas to be aired in a half-hour time slot. Thus, in order for it to be possible for all of the original special to be aired, it was given an hour block. However, this left about eighteen extra minutes to be filled, so this program was created to fill in that space."

That's the new animation. And, so, even though they had this whole hour, some network idiot with digital scissors CUT one of my fave scenes that runs under a minute: Sally's letter to Santa! Grrr. Dialogue below:

"Dear Santa Claus, How have you been? Did you have a nice summer? How is your wife? I have been extra good this year, so I have a long list of presents that I want. Please note the size and color of each item, and send as many as possible. If it seems too complicated, make it easy on yourself: just send money. How about tens and twenties?"

Aaugh! How I missed that bit.

A Visit to Al Hirschfeld's Studio

Mark Evanier posted about this, so I figure everyone saw it. But, hey, EVERYONE loves Hirschfeld -- is there such thing as TOO MUCH HIRSCHFELD?

If you haven't seen this, then take a look.

Ike Eisenmann on William Shatner

An undated interview with Ike Eisenmann (the kid on the left, pictured with his FANTASTIC JOURNEY co-stars), who worked with Shatner as a kid actor in STAR TREK II and T.J. HOOKER. Ike appeared in a number of movies and TV shows, including the short lived show FANTASTIC JOURNEY. Title sequence from the 1977 show here. A clip from an episode here.

Lots more on the 10-episode series, which a number of original TREK people worked on, here.

Dick Van Dyke, Computer Graphics Animator?!

Dick Van Dyke -- ANIMATOR?!?! LA Times story here.

"When I wasn't filming [Mary Poppins] I was hanging out with the animators."

And he's been into doing animation since!

(Use BugMeNot if registration is required)

Huge hat tip to Cartoon Brew.

New Look for Archie

OK, if you've been reading the comics blogs then you all ready know that there is an overwhelming reaction to Steven Butler's "reimagining" of Archie. At left, a pencilled page that was posted at The Beat (and much more info. there as well).

The reaction is that this idea is like New Coke or it's like redesigning Charlie Brown. It just ain't done.

Archie has all ready have manga-ized Sabrina, and I hear it's sellling well. Regardless, this seems jarring and wrong on the part of Archie executives.

Cartoon Limbo

Sometimes cartoons go into limbo. Some are forever there, others get a reprieve.

Below are a few cartoons that I'm putting together for the Cartoon Limbo gallery exhibit in NYC. It's at the Venu Gallery, and runs from January 5, 2007 to Ground Hog's Day. Curated by Lewis Matheney, this is going to be a fun show!

The exhibit is all about cartoons and cartoon art projects that got rejected. Well, some got rejected, and then published. Some did not. A partial list of cartoon artists:

Jon Agee, Carl Barks, Dick Briefer, Art Cumings, Jeff Danziger, Stan Goldberg, Woody Guthrie, Bunny Hoest, Crockett Johnson, Mike Lynch, Ruth Marcus, Lewis Matheney, John Reiner, Charles Schulz, Jay Stephens, Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss, James Thurber, Mort Walker

And, below, are a couple of my cartoons that may be in the show. (It's up to Lewis to pick what gets in and what doesn't.)

"Ahh! The arbitration team is here."

Ink on typing paper. Originally appeared in Reader's Digest.

Sometimes, I doodle a strange picture in my sketchbook and try to come up with a gag line for it. It's a little like painting yourself into a corner. That's what I was doing when I drew a rock, a piece of paper, and a pair of scissors walking into a conference room. It took some time for the words to come. When the anthropomorphic rock, paper and scissors became "arbitrators," it all came together.

This cartoon was submitted and rejected 13 times, before the 14th market, Reader's Digest, picked it up.

"If there's a lucite award thingie at the end of the job, I'm your man."

Pen and ink on paper. Originally appeared in Barron's

Rejected by 13 markets. Barron's bought it. A professional magazine cartoonist is considered successful when he or she is able to sell consistently one cartoon out of a batch of ten. Yeah, for real. So, rejection is a way of life.

Most of the business awards I've seen look alike; a bit of wood, acrylic, a plate with a name and something like "4th Annual Mergers and Acquisitions Most Merged and Acquired Person of the Year Award." I wondered why some people decorate their offices with them. And then I remembered that an individual is motivated by different things: money, power, fear, love and ... well ... some can be prodded by lucite award thingies.

"How the hell am I going to spin THIS?"

Ink and wash on paper. Originally appeared in Reader's Digest (UK edition)

"What kind of cartoons do you do?" is a question I get asked. "Editorial cartoons?" No, not editorial cartoons. My cartoons may comment on cultural trends, but they are not topical. This is because my clients put out magazines every month, and there is significant lag time. Rejected by 25 markets, some high profile (like The New Yorker and Barron's), some not so (The Spectator (UK), Counterpunch). It finally saw print in the UK version of Reader's Digest magazine. It has not been published in the US.

Alison Bechdel's Sketch Diary

Alison Bechdel is trying out a diary cartoon -- the first one is here -- just a rough kinda thing about her life that she's draw up and share with all of us. I laughed out loud at this one.

Hat tip to Dirk Deppey at Journalista!

Toles vs. Toles

At the Washington Post site, you can view 2 Tom Toles editorial cartoons: the finished one in the newspaper, as well as a rough for another, unused cartoon.

"Which cartoon works best for you? Is one funnier, more newsworthy, more original? Would you have chosen a different one to "ink out" and publish in the Washington Post?"

And you can post a reply at the site.

Mimi Fae Duffy & Austin Goetz

Today, I want to talk about some talented people from my family. And, of course, there are some cartoons in the mix. But first a bit of the past. "Long past?" "No, your past."



Above, my great grandmother on my Mother's side, Mimi Fae Duffy. She was a Vaudeville performer in the teens and 20s. This is one of a series of photos of her in various costumes.

And this is her husband, and partner in her act, Austin Goetz. Yeah, a German name, but he was black Irish. Now, these were a couple of handsome people!

In 1916-17, they were part of the Billy Allen company. Information on this group is pretty much nonexistent on the Web, but I did find out that Billy Allen's son grew up to be comedian/original TONIGHT SHOW host/writer Steve Allen.


Goetz and Duffy (or "Getz and Duffy" as they were sometimes billed), went out on their own, creating a musical comedy act billed as a "matrimonial oddity." Above: an undated newspaper advertisement from one of Mimi Fae's thick books of clippings that my Mom has. This was back in the day of staff cartoonists.

Above: detail from the clipping.

Above: detail on what may or may not be a signature on the art. It looks like "Einar Vitalis Quist," and that is all I know.

Life on the road was lonely. Above, an original watercolor by a guy I assume was a friend named Fred Page. I'm guessing here, but the silhouette may be Austin's, and the warmly colored Auditorium Cafe Chicago in the left hand inset (with a lovely woman offering a nice glass) must've been far away from that town of "Dumpsville," where Austin waits for the train to come in.

Above: an undated Evening Standard cartoon rating some of the local acts. The cartoons of my great grandparents josh:

Austin: Yes - I believe in divorce - it keeps women in circulation.

Mimi Fae: I wear my sweetie's picture on my knee - he likes to hang around joints.

Some comedy ages well. Some doesn't.

This dialogue gave Goetz & Duffy, "funsters - steppers," a whopping 85% approval rate from the reviewer. Since there's also a caricature of Rudolph Valentino there at the bottom, I put this ad at circa. 1926.

Above, Virginia, my grandmother, daughter of Goetz & Duffy. She was raised by relatives while her parents were on the Vaudeville circuit. When my grandmother grew up, she married Charles Powell. Even though she was a housewife, she still wrote and directed, ending up at the Grand Rapids Playhouse as business manager many years later. It was there that my parents met. Both of them drifted away from theatre, but that's another story.

In later years, Austin Goetz retired from acting and became a playwright. STAR TREK's Deforest Kelley was in one of them when he was a kid, and it helped propel him into acting. Mimi Fae became a staunch Christian Scientist.

I know that they did their act, which was about 12 minutes long, for a long time. It was typical for a Vaudeville performer to hone an act over a lifetime -- and those 12 minutes were their bread and butter for a long time.

I did not find a script for the act. This is too bad. But I found a lot of music, some from a revue they later headlined titled "Listen to Me." There was some other music as well. Maybe it was from their act. (By the way, my thanks to my Mom, for showing me their scrapbooks and photos when I visited this past Thanksgiving.)

I never knew them well. Austin passed away, but Mimi Fae was still around when I was a kid.

In 1977 -- before Mimi Fae had passed away -- I remember writing and performing in a little high school comedy skit (with, among others, then-aspiring funster-stepper, and now-current NY Times columnist, David Pogue). My Dad phoned my great grandmother at her home in California, letting her know that I was doing this little skit with some other kids at school. She was very happy to hear that finally, at long last, someone of the family was getting back into show business.

"Heroes" TV Show

I haven't seen it. I've heard it's good. Some friends have said it's great. Sounds a lot like the X-Men comic book concept: young, good looking teens get super powers but still have problems.

And NBC is giving away all the episodes for free at their site.

So (after a Maybelline ad), you can watch all of the shows, in order, from episode one to episode eleven.

Happy streaming!

Rarely Seen James Thurber Drawings from The New Yorker Offices

One of the nice things about living in NYC and poking around places is that you find, every once in a while, a real lovely surprise worth shouting about.

Here on the 20th floor of the Conde Nast building in Times Square, as one walks from the New Yorker cartoon editor's office to the men's room, is such a surprise. I've been walking by it for years. Yesterday, I took some photos to share this month since it is, after all, Mr. Thurber's birthday month. (He was born December 8, 1894.)


Some James Thurber originals -- pencil on aging plaster. Rarely seen. Transported from the old New Yorker building on 43rd Street to the Conde Nast building.


From a descriptive paragraph posted by these originals:

"James Thurber and The New Yorker were made for each other. Soon after he joined the magazine in 1927, he was flooding its pages with casual essays, memoirs, fables and formless, insistently disarming drawings that bore his unique stamp and frame of mind.



"When he died in 1961, William Shawn, the magazine's editor, wrote of him: 'His work was largely unclassifiable (it was simply Thurber) and by the end it gave him a place in history as one of the great comic artists and one of the great American humorists.... . His tremendously original point of view, his literary style, his peculiar kind of vision and restlessness all went into the magazine and became part of its tradition.'

"The drawings preserved here were pencilled on an office wall in the 1930s -- an extempore mural that includes come sinuous football players, a couple of his amiable, flop-eared hounds, a mysterious dozing figure in a chair, and, on the right, the artist himself: Thurber to the life."

FUN HOME is Time Mag's #1 Book

Congratulations to Alison Bechdel's autobio graphic novel FUN HOME, which is in the #1 spot of Time Magazine's 10 Best Books.

"Forget genre and sexual orientation: this is a masterpiece about two people who live in the same house but different worlds, and their mysterious debts to each other."

Hat tip to the ever vigilant Dirk Deppey Journalista!

Joe Sinnott

Comic book artist Joe Sinnott has a wonderful site that always warrants a visit.

This month's monthly feature is The Nativity from Atlas Publishing's BIBLE TALES FOR YOUNG FOLK #1, August 1953.

The Stan Lee-helmed series lasted 5 issues, with work from Jerry Robinson (who drew most of the covers), Krigstein, Everett, Colan, Kida, Shores. More at Comicartville.

As many fans and colleagues know, Joe lost his wife Betty last month. There is a wonderful photo of the two of them from their wedding day there, as well as a poem of remembrance on the site by grandaughter Erin Sinnott.

Mark Sinnott, Joe's son, has been kind enough to post his email there. You can reach Joe Sinnott at belmark44@yahoo.com

Please consider sending Joe a note wishing him and his family a Merry Christmas. Even though I read comics 20 years after BIBLE TALES, it was the Buscema drawn/Sinnott inked FANTASTIC FOUR comics that I loved when I was a kid. Just thinking about those old Fantastic Fours fills me with that eggnoggy kinda nostalgia.

Minuscule Animation

"Minuscule," a series of some 75 computer animation shorts, has some great writing and sound design -- but, better yet, they are really funny.

The Cartoon Brew blog has the story of who's behind it, along with some clips. This is a French production, and it's being distributed on TV by Disney. Each clip is a whole episode; about 3-5 minutes apiece.

I laughed out loud at a lot of these.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in FUNNY TIMES

OK, we're going to go from Michael Stivic to James Bond here, and then connect it to a cartoon I drew. readyt? Then let's begin.

I have a new cartoon in the latest FUNNY TIMES issue. FUNNY TIMES, by the way, has a new and improved Web site.

I always remember that gag from an ALL IN THE FAMILY episode where Michael Stivic (Rob Reiner) rants about how all the stuff you buy is labeled "new and improved."

"What was the old stuff?" he rhetorically implores. "OLD AND LOUSY?!"

The gag line came about because we are getting used to changing the way media is delivered. Once or twice every decade, we all are told by large companies that will profit from the change, hat we need to get the new and improved format. Writer/blogger Mark Evanier has blogged extensively about his fave movie GOLDFINGER, and the fact that he has bought it over and over, in all the formats: 3/4" tape, Beta, VHS, laser disc, and now DVD. Here's Mark:

As I explained here, I think the entire science of improving home equipment is just a sneaky plan to see how many times they can get me to buy Goldfinger. (Which reminds me: There hasn't been a new, upgraded release of that in over a month. What the hell is wrong with these people?)

-- Mark Evanier, NewsFromMe.com

The idea that you GOTTA get the upgrade is prevalent. And the progression from paper to pixels (or, in this cartoon, love letters to txt msgs) is seen as a GOOD thing.

This picture is drawn in a more realistic style, and I think there is one good thing and one bad thing about it.

The good thing is the action: the woman is slaving over the stove, cooking food. (Food being the first of those 3 basic needs: food, clothing, shelter.) The guy's been playing with a gadget, selfishly not helping meet their needs.

The bad thing is that they look too specific. The woman in particular looks like she's meant to be someone in particular, when she is not. If I did a redraw, I would've made her more generic.

Welcome Back, ARF LOVERS BLOG!

Craig Yoe's Arf Lovers Blog, which has been quiet of late, is now back again with all sorts of just great, fun things. Craig is a very busy working artist and writer. It's our good fortune that he's returned with some gift suggestions, old cartoon art goodies and his own "Whacky Wonder Woman Wednesday" feature.

Above: "I Want to Be a Commercial Artist;" a page from an British pamphlet advising youngsters about careers. Young artist Adrian gets browbeaten by teacher after teacher, each of them apparently embittered by not making it in the real world as professional full time artists and having to return to the art school womb. It's as if the whole thing was scripted by the bleak and sardonic Chris Ware:

"... You realize that you need more than a gift for drawing to make a success of your career."

"I'm willing to learn sir."

"You are going wrong with the proportions there, Adrian."

"I see what you mean."

The fulfillment of all this is being able to sell ideas for breakfast cereal and soap companies.

It's a laff riot.

And don't forget to order Craig Yoe's books -- all great reads. It's all at his blog. Welcome back, Craig!

Shatner on the new STAR TREK movie

For all you cheeky wee monkeys: Shatner talking about the new STAR TREK movie on the Craig Ferguson show. The clip runs one minute.