Thanks EDITOR & PUBLISHER

.. for the announcement about my forthcoming talk at the Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy.

1,455 Postings and Counting

Above: the daily grind ... a cartoon I did within a month after quitting my day job.

It just crept up on me without me noticing. I have written 1, 455 Mike Lynch Cartoons blog postings since February 7, 2006. Wow. I had no idea. That's amazing. That's a lotta yakkin'!

Thanks for being there, and for taking the time to read. Your comments and emails are catnip.

Mike Lynch Speaks at Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy

Hey, it's me, Mike Lynch, reminding you that I'll be giving a talk (complete with cartoons and pizza) at the Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy on Saturday afternoon, September 13, 2008.

It's going to be good. I'll talk about cartoons for a bit and then we'll get into the nitty gritty of the business of cartooning.

Prices are $25/$15 per person. Call the Academy for reservations: 860-651-4400

TCM: Saturday All Day Laurel & Hardy UPDATED

Tomorrow (Saturday) Turner Classic Movies presents Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy shorts & features all day long. The films are uncut and uninterrupted (and, usually, the best darn print available).

Below is a clip of Laurel & Hardy dancing from WAY OUT WEST. Look at the pacing. It's just a couple of minutes where no plot is moved forward, no explosions, no getting hit in the crotch -- it all reminds me of a far off time as I watch these two relaxed professional icons (wearing, of course, their suits & bowler hats in the wild west), dance a dance that's equal parts silly and elegant. (The look that Stan gives is to their off-screen mule --unseen in this clip -- who has begun tapping his hoof to the music.)



Here's the schedule of movie showings (all times EST) for the day:

6:00 AM	Short Film: Night Owls (1930)
	Two vagrants try to help a police officer save his reputation. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy. Dir: James Parrott. BW-21 mins,
6:25 AM	Short Film: Blotto (1930)
	Stan steals his wife's secret bottle of liquor so he can have a wild night out at the Rainbow club with Ollie. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy BW-26 mins,
6:55 AM	Short Film: Brats (1930)
	Two fathers try to spend a quiet night despite their raucous offspring. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy. Dir: James Parrott. BW-21 mins,
7:20 AM	Short Film: Hog Wild (1930)
	Two friends try to install a radio antenna, with disastrous results. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Fay Holderness. Dir: James Parrott. BW-19 mins,
7:45 AM	Short Film: Be Big! (1931)
	Two married men feign illness so they can ditch their wives and attend a lodge party. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Anita Garvin. Dir: James Parrott. BW-28 mins,
8:15 AM	Short Film: Laughing Gravy (1931)
	Roommates try to hide a dog from their grouchy landlord. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charlie Hall. Dir: James W. Home. BW-31 mins,
8:50 AM	Short Film: Our Wife (1931)
	A man tries to help his best friend elope. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Babe London. Dir: James W. Horne. BW-21 mins,
9:15 AM	Short Film: Pardon Us (1931)
	Selling homemade beer lands a two friends in prison together. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, June Marlowe. Dir: James Parrott. BW-55 mins,
10:30 AM	Short Film: One Good Turn (1931)
	Two vagrants try to repay the kindly old lady who helped them. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mary Carr. Dir: James W. Horne. BW-21 mins,
10:55 AM	Short Film: Beau Hunks (1931)
	After being dumped by his girlfriend, "Jeanie-Weenie," Oliver makes Laurel join the Foreign Legion with him. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy BW-37 mins,
11:35 AM	Short Film: Helpmates (1932)
	A married man has to get his house back in order before his wife returns. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Bobby Burns. Dir: James Parrott. BW-21 mins,
12:00 PM	Bonnie Scotland (1935)
	Two Americans in search of a Scottish inheritance wind up serving with the British in India. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson. Dir: James Horne. BW-81 mins, TV-G, CC
1:25 PM	Short Film: Fixer Uppers, The (1935)
	Comedic duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy have a no fail plan to help a jealous wife woo her husband, but somehow things go wrong. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy Dir: Charles Rogers BW-20 mins,
1:50 PM	Them Thar Hills (1934)
	When they go to the mountains for a rest to cure Ollie's gout, the two accidentally get high on moonshine dumped into the well by local moonshiners trying to evade the law. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch. Dir: Charles Rogers. BW-20 mins,
2:15 PM	Tit For Tat (1935)
	A Laurel and Hardy sequel to Them Thar Hills - they open an electrical repair shop and discover that their neighbor/grocer are the same couple they had a run in with in Them Thar Hills. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch. Dir: Charles Rogers. BW-19 mins,
2:40 PM	Short Film: Live Ghost, The (1934)
	A sea captain hires comedic duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy to trick sailors into working on his supposedly haunted boat. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy Dir: Charles Rogers BW-20 mins,
3:05 PM	Devil's Brother, The (1933)
	Two wannabe bandits are hired as servants by the real thing. Cast: Laurel & Hardy, Dennis King, Thelma Todd. Dir: Hal Roach. BW-90 mins, TV-G, CC
4:40 PM	Short Film: Me and My Pal (1933)
	A groom and his best man get preoccupied with a jigsaw puzzle on their way to the wedding. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson. Dir: Lloyd French, Charley Rogers. BW-20 mins,
5:10 PM	Short Film: Their First Mistake (1932)
	After adopting a baby to save his marriage, a man discovers his wife has left him. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch. Dir: George Marshall. BW-21 mins,
5:35 PM	Pack Up Your Troubles (1932)
	Two World War I veterans try help a comrade's orphaned daughter find her family. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Don Dillaway. Dir: George Marshall, Ray McCarey. BW-66 mins, TV-G
6:45 PM	Short Film: Scram! (1932)
	Two vagrants ordered out of town take up with a drunken tycoon. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Richard Cramer. Dir: Ray McCarey. BW-20 mins,
7:10 PM	Short Film: County Hospital (1932)
	A hospital visitor wreaks havoc during a routine visit. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Billy Gilbert. Dir: James Parrott. BW-19 mins,
7:30 PM	Short Film: Chimp, The (1932)
	A jealous husband thinks two tenants sneaking a pet chimp into their apartment are carrying on with his wife. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Billy Gilbert. Dir: James Parrott. BW-25 mins,
8:00 PM	Music Box, The (1932)
	Two men running a moving company have to get a large piano up a daunting flight of stairs. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Billy Gilbert. Dir: James Parrott. BW-29 mins, TV-G
8:35 PM	Sons of the Desert (1933)
	Two friends hatch a harebrained scheme to attend a lodge convention over their wives' objections. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase. Dir: William A. Seiter. BW-65 mins, TV-G
9:45 PM	Way Out West (1938)
	A pair of tenderfeet try to get the deed to a gold mine to its rightful owner. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sharon Lynne. Dir: James W. Horne. BW-64 mins, TV-G, CC
11:00 PM	Swiss Miss (1938)
	When they're swindled, two salesmen have to work off their debts in a Swiss hotel. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy Walter Woolf King. Dir: John G. Blystone. BW-65 mins, TV-G
12:15 AM	Block-Heads (1938)
	Chaos erupts when a man tries to help an old war buddy. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Minna Gombell. Dir: John G. Blystone. BW-57 mins, TV-G
1:15 AM	Flying Deuces, The (1939)
	Two bumblers join the Foreign Legion to forget a beautiful woman. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Jean Parker. Dir: A. Edward Sutherland. BW-65 mins, TV-G
2:25 AM	Chump at Oxford, A (1939)
	When they accidentally capture a bank robber, two street cleaners are given a scholarship to Oxford. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardey, Wilfred Lucas. Dir: Alfred J. Goulding. BW-63 mins, TV-G, CC
3:30 AM	Saps at Sea (1940)
	Two factory workers accidentally set sail with an escaped killer. Cast: Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, James Finlayson. Dir: Gordon M. Douglas. BW-58 mins, TV-G, CC
4:30 AM	Air Raid Wardens (1943)
	A pair of bumblers stumble upon Nazi spies on the home front. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy. Dir: Edward Sedgwick. BW-67 mins, TV-G, CC

UPDATE: The one and only Mark Evanier (a L&H uber-fan) posted all about this as well. He's much more knowledgeable about "the boys" than I am and he adds his own notes on all of the film descrips. Go look.

PARADE OF COMICS 1966 Newspaper Comics Council Coloring Book

Many terrific unseen drawings by Harold Gray, Irwin Hasen, Neil Adams, Mell Lazarus, Al Capp, Milton Caniff and others courtesy of the Hairy Green Eyeball blog. So many, it's been sliced into 4 digestible bits:

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

H/t to Comics Reporter for this gem!

Some Food Cartoons by Mike Lynch

Above: even when dying of thirst, some will opt for only the most conspicuous, trendy remedy.

I was recently asked for some cartoons about food, and I honestly could only think of maybe one or two that I had that were appropriate. When I began to look at my thousands of cartoons in my inventory, I found a lot more than I thought.


Above: you need to click on this one. I like the practical joke and it's almost feasible if you were able to starch up some of the alphabet in the alphabet soup. Tired mom is as amused as she can get. The little bit of kitchen detail top right helps give us a sense of place.


This really happened a couple years ago. I was in a grocery store with Stephanie Piro and we were looking at desserts in the bakery section. No nutritional labels were found!


Sometimes I get a nice wash effect.

The nice thing about drawing cartoons for a while is that soon you have a whole bunch and you find you have cartoons on a lot of topics. The above is not only about food, but it's about relationships too.



Food stores are getting categorized with non-food names. There are names on aisles like wellness section, personal growth section. Food is being labeled like drugs; this food will boost your metabolism, this food will decrease your bad carbs or whatever.






Above: 2 whales having breakfast on their apt. balcony. This one never sold -- maybe because eating children is considered too horrifying. I think the idea of 2 whales on a balcony is structurally scary. If I lived in that building, I would never park my car under their balcony.


There are already disclaimers in the parking lot (RESTAURANT NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR VEHICLE OR ANYTHING INSIDE); soon, they'll be inside as well.


Above: maybe it isn't food, but it's gardening. A silent cartoon with a gardener clown. One thing I forgot that I had added: the woman's daisies have fallen down, but the novelty squirty flower water has the juice that makes the clown's daisies grow tall.


This cartoon wrote itself. These are some of the least cute slugs ever. It does beg the question of how a slug could actually pass some salt across the table ....


Above: a catholic joke. I've heard that Ritz crackers are sometimes used instead of official Host wafers. The cartoon has never been sold or held by anyone, but I think it's funny.



Above: a multi-panel silent cartoon from I think maybe my first year of full-time cartooning. Part of a batch that was sold to BBC Music.


One of my few swear word cartoons.


Above: eating is considered passe on the Upper East Side.


Above: the level of political involvement for some. I don't know why, but my choice of colors seems particularly garish.


There you have it -- some cartoons about food! Now, to go have a mid-morning bit of peanut butter toast and a glass of novelty squirty flower water.

Big Twomorrows Sale

Spreading the good word from John Morrow over at Twomorrows Publishing: Select magazines are up to 50% off!

Twomorrows publishes an array of great magazines focusing on the comic book industry and the creative process. Go take a look at this sale.

Mike Lynch Speaks at Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy

Here's a friendly non-monster-eating-you reminder to come on over to Simsbury, CT to talk cartoons with me, Mike Lynch, at Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy on Saturday, September 13, 2008.

I'll be talking about cartoons: the craft and the business of cartooning. I'll show some of my cartoons and maybe even doing silly drawings (like the one up top, blown waaay up from a thumbnail sketch) just for fun.

Ten years ago, I was working 9 to 5 in a job a I didn't like. I decided to quit and cartoon full-time. Cartooning is hard work. It's a job, but it's a job I love.

I'll talk about how I started out, and how I deal with a lot of hands-on issues a cartoonist faces: how to be consistently creative, promoting yourself, dealing with clients, invoicing, finding markets, etc.

Anyway, this will be a chance to say hi and have a slice of pizza ("Yes," Guy assured me, "there will be food.") and talk cartooning in a classroom setting.

Details here.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in August 2008 CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Above: no, not the cartoon. It's a rough sketch for the cartoon from my sketchbook. Looks like I was calling Guy Gilchrist that day. Yeah, I tend to make notes on my cartoons and sketchbooks. Digression & Plug: I'm giving a talk all about cartooning at Guy's Cartoonists School next month! It's in Connecticut, on a Saturday. More details at the link.

OK, back on topic:

The sweat shouldn't show in a good cartoon. A good cartoon should just be funny and look effortless. This cartoon of mine, in this week's CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, was full of effort and grunt. I knew what I wanted to do, but it just wasn't funny at all in the early drafts.

This is the kind of gag where you apply a formula and then see how funny it is. This is just off the top of my head, but I could have drawn the seven dwarfs of politics (Photo-Oppy, Reactionary, Progressivey, Whacky, Waffley, Stay-the-Coursey, Changey) or the seven dwarfs of cartoonists (Webby, New Yorkery, Syndicatey, Graphic-Novelly, animationy, caricaturisty, Gaggy) ... well, the list goes on.

It was a challenge to come up with these names, and, especially, the last two, which give a final bit of a gag to end it. Click to super-size.

I wanted to draw the dwarfs in a non-cuddly manner, and I think I succeeded. They still have big noses and cute beards, but they all look real world kinda tired. Not the sort of cutesy-poo figures anyone would license as a toy.

I don't always know when my cartoons are printed. My thanks to Brian at DePaul for the heads up!

Are Rival Syndicate Reps Telling 'Half-Truths' About the Future of 'For Better or For Worse'?

Are some syndicate salespeople -- in the hopes that newspapers will buy comics from their syndicates to replace "For Better or For Worse" -- hinting that "FBorFW" will end completely Aug. 31? Or are these salespeople exaggerating how much old material will be in Lynn Johnston's strip when she goes to "new-runs" Sept. 1?

Read more here in this article by Dave Astor at Editor and Publisher.

Related: In her own words: Andrews McMeel video interview with Ms. Johnston here.

FBoFW News blog here.

UPDATE: Tom Spurgeon's reaction.

Dream On

I don't usually remember my dreams, but this one was different. I had a dream last night where the Sunday New York Times arrived complete with three large color comics sections, as well as inserts like a Comics Buyers Guide, The Comics Journal, Hogan's Alley and a cool TOS STAR TREK mag. Now that's the way to increase circulation!

Unfortunately, I woke up before I could read any of them. *&^%#%!!!

The above drawn with a tempermental Penstix pen (0.7mm) on Canson paper.

The Garden as of Mid-August

Continuing to chronicle the first garden we have ever had -- since we used to live in NYC and had concrete and trash cans and a stoop where a yard should be.


Above: the first of our three raised beds filled with compost. We have zucchini, tomatoes and (obscured by zucchini) cucumbers.


Turnips, chard, lettuce, watermelon, cantaloupe, carrots and some mixed salad greens.


Growing up the large right homemade trestle are beans, in the back on the store-bought trestle are blackeyed Susans. In the middle: okra, peppers, eggplant and strawberries. The red bean blooms are VERY popular with bumblebees and hummingbirds.

Related: from July 2, 2008: Off-Topic: How Our Garden Grows.

Bear Creek by Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley

I just read this jam comic Bear Creek by husband and wife cartoonist team Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley.

Hope (an award winning graphic novelist whose book CHIGGERS was released this past spring) and husband Bryan (whose own award winning SCOTT PILGRIM series of GNs is being made in to a movie) have their own styles and ways of telling a story. Both work together in this Web-exclusive strip with beautiful images and colors.

Big h/t to Comics Reporter.

KING KOJO with Illustrations by Marge

Way back in the back of a local hardware store is a small area with maybe 1000 used books. Most of these were Reader's Digest Condensed Books, various editions of the old Time Life series of books, romance fiction, Babysitters' Club books, and so on. But on a pile of library discards there was the hardcover, well worn book below, KING KOJO.


KING KOJO was written by Ruth Plumly Thompson with illustrations by Marge (Marjorie Henderson Buell). The book is copyright 1938 by the David McKay Company.



This edition was a discard from the Rochester (NH) Public Library, and is much read.

Ruth Plumly Thompson was a well known name. She wrote the WIZARD OF OZ series of books after Frank Baum passed away. She wrote an OZ book a year from 1921 to 1939.


Above: Ms. Thompson's generous dedication to all who helped create KOJO and all who read it.


Above: the warning label sewn into the binding by the Rochester Library reads:

DO NOT turn down the leaves of this book
— Use a bookmark

DO NOT mark or mutilate — Others want to read it

DO NOT stain with food

DO NOT expose this book to rain, snow or dust — Please wrap it

PER ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES

Of course, as you can see in these unretouched scans, the Trustees were ignored on all counts for 70 years.

The illustrations are by Marge, who just three years earlier, in 1935, created the character of Little Lulu for the Saturday Evening Post. Not only was Marge one of the rare female cartoonists of her time, she also retained all rights to Lulu — rarer still for the time. I can only think of one other cartoonist of the 1930s (the one and only Percy Crosby) who did the same.


The book is about the benevolent but slightly inept King Kojo who rules the Kingdom of Oh-Go-Wan. If puns make you groan, the book is a groanfest. The stories feature the King's jester Pogo, as well as the usual assortment of knights, wizards, robbers in the woods, ogres and so on.


Above: the color really helps make the illustrations. I had no idea that Marge had ever done anything beyond Little Lulu!



Above: looks like a proto-Tubby chasing "The Girl Who Came Out of the Sea."


I wish the book was still in print. Once you get used to the way it's written ("Between Big Enuf Mountain and the Rolantic Ocean lies the long lovely kingdom of Oh-Go-Wan ...," etc.), it's a lot of fun. Besides, one look at these stained, well worn pages and you can see it was pretty popular.



ADDENDUM: I found a good photo of what the book looked like before all those little Rochester Library patrons got their grubby hands on it. Below is a scan from the Oak Knoll Press:

Felipe "Feggo" Galindo Interview

Above: a "Feggo" cartoon from Reader's Digest.

Courtesy of Bob Eckstein's Freelancer's Lament blog comes an interview with cartoonist and animator Felipe Galindo. You may know him as "Feggo," the name that he signs his cartoons that appear in places like The New Yorker and Nick Magazine.

Freelancer's Lament: Do you have a philosophy at being successful at cartooning?

Felipe Galindo: I believe you have to feel successful every time you do a cartoon, every time you come up with an idea and put it on paper, even if you don’t sell it. Success lies within the process of making the art. I also think success is a relative concept, I don’t take anything for granted.

Felipe Galindo site

Video: Lynn Johnston on the Future of FBOFW

Lynn Johnston talks about finally ending the new FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE and then "beginning the strip again," in which she is drawing new old FBOFW strips in her "retro style." She's going back in time and starting the strip over; all redrawn, with "about 50% new material for the first year anyways."

Here's her explanation:

"I don't have a name for it but it's -- it's 'new run,' I think. It's not 'rerun' because everything is new. The drawing is new, the punchlines are new, everything is new. The only thing that is 'retro' is the way I'm drawing everything, because I want it to flow into the classic material seamlessly if I can and it's a challenge but I'm really enjoying it."

Video from Andrews McMeel:

Blogless

Oh no! No blog entry!

My Dad's in town so I'm showing him the sites. Real sites, not Web sites.

Don't worry. There will be more blogging next week.

Mike Lynch Speaks

Hey there! I'm a special guest speaker next month at Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy. Here's the official info:


Cartoonist and blogger Mike Lynch will give a talk at the Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy on Saturday from 12noon until 3pm on Saturday, September 13th, 2008. Prices are $25 to $15, and there will be food (pizza and nachos).


The Academy is in Simsbury, CT, which is near Hartford. Guy's been at that location for four years. The place is terrific and Guy has his mouthwatering framed originals from his personal collection all over the place. We're talking original Caniffs (below) and the like.

The Academy is a place for anyone who wants to learn how to be a cartoonist. The good news is that Guy is running it, so if you go and take a class then you have one on one contact with a real working cartoonist. The bad news is, as Guy will tell you, it takes a lot of work to be come a pro.




I am honored to be part of their special guest program with a line up of talents that I admire, like Frank McLaughlin and Scott Roberts.

Guide to Marvel & DC Treasury Comics

When DC acquired the rights to Captain Marvel, they launched a comic SHAZAM! with a big push. The advertisements for the book had Superman introducing Billy Batson and explaining for all of us that all Billy had to do was say the magic word "Shazam!" and he'd turn into "the Original Captain Marvel."

I bought all the issues of SHAZAM! for a couple of years.

When I was browsing the periodicals in the Dillons grocery stores in Lawrence, KS waay back in the summer of 1973, I saw a SHAZAM Treasury Edition. It was HUGE. Bigger than my head! I had to have it.

I was exactly the right age when those big Treasury Comics came out. These were oversized (10 1/2" x 13 3/4") perfect bound comics that were printed by DC and Marvel, and I wanted all of them.

And now there's a whole site devoted to the treasury editions of DC and Marvel.

I still have a good number of these treasury editions around, but I haven't looked at them for years. The fun thing about most of them is that they are reprints, usually by great artists, blown up at or near the actual size of the art. To me, this was catnip, baby!

So, take a peek around Rob Kelly's great site. And then check eBay for some of these affordably priced treasuries.

Big h/t to Sandbox.

Cartoon Roughs

"If you send in pencil roughs and we like the idea," so says a solicitation for Boy's Life, "you will be contacted to do a finish."

"Once these roughs have been approved (and any changes made) I finally get to colour the story," says my friend, illustrator Patricia Storms in this interview at Sandbox World. (Patricia says "colour" on account of she's a Canadian.)

What are "roughs?"

A rough is a pencilled cartoon on inexpensive paper.

How rough is a rough?

A rough should be clear enough for someone to tell what's going on. It's OK for people to see construction lines.

But I do not advise sending a rough. Not to an editor who doesn't know who you are. Even if that editor asks for roughs.

I advise to send finished cartoons that show you at your best.

I've done this ever since sending out my first batch of cartoons. That way, when they do buy from you, then you just send them a print out of the cartoon (or email them a hi res version).

One problem (especially at Bauer Publications) is that the people who edit cartoons tend to change, and you'll sooner or later get someone who doesn't know your work at all. That's when sending something that is finished really helps.

My thanks for Chris over at the Andertalk Forum for bringing up this question.