New Hardcover Collection: BRINGING UP FATHER

From the press release:

"IDW Publishing will release a 272-page hardcover Bringing Up Father collection under its Library of American Comics imprint in November. The collection will include all the daily and color Sunday strips from January 2, 1939 to July 7, 1940, comprising the “From Sea to Shining Sea” storyline which takes Jiggs, Maggie, Nora, and Nora’s husband Lord Nevere Worthnotten on a cross-country trip to celebrate Nora’s marriage.

The 11” x 10” collection is designed by Dean Mullaney and edited by Bruce Canwell. Canwell and Brian Walker will contribute a text essay with a comprehensive view of creator George McManus and his characters.

This is great news. McManus was a master of line.

A big hat tip to Ger Apeldoorn. Ger has some scans of BRINGING UP FATHER at the link.

FLINTSTONES Comic Strips by Gene Hazelton

You want to see some truly masterful cartooning? Try looking at some early FLINTSTONES comic strips by Gene Hazelton over at my pal Ger Apeldoorn's The Fabuleous Fifties blog.

Ward-O-Matic's Wednesday Ephemera

Just the way to start your day. Some wonderful cartoony illustration work to ogle at via Ward Jenkins' Ward-O-Matic blog!

RIP KIRBY Alex Raymond Portfolio Pages

From RIP KIRBY 2, a wonderful hardcover collection of dailies from Alex Raymond's adventure strip. The comic strips are from 1949 & 1950. But the gem is this 2 page portfolio.

Copyright 1982 Oberon b.v., Haarlem (the Netherlands), King Features Syndicate.

Liza Donnelly Video

Liza Donnelly talks about women cartoonists at The New Yorker, the genesis for her book FUNNY LADIES and the recent exhibition "Sex and Sensibility" at the Cartoon Art Museum in this video.

99 Cent Cartoon Book Sale

I am selling some cartoon books and other items on eBay. I've collected stuff for a long time and I need to make more room on my shelves. All of the above items are 99 cents or less. Please consider taking a look. Thanks.

Nimoy, Quinto on THE TIMES cover

The new STAR TREK movie is front page stuff in today's TIMES.

1977 Bill Mauldin Profile

Above: "Mauldin gets his best ideas when simmering in a hot morning bath. He uses a mirror in his studio and photos of himself to help him get gestures and poses right."

Goofbutton.com posts a 1977 World Book Year Book profile of Pulitzer Award winning editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin, written by Bill Mauldin and titled Cartoons with A Conscience.

Bill used Dundee Marmalade jars for his art supplies, just like my Old Man uses for his pens & pencils!

Hat tip to Journalista!

Anne Cleveland Remembered

Margie Boule writes a portrait of cartoonist Anne Cleveland (1916-2009), as remembered by her daughter, Susan, in today's Oregonian.

"Anne's parents came from wealthy New England families. After her father died and her mother grew more ill, Anne, Van and two younger brothers were placed in boarding schools or convents.

"Anne was taught, Susan says, not to make trouble. 'She was the oldest, the only girl. . . . Throughout her life, her reaction was, 'How do I get rid of a desire?' as opposed to going for it.'"

H/t to Journalista!

George Price: Early Years

THE GOOD HUMOR MAN, "A happy array of Cartoons, Sketched and a gay Diary compiled and edited by Richard McAllister." Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., Publisher, New York. Copyright 1940 by George Price.




"Some of the drawings in this book originally appeared in The New Yorker, Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post and the original Life.

"The description of Mr. Price in the title of this book is used with the co-operation of the Good Humor Corporation."


INTRODUCTION

"When we first planned this book we asked Mr. Price if he would write up a few of his experiences.

"... When we finished reading the diary we asked Mr. price whom he thought he was ribbing. Certainly, we stated, there was not the least truth in all this.

"Mr. Price was indignant. 'Every word is absolute gospel,' he said stiffly. 'If you knew anything at all about the cartoon business you wouldn't question that for a moment.'"

Below are some excerpts from Mr. Price's "gay Diary:"

June 22nd

"Made out very well at Collier's today. Gurney Williams held five of my roughs for the art meeting.

"When submitting drawings to Gurney I strike quickly, like a cobra. On top of my batch, I place my strongest idea. Get him in into a good humor from the very start, I find, and he will okay ideas like mad.

"More times than I like to think of, though, I have no 'strong' idea to place on top (on top, or anywhere) and the whole session has dissolved into a fiasco.

"Clip Amory at the Saturday Evening Post I approach differently. In his case it his best use a 'build up.'

"On top of the batch, instead of my best, I place one of my sourest ideas. Beneath that I place the worst, the very worst, of the lot. Usually, it is so bad as to bring from Clip a quiet moan. After an introduction like that the remaining ideas, no matter how mediocre, appear like so many nuggets."

June 25th

"Another milestone passes! I sold a cartoon to Life* today!

"For a long time now I have struggled to make this magazine. It was a tough one to crack. Not that I hadn't received encouragement. It wasn't eight months before the elevator operator was calling me by my first name. Never had I been able to get past the receptionist, however, and my drawings had always come back with a plain rejection slip.

"Life, of course, has long been know for the odd manner in which it is edited. Since its inception the magazine has used its famous 'passerby' system. The publishers reason, with no little logic, that since the man-in-the-street reads the magazine, the man-in-the-street should have some say in the editing of it.

"The cartoons are selected entirely on this basis. A few days before an issue goes to press, the editors lean out the office windows, show the cartoons to anyone who happens to be passing by and ask for a frank opinion.

"Until a few years ago this system worked without a hitch. Life's offices were located on the first floor, and passerby were in easy access.

"Then complications arose. The offices were moved up to the twenty-third floor. In spite of the apparent difficulty of employing the passerby system under these conditions, the owners demanded that this traditional style of editing be adhered to.

"People who happen to be passing the twenty-third floor windows, of course, are few and far between. There remains, in fact, but one type of passerby on whom Life can now try out their cartoons -- the occasional human fly who happens to be scaling the building.

"It is a familiar sight along Bleecker Street (and to me a somewhat amusing one) to see the editors of Life, each clutching a handful of cartoons, anxiously peering from their windows hoping a human fly will begin an ascent in time for them to make a deadline.

"With a set-up like that, if I ever expected to sell a cartoon to Life, my course was clear. The plan was a risky one, but I was willing to gamble. I made up my mind to climb the building, pretending to be a human fly.

"*Mr. Price, of course, refers to the humorous magazine of that name. It has since been discontinued."

"At ten o'clock this morning I began my ascent. I had never before scaled a building and there were several fearful moments during the first stages of the journey when I was tempted to quit. The sight of Life's editors poking their heads out the window spurred me on, however, and I manfully stuck to my task.

"By noon I had reached the eighth floor. Here a little Gypsy Tea Room was located. I lunched leisurely and had my tea leaves read.

"Resuming my climb I passed the twentieth floor two hours later, and fortified by a shot of bourbon from a stenographer with a southern drawl, I started on the home stretch.

"By this time Life's editors, informed of my approach, lined the windows shouting encouragement.

"' ... Er -- young man,' one of them said, 'we would like to ask a favor of you.' He then explained the passerby system and I listened with interest as if hearing about the whole thing for the first time. I agreed, naturally, to look at their cartoons.

" ... Each I rejected. I would shake my head regretfully and hand the cartoon back with some remark like: 'I'm sorry, it just doesn't make seem funny to me,' or, 'Don't get it,' or, at a particularly bad one, 'Ugh.'

"One hour passed. Another. The editors, as the stack of drawings decreased without an approval, became alarmed. 'I do hope he likes one of them,' I heard a layout man say nervously. 'We still have that half-page open in the next issue, you know.'

"Finally, I had looked at all of them. I shrugged. 'Sorry,' I said, 'but none of these hit me.'

"There was an embarrassed pause. Then, as if it were a random thought, I asked if they had any cartoons about camels around. I didn't know why, I said, but cartoons about camels always struck me funny.

"After a hurried conference one of the assistants was dispatched to the mailing room. He rushed back with a cartoon showing two large camels and one baby camel. They handed the drawing to me and anxiously watched my reaction.

"I roared with laughter. I guffawed so heartily that for one breathless moment I almost lost my grip on the gargoyle.

"'It's in!' the editor-in-chief shouted 'Set it up for a half-page!' He handed the cartoon to an assistant. 'By the way,' he said, ' who drew it?' The assistant told him the artist was named George Price.

"'Send him a check,' the editor-in-chief said.

"We exchanged farewells. I continued on my way up to the roof, came down in the elevator and rushed back to my studio glowing with triumph."

Drawing Blondie: Chic Young's Step-by-Step Process

Here is an old magazine ad for US Savings Bonds showing Chic Young's drawing process for a BLONDIE daily comic strip.

My pal Leif Peng came across this while scanning magazines for his terrific Today's Inspiration blog. Here's Leif:

Found this while scanning something for Today's Inspiration. Thought you might like it for your blog...

Supposedly a Chic Young 'step-by-step'... but if it really is, then Young must have been a frigging Zen Master Cartoonist, because there's no sign of any real construction, its just a sort of "coming into focus" process, unlike anything I've ever seen!

More likely, he did the strip the usual way, then, for the sake of this ad concept, did a two stage "deconstruction" to reverse the process down to something that looked like a rough sketch but less messy than the real rough sketch. What do you think?

I agree with Leif. It all looks pretty slicked up and doesn't have the necessary construction lines. It appears like dear ol' Blondie just pops into focus out Mr. Young's amazing cartoonist brain!

1942 Newsreel: Croation Cartoonists

Here's a 1942 Croation art exhibition. You can watch Croatian artists drawing anti-Bolshevik and anti-Jewish posters. The whole thing is in a foreign language (Croat, I'm guessing). It was interesting to watch the cartoonist at the top of this 6 minute clip. Watching the entire newsreel, I wondered if any of these fellows went on to draw or create for a living in post-war times.

Just Because No One Understands You Doesn't Mean You're an Artist

Graphic novelist Dash Shaw and New Yorker cartoonist Zach Kanin got together and did a jam comic which "neither of us is proud ...."

"I met Dash recently for a “cartoon jam.” I wrote and drew the first panel, he wrote and drew the second panel, I wrote and drew the third panel, he did the fourth, and on and on like that until we got bored of sitting in the Border’s café and I decided to go home and rent “Highlander” which I couldn’t really get into either."

H/t to Journalista!

FULL AUDIO: Al Jaffee, Arnold Roth & Gary Groth HUMBUG Panel

Now this is exciting!

Thanks to the Daily Cross Hatch, there is full audio (as well some video and still pictures) from the Al Jaffee & Arnold Roth talk, moderated by Gary Groth, that took place on April 14, 2009 at The Strand, NYC.

A big hat tip to Journalista! Thank you DCH and Dirk Deppey!

A Tale of Two Cartoonists by Hugh Turley

Above: ©2001 Skippy, Inc. Joan Crosby Tibbetts

One of the truths of the cartooning business is that you don't get to choose what you'll be remembered for. Your fate is handed, first, to a series of editorial gatekeepers. If you can find someone who likes what you do then maybe jut maybe you'll get a buy. And, second, it's then up to people out there in the real world who consume your work. They will determine if you have value and meaning. They will either give a shrug, or demand more.

"A Tale of Two Cartoonists," is an April 8th column by Hugh Turley, from The Hyattsville Life and Times. The piece recounts the fortunes of two of the best cartoonists in the 20th century: Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Percy Crosby (SKIPPY).

DC Dave has a link to the article (The Hyattsville Life and Times has no Web presence that I can Google up and may be, apparently, the little newspaper at the end of time.)

Percy Crosby, whose work I personally put at the top of the heaps of great cartoonists, was a huge name in the 1930s. Schulz cited his SKIPPY comic strip as an influence. If you get a chance, please visit Skippy.com, which is run by his daughter, Joan Crosby Tibbetts, President, Skippy, Inc., and Administratrix of the Percy Crosby Estate.

Once you browse the site, you'll see some great cartoon work, as well as the details of Unilever's theft of the character's name; "... they remain willfully blind when it comes to stealing the SKIPPY name and character that Percy Crosby created and made world famous."

SKIPPY didn't play by the rules. SKIPPY shredded hypocrisy with a bit of humor and whimsy, along with Percy Crosby's signature bold pen line. His work resonates, and deserves to be remembered. I'm thankful to Joan, whom I call a dear friend of my family, for showcasing her Father's work on the SKIPPY site.

Thank you, Joan!

James Montgomery Flagg Comics

Another reason to support the ASIFA blog.

H/t to Dylan Horrocks.

Maine Comics Arts Festival: Poster by Matt Talbot

It's just over 5 weeks until the Maine Comics Arts Festival. I like the spanking new poster designed by Matt Talbot of a giant monster who is, apparently, going to swat the Ocean Gateway facility, where the day-long event will be held, with a rolled up comic book.

The Maine Comics Arts Festival (MECAF) will be held on May 17, 2009 in Portland, ME. Featuring dozens of comics writers, artists and publishers, this will be a celebration of the comics art form.

Now, please excuse me while I go draw some giant comics to soothe savage sea monsters.

NYC: HUMBUG Signing Tonight

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS AND THE STRAND PRESENT:

AN EVENING OF HUMBUG

In 1957, five artists — Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Arnold Roth, Al Jaffee and Jack Davis — hot on the heels of creating MAD magazine, pooled their money and their talent and entered into the creative, exuberant folly of a lifetime by creating the greatest satirical magazine of their careers. Join Humbug co-founders Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee in a book signing and discussion about this historic publication with Fantagraphics Publisher and editor of the collected Humbug, Gary Groth. Attendees will also enjoy an exclusive screening of a documentary short film about the late Will Elder.

LISTING INFORMATION:

An Evening with Humbug
Featuring Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee in conversation with Gary Groth
Tuesday, April 14, 7:00PM
The Strand Bookstore
12th St. & Broadway, New York, NY

BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 Part 3

This is part 3 of our look at the BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945. Below are the links to the first two parts:

BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 part one
BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 part two















And below are more of Jack Markow's gag cartoons.










Links to all BEST CARTOONS 1945 threads:

BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 part one
BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 part two
BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 part three