CARTOONS THE FRENCH WAY: Cartoons by J.M. Bosc

Here are some J.M. Bosc (1924-1973) single panel cartoons from CARTOONS THE FRENCH WAY ("Roguish - Raucous - Ribald") edited by Rene Goscinny, Lion Literary Edition, published September 1955. Copyright 1955 by Manvis Publications, Inc.



Cover art by John Sidrone. Some pretty women in the cartoons, yes, but it's not too ribald at all.



All of Bosc's cartoons are wordless in this collection. Wordless sells internationally, you see.



Bosc's drawings are both specific, when they need to be, and spare.




What I like about Bosc is the element of surprise. Above: a violin as defense against critics.




Again, struggling against the odds is the above motif. Jean Bosc struggled with what we call shell shock for many years.


His sister Renée had the above cartoon rendered into marble in memory of her brother.



The cartoons dealing with death have another level to them after knowing that the cartoonist committed suicide.



Above: a good metaphor for cartooning!


There's a site all about cartoonist J.M. Bosc that I wrote about here. It's designed by his nephew, Alain Damman. You may gorge yourself on Bosc's cartoons there.

Alain, for some reason your email is not working for me -- otherwise I would have posted you a note about me posting some more Bosc on the Web.

Aunt Fritzi in My Sharona

This made me smile and reminded me that NANCY's Aunt Fritzi was, is, and always will be a hottie.

I got this bit of fun from Guy Gilchrist. You know Guy; he's the fellow who draws the NANCY comic strip with his brother Greg. Two of Guy's teaching assistants at his Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy put together this music vid of Aunt Fritzi.

Oh, and don't forget that the Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy store is now open for your holiday needs!

Diversify Your Newspaper Comics Like a Portfolio

... so writes Joanne Kaufman in today's Wall Street Journal (quoting Janet Grimley, assistant managing editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer). This is a thoughtful piece with a lot of quotes from editors, syndicate people and cartoonists young and old.

And the article goes on to cover the fact that it's so difficult for a new cartoonist to break through all the old "legacy strips."

"For their part, long-established cartoonists suggest a little perspective is in order. 'My father always points out in defense of his strip that when he started it he was competing for space with 'Little Orphan Annie,' 'Dick Tracy' and 'Pogo,' ' said Brian Walker, a cartoonist and comics historian who was referring to 'Beetle Bailey' creator Mort Walker. Other cartoonists see it purely as a marketplace issue. 'My feeling is if you can do what I'm doing and it knocks me out of the paper, do it. Do it,' challenged Lynn Johnston. 'I'll applaud you. But as long as the editors and readers want my strip, I'll keep working.'"

The only thing that doesn't get mentioned is a Web-based business model for making money out of comic strips -- something I think is pretty important, especially if Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos can get people to buy Kindle. My friend Mark Anderson has more on Kindle here.

The article is accompanied by a too-small-reproduced illustration by Martin Kozlowski that I really liked. I wish it was reproduced larger! Heck, why are there space considerations on the Internets, WSJ?

Best Cartoons of the Year 1957 UPDATE

Time to visit Lawrence Lariar's BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1957!

There is a lot of knowledge in this book. A lot of cartoon knowledge.


Here's what I mean. Here is an example of great composition and skilled use of wash. You get drawn in to the clunker of a foreign car due to the black spotting. I don't know who Keith was, but he's a pro.

Here's one by Huffine. Oh those darn office signs that people had in the 50s and 60s: THINK, SMILE, GENIUS AT WORK! They were a lot better than the once we have now with mountain climbers (ACHIEVE!) or eagles (SOAR!) . I like Huffine's style, and I wish (like so many gag cartoonists) there was more about him on the Web.

The expression on the kid's face in this cartoon by the one and only Orlando Busino just grabbed me. Here's the whole format for that FAMILY TIES TV series wrapped up in one cartoon.
Al Piane draws beautifully correct plumage and I'll be darned but that suit looks like it could work.
John Albano shows us that what's old is new again with this gag that is still applicable today.

Bob Weber gives us the hardest working bank robbers ever. Bob, along with Orlando and other cartoonists, meet every week in Westport and talk cartoons. It was my pleasure to bump into this book, with samples of cartoons by two guys I admire!

I'm including Serrano's gag. I think I've seen this gag many times before. I don't know who was first, but the theme was popular with editors.

The one and only Don Orehek with a fantastic desert island gag. Not only is our man upset (he's literally tearing his hair out!), that bunny does not look pleased either!

Another from Busino. A great gag on an old topic. I love his lines; always great, cartoony, fun line work.

Huffine (I'm not sure of the first name; I think it's Dave -- but there's a Ray Huffine who worked for Disney), whose scribbly style I admire, has a great gag -- but there's a famous Addams cartoon that's similar. No, I don't know which one was first since I can't find the Addams one on Cartoonbank. If anyone wants to do the research on this, please do! I'd like to know myself!

The "I hate my mother-in-law" gag, along with the "boss chasing secretary around the desk" gag has been consigned to the great gag cartoon out box in the sky. Still, I admire Hageman's ability to sketch this out so concisely.
Albano scores a hilarious (and mean) gag in the above cartoon. The look on the kid's face, and him holding onto his hat as he races away from the scene of the accident made me smile. This would not be politically correct today, so I could see that editors would not OK it. The times are a changin'. Heck, even 1970s era Sesame Street shows may not be appropriate for children!


Mr. Bernhardt will have the last word. Have a great Thanksgiving! And if you're drinking and driving, then please drive a dogsled!

UPDATE December 4, 2007: Orlando Busino was kind enough to email me and laboriously type in Dave Huffine's bio from THE BEST CARTOONS OF 1943:

"David Broome Huffine was born in Knoxville Tennessee in 1911. He left the University of Tennessee after his second year to become a surveyor and guide in the Great Smoky Mts. He left the Smokies to come to New York to attend the Art Students League which he left to become an apprentice to Dennis Wortman* whom he left after two years to become a free lance cartoonist...a field which he has not left as yet. He and his wife, Ruth Huffine. who is a painter have one nine month old son ( adopted). They hope he will share their hobbies of angling and hill-billy music. The Huffines live the year around in the Catskill Mountains. "

* I think he is referring to Denys Wortman who did a panel for United Features called EVERYDAY MOVIES.

I wanted to share his reaction to the similarity of Huffhne's cartoon with a famous/similar one by Addams. Here's Orlando once more:

By now you must have gotten a number of answers to the question as to when Charles Addams did his cartoon ("George! George! Drop the keys!") but on the chance that you haven't. I have found it in a collection of Addams' work, MONSTER RALLY, published in 1950. The gags in Lariar's book are cartoons published in1957. Huffine's gag has a similar caption but a different situation and I assume can be considered a legitimate switch.

 

I agree with you, Orlando! (Who am I to disagree?!)

Festival of Cartoon Art 2007 Photos

More here.

Photo: the one and only Mike Peters!

H/t to Comics Reporter!

BUNCHY by Joyce Lankester Brisley

I just saw that a children's book illustrator has been told NOT to draw a fire-breathing dragon so as not to incur liability lawsuits. Political correctness has gone cuckoo! If it was up to the watchdogs, Lewis Carroll, the Brothers Grimm, L. Frank Baum -- all of 'em -- would be cold, destitute and on the breadlines!

You wanna see unpolitically correct? Well, here is BUNCHY, written and illustrated by Joyce Lankester Brisley.


The cloth cover of the book shows a scribbled character. This is not Bunchy. Bunchy is "a little girl whose name was Bunchy ... who lived with her grandmother in a cottage in the country."

"There was only one thing missing, which was that she had nobody to play with."

I don't know why her name is Bunchy. No publication date given (!), but I've seen it given as 1951. But the style that Ms. Lankester chooses seems older.



The book is comprised of 10 stories, all of which are about this nice little girl who makes up stories to amuse herself. She will make little dolls out of wooden clothes pegs, make up stories about the buttons in a button bag, and so on. In the above drawing, Bunchy has set up a little shop while grandmother looks on. The stories all get out of hand as soon as grandmother is out of view, with characters coming alive and Bunchy no longer in control. Bunchy's absent parents are never mentioned. Perhaps they just couldn't handle our protagonist and abandoned her to her aged relative.



Grandmother is frequently leaving the cottage, letting this underage child with the hyperactive imagination all alone. The girl has no toys, so she has to invent them.

For instance, in "Bunchy and the Scribble Family," her drawings come to life, and she gets swept up in their world. Mr. and Mrs. Scribble invite her to their house, and Bunchy has to run ahead to hurriedly draw their cottage. When they can't get in, she realizes she forgot to draw the doorknob. Their voices sound funny because she carelessly has drawn their mouths crooked.



Each story has a title drawing and an introduction to our format. In "Bunchy and the Pastry Dough," grandmother leaves for the market. She has left a bit of pastry dough for Bunchy to play with. That's it. No Nintendo, no cell, no Facebook; just a cold, stiff wedge of dough left over from pie-making.


Bunchy makes a dough girl, and

"the little pastry-girl pulled her legs from off the table and jumped down with a soft thud on to the kitchen floor!

"... The little pastry-girl began stretching her self as if she were doing exercises, but Bunchy soon saw that she was trying to get her arms and legs more to the same length, for Bunchy had really made them rather odd."

Bunchy realizes the pastry-girl has no eyes, so she places currants for eyes and, with a spoon, makes a line for the mouth.

Bunchy makes a pastry-cat and a pastry-house. And then they go in the pastry-house ... and the inside of the house has a kitchen, rooms, furniture, which surprises our title character since she didn't "make" any of the inside of the house.

They go to the kitchen, where

"the little pastry-girl picked up the pastry-cat and set it on top of the stove. Bunchy was afraid it would be too hot there, but it settled down quite contentedly ...."

And that nice little pastry-cat, who never did anyone, pastry or human, any harm, turns

"a golden brown colour. The next minute the pastry-girl had taken it from the stove, broken it in crisp pieces, and piled them on the plates on the table.

"Then she signed to Bunchy to draw up her chair and eat, and in some surprise Bunchy did so."

OMG!!!!!

But wait, there's more.

"When the meal was finished, the pastry-girl led the way up some funny rubbery soft stairs to the little bedroom above.

"Here was a white pastry-bed, with a thick pastry-coverlet; and the little pastry-girl at once pulled her buttons off (which were the only things she could remove) and got into bed, making room for Bunchy to get in beside her.

"But Bunchy didn't want to get in -- the bed-clothes looked so cold and sticky. Still the little pastry-girl kept beckoning and patting the lump of pastry which served for a pillow."

Call the religious right! Call the CIA (both of 'em: the Central Intelligence Agency and the Culinary Institute of America)! This book is twisted and outta control!


Thanks to Rob McGrath for the news article which reminded me of this little known book on my shelf!

Gahan Wilson Interviewed by Bob Mankoff

"Just the slippers is fine."

Cartoonist Gahan Wilson talks with New Yorker Cartoon Editor Robert Mankoff in this The New Yorker Out Loud Podcast titled "Freak Show." Subjects covered: Wilson's early days, his cartoon sensibility, and Charles Addams.

“[Back in the 1950s my first sale] the first one… the big breakthrough… was Ziff-Davis Publications. And Ziff-Davis printed these wonderful pulp magazines, and they had amazing stories and fantastic stories, which were great thick pulp things, and they had fabulous covers of women with tremendous breasts and things with many, many tentacles reaching for those same breasts.”

Huge ten gallon hat tip to Dirk Deppey at Journalista!

New Yorker cartoon-related: What's So Funny About Being Red?

H/t to Comics Reporter too!!!

First (?!) PLAYBOY Cartoon to be Auctioned

"Jeannie -- what's the past tense of 'virgin'?"

Hugh Hefner, via Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers, will be auctioning a cartoon from PLAYBOY #1. The cartoon, reproduced above, is by Ben Denison. Click to get a huge, giant size.

From the press release:

"It's impossible to overstate the importance of Playboy magazine to the modern cartoon field," says Ed Jaster, Heritage Auctions Vice President, "and Ben Denison's was the very first cartoon commissioned and published by Hefner in the pages of Playboy #1, the December 1953 debut often dubbed the 'Marilyn Monroe issue.' This was the cartoon that set the stage for all that followed, and as such, it holds a hallowed place both in Playboy lore and cartoon history."

Thanks to Tom Spurgeon at Comics Reporter!

HARVEY by Mary Chase

Thought of the Day.

My favorite quote from HARVEY is at the end of this 47 second clip from the 1950 movie version.

There's a reason why playwright Mary Chase won a Pulitzer!

Cartoonist Sandra Bell-Lundy's Work Schedule Revealed

Professional syndicated cartoonist Sandra Bell-Lundy shares her work schedule habits at her BETWEEN FRIENDS blog.

BETWEEN FRIENDS has been syndicated by King Features since 1994 and is carried in over 130 newspapers.

Advice for building a career as a freelance artist and/or paid cartoonist by Dave Roman

Illustrator Dave Roman (that's him on the left, in his room, on his bed, drawing comics, with the inspirational images of Batman, Garfield, Calvin & Hobbes and a Bloom County Anxiety Closet in the background) offers a mountain of good, solid advice about becoming a person who draws professionally.

There's a lot of good stuff here. I'm still reading it -- and will have to reread it to digest everything. I was nodding my head in agreement a couple of times, particularly the "learn PhotoShop" and "get a business card" tips Dave passed along.

Thanks for spending the time to do this, Dave!

Link via Dirk Deppey's Journalista! via Drawn! via Flight. (Poor flight has no exclamation mark in its moniker.)

UPDATED Mike Lynch Cartoon in November 2007 Harvard Business Review

Above: my cartoon "How the hell am I gong to spin this?" from the November 2007 issue of HBR.

There comes a time when a little cartoon goes forth in the world and gets rejected, rejected, rejected. And every time the above cartoon was rejected, I would pick it up, dust it off and send it back out ... where it would be rejected again.

This was drawn in March 2003. It was mailed out 28 times, to markets in the US and Europe. Rejected 27 times; and then, finally, a sale.

What else was rejected 27 times?



The book THE FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS was rejected 27 times. Harshest rejection: "No one wants to read a book about old men weeping into the telephone." Yikes.



27 rejections for AND TO THINK I SAW IT ON MULBERRY STREET by Dr. Seuss (according to the National Education Association site).

Not that a gag cartoon has the shelf-life of a book, particularly the above very good books, but you can see what I'm getting at: talent is cheap, notoriety is fleeting, persistence is the only way to succeeding.

From the Nibs newsletter by Kathryn Craft (PDF link here):

10 rejections: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

14 rejections: The Good Earth

15 publishers/30 agents rejected A Time to Kill by John Grisham

18 rejections: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

21 rejections: M*A*S*H

22 rejections: Dubliners

25 rejections: Gone With the Wind

27 rejections: And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

27 rejections: Steps by Jerzy Kosinski — after it won the National Book Award!
Chuck Ross, convinced that unknown writers had little chance of having their novels accepted, tested his theory by retyping the book and submitting it under a pen name to a total of 14 publishers and 13 literary agents. They all rejected it—including Random House, the original publisher.

40 rejections were received by Mary Higgins Clark before she made her first sale.

121 rejections: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

123 rejections: Chicken Soup for the Soul

350 rejections were received by Louis L’Amour before he made his first sale

600 rejection slips were received by Jack London before his first sale

A big tip o' the hat to Pletch, who let me know that my cartoon was in the magazine weeks ago. Thanks, Pletch!


Above: Dead, dead, dead. Like those red shirt guys in STAR TREK, sometimes good cartooons go out and killed in their mission. What to do? What to do?

UPDATE: Some rejection-oriented links from the Mike Lynch Cartoons blog:

Gag Cartoon Rejection and Persistence

Rejected by THE REJECTION BOOK

Mike Lynch College of Gag Cartoon Knowledge -- Rejection, Rejection, Rejection

Winsor McCay's Influence on Filmmakers

Joshua Glenn, writing for the Sunday Boston Globe, presents a slide show juxtaposing images from the recent Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend book (gorgeously put together by Ulrich Merkl) and images from movies since then, from Bunuel to Disney.

This claim was originally made in the book by Merkl, and Glenn has some striking visuals. The case for Bunuel is strong, and I've heard that Bunuel, as well as Dali, were McCay admirers. But some of these examples are mere coincidence. It's certainly possible that a number of people who were involved in the movies might have had some McCay reprints. The first collection of "Rarebit Fiend" appeared within a year or 2 of the 1905 strip's debut. But, look here, I don't think that you can necessarily draw a straight line from, for instance, Mary Poppins' bottomless handbag to McCay. But it is a fun slideshow.

After watching, talk amongst yourselves.

More from Mr. Glenn here.

Big hat tip to Mark Mayerson's Mayerson on Animation blog!

Science Fiction Links

OLD TIME RADIO SCI FI: Free Science Fiction radio shows/readings on the Web. Well, not that old. They're from the 1970s and 80s.

SCIENCE THAT IS FICTION: Science in TV drug ads so much fiction, says this new "Adwatch" video feature at Consumer Reports.

SCI FI COMICS: The Monster Blog presents unreprinted Jack Kirby classic monster comics. These have great titles like I Accepted the Deadly Challenge of Zarkorr and The Mystery of the Tax Collector From Space!

FANTASY COMICS: Here's Archie's Mad House #22 from 1962, which has the first Sabrina, the Teenage Witch story by George Gladir with art by the one and only Dan Decarlo. Scott Shaw! (whose cartoon style, he confides, was influenced by fellow Mad House contributor Orlando Busino) has tons more about all this at his Oddball Comics site.

FICTION NOT SCIENCE: Blogger John Scalzi visits the Creation Museum.

US ECONOMY SO MUCH SCI FI: so says new book THE SQUANDERING OF AMERICA by Robert Kuttner.

H/ts to Boing Boing and C-SPAN's Washington Journal and Journalista!

Above pulp illustration by Charles Schneeman from the January 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction from Mike Lee's Curious Lee blog.

IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR SHOES OFF by Anne Cleveland Part 2

Continuing a look at the book IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR SHOES OFF by Anne Cleveland. Part one is here. This book shows us what it was like for well-to-do Westerners living in Japan.






Above: one of my favorite gatefold illustrations. The reason I bought the book.



Thanks to all for your kind comments. Glad to scan more ....