Eliot Spitzer

Above: a cartoon from a couple of years ago, riffing on Spitzer's then-reputation.

It's like this is all from the Ironic Punishment from Hell ...

Eliot Spitzer is a guy who made his name prosecuting corruption, and he was an advocate for women's rights (his #1 priority was introducing a bill that would declare abortion a fundamental right, regardless of a potential future Roe v. Wade Supreme Court overturn).

I voted for Spitzer for Governor. He had many enemies from his time as crusading Attorney General for NY, including some big businesses and powerful politicians.

I am now sorry to understand that one of this man's enemies is himself.

Harry Truman said, "Three things ruin a man: power, money, and women. I never wanted power. I never had any money, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now."

Dealing with Contracts

"Reynolds, we now own all rights to your image. You'll have to pony up $100 to the company every time you look in the mirror."

Tim Broderick writes about book contracts. He'll tell you what an advance is a what a typical print run is. There's a lot of good first-time advice like this:

"You do not pay for copy editing or any printing, storage or shipping. That's the point of finding a publisher, they're in business to take a risk with you. If someone wants you to sign a contract that stipulates you pay for services or fees, they're not a real publisher. Run away!"

One of the first contracts that I was offered mentioned that I would be charged for all phone calls and faxes by the company. I didn't sign that contract!

More and more, I see contracts that want ALL RIGHTS. Even for an online cartoon illustration contest (like the recent New Yorker's "draw Eustace Tilley" contest or the monthly DC Comics Zuda contest), the rule of thumb of the powers-that-be is to procure all rights up front. So, when you upload your comics to these contests, you're agreeing that they may stick their finger in your creation and use it any way they see fit. And you, the person who created the work, no longer has any say in it.

Factoid: the three-part contract with DC Comics Zuda Web site is 6,085 words. The U.S. Constitution has 4,400 words!

Hat tip to Journalista!

Jack Davis Video

From WAGA TV's PM Magazine TV show comes a profile of the one and only Jack Davis. Despite some of the crazy video pixilation and the so-so sound quality, Mr. Davis and his drawings are wonderful to see. The report focuses on his relation to his alma mater, the University of Georgia, and all of his drawings for the "Bulldogs" team.



Although there's no date on this, it sure looks like it may be a decade or so older.

FREE Comics Journal

The latest issue of The Comics Journal is, for one week only available for free reading online. Issue 288 includes:

• The Best of 2007
• Joe Sacco interviews EXIT WOUNDS creator Rutu Modan
• Interviews with Nick Bertozzi, Paul Karasik, Bryan Talbot, Peter Kuper, Cathy Malkazian
• A bunch of MISS FURY comics by Tarpé Mills
• Lots of reviews and columns

Mike Lynch on Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy Hall of Fame

Hey, Look! It's a Major Award!

No, not the kind in the movies (like the above infamous Leg Lamp Award from A CHRISTMAS STORY). I'm talking real life. Guy Gilchrist, who runs the Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy (but you knew that), has put added me to his Wall of Fame.



What can one say?! One blushes and looks to one's feet. Aw, shucks, Guy! I'm speechless!


Guy pretty much trumped the plaque with the above wonderful caricature that he drew on the box.

He sent me the plaque, and there will be a duplicate of the plaque on a wall at the Academy. I'll be in the company of some I'm-not-worthy names like Frank McLaughlin and Dick Ayers.

Thanks, Guy! Wowwee!

Factoid: When you type "major award" into Google images you get a page full of leg lamps!

I COULD BE DREAMING by Chon Day Part 2

Welcome to another peek at the collection I COULD BE DREAMING by Chon Day. Part one is here.
Above: a wordless illustration in the frontispiece of the book, with the tiny "CD" signature.


Above: an absolute deadpan lovely typical Chon Day cartoon. Some of these cartoons are missing his signature, for some reason, and this is one of them.



I always like cartoons that seem like they're part of a much larger, deeper, darker story.



Above: another prison gag with a quiet line.

"Now this may make you scream a little."

This made me laugh. One of the funniest cartoons in the book. I love the designerly composition of the dentist's tools.

"The finance company was here -- they took the baby!"

Thanks to deregulation, we may not be far from this.



Above: I like Naked Guy's purposeful gait.

Above: health cost issues have not changed.



Above: a subtle joke, implying that the moment before, Monsieur Restaurant Patron ordered an "oven-broiled tractor." Look at the economy of line as Mr. Day suggests the other customers in the background.



I have only seen this kind of thing in the movies, but apparently men on stilts advertising stuff was part of every day big city life.



"By far the worst Santa Claus this store ever had!"

And yet, the kids are still patiently (but nervously) waiting for their turn on Santa's lap. I would put this in my personal top 5 of the funniest cartoons in the book.

Don Cresci

A cartoony business message for Don Cresci:

Don, a potential client wants to contact you.

Please email me at fatcats3 [at] gmail.com.

WATCHMEN Movie First Look

More at PW's THE BEAT!

DILBERT Flourescent Light Covers

Sky-Scapes® are fluorescent light diffusers designed to reduce the harsh glare emanating from sterile existing fluorescent lighting.

And now you can have the head of Dilbert on them ...

not quite as bad as Bart Simpsons' Get a Mammogram, Man public health campaign, but getting there ....

Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin

Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin
Originally uploaded by fantagraphics

Fantagraphics has posted a Flickr photo set showing their upcoming 2 volume set of Willie and Joe cartoons by Bill Mauldin. A wonderful package.

H/t to Comics Reporter!

Sketchbook Redux

OK, it's time to look into some sketches from the old Mike Lynch Sketchbook.

When wondering what to draw, many pick the family pet as an appropriate subject.



Above is Rufus, or "Roo" for short. This is a doodle of our large orange cat with the enormous head. He is a very large, sweet happy fellow.




With a successful cartoon, you must be able to denote some individual attitude in your character sketches. Above are two attitudinal types drawn from life.



Above: street scenes from Smith Street, near the Rocketship comic book store.


Sometimes an every day object like this parking meter should be noted for its form and details.


Above: a dog "mushing" along Prospect Park, with a roller-blading person attached, and wearing a backpack with a bouquet poking out. Yeah, real life sometimes trumps anything you can make up.



Above: women and their hair and what they do with it: cover it up! These next sketches were all drawn around the Prospect Park area of Brooklyn.



A quick study of what people are wearing. Again, I'm just going for some simple sketches for reference.


Adding some touches like a scarf or a "big bag" helps the naturalism of the cartoon.


Above: people in motion from a series of sketches taken while trying to stand unobtrusively in Grand Central Station. You can tell by their woolies that it was cold outside!




Rarely if ever do people notice some guy hunched over a tiny sketchbook. They probably figure I'm messing with my Blackberry.



Above: people in motion, using as few lines as possible.



Saving the best for last: Occasionally, my wife will doodle something in my sketchbook. Above: her version of Roo. Her medium is pencil. She draws Roo with his eyes closed and a blissful smile. Sweet Roo. I better go administer some pats on that big head right now ....

TNG/DALLAS Mash Up Vid

A mash up video using the Dallas theme and look to create a new TNG theme. This guy worked hard on this!



Tenuously related: a fan-made Galaxy Quest TV show title sequence using the Stargate Atlantis music. Well done!

Øistein Kristiansen

Via Channel News Asia is this clip all about cartoonist Øistein Kristiansen's show in Shanghai. Øistein's gallery exhibit is full of his drawings and is aimed at children. It's all very hands on, with many of the children happily drawing away.

"Slowly it dawned on me that I had a new mission in life: to share the gift of drawing and imagination. I wanted the whole world to draw!"

The exhibit, which was planned for four days, was such a success, it was extended for five more days.



His cartoon drawings are brightly colored and appeal to all kids and all languages. Look at those kids! So happy, and so immersed in drawing! I didn't know who Øistein Kristiansen until I saw the above video. He's a big star! He's the European Ed Emberley! Now he's on my radar! And now that he's gotten all the kids in Singapore to draw, I expect him to head toward us! Come on over, Øistein! And let's draw some robots.

Craig Yoe Interview

Beth Davies-Stofka interviews Craig Yoe at the Tower of Babble site. Craig talks about his book CLEAN CARTOONISTS DIRTY DRAWINGS.

"I had the pleasure of getting to know Charles Schulz a wee bit when I worked with him on a project, and at another time I visited his studio to interview him on his religious beliefs for a magazine. So I was pretty surprised to find he did a nude self-portrait, but it was his only 'dirty' drawing as far as I can tell. And when you look at it in the book his "completely nude" self-portrait doesn't even have a small suggestion of 'naughty bits,' so I get the idea he was pretty uncomfortable with the idea.

Craig Yoe has a terrific blog titled the Arflovers Blog.

Must reading for gag cartoonists: the Cartoon Consultants Calendar for March!

Big hat tip to Journalista!

Virgil Partch Cartoon Rip Off

Sometimes, there are cartoons that are deja vus. Great minds think alike and all that.

I remember talking to a cartoonist who, once he wrote down all of his ideas for magazine cartoons that week, he logged onto Cartoonbank.com to double-check to make sure that none of his cartoons were unconscious copies of previously published cartoons.

Regardless, there are times when magazine gag cartoons repeat themselves.

Obviously, if you think that the Great Cartoon Idea you have is not really most likely YOURS, then you should not draw it.

I try not to worry about it. Duplication happens. Even the places that can afford an entire fact-checking department, like The New Yorker, can't get it right.

For instance, you type in the words "cat heaven" into the Cartoonbank.com search engine, you will see identical wordless cartoons of a cat entering the heavenly gates via a small cat door. One was in the 7/22/91 issue, drawn by the UK cartoonist Kenneth Mahood, and the other in the 10/14/02 issue, drawn by Gahan Wilson.

Harry Bliss has a cartoon in the new Playboy that is exactly like a pretty famous editorial cartoon of Pulitzer prize winner Clay Bennett's (Clay drew Clinton wearing an "I'm with Stupid" t-shirt, with the pointy finger pointing down; Harry Bliss drew the same shirt on a jaunty lookin' dude).

And then there's Zach Kanin's cartoon in a January 2008 issue of The New Yorker that is an exact echo of a cartoon Don Orehek drew for Playboy a couple of years ago. (This one has a woman looking on as a plumber bends over -- and we can see he's wearing frilly underwear.)

I don't know for sure is these are intentional swipes. Only the person who drew the cartoon the second time could tell you.

Sometimes, though, you know for sure, deep down, that a cartoon has absolutely been pilfered. For instance, here's a 1952 Virgil Partch cartoon from True Magazine:


And here's one from the 1963 Cartoon Classics booklet:




Same angle, same phone, etc. as the later drawing above.

It's a rip off. You know it like you know a good melon.

Or rather, a rotten melon.

1963 CARTOON CLASSICS Pamphlet

CARTOON CLASSICS ("SPREAD JOY, GET GAY! OVER 200 LAFFS") is a 5 1/4" x 4" 50 page pamphlet, with 2 staples as binding. This item, which I got as part of a larger lot thru eBay, was stamped with a 50 cents price at the top. The space on the bottom, the right size to stamp a name and address, is a hint that this was meant as a gift from one businessman to another.


There are no credits, except for a notation on the bottom of the back page: NO. LL-3 COPYRIGHT1963. Most of the book is like this: a few bawdy, not particularly clever comments like a guy would say to another guy in a tavern, and then, a gag cartoon.

Some of the cartoons are clever and risque; all in the Playboy vein. Some are well drawn.


Other cartoons, like the one above, lack the polish of a professional cartoonist. And the gags are off.

The Chinese lanterns and crepe twists, wispily drawn above the door, almost as an afterthought, lead me to believe that this is a costume party and knight is a guy in a costume who retrofitted a tub spout onto his armor. A respectable gag. But it was hard to make it clear; the cartoon didn't "read" in the requisite couple of seconds, at least, not for me.



Above: another old joke, but deftly handled. And this is the pattern: some good drawings, some not so good drawings. A real mixed bag. Like most of the cartoons in the pamphlet, it is unsigned.



The shape of the lady of the evening is lost in the background black spotting. Nevertheless, a provocative gag.


The above cartoon seems well done; good composition, excellent detail, with a swift, easy line of someone who's comfortable with their ink line. It too is unsigned.


Above: some nice work, but the cartoonist has hidden all of the hands except for one thumb (hers). A lot of beginners will try to hide hands rather than show them.


Above: a simple gag, but once again, out of a possible 4 hands, only one is drawn.


The overworked liney background is competing with the figures and blurring the cartoon's impact.


Above: a body function cartoon that is more gross than funny.



Above: a badly drawn cartoon with some poor proportions on the man and a woman whose reaction is obscured because her head is too small.


Above: another oddly drawn cartoon. The woman looks like she is from a different cartoonist than the man. Perhaps she was traced. No signature again.