AROUND THE CLOCK WITH ROCKY AND RUTHIE

Just two years after the end of World War II the above book came out.

The American people were ready to return to normal American life. And one of the hallmarks of being normal over here is the advertising and the packaging that dominate our consumer-driven culture.

Here's a scan of AROUND THE CLOCK WITH ROCKY AND RUTHIE, which is part childrens book and part activity book. The staple-bound publication asks kids to actively cut up and paste in logos and advertising from the products they consume every day. This "personalizes" the book for them, and increases their identification with what they buy I suppose.

There's no plot per se. We follow the two title kids, Rocky and Ruthie, through a typical day. The ticking clock on the page pushes us on. As they eat, go to school, etc., the reader is asked to cut out labels and paste them on the page.

The uncredited commercial artist uses a lithographic pencil and the book's interior is all two-tone. The whole thing was printed on newsprint.  Since there's no price, it makes me think this may have been a commercial giveaway.

On the cover, there's the number "1908,"just below that is the notation

The Saafield Pub Co.
Akron, Ohio
Made in U.S.A.

and the title page says it's copyright 1947 by S. Harold Labow.

Saalfield published a lot of books during the 20th century. It was one of the largest publishers of children's books in the world, with books like Raggedy Ann, Peter Rabbit and The Little Red Hen in its repertoire.

UPDATED: Video: McDowell and Warner Talk TIME AFTER TIME; STAR TREK

Last week, I posted about Anthony Taylor moderating a DragonCon panel with Malcolm McDowell and David Warner talking about TIME AFTER TIME. I had a short clip to show. Now, thanks to Mike Langford, here is the complete 51 minute panel chat:

Video: Bruce McCall

"Cartooning the Troops"

If you've been phoning some cartoonists this past week -- like Tom Richmond, Jeff Keane, Ed Steckley or Ray Alma -- you may have gotten their voicemail.

Here they are, in Afghanistan, part of the USO outreach. Video by Staff Sgt. Peter Sinclair via Milisource:

Pat Mallet

Pat Mallet (1941-2012) was a prolific cartoonist, creating long-form comic stories for the European comics Magazines Spirou ("Pegg le Robot" and "Xing and Xot") and Pilote ("Zourri"). He was perhaps best known for his "little green men" comics, for which he won the Grand Prix Internationale de la Caricature in Montreal twice (in 1972 and 78). 

He was very active in advertising, with clients like Xerox and Paris Match. He was deaf since the age of nine, and produced much art for the school of the deaf in Paris.

Here are a few cartoons from WIE DAS LEBEN SO SPIELT. The cartoons are copyright 1983 by Mr. Mallet.

You can see he has a breezy, energetic style. His line is so alive, it almost has coffee nerves. Like a lot of cartoonists in multi-lingual Europe, he favors the wordless cartoon that appeals to all.

I kicked all these up to super-size, so a few appear cropped. Sorry about that. I thought this was a good idea so you could really see his ink line. If you want no cropping, just open these in a new window.

A Little Golden Book: DOCTOR DAN THE BANDAGE MAN by Helen Gaspard and Corinne Malvern

If you are going to do a Little Golden Book that ties in with Johnson and Johnson's Band-Aids products, then you are going to have to draw some kids getting hurt. It's gonna get rough. There's gotta be a little blood.

And DOCTOR DAN THE BANDAGE MAN by Helen Gaspard, with illustrations by Corinne Malvern, accomplishes this harsh job. The nice thing is that when the book was published (in 1950, and it's copyright that year by Simon and Schuster, New York) there was a cache of a half dozen Band-Aids pasted onto the cover page. Those Band-Aids have been long gone from this edition.

I was surprised to see the Eric Carle Museum put it in its list of top five bestsellers. That told me that DOCTOR DAN has survived his boo boo ridden life and is still in print.

Here are a few samples from this book:

Little Dan falls a couple of times. 

Ironically, one time, he cuts his finger against the gun as he takes a spill. 

Even dear old dad, home from work and ready to mow the lawn, stupidly cuts his hand on the mower blade. So, you see, Dan comes by his accident-prone life legitimately.

The nice thing is that all of the injuries tend to be minor and Corinne Malvern discreetly has the characters holding their bloody injuries away from the viewer.

Through a mishap, sister's dolly is tossed to the ground. Another injury! Another Band-Aid to apply!

Sis wants to be in the injury club and get some attention here. She shows a little leg when looking for a place where her brother may put a Band-Aid.  She has a wee cut that doesn't really require a Band-Aid, but Dan plays along and obliges.

The dog getting one is just ridiculous. Thirty minutes later, this Band-Aid will be eaten and barfed back up. Mom is gonna be cleaning this up off of the living room rug and cursing.

And, of course, dad gets one too. But, hey, TIME TO CALL YOUR MALPRACTICE LAWYER, DAN!!!

If you notice, in the previous drawing at the top of the page, dad cut his right hand. Now it's his left that gets the Band-Aid. Hmm.

So, there we have it: blood, shock and Band-Aid. A best seller since 1950.

Video: Illustrator Ed Vebell Remembers Bill Mauldin

Ed Vebell remembers Bill Mauldin's "anemic" first cartoons for Stars & Stripes. Ed showed Bill how to get a good, strong ink line. They had a 2-man studio right through the war.



Ed Vebell was a prolific illustrator. He stayed on after the war, and was one of the few artists who drew the Nuremberg trials as they happened. "His haunting drawing of Herman Goering was executed with a fountain pen and spit," according to the Society of Illustrators "On the Fly" feature.

His post-war credits are long, but may be best known today for his covers and illustrations for THE THREE INVESTIGATORS series of books.

My pal Leif Peng has much more here.

Ralf Zeigermann: ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1931/32 Cover Process

My friend Ralf Zeigermann, who has drawn a story of an Antarctic expedition, does a process blog today, showing how he goes from this:

... To this:

Go look!

You can order his book here.

Ralph Steadman's Studio

Ralph Steadman's Studio. A wonderful space, and this is a really nice big photo.

Bado has links to a new interview with the master illustrator, upon the occasion of his "Steadman @77" gallery show at the Cartoon Museum in London.

Video: Terry Gilliam and Shinji Aramaki at Venice Film Festival

THE ZERO THEOREM, directed by Terry Gilliam, and CAPTAIN HARLOCK, directed by Shinji Aramaki, were two of the science fiction films that premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Here are some clips and the directors from the recent event.



The Guardian reviews ZERO THEOREM and shows some similar scenes to the clip above. Perhaps I missed finding the trailer.



CAPTAIN HARLOCK Trailer #3 with English subtitles. The HARLOCK manga series began in the 1970s, and this big budget production brings it to life on the screen.

Alvin Is Beginning to Catch On

Image via Stanley Stories.

Submitting B&W Magazine Gag Cartoons to a Magazine That Publishes Only Color Cartoons

I got a good question from a reader about submitting cartoons to magazines.

"I'm wondering, when you send cartoons to a market that publishes colour cartoons, do you submit full-colour cartoons or do you send black/whites and colour them if one is chosen? It's just that sending colour copies is a bit expensive and, frankly, I don't really know how to colour. However, if I ever make a sale, I'd figure something out."

It reminded me that when I started, I made the decision to only send finished cartoons. Nothing rough. All inked and toned, black and white finishes.

But not color.

Even adding some gray tone takes time. I developed an "assembly line" method, lining up all of my inked cartoons in a row on the kitchen counter (space was hard to come by in Brooklyn, NY), and applying a gray tone to each:

Above from Raconteur #1; my true story "The Petty Indignities That Ruin My Life."  You can read the whole thing at the link.

But ... if you KNOW that the publication ONLY publishes color cartoons, the question is: should you labor over your batch of ten or twenty cartoons, adding color to each and every one?

And since you know that you will only sell a fraction of the batch, you also are aware, as you push the watercolor brush or push the pixels to add the color, that a lot of this time will be wasted. 

One cartoonist that I know and admire INSISTS on coloring all of his cartoons. He told me that they just don't look finished to him unless they are in full color. I am in awe of his work and his energy to do this. 

Do I color all of the cartoons that I submit? No.

Should I color all of the cartoons that I submit? No. And the editors do not expect it.

If I did, I wouldn't have time to brush my teeth, mow the lawn and do this here blog, y'know?

If and when you get a sale, the editor will email you, asking for the kind of file they want. Usually, it's:

"300dpi, CMYK color. By Friday."

Now what is that you said about not really knowing how to color? Yipes!

Well ... that's another blog entry.

Ogunquit, ME Thrift Shop: Bill Mauldin's UP FRONT

Saw this nice little 8mm film of Mauldin's UP FRONT with David Wayne and Tom Ewell at an Ogunquit, Maine thrift shop for $10. I assume this is a shortish clip without sound (as all of the 8mm films were). Looked to be in darn nice condition. Do people still buy these 8mm movies? Are there still home movie clubs? Where do they get their new projector bulbs from? I wonder ....

Oh, the reason I took this photo: David Wayne is reading a comic book while bombs explode. See? You can see it's a comic book because it has "Comics" on the cover. Love it.

It was $10. I did not buy it.

Edit: Oops. It's a Super 8 movie, so there could be sound on the thing. 

Video: McDowell and Warner Talk TIME AFTER TIME; STAR TREK

The TIME AFTER TIME panel at DragonCon 2013: Malcolm McDowell, Anthony Taylor and David Warner. Photo By Roxanne Henkle


Go to Anthony Taylor's fine blog to see video of eight minutes of a terrific panel chat that he moderated with Malcolm McDowell and David Warner at DragonCon 2013.

EDIT: You can go here to see the entire panel now.

The veteran actors are supposed to be talking about the movie TIME AFTER TIME (1979) in which they played H.G. Wells (McDowell) and Jack the Ripper (Warner). But they digress into, what Warner calls, his STAR TREK career. Warner cites his featured role as Gorkon the peace-making Klingon from the final original cast movie STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. (Warner also was in STAR TREK V, as well as a featured guest in a 2-part STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION titled "Chain of Command.")

"Well, I'm the one who killed Kirk, darling," retorts McDowell.

"See what you missed?" David tells us. We missed a lot. But my thanks to Donna Baker for taping a bit of it. Go see!

McDowell and Shatner, as Soran and Kirk, square off in the climactic scene from STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (1991). 

VIP: The Mad World of Virgil Partch

Fantagraphics is scheduled to publish a 208 page hardcover next month about Virgil VIP Partch, the prolific cartoonist.

VIP: THE MAD WORLD OF VIRGIL PARTCH, written and edited by Jonathan Barli, is the first time an account of the man's life -- along with many of his cartoons -- has been presented. There's a healthy 28 page preview here.

Like Walt Kelly and Hank Ketcham, Partch was another fellow who left Disney to try the world of gag cartoons and comic strip syndication. The book features not only his gag cartoons and animation art, but there are reproductions from originals. Take a look at the preview and you'd find it fascinating.

Hat tip to Bado!

Captain Kirk Watches Miley Cyrus Performance

Thank you, AriesHeadFilms.

The Garden As of September 1, 2013

The garden ... looking rather tired now, as we go into the fall months. Took a drive on Route One in Maine today and there are a few trees that are going red already. Not a lot, but, you know ... it's coming.

Overgrown and full of grass. The winter squash is gone now, attacked by vine borers. The tomato plants are doing OK ....

More tomatoes here. Hornworms successfully plucked off. Looks like we will get a good yield. Dozens of Roma and Heirloom tomatoes have been picked. Canning has already begun.

Some of these ashy looking squash leaves are three months old. The newer growth is in the middle there.

Peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Closeup on the peppers.

And here are a few flower pics to round it out:

Video: DOCTOR WHO 50th Anniversary

There are a lot of fan-made clip-laden vids to honor the BBC TV series DOCTOR WHO's 50th anniversary this year, and this is (I think) one of them. Expertly edited, with every Doctor you've ever seen -- it popped onto the Web a week ago. Den of Geek picked it up, and now Life, Doctor Who and Combom. 

It's not about the big, new special that stars the previous two Doctors (plus John Hurt as another Doctor) that will air in two months. But it IS a lot of fun and encapsulates a lot of why there are "77 million fans worldwide."