Friday, October 14, 2016

GREAT CARTOONS OF THE WORLD Part 2



Above: an Al Ross cartoon. Love that simple sketchy line.

More cartoons from GREAT CARTOONS OF THE WORLD Edited by John Bailey, copyright 1967 by Crown Publishers, New York, NY.







Here are some wordless stories about this ironic, funny world we live in. Above, here's Bosc, writing about luck and death.


Above: Quentin Blake who was a gag cartoonist, before he turned full-time children's book illustrator.


Above: another cartoon by Bosc about what is art. Oo la la.






Sempe gives us a multi-panel epic.

Mordillo's world is slightly insaner than anyone else's.


Syverson's line: I look at it and marvel at its liquid energy. A forgotten master.

-- Edited from an original October 16, 2009 blog entry.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

GREAT CARTOONS OF THE WORLD Edited by John Bailey



A selection of wordless cartoons from GREAT CARTOONS OF THE WORLD Edited by John Bailey, copyright 1967 by Crown Publishers, New York, NY. This is the first book in what became a series of John Bailey-edited GREAT CARTOONS books.


The above cartoon by Larry made me laugh out loud. There are levels of meaning here.


The cool dude is Jean Paul Belmondo from "Breathless." The kid's expression is so great, that I get the context even though the fellow in the large thought balloon is not well known these days as he would have been in 1966. A bullseye by the French cartoonist Pierre Adebert.

Zacek draws a sad desert island gag.

Czech cartoonist Vladimir Rencin with what may be termed a political cartoon about war.



The Saturday Evening Post mainstay cartoonist Henry Syverson's dynamic pen line is so animated.


Gallagher's cartoons just blast forth with his animated line work.


Vahan Shirvanian made me laugh out loud at the above 4-panel gag.


A great gag cartoon can make you think. Charles Martin's cartoon gives me cold comfort about health care. Over 50 years later, the writing still resonates.

Mordillo is one of those cartoonists who deserves to more popularly known in the States. Another desert island gag -- beautifully and joyously drawn.


Anatol Kovarsky plays on perception in this breezily drawn (no pun intended) 2-panel exercise.


And another Henry Syverson cartoon finishes up the sampling today. Which reminds me, I need to rake ....

-- Edited from a blog entry of seven years ago today.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Scott Adams on Presidential Politics


Above: Scott Adams and Kristina Basham watch the second presidential debate.


DILBERT cartoonist Scott Adams has been in the news and on a few talk shows recently. It's not to talk about DILBERT, but to talk about politics. On Bill Maher's show, he predicted Trump would win.

In Hillary Supporters Push Cartoonist to Disavow Trump, so He Endorses Johnson, Mr. Adams reasons it thus:

"I encourage all Clinton supporters to do the same, and for the same reason. I don’t know if any of the allegations against the Clinton’s [sic] are true, but since we are judging each other on associations, you don’t want to be seen as supporting sex abuse by putting an alleged duo of abusers (the perp and the clean-up crew) into office. I think you will agree that it doesn’t matter if any of the allegations are true, because the stink from a mountain of allegations – many that seem credible to observers – is bad for the national brand too. To even consider putting the Clinton’s [sic] back in the White House is an insult to women and every survivor of abuse."

Read the entire article here.

And here is the video of Mr. Adams and Instagram model (and his girlfriend) Kristina Basham as they watch and react to the second presidential debate of last Sunday.


Mr. Adams' reasoning -- that since one candidate is judged on associations, then they both should -- is a flimsy one. But he is entitled to his opinion. The video, however, is unnerving. Adams makes some remarks over the 90 minutes while his girlfriend looks off in the distance, in what appears to be a sad, distant way. I don't know what the video is supposed to be, or what we are to make of it. But ....


... There it is. 

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

55 Years Ago: First FLINTSTONES Comic Strip




THE FLINTSTONES had been on the air for a year before a strip was commissioned. Gene Hazelton drew it, and he was assisted at one time or another by Roger Armstrong, Dale Hale, Harvey Eisenberg and Jesse Marsh. The first daily appeared over 55 years ago, on October 2, 1961.

Gary Brown writes The Monday After: Meet the Flintsones for CantonRep.com:

The new comic was published at the bottom of the local news section its first day. But then it settled in at the top of the right-hand column on the comics page.

It’s initial offering was indeed an introduction.

“I’m Fred Flintstone and this is my wife, Wilma,” said Fred. “And this is Dino, our pet dinosaur!” Wilma adds in the first panel.

The rest of the strip allowed Barney and Betty to identify themselves. Then, Fred excitedly told readers that the cartoon character who had been taking down the information was not a census taker.

“He’s the cartoonist who’s drawing up our new comic strip!” Fred said. “The Flintstones!”

And thus a daily ritual for newspaper comic readers started.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Inktober 2016: The First Nine Days



Here are some ink drawings that I did for the Inktober event. Inktober (or Inktober2016 or #Inktober or #Inktober2016) is an annual, voluntary, just-for-fun event where cartoonists, animators, artists and so on all create a drawing a day in ink. Here are some from the first nine days. These were originally posted on my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages each day this month. Follow me there!










Friday, October 07, 2016

LAUGH PARADE May 1969: Desert Island Gags



Above: the cover of LAUGH PARADE. The biker is whispering in her ear, "Honey, when you're with my friends, watch your language -- don't talk clean." The stunning and horrifying thing to see is the casual placement of the swastika on the bike and his jacket.


Here are some desert island gags from LAUGH PARADE magazine, May 1969, Vol. 9 No. 3 issue. It was published by and copyright 1969 by Magazine Management Company, Inc.

"Shipwreck a cartoonist," the editor writes, "and he'll float a laugh."








Above: this one was my favorite. Hard to read the signature, but it looks like the cartoonist's name is Tann.












Above: a gag cartoon by Brad "Marmaduke" Anderson.




-- From an original post of October 7, 2010.

Thursday, October 06, 2016

New Yorker Cartoonist Liza Donnelly Joins CBS THIS MORNING TV Show



Congratulations to Liza Donnelly on being the first ever contributing cartoonist to the CBS THIS MORNING TV show. Full story at WWD.

Executive producer Ryan Kadro says the move will help differentiate the program.

“It brings a visual component to stories that doesn’t exist in our space. We look at the social platforms as an extension of our brand. When we put Liza on television it’s to make people aware that we have this happening on our other platforms, to go and check out our Instagram and social feeds.”

That Garden As of Early October


Not much to see. I'll be putting it all to bed soon.




Like the cops say in the movies, nothing to see here, move along. Some of the tomatoes fell and rotted while we were away. Sorry to see that but it couldn't be helped. There hasn't been a near or a hard frost, so everything is hanging on. There is even a new pepper plant in the center just above. I don't know where that came from. Still, a fair number of green tomatoes to put in the window sill to ripen.



Related "Garden As of" posts:

September 15, 2016

September 1, 2016

August 15, 2016

August 1, 2016

July 15, 2016

July 1, 2016

Mid-June 2016

Wednesday, October 05, 2016

A Little Golden Book: DENNIS THE MENACE AND RUFF (1959) Art by Lee Holley and Hawley Pratt

Nice to see Hank Ketcham's assistant get credit in this 1950s children's book. Wonderfully preserved, no? Here are a few pages. Just gorgeous cartooning by Lee Holley, with an assist from Hawley Pratt. 







Tuesday, October 04, 2016

SUPERMAN (1978) Movie Titles

The Superman movie, when it was released in 1978, was a big deal. But would today's audiences really stay in their seats for THIS?

It's the five minute opening title sequence. FIVE MINUTES.

Give it a whirl. Click the play button and force yourself to watch every name on there. Sure, these laser titles were a cool thing back then and were specially developed for the feature, but FIVE FRIKKIN' MINUTES of John Williams music telling you "this is exciting" while looking at name after name. "No, John, this isn't exciting. Get to the damn plot already." Try to force yourself to be in the 1978 mall multiplex movie theatre and watch. Pretend you are captive to them. It's a long time. And I bet today's moviegoers would walk out.

Monday, October 03, 2016

Michael Maslin Interviews Bill Woodman



A new interview with New Yorker cartoonist Bill Woodman is on Michael Maslin's Inkspill blog. 

Bill was actually interviewed by TWO Michaels: Michael Maslin, who emailed me the questions and me, Michael Lynch, who drops by Bill's studio every once in a while. Bill lives about an hour away.

I printed out the questions and asked about Bill's choice of being a cartoonist (as well as a painter) and his attitude about the medium. I jotted down the answers and, when I got home that night, typed them into an email back to Michael M. (Bill Woodman himself does not do email.)

The interview took place on August 31, 2016, in Bill's Portland, Maine studio. My friend, New Yorker cartoonist John Klossner, was also with me.

Here's just a snippet from the interview:
Michael Maslin: Having been born in Bangor, Maine, it’s not surprising that hunters, bears, and of course, moose show up from time-to-time in your drawings. Are you drawing from some outdoorsy experiences in Maine, or are these situations just percolating through you because you’re a Mainer? 
Bill Woodman: Anything that will sell, you know? I’m trying to make a buck. But — seriously — the horrors of this world seem to dictate (that is, the news, etc.), and I’d like to lighten it up a bit.”
And more:

MM: I want to ask you about your sketchbooks. Jack Ziegler has said that “[he] never had a better time looking at anything in [his] life.” 
BW: At a point I was doing sketchbooks. [Now] I carry a piece of paper, folded, in my shirt pocket. I write lists. Mostly things I should do. Go to the store. Those kinds of things. Sometimes I write an idea….Now I just doodle all over the place. 
MM: There are a lot of people who aspire to doodle as well as you. 
BW: I doodle everyday. It’s a disease. I keep thinking I’m gonna start up again. 
MM: Well I wish you would. 
BW: I gotta get back to it. 
MM: Your website says you’re retired, but we also see on the site that you’re painting up a storm. I have a hunch you still draw cartoons. True? 
BW: Yes. Sure. Me and my buddies [Lynch and Klossner] are working on some great stuff. Wish you were here! (Laughs.)

Related: