#‎hohodooda‬ Holiday Sketches by Mike Lynch Week 3

What? Even MORE new #‎hohodooda‬ Holiday sketches by me, Mike Lynch? Yes. (The ones I drew earlier are here and here.)

What is  #‎hohodooda‬ you may very well ask?

Here's the deal: Illustrators, both pro and am, sketch up a doodle a day and share them. The only rule is that it's holiday-themed.

Elf Portrait:

James T. Kringle:

Marley's Raspberry:

Ice Storm 2013!

Ice Storm 2013! Photos of my yard and my street today during the freezing rain today. Get your crampons out!

Tschaikowsky's Nutcracker Suite in Dance Tempo by Freddie Martin and his Orchestra

Found this great 78RPM album at a thrift store. Took a photo of it. Did not buy it since I have no turntable.

But, lo and behold, Gregory May on YouTube has put the whole thing up. Wow!

Ten Books That Influenced Me Meme

Thanks to my friend Mark Ricketts, I heard about this meme: pick ten books that influenced you and let us all know about it. And don't spend a lot of time messing around. Just pick 'em as they pop up in your head.

My head is a large and musty place, so it took a little doing, but here goes. It's in no particular order, here are the books:

PLAIN SPEAKING by Merle Miller
Truman is one of my favorite historical figures. Ask anyone who's dropped by and seen my bookshelves. I have a shelf devoted to him.

THE ANNOTATED ALICE by Martin Gardner (and Lewis Carroll, natch!)
I used to carry this around in my backpack in high school. I was such a nerd boy.

BARNABY AND MR. O'MALLEY by Crockett Johnson
Forever grateful to Dad for passing along his copy of this great comic strip.

BATMAN FROM THE 30s TO THE 70s
The first book I bought with my own money. It was a lot! I think it was $10. I used to copy Dick Sprang's Batman a lot.

DINOSAURS AND OTHER PREHISTORIC REPTILES
My go-to dinosaur book, finally bought for me when I renewed and renewed the book from the Iowa City Public Library. I still have my copy, which I would tote to Roosevelt Elementary School for show and tell. And there's still a "Mike Lynch, Mrs. Panje, 2nd Grade" written in it. I wonder where Mrs. Panje is now?

The LITTLE TIM books by Edward Ardizzone
I love Ardizzone's work. Some of the best drawing around. A prolific illustrator back in the day. He was Great Britain's Official War Artist! Only recently I have learned he was never formally trained in illustration!

THE POGO PEEK-A-BOOK by Walt Kelly
I have all of Dad's Simon and Shuster POGO books and this one gets singled out for the "Account of the Wooful Frog" piece. Kelly is the comic strip touchstone for me. None better.

THE COMICS by Jerry Robinson
The one that hooked me. And when I visited Ger Apeldoorn, he showed me his copy and told me that that was the book that got him interested in comics and their history! That was it. Friends forever!

THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Maybe the best account of an expedition. In this case, it's Robert Scott's last Antarctic expedition. Another book recommended by Dad. It's a wowser!

SKIPPY by Percy Crosby
If there's a close second to POGO, it's SKIPPY. Highly popular in its day, and now the focus of a reprint series of books authorized by Percy Crosby's daughter, Joan Crosby Tibbetts. I got to know Joan over the email, and then we met in person at a National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards weekend. Anyway, SKIPPY was Charles Schulz' favorite comic strip growing up and even now, decades later, it crackles with life for me.

That's ten for me. How about you?

"Deck Us All With Boston Charlie" by Walt Kelly

Do you know all the verses?

Here they are, at Mr. Door Tree's The Golden Age blog, complete with relevant POGO strip reproductions.

Hat tip to John Lotshaw! Thanks, John!

#‎hohodooda‬ Holiday Sketches by Mike Lynch Week 2

Here are some new #‎hohodooda‬ Holiday sketches by me, Mike Lynch. (The ones I drew last week are gathered here.)

And what is  #‎hohodooda‬ you may ask?

Illustrators, both pro and am, sketch up a doodle a day for fun and share them. The only rule is that it's holiday-themed.

I've posted mine on Facebook, Twitter and my Tumblr page. Here are a few more of mine in case you do not follow me on social media:

Video: Chuck Jones' A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1971)

OK, it's the Holiday season. Let's go watch an Oscar-award-winning adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, executive produced by Chuck Jones with the voice of Alastair Sim as Scrooge! For now, there's only one -- just one place -- to see this: YouTube.

It's not on DVD. Ands that's crummy. This show has some serious pedigree; the guy who brought us THE GRINCH (the cartoon, not the Jim Carrey monster) is the executive producer and it's directed by the animation director of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. I remember seeing it in 1971, and once or twice since then -- but only by chance. It's not a holiday TV tradition ala CHARLIE BROWN or those Rankin Bass puppet specials or the MISTER MAGOO special. Go figure!

YouTube's rules means a 28 minute vid has to be sliced up into smaller segments. Here are the links if you have the time to watch.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Stave One

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Stave Two

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Stave Three

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Stave Four

Thanks to Grant Miehm for reminding me of this special, which I had forgotten about until now!


- The above was originally posted on December 11, 2007. And this is still not available on DVD or Blu Ray or whatever so far as I know.

BBC America Video: Trailers for THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR and FAREWELL TO MATT SMITH

Here's previews the final DOCTOR WHO episode starring Matt Smith as The Doctor, as well as a tribute special trailer. Both air Christmas night on BBC America here.

Big hat tip to Life, Doctor Who and Combom!





And, yeah, that's Karen Gillan … all shorn!

It's for her role in the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movie. That's a painting of her character "Nebula" on the left. More here.

1970 Ukrainian Children's Book: FUTURE TRAVELERS

John Sisson's Dreams of Space - Books and Ephemera shows us some future visions from a 1970 kids' book FUTURE TRAVELERS. 

It's chock full of "jetpacks, moles, flying cars and other interesting modes of transport." And there's some fascinating art by some unknown and uncredited artists.

The Hollywood Reporter: In Defense of Shia LeBeouf by Eriq Gardner

The Hollywood Reporter plays "devil's advocate," citing that "in a country grounded upon the presumption of innocence, he deserves at least one voice willing to provide a counterbalance to those who would like to hang him for plagiarism."

Umm … he admitted he plagiarized the material.

Anyway, HR mounts a defense of Shia LeBeouf stealing Dan Clowes' comic without permission or credit for his short film.

Related: Daniel Clowes Pursuing His Legal Options Regarding Shia LaBeouf’s Plagiarism

THINGS TO COME by Hank Barrow

My friend Ger Apeldoorn's The Fabuleous Fifties blog "the home of the unchampioned causes" champions AP staff cartoonist Hank Barrow's THINGS TO COME feature. It's gorgeously drawn, and I appreciate Ger drawing the curtains back on an unknown name fro mthe golden age of cartooning. Click the link to see more by Hank Barrow.

Don Martin & Frank Jacobs' "The Month Before Christmas"

From MAD #132, January 1970, here's a link to "The Month Before Christmas" by Frank Jacobs with art by Mad's Maddest artist Don Martin.

Sad to see that the spirit of the season then, as well as now, is buy, buy, buy.

I remember ogling all of the great Don Martin art. The image of the linebacker-type ladies (complete with stubble on their thighs) has stuck in my mind since I was a wee lad.

I was too young to have bought MAD #132 when it came out. I lived in the great Midwest back then. In Lawrence, Kansas, there was, back in the mid-70s, a second-hand book and magazine shop called Buzzy's. Buzzy's was on main street, conveniently next to the Granada movie theatre where I would be dropped off for matinees from time to time.

Buzzy's had stacks of comics and old MAD Magazines. Some of these I still have. (I gave away my MAD's to friend's brother in 1984.) Checking Doug Gifford's MAD Cover Site, I do remember owning this one. I must have bought it at Buzzy's.

This is MAD at its peak: the best stories, the greatest gags, and its highest circulation.

Daniel Clowes Pursuing His Legal Options Regarding Shia LaBeouf’s Plagiarism

So, you probably know the story that broke this week: Actor/filmmaker Shia LeBeouf made a short film. That film, titled "HowardCantour.com," premiered at Cannes last year. The short was a close adaptation of Dan Clowes' 2004 "Justin M. Damiano" comic story.

The story was adapted without Mr. Clowes' consent or knowledge or credit on LeBeouf's movie. The Beat has the story here in a piece titled "Did Shia LeBeouf Rip Off a Daniel Clowes Comic For His Short Film? UPDATE: YEP."

Mr. LeBeouf claimed to be the creator of the story until this week, when "HowardCantour.com" was available online. It was apparent to the many comics nerds out there that this was an unauthorized rip off of Daniel Clowes. 

When Mr. LeBeouf was caught, he decided to confess. 

Mr. LeBeouf cited he "got lost in the creative process" and did not credit Clowes. Making this even more outrageous: Shia LaBeouf plagiarized his own public apology.

The film is now password protected.

Eric Reynolds, Clowes' long-time editor at Fantagraphics, is outraged. He wrote to Buzzfeed:

“His apology is a non-apology, absolving himself of the fact that he actively misled, at best, and lied, at worst, about the genesis of the film. No one ‘assumes’ authorship for no reason. He implied authorship in the film credits itself, and has gone even further in interviews. He clearly doesn’t get it, and that’s disturbing. I’m not sure if it’s more disturbing that he plagiarized, or that he could rationalize it enough to think it was OK and that he might actually get away with it. Fame clearly breeds a false sense of security.”

More here: Daniel Clowes Pursuing His Legal Options Regarding Shia LaBeouf’s Plagiarism.

Video: Harlan Ellison on the New Disney Movie SAVING MR. BANKS

Harlan has some choice words for the new Disney film. 

© 2013 The Kilimanjaro Corp. All rights reserved.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in December 17, 2013 Wall Street Journal

A cartoon of mine is in today's Wall Street Journal.

This is one of those "I painted myself into a corner" cartoons. I mean, I drew a picture of Santa sitting at a board room table. I stopped, and thought I would then draw some elves around it next. But, no. That's not too interesting.

Then, I drew more Santas around the table. Santa, Santa, Santa. And I just stopped and looked at it, trying to figure my way out of the drawing.

Sometimes you just sketch something and then try and come up with a gag. Sometimes this works for me and sometimes it does not.

So: what is Santa? Santa is management. He's the boss. And you can't have a room full of bosses. No way. Not in a properly run business. You need those elves!

So, it dawned on me that the problem with the situation was that it was, in a real world sense, way too top heavy with management.

Here's the version I originally drew. The one that WSJ saw for its OK:

I had to redraw it. WSJ does not have a horizontal format.

Confession: I forgot that. I did a redraw in a square style and was told that that was wrong. So I did another redraw. Let that be a lesson: pay attention to your editor when they tell you the format. D'oh!

Going backward in time, here's the first sketch from a sketchbook. The for-my-eyes-only sketch. You can see how quickly it's done: 3 Santa heads and an oval to represent the table.

My thanks to Randy Glasbergen for letting me know that my cartoon was in WSJ this morning! Thanks, Randy!

Stan and Pauline Goldberg Recovering from Accident

Stan Goldberg and his wife Pauline were in a car accident on November 19, 2013.

Pauline fractured both arms and a leg. Stan had a broken vertebra.

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook or Twitter, then you know all this. You also may know that they have begun the slow rehabilitation process.

If you sent mail to the hospital, where they were initially, then chances are that was returned to you as undeliverable. Just send it on to them at the rehab facility.

Stan and Pauline are in a rehab facility in Manhattan. If you would like to send a note, please do so:

Stan and Pauline Goldberg
The Riverside Rehab Center
150 Riverside Dr Rm 1308
New York, NY 10024

Video: Bill Roundy "The Bartoonist"

Snowy Sunday December 15, 2013

Got about a foot of snow, with more coming down. Drifts 2-2 .1/2 feet.

Birdfeeder cleaned off and full of sunflowers and peanuts. Now, back inside to warm up.

#‎hohodooda‬ Holiday Sketches by Mike Lynch

It was freelance illustrator Paula Becker who first told me about the #‎hohodooda‬ meme on Facebook and Twitter. 

Here's the deal: Illustrators, both pro and am, sketch up a doodle a day. The only rule is that it's holiday-themed. Here are a few of mine in case you do not follow me on social media:

Video: The Making of a Popeye Cartoon (1938)