Happy 4th Anniversary

Above: a drawing of my cluttery desk.

Happy birthday to this here blog, which turned 4 years old this past weekend.

When I first started, I didn't tell anyone what I was doing. I thought for sure I would run out material in a short while.

Like Yoshihiru Tatsumi says, being a cartoonist is like being lost in the desert, going from oasis to oasis; it is, as his 2009 autobiographical book title sums it up, A DRIFTING LIFE. There is no set path to cartooning success. You just keep working, hoping for the best. If an editor likes your work, you will make a sale. If fans like your cartoons, some of them will buy a t-shirt or a book.

So, all my thanks for being out there. This blog has grown so fast with massive traffic. And I hope it's been of value to some.

World's Fastest Cartoonist: Nino Falanga

I don't know much about Italian cartoonist, caricaturist, TV and film actor and director Nino Falanga. There was a certain time when you could see him on TV on Jack Paar, for instance, drawing caricatures in a minute or less.

He also did work behind the camera, for the animation departments at MGM and UPA, and did live action film and TV work (both behind and in front of the camera) in the US, Italy and Spain.

Here he is on the American game show To Tell the Truth. The celebrity panel is composed of Kitty Carlisle, Durwood Kirby, Gene Rayburn and Peggy _____ (I forget her last name- she was on a zillion game shows in the 60s and 70s). While the celebrities are guessing who is the real cartoonist, the contestants are drawing caricatures of them.

In the last minute of the show the real Nino Falanga stands and does a live caricature drawing of host Bill Collins.

MIKE LYNCH CARTOONS SKETCHBOOK For Sale

I discovered I have a some copies of the SKETCHBOOK left. If you would like one, it comes with a real sketch and an autograph.

SKETCHBOOK by Mike Lynch

SKETCHBOOK by Mike Lynch $2.95 each plus $1 postage & handling in the United States. True-life comics and sketches. 24 pages, 8.5"x5.5", B&W interior



Canadian orders for the SKETCHBOOK are $4.50 each, European orders are just $5.00. Just use my email address to Paypal the money: fatcats3@gmail.com

Cartoonists' Exchange Ephemera

Above: a 1940s ad for the "Cartoon Career Master Outfit" with Cartoonists' Exchange owner David Rand smilingly poking his head up amongst all of the cool learn-to-cartoon items to buy. As you can see, there is a small tear on the lower left hand corner where a coupon was neatly taken out. Another $10 to Mr. Rand!

Here is some Cartoonists' Exchange paper ephemera from the 1940s. These are all advertising flyers and hype that the Pleasant Hill, Ohio company would mail out to prospective students describing the long-running cartoon correspondence course



I have seen the CARTOONING FOR PROFIT books for sale from time to time, but never the whole set. The headline "Each Cover In a New and Different Color" is an example of the shameless huckstering about any banal aspect of the product by David Rand.

(One of the most blatant examples is the Lesson Correction Portfolio, wherein "Rand collected students' submissions, and then, sold the drawings back to them. You just have to shake your head and admire Mr. Rand's monetization of the medium!")



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT MARKETING CARTOONS has a lot of great questions in it -- not that I have seen a copy and know what answers they give.

I do wonder who that older gentleman is in the photo.




And finally here are 2 pages of "a few extra sketches I have made up for your to show you how some of my professional cartoonists friends develop their imagination."

I have a fondness for this material and for Mr. Rand, who I think of as the lovable William Castle-type cartoon huckster.

The "You Want It When?" Poster

Anna Collins recently emailed me with some new information about the above image: that ubiquitous "You Want It When?" poster that's been around on office walls for decades.

She writes that she's the one who did it.

BACKGROUND: Where did that "You Want It When?" poster come from? Who drew it?

Like I wrote on the old MySpace April 14, 2006 edition of the Mike Lynch Cartoons blog:

The other day, Mark Evanier posted [the above] iconic image on his blog.

Anyone who's done any office work in North America in the past couple of decades has seen this widely reproduced little poster of the laughing "You Want It When?" guys.

Mark asks: Who drew it and what is its origin?

... I've always wondered who drew it. It sure looks like a 1950s style. Most of my colleagues don't know where it came from. But a lot of cartoonists agree that it's Henry Syverson.

And Mark Evanier provides the post mortem proof here.


Above: a Henry Syverson illustration from the March 29, 1958 Saturday Evening Post.

For your consideration: Here is Anna Collins, who says she drew the original in 1978 that Syverson later copied:

I can clear up the origin of that cartoon for you. I did the original one that was coped, copied and then re-drawn by Henry Syverson.

I was working for a company (Lee Mark Elenka in Aylesford [UK]) in 1978 that had a problem with clients wanting deliver on items before we'd even received them.

I used Michael Bentine's book of cartoon drawings to get the idea for the figures and drew it with the wording on. This was one of many cartoons that I used to do.

My father (Ben Collins) who worked for Reed Paper Mills in Kent took a copy into work, they had a representative from the Daily Mirror come in who liked it and also took a copy back. From then on it was copied all over the place and I only wish I'd copyrighted it at the time as the numbers of times I have seen it I would have made a bit of money from it.

So now you know how it all came about. I am glad people love it.

Kind regards

Anna Collins

Alright, does this help clear or muddy the water?

I don't know the book that Anna is referring to. But, OK, Michael Bentine's Bumblies (above) sorta look like the Syverson nebbishes. Maybe Syverson picked up a copy of the Daily Mirror somewhere and saw it. Maybe he saw it somewhere else. It's hard to believe he decided to redraw the poster. Why would he? He already had a nice gig at The Saturday Evening Post. More likely it was a copy and paste affair like Anna did with the Bentine book.

Regardless, like Anna says, it was one popular sign.

Awards Deadline Looms

The National Cartoonists Society Division Award entries deadline is February 6. Entry details here.

Crazy #1: Basil Wolverton

Above: detail of the initially rejected Wolverton art. ("As you can see, Wolverton carried that idea to the very edge with an image so wild that the Topps executives chose not to print it.") It's now ©1973 Marvel Comics Group.

Basil Wolverton's art and technique: a remembrance by then-editor Bhob Stewart. How a rejected piece of Wolverton art for Topps wound up in Crazy Magazine #1 with text by none other than Harlan Ellison. I love these kind of stories.

New Interview with Bill Watterson

You've probably already heard, but the reclusive CALVIN & HOBBES creator Bill Watterson gives a short interview via email with The Plain Dealer's John Campanelli.

"It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now 'grieving' for 'Calvin and Hobbes' would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them."

Playboy's Gahan Wilson

Via Comicrazys: a selection of cartoons from the PLAYBOY'S GAHAN WILSON collection (1973). Copyright 1973 by Playboy.

1946 Dik Browne Profile UPDATED

My pal Ger Apeldoorn scans in a 1946 Dik Browne profile from the Ford Times magazine. This, Ger assures us, kicks off a week of Dik Browne posts at his The Fabuleous Fifties blog.

"Maurice, a moody mechanic" and "Sparky, a precocious problem child" were two characters that Dik created for The Ford Times, a Ford Motors employee publication with a circulation of 120,000.

Please note Ger's comment below. I jumped the gun on this somewhat. Regardless, the Dik Browne week is on, all week long, at his blog.

And have a wonderful honeymoon, Ger!

Video: Terry Mosher "Aislin" Profile

Here is a good documentary on the renowned Canadian editorial cartoonist for the Montreal Gazette. AISLIN: DANGEROUS WHEN PROVOKED - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF TERRY MOSHER (2006) is a 43 minute film directed by John Curtin. It won the Gemini Award for best biography documentary.

From a press release:

This Gemini Award-Winning "Best Biography Documentary Program" focuses on Terry Mosher, aka Aislin, often called the nastiest political cartoonist. At the edge of his pen, no one gets out alive.

The film reveals little known aspects of Mosher's life, from his early days in Ottawa, to his adventurous ramblings, hitchhiking across North America as a young man, looking for something interesting to do with his life. He finally decides on art school, leading to a job with The Montreal Star as a cartoonist, and then with The Gazette. The rest is history.

Link: Aislin Web site.

Interview: Mark Bode on Vaughn Bode

Via WalrusTV:

1941: Famous Cartoonist Addresses

This is from an estate sale.




This is one part of a package of contact information of other cartoonists circa 1941, along with lists of places that employ artists.

It was in business envelope postmarked Mar 24, 1941 from "Art Headquarters" to a Mr. Paul K. Turbeck with its complete contents.

The list of "FAMOUS CARTOONISTS" includes:

• Walt Disney
• Frank King
• James Swinnerton
• Milt Gross
• Percy Crosby
• Gluyas Williams
• Otto Soglow
• Johnny Hart
• Russell Patterson
• George Petty
• E. Sims Campbell
• many others

Back in Print: Roy Crane

Above: BUZ SAWYER detail from a January 22, 1941 original at the Three Men in a Tub blog.

Ted Dawson loves Roy Crane at the Three Men in a Tub blog, and queries about more Roy Crane in print.

Hervé St-Louis writing for the Comic Book Bin has some good news.

Related: Roy Crane Scrapbook: Drawing Women

Blogger's Block? Try Blogging Like a Cartoonist!

Blogger's Block? Mark Anderson suggests, "Maybe you should try to blog like a cartoonist!"

OK, this is a lot of fun, and, although it's framed as something silly, Mark lets us all in on some very real gag writing techniques that cartoonists use to generate a laugh.

Video: Dave Coverly Live with the Kalamazoo Concert Band

The video for this posting was taken down in October, but Dave Coverly himself found a YouTube clip of this fun concert. Do consider taking a look if you have 4 minutes and 24 seconds!



From October 10, 2009: Here is a 4 minute video of my pal, Reuben Award winner and SPEEDBUMP cartoonist Dave Coverly drawing LIVE, on stage, with the Kalamazoo Concert Band as backup.

LISTEN: the band is playing "Powerhouse" composed by Raymond Scott. You'll know the music as soon as you hear it, especially if you love animated cartoons.

LOOK at Dave's GIANT hand, hovering over the stage, drawing BIG BIG BIG - unaided by special effects or, so far as I can tell, pencil layouts! He's on the drawing high wire with no net! Go Dave, go!

This is part of the "Clowning Around with the KCB and Speed Bump's Dave Coverly" concert, conducted by Dr. Thomas G. Evans. It was recorded, mastered and mixed by John Stites.






My thanks to Dave for coming up with the video for this.

And a repeat of the original hat tip to Mark Anderson for the heads up!

Video: New Yorker Cartoonists

From the Chicago Humanities Festival on November 7, 2009: New Yorker cartoonist and Cartoon Editor Bob Mankoff talks about laughter and cartoons with fellow cartoonists Pat Byrnes, Roz Chast, and Ed Koren. This runs about an hour and 15 minutes.

Battle of the Caricaturists: Tom Richmond vs. Palante

Here is some video from Cuba. Jeannie Schulz organized a trip there earlier this month. A group of cartoonists representing the Charles M. Schulz Museum visited the island nation. In this 30 second video, we see MAD Magazine's Tom Richmond caricaturing another caricaturist from the Cuban weekly humor magazine, Palante! They only need 30 seconds because they are both fast on the draw.



Related: Tom Richmond's Cartooning Adventures in Cuba.

Wallpaper by Steinberg

Via the Retro Renovation blog, here are a series of Steinberg wallpaper samples -- the 1946 Paris design (above) or five other wallpapers and fabrics -- if you would like to have Steinberg wallpaper in your home. Yes, the we're talking the real paper wallpaper on a real wall; not talking your screen wallpaper made outta pixels.

Big hat tip to Michael Maslin

All Saul Steinberg images © The Saul Steinberg Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Spotlight on Cartoonist Peter Maddocks

Some people say that cartooning is a calling. The people who do it just do it because they want to -- more than anything else.


 

The cover to SO YOU WANT TO BE A CARTOONIST by Peter Maddocks, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.

British cartoonist Peter Maddocks is of the most prolific cartoonists of the 20th century. He was a very busy man, whose cartoons graced all of the major publications.

By his own admission, he took cartoons seriously. Yes, one can take those funny little pictures very seriously. Maybe too seriously!

"I took my life as a cartoonist very seriously – to me it was everything, holidays were a bore, my poor wife would watch me mooch about walking up and down anywhere but the beach, passing away time until I could return to my drawing board in Fleet Street." - Peter Maddocks, from his interview in Crikey! magazine #12 Nov/Dec 2009

There is a special place in heaven for those patient souls who choose to love and live with cartoonists!


Here is a small collection of some of Mr. Maddocks' incredible output, with emphasis on his gag cartooning.

The thing about Peter Maddocks is that he makes it look easy. Above are 2 bums, in an alley. There's a night sky, so we know when it is. Peter has drawn an alley, so we know where it is. But that's not all. Look at the little touches: the clutter that he lovingly draws, the choice of having the second hobo cross his legs as he is settling down to the paper, the last remaining bottle of cheap hooch by his elbow. This all looks effortless - but those little touches are by choice and add to the value and character of the drawing. They are extra work. Those little touches take thought and consideration and that's what places Peter above the run-of-the-mill cartoonist.


If you are of a certain age, you grew up with Peter Maddocks' cartoons in the Daily Sketch or the Daily Express.








Peter obviously loves to draw, which is one of the reasons I wanted to highlight him. Here, in the classroom scene, where he could have gotten away with drawing just a few students, he's committed a good half dozen to the picture, plus their desks.

A former Merchant Navy man, the list of Maddocks cartoons and publications is large. Here are but a few:

FOUR D JONES newspaper comic strip (10 years)
NO. 10 newspaper comic strip (21 years)
Features Editor, King Magazine
Creator: Family Ness, Jimbo and the Jet Set, and Penny Crayon
Peter ran the London School of Cartooning Correspondence School (1977-90)
Animated films for the BBC since 1984
Co-founder and current Joint President of the British Cartoonists’ Association

And I am leaving out a lot of other good things (like that fact he started up his own successful agency at the age of 21 fresh out of the Merchant Navy, his long association with Mayfair Magazine, his taking over Useless Eustace from Jack Greenall, and more).




Above: one of my personal favorites. I remember laughing out loud (I really mean it -- not just "LOL," but really laughing out loud at this one). I love new takes on classic gag cartoon situations and Peter delivers here.




Maddocks is a cartoonist with a pen line that is fun to look at.



The Crikey! Magazine interview covers Peter's career, including a fascinating look at a what-might-have-been collaboration:

"I was a huge fan of the Goons on the radio and I suggested it would make a great cartoon for the [Daily] Sketch–Julian Phipps became very interested and contacted Spike Milligan about giving permission and writing a script. I went to The Goon Show rehearsals and met Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers. Sellers was very enthusiastic and we sat together drawing some of the characters, like Bludnock and Morriarty. I drew up some strips to show the famous three, all was going well until the Daily Star and Spike couldn’t agree on a contract, I never did find out what happened but the idea fell through."

So far as I can tell, this interview is not online.


Another good Native American gag, and an example of bringing in an incongruous modern take on an old tradition.



Mr. Maddocks has retired to Spain, where he now paints in acrylics.

My thanks to Leif Peng and Bryn Havord for their invaluable assistance.

Lots more at the Peter Maddocks Web site

Images © 2010 by Peter Maddocks. All rights reserved.