1969 Charlie Rodrigues Interview

From May 1969, an interview with gag cartoonist Charlie Rodrigues that appeared in LAUGH PARADE magazine, Vol. 9 No. 3 issue, published by and copyright 1969 by Magazine Management Company, Inc.












Related: a great 2 page spread of Rodrigues cartoons from CARICATOUR #1 " "Allen Ginsberg for President! Bob Dylan for Vice President"

Links to more Rodrigues cartoons.

LAUGH PARADE May 1969: Wild West Gags

Some "Wild Wild West" gag cartoons from LAUGH PARADE magazine, May 1969, Vol. 9 No. 3 issue, published by and copyright 1969 by Magazine Management Company, Inc.

"The farther west our cartoonists go the wilder they get. It must be because they're quick on the draw."

Video: Charles Schulz 60 MINUTES Profile

From 1999: a profile of Charles Schulz from 60 MINUTES, with a new introduction by reporter Steve Kroft for this, the 60th anniversary month of PEANUTS' debut.

Mike Lynch Cartoon in October 2010 FUNNY TIMES

"We're Living In ... FUNNY TIMES" so says the header of each issue of the humor monthly.

The essence of humor is surprise. I know this because that's what Rob Petrie told Richie's class on Career Day. So, as a comedy writer I am trying to thwart your expectations. And that's not easy. We're all media saturated know-it-alls who've been there and LOLed at it.

One of the hardest thing to do when writing gags is throwing out the crummy ones. You really have to NOT fall in love with every little thing that comes out of your pencil. I come up with a lot writing, and a lot of it gets tossed. Knowing when an idea's stale or been done before is important. Most people and most editors have are smart and know a stale old cartoon when they see one.

Here is my cartoon, below, wherein heaven just does not work out; heaven isn't heaven at all.

"Okay, fine! So add to your list of mortal regrets that you didn't pay for elite check-in status."

If you are interested in cartooning, I still have some of my CARTOONING BASICS books for sale for $3.99 US delivery ($4.50 Canada, $5.00 rest of the world), and that includes an original sketch. I'll mail these out as soon as I'm back from the New York Comicon!

EDIT: SORRY TO SAY THAT CARTOONING BASICS IS SOLD OUT

Editorial Cartoonist, Other Journalists, Sued by GOP Candidate

Westchester County GOP candidate Jim Russell has called out editorial cartoonist Matt Davies, as well as other journalists and even two fellow Republicans, suing them for $1 million each for calling his views racist.

"Jim Russell, the disgraced GOP House candidate in Westchester — who penned an article warning of the evils of interracial mixing and movies like Save the Last Dance, and then gave a really sweaty and nervous interview about it that made us uncomfortable for days — is suing various journalists and Republican officials for $1 million each because they 'smeared his name' by pointing out how racist he is.

"The lawsuit names Journal News columnist Phil Reisman, reporter Leah Rae and political cartoonist Matt Davies. It also named John Goff of News 12, Richard French of RNN, Justin Elliott of Salon.com, Douglas Colety of the Westchester Republican Party, Alexander Carey of the state Republican Party and Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center."

New York Magazine has more.

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 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.

SISTER MARY DRACULA by Gerry Mooney

My friend Gerry Mooney has finished his SISTER MARY DRACULA graphic novel. He sent me a copy, which I read and liked very much. I'm posting some information and links below that Gerry sent. Please consider looking at SISTER MARY DRACULA.

Take it away, Gerry:

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press release
For immediate release

Sister Mary Dracula Halloween Treat, No Trick!

For the month of October, you can read "Sister Mary Dracula", the graphic novel by Gerry Mooney, online at www.sistermarydracula.com.

The 103-page story, in the works for 4-1/2 years and completed this summer, tells the tale of Terry Malloy, a ten-year-old at St. Egregius the Stricter Catholic School, who is convinced that his teacher is a vampire. Even his best friends think he's crazy.

Sister Mary Dracula began as a Flash animation created in 2000. It gained a following online and was selected to be shown at the San Diego Comic Con's Independent Film Festival in 2004. The animation can still be seen on the Sister Mary Dracula website.

Gerry Mooney has been drawing funny for most of his life, doing humorous illustration in the New York market for 20 years for such clients as Forbes, Parents Magazine, American Express, The Daily News, Newsweek, Mad and lots more, including a dozen covers for The New Republic.

His humorous feature "Mooney's Modules" (www.mooneysmodules.com) appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine for three years and spawned the now-legendary Gravity Poster (www.thegravityposter.com) which has sold over 4,000 copies and has been cited in Scientific American.

Lately Gerry has moved into animation and is developing independent projects as well as being involved currently in two online animation jams, one of which is Bill Plympton's "Guard Dog" animation jam, a project that includes 70 animators from all over the world, each one animating a single shot from the five minute short.

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A real paper edition of the graphic novel will be available later this month.

Related: I reviewed the first chapter of SMD when it was released as a comic book in 2007.

CARTOON LAUGHS Part Five

This is the final selection of gag cartoons from CARTOON LAUGHS, Vol. 8 No. 5, Sept. 1969 issue, copyright 1969 by Magazine Management Co., Inc.

Some weight lifter cartoons, and then we segue to miscellaneous risque cartoons.











More CARTOON LAUGHS:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
  

Rent-a-Friend

Above: a cartoon of mine from a few months back.

I just saw this BBC News piece by Claire Prentice in which she reports firsthand on her "renting a friend" experience.

Now this is just plain wrong. And it sounds like a rib or something a business student makes up for class.

OK, renting a power washer, sure. Renting a car, yes. But renting a person to take to the ballgame or talk politics with is cuckoo nuts.

There are about 285,000 friends available for rental all over the world on the Rent a Friend site. They come in all colors, and, according to the home page photo, all seem to be well scrubbed, nicely attired and in their 20s. None of them LOOK like creepy loners. And it's not a dating service or an escort service or anything like that. How these people are vetted, I don't know. I didn't see anything about background checks on the site. My question: if I tip a renty friend, will he laugh harder at my jokes?

Turning friendship into a commodity is, as one of the owners of this enterprise says, just, kinda, sorts and extension of Facebook.

Yeah, right. Go read.

CARTOON LAUGHS Part Four: Real Gone

Here we go with another selection from CARTOON LAUGHS, Vol. 8 No. 5, Sept. 1969 issue, copyright 1969 by Magazine Management Co., Inc.

These cartoons touch on the subject of death, handily categorized as "Real Gone" cartoons.







Above: Due to the rag content of the newsprint, it's hard to see that the license plates read HIS and HEARSE.







Above: Charlie Rodrigues always makes me laugh.

More CARTOON LAUGHS:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
• Part Five
  

Undercover Al Jaffee

The Moshiach Times, a bimonthly publication, has employed Al Jaffee draw the "Shpy." Alison Leigh Cowan writing for the NY Times blog:

"For a quarter century, Jewish children have hungrily followed the kooky adventures of the Shpy, the adventurous hero of The Moshiach Times, a family-friendly magazine that is published six times a year in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn."

Related: Ms. Cowan also wrote this wonderful profile of Mr. Jaffee on October 1, 2010.

Wally Wood Gallery Exhibit

Bhob Stewart's Potrezebie blog has all the information and some photos on this large retrospective of Wally Wood's comic book artwork:

"The Woodwork exhibition at the Casal Solleric art gallery on the Paseo Borne in Palma de Mallorca, Spain opened September 16 and continues until November 7. Curators Frederic Manzano and Florentino Florez assembled more than 200 pieces of Wood art, including original art for entire EC stories (from Mad, Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Weird Science-Fantasy, Two-Fisted Tales) and Vampirella, plus unpublished work, EC and Marvel covers, Topps art and comic strips, including Wood's November 15, 1970 Prince Valiant page."

Related: Bhob wrote the book Against The Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood.

Video: Gerald Scarfe Draws Labour Leader Ed Miliband

Video: Mike Luckovich

Crockett Johnson's High School Cartoons

I missed this until now.

Crockett Johnson (David Leisk), the guy who not only drew the HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON series of childrens books, but also BARKUS and a revered comic strip, BARNABY, has several rare examples of his high school drawings over at Philip Nel's Nine Kinds of Pie blog. These drawings are from the Newtown (Long Island) High School Lantern.

"Leisk wrote under the name 'Crockett Johnson' because, he said, 'Crockett is my childhood nickname. My real name is David Johnson Leisk. Leisk was too hard to pronounce -- so -- I am now Crockett Johnson!'"
- from Dr. Nel's Crockett Johnson bio page

Dr. Nel is a Professor of English at Kansas State University. He is also the director of their Program in Children's Literature. And he has the best site on Crockett Johnson ever.

He's currently writing The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss, which will be published in 2012.