DC Nation Video: Tales of Metropolis "Lois"

British Pathé Short Film: Cartoonists' Club (1947)

It's 1947 and at the White Swan pub, various artists known as "cartoonists" have their "Cartoonists' Club" get together and draw. This time, we get a rundown of who the cartoonists are -- but we do not get to see what they are drawing until the end ….

British Pathé Short Film: Cartoonists Conference (1962)

A whole bunch of unnamed British cartoonists get together and draw bathing beauties and kids in this three minute short from British Pathé.

British Pathé Short Film: Charles Cole Blindfolded Cartoonist (1941)

British Pathé Short Film: Cartoonist Rowland Emett at Home (1963)

("The Vintage Car of the Future," on display at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Photo by Jeff Powell.)

The British cartoonist Rowland Emett (1906-1990) should have a renaissance. He drew crazily detailed cartoons of the strangest trolleys/blimps/etc. you ever saw. Before he did the drawing, he created a "whimsical kinetic drawing" of it, according to this British Pathé short:

Related video shorts:

Emett's Tractor (1960)
Emett's Computer (1966)
Emett's Ideal Home (1967)
Ontario Science Centre collection of machines designed and built by kinetic artist Rowland Emett

Tom Toles: "Catapult Love" Musical Comedy Show Indiegogo Campaign

Editorial Cartoonist Tom Toles joins Katie Goodman, and her co-writer Soren Kisiel, to create "Catapult Love, " a new musical comedy adventure. They have created an Indiegogo Campaign to raise funds. More here.

Video: Gerald Scarfe on "Scarfes" Bar Opening

Political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe on the opening of Scarfe's Bar, which is located in the Rosewood London hotel. 

"Batman: Strange Days" - Bruce Timm's Batman 75th Anniversary Short

Bruce Timm plus BATMAN's 75th anniversary equals cartoony goodness:



From the descrip:

A brand new short from producer Bruce Timm featuring a lost tale from Batman's past, the Dark Knight tracks a strange giant to the mysterious lair of Dr. Hugo Strange.
Don't miss "Batman: Strange Days" and other unique DC Nation shorts Wednesday nights at 6:30 p.m. (5:30 CST) on Cartoon Network during Teen Titans Go!
To hear Bruce Timm talk about the development of this Batman 75th Anniversary short, be sure to catch the most recent episode of "DC All Access."

"The Art of Cartooning" With Mike Lynch and Stephanie Piro Tuesday April 15

The Portsmouth [NH]' Herald shows some cartoons of mine and an announcement of a cartooning talk that I'll be giving on Tuesday evening April 15th with Stephanie Piro.

TUES 4/15 DRAWN AND QUARTERED: THE ART OF CARTOONING 6 to 9 p.m.; $15 or free from members of the New Hampshire Creative Club; at The Pearl, 45 Pearl St., Portsmouth; call (603) 382-5530 or register online at www.nhcreativeclub.org.

Yeah, I'm biased, but it will be a good talk about what we do: cartooning in the 21st century. And it's a chance to chat. The event will have a wine-and-cheese time beforehand, so it'll provide opportunity to say hello in person. More comes out of shop talk than any other kind of talk. We'll each give presentations about cartooning, and then there's an audience Q and A.

If you are in the Boston/Portsmouth/Manchester/Concord/Portland area, please consider coming. And thanks in advance for making the time.

These cartoons originally appeared in Mad Magazine ("wrinkly") and Harvard Business Review ("You've Caught Your Tail …").

Travels with Ink and Nib and Brush

I'll be in my home state of Iowa for a couple of days. I'm going to do all day cartoon classes with the kids at Perry (Iowa) Elementary and give the keynote address to the Chamber of Commerce.

If you cartoon and you travel, then you tend to take your tools with you. But what if the tools you use are of the old-time paper-and-dip-pen variety?

Here's some advice about traveling with your precious old school drawing tools:




Traveling? I don't envy you. But if you have to travel, and you are a dedicated old school cartoonist who loves the old school drawing tools, then you already have a method for safely transporting your beloved art supplies through the rigors of the TSA, the baggage handlers, airplane pressure, etc.

Here's what I do:


Nibs! Those nibs (that you have delicately broken in) can be easily placed ...


... in a protective matchbox. When the TSA employee asks, Do you have anything that could be considered a weapon? -- Well, I have do not believe that nibs could be used as a weapon. At least, not a very effective one. Regardless, nibs get checked thru baggage. Along with the holder.
I like the ink in those squatty glass containers that are tough and ready for some travel tumbling and turbulence. (No Higgins Ink plastic containers if you please!) Wrapped in a couple layers of plastic wrap and then this baby is wrapped again in swaddling clothes (i.e., a black t-shirt),

A good brush is like your pal. Like a pen nib, it needs to be broken in and then it can last (with the proper care) for a long time. The problem is how do you protect your brush shape?

I just get a card (an index card, or piece of cardboard) and tape the brush down. And then I take another card and tape it on top, creating, for all intents and purposes, a snug brush sandwich.

Confession: I usually use those Pigma permanent ink pens. Below is a drawing from last year depicting "the pens on my desk:"

Related: Some sketchbook drawings and a few more of my sketches.

Also related: Do you have too many sketchbooks?

-- This blog entry originally appeared in January 2010.

The Kennebec Journal: Curmudgeonly cartoonist Jeff Pert remembered as supportive, snarky

Jeff Pert at his table at the Maine Comics Arts Festival, 2009.


Maine cartoonist Jeff Pert is remembered by friends and family in "Curmudgeonly cartoonist Jeff Pert remembered as supportive, snarky" by Kennebec Journal writer Matt Hongoltz-Hetling.

Mark Pelletier, who went to school with Pert and has since returned to the school as an English teacher, said Pert and his friends were always the eccentrics, the nonconformists. In junior high school, they recreated Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition sketch during a talent show. 

“A lot of the kids probably laughed at it and thought it was really silly,” he said. “They pulled it off to a T, and very few kids noticed the greatness of it.”

The whole story is here.

Popular Maine cartoonist Jeff Pert dies at 55

Above: Jeff Pert's seminal "How's the water, Bob?" cartoon. It was also the title of his collection of cartoons.


The Bangor Daily News has a fine profile of my friend Jeff Pert in today's paper. It was written by Kathleen Pierce.



I spoke with her yesterday, as did Jeff's brother, Jonathan Pert, and Rick Lowell of Portland, Maine's Casablanca Comics.




Jonathan Pert:



"Jeff was dining out with a friend at Local Sprouts Cafe in Portland when he started to experience chest pains. 'He said, ‘Maybe we should go to the hospital,’ and he was joking in the car,' said Jonathan. 'He was being the humorous, sarcastic Jeff to the very end.'"




Rick Lowell:



"Lowell carried Pert’s book, 'Cartoons From Maine: How’s the Water, Bob?' published by Down East Books, and said it was a top seller last year. At Pert’s book signing, the line was out the door. 'He was overwhelmed by how many people showed up,' Lowell recalled."




Mike Lynch:



“It’s his appeal and sense of humor and cartoon style that will draw people forever to his work."



Visiting hours will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, at David E. Desmond and Son Funeral Home, 638 High St., Bath.

UPDATE: Jeff Pert 1958-2014

Jeff Pert died Friday, April 4, 2014. The cause was a heart attack. He was 55 years old.

Jeff has been cartooning about Maine since 1992. His cartoons, usually featuring moose and lobsters appear in Down East Magazine, as well as postcards, t-shirts and other products. His best-selling book of cartoons HOW'S THE WATER, BOB? was so successful that he had confided that there may be another book on the way.

Details are being passed from Jeff's family, and from friend to friend -- of which Jeff had many. There has been no formal announcement. I am unsure of all of the details, but this is what I have heard.

He was eating dinner at a Maine restaurant with his brother and his brother's wife friends on Friday evening. After the meal, Jeff had heartburn, which got alarmingly worse. He went to the hospital. His brother was contacted and he went to the hospital as well. He had a massive, unexpected heart attack from which he did not recover.

We are all stunned and it feels so strange to be typing this information.

More details as I get them. No word on services at this time.

Heartfelt consolation to Jon Pert and the rest of the family. Jeff was one of a kind.

UPDATE: Desmond Funeral Home in Bath, ME will have a visitation on Wednesday, April 9 from 4pm to 7pm. The next day, Jeff's brother Jon will host a celebration of Jeff's life. More information on all of those events, and an online condolence book you can sign, is here.

All the Cartoons from THE SATURDAY EVENING POST Dec.28, 1968 - Jan. 11 1969

The graphics of Sister Corita (AKA Corita Kent) adorn the cover of this 1968 issue of THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. The contents are copyright 1968 by The Saturday Evening Post Company.

First, here's the page of cartoons titled "Post Scripts," with header are by Syverson:

Lee Lorenz:

George Booth:

Charles Barsotti:

Henry Martin:

Frank Modell:

Since this is a Christmas-oriented issue, Donald Reilly is given the SEP gatefold to comment on the season titled "We don't sell toys. We provide manipulative materials." The yellow background was the Post's idea, not mine:

Lee Lorenz:

Lee Lorenz:

Lee Lorenz:

Charles Barsotti:

Jack Kent:

Jack Tippett:

Ted Key:

Related:

All of the Cartoons from LOOK Magazine June 7, 1960
BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1959
The SATURDAY EVENING POST SCRAPBOOK in 22 posts

Scott Shaw! in DICK TRACY

When you're a cartoonist and you have cartoonist friends, sometimes you get drawn into a comic strip. Case in point: my friend Scott Shaw! is in today's DICK TRACY comic strip, which is by his friends Joe Staton and Mike Curtis.

Gag Cartoonist Question: Does Experience Count?

A question in the email:

"My only experience in having my work published was a self-admitting slapdash advertising campaign for my father's finance business in our local paper. I have the final edits of these as a part of a small portfolio. Should I attempt to gain more exposure/experience/credibility online or through various mediums before approaching a well-known and popular publication? I feel a little intimidated, with very little work published and no really impressive examples to flash before the eyes of a prospective publisher. Help!"

When I quit my real job, with real hours and real pay, I started cartooning a lot. 

This was back in the 90s, when having a 56k modem was considered "fast." So, a lot of submissions went by regular put-cartoons-in-a-big-envelope-and-take-it-to-the-post-office mail.

I still will do this sometimes. But most editors want email submissions. Two of the highest paying national markets want me to send something called a "scrollable PDF."

I have learned how to make one of those.

But, really, the only reason that I can submit to most markets via this easy, less expensive, quicker scrollable PDF route is because I have a track record. The editor knows who I am and when they see my name in their inbox, they know there will be content there that they can use.

Let me go two paragraphs back. When I wrote "I still will do this," I mean I will put cartoons in the mail to send to potential new clients.

I figure an email will get deleted pretty fast. This potential client doesn't know me, so why shouldn't they just think it's spam. Or worse, the spam filter grabs my message and it never makes it.

But, at the end of the day, there are a lot of cartoonists out there on the web. You know that. And a client knows that. The ones that contact me out of the blue, say things like:

• I saw your cartoon in _______ (name of publication) and it's what we had in mind for our ad campaign.
  
• I like that dog race cup in your Zazzle store and we are looking for a cover artist for a new book.
  
• We read about your cartoon class on your blog. Can you do one here? What are your rates?

Those are all real things that really happened. Yeah, mug design in my online store got me a book cover job.

So … the more stuff you have out there, the more people will see your work and go "Aha! That's just what I'm looking for!"

Keep cartooning, keep putting your work out there on your site, your blog, your online store, your Facebook, your Tumblr, your Twitter, etc.

At least that's why my experience has taught me. I hope this helps. 

Ted Rall: "The New Yorker is Bad for Cartooning"

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall writes in his syndicated column about The New Yorker magazine and its reputation for "sophisticated, often cutting-edge" cartoons (as Morley Safer described it on last week's 60 Minutes interview with Cartoon Editor Bob Mankoff).

Ted disagrees.

"Here’s a challenge I frequently give to New Yorker cartoon proponents. Choose any issue. Read through the cartoons. How many are really good? You’ll be surprised at how few you find. But don’t feel bad. Like the idea that the U.S. is a force for good in the world, and the assumption that SNL was ever funny, the 'New Yorker­ ­cartoons are sophisticated and smart' meme has been around so long that no one questions it. 

"From the psychiatrist’s couch to the sexless couple’s living room to the junior executive’s summons of his secretary via intercom, New Yorker cartoons are consistently bland, militantly middlebrow, and mind-numbingly repetitive decade after decade 

"Which is fine. 

"What is not fine is not seeing fluff for the crap that it is."

The challenge here is: do you use a Mankoff, a Rall or your own self as a tastemaker? Humor, they say, is in the eye of the beholder.

Me? I find some cartoons funny and therefore "good," and others not. That goes for The New Yorker, the comics page, the comic book rack, the graphic novels, etc.

I can correct a few factual items:

"They pay pretty well."

There are at least two US markets that pay nearly twice as much or more per cartoon. [EDIT: I'm getting a lot of emails about that line. Mea culpa! I should have said there are a couple of markets paying the same or more. My mistake.]

If you have heard that a New Yorker cartoonists gets four figures for a cartoon, then, yes, that's true too. This rate is for established, "contract" cartoonists. It can take years to get a contract. I mean 7, 8, 9 years of regularly appearing in the magazine. They are rarely handed out. The contract guarantees The New Yorker a "first refusal" at all of the cartoonist's output with a guarantee of higher pay per cartoon. 

"Every Wednesday morning, Mankoff holds court, looking over submissions of cartoonists who must present themselves in person rather than, say, email or fax their work."

It used to be every Wednesday (just like in Thurber's THE YEARS WITH ROSS), but it got switched to Tuesdays years ago. Not sure why.

There are quite a number of cartoonists who send in their work electronically, without showing up in person. More than half. The trick is getting that email address or that fax number.

"Editors at other publications work with professional cartoonists they trust to consistently deliver high-quality cartoons, and help them hone one or two rough sketches to a bright sheen."

I tend to send "finished" cartoons; cartoons that are ready for publication. I chose to do this in the beginning since I was an unknown, and I wanted the editor to see what I could do. Since I send cartoons all over the place, and since editors can leave and a new one who doesn't know me may suddenly appear in the old editor's place, I've kept up that policy. 

But a good number of the established pros do send roughs to The New Yorker. I don't know of any "they must be finished cartoons" policy. 

I found Ted's column to be thoughtful and he made some good points. But the person who ultimately decides whether a cartoon is "good" is the person who is reading it. 

BIG GEORGE Sunday Strips by Virgil "VIP" Partch

Ger Apeldoorn shares some 1960s BIG GEORGE Sunday strips by the one and only Virgil VIP Partch. Go start your day the VIP way!

And take a look at VIP's illustration work for Pictorial Review while you're there:

JOHNNY THUNDER "Battle for Mesa City" Art by Mort Drucker and Sy Barry

(A terrific cover by Alex Toth adorns JOHNNY THUNDER #3.)


Outside of the monthly Berndt Toast Gang luncheons, this is the only other time I have seen Mort Drucker and Sy Barry together.

Here in DC's JOHNNY THUNDER #3 (Jul-Aug 1973) is a reprint of the 6 page story "Battle for Mesa City"(which originally appeared in ALL-STAR WESTERN #71 June-July 1953). The story is by Robert Kanigher, and the art chores by Mort Drucker and Sy Barry. Mort and Sy live on Long Island and are members of the Long Island National Cartoonists Society chapter. I had no idea they ever worked together.

I also thought that, since they have many fans, then this story would already be on the web. But no! I did not find it. So, I warmed up the scanner and give you these pages.

I have included a house ad for the then-new PREZ comic book (about a teenager becoming president of the country) and a subscription form ("15 consecutive issues for $3.00!").

Contents copyright 1973 by National Periodicals Publications, Inc.