Cartoonists Exchange: Lesson Correction Portfolio 1946

The Cartoonists Exchange of Pleasant Hill, OH was a busy cartoon correspondence course that was in operation for a number of decades.

This is the Lesson Correction Portfolio and is copyright 1946 by Cartoonists' [sic] Exchange.




Cartoonist David Rand collected students' submissions, and then, sold the drawings back to them. You just have to shake your head and, I guess, admire Mr. Rand's monetization of the medium!





So many of these corrections are serious drawing comments:

• indicate grain in wood,
• upper torso should be longer,
• nose on pretty girl's face should be less noticeable,
• hand detail should be more carefully worked out,
• glorify the girl's legs.

Okay, maybe not that last one.



Lots of good, basic advice here, 70+ years on. I love pages like this, with lots of pen noodling. Even if you've gone all Wacom, then this still applies!






Evidently, a student was given a lesson. I don't own the corresponding lesson books that give context to these drawings, so I'm in the dark here. Maybe something like the old lady commits violence against the old man. Something like that. Or, guy finds jar of mystery spirits in the cellar; hilarity commences.





There is some good advice here, but I find that instead of looking at the folds in the clothes, I am wincing at the story telling.


Below is a photo of Mr. Rand, realizing his ambition of drawing comic strip ads for some consumer item called "Peppets."



-- From a blog entry originally run on March 18, 2009.

ARTUS: Gregger Gallery Show June 2 - 30, 2017

ARTUS Gallery, Atlanta, GA:

I am pleased to have a piece in the Art of Supporting Local Art and Artists: Gregger gallery show this month. My old friend Gregger, who is an art collector, has shared many of his pieces of original art that he owns. The show is on thru the end of this month.

From the ARTUS press release:

***18+ show; all welcome, but we want our guest to know there will be all types of artwork gracing the walls.***

Come see a curated selection of (local) art from the private collection of local art lover and supporter, Gregger. 

We at Artus want to take time to show appreciation for our art supporters and collectors with a special celebration showing off one of the largest collections of local art.

We'll have a grand ol' time with cocktails, music and art.

Opening of Show: June 2nd 6-9pm 

Show will be up for the entire month of June with a closing reception and conversation with the collector on June 30th from 6-9pm.

My thanks to fellow artist Terri Hitzig for the photo! She has the framed piece of art on the upper right, my cartoon is lower right. Below is the version as it appeared in Reader's Digest:

Video: The Wonderful World of Walt Disney

Here are two short films, that are part real and part not real. These are lovingly stop-motion animated versions of Walt Disney (So, it's NOT the real Walt -- that's the "not real" aspect.) paired with actual, REAL audio of the real Walt Disney talking. It's culled from old audio interviews.

Wonderful World of Walt - Episode 1: "Mr. Disney... What do you do?"



Wonderful World of Walt - Episode 2: "Teenagers N' Things"




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UFUNK: The retro-futuristic illustrations by Alejandro Burdisio

Alejandro Burdisio's flying cars. Jus' sayin'!

SUMMER DAZE Cartoons

Some scans of the cartoons from the Scholastic Paperback SUMMER DAZE, which came out in 1961. It was edited by Ann McGovern and is copyright 1961 by Scholastic Magazines, Inc.

It's a collection of corny riddles and jokes, coupled with a bunch of cartoons. The perfect thing to read on the bus ride to summer camp. Matter of fact, the back cover (reproduced below) advises the young reader that "you'll need jokes in your baggage."

Some of the cartoons are credited to "The Ben Roth Agency." Ben Roth was one of four cartoonist brothers. My cartoonist friend Eli Stein has more about them here. Ben was a busy gag cartoonist who started his own agency, selling cartoons to other markets and abroad. I believe the uncredited page below came from his agency:

The Ben Roth Agency

Joseph Kiernan

Orlando Busino, whose work I love:

Harry Mace, the prolific:

Al Kaufman, who seems to be using a dry brush or a dry-ish pen technique:

Al Kaufman

Maybe my favorite cartoon in the collection, also by Al Kaufman:

Joseph Kiernan

Al Kaufman

Vahan Shirvanian with one that made me smile:

Herb Green

Peter Porges

R.M. Markey with a fun gag, beautifully executed. One of these gag cartoonists that I have not heard of before now! 

My great friend, Don Orehek:

Reg Hider

The Scholastic pitch to form a Book Club!

Al Kaufman provides the back page silent three panel gag:

All of the Cartoons from the October 20, 1962 Saturday Evening Post

Here are all of the cartoons from the October 20, 1962 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. It's copyright that year by the Curtis Publishing Co.

Above: a letter about a Harry Mace cartoon about trading stamps from a previous issue that was quoted in a letter from housewife in Michigan. Mace and fellow cartoonist Jack Tippit collaborated on the syndicated cartoon panel "Amy," which debuted that year. Mace left the feature after three years. Tippit continued Amy, sometimes called "Our Girl Amy," until 1991.  He won the National Cartoonists Society Newspaper Panel Strip Division Award in 1970.

But I digress. Here are the cartoons (with a few more of my digressions), perhaps unseen since their initial publication. You will notice some old gag cartoon tropes here: father ordering unwed daughter and baby out of the house; desert island; husbands calling their wives fat; drunkenness; a talking animal; a housebroken animal -- and maybe a few more.

The Post at this time had a page of cartoons (and one poem) under this "Post Scripts" banner by Henry Syverson. The characters changed with every issue, but Syverson drew them all. In addition to this page's collection of gag cartoons, there were some other gag cartoons sprinkled throughout the magazine. 

Herbert Goldberg:

Jack Tippit:

Jon "CorKa" Cornin. "Using the pseudonym CorKa, he and his wife Zena Kavin produced cartoons for Saturday Evening Post and the New Yorker ...." -- Who's Who in American Art quoted at the Jon (Corka) Cornin (1905-1992) site.

Henry Boltinoff:

Chon Day:

Mischa Richter:

Ed Dahlin:

Walt Wetterberg:

Scott Taber was born in Illinois, but by the 1950s, this prolific gag cartoonist was living in Northport, NY, a Long Island Railroad commute away from the NYC gag cartoon markets. Daughter Joan Taber writes a wonderful blog "Family Stories." Take a look at this one about her father meeting George Booth. 

John Albano:

My friend, the great Don Orehek:

Ned Hilton: