Society of Illustrators Virtual Tour: Women in Comics: Looking Forward and Back

From the Society of Illustrators:

While the Society is closed, please enjoy this walkthrough of our current exhibit Women in Comics: Looking forward and Back, curated by Trina Robbins and Kim Munson. We look forward to welcoming visitors when we reopen to view this exhibit until October 24th.

Related:

Library of Congress: Drawn to Purpose: American Women Illustrators and Cartoonists

Get Well, Sandy and Jo Kossin!

April 25, 2020 UPDATE: Sandy is out of the hospital and in rehab.

The legendary illustrator, 93-year old Sandy Kossin was infected with covid-19 and is now doing much better. He is out of the hospital and in rehab. His wife, who was also infected with covid-19, was discharged from the hospital earlier this week. They're both fighters.

Just heard from my friend, the Berndt Toast Gang chair Adrian Sinnott, that our friend, the great illustrator Sandy Kossin, and his wife, are in the hospital with covid-19.

Please keep them in your thoughts today. I know they are in mine. If you don't know who Sandy is, then you probably have seen his work. Here are just a few samples from his prolific illustration career.

Related:

Drew Friedman on Sandy Kossin

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Color Gag Cartoons 1945 - 1957

Dick Buchanan has reached into his Cartoon Clip Files over there in Greenwich Village, unearthing some of his favorite color magazine cartoons. Thanks as ever, and here is Dick with The Wonderful World of Gag Cartoon Color:

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Long ago, when many American families avidly followed the adventures of their favorite comic strip heroes in the daily newspapers, the big day of the week was Sunday, when the comics were published in glorious color. Gag cartoons only occasionally appeared in color in the national magazines until after WWII, when a larger number were published. Luckily, there are many examples of these color gag cartoons in the Cartoon Clip Files so . . . Take a Look!



1. JOHN GALLAGHER. Collier’s April 5, 1952.

2. DICK CAVALLI. Collier’s November 2, 1954.

3. MICHAEL BERRY. Collier’s November 24, 1951.

4. FRANK BEAVEN. Esquire November, 1945.

5. JACK TIPPIT. Collier’s October 28, 1955.

6. FRITZ WILKINSON. Collier’s November 24, 1951.

7. HENRY SYVERSON. The Saturday Evening Post July 2, 1949.

8. LOUIS PRISCILLA. A fine illustrator and cartoonist, Priscilla was one of a handful of cartoonists whose spouse was also a cartoonist--he was married to Margot Cook.

9. TED KEY. The Saturday Evening Post May 14, 1949.

10. ED NOFZIGER. The Saturday Evening Post March 20, 1948.

11. ELDON DEDINI. Some of Dedini’s best color work appeared in Esquire and, later, Playboy. Esquire November, 1954.

12. STAN FINE. Collier’s February 17, 1951.

13. WILLIAM von RIEGEN. Collier’s November 12, 1954.

14. JOSEPH FARRIS. The Saturday Evening Post August 10, 1957.

15. HANK KETCHAM. The Saturday Evening Post May 28, 1949.

Samuel R. "Sam" Joyner 1924 - 2020

Samuel Joyner, former editorial cartoonist of the Philadelphia Tribune and art editor of Color Magazine, passed away peacefully at home on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. He was 96.

Not only a journeyman cartoonist for five decades, he was also an historian of African-American comic art.

From Temple University's History Blog:

"While working as a paper boy for the Philadelphia Tribune, his artistic talents were first recognized by publisher E. Washington Rhodes. Following his service in the United States Navy during World War II, Joyner enrolled in the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now known as the University of the Arts) to pursue a career as a commercial artist. He graduated in 1948.


"After some difficulty finding employment, Joyner succeeded in selling his work to the Philadelphia Inquirer and Pittsburgh Courier. However, he soon realized that he was not fully valued for his creations at these papers because he was not allowed to attach his name to his art work or draw any non-white characters. In the 1950s, Joyner secured employment as an art director for the African American magazine Color. The magazine was originally based in Charleston, West Virginia, but moved its headquarters to Philadelphia in 1954. While working there Joyner gained national attention for his social and political commentary and satire and used it to encourage other African Americans to engage in activities and dialogues toward the defeat of discrimination and injustice.

From the Philadelphia Tribune obituary:

"Often described as the visual voice for African Americans that was represented in mass-circulated magazines and newspapers, Joyner had a storied career as a teacher, cartoonist and illustrator since the 1940s.

"Throughout his career, Joyner received numerous accolades, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from Temple University in 2002 as well as recognition from the National Newspapers Publishers Association and the Houston Sun."

"Our Schools will continue to stay in trouble as long

as we pay the best teachers less than we pay the

worst football player."

From The Daily Cartoonist:

"Samuel also accumulated a vast knowledge of Black cartoonists and has been selfless in passing on that information to such historians as Tim Jackson and Ken Quattro.
As Tim said in his introduction to Pioneering Cartoonists:

"The task of finding information about the cartoonists in this book was made phenomenally easier when Samuel Joyner from Philadelphia, who also happened to be a pioneering cartoonist himself, contacted me. Joyner maintained files of tear sheets and clippings from various newspapers around the country that featured his comics. He amassed an overwhelming resource that documented African American cartoonists, illustrators, and graphic artists."

I'm indebted to DD Degg for bringing this to my attention. 

Mort Drucker 1929 - 2020

Thanks to Stephen Goldberg and Adrian C. Sinnott for the pic. From left: Stan Goldberg, John Reiner, Art Cumings, myself, Mort Drucker. This is at the Great Neck Arts Center where Stan and I co-curated a comic art gallery show in 2006. There's a link to one of the panels I moderated with Mort Drucker below. 



Legendary Mad magazine caricature artist Mort Drucker passed away on Wednesday in Woodbury, Long Island. He was 91. He was a revered, one-of-a-kind talent, as well as one of the kindest gentlemen I knew.

There are a lot of obits and accolades online. Here are a few, along with some photos.

From the NY Times obit for Mort Drucker:

"Movie studios often threatened to sue Mad for its parodies. A 1980 spoof of 'The Empire Strikes Back' — portrayed by Mr. Drucker as 'The Empire Throws Up' — prompted a nasty letter from lawyers representing director George Lucas. They demanded all profits from that issue of the magazine and asked that the original art be turned over or destroyed.

"Publisher William Gaines sent them a copy of a letter received days before from Lucas, in which he gushed about the Mad parody and praised Mr. Drucker as the 'Leonardo da Vinci of comic satire.'

"'That’s funny,' Gaines wrote on his letter to the lawyers. 'George liked it.'"

Michael Cavna for the Washington Post:

"It was at a Reuben Awards Convention weekend, in 2015, that I sat with Drucker at a Washington hotel, as he recalled his career with a sense of gratitude. Sitting in the shade poolside, grinning beneath his shock of white hair, he spoke as if fortune had smiled on him.

"'I never wanted to be mean,' he said of his screen-parody work. 'I tried to be kind.'"

Adrian Sinnott, chair of the Long Island National Cartoonists Society Berndt Toast Gang chapter:

"In 1995, while visiting family in Ireland, my brother and I went down to Rathdrum in the Wicklow mountains to the 'Rathdrum International Cartoon Festival.' We met the organizer, Terry Willers and his lovely wife, Valerie (she was indispensable, the festival wouldn't have happened without her). I asked Terry if he'd like any American cartoonists to come over for future festivals. His first choice without having to take any time to consider was, Mort Drucker. I said I'd see what I could do. The next year Mort and Barbara made the trip to the festival and made the news all over Ireland and beyond. Over 20,000 people a day came from Ireland, England and Europe that weekend (to a town with 2000 residents). Years later, when the festival was winding down, Terry wrote to say how wonderful that and the subsequent visits of American cartoonists were."

Mad Magazine caricaturist Tom Richmond:

"It’s no exaggeration (pun intended) that between his influence on my work as an artist, his encouragement, support and friendship, that I owe much of my career to Mort Drucker. But it’s really the friendship I valued the most. He was one of the most humble and genuine people I’ve ever met. We haven’t been able to stay in touch the last few years as much as I would have liked, but I will miss him dearly…. and so will the rest of the world."

Michael J. Fox:

In a 1985 Tonight Show appearance, when Johnny Carson asked Michael J. Fox, 'When did you really know you'd made it in show business?' Fox replied, 'When Mort Drucker drew my head.'"

More links:

From left, standing: Howard Beckerman, Sandy Kossin, Mike Lynch, Stan Goldberg; sitting: Mort Drucker and Rina Piccolo. From the September 13, 2006 Cartoonist Panel at the Great Neck Arts Center. 

More photos at the Great Neck Arts Center This Inking Life reception blog entry.

Video: Mort Drucker and John Reiner - The NCS Masters Collection

 

Daily Cartoonist

THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS by Joe Musial

Hello Dollinks! Here are a few hi res scans from the tiny KATZENJAMMER KIDS paperback collection of Sunday strips by Joe Musial. It's copyright 1970 by King Features.

THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS were created by Rudolph Dirks who, at William Randolph Hearst's request, nicked them from the German cartoon MAX AND MORITZ. 

"The strip relates in the frenzied style the war-to-the-death carried on by Hans and Fritz against any form of authority, whether parental, educational, or governmental."

I had this paperback when I was a kid and studied it. It was lost and so, last week, I bought a copy off of eBay. Such wonderful manic writing and terrific cartooning by Musial. Reading it now for the first time since I was nine years old, I was surprised at how many of the gags I remembered. 

Obviously, these are great fun (if not politically correct) to read out loud. 

That last panel, where Hans and Fritz kiss with a "smak!!" is funny and chilling and perverse at the same time.

Jean-Jacques Sempé: CHARLIE MENSUEL No. 104 September 1977

Before CHARLIE HEBDO ("Charlie Weekly"), it was called CHARLIE MENSUEL ("Charlie Monthly").

Here's the front and back covers, and an interior cartoon sequence by Jean-Jacques Sempé from issue number 104, September 1977.

Sempé is one of my favorite cartoonists. Born in 1932 in Bordeaux, France, he started drawing cartoons in the 1950s and could be found in many French magazines and newspapers. He drew a schoolboy character called Nicolas and the writer René Goscinny suggested a series of stories about him. The result was serialized, and then collected in a series of Le Petit Nicolas books, which are all still in print.

Sempé is still at work, and his cartoons make the cover of The New Yorker from time to time.

This cartoon is a portrait of men and women through the decades. It works like a cartoon and reads like a lovely short story. You may want to open these scans onto a new page so you can really enjoy all of the wonderful drawing.

The back cover:

Related:

Video: Jean-Jacques Sempé Draws

CARTOONS THE FRENCH WAY by Jean-Jacques Sempé

Video: Meet Top British Cartoonist Royston Robertson

Here's a short video of magazine cartoonist Royston Robertson, talking about how he started and we get a good glimpse of how he draws his cartoons.

From the Dick Buchanan Files: New Yorker Cartoonists 1935 - 1962

Dick Buchanan has a twist. Here are some of the great, classic New Yorker cartoonists with some gag cartoons that you never saw. Well, to be more to the point, these were NEVER seen in The New Yorker, despite these cartoonists' association with the magazine.

If all of these cartoonists were under contract to The New Yorker at this time (Some may have been, some not, but I'm guessing most were.), then one of the caveats in the contract is that the Magazine gets "first look" at their cartoons. So, these were looked at by The New Yorker, but then rejected. No Sale. So, the cartoonist was free to shop them around, trying to sell them to another publication.

So here are some virtually unseen cartoons by Addams, Hokinson, Shermund, Steig, Steinberg, Wilson and others from publications OTHER than The New Yorker. 

Take it away, Dick! (And, thanks!)

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NEW YORKER CARTOONISTS
(1935—1962)

Some of the Cartoon Clip File’s favorite cartoonists are those who worked for The New Yorker. It was in the pages of The New Yorker in the 1930’s when the modern cartoon was crafted and perfected. Here, clipped from a variety of mid-century magazine, are some gag cartoons by some of our favorite New Yorker cartoonists . . .


1. CHARLES ADDAMS. True Magazine March 1946.

2. WHITNEY DARROW, Jr. Collier’s October 11, 1941.

3. CHON DAY. This Week Magazine November 26, 1961.

4. RICHARD DECKER. Look Magazine December 31, 1962.

5. ELDON DEDINI. Baseball Yearbook 1953

6. SYDNEY HOFF. 1000 Jokes Magazine Spring, 1953.

7. HELEN HOKINSON. Collier’s March 15, 1941.

8. GEORGE PRICE. Life Magazine January, 1935.

9. GARDNER REA. Look Magazine May 15, 1956.

10. AL ROSS. For Laughing Out Loud October – December, 1957.

11. BARBARA SHERMUND. Collier’s September 2, 1939.

12. WILLIAM STEIG. Collier’s February 4, 1941.

13. SAUL STEINBERG. Collier’s June 20, 1942.

14. RICHARD TAYLOR. March 15, 1941.

 15. GAHAN WILSON. Collier’s August 19, 1955.