Mike Lynch Cartoons

Video: Gene Roddenberry on TO TELL THE TRUTH

2009-11-22T00:01:00.001-05:00

This is from 1977 or 1978.

Hat tip to Booksteve's Library!

The Mike Lynch Cartoons Store

2009-11-21T14:16:00.001-05:00

Workshop Video from Juana Medina

2009-11-21T11:14:00.002-05:00

From my pal Juana Medina, who is the final days of her final semester at the Rhode Island School of Design comes this video. From her description:

Cavan Huang, from Time Warner, came to RISD for a short workshop.
We pulled this literally in 12 hours... and here's the result!
©2009 by Campbell George, Jess Yan, Katie Koti and Juana Medina

It shows you what some creative people with half a day and a camera can do. Such fun!

BBC America: DOCTOR WHO "End of Time" US Premiere Dec 26

2009-11-20T18:45:00.004-05:00

Via the Doctor Who News Page:

The special preview clip of The End of Time [below], shown as part of the BBC Children In Need appeal is now available on the BBC YouTube channel.

BBC America have also posted their clip on their website and revealed that the full episode will be shown in the USA at 9pm EST on the 26th December 2009 a day after the expected UK showing and 1 week after the US showing of The Waters of Mars.

More for US viewers at the BBC America Doctor Who page.

Video: James Kochalka

2009-11-20T15:23:00.002-05:00

Here is James Kochalka and some of his cartoonist friends for your weekend viewing pleasure.

"Mischief in the Forest" on Kickstarter.com by Stephanie McMillan and Derrick Jensen

2009-11-20T10:09:00.003-05:00

Here is cartoonist Stephanie McMillan. She and writer Derrick Jensen are collaborating on a new children's book, MISCHIEF IN THE FOREST.

They ask that people give them money in exchange for copies of the book, sketches, being taken out to dinner by Stephanie and Derrick, etc.

This is a Kickstarter.com project. Kickstarter is a "funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers" and others to pitch their ideas to the public. They propose the project and the readers decide if they want they want to send money to support it.

Related: Jamie Tanner's business plan.

My Mail

2009-11-20T08:40:00.000-05:00

Above: When you see Al Jaffee's name in the corner -- that's GOOD mail!

I overheard a guy state loudly, "Yeah, if ya ask me they should just get rid of the mail! Who needs it? I hate mail!"

I didn't know the fellow's context and could just guess that this is because the regular mail is full of

bills you don't want,
junk mail,
catalogs you don't need,
credit card come ons.

And if that's the mail you receive, then, yeah, that sure is some kinda dopey, dull, time wasting mail.

But the correspondence I receive, it's great. A lot of it is from cartoonists and a lot of times it's full of cool cartoon drawings. My mail rules. My mail could beat up your mail.

Here's what I mean:

Above: Rina Piccolo slipped this in the mail to me. I love her sketches.

When I moved, my pal Mark Anderson hand-drew the above card & sent it, along with a bucket full of tools. He rules.

A mass-produced card from 6 years ago when Dan Piraro was running the annual National Cartoonists Society holiday party in NYC. Love that nasty elf!

Above: the one and only Joe Edwards, the man who drew Archie and Li'l Jinx for years, draws a colorful parade letting the Long Island NCS chapter know that there is now a new place for their get togethers.

From an update for the Reubens convention with the McCoy brothers drawing themselves. Like Dan's postcard, this bit of art is unseen outside of cartooning circles.

The inimitable Roy Doty. When I sent an 85th birthday card on behalf of the NCS Long Island chapter (the Berndt Toast Gang) to Roy, I received this thank you card in return (front above and interior below). Look at all the STUFF Roy draws!

NEW Dog Sled Race T-Shirt

2009-11-19T11:00:00.000-05:00

From cartoon to consumable in 24 hours.

I drew this cartoon yesterday. Detail above.

Click on the cartoon to supersize.

Just put this shirt out for sale at Zazzle this morning.

Christoph Niemann: Bio-Diversity

2009-11-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

I always enjoy Christoph Neimann's work and this week's NY Times' Abstract City piece "Bio-Diversity" is no exception.

Cartoonist Pat Byrnes' Musical

2009-11-19T08:49:00.002-05:00

If you're in Chicago on November 24th, consider taking in a show. New Yorker cartoonist Pat Byrnes has written a 50 minute musical titled "Fässi Goboggan and the Curly Headed Girl" which will have its first staged reading next Tuesday night at 7pm at the Theatre Building Chicago.

"'Fässi Goboggan and the Curly Headed Girl' — by Pat Byrnes (with help from Rebecca Byrnes (age 4) — Nine-year-old Sarah flies through what would have been an impossible day at school, thanks to the return of her old imaginary friend, Fässi Goboggan. Join them as they battle ketchup-spewing cloud sharks, cavort with snowbots, and learn how parents protect us even when they are far away."

Cartoonists' Exchange: HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH SIMPLE CARTOONS

2009-11-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

There's big money in cartooning and enormous markets, so says the Cartoonists' Exchange booklet titled HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH SIMPLE CARTOONS. Here are the principles that all successful comic strips are based on, editorial cartoon techniques, chalk talk information, caricature, proportions, realistic figure drawing, the "three steps in developing a cartoon sketch" and so much more. This is copyright 1949 The Cartoonists' Exchange, Pleasant Hill, OH.

Video: Greg Evans

2009-11-18T19:43:00.005-05:00

Real straight forward, how-I-do-what-I-do kinda advice here in this video of LUANN creator and Reuben Award winning cartoonist Greg Evans.

Although this may look like a casual speech, it's obvious that Greg is a polished presenter. In this 9 minute presentation, he talks about how he sold the strip, why he draws the way he draws, and the evolution of the way he draws LUANN.

Videos like this were catnip to me when I was a kid -- and they still are. I love seeing a professional draw, and Greg draws quite a lot as he talks, letting the audience of teachers in on some solid cartoon techniques.

Video: Will Elder Documentary

2009-11-18T14:32:00.004-05:00

Here's a 20 minute documentary with the same title as the 2003 Fantagraphics book: WILL ELDER: THE MAD PLAYBOY OF ART. There is a small site (one page) devoted to the film here. Lots of terrific 1983 footage of Kurtzman, Gaines, Jaffee and others. Not to be missed.

Rob Rogers: Mister Rogers and The Thing

2009-11-18T13:31:00.005-05:00

One of the many things that Pittsburgh produced was Mister Rogers, whose long-running children's program has been enjoyed for generations.

Pittsburgh recently unveiled a statue of Mister Rogers. Now, I think everyone can agree that a statue of Mister Rogers is a nice idea, but when the end result revealed to be, well ... lumpy ... it divides people.

Here's a photo by Steve Mellon for the Post-Gazette:

The Post-Gazette editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers has chimed into the debate about this work of art at his Sketch Blog:

When I saw photos of the statue by sculptor Robert Berks I was perplexed. The surface of the statue is rough and jagged to the point of looking dangerous. Jimmy Kimmel called it a "mud monster." In my opinion, this is not the gentle man from the Neighborhood we all knew and loved.
Sure, art is subjective ... but who are these folks defending the Mister Rogers statue? Can they somehow relate to the monument's crusty exterior? Then it dawned on me. There IS one character in the world who can really relate to this statue: Comic book superhero and member of the Fantastic Four, The Thing.

The rest is at Rob Rogers' Sketch Blog.

Harvey Kurtzman's Early Gag Cartoons

2009-11-18T11:42:00.004-05:00

Found this via a Web search for something else. Which is, of course, the most fun way to find something, isn't it?

Russ Maheras shows us some early gag cartoons by Harvey Kurtzman. All are from 1945 issues of Yank Magazine, when Harvey was twenty years old and in the infantry.

"A mere seven years later, Kurtzman would forever change the way the world viewed itself when he created the iconic satire magazine for E.C. Publications, Mad," notes Russ.

This was new to me, but may have hit the Web when it was first published on Open Salon in August.

Warren Kremer Originals

2009-11-18T08:50:00.003-05:00

Warren Kremer. Not a household name, but a comics artist that millions of kids have read. He drew a lot of the Harvey Comics characters for 35 years and created or co-created (along with Harvey Comics publisher Alfred Harvey and editor Sid Jacobson) Stumbo the Giant, Hot Stuff and others. During his 35 years with Harvey, he drew all of the covers. Warren's son Richard is the namesake for "Richie Rich."

When it comes to clean layout and a wonderful sense of story-telling, take a look at these original Warren Kremer comics pages at the Three Men in A Tub blog. I don't know for sure who did these inks, but it may have been Kremer himself. Shades of Jeff Smith's smooth inky style here, huh?

Hat tip to Comics Reporter!

William Steig: "Punch and Judy: Their Later Years"

2009-11-18T06:02:00.002-05:00

The Hairy Green Eyeball blog shares a series of drawings titled "Punch and Judy: Their Later Years" from CONTINUOUS PERFORMANCE by William Steig. Go look.

The Happy Working Song

2009-11-18T00:01:00.000-05:00

Well, I don't know about you, but our place could use a little bit of the ol' spit & polish. No one likes cleaning. If only housecleaning was like it was in the movies ....

"Happy Working Song" from Disney's "Enchanted" movie. Music by Alan Mencken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and performed by Amy Adams. Is there anything Amy Adams CAN'T do? Copyright Disney, natch.

Video: Paul Krassner on American Power, the Contras, and Ronald Reagan

2009-11-17T11:59:00.000-05:00

A couple of different clips (from the 1980s? Not sure.) are compiled in this 5 minute video of Paul Krassner interviews.

From the Film Archive description, a bio of Mr. Krassner:

Paul Krassner (born April 9, 1932) is an author, journalist, stand-up comedian, and the founder, editor and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine The Realist, first published in 1958.

The Realist, edited and published by Paul Krassner, was a pioneering magazine of "social-political-religious criticism and satire" in the American countercultural press of the mid-20th century. Although The Realist is often regarded as a major milestone in the underground press, it was a nationally-distributed newsstand publication as early as 1959. Publication was discontinued in 2001. The Realist was the first satirical magazine to publish conspiracy theories.

First published in the spring of 1958 in New York City in the offices of Mad, The Realist appeared on a fairly regular schedule during the 1960s and then on an irregular schedule after the early 1970s. It was revived as a much smaller newsletter during the mid-1980s when material from the magazine was collected in The Best of the Realist: The 60's Most Outrageously Irreverent Magazine (Running Press, 1985). The final issue of The Realist was #146 (Spring 2001).

The Realist provided a format for extreme satire in its articles, cartoons, and Krassner's editorials, but it also carried more traditionally serious material in articles and interviews.

The magazine was the first to provide a forum for conspiracy researcher Mae Brussell and also published political commentary from Norman Mailer, Ken Kesey, and Joseph Heller. Among the more controversial products issued by Krassner was a red, white, and blue automobile bumper sticker, decorated with stars, which proclaimed "Fuck Communism." In advertising this item, Krassner advised that if anyone displaying the sticker received criticism, the critic should be told, "Go back to Russia, you Commie lover."

His Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster, illustrated by Wally Wood, was a highlight of the magazine, so successful that Krassner printed it as a poster that was widely pirated. The poster was recently upgraded by Krassner into a new, digitally-colored version. Other cartoonists featured in The Realist included Dick Guindon and Mort Gerberg.

When the magazine ran into financial difficulties in the 1970s, it was the conspiracy theory element that attracted ex-Beatle John Lennon to donate.

Art and articles from the magazine were collected in Best of the Realist (Running Press, 1984).

Krassner's most successful prank was The Parts That Were Left Out of the Kennedy Book, a grotesque article following the censorship of William Manchester's book on the Kennedy assassination The Death of a President. At the climax of the grotesque-genre short-story, Lyndon B. Johnson is on the Air Force One penetrating the bullet-hole wound in JFK's corpse throat. Krassner acknowledged Marvin Garson, at the time the editor of Good Times in San Francisco, for coming up with that surreal image. According to Elliot Feldman, "Some members of the mainstream press and other Washington political wonks, including Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, actually believed this incident to be true." In a 1995 interview for the magazine Adbusters, Krassner commented: "People across the country believed - if only for a moment - that an act of presidential necrophilia had taken place. It worked because Jackie Kennedy had created so much curiosity by censoring the book she authorized - William Manchester's, "The Death Of A President" - because what I wrote was a metaphorical truth about LBJ's personality presented in a literary context, and because the imagery was so shocking, it broke through the notion that the war in Vietnam was being conducted by sane men."

In 1967, the Canadian campus newspaper The McGill Daily published an excerpt from Krassner's story. The Montreal police confiscated the issue and Rocke Robertson, principal of McGill University, charged student John Fekete, the supplement editor responsible for the publication, before the Senate Discipline Committee.

In 2003, Italian satirist Daniele Luttazzi produced the short story Stanotte e per sempre (Eng.: Tonight and forever), which transposed Krassner's elements in the Italian political context. In the climax scene, Giulio Andreotti penetrates the bullet wounds in Aldo Moro's corpse. Lewis Black included an excerpt, precisely the final part, from Krassner's story in his 2005 book Nothing's Sacred.

More Krassner clips here.

STAR TREK Paintings by Luke Butler

2009-11-17T10:11:00.005-05:00

Just the thing for November 17th (the date -- as if I have tell you -- that that new STAR TREK JJ Abrams movie is available to be consumed at home via DVD, BluRay or download): here are a selection of STAR TREK paintings by artist Luke Butler:

"For Butler the greatest form of strength is openness. For his model of vulnerability, Luke Butler looks to a most stout and reliable figure.

"He didn’t have to make one up- if you have watched enough TV, you know this to be true."

If you're in San Francisco, the series of paintings, titled "enterprise," are in the Silverman Gallery.

Thanks to John Martz at Drawn!

Related: And you all know that Roddenberry's pitch to NCS execs was that his show would be like a western; a "Wagon Train to the stars." Well, here is a touch of serendipity: also released today: the Wagon Train TV series's first season is out on DVD.

Aren't You Glad You're Not A Mormon by Winsor McCay

2009-11-17T09:41:00.003-05:00

Via Allan Holtz's Stripper's Guide, here is the "Obscurity of the Day," a 1912 strip from the New York American by Winsor McCay titled "Aren't You Glad You're Not A Mormon"

Big hat tip to Tom Spurgeon.

Joe Kubert Art Auction

2009-11-17T00:01:00.003-05:00

From the NY Times:

Joe Kubert, a comic book artist since 1938, has little interest in the accumulated work of his last seven decades; his focus is on new projects, he said recently. But comic book fans who feel differently about this celebrated illustrator will have a chance to peruse and even own some of that older work this week, when 18 covers and interior pages, published from the 1940s to 1990, are put up for sale.

Mr. Kubert, 83, has turned over a large trove of his original work to Heritage Auctions in Dallas, which will hold the first of several auctions, live and online, on Friday.

Sideshow here.

Video: Ray Alma

2009-11-16T19:07:00.002-05:00

My friend Ray Alma, a humorous illustrator whose work has appeared in Mad Magazine fame, talks to My Latino Voice about his cartooning career.

KING AROO by Jack Kent

2009-11-16T08:29:00.005-05:00

Above: the cover of the new KING AROO collection from IDW.

KING AROO by Jack Kent is a gentle, well drawn strip which ran for 15 years beginning in 1950. And, well, it's not so well remembered.

As Don Markstein says in his Toonpedia entry:

Some comics, like Nancy and The Family Circus, enjoy widespread support among the general public but don't do much for the intellectual crowd. Others, like Barnaby and Krazy Kat, are adored by the intelligentsia but bomb in popularity polls. Jack Kent's King Aroo is one of the latter.

King Aroo was the monarch of Myopia, a pocket kingdom that doesn't seem to appear on most maps. His prime minister, grand vizier, chief advisor, or whatever, was named Yupyop. The two were about equally out of touch with reality and common sense, but Aroo's child-like unconcern for the duties and dignities of a king contrasted with Yupyop's more business-like attitude. Other frequently-seen characters included the mailman, Mr. Pennipost (a kangaroo with an a near-infinite capacity for producing things out of his pouch); and Professor Yorgle, an expert on everything. The strip specialized in an inspired surreality, reminiscent of George Carlson's Pie-face Prince of Pretzelburg but really not quite like anything else in the world.

IDW has a KING AROO collection coming out in January, 2010.

To whet your appetite, Ger Apeldoorn has many scans and information here.

Above: A 1956 Sunday strip.

James B. Sikking on Getting Paid for STAR TREK III

2009-11-16T08:15:00.001-05:00

I've heard a lot of STAR TREK behind the scenes stories. One thing about the TREK movies is that they were shot on tight budgets. For instance, STAR TREK II reuses a Klingon control panel set from STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE as a transporter control. (From the McCoy/Kirk scene: "Where are we going?" "Where they went." "Suppose they went nowhere?" "Then this'll be your big chance to get away from it all.")

In STAR TREK VI there was a "Kirk rounds up the crew" beginning where Kirk finds each retired member of the crew, enlisting them in one last mission. It was written but scrapped as too expensive to shoot.

Here is a story I never heard before. It's a telephone conversation via YouTube with the seasoned actor James B. Sikking about his brief (It was shot in a day.) though memorable scene in STAR TREK III. As interviewer Roger Crow observes, not all actors get paid cash for their work.

The interview seems to end abruptly after about 2 minutes.