• Author / Uploaded
• Ben Carlsen

Citation preview

The NCS goes cruising! Jack DAVIS dreams Tom RICHMOND caricatures Mark FIORE animates

The

National

A PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY Vol. 1, No. 2

............................................................................................................................................................................................

The

FIRST CARTOONIST I Ever Met THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

i

Portfolio

ii

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1991 Editorial cartoon, Dayton Daily News, 1973 (Above) Self-caricature, 1970s

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Artwork ©2015 Mike Peters

Mike Peters

1

Harold Foster Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1957

2

Prince Valiant detail, Jan. 21, 1951 THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Prince Valiant ©2015 King Features Syndicate

3

4

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Roy Doty Five-time Reuben Advertising Illustration Division Award recipient NCS Gold Key Award, 2010

Artwork ©2015 Roy Doty

Advertising illustration, 1950s

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

5

Artwork ©2015 Bud Grace

....................................................

Comic Scripted When I can’t think of good ideas, I draw bad ideas. Bud Grace,

J. Campbell Cory,

J. Campbell Cory

editorial cartoonist, in his political cartooning instructional book The Cartoonist’s Art (1920).

6

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Al Hirschfeld, on newspaper reproduction, in a 1998 interview in The Comics Journal.

Jeff Smith,

on negotiating a 1990s deal with Nickelodean Movies for a full-length animated version of Bone, but only after a Nickelodean executive bounced the character off his young son.

Jerry Scott,

Artwork ©2015 Jeff Smith

It’s printed on toilet paper really, that is, blotting paper, and they haven’t improved the process. As a matter of fact, it’s retrogressed, I think.

I drew a lot of Snoopy — that’s how I got to meet girls. I didn’t stretch myself to draw Charlie Brown too much because I knew how hard it was.

in a profile in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

.................................................................................................................................

When I first started drawing this strip, I was a young, slimmish guy with a full head of hair. Now I’m a middle-aged guy with an expanding waistline and a receding hairline, so I think I’m actually turning into Earl.

Brian Crane, creator of Pickles, on whether he modeled his character Earl on himself.

Artwork ©2015 Brian Crane

The maker of comic pictures, or the creator of a humorous series, is no more entitled to be called a cartoonist than is a rough-andtumble, slapstick comedian to be hailed as a legitimate actor. His work is entertaining if not instructive but he is not a cartoonist any more than a bass drum is a violin.

............................................................................................

Hirschfeld ©2015 The Al Hirschfeld Foundation

creator of The Piranha Club, on writer’s block. .........................................................................................................................

Our entire fate was in the hands of an 8-yearold.

The ability to draw will no longer be a prerequisite. It will be helpful if you know Photoshop.

Mick Stevens, New Yorker cartoonist, on being asked how cartooning will change, in an interview from the Cartoon Bank website.

Snappy Answers to

Fifty years ago violence was the principal ingredient of the humorous cartoon. A sequence had to end with a kick in the pants, a sock on the head or a plunge from a forty-story building, all to accompanying sounds like Klunk, Zowie, Voom and Pow. Today the reader must follow a strip to a more subtle conclusion, or no conclusion at all. Which is the better

Stupid Questions, to

of the two eras? Don’t ask me. I’m originally a Pow man.

I gave one of my paperback books, called

a friend. I met him a

If the world still read the comic page

Rube Goldberg,

couple of months later

responding to the question “What is the difference between comic strips in the early days and strips today?” in the spring 1957 issue of The Cartoonist.

and he said — and this is one of my favorite comments — “Al, I can’t

… and they weren’t the size of 2¢ stamps … I would still do it. But their days as a topic of national conversation are over I fear. There are a great many more distractions of a more visceral nature to compete with.

your intelligence doing this kind of crap!”

Al Jaffee, in an interview in The Boston Globe Magazine.

Artwork ©2015 Rube Goldberg, Inc

figure it out, a man of

Berkeley Breathed, on whether he missed drawing a daily comic strip, in an online interview at PvPonline.com.

Artwork ©2015 Berkeley Breathed

I’d advise aspiring cartoonists to give up.

Unless they feel they have to cartoon. In that case, I’d advise them to draw incessantly. Get comfortable with the idea that a lot of people may not like your work but that some people might like; it a lot. Rejection is an integral part of success. Cartoon to please yourself. Don’t give up. Sit up straight. Eat your spinach.

William Haefeli, New Yorker cartoonist, in an interview at The Cartoon Bank.

xxx ©2015 xxxxxx

Walt Kelly, creator of Pogo, writing about his upbringing in the book Five Boyhoods, (Doubleday & Company, 1962).

......................................................................

........................................................

Not being a great man for writing, [my father] believed that the true means of communication is the picture. We are, he said at one point, bad at talking, bad at remembering language, and bad at spelling; but we are just great at remembering pictures.

Nuns made more great cartoonists than any other force of nature.

Mike Peters, responding to a question about his military Catholic high school upbringing, at PlanetCartoonist.com.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

7

Chairman Steve McGarry [email protected] THE NATIONAL CARTOON!ST Art Director Frank Pauer NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY BOARD Honorary Chairman Mort Walker President Bill Morrison First Vice President Jason Chatfield Second Vice President Hilary Price Third Vice President Darrin Bell Secretary John Kovaleski Treasurer John Hambrock Membership Chairman Sean Parkes [email protected] National Representative Ed Steckley [email protected] NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY COMMITTEES The Cartoon!st Frank Pauer Ethics Steve McGarry Education Rob Smith Jr. Greeting Card Contracts Carla Ventresca For general inquires about the NCS and the NCSF email: [email protected] The National Cartoon!st is published by the National Cartoonists Society, P.O. Box 592927, Orlando, FL 32859-2927. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the NCSF. Contents ©2015 National Cartoonists Society Foundation, except where other copyrights are designated. All artwork contained herein is ©2015 by the respective artist and/or syndicate, studio or other copyright holder.

The National Cartoonists Society website: www.reuben.org

8

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY FOUNDATION

The

National 15

Cartooning for Kids Launching a new NCS Foundation initiative

16

Preserving Comic Art Suggestions for cartoonists and collectors

19

NCS Reuben Awards Weekend Photos from this year’s event in Washington, D.C.

22

Drawing Caricatures with Tom Richmond

Relationships of features by the celebrated MAD Magazine cartoonist

26

Jack Davis on the Comics Page Dream of syndication left on the drawing board

30

The First Cartoonist I Ever Met Stories of mentors and inspiration

38

Cartooning in a Flash

Mark Fiore and the art of animating political cartoons .............................................

1 PORTFOLIO 6 COMIC SCRIPTED 9 FIRST PANEL 42 NCS ARCHIVES 46 FROM THE COLLECTION OF … 54 THE NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY 60 DO YOU CARTOON? Cover Artwork ©2015 Al Jaffee

A

s a former two-term President of the National Cartoonists Society and current President of its charitable arm, The National Cartoonists Society Foundation, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the second issue of our free magazine,

The National Cartoon!st. It’s our hope that you will enjoy the insider glimpses into our profession and all the rare, and in many cases previously unseen, pieces of art … and in the process, learn a little bit about the NCS and its rich history. The National Cartoon!st is just one of a number of initiatives that the NCSF currently has underway, such as our video archive project that will make hundreds of hours of interviews with cartooning greats … including the likes of Charles Schulz, Jeff MacNelly, Will Eisner

By ..........................

Steve McGarry

and Jack Kirby … freely available to the public. In April, we launched Cartooning for Kids, a nationwide program of ongoing visits to children’s hospitals, with an inaugural event at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. “Soup To Nutz” creator Rick Stromoski has a detailed report of the event on Page 15, so I’ll just say that being able to provide a welcome distraction and bring a little joy and fun into all those young lives for a few hours was a genuinely heartwarming and rewarding experience for those of us who participated. Charitable and education works have been the hallmark of the NCS since its inception in 1946, when a group of cartoonists first got together to entertain the troops. The NCS Foundation works in tandem with the NCS to continue this tradition of using the talent and resources at our disposal to help and comfort where needed and to promote awareness and appreciation of

................................................................................................................................................................................................

First Panel

Read it. Post it. Follow us.

THE NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY

@NATCARTOONSOC

@NATIONALCARTOONISTS

THE NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY

THE NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY WEBSITE: www.reuben.org

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

9

the artform we all love, whether that means offering financial help to cartoonists and their families in times of need ... to drawing for wounded troops, both at home and abroad ... to providing scholarships to students seeking to enter the profession … or any of the many other important programs the NCSF undertakes and underwrites. If you would like to help us continue and expand these endeavors … and have an absolute blast in the process! … please consider joining us this winter on the inaugural NCS Celebrity Cartoonist Caribbean Cruise to help raise funds for the NCSF. We’ll be cruising the Caribbean for a week with a stellar array of speakers and a schedule of splendid events that no fan of comics and cartooning will want to miss. You’ll have the chance to meet and mingle and wine and dine with some of the biggest names in cartooning, get autographs and sketches and enjoy a tremendous program of seminars, panels and parties. All proceeds go to the NCS Foundation so it’s all for an exceptionally great cause … and it comes with a free booze package! How can you possibly say no? You’ll find full details of the NCS Celebrity Cartoonist Caribbean Cruise beginning on the next page, there are updates on our website at www.reuben.org … and when you are ready to book the trip of a lifetime, go to www.ncscruise.com and sign up! Hope to see you on the high seas!

Best wishes,



Steve McGarry

Steve McGarry

.......................................................................................

A two-term former President of the National Cartoonists Society, Steve is the current Chairman of the National Cartoonists Society Foundation, the charitable arm of the NCS. He received the prestigious NCS Silver T-Square Award in 2012 for his “outstanding service to the profession.” Having designed record sleeves for a number of new wave luminaries in his native England, including Joy Division and John Cooper Clarke, Steve became one of Britain’s most successful newspaper and magazine illustrators in the 1980s, before creating the long-running comic strip Badlands (right) for Britain’s biggest-selling daily newspaper, The Sun, in 1989. Later that same year, after signing his first U.S. syndication contract, he relocated with his young family to California. His sports and entertainment features, including the syndicated strips Biographic, Kid Town and Trivquiz, appear in newspapers worldwide, from the New York Daily News to the South China Morning Post, and Steve’s magazine clients include SI For Kids, FHM and a host of European sports and teen magazines. Six times nominated for a Silver Reuben, he was the first artist in history to receive Illustrator of the Year Awards from both the National Cartoonists Society and the Australian Cartoonists Association. He has also recently ventured into the world of animation, most notably working with Illumination on “Despicable Me 2” and “The Minions,” and was a story artist on the new game “Minions Paradise” from EA Games. He lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., with his wife, Deborah, who is the colorist on the long-running daily cartoon strip Baby Blues. Their twin sons, Joe and Luke, are award-winning artists and also form the Los Angeles indie band Pop Noir. See more of Steve’s work at www.stevemcgarry.com and on the new soccer site www.thetogger.com.

Artwork ©2015 Steve McGarry

Follow @stevemcgarry on Twitter

10

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

THE NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY PRESENTS

THE CELEBRITY CARTOONISTS CARIBBEAN CRUISE 2016! Sponsored in part by

Art by Tom Richmond

A fundraiser in support of

JOIN THE NCS ABOARD THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS JAN 17-24, 2016

HOORAY! PRICING INCLUDES FREE BOOZE!

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

11

MEET THE CARTOONISTS!

The National Cartoonists Society, the world’s largest and most prestigious organization of professional cartoonists, is going on a Caribbean Cruise … and you’re invited! This is your chance to meet and mingle with some of cartooning’s most illustrious names, hear them talk about their careers, watch them at work and play and have them draw for YOU! Sponsored in part by

JIM BORGMAN

Pulitzer Prize and Reuben winner, co-creator of “Zits,” appearing in 1,700 papers

BILL MORRISON

Award-winner renowned for his work on “The Simpsons” and “Futurama”

LYNN JOHNSTON

JEFF KEANE

Reuben-winning creator of “For Better Or For Worse,” appearing in 2,000 papers

Artist and writer on “The Family Circus,” appearing in 1,400 papers

STEPHAN PASTIS

MICHAEL RAMIREZ

“Pearls Before Swine” creator and best-selling children’s book author

Two-time Pulitzer winner, editorial cartoonist with Investor’s Business Daily

RICK KIRKMAN

Reuben-winning co-creator of “Baby Blues,” which appears in 1,200 papers

MIKE PETERS

Reuben and Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist, creator of “Mother Goose and Grimm”

MIKE LUCKOVICH

AJC and Newsweek editorial cartoonist, winner of two Pulitzers and a Reuben

TOM RICHMOND

Reuben-winning illustrator and caricaturist acclaimed for Mad Magazine movie parodies

STEVE McGARRY

“Biographic” & “Kid Town” comic strips creator and Minions story artist

JERRY SCOTT Reuben-winning co-creator of “Zits” and “Baby Blues”

RICK STROMOSKI

Illustrator and Greeting Cards artist, creator of the comic strip “Soup to Nutz”

JOIN US THIS WINTER ABOARD THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS! With additions inspired by Oasis-class ships, Freedom of the Seas® is destined to ignite your imagination. See Shrek parade across the deck as part of the just-added DreamWorks Experience. Then end your evening with a selection of reds or whites at the now-more-intimate Vintages wine bar.

AND IT’S ALL IN A VERY GOOD CAUSE! The cruise is a fundraiser for the NCS Foundation, the charitable arm of the National Cartoonists Society. From offering financial help to cartoonists and their families in times of need ... to visiting Children’s Hospitals to draw for the patients ... to drawing for wounded troops, both at home and abroad ... to providing scholarships to students seeking to enter the profession ... to working to preserve important works and share sha them with the public ... to supporting cartoon events and educational institutions dedicated to the artform ... the NCS Foundation, a registered 501(c)3 charity, works in tandem with the National Cartoonists Society to continue the charitable and education works that have been the hallmark of the NCS since its inception in 1946. Your support of the NCS Cruise will help us to continue and expand these worthy endeavors. 12

For more information about the NCS and the NCSF visit: www.reuben.org THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Experience the innovative and complimentary features Freedom of the Seas has always been known for — FlowRider® surf simulator, rock climbing wall, Freedom Fairways mini golf course, H2O ZoneSM water park and more. Enjoy the fabulous dining options, the casino, the sensational shows, the bars and the nightclubs ... there’s even karaoke! If you feel the sporty, there’s everything from a jogging track to a basketball court, from a fitness center to an ice skating rink!

10 100+ 1360 Pools and whirlpools!

Luxurious spa treatments!

Crew members to serve you!

WHAT A STELLAR LINE-UP! Boasting a collective trophy haul of 7 Reubens, 6 Pulitzers, 26 NCS Division awards, 4 Sigma Delta Chi awards, one ACA Stanley and an Eisner ... and a Star on the St. Louis Walk Of Fame!

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17: Depart Port Canaveral, Florida 4.30pm 7.00 - 8.00pm: MEET THE CARTOONISTS cocktail party! MONDAY, JANUARY 18: At sea 8.30 - 10.00am:  “ZITS” & “BABY BLUES” with the writer and two artists behind two of the most popular newspaper comic strips in the world, JERRY SCOTT & RICK KIRKMAN & JIM BORGMAN JER 2.00 - 3.15pm: “THE SIMPSONS” and “FUTURAMA” with artist, writer, art director and current NCS President BILL MORRISON 3.30 - 5.00pm: EDITORIAL CARTOONING with Pulitzer Prize winners MIKE PETERS, MIKE LUCKOVICH and MICHAEL RAMIREZ TUESDAY, JANUARY 19: Labadee, Haiti 8.00am-4.00pm 2.30 - 3.45pm: RICK STROMOSKI Humorous illustrator, Greeting Cards artist and creator of the syndicated daily comic strip “SOUP TO NUTZ” 3.45 - 5.00pm: STEVE McGARRY talks about his features “BIOGRAPHIC” & “KIDTOWN” and a career that spans record sleeve design, award-winning sports illustration and now working with THE MINIONS! 10.00pm - Midnight: QUICK ON THE DRAW SHOW - The hilarious must-see improv cartoon extravaganza! WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20: Falmouth, Jamaica. 10.00am-7.00pm 5.30 - 7.00pm: CARTOONING AS A CAREER seminar with insight from our top professionals! 10.15pm - Midnight: Signing, sketch and caricature session with all the cartoonists! THURSDAY, JANUARY 21: George Town, Grand Cayman 8.00am-4.00pm THURSD 3.45 - 5.00pm: “FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE” with LYNN JOHNSTON, one of the most successful female cartoonists in comics history talks about her illustrious career! FRIDAY, JANUARY 22: Cozumel, Mexico 10.00am-7.00pm 5.45pm - 7.00pm: STEPHAN PASTIS talks about his hit strip “PEARLS BEFORE SWINE” and becoming a best-selling children’s book author! 10.15pm - Midnight: Signing, sketch and caricature session with all the cartoonists! SATURDAY, JANUARY 23: At sea 8.30 - 9.20am: TOM RICHMOND talks about his career and working for “MAD” MAGAZINE! 9.30am - Noon: TOM RICHMOND’S CARICATURE CLASS! Learn to draw like the genius behind all those TV and Movie parodies ... a first-ever masterclass by the Mad Mag maestro! 2.00 - 3.15pm: “THE FAMILY CIRCUS” with JEFF KEANE! The real-life “Little Jeffy” talks about taking the reins on his dad’s beloved newspaper panel. 3.30 - 4.30pm: “MOTHER GOOSE & GRIMM” with MIKE PETERS! simply, one of the funniest men on the planet! Quite simpl 4.30 - 5.30pm: FINAL SIGNING SESSION 7.00 -8.00 pm: Farewell cocktail party SUNDAY, JANUARY 24: Arrive Port Canaveral, 6.00am

Schedule timings subject to change

All illustrations © respective owners and used by permission ©2015 NCSF All rights reserved

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

13

BOOK ONLINE AT

ncscruise.com JAN 17-24, 2016

Sailing from Port Canaveral, Orlando ... Calling at the private beach resort of Labadee, Haiti ... Falmouth, Jamaica... George Town, Grand Cayman ... and Cozumel, Mexico!

CABIN PRICING:

Prices include all gratuities, taxes, port fees, drinks package and all NCS seminars, events, receptions, dinners and NCS “Goodie Bag.” Does not include airfares, etc.

L

Inside Stateroom 150-172 sq ft

Two lower beds convertible to one queensized bed, flat panel TV, private bath with shower, safe

Double $1,426 pp Single $2,179 pp

G

Ocean View Stateroom 174 sq ft

Ocean-view windows, two lower beds convertible to one queen-sized bed, flat panel TV, private bath with shower, safe

Double $1,494 pp Single $2,265 pp

D3 IF YOU ARE ARRIVING SATURDAY, BOOK THE PRE-CRUISE HOTEL PACKAGE (includes hotel, evening reception, breakfast, motor coach transport from hotel, portage, fees and taxes, etc.) FULL DETAILS ON THE BOOKING SITE

JS GS

 DINNER WITH A CARTOONIST!

 BEVERAGE PACKAGE INCLUDED!

Beverage package includes house wine by the glass, beer, fountain soda, and well/call/premium cocktails and frozen drinks.

In order to join NCS events, all cruises MUST be booked via our travel partner:

Junior Suite with balcony 287 sq ft + 78 sq ft private balcony

Two lower beds convertible to one queen-sized bed, private bath with shower, large sitting area, private balcony, flat panel TV, floor-to-ceiling windows, safe

Double $2,242 pp Single $3,657 pp

 SEMINARS, PANELS & SHOWS WITH THE CARTOONISTS!

 MEET AND MINGLE WITH THE CARTOONISTS AT TWO PRIVATE COCKTAIL RECEPTIONS!

Two lower beds convertible to one queen-sized bed, private bath with shower, large sitting area, private balcony, flat panel TV, floor-to-ceiling windows, safe

Double $1,778 pp Single $2,781 pp

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

 SPECIAL AUTOGRAPH AND SKETCHING EVENTS WHERE THE CARTOONISTS WILL SIGN & DRAW JUST FOR YOU!

Superior Ocean View with balcony 182 sq ft + 53 sq ft private balcony

Grand Suite with balcony 371 sq ft + 114 sq ft private balcony

Two lower beds convertible to one queen-sized bed, private bath with shower, large sitting area, private balcony, flat panel TV, floor-to-ceiling windows, safe

Double $3,009 pp Single $4,963 pp

OS

Owner’s Suite with balcony 596 sq ft + 204 sq ft private balcony

Queen-sized bed, bathroom with tub & shower, large living area with sofa bed, large private balcony, flat panel TV, floor-to-ceiling windows, safe

Double $3,749 pp Single $6,442 pp * PP=per person. Double=double occupancy Single=single occupancy cabin * A deposit of $500 per person is due with the completed cruise application. Balance due: 10/16/15

* Rates for third and fourth passengers in cabin with 2 full fare guests vary, please call us at 770.952.1959. * If you are a a single looking to share a cabin, please indicate on the cruise application and we will do our best to accommodate your request 14

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

...................

Members of the National Cartoonists Society visited St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis on April 28 to launch our Cartooning for Kids program. The program involves professional cartoonists visiting young patients at hospitals and healing centers all over America. The Cartooning for Kids program was underwritten by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation and included donations of materials from Universal Uclick, Dick Blick art supplies, Strathmore paper company, Lynn Johnston and the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. Seventeen professional cartoonists, representing expertise in television and feature animation, syndicated newspaper comics, comic books, children's books and children's publishing, drew pictures for more than 200 patients. The children ranged in age from 3 years old to 15. Many of the children were inpatient residents of the hospital but some were visiting from places as far away as Costa Rica, Canada and France. Initially scheduled for 3 hours, the event ran for an extra hour due to the enthusiastic response from the patients and staff of St. Jude. Caroline Kuebler, Senior Director of St. Jude, said it was their most successful event of the past 10 years. The event was covered by the local Memphis television, radio and newspaper media. The children

...................

Cartooning for Kids kicks off at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

went away happy carrying their “Cartooning for Kids” goodie bags stuffed with art supplies, T-shirts and cartoonists’ books donated by the NCSF. Participating artists included Tom Richmond, Lincoln Peirce, Stephan Pastis, Jeff Keane, Tom Richmond, Bill Morrison, Steve McGarry, Greg Cravens, members of the Southeast NCS chapter and myself. I’d like to thank Steve McGarry and the NCS Foundation, Lynn Johnston, John Glynn, Chris Craver, Maria Scrivan, Dick Blick Art Supplies, Universal Uclick, Andrews McMeel Publishing, The Strathmore Paper Company and all of the featured cartoonists who made this event so successful. We look forward to continuing this program nationwide through the various NCS local Chapters. If you have a suggestion or question about a children’s hospital in your area please contact me at [email protected].

Rick Stromoski

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

15

©2015 Frank PAuer

Preserving cartoon art

Suggestions for cartoonists and collectors 16

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

In response to inquires about the care and collecting of original cartoon art, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum put together a primer for both the novice and experienced cartoonist or collector. This should answer many of the basic questions, though the Museum is happy to answer inquiries that may not be

information. Dating work when it is drawn can save hours of checking later. Use pencil (not ink because it may show through) and note the date the cartoon was drawn on the back. Finished work should never be rolled for mailing in a tube. This can damage the edges and loosen adhesive films and pastedon corrections. Instead original cartoon art should be placed in a protective envelope before being wrapped for mailing. Cartoons should always be supported with cardboard that is heavy enough not to bend during shipment. When mailing a number of drawings, several smaller packages are preferable to one large box because of the possibility for damage to heavy oversized boxes. CARTOONS PRODUCED ON THE COMPUTER What constitutes an “original” when cartoons are created on a computer is an interesting question. A printout signed and dated by the cartoonist is as close to an “original” as is possible. Some cartoonists create their cartoons using ink and paper, but scan them in order to add color using a computer. In this instance, a signed and dated color printout might be an alternative or supplemental original to the ink and paper version.

..........................................................................................................................................................

DRAWING CARTOONS The most important thing a cartoonist can do to provide physical longevity for his or her work is to use the highest quality materials appropriate for the job. All-rag illustration board may not be necessary for every drawing, but it will remain in good condition much longer than ordinary photocopy paper. The same can be said for inks: India ink is more durable than the ink from felt-tip pens. If a soft medium such as conte crayon or pastels is used, it should be fixed carefully. If corrections need to be made, do not use cellophane or “magic” tapes because they will eventually discolor and leave a glue residue. Avoid rubber cement, too, because it inevitably turns brown with age. White water-soluble glue is preferable and is available either as a glue stick or as a liquid. Sticky notes should never be used on original art because they also leave a glue residue. Some cartoonists are selfconscious about their drawings and erase all of their preliminary sketches from the inked drawing. From a historical perspective, such roughs give documentation of the creative process. Marginal notes indicating reduction percentages or errors to be corrected should also not be erased. Cartoons are working art and these notes provide interesting

..........................................................................................................................................................

covered here. Email [email protected].

Because of rapid technical changes, instability of computer files, and potential incompatibility problems with future generations of computers, cartoonists should print out at least one copy of each cartoon they create and/ or color using a computer. Having a permanent archive on paper may seem primitive, but it is the best way to insure that a record of one’s work survives. Using highquality paper for the printouts and storing them in a cool, dry place is recommended. COLLECTING CARTOONS Provenance is the term archivists and historians use to describe the origins of a document. The provenance of cartoons in your collection is important. Did you trade for them? If so, what did you trade and when? Did you purchase them? If so, from whom, where, and at what price? Keeping a record of such information will help you (or your estate) in the future when the disposition of the collection must be decided. These records can also serve as an inventory of your collection and may act as the basis for any insurance you may wish to carry. Many collectors want to place ownership marks on the cartoons they have acquired. Ink stamps on the back of a cartoon should be avoided because they

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

17

18

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................

...................................................

can bleed through the paper film can be purchased and cusand damage the work. The best tom-sized sleeves made. Cartoons ownership marks are unobtrusive. using conte crayon, charcoal or They should be placed in the other soft media should not be same relative location on each placed in plastic sleeves because item in the collection. If identifistatic electricity from the plastic cation is the goal, initials or nummay lift the drawing medium bers lightly penciled in the lower from the paper. left corner of the back of each cartoon might serve as an ownerSTORAGE CONDITIONS ship mark since any attempt at Original cartoons should be erasure would leave a trace. If stored in a cool, dry place. They security is the reason you want to should be housed in acid-free mark the pieces of boxes or in your collection, a painted drawers. Displaying original conservator should Unpainted wood be consulted. emits gasses that cartoons involves a Several specially will discolor tradeoff for their owner: formulated inks are paper. “Regular” For the enjoyment of used by some rare cardboard boxes living with the art, she or book libraries to are very acidic indicate ownership and they, too, he exposes the work to and are available will damage potential damage from for purchase by paper. Original light, heat, and water. private collectors. cartoons should These risks should be be protected MATS AND FRAMES from dust, light, weighed carefully before If you decide to and possible deciding which work to mat and/or frame insect damage. frame for home or office. your cartoons, use Basement storonly acid-free mat age should be board. Other mat avoided because boards can “burn” or discolor many are damp and prone to original art due to their high acid flooding. content. An acid-free under-mat should be used with colored mats DISPLAYING ORIGINAL CARTOONS that do not come in an acid-free Hanging framed cartoons on a version. Pressure-sensitive tapes– wall is a wonderful way to enjoy such as masking tape, cellophane them every day, but improper tape, and duct tape–should never framing and display can ruin a be used when matting a cartoon. prized original. The key for longLinen hinges may be purchased term pleasure is to mat and frame and many books describe the the work carefully and then to various techniques for hinging hang it where it will not be damoriginal artworks to mat board. aged. An alternative to matting is The back of each frame should to place original cartoons drawn be sealed to protect the cartoon with ink in clear plastic sleeves from dust, air pollution, and inmade of inert polyester film (such sects. Bumpers should be placed as Mylar). Many photographers on the four corners of the frame use this type of sleeve which is to allow air to circulate behind it. widely available in smaller sizes Often the bumpers supplied by at photography shops. Larger size framers are too thin to allow for sleeves may be ordered from speadequate air circulation. A bottle cialty dealers, or rolls of polyester cork can be cut into 3/8-to-1/2-

inch thick pieces and used instead of the commercially available frame bumpers. Environmental conditions can damage original art even if it has been properly framed. Sunlight (both direct and indirect) and fluorescent lights are especially high in ultraviolet rays that are harmful to paper, certain inks and watercolors. Art should be displayed in rooms with incandescent lights and/or weak daylight. Ultraviolet filtering Plexiglass can be used in frames, but direct exposure to sunlight and fluorescent lights should still be avoided. Framed cartoon art should never be hung near heat sources or in areas of high humidity. Mold and mildew growth is likely to occur when the relative humidity is 70% or more. An air conditioner or dehumidifier can help to protect original cartoons against the bloom of mold and mildew (which also fosters “foxing” in older papers). Displaying original cartoons involves a tradeoff for their owner: For the enjoyment of living with the art, she or he exposes the work to potential damage from light, heat, and water. These risks should be weighed carefully before deciding which work to frame for home or office. APPRAISALS AND DONATIONS Current tax law does not permit the creator of an artwork to receive a charitable deduction when an art work is donated to a nonprofit institution. The appraised or market value of gifts-in-kind of work by other artists may be deducted. An appraisal is not necessary for gifts-in-kind valued at less than $5,000 by the donor. Additional information on appraisals and who constitutes a qualified appraiser is included in the Internal Revenue Service form 8283 which must be filed by persons claiming the deduction of a gift-in-kind valued at more than $500.

Jeff and Melinda Keane

The venerable Mort Walker — Cartoonist of the Year for 1953 — presents this year’s Reuben Award to Roz Chast.

Newly installed NCS president Bill Morrison with his wife Kayre and Medal of Honor recipient Mort Drucker

Betty and Luann’s Greg Evans with their daughter Karen

Tom Gammill and Mo Willems

Hilary Price and Matt Diffee

Mike Luckovich, Mike Peters and Jan Eliot

Guest speaker Nick Galifianakis, who spoke on “Authenticity: Cultivating Our Most Artistic Selves.”

Washington, D.C., plays host for a capital Reuben Awards Weekend .....................................

Over the Memorial Day weekend, the National Cartoonists Society held its annual Reuben Awards Weekend in Washington, D.C. More than 150 of the world’s top cartoonists gathered at the historic Omni Shoreham Hotel for the festivities, which included speakers, fine dining and a spectacular awards show. The weekend’s slate of great speakers included Mark Anderson, Juana Medina, Doug Mahnke, Nick Galifianakis, Brian Crane, Mort Drucker (with John

Reiner, Nick Meglin and Sam Viviano) and a panel on free speech and cartooning that included Ann Telnaes, Joel Pett and Garry Trudeau. Friday morning began with a public event at the Library of Congress. King Features Syndicate is celebrating a milestone 100th birthday this year, and was the focus of a pair of events. Other than sponsoring Friday’s Reuben Weekend Welcome Party, we traveled to the Library for a presentation highlighting the syndicate’s

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

19

Ed Steckley winner for Advertising/Product Illustration

On-Line Comics – Short Form winner Danielle Corsetto

Newspaper Illustration Award winner Anton Emdin

Tom Richmond with his award for Magazine Feature/Magazine Illustration

Editorial Cartoon Award recipient Michael Ramirez

Hilary Price, winner in the Newspaper Panel Cartoon division

Reuben Awards Master of Ceremonies Jason Chatfield with Tom Stemmle

Bobbi and Red and Rovers’ Brian Basset

King Features comics editor Brendan Burford

Joel Pett and Garry Trudeau were part of the Saturday afternoon panel on free speech and cartooning. Caroline and Cartoonist of the Year for 1983 Arnold Roth

Don Peoples Pete Gallagher and John Read

20

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Famous Morts times three: Drucker, Gerberg and Walker

The weekend kicked off Friday at the Library of Congress with a program celebrating the centennial anniversary of King Features Syndicate. The presentation included, from left, Hilary Price, moderator Brendan Burford, Patrick McDonnell, Brian Walker, Jeff Keane, Ray Billingsley and Mike Peters. Steve Kelley with Gary Brookins

The presentation by Mort Drucker featured moderator John Reiner with fellow MAD-men Nick Meglin and Sam Viviano.

Lynn Johnston, Bunny Hoest and Jeannie Schulz

Chip Bok Teresa Roberts Logan and Carolyn Belefski

TIm Oliphant

Jeff Knurek with Rich Powell

........................................................................

centennial. Joining moderator and King comics editor Brendan Burford on the panel were Hilary Price, Patrick McDonnell, Brian Walker, Jeff Keane, Ray Billingsley and Mike Peters. After Saturday morning’s full breakfast buffet and the members’ general business meeting, the afternoon saw four more informative panels. On Saturday evening, the Reuben Awards Banquet was hosted by master of ceremonies Jason Chatfield. Aside from the numerous division awards handed out throughout the black-tie-attired night, the event was highlighted by the Silver T-Square Award to Jeff Keane (The Family Circus) for “outstanding dedication to the NCS,” and the newly minted NCS Medal of Honor to Mort Drucker, bestowed in recognition of a lifetime of excellence and the highest of achievements in a career of cartooning. The awards banquet closed with the Reuben Award for

Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year going to The New Yorkers’ Roz Chast. Sunday saw the premiere screening of a documentary produced by Caroline Roth featuring Al Jaffee, Arnold Roth, Mort Walker and others on the beginnings of the Society, which was followed by a panel discussion. The weekend closed with a “Haunted Farewell Party” — a nod to the Shoreham being one of the most haunted hotels in the eastern U.S. Who will be nominated and win next year at the Reubens? If you’re a professional cartoonist and want to find out in person, join us next Memorial Day when the 70th Annual Reuben Awards Weekend will be held in Memphis, Tenn. For more information about the NCS see Page 54, or visit www.reuben.org.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

21

Caricature is not about choosing one feature and making it bigger, it’s about all the features together and how they relate to one another.

Dr wing Caric tures ............................ ..

A good caricature is not about choosing one feature among many in a given face and exaggerating it out of propor............................ .. tion. It is the relationships between features that are the driving force behind caricature: ............................ .. “Caricature is not about choosing one feature and making it bigger, it’s about all the features together and how they relate to one another.” Actually caricature is about changing the relationships between features, meaning their distance, size and angle relative to one another, from what they truly are and what is considered “normal.” Deciding what relationships to change and how much to change them is one of the caricaturist’s most important jobs, and one of the most difficult to learn. The actual difference between the relationship of features of most humans does not add up to much in terms of physical measurements… a “big” nose may be only a fraction of an inch larger than a “normal” nose. Yet we can see different feature relationships on almost everybody, some which seem very pronounced. That is because we spend basically our entire lives looking into people’s faces… we go it when we interact, work, play, go shopping or to church. We are social beings and our faces are both our identities and our method of communication. Our ability to observe minute differences becomes very fine tuned. Mostly it’s unconscious, but we see that fraction of an inch larger nose as “big,” or we see this person’s eyes as large or this person’s mouth as small based not on physical measurements but on our overall perception of the features and how they relate to one another. Consciously making those observations, especially for those faces in which the unique aspects are not obvious, is the most difficult part of drawing caricatures. There are some techniques and methods you can use to help make those observations.

Relationship of Features

By

Tom Richmond

22

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

ACTION AND REACTION

It’s important to start somewhere, and the best place is with what is considered “normal” relationships of features for two reasons. First, knowing these classic proportions will help you as a caricaturist to observe where your subject’s face might differ by providing a point of reference to compare it to. Second, once you’ve made these observations you can use that same point of reference, the classic portrait proportions, as a guide to get as far away from as possible to create your caricature. Let’s start out looking at the classic human proportions in traditional portraiture (this is boring, but it’s important). One method that has been used for centuries is by using the width of an eye, from corner to corner, as the primary frame of reference, AT LEFT. In this method, the head is five eye widths wide, with a single eye width between the eyes, and between the outside eye corners and the outside of the head. The nose is one eye width wide, and therefore the nostrils are equal to the corners of the eyes. Another simple method for establishing the “normal” relationship between eyes and mouth is via the equilateral triangle that should be formed by the points of the outside corners of the eyes, and the center point of the bottom of the lower lip. Every book on learning to draw the human face has some similar method of standardizing the proportions of the average face. Do human faces really conform to these exact relationships? No, of course not. That’s the point. There are differences from this face to that, some very slight and some more pronounced, and the caricaturist exaggerates these differences to create a caricature. Knowing what is supposed to be there is half the battle of seeing where things are different. Again, making these observations is the trickiest part of doing caricature, but the good news is you don’t have to come up with a shopping list of deformities in order to do a caricature. In fact, all you have to do is come up with one good observation. Just one, and you can use that as your cornerstone and build your caricature around it. It could be as simple as: this person has a skinny face… or big eyes… or a small mouth… or a square jaw… or a bent nose… or whatever. More than one is better, but just one will suffice.

Why is only one observation enough? Because “no feature is an island.” What I mean is that all the features relate to one another fundamentally, and you cannot make a change to one feature without it affecting the others. This is one of the few constants you can rely on with respect to drawing caricatures: Action and Reaction. In physics every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. In caricature the action of changing the relationship of a single feature to the others causes the others to react in often predictable ways. You cannot change the eyes without affecting the nose, mouth, head shape, etc. and how it affects those other features follows (for the most part) a predictable path. Say we make an observation about our subject that the eyes seem far apart. If we move the just the eyes farther apart and leave the rest of the face untouched, we have a bizarre looking result, AT RIGHT. We can’t ignore the effect on the other features. There is an awkwardness to the “caricature” The act of moving the eyes father apart forces the other features to react. Typically when the eyes move father apart, the nose moves closer to the eyes, the mouth moves along with the nose, the head becomes wider and, in turn shorter, AT LEFT. Additional observations can change the path of the reaction. Say our observations are that the eyes are far apart, but the mouth is also far from the nose. Because of that action, the lower part of the face must be longer, The features work and better together here therefore the top part of the head becomes smaller, AT RIGHT. Head shape is often the most affected, and is not coincidentally a big focus. In fact part three of this series will deal entirely with head shapes. For now we will stick with the Hmmm… looks like my interior features and their brother… relationships.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

All arwork ©2015 Tom Richmond

CLASSIC PORTRAIT PROPORTIONS AND OBSERVATION

23

THE “T” SHAPE In my previous article I talked a lot about simplifying the face by boiling it down into the five shapes, but it can get even simpler than that in terms of both making observations and in playing with the relationships of features to make a caricature. In fact I believe there are two absolutely crucial, key components to any caricature: The head shape and the “T” shape AT LEFT. These are the two elements of a face I look at first and try to make observations about, because with them I can push, stretch and exaggerate the face to great effect with relative ease. When I talk about the “T” Shape I am speaking of the geometric shape created by the eyes and nose as a single unit. In simplest terms they create a capital “T”. Sometimes the “T” can be short and wide, sometimes it can be long and thin, or somewhere in between BELOW.

I treat the “T” not as a set of simple lines but as a contour shape with thickness. Therefore the stem (or nose) of the “T” can be thicker or thinner at one end or the other, and the arms (or eyes) of the “T” can also change in thickness to accommodate big round eyes or narrow, squinty ones. Imagine a contour capital “T” drawn around the eyes and nose in varying relationships. That “T” shape isn’t strictly a “T” with everyone. It can sometimes become an “arrow” shape or a “Y” shape, depending on the angle of the eyes to the center

24

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

line of theface… a useful benchmark for “seeing” that relationship and possibly exaggerating it BELOW.

The shape of the “T” reacts to changes you make to the relationship of the eyes and nose. In most cases the eyes and nose work in a predictable tandem within their relationship. Imagine that the eyes and nose are connected by a string that travels through a two wheel pulleys located in the center of the eyes BELOW. The length of the string is constant. If the person’s eyes are moved farther apart, the string pulls the nose closer into the eyes. If the nose is made longer, then the eyes are drawn closer together. All of this takes place within the “T” shape. The mouth, nose and chin have a similar connection. They have a constant amount of distance between each other. If the mouth is perceived as being close to the nose, the chin moves a little farther away as a reaction. There are similar rules that apply to the head shape, which we’ll get into next time. This is extreme simplification, but as I have said before the simpler you can make the shapes you are working with, the easier it is to exaggerate them and create your caricature. If you imagine a shape as simple as a “T,” it’s very easy to exaggerate that “T” shape and then plug in the features as they really look within your simple shape — and you have your caricature. Take a look at these caricatures and the “T” shapes within their head shapes OPPOSITE, TOP. The “T” Shape and head shape combine to create the base of your caricature, over them the 5 shapes further define the relationships of the features, and over the

5 shapes the features themselves are drawn and things like bone structure, anatomy, expression, skin, hair and other details work to create the likeness and bring the underlying structure to life. It’s still all built on these simple foundations. I would suggest as an exercise to forget about rendering and drawing details caricatures for a moment and fill up a few sketchbook pages with nothing but the head shape and “T” shape of the faces you see when paging through a magazine. Draw one quickly using just your initial observations and first impressions of the face. Then look back at it and try to see where it differs from the “normal” template of classic proportion, then try it again, this time exaggerating your first try. Do this with a dozen faces a day, and see how your ability to “see” the caricature in a given face develops.

n n n You can learn a lot more about drawing caricatures from Tom’s best-selling instruction book The Mad Art of Caricature! – A Serious Guide to Drawing Funny Faces, available directly from the author at www.tomrichmond.com, or wherever art instruction books are sold.

A humorous illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist, Tom began his career as a caricaturist at a theme park in 1985 at age 18 while studying art in St. Paul, Minn. He now works as a freelancer for a great variety of clients including Scholastic, Sports Illustrated for Kids, GQ, National Geographic World, Time Digital, Penthouse, Marvel Comics, The Cartoon Network, WB Animation, and many, many more. He designed the character “Achmed Jr.” for superstar comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, for whom he also does product illustration.

His art and character designs have been featured on the animated MAD TV show as well as in several feature films and commercials. He is best known as one of the “Usual Gang of Idiots” at MAD Magazine, where his caricatures and illustrations have been featured in film and TV parodies and feature articles regularly since 2000. His work has been honored with several awards, including twice being named “Caricaturist of the Year” by the International Society of Caricature Artists, and with NCS

NC

©2015 E.C. Publications, Inc.

Tom Richmond .............................................................................................................................................................

Silver Reubens for Advertising Illustration in 2003, 2006 and 2007 as well as for Newspaper Illustration in 2011. In 2012, he received what is arguably cartooning’s highest honor: the Reuben Award for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” from the National Cartoonists

Society. Tom is the current president of the NCS, serving in his second term. He works from a studio in his home near Minneapolis, Minn. Follow Tom on Twitter @art4mad

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

25

26

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Jack Davis, the celebrated cartoonist and illustrator — and Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year and Milton Caniff Award for Lifetime Achievement recipient — has had a career that’s been represented in virtually every medium. He’s been an unbelievable success at everything he’s ever attempted. Save one: His childhood dream was to create a syndicated comic strip. Over the years Davis drew up almost a dozen or so submissions, only one of which came close to any real success. In this brief conversation, Davis talks about his earliest work, how much he loved lettering dailies, and his one comic strip attempt that was sold to a syndicate — and one that hardly anyone ever saw.

Dream of syndication left on the drawing board

All artwork ©2015 Jack Davis

Q: Out of the thousands of pieces of commercial work, hundreds of comic book pages, more than 80 books and almost 50 movie posters, there was one endeavor that always eluded you. A: I always wanted to be syndicated. When I was in the Navy I drew a daily comic panel called Boondocker [right] on Guam. I was a master at arms and a brig warden and did the strip on the side. Wasn’t anything else to do. When I got out of the Navy I went back to Georgia and even then I was thinking about syndication. Boondocker looks a lot like Sad Sack. I loved George Baker’s stuff. The paper there had only syndicated stuff — Mauldin’s Willie and Joe and Hank Ketcham’s stuff. I thought that something local might be of interest.

floor and devour every inch of it. The front page had Maggie and Jiggs, which was beautifully drafted. On the next page would be Alex Raymond’s Jungle Jim and the next page would be Prince Valiant. Full pages! I studied every stroke. I wrote Harold Foster a fan letter and he sent me an original, one of Valiant’s first pages — the second Sunday, I think — autographed to me and everything. You’ve had that for a while. I have. And you know, I’ve just had it in a drawer — never had it framed. I just pull it out once in a while and look at it. I imagine you drew a lot in school. Oh yeah. I drew posters and drew for the school paper. I did some work for the Journal and Constitution in Atlanta one summer — did some spot cartoons and covered a trial once.

Thay Doc’, that’s ma’ tongue ya’ got!!! Were you influenced more by strips, comic books or — When I was kid I would put the Sunday paper on the You did have some formal art training at the University of

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

27

Georgia. I did, but it was all fine art. They didn’t teach any commercial art. I had a great professor who would let me take courses over again. He knew that I wanted to become a cartoonist and figured that I wasn’t going to graduate with a BFA and become a teacher. He let me just keep taking life drawing classes. And then you hooked up with Ed Dodd on Mark Trail. I guess he’d seen my work somewhere. He needed an inker, so I would get on a streetcar to go to the other side of Atlanta and ink for him. He’d do the main figures and I did backgrounds. Then I would do the lettering, and I’m the world’s worst letterer. I learned a lot of things from him. He was paying me $100 a week and I thought “Oh man, this is great.” That was the only thing I could do — I was not a good student. He finally said, “Jack, you ought to take your last year on the GI Bill and go to the Art Student’s League in New York,” where he had gone. So I worked up some strips of a football player that had just gotten out of college. I carried that up to New York and nobody liked it. It was really bad. It was not good. (Laughter) But I made the rounds. This was always something that you thought you could do. I thought I could, but I couldn’t. (Laughter) You only went to school at night? I looked for work during the day. I’d bought a suit, and some wingtip shoes — I still have an in-grown toenail from it. (Laughter) It hurt. I went to King, I went to Hall. I did do something later with Ed Dodd. He was trying to start another strip about a frontiersman. I did a couple of months or more and it never did go and I never got a cent out of it. I didn’t even get my originals back. I never did think very much of Ed after that. You ended up inking The Saint. I’d heard they needed someone to ink The Saint at the Herald-Tribune. I

28

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

rushed down there with my portfolio and they gave me some strips. I got the job, and worked with Mike Roy for a year. It was good training. Again, I was making a little more than a $100 a week. I was thinking about getting married and things were rolling right along and then the Herald-Tribune folded, and I was out on the street again. You were already primarily a brush artist. In art school I did a figure drawing where the line would go from thick to thin — like an arm or leg — and with a pen I couldn’t get that flexibility. The brush seemed to hold the ink longer, and even when I’d crosshatch it came out pretty good. I did a lot of crosshatch stuff for Random House with a crowquill pen, and it nearly killed me. It just didn’t pay off — you’d spend hours doing that.

papers, for one, did not like it — you know, poking fun at it. And that killed that. So I thought, forget it — I’d made a stab at it. Again, it was all on spec. I did a lot of spec work trying to get syndicated. Then when I did get work in advertising that was very lucrative. I hit it at a good time — I did the Mad, Mad World poster and I was knocked out when it turned out to be about a $3,000 job. Were you ever asked to do another strip? No, never. In a way I feel that maybe I couldn’t have done it. It’s so regimented — you’ve got to have ideas, you’ve got to turn it out, you’ve got to make it funny. I had done a lot of my own writing. And it was bad. (Laughter) I could count on one hand who I think is really good today. I love Schulz’s work, though I’ve never met him. I don’t write fan letters but I wrote him because I love Peppermint Patty — she reminds me of myself in school.

After The Saint you worked for E.C. Comics, The title character from Davis’s but after that — best shot at syndication — Beauregard! After I left MAD I kept trying to do a strip again. It just never did work out. Doing such a strip for some five deOne was called Matt Dullard, a takeoff cades is something that you never could on Matt Dillon. A guy who had writhave done. ten for Al Capp approached me. He No. No way. But it just fits him so had this idea but it was exactly like well — it must just pour out of him. Li’l Abner, except Abner was blond It might have poured out of me but at and had a hat on. And it was just not the time I’d just sit there and couldn’t funny. (Laughter) think of anything funny. And when you’re forced to think of something And then you finally did sell Beaufunny it just isn’t. But I’ve no regrets. regard!, a strip about the exploits of a I’m happy and very pleased to be Confederate soldier in the Civil War. where I’m at. I just sit in a little room That was exciting. That was with by myself like all of you, doing my McClure. They picked it up, printed thing and that’s what comes off. You it up, and sent it out. But because the look back and you know, what the war was still a serious thing Southern heck … N C

Above, Beauregard!, the comic strip that Davis sold to the McClure Syndicate. Below, among the half-dozen or so attempts at syndication, samples from the Davis drawing board included Matt Dullard, an unnamed Western strip, and Clem Mayflower.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

29

The First Cartoonist I Ever Met 30

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

L.D. Warren was the first cartoonist I ever met. I was just finishing my second year at a school for commercial art in Cincinnati. In those years there wasn’t much room for a daily newspaper in a student’s meager portfolio, but here or there I would somehow see his daily editorial cartoon in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Never mind the politics, I was simply struck by the artwork — each one a beautifully designed drawing of a clarity that demanded attention and then made its point to boot. There never seemed to be a line out of place, a spotted black that didn’t belong. And those blacks — delicious, dense pools of ink that made you wonder if his drawings ever did dry. I wondered how long he must have pored over the intricacies of design — or when to stop laying in those pools of black for the satin-like “wash” of a litho crayon instead. He probably didn’t pore Above, a 1964 editorial cartoon by the Cincinnati Enquirer’s L.D. Warren

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

too long. There was always another cartoon the next day. Seeing L.D.’s work and knowing that he was in the same town made me realize that this was something I, too, might be able to do. I wrote him a letter to beg a visit. I’ve no idea anymore just what we talked about that day. I’m sure I must have been just another kid asking the same tired questions. He gave me an original cartoon and then something just as important — a box of his litho crayons. The secret to achieving that distinctive tone was in my hands — as inspiring as any advice. And I used them once, and then quietly put them away in the back of the taboret. I was not going to be another L.D. Warren, and whether he knew that or not, the inspiration was there nonetheless. It was just going to take a little more work. I wondered about the stories from other artists about meeting that first cartoonist — and whether the inspiration they received then would have a lasting influence. Only one or two had a hard time placing a face with the event; for others it was as if it had happened just the day before. On the following pages are stories of that initial brush with a cartoonist and the passion that it inspired. For some it was a life-changing encounter. For others it was an affirmation of something they already knew they could do — they knew where they were going, and only needed someone to allow them the way in. — Frank Pauer

billHOLBROOK While I was growing up in Huntsville, Ala., my dream was always to do a comic strip. However, after going to Auburn and getting a job at the Atlanta Constitution, I got sidetracked into other areas of illustration. That’s when I met Charles Schulz. In April, 1982, I took a trip to visit relatives in Santa Rosa, Calif. As it turned out, my cousin was a friend of one of Schulz’s sons, and I was invited to meet Mr. Schulz at his ice rink. It lasted 20 minutes. I had a few of my illustrated charts from the Constitution that I’d brought to show my relatives, and he was kind enough to critique them. I told him about the comic strips I’d done in college, and this is what he told me: “Sit down and draw fifty strips. Of those, maybe five will be funny. Build on those and throw out the rest. Do fifty more. Now perhaps ten will be usable. Repeat this process again and again.” I did. Despite the odds, I developed a comic strip called Winston Lewsome and later that year it was rejected by all the syndicates. I listened to the criticisms, and applied the lessons to a new project that became On the Fastrack. In March of 1984 it debuted in 150 papers worldwide.

Bill Holbrook is the creator of On the Fastrack, Safe Havens and Kevin and Kell.

F

R

O

M

T

H

E

C

O

V

E

R

alJAFFEE The first working cartoonist I met some seven and a half decades ago was Rube Goldberg. I was a senior at the High School of Music and Art in New York City at the time. I was heavily into wood engraving. I had done an ex libris for the school library and one of my teachers commissioned me to do one for her family library. She was so pleased with the result that she asked her husband if he knew anyone who might help advance my ambitions in the art world. It so happened that he and Rube were members of the same club and he persuaded Rube to meet me. After carefully viewing my entire school portfolio, Mr. Goldberg gave me an honest critique. In as kindly a manner as he could, he said I needed more training. He said he could not take an assistant but that would be

a good way to go. Otherwise more specialized schooling would help. Naturally it was a letdown. At that age, after years of schooling, we are all eager to enter the world of art. But I did heed his advice. I took art courses that summer at the “Y” and enrolled in Cooper Union in the fall. I also managed some free lance comic book work until the Air Force called. The reason I often remember my experience with Rube those 70-odd years ago is that now I often find myself in the same boat. It is not easy telling young hopefuls that they don’t have what it takes — just yet. I only hope that I’m as honest, helpful and considerate with them as Rube was with me. Al Jaffee has conceived and drawn a “MAD Fold-In” for virtually every issue of MAD Magazine since April, 1964.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

31

COULSON The first real cartoonist I ever met was Pete Hansen, who did the comic strip Lolly. His son and I were best friends in junior high school and in a fledgling rock band together (Fluid Pressure, ca. 196869). I used to envy Brian, who got paid for doing the color guides for his dad’s Sunday strips. Pete seemed to be as interested — or more — in golfing than he was in the strip, but boy, was he a good cartoonist! I learned about Strathmore, zip-a-tone and the Gillott 170 pen from him. I also tried submitting ideas for Lolly, but to no avail. But this early inspiration really helped set me on my path. Now when I see original

Lolly, ca. 1960, by Pete Hansen

Lolly strips on e-Bay, I still marvel about how great they are. I think Hansen should get more recognition than he has, and was surprised that Lolly wasn’t included in Brian Walker’s The Comics Since 1945. David Coulson is a freelance cartoonist in Pittsburgh, Pa.

32

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

david

Off the Mark courtesy of Mark Parisi

stephaniePIRO In my quest to become a published cartoonist (syndication was just a dream then) and to circumnavigate the middle men (or editors) and get my work seen by the public, I taught myself silk-screening. I began screening some of my cartoons onto T-shirts and taking them to craft shows and street fairs around New England. I had these large, life-sized plywood figures of some of my characters and I used to stretch the shirts over them. It was at one of these shows, in Cambridge, Mass., that I actually first met another cartoonist. We were selling away, and this young man approached and introduced himself. He told me that he, too, was a cartoonist, and he was interested in my marketing techniques. I can’t remember if he’d been published at that point. We did the Cambridge show again in the spring and, lo and behold, who

had a booth set up and was also selling T-shirts but the same guy I’d met in October! I had a chance to see his work,

and I still remember the first cartoon of his I saw: a nail that had been nailed in, and another nail saying something about how he’d heard a loud bang and then he was gone. Mark Parisi has gone on to the fame and fortune we know him by today and yet, despite his

grahamNOLAN The first cartoonist I ever met was C.C. Beck, who (along with Bill Parker) created Captain Marvel. I met C.C. at the 1977 OrlandoCon. I have since heard tales that he was a bit of a curmudgeon, but he was the nicest gentleman to a 15-year-old kid. I had been waiting for him to show up and eventually spotted him in the hallway. I nervously approached him and asked him to sign a copy of Captain Marvel Adventures No. 52 that I had bought in the dealer room earlier. He opened up the issue and commented on its age and what nice shape it was in. He also pointed out the stories that Pete Costanza illustrated along with the ones he did. He was a great guy and along with the treasured memory, I still have the signed comic!

Graham Nolan is the creator of Joe Frankenstein and Sunshine State.

success, he is still the same down to earth guy (and has not even gotten a big head by winning a Reuben Division award). Not only was it great fun to meet another cartoonist back in the early 1990s, but now we also get to hang out once in a while at the parties, judgings and even the New England Chapter lunches. With the internet, I’ve met and corresponded with a lot of wonderful cartoonists. But Mark will always hold a special place in my heart — because he was the first!

Stephanie Piro is one of King Features’ team of cartoonists of the comic strip Six Chix.

sandraBELL-LUNDY The first cartoonist I ever met was Bunny Hoest. In 1994 I went to New York to meet with the sales team at King Features prior to the launch of my strip. After the meeting everyone went to lunch and one of the people there was Bunny. Our meeting was very brief — actually, it was only an introduction. In truth, the whole scenario was a bit of a whirlwind. I do remember thinking though how charming and friendly she was. About seven or eight years later, I attended my first Reuben weekend. It happened that I was seated next to Bunny at the banquet. She told me that she remembered meeting me at that lunch. I was surprised because I really didn’t expect her to. It just reaffirmed what I had instinctively felt back then — that she really is a down-to-earth, warm and friendly person. It’s probably not really considered a “meeting,” but the first cartoonist I ever had the opportunity to actually talk with was Lynn Johnston. This was probably about 1991 or 1992 and before King had contacted me about the possibility of syndication. I was self-syndicating Between Friends to a number of southern Ontario dailies and was also working full-time at the Fort Erie Duty Free Shoppe.

I had sent a package of my cartoons to Lynn hoping she might find the time to critique them. I wanted to improve my work but there was no one for me to ask “how.” It was useless to ask friends or coworkers because I would inevitably get the same response — that they looked “great.” I knew they didn’t. My schedule at the Duty Free consisted of 12-hour shifts and alternated between days and nights. After working a Saturday night shift, I had come home and fallen into bed exhausted. It was about 9:30 in the morning and I had been asleep for the better part of an hour when my husband came in the room and shook me awake. He kept saying to get up because Lynn Johnston was “something-something.” I thought he was trying to tell me that Lynn was on television and figured I would want to see it. So I stumbled out of bed and finally realised that he was

trying to tell me that Lynn was waiting for me on the phone. It was obvious from my voice that I had been sleeping, and she told me to go and have a coffee

and call her back when I felt more awake. I told her I was fine because I didn’t want to explain that I wasn’t about to “wake up” — I was about to go back to bed for the day. And I certainly wasn’t about to hang up when I had Lynn Johnston on the phone. She talked with me about my

work for a good 40 minutes. She was very direct in her comments and I recall she mentioned that I might think she was being harsh but if she didn’t critique me honestly, it wouldn’t be very helpful. I couldn’t have agreed with her more. I think Lynn’s phone call was a major factor in moving the quality of my work up a notch. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind (as dozy as I was) to hit the record button on my answering machine so I could listen to the conversation later when I was more coherent. I was very appreciative of the advice Lynn gave me then, but after facing my own incessant syndication deadlines for ten years now, I have a very clear understanding of just how generous she really was to give that much of her time to a struggling cartoonist.

Cover art for It All Comes Out in the Wash by Lynn Johnston

Sandra Bell-Lundy is the creator of Between Friends.

...........................................................................................................................................................................................

tomRICHMOND The first professional cartoonist I ever met was a gentleman named George Karn, who worked with one of the illustration studios in Minneapolis. I was a young illustration major on a field trip and we stopped into George’s studio for a few moments on our tour. George primarily did advertising cartooning, and he was best known for his work with General Mills, where he designed the cereal characters Trix Rabbit, Lucky the Leprechaun and Count Chocula, among others. George was a bear-like man with a bristling beard and greeted us very warmly. His studio was chaos itself, with cartoons and papers all over, and enormous jars full of drawing utensils on every surface. His samples showed he worked in many different styles, and he told us about the world of cartooning in advertising. I remember my big question was, “What do you use to ink with?” thinking I would learn of some secret tool that would be the gateway to professional looking cartooning. He picked up and showed me a Flair felt-tipped pen and replied, “I’m using this today. Ask me again tomorrow and I’ll have a different answer!”

Tom Richmond is a freelance illustrator, frequent contributor to MAD Magazine, and immediate past president of the National Cartoonists Society.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

33

Herb Williams cartoon courtesy of Malcolm Whyte

johnROSE I was a junior in college when I met Mike Peters. I had been drawing editorial cartoons, news illustrations and comic strips for The Breeze, the school newspaper at James Madison University. I knew I wanted to be a cartoonist, but I really wasn’t sure how to go about it. Each year we had a Fine Arts Week, and that year Mike was the featured speaker. One of my art history professors was on the committee that brought him in and, to my surprise, she invited me to dinner with Mike and the committee members. I was pretty nervous. I had never met a real cartoonist before. But Mike was so nice and so very excited about cartooning that he was really easy to talk to. I especially enjoyed getting to know him over dinner and, after we ate, I ran back to my dorm to get some of my samples to show him. His slide show and chalk talk was really hilarious! He spoke about his editorial cartoons and Mother Goose and Grimm, which he was just about to launch. After his talk, he looked over my samples and gave me some pointers. All of which I’m sure I still use to this day. I had always dreamed of being a cartoonist, but after meeting Mike and seeing how pumped up he was about cartooning, I began to really believe I could do it. During my remaining years of college, I mailed him samples of my work, and he would offer suggestions. His cartoons are among my very favorites to this day. I’ll always be thankful to Mike for spending time with me on an evening which I consider a real turning point in my career.

John Rose is the writer and artist on Snuffy Smith.

Mike Peters editorial cartoon from 1983

34

“Did you tell the milkman to stop delivery for two weeks?”

malcolmWHYTE The first professional cartoonist I met was Herb Williams, in 1961. He worked in the same building in which I started my greeting card business. Herb was a slight, dapper, gentle soul with a pencil moustache and a strong bent for spiritus fermenti. His freelance work for magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers and The New Yorker was very fluid with a slight sardonic edge to the gag. He gave me my first examples of original cartoon art. My second cartoonist encounter was with Morrie Turner in 1969. Morrie came into my shop — I was now a book publisher — with a parcel of his strips under his arm and an idea of doing a coloring book of famous Black Americans using his syndicated Wee Pals characters to dramatize a brief history of each personality. This was just after Martin Luther King’s assasination; Morrie’s timing was perfect, his concept ideal, and his enthusiasm undeniable. Together we produced the Black & White Coloring Book (Troubador Press, 1969) that featured stories and portraits of 15 African-American pioneers from Benjamin Banneker (surveyor of Washington, D.C.) to Mathew Henson (North Pole co-discoverer with Admiral R. E. Peary). Working with Morrie was not only a delight, but it also produced a significant document that, in turn, became the foundation of Morrie’s weekly, biographical “Soul Corner” in his Sunday Wee Pals. It also produced a treasured friendship that lasted some 45 years.

Malcolm Whyte is the founder of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Art from a 1946 autobiographical comic book, Al Capp By Li’l Abner

tom k.RYAN

ronFERDINAND

I had a rather interesting first. It was, I believe, in 1965 or 1966. Tumbleweeds had been launched a few months earlier, when Al Capp came to the local Ball State College in Muncie, Ind. It was in the heyday of the student “revolt” era, and Al was making his famous college tour, in which he did a great one-man rebuttle of everything the students in the auditorium threw at him. He was brilliant — they couldn’t stump him. After the show my wife and I got to go backstage and meet him. He was pleasant, but, understandably the icon that he was, was not impressed by us. Days later at his next Midwest college appearance they nailed Al for coming onto a coed in her room. It gave them the chance they needed to eliminate this fly in the zeitgeist ointment. It was the beginning of his decline. I’m glad I got to see and meet him at the zenith of his popularity — a great humorist and cartoonist.

The first cartoonist I ever met was Art Gates. He was a free-lance guy and was my friend’s dad. This was back in the 1970s. He worked out of a small bedroom in their apartment in Jackson Heights, N.Y., and turned out hundreds of cartoons a week for banks, department stores, newspapers and more. The guy was incredible. He had a wife and two sons and I always used to think, “Wow, this is the best job ever! Lord, please let me do this for a living!” And now here I am, years later — working out of a small bedroom with a wife and two sons. Coincidence? Fate? You be the judge.

Ron Ferdinand is the artist for the Sunday Dennis the Menace.

Art Gates cartoon courtesy of Ron Ferdinand

“I’ll bet you don’t forget anti-freeze next year!”

Tom K. Ryan is the creator of Tumbleweeds.

........................................................................................................................................................................................... I don’t dwell on the subject, but from time to time I’ve wondered: Would I be doing what I do today had it not been for my mentor, Sam Cobean? Sam Cobean was one of the brightest stars in The New Yorker in the 1940s and 1950s. His influence on other panel cartoonists of that period was profound, and to this day his work is regarded by many as some of the best ever. Maybe I’d be drawing humorous illustrations for books and advertising, and even gag cartoons. I’d still be sketching while watching TV, drawing on placemats and doodling while on the phone. But meeting Sam shortly after my discharge from the

jimWHITING

“En garde!”

Navy in 1946 opened a door that allowed a peek into the wonderful world of cartooning. While not telling me what direction I should choose, he did make me aware of some of the

options available. He took the time to look at my first efforts and patiently answered questions. He put tracing paper over my drawings, and with his pencil made suggestions

that improved the composition and the gag. Although kind and considerate, he got the message through: “Go to school, Jim.” I did, and he continued to encourage me. I’m glad he lived to see my work appear in The New York Times Book Review. It was not until after his death at 33 in an automobile accident that my cartoons began to sell to major magazines with any degree of regularity. It was an honor as well as my good fortune to have had one of the masters as my mentor.

Jim Whiting did gag cartoons and was syndicated by General Features Corporation and L.A.Times Syndicate.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

35

Chuck Ayers editorial cartoon from 1974

markSZORADY

Detail from a 1981 Born Loser by Art Sansom

The very first cartoonist I met was Jack Gullo. My folks bought a summer home when I was 15 years old and he lived on the other side of the lake. Jack was an old-school commercial artist who worked for General Electric and had the job of cartooning Mr. Magoo for displays and advertising. His little studio overlooked the lake. I’d sit and spend hours just poring through the material he had drawn. It had a great effect on me. So much so, that when I started at Ohio State University, I knew what I wanted to do. Luckily, I got a slot in the school newspaper drawing my comic strip George. Shortly after starting, Milton Caniff came to town for the dedication of the Milton Caniff Room (now the Cartoon Research Library). Lucy Caswell graciously invited me to attend a luncheon with him, and I had the opportunity to speak with him. Milton Caniff! I was absolutely floored when he said, “Here’s my phone number; call me anytime.” And I did — repeatedly. He was such a nice man, a great help and very, very giving of his time. After graduation I attended the first Festival of Cartoon Art, where I met Fred Lasswell, Mike Peters and countless other cartoonists. I also met Art and Chip Sansom of The Born Loser fame. And Art, like Caniff, said, “Call me anytime. Come over to the house.” He lived on the west side of Cleveland, so every Saturday found me at his home showing him my latest creation. He showed me which pens and pencils to use, the kind of paper to use, the right kind of ink, and more. Each of these cartoonists came into my life at a point to further my cartooning aspirations. And as I type this, I’m sitting in my studio overlooking the same lake Jack Gullo overlooked, drawing a funny comic strip using similar tools Art Sansom used and telling aspiring cartoonists to call me anytime just like Milt Caniff did for me. It’s been very good!

Mark Szorady is the creator of George.

36

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

pollyKEENER By the time I met another cartoonist, I guess I already was one, too. After drawing and selling cartoons and humorous illustrations (to the despair of my fine arts professors) and teaching a cartooning course at the University of Akron, a letter came from an editor at Prentice Hall asking me to do a textbook for cartooning based upon my course. Although cartoon material, books and clippings about cartooning were rampant in our house, I knew less about the working life of a political cartoonist and wanted to add that to the book’s chapter on political cartooning. So feeling bold, I called the Akron Beacon Journal and asked cartoonist Chuck Ayers if he would consent to be interviewed. It turned out that he had also once taught a cartooning course and had funny stories about that. In fact, Chuck had funny stories about almost everything. He then put me in touch with Tom Batiuk, creator of John Darling, Funky Winkerbean and, later, Crankshaft. I interviewed Tom for the comic strip chapter of my

book and he, in turn, suggested other cartoonists to interview. I was astounded to find there were so many real cartoonists hiding out here in the heartland. Eventually, the interview with Chuck led to three dozen other interviews. Since then, Chuck has collaborated with Tom on Crankshaft and now pencils Funky Winkerbean, too. Chuck and I were once guests on a cable TV show, and periodically we encounter each other at book signings. We used to have daughters at the same school and ran into each other at school auctions where his original art was always a hit. The interview with Chuck, being the first one for my lengthy book project, gave me the confidence to call other cartoonists. He showed me that cartoonists are delightfully approachable, are excellent communicators and are altogether the sort of folks I like! Polly Keener, author of Cartooning (Prentice-Hall), is the creator of Hamster Alley, Mystery Mosaic and Sudoku Happi.

craigBOLDMAN To the best of my recollection, that distinction goes to the amazing and wacky Craig Yoe. The year was 1973, give or take a few. My brother Loyd (with one “l”) had arranged to interview Craig for some magazine. I was familiar with Craig’s retro, Fleischerish/Disneyish, quasi-underground style, and so I wanted to meet him, too. We made the road trip from Fairfield, Ohio to Akron in a car that wasn’t really up to the task. I remember looking at Craig’s art and being amazed at how clean and meticulous it was — and that he drew on heavy illustration board, like Crescent board. I’m not sure why that impressed me, unless it suggested a real commitment to and confidence in the

drawing — you couldn’t just wad up a piece of heavy board and toss it away. At that point in time, few of the drawings I was doing were keepers. Anyway, the rest of the meeting is largely a blur, but the meeting paid off in dividends. Craig and I have stayed in touch over the years and we’ve worked on projects together. I spoke to him recently, and he reminded me that at that first meeting he attempted to do me a favor and warn me away from becoming a cartoonist. As first contacts go, Craig was a pretty good choice. Not only was/is he a swell cartoonist in his own right, but he’s also a fan whose knowledge of cartoonists and cartooning runs deep. Craig has turned me on to several great artists from the early days whose work I would have otherwise missed.

Craig Boldman has been writing for Archie Comics since 1992.

duckEDWING I just got out of the Navy and decided to go to art school to further my pursuit of that fleeting butterfly of my dreams: to become a cartoonist. I knew that research was a self-taught requirement of this business. I also knew the advice of my elders — “Don’t quit your day job” — was sound, but discouraging to live by. I signed up at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, and had to travel acres of miles every night to attend, by taking buses from Jersey, then subways, then a crosstown bus. One night I stumbled across a ne w magazine called Help!, which was put together by one of my childhood heroes, Harvey Kurtzman. The magazine had a section where aspiring cartoonists could submit their wares and be paid a whopping $5 for their troubles. I submitted about 20 cartoons, then the next day an-

other 20, then repeated this bombardment for months at a time. It worked. I got paid and published again and again. Then one day I got a call from an editor that Harvey Kurtzman wanted me to come to their office and meet with him. My mouth turned powder dry; just the very idea that Harve y Kur tzman wanted to meet me had me twitching and anticipating the ways I could blow this, and be condemned to my grueling day job for eternity. I took the journey, and along the one-hour commute from Jersey my mind was spinning. My imagination ran amok and that damn inner voice was telling me about my failure as a human being, suggesting I should turn around and crawl into a hole. But before I knew it I was standing outside a door that had big red letters

on the door saying “Help! Magazine.” I entered and there he was! I’m pleased to say he

was a very cordial, relaxed individual — and believe it or not, so was I. Harvey told me I was a shot in the arm to the cartooning world. He added, “You’re the best idea man in the business.” Well, I can tell you that Mama Edwing’s little boy had just been shot to the moon with those words.

Inside I was flying, and at the same time I was mentally recording every innuendo, movement and word so I could repeat this to the nonbelievers of the “Keep your day job” movement! Then came the words that changed my life forever. Harvey said, “I’m going to send you to MAD Magazine. I think you’ve got what they’re looking for.” MAD received me with open arms. All of this took place in September, 1961 — and I’m still with MAD. When Harvey passed away a few years ago I could feel the hole in my soul. And still do. An off-the-wall magazine cartoonist since 1961, Duck Edwing was adopted by MAD Magazine that same year and became part of the family that no one likes to talk about while eating, or wherever good manners preside.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

37

All artwork ©2015 Mark Fiore

38

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

M

Mark Fiore, who the Wall Street Journal has called “the undisputed guru of the form,” creates animated political cartoons in San Francisco, where his work has been featured on the San Francisco Chronicle’s web site, SFGate.com, for over ten years. Beginning his professional life by drawing traditional political cartoons for newspapers, in the late 1990s he began to experiment with animating political cartoons and, after a short stint as a newspaper staff cartoonist, Fiore devoted all his energies to animation. Mark Fiore was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 2010, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in 2004 and two awards for his work in new media from the National Cartoonists Society, among other awards.

Cartooning in a Flash

Frank Pauer: For those of us among the johnny-come-technologically-lately, what is it that you’re doing on the Web? Mark Fiore: In a nutshell, it’s animated political cartoons. I produce one a week, sometimes more. It’s an evolution to doing animated work; it was just the next step after doing print work for so long. My early political cartoons that were on the Web were essentially just extensions — or reworked versions — of a print cartoon. I might have a multi-panel cartoon that appeared in print, scanned it in, and essentially chopped it up on the computer and doled out the panels over the course of the animation. I assume this was in addition to doing your regular print

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

39

work. Was the animation just for fun? Initially it was just for fun and experimenting, but I was also thinking that this was sort of on the cutting edge. When I first got into it, it was in the heady dot-com days. So in the back of my mind I thought well, if newspapers don’t work out there’s this Web stuff. Initially it started out as from a business perspective, as far as having something that was more profitable. But then I started to like it on the creative side a lot better and really got into all the things that you could do, whether it was the music or the voices or the motion. When I really went full board into doing animated political cartoons it was when the dotcom stuff hit the fan, and the bubble burst. Which was fine — it still worked out better for me than newspapers. So for whom do you do these now? The longest client that I’ve had with the animated work has been The San Francisco Chronicle, through SFGate.com, which is their web site. I’ve done work with AOL, Mother Jones. And also CBS, so I’m starting to get into more mainstream, less “leftist,” notorious places. Now are these sponsors, or are these clients? They’re clients. The way that I make my money is by selling them these animations to put on their site. I’m selling them the licensing rights, the reproduction rights. I do it the same way that I was selling print political cartoons to newspapers. I essentially do the same business model, and I think that’s what kept me afloat through the dotcom days, because I never got into Internet-type deals, as far as revenue share or that type of stuff. I’ve always said, “You want this? Pay that.” On my site I’ve been building traffic, but only recently have I tried to make the site work for itself and become profitable. And really all I’ve done with that is to just sell mostly prints and DVDs. You primarily use Flash animation. The main program that I use is Flash. That program is what really got me started into doing this in the late 1990s. I had done a very little bit of animation on a couple freelance jobs, so I sort of knew the very basics of how you do it — essentially how to make a flip book. You’re self-taught? I guess you could say mostly self-taught in animation. And then taught on the job. When I learned Flash it was like version 2 — it was a very new program. At the time, to supplement my political cartoon income, I was doing freelance work for one company, and they wanted to experiment into doing Flash animation. So for a couple months I was in this room with two other guys and we were all learning Flash for this project. We figured it out as we went along. From there I took what I learned and applied it to my political cartoons. Flash is what allows people to do all the animation by themselves, which was a huge breakthrough. You can’t do that in a studio environment, especially if you’re just starting out. You can’t just show up at FOX and say “Hey, I’ve got these ideas,” and expect to get a show. But you can do that if you can do the animation on your own, and distribute it yourself.

40

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Are you drawing on paper and scanning work in, or do you draw directly on a tablet? A little of both, though mainly it’s drawing on paper, and then scanning it in. I really want to prevent my work from looking too computery; that’s the main way I’ve been able to do that. At the same time, I do things like eye blinks and different mouth positions — little bits of animation — right on the tablet. After a while, drawing eye blinks and scanning them in seemed like that was something that I could do with the tablet. (Laughs) Do you storyboard these? Do you make up any of the visuals as you go along? It’s pretty nailed down, initially. I have to work from a pretty tight storyboard. My first day on one of these I want to produce a pretty accurate storyboard, with the way that it’s going to look in the end. It’s essentially just little thumbnails. I don’t do a full-color test or anything; I do that on the fly. Do you limit yourself to the number of images per piece? Do you keep the animation to a certain time frame? It’s not necessarily at like 45 seconds I think no more. For me it’s the amount of time it takes me to tell the story. The easy answer is that there isn’t a set time frame, but I do try to keep it fairly small. Small in a couple different ways. One is file size, so it’s easy to download and not an excruciating wait. The other is so it’s not a long piece for someone to watch. I try and limit the number of drawings, and that ties into the file size. And the time in which I have to create one of these — the production phase takes about three days. I have a hard and fast deadline of Wednesday afternoon. So, partly a factor of time and partly a factor of file size. Each additional drawing is more information for the animation file to hold and pass over the Web. But Monday is pretty much writing? Monday is always the hardest for me, in making the story work and making it clear what you’re trying to say. I try to focus on doing cartoons that really say something, and aren’t just some silly Britney Spears gags. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. (Laughs) But I want to wrap that around genocide or some other fun topic. Your background is in print journalism. To make it more specific my background is in political science. It’s the same old story: I wanted to be a cartoonist, and early in high school I realized that there was such a thing as a political cartoonist. Initially it was just an excuse to draw cartoons. But then I got more serious about it. I focused everything on getting that coveted political cartoon job. But I majored in political science instead of art because I figured if the cartooning didn’t work out you could do a lot more — or so I thought — with a political science than an art degree. Lots of really weird decisions that sort of cobbled together into something that worked. Do you still do print work? I don’t, actually. I stopped doing that some years ago.

I buy the license for the music clips. There are sites designed to sell music to people who are doing commercials, corporate presentations — it’s essentially stock music. So I’ll put out a little bit of money on that each week. I would love to have the time and luxury to get friends together to play music, but for now I have to do it the hack, stock music way. The voices, for the most part, are me just doing a voice that I think might be appropriate. And then tweaking it a bit on the computer by upping or lowering the pitch, messing with the tempo. Once in a while I’ll bring friends in. I mean, I can only do about four different voices, and particularly if they’re in consecutive scenes it starts to show through. How many viewers do you average? It’s tough, because I can’t tell how many all the different clients get, but on my site it’s probably around 300,000 per month. Are you surprised that more editorial cartoonists — or even comic strip artists — aren’t taking advantage of the technology? Yeah, you know, I am. I hope they do. They will at some point, but I’m surprised they haven’t already. There’s some out there, but I think part of the reason that it hasn’t happened is that it takes a sort of weird cross between a somewhat computery technical mind combined with an artistic, cartoonist side of things.

Part of it was time. The surprising reason, which took me a while to figure out, was that the thought process was totally different. For me it felt like they were undermining each other. I would work on a print cartoon and make it really long and involved, and vice versa with the animated pieces. I finally decided to chuck the print work. It took me about a year to figure that out, trying to do both and wrapping my brain around it. I was wondering about reaction to your work, and I guess I wonder about the reactions to both the animation and your politics. As far as the animation, it’s changed, because people’s expectations get higher and higher. As do mine. When I first started doing these, you’d have someone blink and a little thought balloon would appear over their head and people were just amazed. But now, you need a little more motion, you need more music, more audio. So I really want to make it a more of a full-out production, in my limited amount of time. On the political side, that reaction’s always fun and varied. You definitely get some angry people, but also a lot of people who are supportive. I think I get a lot more response — appearing on the Web it’s just easier to give feedback. There’s an e-mail button next to the animation, so it’s easy for someone to fire back at you. You mentioned music and audio — do you do any of that?

I’d imagine that for many it’s simply a matter of finding time they already don’t have. That’s part of it. You sort of have to make the jump, and say, “OK, I’m doing something and not getting paid for it, but I’m doing it because there’s going to be a return down the road, or because I like doing it just for the sake of doing it.” It’s like cartooning in general. When someone gets into it you don’t already have a job doing it. Is print editorial cartooning just about dead? I don’t think that it’ll ever die. It may extremely whither (laughs), but I think there will always be print political cartoons. The question is whether they’ll be in newspapers or tacked on telephone poles. I think at some point they’re just going to turn into nothing but the Britney Spears-type gags. For that I blame the cartoonists a little bit, but I also blame the general direction of the media. Ten years from now — hell, five years from now — what will be cartooning be like on the Web? It already seems like it’s getting closer to a TV sort of medium. I think it’ll be some sort of weird cross between where the Web is now and cable TV. Broadband stuff is just going to continue to expand and hopefully in that expansion they’ll be room for political cartoons. But I also don’t think — I hope, anyway — that it’ll ever replace newspapers. I think it’ll just merge more with TV. It’s more movin’ pictures; people just want them. N C n n n Mark Fiore’s work can be seen at markfiore.com.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

41

Charles Schulz Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1955

from the 1970 issue of The Cartoonist, featuring a nod to astrological predictions

Specialty art drawn by National Cartoonist Society members for publications issued to coincide with the Society’s annual Reuben Awards Weekend. 42

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Peanuts ©2015 Peanuts Worldwide, LLC

NCS Archives

Dik Browne Two-time Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1962, 1973

Hagar the Horrible ©2015 King Features Syndicate, Inc.

from the April 1980 Reuben Awards Dinner edition of The Cartoonist, celebrating the 85th anniversary of the comic strip

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

43

Broom Hilda ©2015 Tribune Content Agency

44

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

Artwork ©2015 John L. Hart FLP

Russell Myers

Johnny Hart

Reuben Newspaper Comic Strip Division Award, 1975

Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1968

from the April, 1974 edition of The Cartoonist

from the April, 1974 edition of The Cartoonist

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

45

Unpublished specialty art drawn by cartoonists from private collections.

From the Collection of ...

Sergio Aragonés Presentation sketch in a copy of MAD About Super Heroes

46

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

©2015 Sergio Aragonés

Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1996

Jeff MacNelly Two-time Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1978, 1979

©2015 MacNelly

Self-caricature specialty sketch drawn in a copy of A Political Bestiary

Edwina Dumm NCS Gold Key Award, 1978 Tippie specialty sketch drawn in a copy of Tippie’s Tuncs, 1944

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

47

Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1993 (Borgman); 2001 (Scott) Presentation sketch of Jeremy in a copy of Triple Shot, Double Pump, No Whip Zits. From the collection of Terri Libenson.

Walt Kelly Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1951

48

©2015 Okefenokee Glee & Perloo, Inc.

©2015 ZITS Partnership

Kelly self-caricature presentation sketch in a copy of The Pogo Stepmother Goose.

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

©2015 Disney

Joe Grant Reuben Feature Animation Award, 1995

©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Sketch drawn in 1998 of the evil queen/witch, the character that Grant created for Disney’s 1937 movie Snow White.

Walter Berndt Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1969 Presentation sketch of Smitty and Herby, 1975

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

49

Dan Spiegle

©2015 Dan Spiegle

Hopalong Cassidy specialty painting, 2003

50

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

51

Specialty drawing, 2010

Reuben Feature Animation Award, 1992, 2000

Eric Goldberg

©2015 Disney

©2015 Tony Cochran

Tony Cochran

Richard Thompson Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 2010 Presentation sketch of Alice in a copy of Cul de Sac Golden Treasury, 2010

52

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

©2015 Richard Thompson

Specialty drawing of Agnes and Trout from Cochran’s comic strip, Agnes.

©2015 Bill Hinds

Bill Hinds Reuben New Media Award, 2000 Presentation sketch of Tank McNamara in a copy of The Tank McNamara Chronicles (also signed by writer Jeff Millar)

Hank Ketcham

©2015 Hank Ketcham Enterprises

Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1952 Presentation sketch in a copy of Ketcham’s 1952 collection Dennis the Menace, 1987

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

53

The National Cartoonists Society (above)

Willard Mullin Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1954

cover art from the program of the 16th annual Reuben Award Dinner, April 23, 1962

54

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

ABOUT THE NCS The National Cartoonists Society is the world’s largest and most prestigious organization of professional cartoonists. The NCS was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops. They found that they enjoyed each other’s company and decided to get together on a regular basis. Today, the NCS membership roster includes more than 500 of the world’s major cartoonists, working in many branches of the profession, including newspaper comic strips and panels, on-line comics, comic books, editorial cartoons, animation, gag cartoons, greeting cards, advertising, magazine and book illustration and more. Membership is limited to established professional cartoonists, with a few exceptions of outstanding persons in affiliated fields. The NCS is not a guild or union, although we have joined forces from time to time to fight for member’s rights, and we regularly use our talents to help worthwhile causes.

PRIMARY PURPOSES OF THE NCS n To advance the ideals and standards of professional cartooning in its many forms. n To promote and foster a social, cultural and intellectual interchange among profes-

sional cartoonists of all types. n To stimulate and encourage interest in and acceptance of the art of cartooning by aspiring cartoonists, students and the general public.

THE HISTORY OF THE NCS The seeds for what evolved into the National Cartoonists Society were planted during the volunteer chalk talks that a number of cartoonists did during World War II for the American Theatre Wing. The Society was born at a specially convened dinner in New York in March, 1946, that saw Rube Goldberg elected as president, Russell Patterson as vice president, C.D. Russell as secretary and Milton Caniff as treasurer. A second vice president, Otto Soglow, was subsequently added. Within two weeks, the Society had 32 members: Strip cartoonists Wally Bishop (Muggs and Skeeter); Martin Branner (Winnie Winkle); Ernie Bushmiller (Nancy); Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates); Gus Edson (The Gumps); Ham Fisher (Joe Palooka); Harry Haenigsen (Penny); Fred Harman (Red Ryder); Jay Irving (Willie Doodle); Al Posen (Sweeney and Son); C.D. Russell (Pete the Tramp); Otto Soglow (The Little King); Jack Sparling (Clare Voyant); Ray Van Buren (Abbie an’ Slats); Dow Waling (Skeets); and Frank Willard (Moon Mullins). Panel cartoonists Dave Breger (Mister Breger); George Clark (The Neighbors); Bob Dunn (Just the Type); Jimmy Hatlo (They’ll Do It Every Time); Bill Holman (Smokey Stover); and Stan McGovern (Silly Milly). Freelance cartoonists and illustrators Abner Dean, Mischa Richter and Russell Patterson. Editorial cartoonists Rube Goldberg (New York Sun); Burris Jenkins (Journal American); C.D. Batchelor (Daily News); and Richard Q. Yardley (Baltimore Sun). Sports cartoonist Lou Hanlon and comic book cartoonists Joe Shuster and Joe Musial. By March 1947, there were 112 members in the National Cartoonists Society. At the end of 1946, Milton Caniff left Terry and The Pirates to create the adventure strip Steve Canyon, which debuted in 243 newspapers to instant acclaim. The following May, he became the first artist formally honored by the group as the “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.” The trophy was a silver cigarette box, engraved with Billy DeBeck’s Barney Google and Snuffy Smith characters. The Billy DeBeck Memorial Award

THE REUBEN AWARD for

Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year ....................... 1946 Milton Caniff Steve Canyon 1947 Al Capp Li’l Abner 1948 Chic Young Blondie 1949 Alex Raymond Rip Kirby 1950 Roy Crane Buz Sawyer 1951 Walt Kelly Pogo 1952 Hank Ketcham Dennis the Menace 1953 Mort Walker Beetle Bailey 1954 Willard Mullin Sports cartoons 1955 Charles Schulz Peanuts 1956 Herbert Block Editorial Cartoons 1957 Hal Foster Prince Valiant 1958 Frank King Gasoline Alley

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

55

1961 Bill Mauldin Editorial Cartoons 1962 Dik Browne Hi and Lois 1963 Fred Lasswell Barney Google and Snuffy Smith 1964 Charles Schulz Peanuts 1965 Leonard Starr On Stage 1966 Otto Soglow The Little King 1967 Rube Goldberg Humor in Sculpture 1968 Johnny Hart B.C. and The Wizard of Id Pat Oliphant Editorial Cartoons 1969 Walter Berndt Smitty 1970 Alfred Andriola Kerry Drake 1971 Milton Caniff Steve Canyon 1972 Pat Oliphant Editorial Cartoons

56

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

LOCATION The official headquarters of the National Cartoonists Society are in New York City, with the Society’s business offices located in Orlando, Florida.

CHAPTERS In addition, the NCS has chartered 17 regional chapters throughout the United States and one in Canada. The early 1990s saw the introduction of regional chapters within the NCS. Created to encourage a deeper participation and interaction among NCS members while furthering the aims of the Society, these chapters also afford members a more active role at the national level. The Chapter chairpersons also serve as members of the NCS Regional Council, which serves and advises the NCS Board of Directors. In addition, the position of National Representative on the NCS Board of Directors is held by a Chapter Chair who acts as a conduit between the NCS Board and the Regional Council. There are also many active Regional Chapters, including chapters in: Chicago, Connecticut, D.C., Florida, Great Lakes, Long Island, Los Angeles, New England, New Jersey, Manhattan, North Central U.S., Northern California, Orange County and Southern California, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Southeastern US, Texas, Upstate New York and Canada. New Regional Chapters are continually forming. The Regional Chapters convene on their own schedules, usually three or four times a year. They engage in a variety of social and professional activities and are always happy to receive visiting NCS members.

Piccolo

1960 Ronald Searle Humorous Illustration

continued until 1953. The following year, the Reuben Award was introduced. In 1948, Caniff was elected NCS President. Rube Goldberg was named Honorary President and Al Capp became the second “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.” In 1949, the Society volunteered to help the Treasury Department in a drive to sell savings bonds by sending NCS members out on the road. A nationwide, seventeencity tour was undertaken by teams of ten or twelve cartoonists and a 95-foot-long traveling display. Through the Society, NCS members have continued to serve the nation in person and through their art. Teams of cartoonists have toured war zones and military installations around the world in cooperation with the USO. Others have entertained at VA hospitals. NCS members have also contributed to many U.S. government programs; their efforts have benefitted NASA, USIA, the Treasury Department Savings Bond division and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. Other beneficiaries have been the Boy Scouts of America, the American Red Cross and the United Nations. The tradition of lending our talents to worthy causes continues to this day. In 2001, for example, NCS members in the syndicated community dedicated their newspaper strips and panels to a Thanksgiving initiative that raised some $50,000 for victims of the 9/11 attacks, and members contributed a further $18,000 through the proceeds of a private auction.

©Rina

1959 Chester Gould Dick Tracy

1973 Dik Browne Hagar the Horrible

©Dave

Coverly

1974 Dick Moores Gasoline Alley

NCS MEMBERSHIP There are four classes of membership in The National Cartoonists Society: n REGULAR MEMBERS are professional cartoonists, the quality of whose work has

been judged and approved by the Membership Committee. n ASSOCIATE MEMBERS are those individuals who work as professionals in the cartooning industry or whose expression of interest has been established. n HONORARY MEMBERS are cartoonists, surviving spouses or patrons of the art for whom the Society desires to express its esteem and appreciation. n RETIRED MEMBERSHIP is granted to existing members 65 years of age and older and retired. If you are a professional cartoonist and are interested in applying for a Regular Membership or if you work in an allied field and feel you would qualify for one of the limited number of Associate Memberships, please contact: National Cartoonists Society P.O. Box 592927 Orlando, FL 32859-2927 407-994-6703 [email protected]

ELIGIBILITY FOR REGULAR MEMBERSHIP Cartoonists who are currently earning a substantial part of their income from cartooning and have done so for at least the past three years; Work must be of a high professional quality and their reputation good. Application must include two letters of recommendation from NCS members, a short biographical sketch and samples of current work bearing a signature. Applications must be accompanied by a check covering one year’s dues, which will be refunded if the candidate is not accepted by the Membership Committee. A candidate is eligible for membership when accepted by a unanimous vote of the Membership Committee. If you are a professional cartoonist and are interested in applying for a Regular Membership, or work in an allied field and feel you would qualify for one of the limited number of Associate Memberships, please contact: Sean Parkes, Membership Chair 16647 E. Ashbrook Drive Unit #A Fountain Hills, AZ 85268

1975 Bob Dunn They’ll Do It Every Time 1976 Ernie Bushmiller Nancy 1977 Chester Gould Dick Tracy 1978 Jeff MacNelly Editorial Cartoons 1979 Jeff MacNelly Shoe 1980 Charles Saxon The New Yorker 1981 Mell Lazarus Miss Peach 1982 Bil Keane The Family Circus 1983 Arnold Roth Humorous Illustration 1984 Brant Parker The Wizard of Id 1985 Lynn Johnston For Better or For Worse 1986 Bill Watterson Calvin and Hobbes 1987 Mort Drucker MAD Magazine

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

57

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE NCS

1991 Mike Peters Mother Goose and Grimm

The National Cartoonists Society’s officers and Board of Directors are elected by secret ballot of the entire membership. The Board meets twice a year and a general business meeting is held annually during the NCS Reuben Awards Weekend. There are several standing committees, including Ethics, Social Media, Education and Publicity. These committees function as clearing houses for information pertinent to the rights of cartoonist members, help to air grievances and post warnings about any dubious practices of the firms with which cartoonists do business. The NCS, however, is neither a guild, nor a union.

1992 Cathy Guisewite Cathy 1993 Jim Borgman Editorial Cartoons 1994 Gary Larson The Far Side

OTHER NCS ACTIVITIES AND FUNCTIONS

1995 Garry Trudeau Doonesbury 1996 Sergio Aragonés MAD Magazine 1997 Scott Adams Dilbert 1998 Will Eisner The Spirit 1999 Patrick McDonnell Mutts 2000 Jack Davis Humorous Illustration 2001 Jerry Scott Baby Blues and Zits

2004 Pat Brady Rose is Rose 2005 Mike Luckovich Editorial Cartoons

58

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

©Dave

2003 Greg Evans Luann

Whamond

2002 Matt Groening The Simpsons

The Cartoon!st, the official newsletter of the National Cartoonists Society and distributed only to NCS members, covers the professional and personal activities of the NCS membership. It also contains general information of interest to the professional cartoonist, such as copyright laws, new publications, preservation of comic art, upcoming regional and national shows, events and conventions. The National Cartoonists Society sponsors special cartoon-related excursions abroad. Recent destinations have included Canada, England, Ireland, Italy and Australia. The NCS and its Regional Chapters have also organized cartoon auctions for charity, art shows, educational seminars and golf and tennis tournaments. The National Cartoonists Society maintains relationships with other organizations for professionals in cartooning and various other fields of communication, both domestic and foreign. It works especially close with newspaper and publishing groups. The NCS also often provides introductions for American cartoonists traveling abroad. Through the National Cartoonists Society, members have served the nation in person and through their art. Teams of cartoonists have toured war zones and military installations all over the world in cooperation with the USO. Others have entertained regularly at VA hospitals in various parts of the country. NCS members also contribute tirelessly to certain US government programs; their efforts have benefitted such agencies as NASA, USIA, the Treasury Department Savings Bond division and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. Other beneficiaries of members’ talents have been the Boy Scouts of America, The American Red Cross and the United Nations. In 2001, the NCS organized the Thanks & Giving Tribute in the nation’s newspapers, syndicated cartoonists raising some $50,000 for the September 11 fund. The National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Awards Weekend is a gala annual event, which takes place at a locale selected by the President, Board and the NCS Foundation. There, during the black-tie Reuben Award Dinner, the prestigious Reuben Award (a statuette designed by and named after the NCS’s first president, Rube Goldberg) is presented to the NCS’s Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. Cartoonists in various professional divisions are also honored with special plaques for excellence. These “Silver Reuben” awards are voted on by the general membership by secret ballot). Members and their families have enjoyed the annual get-together at recent locations such as: Washington, D.C.; New York, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Pasadena, Cali-

2006 Bill Amend FoxTrot 2007 Al Jaffee MAD Magazine 2008 Dave Coverly Speed Bump

Ramirez

2009 Dan Pirarro Bizarro

©Michael

2010 Richard Thompson Cul de Sac 2011 Tom Richmond MAD Magazine fornia; Scottsdale, Arizona; Boca Raton, Florida; Toronto, Canada; Cancun, Mexico; Hollywood, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; Boston, Massachusetts; Las Vegas, Nevada; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; San Diego, California and even on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

THE NCS FOUNDATION The National Cartoonists Society Foundation is the charitable arm of the National Cartoonists Society. The Foundation was formed in 2005 to continue the charitable and educational works that have been a hallmark of the NCS since its inception in 1946. The National Cartoonists Society Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) charity that works in tandem with the NCS to advance the ideals and standards of the cartooning profession, to stimulate and encourage aspiring cartoonists through scholarships and educational programs, and to provide financial assistance to cartoonists and their families in times of hardship, through its Milt Gross Fund. The Foundation also encourages the active involvement and participation of NCS members in the charitable and educational projects undertaken by the Foundation, thereby utilizing the Society’s greatest assets and strengths. The NCS has a treasured tradition of members donating their expertise and talents to good causes in person and through their art.

2012 Brian Crane Pickles Rick Kirkman Baby Blues 2013 Wiley Miller Non Sequitur 2014 Roz Chast The New Yorker

........................................................................................................................................................................................... National Cartoonists Society, Inc. P.O. Box 592927 Orlando, FL 32859-2927 Phone: 407-994-6703 Fax: 407-442-0786 For further information, visit the NCS website at: www.reuben.org

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

59

“Do You Cartoon?” The Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship is here to help. In these tough financial times, no one looks forward to taking on student debt. Now in its eighth year, the annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship aims to make that burden a bit lighter for those college students with an eye on a career in cartooning. To that end, the scholarship awards $5,000 annually to a rising Junior or Senior. (Applicants do not have to be art majors to be eligible.) But it’s more than just money that’s provided — it’s also an opportunity to meet professional cartoonists at the ©2015 Derek Desierto

National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award Weekend. The National Cartoonists Society Foundation has helped students from the College for Creative Studies, Ringling College of Art & Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Rochester Institute of Technology, Savannah College of Art and Design, and UCLA.

Derek Desierto

The most recent recipient is Derek Desierto, an Animation major at the Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada. The first winner of the Jay Kennedy Scholarship was Juana Medina, who now teaches at the Corcoran College of Art & Design. She has just turned in her illustrations for a children’s book called Smick, written by Doreen Cronin (Click, Clack, Moo; Duck for President), which will come out this year. Juana has also signed a multi-book deal with Candlewick Press, for “a series loosely based on my childhood adventures, in my native Bogotá, Colombia, with my sidekick and dog-friend, Lucas.” The first of these books should be out in the Fall of 2016. (Juana also designed the promotional art for this year’s scholarship.) Chris Houghton, the second scholarship recipient, is currently a Storyboard Director on an upcoming Nickelodeon show called “Bad Seeds,” that premiered in early 2015. He has had similar duties on the animated TV shows “Wander Over Yonder,” “Gravity Falls,” and “Fanboy and Chum Chum.” In addition, Chris has done work for Adventure

60

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

©2015 Chris Houghton

©2015 Juana Medina

Juana Medina

Chris Houghton

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

61

©2015 Diana Huh

Diana Huh

©2015 Charlotte Mao

Time comics, Simpsons comics, MAD Magazine and his own creation for Image Comics, Reed Gunther. Other recent recipients include Diana Huh, a storyboard revisionist for the Titmouse Inc./Netflix show “Turbo FAST”; Charlotte Mao, who works at Launchpad Toys in San Francisco, a mobile gaming company that develops educational children’s apps; and Renee Faundo, a character animation major at the California Institute of the Arts.   The Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship was established in memory of the late King Features editor, and funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate as well as additional generous donations from Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick McDonnell and many other prominent cartoonists.

©2015 Renee Faundo

For more information, visit cartoonistfoundation.org

Charlotte Mao

Renee Faundo

62

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

63

The

National

.......................................................................................................................................................................

Read it online at gocomics.com

The NCS goes cruising! Jack DAVIS dreams es Tom RICHMOND caricatur Mark FIORE animates

The

National ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......

TY NAL CART OONI STS SOCIE A PUBL ICATI ON OF THE NATIO Vol. 1, No. 2

....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......

....... ....... ....... ....... .......

....... ....... ....... ....... .......

gocomics.com/the-

national-cartoonist-

......

magazine

I Ever Met T IS N O O T The FIRST CAR THENA TIONA LCART OON!S

T

i

Exclusively at gocomics.com/the-national-cartoonist-magazine Follow the NCS ........................................................................................................................................... for news, art and features

64

THENATIONALCARTOON!ST

@NATCARTOONSOC

@NATIONALCARTOONISTS

THE NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY