PLATINUM SERIES

SKIPPY VS. THE MOB by Percy Crosby

Rosebud Archives publishes some unseen Percy Crosby art in its new softcover book SKIPPY VS. THE MOB.

From the description:

This important new book collects, for the first time, the only continuity Percy Crosby ever drew in his widely-syndicated Skippy comics, and features a comprehensive essay by the artist’s courageous daughter, chronicling an astonishing history of fraud, persecution, and betrayal. Here, for the first time, is a story ripped from the headlines – a spiraling saga that grew far too large for one man to handle.

At the height of fame, fortune, and creativity, Percy Crosby was emboldened to wage war on injustice. His idealistic vision of America, nurtured since childhood, took on an enemy all too real: Al Capone, mobster. His war on racketeering, organized crime, and corruption in high places were worth the fight, in Crosby’s eyes.

But his crusade to redeem the Land of the Free in fact proved to be the beginning of the end for this talented artist and outspoken critic of social ills. Percy Crosby eventually was to learn how deep the rot went: corporate ties to organized crime; political protection; corruption… and those who profited from a rigged system could easily have him silenced.

Illustrated throughout with Crosby’s artwork, political cartoons, Skippy comic strips, and photographs, the book also presents his continuity in both the way it appeared in newspapers nationwide as well as the original art.

Don't forget to visit Joan Crosby Tibbetts' site Skippy.com, so you can see some grand examples of his cartoon art.

DOCTOR WHO Series Six HD Trailer

Here's the brand new 60 second HD trailer for DOCTOR WHO series six, premiering in the UK and the US on April 23, 2011



A bit hat tip to Life, Doctor Who and Combom blog -- which, by the way, has a link to 300 hi res frame grabs from the trailer for your parsing pleasure.

Chester Gould's Early Years of Struggle

Above: a sports feature by Chester Gould. The feature was rejected the same year that TRACY was accepted.

Chester Gould created DICK TRACY. Yeah, yeah, everyone knows that.

But, before that -- before TRACY -- Mr. Gould persisted, enduring rejection after rejection, for a decade, before he hit on what was then called PLAINCLOTHES TRACY.

Mr. Gould took a cartoon correspondence course when he was a teenager. He began submitting cartoons for possible syndication beginning in 1931, while in college.

He did get a job at Hearst's Chicago Tribune a year after graduating from North Western, in 1924, and he cranked out some early efforts, syndicated by Hearst's King Features. The efforts were "uninspired" (to quote Gould himself) with titles like FILUM FABLES (a spoof on the movies) and RADIO CATS. They did not last long.

Why is it some people are driven? Gould was working at the paper, making $100 a week by 1928. He had been married for two years by then. Not a bad living at all! But he was constantly putting new comic strip ideas in front of Hearst: strips with kids, strips with girls, sports strips, even a science strip.

Here are some of his 1920s rejected comic strips.

Above: like most of these strips, this domestic drama featuring a young girl names Sal, has no name. The debt to fellow-Chicago cartoonist Harold Gray is apparent in its layout and subject matter.


The above strip, drawn in a bigfoot style and starring a boastful fellow named Buzzy is static and wordy.

There's a lot o action in this rejected submission which stars a Mister Larkin and his man servant and glaring racial stereotype Halitosis.



Above is a non-fiction strip titled "The World's Notebook."

Why Gould persisted, he only knows. He was comfortable, but he wanted more.

Talent is cheap. Persistence is everything. Gould had talent -- talent enough to be making $100 a week. His persistence for a breakthrough concept paid off.

Mr. Gould would go on to win awards, including the coveted Reuben Award (twice!). The strip, under a new creative team of Mike Curtis and Joe Staton, will see its 70th anniversary this October 4th.

These early strips have, so far as I know, only been reproduced once: in the program book for the 1978 "Dick Tracy: The Art of Chester Gould" exhibit, curated by Bill Crouch, Jr., at the old Museum of Cartoon Art in Port Chester, NY.

My thanks to Charles Green for his "Biographical Sketch" of Gould from that book, from which these samples are scanned.




Related:
DICK TRACY at GoComics.com
200 Characters from Dick Tracy 1931-1977
CIGARETTE SADIE by Chester Gould
DICK TRACY Cards

Hugo Pratt Exhibit

Oscar Grillo shares photos from the Hugo Pratt exhibit at the Pinacothèque de Paris: part one and part two. Some spectacular images that makes me wish I could fly there right now and see it myself. Thanks very much for these, Oscar!

Related: Art Daily's description of this exhibit, which has over 300 works by Mr. Pratt. The gallery show runs through August 21, 2011.

Tom Tomorrow Leaves Salon

Tom Tomorrow is leaving Salon.com after 16 years.

From Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World Web site announcement:

"I’ve had an extraordinary run at Salon, and it has been a fantastic platform, which I have been privileged to share with many talented contributors over the years. But as Blinky notes in this week’s farewell cartoon, I’ve been there for about a million years in internet time."

He will go on cartooning at the Daily Kos. And, not only that, he's been asked to be the site's new Comics Editor.

"It’s an experiment for both of us, I think, but an exciting one. My cartoon will start running there next Monday. Over the next few months we’ll be adding others, and, I hope, building up a go-to destination for progressive cartoon commentary."

THE COMICS by Brian Walker

THE COMICS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION brings together the previously released two volume set (THE COMICS BEFORE 1945 and THE COMICS AFTER 1945) under one cover for $40.

Author Brian Walker writes the history of newspaper comics, with copious samples. If you know Brian and his work, you know this is an excellent book to add to your shelf. I have a number of his books, including his BARNEY GOOGLE and NANCY books.

Some fascinating quotes in this Denver Post interview with Brian, "a man born with cartoon ink in his veins," written by Dick Kreck:

Walker doesn't love all comics. "I did a book on 'Nancy.' I said, 'I hate this strip. It's the same every day.' But I went on an intellectual journey. I just realized it taught me an important lesson: You can be simple and be brilliant at what you do. Ernie Bushmiller (who created the round-faced girl with the spiky hair in 1948) was a very erudite guy. He said, 'My strip is for the gum chewers of the world.' A lot of modern cartoonists think it's the Zen of comics. The ultimate realization after finishing these two books on comics history is that it is so rich and rewarding, even to someone like myself who's been in it my whole life."

Read the rest here.

HANYA MASK

Here is one on a client who came in for his first piece!

ONCE AGAIN ITS ON

1972: Cartoonist Henry Martin Interview

Henry Martin was a contract cartoonist for The New Yorker. Mr Martin drew, so I am told by a cartoonist friend of his, five finished cartoons a day. The interview below, from Cartoonist PROfiles #14, June 1972, corroborates this.

This was back in the day when most cartoonists presented pencil roughs. A batch of these roughs were shown to the editor, usually on "look day;" the day that cartoonists came in person the magazine offices throughout New York City to hawk their work. Of course, the editor knew the cartoonist's style and would be able to envision what a final, clean, completed cartoon looked like from the rough. The final finish, in ink, was only drawn once the cartoonist got an "OK" for it.



Above: One of Mr. Martin's many page break illustrations.

Martin would bring in about 20 of his cartoons and 10 spots a week to the Cartoon Editor at The New Yorker. All of them were finished, in ink and china crayon. All of them were ready for publication.

Henry Martin, who is alive and well today, has since retired and is perhaps better known was the Father of Ann M. Martin -- known to millions as the creator of the BABYSITTER'S CLUB series of books. Ms. Martin cites her Dad's persistent ability to sit down and do the work as he inspiration for success.




The interview, which is uncredited, was most probably written by Jud Hurd. The photos are by Jim Ruth.










A hat tip to Don Orehek for this issue of Cartoonist PROfiles! Thanks, Don!

SOUL SUNDAY

FIRST WE PRAY

BiGG Snoop came thru to Represent for Life of the homie Nate DoGG.

You Will Be Remembered!

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

Video: Chris Browne HAGAR THE HORRIBLE Interview

Mr. Media interviews Chris Browne, who draws King Features' HAGAR THE HORRIBLE (hence Chris wearing the Viking hat). HAGAR appears in over 1900 newspapers in 58 countries and is translated into 13 languages.

Here's the interview, in 4 parts.









Related: the HAGAR THE HORRIBLE hardcover book, collecting 428 dailies from the genesis of the strip 1974 to 1975.

LET EM KNOW

Drama Beats came thru to get a fresh piece on the inner arm..

CAPTAIN AMERICA Movie Trailer

Here's the new trailer for the CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER theatrical movie. What I didn't know about it was that the thingis very much like the Simon & Kirby original story: Steve Rogers, a scrawny 90 lb. weakling is unfit to join the US Army, is transformed via some scientific hoo hah into a super soldier. Like the original comic book, the movie is a WW2 period piece. With a supporting cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci, this one bears a look.



Hat tip to John "Shep" Sheppard!

Video: Jim Henson's WIZARD OF ID Pilot

Here's 4 minutes of a 1969 color TV test pilot of Johnny Hart and Brant Parker's WIZARD OF ID, as produced by Jim Henson.



More background on the project at Jim's Red Book.

Hat tip to Charles Burbaker via Alan Gardner.

That New PEANUTS Special

Have they gone TOO FAR with this new PEANUTS special?!?!

No, just kidding.

The above image is a 1963 parody of Mr. Schulz's runaway best seller by the great Hank Ketcham, from the 17th Annual National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards newsletter.

Seriously ... there is a new PEANUTS special. But it won't be on TV. Not yet.

From what I have heard, this special is reverently done in the Lee-Melendez style and it's good. I haven't seen it. It comes out, direct to DVD, on March 29, 2011.

Titled HAPPINESS IS A WARM BLANKET, CHARLIE BROWN here is director Andy Beall talking about it and showing some pencils tests via Animation Brew:



The special is longer than the classic ones, 46 minutes, and the DVD has many special features:

• Deconstructing Schulz: From Comic Strips to Screenplay - How the Peanuts comic strip was made into a special
  
  
• Happiness is...Finding the Right Voice - Meet the stellar new voice cast (Peanuts Specials, for those who may not know, have always employed children actors for the voices)
  
  
• 24 Frames Per Second - Drawing and Animating a Peanuts Special
  
  
• Deleted Scene with an Introduction by Director Andy Beall

Related: the new PEANUTS graphic novel HAPPINESS IS A WARM PUPPY, CHARLIE BROWN from Boom! Studios ships in April. The book is written by original creator Charles M. Schulz, adapted by Craig Schulz & Stephan Pastis, with art credited to Bob Scott, Vicki Scott and Ron Zorman.

Pop Culture Zoo has a preview.

Jerry Robinson: Life After Batman

Did you know there's a documentary about Jerry Robinson in the works? I didn't! Here's a great peek at Jerry, The Joker, Jet Scott and more:



This is from the Profession Cartoonist series -- the same team that gave us Will Eisner Profession Cartoonist documentary.

Related: Jerry's Lambiek page

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Here is a classic soul record by Weldon Irvine "Morning Sunrise" and a classic track off
Memphis Bleek's album 534 that was sampled from Mr. Irvine's original recording.
Produced by Just Blaze

Cartoonist Dan Reynolds Gallery Show

The Everson Museum of Art, in Syracuse, NY, exhibits 200 of Dan Reynolds' gag cartoons in its Reynolds Unwrapped: The Cartoon Art of Dan Reynolds gallery show, March 12 thru July 1o, 2011.

Molly English-Bowers writing for the Syracuse New Times, pens a profile of Dan:

"While he’s nationally known and has his share of followers in Central New York, many of those followers don’t realize he lives among them. 'I’m in a weird situation,' he says. 'I do my work here locally but I don’t do my work for the local area. Up until recently I didn’t make much of an effort at letting people know that I’m here or what I do.'

"'The impetus for this change was Reynolds’ battle with, and ultimate victory over, cancer. “Since I had cancer, I started to make more of a concentrated effort; I decided it would be fun to share more of what I do on a local level,' he says. 'So I’ve made myself more available, like the last couple of years working with the American Cancer Society locally, helping them out, participating in fundraising walks.'"

The rest, detailing Dan's life and how he started drawing cartoons, is here.

Dan will give a talk at the Museum this Saturday at noon.

Interview: David Boswell

The creator of Reid Fleming, The World's Toughest Milkman, David Boswell, is interviewed by Tom Hawthorn in The Globe and Mail.

David Boswell will be inducted into the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame during the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.

Reid Fleming has been around since 1978. He's an angry guy; a symbol for all the put-upon working masses. The character is

"... a misanthropic purveyor of dairy products, a rye-swilling, fist-waving, milk-truck-crashing trouble-maker who insists, 'I am not bald! I get my hair cut this way.'

"Fleming is the antihero of an epic series of illustrated tales written by David Boswell, a Vancouver artist who has laboured for decades in near-obscurity and near-penury"

The rest of the interview is here.

There will be two hardbound volume collecting the series, the first to be out later this year.

Above image from the ComicVine site.

Mike Shapiro Interview

Veteran gag cartoonist Mike Shapiro is interviewed by Mike Rhode for The Washington Paper.

I learned about Mike Shapiro's extensive cartooning background:

"I went to The Joe Kubert School and studied animation. At the time the great Milt Neil was running the program. Before that I took Mort Gerberg's well-known magazine cartooning class at Parsons. Around that time I also took a class from Paul Peter Porges at The New School. Finally, after I got out of school, I was fortunate to work as an assistant to Sy Barry on "The Phantom" for about six years. Sy taught me a lot about being a professional, meeting deadlines, and in general helped me improve my work. He's a great guy and a great artist."

Like Mike, I took Mort Gerberg's class -- and I also know Sy Barry (but I never worked as his assistant)! It's a small cartoony world.

The rest is here.

Dueling Banjo Pigs Gallery Show

Provo, Utah: The Terra Nova Gallery presents the Dueling Banjo Pigs exhibit, which is based on Guy Francis' and Stacy Curtis' Dueling Banjo Pigs blog. The show runs from April 1 to April 29, 2011.

A Dueling Banjo Pigs blog? How did that happen, you may well ask?!

It started out with a duel between friends. Guy Francis challenged fellow illustrator, Stacy Curtis, to a duel of banjo playing pigs. Now, other illustrators have joined the fun with banjo pigs of their own!

We have more than 500 banjo pigs from countries all over the world!

Happy 80th Birthday, William Shatner

He's 80 and he's all over the place. Here are but 2 clips to celebrate the Captain whose heart will last forever --

On International Talk Like William Shatner Day (that's ... TODAY!), even celebrities mimic Shatner. To see what Jason Alexander is talking about, see the second video. That's "risk is our business" speech from the TOS episode "Return to Tomorrow:"







And don't forget, this Saturday is Leonard Nimoy's birthday.

Hat tip to TrekCore for the photos.

Roger Rees: The New Gomez Addams

Above: Mr. Rees caricatured by the WSJ's Ken Fallin.

Roger Rees will step into Nathan Lane's role as Gomez Addams, the family patriarch in the Broadway musical THE ADDAMS FAMILY, so Joanne Kaufman writes for the Wall Street Journal.

"The tango-crazed ghoul Gomez 'is a big old part,' he continued. 'It's like Toby Belch in 'Twelfth Night.' You drive the whole play. As I'm rehearsing I go: 'That was a big scene. Oh, my God, there's another big scene.' But it's like Nike. Just do it.'"

Hairy Green Eyeball

Hey, did you know that the Hairy Green Eyeball blog has moved to the Hairy Green Eyeball blog 3?

Take a look at some of these grand POLLY AND HER PALS pages via ASIFA. And peek at CAPTAIN GEORGE'S HOW TO DRAW.

BROOKLYN

Cappo came through to celebrate the birth of his Baby Girl Brooklyn!

Congrats Homie!

PRAY FOR US

Cartoonist Dragged by Taxi; Drawing Hand "Shredded"

Australia: GINGER MEGGS cartoonist and comedian Jason Chatfield was dragged, his arm stick in the passenger side window of a Melbourne taxi, for 15 meters, before falling. He had a seizure and lost consciousness.

The incident took place at Elizabeth St and Collins St about 3.20am Sunday morning, March 20th.

Jason describes what happened. This is from the Sydney Morning Herald story:

"'My girlfriend seems to think it was my watch band that got caught,' he said, nursing serious injuries to his head, his left shoulder, arm and hand.

"'The driver slammed his foot on the accelerator, pulling away much faster than I could keep up running, so I was dragged along, before slamming head-first into the road on my right side.

"'My head and shoulder took the brunt, as the rest of the right side of my body dragged along the bitumen, damaging my drawing arm and scraping off the skin at the shoulder, elbow and wrist.'"

The cabbie is unidentified and there are no leads.

"'I'm a cartoonist. I have to draw and my drawing arm is damaged ... I mean, cut off my legs, but don't cut off my drawing hand, you know. I really need my right hand for work."'

More at Jason Chatfield's blog here.

I wish Jason all the best for a speedy, complete recovery -- and here's hoping you can make it, as planned, to the 2011 Reubens weekend.

Johnny Bravo Wallpapers

Johnny Bravo Wallpapers 1

Johnny Bravo Wallpapers 2

Johnny Bravo Wallpapers 3

Johnny Bravo Wallpapers 4

Johnny Bravo Wallpapers 5

SOUL SUNDAY

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

Zelda Wallpapers

Zelda Wallpapers 1

Zelda Wallpapers 2

Zelda Wallpapers 3

Zelda Wallpapers 4

Zelda Wallpapers 5