THE JOKER

Check out a work in progress.. He wanted to tell his story and and pay homage to his favorite super villain.

DISNEYLAND DAY!

LESLIE and I are off for another fun visit to DISNEYLAND today. Enjoy these classic DISNEYLAND images!

Tom Gammill Visits THE NEW YORKER Part 2

Hilarity, obviously, ensues!



This is #22 of Tom Gammill's "Learn to Draw" series. Of course, you don't really "Learn to Draw." You just laugh. These are funnier and funnier.

Robert Goodin's COVERED Blog

JIMMY OLSEN #107. Original cover by Curt Swan and George Klein, DC Comics, 1967, as redrawn by Sam Henderson.

Thanks to Sam Henderson, I just discovered the Covered blog. This high concept blog, run by Robert Goodin, showcases contemporary cartoonists reimagining old comic book covers, drawing them in their own style.

"The intention of Covered is to feature a wide variety of artists redoing comic covers in their own style. Artists can come from any field: cartoonists / comic artists (both from the mainstream and the independent fringes), illustrators, animators, graphic designers, photographers, sculptors, etc. and be both well known or up and coming."

Take a look!

CAPTAIN AMERICA #2. Cover by Joe Simon; Marvel Comics, 1941. Danny Hellman's website is here.

BIRTHDAY THANKS!

Just want to say THANK YOU to everyone for your birthday wishes today. It was great hearing from all of you. My beautiful and wonderful wife LESLIE, really made my birthday extra special! Thank you, Baby...I love you!

FAMILY GUY: Washington Post Editorial Cartoon Satire

PERSONAL POWER

This is another piece on one of our Japanese clients who wanted to freak his name with the lettering and stack them 3-dimensionally.

Video: Keith Knight's Controversial Cartoon UPDATED

I agree with Lloyd Dangle that an entire school misses the point of Keith Knight's cartoon.

Link to The K Chronicles "Why the attacks against Obama couldn't possibly be racially motivated" by Keith Knight

Local TV 33 news story and video here.

UPDATE: Keith Knight's Official Statement

Uniform cartoon.

I posting this yesterday without the caption. Now corrected. No one noticed. That was pure luck.

KING LEONARDO - GOLD KEY COMICS

The Brainstormer by Andrew Bosley

Go and play!

Thanks to Andrew Bosley for making such a thing.

And thank you to Sean Kelly for letting me know about it. Thanks, Sean!

FOR THE STREETS

Check out this collaboration I did with Cope 2 who was visiting form the Bronx. My foundation came from graffiti and I love to do a piece every chance I get. Good lookin out to Toomer TKO, Cope KD, WCA and AWR for comin through.

Video: Jack Davis and Nick Meglin UPDATED

From this past weekend's National Cartoonists Society Southeast Chapter weekend festival (and there promises to be more video to come) - EDIT: here are all the Jack Davis/Nick Meglin videos so far:







Hat tip to Brian Vasilik for all of this. Thanks, Brian.

Happy 100th Birthday, Al Capp

Above: a vintage photo of Al Capp from Caitlin Manning's Al Capp documentary (video clip below).

Al Capp deserves a tribute so writes the editor of the The Daily News (Newburyport, MA). I agree. LI'L ABNER was one of the most popular strips of the 20th century and nearby Amesbury, MA was (and this was news to me) Al Capp's adopted home.

He died in 1979 and is buried in Amesbury, his adopted home. There are a handful of specific locations directly connected to his life in Amesbury and neighboring South Hampton, but nowhere is there any sort of public acknowledgement [sic] to his life. That ought to change.

Smart, sarcastic, caustic, witty — Capp was a complicated man who tried to reflect the world around him through his comic strip. In the midst of the Great Depression, the young and talented cartoonist struggled to find his footing in the cartoon business before finally launching L'il Abner in 1934. The cartoon was an immediate hit. At its height, some 900 newspapers carried it, and it's estimated that the peak audience was somewhere around 60 million — at a time when the nation's population was a little over twice that number. Even today it is considered by critics to be one of the greatest comic strips ever drawn.

Capp had lost a leg at the age of nine due to a trolley accident. (MY WELL-BALANCED LIFE ON ONE WOODEN LEG was the title of his autobiography.) This did not impede his ambition.

Above: Al Capp's grave in Amesbury, MA via findagrave.com. Photo by bosguy.

Al Capp was, to put it mildly, a polarizing personality. There was, during that time, a TV special (THIS IS AL CAPP) as well as a long playing record -- all about Al Capp the right-wing crusader.

The editor goes on to quote Frank Frazetta:

Frank Frazetta, a friend and famed science fiction artist whose works included many of the most iconic movie posters of our time, described Capp as "exasperating, infuriating, domineering, obnoxious, loud, lots of fun, acidic and lovable."

What the editor does not reveal (or simply is unaware) is that Frazetta was an employee of Capp's; a ghost on LI'L ABNER, producing perhaps the sexiest comic strip women ever from 1954 to 1961. According to FRAZETTA: PAINTING WITH FIRE, when Capp moved his studio to the coast, he insisted Frazetta uproot his family from their New York home and follow him -- at a reduced pay rate, no less. Frazetta refused.

Life was on Capp's terms. When he was just starting out, Capp assisted cartoonist Ham Fisher on his popular JOE PALOOKA strip. When Capp left Fisher's studio to go it alone, creating the LI'L ABNER strip, Fisher accused Capp of stealing the idea from the PALOOKA strip. The feud went on for 19 years, reaching great heights of hysteria, and went public in the 1950s.

From the ASIFA Capp bio:

JOE PALOOKA creator Ham Fisher and Al Capp waged a famous feud for years. It finally came to a head when Fisher "doctored" photostats of LI'L ABNER in order to make its panels appear pornographic. Fisher promptly accused Capp of indecency, and attempted to have him expelled from the National Cartoonists Society. An ensuing lawsuit revealed Fisher's duplicity, and culminated in Fisher's expulsion from the NCS instead. (Fisher subsequently committed suicide in 1955.)

Here's some video of Al Capp:

If you have never seen it, here's Al Capp with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from their 1969 "bed-in" for peace from the CBC archives:



Al Capp's granddaughter Caitlin Manning shares her documentary work in progress (which is a great introduction to the influence of LI'L ABNER and includes some old film of him drawing):



"He doesn't put his best foot forward, always, but what foot he does put forward is one of his own," says his friend Walt Kelly in the opening for the THIS IS AL CAPP TV special. And maybe that's the beast way to leave things for today, the 100th birthday of the one-of-a-kind creator of the Schmoo, Fearless Fosdick and Kickapoo Joy Juice, to name a few.



Hat tip to Journalista! for The Daily News link.

Video: Charles Addams on CBS Sunday Morning (1994)

This is a 15 year old, 8 minute report about the famous New Yorker magazine cartoonist Charles Addams (1912-1988) by CBS feature reporter (and humorist) Bill Geist for the old CBS Sunday Morning TV show. Writer Paul Rudnick, who wrote the ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES movie script, leads Geist around the NY Public Library gallery show of Addams' originals. We also visit his Westfield, NJ home.

According to the YouTube poster, mittdawson, the segment originally aired on host Charles Kuralt's final show, April 3, 1994.



Related: The Addams Family Musical begins previews in Chicago next month.

SOUL SUNDAY

Couple weeks ago we brought you Teena Marie, you need to go get her greatest hits. She was discovered by Rick James and here is the Ballad they did together and it stands on its own today.
Who do you think the Rick James and Teena Marie of today are?

TOP CAT

Here's a "cartoon painting" I did of TOP CAT a few years ago. This 8" x 10" piece is markers, colored pencils, brush & ink with cel vinyl paint on coquille board. The original pose was penciled by my pal and former WB co-worker, MARK CHRISTIANSEN. Click on the image for a larger view!

Who wants to go first?

Here the cartoon I've entered this week on the CCGB forum competition. Last time I didn't get a single vote, but then I was up against some very good competition. Here's hoping. Either way, it's great fun taking part.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

For those of you that like Thrillers and Scary Movies, these are the films of my child hood that I can remember. Moms and Pops use to take me and these movies impacted my life not sure if it was good or bad but they definitely impacted my life.

SCOOBY-DOOBY-DOO!

It's great to hear that my sketch cards are being enjoyed! Here's a recent SCOOBY-DOO sketch card. Again, you can e-mail your sketch card commission requests to me at powsley@flash.net. Thank you!

BLESSED ART THOU

Here is another one of my clients that came out from Japan.. who wanted to get an old school LA back rocker..

WALLOPIN' WEBSNAPPERS!

Here's a recent SPIDER-MAN sketch card. Email your sketch card commission requests to me at powsley@flash.net!

GET YOUR EAGLE ON!

Check out the homie who drove all the way from Tokyo to get this tattoo.. He didn't move at all and was as focused as a Samurai.

YVONNE CRAIG - TV's BATGIRL!

Hope you enjoyed the ADAM WEST and BURT WARD TV Guide articles that I posted the other day. Here's a November 1967 TV Guide article that focuses on YVONNE CRAIG. As we all know (or should know), YVONNE starred as BATGIRL on the 1960s TV series BATMAN, which also starred ADAM WEST and BURT WARD as BATMAN and ROBIN, the Dynamic Duo. I'm also posting a couple of BATGIRL photos that YVONNE CRAIG signed for me a few years ago. Click on the article for reading, and click on the BATGIRL photos for larger views! (BATGIRL/YVONNE CRAIG article courtesy of artist AL BIGLEY)

Check out YVONNE CRAIG's website at yvonnecraig.com today!

LESLIE's PAUL McCARTNEY SKETCH CARD

I've been posting quite a few of my sketch cards lately, and thought I'd post another artist's sketch card today. It's PAUL McCARTNEY of THE BEATLES, created by my wife, LESLIE. I think she did a terrific job! Beautiful work, Baby...I love you! xoxo

Be Right Back ....

Have a great Thursday thru Sunday, gang! I'll be back next week.

-- Mike
http://mikelynchcartoons.com/

FOR NAMES SAKE

The Dope when the ladies want to keep it classy.. This is one of our clients who wanted to get here name in classic script lettering..

MARVEL SUPER-HEROES ARE ON TV! - SKETCH CARDS

Just did a sketch card set based on the 1966 MARVEL SUPER-HEROES TV cartoons. Loved watching the MARVEL SUPER-HEROES cartoons, which featured terrific 1960s MARVEL comic book art and cool theme songs! THE INCREDIBLE HULK...THE MIGHTY THOR...CAPTAIN AMERICA...THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN and SUB-MARINER! E-mail me at powsley@flash.net.

Rob Rogers' G-20 Sketchbook

Follow Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers as he riffs on the upcoming G-20 summit held in Pittsburgh.

And don't forget that if you're in Pittsburgh, see the Drawn to the Summit editorial cartoon gallery show at the Andy Warhol Museum, thru October 18, 2009. Rob co-curated the exhibition with art historian Sylvia Rhor.

Except don't go tomorrow. The Museum, along with a lot of most other places in The Berg, is closed for the G-20 Summit on Thursday.

Monetizing Your Cartoons

I don't like this word "monetize," but it's one of those words that the first time you hear it, you get a good sense of its meaning.

When I began magazine cartooning, it was simple: go to the newsstand, look at a couple of issues, and mail some cartoons they might like. Keep doing it for a couple of months. If they buy, they have a set price they pay.

And, after a while, I had sold some cartoons, but there were still other cartoons, sitting in a pile, unsold. They had done the rounds, and been rejected. How do you turn them into money?

I went to the downtown Brooklyn Business Library to see what kind of business publications they had. An amazing selection! There was a magazine for and about board members. I had cartoons about board members. There was a magazine for veterinarians. I had dog and cat cartoons.

So, I started a new challenge for myself: I sent cartoons to magazines that did not use cartoons at all.

Sure, most of the time I was wasting my time and postage. (Yeah, I mail my submissions on paper. I still do to cold markets.)

Some of the publications were interested, and some wanted to buy. And the editors asked what I would charge.

What is the value of your cartoon?

Well, of course, decide if you will work for free. Will you give away your cartoons? If so, then you know your answer is that you will work for the exposure.

If you give your cartoons away for free, you will not make a living as a cartoonist. There are many talented people out there who are giving away their work on the Web, and most of them have to work full-time in jobs other than cartooning.

I show my cartoons for free on my Web site. I think this is just normal business. It doesn't bother me if someone wants to copy one of my cartoons for their friends. But it's wrong if a publication (print or Web) thinks they can just grab a cartoon for free content.

So, when editors asked about my rates, I decided I would not work for free. I want to be a real, working cartoonist. I had a minimum set in my head and if they balked, then I would walk away. This isn't posturing, this isn't being unrealistic. This is me making a living.

If an editor says,"We are looking for free content."

I tell them, I can't afford to give away my work for free.

Sometimes, I lose the client. And the client is worth losing, since they do not recognize that cartoons -- along with the freelance writers, the designers, the photographers -- everyone contributing to the content of a publication -- deserves to be monetized.

- This is an edited version of a January 28, 2009 entry.

Billy Blackburn's Rare Home Movies

Here are a bunch of home movies shot by original STAR TREK series regular Billy Blackburn. If his name doesn't ring a bell, then that's OK. Frequent viewers will know him as Lt. Hadley, the bridge navigator.

"They would pan past me to Shatner," he says. As soon as I saw his face, I recognized him as one of the stock background actors in the series.

And stock is right. He started as DeForest Kelley's stand in, and then one day was told to sit in the navigator's seat on the bridge. "That was before Chekov," he reminds us. He played a Gorn, an Organian, a NASA employee -- to name a few. And he always carried an 8mm or Super 8 film camera with him. It was only in the past few years that Blackburn chose to share these behind the scenes, candid movies of the original (The Old Show) STAR TREK cast and crew. I remember reading about it a few years ago and I saw a few stills. Amazing stuff. And even more amazing how well they were cleaned up and presented.

The movies were spliced together as an extra to the CBS TOS DVD set. Here they are.

Season 1 Part 1



Season 1 Part 2



Season 2 Part 1



Season 2 Part 2



Season 3 Part 1



Season 3 Part 2

KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Here is a recent piece on a client from Holland.. He wanted to keep it small and simple for his first tattoo.

BATMAN TV GUIDE ARTICLES

Check out these BATMAN TV show-related articles from past issues of TV GUIDE! The top article features ADAM WEST...just after the 1989 release of BATMAN, starring Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton. Love the alternative photo of WEST as BATMAN from the 1966 TV GUIDE cover photo shoot! Also...here's a 1973 article featuring BURT WARD...TV's ROBIN! Both articles are courtesy of artist AL BIGLEY! Click on each article to read!

BATMAN POSTCARD

Here's a very cool postcard of ADAM WEST as BATMAN! Below is the back of the postcard. The postcard measures 4" x 6" and I do have a few of them available. If you'd like one, e-mail me at powsley@flash.net for details! Click on each image for a larger view!

Steve Brodner: Baltic Amber

Illustrator Steve Brodner shares photos and sketches from his recent European trip.

I love on-the-spot sketches. I'm grateful that Steve took the time to share them with us. Thanks, Steve! Looks like a wonderful trip!

2009-10 Association of American Editorial Cartoonists Officers Announced

Via the AAEC Web site:

President: Rex Babin

President-Elect: Steve Kelley

Vice President: Mikhaela Reid

Secretary-Treasurer: V. Cullum Rogers

Directors: Mark Fiore, Jeff Parker, Mike Thompson

Ted Rall will also serve on the 2009-2010 Board as Immediate Past President

AAEC members also voted overwhelmingly (62 to 4) for an ethical guideline to be added to its bylaws, stating that

the act of appropriating another creator's work as one's own. If a member is accused of a clear and brazen act of plagiarism, the Board may act to permanently or temporarily suspend his or her membership.

Drawing the line between cartoonists outright stealing other cartoonists' work and what Daryl Cagle calls "Yahtzee" cartoons (when editorial cartoonists come up with the same idea simultaneously) may be difficult to police.

Popular opinion might be that its plagiarism when, for instance, more than one cartoonist draws Ted Kennedy playing touch football in heaven with Bobby and Jack. I may have seen about a half dozen of those; also: Ted waving goodbye from his sailboat silhouetted against the setting sun. But this is a coincidence, not plagiarism. The cartoonists just had the same idea on the same day.

One of the challenges with of coming up with a good cartoon is avoiding the low-hanging gag; the funny idea that could easily occur to another cartoonist. The challenge is to be a better, cleverer writer.

That's a good guideline to aim for any day.

Hat tip to Journalista!