THE GIANT GOLDEN BOOK OF BIRDS Art by Arthur Singer

It's not cartoons, but I love the art in this 49 year old classic book.


Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves is a tribute blog, penned by B. Streetman. She shows us the known and unknown childrens' books. Some are classics, some deserve to be better remembered.

Today, it's a bird book.

Click here to see some gorgeous art by Arthur Singer for THE GIANT GOLDEN BOOK OF BIRDS by Robert Porter Allen (Golden Press, 1962). Singer also designed the book.

Lots of Videos from the Society of Illustrators

From the Society of Illustrators:

New Lectures available to view online!

An Evening with Edel Rodriguez

Award-winning illustrator Edel Rodriguez will discuss his career as both a freelance illustrator and art director at TIME.

DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: Or, another evening at the Society of Illustrators

Join Rick Meyerowitz as he interviews fellow National Lampoon illustrators Sam Gross, Ed Subitzky and Stan Mack on the release of his new book "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Writers and Artists Who Made the National Lampoon Insanely Great".

The Folly, Flexibility and Fun of Five New Yorker Cartoonists

New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly moderates a panel discussion with colleagues Roz Chast, Drew Dernavich, Zach Kanin and Barbara Smaller.

An Evening with Jules Feiffer

Illustrator Jules Feiffer discusses his career as a cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and children's book author and illustrator.

The Universe of Gary Baseman

Pioneering artist Gary Baseman talks about the work process behind his painting and his memorable characters and toys which have evolved into live performance.

Illustrating Bedtime Books with Stephen Savage

Known for his economical style of illustration that conveys complex ideas and emotion with simple line and color, Stephen Savage takes us through his career in children's book illustration with the release of his latest book The Fathers Are Coming Home.

A Gallery Talk with Tomer Hanuka, Yuko Shimizu and Sam Weber

Hanuka, Shimizu and Weber examine their new found artistic voices through personal mythologies, broken narratives and remixed identities.

An Evening with Milton Glaser

Legendary designer and illustrator Milton Glaser comments on the opportunities for social intervention.

Lectures are free and available to view on the Society's website. Past lectures can be found in the Lecture Archive.

Video: Arnold Roth

Veteran illustrator Arnold Roth talks with Bob Teitelman (Editor-in-Chief) and Larry Gendron (Art Director) about creating his fantastic year-end cover to The Deal magazine.



Related: a gallery of Arnie Roth's The Deal covers here.

2011 Mike Lynch Projects

Above: Mike Lynch by Mike Lynch. A self portrait of me from an old sketchbook, six years before I quit my regular day job to become a full-time freelance cartoonist. Notice the hunched shoulders. Ugh. What a time that was.

Anyway ...

Happy Birthday, Mike Lynch

Today is my birthday!

On this self-congratulatory day, I'm going with that theme, and telling you about some Mike Lynch projects out there.

You already know about my cartoon in the Wall Street Journal this past weekend.

I also have some cartoons in some of the few remaindered Barnes & Noble 2011 CAT CARTOON A DAY and DOG CARTOON A DAY calendars. (No hyperlink for these. They are unavailable online. You have to go to the B&N store. Go figure.)




On the stands this month, LAUGHTER REALLY IS THE BEST MEDICINE has lots of cartoons by me and some of my cartoonist pals (Dave Carpenter, John Caldwell, Roy Delgado, Scott Arthur Masear, Dan Reynolds and the one and only Harley Schwadron), plus many stories and quotes from Reader's Digest.



STAY TOONED Magazine has an interview with me, Mike Lynch, in issue #6, due out soon. It's editor John Read's "All Mike Issue," featuring cartoonist Mikes Arnold, Cope, Edholm, Jantze, Marland, Maslin and Shapiro. Mike Ramirez provides the cover.




Ed Breslin's memoir about how his beloved dog, Miss Dutchie, helped him deal with alcoholism, DRINKING WITH MISS DUTCHIE, is scheduled for a March, 15, 2011 release date from Macmillan. I drew the cover art, as well as the interior endpapers. I'm particularly proud of this.

In addition to all this, it's my privilege to, once again, be the 2011 National Cartoonists Society Awards Coordinator. Entries are accepted until February 6, 2011 for cartoons published in 2010. All details here.

Ernie Bushmiller Coaster

Here's a holiday gift giving idea!

The above Ernie Bushmiller coaster is part of the Society of Illustrators Notable Members Coaster Set, one of a set of six, all for $15 from the Society. "Enjoy a drink while admiring rare photos of NOTABLE MEMBERS from the Society of Illustrators archives." The high quality paperboard coaster line up includes these "gone but not forgotten" SI members:

• JON GNAGY, America’s first televised art instructor
• WALTER BAUMHOFER, Illustrator of the Doc Savage pulp series
• ERNIE BUSHMILLER, Nancy and Sluggo’s dad
• CHARLES ADDAMS, Macabre cartoonist and creator of the Addams Family
• MILTON CANIFF, Author/illustrator of the “Steve Canyon” and “Terry and the Pirates” comic strips
• TOM LOVELL, Pulps, magazines, historical, Western. He did it all superbly.

Set of six collectible coasters to impress your friends and colleagues.

NYC: Sandra Boynton's First Ever Art Show

New York City's Books of Wonder hosts Sandra Boynton's first art show. Sandra will be in NYC one day only, this Saturday from noon until 2pm, performing some songs (with Michael Ford, Keith Boynton, Graham Stone and Caitlin McEwan). She will then sign her new book, AMAZING COWS, an homage to old comic book superheroes ... and cows. So, come on in to Books of Wonder this Saturday if you are able.

Below: here she is on Fox Business, with host Robert Gray, previewing her gallery show, her timeless appeal, and talking about the future of her work.

Anton Emdin's Drawing Process

My friend Anton Emdin (who won the Best Illustration Award at the annual Stanley Awards this past November 6th) has a grand blog entry wherein he shows his sketch-to-finish process for the above piece, intriguingly titled "Schmaltzed to Death."

DR WHO Art Noveau

Above: the 11th Doctor Who's companion Amy Pond drawn in art nouveau style -- wearing, of all things, the Fourth Doctor's scarf! Hmm.

Bill Mudron has a grand collection of illustrations celebrating DR WHO.

To see all: Charlie Jane Anders at io9 has a gallery of them.

Hat tip to Life, Doctor Who and Combom.

Jack Davis Album Covers

There is so much to love in a Jack Davis drawing: the energy, those crazy caricatures, how alive those pen lines are. These are works of art to linger over in awe. The Hairy Green Eyeball blog shares some of his grand album cover art from back in the days of LPs. Go look.

Arrested for Sketching

Ram Hull draws with a forbidden fat marker in Wichita's Riverside Park on August 21, 2010. He is an illustrator for the WSU paper the Sunflower. Photo by Fernando Salazar/The Wichita Eagle.

Dateline: Wichita, Kansas:

You are an artist. You are outside, sketching. It's your job.

Then the local police see what you are doing and arrest you. You will be in jail up six months and fined up to $1,000. Hey, they are just doing their job.

As The Wichita Eagle's Tim Potter writes:

Wichita police say a new ordinance outlawing broad-tipped markers and spray paint on or near public property will give them a needed tool to fight an increasing graffiti problem. But a few days after the City Council approved the ordinance, some residents say they worry that innocent people who use the materials for legitimate purposes, such as artwork, could be fined or jailed.

Under the law, expected to receive final approval Tuesday, people are banned from having spray paint, broad-tipped markers and other potential graffiti tools on or within 100 feet of public property. Violators can be fined $250 to $1,000 and jailed for up to six months.

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/08/23/1458334/citys-graffiti-law-stirs-up-worries.html#ixzz0xQxf4Nqn

Gerald Scarfe Draws His Second Album Cover

Or do you say "CD cover" or "iTunes JPG?"

Gerald Scarfe drew the iconic cover to Pink Floyd's THE WALL. Now he's doing his second album cover.

Anyway, poet Philip Larkin is to have a record out on the 26th of this month, commemorating the 25 years since his death. Titled LARKIN'S JAZZ, this new collection (to quote Bruce Lindsay's essay at AllAboutJazz)

" ... contains 81 of the tunes that he loved and enjoyed from his early-teens, beautifully packaged with detailed essays and notes. The cover illustration is by noted cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, whose only previous album cover was Pink Floyd's The Wall."

Related: The book GERALD SCARFE: THE MAKING OF PINK FLOYD: THE WALL to be published in September 2010.


Also related: Gerald Scarfe: Heroes & Monsters at the German Museum for Caricature.

LET'S GO FOR BROKE Illustrations by George Price

Mary Lasswell's book LET'S GO FOR BROKE has some illustrations by New Yorker cartoonist George Price. Goofbutton.com shares these rarely seen images.

Hat tip to Comics Reporter!

Related: George Price: Early Years

SKETCHES FOR FRIENDS Edward Ardizzone

I don't know why, but I have always enjoyed looking at Edward Ardizzone's illustrations. Even when I was a wee tot, in the basement children's section of the Lawrence (KS) Public Library (before it got flooded in the 1970s and they built the new (now old) library), I would check out and re-check out his LITTLE TIM books.



I remember trying to figure out why I liked the drawings. Even though I was a little kid, I was still interested in what it was that made drawings "good." Maybe it was the easy, flowing ink line. Maybe it was his choice of colors. I had no idea that Ardizzone had been commissioned to paint a watercolor of the Queen's coronation or that, before that, he was Official War Artist during WWII. (During the years of the Blitz, he was once arrested as a suspected "enemy spy" by the Home Guard when caught sketching in the East End.)



In SKETCHES FOR FRIENDS, which was published in 2002, I learned that he was also a letter writer, and he adorned those letters with ink and, sometimes, watercolor.

The 2 letters above are to his granddaughter Susannah, lovingly preserved since the mid-1950s.



I now look at the letters like I did as a kid. There are the same lush watercolors and the inky characters, always in motion.



You can feel the weight in his drawings. His large caricature of himself leans a bit to the right, like a large vessel listing; while the doctor stands like a cheery martinet, tilting his head, while saying, "I pronounce you cured[.]"



The Gentleman's Lavatory, drawn in gray and yellow tones. So much action in this one! And the look on the faces -- from quietly desperate to becalmed.



Above from a 1973 letter. What a wonderful thank you note!

I urge you to seek out this book. All these years later, I still love to linger over his drawings.

Related: His MY UNCLE SILAS drawings.

Video: Gerald Scarfe and "Rude Brittania"

Related: Rude Brittania gallery show at the Tate

Related: More Gerald Scarfe video

Related: Video: Al Jazeera interview Scarfe

Video: Anton Emdin

Illustrator Anton Emdin, who is nominated for an NCS Division Award this year, talks about drawing for a living.





This video remains the property of Anton Emdin, Lew Keilar, and Illustrators Australia.

Virgil VIP Partch: Color TRUE Illustrations

My friend Ger Apeldoorn shares some long-unseen illustrations and color work from TRUE Magazine by then-cartoon editor Virgil VIP Partch.

James Stevenson: Lost and Found in New York: The Lyceum

James Stevenson contributes another in his continuing Lost and Found series for the New York Times. I enjoy these stories he tells about the history of New York City and it's my fond wish that they be collected sometime soon.

This time he writes about William Saroyan and his play "The Beautiful People," which opened in The Lyceum on 45th Street in 1945. Saroyan gave away tickets for the previews -- James, being only 11 years old, could not stand in the 1000+ person line down 45th Street to get one. But James' friend and neighbor and fellow 11 year old, David, optimistically composed and mailed Mr. Saroyan a letter asking for two of free seats. One for him and one for his friend, Jim Stevenson. Did Mr. Saroyan respond to David? Did Jimmy and David get to see their first Broadway play? Read it all here.

Ronald Searle

British cartoonist Ronald Searle turned 90 this week.

Paul Giambarba, at his 100 Years of Illustration blog, proffers a video interview with the legendary illustrator, as well samples of his work through the years. Above: a sketch recalling Searle's days in a Japanese POW camp, when he came close to death. I agree with Paul: my favorites are his illustrated comic strip pieces for Punch.

Richard Thompson, at his Cul De Sac blog, shows a piece of Searle art that he owns, and shares with us that Searle used to ink with something like furniture stain.

The Ronald Searle Blog has a lot to say, of course. This must-bookmark site has coverage of the opening night of Searle's Cartoon Museum show, as well as a wonderful tribute to Searle's drawings by movie director Mike Leigh, who says that those inky Searle lines "taught me filmmaking."


Above: one of the drawings that inspired Mike Leigh: A bar in North Berlin, 1959.

Drawn! also has a trove of Searle, via its tireless cartoonists/fans/bloggers, my friend John Martz and Ward Jenkins.

Bob Staake: From Sketch to Finish

Here is Bob Staake's "How I do a Spread."

Above is, as you can see, is his rough for WE PLANTED A TREE by Diane Muldrow, which is coming from Random House this spring.

You can also appreciate how much actual, physical pencil-on-paper drawing goes into the heart of the rough before Bob works his PhotoShop magic.

I love learning the working methods of illustrators of Bob's caliber. And I'm grateful that from time to time he will share some of his behind-the-scenes process.

Video: Ray Alma

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