Friday, July 29, 2011

Long Island Museum Cartoon Class

The week long cartoon classes at the Long Island Museum are winding down. I have had the privilege of teaching cartooning for the past five years. Here are a few of the many, many drawings that this year's talented students have produced:








Monday, July 25, 2011

On the Road

I was going to write "Vacation," but that's wrong. I'll be busy with cartoon classes and meetings in New York. The blog, though, may or may not be on vacation during this time. Regardless, have a grand week.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

HE DREW, SHE DREW Gallery Show


Rochester, NH: Last week for the HE DREW, SHE DREW original cartoon exhibit featuring Mike Lynch (that's me) and Stephanie Piro.

Friday, July 22, 2011

1970 Sergio Aragones Interview



From Cartoonist PROfiles #7, August 1970. Interview by Jud Hurd, photos by Jim Ruth. Art copyright 1970 E.C. Publications, Inc.

This early issue of PROfiles sports a gorgeous Aragones wraparound cover of the fantasy and reality of MAD Magazine back in the day when it was selling millions.



























Thursday, July 21, 2011

More HE DREW, SHE DREW 3

Here are the last of the HE DREW SHE DREW cartoons, with me doing the male set up on the left hand side and my friend Stephanie Piro providing the female point-of-view zinger on the right. These roughs were originally drawn for a proposed series. More here, here and here.






Wednesday, July 20, 2011

CHINA'S GOT TALENT Winner Wants to Be a "Cartoonist Who Can Dance"

Hey, here's video of the 2011 winner of CHINA'S GOT TALENT, Zhuojun. Yes, I didn't know that there was a CHINA'S GOT TALENT show either, but the point is that there is one and that this fellow won.

And, now that you've won -- what are you going to do now, Zhuojen?

He's gonna be a cartoonist.

Xu Junqian, writing for the China Daily, has the background:

"I was surfing the Web in an Internet bar when someone showed me a clip of Michael Jackson's music video, Dangerous," Zhuo recalls.

"It was like my body was electrified. I've never forgotten the rhythms and moves."




But, after the TV spotlight and the awards and fame ... he's going to draw instead. From the China Daily article "A Dream In Motion:"


"All kinds of people have been calling me, asking what I'd do if I won. I just want to show my dances to people in my hometown and go back to school at the end of summer."

He plans to become a cartoonist after graduation, and stay out of the entertainment industry.

"It's too complicated, and I don't need that much money," Zhuo says.
"I'll be a cartoonist who can dance. That's all."

Zhuo's prize from the show is a year's use of a Peugeot car. He plans to give every one of his village's 70 residents a ride, he says, even though he can't drive.

Video: Lost 1926 MUTT AND JEFF Silent "Playing With Fire"



Thanks to who adds:  
I am very extremely proud to showing a recently found long-lost oldest 35mm cartoon classic starring Mutt and Jeff. I bought it from the States thru eBay few years ago, but I've not joined YouTube during at that time. But it is the big opportunity to expressing my discovery of the lost films and here's the one that is awaiting for the YouTube presentation. This public-domain B/W 35mm film is Nitrate element, and is very dangerous to be projected by a conventional 35mm movie projector (due to the excessive screening light which is very deadly) and left the theatrical-released film almost unscathed which is widely unseen for more than 80 years. Nowadays, very few Mutt and Jeff cartoon shorts is existed today, most notably it can be found on DVDs, but doesn't mentioned about this newly-founded 1,000 ft film, 'Playing With Fire'. I used my 35mm Steenbeck editing machine to playback this lost film along with low-stressing projection light which is major recommendation for Nitrate films. Watch this nice animated-paced funny masterpiece to experience yourself at the focusing element of the lost film classics. Rated far much better than Walt Disney's 'Steamboat Willie' (1928) which is two years away.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

eBay Sale Ends Today


EDIT: Everything sold out. Thanks! I'll be putting more up for sale very soon.

Selling a few cartoony things on eBay, including 


  • Cartoonist PROfiles
  • Plastic Man hardcover
  • Superman stamps
  • Manga lots (Scott Pilgrim, Monster, Deathnote, Nana, etc.)
  • Jordan Crane
  • Milton Caniff/Jules Feiffer
  • Old gag cartoon mags & books

Video: AQUARIUS TV Show 14 August 1971

Also titled HOW TO HIT AN ANT WHEN ITS NOT LOOKING.

Never saw this before. This is a rare look at couple of great British comedians, Eric Idle and John Cleese, in a London Weekend spoof of a football telecast. It begins at about the one minute mark. This is classic Python-era Idle & Cleese.



Thank you to MrDazeBear.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Garden As of Mid-July 2011


Above: the vegetable garden: a series of raised beds ... going crazy.

The garden is out of control. The tomato plants are as tall as I am. The cucumbers -- there are five plants -- produce about one cucumber for each plant per day. The peppers are doubling in size every night.



Above are the strawberries. No longer producing fruit, this aggressive plant, whose aim is to take over the garden, the lawn, the driveway with its strawberry empire, needs to be cut back. I know, I know. Strawberries are so sweet and delicious! Who could believe they want to dominate the world? Who could hate them? Looks can be deceiving, bud!


Above: the dense thicket of tomatoes. I've never seen tomatoes so tall, so leafy and so many flowers. They're over five feet tall now. This time next month, I'm going to be making sauce like Chef Boyardee.


The yellow squash, getting tall and blooming its large yellow flowers. Last month, this was a raised bed of dirt. The sweet potatoes did not sprout. Ah well. There's always 2012.



Foreground: last days for the lettuce, just now beginning to get tall (and when it gets tall, it blooms and gets bitter).  Background: the cucumbers and peppers. The cucumbers are climbing OUT not UP, despite the trestle. Like the tomatoes, they are dense and bushy. They are now producing enough for each cat in the house to have his/her own cucumber a day. If only there were tuna flavored cucumbers.

I'll end this gardening blog entry with some shots of the lilies in the flower garden, and the mysterious purple globe flowers that I have NO IDEA what they are. But ain't they pretty?







Even the birds garden: sunflowers blooming under the feeder. Taken at sundown over the raised garden beds.

Related:
The Garden As of July 1, 2011
The Garden As of Mid-June 2011

 

Friday, July 15, 2011

Video: Lynn Johnston Talk at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, Sunday, March 27 2011

Interview: Cartoonist Wilbur Dawbarn


Above: a cartoon by Wilbur Dawbarn from Private Eye.

UK cartoonist Wilbur Dawbarn talks to The Bucks Free Press' Rebecca Cain about his career.

“You have got to persevere- you have really got to come to terms with rejection as a cartoonist.

“When you become more established you still get rejected on a regular basis. There are so many people producing cartoons for so few slots.”

The rest is here.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

COLLIER'S COLLECTS ITS WITS: 66 Cartoonist Self-Portraits

COLLIER'S COLLECTS ITS WITS is a large trade paperback from 1941, which may make it the first trade paperback. As the cover splash says, the book contains

339 colossal cartoons by
103 extraordinary artists
 enthusiastically edited by
GURNEY WILLIAMS
with 66 life stories and 66
devastating self-caricatures

It's the self-caricatures that I wanted to post. Here are a few highlights:

Reamer Keller:



Charles Addams:

Syd Hoff:


Helen Hokinson:


And, below, are the 66 stories and caricatures of some of the great COLLIER'S cartoonists:



























Above: the back cover.