Friday, September 03, 2010
John K Snyder III and Matt Wagner visit Library of Congress
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wertham papers at LoC article
Papers of anti-comic book crusader now open to scholars
By Matthew Lasar
August 30 2010
Oh, and he's got a link to an internal LoC article -
Papers of Comic-Book ‘Villain’ Open at Library
August 27th, 2010 by Matt Raymond
My colleague Erin Allen wrote the following for the Library’s in-house letter, The Gazette, and I thought it worth sharing with a wider audience:
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
My pictures of the 2010 Herblock Award
Matt Wuerker making his acceptance speech.
George Stevens Jr. speaking about his Herblock film while Frank Swoboda looks on.
Richard Thompson and Rob Rogers.
Michael Cavna and Kevin Rechin.
Nick G's friend from Greece and Richard Thompson.
Kevin Rechin, Nick's friend from Greece and the back of Nick's head.
Nick Galifianakis with his friend from Greece and Richard Thompson (in the red tie) in the background.
Matt Wuerker's contemplating the uses to which the award may be put.
Everyone wants a picture of Matt with his award.
Richard Thompson - not ALL of those drinks were his.
Kevin Rechin's STILL contemplating the award.
Kevin Rechin's now got it all - the award, the girl, the cheesy grin. It's better not to ask questions.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tomorrow: Warren Bernard lecture on Herblock at LoC
Monday, March 15, 2010
March 31: Herblock lecture by Warren Bernard
This time, I am going to lecture on his editorial independence, and get into a few battles he had with his editors. This will include showing the cartoons that even the Washington Post did not run (though indeed his syndicated papers did run them) when Herblock and the then-editor of the Post, Phil Graham went head to head. This was not the first time Herblock battled his editors; we will also get into a large battle he had prior to his coming to the Post He was an ardent anti-isolationist, much to the chagrin of the isolationist syndicate he worked for.
We will get into all of this, and show cartoons galore!!
Here are the details, hope to see you!!!
Date: Wednesday March 31
Time: Noon (that 12:00PM...)
Place: Madison Building, Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave Washington, DC
Room: Dining Room A, 6th Floor
Metro: Capitol South exit, Blue or Orange Line
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Herblock! exhibit gallery talks schedule
Gallery Talks, noon-12:30 p.m.
Wednesday, February 10
Herblock! exhibition, 2nd Floor, South Gallery, Jefferson Building
Herblock! exhibition, 2nd Floor, South Gallery, Jefferson Building
Herblock! exhibition, 2nd Floor, South Gallery, Jefferson Building
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
John M. Baer
BAER, JOHN MILLER. REP. FROM NORTH DAKOTA, 1917-1921
LC-DIG-hec-09390
Harris & Ewing Collection (Library of Congress)
BAER, JOHN MILLER. REP. FROM NORTH DAKOTA, 1917-1921
LC-DIG-hec-09389
Harris & Ewing Collection (Library of Congress)
and one drawing:
Ohio State U's Cartoon Library has 5 clipped comics by him.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Swann Fellowship applications due in 2 weeks
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/swann-fellow.html
Email swann@loc.gov if you have questions.
Herblock! speedtour post up on City Paper blog
How to Zip through "Herblock!" in 10 Minutes, Make that Meeting on the Hill
Posted by Mike Rhode on Feb. 1, 2010, at 11:50 am
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Little Nemo animation entered into Library of Congress Registry
The Library's press release says:
Little Nemo (1911)
This classic work, a mix of live action and animation, was adapted from Winsor McCay’s famed 1905 comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland." Its fluidity, graphics and story-telling was light years beyond other films made during that time. A seminal figure in both animation and comic art, McCay profoundly influenced many generations of future animators, including Walt Disney.
This is not the 1990s Japanese animation of course. Speaking of McCay, I had an original of one of his political drawings in my hands this weekend. Hoo-hah!
Another cartoon I'm not familiar with was added as well:
Quasi at the Quackadero (1975)
"Quasi at the Quackadero" has earned the term "unique." Once described as a "mixture of 1930s Van Beuren cartoons and 1960s R. Crumb comics with a dash of Sam Flax," and a descendent of the "Depression-era funny animal cartoon," Sally Cruikshank’s wildly imaginative tale of odd creatures visiting a psychedelic amusement park careens creatively from strange to truly wacky scenes. It became a favorite of the Midnight Movie circuit in the 1970s. Cruikshank later created animation sequences for "Sesame Street," the 1986 film "Ruthless People" and the "Cartoon Land" sequence in the 1983 film "Twilight Zone: The Movie."
Herblock! exhibit review
Herblock! Sara Duke, Martha Kennedy and Cynthia Wayne. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, October 13, 2009-May 1, 2010.
By the terms of Herbert “Herblock” Block’s will, the Library of Congress must mount an exhibit of his work every three years. In spite of Block’s staggering 72-year long professional career and four Pulitzer Prizes, this reviewer begins to feel a bit jaded. Fortunately, this is an excellent exhibition that is well worth seeing and is accompanied by an excellent companion book, Herblock by Haynes Johnson and Harry Katz (New York, Norton, 2009) that also has a cd of 18,000 of Block’s cartoons (produced by Warren Bernard). The occasion for the large scale of these events was Herblock’s 100th birthday.
The exhibit is in a new gallery, created recently from a reading room, and to get to it, one has to walk through a recreation of Thomas Jefferson’s library – a highlight for any book lover. The curators (who are my friends) cleverly chose 82 original drawings that have not bee on display before. These are out of the 14,460 cartoons and 250,000 roughs he left to the library. They also added the twelve books of his cartoons that Block published in his lifetime. These copies, unlike the ones originally added to the Library, have their dustjackets because they are a recent donation to the Prints and Photographs division from the Herb Block Foundation.
The exhibit opens with a précis of who Block was and includes some of his iconic images such as the footsteps leading from the Watergate break-in to Nixon’s White House. “The Approaching Perils” covers his early years. One can see Block’s early typical Midwestern cartoonist style using pen and ink – a style that is unrecognizable to us as Herblock. This style soon gives way to his familiar use of heavy crayon or graphite lines. Some notable works were “Winged Victory” (1938) in which he quoted the sculpture from Samothrace, and “What ‘Peace Now’ Would Mean” (1940) in which he showed Hitler armed with a machine gun and sitting on the globe.
Other sections were “Psychopathic Ward” on the Depression, fascism and World War II, “White is Black, Black is White, Night is Day—“ on the Cold War, “Naughty, Naughty” on McCarthyism, “Everything’s [Not] Okay” on the 1960s, “Here He Comes Now” on Richard Nixon, “It Gets Into Everything” on the 1970s and terrorism, “Joy to the World” on Ronald Reagan, “Closing Years, Contrasting Styles of Leadership” on Clinton and the elder George Bush, and “Classic Cartoons by a Master” to catch anything that might have been missed.
One could easily select favorite drawings from each section – my notebook is full of notations such as “Man’s Reach” (1968) in which he drew, apropos of Apollo 8, a white hand with its finger and thumb meeting to encircle the moon on top of a black layer covering most of the paper. By the end of his life, and thus the end of the exhibit, Block’s ability was slipping somewhat and the images are covered with Avery labels and ink redrawings. “Creationism or Evolution – That’s Up to the States” has Bush’s head reworked and pasted on, but the final image in print would have looked fine.
During the press tour Harry Katz noted that in the future “you’re not going to see cartoons on the wall – newspapers are changing” and “With Herblock missing, we need to get the voice of the cartoonist out there and revitalizing the art form” – two sentiments that most readers of IJOCA (and this blog!) can agree with and hope for the best.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
That darn Herblock!
Library of Congress Spins Lefty Cartoonist Herblock as an 'Independent Spirit'
By Scott Whitlock
Newsbusters November 23, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Library of Congress' Poetry site appreciates Archie
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Progress in the Library of Congress' grand scheme of things
Unlike Moses, I may get to see the Promised Land.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Library of Congress serials chief mentions comic books
The 3-minute interview: Mark Sweeney
Washington Examiner Staff Writer
November 1, 2009
“I'm responsible for a division of about 50 people who work with the library's newspaper collection, our current periodicals, government publications and the library's comic book collection.”
The world is changing…
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Herblock exhibit covered by Tom Sherwood
He interviews my friends Martha Kennedy and Sara Duke, and you get a good sense of what the exhibit looks like.
ABC has a text story on the exhibit - "Herblock: Cartoonist Who Coined 'McCarthyism' Honored at Library of Congress; Master of Editorial Cartooning: Herbert Block Cartoons on Display," By LINDSEY ELLERSON, Oct. 13, 2009.
As does the sadly-diminished Syndicate World section of Editor and Publisher - "Library of Congress Opens 'Herblock!' Exhibit," By Elaine Williams, E& P Online October 13, 2009.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
October 20: Chinese cartoonist and caricaturist Ding Cong at Library of Congress
Chinese cartoonist and caricaturist Ding Cong To comprehend a tumultuous history like that of twentieth century China, we can benefit greatly from the acute observations of a creative artist active during the period. Ding Cong (1916-2009), until recently China’s most famous living cartoonist and artist, offers that perspective. The Library of Congress and George Mason University are sponsoring a one day symposium and exhibition showing Ding Cong’s life and work. The morning conference at the Library of Congress will include speakers intimately familiar with Ding’s life and work. In the afternoon, the Mason Gallery at GMU will display 50 cartoons and artwork and include more commentary. These events will celebrate the life and works of this artist whose cogent insights illuminate China’s volatile century. October 20, 2009 Conference: 8: 30 a.m. - Noon Exhibition: 1:45 p.m. – 4: 30 p.m. |
Marcia Ristaino
Researcher
Kluge Center for Scholars
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540
Email: mris@loc.gov
"Herblock!" Opens Oct. 13
Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington DC 20540
September 17, 2009
Public contact: Sara Duke (202) 707-3630, sduk@loc.gov
Martha Kennedy (202) 707-9115, mkenn@loc.gov
"Herblock!"
New Exhibition at Library of Congress Opens Oct. 13
He was a fearless crusader who condemned corruption and exposed injustice, inequality and immorality. Artfully and effectively wielding his pen, he influenced public opinion and jarred the lives of many elected officials. He was Herblock, the master of editorial cartooning.
The Library of Congress will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Herbert L. Block, widely known as Herblock, with an exhibition that looks at his entire 72-year career, which began in 1929 under President Herbert Hoover and concluded in 2001 during the presidency of George W. Bush.
"Herblock!" opens on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the birthday of the four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, and runs through Saturday, May 1, 2010. The exhibition is free and open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday (closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day), in the second-floor South Gallery of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.
A companion book, "HERBLOCK: The Life and Works of the Great Political Cartoonist" has been published by the Library of Congress and the Herb Block Foundation, in association with W.W. Norton & Co. Written by Haynes Johnson and Harry L. Katz, the 304-page hardcover book features a DVD that contains more than 18,000 cartoons. (The authors will discuss the book from noon to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15, in the Library's James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.) Arranged chronologically, the book illustrates the influence of history on Block's work as well as his influence on historical events as they unfolded.
The exhibition is organized similarly, with a chronological layout. The sections include: Herblock's early years, under the title "The Approaching Perils"; the rise of fascism and World War II, "Psychopathic Ward"; the Cold War, "White is Black, Black is White, Night is Day—"; McCarthyism, "Naughty, Naughty"; the 1960s, "Everything's [Not] Okay"; Richard Nixon, "Here He Comes Now"; the 70s and terrorism, "It Gets Into Everything"; Ronald Reagan, "Joy to the World"; Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, "Closing Years, Contrasting Styles of Leadership"; and some special pieces, "Classic Cartoons by a Master."
The 82 original drawings in this exhibition are new to the walls of the Library—they have never been previously displayed. The cartoons have been selected from the Library's Herb Block Collection, with a few iconic drawings loaned from the Washington Post collection. In 2002, the foundation donated Block's archive to the Library, and the collection includes more than 14,000 finished cartoons, in addition to preliminary sketches, files and manuscripts. The Library mounted displays of Herblock's work in 2000, 2003 and 2006.
Born in Chicago on Oct. 13, 1909, Block began his career as a professional cartoonist in 1929, working for the Chicago Daily News and the Newspaper Enterprise Association Service. In 1946, he joined the Washington Post, where he remained for 55 years until his death in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 7, 2001. Block won Pulitzer Prizes in 1942, 1954 and 1979. He shared a fourth Pulitzer with Washington Post colleagues for coverage of the Watergate scandal in 1973.
To view the Herblock collection on the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, visit http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/hlbhtml/hlbabt.html.
Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library's rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.
# # #
PR09-169
9/17/09
ISSN: 0731-3527
Saturday, August 15, 2009
William Gropper and a Semi- Secret History of Comics
I ran across the above at a flea market recently. Gropper sounded familiar, so I picked it up.
According to William Gropper Papers: An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University, Gropper was a leftist cartoonist, but he apparently had to make a living like everyone else and the library has a clippings file of:
New York American 1934, undated - includes Robert Benchley columns (2 folders)
I assume this drawing is for Benchley's column, but when Benchley's collection My Ten Years in a Quandry, and How They Grew came out, it was illustrated by the great Gluyas Williams. So my guess, and it's just a guess, is that nobody's really seen Gropper's illustrations for Benchley since they were done. In the book, one can find The Rule of 87, doubtless the work of fanatical reformers, is as follows: "One twin birth occurs to approximately 87 single births; one triplet to about 7,569 singles (87 squared); one quadruplet to about 658,503 singles (87 cubed); one quintuplet to about 57 million singles (87 to fourth power); one sextuplet to about five billion singles (87 to fifth power)". that's the rule. That's what we are supposed to abide by, whether we want to or not.
I'm sure modern fertility drugs have completely changed the rule.
This post benefited greatly from the help of Sara Duke of the Library of Congress. A search of the Library of Congress collections brings up 34 pieces by Gropper - to see them, go to http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pphome.html and type in "William Gropper".