ComicsDC profiled in GW Hatchet, OR, Tooting my own horn

Mike Rhode at the Library of Congress,
photograph by Erin Shea of the GW Hatchet

I was the subject of a profile in today's George Washington University's Hatchet as an alumnus with too much time on his hands, I think. Both the author Megan Marinos, and the photographer Erin Shea, were very pleasant and professional and I'm pleased at the way this turned out (although Hogan's Alley is an actual magazine that will send you a paper copy if you send them money).

International Journal of Comic Art TOC

When I posted on the new issue being available, a comment was left asking about the table of contents. John is in Thailand, interviewing cartoonists, so I just scanned the pages and provide them here - you can click on them to make them readable. It can be ordered by sending a check or international money order for $15 / issue or $30 for the year to John Lent/IJOCA, 669 Ferne Blvd, Drexel Hill, PA 19026. Tell him Mike sent you.

Cartoon America "Why No Trudeau?" answered

Co-curator Sara Duke kindly wrote to me this morning to answer the question posed to me by a visitor to the exhibition.

Mike,

The question of "Why no...?" in Cartoon America, I think is especially true of the comic strip section of the exhibition, because people are passionate about their favorite artists and strips. We could not display all the best comic strips that have been produced since 1895 when the Yellow Kid first made his appearance in the Sunday newspapers. There are simply too many. We selected highlights from the wide range of cartoon art Art Wood collected to provide people with an overview to the collection and introduce the casual visitor to cartoon art in general.

Art Wood compiled a brilliant selection of comic strips by the greatest artists, and for some of the creators the depth of his collecting was magnificent. Repeat visitors to the Library of Congress exhibitions can expect to see cartoon art from the Art Wood collection for years to come.

Qualified researchers may view original works of art in the Art Wood Collection by applying for "Access to Unprocessed Collections" (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/info/022_unpr.html). We make every effort to serve researchers in a timely manner. Some 500 drawings from over 36,000 original drawings that Mr. Wood sold and donated to the Library of Congress are available (as thumbnails) through the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC): http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

While there is one comic strip drawing Trudeau in Art Wood's collection, it was not selected for exhibition. However, Mr. Trudeau has been extremely generous to the Library of Congress over the years. The Library featured the work of Garry Trudeau in 1986 in an Oval Gallery exhibition "Comics that Bite: Doonesbury and Pogo." The press clippings in the file are limited to announcements, but based on the hard copy text, Bernard Reilly, Jr., the curator emphasized the political nature and social satire in the dialogue as well as the distinctive style of the art.

Both Doonesbury and Pogo have been processed into the Prints & Photographs "Cartoon Drawing" filing series. 86 original works by Garry Trudeau are described in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, but of course the thumbnails for those works that have been reproduced are impossible to read. There are 115 original drawings by Walt Kelly described in PPOC, and these too, are represented off campus by impossibly small gif files. Why? Because the Library of Congress is dedicated to protecting copyright. We do welcome researchers who wish to view the originals.

Sara W. Duke
Curator, Popular & Applied Graphic Art
Prints & Photographs Division
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540-4730

(202) 707-3630 - voice
(202) 707-6647 - fax
sduk@loc.gov
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/

Items of interest in the weekend's papers

The Sunday Post Book World has three comics bits. In their
best books of the year, not one comic made it although under fiction we find - Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders, by Neil Gaiman (Morrow). Gaiman writes in different registers: comedy, satire, pastiche, deadpan, lyrical or whimsical, but almost invariably dark. -- Graham Joyce

Dennis Drabble did pick the new Popeye reprint from Fantagraphics as one of the top 10 gift books though. And Michael Dirda gave a great review to Neil Gabler's new biography of Walt Disney.

And the Letters section is always fun, with this printed on Saturday - Drawing Disgust: The Post has achieved a new low. The Nov. 25 Drawing Board cartoon on the op-ed page concerning contraception and a presidential "withdrawal plan" was truly disgusting. Enough said. -- Nancy Copeland, Manassas
I'll have to hunt around a bit to see if I can find the 'truly disgusting' cartoon - The Drawing Board is the weekly reprint of 3-4 syndicated cartoons.

Webcomics snuck into an article on Wikipedia on Sunday - "Andrew Klein kept an eye on the drubbing given to an entry about "Cake Pony," a Web comic strip that he writes and illustrates with his girlfriend, Lauren Wong. The editors questioned the strip's notability and huffed that Klein had written the piece himself, a major strike against." For those wondering, Mr. Klein's entry did not survive.

Meanwhile over in the Times, Hellboy toys were described in "Star Wars action figures hit right note for season" by Joseph Szadkowski. The Express's Scott Rosenberg recommended the Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition" DVD set and "The Marvel Encyclopedia" on Friday, while the Examiner ran Afton Woodward's review of "The Animaniacs vol. 2" DVD. I didn't watch the show, but the conclusion, "Comparable only to the classics and unsurpassed in wit and intelligence, 'The Animaniacs' just might be the last great modern children's cartoon" is unsupportable to me. I think we're in a new golden age of television animation now.

In actual comic strips, "Prickly City" was drawn most of the week in manga style by Sarah White as Scott Stantis recovers from surgery. Saturday's Post had a couple of interesting strips - "Zippy" appears as though it might go autobiographical again - I find these to be among Griffith's most interesting strips. And Richard Thompson returned with a December calendar cartoon, although not online. In the Post's Sunday comics, one could find a few interesting bits. Today's "Mutts" was a loving tribute to Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo." And Berke Breathed's Opus skirted on the edge of the Danish Islam cartoon controversy. And the "Spider-Man Collectible Series vol. 16" distributed in Saturday's Examiner had a cover by Frenz and Milgrom which must have been done for a previous reprint since neither of them work for Marvel anymore.

Cartoon America photographs

I went back yesterday to view the exhibit again so I could write an International Journal of Comic Art review, and also to have my picture taken for an article that should run tomorrow (not that I had anything to do with this exhibit). Boy, Art Wood had an amazing collection. As to the question, "Why no Trudeau?" that was posed to me in the exhibit, I'm researching that (well asking curators Martha Kennedy and Sara Duke) and will get back to you. The Library also has a fine full-color brochure and checklist for the exhibit that's well worth picking up.

So here's some pictures to hold you until the Library gets its own website up.

Illustration
Cruickshank

Kley

Nell Brinkley (and an unfortunately phallic Washington Monument the girls are descending towards).

Vernon Grant, creator of Snap! Crackle! and Pop! elves

Johnny Gruelle

Flagg

Political cartoons
Nast
Political cartoons

Rube Goldberg

Clifford Berryman, Washington cartoonist and creator of the Teddy Bear

Caricature
KAL

Richard Thompson, now with the Washington Post

Animation


Popeye closeup.

Gag cartoons


Comic Strips

Washington Post doesn't censor comic!

Dave Astor reported that newspapers were given an advance warning that "Pearls Before Swine" used the phrase...

...wait for it...

...'BITE ME' on December 2 in case newspapers wanted to pull the strip. Amazingly enough, the censorship-heavy Post ran the strip - if anyone cares, I'll try to dig up the cases where they did censor the comics.

Believe it or not!

Diffee followup - Mankoff interview

Diffee's also posted an interview with Mankoff on his own blog -
Robert Mankoff Interview: Part One, 11.15.2006 and Robert Mankoff Interview: Part Two, 11.27.2006.

Bill Plympton animation at E Street Cinema

According to Arion Berger in the 11/30 Express, Bill Plympton provided animation for the film "F-ck: A Documentary" which is playing at the E Street Cinema at 555 11st St, NW as of today.

Plympton is one of the great twisted cartoonists of our time. He's got a few books out as well.

Matt Diffee at Politics and Prose

Despite some audiovisual problems which led to us not seeing cartoons rejected from The Rejection Collection, Matt Diffee gave a fun and interesting talk tonight. While A/V concerns were being addressed, he talked a bit about being a New Yorker cartoonist, noting that cartoon editor Bob Mankoff recommends bringing in 10 cartoons a week. The cartoonists bring the cartoons in on Tuesday, Mankoff chooses some and shows them to editor Remnick, and if the magazine buys them, one gets a telephone call on Thursday. The best a cartoonist can hope for is one cartoon chosen - a 90% rejection rate if at the 'absolute top of the game.'

Diffee then showed a short film he made, "Being Bob," in which Bob Mankoff rejects every cartoon he's shown, then rejects every sandwich offered for lunch, then rejects a cab, and then, years later, has a successful transplant operation, if... his body doesn't reject it. Mankoff had some fun there obviously.

A question about the caption contest led Diffee to describe the process. He said the contest lets the magazine accept and reject the cartoon at the same time. They get about 9000 submissions for the contest. His first cartoon they bought for the contest was a boa constrictor wrapped around a man's date - his caption (or a reasonable facsimile submission) was chosen as a runner-up. Another time his caption did win.

He also talked about his cartoon of Che Guevara wearing a Bart Simpson t-shirt and said it grew out of seeing people in Brooklyn wearing Che t-shirts. Answering a question about the New Yorker's cartoon stable, he said there were about 50 cartoonists, but about 15 do the most cartoons.

A child asked him if he was frustrated - he replied that he's been drawing cartoons for them for 7 years. The first 2 years he was paying his dues, but the 3rd year he was frustrated. Now he recommends just being cynical as easier on everyone.

He had to leave for another event, but even so he was personalizing each book with a cartoon as you can see here. The Washington Post should cover this later in the week since Peter Carlson and a photographer were present. It'll be much better written and more interesting then, so I'll link to it.

The bird and the poop are added to the title page's facing drawing.

The man with the rejection stamp is drawn anew.
And mine - Duck!

Comics articles in today's papers

The Examiner has a review of a Superman Returns videogame. The Express has an Associated Press article about the new chain of Dagwood restaurants.

Nov 30 - Booksigning Matt Diffee REPOST

Diffee will be at Politics and Prose for The Rejection Collection of cartoons the New Yorker wouldn't buy and it's a pick of the City Paper which came out last week.

I'll be there - anybody else?

Historical note: 1966 Cavalcade of American Comics exhibit updated

I was recently talking to Joel Pollack of Big Planet Comics about chalk talks he saw as a child at the Smithsonian. Since I'm an archivist, I corresponded with their archivist to see if the talks had perhaps been filmed.

Smithonian Archives' Assistant Archivist Ellen Alers responded,

"Chalk Talks" (nine in all) were held in the auditorium at the then Museum of History and Technology (what later became the National Museum of American History). These accompanied the exhibition titled, "Cavalcade of American Comics" that was on display at the Museum of History and Technology, May 2 - July 6, 1966. The exhibit was co-sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington Evening Star, and Washington Post newspapers.

Cartoonists who gave these talks included: Chester Gould, Allen Saunders, Alfred Andriola, Walt Kelly, Al Capp, Stan Drake, John Liney, Milton Caniff, and Hal Foster.

There is one box containing material from this exhibition and it is Record Unit 334, box 23. It is stored off-site so you'll need to give at least one week's notice before visiting.

I think I will take her up on that and perhaps do a short article for the International Journal of Comic Art at some point. Did anyone else see this show? If so, please leave a comment.

Joel's friend Charlie Roberts contributed his memories of attending:

Due to my work schedule I could only go to the Capp and Caniff talks. A few anecdotes. Al Capp was going to the car afterwards with Art Buchwald. He was pretty grouchy, and wouldn't sign an autograph but Buchwald said "Aw Al, sign the autograph for the kid" and Capp begrudgingly signed . I thanked Art, and Thank him again today (!) Caniff gave a chalk talk, and couldn't have been nicer on and off the stage. I talked to him afterwards about getting a drawing, and he gave me his address. I wrote him, and he sent me the original art to a Steve Canyon daily strip. My First original, inscribed and dated June 1966 ( yes, I still have it!), which led to a lifelong collecting interest in original art as well as appreciation for Caniff art and the artist himself. Caniff was the ultimate Goodwill Cartoonist Ambassador. I met collector Joe Goggin at the event, and within a year or so found out about Comic Fa! ndom, Pa flea markets (and Ted Hake!), Abe Paskow and others . 40 years ago seems like a long time, but also seems like a twinkle in a collectors eye.

7/2020 update by Stuart McIntire:

These creators made twice-daily appearances (10:30am and 2:30pm) Alfred Andriola on 5/14, Walt Kelly on 5/21, Chester Gould on 5/28, Leonard Starr on 6/4, Al Capp on 6/11, Stan Drake on 6/18, John Liney on 6/25, and Al Smith on 7/2. Other cartoonists who made appearances at the exhibit were Allen Saunders on 5/7, Milton Caniff on 5/19, and Johnny Hart and Brant Parker on 5/26. The designer of the exhibit was John Clendenning. 

I never did go down to see that box of records... Somebody remind me after covid-19, please.

This week's new comics list from Big Planet Comics

Courtesy of Big Planet Comics, Washingtonian's pick for Best Comics Store.

New comics arriving this WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29TH (Updated I checked. They'll be in on Wednesday, but shelved late. BP estimates 4 pm.)

DC COMICS
52 WEEK #30
AMERICAN VIRGIN #9
AQUAMAN #46
BATMAN #659
BATMAN/THE SPIRIT
CROSSING MIDNIGHT #1
DEATHBLOW #2
EX MACHINA VOL. 4 TP
FLASH #6
GREEN LANTERN #15
GREEN LANTERN: REVENGE OF THE GREEN LANTERNS HC
GUY GARDNER: COLLATERAL DAMAGE #1
ION #8
LOVELESS #13
RUSH CITY #3
SUPERMAN BATMAN #30
TEEN TITANS #41
TEEN TITANS: GO #37
WARLORD #10
WETWORKS #3

MARVEL COMICS
AVENGERS: GALACTIC STORM VOL. 2 TP
AVENGERS: NEXT #2
BLACK PANTHER #22
CAPTAIN AMERICA #24
ESSENTIAL MAN-THING VOL. 1 TP
FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #14
IMMORTAL IRON FIST #1
NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF HATE #10
ONSLAUGHT REBORN #1
POWERS #21
PUNISHER #41
PUNISHER VOL. 6 TP
PUNISHER XMAS SPECIAL
SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #32
SPIDER-MAN FAMILY FEATURING SPIDER CLAN
STAN LEE MEETS DR. DOOM
ULTIMATE POWER #2
ULTIMATE VISION #0
WHAT IF: WOLVERINE ENEMY OF THE STATE
X-MEN #193
ZOMBIE #3

INDYVILLE
ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY VOL. 17 HC
ARMY OF DARKNESS #12
CASTLE WAITING VOL. II #3
COMICS JOURNAL #279
CONAN: SONGS OF THE DEAD #5
CONAN: BOOK OF THOTH TP
DH BOOK OF MONSTERS HC
ELEPHANTMEN #0
GHOST IN THE SHELL 1.5 #2
GOON VOL. 5 TP
NOBLE CAUSES VOL. 6 TP
RAGMOP TP
SAVAGE DRAGON #130
SPAWN #162
STAR WARS: LEGACY #6
TALENT #4
TRANSFORMERS: ESCALATION #1
TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD #2
VERONICA #176
WHISPER #1
ZOMBIES VS. ROBOTS #1

PLANET PICKS
52 WEEK #30
BATMAN/THE SPIRIT
CROSSING MIDNIGHT #1
GUY GARDNER: COLLATERAL DAMAGE #1
IMMORTAL IRON FIST #1
NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF HATE #10
PUNISHER #41
ULTIMATE POWER #2

Howard University cartoonist Cory Thomas profiled

The North Carolina News and Observer just picked up Cory Thomas' "Watch Your Head" strip as did the Washington Post a few weeks ago. The Observer's profile of Thomas, an engineering student at Howard University, quotes Thomas as saying his main character "Cory isn't really me. He's kind of an exaggerated version of me," he says from his home just outside of Washington. "He's a lot nerdier, a lot wimpier."

Thanks to the Daily Cartoonist for the tip.

Sean Delonas booksigning

Sean Delonas and his son Ryan signed their new children's book, Scuttle's Big Wish today at Aladinn's Lamp bookstore in Arlington. Sean is the New York Post's cartoonist for Page Six. Ryan's a ten-year old who tells stories. The two collaborated on Scuttle, a retelling of King Midas, which was picked up by HarperCollins. Sean painted each page in oil (see the photo of two of the paintings) and each took about 100 hours to complete. With revisions, the whole book took about four years, but they've got two more in the pipeline now. Sean told me that he got started in cartoons when his friend Bay Rigby at the NY Post took a break and recommended him as a replacement. Sean's website, linked above, has plenty of examples of his cartoons.

The bookstore had them sign some extra copies which should be available. (They also had signed copies of Mo Willems' You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons: The World on One Cartoon a Day.)



Ryan (seated with cheese hat) and Sean Delonas (standing with cheese tie)


Sean Delonas



Ryan Delonas



Two original oils for the book.

Hirschfeld original at National Postal Museum

Although you can't tell from their annoyingly incomplete website, the new exhibit Trailblazers and Trendsetters shows 76 pieces of original artwork commissioned for stamps, including Al Hirschfeld's Laurel and Hardy. The exhibit runs from now until next October.

A few bits and pieces from the papers

Catching up with some from the holidays, in the Washington Post we found:

Thursday's Holiday Issue magazine, which in addition to having food photos by my friend Lisa Cherkasky, also had an article illustrated by Kevin Pope. Pope became familiar to us DC types last year when he did a series of illustration ads for an IT firm that ran regularly in the Express. Barry Blitt had a political cartoon on the last page, "All I Want for Christmas: Young Elites and Their Holiday Wishes" that poked fun at some of the politicians and chattering classes. This was reminiscent of his work for Entertainment Weekly of a few years ago. Neither of these appear to be online.

The Examiner had the free Spider-Man reprint comic book today, although it was hard to find the paper. Reprinting a bit of Amazing Spider-Man #7, it features a new cover by Olivier and Morales. Yesterday, the paper ran a couple of articles on comics. One was a review of the videogame based on Avatar the Last Airbender cartoon, and the second was an AP article "Too Many 'Toons?" which strikes me as stupid. Nobody complains about too many sitcoms.

Upon reading the Post it appears Richard Thompson is on vacation (in any event the website is weeks behind). "Cartoonist Held After Siege at Miami Paper" details José Varela's inappropriate attempts to reform publishing. And they mention an exhibit at the Postal Museum that I'll post separately on.

While out of our purvey officially, the NY Times has been going gangbusters with comics articles. Yesterday they had a review of the new exhibit of African comics in Harlem and today, articles on DC Comics' new line for girls and an another article on the editorial cartoonist in FL going crazy and occupying a newsroom. Skipping past that last one quickly, they also ran one of James Stevenson's excellent "Lost and Found New York" pieces of cartoon journalism - this time burlesque.

Big Planet Comics named best by Washingtonian

Washingtonian Magazine named Big Planet Comics the best comics store in their 'Best of' December issue. The twenty-year old chain was founded by Joel Pollack, and his grinning face may be seen with a copy of Creepy in the photogaph accompanying the article. As someone who's been shopping at Big Planet for 20 years, I say, "Hear, hear!"

Nov 30 - Booksigning - Matt Diffee

at Politics and Prose for The Rejection Collection of cartoons the New Yorker wouldn't buy and it's a pick of the City Paper which came out early this week.

The National Lampoon did at least one similar collection too.

Tom Toles online archive

This may be old news, actually it is old news, but it bears repeating. All of Tom Toles' cartoons for the Post since 2003 are online. But in addition to the version we see published in the paper, he has also been posting his sketches for the day's cartoon since August 2005 - which may or may not be what finally gets drawn. I think this is still a rare peek into a top cartoonist's working process.