Mitch has given me permission to reproduce this from his Facebook page. I love the fact that he's given this great collection to a cartoon archives.
Earlier this summer I decided that it was time for me to donate my most prized possession, my cartoonist sketchbook, to an appropriate institution. I started collecting drawings from cartoonists I liked and admired back in 1972. The book has drawings by many greats who are no longer with us, Hal Foster, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jeff Jones, Vaughn Bode, Roy G. Krenkel, Roy Crane, Alfredo Alcala, Ernie Chan (aka Chua), Joe Kubert, Joe Orlando, Jerry Robinson, Bill Gallo, Paul Conrad and Spain Rodriguez.
Earlier this summer I decided that it was time for me to donate my most prized possession, my cartoonist sketchbook, to an appropriate institution. I started collecting drawings from cartoonists I liked and admired back in 1972. The book has drawings by many greats who are no longer with us, Hal Foster, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jeff Jones, Vaughn Bode, Roy G. Krenkel, Roy Crane, Alfredo Alcala, Ernie Chan (aka Chua), Joe Kubert, Joe Orlando, Jerry Robinson, Bill Gallo, Paul Conrad and Spain Rodriguez.
Many more are, happily, still with us and include Marie Severin, Ralph Reese, Steve Bissette, Al Jaffee, Arnold Roth, Robert and Aline Crumb (in a "jam"), Walt Simonson, Howard Chaykin, Gilbert Shelton, Matt Groening, Berke Brethead, Batton Lash, Bobby London, Jen Sorensen, Kelly Bastow, Neal Adams, Roberta Gregory, Jules Feiffer, Jeff Smith, Wendy Pini, Steve Kelly, all three of Los Bros Hernandez and last, but by no means least, among many, many more, the greatest living cartoonist, Sergio Aragones.
I obtained the final two contributions to the sketchbook from Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffith at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus - CXC, and it was donated soon after, to the Billy Ireland Library and Cartoon Museum at Ohio State, the premier repository and most solid institution dedicated to cartoon art in the US. The picture below is of me and the incomparable Lucy Caswell, the heart and soul of the library/museum, going through the sketchbook one last time. I hope all of the drawings in it will be available online. Thanks to all the cartoonists who, through the last 40+ years, have given me the gift of their art.
You can never really own art, you are lucky if you have the privilege to be its custodian for a while. I have been tremendously lucky. I'm also lucky to have Peggy, as my wife. The sketchbook would easily sell for tens of thousand$, but it would be broken up and sold piecemeal. When it comes to doing the right thing, there's none better than my wife.
I obtained the final two contributions to the sketchbook from Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffith at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus - CXC, and it was donated soon after, to the Billy Ireland Library and Cartoon Museum at Ohio State, the premier repository and most solid institution dedicated to cartoon art in the US. The picture below is of me and the incomparable Lucy Caswell, the heart and soul of the library/museum, going through the sketchbook one last time. I hope all of the drawings in it will be available online. Thanks to all the cartoonists who, through the last 40+ years, have given me the gift of their art.
You can never really own art, you are lucky if you have the privilege to be its custodian for a while. I have been tremendously lucky. I'm also lucky to have Peggy, as my wife. The sketchbook would easily sell for tens of thousand$, but it would be broken up and sold piecemeal. When it comes to doing the right thing, there's none better than my wife.
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