Gib Crockett's original art, ties of friendship, and the ephemeralness of editorial cartooning

by Mike Rhode

 I was looking up information on Gib Crockett after buying the FDR drawing previously posted here. It led me down a rabbit hole, as cartooning history often does. My previous posts on him* are barely worth linking to.

This drawing** popped up in my search: Gib Crockett Washington Star Cartoonist Signed Humorous Sketch Surgeon & Nurse - it was very reasonably priced and hit two of my interests - DC cartoonists and medicine. The description read in part, 

 This humorous sketch, drawn in pencil by Gib Crockett (1912-2000), political cartoonist for the Washington Star, was a gift to my grandfather (the "Walter" mentioned in the caption). Gib Crockett and my grandfather were friends and played squash together. My grandfather was a member of the University Club in Washington, DC. and passed away in 1987. I do not know when this was given to my grandfather. 

I reached out to the seller, who told me it was dedicated to his grandfather, Walter M. Macomber, and wrote, " I'm so glad that this has gone to a good home where it will be appreciated. My grandfather lived on Arlington Ridge Road up until the 1960s, so it's going home."

I asked if he had any more information, but "All I know for sure is that my grandfather played competitive squash at the University Club, up until he was in his 80’s. He used to play Gib Crockett, even though Gib was younger. How much of a friendship outside of the University Club existed, I am not sure."

image from eBay

 Crockett was one of the major political cartoonists in DC, working at the Washington Star alongside Clifford Berryman, and his son Jim Berryman as a sports cartoonist. He moved to editorial cartooning in 1948, and when he retired he was replaced by Pat Oliphant.  

Crockett is largely unremembered today, and he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.  A nice essay by Marjorie Wedderburn, "Gib Crockett: DC Editorial Cartoonist"  talks about her family connection through her great aunt and uncle, similar to this eBay seller, although they appear to have had a much deeper friendship.

Syracuse University Library has a small Gib Crockett Cartoons Collection. The Library of Congress has original art, but you need to visit to see anything more than a thumbnail.

His WaPo obituary is at "Editorial Cartoonist Gibson Crockett; Drew for Washington Evening Star," Washington Post February 20, 2000, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/02/20/editorial-cartoonist-gibson-crockett/2eef05a5-0218-4882-9fc1-324f8c7b97ba/  For the collector like me, it noted, "In addition to his editorial cartoons, Mr. Crockett illustrated the covers of the program for the Army-Navy football game for 41 years until 1984." I'm going to try to avoid pursuing them... space is too tight and live is too short.

Mr. Macomber seems to have been an interesting man as well. An architect and architectural historian, he worked on Mount Vernon archeology, the renovation of the Old Fairfax Courthouse, and the State Department's Diplomatic Reception Rooms. He served on the Commission of Fine Arts, and his papers are at Colonial Williamsburg. ... well except for this cartoon that I'll be glad to own until I pass it on to the next owner.

*I don't seem to have followed up writing about Gib Crockett tumblers, and 18 years later, I have no idea what I was thinking about. 

**Hi-res scans in color and b&w are now available.

Secret History of Comics - Ephemera Finds in TN

 One of the things I like to do is wander around antique stores and junk shops. Here's some stuff I found in Tennessee last month.

This is a Herblock cover caricaturing Art Buchwald for Newsweek that I didn't know existed, so I was quite surprised by it.

This appears to be an advertising card for Union Pacific Tea from the latter half of the nineteenth century. It's being donated to the Library of Congress soon.

This matchbook looked like a New Yorker cartoonist to me so I reached out to historian/cartoonist Michael Maslin:

Maslin wrote back, "Not all of the faces, but a few (figs a&b), look like Steig's early work. The fellow extreme lower right most especially (fig. a) . But I'm not confident enough to say it is Steig's work."

fig. a

fig. b

Beetle Bailey original comic strip 9/13/1993. 

Note that the dealer thought it was a print, and not the original, and priced it accordingly.

A Buck Rogers post-production mini-poster by Dave Perillo that's being donated to Library of Congress.

Three British digest-sized comic books that will be donated to the Library of Congress comic book collection. The cover photos have been added to the Grand Comics Database already.

WorldCat doesn't list any copies in the United States, and almost none worldwide. When Randy Scott was at Michigan State's comic book collection, I would feed material such as this to them.

Love Story Picture Library #1259

Star Love Stories #591

Love Story Picture Library #1254

World War II cartoon postcards are easy to find, but the antique mall was waiting 

on me to close so I felt compelled to buy something.

Note the dental drill, for graphic medicine fans.

Arlington cartoonist Jake McGuire profiled

Cartoonist's work comes with out-of-this-world perspective [Jake McGuire]

Arlington Sun-Gazette  August 12, 2022

https://sungazette.news/cartoonists-work-comes-with-out-of-this-world-perspective/

A Chat with DC-Born Cartoonist Liza Donnelly

Liza Donnelly by Elena Rossini

by Mike Rhode

We're going to wrap up this crummy, lousy, bad year with an interview with an excellent, world-class, funny cartoonist to put a hopeful spin on starting 2021. The Washington Post ran an excellent article by Liza Donnelly earlier this year in which she pointed out that she was born in DC. With this hook, she's agreed to answer our usual questions.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I do a variety of things, but I am perhaps most known for my New Yorker cartoons.  These are typically single panel drawings with a caption below them, although I have done many for The New Yorker that are sequential and sometimes without captions.  For other publications, I have done comic-like narratives, and I do a lot of political cartoons as well. Some for The New Yorker, some for CNN, Medium, Politico and others.  Lately, I am the innovator of live digital drawing wherein I draw on my tablet and share immediately on social channels.  Sometimes it’s just a visual reportage, other times I offer my commentary in the drawing of what I am seeing. I have done this for a variety of outlets: New Yorker, CNN, CBS, Fusion, others.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

I work in both digital and traditional pen and ink. It depends on the job. All of my New Yorker finished drawings are on paper with a crow quill pen and ink.  No Photoshop with those. I use an iPad for my digital work and sometimes enhance or fix with Photoshop.

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born? What neighborhood or area did you live in?

I was born in 1955 in Washington and was raised near Chevy Chase Circle.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning? Did you leave DC for it?

I began cartooning when I was around 7 years old. I traced two cartoonists I liked— Charles Schulz and James Thurber.  So I am self-taught from early on. I left DC to go to college, and art study was only part of my plan. I went to the liberal arts college Earlham College and thought my career would be in biology (my other interest), but eventually my cartooning took over and I became an art major.  

Who are your influences?

 As I said, Schultz and Thurber.  But also Herblock, Garry Trudeau, Ben Shahn, Jules Feiffer, Dr. Seuss, WIlliam Stieg, Saul Steinberg, Claire Bretecher, Nicole Hollander, R.O Blechman.  There are many others, and many more New Yorker cartoonists.

Did you see any of the comics exhibits or talks that started appearing in DC as the Smithsonian, Corcoran or Kennedy Center in the late 1960s or early 1970s? If so, any memories to share with us?

Sadly, no.  But I do remember when Saul Steinberg had a big show at the Whitney (or was it the MoMA?) in the late 70’s. That blew me away that a cartoonist could be in a museum show.  I was happy that cartoons could be considered art.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

I would not waste so much time worrying about whether I was good enough. And just draw!  

What work are you best-known for?

Probably my New Yorker cartoons, I have been there over 40 years and counting.  But now I am being known for all my work on social media, including my live drawing and I am known for being an early feminist cartoonist, although not the first of course. I draw and give talks about women’s rights a lot.

What work are you most proud of?

Getting into The New Yorker, particularly at age 24. I am also very proud of the book that I wrote, Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Greatest Women Cartoonists.  I am writing an updated version to be published next year.  I am proud to have brought the history of the women drawing cartoons to light.

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

I hope to continue at The New Yorker, but I really also want to develop my live drawing journalism.  I feel what I am doing is a way to look at the news in a fresh and innovative way, and I have been told by many of my fans that it is a rewarding and interesting way to experience the news. It’s hard to get the large outlets to hire me, but I keep pushing forward. I also am trying my hand at screenwriting.

What prompted you to compile a book on woman cartoonists? How do you feel the field has changed since you did that book? (for example, I see a lot of woman comic book/ graphic novel and web cartoonists now, even as the editorial cartoon field continues to be mostly white men.

I became aware of the notion that there weren’t many women in cartoon field when I was in college. Before that, I just wanted to be a cartoonist and gender was not on my mind.  This was at the tail end of the second wave of feminism, and I felt that equal rights was achieved pretty much, and didn’t examine my professional world very much.  Boy, was I misguided. As I said, I knew I was in the minority, but it wasn’t until 1999 when I was invited to be on a panel of women cartoonists at the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) convention (which I think was in DC that year).  There were five (I think) of us women at a table for the panel. I was not even a member of the AAEC, but they asked me to be on the panel because there were/are so few women drawing political cartoons. I was already doing some political cartoons for The New Yorker.  In preparation for the panel, along with sitting there and looking out into the room and seeing a standing-room only audience of male cartoonists—it struck me.  What is going on?  Why is it there are so few women doing this? I began my search for answers and it led to me writing Funny Ladies. I spent a year in the NYC Public Library researching the archives of the magazine going back to 1925 when it was founded.  The field has changed tremendously. There are so many more women drawing cartoons now, that is what inspired me to write a new edition of the book.

I'm very interested that you're doing a new edition of the book. How current are you going? Cartoon editor Emma Allen's added a lot of women to the roster. And are you including the web-site-only ones? 

I am being very current.  I will only interview a few women that are new since the old book, but will list everyone that's new. Not including online cartoonists, only in print ones.  It's a juggle, but that's my plan.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

I do something else for a while, non-cartoon related.  It helps to put it down and return later.

What do you think will be the future of your field?

I really don't know.  I think perhaps The New Yorker will go to an online version and continue to run cartoons, so that's good. Although online payment is much less than in print it is hard to make a living. Thankfully, graphic novels are very popular and I think that's the future of our craft--graphic narratives. 

What's your favorite thing about DC?

Growing up, I enjoyed being in the center of the political world. The monuments and museums are beautiful and I like being close to the ocean.  The diversity was also something I now realize I benefited from. Washington has an international feel to it, with all the Embassies, and I enjoyed that. I love the proximity to the Eastern Shore and the Delaware beaches.

Least favorite?

When I grew up in DC it was a heavily segregated city, and I hated that feeling.  I rode the bus a lot to get to downtown or school--there was no Metro back then-- but hated the car culture. Our neighborhood was just a block from the DC line with Maryland, but you had to drive everywhere to get groceries etc.

How often (pre-covid) do you get back?

I don't have family there anymore, so I go back every five years for my high school reunion, or for a political event. I live draw the ICFJ Gala every year, which I really enjoy, so that brings me back every year.

What monument or museum do you like to return to?

I love walking around the Mall and just soaking up the atmosphere, the history. All the museums are great.  My favorite museum in my teens was the Hirshhorn Museum. I interned when I was in college at the Natural History Museum, cleaning bat skulls and cataloguing South American rodents (my other love besides cartooning was biology and I thought that was the field I might end up in).  

How about a favorite local restaurant? Past or present or both.

Remember, I didn't live in DC as an adult. When I was a kid, we rarely ate out. But there was a fancy steakhouse downtown that we sometimes went to for special occasions, name forgotten.  There was a Chinese restaurant near Chevy Chase Circle where we used to get take-out from and sometimes eat there, called Peking Palace. I don't know if it's still there, but I loved it.  

 Do you have a website or blog?

Yes, Lizadonnelly.com and my illustrated column on Medium:  LizaDonnelly.Medium.com

How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected you, personally and professionally?

I have been lucky not to have been affected health-wise, and no one in my immediate life has either.  

Professionally, it has given me time to work on long-term writing projects and try some new ones. Also, because I can't go places and live draw, I began live drawing every day from my studio. I hold my phone over my hand and draw something and talk about it. During the pandemic, it made me feel connected to people and I was told the same by others and they said watching me was meditative.  I would talk about the pandemic and draw aspects of it, then Black Lives Matter, then the election. Sometimes it's an illustration of an event or people (George Floyd, for instance), sometimes a real political cartoon created in real time for my audience. It was and is therapeutic for me and I get a lot of drawings created while gaining new followers. I learned to loosen up as well and draw freehand in front of an audience, with no preparation. It is a combination of my political cartoons and my video reportage -- a new type of editorial cartooning, if you will, with commentary. I now do this each weekday on Instagram Live  (@lizadonnelly) and on a new startup called HappsTV, who approached me to work with them (Happs.tv/@liza). 

Liza can also be found at the following links.

BBC

Medium "Noteworthy" video

@lizadonnelly

TED Talk 

CBSNews
New Yorker 
lizadonnelly.com

 

12/30/20 9:30 PM - updated with question about current cartoonists in new book.

A Chat with Dan Rosandich, Cartoonist for Hire

by Mike Rhode

I got a tip that cartoons were included in a US Capitol Visitors Center exhibit about the 'Separation Of Powers.'  I was able to track down cartoonist Dan Rosandich, who confirmed that the cartoons were his work, but that he wasn't contractually allowed to talk about doing them. Instead, he answered our usual questions for a visiting cartoonist.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I do cartoons that are gag panels and I keep myself "on call" for assignments as I get requests for special custom cartoons through my online web catalog and portfolio pages. I'm currently illustrating a logo for a micro-brewery out east and am almost finished.

I also recently finished a magazine cover for a small trade journal based in Illinois (their October issue in fact)

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

I am old school, based on drawing these illustrations for 40+ years now. I have tried many drawing nibs, dip pens, markers and micro-tip felt pens and am comfortable using the Rapidograph technical pen. Normally I pencil in a gag cartoon, ink it in using the Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph and let that dry and later I clean it with a soft eraser. I then scan the artwork into Photoshop. I still use Photoshop version 6.0....very antiquated, but it works for me and I can format high resolution cartoon files and store each image into an appropriately named folder on my hard drive for easy access and retrieval.

I used to use Higgins Waterproof India Ink for coloring work but it's an obsolete practice I think.... no editor wants to have to get an originally illustrated watercolor, than have to either scan it or make a transparency from it, when all they really need to do is take any properly-formatted files supplied from the cartoonist and import it into their digital publishing software they lay their publication out with.

Technology has really revolutionized the cartooning business from that standpoint. But it's creating original paper images that I like... I could do it all on a Cintiq I guess, but what would I have to hold in my (ink-stained) hands afterwards?

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

I was born in 1957 north of Detroit, Michigan.

Where do you live now?

I live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (aka Yooperland!)

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I never went to any fancy art school or had a formal college course in art... I immediately began sending out cartoons to magazines while in my last year of high school and sold one to a trade magazine based in NYC and was "hooked". I still can't describe the feeling you get when you aspire to something you want, and get an acceptance. You immediately get that "I have arrived" overwhelming feeling. And when it happens to a kid, that makes the impact all that much greater and memorable.

It really motivates you.

Who are your influences?

I discovered underground comics as a kid and liked their freedom of expression from the get-go. Robert Crumb's work blew my mind....his attention to detail was / is so great....the cross-hatching and use of black to make characters "pop" is so unique.

The usual comic strip influences were of course Schulz who had already published many Peanuts anthologies which were huge coffee table size books and I'd go to the library to check them out and leaf through them, absorbing all the in depth line art and the way he'd box in each panel, ever so carefully while smelling the light mildewy odor mixed in with the inks that eminated off each page....I thought I was in nirvana.

I'd also graze all the back copies of The New Yorker at my high school library and was enthralled with a guy names Marvin Townsend whose gag panels appeared in all the Weekly Readers I'd go through as a kid.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

Get a good formal art training or training in architectural design. It would be an asset in making future artwork look much better and in today's digital realm, that training might assist in getting work in other areas of illustration.

Overall, I think I got in the freelance business when there was less competition and cartoonists seemed more willing to share and help one another. Nowadays it's very competitive....especially with everyone having their own online portfolios they can show to get work.

What work are you best-known for?

Probably 'Pete & Jake' which is a cartoon panel I do for World Fencing Data Center based in Austin, Texas. I have illustrated the cartoon about two bumbling fence installation workers who work for the fictitious Boss Fence Company and their cantankerous 'boss' who also appears regularly in the cartoons in each monthly issue of World Fence News.

 I started in 1995 and just last week finished the latest package of 40 new panels and am just now creating some special color Christmas cartoons for the upcoming holiday season.

They sometimes run a few cartoons in an issue and the following month dedicate a full page to all kinds of panels and a "Best Of" series of cartoons that have appeared in previous issues.

Their editor and publisher are big aficionados of the single panel gag concept and I've also done oodles of strips and other various multi-panels for them. They are a great regular client of mine.

Advertisers seeing my work have also reached out and assigned work used for promoting their own fence or safety-related products.

What work are you most proud of?

Overall, I have to say my entire "body" of work. I have well over 5,000 cartoons I make available throughout my online catalog and my site also acts as a promotional tool in order to get assignments for book illustration work and other custom created cartoons I offer.

But aside from what is online, I have an extensive portfolio of previously published book  illustrations, direct-mail projects of illustrated, images for marketers, consultants and facilitators have used numerous cartoons of mine, including custom cartoons for books and presentations, social media, web sites, email "blasts" and more.

I've illustrated everything from book covers and magazine covers to package design and t-shirt illustrations.

What would you like to do  or work on in the future?

I would love to publish my own hard-copy catalog. I once had Don Martin of Mad magazine send me his little catalog offering his originals for sale. It was insane, but it was an impetus for a new idea I always had in the back of my mind.

Only my "catalog" would offer cartoons that advertising agencies could buy for whatever usage they request licensing those specific cartoons for. That hard copy booklet could also be used as a portfolio I could sell if I ever visited a city and went into ad agencies on my own time.

I am still considering my options in regards to it because it takes planning, such as how to acquire names and addresses of the right people to get the catalogs to, what the expense would be (not just for printing) but for getting all the right contact names and then shipping them out.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

I spread things out. I have a subscription to SalesFlower which is an online database that allows you to choose different Standard Industrial Classification codes (SIC codes) of businesses. I pick out phone numbers of art directors or creative directors and make cold calls.

If not that, I switch gears and re-draw old cartoons that never sold or do work I never had time to focus on, such as giftware designs for POD sites (publishing on demand) like Cafe Press or Zazzle (I have accounts with both, but favor Zazzle over CafePress).

If not that, as you well know, paperwork is overwhelming...just cleaning up paperwork can be a relief....focusing on that can have a big impact on changing your outlook to a more positive one.

What do you think will be the future of your field?

The future of cartoons will definitely trend towards digital and the internet. The newspapers have dwindled to the point where comic strips are less and less important based on many factors....so sites like GoComics have taken up promoting those cartoonists online. GoComics isn't interested in my work I don't think, but I know of know fellow artists who report making money through that platform. That's not to say that they aren't trying, but I feel it's more in each respective cartoonist's court, to promote themselves. Build their own sites and display their work to the world on their
own...don't be part of a collection where you get lost in the shuffle. I'm not sure that's good. Your work will have it's own uniqueness if it stands alone and you present it in such a way that it's "marketed" to the right potential clients.

What conventions do you attend?

I attend no conventions as I have nothing to sell, aside from original gag panels, but I don't consider my original art as a "collectible" in any way. It's likely they'd say "Who's Rosandich?"

Have you visited DC before?

I haven't, but it's definitely on my list!

If not, what do you want to do?

I'd like to get to the U.S. Capitol . . .don't ask me why! And so many other famous monuments I would see there....plus I have an old school classmate who lives there and he was a Congressional guard in the military who said he can show me around the beltway and surround areas. The Smithsonian would be considered a "bucket list" visit!

Do you have a website or blog?

My main web site home page is at https://danscartoons.com and my blog I write, focuses solely on cartoons, comic strips, the cartooning business, cartoonists and I occasionally reflect on things related to cartooning such as gag writing and promoting and marketing your cartoons on a freelance basis. My Toonblog can be found at https://danscartoons.com/toonblog/