The Daily Cartoonist » Festival of Cartoon Art

2011 Stumptown Comic Arts Awards winners

Alan Gardner — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:26:30 +0000

Last weekend was the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, OR and the award winners have been announced.

Best Colorist: Emily Carroll, His Face All Red

Best Letterer: Johnny Ryan, Prison Pit

Best Small Press: I Want You #2, Lisa Hanawalt

Best Publication Design: Michael DeForge, Spotting Deer

Best Anthology: Studygroup 12 #4, Zack Soto

Best New Talent: Michael DeForge

Best Artist: Emily Carroll, His Face All Red

Best Writer: Aaron Renier, The Unsinkable Walker Bean

Best Cartoonist: Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour

Readers’ Choice: Pang, The Wandering Shao Lin Monk, Ben Costa

Director’s Choice: The Sixth Gun

Recaps of 2011 MOCCA Festival

Alan Gardner — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:33:17 +0000

Last weekend was the 2011 MOCCA Festival in New York City. I’m going to cheat here and just link to Tom Spurgeon and Comics Beat who have posted better (and more time-consuming) write-ups, link logs and photos than I can.

Looked like a great year.

Toronto Comic Arts Festival launches new site

Alan Gardner — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:00:22 +0000

Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon notes that The Toronto Comic Arts Festival has relaunched their new website and notes the festival is, “free, diverse crowds, focused on artists, well-run, great city — still on the upswing and I think one of the most anticipated on the convention calendar.”

Lucy Shelton Caswell retires from cartoon library

Alan Gardner — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:50:50 +0000

Lucy Shelton Caswell plans to retire as Curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, effective December 31, 2010. Starting in March, she will return part time as Curator for Special Projects. In that role, Lucy will focus her energies and expertise on the project to renovate Sullivant Hall as the new home for the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, as well as preparing exhibits and finding aids for collections. Caswell stated, “I am delighted that I will be able to continue working on the things that are most important to me and to contribute to the progress of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.”
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In a letter to University Libraries employees, Director Carol Pitts Diedrichs, wrote “This arrangement is a good one for OSU and for Lucy. She will have more time to pursue other activities; meanwhile, the OSU Libraries will continue to benefit from her engagement with the renovation and her extensive knowledge of the collections. The OSU Libraries is fortunate to have Associate Curator Jenny Robb, who will assume the leadership of the cartoon library and museum.” Robb will become Curator on January 1, 2011.

Diedrichs added, “I congratulate Lucy on her extra-ordinary career as the founding curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, one of the highlights of OSU and the most prominent collection of its kind in the world. All of us are confident that it will continue to flourish under the leadership of Jenny Robb and with the assistance of Lucy Caswell.”

Festival of Cartoon Art notes: Matt Groening, Tom Gammill

Alan Gardner — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:46:30 +0000

On Saturday night there was a special event open to the public entitled, “An Evening with Matt Groening.” It was a sell out crowd. The Doozies creator Tom Gammill introduced and interviewed Life in Hell, The Simpsons and Futurama creator Matt Groening. The opened the evening with a 2 minute montage of clips for The Simpsons before delving into Matt’s childhood, his influences and how his features came to life.

*Spoiler alert* Matt showed an act from the upcoming Halloween special – which I’ve described toward the end of my notes. Skip the last two bullet points if you don’t want to get tipped off on what to expect.

The evening with Matt Groening is about to begin. Talked to Tom Gammill last night about what to expect. Should be a fantastic night.
Here’s a scoop. Tonight we’ll see storyboards of the Banksy Simpsons opening that DIDN’T get approved.
Tom and Matt are now out on stage after a hilarious 2 minute Simpson montage.
Tom: Your dad is a cartoonist? Matt: Yeah. Tom: What advice did he give you? Matt: Animation is for suckers. Hire out the hard work.
Tom: Did your dad encourage cartooning? Matt: I grew up with a lot of cartoon books. I got to use his pens and pads of paper.
Tom: Who are your influences? Matt: Searle. Biggest one was Charles Schulz. Life in Hell has a character with shirt with the squiggly shirt
Matt went to the same school as Mel Blanc (but not at same time). Dan Castellaneta is the Mel Blanc of our time.
Dan has also written some episodes and even pitches show ideas in the voice of the characters. Matt: “And we put them in”
Matt Groening: Cartooning used to be a nerdy thing, and a boys club and now there are women cartoonists.
Matt Groening: “The best drawn characters are the ones that you can identify in silhouette.”
Now Tom and Matt are talking about the gneiss of The Simpsons. “Thanks to the Fox Network for being there are the right time.”
Matt Groening: Back then animation was viewed as for children’s thing. Nobody was doing anything smart and funny for adults.
Tom Gammill: The early writers were all disgruntled night time comedy writers who were fed up with primetime programming.
Matt Groening: “Fox, believe it or not has policies of decency, and we went ahead and broke everyone of them”
Now showing a montage of all the comic tributes and references in the The Simspons.
Tom: When did you know that The The Simpsons was big? Matt: Groening: When someone graffiti’ed “Bart Simpson” on the side of my house
Matt Groening: Fox executives didn’t understand Futurama. They wanted something like The Jettsons. It’s now on Comedy Central.
Tom: the original writers of Futurama were all guys with advanced degrees in math and science. They seriously would do math problems for fun
Now talking about Banksy. Al Jean and Groening both saw Exit through the Gift Shop and Al wanted Banksy to do a couch gag.
Al Jean and Groening contacted Banksy. A couple of days later the storyboard came back. Al immediately said: “We can’t do this.” Al didn’t think Fox would allow it, which made Matt all the more excited to do it.
Both Al Jean and Matt Groening loved the Banksy coach storyboard, but worried Fox would never broadcast it.
Matt Groening: No unicorns were harmed in that scene. Fox was great to run the Banksy opening.
Tom: Can you go into a restaurant and pay for it with a drawing on a napkin? Matt: No. I’ve gotten some free appetizers.
Audience Qs: What is your favorite episode? Matt: The Grimey one were we find out what it would be like to work with Homer.
Q: Favorite movies. Matt: “Third Man” “Schulz gets the blues” “Sita Sings the Blues” “The king of Kong” and “The story of Anvil”
Q: Was itchy and scratchy influenced by Tom & Jerry? Matt: Big fan of Tom & Jerry. Itch and Scratch are very much a tribute to violent cat and mouse shows.
Q: if were stuck on an island with a The Simpsons character who would it be? Matt: Lisa. She’s the only one that will get to leave Springfield
Q: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to sit on the couch with my kids and listen to them laugh at your show Matt: You’re a bad mother!
A view of Matt Groening and Tom Gammell
The Fox Network wanted to run more advertising so the The Simpsons has had to move to a 4 act show.
Q: What is your favorite couch gag and why? Matt: I liked the Banksy one because it was so unpredictable.
Matt’s showing us an act from an upcoming Halloween special. It’s a parody of the Twighlight movies.
The Simpsons halloween spoilers: Milhouse turns into a poodle; Yogi Bear cameo; Appearances by Sesame Street Count Dracula, count Chocula.

Festival of Cartoon Art notes: Roz Chast

Alan Gardner — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:41:40 +0000

Roz Chast began selling cartoons to the New Yorker in 1978. She’s been a fixture in the publication ever since. Her presentation was a gallery of some of her best work over her amazing career.

Roz Chast: It would be great to draw one cartoon a week & get published, but the reality each cartoonist sends in what is called their batch of forty or so cartoons and only one or two is selected. Lots of rejection.
Roz Chast: recounting her 1st cartoon in New Yorker. A cartoon she didn’t think anyone would find funny. Within a year she had a contract.
Roz Chast: now showing a slideshow of cartoons. Great stuff.
Q: Do you ever resubmit cartoons that were rejected? Roz: Sure after time. A lot of times I can come back to a gag months later and find a way to make it better and then resubmit it.

Festival of Cartoon Art notes: Gene Luen Yang

Alan Gardner — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:38:01 +0000

Gene Luen Yang is as the title of his presentation denotes, an American born Chinese. He’s a graphic novelist. One of his latest books “American Born Chinese” deals with the stereotypes the western culture has developed for the Asian people in various entertainment forms.

Gene Luen Yang is now up. He’s talking about the stereotypes of asian characters in entertainment.
Gene Luen Yang is author of “American Born Chinese”. You can find his blog here. His books area available on Amazon

Festival of Cartoon Art notes: Tribute to Jay Kennedy

Alan Gardner — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:31:52 +0000

King Features comic editor Brendan Burford, Zippy The Pinhead creator Bill Griffith, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening and Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell were brought together to pay tribute to the late Jay Kennedy who passed away in the spring of 2007.

Brendan Burford, Bill Griffith, Matt Groening and Patrick McDonnell are paneling a tribute to the late Jay Kennedy.
Brendan Burford: In Jay Kennedy’s tenure at King, he launched a strong number of features. Also well known for his underground comic collection
Pat McDonnell: One of the things that make Jay such a successful editor is that he was an artist too.
Jay and Patrick went to the same art college. Patrick went into illustration, Jay dropped out and when to a university.
Patrick McDonnell: “Jay Kennedy was a generous individual who put his own artistic endeavors on hold to help so many others achieve theirs.”
Bill Griffith also knew Jay Kennedy during Jay’s hippy years. Jay loved underground comics, but not for hippy reasons.
Bill Griffith: Jay Kennedy gravitated to King Features because King was syndicating Zippy and Jay thought that was bold.
Bill Griffith: “I felt much more secure in my career longevity because I knew Jay was an ally inside King.”
Bill Griffiths: “Jay Kennedy wasn’t a collector, he was an appreciator.”
Matt Groening: “I agree, Zippy is one of the weirdest comics…”
Matt Groening: I became a great friends with Jay Kennedy because of mutual interest in obscure underground comics.
Jay told Matt that he needed to stop drawing rabbits if he wanted to be successful. Simpsons are human based on that advice.

Festival of Cartoon Art notes: Jan Eliot

Alan Gardner — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:26:13 +0000

Jan Eliot is the creator of the comic strip Stone Soup that was launched in 1995.

Jan Eliot is now up talking about her comic “Stone Soup.”
Jan notes that she loves her syndicate and being syndicated. I think that was a reaction to Dave Kellett’s presentation.
Jan Eliot’s influences include McManus, Linda Barry, Claire Bretecher, Garry Trudeau, Nicole Hollender and Roz Warren.
Stone Soup launched in 1995; was lucky to get into comics when Watterson retired. Launched in 95 papers
Jan Eliot now talking about her assistant who was 10 when she started working with Jan. Read about Olivia
Great story about how the cartoon that resulted in Jan Eliot getting a letter from the U.S. China Relations Review Committee.
Jan did a series of strips with women characters from other strips for a baby shower: Alice, Cathy, Connie, Elly. Great stuff.
Jan Eliot is now showing a series of cartoons that have resulted hot reactions. Funny stuff. Some people are so sensitive.
Jan Eliot: Cartooning post-Watterson is tough. It’s hard to do a snowman or space ‘toon that measures up to Calvin and Hobbes.

Festival of Cartoon Art notes: Steve Breen

Alan Gardner — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:24:50 +0000

Steve Breen is the editorial cartoonist for the San Diego Union-Tribune. He is also the creator of the comic Grand Avenue which he now collaborates with Mike Thompson.

Steve Breen is up now. Title of his talk is “Editorial Cartooning: Humanity’s Last Hope”
Breen: Sparky was asked if he ever thought of doing editorial cartoons to which he replied, “I could never be that mean.”
Breen: I’m moderate to lean conservatives. I’m kind of all over the place. I’m pro-life, but anti-death penalty…
Breen’s slide show is funny. Great selection of cartoons. Now he’s drawing at the sketch pad.
Q: You do five sketches a day, do you keep them? Breen: usually not. There are some that can be kept for another day, but it’s rare.
Q: What’s you daily schedule? Breen: I get into work at 10-11 and read the papers; have sketches to my editor by 4 and I’m done by 6:30.
Q: When do you do Grand Avenue? Breen: Doesn’t take too much of my time. Mike Thompson does a lot of G.A. I’m do more children’s books now.