News with Monte Wolverton, Brian Fies, Roy Lichtenstein, George Herriman, Lucy Shelton Caswell, and Shantell Martin.
When Cartoonists are No Longer Supported by Newspapers
Monte Wolverton is asking for a little help. From Daryl at CagleCartoons:
We’ve put up a crowd funding campaign for our beloved and brilliant, progressive cartoonist, Monte Wolverton at Cagle.com/Wolverton –come take a look!
The problem we have is that, with the continuing decline of newspapers, we’ve reached a point where many editorial cartoonists, like Monte, simply can’t afford to keep drawing for the pittance that newspapers pay. I hate seeing our profession slowly die, and I would hate to see Monte leave the public debate.
The Last Mechanical Monster Bonus Material
Brian Fies was gathering material for a foreign edition of his The Last Mechanical Monster when…
well, let’s let Brian tell it:
Until this morning, my publisher Abrams and I were working with an overseas publisher to print a foreign-language edition of The Last Mechanical Monster. (I’m being deliberately cagey about the country and language.) It would have been a good book. In addition to reprinting the translated story, they wanted to include a ton of extra material in the back: sketches, early drafts, an interview, etc…
Through no fault of mine or Abrams’s–in fact, despite quite a bit of time and effort on our parts–the deal just fell apart. Frustrating and disappointing. However, since I had all this extra stuff pulled together, I thought I’d share it.
Brian treats us to bonus background material from his graphic novel.
Inspiration or Appropriation?
In the 1960s, when Roy Lichtenstein began incorporating comic strips into his paintings, he framed the gesture as a form of ironic appropriation. His use of cartoons and comics was meant to recontextualize a form of mass media, if not to examine the bounds of high and low aesthetics. “The closer my work is to the original,” he explained in 1972, “the more threatening and critical the content.”
The comic artists and illustrators whose works have served as fodder for Lichtenstein’s canvases, however, have a different word for all of it: theft.
Min Chen,for Artnet, reviews a new documentary about Lichtenstein swiping comic art.
WHAAM! BLAM! Roy Lichtenstein and the Art of Appropriation begins streaming on demand on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vimeo, and Vudu from March 21.
New Auction Record for Krazy Kat Sunday
The cover for Album à colorier No. 6 opened live bidding at $10,500, only to close at $43,750.
Hergé was joined in this auction by venerated comic-strip pioneers Winsor McCay and George Herriman, each represented by their most famous creations — Little Nemo in Slumberland and Krazy Kat, respectively. McKay’s Nemo from Jan. 24, 1909, sold for $109,375, making it the third-most valuable original Nemo Heritage has ever sold. But another record was set Saturday when Herriman’s Krazy Kat Sunday strip from Oct. 16, 1938, sold for $71,875, a new auction record for the artist whose work continues to influence generations of cartoonists …
The strip itself is quintessential Krazy Kat …
Heritage Auctions reports on the results of their latest auction.
2023 Lucy Shelton Caswell Research Award Winners
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (BICLM) is pleased to announce the winners of the annual Lucy Shelton Caswell Research Award for 2023. The award is named for Professor Emerita Lucy Shelton Caswell, the founding curator of BICLM, and provides $2500 to support researchers who need to travel to Columbus, Ohio to use the BICLM collections materials on site.
The recipients for 2023 are Margaret Galvan and Christina Knopf & Dan Yezbick (research team).
Read the full Billy Ireland announcement.
Shantell Sans, A Better Comic Sans Font
Shantell Martin’s signature felt-tip drawings have found their way onto the New York City Ballet walls, Adidas sweaters, and into the Oculus at the World Trade Center …
Now, that signature handwriting can be yours to play with. The British artist has launched her first font, named Shantell Sans.
Elissaveta M. Brandon, for Fast Company, checks out a new font.
The free font launched at the beginning of March and has already been downloaded 3 million times on Google Fonts.
Thanks, D.D.!