Miss Cellany’s Friday Digest
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With: Joe Caroff and 007; Kevin Kalluagher (KAL) and The Economist; Bill Maher and National Lampoon; TYove Janssen and The Moomins; Doris Carr and Marmaduke; the U. S. Mint and Superman; Joe Staton and Dick Tracy; and Carole Curtis.
Joe Caroff – RIP
From Jeré Longman at The New York Times the Joe Caroff obituary (or here):
Joe Caroff, a prolific but overlooked graphic designer who created the 007 James Bond logo, the book jacket for Norman Mailer’s “The Naked and the Dead,” and posters for hundreds of movies including “West Side Story,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Last Tango in Paris,” “Manhattan” and “Cabaret,” died on Sunday in Manhattan. He would have been 104 on Monday.
Joseph Caroff was born on Aug. 18, 1921, in Roselle, N.J.
KAL: Behind the Scenes
How do you come up with your cartoons for The Economist? When do you draw them? How do you draw them? Does anyone tell you what to draw?
These are all common questions that I have been asked over my 47 year affiliation with the venerable publication.
Kevin KAL Kallaugher gives us a look at creating a cartoon for The Economist. But there’s a problem:
While the [Trump-Putin Alaska meeting] story may be one of the most important of the week, it posed special challenges for those of us working on a weekly publication like The Economist. Our deadline day is Wednesday and the super power meeting was scheduled for Friday.
Bill Maher Mocks Trump Deportation Force With Bonkers Recruitment Posters
From Tommy Christopher at Mediaite:
BILL MAHER: ICE is recruiting. I don’t know if you know this. We talked about it last week. There’s going to be almost no age limit. You can be as young as 18 or as old as you want to be. Biden could join ICE. They are looking for a few good men.
Obviously, their goals are to round up so many people that they need poor people, more people to do the rounding up. So they’ve come up with some, I mean, these are real recruitment posters they have. I know they look like a gag, but they’re not.
Defend the homeland, join ICE, no age cap, join ICE now.
Those are not all the recruitment posters…
Maher’s Real Time crew created some faux ICE recruitment posters. One took off on a famous NatLamp cover.
The 80th birthday of the Moomins, Finland’s most lovable literary cartoon family
TAMPERE, Finland (AP) — The Moomins, Finland’s most lovable literary cartoon family, are celebrating their 80th birthday this year.
The chubby, white, hippopotamus-like characters have captivated readers worldwide since author and illustrator Tove Jansson published “The Moomins and the Great Flood” in 1945. The children’s book features Moomintroll and Moominmamma in their search for the missing Moominpappa.
Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finn who died in 2001, went on to write eight more books, multiple picture books and a comic strip about the Moomins in Swedish.
Heli Sivunen, Tommi Ojala, and Stefanie Dazio help The Associated Press Celebrate The Moomins 80th year, “as well as Jansson’s Aug. 9, 1914, birthday.”
Also: The Moomins and the Great Flood – everything you need to know about the first Moomin story
Doris Carr – RIP
Doris Eileen Denton Carr, age 95, of Bloomfield, Indiana, passed away peacefully on August 7th, 2025, at home surrounded by family.
Doris attended High School and worked at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio before marrying John in 1947. She was a published poet, a freelance writer for the Marmaduke comic strip [emphasis added], and also studied art at the school of Art Institute of Chicago.
I am unable to find a timetable for her contributions to Marmaduke.
Comic program off to flying start with Superman coin and medals
Paul Gilkes for Coin World reports that the release of the U. S. Mint’s Superman coins was very successful.
Collectors turned out by the thousands July 24 to be the first to place orders online with the United States Mint for the Superman 1-ounce and 2.5 ounce .999 fine silver medals and half-ounce .9999 fine gold $50 coin.
None of the mintage for the 1-ounce and limited-edition 2.5-ounce silver medal and gold coin was reserved for the Mint’s Authorized Bulk Purchase Program dealers (a reserve intended to keep dealers from buying quantities en masse when sales open). None of the medals and coins for the remainder of the three-year program are to be reserved for the ABPP program, Mint officials state.
The July 24 sales numbers reflect orders placed on the release date as well as the 9,782 advance orders placed — across the program — through the subscription option.
Superman is the first of nine DC Comics superheroes to be represented in a three-year Comic Coin and Medals collaboration from 2025 through 2027 between the United States Mint and DC Comics.
A little bit scary, a little bit funny.
Joe Staton: …One other connection is— I was on the Dick Tracy strip for 10 years, and my writer on the strip was Mike Curtis. Mike was also in West Tennessee, but he appeared on the Jackson station as Count Basil.
Ostensibly about Joe Staton‘s design and artwork with Svengoolie, but for us Joe’s talk with Yikesgiest touching on his ten years with the Dick Tracy comic strip to begin the interview that grabs our attention.
Yikesgeist: As you began drawing for Dick Tracy, how did you make sure to do right by that little kid who fell in love with that strip?
Joe Staton: You know, that’s a good point. I try to remember the little kid who loved Tracy. I tried to be right by him. Harvey Comics reprinted a lot of the old Tracy strips from when I was growing up. I read everything that was in the papers. So I pulled everything out. I had a lot of reference in front of me all the time, and I just tried to be faithful to what I remembered there.
Carole Curtis – RIP
We have learned from Joe Staton that Carole Curtis, wife of Dick Tracy writer Mike Curtis has passed away.
Team Tracy has lost an important member of the squad. I learned yesterday that Carole Curtis, writer Mike Curtis’ wife, died peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday night. She was Mike’s partner in Shanda Fantasy comics for years and all the time Mike has written Tracy, she was his in-house editor and other-pair-of-eyes. She will be greatly missed by all members of Team Tracy, Active and Emeritus.
Carole Anne Curtis of Greenbrier, Arkansas, passed away on August 19, 2025. She was born on July 12, 1954, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Carole was known for her kindness, creativity, and love of learning. She was an avid reader, writer, and editor. Together with her husband, Mike Curtis, she co-founded Shanda Fantasy Arts, an independent publishing house that gave many authors and artists the opportunity to share their work. She was the creator and writer of the adventure comic series Katmandu and helped shape Shanda Fantasy Arts legacy through her work as an editor and publisher.
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