Cartoonist Profiles #208
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With Matthew Diffee, Larry Day, Yaakov Kirschen, Ruben Bolling, Mort Walker, and the Society of Illustrators.
Matthew Diffee
New Yorker cartoonist Matthew Diffee will be launching his debut picture book, Zip Zap Wickety Wack with a story time and book signing. One of Maureen’s favorite books of the year, this will make story time fun and noisy! Best for ages 4+.
We’ll start with cartoonist Matthew Diffee as his book launch and signing appearance is tomorrow, October 4 at Once Upon A Time Bookstore in Glendale, California.
Matthew Diffee has been contributing cartoons to The New Yorker since 1999. His work has also appeared in Time, The Huffington Post, The Believer, and Texas Monthly. He is the editor of three volumes of The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw and Never Will See in The New Yorker, and has also worked as a freelance illustrator. Diffee is a recipient of the Silver Reuben Award for gag cartooning, and was recently named Chairman of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. He grew up in Texas, and now lives in Los Angeles.
Larry Day
Still west of the Continental Divide, but just barely, we have an exhibit by cartoonist Larry Day.
Local cartoonist Larry Day’s attention drifts to squirrels battling each other in a tree outside his Carbondale window. It’s a momentary distraction that seems on-brand for an artist who finds comedy in life’s everyday absurdities.
“I want to share a sense of humor,” the nationally respected artist said of his latest art show.
The Art Base presents the solo exhibit, “Larry Day: Ha Ha Ha,” [link added] with an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, including an artist’s talk at 5:30 p.m. The exhibition runs through Oct. 31.
Okay, too late for the artist meet and greet unless you are already in the area, but the exhibit lasts all month.
From Jennika Ingram at The Aspen Times:
When he was 17, his father took him to a manufacturing company with an in-house art department. There, Day witnessed storyboards being created, sparking his career inspiration.
In the early 1980s, he went to Chicago. Initially, he worked for arcade and pinball games for a few years until he landed a job at the advertising agency Leo Burnett Chicago as a full-time storyboard artist. He drew storyboards for companies including Disney, Hallmark, Philip Morris International, and Allstate Insurance, among others.
Day has received numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association for his work with The Sopris Sun. He’s both a cartoonist and a storyboard artist.
“It’s a collection of work I’ve done mostly for The Sopris Sun,” he said.
Yaakov Kirschen
I’ve been thinking a lot about Yaakov Kirschen now that the year 5785 has ended and a new one has begun. I had long known about him but had just started actually getting to know him, meeting the man behind the “Dry Bones” political cartoon—recognized far and wide in the Jewish news world—on the last Saturday in March.
Carin M. Smilk for the Jewish News Syndicate remembers cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen.
A couple of years later, in January 1973, he said, “I went to The Jerusalem Post with several cartoons. The editor at the time was Ted Lurie. He told me, ‘Either this will be a big success or a flop. If it’s a success, then you’ve won.’ He gave it a try. After a while, he said, ‘I personally don’t like it, but our readers do, so I’ll keep you on.’”
Yaakov said he had a lot of freedom with his work, discussing potential topics with editors, and then doing the drawing and writing. “Every day, I would come in and drop it off. It was due at 5 p.m. I’d bring it closer to 8 p.m.” He smiled at the memory, pointing out that he was a deadline writer. “Once it got to the Post, it was photographed on special paper and put on lead type. The paper went to press at midnight.”
Yaakov Kirschen passed away two weeks later, on April 14.
Ruben Bolling on Comicana
This week, New York Review Comics has re-published a long out-of-print book on cartooning by Mort Walker, The Lexicon of Comicana.
Ruben Bolling reviews Mort Walker‘s The Lexicon of Comicana for Boing Boing.
In 1980, he published this tongue-in-cheek book about the language and tropes of the cartooning artform.
But while he makes some actual, salient points about how comics have their own visual language that have become globally recognized, he humorously undercuts any serious analysis by making up silly, pretentious-sounding terms for ridiculous cartooning conventions.
A reminder:
Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame Ceremony and Awards Dinner
Hall of Fame Ceremony and Awards Dinner
October 9 @ 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
$300.00 – $500.00
By attending the Hall of Fame Ceremony and Dinner, you are supporting the Society of Illustrators in its vital mission to preserve the art and history of illustration. We sincerely thank you for your presence and your continued dedication to the artists and the organization.
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