And Then There Was The Time…
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And then there was the time… when Schott’s Significa and Davey Jones, Michael Maslin and Rea Irvin, Nebelspalter and Rick McKee, Steven Heller and Peter Kuper, and Lynda Barry and Lynda Barry again were all included in a weekend roundup.
And then there was the time…
Schott’s Significa Included a Chapter on Comic Conventions
John Freeman brings news of a new Ben Schott book that includes a couple pages by Davey Jones.
Schott’s Significa: The Hidden Vocabulary of Subcultures, Societies and Everyday Speech [link added] is a new book by Ben Schott, a field guide to the terminology, private codes and colloquialisms of over fifty different trades, professions and subcultures, from London cabbies to espionage agents, to Taylor Swift fans.
The new book from the top-selling author, published by Michael Joseph, includes a new comic strip by longtime VIZ contributor Davey Jones, a strip, he’s revealed, was created at some scary cost…
Follow Davey Jones on BlueSky | Facebook – – – Ben Schott is online at benschott.com
And then there was the time…
Michael Maslin Denounced The New Yorker for Tinkering with Rea Irvin’s Classic Talk of the Town Masthead
Ragging on The New Yorker for screwing with Rea Irvin‘s original Talk of the Town illustration is actually a weekly feature of Michael Maslin‘s Monday Spill, but this past Monday Michael took us back by rerunning his original long rant from 2017 (which he links to every Monday as he sees the new, not improved heading in every new issue of the magazine.).
As I wrote on the Spill back in May when this new masthead was installed (the redesign first appeared in the issue of May 22, 2017), Mr. Irvin’s charmingly imperfect scroll-like line has met a white-out brush. His owl has been re-drawn, his buildings re-drawn too (with the inclusion of One World Trade Center in this new assortment). Tilley himself has changed just a bit. The designery horizontal line running over the drawing (added in the issue of February 21, 2000) remains.
One version of Maslin’s weekly criticism and hope for the future:
About 8 years ago the above perfect Talk design by the late great Rea Irvin was replaced, after 92 years, by a contemporary illustrator’s redrawn version. The Spill continues to hope — in this 100th New Yorker anniversary year more than any other! — that Mr. Irvin’s work returns.
And then there was the time…
A Swiss Satire Magazine Interviewed Rick McKee
Switzerland’s Nebelspalter is “the oldest, continually-published satire magazine in the world.” They have been carrying Rick McKee cartoons since last year and recently interviewed the the U.S. cartoonist.
No, don’t pull up Google Translate; Rick has supplied an English translation at his Rick McKee Ink.
If you look back to the beginning of your career, what would you do differently?
I would warn my younger self about the internet and that it would destroy newspapers. I would probably not believe myself.
And then there was the time…
Lynda Barry Gave a Lecture at Hofstra University
Author and cartoonist Lynda Barry visited Hofstra University on Wednesday, Oct. 22, and Thursday, Oct. 23, to dive into the creative mind and how it arises in everyday life. Along with several workshops given in the Axinn Library, Barry also connected with students and faculty through an immersive lecture in the Helene Fortunoff Theatre at Monroe Lecture Center.
Katelyn Buchalter for The Hofstra Chronicle attended Lynda Barry‘s lecture and reports:
“People give up on drawing at about the age of eight or nine,” Barry said. “Often it’s when they are trying to draw in a realistic way. The thing they are drawing doesn’t look like the thing they are trying to draw, like a nose or hands. This is why I love teaching people about drawing comics because comics rely on simple lines that anyone can do.”
Part of Barry’s view is how creativity and drawing should be interwoven with many different areas of academic studies, part of the reason she brought her lecture to Hofstra.
“Drawing in a simple comics style can also bring about serious insight, and my work with graduate students in different fields has convinced me that the comics style of drawing has enormous potential in any academic research,” Barry said. “If creative thinking is about setting the conditions for insight and discovery, drawing is a very simple and direct way to get you there.”
Late add:
And then there was the time…
The N. Y. Times Ran a Lynda Barry Comic Strip for Halloween
“The Real Horrors of America” by Lynda Barry (New York Times October 31, 2025) is a Halloween story that soon takes a political twist which is why The Times of New York ran it in the opinion section (or here).
And then there was the time…
Peter Kuper’s Charlie Hebdo Cartoons Were Collected in a Book and Steven Heller Interviewed Him
It must be exhausting to awaken every morning knowing that the Earth will self-destruct at any time. It must be even more disconcerting to be the self-appointed chronicler of said apocalypse. But that’s what cartoonist and political commentator Peter Kuper, a founder of the 47-year-old WW3 Illustrated comic book, decided to do early in his career.
Peter Kuper says:
The comics in Wish We Weren’t Here are drawn from a weekly strip I’ve been doing for the French magazine Charlie Hebdo for the last five years. It sits on the page in a vertical format next to environmental columnists. Since I don’t speak French, this was an ideal format for me and the editors—though I do send them a headline they translate at the top of each strip that gives context to the comics. I’ve included these headlines at the bottom of the Wish comics so readers can explore the subjects further if they choose.
More from the interview:
This wordless format forces you to rely on common images. Does that hamper your creativity in any way?
In many ways the wordless format is a perfect approach for me since I’m speechless about what’s happening!I have long loved wordless storytelling,beginning with seeing MAD artists like Sergio Aragones and Antonio Prohias’ Spy vs Spy. (Ironically, I’ve ended up writing and drawing that feature for nearly 30 years—I’m working on MAD’s next cover and a new story at this very moment.) I later discovered artists like Franz Masereel and Lynd Ward that brought additional artistic inspiration.
To convey ideas with pictures alone functions as an international language. It also causes me to think in more visually abstract terms…
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