Before the 21st Century’s enthusiastic embrace of computer fonts, letters had personality.© NEA“A good lettering man is to a comic what a good umpire is to a baseball game: vital to the success of the finished product, but most effective when his contributions seamlessly blend into the background.” – Bruce CanwellLetterers Todd Klein and Alex […]
As we jump all over the place let’s start with –The Are You Calvin or Are You Hobbes Quiz.Alison Doherty:I didn’t have the best introduction to Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip by Bill Watterson that ran between 1985 and 1995 … I thought it was about an annoying, naughty boy with a stuffed tiger […]
With content by cream-of-the-crop illustrators like Hal Foster, Frank Godwin, James Montgomery Flagg, F. R. Gruger, William Meade Prince, and Creig Flessel and such best-selling authors as William Saroyan, Daphne de Maurier, Sinclair Lewis, Franz Werfel, Ayn Rand, and Erle Stanley Gardner, it’s a wonder King Features Syndicate’s Book-of-the-Month comic strip isn’t better known today. […]
Below are some comic strip and cartoon books scheduled for August 2022 release. Images and links (mostly) via Amazon, though ordering through your local comic or independent book store is a good idea. Ballard Street Redux: The Comic Art of Jerry Van Amerongen Victorian Comics (re-issue of 1976 edition) Big Nate: Destined for Awesomeness The […]
I won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights journalism award for cartooning last May… The check for winning arrived a couple of weeks ago and last night, or sometime during the day (I’m not sure when), the trophy arrived. A couple days ago Clay Jones received his RFK Award trophy. © Kevin Fagan Kevin Fagan is […]
Classic comics compiler, editor, and publisher Ron Barlow has passed away. Ron Barlow January 1, 1949 – August 9, 2022 The news broke on Ron’s Facebook page:I just found out that an old friend has passed from cancer. This saddens me more than I thought it would … Rest in Peace Ron Barlow. He was […]
This 830-page biography contains 1,000 Nast cartoons, illustrations, sketches, and paintings. 800 from Harper’s Weekly, the balance from other rare publications including Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (25), New-York Illustrated News (47), Phunny Phellow (19), a comic paper that Nast contributed to from 1859-1873 100 cartoons on related topics by 20 other artists like Joseph Keppler […]
Al WilliamsonThe auction last month of some of Al Williamson’s pre-Manning Star Wars comic strip proposal (we featured them on our Facebook page) prompted Diamond’s Scoop to re-present a Williamson profile from 22 years ago. Rip Kirby, of course, was not the end of Williamson’s newspaper work. In addition to a run on Secret Agent […]
The 2022 Comic Con International: San Diego ends today, but the memories can last a lifetime with the 2022 Souvenir Book.It is quite a nice “bookazine.”Included are feature articles on comic creators who were born 100 years ago in 1922. More feature articles about comic characters who debuted 40, 50, 60 years ago: Plus profiles […]
There have been a few eulogies to some recent deaths. I was 16 or 17 when I first met Jim Ivey. My family went on annual vacations to Florida, from New Jersey; and my father always indulged my interest in comics by reserving our last couple of days to visit cartoonists, of whom there were […]
The Eisner Awards were handed out Friday night at the San Diego Comic Con.Below are a select few with categories and winners in bold. Best Short Story“Funeral in Foam,” by Casey Gilly and Raina Telgemeier, in You Died: An Anthology of the Afterlife (Iron Circus)“Generations,” by Daniel Warren Johnson, in Superman: Red & Blue #5 […]
Mike Rhode reports on Sara Duke revealing that The Library of Congress has received a new addition from 1918 to their collection by Harrison Cady, a master of the arts. “Written by Jim Edgar, ‘Matt Marriott’ was the finest and most atmospheric newspaper strip about the American Wild West that has ever been produced,” artist […]
Later this year will be the 100th anniversary of Charles M. Schulz’s birthday. AP photo“Peanuts” was America’s favorite comic strip. At its peak, there were 100 million readers each day. Charles Schulz drew it for almost 50 years, through the relatively complacent but anxious Cold War 1950s, the tumultuous 1960s, the Vietnam War, the civil […]
Political cartoonist and comics historian Jim Ivey has passed away. James Burnett (Jim) Ivey April 15, 1925 – July 14, 2022 Friends of Jim are sharing the sad news.From Craig Zablo: Jim was born James (but preferred the much less formal, Jim) Burnett Ivey on April 15, 1925 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Jim attended the […]
Announcing the 2022 Davenport International Cartoon Contest! A festival that honors a famous Political Cartoonist seems almost naked without some kind of competition focused on that endeavor. To that end, the International Cartoon Contest has returned! Also, since we have not changed either our entry fees or our prizes in over 30 years, we have […]