Filed under: Comic History

“Well, hello everybody!”Great video of cartoonists back when they wore suits and were celebrities.

Comic historian Brian Walker talks about his exhibit of cartoon art at Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum and growing up surrounded by professional cartoonists. Looks like the video is shot with a mobile phone, so audio isn’t fantastic, but audible.Via Mike Lynch

Al Plastino, best known for his work with DC Comics and the Superman comic, has passed away at the age of 91. Mark Evanier breaks the news and writes the first obit. Al was a diverse artist who also worked on the comic strip Nancy and there’s a story that he was the artist in […]

Buried in a story about Gasoline Alley cartoonist Jim Scancarelli contributing to an anti-bullying comic book is news that yesterday, November 24, the comic strip turned 95 years old. Legacy-strip haters are going to hate, but 95 years is an accomplishment.

New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin looks at a few New Yorker cartoon collections from half a century ago. Before my recent interview with Dana Fradon, I did some research ? as much as the internet allowed, which wasn?t a heck of a lot ? and ran into this first collection of his from 1961. My […]

The finished 9-foot 7-inch bronze statue titled “Giddy-Up, Daddy” has finally been unveiled. The statue honors Family Circus creator Bil Keane.From The Arizona Republic: The statue came to Scottsdale by way of Paradise Valley on the second anniversary of Keane?s death, who was a resident of the town for more than 50 years, creating his […]

This year’s Fund The Daily Cartoonist has been amazing. The support from those donating money to the campaign for a better The Daily Cartoonist has been overwhelming. I’ve had terrific support from generous individuals and companies that have offered their original artwork, books, sketches and products to be given away as incentives and perks. It’s […]

IDW has announced that it will publish an artist’s edition of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. The Artist’s Edition reprints Sparky’s originals in color so that you can see not the finished black and white, but all the scratches, blue pencil marks, erasing and editorial notes. The book is published so that the art is the same […]

Great news! Joel Schroeder’s documentary Dear Mr. Watterson will be in select theaters and available for download through iTunes Music store starting November 15. See the screenings page on their website to see if it will be in a theater near you. A new trailer has been released (see below).

The King Features Syndicate archivist profiles Phil Davis who was the artist behind Lee Falk’s Mandrake the Magician. When Lee Falk created MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN, he originally thought he might draw the feature as well as write it, but early on he realized his cartooning skills would not be equal to the task. Fortunately, he […]

I enjoyed this interview by Jessica Salter in The Telegraph with comics journalist Joe Sacco.Regarding covering war: I?m really tired of drawing war. I?m really tired of drawing the AK-47. I still want to do journalism and I?m still interested in the subject of war, but I don?t want to report from war any more. […]

IDW Publishing’s Library of American Comics has announced that it will publish a 25 years of Superman comics that appeared in the Sunday comics from the 1940s through 1960s. The first volume includes comics from 1943 through 1946. The first volume in the Superman: Golden Age Sundays series will collect 170 sequential Sundays, from May […]

King Features’s The Archivist blog notes that Bill Hoest’s The Lockhorns has turned 45 years old this week. There have been unhappy spouses in comic strips before, from the ever-bickering Greens in MR. & MRS. to the battle-strewn, married life of Jiggs and Maggie in BRINGING UP FATHER, but THE LOCKHORNS is different. Other comic […]

Ed Vebell, a cartoonist for Stars and Stripes during World War II talks about sharing an office with Bill Mauldin. The vignette below runs 4 minutes.Via Mike Lynch