The Cartoon!st - Jan-Feb 2016

Briefings from the Jovial Office . . . by Bill Morrison

More speakers than you can shake a Cintiq at

By now you should have received the official brochure for the 2016 Reuben Awards Weekend in your mailbox. Some of you probably looked at the jaw-dropping Tom Richmond illustration on the cover and poured through it immediately to see what we have planned for the 70th annual Reuben Weekend! You were likely astounded by the sheer volume of incredible speakers and events, and immediately registered and booked your hotel rooms! The rest of you threw it on a pile of reference books next to your drawing board, promising yourself you’d look at it right after you make that tight deadline. (I actually put it in my work bag. I’m pretty sure it’s still in there.)

It’s for the latter group that I’m writing this column. I know you’re probably on to the next deadline by now and still haven’t had time to look at the brochure. I’m sure you’ll get around to it eventually,

but in the meantime I promise the following will serve to pique your interest. There’s not nearly enough space here to cover all the fun and excitement the weekend has to offer, but I think there may be just enough room to talk about our jam-packed stellar line-up of speakers. If not, I’ve given our tireless editor Frank Pauer permission to bump the brilliant and toothy caricature of me by Ed Steckley! So cross your fingers, Ed! Here they are, in no particular order:

WACOM PRODUCTS ON PARADE

Everybody’s favorite electronic drawing devices are made by Wacom, and the company’s Doug Little and Joe Sliger, along with our own Jason Chatfield and a handful of cartoonists, will demonstrate and discuss several new Cintiq products, including the Cintiq 27QHD, Cintiq 22HD, Cintiq Companion 2 and the Bamboo Spark! You’ll get familiar with these great devices during this demo session, and then you’ll have opportunities to

try them out yourselves at various times throughout the weekend!

LUKE McGARRY

When not fronting the band Pop Noir with his twin brother Joe, Luke McGarry is busy being one of the most sought-after cartoonist/illustrator/animators in Los Angeles. He’s recently animated videos for Jack Black and Tenacious D, the IFC movie channel and Visa, illustrated posters for music festivals, and created advertising images for a client list that includes Bloomberg Businessweek, NY Observer, Myspace and Vans Shoes.

Luke will be showing his cutting edge illustrations and videos and discussing how today’s young illustrators use social media to build a fan-base and attract the attention of art directors.

TERRY MOORE and JEFF SMITH

Some of the most successful comic book series of the past few decades have been created by these two gentlemen, and they have been published not by Marvel or DC but by their own independent companies.

Jeff Smith conquered the comic book industry in the 1990’s with the worldrenown Bone series and has followed up that juggernaut with two more recent fan favorites, RASL and Tuki Save the Humans

Terry Moore is the creator of three

This issue’s cover is by, well … hard telling. We highly doubt that it’s by either Walter Sayden or Larry Stafford (for more on them, see Page 5). It’s more likely drawn by some now-long-forgotten advertising artist — who apparently didn’t read the testimonial and never went on to claim his fortune as a cartoonist.

NCS BOARD

Honorary Chairman

Mort Walker President

Bill Morrison 805-579-9827

First Vice President

Jason Chatfield

Second Vice President

“The Cartoon!st” is the official publication of the National Cartoonists Society, P.O. Box 592927 Orlando, FL 32859-2927. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the NCS. Entire contents ©2016 National Cartoonists Society, except where other copyrights are designated.

The Cartoon!st needs your news, opinions, drawings and photos. Address all materials to: Frank Pauer, 53 Beverly Place, Dayton, OH 45419. Phone: 937-296-0502 home, 937-229-3934 days.

Email: fpauer1@udayton.edu

Deadline for the next issue: April 3

Hilary Price 413-586-0223

Third Vice President

Darrin Bell 510-205-8592 Secretary

John Kovaleski 717-334-5926 Treasurer

John Hambrock 262-658-2676

Membership Chairman

Sean Parkes 480-626-2702

National Representative

Ed Steckley 413-478-4314

NCS COMMITTEES

The Cartoon!st

Frank Pauer 937-229-3934 fpauer1@udayton.edu

Ethics

Steve McGarry mac@stevemcgarry.com

Education Rob Smith Jr. (rob@robsmithjr.com)

Greeting Card Contracts

Carla Ventresca 615-480-7931

NCS FOUNDATION

Chairman Steve McGarry 714-593-0514 mac@stevemcgarry.com

For questions about accounting, membership, database and dues renewals, contact: National Cartoonists Society P.O. Box 592927 Orlando, FL 32859-2927 407-994-6703 info@reuben.org

ED STECKLEY

critically-acclaimed and wildly popular comic series, the long running Strangers In Paradise, the recent science fiction saga Echo, and the currently-running horror epic, Rachel Rising.

This dynamic duo of indie cartoonists will discuss their work and confabulate on the ins and outs of creating and marketing independent comics.

MARIA SCRIVAN

When Maria Scrivan is not writing and drawing her syndicated daily panel Half Full, she’s probably working on licensing her cartoons and writing and illustrating children’s books. Maria’s witty cartoon drawings have appeared in MAD Magazine, Highlights, Prospect, Funny Times, Mashable, and Salon, and on greeting cards, products and national television. While discussing the different aspects of her career, she’ll relate how she takes an optimistic approach to her work in order to remain flexible and adaptable in the ever-changing cartoon biz!

JAN ELIOT

Jan started cartooning when she was a divorced mom trying to raise two daughters, work full-time, and keep the lights on while still having a little fun. She drew on that experience to create the strip Sister City which eventually evolved into the internationally syndicated comic strip Stone Soup. Jan will explain how she started cartooning, her influences and mentors, and what she most values about having a coveted spot in the funny pages.

MATTHEW DIFFEE

Steve Martin (Yes, THAT Steve Martin!) said of Matt Diffee: “Matt is truly one of the funniest people in the rarefied world of first-rate cartooning.” And Mr. Martin was not just whistling Dixie or playing it on his banjo!

Matt is a regular contributor of funny cartoons to The New Yorker, has produced long form comics for Texas Monthly, and has also worked as an illustrator, most notably for an edition of Stephen King’s Under the Dome. On top of that, he occasionally performs stand-up comedy, has edited a collection of rejected New Yorker cartoons titled The Rejection Collection, and recently wrote the hilarious best-selling book Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People.

Matt has warned us that his talk “uses strobe lights, wind and fog machines, fireworks, live animals and the liberal use of Texanisms.”

LYNN JOHNSTON and DEBORAH PEYTON

Lynn Johnston, creator of the syn-

dicated strip For Better or For Worse and Deborah Peyton, freelance cartoonist and creator of the syndicated strip Day to Day will join forces to present a very unique workshop. These extremely talented, funny and now entrepreneurial cartoonists will introduce you to the art of pattern making! Deborah and Lynn will walk you through their entire process of making sample fabrics from cartoon drawings and will discuss the exciting potential for

Your Work (Before and After You Die).”

Former syndicated cartoonist turned lawyer David Apatoff specializes in intellectual property and international technology issues, and he’ll discuss the practical modern realities of copyright and trademark protection for your work, using funny and instructive anecdotes!

Jenny Robb, Curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University, will offer practical tips and advice about preserving your art and papers (ink and paper as well as digital), donating your art and archives to libraries and museums, tax implications and estate planning. Jenny promises we’ll find out how Richard Nixon screwed us out of a great tax deduction and other vitally important information!

SERGIO ARAGONÉS

creating and marketing your own wearable cartoon art!

PAUL COKER JR.

If Paul Coker Jr. wasn’t world famous for his six-decade stint as one of MAD Magazine’s “Usual Gang of Idiots,” he would still be acclaimed for his brilliant character design work on many beloved Rankin Bass animated holiday specials (Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, etc.), his iconic Hallmark greeting card illustrations, and countless advertising and magazine cartoons. Whether your cartoon discipline is animation, advertising, magazine humor, greeting cards, or just cartooning in general, you will not want to miss hearing this hugely influential cartoonist speak and show his work. Legendary MAD editor Nick Meglin will be present to interview Paul about his amazing career. Oh, and by the way, Paul will be the recipient of the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award at the Reuben Banquet!

DAVID APATOFF and JENNY ROBB

This duo will present an important two-part seminar titled “How To Protect

I’m sure we all know that Sergio Aragonés is world-famous for his cartoons in MAD Magazine and his long-running comic book, Groo The Wanderer, as well as comics like Sergio Aragonés Massacres Marvel, Sergio Aragonés Destroys DC, Sergio Aragonés Stomps Star Wars, Bart Simpson comics, and many, many more. He has been described as “one of the most prolific and brilliant cartoonists of his generation,” and we’re proud to call him our own. But you may not know that in recent years, Sergio has actually found time to draw a series of comic stories based on his hilarious real-life exploits. The man I’ve dubbed “The Most Interesting Cartoonist in the World” (Stay hilarious, my friend!), will pull back the curtain on some of his funniest and most compelling comic stories — the ones that actually happened!

Okay, Frank is giving me that frantic hand across the throat “Cut!” sign, so I’d better wrap up. Don’t forget to dig out that brochure for more information on the St. Jude event, the private party at Elvis Presley’s Graceland and much, much more! If I’ve motivated you to drop everything and book your hotel room now and you’re not sure where you put that brochure, here’s the info you need! Call 1-800-PEABODY and be sure to reference the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards Weekend to get the group rate! Or, to book online, just go to our very long but exclusive private link: https://bookings.ihotelier.com/The-Peabody/bookings. jsp?hotelID=95096&groupID=1461184. Let the Good Times Roll!

Bill Morrison

Random Memphis

By Greg Cravens

Memphis, Tenn. — host city of the NCS 70th Annual Reuben Awards atop the world famous Peabody Hotel — has some offbeat things to do.

Cartoonists, offbeat sort of people, might like a quick rundown of a few things to engage with when you come for the Reubens Awards.

Paintball. I’ve been talking up cartoonists and paintball for a couple of years. My dreams of wild hordes of cartoonists, firing wildly through brightly painted fields of glory can now be realized.

Todd Clark and John Hambrock say they’re in. Let’s go shoot one another. It’ll be HILARIOUS

Email me at gregcartoon@comcast.net and let’s get the list of people deciding what day(s)/time we’ll give this a shot.

Bicycles. Shelby Farms Park has mountain bike trails, and paved trails and bicycles for rent.

Q. How many ADHD/OCD cartoonists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A. “Wanna ride bikes?”

Actually, Stanky Creek Trails are better for Mountain Bikes, but… they’re kinda stanky. Let me know if you want directions.

Running. The Memphis In May Great American River Run. Friday the 28th. It’s a 5k and a half marathon. There are cartoonists who run — I’ve seen ya! — Lycra and muscles and whatnot. Part of the money raised by the Run goes to Wounded Warriors Project.

The Run goes along the Mighty Mississippi River and through downtown. So, if you want to make a big show of entering, then bail out halfway as you pass the Peabody, the opportunity is there. Or be like Jef Mallet, run the whole way and finish. For more, see www.memphisinmay.org/run-info.

The Memphis In May Festival claims to have another, so far secret, event in Memphis during the Memorial Day weekend. Like Nixon’s famous secret plan, we’ll just have to keep an eye on things and see what happens. Tom

Lee Park on the river used to host the Sunset Symphony this weekend. Sure would be nice for that to return. I’ll let ya know.

Tours. You might cozy up to Memphis and see what’s around. You could take the Memphis Mojo Tour, where

The Pyramid. There’s this 300 foot steel pyramid in town. “Memphis.” Egypt/Tennessee… Get it? Anyhow, it was a music and sports venue, then wasn’t. Now it’s the wildest looking Bass Pro Shop you’ve ever wanted to see. It’s got a swamp in there. Fish and alligators and stuff swimming around. There’s an elevator dead center inside that goes up to a restaurant/bar in the pointy little top. And there’s an observation deck that no one’s flung themselves off of yet, but I’ve been up there, and I’m tellin’ ya, if you’ve been listening to old country western songs about your dog dying and your woman running off with your truck, don’t go out there.

Schwab’s. Famous Beale Street is walking distance from The Peabody. There’s music, alcohol, happy crowds and kids that do amazing back flips for pocket change. And there’s a store that opened, like, 140 years ago. It’s called Schwab’s and if you’re short on mustache wax or a fedora or whatever, go there. If you just need to see what old stores used to look like and tell the kids that when grandpa was young THIS stuff was all anyone had to save their pocket change for, this is the place.

Skatepark. As you know, St. Jude draws staff from around the country, if not the globe. One of the doctors, arriving fresh from a childhood on the West Coast, was horrified to discover that Memphis had no public skatepark. So he fixed that.

you get to join in with the music played on the bus. You could do the Historic Memphis Walking Tour, see some old Memphis buildings and learn how and why Memphis got where it is. Or, there’s always the Memphis Ghost Walking Tour. See and hear about The Orpheum Theater, Voodoo Fields, and some cool places downtown with sketchy pasts.

We now have a very nice outdoor concrete skatepark. If you’d like to take my “Over 50 and How Not To Break A Hip in the Skatepark” lessons, we’ll be doing that at daybreak one morning of the weekend. Best to get there before the hotshots show up, and make us wait our turn.

Greg Cravens (The Buckets and Hubris) lives in Memphis and can’t possibly fit enough alcohol into his home to host the NCS membership during the Reuben Weekend.

Amagazine ad from the early 1920s titled “How In One Evening

I Learned The Secret of Drawing” featured a firstperson account from one Walter Sayden, someone who had “never before been able to draw a recognizable object” to one who discovered that drawing was as easy as writing.

The secret was One Great Rule, a secret so simple that

The Secret of Drawing

it “covered every sort of drawing. I mastered this rule in just fifty minutes, and in two hours found that I could draw.”

That secret would run you $5, though — more than $60 in today's money.

But since we don’t have the budget to spare, we still wondered: So what was it, what’s that One Great Rule — that one simple secret — that can turn anyone into a cartoonist in less than two hours?

So we asked several NCSers if they would share their Secret — “the surprising simplicity of this method” — with the hope that you will agree “that it is the greatest discovery ever made in this field.”

My One Great Secret that can turn anyone into a cartoonist takes a little longer than two hours. In fact, you have to start quite young.

It’s called the “Suck Method.” It’s not for everybody. All sorts of adept people won’t be able to make it through all the steps, but if you can get to the end you’ll be in really great shape to make it as a cartoonist.

Here’s how it works:

1: Arrive at school and try to do things that will help you fit in with the other kids.

2: Try soccer. Suck at it.

3: Try football. Suck at it.

4: Try other ball-related sports. Suck at them all.

5: Try acting cool. Get a wedgie.

6: Try hopscotch. Get lots of wedgies.

7: Try getting a haircut. Somehow, suck at this.

8: Try sprinting. Suck, with a permanent injury.

9: Try tetherball. (see No. 6)

10: Try magic. (see No. 6 squared)

11: Try guitar. Create a void from how much you suck.

12: Try track and field. Suck with a pylon sticking out of your butt.

13: Try choir. You’re really in the zone now.

13: Draw a cartoon. Have a girl see it and give a cute snicker, which makes you feel high.

14: Invest in a pile of art supplies, put on a beret, buy a little black book to fill with the numbers of all the girls you’re going to meet.

15: Draw another cartoon in a nonchalant public place. Wait for another girl to give you a cute snicker.

16: Repeat. Get old while waiting. Congrats, you have become a cartoonist.

Paul Gilligan

Easy. Trace other people’s stuff.

Myers

Everyone wants to be superior to someone and I was always able to draw someone that looked dumber than me. Helpful hint: The bigger the eyes, the bigger the teeth and the bigger the smile, the less room there is for brain space. Start there.

Tom Gammill

Russell

The secret to being a good cartoonist is to be able to draw a face that looks stupider than you are.

Lynn Johnston

That One Great Rule? I found this to be a difficult question to answer, as I figured there are many rules. I had to retreat to my studio, put on my favorite tunes, block out the world, and really sit to really ponder the answer.

I didn’t want to get all weird about the answer. And that’s when it hit me. Weird. Weirdness. Of course, that’s the answer: to be weird. Of course I find it weird because I AM WEIRD. And I have always embraced it as a concept, a division of my inner being. I embrace it!

I was weird as a kid when I first started selling cartoons. My neighborhood friends didn’t get me, and I was alright with that. I was a Circle of One. The bulk of my ’toonist friends are weird in their own way and I recognize it. And that’s OK. It’s okay to be weird. It’s alright to see things differently. That’s what makes cartoonists uniquely different yet we come from the same pond. Weirdness comes with The Talent. I’d say that some of our truly great cartoonists were quite insane. At least in the way they saw their respective society.

I would encourage the young, or any hopeful of any age, to embrace their weirdness, to step into it, to own it without fear of what’s supposed to be the norm. It makes you gleefully see things differently.

You may be the type that is always around others, yet you feel alone. You may yearn to be like them, but you never will. You are not like them. You are not like anyone. That’s the beauty of weirdness. You are yourself. And your uniqueness is your blanket — be sure to use it to your advantage. Be observant, yet see the different angles in all you take in.

When you sit in front of that blank paper, or computer, or wherever the hell it is that you go to create, embrace your weirdness, and let your ideas and world flow. Embrace your weirdness.

I’m weird, and it feels good!

Ray Billingsley

Wow! The secret to successful cartooning revealed for only $5! And by the great Larry Stafford no less.

Even I, the only person to have received a rejection letter from the University of Phoenix, can recognize snake oil when I see it. Sure, I fell for a few scams before (BTW, if any NCSers are interested in buying a used Ab Belt, I can be reached at Bunny’s). But these nostrums are designed to appeal to the commonly held belief that an intricate calculus can be reduced to a simplified, applicable formula, thereby bypassing the normally heuristic processes inherent in all creative endeavors. After 42 years in this business, I can say with some certainty that Larry’s One Great Rule was as chimerical as his career.

Sadly, I have no method by which one could go from dilettante to working professional in only two hours — if I could, you would see an unemployed soap opera actor in a half-hour infomercial asking me how I could sell such an amazing discovery for the unbelievably low, low price of only $49.95. Plus, if you act now, you’ll get a slightly used Ab Belt.

John Reiner

Here’s The One Simple Secret: life drawing classes have nude models. . . . . . . . .

Greg Evans

To learn to draw, one must be motivated and give 100 percent attention and devotion. And how does one do that?

My “One Great Secret” is to employ a small well-trained dog.

Jerry Van Amerongen

The

Having

of 10,000

One thing common to most of us in this profession is that we derive great enjoyment from creating images, and that the simple act of doing it over time leads to improvement. I'm still striving to get better.

Bill Holbrook

I’ve always believed that anyone who has the desire, can draw. As Winsor McCay wrote to Clare Briggs,“The greatest contributing factor to my success was an absolute craving to draw pictures all of the time. Work, WORK! That’s all there IS to cartooning.”

When I worked with Hank Ketcham, he would sometimes send us out in the

morning to sketch. After lunch, he would critique our

sketchbooks. His main emphasis was always to think in

Ron Ferdinand

terms of the single line.

I had a habit of being very sketchy in my line work, but Hank encouraged me to try using a single line whenever possible. He felt it forced one to make immediate decisions when drawing. I always found this advice very helpful.

At left is an example of Hank’s own single line sketching.

Obsession is the trick.

1. Watch the 1953 Famous Studios cartoon, “Popeye, the Ace of Space.”

2. Become obsessed with Popeye.

3. Grab pencil and paper and start churning out original Popeye stories like a madman.

At least, that’s what worked for me when I was, like, six years old. The stories I created may not have looked like much to outsiders, but in my mind they were instant classics, rock solid entertainment. From that point and continuing until today, it's all just been a matter of refining and polishing the technique.

Craig Boldman

Breaking into the lucrative field of cartooning can be easy. By simply raising my hand and pretending to be one I became a cartoonist in under five minutes.

One morning at the Chicago design agency where I was working, the boss walked into our meeting, sat down and informed us that we had landed the Keebler cookie and cracker account.

“Who here,” he asked, “can draw cartoons?”

A dead silence fell over the room. We all looked around suspi-

ciously, wondering who the mystery cartoonist among us would be. After a few moments I raised my hand, not because I was a cartoonist, but because I was half asleep, under-caffeinated, young and naive. I had only drawn a handful of cartoon doodles in my entire life. I didn’t draw them as a child or in college — or ever. Yet I raised my hand, and in under five minutes I had become a cartoonist.

If you want to be a cartoonist, don’t think about what it will take to be one, just be one.

Feel it in you and make sure you have lots of paper on which to store your ideas.

Hambrock

Big Secret to learning to draw in two hours?

those two hours come at the end

hours of drawing and drawing and drawing.

When I was thinking of going freelance more than 35 years ago I visited Rick Meyerowitz at his Greenwich Village studio apartment to glean a few trade secrets to success in this business. Rick was very gracious and showed me his original art from National Lampoon as well as his recently completed “Animal House” movie poster.

I remember the advice he told me: “Jack, in order to make it in this business, you MUST move to New York City. Down South you’ll need to emulate a lot of styles to earn a living.”

Well, that was all the challenge I needed to prove the stereotype wrong. Years later I had drawn for Reader’s Digest, Newsweek, National Geographic and competed with my hero Jack Davis for advertising work out of Atlanta.

So I guess the “Secret” is believe in yourself. . . . . . . . .

Jack Pittman

503 Fast-Rise Comic Generator

I can sell it now that I’ve decided to be the next Stevie Ray Vaughan.

I got it from a professional cartoonist whose name I can not divulge, but his initials are BW. He dropped it on the floor in 1995 and knocked something out of wack and didn’t like the new results he was getting. He sold it to me and retired.

I made a few adjustments and, not having BW’s high

standards, I was more than happy with the results. Speak a random word or phrase into the mic and the Mechano-Bird does the rest, allowing me to explore YouTube and eat fine sandwiches.

Now that it has propelled me well into a low five-figure income for more than 16 years, I will sell it to a new upstart. It’s the last one, folks . . . $10,000 OBO.

Tony Cochran

Mechanically Assisted Cartoonist Extraordinaire

The one simple secret that can turn anyone into a cartoonist is not to be too fussy about what you're trying to draw and just let yourself go. (Is that two rules?)

... but if anyone knows the true One Great Rule, I'd love to hear it: I still can't draw cars or dogs.

Sandra Bell-Lundy

I think it’s hard to beat Wally Wood’s advice

(with an update from me) from way back when, which is as follows:

1. Never draw what you can copy.

2. Never copy what you can trace.

3. Never trace what you can scan into Photoshop and tweak with levels and curves.

Tom Batiuk

Model

The secret to drawing? Simple. To paraphrase Hemingway, “Just sit in front of a blank sheet of paper ... and bleed.”

Graham Nolan

True story: I learned The Secret of Drawing from Walter Sayden himself. I was out drinking on Sixth Ave., hopped up on goofballs, highballs and possible matzo balls. The evening was a blur, but I can just recall the hazy silhouette of Arnold Roth handing me a Long Island Iced Tea before waking up in the alley, covered in blintzes.

Standing above me was a man dressed in 1920s garb, mumbling something about “a secret” and “selling cartoons.” As he relieved me of my wallet, he whispered something in my ear that I will never forget: “ALWAYS PEEL WALRUS EGGS." What this has to do with cartooning I will never know, but the next evening I won my first Reuben Division Award. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Anton Emdin

Years ago while doing my taxes, I had frantically scribbled numbers all over my worksheet. Then, just for fun, I decided to connect the numbers sequentially by drawing lines between them. When I finished, my eyes almost popped out of my head. There before me were the outlines of a beautiful woman.

Since then I’ve been able to draw anything I wanted by simply throwing a bunch of numbers onto paper, canvas or any other blank surface, connect them and VOILÀ! — a beautiful picture emerges.

Al Jaffee

Teresa Roberts Logan

My one great rule for drawing is to do it literally by the numbers.

Tracing paper.

It allows you to draw the same as your favorite cartoonists!

And you could buy a hell of a lot of tracing paper for $5 back in the 1920’s!

Daryll Collins

While recently volunteering at Fort Campbell, I drew a caricature of a soldier.

“You sit here, and talk while you draw,” he sighed, “and when you turn it around, it’s me! I can’t even draw a stick figure.”

“Maybe,” I said, ”but there was probably a time you enjoyed drawing or doodling. When was that?”

“Yeah, that’s true,” he drawled. “Back when I was a kid.”

That’s the secret! When we were kids, before the school days began, we used to create our own worlds. Our communication was about images. Our images.

We drew lines that were not always realistic, but they were believable to us and our friends. The world was portrayed through a child’s eyes, with a few strokes of the pencil or crayon. It was a simple, yet straightforward, statement.

Then, school began chipping away at reality. Two and two are always four. Grass is green. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Suddenly, skies weren’t supposed to be pink or green, anymore; animals can’t talk; our proportion and perspective is off a bit; and we begin to realize people are being critical of our work, even comparing ours to others’ drawings or photographs.

The secret to cartooning? Become that child again. Regain the feeling you once had — that your drawings were extensions of you and spoke for you. No one else sees the world like you see it.

Simplify. Learn to use as few lines possible to communicate. Use as few props as possible. Be a kid!

Have fun. Be as silly with your drawings as you are with your ideas. Be ridiculous. Be giggly. Be a kid!

Own it. Draw your characters. Exaggerate them. Make them believable. Don’t insist your drawings look like someone else’s. Draw like your mom or teacher is going to hang it on the wall. Be a kid!

Finally, PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE! Oh, yeah … practice being a kid again — as often as possible.

Bruce Higdon

This advertisement “How In One Evening I Learned The Secret of Drawing” stating that it can “turn anyone into an artist in less than two hours” is absolutely 100 percent TRUE.

The secret is so simple I couldn’t believe it when I, too, discovered it. Except, my method can be taught in less than 20 minutes at the lowball price of $75.

Act fast, I’m starting to lose my memory on how it exactly works! Don’t waste time thinking it over — 10-minute money back guarantee!

Dan Thompson

One Great Rule — that can turn anyone into a cartoonist — is the desire to break rules. Or, in my case, to test the veracity of superstitions. This drawing is an excerpt from a story I did in which I decide to bust the myth that if you step on a crack you will break your mother’s back.

Isabella Bannerman

My secret of cartooning (which I often forget to apply) is to remove whatever is not necessary to get the gag across.

A cartoon panel is like any other art form, be it music, prose, design, painting or cooking — an uncluttered balance of a few ingredients yields the best results. Every artistic creation benefits from editing, or as Meister Eckhart said, “Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.”

Of course, I grew up reading and loving the amazingly dense pages of MAD, crammed with “chicken fat.” That approach doesn’t work for me. When I put in too much detail things just end up looking messy.

So the true secret is to work all your life to find your own style and discover what is best for you, which reminds me of another favorite quote, from jazz great Thelonious Monk: “A genius is the one MOST LIKE HIMSELF.”

Very few of us create works of genius, but nobody can without being true to themself. . . . . . . . .

Wayno

What you do is draw something — anything — resembling what any six-year-old might do, put it on your website or on the internet, and you can call yourself a cartoonist. This is a proven method today and it works.

But hey, who needs two hours? Ten minutes should do it.

Tim Oliphant

Rick Stromoski

I’ve often been asked to share my secrets to cartooning success, so I’m well versed in parsing my answer!

I started cartooning around 1996. I have since been blessed with fame and fortune and all those things which come to people who pursue the arts.

What we top cartoonists all share in common is one very simple rule. The best thing about this rule is that it is absolutely, one hundred per cent free and should be shared throughout the world!

So here it is, culled from my very own experience, the one rule that will allow anyone to master the lucrative business of cartooning: If you help out a Nigerian Prince reaching out for financing, you are at the same time helping yourself!

Who knew? I encourage everyone to try it! . . . . . . . . Elena

Steier

The secret to drawing is a very fascinating and technical experience of human endurance and introspection. The ability to reproduce images onto a surface of the artist’s choice by way of a single appendage making spastic

movements in sync with whatever medium the artist has chosen to use as his or her mode of expression is a magical endeavor of artistic skill, luck and bribery.

And that, dear reader, is the secret to drawing.

Ed Steckley

I learned two great things about drawing from two different instructors

The First:

I was in a drawing class in New York once and there was a model set up on one end of the room and a bowl of fruit set up on the other end of the room. The instructor said we could draw whichever one we chose to.

Someone asked the instructor, "Is there any difference between drawing the human figure and drawing the fruit?"

The instructor answered, "No, the fruit just rots faster."

The Second:

Another instructor, Tony Ryder, is the greatest draftsman I've ever known. He once told us that the most important concept when drawing the human figure is to remember that the human body is filled with water. It's always pushing out. So every line you draw is convex. Everything.

Someone asked, "What about the nostril? Isn't that concave?"

"No, Tony responded, "it's just a whole bunch of little convexes put together. And, even if it isn't, it's better to think of it that way."

I forgot to mention that my favorite secret for drawing cartoons is this:

I always try to feel the emotion that I want to show up in my drawing. The quality of the line is entirely reflected by my own state of mind. If I’m happy, the line is exuberant. If I’m sad, the line is droopy. If I’m anxious, the line is jittery.

You just fix the feeling in your brain and it magically flows out your hand!

Dale

Dan Collins

The secret elixir to being able to draw?

Caffeine and lots of it!

All you need do is look at the work of some of the foremost practitioners of our art. Ronald Searle, Richard Thompson, Arnie Roth, and R.O. Blechman, to name but a few. Surely the inspired line work and freedom to produce such amazing images is through the side effects of gallons of coffee — or tea for those from the other side. How else can you make a looming deadline with no sleep for days?

So, once you’ve shown art powered by multiple cups of the daily grind you can never go back to drawing straight lines. I started out as a technical illustrator but had to give it up as more and more caffeine coursed through my veins making my drawing became more and more erratic, or full of life as I prefer to call it.

Want to draw well? Buy an expresso maker. . . . . . . . .

Adrian Sinnott

While recently volunteering at Fort Campbell, I drew a caricature of a soldier.

“You sit here, and talk while you draw,” he sighed, “and when you turn it around, it’s me! I can’t even draw a stick figure.”

“Maybe,” I said, ”but there was probably a time you enjoyed drawing or doodling. When was that?”

“Yeah, that’s true,” he drawled. “Back when I was a kid.”

That’s the secret! When we were kids, before the school days began, we used

to create our own worlds. Our communication was about images. Our images. We drew lines that were not always realistic, but they were believable to us and our friends. The world was portrayed through a child’s eyes, with a few strokes of the pencil or

crayon. It was a simple yet straightforward statement. Then, school began chipping away at reality. Two and two are always four. Grass is green. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Suddenly, skies weren’t supposed to be pink or

The secret to virtually instantaneous cartoon

success is googly eyes.

Googly eyes, so named after the 1923 hit song “Barney Google and his Goo-GooGoogly Eyes,” will add personality to anything from stick figures to potted plants.  They work really well on sponges, starfish and cats. There should be a horizontal line across to give a heavy lidded look for cats.

These ubiquitous cartoon eyes consist of two circles (eyeballs) each contain a dot (pupil). The closer and bigger they. are the crazier they look. Smaller and farther apart they calm down. You can have the pupils looking right, left, up down or in different directions.

Cattywampus pupils really make a character look looney. A nice contrast to this is the simple yet elegant dots for eyes, or “dotted eyes.”

Bill Hinds

I’ve been pondering the question, “How In One Evening I Learned The Secret of Drawing,” hoping for some sort of personal experience to come to mind that might be interesting for people to read.

Alas, no inspiration has come. Apparently

I haven’t learned the Secret of Drawing yet.

I used to think I was pretty good at drawing. My parents and school friends raved about it and I came to think I was an artistic genius.

But since joining the NCS and rubbing shoulders with some of the

Brian Crane

DRAWRITING.

Each in their own way and words, Sparky and Phil Frank pushed me on this idea. It’s simple: If you do both at once, you’re using the unique cartooning muscle … words and pictures together.

Sparky told me if I got stuck to just start drawing your characters “doing things.” If your characters are truly individuals they’ll do the same tasks differently. I love that idea.

incredible artists in this organization, I’ve come to the conclusion that my own drawing ability is pretty pedestrian and leaves a whole lot to be desired.

Oh well. My grandkids still think I’m a good drawer.

Phil Frank loved the spontaneity of cartooning and urged me to not pencil as much. He told me, “You throw away the good drawing” by pencilling tight and then covering it up with ink.

My version of these two ideas is to draw every day — draw and write at the same time and trust myself with the tools to enjoy the process.

It has turned me into a cartoonist who enjoys the labor of cartooning. . . . . . . .

Michael Jantze

green, anymore; animals can’t talk; our proportion and perspective is off a bit; and we begin to realize people are being critical of our work, even comparing ours to others’ drawings or photographs.

The secret to cartooning? Become that child,

again. Regain the feeling you once had that your drawings were extensions of you and spoke for you. No one else sees the world like you see it.

Simplify. Learn to use as few lines possible to communicate your joke or statement. Use as few props

as possible. Be a kid!

Have fun. Be as silly with your drawings as you are with your ideas. Be ridiculous. Be giggly. Be a kid!

Own it. Draw your characters. Exaggerate them. Make them believable. Don’t insist your drawings look like someone else’s. Draw like

your mom or teacher is going to hang it on the wall. Be a kid!

Finally, PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE! Oh, yeah … practice being a kid again — as often as possible. . . . . . . . .

Bruce Higdon

The simple secret to becoming a cartoonist in two hours is having a deadline. Not a pretend deadline, like maybe from a syndicate, but a real deadline.

Most cartoonists are amazingly creative and talented in the last hours/minutes before their deadline. SO, create a real deadline for yourself …

I suggest you hire a hitman to do you in exactly two hours from now if you haven’t produced a cartoon. Mess around on pieces of white paper for 1 hour and 55 minutes. When it’s five minutes before your deadline (and I mean DEADline), I guarantee you will come up with a brilliant idea and figure out how to draw it. Trust me, it’s what all the greats do. Rule No. 2, if you get that far, is to hold the paper firmly when you erase so you don’t wrinkle it and tick yourself off.

Eliot

Rick Kirkman

One Great Rule? Why, I have FIVE.

And they’re sooo easy. You, too, can become a cartoonist in less than two hours!

1. Find a cartoonist. Find a steep cliff. You know the rest. Impersonate that cartoonist.

2. Create a website and post cartoons on it. Mazel Tov, you’re a cartoonist. (Note: there’s nothing in my rules that says anything about making money.)

3. Say you’re a cartoonist. Duh.

4. Steal a professional cartoonist’s identity. It’s more hassle but less violent than No. 1.

5. Work your butt off creating funny, original cartoons that have wide appeal and are market-ready.

Work your butt off again to find avenues to sell your material. Okay, this may take slightly more than two hours. For me, it was more like a decade. But I’m at the age where a decade feels like an hour. The great thing about these? You can do one or more, and in any order.

Disclaimer: if you try No. 1 or No. 4, I am not to be held accountable.

Terri Libenson

From boyhood, I have always wanted to draw things. I suppose there are hundreds of young fellow doodlers who feel the same way. Sadly, I was barely able to draw a straight line. I mean, sure I could draw a stick figure, or one of those MAD movie parodies ... but who couldn’t?!

I was so frustrated by my inability to draw that I almost threw it all in to become a caricaturist for Sardi’s. That was when I discovered the one key secret that would unlock the rest of my career!

We’ve all heard of desks, sure. What about these new fangled “standing desks”? Well, let me tell you, the key to being able to draw anything like a real professional cartoonist, is the HAND-STANDING DESK!

That’s right, don’t be one of those chumps who continues to try and make a living drawing sitting on your keister. Now you could be the next Ed Steckley with the revolutionary HAND-STANDING DESK, for just 27 easy payments of $499.99.

For best results, HAND-STANDING DESK should be used in your underwear. To be honest, I haven’t even tried it any other way.

Disclaimer:

. . Peter Guren

Now, get drawing! . . . . . . . .

Jason Chatfield

The One Great Rule — that one simple secret that can turn anyone into a cartoonist in less than two hours? The answer is one simple word: fingerprints.

May be limited to only drawing zebras, tigers and okapis . . . . . .

I was working long hours in a dead end job, unloading sides of beef from supermarket trucks. It was right around the time I was sitting at the kitchen table, smelling of meat juice, and eating Kraft dinner straight out of the box in my dinky apartment when it hit me.

“I’ve gotta make something out of my life! I can’t go on like this!” Then, there was a knock at the door. It was a man who introduced himself as Mr. Morpheus.

“What if I told you it was possible to have a job where you could just sit around all day, eating Fruit Loops and drawing goofy pictures and you wouldn’t have to wear pants?”

“Really? But I can’t draw a straight line!” I answered.

“Then you are off to a good start. No cartoonist can draw a straight line. It’s part of the job description.”

This all seemed to be too good to be true. Morpheus then handed me a piece of paper.

“ Just take the test: Draw Tipsy the Turtle.” He handed me a crude drawing of a cartoon turtle. I found much to my surprise that I could draw Tipsy!

“Does this mean I’m the one?” I asked.

“Yes,you are one ... in a million of people who want to be cartoonists. Congratulations.”

“You just need to take my seminar to unlock the secrets of cartooning. You see, there is the real world, in which we all exist. But there is also a parallel universe — a cartoon version of the same reality. You have to learn how to see that big cartoon world. Then you too can truly become a cartoonist!”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“Have you ever noticed a glitch? You are going about

I’m not sure you can master The Secret of Drawing your first time, but you will certainly advance your puerile drawing skills forward by using the power of OBSERVATION.

Simply study your subject. Concentrate. Look closely at its form and let your pen or pencil follow what you see. You don’t

have to be exact, you don’t even have to be what they term “realistic.” Make your drawing your own; a direct and honest expression of your experience and don’t worry about mistakes. Toss aside your rejects and to heck with the trees — they exist to make paper for you to use.

OBSERVE the way one part of your subject

your everyday life and some jackass will walk into a door or take all day to order a coffee? That is the cartoon world trying to break through. That is a cartoon waiting to happen!”

“Wow. You mean it’s all around me? I just have to know how to see it?”

“And that can be your answer for when people constantly ask you where you get your ideas — but I’m getting ahead of myself!”

That day changed my life. I am now a working cartoonist. It was all true. You really could just sit around all day, eating Fruit Loops and drawing goofy pictures and the best part was ... you really didn’t have to wear pants. There were a lot of other benefits to being a cartoonist too.

One minute I was poor and starving then, jump to … poor and starving cartoonist! Sorry I can’t share more details but you need to take the seminar, too.

See for yourself and sign up. Remember, opportunities in this overcrowded field are extremely limited. Take the seminar today and you could be part of a dwindling industry!

Tell all your friends. I just need to get 10 more people to sign up and then I can ... wait a minute. Is this a pyramid scheme?

Dave Whammond

connects to the other. Pick a time away from your TV or video game and just start drawing something close by

... the dog, your hat or a picture of your favorite Presidential candidiate. Just don’t try one of those trees;

they can be tough.

OBSERVE your process but not your watch; get lost in the your new and fun hobby ! Who knows, you might someday improve and become the next Anton Emdin or Tom Richmond.

And if you don’t know who those guys are, go ask the dog.

Bill Janocha

How do you become a master artist in two hours or less? Pull out an old family photo album or give your mom a call. The anxiety and regret you’ll feel will be enough for you to paint “Sunflowers” and still have time to chop your ear off. If you don’t have a mother like mine, feel free to reach out and I’ll gladly share her number with you.

Of course, if you lack basic art skills, you’ll end up drawing characters with buggy eyes and spend your weekends hanging out on the nearest bridge. I recommend the Golden Gate.

Paul Jon Boscacci

The one simple secret that can turn anyone into a cartoonist in less than two hours is:

To draw from your own truth, which is broken into four parts.

1. Know the scene

2. Know the action

3. Know the emotion

4. Know the goal.

Stephen Silver

Well, I don’t know much about drawing, so any tip I would have would be about writing. And specifically, writing humor. And it’s a rule I think Scott Adams gave me. Which is to write for somebody specific and try to make them laugh. Could be your brother, a friend, a co-worker. But write it for them, and if you can, show it to them.

It has a crazy ability to focus your writing and not let you fool yourself into believing something is funny when it’s not. . . . . . . . .

Stephan Pastis

Always thoroughly rub your drawing to make sure the ink is dry enough to put it on the scanner.

Dan Martin

Chris Houghton

Berndt Toast Gang celebrates 50 years

L ong Island

Adrian Sinnott 631-547-0778

Well, it’s finally arrived: 2016 is the 50th year that the members of the Berndt Toast Gang have been meeting every month. Here’s a little bit of history from the late BTG founding member, Lee Ames:

“When Creig Flessel, Bill Lignante, Frank Springer, Al Micale and I got together to work for Hanna Barbera, we decided to have lunch at Finnegan’s Bar the last Thursday of every month. During that period, Creig brought Walter Berndt to join us. We fell in love with the cigar-smoking old-timer (look who’s talking!), as he did with us. After a couple of years he passed away and left us grieving. Thereafter, whenever we

convened on Thursdays, we’d raise a toast to Walter’s memory. On one such, my big mouth opened and uttered, “Fellas, it’s time for the Berndt toast!” I wasn’t trying to be cute at the time, but I’m not displeased that it stuck and we became the Berndt Toast Gang, one of the largest branches of the National Cartoonists Society.”

The Berndt Toast Gang can claim some of the most influential cartoonists from the last 100 years amongst its past and present members. As the anniversary approached, we knew that we needed to do something special to honor the group and its history.

The MoCCA gallery at the Society of Illustrators offered to host a show of work from all our members. More than 60 pieces of art graced

the walls, from Walter Berndt’s Smitty to The Lockhorns from Hoest and Reiner. Humorous illustration, comic strips, gag cartoons, caricatures — every facet of the industry was represented. The show also honored the memory of the late Jeff Fisher, a longtime member of the Society and Berndt Toast Gang. Jeff would have had a great time, as he always wanted his art hung near the toilets. When asked why, he would reply, “That way, everyone will get to see it.” And it’s true! In the bathroom at the Society you’d be in great company, as there’s a James Montgomery Flagg original on the wall.

A review in Newsday, Long Island’s newspaper, rated it one of the top ten things to do!

Work from these members were included in the show: Ray Alma, Lee Ames, Sy Barry, Garrett

NCS members living in an area served by a regional chapter should contact the chairman, or contact national representative Ed Steckley at 413-478-4314.. Chairmen, please send news, photos, artwork and information about your chapter to The Cartoon!st, in care of Frank Pauer, 53 Beverly Place, Dayton, OH 45419, or fpauer1@udayton.edu. Deadline for the next issue is April 3.

The MoCCA gallery at New York City’s renowned Society of Illustrators mounted an exhibit of more than 60 original pieces of art from Long Island’s Berndt Toast Gang.

Bender, George Booth, John Buscema, Valerie Costantino, Art Cumings, Tony D’Adamo, Bob Deschamps, Steve Duquette, Mort Drucker, Anton Emdin, Roberta Fabiano, Jules Feiffer, Jeff Fisher, Creig Flessel, Greg Fox, Joe Edwards, David Gantz, Joe Gentilella, Joe Giella, Tom Gill, Stan Goldberg, Don Heck, Bill Hoest, Bunny Hoest, James Kemsley, Ted Key, Sandy Kossin, Bill Kresse, André Leblanc, Arnie Levin, Bill Lignante, Mike Lynch, Bob Lubbers, Sam Norkin, Don Orehek, John Pennisi, John Reiner, Al Scaduto, Bill Seay, Adrian C. Sinnott, Frank Springer, John Stevens, Tony Tallarico, Joe Vissichelli and, of course, Walter Berndt.

To complete the New York City part of our celebrations, we hosted a reception at the Society on Jan. 20. Friends and family from the Manhattan, New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island chapters came out to help celebrate the historic occasion. Former BTG chair Mike

Lynch trekked all the way down from the wilds of New Hampshire and George, Dione and Sarah Booth came all the way in from the wilds of Brooklyn. Rumor has it that there was even an Australian in the audience, to represent the two Australian members of the BTG, James Kemsley and Anton Emdin. Roberta Fabiano, lead vocalist for the Peter Duchin orchestra, did a solo gig for us and made it an unforgettable night. The food was great, the conversation even better, and it was all over much too soon.

After its stellar Manhattan run, the show will move to Huntington in March. It’s very appro-

priate as that’s where the group started. Then, of course, there’ll be the annual Bunny Bash on June 23, where we’ll sing ourselves a “Happy Birthday!” Come on out and join us for a few more surprises.

I want to thank all the members of the Gang, our friends and family members. Many freely loaned art which included many rare and valuable pieces from our departed colleagues. A special thank you to Bill Janocha, Jerry Jurman, Donna Fisher, Roberta Bender and Roberta Fabiano. Without their help and the help of our extended NCS family, this would have been a much more difficult project to orchestrate. It’s a fitting tribute to all the kind and talented people of the Berndt Toast Gang!

Now on to the next 50 years …

and humor for which he is known and loved.

Great Lakes

Polly Keener pollytoon@aol.com

Southern California/ Los Angeles

Matt Diffee (mattdiffee@gmail.com)

Our first gathering of 2016 is in the books. In a secret, hush-hush ceremony, 11 new members were officially welcomed into our ranks. Cathy Guisewite said that it was the most profound and moving ceremony she’d ever experienced in a pizza joint.

In addition to that, the 50 or so members in attendance were thoroughly entertained by visiting cartoonists Emily Flake (The New Yorker) and Jerry Van Amerongen (Ballard Street). We then rolled up our sleeves and dove into a hands-on, nuts and bolts discussion of what it takes to build a successful webcomic with our own Dave Kellett (Sheldon and Drive) and David Malki (Wondermark).

If you happened to be at the St. Jude’s opening party for the LA Art Show you might have seen Academy award-winning actress Anne Hathaway or, if you were really lucky,

Dan Piraro, Marla Frazee, Bill Morrison and Matt Diffee. They were hunkered down drawing fun stuff for the gathered crowd of VIP patrons and supporters. Michael Ramirez, who’s work was on auction that night, also stopped by and drew some presidents for the lucky folks. It’s the dry run for a new reality TV show we’ll be pitching around town called “Doodling with the Stars.” That part might not be true, but what is true is that our chapter is thrilled to be helping in the good work of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and we hope there will be many more events like this in the coming years.

But the big happening out here in Tinseltown was the presentation of the NCS Medal of Honor to our own Mell Lazarus. Lots of NCS luminaries were on hand to celebrate the occasion. Several funny and touching speeches were given by his closest friends and colleagues before Mell stepped to the podium to accept this richly-deserved honor with all the grace

As this is being written, snow is pouring down here in northeastern Ohio, but we are looking forward to a sunnier day on March 5 when Great Lakes Chapter members will meet for a terrific double-header meeting in Akron. We look forward to judging the Reuben Gag Cartoon category and are excited to celebrate two big cartoon strip anniversaries for GLC member Tom Batiuk. Tom has had three highly successful strips: John Darling, succeeded by Funky Winkerbean (which just passed its 40th anniversary), and Crankshaft (29th anniversary) with collaborator Chuck Ayers. Both Tom and Chuck will be present to speak and sign copies of their latest books. We will have pizza from Akron’s famous Luigi’s restaurant for lunch (Luigi’s was the inspiration for Montoni’s pizza shop which is often featured in Funky) as well as great door prizes, special commemorative favors and good fellowship.

Rich Diesslin, chapter webmaster, will be on a mission trip to paint murals on a gymnasium wall at Camp Pallatango in Ecuador in early June. If other NCS members want to contribute to the effort, please contact Rich for details. Rich has also recently cartooned a new book called And the Final Answer Is …?

Craig Boldman is featured at the Comic and Toy show February 27 in Dayton. Craig does “Archie Comics.”

Jerry Dowling reports that he is back in the Cincinnati Enquirer after a 20-year absence (“early quitation” he calls it) to do periodic cartoons with his caricatures.

Jenny Robb writes that there is a new Eldon Dedini show and collection of David Barona

The Phantom — via a colorfully cowled Sy Barry — at the Berndt Toast Gang’s gallery reception

Mell Lazarus receives the NCS Medal of Honor from five current and former NCS presidents. Southern California/Los Angeles chapter chair notes that the chapter will be launching a Kickstarter to raise funds to carve this image into the side of a mountain somewhere in the Dakotas.

“wordless” cartoons at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum in Columbus.

The Akron Summit County Public Library put up a one-man show of Don Peoples’ cartoons and illustrations. Don does a variety of very colorful types of cartoons. Don has been a graphic designer with the library system for 28 years.

The Great Lakes Chapter now has its own Facebook page, with a majority of chapter members on it. This was orchestrated by member Joe Wos, who is ever creative and alert to new cartoon communication possibilities. Joe’s “Maze Toons,” syndicated by Creators has made it into the Guinness Books of World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not for having the biggest, most difficult maze. Wow!

Jim Benton’s book of cartoons, Dog Butts and Love. And Stuff Like That. And Cats was up for an Eisner Award last year. Jim said he was “up against a personal favorite” of his, Sergio Aragones, which was “surreal.” Congrats, a bit belatedly, Jim.

Looking forward, plans are being hatched for a potential summer meeting in Cleveland at the architecturally glorious Main Library, which is mounting a show of political and other cartoons to run during the Republican convention in July.

Finally, the chapter extends heartfelt condolences to Mark Szorady, who lost a second brother, David, recently at a young age.!

New Jersey

Shane Townley of Townley Arts Foundation and Vincent Zambrano Films were co-sponsors of the Gallery Reception. The many boxes of pizza delivered during the evening were perfectly in keeping with the subject at hand since it had but one topping — spinach!

Both the reception and the gallery display were hugely successful. Hy continues to do both Popeye and Katzenjammer Sunday pages for King Features. Having taught for the past

quaffing holiday cheer and calmly eating various comfort foods at our house!

Gerry Mooney joined our party and treated us to a passionate rendition of a lengthy poem he created, titled “Martini Bombini O’Feeney Mooney,” a unique poem that got better and wittier with each succeeding line.

New Jersey Chapter attendees included Chair Dan Nakrosis, fellow members Jim McWeeney and wife, Gayle, in addition to Bob Luczun and wife Madeline, Doug Goudsward and Jay Wecht. We were pleased to see former chapter member Bill Hogan travel from Pennsylvania to join us. Bill is now retired, and while doing some cartooning, is mostly painting and selling beautiful canvases. Tom Seiz, a retired science and biology teacher in addition to being an award-winning painter also joined our gathering.

Dan

Nakrosis Report by Tom Stemmle

During the month of this past October, the Van Der Plas Gallery on New York’s Lower East Side, held a retrospective of more than 200 Hy Eisman original King Feature syndicated Popeye Sunday pages. The famed cartoonist’s masterly artwork was culled from drawings created between 2008 and 2012. Eisman, now in his 22nd year of creating the iconic spinach-eating sailor, was honored at a jam-packed evening reception held on Oct. 9.

Amid a frenzy of students, former students, fans, friends, family and fellow cartoonists — plus an array of people from Vincent Zambrano Films, who are putting together a documentary on his storied career — Hy was his usual polite, smiling, yet very modest self. Time and again he would go to various originals and point out certain artistic variations to curious onlookers. Much of this happy chaos was captured on film, giving the evening an extra feeling of artistic electricity.

The food consisted of some very special pizza sent from a nearby Italian restaurant and an excellent choice of superior wines from Townley Wines of Santa Rosa, Calif.

40 years at The Joe Kubert School in Dover, N.J., Hy shows no signs of slowing down. After knowing him for close to 26 years, I can say he remains as youthful and full of enthusiasm as ever. He is also one of the greatest story tellers of happenings in and around his wonderful world of cartooning from the past 65 years.

On Jan. 9, Marie and I held our “Last-Gasp Christmas Party” at our home in Piscataway. In attendance were NCS chapter members and friends from Long Island, Manhattan and New Jersey. The weather was on our side with almost tropical temps for January, with only light overcoats necessary. We were very happy and delighted that our wonderful NCS “Den Mother” Bunny Hoest Carpenter visited us, along with the Long Island Berndt Toasters, Adrian Sinnott and wife, Patty, and Pauline Goldberg, widow of the late, great Stan Goldberg, as well as gag writer Helene Parsons and her husband Bob.

Of course I cannot fail to mention that the Manhattan Chapter head honcho and NCS Representative Ed Steckley attended our little party. Ed, as everyone knows, has mastered the ability to be everywhere at once! I’m sure he was also multitasking, working on important business for the Society, in some other part of the U.S.A., while he was quietly

Thanks to all who traveled to our party. It’s always fun and an honor for Marie and I to host such a talented bunch of friends!

Manhattan

Ed Steckley

The year is in full swing here in NYC, and we’ve got lots happening with the chapter.  Our monthly happy hours have continued, most at our usual place, Hurley’s Steakhouse in Midtown, Manhattan. Normally the last Monday of the month, usually with something special happening, to make the trek out even more worthwhile!

On March 17, the chapter is hosting a special event at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. To celebrate Will Eisner week, we’re having an event centered around Will’s alumni. Will taught at SVA, and many of his former students went off to become successful in many different art fields: Ray Billingsley, a couple other special guests who, at the time of this writing are still being worked out, as well as Paul Levitz. Should make for some interesting stories!

March also brought our annual happy hour pilgrimage to our buddy Jennifer George’s house in the Upper West Side. She puts on a great spread for us every year, as we celebrate

Cartoonists and friends gather at Tom and Marie Stemmle’s home for the New Jersey’s Chapter’s “Last Gasp Christmas Party.”

Hy Eisman at the gallery reception of his Popeye work, with his daughters Mindy and Merle.

art, food and booze. The spread this year topped all the previous years, as we get a bigger turnout and order more food.

On Saturday, April 9, we’ll be hosting an NCS Medal of Honor event at the Society of Illustrators in Manhattan. Al Jaffee, Arnold Roth and Mort Walker will be presented with the NCS’s highest honor.

Our April happy hour, Monday the 18th, brings us a special guest speaker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, the great Ann Telnaes. Come and hear Ann talk about her life and work, and enjoy the all-you-caneat buffet that Hurley’s is famous for. Email Ed for more info on this and any other event and he’ll tell you all about it.

See you in the Big Apple!

Connecticut

Maria Scrivan maria@mariascrivan.com

On Feb. 16, the NCS Connecticut Chapter had a great time judging the Newspaper Illustration Division at Mort Walker’s studio. Our job was to take the preliminary entries and narrow them down to a select few. Our choices will soon appear online for the rest of the organization to judge to determine the final nominees.

In addition to lunch and conversation we were treated to a tour of Mort’s studio, which is its own museum filled with incredible drawings, paintings and history.

In attendance, from left to right above, were: Mary Anne Case, Greg Walker, Brian Walker, Chance Browne, Sean Kelly, Mort Walker, Ray Billingsley, Maria Scrivan, Bill Janocha, Bob Englehart and Neal Walker.

Florida

Mark Simon marksimonbooks@yahoo.com

A bloodless coup marked the start of the year (or mid-February) as Mark Simon was unanimously voted in an election of one to become Chair of the Florida Chapter.

Fox News reports that Mark will be using his executive powers to overturn the recent lack of chapter events, speakers or ... much of anything. Florida is a long, long state, so among other new ideas to bring members together, he will try to stream events so those who can’t make the trip can still join in.

In other news, soon-to-be member Glenn

Jack Elrod 1924-2016

Jack Elrod, who spent 64 years working on the strip Mark Trail, died Feb. 3. He was 91.

Born in Gainesville, Fla., on March 29, 1924, Elrod joined the Navy in 1942. After the war, Elrod returned home and studied advertising design and layout in Nashville, and then graduated from the Atlanta Art Institute in 1949.

In 1950, Elrod began an apprenticeship as a background artist and letterer for Mark Trail creator Ed Dodd, who had begun the strip in 1946. After Dodd retired in 1978, Elrod took over the rights and sole authorship of the strip, and continued the feature until he retired on his 90th birthday in 2014.

Elrod also succeeded Cal Alley on The Ryatts, a family-oriented strip, which he wrote and drew from 1965 to 1994.

Elrod was one of three men from Gainesville to have

Ferguson, who many of you remember as the caricature artist who was stabbed in the brain in January at Universal Studios, wants to thank the support of all the artists, fans and the generous gift from the NCS to help him with his tremendous medical bills. He was released from the hospital at the end of January after spending weeks in a coma recuperating. He is doing well, but has to re-learn how to draw. We wish him the best.

Southeastern

John Sheppard sheart@aol.com

The SEC/NCS Annual Fall Meeting has been scheduled for Oct. 7-9. We’ll be staying Friday and Saturday nights at the Sheraton Starwood Hotel in Roanoke, Va.

We’ll have the usual Saturday morning business meeting followed up by presentations from our own Marcus Hamilton, John Rose and special guest Maria Scrivan. All NCSers are welcome to attend — you know these gatherings are the best! For information contact John Sheppard at shepart@aol.com

Sooner, the SEC/NCS Atlanta group is meeting with the University of Georgia Comic Creators Association on March 26 for a day of mentoring, Q&A and general hanging out.

been at the helm of Mark Trail, following Dodd and preceding the current writer and artist, James Allen. Elrod received more than 30 conservationist awards from national agencies and private organizations, including the “Take Pride in America” Award from President Ronald Reagan and the Golden Smokey (the Bear) from the USDA Forest Service.

His family said he was perhaps proudest of the designation of the “Mark Trail Wilderness” in 1991. The 16,000 acres of the Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia includes parts of the Appalachian Trail, which Elrod hiked throughout his life.

But unlike the ageless Mark Trail, Elrod did age. “My hands just get so shaky I can’t make a straight line anymore,” he said in a 2014 interview.

“Well I’ve been lucky doing what I like to do. I know I’ll miss it.”

Between the Lines

By Jerry Dumas

It was good to be young in New York City in 1956. Young and healthy and looking forward to the only occupations I could be any good at — writing and drawing. My first real look at Manhattan was in 1954, going south on Madison Avenue, absolutely dumbstruck.

“So this is where it all happened,” was the thought in back of my mind — “is happening, will happen.” I knew Fifth Avenue was over to my right, Second to my left and on these and all the side streets spread up and down and back and forth were the book and magazine publishers, the great newspapers and murdered gangsters in the alleys and streets. Inspiring is what it was, and awesome.

In 1954 I had popped in from Arizona State University to show somebody my greeting cards, which were briskly rejected, but by 1956 I was living in Greenwich, Conn., writing gags for Mort Walker’s Beetle Baliley and Hi and Lois, and helping Mort with the drawing of Beetle.

I grew up studying magazine cartoonists and I wondered if I could be one too. Along about 1957 or 1958 I began making the Wednesday rounds to all the magazines I had studied — and delivered. The strip work could be done in four or five days and that left a couple of days per week to knock out a batch of magazine roughs. Nobody stopped me from joining the ranks of familiar names waiting in the outer offices of the great cartoon editors — Marian Nichols of The Saturday Evening Post, John Bailey, Ralph Stein. The cartoonists themselves were a combination of friendliness and wariness. Is this new kid any good? Is he going to take sales away from me? I never even thought of approaching The New Yorker. They seemed to be another division entirely. As for Mort and Sparky Schulz, they had quit magazine cartooning completely when their strips both started in September 1950.

Among the magazine cartoonists, some were shy and retiring, like Bob Schroeter and Orlando Busino, or quietly sidesplitting, like Jerry Marcus, or loudly sidesplitting, like George Wolfe and John Gallagher, or just plain funny in every way, like Dick Cavalli.

Cartoonists arrived in the morning around ten. They took seats in the waiting room, first come, first served. The Post’s headquarters were in Philadelphia, so Marian arrived at its New York office about when the cartoonists straggled in. One morning I entered a crowded elevator and saw Jack Mendlesohn standing in the rear. “Morning, Jack,” I said. “How are you, Jerry?” Jack replied. I turned to face the front. Jack tapped my shoulder. “You’d better say hello to Marian, too,” he said. I found her right behind me and said “Hi,” then faced the front again. I said to Jack, “It’s good that whether or not you sell to The Saturday Evening Post has nothing to do with saying hello to the cartoon editor.” There was another tap . . . this time it was Marian.

“Oh, doesn’t it?” she said with a sweet, murderous smile.

When I saw my first cartoon in the Post, I was sitting in their waiting room beside Harry Mace, a Post regular. There was always an advance copy on hand, and we could hardly wait to see if one of us was in the next issue. Harry flipped a page and there it was. I thought he knew my name and would say something like, “This your first? Nice job.” But he said nothing. He simply looked at it for a very, very long time.

I enjoyed walking the streets between offices with cartoonists like Gallagher, Marcus and Al Kaufman. Al was helpful in showing the most convenient routes and where the prettiest girls could be seen. Beaming smiles from Bert Lahr and Zero Mostel at the Blue Ribbon were pretty good, too. By 1959 I was selling to The New Yorker, sitting across the desk from legendary Jim Geraghty. In those early days, I received $50 for a spot, $15 for a reprint of a spot (a barn was reprinted 12 times!), $300 for a cartoon and $2,000 for a two-page spread. There was something just as thrilling about being in those seedy, threadbare rooms as appearing in its elegant pages. There was something heady about wondering to yourself, well, I managed to do this, I wonder if I could do that?

Give it a try.

■ ■ ■

Besides his comic strip work for more than 50 years (Sam’s Strip, Sam and Silo, Hi and Lois, Beetle Bailey, and others), Jerry has had two books published by Houghton, and contributed to Smithsonian, The New York Times and The New Yorker.

The McGreevey brothers, Eddie (batting average .184) and Nate (batting average .377), on the day Eddie decided to wear his pants longer.

Above, one of 12 drawings of “Little-Known Moments in the History of Baseball” from a two-page spread in The New Yorker

From both in front and on screen to behind the scenes, Hilary Price sends along two items of note. This April, she’ll be showing students how to “Make It Funny: The Basics of Writing and Drawing

Single Panel Cartoons,” a one-week intensive online course through the Fine Arts Work Center program of Provincetown, Mass. It will be her first online teaching experience but, “I really like teaching, and I have more than a few tips and tricks after doing this job for 20 years.”

Limited to just 12 students, see web.fawc.org for details. Hilary also participated in an event sponsored by The Moth, an acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Hilary traveled to Burlington, Vermont, to participate in The Moth Grand Slam Story Competition. The evening’s theme was “Fish Out of Water” and she related the story about …well, just watch: Search “Hilary Price at The Moth Grand Slam” to see the six-minute YouTube video. …

Bill Janocha drops us a note that he has illustrated his first children’s picture book, A Most Unusual Farm, written by the late Phyllis Skigen. The book tells the story of Bess, a cow who meets up with Chester — a horse of a different color — three circus monkeys and others in their enlightening journey. Bill writes that the author passed before the contract was completed, so Bill finished “the entirety of the work based on my own interpretations and judgement of what Phyllis might have wanted. It was an excruciating yet exhilarating experience to create my very first picture book.”

A long-lost Walt Disney film featuring his first animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was unearthed in the national archive of the British Film Institute. The discovery of the six-minute film “Sleigh Bells,” unseen since its release in 1928, had been feared lost forever. The animation is by Disney and Ub Iwerks, who both went on to create Mickey Mouse after a contractual disagreement with Universal, for whom they had created the Oswald films. Restored by Walt Disney Animation Studios, the only copy in the world of the silent film had a world premiere at the Institute in December.  …

An exhibit of Lynn Johnston’s work is traveling through Canada — for better or for worse “For Better or For Worse: The Comic Art of Lynn Johnston” presents a generous selection of original artwork, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at Lynn’s creative process, her life, and the many doors that were opened for her along the way. The exhibit features artwork created by Lynn at all stages of her life, and includes everything from childhood artwork to drawings created as a medical artist working at McMaster University to original For Better or For Worse artwork to the paintings and fabric design she’s creating these days. Visitors can even see the scratched and pitted drafting table where Lynn created the strip for 30 years. In conjunction with the exhibit, For Better or For Worse – The Comic Art of Lynn Johnston has been published by Goose Lane Editions. The book

Master puzzleteer Patrick Merrell has launched a new website: www.orts.us. “Orts” is an original collection of neverused, new, and re-purposed stuff from the more than 37 years Patrick has spent as a freelance illustrator, graphic designer, writer and puzzlemaker — with an occasional step even further back in time. A new entry will be posted every morning Monday through Friday. Among Patrick’s fartoo-numerous credits, he has illustrated, designed, and/or written more than 300 books, including 80 puzzle books; has written 84 crosswords for The New York Times (including 20 Sundays); is one of MAD Magazine’s “Usual Gang of Idiots”; and has produced thousands of illustrations and cartoons for a myriad of clients. … Work from Isabella Bannerman is part of “Our Comics, Ourselves,” an exhibit currently at Interference Archive in Brooklyn, New York. She writes that the gallery’s mission is to “explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in an open stacks archival collection, publications, a study center, and public programs including exhibitions, workshops, talks and screenings, all of which encourage critical and creative engagement with the rich history of social movements.”

Isabella is represented with art that she did for a 1992 issue of World War 3 Illustrated, a collection of feminist autobiographical and journalistic stories. For gallery details, see interferencearchive.org.

features some of Lynn’s most popular narratives, interspersed with an essay that chronicles the development of her drawing, her life and influences both personal and artistic. This book also gathers together a generous selection of Lynn’s daily strips and Sunday pages, spanning the lives of the Patterson family. If you can’t make it to an exhibit venue, go to thecomicartoflynnjohnston.com/ publication for details on ordering a copy of the 200-page book. Organized by the Art Gallery of Sudbury, the exhibit has moved on to — through March — the Thunder Bay Art Gallery in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In May, the exhibit opens at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick; in October, the W.K.P. Kennedy Gallery in North Bay, Ontario plays host.