Dylan Williams' Bill Blackbeard interview
Dylan Williams has posted a wonderful tribute to Bill Blackbeard, the comics historian who passed away last month. Williams includes a lengthy published interview with Blackbeard, and it's a great read.
Dylan Williams has posted a wonderful tribute to Bill Blackbeard, the comics historian who passed away last month. Williams includes a lengthy published interview with Blackbeard, and it's a great read.
Politico.com has a great piece on Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Tom Toles, who will be honored Tuesday with the Herblock Prize. Toles talks about being dragged into editorial cartooning by Douglas Turner, his editor at the Buffalo Courier-Express:
“I said ‘No, I don’t want to do that,’” Toles recalled. “‘I don’t have the skills. I don’t have the interest. I don’t have the knowledge.’ That seems like a pretty good case, right? Three disqualifiers.”
But Turner wanted him to try it anyway, so he did. “I kept trying to get out of it. Hated it. Just hated it. And I was pretty bad, in my opinion. But he just kept at it and at it and at it.”
Together AGAIN! (Take that, Shena!)
The American satire dial will be turned up to '11' tonight when Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau joins Comedy Central's bombastically 'right-wing' pundit Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report. Our bet is the two will discuss, among many timely and fascinating things, GBT's new book, 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective.
Lennie Peterson's The Big Picture is back in the form of re-runs on GoComics, starting today!
But (SPOILER ALERT!) they won't all be re-runs. Lennie will pop in from time to time with a new strip (like today's) as well! Check out tomorrow's installment for more details.
Welcome back, Lennie!
Michael Cavna of The Washington Post has posted this story about a group of cartoonists who travelled to Afghanistan as part of a USO tour earlier this month. The group included Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich, Jeff Keane (Family Circus), Rick Kirkman (Baby Blues) and Tom Richmond (MAD Magazine).
Shannon Wheeler, creator of Too Much Coffee Man, has a new book out called I Thought You Would Be Funnier, featuring his rejected New Yorker cartoon submissions, as well as a few that made it.
Brendan Wright of The Wright Opinion recently got his hands on a copy and had this to say:
"I’m not sure what you say about a book of gag cartoons except that they made me laugh, which they did... Wheeler’s worldview as expressed here is familiar from his comic strips Too Much Coffee Man, Postage Stamp Funnies and How to Be Happy: ironic, somewhat cynical, but ultimately wide-eyed and almost innocent. Oh, and funny."
Read the whole review here.
Get Shannon's new book here.
Editorial cartoonist Matt Davies is being sued for $1 million by failed congressional candidate Jim Russell. Russell basically claims it was the reporting of several journalists and the cartoons of Davies that cost him the GOP's backing, not his own writings, the racial undertones of which prompted the stories and cartoons in the first place. Follow the whole sordid story here.
Thatababy launched today on GoComics and in newspapers across the country. We recently caught up with cartoonist Paul Trap for a quick Q&A:
GoComics: When did you first start cartooning and when did you first begin thinking about turning it into a career?
Paul Trap: I drew like crazy when young, created Mad Magazine-style satires about our high school while a student, and cartooned for our college newspaper at Michigan State (Go Spartans). I graduated with a degree in Advertising but have always incorporated art, and whenever possible cartooning, into my work.
GC: Where did the idea for Thatababy come from?
PT: We’ve all been told write what you know. The strip is our family’s story of parenthood, but told through the eyes of our son, the boy born too busy to sleep. It’s a celebration of those early years when everything is new, you’re the center of attention and you haven’t been told the rules.
GC: What made you decide to enter the Amazon contest?
PT: I submitted Thatababy to the newspaper syndicates earlier in the year — while waiting for a response the contest was brought to my attention, I added some new a material and threw my hat in the ring.
GC: What was it like to see Thatababy make it into the final 50, and then the final 10?
PT: Surreal. It’s an exciting but insular experience, following the contest quietly at home on the computer.
GC: How did you find out Universal Uclick was interested in syndicating Thatababy?
PT: John Glynn, in charge of acquisitions, contacted me to compliment my entry and said he’d like to talk after the conclusion of the contest. That was a good day.
GC: How much of the humor in Thatababy comes from your own parenting experiences?
PT: A good chunk is autobiographical, but everything is filtered through my lingering baby-induced sleep deprivation.
GC: In the first few weeks of Thatababy there are “Alien,” “Transformers” and “Star Wars” references, which begs the obvious question: Are you a sci-fi geek?
PT: I’d like to say no, but the boxes of Star Wars toys stacked in the attic indicate otherwise. A great part of parenthood is introducing our kid to the pop culture that I found significant growing up. Bedtime stories were reading him an issue of a X-men comic book from my high school collection — every night ending in a cliffhanger.
GC: You’re also the editorial cartoonist for “Baseball America” magazine. How much of a sports fan are you?
PT: Baseball is the perfect sport — 97% glorious expectation and 3% action. I carry the scar tissue of a Cubs fan, but enjoy it at all levels, especially the minor leagues. I’m a very lucky fan to have a 5” x 3” soapbox printed in Baseball America to express my thoughts on the game.
GC: Who do you consider to be your influences in cartooning? Whose work do you drop everything to see?
PT: I imagine I’m like most other artists with Charles Schulz, Bill Watterson, Gary Larson and Robert Crumb in my cartoonist pantheon. I’m also a fan of Paul Coker Jr. from the pages of Mad, and the late great Phil Frank. He preceded me as a cartoonist for the newspaper at Michigan State and it was an honor to work in his long shadow.
The Today Show visited Cathy Guisewite as she put the finishing touches on 34 years of her beloved comic strip, Cathy.
Steve Moore's In the Bleachers celebrates 15 years of sports-themed hilarity today. Congrats, Steve!
