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Home , Alley Oop, Andrew Farago, Ariel Bordeaux, Batton Lash, Bill Griffith, Bil Keane

Volume 1 Spring 2012 Issue 1 2 The Crier

Bil Keane, 1922–2011

In the late 1990s I was in my thirties trying to make a name for myself as a . I fervently wanted to make a comic that could be deemed literature. I believed the future of the medium was the and had no time for the contemporary . Its format seemed tired and its content formulaic. Then I saw the above Family Circus . The elements still give me a chill. A leafless tree is silhouetted in what looks to be the stark lighting of sundown. An old woman, her back to the reader, peers over her shoulder. The setting at first seems intimate, as she is sitting on a bed, yet the wall behind her is impersonal and empty. Her expression is one of weariness and resignation. She is contemplating her death. Whom is she speaking to? Her son? Her husband? An apparition? Little Dolly? This one unpretentious panel had all the mystery and pathos I so wanted to see in my own work. I had a lot to learn from . Bil Keane passed away last year at age 89. He was a great cartoonist. Through his involvement with the National Society, Bil enriched the lives of so many other cartoonists. The editors of The Cartoon Crier respectfully dedicate this issue to his memory.

—

THA E C RTOON CRIER Volume 1 Number 1 Spring 2012

Publisher A joint publication of The Center for Cartoon Studies and The National Cartoonists Society

Editors Cole Closser, R. Sikoryak, and James Sturm

Art Director Max Riffner

Worker Bees Gloria Closser, Hotspur Closser, Luke Howard, Valerie Fleisher, Michelle Ollie, Jen Vaughn, Al B. Wesolowsky, Kriota Willberg

Special Thanks To Hilary Price, Tom Richmond, Rick Stromoski

Assembled at The Center for Cartoon Studies PO Box 125 White River Junction, VT 05001 cartoonstudies.org

Printed in New England at Upper Valley Press

All contents of The Cartoon Crier are © their respective creators.

Our Motto “You don’t get into cartooning, cartooning gets into you.” —Inky Solomon, 1954 The Cartoon Crier 3

Freelance Rules by

Incoming by Daryl Cagle

by Dave Coverly

Agnes by Tony Cochran

outaplace by Lauren Hinds 4 The Cartoon Crier

clumsy love by Mike Gray

future shock by Jim & Pat McGreal by Steve Moore the by Anne Gibbons The Cartoon Crier 5

WINDING ROADS By Joe Schmidt bleeker the rechargable dog by Jonathan Mahood 6 The Cartoon Crier sammy by Melissa Mendes

batso the warlock by Jan Martijn Burger

by Patrick McDonnell The Cartoon Crier 7 watson by Jim Horwitz

Bliss by Harry Bliss

Monster by Dan Rinylo

caterpillar by Katherine Roy 8 The Cartoon Crier

by The Cartoon Crier 9 10 The Cartoon Crier

Momma by The Cartoon Crier 11

All the in the World Ten comics that made me cry

Shaenon K. Garrity

1. Sandman, and various (Vertigo, wonderful childhood. framing sequences in the present day, the can be shockingly hard-hearted, occasionally 1989). I was a nerdy teenage girl when Sandman Supposedly the final sequence of Crockett metatextual commentaries about the critical even rooting for Roast Beef to drop the toast. came out, which put me smack in the target Johnson’s Barnaby is something like this, success of Volume 1 or what type of animal (I blame this on my unfortunate teenage audience. My gothy friends at Kent State, though I haven’t read it. I think we can all head Françoise Mouly should wear—designed idolization of Woody Allen, which was shattered infinitely cooler than I, were into it too, as well be glad that Watterson chose the opposite to keep the Spiegelmans’ experiences at a the moment it became known that Woody as Watchmen, , and The Dark Knight ending. Rather than making Calvin grow up, he tolerable distance, that the sudden intrusion of idolized teenagers right back.) But I wept for a Returns (the last of which was smuggled to me, crystallized him at age six (Barnaby loses his reality, of an actual photo of the actual Vladek good five minutes at a two-page spread of the like contraband, in a brown paper bag via my fairy godfather on his sixth birthday), flying in the striped uniform of a concentration camp, Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. How best friend’s ex). My suburban high-school away from us on a perfect, eternal sled ride. is almost too much to bear. (Typically, even must it feel to create something so beautiful and classmates had never heard of it. My mother My mother cut the final strip this moment isn’t entirely real: the uniform is so perfect? Did Ware allow himself a moment of didn’t approve of it. It was perfect. I collected out of the newspaper for me so I could take it to a costume, the war is over.) Spiegelman spends hubris, or did he stay in character, set down his every issue and covered the walls of my room college and tape it to the door of my dorm room. large chunks of questioning the truth of brush, sigh softly, stare out the window at the with pinups of the Endless. Watterson’s final strip is as true and perfect an his father’s life and his own, fretting over the gathering clouds, and contemplate death for a I was seventeen and trapped in suburbia, ending as any comic strip has had. But Ahrens’ nature of truth itself, but truth, no matter how few minutes before shuffling off to carve, paint, and there was, amazingly, a comic- store ending is also true, and they’re both there on imperfect, has a raw power fiction can seldom and assemble a perfect scale model of a turn-of- within walking distance of my house. When that scrap of newsprint. Calvin didn’t grow up, match. the-century farmhouse? I like to think there was Wordsworth wrote “Heaven lies about us in but the rest of us had to a little. at least a “woo-hoo” involved at some point. our infancy” he was probably remembering the time a store opened down the 3. , Charles Schulz. Everyone talks 8. Phoenix, (English edition: Viz street from him. I lived at Big Buddha’s Comics about Charlie Brown’s pining for the little red- Media, 2004). Similarly, I cried the first time I and Sports Cards. And I read about Morpheus’ haired girl, but the most poignant unrequited read Volume 4, “Karma,” of Tezuka’s eclectic funeral while walking home along the side of love in Peanuts, for my money, is Peppermint , so overwhelmed was I by the sheer Arlington Road on a warm spring day. The Patty’s crush on Charlie Brown. Patty, tough beauty of the sequential storytelling. No one green, wet smell of grass was in the air. My eyes and funny and loyal as a dog, is the only girl has mastered visual pacing like Tezuka, before misted. It wasn’t the last issue, but it was the who sees something to love in that awkward or since, and the “Karma” volume of Phoenix is end of that first pure teenage love. hard-luck case—but he doesn’t care, he doesn’t one of his greatest moments as a storyteller. even notice, because he’s hypnotized by some The second time I read it, I cried again, at a 2. Calvin and Hobbes, . In 1995, uninterested beauty floating just off the edge of completely different point in the book. Frank Ahrens, writing for the Post, the panel border. I’ve loved my share of nerdy 5. Ethel and Ernest, Raymond Briggs (Knopf, speculated on the imminent ending of Calvin guys, and perhaps I relate to this scenario a 1999). Which is, I’m sure, why I also cried at 9. Basara, Yumi Tamura (English edition: Viz and Hobbes: little too much. Anyway, the saddest sequence Raymond Briggs’ small, loving portrait of his Media, 2003) and Here Is Greenwood, Yukie Calvin will say he hears something; maybe it’s of Peanuts strips is that in which Patty tells parents’ marriage. There’s nothing tragic about Nasu (English Edition: , 2004). Just a monster. Linus about finally meeting the little red-haired Briggs’ parents; they are, in fact, toweringly because I worked on them as an editor at Viz, “What’s that?” he’ll ask Hobbes. girl and crying because she realizes she’ll never ordinary as perhaps only working-class Brits and they became part of my life for a time, and I “It’s just your imagination,” Hobbes will reply. be able to compete with someone so pretty. can be. They are solid, well-scrubbed people. loved them. I refer to some of my Viz titles as “my Then Calvin will turn away for a moment, to There is nothing in the world sadder than those They court and marry. They survive the Blitz. little special-needs children,” usually the ones fashion the snowman’s head. He will need help strips. Charlie Brown thinks he’s suffered in They put their son through grade school, art that require constant attention in the form of, lifting it onto the torso, so he will call for his best love? You’re a solipsistic ass, Charlie Brown. school, the military, and a marriage of his own. say, toning down the poop jokes or retouching friend, Hobbes. But Hobbes will not respond. The second saddest Peanuts strip is Spike’s And their story ends the way every happy, the character with penises growing out of his Calvin will turn around. origin story. I can’t even talk about that one. lifelong marriage ends: in grief. Briggs has no head. But all the I edit are a little like my Hobbes will be there. But he will be small and grand statements to make about the human children, and when they end it’s like they’ve stuffed and have short, blunted paws and button 4. Maus, (Pantheon, 1986). condition; he finds his quiet, humorous tone grown up and moved away, except that they eyes. He will be slumped forward in the snow, Well, of course I cried at Maus, and of course and follows it to the inevitable end. Just to add won’t be coming back for Thanksgiving. Basara flaccid, lifeless. it was that page near the end that did it, with a layer of melancholy, it’s hard not to notice is a remarkable manga, and I was very fortunate Calvin will blink. “Huh.” the photo of Vladek Spiegelman inserted that Briggs’ parents must have been the models to work on it. And when the Greenwood boys And then he will simply shuffle away, off into the comic-book narrative. So much of for the cheerful old couple dying of radiation ran down their dormitory hall for the last time, the page, leaving behind his stuffed , and Maus consists of distancing mechanisms— poisoning in his early graphic novel When the urging me to come along (that’s so cruel, they the unfinished snowman, and his wonderful, the nearly expressionless animal faces, the Wind Blows, which I read and reread as a Bomb- know I can’t), it really was like saying goodbye. fearing paranoid child in the ’80s. 10. Pluto, Naoki Urasawa (English edition: Viz Media, 2009). I admit to having a soft spot for 6. Maison Ikkoku, Rumiko certain iconic cartoon characters, especially Takahashi (English Edition: those designed to play the better angels of Viz Media, 2001). The classic our natures. is one of my favorites, tearjerker, never done better the alien sent to earth to show us how good in comics form. I cry liberally and glorious being human could be. Plenty through the final volume every has been made of the Christ symbolism there, time. What makes Maison but what really gets me about the character is Ikkoku work—and you can that, to two Depression-era Jewish teenagers, argue that Maison Ikkoku Superman surely wasn’t : he was the doesn’t work, that it doesn’t Nazi ubermensch, the dark ideal of amoral move you at all, but I will perfection, reversed, reclaimed, and resculpted suspect you of being the sort of into a glowing golem of truth and justice. Such severe social deviant who sets evil re-envisioned as such good, such massive kittens on fire and visits maid destructive power transubstantiated into a big cafés—is that, although the blue farmboy who wears glasses and stammers sitcom structure of the story around girls; that’s what gives Superman his is formulaic, the characters compelling poignancy. His very existence and their lives are very real, answers and death with humanity and and Takahashi never betrays hope. them. (The setting also feels And I feel the same way about the little real; for all the cute kids and boy in the raincoat at the end of Volume 1 of sexy ladies and hijinks, the Pluto, Naoki Urasawa’s ambitious reworking of characters are clearly living Tezuka. He’s been through so much already, in 1980s Tokyo, and not some the little boy: the bad father, the slave circus, cartoonified, genericizedthe faceless organizations that want to use or manga version of same.) destroy him. The world’s strongest robot is Godai’s eventual winning of coming to kill him, for no other reason than Kyoko’s heart comes at the human selfishness. But still all the boy wants end of a long personal journey, is to protect the soft, slow creatures of the during which he develops from world, which from his point of view includes us. a directionless teenage “ronin” When he looks up on the last page and says his into a man with a career (a name, that name that in Japan is a glowing knot surprising one), a life, and a of death and hope, it catches my throat every sense of responsibility. At the time. He is more than human, and still so very same time, Kyoko has been on human, like the best of them, like the best of us. a journey of her own, from a 2 girl who wants a father figure to a woman who wants an equal. After following them for so long, it’s a joy when their paths finally merge and they head into the future together. If formula romantic tearjerkers are so easy, how come no one but the Japanese

ilsen, from the end . ilsen, from can do them? N 7. Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth, Chris nders

A Ware (Pantheon, 2000). Not for the emotional content of the story; where the private

© 2012 © 2012 agonies of sad, sensitive milquetoasts are concerned, I © 2012 dw. © 2012 12 The Cartoon Crier

The fizzmont institute for rad science: lacrimal studies 101 by Jon Chad The Cartoon Crier 13

choked up by Carl Mefferd 14 The Cartoon Crier dear sasha Cover Thy Face

DEAR SASHA: I’ll admit that this doesn’t initially seem emotional communication. That’s why I think drama to an already deeply-stylized routine. I’m a woman in my early 30s. In the past, I have like “brilliant advice.” If you are thinking we should understand it as a staple of our Which brings me to my central point. “Crying” been able to get what I want from my husband literally, at least, it certainly doesn’t have everyday lives. Because while we may not be can be anything from operatic weeping to and male colleagues simply by crying. Men just much mileage (how often are we called upon crying like Juliet at Tybalt’s death, or even like fashion statements; anything from cackling can’t resist me when I turn on the waterworks. to Shakespeareanly cry on cue?). But what if Romeo in Friar Lawrence’s cell, we certainly laughter to comics art on a page. In all its forms, But lately, it seems, my fake tears aren’t fooling we expanded our understanding of “crying” to find ourselves crying out in laughter, crying though, “crying” heightens and dramatizes the anyone. I just can’t produce a single realistic encompass more than just the traditional “woe- for attention, crying out in disgust, crying in already-artificial theatre of everyday life. That’s tear! You always say that we should “fake it is-me” tear-jerk? support, crying, whining, wincing, screaming, why when it’s well-staged and well-masked, ‘til we make it” but my ducts are as dry as the Etymologically, this actually makes more and occasionally even squealing like a pig. it’s nothing short of brilliant. And why, when desert and I’m running out of hope! Will my sense. The word “to cry,” And this is where that piece of advice it’s shabby, it’s nothing more than a dry-eyed waterless woe still win their sympathies? Or do it turns out, entered the I mentioned before might come in handy. pig-squeal—a depressing and shrill reminder you have any suggestions on how to make the English language way Remember? “If you can’t produce the tears, that any work of theatre can become cliché or tears return? back in the 13th century. then you have to cover your face.” Or rather: sentimental. --WEEPING IN WICHITA It came from the Old when it comes to crying, the most effective stuff is So take my advice, WEEPING IN WICHITA: French verb crier, which, done with a mask. if you really want to cry, then you had better DEAR WEEPING IN WICHITA: like its Latinate ancestor When Juliet failed to produce tears on stage, give them a show. Let them see your eyes flood Four years ago, while complaining about quirtare, meant “wailing” what shocked and irritated me was not the like the Titanic, or else watch you dissolve like some community theatre’s massacre of Romeo or “shrieking.” “Crying,” realization that she wasn’t actually sad (I had the Wicked Witch of the West into a cowering and Juliet, I inadvertently came up with a then, originally meant already understood that she was an actress) mess of sobbing fabric. Don’t just look at brilliant piece of life advice that may be relevant making noise instead of but the fact that she was doing her performance them with your bare face and expect them to to you and others. “Juliet looked like a fool,” I speaking (usually for the half-masked, if you will, failing to give the believe. Sincerity is for the naive. It’s all about insisted, “because she was fake-crying without purposes of obtaining or illusion of sadness its dramatic due. performance, darling, and you had better any tears. If you can’t produce the tears, then communicating something). Appropriately, The truth is that all human communication deliver! 2 you have to cover your face.” The operative some etymology dictionaries actually argue is pretty theatrical. We take on roles and assumption behind this observation was that that the Latin word quirtare is a variant of the voices, mimic effective turns of phrase, make crying with a bare face is neither touching, similar word quirritare, which means “to squeal metaphors, tell stories, exaggerate, debate, and “Dear Sasha” is the notorious drag queen Ms. attractive, nor effective. To cry convincingly like a pig.” lie. So when we actors break out and “cry”— Sasha, also known as Mr. Sasha Steinberg. His/ (or at least artistically), I decided, you have to Even before it had anything to do with grief, abandoning formal language to produce faces, her unique advice column has been praised for its cover your face…if not with tears, then with in other words, “crying” meant making noise sounds, movements, or even pictures (comics, utter lack of common sense as well as its cruelty. your hands, sleeves, and hair. (abandoning language) for the purposes of anyone?)—we’re really just adding some extra

Crier astrology Sagittarius: There is a Light at the End of the Tunnel you’ve been avoiding. Ignorance is bliss but get and promote harmony within your social circles. PISCES (Feb. 19 to March 20) Raina Francine-Roth that lump on your neck checked out. You will soon need all the good will you can now Low self-esteem could plummet even lower generate. this week, as deep-seated insecurities will be ARIES (March 21 to April 19) LEO (July 23 to Aug, 22) externally validated. Keep expectations to a Co-workers are talking about you at the water It’s all right to cry and today you’ll be doing a lot SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 to Dec. 21) minimum and stay away from sharp objects and cooler. If your ears are burning, go for a walk— of it. Buy an extra box of tissues because more The light at the end of the tunnel may be an bridges. better not to hear what they are saying. dark clouds are on the horizon. oncoming train. There’s no way to avoid the blow, so just hope it doesn’t do too much TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) VIRGO (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22) damage. Your concern may be genuine, but interventions Basic necessities are in short supply and job IF YOU WERE BORN TODAY: You have on others’ behalf will be resented. Back off—no and housing prospects look bleak. If you’ve ever CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 to Jan. 19) never been a risk taker, preferring the good will come from being a Good Samaritan. considered fasting and camping, now would be a Expect the unexpected today—schedules may safe choice. Today is an accident waiting convenient time to do so. change, signals may be crossed. If you have a to happen, and the anxiety you are GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) suit of armor, wear it! experiencing is well founded. Stay in bed, LIBRA (Sept. 23 to Oct. 22) Interference from others will feel like a betrayal. pull the covers over your head, and only Your powers of observation have never been It might just be. Steer clear of people today, AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 to Feb. 18) get up to use the bathroom. especially those who you feel closest to. keener. A few drinks may help to dull the pain. Your past behavior may have alienated friends and family. Your most recent behavior is likely CANCER (June 21 to July 22) SCORPIO (Oct. 23 to Nov. 2) to scare them. See a mental health counselor or Time to confront the things in your life that This is a great time to enjoy your ties with others you’ll soon be seeing a restraining order. The Cartoon Crier 15 16 The Cartoon Crier

up all night by Michael Kupperman

SLOW WAVE dreamt by Adam Finley and drawn by Jesse Reklaw The Cartoon Crier 17

Retainer by Joe Lambert 18 The Cartoon Crier

after all these years by James Sturm The Cartoon Crier 19

Hormones by Ariel Bordeaux

by Richard Thompson

cacklebladder by Laura Park 20 The Cartoon Crier Your Saddest Comic

Shaenon K. Garrity

approached a number of comics pros— Out of all the sad comics I’ve read, perhaps I artists, writers, editors, journalists—with the saddest is Seiichi Hayashi’s Red Colored a simple request: Tell me about the saddest Elegy, an impressionistic narrative about a comic you’ve ever read. Here are some of their young artist couple drifting apart. Serialized responses. in Japan in 1970, it still feels real, it’s still an agonizing read today. Hideyasu Moto’s short story “Kosuke Okada and His 50 Sons,” collected in AX: Alternative Manga, is also excruciating. In the context of sad stories, I mean “agonizing” and “excruciating” as compliments, of course.

Jason Thompson, manga scholar (Manga: The Complete Guide) and cartoonist (King of RPGs, Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath)

Miriam Engelberg’s Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person came out shortly after my book Mom’s Cancer, and we started getting some press because that was the hook: “Hey, look, it’s two comics about cancer.” At first I think we both resented sharing the spotlight, until we figured out we were getting more attention together than either of us would have by ourselves. When we did a radio interview in , I fell in love with Miriam within ten minutes. She was extraordinarily warm and smart and funny, and knew then she was dying The saddest and maybe greatest comic I’ve of the disease she’d dissected so incisively in read in the last five years is Joe Sacco’s Footnotes her book. It took her a few months later. in Gaza. What punches me in the heart is that Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person is the Joe finds this incident that everyone seems saddest comic I know, not just because of its to have forgotten about, and then slowly and content—which is handled with grace and without blinking reveals it to be this unending occasionally bleak great humor—but also avalanche of horror and suffering. It’s like because it documents what turned out to be the opening up one box in a warehouse filled with a final decline of a good and talented person. It’s Shaenon K. Garrity© 2012 thousand such boxes and ten million gallons of a fine legacy. blood pour out. You’re bewildered by what just whole time she was playing she was buying Apart from the final Peanuts strip, the final happened and then it dawns on you: Is every Brian Fies, cartoonist (Mom’s Cancer, Whatever gifts for him. I don’t know who the artist is or Calvin and Hobbes strip, and the last few weeks box like this? Are there worse ones? There’s this Happened to the World of Tomorrow?) whether or not it’s based on a true story, but of , one comic that immediately two panel sequence where a mother talks about it’s so simple and effective. It’s hard not to get a came to mind was The Incredible Hulk #207, dying a little bit inside when she sees her child little misty over it. by , , and . try to pull up his pants with only one hand that The saddest comic I ever read was Pride of The Hulk throws down with the Defenders for slaughters me just to think about it. Baghdad, by Brian K. Vaughn (writer) and Niko Jen Wang, cartoonist (Koko Be Good) fourteen and a half pages after Jarella, his other- Henrichon (artist). It’s based on the true story dimensional girlfriend, dies during an ill-fated , comics journalist of four lions that escaped from the Baghdad visit to our world. At story’s end, he’s forced to (The Comics Reporter) zoo after an American bombing in 2003. As a Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosa. This comic confront the fact that she’s gone, and there’s a lover of lions (all animals really, but especially lures you in with masterful cartooning and three-panel sequence where Hulk breaks down lions!), it broke my heart. Of course, I knew charming characters, then kicks you right in the crying that gets me every time I read it. The ’s “The Hannah Story” absolutely the lions were doomed. (Yeah, sorry, spoiler heart. I defy anyone who is a parent or might expressions and body language that Buscema crushed me. Just a simple true story, told in alert here, but you’d have to be pretty dumb become a parent or has parents to read this and Staton provide are pitch perfect. Carol’s straightforward style. to think such a story would have a happy book from beginning to end with dry eyes. Even more of a tearjerker is Amazing Spider- Next to that one, probably the abandonment ending.) The beautiful, sensitive writing and Man #248, “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man,” scene in Jimmy Corrigan. Brrrr. art draw you into the story even as you realize Gene Yang, cartoonist (American Born by Roger Stern, Ron Frenz, and . it is gonna end badly. When it comes down to Chinese, Level Up) Probably the greatest demonstration of “super- Scott McCloud, cartoonist and comics scholar animals versus humans, you’ll always find me powers can’t solve every problem” in the (, Reinventing Comics, rooting for the animals anyway, but what made history of comics. Making Comics) this story so tragic was that the cause of their suffering was people, and our stupid, senseless , curator (The Cartoon Art wars. Museum) ’s strips about his daughter Kathryn Barbara, who died in infancy. , cartoonist (Wimmen’s Comics, ), writer (GoGirl) and comics Richard Thompson, cartoonist (Cul de Sac) scholar (The Great Women Cartoonists, From Girls to Grrrlz)

I very rarely get choked up at a comic, but it happened when I read, in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine #328, in the sixth chapter of the serial “Oblivion” by Scott Gray and Martin Geraghty, the moment when the Eighth Doctor Barefoot Gen is a historically significant and his companion Izzy went their separate comic on many levels: it was arguably the first ways. This was before the TV series returned manga translated into English, and was created in 2005; by now, we’re used to the idea of seeing by Keiji Nakazawa, who was in Hiroshima when the Doctor’s companions being changed for the the atomic bomb “Little Boy” fell. I can’t think better by their time with the Doctor, but back in of another comic that makes the reader feel 2003, this was a novelty. It was a really touching shock as effectively. Its images are indelible: the moment...happy crying, if you like. I know I’m woman and the wall; the maggots in the face; not the only one who was choking back a tear the dead infant. or two when they read it. Of course, I should be writing about why it’s the saddest; I can only say it’s the only comic Roger Langridge, cartoonist (Hotel Fred, The that’s made me slap someone else (who kept Muppet Show Comic, Snarked!) saying we should have dropped the bomb, even I bet like most people, I first thought of when I couldn’t stop crying). writing about Charlie Brown. But one thing about Charlie—even though you never saw his Laika, by Nick Abadzis, made me cry a lot. Kristy Valenti, editor () and parents, you got the impression he was well I didn’t want to read the end of it. But even comics journalist (Comixology, The Comics taken care of. He had that big bed with lots of without the writing or the comics, it’s still a Journal) blankets, and that big TV and bean bag chair poor dog, so I don’t really know if it counts. and some cool lamps and end tables. Sluggo from , on the other hand, lived Lark Pien, cartoonist and children’s book My first exposure to Don Quixote was via in squalor, with broken furniture, cracked author (Long Tail Kitty, Mr. Elephanter) comics as a child (Classics Illustrated #11), plaster walls, curtains (and clothes) with and the finale, with our man of La Mancha on cartoon patches, and a window at street level his deathbed, reflecting on his life, moved that was always open, allowing bad guys and The saddest comic I’ve read is a one-off me quite a bit. When I subsequently read the The saddest comic I ever read was Death of bullies to pop their heads in and say mean Korean about a gamer whose mom original novel, it brought me to tears! Even in the Phoenix (The Uncanny -Men #137). I was things to him. And even though the strip was becomes addicted to Animal Crossing. She has recent years, when I pore through the comics new to reading comics and didn’t really think full of adults, you never met his parents or multiple sclerosis keeping her homebound, and of my childhood, and I come across that of them as stories that could move a person guardians. Even Nancy had her Aunt Fritzi; she spends all her time playing the game, which particular Classics issue, I open it up, and with emotionally, so it really caught me by surprise. I Sluggo had nobody except the mice who would leads her kids to tease her. great trepidation, turn to the end and never fail did in fact cry. occasionally pop out of the holes that seemed Eventually she passes away and after a while to get choked up and lose it ...! to be in every room of his house. the narrator returns to the game. The landscape Cynthia Martin, cartoonist (, looks abandoned and characters ask where his , cartoonist (Supernatural Law) Spider-Man) Tom Gammill, cartoonist (The Doozies) and mom’s gone. He opens his mail and discovers writer (, Futurama) it’s overflowing with gifts from his mom. The The Cartoon Crier 21

By Dean Young Machine gum by John Martz

LUCKY DOG By Rachel Dukes 22 The Cartoon Crier

Chimpcy by Donna Almendrala The Cartoon Crier 23

HANDLESS HOOPER by Luke 24 The Cartoon Crier

crybaby by Robyn Chapman

weeping alone by Al B. Wesolowsky The Cartoon Crier 25

#TOTALLYCONTENT by Nate Beaty

that monkey tune by Michael Kandalaft . INE ’M F I

I give up. ©2012 Mo Willems, from from Mo Willems, ©2012 26 The Cartoon Crier

the overwhelming complexity of life by Alec Longstreth

pajama diaries by Terri Libenson The Cartoon Crier 27

Luann by Greg Evans

young lions by Blaise Larmee

Your search did not match any results by Max Riffner 28 The Cartoon Crier

ginkgo by Julie Delporte The Cartoon Crier 29

Millie by Andy Warner

by Michael Jantze 30 The Cartoon Crier

Poor pipsqueak by Caitlin Plovnick

by Bill Hinds The Cartoon Crier 31

rabbit draws in eastern town by Marek Bennett

bb bluesbird by Gary Dumm and Ron Hill

Lockhorns by Bill Hoest

Laughing redhead by Teresa Roberts Logan

hearing the news by Jeffrey Brown 32 The Cartoon Crier contributors

Donna Almendrala (CCS student) is currently Tony Cochran (NCS member) Alexis Frederick-Frost (CCS alumnus) has working on a series called Chimps in Space. draws the drawn the comics The Courtship of Ms Smith More comics can be found at Agnes. .com/agnes and La Primavera, and he is the co-creator of donnaalmendrala.name. Adventures in Cartooning (First Second). Dave Coverly (NCS member) alexisff.blogspot.com Nate Beaty (CCS visiting artist) lives in Chicago lives in Ann Arbor, MI, and is and draws Piecemeal. natebeaty.com the creator of the comic panel Tom Gammill (NCS member, CCS visiting artist) Speed Bump. speedbump.com draws the daily comic strip, The Doozies. It can Jack and Carole Bender (NCS members) live be found online at gocomics.com. in Tulsa, OK and are the creators of . dw (CCS student) was born gocomics.com/alley-oop and grew up in . He Shaenon K. Garrity (NCS member) is a posts at kidclampdown.com. cartoonist and writer best known for the Marek Bennett (CCS visiting artist) draws and Narbonic and Skin Horse. She lives in teaches in New England, Eastern Europe, Central Julie Delporte (CCS Fellow) Berkeley with a man, a , and a bird. America, and places like that. marekbennett.com was born in France, but calls shaenon.com Montreal her home. She R. O. Blechman (NCS Lifetime Achievement currently lives in White River Anne Gibbons (NCS member) is the Thursday Award recipient) is an and animated Junction, VT. She organizes the cartoonist for the King Features comic strip, filmmaker. roblechman.com 48 Hour cartoon newspaper Six Chix, and creates greeting cards for Papyrus and her include Le Recycled. annegibbons.com Harry Bliss (CCS board member and visiting Carnet Bleu and Le Dernier artist) has been a cartoonist for Kilométre. juliedelporte.com Sophie Goldstein (CCS student) co-writes magazine since 1997—his single panel cartoon and draws the ongoing webcomic, Darwin Bliss appears daily in in America Rachel Dukes (CCS student) Carmichael is Going to Hell. dcisgoingtohell.com and Japan. harrybliss.com draws, self-publishes, and retails comics online at Jordan B. Gorfinkel “Gorf” [NCS member] is a Ariel Bordeaux (CCS student and visiting artist) mixtapecomics.com former writer/editor and currently runs lives in Rhode Island and is currently working on and poseurink.com. avalanchecomics.com and creates a book called Clutter. ariel-bordeaux.com jewishcartoon.com. Bob Eckstein (NCS nominated Mike Gray (NCS member) is an award-winning (CCS thesis advisor) is the author © 2012 Gag Cartoonist) is a New of (Drawn & Quarterly). Yorker cartoonist and author cartoonist, writer, animator, and director whose newspapers. caglecartoons.com, cagle.com, and His most recent book, , has been of The History of the Snowman. bobeckstein.com work can be seen at pencilforhire.com and politicalcartoons.com nominated for this year’s Reuben award. clumsylove.net. Randall Enos (NCS member) has been an Jon Chad (CCS faculty) is a pinball fanatic and Jeffrey Brown (CCS thesis advisor) is the author editorial illustrator and cartoonist for magazines (NCS member, CCS visiting artist) the author of the children’s graphic novel, Leo of numerous graphic novels including Clumsy and newspapers such as Time, Forbes, Fortune, lives in East Haddam, , and is the Geo. jonchad.com and Darth Vader and Son. National Lampoon, Playboy, and The Washington creator of the daily strip . Post for 56 years. zippythepinhead.com Robyn Chapman (CCS Fellow) lives in New (CCS visiting artist) lives in York City where she edits and publishes comic Chicago and is the author of Cartooning: Greg Evans (NCS member) is the creator of the Peter Guren (NCS member) lives in Cleveland, books. Her first book, Comics Lab, will Philosophy and Practice. comic strip . gocomics.com/luann OH, and is the creator of the comic strip Ask be out from Quarry books in the fall of 2012. Shagg. paperrocketcomics.com Brendan Burford (CCS visiting artist) lives in Mitra Farmand (CCS student) draws silly things City and is the editor of King Features that can be found at fuffer.wordpress.com. (CCS visiting artist) is the creator of Andrew James Christensen (CCS alumnus) is Syndicate. Hutch Owen graphic novels and comic strips currently living and working in Minneapolis, MN. Ron Ferdinand (NCS member) has been the and is the founder of The Sequential Artists andrewjchristensen.com Jan Martijn Burger (CCS alumnus) is a puppeteer Sunday page artist on Dennis the Menace for Workshop. sequentialartistsworkshop.org in North Carolina. See his work at paperhand.org. Enterprises, Inc. since 1982. Cole Closser (CCS student) lives in a cave with dennisthemenace.com Sam Henderson (CCS visiting artist) has been a girl. He has no cat, but he has lots of booze. Daryl Cagle (NCS member) is the editorial many places in comics as well as coleclosser.com cartoonist for .com and runs a syndicate the past 20 years, most notably . that distributes the work of over 60 cartoonists themagicwhistle.blogspot.com and columnists from around the world to over 850 Ron Hill (NCS Member) and Gary Dumm live in Cleveland. BB BluesBird is their first collaboration. bbbluesbird.com

Bill Hinds (NCS member) draws the comic strip Tank McNamara, creates Buzz Beamer for Sports Illustrated Kids, and drew Cleats from 2001 to 2010. Tank and Cleats can be found at gocomics.com.

Lauren Hinds (CCS alumna) lives in Trinidad and writes the ongoing webcomic Outaplace. laurenlhinds.blogspot.com

Bunny Hoest and John Reiner (NCS members) produce the daily comic panel .

Jim Horwitz (NCS member) is the creator of the comic strip Watson and lives in St. Paul, MN. watsonstrip.com

James Kochalka (CCS visiting artist) is the Cartoonist Laureate of and draws his influential diary comic,American Elf, every day. americanelf.com

Michael Jantze (NCS members) is the creator of the comic strip The Norm that can be found at gocomics.com/thenorm. He lives in Savannah, GA and teaches at SCAD. jantze.com

Lynn Johnston (NCS member) lives in Corbeil, and is the creator of the beloved comic strip For Better or For Worse. fborfw.com

Miriam Katin (CCS visiting artist) lives in and is the author of We Are On Our Own (Drawn & Quarterly). miriamkatin.com

Jeff Keane (NCS member) continues in his father Bil Keane’s footsteps creating cartoon. familycircus.com

Michael Kupperman (CCS visiting artist) is the author of Snake’N’Bacon’s Cartoon Cabaret, Tales Designed to Thrizzle, and Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910–2010. He is @mkupperman on .

Joseph Lambert (CCS alumnus) is the author of the books I Will Bite You! and Other Stories and Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller. submarinesubmarine.com

Blaise Larmee (CCS Fellow) is the author of Young Lions and 2001. blaiselarmee.com The Cartoon Crier 33

Dan Rinylo (CCS student) currently lives in Wool by Stephanie Piro Vermont where he makes comics, reads comics, and eats comics.

Katherine Roy (CCS alumna) is illustrating the soon-to-be-released YA novel, The Expeditioners, along with the Mesoamerican book for children, America’s First Great Cities. caterpillarpublishing.com

Jim Rugg (CCS Visiting Artist) is the co-creator of Street Angel, Afrodisiac, The PLAIN Janes, and USApe. jimrugg.com

Joe Schmidt (NCS member) is a freelancer in San Diego, CA, and creator of the Winding Roads

ein strip appearing in RV magazines. joestoons.com ckst E Maria Scrivan (NCS member) is a cartoonist and illustrator. Her work can be seen at mariascrivan.com and at bubblegumlogic.com. © 2012 Bob © 2012 (CCS visiting artist) is the author of Mell Lazarus (NCS member) writes and draws Carl Mefferd (CCS alumnus) is the artist for , The Great Northern Brotherhood of the comic strip (and did so for many Doctor Atlantis and creator of the webcomic Canadian Cartoonists, and : (1894– years with ). JoyRiders. madmindofmeff.blogspot.com 1975) (Drawn & Quarterly).

Laurel Lynn Leake (CCS student) posts Melissa Mendes (CCS alumna) received a Xeric R. Sikoryak (CCS faculty) is the author of comics and sketches and all sorts of things at Grant to publish her graphic novel Freddy Masterpiece Comics (Drawn & Quarterly). laurelleake.tumblr.com Stories. mmmendes.com rsikoryak.com and carouselslideshow.com

David Libens (2010 CCS Fellow) is a Belgian Katie Moody (CCS student) is a former comic- Sasha Steinberg (CCS student) is a writer and cartoonist and cofounder of the European book editor and current comic-book librarian cartoonist, and can be found at ahsasha.com. publishing house L’Employé du Moi. whose work can be found at badaboumtwist.blogspot.com cocoonphase.blogspot.com. James Sturm (CCS director, NCS member) is the author of Market Day (Drawn & Quarterly) FREE RANGE by Bill Whitehead Steve Moore (NCS member) is the cartoonist for and co-author of Adventures in Cartooning (First In the Bleachers, syndicated on Earth and several Second). other planets by Universal . gocomics.com/inthebleachers Jem Sullivan (NCS member) is a freelance illustrator and contract artist/writer for Hallmark Anders Nilsen is the author of Big Questions, The Cards, and can be found at jemsullivan.com. End, and other books. He at themonologuist.blogspot.com. Rio Aubry Taylor (CCS student) creates art having to do with both inner and outer space. Don Orehek (NCS member) has been a freelance His ongoing sketch- can be found at gag cartoonist, caricaturist, and illustrator for 60 lightriot.com. rehek

years. His blog: donorehekcartoons.blogspot.com O Richard Thompson (NCS member) is the creator “Put his ashes in here. He always said he Laura Park (CCS visiting artist) lives and works of the award-winning comic strip Cul de Sac. wanted to remain active, no matter what!” in Chicago and never updates her website. richardspooralmanac.blogspot.com

singingbones.com Don © 2012 (NCS member) is the creator of Stephanie Piro (NCS member) is the Saturday , Hi & Lois, and other characters. Cover credits: chick of King Feature’s Six Chix. She also draws Greg Walker (NCS member) is Mort’s son and Nameplate logo and color: Cole Closser the panels Fair Game and Smile. collaborator. mortwalker.com Characters: Row 1: Alexis Frederick-Frost, Sam stephaniepiro.com Henderson , Seth, Dan Rinylo, Chester Brown Andy Warner (CCS student) comes from the Row 2: Bunny Hoest and John Reiner, Blaise Caitlin Plovnick (CCS alumna) makes little bits sea. You can find his work at andysaurus.com. Larmee, Peter Guren, Dakota McFadzean, Julie of comics that can be found through Delporte Terri Libenson (NCS member) lives in Cleveland, iknowjoekimpel.com and Al B. Wesolowsky (CCS alumnus), a retired Row 3: Katie Moody, John Martz, Carl Mefferd, OH, and the syndicated comic strip The bostoncomicsroundtable.com. archaeologist, does mainly autobiographical Donna Almendrala, Nate Beaty Pajama Diaries. pajamadiaries.com comics. [email protected] Row 4: Jordan B. Gorfinkel, Luke, Jan Martijn Hilary B. Price (NCS member, CCS visiting artist) Burger, Tom Gammill, Mitra Farmand Teresa Roberts Logan (NCS member) lives in lives in Northampton, MA and is the creator of Bill Whitehead (NCS member) lives in Chicago, Washington, DC and is the author of The Older I the newspaper comic strip . IL and produces the cartoon panel Free Range Back cover credits: Get The Less I Care. laughingredhead.com rhymeswithorange.com for . Characters: Row 1: Alec Longstreth, Robyn Chapman, Dean Young and John Marshall , Alec Longstreth (CCS faculty) self-publishes the Jesse Reklaw (CCS visiting artist) has been Mo Willems (NCS member, CCS visiting artist) Richard Thompson, Ariel Bordeaux PHASE 7, which can be found at drawing the altweekly webcomic Slow Wave creates kid’s books, TV, animation, sculpture, : Ivan Brunetti alec-longstreth.com. since 1995. He teaches comics and math, and is and theater; sometimes about a pigeon who Row 2: , Laurel Lynn Leake, also a well-groomed Portland cartoonist with a wants to drive a bus. mowillems.com Rio Aubry Taylor, Tom Hart, Andrew James Luke (CCS student) lives in White River Junction, cat and a mood disorder. slowwave.com Christensen VT, with his wife and dog. He’s new to this whole Dean Young and John Marshall (NCS members) comics thing. Email him at Max Riffner (CCS student) threw away a create the iconic comic strip Blondie. [email protected]. successful career in graphic design to become a blondie.com cartoonist. If that isn’t sad I don’t know what is. Michael Kandalaft (NCS member) is the maxriffner.com cartoonist of That Monkey Tune, a daily comic strip about monkeys living in a human world. thatmonkeytune.com

Jonathan Mahood (NCS member) lives north of and creates Bleeker for King Features. bleekercomics.com

April Malig (CCS student) writes a blog about and food at Buncha Banchan. bunchabanchan.wordpress.com

John Martz (NCS member) lives in Toronto where he illustrates children’s books, draws comics for The Globe and Mail, and creates the webcomic Machine Gum at machinegum.com.

Mason Mastroianni and Mick Mastroianni (NCS members), grandsons of , create the comic strip B.C. They also collaborate with Jeff Parker, son of , who draws the strip Wizard of Id. johnhartstudios.com

Patrick McDonnell (NCS member, CCS commencement speaker) draws the syndicated comic strip Mutts and is also a children’s book author. muttscomics.com

Dakota McFadzean (CCS student) is from Saskatchewan, and he draws comics every day. Read them at dakotamcfadzean.com.

Jim McGreal (NCS member), from Chicago, and his brother Pat (NCS member), from , produce Future Shock Comics. futureshockcomics.com 34 The Cartoon Crier The National Cartoonists Society, An Appreciation

inky solomon

go way back with The from throughout the country and celebrate I National Cartoonists cartooning. After all these years, the Rueben Society and some of my Award annual gala has never been livelier! most treasured memories I treasure the lasting relationships I are the days I spent in have made as an NCS member, but it is the the company of fellow society’s mission that really gets me choked members like Rube up. I cry as I write this but here it is: The NCS Goldberg, Roy Crane, Jack seeks to advance the ideals and standards of Kirby, Walt Kelly, Harold Gray, , and professional cartooning in its many forms and Sparky Schulz. These giants have passed and I to promote and foster a social, cultural, and T he National Cartoonists Society will be following shortly as each day my eyes intellectual interchange among professional grow tired and drawing hand trembles. cartoonists of all types. And if that isn’t enough, Founded in 1946 I find myself crying often these days as each it also seeks to stimulate and encourage interest week brings the news of another friend dying. in and acceptance of the art of cartooning by Though nobody can replace those we have aspiring cartoonists, students, and the general The National Cartoonists Society is the world’s largest and lost, I take solace in the fact that these great public. most prestigious organization of professional cartoonists. The cartoonists live on in the work of others. Yes, We all know that cartoonists are exceedingly NCS membership roster includes over 500 of the world’s major the NCS is alive and well as men and women of generous to one another, but what’s even nobler tremendous wit, talent, and fortitude carry on is the work NCSers do outside their own ranks. cartoonists, working in many branches of the profession, including the organization’s proud tradition. Teams of cartoonists have toured war zones newspaper comic strips and panels, comic books, editorial cartoons, Cartooning is a lonely trade. Day after day, and military installations around the world in animation, gag cartoons, greeting cards, , magazine and year after year, a cartoonist spends at his support of the troops. They’ve worked on behalf book and more. drawing table. When things are going well, of the Boy Scouts of America, the American Red it’s all sun and roses. When things aren’t, it Cross and the United Nations. They’ve raised is hard to justify your existence. This is why money for victims of the 9/11 attacks and have belonging to the NCS is so important to me. My awarded scholarships to students. fellow members understand the struggles of Lord knows I have many regrets in this the creative life. I still look forward to regional lifetime. Being a member of The National meetings where I can share sympathy, laughs, Cartoonist Society is not one of them. and drinks with my cartooning brethren. And once a year it still feels good to put on the ol’ tux For more information, go to reuben.org. www.reuben.org (it still fits!) and spend a weekend with friends

The Center For Cartoon Studies, A Historical Perspective

totto “s inky” solomon

ack in the day, when while brawling with crooks and saving dames. Bmy brother told me I took over Leggy Peggy from George Whittle “I went to CCS because he was going to start a so in the beginning I had to stick close to the I have to tell stories cartoon college, I thought way he drew the strip. Whittle never used and want to tell them he was out of his mind. close-up shots and when I finally used one— spectacularly. I want to Who needs a damn school after a year of drawing the strip—you should for that?! In my day, the have read the letters the papers received— learn from people who only school you needed you would have thought I shot the President! love what they’re doing was the school of hard knocks. I started at Despite the restrictions, I put everything I had and CCS is where those fourteen working for a cartoonist even though into that strip, and if you ask me, it never looked teachers are.” he thought he could treat everyone like dog better. But despite my best efforts, we kept crap just because his strip was in 350 papers. losing papers. —Betsey Swardlick, On his best days he was a guy you’d like to kick When I finally pitched GI John Doe, I sent it Yarmouth, ME in the chops, on the days he was drunk (most to every syndicate in the country and nobody days) you wanted to slit his throat with his bit. Not even a nibble. Nada. It was like getting X-acto blade. kicked in the teeth. So I stayed working on Peggy. I hated that guy but I loved his strip. He made It’s changed a lot over the years —since 1970 NOW OFFERING: me care about that little jungle boy and that lion Peggy’s not in show biz anymore (she’s now a cub, and I wanted more than anything else to mother of three). Believe me, I’m as surprised One- and Two-Year figure out how he did it. That was my school all as anyone that the strip still exists. Courses of Study right, and in between sweeping the studio and When we got down to forty papers I thought going out for coffee, I saw the way he would they’d finally pull the plug, but for whatever Master of lay down that loose initial drawing with those reason they hadn’t. By now I’ve heard all the special carpenter I bought for him at the Peggy jokes and—say what you will about the Degrees hardware store and how he would leave the cap strip—how many fellas can say they were paid Summer Workshops off a new bottle of overnight to thicken it up. to draw comics their whole lives? I’m damn I was twenty-four when I “graduated” and got proud of that. a call from the syndicate looking for a ghost Cartooning has changed a lot since I got for Leggy Peggy. Back then it was a strip about started. Newspapers are dropping like flies so a girl from Kansas looking to make it big on guys just don’t break in the way they used to. Broadway. I wasn’t a big of the strip but it Lot of gals making comics now too. Comics are was in thousands of papers and I figured this drawn with computers and read on telephones. was my ticket. I’d wow the syndicate with my It’s a brave god damn new world. Where does work on Peggy then pitch them the strip I’d been someone go who’s got some talent and moxie? dreaming about since I first started reading The hell if I know. the funny pages. I called it GI John Doe and it was about a soldier who loses his memory and For actual information, go to cartoonstudies.org. Visit us at www.cartoonstudies.org travels the country trying to get home, all the

© 2012 Joe Lambert. The Cartoon Crier 35

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