The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee

The Edison Files - How We Did It And Why It's Not On Amazon

2012-01-30T10:07:00.004-06:00

There is a terrific website called "Comic Strip Of The Day" which, if you haven't read it yet, you should. Then, as soon as you have read a little, you need to immediately bookmark the site or subscribe because it's not just a site about comic strips. It's a site about life. Mike Peterson offers daily commentary on a par with any syndicated columnist you may be reading, it just so happens the jumping off point for each commentary is a comic strip or an editorial cartoon.

Mike is also an excellent friend to comic artists, he lists all the places you can subscribe to comics online (the official sites where the creators are fairly compensated) and also links to comic collections for sale. And, in a nod to the folks that are now producing their comic collections themselves, and possibly not selling them through a retailer like Amazon, Mike has added a spot for independent comic book producers to plug their work.

When I became aware of this opportunity I wrote up a little blurb for the Edison book. Unfortunately, I failed to read the directions and came up with something that exceeded the recommended word count of 50 by quite a bit. So I decided to keep the blurb short but steer anyone who was interested to the longer story of how we did the book and why it's not on Amazon.

Which is when I realized that we had never really told the story in its entirety all in one place. John did do three installments of it over on his Cartoonist Studio Blog but, it turns out that blog doesn't list by topic, only month, so you'll have a hard time finding it there. So I have transported those pieces over here and put them all in one blog post below. It's pretty long but if you are thinking of making your own book collection, I think it's also pretty valuable.

Some quick points in case you don't have time for the whole article:

1) We wanted to use a local American Printer rather than outsource to Asia.

2) We wanted to print the Sunday strips in full color at a legible reading size and include the drop panels most people never see - this meant sizing the book larger than the print on demand options that are available.

3) We not only wanted the book large enough to put in the Sundays properly, we wanted a book that read all in the same direction - not flipping side to side as one went from dailies to Sundays - but also did not wind up with only one daily on a page.

4) We wanted to use a nice heavy paper stock for the interior and a durable high gloss stock for the cover so that the book would stand up to repeated reading and last for many years.

As a result of these choices the books cost us a fair amount to produce which means we had to settle on a cover price of $15.95 plus shipping and handling. Amazon has a habit of discounting books down to a price below that which we paid to produce each book and that is why we don't sell them there.

While we cannot offer discounts on the price of the book, John is happy to sign and personalize your copy - just remember to ask for this in the Special Instructions field when you place your order.

Creating the first Edison Lee book Collection: By John Hambrock

2 years ago I approached King Features about creating an Edison Lee Book collection. At the time, I knew nothing about what it would take to create one, or how long it would take. My editor, Brendan Burford, said he would look into it. Eventually, a pitch was made to Andrews McMeel, who kindly turned down the request. It’s a tough market for cartoon book collections these days, with most of the larger publishers shying away from working with smaller, less established strips. So, we decided to create our own.

Anne and I were driving back from the Reuben weekend in New Jersey when we got on the subject of an Edison Book. It was Memorial Day weekend, and we decided we needed to produce the most beautiful book we could come up with by early September. I was going to be appearing in Marceline for Toonfest on the 16th, attending our big NCS chapter meeting in Omaha on October 2nd, AND attending the OSU Festival of Cartoon Arts on the 15th, and I wanted to have the books printed for these events. We decided we wanted to include rejected strips, Edison puzzles, even an intermission. We also decided to include comments on some of the strips, which more and more cartoonists seem to be doing in their books these days.

I have a background in Graphic Design, but I had no idea how to create a book of this scale. I started out doing what I always do when faced with a project I know nothing about; I jumped in with both feet and started asking questions.

The first thing I did was discuss the project with several printers. I considered online, on-demand book printers, but quickly found the options limited for what we were looking to create. I had worked with many Chicago area printers over the years, so I called two that I knew could handle a job of this size and started getting some quotes. We discussed size, paper, lamination, color, binding, etc. This was a necessary step before settling down to design the book. I went back and forth with both printers, adjusting the size and number of color pages based on their quotes, until I settled on a 11” x 8-1/2” horizontal, 144 page black & white book, which included 32 color pages of Sunday strips. I could have opted for a book entirely in color for just a little more money, but I chose to keep the daily strips in black & white.

The next step was to lay the thing out. The first thing I did was stop by the Walgreens near my office and buy a huge pack of colored post-it-notes. When I got to my office, I cleared one wall and started sticking the post-its up, one for each page, using the various colors to designate the various types of pages (Sunday strip page, puzzle page, etc). I think we looked at several dozen variations before finalizing the look. It was now the middle of June. I had two months to put together the entire book. I had no idea what I was about to get into.

Book layout by Post-it.

Now that we had settled on a printer and designed a comprehensive layout, we had a decision to make about format. Would this be a simple “year one” collection or a more selective book encompassing the first four years? We decided on the more comprehensive book that would pull material from all four years. We had over 1500 published daily and Sunday strips to choose from, and we had to narrow the choices down to about 340, which was not an easy task. The first part of this enormous undertaking went to Anne. I keep a master photocopy of every strip created to date, filling 9 ring binders, so the first thing Anne did was go through every binder picking out her personal favorites. It took her about a week to pull 600-700 strips.

Photocopies of every Edison strip ever published.

She sorted them into a variety of colored binders so that we could keep them in order. This was important because, after the selection process was ended, all those strips needed to be put back into the proper archive binder. The next step was having me go through those colored binders to pick out my favorites and knock the number down closer to 400. Then back to Anne again to see if there were any major points of disagreement. There were a few strips Anne liked that I was adamant I did not want, a few strips I truly felt I could not live without that she was rather cool on. Likewise, she had her favorites to fight for and a few she fought against. Long story short - we came out happy with our choices and we are still married.

Keeping the strip choices organized was essential.

Once we had decided which strips to include, I needed to proof them again. When a week’s worth of strips are completed on our end, they get sent off to the folks at Reed Brennan Media Associates, who check them for missing punctuation and other minor mistakes I may have made. If I do forget a comma, or misspell a word, which I try never to do, RBMA will make the correction. I don’t often know about these little corrections, so consequently, my copies of strips will contain errors which I did not catch. What I could have done after deciding on the final strips for the book would have been to contact RBMA and have them send me their copies. Being short on time, I chose to proof them myself. Fortunately, my dear old mother had copies of every single Daily Ink strip ever published. She too put them in numerous binders, which I used to proof my original digital files. I did find a few mistakes, which I was able to fix. I also had to take each digital file and remove the dates and copyright information, which took me some time.

Next, the strips had to be put in order, which wasn’t as simple as it sounds. When you put them in straight chronological order, you might find that you have too many ongoing story strips in a row, or too many strips featuring one character. Years ago, when we had run focus groups with our friends, we learned that there is a rhythm to reading a collection of strips that is different than reading them one per day in the newspaper. We settled on an order that was about 60% chronological. The rest were scattered throughout. Since Edison Lee is often political, Anne came up with the idea of dividing the book in half, the first half containing strips from the Bush years, and the second half strips from the Obama years. Anne stacked all of the strips, in final order, in one final master binder. Now I had what I needed to start assembling the pieces.

Two big steps, designing the look of the book and picking out the best strips to run, were now out of the way. It was the middle of August, and panic was beginning to set in. There was still quite a bit to do, and it felt like time was slipping away. In early August, I had contacted some of my fellow cartoonists asking them to write a few kind words about Edison. My plan was to run these testimonials on the back cover of the book. Amazingly, they had all sent me something by the time I started laying out the pages.

It took me about a week working off and on to put all of the strips into the InDesign document. During this time I created puzzles and a dozen or so pieces of spot art that were to be spread randomly throughout the book. Anne and I also spent several evenings paging through and writing commentary about particular strips when it seemed appropriate.

Creating the cover art was also on the list of things to do. The art for the cover was decided years ago. Early on I had written an Edison strip that showed him coming in from the rain, dragging a smoking kite and drawn as if he had been struck by lightening. Edison looks at Harley and says “Ben Franklin must’ve been completely out of him mind!” At the time, I was told that zapping a kid with lightening was a no-no. Anne loved the strip so much that she suggested we use it for the cover of the first Edison book. I agreed, and years later, when the time came, I copied the art from the original, although I did tone down the “fried” look of Edison quite a bit.

The original Ben Franklin Cartoon

The Final Book Cover

Another thing I needed to do was purchase the ISBN#. To do this, I went to Bowker.com. It’s a very simple registration process, and I was able to download the barcode file as well. I could’ve also registered the book with the Library of Congress, but the process takes weeks, and I couldn’t delay the printing waiting to receive the registration number, which normally gets printed in the front of the book.

Since Edison is syndicated with King Features, I needed to get their approval for the book. I had contacted them as soon as we had decided to self publish. My written agreement with them simply states that they are to receive a small percentage of the profits after expenses. I also agreed to show them the book before printing the final, so when the layout was complete, I went to our local copy center and had them print out the entire book. I sent these to my editor, who enthusiastically signed off on them.

Finally, on Thursday, August 26th, I met with the printer. We had decided to print 1000 initial copies, so I wrote up a purchase order, handed him the disk, and breathed a big sigh of relief. We were done.

DONE?!! I had completely forgotten about the foreword. Anne kept reminding me to get this finalized, and it just kept slipping through the cracks. I knew Greg Walker was a fan of the strip, so I got on the phone with him that afternoon and asked him if he would write the foreword. Greg had a lot going on, and I wasn’t sure if he would have the time to come up with anything on such short notice, but by Saturday morning, he had written a foreword that was better than I could ever have asked for. I dropped in the new text and got the files to the printer first thing Monday morning. In a few days, I had a full set of proofs. Naturally, we found several minor errors, which we corrected, but we were on schedule. The only thing that could have stopped us at that point would have been if a tornado had destroyed the printing plant, which, believe it or not, almost happened several weeks later.

Finally, delivery day arrived. About 9:00 a.m. on September 10th, the delivery truck arrived in front of my studio and began unloading box after box of books. I was amazed at how much space 1000 books takes up.

Nothing could have prepared us for the amount of work we put into this project. Honestly, it wasn’t easy, but now that we know what and what not to do, I’m pretty sure we’ll do it again.

My Favorite Campaign Cartoon in the Past 6 Months

2012-01-26T08:11:00.000-06:00

I was reading my New Yorker last night - which, of course, I get for the cartoons, and came across this gem. Despite the recent uptick for Gingrich, I feel this cartoon sums up the feelings of an awful lot of people right now :-)

Kudos to Paul Noth.

Where Does Your Stuff Come From?

2012-01-23T12:04:00.000-06:00

On January 6th I heard a piece on This American Life that profoundly affected me. I write about and link to it on my Overbooked Blog.

Support Team Cul De Sac and Buy This Book!

2012-01-19T14:58:00.000-06:00

John was very honored to do a piece for the Team Cul De Sac book. (I have a copy of the art somewhere and will find and post it eventually). For those of you who have been living under a rock and don't know, Cul de Sac is a fabulous comic strip by Richard Thompson. A couple of years ago Richard was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (he is currently putting the strip on hiatus to undergo therapy, which you can read about here.) And Team Cul de Sac is an effort spearheaded by Chris Sparks to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation and overall research for Parkinson's.

Jillions of cartoonists - including the reclusive Bill Watterson - did art featuring Richard's characters that was included in this book and also an art auction. All to raise money for the foundation.

So, don't delay! Head over to Chris's site and pre-order your copy of the book today! (We've ordered ours!!)

Death In The Family

2012-01-07T16:22:00.000-06:00

New Year's Day we received word that John's stepfather had passed away. I have written a tribute to him over on the Overbooked blog which you can read here.

The Price Is Right

2011-12-30T15:57:00.000-06:00

I love that Edison does a lot of riffing on game shows in general and The Price Is Right specifically. It is such a fun show and you can do so much with it. We worried when Bob Barker retired that the show might go off the air but, fortunately for Edison, "Price" is thriving with Drew Carey.

Click here for highlights from when Orville went on the show. (or buy a copy of The Edison Files to read the whole series - hey, I'm not above shamelessly plugging the book at every opportunity - we are about to send kid #2 to college!)

More Christmas Gift Ideas

2011-12-07T11:23:00.000-06:00

Tis the season to need a new calendar. I know, I know - we all have calendars on our smart phones and ipads and stuff, but those are booooooring! And only you can see what's on them. Who doesn't still need a calendar to hang on the wall so everyone in the house can see what's going on?!

So I suggest to you to great cartoon calendars for 2012:

From Sandra Bell Lundy of Between Friends:

(Order Here)

And KAL and The Economist:

(Order Here)

If our other cartooning friends out there also have calendars, give me a shout so I can plug them!

Action Comics #1

2011-12-06T09:32:00.000-06:00

Don't you just hate it when, on the Antiques Road Show, there is some item that would be worth a fortune but the person painted it or stripped it or, god forbid, just cleaned the darn thing, and it winds up being devalued by more than half?

John and I are avid fans of the Roadshow - we've watched almost every episode since it started - so this week's strips are particularly fun for us.

Note: When John wrote this strip the latest copy of the comic had not yet sold - thus, the dollar amount mentioned here was the previous record.

Musical Primaries, Anyone?

2011-12-05T09:40:00.001-06:00

I love this strip!

It came out of a barrage of media coverage on all the jockying of the primaries by Florida and North Carolina. It struck me that it felt pretty schoolyard and I passed that sentiment on to John with the result being this strip. Not sure where all this posturing leaves us - the candidates seem to be doing a pretty good job weeding themselves out without any primaries at all but, there you are :-)

The Orville Dilemma

2011-11-30T08:05:00.000-06:00

To Orville or not to Orville? That is the question.

You may have noticed a lot of Orville strips lately. Sometimes you just get into a groove with a character and the writing comes easily.

But, John has to watch that a little. Orville is a secondary character that could easily take over the strip if he wanted to. And "Edison" must remain primarily about, well, Edison. But then again, when a character is having a good run, you don't want to waste that energy and momentum. (Especially when you are close to deadline.)

While not based exclusively on any particular person, Orville does have traits that can be found in some of the older male relatives in both John's family and mine. And John has admitted that Orville carries some of his little quirks as well. Like his fondness for donuts.

I think there is something important in recognizing that this character has his roots in real life people because it is what makes him so popular - almost everyone knows an Orville or is an Orville. (Even if they don't like to admit it.)

You can read much more about John's take on Orville over at the DailyInk blog here.

Sneak Peek

2011-11-29T08:40:00.000-06:00

Here is a sneak peek at an upcoming strip - I am sharing it because it is from one of only a handful of strips that does not have Orville wearing his orange track suit.

I like how skinny his legs are but I just love that his hat is too small. Sort of like am organ grinder's monkey.

Turkey Muffin, Anyone?

2011-11-27T21:27:00.000-06:00

This strip probably ran too early. The first couple of days after Thanksgiving there is a sort of basking in the afterglow and turkey sandwiches are appreciated.

But by day 13, the bloom is definitely off the rose and the family begins to rebel. I speak from personal experience. My family still rides me for the turkey/orzo casserole I made them on day 12 in 2004. They just couldn't stomach one more turkey recipe.

Although, turkey muffins never occurred to me.

Maybe I should give them a try........

Buy These Books! UPDATED

2011-11-20T12:54:00.004-06:00

Have you started your Christmas Shopping yet? Here are a few books of the comic and cartoon variety that you might want to consider gifting to a friend (or yourself):

The Edison Files; Notes From The Lab

Poncho Year One: A Puppy's Life

Pacifists in Bomber Jackets (available for $8.95 plus $2.50 shipping and handling directly from Isabella at isabella2@optonline.net

Book Smarts by Tom Racine

The MAD Art Of Caricature

Creating Characters With Personality

These are just a few of my picks - I'll try to post more in the coming weeks as we countdown to Christmas.

Note: many of these books are self published so please be prepared to pay the cover price and show the artists that you value their work.

UPDATE: It won't be ready in time for Christmas but you should also go pre-order your copy of the Team Cul De Sac Book as well. To pre-order the book click here. To read about the whole Team Cul De Sac book project, which features the work of top cartoonists and is a fundraiser for Parkinson's Research, click here.

The Funniest Letter To The Editor To Get Edison Back In the Observer/Reporter

2011-11-15T10:12:00.000-06:00

I know that's a long headline but I needed every word of it. Apparently, the Washington PA Observer/Reporter shrank their paper and dropped Edison in the process. While that's a crappy piece of news for us today, we were alerted to this Letter To The Editor of the paper in question. 'Brilliant' comic hero is mourned - www.observer-reporter.com
www.observer-reporter.com

It's got to be one of the funniest, most well written letters I've ever seen in defense of a comic strip.

Enjoy!

And while you're at it - make a comment in support of Edison - we'd like to get this paper back!

!^$#*^@%ing Computers!!

2011-11-14T09:00:00.000-06:00

I tweeted this strip earlier today with the comment "This is my life!" and that is truer than would appear. Today's strip is based on what I like to call "The Upgrade Escher".

John and I have had a parade of Apple Computers.

There was this one:

And then this one:

And this: (John Calls this one the blue paperweight)

Followed by the white paperweight

Our first laptop:

John's current desktop:

My current desktop:

The surrogate laptop: (You can read about the demise of the other laptop here)

And now the current laptop. (Because using the ipad in place of the laptop - didn't so much work)

It all started with that first Mac John needed for his graphics business. In 1994, if you worked in graphics, the only computers with the software you would need were from Apple.

And so we took out a loan (becuase, then, as now, they were crazy expensive) and bought one. We got to write it off for the business, but that only helps you not pay more money in April at tax time. It does not help you pay the rest of your bills at the time of purchase. And, while it was a good investment because it really was the best tool for John's business, it took a long time to pay it off.

Which would not have been that big a deal if, as with our other major purchases like, oh say - a refrigerator - we could have counted on it to last 20 years. Or even 10. Hell, I would have settled for 5!

But we very quickly found out that the land of computers does not work like that. The land of computers lives in what we like to call The Planned Obsolescence Zone.

So, while every one of the computers listed above still turns on and technically "works", you can't actually use them in today's world. For one thing the first 4 can't talk to the internet anymore - heck, they can't even talk to my thumb drives. (Which leaves several important photos of yesteryear stranded on the blue imac because its disc drive is also broken and I cannot burn anything to CD.)

Which means constant upgrading.

Forget the money issue - although that part of it does seriously tick me off - we cannot afford this business of having to buy another computer before we've paid off the last one (and don't suggest leasing - we don't have a big enough business to rate in that department and it's actually more expensive.)

No the real deep down thing that gets me absolutely stark raving insane with anger is the way, every time we upgrade - hardware OR software - THEY CHANGE EVERYTHING!!

My latest laptop doesn't even have the hard drive icon on the desktop anymore - a staple of macdom! Since I have purchased said laptop I have spent over 6 HOURS on the phone with tech support figuring out the new configurations. And that's with Snow Leopard. Heaven help me if I want to upgrade to Lion.

The worst is that dance you do (here's where the Escher bit comes in" where, now that you have upgraded thing 1, you have to upgrade thing 2, and then thing 3 and then thing 4 then things 5,6,7,8 and 9.

I feel like I'm living in a Cat in the Hat Book!

Or - as in today's strip - a world where every week when I go to the grocery store, they've moved the damn bread again.

Just to be cute.

!^$#*^@%ing Computers!!

Edison Is Turning 5!

2011-11-04T22:41:00.000-05:00

The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee is about to turn the big "5" years old November 12, 2011. Which, in the current market for newspaper comic strips, is something we at Edison Lee Productions feel is pretty darned awesome!

John has written about it over on his blog at the cartoonist Studio but we are experiencing technical difficulties when we try to share it on facebook. (Read - "facebook changes everything so often our addled brains are left coughing in the dust)

So here is the copy from John's post:

November 12 will mark the beginning of year 6 for "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee". I can't believe we've already cranked out 5 year's worth material. According to my math (check me on this, please—my math is fuzzy most of the time), this means we've created 1825 daily and Sunday comic strips. It's hard work, but I still love this job. A big thank you goes out to King Features Syndicate, all of Edison's fans, and our family and friends for supporting us through the years.

THANK YOU!

John Hambrock

Spot The Mistake

2011-11-03T08:56:00.000-05:00

So today we're playing "Spot The Mistake"

I'll give you a minute to peruse today's strip and figure out what's wrong with it.

(Jeopardy music playing in your head)

OK, times up.

When John does strips based on board games that actually exist, I try hard to color them so they look as much like the real thing as possible.

And I did.

This time the mistake is not in the coloring but in the drawing. Those of you who have played Monopoly will be well aware that Edison is trying to move his pieces the wrong way.

Now it could very well be that it was a well thought out and planned decision. After all, if you reverse the direction, the player moving his piece has to be on the left of the frame and the player blocking him has to be on the right. But the way the joke is written the word balloons and the pacing dictate the placement of the characters and, hence the pieces moving in the wrong direction.

Or it could be that we don't know how to play Monopoly.

You be the judge.

The Social Security Club

2011-11-01T09:45:00.000-05:00

From time to time I'd like to start posting strips and talking about them a little. The above strip while fairly silly, addresses a serious topic that I haven't seen much conversation on.

Most of us with aging parents have thought about the dreaded issue of when to speak to them about not driving. (We may not have the nerve to actually take away the car keys, but I think we all worry about it.)

But what about the internet? Is there a point at which you need to step in and disconnect them from Amazon and Facebook? What happens if they can't tell the difference between legitimate emails and every Nigerian phishing scheme that shows up in their email box?

Who among us wants to see our parents get taken? Worse, how do you even approach a topic like this? It's bad enough to tell your parents you think their reflexes have slowed to the point that they are now a danger on the road - how do you tell them you worry about their judgement?

With my adult kids it's easier. I can get all "high and mighty" with my years of world experience and caution them about posting those silly photos of themselves drinking and carousing (that seemed like such a good idea at the time) on the internet. (They don't listen but I at least feel better for having done my parental duty). But these are grown people we are talking about. And they pretty much feel they outrank us til the end of time.

I suspect more and more older people are falling for internet scams and I'm hoping it will generate some good "Dr. Phil" type magazine articles telling us what to do when the time comes.

Minnesota Fall Con

2011-10-25T08:57:00.000-05:00

Mike Edholm, Stephan Pastis, John Hambrock and Tom Richmond in front of Sparky's childhood home.

Last weekend John traveled up to Minneapolis for the NCS North Central Chapter meeting and also to visit our oldest son in college at the U. The cartoonists had a table at Fall con, presented a panel discussion at MCAD and also spent some time hanging out at childhood haunts of Charles Schulz.

I understand everything was very well attended and everyone had a great time. (I know John sold a lot of Edison books and that always makes me happy :-}) And Stephan Pastis was there as a guest speaker so my son got to meet one of his icons - that's always good!

Tom Richmond has a very nice write up and more pictures over on his blog here.

Kenosha Festival of Cartooning Re-edited Radio Interview

2011-10-21T09:11:00.000-05:00

When we recorded the interview for the festival guests we had some technical issues, one of which was an extremely long pause getting the phone portion with Scott Stantis going. Another challenge was that the archived version from the radio station (that I posted here earlier) was on a timer and half of Scott's interview was cut off completely!

Greg Berg and Tom Racine to the rescue! Greg edited the show down for me and Tom Racine graciously offered to post it over on the Tall Tale Radio podcast.

So click here for the interview in its entirety - Thank you everyone!!!!

Jonesing For My Ipad

2011-10-13T08:07:00.000-05:00

This is the current home of my ipad.

Some of you know what this means. It means the ipad is drying out from a bender. Most specifically a trip into an aquarium.

Trust me, I didn't drop it into a tank of water just for fun. It was one of those Laurel and Hardy moments of juggling as I was gathering up my teaching materials and exiting class.

So the first thing on my list today after dropping kids off at school will be a trip to the craft store to buy large quantities of silica. From everything I've read, the rice/silica treatment is my ipad's only hope for recovery.

But the process takes a minimum of 3 days.

Life without my ipad for 3 whole days!!

I have written elsewhere that my life has been taken over by my ipad, and I was kind of kidding. But the truth is, the second it fell into that fish tank, I started feeling withdrawl pangs.

Which have only intensified over the 14 hours since the incident.

Gonna be a long three days......

Go Buy This Book!

2011-10-11T08:21:00.003-05:00

If you want to get your hands on one of the best books on the art of caricature available today, head over to Tom Richmond's and pick up a copy of "The MAD Art of Caricature". And if you head over to Minnesota's Fall Con this Saturday, October 15 you can meet Tom in person and get that book SIGNED - (and he might draw you a caricature too, but I'm not promising anything...)

And while you're in a book buying mood, pick up a copy of "The Edison Files: Notes From The Lab" for those Edison fans on your Christmas list. And, as with Tom, John will also be at Fallcon this Saturday selling and signing books for all the folks who read Edison in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. (Oh, and I think some guy named Stephan Pastis will be there with his latest book as well. I haven't read his stuff but I hear he's good....)

Humblug!

2011-09-29T13:29:00.001-05:00

I have been remiss :-(

With all that I had to do for the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning, I forgot to put up a plug for the new blog by Arnold Roth.

It is chock full of Arnie's legendary humorous illustrations and should be one of your regular weekly stops. Mr. Roth is a true comic genius and even funnier in person than he is on the page (if that is possible) so what are you waiting for! Go look at it!

Yay For Gil!!

2011-09-26T19:19:00.000-05:00

We've had a secret. And it's been really, really, really hard to keep because we were so excited about it. But now we can come out and publicly congratulate Norm Feuti on the launch of his second comic strip "Gil".

Gil began a few years back as a webcomic and it was clear to both me and John that it was something special. When Norm put out a book collection of Gil comics, we were in line for a copy right away.

Then Norm pulled the plug on it and it looked as though that book would turn into a collector's item/trivia question answer. And we were sad. And aggravated. Because we thought Gil had a terrific quality to it and we wanted to see more of it.

Each time we saw Norm at comics related gatherings we would push and push him "When are you going to bring back Gil!?". Until he got so frustrated with us that he did a drawing for John that showed Gil being landed on by the ubiquitous comic device, the 2000 pound weight.

"There! - He's dead! Leave me alone!" said our buddy Norm.

But you just can't keep a good character down and King Features must think so too because they are launching Gil into syndication this year.

Click here to read the Gil development blog by Norm and King Features Editor Brendan Burford and here to hear them discuss Gil with podcaster Tom Racine.

Yay for Norm and for Gil!

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

2011-09-22T12:54:00.001-05:00

My thank you post and wrap up of the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning can be found here.

Radio Interview and Catching Up

2011-09-19T09:13:00.001-05:00

We have wrapped the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning (notice I did NOT say "first annual" ahem....) and the radio interview with the artists that was broadcast live Thursday September 15 is now archived and available for your listening pleasure.

It was a great festival - I'm getting an awful lot of pressure to do another one - but now there is hell to pay for all the cartoonists involved as we struggle to catch back up to deadline. There are really no vacations in cartooning land - the deadlines continue to loom and most cartoonists struggle to work ahead (except Paul Gilligan who said he was plenty ahead and could take the time - we are in awe of him and curse him for his togetherness as we are very, very jealous) so full blogging about the festival will have to wait. I have strips to color that were due last Friday, bills to pay that were due September 1st and "thank you" notes to write that can never be written soon enough. Oh, and all those Spot the Cartoonist spots I couldn't get to for the last two weeks. And my regular column for the local newspaper. And relearning my kids names.....

You get the idea.

So enjoy the interview and I'll give you all the behind the scenes festival details as soon as I am able.

BTW - you have to fast forward past the opening music. There is so much of it because we were taking so long to get all the artists settled.

Remembering...

2011-09-11T09:26:00.001-05:00

Ten years ago today, at 8:45 a,m, I was in my car with the radio on. I had dropped my sons off at school and was on the return leg of the journey. The radio host then did something I'd never heard before - he stopped his interview and announced that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center buildings. It took about 4 seconds. Then the interview resumed and I thought to myself that it must have been some small plane like a Cessna that was in difficulties. You know, like when a plane loses its bearings in the fog and flies into a mountain.

A couple of minutes later, the announcer again broke in to say something else about the plane but, as before, normal programming resumed.

At this point I decided something serious was going on and that I needed to switch to an all news channel. What I found there was horribly akin to the radio announcements broadcast during the Hindenburg tragedy.

I called John on my cell phone and said "You'd better turn on the TV - it sounds as though all hell is breaking loose."

Within a few minutes I was home watching the whole thing unfold. I won't give you the play by play of our lives that morning but here are a few of the memories that most stand out:

Being on the phone with a friend talking about what was going on when she shouted "Oh my god! Another one!" as the second plane hit the second tower.

Almost everything I saw on the screen looked like an action movie, which made it hard to grasp the reality of it. Until I saw the people jumping. And knew they were real. And they were dying.

Sitting on the couch with John and our 2 year old daughter. We were watching in horror, she was oblivious and playing with my face the way toddlers do. Her absolute lack of understanding of the moment coupled with our all too complete knowledge of it took my breath away.

Frantic phone calls among friends which yielded the discovery that one of my best friend's husbands was in Washington for a conference and was in a hotel across from the Pentagon. and another friend's brother-in-law was actually in the second tower in an office on the 75th floor. Thankfully he got out. But only because they began to evacuate the second tower when the first one was hit. Tragically, when he and some co-workers were about halfway down, they were given the all clear and told they could go back to their offices. Some did, some didn't. Those who did died.

One of my most compelling memories comes from the end of that school day when I went to pick up my sons. The decision at their school had been to tell the children nothing of what had transpired. The teachers were outside dismissing the students smiling at them and shaking their hands goodbye as they do everyday. Not a hair out of place. Then, I saw my son's teacher get into a car behind me and collapse into a storm of grief. What it must have taken for her to keep her composure all day on the job, I can only imagine.

And in the aftermath - two days of utter silence overhead. Not one plane in the sky. Not one jet plume. It was a silence that was actually palpable. Almost as if we held our breath for two whole days.

Watching events unfold on that horrible day, I knew life would never be the same. I knew airport security and a million other little things about how we live our lives would be affected. But 9/11 also affected me in some ways for which I was not prepared.

One is that I have become uncomfortable in large crowds - especially in confined spaces. When we attended our nephew's college graduation a few years ago, thousands of people were making their way through the lobby and up the stairs of the fieldhouse where the ceremony would be held. As I stood in the crowd holding my small daughter's hand, someone next to me pushed ahead and almost broke our handhold. In that moment, I became afraid of two things - that if I lost my child in the crowd, she would be trampled or smothered, and that if, for any reason we had to evacuate the building, there were not enough clear paths to the exit for all of us to get out quickly. I turned right around with all three kids and took them outside to play in the grass until the ceremony was over, figuring I would see my nephew afterward at the party and that he would understand.

I know that this fear is largely a result of hearing the stories of those who survived 9/11 but almost did not make it out of the building.

Please observe this day in whatever manner you see fit - I know that part of my day will be spent taking some quiet time away from strip deadlines and festival planning to sit with my family and just enjoy the time we have together.

The above cartoon is part of the 9/11 memorial project in which 93 cartoonists participated. You can read more about it here.

Sir Brendan of Blog

2011-08-31T11:53:00.000-05:00

Brendan Burford, comics editor at King Features, has started a weekly blog.

That's him in the middle surrounded by slightly alcohol addled cartooning people such as Rina Piccolo (his lovely wife) Paul Gilligan, Jenny Robb, Karyl Miller, Jeff Corriveau and yours truly.

I chose not to use his official King photo because he's a very down to earth guy and it's likely to be a very down to earth blog. I also chose not to use some of the more embarrassing photos from the Reubens were the alcohol addling has progressed a little futher :-)

Anyway - here is his blog: http://blog.dailyink.com/2011/08/29/welcome-to-editors-dispatch/

Go check it out!

Kudos 8/28

2011-08-29T08:05:00.000-05:00

These got me yesterday:

As usual, this strip is channeling my life

Not only is this funny, but damn that Piraro! What is he playing at putting Max Parrish quality art in his strip!

We know a little girl eerily similar to this....

Too true....

Again, too true....

And, while I know it's cliche to say it, once again, channeling life in our house. We no longer refer to this strip as "Zits" but as the name of our second son. John will say - so, did you read (son's name) today?

And I also wanted to add Pooch Cafe but I can't get the file. Go look at it on gocomics.

We Know These Guys!

2011-08-15T11:39:00.002-05:00

Fellow North Central Chapter NCS buddy and world famous editorial cartoonist Jeff Koterba riffs with Michael Feldman on his 8/13 Whadyaknow. (Jeff is in Part A)

We've been to Michael's show several times (once I got to throw the dart for the town of the week) and it's always a blast. Check it out.

Oh, and buy a copy of Jeff's great book "Inklings"

I wish they would also have had Jeff's great band The Prairie Cats as a musical guest but you can't have everything. See videos of them in action here.

Reminder To Check Out Cartoonist Videos

2011-08-10T10:12:00.001-05:00

Just a reminder that I have set up a Spot The Cartoonist Youtube channel dedicated to videos of cartoonists drawing. There are videos from Tom Richmond, Steve Brodner, Charles Schulz, Al Hirschfeld, Rick Kirkman, Richard Thompson and many more. Check it out!

And if you have a video, or know of one that should be included, send the link to anne.edisonlee@gmail.com

Geek Papas

2011-08-06T19:31:00.001-05:00

If you are a parent you know that it is not enough to pass your DNA on to the next generation.

You must also pass down your values.

Your children should understand their heritage and the cultural influences that shaped you.

And, if those influences happen to be comic books and sci-fi movies - you must, I say must expose your children to the classics.

So if you geek out over which Star Trek Captain is the real Star Trek Captain and whether or not the Hobbit has the same sensibility as the Lord Of The Rings - who would win in a cage match - Green Lantern or Batman - or whether or not there should even be such a thing as a Star Wars Prequel - then I have a blog for you.

Geek Papas is the brainchild of Tall Tale Radio Podcaster Tom Racine. As a geek papa himself, he is building a community (or support group - depends on your point of view) of fellow geekdom torchbearers.

Head over and check it out: http://geekpapas.com/

Gridlock

2011-07-27T12:44:00.000-05:00

(Click on the image for a better view)

This is the Edison strip that is traveling the country as part of the "One Fine Sunday in the Funny Pages" show. As I have been organizing the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning, the strips in the show have been the topic of a lot of conversation and it appears to me that - although this originally ran April 11 2010, it could just has easily have run again this week :-)

Kenosha Festival of Cartooning

2011-07-21T09:10:00.002-05:00

If you've noticed that I haven't been blogging much lately, it's because I'm working on a monster project called the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning. When Carthage College Gallery Director expressed an interest in bringing "One Fine Sunday in the Funny Pages" to Kenosha this fall, I decided to organize a festival around it. Yes, I am a glutton for punishment :-) Anyway I have started a new blog for all things festival related that you can read here: Kenoshacartoonfest

Enjoy and check back often - the festival is in only 8 weeks and I'll be posting regular updates.

If You're Going To San Diego Comic Con...

2011-07-18T09:21:00.000-05:00

If you're going to San Diego comic con, you won't want to miss this opportunity:

Click here.

Whacked!

2011-07-12T22:52:00.000-05:00

Those of you who follow me on twitter know that our family has been dodging severe storms since late May. One of them finally found us - read about it here.

Thank You Wiley

2011-07-03T08:10:00.000-05:00

I would like to thank Wiley Miller for:

A) Making me spit milk all over my kitchen table,

B) Causing my husband to wander around the house all day whistling the Limbo song (which, of course, followed me into my dreams last night)

C) Prompting this hilarious essay on growing up Catholic by Mike Peterson. (You may have to scroll down to it - for some reason I can't link to the essay only)

And a note to Mike - in case you're wondering, Wiley was, indeed raised catholic, parochial school and all. At the 2007 Festival of Cartoon Art I had the privilege of being at a table that consisted of my husband, John and 6 very well known editorial cartoonists. All of whom (Wiley and Mike Peters were two that I recall) were, as it came out in the conversation, the product of parochial school.

There must be some sort of anti-establishment elixir in that Holy Water.

New Features Over On Spot The Cartoonist

2011-06-25T13:52:00.000-05:00

I've added some exciting new links to Spot The Cartoonist. Now, in addition to being your source for cartoonist public appearances, STC offers links to interesting cartoonist sightings on the internet.

First we have a link to the fabulous cartoonist interviewer extraordinaire Tom Racine and his Tall Tale Radio podcast.

Then there is the link to meeting cartoonists vicariously through Tom Gammill with his "Learn To Draw Video" series.

And lastly, I have put together a Spot The Cartoonist Youtube channel where you can watch cartoonists at their drawing boards. (Or ipads, or wacom tablets)

So head on over to Spot The Cartoonist and connect (one way or another) with your favorite cartoonists today!

Official Roth Video

2011-06-23T07:46:00.000-05:00

Tom Gammill has posted his "official" (as in , not my bootlegged) version of the hilarious Arnie and Caroline Roth video. You can view it by clicking here.

Upgrade To John's "Lab Notes" Blog

2011-06-21T11:55:00.000-05:00

We have been trying to upgrade John's blog (you may notice he hardly ever posts anything there anymore) so that it will be more interactive. This has involved a steep learning curve on our end. His current blog is in an old version of wordpress and is all set up in code so trying to make changes to it has been difficult for us. I currently know how to use Typepad (Spot The Cartoonist and Overbooked and Underpaid) and Blogger (this blog) but have had some difficulty learning the version of Wordpress that John is currently using but we are working our way through stuff and you should notice changes starting to happen at a (hopefully) rapid pace.

One significant change already in place is the addition of a "Categories" link in the sidebar. No longer will you have to go wandering willy nilly through the monthly archives to find the posts about John's Journey To Syndication or similar posts. (Although the posts still come up in reverse order so you'll have to scroll back to the beginning.)

Hopefully this simple change will make the blog more user friendly to you, our loyal readers.

(And hopefully, it will make it more likely that John will get back to blogging :-) )

Hogan's Alley Reuben Pics

2011-06-20T14:37:00.002-05:00

Here is a link to more Reuben Pics over at Hogan's Alley.

News Flash! Tom Gammill Film "Ken Burns" Documentary About Cartoonists

2011-06-13T07:56:00.000-05:00

This is another of the films by Tom Gammill that had us rolling at the Reuben awards. I couldn't post it earlier because A) my handheld camera didn't do it justice and B) Tom had asked me to wait until he had gotten all the proper attributions.

Enjoy!

And while you're at it, be sure to check out all Tom's other videos here.

Reubens in Boston: Our Trip

2011-06-09T14:43:00.000-05:00

(Photo courtesy of the Cedar Point Weather Cam May 25)

Those of you who follow me on twitter will know that we not only drove out to Boston for the Reubens this year but we had a series of adventures on the road. As Tom Racine said, "It's not the Reubens, it's The Amazing Race!" And I have to admit it felt like a road trip movie at times.

Why did we drive? Well, largely because we decided to take our three kids with us.

Which meant that flying would be waaaaaaaay too expensive. (Plus, Richard Thompson was hoping I would take some of my homemade chocolate truffles - try explaining those to airport security).

Another wrinkle was that the Fairmont Copley Plaza, nice though it is, does not have a swimming pool. And we have a daughter that is still young enough to be interested in swimming and considers any hotel without a pool to be unworthy of consideration. Since we couldn't provide said pool at the Fairmont, it became important to find pool containing hotels to stay at on the way there.

To further the "fun family road trip" vibe we decided to spend one of our travel days whooping it up at Cedar Point.

An ordinary trip, right?

Not in the insanity that is our current weather.

Everything started out fine as we headed over to spend the first night with family in Indiana. We had watched the weather reports for Ohio (location of Cedar Point) for a couple of days and knew that thunderstorms were a possibility. But I was thinking, oh you know, thunderstorms.

Not THUNDERSTORMS.

As we left Indiana Wednesday morning, May 25, the sky was clear. In fact, pretty much all the way over to Sandusky things looked pretty decent. We got into the park at opening time and divided up into smaller groups (the better to be sure of roller coaster bravery compatibility levels). I do remember saying to everyone - "Be sure to ride your favorites early before the bad weather moves in".

It was great. No storms, lots of fun roaming the park. We breathed a sigh of relief that the weather folks had been wrong and we had dodged a bullet.

Somewhere after lunchtime, things clouded over and got ugly but the rain stopped and within 30 minutes everything was up and running again.

Until about 5:00 pm.

I don't remember what it was that caught my attention - maybe it was the wind picking up - but I looked to the East and saw the biggest, blackest, fastest moving cloudbank I've ever seen in my life. We all managed to find each other (the up side to each family member having a cell phone) and began looking for a place to take shelter. Which is when I realized something I hadn't thought about before.

Amusement parks don't have basements.

So we settled for the next best thing. The oldest building we could find - my reasoning being, if it has weathered horrible storms before, it can again.

We crowded into the arcade with hundreds of other park visitors and hunkered down. And it was a good thing because this was one of those storms where the rain goes sideways. Worse, every time I peeped out at the sky the clouds were going in a different direction. At one point the clouds overhead were actually swirling in a circle.

I was pretty sure that was bad. We stayed put.

But we couldn't stay there forever. Eventually we took advantage of short breaks between rain and worked our way from shelter to shelter toward the front of the park.

Which is how we wound up trapped in the gift shop below the cable cars. Turns out there was enough rain to cause serious flooding and the water was coming in under the doors on both sides of the shop. The employees were valiantly trying to push the water back with giant squeegees but I know enough about gravity to realize (although they didn't seem to) that this was a battle they were not going to win.

So we sloshed our way out through shin deep waters and made a break for the parking lot. This was a trip of about a quarter mile. I started by running as fast as I could - hoping that somehow less time underwater would magically make my Reebocks less saturated - but eventually I gave up and just plodded the rest of the way.

Once we made it to the van we still had to get out of the flooded parking lot without stalling and then over the causeway to the mainland (Cedar Point is on a peninsula - hence the word "point" in the name).

After about 10 harrowing minutes driving through water of undeterminable depths, we safely got to the highway and proceeded to Cleveland and our warm, dry hotel.

Except it wasn't.

The hotel entrance was flooded, half the parking lot was flooded, and there were actually puddles in the hotel hallways. I will decline to mention the name of the establishment (I plan on filling out one of those "rate your stay" emails, though) but I was shocked at the level of disrepair in a hotel of this price and stature. One of the elevators was out of order, the pool area was a disaster of cracked tiles, peeling paint, and peeling floor, and water seemed to be leaking into every area. The bar, the hallways, the rooms. By morning a leak had appeared in our room right where my daughter's bed would have been had she opened the sofa bed. As it was she chose to sleep on the sofa as a sofa and remained dry. While I realize this was a storm of above average rainfall, it was clear from the damage to the ceiling, walls, and carpet that this hotel has had water issues for a loooong time.

Watching the weather channel we could see that everywhere we had to drive for the next two days would be in the path of one storm or another. Ugh!

Thursday we headed to Albany with fingers crossed and a van full of wet, smelly shoes, dodging the corners of the storms. Finally, at about 3:30 our luck ran out and we were caught in a doozy with quarter to half dollar sized hail.

I'd like to take a moment to thank all the folks on the radio who said we should take shelter.

Where?

We're on a highway we've never traveled before in between cities and towns we know nothing about. Are we supposed to just pull into the first driveway we find and ask strangers to take us in?

So we just kept driving. Until the hail came and it got so bad we had to at least pull over to the side of the road, put on our flashers, and cross fingers that no one would run into us.

The hotel in albany was actually warm and dry so we finally got some rest and recuperation while the storms kept up outside our window. (Still couldn't get those shoes dry, though, and they smelled worse every day).

Friday we made it to Boston and 3 days of beautiful storm free weather. Two days after we drove back west, tornadoes touched down in three towns we had passed.

And now that we are back in Wisconsin, they have found us again - last night we had storms with winds of 100 mph.

I wonder if someone is trying to tell us something........

Next post: Boston and the fabulous Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel!

Arnold and Caroline Roth meet Tom Gammill

2011-06-03T19:06:00.002-05:00

This year, as last year, Tom Gammill was the master of ceremonies for the Reuben Award Banquet. Along with presiding over the evening in general, he produced a series of short videos that were nothing short of hilarious. I'll be doing a long post about the Reuben weekend in general next week but, in the meantime Tom, Arnie and Caroline have graciously given me permission to post this particular video. It will eventually be available on youtube as part of Tom Gammill's "Learn To Draw" series as will, (hopefully) several of the others. (There was a parody of a Ken Burns documentary - complete with violin music - that was sheer genius!)

Enjoy!!

(BTW I apologize in advance for some sloppy camera holding on my part and a couple people walking in front of me but one of the reasons I've posted this version is so that you can hear the crowd reaction.)

Reuben Weekend Boston Pics Round One...

2011-05-31T21:53:00.002-05:00

So we're back and, awesome as the weekend was, the drive home (18 hours) has left me too exhausted to write much. So here are some pics to get things rolling....... (Don't forget you can enlarge them by clicking on them)

Arnold Roth and John at Sunday's "costume" dinner

This year John not only remembered to take a sketchbook, he remembered to ask folks to draw in it :-)

Martha and George. Wait..... is that "THE Jeffy?"

Accosting Reuben award winner Richard Thompson while he tries to eat...

OK, so he's not mad :-)

In the Venetian room there was this huge shell thing - that's Ed Steckley and his wife Heather.

Here we are in front of the darned thing but we have the good sense to be drinking. Venus di Vino?

How to make Anna Richmond happy....(I drove those truffles across 7 states)

Rick Kirkman, Richard Thompson, John, Jen Sorensen, Brendan Burford (apologies to Jen - I didn't get this pic with her eyes open)

Although John managed to....

Rick Stromoski and Tom Richmond (Tom can really rock that batsuit!)

Wouldn't be the Reubens without Karaoke - although I doubt it's been held in a room this sumptuous before...

John with Mark Parisi, Rick Stromoski, Dan Thompson, and I did not catch the other name - help someone?

Tux time!

Our son Kristopher in the lobby - elegant surroundings, elegant attire....

Kris got to meet Brad Anderson....

And Richard Thompson....

Our madcap son Alexander with the even more MADcap Sam Viviano...

John with Brad Anderson.

One more...... (BTW Brad's wife and I our knitting buddies, this is our 3rd Reubens talking all things knit and she's sending me a pattern....)

Sam Viviano, John Read (the genius behind One Fine Sunday and Stay Tooned) and John

John with Norm Feuti and Ray Billingsley (Apologies to Ray for the half closed eyes but the other two pics they are all the way closed :-) )

More pics and some blogging tomorrow but now to bed. I'm toast!

At The Reubens in Boston

2011-05-29T09:15:00.000-05:00

Due to a lack of a working laptop (somethng I have to save up my pennies to remedy) I am not able to do quality blogging on the road. I have lots of great photos from the Reuben Award Weekend this year but, since they were taken on regular cameras and not some sort of "smart" "instantly interface with the internet" device, I won't be able to upload anything until I return on Wednesday. (We drove - it's going to take a while to get back. Yes, I know we're crazy.)

And the ipad, while great for a lot of things, is no substitute for a laptop when it comes to blog posting. Most of the customizations I usually add to my posts do not register when using blogger or typepad. I am thinking about checking out wordpress and seeing if that is better.

Anyway, in lieu of blogging I have been tweeting. So, if you want the scoop on our last five days, go follow me on twitter. If you just click on my tweets you'll get a pretty good picture of what has been going on.

Congratulations to all the award winners - especially to Richard Thompson for winning the big Reuben Award. Muchly, muchly deserved.

Team Cul de Sac

2011-05-10T09:37:00.000-05:00

Here is the piece that John did for Team Cul de Sac, a fundraising project for Parkinsons Disease that you can read about here.

Cartoonist Studio Contest Clarification

2011-04-25T09:25:00.000-05:00

The Cartoonist Studio, of which John is a member, is running a contest for amateur cartoonists. The prize is a development deal with Creators Syndicate.

The judging is handled by Creators Syndicate with voting from the public. Studio artists are not judging this contest. If your strip has been eliminated, please do not assume that John or any of the other member artists were involved in its elimination.

You can read more about the contest here and here.

Best of luck to all the contestants!

When John Colors....

2011-04-24T15:13:00.001-05:00

John colored this week's Sunday strip. I love this panel in particular. He has a much better sense of following a light source than I do :-)

Click here to see the whole strip.

Call For Entries - "Seriously Funny"

2011-04-21T22:33:00.003-05:00

I just got an email from Ruby Thorkelson about a cartoon and comics show coming up. "Seriously Funny" will take place this Summer with jurying by cartoonist Isabella Bannerman. The deadline for submissions is May 11th. Below are the submission guidelines, which are also available through this link: http://www.womanmade.org/entryform.html They are open to both original work and reproductions.

CALL FOR ARTWORK: "Seriously Funny"

Exhibition Dates: July 8 - August 18, 2011
Open to women artists from the international community whose work is expressed in cartoon-style format. Open to all themes. Please include an artist statement and a $30 entry fee.

For Online Entries: Submit jpgs of three of your works on our website.

Mailed Entries: Mail slides or cd with images of up to three of your works, completed entry form, and a $30 entry fee to Woman Made Gallery, 685 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60642.

Juror: Isabella Bannerman
Isabella Bannerman has been a cartoonist since 1987, when she won first prize in The San Francisco Bay Guardian Cartoon Contest. Her work has appeared in many publications, including Good Housekeeping,Glamour, The Funny Times, Mamapalooza, and World War 3 Illustrated. A collection of her work, Pacifists in Bomber Jackets, was published in 1999 by Laugh Lines Press. Isabella has also worked as an animator, contributing to MTV; Pee Wee’s Playhouse; and the children’s TV show, Doug. For more information, visit the The Six Chix Blog.

Entry Deadline: May 11, 2011

Notifications: May 27, 2011

Tall Tale Radio With Rina Piccolo

2011-04-18T10:35:00.002-05:00

Tom Racine has posted a terrific interview with Rina Piccolo. Go check it out!

New Studio Space

2011-04-10T22:42:00.000-05:00

John recently moved to a new studio space. He hasn't changed his pics on The Cartoonist Studio yet, but here is a sneak peek.

One of the nicest things about the new studio is the beautiful second story view of Lake Michigan. Yesterday, a boat went by the windows with a man sitting up on the top like the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean. (The boat was on a trailer and headed for the marina)

Oh, and a big "Thank You!" to all of you who turned out to visit John in his new studio on the Behind The Arts artwalk last weekend! It was great to meet all of you and talk cartooning!

Are You Reading Ollie & Quentin?

2011-04-06T09:40:00.000-05:00

Are you reading Ollie & Quentin? If you're not, you certainly should be!! It is a gem of a strip that never fails to make me chuckle.

Piers Baker, the creative force behind the Laurel and Hardy styled antics of Ollie (a seagull) and Quentin ( a lugworm) has put up a very important post here about the future of his strip. Go read it and then make some noise about it!!!

When MyCage was cancelled there was a lot of moaning and groaning and gnashing of teeth directed at King Features for canceling it. That strip had a lot of fans but newspaper editors were not picking it up. If you like a strip, you - the fan - have a big obligation these days to make your voice heard. And if you cannot get your local newspaper editor to listen, you can at least make - yes, I said MAKE, the time to subscribe to your favorite strips on dailyink.

If you are a fan who loves a strip like Ollie & Quentin - don't run around reading it on the internet for free. PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS, MAN UP, AND PAY THE #@$%ING $19.99 A YEAR TO SUBSCRIBE TO IT!!!!

I'll give you a little taste of O & Q and then you should toddle over to the dailyink site and get the strip sent to your email every day or else sign up for the iphone app.

(And subscribe to Edison, too while you're at it..........)

What's Really Going On....

2011-03-31T11:41:00.000-05:00

It seems that NASA is having trouble communicating with the mars rover Spirit. Could the above strips have pegged the real problem?

Me and My Big Mouth

2011-03-30T07:52:00.001-05:00

I'm probably putting my foot in it today over on the Daily Cartoonist by addressing the Scott Adams post. And I really shouldn't rise to the bait.

I cant seem to help myself.

Maybe therapy........

Or maybe, as Nicole Hollander said I just need to bang a pickle jar against a kitchen counter.....

I Loved Coloring This

2011-03-23T11:05:00.000-05:00

As a rabid Chuck Jones fan, I really enjoyed coloring this one. I kind of wished we could have had a whole storyline play out from this point so I could color Marvin again :-)

Sometimes They Let Me Out Of My Cage

2011-03-20T09:40:00.002-05:00

For an adventure in shopping, click here.

Dave Kellet's Presentation st OSU Revisited

2011-03-16T10:10:00.001-05:00

You may remember back in the fall I wrote down my thoughts about Dave Kellet's OSU presentation. You can now watch an archived video of his presentation over on the Daily Cartoonist .

What We Call "Irony"

2011-03-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

This strip ran in papers yesterday.

When it was written, over a month ago, there was no way to know that we would find ourselves having to go car shopping by the time it ran.

That would be because, when John wrote this one, he was happily driving a Mazda 3 that was two years away from being paid for. He had babied it. Every recommended oil change/tire rotation/you name it had been performed. I wrote about how much we loved the car last year.

He was going to drive it for years.

Until it got massacred by an inattentive driver. I'm not going to get into the whole "wrangling with the insurance companies" thing. (Even though, I'm pretty sure that when you get a citation saying the accident was your fault (her) and you also admit at the scene that you didn't see the other guy (also her), having your insurance company try to weasel out of full responsibility feels like dirty pool.)

Suffice it to say, the car is now totaled.

(To be fair, while it sounds dramatic, it's not as hard to total a car as it used to be.)

And I know that we should simply be counting our blessings that John is OK and it was, after all, only a car.

But this is not our first dance with the car totaling powers that be.

In 2003 our fabulous little Honda Civic - the car that not only got 40 miles to the gallon but was still going strong 5 years after we finished paying for it - was hit from behind by - you guessed it - an inattentive driver. She was actually turned around dealing with a kid in the back seat. Note to parents: if your kid is misbehaving so badly that you have to deal with him/her while you are driving, PULL OVER.

Totaled.

(Sorry, no pictures of that one.)

In 2005, I was plowed into by a woman that ran a stop sign. Because she was trying to cross a 4 lane divided road, she actually accelerated into me. I have a vague memory of the car spinning a few times before I hit a tree, took out some of a fence, and came to rest over a municipal gas line. Note to accident victims: if you're conscious, remember to turn off the car. You never know what you're sitting on. I did see her coming for me and had a split second in which I could accelerate and change the point of impact. The rescue team said it probably saved my life. I actually walked out of the wreck with only minor injuries. But, once again....

Totaled.

Which brings us to John's accident 3 weeks ago which produced this:

One of my harp students said to me "What is it with you guys and your little cars?"

I have a theory. We live in a state where, after you take your initial drivers license test, both the written portion and the "on the road" exam, you never have to take them again. You just show up, pay the fee, take the vision test, get a new license and go on your merry way. Not like in the old days where you had to, every few years or so, take another road test. In some cases you can even do it by mail if you have a valid eye doctor's note from the last 3 months stating that you can see to drive.

So my theory is this: NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO DRIVE ANYMORE.

Every one of these accidents could have been prevented by the at fault drivers simply paying attention to their surroundings and being aware of the laws of right of way. In each case not only were the other drivers ticketed, we can't think of a single thing we could have done defensively to get out of their way.

So, we are off car shopping - again.

I think we're going to look for a car encased in bubble wrap.

Of Lima Beans And Breadcrusts

2011-03-10T14:15:00.001-06:00

Click here for A tale of deception and avoidance

Another Actual Behind The Scenes Conversation

2011-03-09T11:26:00.000-06:00

Well, I was going to give you a peek into our lives complete with a copy of yesterday's strip but blogger is not allowing me to post any images today so you will have to click here.

Delirium

2011-03-06T08:41:00.000-06:00

Some animations are in the works for Edison - more news as we have it - and we are struggling through those pesky voice issues. You know, what the heck do these characters sound like, anyway.

Well, in a fever induced delirium in the middle of the night (John is battling a nasty chest cold) Edison started talking to John and the voice he should have was as plain as day. Only in the middle of the night... maybe it was as plain as night.....

Anyway, it was crystal clear. And he turned to me and said - I know what Edison should sound like. And that quickly it was gone.

And will probably never come back.

C'est la vie.

In other news, the gorgeous Reuben art of Tom Richmond is out and we are very flattered to see Edison on there.

Latest Issue of Stay Tooned

2011-02-28T19:59:00.000-06:00

Yea - it's here!

Our latest issue of John Read's terrific cartooning magazine "Stay Tooned" came in the mail today and, as always, it is jam packed with great stuff! (Including a piece by John - part of his syndication story)

Order your copy today!

I can't wait to finish photoshopping and settle in with ours tonight.

Belated Christmas Newsletter

2011-02-21T13:13:00.001-06:00

Read my belated Christmas Newsletter here.

"Copyright, Schmopyright"

2011-02-20T09:39:00.002-06:00

As reported by The Daily Cartoonist here and here, Tom Batuik, creator of Funky Winkerbean, recently took legal action against a blog that was reprinting his work in violation of copyright. In reading through the coverage and some of the readers comments, I found some statements that I feel are worth examining.

First from the blogger himself:

"I'm still reeling from having the plug pulled, then was feeling great about being able to move the blog so quickly. Now I'm feeling pretty anxious. I don't have a lawyer, I (obviously) don't have a deep knowledge of copyright, and really don't need to get sued."

I have a couple of issues with this statement.

Firstly, as a Wordpress blogger, he had to agree to the Wordpress terms of use which state clearly (as do Blogger, Typepad, Youtube) that you agree only to post content to which you own the rights. Systems like Wordpress and Youtube exist to give creators of intellectual property a forum in which to present their own work. This forum is not a place in which to exhibit the work of other creators with no thought to their rights. You don't have to be a copyright genius to know that "© 2011 Batom inc. Distributed by North American Syndicate. All Rights Reserved." means the material is copyright protected. If you are not the owner of that copyright than you cannot post that material on your site without paying royalties.

There can be exceptions to this under the terms of fair use (an overview of which can be found here). It took me a mere 25 seconds of searching to find this information on wikipedia and one doesn't have to be a legal scholar to decipher the following excerpt:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
the nature of the copyrighted work;
the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.^[1]

Without any legal expertise on my part, it still seems fairly clear to me that the blog in question is in violation of 1, 3, and 4.

So my second issue with the blogger and his statements is that he did not do his homework before launching this blog, regardless of how long ago he put up his site.

My third issue is that this blog exceeded fair use by concentrating on only one comic feature (rather than several as the comics curmudgeon does) and that the blogger posted every strip every day.

Now to some of the sentiments expressed in the comment section:

"I'm not opposed to him protecting his "copyright" (whatever that is, these days, in whatever country). He is welcome to hunt down whatever non-profit websites he chooses. (In fact, I'd be curious to know whether or not he's gained MORE readers resulting from the said blog, but I suspect that it's besides (sic) the point in this instance."

Where to begin.

Firstly, the commenter does have a legitimate point in that copyright of intellectual property of all types has a major problem in the global marketplace. It is most definitely true that laws vary from country to country and that some international standardization needs to be implemented. However the comment feels fueled by the sentiment "I know I'm violating your rights but your laws have no teeth so just try and stop me!"

Which is tantamount to saying - "I know that car is yours, but there are no police around here to keep me from taking it from you - get out and give me the keys."

Secondly, the statement about more people reading the strip demonstrates a serious lack of understanding of the economics of being a creator. So more people read the strip. So what? Are those people paying to read the strip? If not, then what good are they? Is their enjoyment of the strip being subsidized by advertising revenue on the site that could be channeled back to the creator? If not, I say again, what good is that kind of readership?

As a creator of artistic content, you can only make money a couple of ways - from people who pay you directly for your work, (yes this includes t-shirts and mugs that bear your work - even if you let folks view your strip for free) or people who pay you indirectly for your work through ad revenue or royalties or both.

And here, I'd like to take a minute to unclear the muddy waters of syndication. Syndicated artists are not paid a salary. They are only paid a portion of the revenue from sales of their work. For instance, if a newspaper pays you $10 a week (which is pretty much the average, BTW) to run your strip, the syndicate gets part of that $10 and you get part of it. What the actual rate is and what the split is varies depending on the syndicate and the size of circulation. Some syndicates do pay a minimum royalty to their creators but, trust me, this is not an amount you would like to try and live on.

From another commenter:

"You can't stop the internet. I know people are talking about "net neutrality" and "The Big 'OFF' Button" elsewhere, but the fact remains that the internet has and is still changing the way media is distributed. If Tommy thinks most people will pay DailyINK.com 20 bucks a month for access to his 'toons, he better think again. It's way too easy to get the same thing for free with very little effort."

Firstly, I love how she is on a first name basis with Mr. Batuik. John is syndicated with King and does not yet have that privilege.

And, for the record - Dailyink is $20 a year not $20 a month. And it gets you access to over 70 comics not just one. And there are no ads. And it's a great app - go here and buy it.

Also for the record, you can read any King strip for free every day at Comics Kingdom. It is free to you, the reader, because it is ad revenue supported.

Anyway, this idea that you "can't stop the internet" and therefore this kind of behavior acceptable is ludicrous. As I mentioned before, just because you can get away with jacking my car doesn't make it right. And it actually is possible to get a handle on the internet to some degree and get things back on the right track so that creators are not getting screwed six ways to Sunday.

1) Form a global committee on intellectual property rights and establish a clear set of laws that apply internationally.

2) Enforce existing copyright laws against all web hosting services. Wordpress pulled that blog down jiffy quick because A) they knew the blogger was in the wrong and B) they didn't want to get sued themselves. Take note all of you that run blogs, you will see more of this sort of thing as creators get fed up and pursue their legal rights. Your server will cave and leave you out in the snow in your underwear. Count on it.

3) All copyrighted content should be write protected in a way that it cannot be scraped without compensation. I know this can be done because, in posting images on my blogs I have already encountered files I could not copy. To make this truly workable, however, a system of compensation needs to be established. I would like to see a micropayment system - maybe linked to paypal or some other account. When you attempt to drag and drop an image, you would get a dialogue box: "This image is copyright protected. Use of the image is available to you for a fee of .03 chargeable to your paypal account. Do you accept these terms and wish to proceed?"

Sure, you will have dedicated hackers that will find a way around that, but their action will be clearly illegal, and therefore, punishable by anyone who has the resources to enforce the law.

(Disclaimer - I frequently scrape comics and photos to illustrate my blog posts. If such a system were in place, I would happily pay the fee for proper use. As it is, I am careful never to exceed the fair use terms stated above.)

My overall take on the situation is this. For the last 10 years the internet has existed in what I like to think of as its "Wild West" phase. A lot of stuff has flown under the radar. And that has given rise to the belief that copyright doesn't matter anymore.

But the winds of change are on the horizon. You will see more actions of this type as creators decide to enforce their rights. Ten years from now, there may very well be a few new sheriffs in town.

Spot The Cartoonist

2011-02-15T09:50:00.001-06:00

Don't forget - I also run a blog called Spot The Cartoonist. It is a site devoted exclusively to publicity for cartoonist appearances. The appearances can be book signings, lectures, workshops, Q & A, exhibits of work with opening receptions - you name it.

It turns out cartoonists are running around appearing all over the place so, if you are a fan - (or fellow cartoonist interested in connecting with other cartoonists) this is the site for you to find out if anyone is appearing near you. The site has many ways to find appearances - there are tabs for monthly schedules, cartoonist name, and exhibit name, and also categories listings for geographical region.

You can keep up with all the current postings by subscribing to the blog's feed, going to the Spot The Cartoonist facebook page, or following me on Twitter.

I am posting new things all the time - sometimes several times a day during a busy week - so subscribing to the feed is probably your best bet for staying caught up.

So - if you are a cartoonist with an appearance to plug, check out the site and email me with your details and I will get them posted as soon as I can.

And a big thank you to the cartoonists that have put links to STC on their sites: Paul Gilligan (Pooch Cafe), Sandra Bell Lundy (Between Friends), Norm Feuti, (Retail), Terri Libenson (Pajama Diaries), Hilary Price (Rhymes With Orange), Mike Rhode (Comics DC) and Peter Guren and all the fine folks at The Cartoonist Studio.

Another big thank you to my twitter followers and retweeters: especially Tom Racine (Tall Tale Radio), Mike Witmer (Pinkerton), Jeff Koterba (Inklings and Editorial Cartoons) and Mark Thompson.

John's Process (Updated)

2011-02-07T13:05:00.004-06:00

There is a nice discussion going on over at the Daily Cartoonist about cartoon geek stuff like inks, brushes and papers and also a wonderful little video of Mike Cope that shows his inking technique. We also have the terrific video podcast interview of Mark Tatulli in which he shows quite a bit of his process, tools and technique. And when Cathy Guisewite was generous enough to allow the entire NCS into her house in 2009, I got to see her studio and the whole production process for Cathy strips.

All this has me thinking about John's process for creating Edison and how much I take for granted that his method is universal to the cartooning profession. I am finding that it is not. Some folks use brushes, others pens with nibs, micron pens, brush pens, #2 pencils, non photo blue pencils, you name it. A number of people seem to use lightboxes and tracing techniques. And many cartoonists now do everything completely digitally with drawing tablets. And, when I saw the Exhibit "One Fine Sunday in the Funny Pages" I got to see the variety in sizes of originals - this case shows a good range from large to small.

John's process is pretty simple. He writes up his scripts on the computer and prints them off for later - when he doesn't have access to a computer and writes on paper, he finds it is much more difficult to quickly follow a thought for editing or punching up a joke a little.

Next, he cuts down his boards - he uses an 11x17 pad of Beinfang heavyweight smooth surface carton bristol and cuts it in half for two dailies per page.

He then lays out the gutters in pencil - John works in many panel formats, some jokes are 3 panels, some 4, occasionally 2 and, very rarely, one large panel, all the panel decisions are made in the script stage.

Next are pencil roughs - and by roughs I mean rough. Vague heads and gesture bodies for composition and position. (This is generally the point at which I hear swearing. Which would be because of the poor quality of today's #2 pencils and the even poorer quality of today's erasers. The erasers are particularly vexing as they always seem to be falling apart and falling off the pencil. Thank goodness for his art erasers.) At this stage, the size and location of the word balloons is determined. He lays down pencil rules for inking the dialogue and hand letters it, first in pencil, and then with a rapidograph pen.

Then comes a fairly tight, but not too dark, pencil sketch with all the details - both the people and the props.

Once a strip is fully pencilled, he inks over everything with a Winsor & Newton Scepter Gold II sable synthetic brush - either size 1 or size two as needed for filling or detailing and Speedball super black india ink. He tried brush pens but was disappointed both with the quality of the black color and the longevity of the pen tip.

Finally, he erases any pencil still showing, scans them into the computer for separation into layers and copies them over to my computer for photoshop coloring.

The only computerized part of the process is the photoshop color (my job) and the prepping for the syndicate needed for newspapers. And - I'm going to brag on him here - his originals are extraordinarily clean. I almost never see any white out except for the occasional tidying up of gutters.

I must confess - when we got married, John had all this incredible fine art he had done - paintings, drawings etc. and when he started doing graphics full time, I really lamented the fact that he hardly did any art anymore that I considered "hands on". It was all about composition and layout and color at the ad agency. One of the things I love most about the comic strip is watching him create these beautiful little paintings every week.

A word about digital tablets. For 4 years I colored every Edison strip with a mouse. It didn't bother me that much to work with it but it did give me terrible hand cramps after long coloring sessions. About 5 months ago I acquired a wacom tablet and started using that. What I like about it - better line control when I have to add lines close fields, better control in tiny areas (and John gives me a lot of them sometimes) great airbrush control and less hand cramping. What I don't like about it. Drawing with the thing just doesn't feel right and I don't like the look of the line I get. Perhaps, with a better pen tool and more practice, I would change my opinion about that, but for now I like it much better for filling in John's color than for creating my own art. But then, I'm a diehard pencil fanatic. I do very little with a brush.

And finally, here is where the magic happens.

I know, I know - he has a gorgeous studio downtown with a fabulous drawing board. Which he does use. But the truth of the matter is that the lion's share of the inking winds up happening here - in our family room, on an old sewing machine table. And that is because - working almost 24/7 as he does, the only way he gets to spend time with us is to do some of his work alongside us. Watching Star Trek.

Update - I just realized that I left out the photo of the "One Fine Sunday" exhibit. I have put it into the body above where it belongs.

Pack Attack

2011-02-07T06:43:00.000-06:00

What can I say? There be a whole lot of celebratin' goin' on in our town today. And for who knows how long after that.

There is life after Brett Favre.

Diary Of A Blizzard

2011-02-02T15:37:00.003-06:00

Wow!! What a freakish snowstorm! I have written a blow by blow account of sorts on my Overbooked Blog here.

Journey To a Book Part Three

2011-01-28T07:56:00.002-06:00

John has put up his final installment of the process of creating the first Edison Book Collection here.

Don't forget to order your copy today!! (So we can get those boxes out of the studio and pay back the printer :-)

The World Of Rebate Crapola

2011-01-26T09:42:00.001-06:00

This is one of my favorite Edison Strips. Because it's true.

And this Sunday, Norm Feuti (who should know) offered his very wise take on rebates.

And today, I have had my own wonderful rebate experience. Which you can read about here.

The King's Speech

2011-01-25T11:03:00.002-06:00

John and I stole a little time away from the strip this weekend and went out to see "The King's Speech".

It's a really terrific film and I'm not a bit surprised at all the Academy Award nominations this morning. If you're interested, I have written a longer review here.

To Palin Or Not To Palin

2011-01-19T11:53:00.001-06:00

Putting Sarah Palin into a strip is always a risky thing. But this time it became even riskier due to the recent shootings in Arizona and what I'll call "rhetoric-gate".

So it's important to note that this particular strip was written over a month ago. It was meant to refer only to the level of tension between Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton as political rivals - sort of ala the Saturday Night Live Sketch of 2 years ago and not to any actual violence that may or may not have been spurred by Palin's notorious "gun sights" map.

Risky or not - I'm sure our friend Sarah will show up in strips to come. She's too good a source of material to ignore :-)

Kudos

2011-01-16T20:03:00.003-06:00

These got me today:

And this one hit a little close to home for us yes-aholics.

Journey To A Book: Part "Deux"

2011-01-12T10:50:00.001-06:00

John has posted his second installment of the process we went through to produce "The Edison Files: Notes From The Lab".

After he finishes this series, I will probably weigh in with some of my own remembrances :-)

Also, now that the holidays and a completely crazy travel filled Autumn are over, I am back to blogging over at Overbooked and Underpaid.

And, there are many opportunities to meet cartoonists coming up - I'm working hard to get as many of them posted as I can over on Spot The Cartoonist. In fact, I plan to have several more up by the end of the day. Cartoonists - don't forget, wherever in the world you will be speaking, attending a show opening, signing your book, or creating general mayhem in the public sphere, contact me at anne.edisonlee@gmail.com with your info and I'll get it posted asap!

And don't forget to buy a copy of the book! You can get it here in the Edison Store or over on the store on the Cartoonist Studio.

Journey to a Book

2011-01-06T13:28:00.002-06:00

John has started posting about his journey to the first Edison book - you can read it over on his cartoonist studio page.

My Blackberry Is Not Working

2010-12-28T12:01:00.000-06:00

John sent me this today to lighten my photoshop burden :-) Enjoy!

I Think I Got My Colors Back!

2010-12-21T13:51:00.000-06:00

Regular readers will know that I (Anne) do all the color - Dailies and Sundays - for Edison. I have written before about how that works but, the short version is that, while I work in 256 colors, that number gets knocked down to 32 by the company that preps the strip for web and print. Primarily this is because of the low resolution needed for newspaper websites - high resolution images gobble up too much bandwidth.

This means that my work gets distorted on a daily basis. When I got my ipad, one of the first things I did was to check out an online version of Edison and see what happened to the image if it was blown up really large - the way you can zoom in with your fingers.

Of course, because the resolution was so low, the image was more terrible and fuzzy the more I zoomed in.

But, while much of what I do winds up being smaller than a dime, I have always envisioned a world in which, eventually, Edison would be available online in its full 256 color, high resolution glory. The second thing I did after I purchased my ipad, was to buy the Bizarro and Marvel Comics apps. This, while I am a fan of both comics, was primarily to check out the resolution on these apps and see if it was going to be truly different from what existed digitally already.

Both Bizarro and Marvel exceeded my wildest expectations and gave me great hope that King Features would eventually offer all their comics in this form.

Well, that day is here! I downloaded the dailyink app today and the difference is startling and well worth paying for.

The resolution has been restored and you can now really zoom in. Thank goodness I was ready for that!

The other good thing about my attention to detail all these years is that, when the full archive of Edison becomes available in this high res format online, I won't have to go in and retouch anything!

So head on over to the app store and get dailyink for your digital device today!!!!

(Great Christmas present for the comic lover in your life - hint, hint!)

Get Edison On Your iphone!!

2010-12-16T08:21:00.000-06:00

The new dailyink iphone app is here!!!

go to http://www.appstorehq.com/dailyink-iphone-546612/app and sign up now!

And be sure to include Edison on your list of comics.

(I can't get it yet, as I am iphone free :-( --- BUT I have an ipad and can't wait to see how the app works on that. Supposedly it is coming soon.)

A Big Thank You

2010-12-14T08:39:00.001-06:00

Thank you so much to everyone who braved the awful weather and ventured out to buy signed copies of "The Edison Files: Notes From The Lab"!

It was a great day. John sold lots and lots of books and I sold lots and lots of truffles!

There is still time to buy a book as a Christmas Gift - (hint, hint) visit the Edison Store to order your copy today! We need to receive your order by December 17 to be sure of delivery by Christmas.

On a separate note: for those of you that enjoyed reading about the travails of my produce drawer of death, I have a follow up (warning: graphic photos of decayed produce - may not be appropriate for more sensitive readers) posted over on the overbooked blog.

The Saga Continues...

2010-12-08T11:59:00.001-06:00

When I left you on Friday, it was with a story about our leaking shower.

Which is really only the tip of the iceburg.

The plumbing in our master bath, along with what it's doing to our living room ceiling are the stuff of nightmares.

To read the rest of the story click here.

My Crappy Morning

2010-12-03T09:39:00.003-06:00

A morning that began well - shiny little blog post about some of my favorite comics. It went downhill after that. You can read about it here.

Kudos

2010-12-03T07:33:00.001-06:00

I just realized it's been a while since I shouted out the strips that get me in the morning. Here are a few that got me to laugh out loud today:

I'd also like to take a minute to give a shout out to Rip Haywire. This strip doesn't usually make me actually laugh out loud in a gag a day kind of way because it's kind of a parody on adventure strips while also being a for real adventure strip. And the humor - while terrific - is very subtle. This is the kind of strip that takes hold of you and you read it as much for the ongoing storyline as the jokes.

Mark Your Calendar - Book Signing

2010-11-28T08:45:00.000-06:00

On Saturday, December 11 from 12:00-3:00 pm, John will be signing copies of his new book "The Edison Files: Notes From the Lab" at Andreas Gifts, 2401 60th Street, Kenosha, WI.

Note: as a bonus - the shop will also be selling my homemade truffles - get there early, they go quick!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-24T06:26:00.001-06:00

I hope this Thanksgiving finds you celebrating with friends or family or both over a lovely home cooked meal.

And, if so, please consider all the folks who will be unable to celebrate in kind, but will be dependent on the local food pantry for their holiday meal. I know there are many, many food drives at this time of year - I hope you have been able to donate. If not, there's still time.

Here's a piece I wrote giving last year - I don't know if I'll be in a position to give as many bags this year - times are tough everywhere - but we're still going to give it a shot.

Like I've Been Sayin'........

2010-11-22T10:57:00.001-06:00

If you visit here often, you know how much I love my ipad and what I think it will mean for the future of publishing. (If you're new here and you're curious you can check out the category "ipad" for my previous posts on the subject.)

Well, Rupert Murdoch is now getting in on the action : "Rupert Murdoch creates "inewspaper"

We already get the Wall Street Journal on our ipad and I'm considering adding the Washington Post and the New Yorker.

I don't know what this is going to mean for the future of comics but I'm still optimistic.

What I Love About Cartoonists

2010-11-19T14:41:00.001-06:00

Cartooning is a tough business. It's competitive - there are not very many spots available on comics pages in newspapers. And, with the trouble the publishing industry is in, that number is shrinking steadily. The odds of getting syndicated are about 5000 to 2 against every year and the failure rate for strips that do get launched is over 40% or some other outrageous number.

So you'd think that, with things as tight as they are, cartoonists as a group would not be very collegial.

But that doesn't seem to be the case. Every cartoonist John and I have met has been welcoming and supportive. A great group of people.

But don't just take my word for it - here are two examples of generosity that hit papers recently. The first is Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson giving a shout our to our good friend (and most excellent cartoonist) Norm Feuti who does Retail, and the second is Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis giving props to the aforementioned cartoonist extraordinaire Richard Thompson.

And both Richard and Stephan also write terrific blogs that you can find here and here.

And, on a side note - I mentioned before about cartoonists visiting the troops with the USO - you can read about some of the mayhem and madness of that visit on both Pastis and Tom Richmond's blogs.

Today's Strip 11/15/10

2010-11-15T07:28:00.000-06:00

Apparently Comics Kingdom is glitching out today so here is today's strip.

Thanks to Piers Baker for the heads up about the technical difficulties.

John and Boat Building

2010-11-11T15:01:00.000-06:00

Back in the days before the comic strip, John would spend his spare time making ship models. When we got married he was about 20% done with a Tea Clipper he had started from scratch - no kit, no plans. She took over 15 years to complete. (not surprising, considering we started a family and John began his pursuit of syndication)

She currently resides in our living room inside an enormous (6 feet high, almost 7 feet long) oak and plexiglass case designed and built by John and my stepfather in law, Bob.

Below are some close ups - everything is hand carved or made out of things like paper clips (the winch) and the copper bottom is covered in lord knows how many tiny pieces of copper foiling tape, cut to scale and applied individually.

To read more about John's boat building exploits, go to his Cartoonist Studio page here and click on his blog. (Unfortunately I can't link directly to the blog page for some reason.)

Cartooning for the Troops

2010-11-11T07:57:00.001-06:00

For the past 3 years or so, groups of cartoonists have been traveling overseas with the USO to visit our troops. To the best of my knowledge, Tom Richmond (MAD Magazine) has been on every single trip. I have had the good fortune now to attend two of his presentations on the experience - what it means to the troops, and what it means to the cartoonists who go.

To read more about Tom's current trip, visit his blog here.

To read stories from a previous trip which included Stephan Pastis of Pearls Before Swine, visit his archives here.

I imagine that all Tom's previous trips are also available in his archives if you care to poke around but, be forewarned, there are a lot of entries due to the number of times he's gone :-)

And, if you ever get the opportunity to attend a presentation on these trips, I strongly suggest you make it a point to go. You will see a lot of great photos and hear some funny stories - not surprising that cartoonists wind up with a lot of funny stories from their get-togethers - but you will also get a strong sense of just who our current troops are and what life is like for them right now. You will also see incredibly chilling photos of the remnants of Saddam's enormous cruelty. Whatever your politics, it is impossible to walk away with any impression of Saddam other than sadistic madman.

My Politics

2010-11-03T06:08:00.002-05:00

A little word on politics here and here (and, of course, in the strip above)

BTW, I really enjoyed coloring this one.

Go Vote!!!!!

2010-11-02T06:34:00.000-05:00

Believe it or not, I still hear people say their vote doesn't matter - don't be like this guy, get out and vote!!!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T18:21:00.001-05:00

I have to say, I absolutely love today's Edison - things are going to be pretty interesting come Wednesday.

Festival of Cartoon Art 2010 - Saturday's Presentations

2010-10-27T12:42:00.013-05:00

Here, finally, are some pics and thoughts from Saturday's presentations at the OSU Festival of Cartoon Art.

In reviewing the pics I shot at the festival, I have discovered that, while I attended every presentation, I forgot to take pictures during many of them. Perhaps I was too engrossed :-) I also find that I did not take a single picture of cartoonists randomly hanging out together. I may have been either too inebriated or too hung over - a lot of the hanging out time is kind of fuzzy.

First up Saturday was Steve Breen with "Editorial Cartooning: Humanity's Last Hope". Steve was very informative and entertaining, showing slides from his childhood and a number of examples of his work. In the following series of photographs, there are two versions of each cartoon - showing the changes Steve made after roughs, to increase the editorial impact of the image.

This cartoon ran 9/12/2001 and quickly went viral.

It spawned t-shirts, flags and a million other things, including this gentleman's tattoo

This cartoon got a huge laugh from the audience.

And that cartoon brings to mind my favorite moment from the presentation. Steve stated that, while politically he thinks of himself as a moderate with conservative tendencies, he sees his job as one that requires that he skewer absurdity wherever it raises its head. This resonated strongly with me because Edison hits on political and editorial themes frequently and John works very hard to stay non partisan and go after whoever seems to deserve it at the time. This approach has irritated some readers of the strip who feel that they can't get a bead on his politics. They don't seem to get that - editorial cartooning, even when in strip form, is a form of journalism. As such, it is important to take jabs at all idiocy, even if the idiot in question is someone you voted for. Interestingly, I have only found this criticism of John's work in conservative quarters.

Steve closed with some Q & A and this sketch of Obama.

The next presentation, "So Far, So Good" was by Jan Eliot of Stone Soup and must have been completely engrossing to me because I forgot to take a single photo. It was a terrific talk, Jan ran down her origins in the world of advertising illustration and how she evolved some of that work into a career in cartooning that led to syndication. A lot gets made of the contributions that Cathy Guisewite and Lynn Johnston made to the expansion of women's topics on the comics page. And a lot should be made of them - Cathy's depiction of single women's angst and Lynn's depiction of true to life family scenarios - but, as far as I know, no comic on the page has spoken so bluntly from the point of view of the single mother. And the authenticity of Jan's voice is unquestionable, as single motherhood is a track she has lived and knows only too well.

I especially enjoyed the details she offered on a series of cameos she did in her strip a while back. Several other female comic characters arrived at a baby shower - Cathy, Connie from Zits, Alice from Dilbert, among others.

Jan was followed by a panel dedicated to the memory of King Features comics editor Jay Kennedy. The panel consisted of Brendan Burford (Jay's successor), Patrick McDonnell (Mutts), Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead), and Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Life in Hell). Jay was a giant in the comics business and almost every cartoonist I have met so far has a story of their interaction with him - whether they signed with King features or not. It was clear that, while each of the panel members had different connections to Jay - some through his work at King, some through his interest in underground comics - they all considered him not only a respected colleague but a true friend. Jay's family was also in attendance, making the presentation even more meaningful. Often the panelists spoke directly to the family about the influence Jay had on their lives.

The Panel with a photo of Jay

From left to right: Matt Groening, Bill Griffith, Patrick McDonnell, Brendan Burford

Matt Groening tells how Jay told him to stop drawing rabbits and start drawing humans. Good advice - otherwise, no Simpsons.

We then broke for lunch over at the Union, affording us a great chance to see John Read's latest incarnation of "One Fine Sunday in the Funny Pages".

Baby Blues, Zits, and Agnes among others.

Tundra, Funky Winkerbean, Prince Valiant, Gasoline Alley, Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee

Look closely and you'll see Retail, Crankshaft, The Flying McCoys, Cleats and Tank McNamara.

Next came a presentation by Gene Luen Yang "American Born Chinese". This was another event I forgot to photograph but it was fascinating. Gene detailed how growing up with a foot in two cultures led to his graphic novel. He showed several slides from traditional chinese folklore and also told several stories from his own childhood. Wonderful work - definitely worth checking out.

Gene was followed by New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast who's talk was titled "Theories of Everything, and Much, Much More". I've been reading Ms. Chast's work in the New Yorker for just about as long as I can remember. She talked a little about her childhood and influences the chief of which seems to have been a legacy of worrying. Worrying about fatal illnesses, freak accidents, and general bad karma. One of my favorite lines came from a cartoon where one voice says something like,"He was sitting on the sofa, and BOOM! he dropped dead." I have to paraphrase because all I remember is the "Boom!" part. And this would be from all the folks in my childhood that were fond of recounting unexpected disasters, all of which were punctuated by that "Boom!".

Ms. Chast describing her worry filled youth. In this shot, she reminds me a little of Woody Allen. Come to think of it, if Woody Allen had ever done cartoons, they would probably have been a lot like Roz Chast's.

A classic Chast cartoon.

After dinner came the "Big Event". I hesitate to call it that because, in my opinion every speaker of the weekend was a "Big Event". But this was the one event open to the public and definitely was given top billing for the weekend and that was the "Evening With Matt Groening".

It was conducted largely as an interview between Matt and Tom Gammill (read more about Tom here) and consisted primarily of the history of the Simpsons and some stories from Matt's family. We learned that his real parents names are Homer and Marge and his siblings are Lisa and Maggie. He also showed a number of great Simpsons clips, including one that featured a multitude of references to comics, and then showed some of the arguments that go on at his house between his two sons. This I found particularly funny as much of the dialogue seems to have come from my own two sons. I have often said that I feel as though I'm living in a continual Monty Python sketch, populated by one pointless, tit for tat, argument after another. Generally about things such as whether or not a hedgehog could build a rocket ship given the right set of variables.

We were also treated to a sneak peak at the upcoming Treehouse of Horror episode. We were sworn to secrecy about the contents. Sorry.

After the presentation, there was an opportunity for Q & A with Matt. This was probably the most disappointing part of the weekend for me. All the previous sessions had featured some really nice questions - this session quickly devolved into - "I've watched the Simpsons all my life, can you please sign my (insert item here). When we got to the point where a fan asked if he could pull on Matt's beard for good luck, it got pretty uncomfortable. Ultimately, I think Matt was whisked out of the theater through a subterranean passage or something - kind of reminiscent of Elvis or The Beatles.

"Sorry, I can't sign anything tonight."

Anyway, it was nice to see him - he attended all the other presentations for the weekend and seemed to be a really nice guy.

All in all, it was a great weekend. There were terrific speakers, John got to sell some Edison books, and we got to see some good friends and hang out together without all the pomp and awards pressure of the Reubens. The next festival will be in 2013 - I highly recommend you put it on your calendar now.

Spot Garry Trudeau

2010-10-26T07:50:00.003-05:00

Garry Trudeau and Brian Walker will be at Yale University next week to kick off publicity for the new book "Doonesbury and the Art of G.B. Trudeau" by Brian Walker.

Head over to "Spot the Cartoonist" for details

My Thoughts On The Future of Comics and Dave Kellet UPDATED

2010-10-19T18:30:00.011-05:00

One of the Friday presenters at the Festival of Cartoon Art was Dave Kellet.

Titled "The Freeing of the Comics", his presentation was a reply to Bill Watterson's 1989 Festival Speech "The Cheapening of the Comics".

Before we begin - please remember that this is Anne speaking - not John. I don't want any confusion.

(Probably one of my favorite moments was when Dave put up the only existing photo of Watterson and said "You know - if you're going to cut yourself off from the world and leave behind only one photo of yourself - do you really want it to be this one?!")

Before I start, I'd like to say that I have a lot of respect for Dave. I'm aware of his standing among the webcomic community and his book "How To Make Webcomics" (with Scott Kurtz Kris Straub and Brad Guigar). I've seen his comments on cartooning boards a few times, I've listened to his Tall Tale interview with Tom Racine, and recently I started reading Sheldon and I really like it.

So this is not going to be an anti webcomic scree or another print vs web battleground post.

Some of Dave's points:

1) Web guys see syndicates as irrelevant middle men who take too large a cut (50%)

2) Newspapers will successfully transition to digital, comics will not.

3) Success on the internet depends on a tight bond between creator and consumer - paywalls hamper this relationship.

4) All media are seeing large audiences dwindle - network TV sitcoms considered successful today draw a fraction of the viewership once considered the mark of success - there are too many entertainment options - comics suffer from the same fate.

5) To be successful at cartooning you must be accessible, entertaining, and kind

6) Free content is the only way to spread your work virally and reach a dedicated audience that will buy your art.

7) Successful webcomics have a variety ways their income breaks out - most get the lion's share of their income from selling original art and book collections with advertising and stuff like mugs bringing in a smaller percent.

8) Digital devices like the ipad are not going to "save" print media or syndicated comic strips.

I would like to offer my thoughts (for what they are worth) on these points.

1) The syndicate 50% thing - yes, this is a steep percentage and Dave is right when he says that no other business gets this high an amount - that Hollywood agents only get 10%.

I would like to point out that, to the best of my knowledge, Hollywood agents pretty much sell you in Hollywood. Syndicates employ a large sales team that literally physically travels the world making sales calls. Edison is in papers in Guam, South Africa, Saudi Arabia etc. not just the US. It is true that, if papers go all digital, these calls will become moot. But we're not there yet. Of course, you could argue that the internet is truly global and webcomics have fans all over the world, but the reach of print in other countries (and the syndicate picking up the tab for translations) is still huge. We often ignore the power of print in less wired countries but it is quite real.

It is also important to note that all syndicate contracts are different but the 50% thing is not across the board. It applies to certain areas of the business and not others and some syndicates hold a tighter leash than others.

It is also important to state that some syndicates pay a minimum guaranteed royalty and some don't. If you are lucky enough to sign with one that does, that means that those early years of audience building are subsidized. I have not yet heard of a web comic with that kind of funding right out of the gate.

2) The transition of papers to digital. The early forays of newspapers into digital format gave me a headache. The web guys are absolutely right when they point out that the sites gobble too much bandwidth, are difficult to navigate, and are not user friendly. Not only that - most papers saw the move to digital as an opportunity to drop the albatross that they consider comics to be and did not bring them along for the ride. This is changing - it turns out that papers - even digital ones - that provide comics have happier readers and higher eyeball retention. Programs like Comics Kingdom are still in their infancy and their impact remains to be seen. I can only tell you that, since the launch of Comics Kingdom, we have seen a steady rise in income from digital sales of Edison. It's not a huge amount of money, but it's growing monthly, as are the number of papers carrying the platform.

3) Paywalls and the creator/consumer relationship. This one is a biggie. Dave is right - both about the need for the cartoonist to build a strong, passionate relationship with the audience, and the fact that paywalls are off putting and hamper that relationship. However - there is absolutely nothing stopping a syndicated cartoonist from having that same relationship with their fans - any cartoonist in this day and age that doesn't have a fully interactive website, that is tended regularly is going to get left behind.

And as far as the paywall goes - paywalls will disappear and not disappear at the same time. Syndicates are finally starting to let consumers view the comics for free on a creator's website daily - I take this as a sign that they have been paying attention to folks like Dave and are ready to steal a few plays from the webcomic playbook. So that paywall is leaving.

But a new one is coming. And it will come and people will pay and no one will care. Because, while everyone sitting at their desktop computer expects content to be free (especially when they're surfing the web at work!) taking content mobile is where free stops.

Dave said something really important about the idea of people paying for comics. He said that, because the price of a newspaper encompasses so much material, folks have never really felt that they were paying for comics in the first place - they pretty much already see them as free. And that is where the new paywalls will be smart - they will succeed because they will be virtually invisible to the consumer. The mobile industry has a jump on the market because - right out of the gate, they forced consumers to pay for everything. (I have to pay for incoming texts for crying out loud!) If comics can bundle into another product - as they have for decades in newspapers - they will continue to be paid for by consumers. It just has to be as invisible as it is in papers.

4) The fragmentation of audiences. Again, Dave is right on and he had some good parallels across the entertainment industry. But people crave a hub. Cable may have 900 channels competing for your attention but there are still shows that are huge hits as long as they resonate with a big portion of the public. Especially if they really manage the mob dynamic and become an event like "Lost".

I fully believe that the success of facebook and twitter stem - not from their content - but from the fact that they are a hub. They are where everyone is hanging out. A hub is where all the gossip and action is.

I think we can look at other media from the past and see that each new thing, radio for instance, went through a phase where there were a billion channels and sort of a wild west thing going on. But eventually people like to distill things down to a hub. I don't think we've seen it yet with the internet - facebook is just a start - but I do think a hub will come. I hope it has comics on it.

5) Accessible, entertaining and kind - true again. But any feature can be that - not just webcomics.

6) The free thing and file sharing - Yes and no - see points 4 and 8. Yes, free has been successful so far but that is when you depend on having one central location for your work (as in your own site or comics.com or something like that). You then depend on other people to share your comic and get the word out. The big problem I see now that there are thousands of webcomics is with an audience finding you in the first place. Again - that's where a hub comes in to play. We may be entering a new phase where you have that model but other models like comics kingdom in place as well. Why not chase every avenue for distribution that exists?

7) Successful webcomics have diverse income sources - again - not unique to webcomics. This is something any feature can do. Merchandising and selling original art is nothing new.

8) The ipad won't save comics. Here I disagree completely. As someone who had her life taken over by an ipad 6 months ago - I can't even begin to tell you what a difference it has made to my media consumption. I'm paying for all sorts of comic apps and stuff that would have been inconceivable to me 2 years ago. The race to get your comic made into an app has already started. There will be some freewheeling material for these devices. But Apple and some other companies that worry about questionable content will probably prefer to deal with syndicates where they know the material has been vetted.

Which brings me to my final point. Dave was right about an awful lot about how things have been and which models have worked so far. But I seriously disagree with his view of where things are headed. Because - to me - it all comes down to who owns the internet.

For the past 15 years the web has been owned by a certain personality type. I'm going to call them techies. For techies the web is this great free playground where half the fun is finding a workaround for any and all obstacles you might encounter on the internet. Paywall? Find a way around it. Security protocols? Hack 'em.

For techies, the internet is not a consumer environment. They do buy stuff on it, but they only buy stuff with a tangible, substantive form (like original art and books).

That was then.

But a new breed is showing up on the internet.

They don't know how to hack anything. They don't want to know. They don't want to surf for hours to find some cool little thing. They want what they want when they want it. They want convenience and they don't have a problem paying for it. They want content that has been vetted so that they don't have to worry that viewing it at work is going to get them into trouble. And they want to be entertained. And they're on the internet 24/7 - Farmville, anyone?

And that is the audience that comic creators and syndicates and everyone else needs to tap. I know because I'm one of them. And trust me, I'm not that unique.

Update: Some additional thoughts that I meant to put in but somehow forgot - (it was midnight) in case it isn't clear from my post, I think the folks who have been doing webcomics have a lot of great insight but many of the things they do to grow their audiences needn't be exclusive to their platform. Especially the way they all link to each other and feed audience growth. Unlike newspapers where artists are competing head to head for a spot of real estate, on the web there is only more and more appetite for comics. If you recommend another comic on your site, your fans aren't suddenly stop going to your site in favor of the new one - they'll simply add it to the list of things they read producing a bigger audience for everyone. Syndicated artists should not be shy about linking to and endorsing other comics.

In general, there is absolutely no reason for syndicated comics not to follow the lead of webcomics, both adopting methods that have been proven to work, and creating new opportunities by trying new ideas as well. Internet and mobile device marketing is a nut that can be cracked. If it is, it will be up to syndicated creators to see to it that they get an appropriate slice of the pie. Dave made the point that creators should always be able to wear the hat of the business man and not shy away from that aspect of doing a comic. He's right about that as well. Syndicated artists need to know what's going on, they need to understand their contracts and, if they don't, they need to hire good lawyers who do. And they need to talk to each other and help each other and build a community that benefits the business as a whole. And not just sit back and wait for the new model, but to be working with their syndicates to help build it.

Festival of Cartoon Art 2010 - Dan Piraro

2010-10-19T17:02:00.011-05:00

Festival of Cartoon Art 2020 - Dan Piraro "My Life As A Pornographer"

Said Dan "I only put pornographer in the title so that you would all show up!"

And that gives you a pretty good idea of how the rest of the talk went :-)

Here are his opening slides with the captions he narrated:

"I was conceived"

"I became a ventriloquist"

"I got married"

"I got pregnant"

"I gave birth"

"I grew hair"

He shared several stories from his childhood, including an important one from when he was 5 and attending Catholic School (parochial school seems to come up an extraordinary amount when you are around cartoonists - I have met very few who do not seem to be a product of it).

Dan, while assigned by the resident nun to draw something from the Bible, drew cowboys and indians instead, being colossally uninterested in drawing things from the Bible and tremendously interested in drawing cowboys and indians.

The nun took the picture away from him, asking repeatedly why he had drawn this indian and teepee. Dan assumed he was in big trouble for not drawing something from the Bible. It turns out that what impressed the nun was that the drawing showed perspective. When asked why he drew the teepee so small, Dan replied that it was because it was far away. He went on to explain to us that, as long as he could remember, he understood all sorts of things about drawing - like perspective - that were unusual for someone so young. It was this level of already understanding such concepts that made art school excruciating. So excruciating that he dropped out and simply went to work in commercial art.

This is the sort of thing Dan can draw straight out of his head.

Early cartoon.

Another early cartoon.

A statement on the cartooning profession.

Another statement on the cartooning profession

A cartoon from after Dan's messy divorce.

A cartoon from before Dan had met Bil Keene

A Piraro statement on atheism.

An example of the caption changing your view of the drawing.

This one got a ton of hate mail.

A cartoonist's response.

Publicity photos from the past 20 years:

There was an awful lot more - some of which you can sort of hear if you check out Tom Racine's interview with Dan on Tall Tale Radio.

It was an incredible presentation - you can tell that Dan spends a lot of time on Comedy stages doing his act and is very comfortable with public speaking and audience interaction.

I leave you with a pic of Dan from real life - this is from his work at the Woodstock Animal Sanctuary.

Next Post: Saturday's Presentations

Back From OSU - Some of Friday's Presenters

2010-10-18T13:11:00.012-05:00

We're back from the Festival of Cartoon Art at OSU and the experience has left me with a number of thoughts about the presentations and the future of the comics business. I attended every presentation and have tried to gather here my impressions of them.

Tony Cochran - "I Might Be Significant"

I have to say I adored this presentation. Tony is witty, dark, self deprecating (as many cartoonist's seem to be) and incredibly passionate about his craft and blunt about his feelings for comic strips and comic art.

Tony's path originally followed the arc of traditional art school with painting as his medium of choice. I may have related to his story more than the stories of any of the other cartoonists presenting over the weekend in that John's background is also one in fine art - and he graduated from Ringling School of Art and Design with nary a thought to ever doing a comic strip.

Tony planned on a career as a painter and showed us some wonderful examples of his work. Unfortunately - that career path, while it led to a certain level of success, also led to a job in an auto body shop.

If I remember correctly - this is titled "St. Andrew of the Soapsuds"

Enter Agnes.

For those of you (like John) who spent upwards of a decade getting syndicated, Tony's story is a tad depressing. He sent in a submission and was syndicated 3 weeks later.

My favorite moments from the talk came when: 1) he told us we could shower him with applause and then he proceeded to show us his "basking pose" 2) he announced that - with 11 years in syndication under his belt - he had no been syndicated longer than Bill Watterson and 3) he recounted an incident from art school wherein, with all the class paintings lined up for critique, the instructor strolled in, went straight to Tony's, picked it up and - instead of showering it with praise - threw it out the window.

I could go on and on - I wish I had a video of it. It was truly inspiring.

A note: Tony's title "I Might Be Significant" is less about his personal quest for fame and more a reminder that we all might be significant, no matter what our perceived station in life, and that everyone is more than they seem.

Next came alternative weekly editorial cartoonist Jen Sorensen "The Lighter Side of Impending Doom".

I was unfamiliar with Jen's work as I do not live in a market with a lot of alternative papers floating around - I should be taking the train into Chicago just to pick them up, I really miss getting the Reader.

This presentation was a great way to get to know Jen and her comic "Slowpoke". Not only did she do a great job giving some humorously presented background on herself, but she shared the back stories to several of her most controversial cartoons. She also shared some reader mail and her struggles with people who stunningly miss the point of her work.

The last presentation of the morning came from Sheldon creator Dave Kellet. I have a lot of thoughts about Dave's presentation so I am putting them in a later post.

After lunch was Paul Levitz and "75 Years of DC Comics - The Art of Mythmaking".

I have to admit that much of this presentation was lost on me as it was a very inside view of the history and workings of DC comics. While I did grow up reading two huge books of DC comics (Superman from the 30's to the 70's and Batman from the 30's to the 70's) I was more of a Marvel Comics girl.

I found the Q & A that followed the main presentation very interesting, though. Especially the story behind the decision to eventually return the original DC comic artwork to the creators.

Next came a spot light on James Sturm.

This presentation consisted primarily of the inspirational photos for and the making of his book "Market Day".

Very fascinating stuff - especially seeing how he translated photos from the displacement of Jews from Russia into the scenes he illustrated for the book. Different subject matter but the same sense of place and culture.

The last presentation from the day came from Dan Piraro. I have so many photos from this that I am putting them in a separate post.

Next post: Dan Piraro