Toonfest 2010: The Arrival

We pulled onto Main Street USA Thursday evening and proceeded to the Toonfest office, from where we were then directed to the Uptown Theater. The theater was to be our main base of operations for the next 4 days. It served as the venue for all the presentations and also houses a bed and breakfast where most of the guests of honor stayed.

The Bed and Breakfast is operated by Debbie Foster and I cannot shower enough praise on this woman. She looked after all of us as if we were family and her cooking was beyond delicious. John swears he's never had better biscuits in his life. And, as if running the B&B weren't enough, she also ran all the presentations, manning the sound board and setting up all the audio visuals. Thank you so much, Debbie!

We stayed in the Disney suite which had two bedrooms, a dining room, living room, kitchen and bathroom and - bonus - a secret passage.

The ticket taker for the theater.

The concession stand (we purchase an awful lot of candy over the 4 days).

Secret passage.

Projection booth.

The projection window.

Looking through the projection window.

The Mickey room.

Master bedroom.

Dining room with goody bag (one of the goodies was wine - always give wine!)

Hallway.

Kitchen complete with Mickey Mouse toaster.

And Mickey a mouse paper towel rack.

Though the breakfast menu was different every day - Debbie made sure my daughter had a mickey mouse waffle each morning :-)

Kate started to call them "sticky mickey"s

Apparently, Debbie has more than one Mickey Mouse waffle mold :-)

We had a terrific stay in the Uptown and if you're ever in Marceline, you need to stay there or at least visit it.

Toonfest next installment: Main Street USA and hayrides.

Back From Toonfest!!

What does this mean? Why, it means I'm behind, that's what it means!

It means that I have spent the majority of the day playing catch up (what else is new) and am still massively behind. Our schedules are so jam packed that taking the weekend off always means hell to pay on Monday and today was no exception.

The good news is that we got the strips finished and off to the syndicate almost on tome (our "Fridays" are frequently Mondays anyway).

The bad news is that I am completely in over my head on blogging. So much blog worthy stuff came out of this weekend that I'll have to blog full time all week to do it justice. The photos alone are a monumental task - I've been working on them for the past 4 hours and am still not done.

So be patient - be of good cheer - I will probably have to blog in stages as I do with the Reubens, but I think you'll be pleased with the results. I hope to have part 1 up Tuesday.

On a Happier Note - The Book is Here!

It's Here!

We're working on a paypal button for the website so that we can start taking orders - I'll update when it's up. We'll also be selling them over on the Cartoonist's Studio as soon as their store is up and running.

In the meantime, we will have copies available at this weekend's Toonfest for any of you that will be attending. We will also be selling them in Omaha at the North Central Chapter of the National Cartoonist's Society's fall meeting the weekend of October first. And we will have some with us at the Festival of Cartoon Art at OSU the weekend of October 16.

RIP Lucky UPDATED

You may recall that I posted about our dogs back in May of 09.

I am sad to report that the terrier, Lucky, had been doing quite poorly for the last year or so and today we had to have him euthanized.

It's still too emotional for me to talk about much. I will probably be writing about it Monday on my other blog, after I've had some time to calm down.

UPDATE: I have posted more in depth about Lucky over on my other blog.

A worthy Comment

Yesterday a bombshell of sorts got dropped in the comics community when it was announced that Peanuts (which only exists in reruns) is leaving United Media to go with Universal. My favorite comment so far about the situation comes from Mike Peterson and was posted over on Mike Lynch's blog.

I'm reposting it here because I consider it dam near poetic:

Mike said...

And, since this means every editor at a paper carrying reruns of the strip will have to make the effort to order it from the new syndicate, this is an excellent time to drop them a letter and remind them that the word "news" in "newspaper" is supposed to have some meaning. They could always give away a book of Peanuts reprints to anyone who subscribes to the paper for a year in advance ...

For anyone who's keeping track, Peanuts still appears in over 2200 newspapers.

Toonfest

Next week is Toonfest in Walt Disney's hometown of Marceline Missouri and John is one of the featured speakers. It's a wonderful festival in honor of Disney and his love for this small town, which supposedly was the inspiration for "Main Street USA".

There will be lots of fun things to do and see - check out their full schedule and website. The other featured speakers are Marcus Hamilton of Dennis the Menace and Stan Goldberg of Marvel Comics and Archie Comics, distinguished company to say the least!

Also, the first Edison Lee Collection is currently at the printer (we are waiting for it with baited breath) and we're hoping to have them available for sale at Toonfest so, if you can make it to Missouri next weekend, you'll have the chance to pick up a personally inscribed copy.

A Little Celtic Tune on Youtube

Here is my latest Youtube video.

"Oh My Katie Wee" was written when I was expecting my daughter and subsequently she has declared it belongs to her.

(True story, I played harp right up until my due date with all three children - they all moved around quite a bit when I played, but my daughter was the only one who apparently knew my entire repertoire and would kick me if I made a mistake.)

This particular recording was made at the Racine Theater Guild when I appeared as part of their Jean's Jazz concert series. Celtic was not on the menu, so this was an encore.

I hope you enjoy it!

Pack Rats

Check out this hilarious post by Norm Feuti of Retail.

I have been in line behind several of these people!!

Sad News - My Cage Cancelled

I was very saddened to read on the Daily Cartoonist that the comic My Cage has been cancelled.

I believe My Cage was the last comic strip launched by King Features that was the under the guidance of the legendary Jay Kennedy. Jay recognized the huge impact the Manga was having and My Cage was the first - and to my knowledge, only - nationally syndicated comic strip to have a Manga influence.

My Cage is a top quality strip that deserved to be in many more papers. I enjoyed Ed's edgy sense of humor and Melissa's beautiful artwork. I will definitely miss reading it on the Dailyink.

Unfortunately, the business of comics has always been a brutal one with a high failure rate and truly wonderful strips often don't make it. The terrific Franklin Fibbs is another comic launched in recent years that should have been much more successful than it was. And, the terrible truth is that the current climate at newspapers makes it even more brutal.

I was asked recently by an industry insider if I would still recommend syndication as a goal for aspiring cartoonists. I answered emphatically yes, which I think surprised him.

My reasons are these:

No matter how grueling the deadlines or how limiting the "g-rated" parameters in which you must write, the experience you gain working with a syndicate and an editor are enormous. Even if your feature doesn't make it, you will learn a tremendous amount about the business that can only be helpful if you decide to head out on your own.

Some syndicates - King is one - pay a minimum royalty starting at launch. This at least gives you some income while you are finding your feet and honing your feature for a broad public appeal.

Syndicates still provide greater exposure for a new comic than it can generate on its own in the internet wilderness. It's all very well and good to paint the next Mona Lisa, but trying to find an audience for it on the internet can be like standing in the middle of the Sahara holding up your painting and saying "Look at this! Look at me!" It's a whole lot easier if you have someone advertising your painting aggressively to art galleries.

Contrary to popular belief, artists no longer sign away their rights to their feature when they become syndicated. John retains full copyright to Edison and all properties that may spring from it. If it is optioned for a movie or anything else, John must be compensated - the money doesn't all go straight to the syndicate.

I'm not saying syndication is for everyone - it is very difficult and can be discouraging and the schedule is grinding. But I think ruling it out as a career option is short sighted.

I wish Ed and Melissa all the best. I hope that, after the dust settles, they remain in the business of producing comics - My Cage or something else. They are both truly talented and bound to be successful.

The Cartoonist Studio

I am happy to announce that John has joined The Cartoonist Studio and that his page is now up.

There are many cool pictures of John's and other cartoonist's studios, as well as a store, blogs, links, and a page for non-syndicated cartoonists to share their work.

For more information on the site, there is an article on The Daily Cartoonist.

We are very excited to be a part of this dynamic group of cartoonists and are also looking forward to utilizing the store on the site as soon as it is up and running. It will be one of the places you will be able to buy the Edison book when it comes out. (Which we're hoping will be September but might just turn into October.)

Book Sneak Peek

I recently posted these on twitter - for you who missed them, here are a couple sneak peaks at the Edison Book:

These are our own personal mock ups - hence the binder clips :-)

The strip in the lower right corner is one that was killed before it could be published. There will be lots of little goodies like that scattered throughout the book.

Insult To Injury

So we went to see inception last night and now I can have arguments with my teenage sons over the convoluted plot :-)

I really like going to the movie theater. Even though we watch the lion's share of our movies (and our TV too, for that matter) via Netflix, there's still something cool about seeing films on the big screen with surround sound. Especially when it comes to a movie like Inception.

And I've noticed that, bad economy or not, an awful lot of other people are in the theater with us when the movie is decent.

And I've made my peace with the overpriced concessions - I get that this is the primary source of profit for a movie theater - but last night I was ticked. I'm used to the $3 box of candy having far too little candy inside, but last night added insult to injury because the malted milk balls I looked so forward to eating were stale. And I mean stale.

I probably should have complained, but I know I would only be talking to some poor peon who can't do anything about it anyway.

Although, if I had gotten all obnoxious about it, would the concessions guy have dumped popcorn all over the lobby, grabbed a couple of slushies and jumped out of a secret escape hatch?

I wonder......

I Hate To Say I Told You So, But....

Remember my prediction about the ipad and comics?

Well, the numbers are starting to come in: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/12/go.digital.comics/index.html?hpt=Sbin

An Actual Behind The Scenes Conversation

John: "What do you think of this Sunday strip - should I go with it?"

Anne: "Absolutely, I think it's hilarious!"

John: "Great! You get to start coloring it tonight, then." (The strip takes place in a grocery store - aisles and aisles of product filled shelves)

Pause

Anne: "Forget what I said before - terrible strip - got anything else?"

Exciting Times - A Busy Fall For John and Edison

I know it's only the beginning of August but I'm feeling very pushed into September already. John and I are hoping to take two days this summer with the kids and get our annual hiking/fishing type family trip in.

Yep - you heard right - two days.

Out of the whole summer.

Such is the life of the syndicated cartoonist.

But, to be fair, this has been an unusual summer and is going to be an unusual fall as well with an awful lot of traveling. So many exciting things are on the horizon:

The first Edison Book "The Edison Files: Notes From The Lab" will be coming out shortly - the first proofs look absolutely fabulous!

John has been invited to be part of The Cartoonist Studio - his page should be up soon, details as I have them.

John will be one of the featured speakers at Disney's Toonfest in Marceline Mo the weekend of September 18th - stop by if you're in the area, we may even have the book ready by then.

Edison is also one of the comics in John Read's "One Fine Sunday in the Funny Pages" which has started touring and will be at toonfest.

We will be attending what I am sure is going to be a fun filled cartoonist extravaganza in Omaha NE the first weekend in October - It's the NCS North Central Chapter meeting organized by amazing editorial cartoonist Jeff Koterba. (Read his book Inklings - great stuff!) and will include special guest Josh Cooley from Pixar Animation

We will also be attending the Festival of Cartoon Art at OSU the weekend of October 15. This is a not to be missed event that only happens once every three years and rivals the Reuben weekend. There are a number of interesting presentations scheduled including one by Matt Groening of the Simpsons, Futurama, and Life in Hell.

And, lastly but not leastly, the very exciting news that Cathy Guisewite is retiring her strip Cathy starting in October. "Cathy" is in over 1000 papers. Strips with that much real estate don't leave the scene often, so the news is causing quite a stir among cartoonists.

It is a pretty good bet that Cathy and Edison appeal to very different demographics, but there is a small hope that most syndicated strips will at least pick up a paper or two. In what has been a fairly dead market for everyone the past 18 months, it's a ray of sunshine.

Cartoon Exhibit

John Read's "One Fine Sunday In The Funny Pages" exhibit has started it's tour. Stop number one is in Jackson, Mississippi. Above are a couple of pics. Click here for more photos.

The next stop will be Disney's Toonfest in Marceline, Missouri the week of September 19th.

John (Hambrock) will be one of the guest speakers at this year's toonfest, which means we will get to see the exhibit in person. I can't wait!

You can find more information on the exhibit, as well as a list of the participating cartoonists, over on The Daily Cartoonist. And, if you live anywere near Jackson, you should head over to see this fabulous collection. I don't know that anything like this has ever been done before - don't miss it!

The Oil Spill Cartoons

I've gathered together all the strips John did about the oil spill - I've gotten some feedback that people missed a few and would like to be able to read them all - so here they are.

I liked John's decision not to deal with the real situation in the gulf, but to instead create his own spill in the world of Edison. This seems like an especially good decision now that we also have oil spills in Michigan and China.

Enjoy.

The Striptoonist Calling it Quits

It was with sadness this morning that I read the following:

Goodbye

With regret I am putting an end to this blog. I hope you have enjoyed my choices over the last few months even if you probably haven't always agreed with them.

I really enjoyed the striptoonist site. In an age where every Tom Dick and Harry seems to have a snarky arsenal of opinions on the comics - it was refreshing to see a site dedicated to praise. I have checked it every day since last August, when it first popped onto my radar (courtesy of Piers Baker), and always got a good laugh from the featured comic.

I also liked that it exposed me to many fine comics that are not carried in my local paper or on dailyink. I have to confess here that there are many many worthy comic strips that I don't read daily because I have never taken the time to set up accounts with gocomics or comics.com.

It was very flattering to have Edison selected a few times, but it went beyond that.

So, to the striptoonist - whoever you are - you will be missed.

THE BOOK - Coming soon

The first Edison Lee book collection is coming soon!

We're working like mad to get it done before September's Toonfest and hopefully will be able to take orders starting in late August.

Details as I'm allowed to leak them :-)

Kudos

Once again I present some strips that really got me today. Color me a windchime hater - for this very reason.

I have to confess this punchline was not what I expected - it's not really what I thought Monica was doing - maybe the hairy legs threw me :-)

And finally, the piece de resistance - what creative person cannot relate to this?

I thought all the Darth Vaders were at Comic Con

Apparently this guy didn't get the memo - the Darth Vader meet up is in San Diego, not Long Island.

Maybe he needed the extra cash to buy souvenirs.

Better Late Than Never

From left to right: Tom and Marie Stemmle, Frank Pauer, Lynn Johnston John, Isabella Bannerman.

Here is, I think, my favorite picture from this year's Reuben Weekend in New Jersey courtesy of Bob Rich (who was nominated in the newspaper illustration category). Thanks Bob!

New Blog

I've started a new blog: Overbooked and Underpaid: Notes from a yes-aholic

This blog was inspired by two things: 1) some comments from the estimable Tom Racine during one of our interviews - I think it went something like "Good god, woman! How do you find time to do all this stuff?!" and 2) last year I started writing a column for our local newspaper.

I've flirted from time to time with random non-Edison writing here and felt that I needed a better place for such spouting off. And, with all the different directions John and I find ourselves pulled in, we definitely feel overbooked and underpaid. I'm pretty sure an awful lot of folks out there feel the same way so, if you're looking for some entertaining reading about my daily inability to stick to my schedule - or if you want to share your own stories of being overbooked and underpaid - head on over and check it out.

Just don't expect any cookies.

I'm too busy.

Candid Studio

John has a fabulous studio. It serves as a place to focus when the house is too chaotic to work in, (or when I'm teaching my private studio lessons, which is almost every day between 9 and 5) a storehouse for his art supplies and Sunday originals, (the dailies are in a safe deposit box at the bank) the best space for the huge drawing board, and also as the much needed storefront for his graphics and design business. Corporate client meetings go much more smoothly without an exuberant Border Collie jumping up on you.

But evenings find him in a corner of our family room using a 1940's sewing machine cabinet as a drawing table.

Kudos

It's been a while since I gave any shout outs to strips that have particularly tickled me. Today I have three - although this first one is cheating because it's not a strip but an image from a strip. Sandra has put a sneak peak of on of her future strips up and the drawing just knocked me out. The way Susan's boobs are drawn and the crazy swirl in her eye make this one of the most appealing and truthful comic depictions of over taxed womanhood I've ever seen.

And this Between Friends strip not only got me to laugh out loud, I immediately could remember being in this position while eating out only yesterday. While we never say it out loud as succinctly as Susan, we all do this. I always think whenever a comic can get you to see a truth, and laugh at the same time, that is a true grand slam.

And then we have this Pros and Cons from Keirhan Meehan that just made me laugh. In looking back at my favorite Meehan strips, I find that I seem to be drawn most to the ones that reference fee relationships between a professional and his clientele. I wonder what a therapist would do with that :-)