The Daily Cartoonist » Festival of Cartoon Art

Video: Behind the scenes of the Billy Ireland Library and Museum

Alan Gardner — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:00:34 +0000

Great video that’s worthy of 6 minutes of your time. My first visit to the Billy Ireland Library and Museum was in 2006, though it was only known then as the research library and I’ve described it as a religious experience as I was allowed to look (and white-glove handle) original art by Hal Foster, George Herriman, Walt Kelly and Bill Watterson.

And just a reminder, this year is the Festival of Cartoon Art and will also be a celebration grand opening of Sullivant Hall. Make sure you follow the Library Museum on Twitter or Facebook for updates on the festival. The date for the festival is November 14–17, 2013.

Via Tom Spurgeon

Details emerging in this year’s Festival of Cartoon Art

Alan Gardner — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:00:56 +0000

I’m excited to learn some of the details in this year’s Festival of Cartoon Art at the Ohio State University. The dates for the triennial festival are November 14th–17th, 2013. The first two days are more academically focused. The keynote speaker for the 14th and 15th is Henry Jenkins. Jenkins is the Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

This year will also celebrate the opening of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum so sessions will be planned “focusing on some of the strengths and special features of the Library’s unparalleled collection.” Potential topics might include:

18th- and 19th-Century Cartoon art
Editorial cartoons
Newspaper Comic Strips
Minicomics
Underground Comics
Walt Kelly and Pogo
Charles Schulz and Peanuts
Will Eisner
Jeff Smith and Bone

The planners are looking for additional topics/panels. They’ve issued a Call For Papers. Visit their website for more information.

Interviewed: Anne Hambrock talks Kenosha Festival of Cartooning

Alan Gardner — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:00:24 +0000

The Kenosha Festival of Cartooning kicks off in two more days. The festival’s founder, Anne Morse-Hambrock, has an amazing line-up of guests. Below is an interview she gave with the local WUWM radio about the festival and cartoonists.

Kenosha Festival of Cartooning Kickstarter is fully funded!

Alan Gardner — Mon, 21 May 2012 20:00:57 +0000

Kenosha Festival of Cartooning organizer (founder, director) Anne Hambrock has announced that her Kickstarter project to raise $10,000 for festival expenseshas been fully funded with another 24 hours to go. As of this morning, I reported that the project was $3,693 short of the goal. In just the last 6-8 hours, the project has doubled donation amounts to total over $13,000.

On the Kickstarter blog, Anne wrote the news:

Thanks to the generosity of all our backers (You’re the best!) and also the support of the National Cartoonist Society Foundation (They’re the best, too!) we have made our goal and then some!

This means that, not only will the festival happen this year – it will be even better than last year!

The extra money will help me make it a truly stellar event and give me a publicity budget as well (which I did not have last year)

The pledge drive is still officially open until tomorrow at 5:00 pm CST and any more money I receive in pledges will go toward festival expenses I may not have anticipated. If there is any money left over, it will be banked for another festival.

Congratulations Anne!

2011 Stumptown Comic Arts Awards winners

Alan Gardner — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:26:30 +0000

Last weekend was the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, OR and the award winners have been announced.

Best Colorist: Emily Carroll, His Face All Red

Best Letterer: Johnny Ryan, Prison Pit

Best Small Press: I Want You #2, Lisa Hanawalt

Best Publication Design: Michael DeForge, Spotting Deer

Best Anthology: Studygroup 12 #4, Zack Soto

Best New Talent: Michael DeForge

Best Artist: Emily Carroll, His Face All Red

Best Writer: Aaron Renier, The Unsinkable Walker Bean

Best Cartoonist: Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour

Readers’ Choice: Pang, The Wandering Shao Lin Monk, Ben Costa

Director’s Choice: The Sixth Gun

Recaps of 2011 MOCCA Festival

Alan Gardner — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:33:17 +0000

Last weekend was the 2011 MOCCA Festival in New York City. I’m going to cheat here and just link to Tom Spurgeon and Comics Beat who have posted better (and more time-consuming) write-ups, link logs and photos than I can.

Looked like a great year.

Toronto Comic Arts Festival launches new site

Alan Gardner — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:00:22 +0000

Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon notes that The Toronto Comic Arts Festival has relaunched their new website and notes the festival is, “free, diverse crowds, focused on artists, well-run, great city — still on the upswing and I think one of the most anticipated on the convention calendar.”

Lucy Shelton Caswell retires from cartoon library

Alan Gardner — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:50:50 +0000

Lucy Shelton Caswell plans to retire as Curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, effective December 31, 2010. Starting in March, she will return part time as Curator for Special Projects. In that role, Lucy will focus her energies and expertise on the project to renovate Sullivant Hall as the new home for the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, as well as preparing exhibits and finding aids for collections. Caswell stated, “I am delighted that I will be able to continue working on the things that are most important to me and to contribute to the progress of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.”
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In a letter to University Libraries employees, Director Carol Pitts Diedrichs, wrote “This arrangement is a good one for OSU and for Lucy. She will have more time to pursue other activities; meanwhile, the OSU Libraries will continue to benefit from her engagement with the renovation and her extensive knowledge of the collections. The OSU Libraries is fortunate to have Associate Curator Jenny Robb, who will assume the leadership of the cartoon library and museum.” Robb will become Curator on January 1, 2011.

Diedrichs added, “I congratulate Lucy on her extra-ordinary career as the founding curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, one of the highlights of OSU and the most prominent collection of its kind in the world. All of us are confident that it will continue to flourish under the leadership of Jenny Robb and with the assistance of Lucy Caswell.”

Festival of Cartoon Art notes: Matt Groening, Tom Gammill

Alan Gardner — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:46:30 +0000

On Saturday night there was a special event open to the public entitled, “An Evening with Matt Groening.” It was a sell out crowd. The Doozies creator Tom Gammill introduced and interviewed Life in Hell, The Simpsons and Futurama creator Matt Groening. The opened the evening with a 2 minute montage of clips for The Simpsons before delving into Matt’s childhood, his influences and how his features came to life.

*Spoiler alert* Matt showed an act from the upcoming Halloween special – which I’ve described toward the end of my notes. Skip the last two bullet points if you don’t want to get tipped off on what to expect.

The evening with Matt Groening is about to begin. Talked to Tom Gammill last night about what to expect. Should be a fantastic night.
Here’s a scoop. Tonight we’ll see storyboards of the Banksy Simpsons opening that DIDN’T get approved.
Tom and Matt are now out on stage after a hilarious 2 minute Simpson montage.
Tom: Your dad is a cartoonist? Matt: Yeah. Tom: What advice did he give you? Matt: Animation is for suckers. Hire out the hard work.
Tom: Did your dad encourage cartooning? Matt: I grew up with a lot of cartoon books. I got to use his pens and pads of paper.
Tom: Who are your influences? Matt: Searle. Biggest one was Charles Schulz. Life in Hell has a character with shirt with the squiggly shirt
Matt went to the same school as Mel Blanc (but not at same time). Dan Castellaneta is the Mel Blanc of our time.
Dan has also written some episodes and even pitches show ideas in the voice of the characters. Matt: “And we put them in”
Matt Groening: Cartooning used to be a nerdy thing, and a boys club and now there are women cartoonists.
Matt Groening: “The best drawn characters are the ones that you can identify in silhouette.”
Now Tom and Matt are talking about the gneiss of The Simpsons. “Thanks to the Fox Network for being there are the right time.”
Matt Groening: Back then animation was viewed as for children’s thing. Nobody was doing anything smart and funny for adults.
Tom Gammill: The early writers were all disgruntled night time comedy writers who were fed up with primetime programming.
Matt Groening: “Fox, believe it or not has policies of decency, and we went ahead and broke everyone of them”
Now showing a montage of all the comic tributes and references in the The Simspons.
Tom: When did you know that The The Simpsons was big? Matt: Groening: When someone graffiti’ed “Bart Simpson” on the side of my house
Matt Groening: Fox executives didn’t understand Futurama. They wanted something like The Jettsons. It’s now on Comedy Central.
Tom: the original writers of Futurama were all guys with advanced degrees in math and science. They seriously would do math problems for fun
Now talking about Banksy. Al Jean and Groening both saw Exit through the Gift Shop and Al wanted Banksy to do a couch gag.
Al Jean and Groening contacted Banksy. A couple of days later the storyboard came back. Al immediately said: “We can’t do this.” Al didn’t think Fox would allow it, which made Matt all the more excited to do it.
Both Al Jean and Matt Groening loved the Banksy coach storyboard, but worried Fox would never broadcast it.
Matt Groening: No unicorns were harmed in that scene. Fox was great to run the Banksy opening.
Tom: Can you go into a restaurant and pay for it with a drawing on a napkin? Matt: No. I’ve gotten some free appetizers.
Audience Qs: What is your favorite episode? Matt: The Grimey one were we find out what it would be like to work with Homer.
Q: Favorite movies. Matt: “Third Man” “Schulz gets the blues” “Sita Sings the Blues” “The king of Kong” and “The story of Anvil”
Q: Was itchy and scratchy influenced by Tom & Jerry? Matt: Big fan of Tom & Jerry. Itch and Scratch are very much a tribute to violent cat and mouse shows.
Q: if were stuck on an island with a The Simpsons character who would it be? Matt: Lisa. She’s the only one that will get to leave Springfield
Q: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to sit on the couch with my kids and listen to them laugh at your show Matt: You’re a bad mother!
A view of Matt Groening and Tom Gammell
The Fox Network wanted to run more advertising so the The Simpsons has had to move to a 4 act show.
Q: What is your favorite couch gag and why? Matt: I liked the Banksy one because it was so unpredictable.
Matt’s showing us an act from an upcoming Halloween special. It’s a parody of the Twighlight movies.
The Simpsons halloween spoilers: Milhouse turns into a poodle; Yogi Bear cameo; Appearances by Sesame Street Count Dracula, count Chocula.

Festival of Cartoon Art notes: Roz Chast

Alan Gardner — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:41:40 +0000

Roz Chast began selling cartoons to the New Yorker in 1978. She’s been a fixture in the publication ever since. Her presentation was a gallery of some of her best work over her amazing career.

Roz Chast: It would be great to draw one cartoon a week & get published, but the reality each cartoonist sends in what is called their batch of forty or so cartoons and only one or two is selected. Lots of rejection.
Roz Chast: recounting her 1st cartoon in New Yorker. A cartoon she didn’t think anyone would find funny. Within a year she had a contract.
Roz Chast: now showing a slideshow of cartoons. Great stuff.
Q: Do you ever resubmit cartoons that were rejected? Roz: Sure after time. A lot of times I can come back to a gag months later and find a way to make it better and then resubmit it.