Ruben Bolling, Georgia Dunn, Keith Knight, and dozens of more cartoonists; plus Dogs of C-Kennel, Lola, Shifts, Crabgrass, and the missing Vintage Apartment 3-G.
Ruben Bolling, who has drawn and written his intricate, incisive, shape-shifting weekly cartoon “Tom the Dancing Bug” for more than three decades, works best under the pressure of a deadline. “Years ago, I decided to lean into it,” he told me recently. Monday is deadline day. On the Saturday just before the R.N.C., where Donald Trump accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for President, Bolling was working on that week’s cartoon: a riff on the Busytown illustrations by the great children’s-book author Richard Scarry, titled “A Busy, Busy Day at the Republican National Convention.” [link added]
Sarah Larson at The New Yorker profiles cartoonist Ruben Bolling. Much more Ruben Bolling here.
Guest Starring
Somehow the creators of the Dogs of C-Kennel comic strip got permission from the creators of the Wizard of Id comic strip to feature the title character of the latter in the former.
Whereas I think The Flying McCoy Brothers are public domain so Todd Clark didn’t need an okay to feature that pair in a Lola walk through.
A few days ago we noted that The Washington Post is publishing a new graphic journalism comic strip mini-series – Shifts by Beatrix Lockwood and Maya Scarpa.
The twice weekly strip is now available as a newsletter or at The WaPo’s website.
Opinion: this will give The Washington Post a shot at the new Pulitzer Prize category of Illustrated Reporting and Commentary since traditional editorial cartoonists seem to get finalist nominations just for show these days.
Maybe Tauhid Bondia and Crabgrass can be submitted to the Pulitzer judges for what appears is going to be a series on dyslexia.
Is it too early for Halloween treats?
Georgia Dunn has a special Halloween episode of Breaking Cat News coming up in a couple months.
If that is too far in the future there is a Georgia appearance in just a couple of weeks.
AKeith Knight will be making more than an appearance next month.
For years, the local homeschooling community has been asking, “When are you gonna do some cartooning classes?” Welp–It’s on like Donkey Kong! I will be doing two classes starting in late Sept. 2 hour sessions over 3 weeks. One for beginners. One for advanced.
A beginners (Thursdays 9/26-Oct.10) and advanced (Sundays 9/22-Oct 6) cartooning course over three weeks. Details here.
And related to cartoon classes Mike Lynch has uncovered over two dozen videos of cartoonists drawing featuring Chris Browne, Jim Davis, Scott Adams, Ryan Thiele, Jeff Stahler, Bob Englehart, Hank Ketchum, Lee Holley. Bruce Blitz, Mort Walker, John Cullen Murphy, Mike Peters, Reg Smythe, Dik Browne, Bruce Timm, and more!
Finally…
As a public service to fans of Comics Kingdom’s Vintage Apartment 3-G we present the strips missing from King Features archives dated December 18 – December 24, 1978 by Nicholas Dallis and Alex Kotzky.
Mason Mastroianni has been authoring Wizard of Id since 2007, and illustrating it since 2015. He is also Johhny Hart’s nephew.