John Read’s One Fine Sunday in the Funny Pages exhibit continues across the US and he was able to land it in Boston in time for the NCS Reuben Awards last weekend.
BackBay Patch has a great write-up of the exhibit and the attendees.
There was no shortage of cartoon royalty on hand, from Bill Keane (“Family Circus”) to Rick Stromoski (“Soup to Nutz,” “The Mullets”), Tom Richmond & Sam Viviano (MAD Magazine), Brad Anderson (“Marmaduke”) and Greg Walker (“Beetle Bailey”) to name a few. But even if none of these names and characters are familiar to you, to see curator John Read’s selection of over 130 strips adorning every inch of the BCAE’s wall space is something to behold.
“I love to get a closer, more magnified look at everyone else’s style,” Walker said. “The first thing that strikes you is all the different sizes. It’s always great as a fellow artist to gain insight about how other people do it.”
“FoxTrot” creator Bill Amend joked, “It’s fun and refreshing to see everyone else’s strip for a change – after all, I see mine all the time.”
John is also the editor and publisher of the fine cartoon magazine, Stay Tooned, which anyone who puts pen on paper should subscribe.
The Boston Paper gave it a nice write-up on Saturday and there were a lot of people through the exhibit on Sunday taking advantage of autographs and meeting the cartoonists. It had been on display all month and sounded like it went really well.
I hope the host adult learning center got a lot of good press as well, they really did a great job hosting it. John’s exhibit is a great bit of goodwill for cartooning and cartoonist everywhere. Kudos John!
Four days later and I’m still savoring One Fine Sunday at the BCAE. While there are still some venues I’m looking forward to with excitement (especially Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Joe Wos’ Toonseum), it is very unlikely I’ll ever be in a one place with the exhibit and so many cartoonists. What a blast it was to have over a hundred cartoonists (many with art in the show) and wall-to-wall fans of comics gathered together because of “One Fine Sunday in the Funny Pages!”
Kudos, John. It was a fantastic exhibition.
I’m still icing my drawing hand…
John, you are one of very special people who know how to spread the word, and you do so selflessly! We wish you nothing but good luck as you travel to new venues.
Nice job, John!
Not only a terrific exhibit that sparked good conversations in itself, but a nice, controlled (2 hour) chance for fan contact. As a non-cartoonist, I appreciated the chance to finally meet people in three-dimensions who I’ve only known by email and on-line, in some cases for well over a decade.
Well done, John.