It’s Gahan Wilson’s Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Gahan Wilson.
To celebrate here’s a recent audio interview with the master cartoonist.
Massachusetts Loves Their Pickles
To millions of people the Pickles comic strip is one of the best.
Those include loyal readers of The Republican, whose passionate response to cancellation of the strip caused the Springfield newspaper’s executive staff to reverse the decision. “Pickles” is coming back to the pages of The Republican.
“We were inundated with phone calls, letters to the editor and emails as scores of ‘Pickles’ fans voiced their support of this strip. We got the message.
Placating upset readers The Republican has a nice article about creator Brian Crane and Pickles.
Over 900 publications worldwide carry a strip that began in 1990. It has earned Crane numerous accolades, including the prestigious Reuben Award for excellence in his field.
Burlier Hemlines’ adaptation of “Hey Joe”
…pursuing my long held and deep interest in the work of Ernie Bushmiller. For many decades, I’ve found his work to be a semiotic smorgasbord of the relations between words and pictures, or aesthetic non-verbal content contrasting with semantic (verbal) content. I’d seen the “HEY JOE” panel from a strip and thought of the song, Hey Joe, having ambiguous authorship, and recorded by a variety of musicians and bands. I wanted to explore the possibility of a Black Sluggo and that panel provided some direction. – Gary Lee-Nova
The full strip and the full story of its creation at Jan Herman’s Straight Up.
Upcoming Cartoonists
above: comic strip by Jonesville Middle School eighth-grader Cassidy Webb
These two comic strips are
part of a series, that will be featured in the Hillsdale Daily News over the next couple of weeks. Students were challenged with creating a hero based off of mythology. The students needed to find social issue for the hero to fight.
below: comic strip by Jonesville Middle School eighth-grader Brianna Adams
Unfortunately the newspaper hasn’t set up the series in a separate “Young Artists” page.
Science Illustrated
Five years ago, two scientists in two labs separated by thousands of miles started staying late and working weekends to conduct secret experiments. They didn’t know one another, but neuroscientist Matteo Farinella and computational biologist Jason McDermott were leading the same double lives: scientist and science cartoonist.
For Farinella, comics were always a guilty pleasure, something too silly to combine with his pursuit of scientific knowledge.
McDermott mutated into a science cartoonist after a doodle he’d posted to Twitter struck a chord with fellow scientists.
Alex Fox, for Science magazine, interviews the cartooning scientists.
Mort Gerberg Cartoons: A New Yorker’s Perspective
To say Mort Gerberg’s cartoons are timeless is almost an understatement.
“He did cartoons 30 or 40 years ago and all of a sudden they’re extremely relevant today,” said Marilyn Satin Kushner, curator of the new exhibit “Mort Gerberg Cartoons: A New Yorker’s Perspective” which opens [February 15] at the New-York Historical Society. “He really plugs into issues.”
Lisa L. Colangelo, for amNewYork, previews the exhibit.
Hey! Mike Lynch was at the reception.
Black History for Young Readers
Black History Month continues to be a way to celebrate and honor black Americans and their achievements, as well as provide history lessons long after the month is over.
It’s also a way for children’s book authors to educate and inspire young readers of all ethnic backgrounds.
Joy Sewing, at the Houston Chronicle, reviews a few “books celebrating black history” for youngsters.
Harold Gray Little Orphan Annie daily Comic Strip Original dated 8-26-24
From the first month of publication, this daily actually marked exactly three weeks of Annie’s adventures and plights, making this the 19th daily in the series! And as an additional rare treat… it also features the seldom seen Mrs. Warbucks! (And ain’t she just a peach!)
Original art for Annie strips from the first few years are so extremely rare because almost every existing original resides in the permanent collection of the Boston University. That makes this strip from the first month an extremely unique item and something to clamor over.
Heritage Auctions has this piece of comic strip history up for bid. Only 3 days left!
The young artists stuff is AWESOME!!