There are “third rails” that must be avoided in the world of comic strips. One of them is religion and specifically talking to God would be a major no-no. So naturally this past week saw RJ and God having a conversation.
Michael Fry and T. Lewis risk retribution from, not God, but newspaper readers in this week’s Over the Hedge.
The moment I saw it missing from the wall I felt ill — my grandfather’s original “Peanuts” comic strip, hand-drawn, inscribed and gifted to him, “For Ray with every best wish,” by legendary cartoonist Charles Schulz —gone. A void that size, much larger than the version in the comics section, could have never disappeared unnoticed from the family gallery wall that had been unchanged and at the head of every Thanksgiving table my whole life.
Before his 35-year career as a daily humor columnist in the Bay Area, my grandfather started in newspapers as a cartoonist.
Ray Orrock‘s granddaughter tells “what a famous cartoonist, a scam artist and a family treasure taught me about letting go.” Anika Orrock shares her story of holding on to a hate for way too long.
The inexcusable deed went against everything my grandfather and our family and Charles Schulz stood for, and I fantasized regularly about shaming the scam bag for all of it, preferably to his face. Every day, I woke with sharp words in my head and found myself dedicating hours of mental focus to composing a rage speech that would never likely reach its intended recipient, even if I did find him. My whole life I had idolized my grandfather and was so proud to have taken after him in so many ways — the writing and cartooning, our love of humor, a deep appreciation for good salami and over-the-top Christmas trees. But I had diverted all joy away from the present, dismissed the gifts surrounding me and exhausted my brain imagining retribution.
So all week Phoebe and Her Unicorn were talking music. The denouement came today with the playing of a song, but it wasn’t the song I had been thinking of every time I read the comic strip this week week:
The song written by musician and poet and cartoonist Shel Silverstein.
“A $200,000 Per Year Shlemiel.”
That was a real headline in our paper 100 years ago this week, in November 1924. Who was this high-earning “shlemiel”? None other than San Francisco native son Rube Goldberg. For years the cartoonist was a household name across America, and he’s still known today, although less for his political work and more for his namesake concept of a “Rube Goldberg machine,” or an overcomplicated, inventive and usually entertaining contraption.
But before he was any kind of famous, he was just Reuben Lucius Goldberg, born in 1883, a Lowell High School graduate and, to his family and friends, a “shlemiel.”
Maya Mirsky of The Jewish News of Northern California recounts the life of Rube Goldberg through a hundred year old article about the young cartoonist.
I love how cartoonists don’t take themselves seriously.
I may love Pearls Before Swine cartoonist Stephan Pastis most of all.
Most webtoons are consumed via vertical scrolling on devices like iPhones. What do you think this method adds to the comic reading experience? Do you think that they would be viewed or appreciated differently if they were read more traditionally?
… mobile phones, which are probably the most accessible devices of the era. I think what we sought to do was have a format that is very well tailored to consume on this device. I think it’s really what sort of helps the experience feel different or helps webtoons be appreciated differently compared to if they were consumed in a traditional format.
I think there’s a difference between picking up your phone, opening it, and having content that is very accessible so you can have that instant, immersive experience.
Anime News Network had the opportunity to sit down with David Lee, Head of U.S. WEBTOON, and Aron Levitz, President of Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, to go over what the platform’s creative process is like, what helps make webtoons distinct as a medium, and the company’s upcoming projects.
