The National Cartoonist Issue 1

THENATIONALCARTOON!
ST i
Tom RICHMOND caricatures
A PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY
Vol. 1, No. 1
Jim BORGMAN refects
Mell LAZARUS divulges
STEPHAN
PASTIS
BILL WATTERSON
Pearls
Before
Swines
create
comic strip
history
and
............................................................................................................................................................................................
Do You Car t oon? n NCS Ar c hi v e Ar t n Comi c Sc r i pt ed n Rar e, Unpubl i s hed Ar t
Stephanie PIRO illustrates
The
National
ii THENATIONALCARTOON!ST
THENATIONALCARTOON!ST 1
Same Size
2 THENATIONALCARTOON!ST
The R.Easterbrook & Co. 914 Radiopen an example of the pen nib that CHARLES M. SCHULZ used for nearly 50 years to draw every Peanuts daily.
(Same size) The R.Easterbrook & Co. 914 Radiopen an example of the pen nib that CHARLES M. SCHULZ used for nearly 50 years to draw every Peanuts daily.
Charles Schulz
Peanuts daily for Dec. 26, 1962, from the original art (reproduced here same size)
P
e
a
n
u
t
s

2
0
1
4

P
e
a
n
u
t
s

W
o
r
l
d
w
i
d
e
,

L
L
C
A comic
artist aint no
different than
you or me
or anybody
excep he
knows how to
draw pitchers
an is crazy in
the head.
Ive always regarded this medium as a valid
literary form capable of doing much more than
telling jokes.
Will Eisner,
on comics, in an interview with Susan Vaughn in
The Los Angeles Times.
Course description: Production of cartoon drawing suitable for reproduction
and submission to publishers. Prerequisites: None
From the Maricopa (Tempe, AZ) Community College course information sheet.
I never wanted to get
a real job in my life,
and cartooning seemed to be the easiest
avenue to do such a thing.
Chad Carpenter,
creator of Tundra.
If I have anything to
answer for, its making
the comics page safe
for bad drawing.
Garry Trudeau,
in response to a question
about the politicization
of the comics page, in an
interview with the Santa
Barbara Independent.
Finally, this: all my life Ive loved
the word cartoonist.
Lately, though, Ive noticed that the term is falling out of use and being replaced by
the term comics artist. Among my graduate fction students Ive become known for
my impassioned mini-lectures urging them never to call themselves artists, but instead
to call themselves fction writers or short story writers or novelists. Thats what you are,
I tell them, thats what you do. You may well be an artist, but its always better to let
other people call you that. Call yourself an artist and you might be more inclined to
talk about it than do it; call yourself a writer or, dear graduates, a cartoonist and
youll be more inclined, more personally and professionally compelled to get up
every day and go to your studio to work. And the work, trite as it sounds, the challenge
and the pleasure of the work, in doing the work, in making the work, of being present
for and in the work, is the only thing that matters.
Tom De Haven,
journalist, teacher and author whose novels include the Derby Dugan Funny Paper
trilogy, in a commencement address at the Center for Cartoon Studies, May 2012.
This is the tragedy
of my limited draw-
ing skills.
Matt
Groening,
on why some of the
characters in his
animated series
Futurama resemble
those from The
Simpsons.
Popeye
the Sailor
Man
B
E
L
A

Z
A
B
O
L
Y
,

d
e
t
a
i
l

f
r
o
m

t
h
e

o
r
i
g
i
n
a
l

a
r
t
,

D
e
c
.

1
6
,

1
9
4
2
W
I
L
L

E
I
S
N
E
R
,

d
e
t
a
i
l

f
r
o
m

t
h
e

b
o
o
k

T
h
e

D
r
e
a
m
e
r

b
y

W
i
l
l

E
i
s
n
e
r
,

(
K
i
t
c
h
e
n

S
i
n
k

P
r
e
s
s
,

1
9
8
6
)
G
A
R
R
Y

T
R
U
D
E
A
U
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
...............................................................................................
Comic Scripted
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Q: Is the cartoon
an art form?
A: Yes, the cartoon is a marriage of Image and Language. And
Commerce. Image marries Language, quickly tires of its nonstop
chatter, dumps it, hooks up with Commerce, then a couple years
later nds itself living in a double-wide with a kid and an uncer-
tain paycheck, working the night shift at an unsavory truck stop,
while Commerce runs off with Telemarketing.
Thats what a cartoon is.
Richard Thompson,
in an interview in The Washington Post.
They look very attrac-
tive to my men.
James Thurber,
on why he drew such odd-
looking women, as related
by Charles Saxon in his
collection Honestly is
One of the Better Policies
(Viking, 1984).
George Du Maurier (1834-96) was an Anglo-
French artist who lived in the rafsh Latin
Quarter of Paris during his student days. In
1857, he suddenly went blind in one eye
(from a detached retina) and despaired for
months about a lost artistic career until some-
one showed him Punch magazine and he real-
ized, if worst came to worst, he could always
become a cartoonist.
From an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail
I never saw myself so much as an actor.
I wanted to be a cartoonist
like Charles Schulz and create my own world
and be able to have a studio at home and not
commute and be able to be with my family.
Mark Hammill,
of Luke Skywalker fame, on a career choice.
This guy works in a penthouse apartment
a duplex and thats where I work too,
entirely surrounded by foam-cushioned fur-
niture and all the lush evidences of wealth. If
this is a sample of the way cartoonists operate,
Ive been wasting my time making movies.
Bob Hope,
on his role as a cartoonists assistant in the 1956
movie That Certain Feeling.
Inspired?
Drawing is just slog,
slog, slog until what
you have in your head
approximates to what
emerges on the drawing
board.
Ronald Searle,
on inspiration, in an
interview published on
the occasion of his 90th
birthday in the Times
Online (UK).
I didnt call
it a graphic
novel.
I called it a novel in
cartoons. Graphic
novels are called
graphic novels
because people are
ashamed of the
term cartoon,
which is idiotic. Ive
always been thrilled
to be a cartoonist,
and Im proud of it,
and like the term. I
see no neeed to up-
scale the work I do
with some meaning-
less choice of words
like graphic.
Jules Feiffer,
on his book Tantrum
(Alfred A. Knopf,
1979), in an interview
in The Atlantic.
I was taking this writing course, and I was getting straight As. The teacher
asked me one day, Id like for you to come home and have dinner with me and
my wife. We talked about writing all through dinner, the great writers that we
were. After dinner he shoved his chair back and says, I guess youd like to write
the great American novel. I said, No sir I want to write the great American
comic strip. And you never saw such a look on a guys face. He was like Id hit
him with a brick.
Mort Walker,
in an online interview with Bob Andelman
at mrmedia.com.
M
O
R
T

W
A
L
K
E
R
,

f
r
o
m

t
h
e

e
n
d
p
a
p
e
r
s

t
o

B
a
c
k
s
t
a
g
e

a
t

t
h
e

S
t
r
i
p
s

b
y

M
o
r
t

W
a
l
k
e
r

(
M
a
s
o
n
/
C
h
a
r
t
e
r
,

1
9
7
5
)
J
U
L
E
S

F
E
I
F
F
E
R
J
A
M
E
S

T
H
U
R
B
E
R
G
E
O
R
G
E

D
U

M
A
U
R
I
E
R
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY
FOUNDATION
Chairman
Steve McGarry
mac@stevemcgarry.com
THE NATIONAL CARTOON!ST
Art Director
Frank Pauer
BOARD
Honorary Chairman
Mort Walker
President
Tom Richmond
First Vice President
Bill Morrison
Second Vice President
Hilary Price
Third Vice President
Darrin Bell
Secretary
John Kovaleski
Treasurer
John Hambrock
Membership Chairman
Sean Parkes
sean@seanparkes.com
National Representative
Ed Steckley
ed@edsteckley.com
COMMITTEES
The Cartoon!st
Frank Pauer
Ethics
Steve McGarry
Education
Rob Smith Jr.
Greeting Card Contracts
Carla Ventresca
For general inquires about the NCS
and the NCSF email:
info@reuben.org
The National Cartoon!st is published
twice a year by the National
Cartoonists Society Foudation, 341
N. Maitland Avenue, Suite 130,
Maitland, FL 32789. The views
expressed herein do not necessarily
refect those of the NCSF. Contents
2014 National Cartoonists Society
Foundation, except where other
copyrights are designated.
All artwork contained herein is
2014 by the respective artist
and/or syndicate, studio or other
copyright holder.
The National Cartoonists
Society website:
www.reuben.org
14
NCS Reuben Awards Weekend
Photos from this years event in San Diego, California
18
Drawing Caricatures with
Tom Richmond
Basic theory and the ve shapes by the celebrated MAD Magazine cartoonist
22
Te Pearls of Pastis and Watterson
An unlikely duo create comics for the ages
26
Jim Borgman Exit Stage Left
An interview with the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist
32
Stephanie Piro A Womans Perspective
One of the Six Chix talks about writing and drawing in your own voice
36
Owning Up to the Syndicates
with Mell Lazarus
A conversation with the creator of Miss Peach and Momma
1 SAME SIZE
3 COMIC SCRIPTED
7 FIRST PANEL by STEVE McGARRY
40 NCS ARCHIVES
44 FROM THE COLLECTION OF
52 THE NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY
58 DO YOU CARTOON?
.............................................
The
National
O
n behalf of the National
Cartoonists Society and its
charitable arm, the National
Cartoonists Society Founda-
tion, it is with great pleasure
that I welcome you to the
inaugural issue of our new
publication, The National Cartoon!st.
The NCS was founded by a group of prominent
cartoonists in 1946 and, over the years, our ranks have
included some of the greatest names in the profession
from Milton Caniff, Joe Shuster and Rube Goldberg to
Charles Schulz, Mort Walker and Jeff MacNelly. Among
the superstar cartoonists who are active members of
the NCS today are veterans such as Jack Davis, Lynn
Johnston and Sergio Aragons, industry legends like
Cathy Guisewite, Jim Davis and Jim Borgman, and such
fast-rising stars as Stephan Pastis and Mark Tatulli. Our
membership includes some of the worlds top cartoon-
ists in every avenue of the profession, from newspaper
comics to comic books, editorial cartooning, advertising
and animation.
The NCS exists, in part, to foster good relations
between cartoonists. Most of us in the profession lead a
fairly solitary existence, so the chance to meet up with
peers and colleagues at regional chapter get-togethers
or better still, at our annual Reuben Awards weekend
is very welcome. But the NCS offers much more than
the opportunity to share insider gossip and discuss nib
techniques over a libation or two! As a group, we try
to advance the ideals and standards of cartooning, and
help and encourage newcomers to our profession. We
aim to stimulate interest in cartooning by the general
public and we use our talents and nancial resources to
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Read it.
Post it.
Follow us.
THE NATIONAL
CARTOONISTS SOCIETY
WEBSITE:
www.reuben.org
By
St eve
McGar r y
@NATIONALCARTOONISTS
@NATCARTOONSOC
THE NATIONAL
CARTOONISTS SOCIETY
THE NATIONAL
CARTOONISTS SOCIETY
..........................
First Panel
Steve McGarry
A two-term former President of the National Cartoonists
Society, Steve is the current Chairman of the National
Cartoonists Society Foundation, the charitable arm of
the NCS. He received the prestigious NCS Silver T-Square
Award in 2012 for his outstanding
service to the profession.
Having designed record sleeves for a
number of new wave luminaries in his
native England, including Joy Division
and John Cooper Clarke, Steve became
one of Britains most successful news-
paper and magazine illustrators in the
1980s, before creating the long-running comic strip
Badlands (right) for Britains biggest-selling daily news-
paper, The Sun, in 1989. Later that same year, after sign-
ing his frst U.S. syndication contract, he relocated with
his young family to California.
His sports and entertain-
ment features, including the
syndicated strips Biographic,
Kid Town and Trivquiz, appear
in newspapers worldwide,
from the New York Daily News
to the South China Morning
Post, and Steves magazine
clients include SI For Kids,
FHM and a host of European
sports and teen magazines.
Six times nominated for a Sil-
ver Reuben, he was the frst
artist in history to receive
Illustrator of the Year Awards
from both the National
Cartoonists Society and the
Australian Cartoonists Asso-
ciation. He has also recently
ventured into the world of
animation, most notably
working with Illumination on
Despicable Me 2 and The
Minions.
He lives in Huntington
Beach, Calif., with his wife, Deborah, who is the colorist
on the long-running daily cartoon strip Baby Blues. Their
twin sons, Joe and Luke, are award-winning artists and
also form the Los Angeles indie band Pop Noir.
See more of Steves work at www.stevemcgarry.com and
on the new soccer site www.thetogger.com.
Follow @stevemcgarry on Twitter
support cartooning museums, libraries and schools.
Our charitable arm, the NCSF, works in tandem
with the NCS to try and achieve these goals, in addi-
tion to providing nancial assistance to cartoonists
and their family members in times of need.
This debut issue of The National Cartoon!st is the
rst of a series of new projects we will be unveiling
over the summer of 2014 that we hope will interest,
excite and inspire cartoonists and cartoon fans alike.
From a free app that features the art of hundreds
of legendary cartoonists a series of free videos
featuring some of cartoonings greatest names a
program to provide cartooning resources to students
and teachers to a national program of childrens
hospital visits!
Finally, those of you who
have attended San Diego
ComicCon in recent years
may well have visited our
huge NCS Booth and met
some of our luminaries. We
are delighted to announce
that we are expanding our
presence at comic conven-
tions coast to coast so if
you see the NCS logo, stop
by and say hello!
Please join us in sup-
port of these programs by
following the NCS on social
media and bookmarking our
new site at www.reuben.org
and enjoy this rst issue
of our new magazine, The
National Cartoon!st.
Steve McGarry
Chairman
National Cartoonists Society Foundation
.......................................................................................
A
r
t
w
o
r
k

2
0
1
4

S
t
e
v
e

M
c
G
a
r
r
y
.......................................................................................
is expanding into other comic
conventions around the
country. Look for the NCS
logo and stop by to meet some
of the top names in the world
of cartooning and comics.
Coming to
a comics
convention
near you!
A familiar presence at
San Diego Comic-Con for
the last decade, the
Check www.reuben.org regularly for updates and follow @NatCartoonSoc on Twitter
................................................................................................................................
NCS
Left, Chris
(Hagar the
Horrible)
Browne
autographs
books.
Left, Jef
(The Family
Circus) Keane
and NCS
president
Tom
Richmond
man the
booth.
SEEN IN
SAN DIEGO:
Right, Bill
(FoxTrot)
Amend signs
prints.
Center, actor
Jack Black
and Luke
McGarry
autograph
posters.
Right, Greg
Evans, Tom
Richmond,
John Kovaleski
and Daryl
Cagle meet
and greet
fans.
F
e
s
t
i
v
a
l

S
u
p
r
e
m
e

p
o
s
t
e
r

a
r
t

b
y

L
u
k
e

M
c
G
a
r
r
y
F
o
r

m
o
r
e

i
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n

o
n

t
h
e

F
e
s
i
v
a
l
,

s
e
e

F
e
s
i
v
a
l
S
u
p
r
e
m
e
.
c
o
m

Poster signing at NCS booth
at San Diego Comic-Con
Following his appearance
last year at the National
Cartoonists Society booth at
Comic-Con,
Jack Black
returns this year and brings
along his partner in
Tenacious D,
Kyle Gass
They join artist
Luke McGarry
in signing free, limited-
edition Festival Supreme
posters (shown on the
opposite page) for one hour
only on July 24.
Attendance is strictly
limited follow the NCS
on Twitter, Instagram and
Facebook for additional
details.
One-of-a-kind
NCS T-shirts
created for San
Diego Comic-Con
Every year, the NCS issues special limited-edition
T-shirts to commemorate our appearance at the
San Diego Comic-Con.
This year, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Batman,
some of the biggest names in cartooning have
contributed their cape-and-cowl creations for a truly
memorable and unique take on the Dark Knight.
NCS T-shirts
created for
previous
San Diego
Comic-Cons
have included
artwork by:
Matt
Groening
Sergio
Aragons
Patrick
McDonnell
NCS Comic-Con T-Shirts, past and present, are all available for mail order on the NCS site:
www.reuben.org/sales
Graham
Nolan
By Sean Parkes Over the Memorial Day weekend, the National Cartoonists
Society held its annual Reuben Awards Weekend in beautiful San
Diego. More than 150 of the worlds top cartoonists gathered at
the Omni hotel for the festivities, which included speakers, ne
dining and a spectacular awards show.
The weekends slate of great speakers included Eddie Pittman,
Chris Houghton, Greg Evans, Suzy Spafford, Sandra Bell-Lundy,
Greg (Luann) Evans with his wife Betty
Cartoonist of the Year nominee Hilary
(Rhymes WIth Orange) Price with Kristin
Gottschalk
Jenny Robb and Steve Hamaker NCS president Tom Richmond welcomes guests
to the Reuben Awards Weekend
Patrick (Mutts) McDonnell Amateur Cartoonist Extraordinaire recipient Weird Al Yankovic with
MAD Magazines Sam Viviano and Nick Meglin
Bongo Comics Bill Morrison with his wife
Kayre
Michael Davis with Terri (The Pajama
Diaries) Libenson
Cartoonist and character designer
Stephen Silver with his wife Heidi
Bunny Hoest-Carpenter, John Reiner and Russ Heath.
After Fridays seminars, the weekends festivities continued
with the NCS Reuben Awards Weekend Welcome Party for cock-
tails and a buffet dinner. Attendees got to meet and rub shoul-
ders with many of the greats in the profession, see old friends
and talk shop. That evening, the party moved across the street to
the L Street Art Gallery for karaoke, drinks and laughs.
Renee Faundo is awarded the Jay Kennedy
Memorial Scholarship
The legendary Stan Goldberg with his
wife Pauline
Dave (Speed Bump) Coverly accepts his award
for Newspaper Panel Cartoon
Scott (The Argyle Sweater) Hilburn with Maria
(Half Full) Scrivan
Brian (Red and Rover) Basset with
his wife Bobbi
Chris Houghton and Kassandra Heller
Wiley (Non
Sequitur) Miller
garners the
Reuben Award
as Cartoonist of
the Year
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
San Diego
plays host
to the NCS
annual
Reuben
Awards
Weekend
On Saturday evening, the Reuben Awards were hosted by
master of ceremonies Tom Gammill (producer and writer for
The Simpsons). Weird Al Yankovic received the ACE (Ama-
teur Cartoonist Extraordinaire) Award, and numerous division
awards were handed out throughout the black-tie-attired night,
before the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year
went to Wiley Miller, creator of the syndicated strip Non Sequitur.
On Sunday, the NCS (in conjunction with the NCS Founda-
tion) held a public outreach event aboard the USS Midway
aircraft carrier, where more than 100 artists did sketches, signed
autographs and met with fans. The weekend closed out still
aboard the USS Midway with dinner, dancing and music by
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez and the De-
Luz Band. The event also hosted 38 wounded warriors and their
Matt Difee accepts his award for Magazine
Gag Cartoon Sandra (Between Friends) Bell-Lundy Carolyn Kelly and Mark Evanier
Rob (Adam at Home) Harrell with his wife Amber
Graphic novel nominee
Rick Greary Darrin (Candorville) Bell with his son Emyree and wife Makeda
Tifany Zamora and Joe McGarry
1985 Cartoonist of the Year Lynn (For
Better or For Worse) Johnston introduces
a division award
Deborah McNeely with Michael Ramirez, winner
of the Editorial Cartoon award
families who enjoyed dinner and sketches from NCS members.
Who will be nominated and win next year at the Reubens?
If youre a professional cartoonist and want to nd out in
person, join us next Memorial Day when the 69th Annual
Reuben Awards Weekend will be held in Washington D.C.
For more information about the NCS, see Page 48, or visit
www.reuben.org.
Legendary comic book artist Russ Heath
accepts the Milton Canif Award for
Lifetime Achievement
Heather and Ed Steckley
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Gold Key Award recipient Bunny (The
Lockhorns) Hoest-Carpenter
Ryan (Buni) Pagelow accepts his award for
On-Line Comics Short Form
Longtime King Features Syndicate executive Joe
DAngelo with Mell (Miss Peach, Momma) Lazarus
Christy Higgins with 2009 Cartoonist of
the Year Dan (Bizarro) Piraro
Abrams ComicArts Charles Kochman
Former NCS president, Rick
(Soup to Nutz) Stromoski
Jose Villena Chari Pere
Mike Cope
Sean Parkes is a freelance illustrator,
character designer and storyboard artist
whose work can be seen worldwide in
numerous publications, board games,
products and advertisements. Parkes is
the Membership Chairman on the Board
of Directors of the National Cartoonists
Society. For more, see seanparkes.com
Dr wing
It is a uniquely personal interpretation of
not just the facial features of a given subject,
but their personality and presence as well.
Its practiced in ne art, editorial publication,
animation, comics, cartoons and even on street
corners and theme parks around the world.
Done well, a caricature can describe a subject
much more completely than a photograph or
portrait could. This article discusses some of my
theories on what makes a good caricature, and
my basic approach to the art form.
Articles like this always start out with a denition, but caricature is a
hard thing to pigeonhole into a single sentence. How can you, when the
word encompasses the elegant, minimalist lines of Al Hirschfeld to the
lavish, value and color soaked paintings of Sebastian Kruger to the graph-
ic, geometrical collages of David Cowles and everything in between?
Despite the wild differences in style and technique, caricature is
the tag that is placed on any of these works of art without hesitation.
Obviously there is a connection beyond a common technique, school, or
format.
So, what are the universal elements all caricatures have that identify
them as caricatures? I would say there are three essential elements that
transcend style and medium and must be present in a caricature:
n RECOGNIZABILITY That word is a mouthful, but its a better one than
the word likeness. Likeness implies nothing more than the duplication
of features, and as I said before a good caricature goes beyond that. Recog-
nizability incorporates a likeness of features, the emphasis of what makes a
person unique, and a representation of them in personality and presence.
In a nutshell, there should never be any question of who your subject is, it
should be immediately apparent. If you cant tell who it is supposed to be,
then it is not successful.
nEXAGGERATION Without some form of exaggeration, or a departure
from the exact representation of the subjects features, all you have is
Its a common fallacy that a caricature is nothing
more than a portrait of a person where one or
more features are exaggerated for comedic effect.
The art of caricature goes much deeper than that.
Basic Theory
and the
Five Shapes
............................
Caric tures
By
T om
Ri chmond
............................
............................
............................
a portrait. The level of exaggeration can vary wildly, but
there must be some personal interpretation of the subject
by the caricaturist. A straight portrait is not a caricature.
nSTATEMENT This is the intangible that goes beyond
the features and captures the personality or essence of
the subject. It could be nothing more than capturing an
expression that describes that subjects demeanor or it
could editorialize in some way. The artist must be trying
to say something about the subject they are caricaturing.
It might be something to do with the situation the subject
is drawn in, it may just be a play on their personality
through expression or body language, it might be as simple
as making visual fun of some aspect of their persona or im-
age. Exaggeration itself can accomplish this in some cases.
The best caricatures say something more about the subject
than that they have a big nose.
By my denition, a successful caricature therefore
looks like the subject, is exaggerated to varying degrees
and also has something to say about the subject. In live
caricature at a theme park, that third item is often turned
way down or ignored completely, but in the case of carica-
tures for illustration, its an important part.
TEACHING SOMEONE TO SEE
Ive been working with young caricaturists at theme
parks for 25 years now, and Ive learned one very impor-
tant lesson its impossible to teach someone to draw
caricatures.
I can teach them to DRAW that isnt so hard. Learn-
ing how a face looks and works by learning anatomy, how
expression changes the features, how the angle the face is
at changes the perception of features, how hair grows and
falls about the head those are things that can be taught.
Drawing caricatures, on the other hand, is a lot more
about seeing what makes the person in front of you unique
and interpreting it than it is about making good, condent
marks on the paper. I can explain to someone exactly how
to draw a circle, but if I place a circle before them and ask
them to draw it and they draw a square well, that is all
about seeing and not drawing. The ability to see, and after
that the ability to exaggerate what you see for humorous
effect in a caricature, that has to be developed. For most
that means a lot of drawing and a lot of looking.
Have you ever been walking along at the mall or where
ever and along comes somebody with some crazy, incred-
ibly distinct face that maybe sports a gigantic nose or a
Cro-Magnon brow or some other obviously out-of-the-
ordinary features? Caricaturists have a term for that kind
of face its called a eld day.
Think about it for a second why is that face so ripe for
caricature compared to the next persons? Are the features
really that different? If you took a ruler and measured the
size of Mr. Schnozzs nose compared to Mr. Normal, the
difference would be minimal. So why is Mr. Schnozz so
much easier to caricature? Because you are SEEING a dif-
ference based on perception, and that is giving you your
springboard for a caricature. One observation of what
makes this person different from normal, and you are off
and running.
The obvious features are easy observations its Johnny
and Susie Normal or, worse yet, Johnny and Susie Super-
model that are the challenge. That is where developing an
ability to see becomes important. There is no face that
dees caricature, you just sometimes have to dig a little
deeper to nd the keys to unlock the more difcult puzzle.
In caricature, the old adage of practice makes perfect
has never been truer. The ability to see doesnt spring up
overnight, and I often tell eager young caricaturists they
have about 500 or so bad caricatures in them they have to
draw out rst before they start noticing the subtle things
that hide inside the ordinary face.
Although I say its impossible to teach someone to
draw caricatures, its not impossible to help them develop
their ability to draw them. There are many ways and tech-
niques to help an artist develop their ability to see what
is in front of them, recognize what makes what they see
unique and then amplify that uniqueness to create a suc-
cessful caricature.
THE FIVE SHAPES
The human face is perceived by many as an incredible
complex object. There are about 52 muscles in the face,
depending on your source and its categorization. Age, sex,
race, expression (the face is capable
of about 5,000 expressions) weight
and environment can all play a role
in the look and perception of a given
face. Sounds pretty complex. Not
really. Every building, no matter how
complex, starts out with a foundation
and framework. Look at this simple
drawing AT RIGHT.
Show that drawing to any human
being in the world and ask them
what it is. Barring a language barrier, they will tell you its
a face. No other information needed. In its most simple
form, the human
face is made up of
only ve simple
shapes, as shown
in the drawing AT
LEFT .
Place these shapes
in their proper
relationship, and
you have a human
face. It really is that
simple. Drawing the
shapes accurately,
so they recogniz-
ably represent the
subjects features,
is the basis for a
good likeness. Beyond that is nothing but details things
like dimples, wrinkles, eyelashes, cheekbones, etc. They A
l
l

a
r
w
o
r
k

2
0
1
4

T
o
m

R
i
c
h
m
o
n
d
are the decor to your building the
millwork, furniture and drapery that
makes the place unique and lled
with life. Without the strong founda-
tion, made up by these ve simple
shapes, it can all come tumbling
down.
What does that have to do with
caricature? Everything. I mentioned
a single word in the last paragraph
that really is the secret to caricature
as a whole no matter what technique
or approach you intend to practice:
RELATIONSHIPS.
Its the manipulation of the rela-
tionships of these ve simple shapes
that create the foundation for your
caricature. In fact, Id argue that 90
percent of the entire caricature resides
in how you relate these ve simple
shapes to one another. It is the foun-
dation upon which the rest of your building is built, where
the real power of exaggeration is realized. Make it good
and almost all the heavy lifting is done, the rest merely
referring to details. What do I mean by relationships? I
mean the distances between the ve shapes, their size rela-
tive to one another, and the angles they are at in relation-
ship to the center axis of the face. Distance. Size. Angle.
In traditional portraiture, the head is divided into clas-
sic proportions meaning the relationship of the features
are within a certain, accepted range
of distance to one another, size and
angle relative to the face and head
shape. You achieve your likeness in
a classic portrait, in its most basic
form, by correctly drawing the shapes
and then the details of each feature
according to the model in front of
you while staying within the frame-
work of the classic proportions. Of
course each face varies minutely here
and there, but still you do not stray
far from the classic formula.
In a caricature, like a portrait, the
likeness is also achieved by drawing
the features as they really look but
you change the relationship of the
features based on your perceptions
of the face. The relationships you
change are as I listed before: distance,
size and angle. AT LEFT, look at these
VERY simple drawings that demonstrate how you can
change the relationships of the ve shapes and create very
different caricatures.
No detail, and all the shapes are basically the same (with
the exception of the head shape, a unique element to cari-
cature) but all are distinctly different and when the details
are added will make for highly varied caricatures. The
difference is the relationships between the features, and
how they have been exaggerated and changed. Caricature
A humorous illustrator,
cartoonist and caricaturist,
Tom began his career as a
caricaturist at a theme park
in 1985 at age 18 while
studying art in St. Paul, Minn.
He now works as a freelancer
for a great variety of clients
including Scholastic, Sports
Illustrated for Kids, Na-
tional Geographic World, Time
Digital, Penthouse, Marvel
Comics, The Cartoon Network,
WB Animation, and many,
many more. He designed
the character Achmed Jr.
for superstar comedian and
ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, for
whom he also does product
illustration.
His art and character designs
have been featured on the
animated MAD TV show as
well as in several feature
flms and commercials. He
is best known as one of the
Usual Gang of Idiots
at MAD Magazine, where his
caricatures and illustrations
have been featured in flm
and TV parodies and feature
articles regularly since 2000.
His work has been hon-
ored with several awards,
including twice being named
Caricaturist of the Year by
the International Society of
Caricature Artists, and with
NCS Silver Reubens for Ad-
vertising Illustration in 2003,
2006 and 2007 as well as
for Newspaper Illustration in
2011. In 2012, he received
what is arguably cartoonings
highest honor: the Reuben
Award for Outstanding Car-
toonist of the Year from the
National Cartoonists Society.
Tom is the current president
of the NCS, serving in his
second term.
He works from a studio in
his home near Minneapolis,
Minn.
Follow Tom on Twitter
@art4mad
is not about choosing one feature and making it bigger, its
about all the features together and how they relate to one
another.
BELOW LEFT are some quick studies of the ve shapes next
to a few caricature sketches.
The relationships differ in distance, size and angle from
one another. The bigger the differences are from classic
proportions, the more exaggerated the caricature. Its much
easier to see the differences when the details are removed
and only the 5 shapes are left. Its also much easier to create
those differences at this simple, fundamental level. Its easy
to get caught up in details when the important information
rests beneath the rendering.
How does one determine the correct changes to make
to a given persons feature relationships to make a good
caricature of them? Well, thats the trick, isnt it? That is
where that pesky seeing comes in.
In his book How to Draw Caricatures, Lenn Redman
uses a concept called The Inbetweener as a basis for
almost every observation. It is basically the classic portrai-
ture relationships used as a point of reference for making
observations. Every caricature begins with the observations
the artist makes about the subject, and how their particular
face is perceived by them.
MAD Magazines legendary caricaturist Mort Drucker has
been quoted as saying that there is no one correct way
to caricature a subject. Any given subject can have several
different interpretations with respect to the exaggeration of
the relationship of their features and each may be as suc-
cessful as the other.
Thats one of the unique things about caricature as an art
form. Portraiture is basically absolute Your drawing either
looks like the person with the correct features, proportions
and relationships, or it does not. Caricature is subjective
to a point. The artists goal is to draw how they perceive
the face, and exaggerate that perception. The result may be
different than how others perceive that face, but if the three
elements we described in our denition are present its still
a successful caricature. Hirschfeld used to say he once drew
Mr. Schnozz himself, Jimmy Durante, without a nose at
all, yet it was still recognizable as Durante.
Thats not to say that any observation is appropriate
after all you cant give someone with a small, button nose
a gigantic potato nose and call it exaggeration. Thats
not exaggeration, its DISTORTION. You can, however,
choose NOT to exaggerate the noses smallness but rather
nd something else to exaggerate. That is the caricaturists
task, to nd what it is about the subjects face that makes
it unique and alter those relationships to exaggerate that
uniqueness.
nnn
You can learn a lot more about drawing caricatures from
Toms best-selling instruction book The Mad Art of Caricature!
A Serious Guide to Drawing Funny Faces, available directly
from the author at www.deadlinedemon.com, or wherever art
instruction books are sold.
Tom Richmond
...........................................................................................................
NC 2014 E.C. Publications, Inc.
Bill Watterson is the Bigfoot of cartooning.
He is legendary. He is reclusive. And like Bigfoot, there is
really only one photo of him in existence.
Few in the cartooning world have ever spoken to him. Even
fewer have ever met him. In fact, legend has it that when
Steven Spielberg called to see if he wanted to make a movie,
Bill wouldnt even take the call.
So it was with little hope of success that I set out to try and
meet him last April.
I was traveling through Cleveland on a book tour, and I
knew that he lived somewhere in the area. I also knew that he
was working with Washington Post cartoonist Nick Galianakis
on a book about Cul de Sac cartoonist Richard Thompsons art.
So I took a shot and wrote to Nick. And Nick in turn wrote to
Watterson.
And the meeting didnt happen. Bill apparently had
By
St ephan
Pas t i s
An unlikely duo create
comics for the ages
STEPHAN PASTIS
BILL WATTERSON
Right and on the folowing pages,
original art from
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis
and Bill Watterson.
Scans courtesy of Todd Hignite of
Heritage Auctions.
something to do. Or more likely, wanted nothing to do with
me. Which is smart. But Nick encouraged me to send an email
to Bill anyway. I said I didnt want to bother him.
But a week or so later, this Pearls strip ran in the newspaper:
And I gured this was as good of a time to write to him as
any.
So I emailed him the strip and thanked him for all his great
work and the inuence hed had on me. And never expected
STEPHAN PASTIS
BILL WATTERSON
to get a reply.
And what do you know, he wrote back.
Let me tell you. Just getting an email from Bill Watterson is
one of the most mind-blowing, surreal experiences I have ever
had. Bill Watterson really exists? And he sends email? And hes
communicating with me?
But he was. And he had a great sense of humor about the
strip I had done, and was very funny and oh yeah he had
a comic strip idea he wanted to run by me.
Now if you had asked me the odds of Bill Watterson ever
saying that line to me, Id say it had about the same likelihood
as Jimi Hendrix telling me he had a new guitar riff. And yes,
Im aware Hendrix is dead.
So I wrote back to Bill.
Dear Bill, I will do whatever you want, including setting my
hair on re.
P
e
a
r
l
s

B
e
f
o
r
e

S
w
i
n
e

2
0
1
4

S
t
e
p
h
a
n

P
a
s
t
i
s
So he wrote back and explained
his idea. He said he knew that in my
strip, I frequently make fun of my
own art skills. And that he thought
it would be funny to have me get
hit on the head or something and
suddenly not be able to draw. Then
hed step in and draw my comic
strip for a few days.
Thats right.
The cartoonist who last drew
Calvin and Hobbes riding their sled
into history would return to the
comics page.
To draw Pearls Before Swine.
What followed was a series of
back-and-forth emails where we
discussed what the strips would be
about, and how we would do them.
He was condent. I was frightened.
Frightened because its one thing
to write a strip read by millions of
people. But its another thing to
propose an idea to Bill Watterson.
The idea I proposed was that
instead of having me get hit on the
head, I would pretend that Pearls
was being drawn by a precocious
second grader who thought my
art was crap. I named her Libby,
which I then shorted to Lib.
(Hint, hint: Its almost Bill back-
wards.)
At every point in the process,
I feared I would say something
wrong. And that Bill would disap-
pear back into the ether. And that
the whole thing would seem like a
wisp of my imagination.
But it wasnt that way.
Throughout the process, Bill was
funny and exible and easy to work
with.
Like at one point when I wanted
to change a line of dialogue he
wrote, I prefaced it by saying, I
feel like a street urchin telling Mi-
chelangelo that Davids hands are
too big. But he liked the change.
And that alone was probably the
greatest compliment Ive ever
received.
I dont want to say any more
about our exchange because to do
so would probably be to compro-
mise the privacy he so zealously
guards. But I will offer you this one
biographical tidbit: technology is
not his friend.
I found that out when it came to
the logistics of the artwork. I drew
my part rst and then shipped him
the strips. I wanted him to ll in
the panels I left blank, and simply
scan and email me back the nished
strips.
I asked him to do this because I
did not want to be responsible for
handling his nished artwork. Part-
ly because I knew it would be worth
thousands of dollars. Partly because
I knew he wanted to auction it off
for charity. And partly because my
UPS driver has a tendency to leave
my packages in the dirt at the end
of our driveway. (I could just imag-
ine the email Id have to write the
next day: Dear Mr. Watterson, The
rst comic strip youve drawn in 20
years was ravaged by a squirrel.)
So this left doing it my way.
Digitally.
And this is when I found out
that Bill Watterson is not comfort-
able with scanners or Photoshop
or large email attachments. In fact,
by the end of the process, I was left
with the distinct impression that he
works in a log cabin lit by whale oil
and hands his nished artwork to a
man on a pony.
So I proposed working out our
technological issues over the phone.
But he didnt want to.
At rst I thought it was because
he didnt own one. Or have electric-
ity. But then I remembered we were
emailing.
And so I soon came to the sad
realization that he probably just
didnt want me to have his phone
number. Which was smart. Because
I would have called that man once a
week for the rest of his life.
And so we worked through the
technological problems via email.
And unlike every other technologi-
cal problem Ive ever had, it was not
frustrating.
It was the highlight of my career.
The only thing Bill ever asked
of me was that I not reveal he had
worked on Pearls until all three of
his strips had run. And so I did not
reveal his participation until the se-
quence ran. And it was the hardest
secret Ive ever had to keep.
Because I knew I had seen some-
thing rare.
A glimpse of Bigfoot.
By Chris Sparks
In early June several Team Cul de Sac team
members got together at Richard Thompsons
house outside of Washington, D.C. We were
joined by two particular TCDS members, Bill
Watterson and Stephan Pastis.
Stephan was the frst to commit to Team
Cul de Sac and brought early attention to the
project. Then, as you may remember, Bill did
a painting of Petey for the cause. It was Bills
frst public art in 16 years, and the publicity
surrounding his donation put our project on
the cartooning map and helped raise nearly
Original Pearls artwork to be auctioned
NC
$125,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Bill, who has become a most vocal sup-
porter in the quietest way possible, delivers
the goods. And he did it again in his collabo-
ration with Stephan on Pearls Before Swine.
Bill had sent me an email a few months
earlier that he had a TCDS secret, and then a
few weeks before the strips appeared he told
me the news about the Pearls dailies.
For the frst time since December 1995,
Bills art appeared in newspapers.
I had the privilege of having breakfast
with Bill on June 4, and I handed him the
morning paper. I watched as he read his frst
newspaper work in 19 years. The print was a
little smaller than he remembered from the
good ol days, but I dont think hed mind me
saying that he was grinning from ear to ear. I
know I was.
A huge thank you to both Bill and Stephan
for all of the support they have given Team
Cul de Sac.
Support that will pay even greater divi-
dends: At Bills request, the artwork is being
sold for Team Cul de Sac on behalf of Cul
de Sacs Richard Thompson, who is battling
Parkinsons Disease.
The original artwork for the three comic
strip collaboration between Bill and Stephan
will be sold at Heritage Auctions on Aug. 8,
with proceeds from the sale beneftting The
Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons
Research. Profts from the sale of the art
(Heritage is also waiving the sellers fee and
will contribute half of the buyers premium)
will be donated to the Foundation.
To follow the auction, visit HA.com.
For more on Team Cul de Sac, see
teamculdesac.blogspot.com.
Original Pearls artwork to be auctioned
S
o what, like, 30 years ago
did I sit across from you
at this drawing board?
(Laughs) Yeah, this
very table. They told
me I could take it with
me.
I remember then how
you were struggling with
style, trying to nd your
own voice.
You know, I feel like
it was (laughs) a particularly painful
growing period for me, but maybe it
feels that way to everyone. In the early
days, on any given day you could look
at my cartoon and gure out who I
had been looking at the night before
(laughs). I went through a MacNelly
period, I went through an Oliphant
period. Peters, Searle, Booth. Unlike a
lot of people I didnt grow up wanting
to be a cartoonist. I suddenly had this
job before I had done all the kind of
minor league development. So I was re-
ally learning while on stage. There seem
to be a few geniuses who seem to spring
full grown onto the scene, but most of
us have worked our way through these
inuences to come to some sort of syn-
thesis of our own.
And that synthesis arrived . . . ?
I started in 76. Id say that by ten
years down the road that sounds like
a long time I was no longer think-
ing so much about how to draw. It had
gone from conscious to unconscious.
And I think thats when you start hav-
ing fun. When youre not thinking so
much about whose style youre work-
ing in, whose voice youre speaking
through. You nally integrate that stuff,
and then youre just drawing. There was
a period in the early-to-mid 90s where
it felt like I was in the zone, and each
day I was inventing something new.
In Smorgasborgman, your rst collec-
tion, you cite a laundry list of inuences,
from Searle to MacNelly, Heinrich Kley,
Springsteen (Borgman laughs). Aside from
any stylistic inuence, what did they bring
to your drawing board?
Springsteen I think about a lot. Hes
been an ongoing inuence for me,
and I think the reason is not only the
great heart he brings to everything, but
his sense of place. He didnt try to be
universal he tried to be particular.
He talked about the boardwalk in Jersey
and particular streets. And doing that it
felt like our story. Thats what I came to
like about that part of my cartoons
when Im able to plug into that sense
of place, you know, these big doughy
people that populate my cartoons.
Those are people I live among, those are
people Im watching when Im having
breakfast with my mom at the Delhi
Big-Boy. The houses they live in are
authentic to this area. So once I had this
mid-western voice established to my
work I felt more comfortable.
What about, say, Searle, who doesnt
bring that sense of whats going
on in his neighborhood?
No, he doesnt.
For Searle I think its
almost all style. That
amazing electricity in his
line. (Looks at the Searle originals on
the wall in his ofce) What sometimes
looks like abandon. Certainly artistic
O N A N D O F F T H E S T A G E
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Except for the three Ronald Searle originals
on the wall, the offce looked the clutter of
just another move. Empty boxes awaited
more fles, shelves were just half-full, a pile
of discarded books sat in the corner. A stack
of slips reminds everyone about his new
contact information. Hell be there past
midnight, boxing up a lifetime of work.
After 32 years of editorial cartooning at
the Cincinnati Enquirer, Jim Borgman was
leaving. Just walking away from the 19th-
foor corner offce, with spectacular views of
sports stadiums below, the Ohio River and
Kentucky to the south, and to the west, the
area of town where Jim was raised.
Hed probably be the frst to tell you that
while it may be about location as in that
west side of Cincinnati it is not about
this corner offce. Therell be no memorial
to cartooning left here.
The one that took 32 years to build is
already in place.
Two days before Jim was to leave in 2008,
I slipped into a chair across from him, and
with pizza and soft drinks resting on the
same drawing board where he won the Pu-
litzer Prize in 1991 and the Reuben Award
a couple years later we chatted about his
leaving and his legacy, staying out of the
spotlight and big doughy people.
Frank Pauer
muscle, artistic courage to just put lines
down and not fuss with them. When you
look at those originals theres something
moving through his pen, a real energy
that I love. At my worst, my lines get very
static; at my best they have that quiver to
them that I think I learned from Searle.
Getting back to that Springsteen sense of
place, you once said, I didnt savor the big
moments as much as chronicling the smaller
changes. How the news trickles down to ev-
eryday lives, how people adjust and cope.
Yeah, thats him, isnt it. Did he say
that or did I?
You did.
(Much laughter) Thats good. I mean,
there was a point in my career when I
became less interested in what was going
on in Washington and more interested in
what was going on in my neighborhood. I
never abandoned Washington, of course,
readers became. Im on the 19th oor of
a downtown ofce building, but when I
meet Cincinnatians they feel they know
me. And I feel like I know them, too. It
just turns out that weve been exchang-
ing a couple sentences a day over coffee
(laughs).
Youre not talking down to them as much
as engaging them.
Thats a nice thought. I hope thats
true. I never thought the point of politi-
cal cartoons was to necessarily make you
laugh or to make you do anything just
be on the wavelength of whats going on
in the world and try to capture it. People
have been writing me as I leave. Im
amazed at how many of them write, You
made me laugh. You made me cry. The
laughing part Im proud I can do that
sometimes. But to be able to say that you
did a drawing and it affected someone, it
touched their heart thats a pretty big
but I felt a little like a fraud, drawing all
these Washington-centric cartoons from
Cincinnati, where people are working
and raising their kids. They dont have
this luxury to study House bills and all
this wonkish stuff. Im grateful that some
people do, and Im grateful that I had a
job where I could, but after a while it just
feels like youre talking to yourself in this
town. So I started doing more and more
what I call domestic cartooning, people in
their houses talking to each other about
stuff. Its usually not profound, but its
kind of how the news nally drifts down
and impacts them. I started feeling like I
was on a more authentic road.
So youre in the neighborhood, but then
youre the only one who can draw.
It came to be, over time, a conversa-
tion that I was having with readers in
this town. I still marvel at how impos-
sibly intimate my relationship with these
2
0
1
4

J
i
m

B
o
r
g
m
a
n
deal. Im proud of exercising that whole
range of what drawings can do.
So you made them laugh, you made them
cry what about those readers who are just
pissed off?
(Laughs) You read my blog! The
blogosphere just brings out the worst
in people. Well, look Im a fairly
liberal person in a town thats strongly
Republican. Ive been rowing against the
current all these years, politically speak-
ing, yet they still tolerate me. Probably
the most common comment I get is, I
dont always like what you say but I do
enjoy your cartoons. (Laughs). It gives
me the sense that theres a lot of people
for whom Ive been the devils advocate
in this town. Thats OK. A place like this
can get pretty tight if somebody isnt out
there insisting on some elbow room.
But youre not elbowing them that hard.
If you looked at my work long enough
youd certainly see my political bent.
But I dont think that day after day Im
ideological in my work. An awful lot of
it is just common sense. Observations.
And a lot of it has nothing to do with
politics. I would always dip down and do
a Bengals or Reds or cicada cartoon. Its
an instinct, that after Ive tested every-
ones patience, to bring us back together
and talk about something less volatile.
Its a natural cadence to
my work.
We should back up a
bit. Did you do cartoons in
college?
Yeah.
Were they editorial car-
toons was it some obvious
progression from there to
here?
Its a pretty unlikely
story. I was a junior at
Kenyon when I was given
the assignment of doing
caricatures of famous Ke-
nyon alumni. Rutherford
B. Hayes. Paul Newman.
Jonathan Winters. So I did
these David Levine-type caricatures. That
was my rst time in print, to speak of.
But you must have already cartooned
some something they would have seen.
You knowwwww barely. I remem-
ber in high school drawing Paul Simon
off of an album cover. I think I was
drawn to caricature initially. But it was
an adopted interest in college to start
learning about cartoons. A friend was
into very old political cartoons Puck
and that kind of stuff. I was interested,
but not so much. Then I found Oliphant
and MacNelly in the papers. My mom
would clip them out and send them to
me.
Did you end up doing political cartoons
for the school paper?
I think I did one in my junior year
and then each week in my senior year.
You have to remember I got [the
Enquirer] job in like January of my senior
year, so I had done a dozen, or 15, politi-
cal cartoons.
Your entire portfolio!
(Laughs) That was my entire portfolio
when I was hired to do this job. And you
might think that they were fabulous car-
toons. They were not fabulous cartoons
(laughs). They were very derivative, obvi-
ously, and not very astute. But this is my
hometown, and like a bumpkin I sent
my work in to the editor. [Enquirer edito-
rial cartoonist] L.D. Warren had retired
a couple years earlier. Dwane Powell had
then come in, but that didnt work out.
They were passively looking for someone
and I think they gured that since I was
from here I might understand the politi-
cal scene better. I didnt, but I didnt tell
them that. And so I arrived very, very
green one week after I graduated, hav-
ing drawn maybe 20 cartoons. My rst
month here I doubled my lifes output
(laughs).
Were you an art major?
Yeah.
What had you otherwise thought about
doing?
Im astonished how little I gave it
any thought. I think I imagined myself
painting somewhere, or doing prints.
My mentor in college was a print-maker,
a lithographer doing obscure imagery
and stuff, and all of us were his disciples.
Where I thought that was going I dont
know.
So there you are, one week after gradua-
tion, hired as the editorial cartoonist of a
major metropolitan daily newspaper.
(Laughs) Yeah.
What do you think they were thinking?
I think they thought they could mold
me, is what it amounted to. They prob-
ably thought OK, the guy can draw and
he doesnt have many political opinions
which I was very up front about
and so we can make him a Republican
cartoonist to replace L.D. here. But it was
immediately clear: I was a kid of the 60s,
and that was not a natural t for me. As I
began developing and reading more and
more I was not in line with the Enquirers
editorial philosophy.
Did that ever come to a
head?
It was only a couple
years later that I was
starting to get job offers.
I went to my editor and
said, You know I would
understand it if you
wanted a cartoonist who
was going to be more in
line with your political
philosophy here, but its
not me, and if its not
me maybe you could tell
me now while I have
other options. And the
word came back, No,
we like you and think
readers understand that when your sig-
nature is on it its you talking and not us.
If youre going to do strong work youre
going to have to feel strongly about it. So
go to it. Thats a pretty remarkable thing
to be told when youre 24.
the ones that have more soul in them.
But initially
I think I tried early on to be that angry
young man in my cartoons. It just didnt
t me. I dont have that Olympian voice
that Paul Conrad or Herblock had. I
admire them, but I dont have it in my-
self. For me, the art form has been more
about me picking up the rock, turning it
over and holding it up to the sun to see
how the light bounces off of it. I have a
fairly strong set of principles and political
beliefs, but at the end of the day Im OK
with it if people just looked at my work
and considered it. If it made them rmer
in their own opposing viewpoint, thats
all right I had some role in the debate.
Its by putting it out there that you spark
other peoples voices, and thats where my
faith is.
So aside from growing up with these people,
where did the visual spark come from?
I started looking at George Booth at one
point. And it was his characters that sort
of got me going. It was that sense of, like,
a world he lived in and these people who
populated it. It was all unarticulated, but
there was this feeling that there was this
world there, and it would be interesting
to nd that world myself. My own world.
And thats when I started doing more of
those common man scenes, which devel-
oped into a whole vein of my work.
What about a cartoon that youve done
or a series of cartoons that have had some
direct effect on an issue.
Boy . . . so rare. There were a few cases.
Robert Mapplethorpe, the photographer,
had an exhibit here at the Contemporary
Arts Center in the early 90s. Our sheriff,
who was a prosecutor at the time, shut it
down because in his mind it was porno-
graphic. He had just gotten Hustler out of
town, and was building steam as a kind
of puritanical sort of force. I didnt have
strong feelings about Mapplethorpe, but I
felt this was going in the wrong direction.
So I was really leaning into him and the
tide of opinion began to turn against him.
I dont know how much of it was me, but
the show re-opened and he was sort of
shut down for a while.
Did he ask for the originals?
No. (Laughs).
Local boy makes good.
But did following L.D., who had a very
conservative voice, affect your earliest work,
thinking that maybe you should be careful in
how you began?
Youd think. But, no (laughs). Naivet
can be a gift sometimes. I was far more
formed by the editorial cartoons I was
looking at than by the writers around
me. I wasnt thinking strategically, I was
just thinking about what I wanted to say.
Not playing it safe.
No. A guy from the paper who liked
me came in one day and said, You better
watch your ass. You shouldnt be getting
away with the stuff youre getting away
with. (Laughs.) I think it startled every-
body. That my body of work has been
popular within the context of this news-
paper and this town is not a natural t.
In your rst collection theres a lot less of
those doughy folk that you love to depict. I
just assume there was a conscious effort to
do national-topic cartoons because thats
what you thought you had to do as an edito-
rial cartoonist?
Yeah. And in those days you also
thought, OK, now Ive got a job, how
can I get syndicated? At the time it
seemed unexciting the days I had to low-
er myself to do local topics. I say all that
in quotes, because in time I feel like those
are the ones that really matter. Theyre
There cant be many cartoonists with
my story. I bet there once was. I bet it
was once more common for a person to
cartoon in their own hometown.
Given that, how different do you think
your work might have been if you had, say,
spent most of your career in San Diego?
I remember Signe Wilkinson telling me
that when she went to San Jose she was
doing her kind of characters. Her editor
told her, People dont look like that in
California. And it dawned on her that he
was right. So I think she started drawing
thin people jogging and stuff (laughs).
I tend to think that wherever I went I
would have absorbed the culture of the
place. Whether I would have gotten good
at capturing a place other than the one
I grew up in I dont know. I also dont
think I would have been a very good car-
toonist in a big city. I thrive better where
Im not in the spotlight. I dont have to
perform on the big stage, I can just hear
myself think and follow my own vibe.
This place has been good for me that way.
I thought that was why a lot of humorists
came out of the Midwest. We have this
perspective on things. You can see where
life is happening from here, but its not . .
. here (laughs).
Not many television reality shows based
in Ohio.
(Laughs) Were good observers here in
the Midwest.
Speaking of careers, youd once said that
growing up you wanted to be a priest or a
zoo-keeper. Do you think that you achieved
some
Perfect synthesis? (Laughs) Yeah, I
do. It sounds funny, but there is actually
some truth in that. A priest has that sense
of right and wrong, a moralistic thread.
A zoo-keeper is just watching the animals
(laughs). Editorial cartoonists do the per-
fect synthesis of that.
Do you think most readers realize just how
hard this job is?
I hear the Is that all you have to do?
One cartoon a day? kind of thing, or I
dont know how you come up with one
every day. I imagine that most readers
picture us living a lot more frivolous and
whimsical a life. I grind away all day,
mostly. I come down to the ofce virtu-
ally every day, work in the newsroom
with my sketchbook full of notes and
stare deep, deep, deep into that white
paper for most of the day.
Any work that youve come to regret?
(Long pause) Im not sure Im going to
be able to come up with a good answer
to that. Ive always felt like this is a work
in progress. Its a conversation, so what
I say today is not necessarily my bottom
line. Its where I am today, and as the
debate goes on I may end up in a different
place. Im not sure I challenged my biases
enough about Ronald Reagans message.
He had a hold of something that was true.
I didnt like him, and I still dont end up
on his side of the debate. But thats true
of a lot of presidents. I thought Carter was
a dunce. You know, draw the guy with a
big smile and make fun of him. But now I
look back, and he wanted to base foreign
policy on human rights. Thats a pretty
damned profound thought, and we just
thought that was all silly. Would I go back
and change things? I suppose, but not
enough to worry about.
You dont always have that clear, moral
vision at the outset.
You hope to get there.
I think most of us know that your rst wife
died unexpectedly in 1999. I can only imag-
ine how that must have affected you person-
ally, but how did it affect you professionally?
Thats a great question. (Pauses) Lynn
was a fabulous partner. I look back and
think that, during those 20 years together,
I was able to focus on my work in an
almost inordinately pure kind of way.
When she died I realized what a luxury
that had been, because then I was a single
dad with two kids. Now I was the one up
late paying the bills, and arranging to get
to the parent conferences and working
around all the things a parent has to do.
And your attention gets divided. I think
there was a period of several years, at
least, where a, youre just getting back on
your feet emotionally; and b, you start
realizing that this is the way that most
peoples lives are. Split attention, cutting
corners, taking shortcuts, trying to hold
it together with spit and duct tape and
body English. I was out of that golden
era, where I could come in here and had
the luxury of just massaging a drawing
all day long. It was several years before I
got back on my feet that way. I remarried
in 2003, and weve found our way back
to that feeling again.
I guess we were fortunate that you got in
while the getting was good its not the best
of times for editorial cartooning.
Its like the rapture for cartoonists
were all just at once ascending into the
sky. In some ways it makes sense if
youre the bean counter whos running a
newspaper you can get rid of this position
without missing a beat in your produc-
tion. I was given the luxury of a nice
voluntary severance package, so Im not
really talking about me, and my publisher
had a lot of reluctance to allow me to take
the buyout. But looked at another way,
its like Matt Davies said to me, Newspa-
pers are burning their heirloom furniture
to heat the house. People like cartoon-
ists and columnists give a newspaper its
personality. So in one sense its easy to cut
them but it also seems pretty shortsighted
you just become another cold news
deliverer. Readers have a lot of options
of where to get their news, and if you
havent made yourself distinguished in
some way with personality and color then
why should they choose you?
What about lling this chair?
Id be more happy moving on if I
thought thered be some kid coming in to
take this spot. But even at this, by moving
on I may have protected the jobs of a few
people out in the newsroom, younger
people who are starting to raise their fami-
lies and who may grow into their voices.
Its appropriate to move on at a certain
point, but its harder for me knowing that
there may be a Sprite machine here where
this drawing board is (laughs).
What are you not going to miss about
leaving?
I never liked being in the spotlight. I
always liked that my picture didnt run
in the paper my work could be known
without me having to be out there. None-
theless, this job does require you to be
somewhat of an ambassador for the paper.
It never t me right.
But you did do a lot of school talks, presen-
tations to various groups. . .
I did as much of that as I could, and it
was all good, but it never t my personal-
ity. I will just like doing the strip in ano-
nymity, and not being out as much as this
position required me to. Ive also gotten
tired of defending my point of view to an-
gry people on the phone I wont miss
that. I wont miss meetings. I dont know
how much Ill miss the work itself.
Are you going to miss covering the election?
Yeah, if I had my druthers the timing
would have been different. But its a funny
thing about the stuff you have to do
you dont know how much you like it
because you have to do it. Thats going to
be the revelation for me: when I look up
in a couple months and dont have to do
anything with the news. Will it just fade
away for me or will I nd some impulse
that wants to comment?
But come January, youll be doing a weekly
piece for the Enquirer. Will this be anything
like Wonk City? How did that come about?
Mark Alan Stamaty did a thing called
Washingtoon for The Washington Post
that ran on Mondays on the op-ed page.
Mark went on and Meg Greeneld called
and asked if Id like to do something in
that spot. Its like getting a call from the
Vatican. So I concocted this thing, and
did it for two years. It had a continuing
character and it was sort of about life as
I imagined it to be inside Washington.
It was all made up I did it from here
(laughs). Nobody ever remembers it to
me, and I dont think it made much of
an impact, but it gave me an appetite for
trying to tell a story. Thats something you
dont get to do in editorial cartooning. So
I think that primed me to do Zits, and it
primed me to what Im going to do here
next, once a week for the paper. I always
liked what Phil Frank did. Mike Keefe did
something called Cold Facts Avenue. Just
the concept of doing a comic strip on
your town and not caring if it made any
sense outside of your readership really
appealed to me. Its very intimate.
So itll just be more of these big, doughy
people.
Yeah (laughs). The mascot here is the
ying pig. Its a long story this was a
butchering capital for a long time. So I
seized on that, and thats going to be my
main character a little ying pig who
lives in a chili parlor. Beyond that I dont
know much more (laughs). I dont think
its going to be very political. At the
moment I dont feel like talking about
politics.*
Everyone else seems to be doing childrens
books.
I dont think about childrens books
so much, but I once did a series about
where you get your ideas that became
a poster. Thats a subject that interests
me the creative process. What its like
living a life where you have to come up
with ideas everyday. Id like to maybe do
a book on that.
You were using those party-hat characters
as far back as your rst collection.
Long time ago. Its been in the back-
ground all these years.
Ever pinch yourself and think for the
most part that it couldnt have been
better?
I really do. I really do. I think how un-
likely it was to nd a job that pulled to-
gether all the things Im good at. I cant
design anything better caricature,
writing, I get to read and sit and doodle
and daydream. I get to chew on these
thoughts that interest me and then draw
them in a way that will engage people.
I feel really, really lucky. And I think
about my dad, a sign painter on the west
side of town, a real working-class part of
town. We got the Enquirer every day and
spread it out and did the Jumble together
and read the comics and all that. Its not
like I lived thinking, Boy, if I could only
work for the paper. That was too lofty a
thought nobody in my family did that
kind of stuff. That anyone would have
said that I would grow up to be the face
of the Cincinnati Enquirer still just seems
impossible to me. And when I think of
my dad, who died years ago, he would
have thought that was something really
cool. NC
*

U
n
f
o
r
t
u
n
a
t
e
l
y
,

t
h
a
t

w
e
e
k
l
y

s
e
r
i
e
s

n
e
v
e
r

c
a
m
e

t
o

f
r
u
i
t
i
o
n
.
Frank Pauer: I think most of us know you for your print work, but
you took a roundabout way of careers to get here.
Stephanie Piro: When I started to submit my work to maga-
zines must have been in the late 70s nobody would
publish it. I kept getting rejections. Very nice rejections, but
I wasnt selling anything. When I showed cartoons to friends
people seemed to respond to them, so I thought I would cut
out the middleman and go the craft show route. I taught
myself silk-screening, which wasnt easy, and I did just very
simple silk-screening just black line on very cheap T-shirts,
which was all I could afford. The rst craft show I went to I had
these feminist shirts and all these women gathered around and
laughed and laughed. At this time there wasnt a lot of humor
geared toward women, as there is now. I sold all the shirts that
Shes the Saturday Chick.
Someti mes Sunday, too. The rest of the week she sel f-syndi cates the panel
Fair Game, runs her own T-shi rt company and an extensi ve CafePress
store at cafepress. com/saturdaychi ck, desi gns j ewel ry, i l l ustrates books
(her most recent col l ecti on i s My Cat Loves Me Naked) and teaches ki ds
how to cartoon. Throw i n an hour on the phone, too.
P
I
R
O
S T E P HAN E
A
WOMAN S
PERSPECTI VE
I had brought, and that started me on a
T-shirt career. Which was a back door to
cartooning. I was selling cartoons, just
not to a publication.
And you turned that into a lucrative
venture.
This was in 1984, so I started a com-
pany called Strip Ts Design Company.
I did that for a number of years. People
responded to them and I did very, very
well selling T-shirts. And through the
shirts a licensing agent spotted them
and wanted to license my stuff to calen-
dar companies. For a number of years I
had calendars with different companies.
Greeting cards were another deal.
But all the while you were still attempt-
ing to break into magazine cartooning.
I was still submitting to magazines
and couldnt get published. Finally, after
having this whole other career Glamour
magazine bought my rst cartoon.
Do you remember the gag for that rst
one?
Yes, it was a line I actually took from
a speech I had to give. My husband used
to give a Robert Burns Supper every year
and I was chosen to do a toast to the
laddies. One of the lines was I like the
concept of men ... its the reality I have
problems with. I used it in one of my
early feminist cartoons, which Glam-
our bought, and went on to buy many
more.
Did you grow up with an interest in
cartooning?
I did, from my earliest ability to read.
I grew up on Long Island, and there
werent any bookstores close by. Once in
a while wed have to go to the airport
at that time it was still Idlewild and
there was a bookstore there. My mom
would buy the Peanuts collections, and
I probably learned to read with those. I
dont even remember it in the newspa-
pers. It had such an impact on me I
just loved Charles Schulzs line. I dont
think anyone has been more expressive
with such deceptively simple looking
lines. I just fell in love with black and
white pen and ink work. My parents
bought the Charles Addams collections,
the New Yorker collections. My mother
had scrapbooks of cartoons that she had
cut out of magazines through her teen
years. She also liked Ronald Searle. We
always had cartoon books around. And
Edward Gorey.
You attended the School of Visual Arts.
Did you attend the school specically to
pursue cartooning? Did they have much to
offer in that regard?
No, I wanted cartooning classes, but
ended up with ne art the rst year and
illustration the second. There werent
many cartooning classes that I remem-
ber. I would have loved animation,
but as I remember the few classes I was
hoping for were lled. I did have Burne
Hogarth for art history, so that was the
closest I got.
What was the best thing that you came
away with from the school?
Mostly that it was a very freeing, lib-
erating experience. It was the 60s after
all, and I had wonderful teachers. I re-
member I had Robert DeNiro Sr. as a life
drawing teacher, and Steve Kaltenbach,
who was a terric conceptual artist.
And so then all through the 80s you were
still pursuing print publication.
It was very funny: Cosmo had a young
editor who wouldnt buy anything but
he really liked my work. He suggested
that I take all these cartoons and do
a theme. So I put together all these
relationship cartoons, and he loved
them. He even took them around on his
lunchtime to other editors to get them
published. No one did, but they became
my book, Men! Ha!
Do you think that some of your work was
rejected because you were a woman, or was
it for the work?
Maybe early on, though a couple of
my supporters were guys. But yeah, I
think I was too overtly feminist. From
a womans perspective. Sometimes I
tried to say that to womens magazines
that I was submitting to: You know,
youve got all these guys writing from
a womans perspective, but how about
how women feel? Why not open it up?
The New Yorker has done that, but the
New Yorker humor is kind of . . .
Occasionally not very funny?
(Laughs) A couple people I do nd
funny. Even cartoonists that I like, some-
times when theyre in the New Yorker
theyre less funny. (Laughs) I think that
cartooning had always been kind of that
50s, white male profession. It was a guy
thing. Theres still a difference in what
people nd funny, but its changed a lot.
Its easier. Although now that its easier,
there are less places to get published.
At what point did you realize that you
had a specic voice?
I think it was when I was trying to do
the strip The Terrible Tea Time, about two
women who lived in a post-apocalyptic
society. I just really got into it. I had a
good time doing those. I always liked
single panels, but I really liked develop-
ing the characters for that strip. The
older I get, the harder it seems now.
While I might have ideas for a strip I A
l
l

a
r
t
w
o
r
k

2
0
1
4

S
t
e
p
h
a
n
i
e

P
i
r
o
I think theres a real difference of per-
ception in humor that appeals to men
and humor that appeals to women. I
think that it used to be that a lot of male
editors would look at a strip for or about
women and go, Eh, this isnt funny. I
read someplace about how we respond
to humor and that men respond to the
one-two punch; women like a little
story. I love what Sandra Bell-Lundy
does. Terri Libenson. I love those story-
driven, women-centric strips.
The drawing may come more easily, but
the writing is the real work.
You know, there are cartoonists who
buy writing, and basically just illustrate.
Nothing against that, but when you
write and draw its your voice. Com-
pletely. I think it has a lot more impact
and power if you do them both. It takes
years before you get your own voice. I
try to be very dispassionate about my
work. After theyre nished Ill think, If
somebody else did this, would I think it
was funny?
As for style, you dont mess around with
a lot of detail.
My works been called minimalist. I
love characters. I actually really, really
love dialogue. I just like the starkness.
Thats just myself I love to look at
other peoples details.
Do you think your style compliments
your writing, or does the art help drive the
words?
I visualize when Im writing and I
sketch. If I draw something too well in
my sketches I cant reproduce it. I dont
pencil if I try to ink it in it looks very
stiff. As a result, I paste up a lot. I draw
something and I like the way a piece
looks, and I know I wont be able to re-
draw it. So Ill cut that character out and
paste it onto another part. I cant pencil
dont think I
could ever do
it at this point.
Six Chix is
perfect.
While you
mostly do single-
panel gags, Six
Chix demands
that you also think in a strip format. Is
your approach to these any different?
Oh, its very different. When I do a
single panel, I write rst. Ill write and
write and write I love writing. The
hard thing is that you have to draw it
all up. You have to stop writing and
then you get to drawing and all you
want to do is draw and draw and draw.
And then its like, Oop got to write
again. With the strip, its a slower
process. It opens up more in the way
of drama and character-driven ideas.
Characters interact, whereas in a panel
theyre more declarative.
You tend to think more in a single panel
than sequentially.
I guess I was always a single-panel
person, because I like that succinctness
of saying everything in a sentence. I
tend to be wordy I might have one
sentence but its a long sentence. I also
feel like I have a rhythm when I write
a panel. Once in a while an editor will
want to change something, or drop a
word, and it just changes the rhythm
it ruins what Im saying.
In an interview you did with Sandra Bell-
Lundy, you said that you couldnt work for
the New Yorker because you cant submit
on a weekly basis.
Yeah, I just dont work like that. Ill
probably write for a week or two
and then draw for a week. The people
who are really dedicated in getting into
the magazine I dont think Ill ever
get in. Ive tried everything to get in.
Still?
Well, I tried about two years ago. I
took an issue and I pasted over all the
cartoons with my cartoons I think
I even did the cover. I thought Id at
least get some kind of response. It didnt
come back for three months and it came
back without even the standard rejec-
tion note. Nothing.
You write primarily for women.
I do. Its funny, I feel like Im speak-
ing directly to women but the people
that actually write me fan mail are
guys. I think some of them get crushes
on the women that I draw and I dont
know if they think thats me. Not really!
(Laughs). The inner me the way I was
when I was like 20.
But to whom you write makes a
difference.
at the library its girls who
come.
Are they more interested in sequential
art, animation, strips
Some of the kids are very big into an-
ime. But what I do is basically come up
with a project. Someone wanted to do
some cartoons about zombies. So I drew
a square and said, This is your room,
your house. Youre being attacked by
zombies. How do you deal with them?
So they drew themselves inside the box,
then they would pass the paper around
so each kid would draw a zombie of a
different style. Then I gave them all a
sealed envelope with ways they could
destroy the zombies. I made copies of
all of them so I could keep the origi-
nals, and they got the copies to destroy
in any way they wanted. They went
crazy one girl tried to eat hers. They
were ripping them up, crumpling them,
stomping on them. I wanted them to
have fun, and express what they wanted
to do.
Whats your favorite part about teach-
ing?
The enthusiasm. And the talent. The
kids who come to the cartoon club
are the very bright kids theyre very
creative. Girls grow up and discover
boys or whatever and move on and may
never pick up a pen again. But for that
little time there, theyre very enthusias-
tic about it.
Ive always loved the spontaneity of kids
art. They dont much think about it.
Right. I never wanted to do the thing
where you draw a circle, and then two
circles. I wanted to encourage them
to develop their own style, their own
voice. Its funny
a lot of them,
instinctively,
pencil rst and
then ink them
after.
You dont re-
ally have a single,
named character.
If you developed a strip with continuing
characters, could you describe them?
Before I was syndicated, Jay Kennedy
called me and wanted me to develop a
panel about the friendship of two wom-
en. I did about 75 cartoons. The charac-
ters I drew in The Terrible Tea Time were
my ideal characters, and I kind of used
them in the panel. If I did anything Id
like to use those. Maybe now theyd be
accepted for their quirkiness and bad
behavior. But back in the late 70s, one
of the rejections was, Very smart and
sexy. But not for us.; Somebody else
said, I think theyre funny, but Im not
sure. (Laughs)
its all straight from the pen.
So do you either use a lot of paper or
I recycle, I recycle. I do use a lot of
paper. I am, in my own way, a perfec-
tionist. [Pencilling] is a skill I wish I
had. I wouldnt be wasting so much
paper.
So most everything is pieces and parts.
Oh, yeah. The computer has just
been a Godsend. I draw my own panel
border, and it always wants to go off
to the right. Ive learned that you can
skew it [in Pho-
toshop]. I clean
things up on the
computer. And
my handwriting
some people
want my hand-
writing. Other
people nd it
indecipherable.
I had a font made and they couldnt
do it it made the commas look like
apostrophes.
Essentially what youre doing with your
paste-ups is what many others are simply
doing in Photoshop anyway.
Yeah, I have to do it hands-on.
Speaking of hands-on, you also work
part-time at a library and, among other
things, run a cartoon club.
Ive been running the club for kids on
a monthly basis. It started out being all
girls. Maybe its just girls who want to
do things anyway if I put on events
A sample strip from The Terrible Tea Time
NC
36 THENATIONALCARTOON!ST 36 THENATIONALCARTOON!ST
A
l
l

a
r
t
w
o
r
k

2
0
1
4

M
e
l
l

L
a
z
a
r
u
s
A few years ago, the idea was hatched that the NCS should be doing
more to preserve the images and voices of the cartooning legends of our
time. Once the NCS Foundation was on its feet, it was decided that the
NCSF would be the perfect choice to guide this new project to produce
video interviews of those cartoonists.
The premise: One luminary cartoonist interviews another.
Having had a few too many drinks and apparently standing in the
wrong company, I happened to be selected to do the rst cartoon lumi-
nary-on-luminary interview. Although in my case, I think its dim-bulb
(me)-on-luminary (the great Mell Lazarus).
My friend, Mell, graciously agreed to be the guinea pig interviewee.
What follows is a short excerpt from those interview sessions held over
two days at his California home and studio.
Rick Kirkman: I want to talk about syndicate contracts, because youre
kind of a leader in cartoonists rights with syndicates. How did all that
come about?
Mell Lazarus: It was
very simple. I just refused
to sign anything other
than something that gave
me the advantage.
My very rst contract
meeting was with the
New York Herald Tribune
Syndicate, who wanted
Miss Peach, but wanted
to own it with 15-
year increments, with
their option to renew at
the end of each 15-year
period. I was very young,
very innocent, but I was
not so innocent that I
realized that the contract
didnt make any sense. It
wasnt fair.
So I refused to sign it.
The guy said, OK, and
I left the contract on his
desk.
I went home and told my wife what happened. We really needed
that contract, we needed the money and she said, Why dont you
talk to Elliott Caplin, who was one of Al Capps brothers. Get
some advice from him. And I did.
And he said, Mell, what they offered you is everybodys con-
tract. Thats what Al signed, thats what Milton Caniff signed, thats
what Sparky Schulz signed. They have to control the rights to the
thing.
And I thought about it and discussed it with my then-wife, and
we decided that I was going to call the Herald Tribune Syndicate
back and re-think this thing.
Before I could get to the phone it rings, and theres this very nice
voice with a Southern accent. He said, Mr. Lazarus? This is Ive
forgotten his name; he was a great guy Im the vice president
of the syndicate and I just heard about the deal they offered you
that you rejected. I dont blame you. Thats not a deal it was a
pronouncement. I suggest that you come down and we talk again
Owning up to the syndicates
MELL
LAZARUS
and Id like to expand your participation and your rights in
this matter.
It knocked me cold, actually. Next day I went over there
and he had a new contract, in which the
15-year ownership and then a renewal of
the 15-year ownership by the syndicate
all that was gone. Every ve years was
the opportunity to renew the contract. It
wouldnt carry over. It would end. And
then wed have to sit down and renegoti-
ate. Which is a dream. I accepted that, and
we did it. And every ve years I was able
to increase my percentage a little bit, my
share of the revenue. I got more and more
leeway from the syndicate with the strip,
my creation, which was appropriate. And
its been that way ever since.
How long were you with the Herald
Tribune?
Not long. Maybe ve years. And then
they were bought by another syndicate,
the New York Post Hall Syndicate. I was with them for a
while, and then they were sold to another organization,
the Chicago Sun Times, and thats when I really enjoyed the
experience. The people at the Sun Times were extraordinary.
They were so liberal with their contracts and the deals. There
was a sense of fairness that I hadnt run across before in the
industry.
Youve been with more syndicates than
anybody.
Yeah, but there was a continuity, be-
cause I kept the right people on board all
the time.
I currently dont have a [written]
syndicate contract. Rick Newcombe, who
is president of Creators Syndicate, and
I shook hands a long time ago. He said,
Were not going to be signing contracts
anymore. Were not going to negotiate.
Were just going to continue the way we
are now.
Its been a fantastically successful
merger.
But youve been responsible, though,
with Creators and Rick Newcombe, in kind
of changing the whole way that syndicate
contracts are being offered.
Well, Id like to think thats the case, but Rick was as
convinced as I that the basic contract is terrible. You
create something, you walk in and give it over to another
organization who begin to write the rules. And thats not the
Mell Lazarus
Photo by Rick Kirkman, Woodland Hills, California, April 13, 2013
...............................................
way to go. You have to agree to everything. And Rick and I
agreed on everything.
As I said, we havent renewed our contract. It ran out a
long time ago. Weve been working on a handshake for about
25 years now. I trust him, he trusts me, and here we are.
You got your rights and the shorter contract very early on
the people at the Chicago Sun Times were amenable to that.
Why do you think it took so long for that to spread out to other
cartoonists?
(Chuckles) Well, it
Whats so special about you? (Laughter)
Whats so special about me is that I have a big mouth and
I use it. I spoke to the Newspapers Features Council at least
a dozen times and to the cartoonists who were connected
with it, especially. Get your rights, control your rights.
Change a deal if you dont like it. Threaten to quit. If they
still want to keep you theyre going to go along with you.
Of course that made me the charm boy of the syndicates.
I mean they became enemies. Friendly enemies. Of course
they didnt approve of all that. But eventually, I think,
theyve become more liberal over time.
Did you ever talk to (The Family Circus) Bil Keane about his
experience when he tried that and King Features played hardball
with him?
We talked about it a lot. We conspired to get his rights
back. His wife (Thel) joined the fray, and she had a lot of
guts. Eventually he got his rights back. It was like a ground
breaker. He and I then enjoyed the same relationship with
the syndicates that Id had for years.
I dont know what kids sign anymore. For a long time I
was like the guardhouse lawyer for cartoonists. They would
always be sent to me for advice. People Id never met in my
life. And I would tell them all the same thing: Decide what
you want and stick to it. The worst that they can say is no.
And you go to another syndicate. Sooner or later, if the strip
is saleable, theyre going to agree with you and give you what
you want.
I think, unfortunately, a lot of cartoonists are so tempted,
because they have that dream of being syndicated, they feel like
they need to snatch up just about any offer that comes along.
Yeah, and its perfectly natural if youve had no experience
and youre dying to get into the business. I understand that
and dont put anybody down for doing that. But you can do
better than that.
The syndicates thrive on your material; you thrive on
their sale of your material. It should be fairly easy to come to
terms that are fair to everyone. Not We own this thing and
if you dont do what we want were going to kick you out
and put somebody else in. Which is the attitude that the
larger syndicates held for years.
It was fun. Its not as though I had earned another place in
this business other than the ability or lack of ability to
make people laugh.
Well youre denitely a trail-blazer in that respect.
In that respect, yeah. The newcomers dont come to
me anymore. They dont even know who the hell I am.
(Laughter)
Left, A Miss Peach daily from 1959;
below, the rst Miss Peach collection
from 1958.
NC
Specialty
art drawn
by National
Cartoonist
Society
members
for
publications
issued to
coincide
with the
Societys
annual
Reuben
Awards
Weekend.
Rube Goldberg
Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1967
from the Reuben Awards Dinner program, April 21, 1964
2
0
1
4

R
u
b
e

G
o
l
d
b
e
r
g
,

I
n
c
.
NCS Archives
Dik Browne
Two-time Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of the Year, 1962, 1973
from the Reuben Awards Dinner edition of The Cartoonist, April 21, 1975
H
a
g
a
r

t
h
e

H
o
r
r
i
b
l
e
,

H
i

a
n
d

L
o
i
s

2
0
1
4

K
i
n
g

F
e
a
t
u
r
e
s

S
y
n
d
i
c
a
t
e
,

I
n
c
.
2
0
1
4

R
u
b
e

G
o
l
d
b
e
r
g
,

I
n
c
.
Mort Walker
from the Reuben Award Dinner program, April 21, 1964
Hilda Terry
from the program of the
fteenth Reuben Award Dinner,
April 25, 1961 (detail)
B
e
e
t
l
e

B
a
i
l
e
y

2
0
1
4

K
i
n
g

F
e
a
t
u
r
e
s

S
y
n
d
i
c
a
t
e
,

I
n
c
.
Charles Schulz
from the April, 1967 issue of The Cartoonist, on the
occasion of the Societys 21st anniversary
P
e
a
n
u
t
s

2
0
1
4

P
e
a
n
u
t
s

W
o
r
l
d
w
i
d
e
,

L
L
C
Brant Parker
Wizard of Id specialty sketch, undated, same size
From the Collection of ...
U
n
p
u
b
l
i
s
h
e
d

s
p
e
c
i
a
l
t
y

a
r
t

d
r
a
w
n

b
y

c
a
r
t
o
o
n
i
s
t
s

f
r
o
m

p
r
i
v
a
t
e

c
o
l
l
e
c
t
i
o
n
s
.
2
0
1
4

J
o
h
n

L
.

H
a
r
t
,

F
L
P
Jeff MacNelly
Two-time Reuben Award-winning Cartoonist of
the Year, 1978, 1979
Perfesser Cosmo Fishhawk specialty sketch drawn for
cartoonist Bob Zschiesche in a copy of The Other Shoe,
December 1980, same size
Dale Messick
The Milton Canif Lifetime Achievement Award, 1997
Brenda Starr specialty sketch, 1988
2
0
1
4

M
a
c
N
e
l
l
y
2
0
1
4

T
r
i
b
u
n
e

C
o
n
t
e
n
t

A
g
e
n
c
y
,

L
L
C
46 THENATIONALCARTOON!ST 46 THENATIONALCARTOON!ST
2
0
1
4

T
r
i
b
u
n
e

C
o
n
t
e
n
t

A
g
e
n
c
y
,

L
L
C
Bill Watterson
Two-time Reuben Award-winning
Cartoonist of the Year, 1986, 1988
Calvin and Hobbes sketch in a Festival of
Cartoon Art catalogue, 1986, same size
Russell Myers
Broom-Hilda specialty drawing drawn for a
school class, 1974, same size (detail)
2
0
1
4

B
i
l
l

W
a
t
t
e
r
s
o
n
Bill Mauldin
Presentation sketch in a copy of The Brass RIng
Jerry Robinson
Batman sketch in a Festival of Cartoon Art
catalogue, 1986, same size
2
0
1
4

B
i
l
l

M
a
u
l
d
i
n

E
s
t
a
t
e
,

L
L
C
2
0
1
4

D
C

C
o
m
i
c
s
Mike Peters
Presentation sketch in a copy of Clones, You Idiot
I Said Clones
Frank King
Autograph card, ca. 1925, same size
2
0
1
4

M
i
k
e

P
e
t
e
r
s
2
0
1
4

T
r
i
b
u
n
e

C
o
n
t
e
n
t

A
g
e
n
c
y
,

L
L
C
Stan Goldberg
Archie and friends pencil drawing in
a copy of Archie His FIrst 50 Years,
same size
2
0
1
4

A
r
c
h
i
e

C
o
m
i
c

P
u
b
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
,

I
n
c
.
Mel Casson
Presentation sketch in a
copy of Ever Since Adam
and Eve, same size
Lynn Johnston
Presentation sketch in a copy of Ive Got the
One-More-Washload Blues , same size
2
0
1
4

A
r
c
h
i
e

C
o
m
i
c

P
u
b
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
s
,

I
n
c
.
2
0
1
4

L
y
n
n

J
o
h
n
s
t
o
n

P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
o
n
s
,

I
n
c
.
Te
National Cartoonists
Society
(above)
Willard Mullin
cover art from the program of the
16th annual Reuben Award Dinner, April 23, 1962
The National Cartoonists Society is the worlds largest and most prestigious organiza-
tion of professional cartoonists.
The NCS was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain
the troops. They found that they enjoyed each others company and decided to get
together on a regular basis.
Today, the NCS membership roster includes more than 500 of the worlds major
cartoonists, working in many branches of the profession, including newspaper comic
strips and panels, on-line comics, comic books, editorial cartoons, animation, gag car-
toons, greeting cards, advertising, magazine and book illustration and more.
Membership is limited to established professional cartoonists, with a few exceptions
of outstanding persons in afliated elds. The NCS is not a guild or union, although we
have joined forces from time to time to ght for members rights, and we regularly use
our talents to help worthwhile causes.
n To advance the ideals and standards of professional cartooning in its many forms.
n To promote and foster a social, cultural and intellectual interchange among profes-
sional cartoonists of all types.
n To stimulate and encourage interest in and acceptance of the art of cartooning by
aspiring cartoonists, students and the general public.
The seeds for what evolved into the National Cartoonists Society were planted during
the volunteer chalk talks that a number of cartoonists did during World War II for the
American Theatre Wing.
The Society was born at a specially convened dinner in New York in March, 1946,
that saw Rube Goldberg elected as president, Russell Patterson as vice president,
C.D. Russell as secretary and Milton Caniff as treasurer. A second vice president, Otto
Soglow, was subsequently added.
Within two weeks, the Society had 32 members: Strip cartoonists Wally Bishop
(Muggs and Skeeter); Martin Branner (Winnie Winkle); Ernie Bushmiller (Nancy);
Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates); Gus Edson (The Gumps); Ham Fisher (Joe Palooka);
Harry Haenigsen (Penny); Fred Harman (Red Ryder); Jay Irving (Willie Doodle); Al Posen
(Sweeney and Son); C.D. Russell (Pete the Tramp); Otto Soglow (The Little King); Jack
Sparling (Clare Voyant); Ray Van Buren (Abbie an Slats); Dow Waling (Skeets); and Frank
Willard (Moon Mullins).
Panel cartoonists Dave Breger (Mister Breger); George Clark (The Neighbors); Bob Dunn
(Just the Type); Jimmy Hatlo (Theyll Do It Every Time); Bill Holman (Smokey Stover); and
Stan McGovern (Silly Milly).
Freelance cartoonists and illustrators Abner Dean, Mischa Richter and Russell Pat-
terson.
Editorial cartoonists Rube Goldberg (New York Sun); Burris Jenkins (Journal American);
C.D. Batchelor (Daily News); and Richard Q. Yardley (Baltimore Sun).
Sports cartoonist Lou Hanlon and comic book cartoonists Joe Shuster and Joe Musial.
By March 1947, there were 112 members in the National Cartoonists Society.
At the end of 1946, Milton Caniff left Terry and The Pirates to create the adventure
strip Steve Canyon, which debuted in 243 newspapers to instant acclaim. The following
May, he became the rst artist formally honored by the group as the Outstanding Car-
toonist of the Year. The trophy was a silver cigarette box, engraved with Billy DeBecks
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith characters. The Billy DeBeck Memorial Award
THE
REUBEN
AWARD
for
Outstanding
Cartoonist
of the Year
1946
Milton Canif
Steve Canyon
1947
Al Capp
Lil Abner
1948
Chic Young
Blondie
1949
Alex Raymond
Rip Kirby
1950
Roy Crane
Buz Sawyer
1951
Walt Kelly
Pogo
1952
Hank Ketcham
Dennis the Menace
1953
Mort Walker
Beetle Bailey
1954
Willard Mullin
Sports cartoons
1955
Charles Schulz
Peanuts
1956
Herbert Block
Editorial Cartoons
1957
Hal Foster
Prince Valiant
1958
Frank King
Gasoline Alley
.......................
Te
National Cartoonists
Society
ABOUT THE NCS
PRIMARY PURPOSES OF THE NCS
THE HISTORY OF THE NCS
continued until 1953. The following year, the Reuben Award was introduced.
In 1948, Caniff was elected NCS President. Rube Goldberg was named Honorary
President and Al Capp became the second Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.
In 1949, the Society volun-
teered to help the Treasury
Department in a drive to sell
savings bonds by sending NCS
members out on the road. A
nationwide, seventeen-city
tour was undertaken by teams
of ten or twelve cartoonists
and a 95-foot-long traveling
display.
Through the Society, NCS
members have continued to
serve the nation in person and
through their art. Teams of
cartoonists have toured war
zones and military installa-
tions around the world in
cooperation with the USO.
Others have entertained at VA
hospitals. NCS members have
also contributed to many U.S.
government programs; their
efforts have benetted NASA,
USIA, the Treasury Department
Savings Bond division and the
Presidents Council on
Physical Fitness. Other bene-
ciaries have been the Boy Scouts of America, the American Red Cross and the United
Nations.
The tradition of lending our talents to worthy causes continues to this day. In 2001,
for example, NCS members in the syndicated community dedicated their newspaper
strips and panels to a Thanksgiving initiative that raised some $50,000 for victims of
the 9/11 attacks, and members contributed a further $18,000 through the proceeds of
a private auction.
The ofcial headquarters of the National Cartoonists Society are in New York City,
with the Societys business ofces located in Maitland, Florida.
In addition, the NCS has chartered 17 regional chapters throughout the United
States and one in Canada.
The early 1990s saw the introduction of regional chapters within the NCS. Created
to encourage a deeper participation and interaction among NCS members while fur-
thering the aims of the Society, these chapters also afford members a more active role
at the national level.
The Chapter chairpersons also serve as members of the NCS Regional Council,
which serves and advises the NCS Board of Directors. In addition, the position of
National Representative on the NCS Board of Directors is held by a Chapter Chair who
1959
Chester Gould
Dick Tracy
1960
Ronald Searle
Humorous Illustration
1961
Bill Mauldin
Editorial Cartoons
1962
Dik Browne
Hi and Lois
1963
Fred Lasswell
Barney Google and
Snufy Smith
1964
Charles Schulz
Peanuts
1965
Leonard Starr
On Stage
1966
Otto Soglow
The Little King
1967
Rube Goldberg
Humor in Sculpture
1968
Johnny Hart
B.C. and The Wizard
of Id
Pat Oliphant
Editorial Cartoons
1969
Walter Berndt
Smitty
1970
Alfred Andriola
Kerry Drake
1971
Milton Canif
Steve Canyon
1972
Pat Oliphant
Editorial Cartoons
LOCATION
CHAPTERS
C
h
a
d

F
r
y
e
1973
Dik Browne
Hagar the Horrible
1974
Dick Moores
Gasoline Alley
1975
Bob Dunn
Theyll Do It Every Time
1976
Ernie Bushmiller
Nancy
1977
Chester Gould
Dick Tracy
1978
Jef MacNelly
Editorial Cartoons
1979
Jef MacNelly
Shoe
1980
Charles Saxon
The New Yorker
1981
Mell Lazarus
Miss Peach
1982
Bil Keane
The Family Circus
1983
Arnold Roth
1984
Brant Parker
The Wizard of Id
1985
Lynn Johnston
For Better or For Worse
1986
Bill Watterson
Calvin and Hobbes
1987
Mort Drucker
MAD Magazine
acts as a conduit between the NCS Board and the Regional Council.
There are also many active Regional Chapters, including chapters in: Chicago,
Connecticut, D.C., Florida, Great Lakes, Long Island, Los Angeles, New England, New
Jersey, Manhattan, North Central U.S., Northern California, Orange County and
Southern California, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Southeastern US, Upstate New York and
Canada. New Regional Chapters are continually forming.
The Regional Chapters convene on their own schedules, usually three or four times
a year. They engage in a variety of social and professional activities and are always
happy to receive visiting NCS members.
There are four classes of membership in The National Cartoonists Society:
n REGULAR MEMBERS are professional cartoonists, the quality of whose work has
been judged and approved by the Membership Committee.
n ASSOCIATE MEMBERS are those individuals who work as professionals in the
cartooning industry or whose expression of interest has been established.
n HONORARY MEMBERS are cartoonists, surviving spouses or patrons of the art for
whom the Society desires to express its esteem and appreciation.
n RETIRED MEMBERSHIP is granted to existing members 65 years of age and older
and retired.
If you are a professional cartoonist and are interested in applying for a Regular
Membership or if you work in an allied eld and feel you would qualify for one of the
limited number of Associate Memberships, please contact:
National Cartoonists Society
341 North Maitland Avenue, Suite 260
Maitland, FL 32751
407-647-8839
info@reuben.org
Cartoonists who are currently earning a substantial
part of their income from cartooning and have done
so for at least the past three years; Work must be of a
high professional quality and their reputation good.
Application must include two letters of recommen-
dation from NCS members, a short biographical sketch
and samples of current work bearing a signature. Appli-
cations must be accompanied by a check covering one
years dues, which will be refunded if the candidate is
not accepted by the Membership Committee.
A candidate is eligible for membership when ac-
cepted by a unanimous vote of the Membership Com-
mittee.
If you are a professional cartoonist and are interested
in applying for a Regular Membership, or work in
an allied eld and feel you would qualify for one of the limited number of Associate
Memberships, please contact:
Sean Parkes, Membership Chair
16647 E. Ashbrook Drive Unit #A
Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
ELIGIIBILITY FOR REGULAR MEMBERSHIP
NCS MEMBERSHIP
K
e
n
n
y

D
u
r
k
i
n
1991
Mike Peters
Mother Goose and
Grimm
1992
Cathy Guisewite
Cathy
1993
Jim Borgman
Editorial Cartoons
1994
Gary Larson
The Far Side
1995
Garry Trudeau
Doonesbury
1996
Sergio Aragons
MAD Magazine
1997
Scott Adams
Dilbert
1998
Will Eisner
The Spirit
1999
Patrick McDonnell
Mutts
2000
Jack Davis
2001
Jerry Scott
Baby Blues and Zits
2002
Matt Groening
The Simpsons
2003
Greg Evans
Luann
2004
Pat Brady
Rose is Rose
2005
Mike Luckovich
Editorial Cartoons
The National Cartoonists Societys ofcers and Board of Directors are elected by secret bal-
lot of the entire membership. The Board meets twice a year and a general business meeting is
held annually during the NCS Reuben Awards Weekend.
There are several standing committees, including Ethics, Social Media, Education and Pub-
licity. These committees function as clearing houses for information pertinent to the rights
of cartoonist members, help to air grievances and post warnings about any dubious practices
of the rms with which cartoonists do business. The NCS, however, is neither a guild, nor a
union.
The Cartoon!st, the ofcial newsletter of the National Cartoonists Society and distributed
only to NCS members, covers the professional and personal activities of the NCS member-
ship. It also contains general information of interest to the professional cartoonist, such
as copyright laws, new publications, preservation of comic art, upcoming regional and
national shows, events and conventions.
The National Cartoonists Society
sponsors special cartoon-related excur-
sions abroad. Recent destinations have
included Canada, England, Ireland, Italy
and Australia. The NCS and its Regional
Chapters have also organized cartoon
auctions for charity, art shows, edu-
cational seminars and golf and tennis
tournaments.
The National Cartoonists Society main-
tains relationships with other organiza-
tions for professionals in cartooning and
various other elds of communication,
both domestic and foreign. It works espe-
cially close with newspaper and publish-
ing groups. The NCS also often provides
introductions for American cartoonists
traveling abroad.
Through the National Cartoonists
Society, members have served the nation
in person and through their art. Teams
of cartoonists have toured war zones and
military installations all over the world in
cooperation with the USO. Others have
entertained regularly at VA hospitals in
various parts of the country. NCS members also contribute tirelessly to certain US govern-
ment programs; their efforts have benetted such agencies as NASA, USIA, the Treasury
Department Savings Bond division and the Presidents Council on Physical Fitness. Other
beneciaries of members talents have been the Boy Scouts of America, The American Red
Cross and the United Nations. In 2001, the NCS organized the Thanks & Giving Tribute in
the nations newspapers, syndicated cartoonists raising some $50,000 for the September 11
fund.
The National Cartoonists Societys Reuben Awards Weekend is a gala annual event, which
takes place at a locale selected by the President, Board and the NCS Foundation. There, dur-
ing the black-tie Reuben Award Dinner, the prestigious Reuben Award (a statuette designed
by and named after the NCSs rst president, Rube Goldberg) is presented to the NCSs
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE NCS
OTHER NCS ACTIVITIES AND FUNCTIONS
M
a
r
k

M
o
n
l
u
x
2006
Bill Amend
FoxTrot
2007
Al Jafee
MAD Magazine
2008
Dave Coverly
Speed Bump
2009
Dan Pirarro
Bizarro
2010
Richard Thompson
Cul de Sac
2011
Tom Richmond
MAD Magazine
2012
Brian Crane
Pickles
Rick Kirkman
Baby Blues
2013
Wiley Miller
Non Sequitur
Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. Cartoonists in various professional divisions are also
honored with special plaques for excellence. These Silver Reuben awards are voted on by a
combination of the general membership (by secret ballot) and specially formed juries over-
seen by various NCS regional chapters. Members and their families have enjoyed the annual
get-together at recent locations such as: Washington, D.C.; New York, New York; Chicago,
Illinois; Pasadena, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; Boca Raton, Florida; Toronto, Canada;
Cancun, Mexico; Hollywood, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; Boston, Massachusetts;
Las Vegas, Nevada; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; San Diego, California and even on a cruise ship
in the Caribbean.
The National Cartoonists Society Foundation is the charitable arm of the National
Cartoonists Society. The Foundation was formed in 2005 to continue the charitable and
educational works that have been a hallmark of the NCS since its inception in 1946.
The National Cartoonists Society Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) charity that works
in tandem with the NCS to advance the ideals and standards of the cartooning profession,
to stimulate and encourage aspiring cartoonists through scholarships and educational
programs, and to provide nancial assistance to cartoonists and their families in times of
hardship, through its Milt Gross Fund.
The Foundation also encourages the active involvement and participation of NCS
members in the charitable and educational projects undertaken by the Foundation,
thereby utilizing the Societys greatest assets and strengths. The NCS has a treasured
tradition of members donating their expertise and talents to good causes in person and
through their art.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
National Cartoonists Society, Inc.
341 North Maitland Avenue, Suite 260
Maitland, FL 32751
Phone: 407-647-8839
Fax: 407-629-2502
For further information, visit the NCS website at:
www.reuben.org
THE NCS FOUNDATION
NCS MEMBERSHIP
A
n
t
o
n

E
m
d
i
n
In these tough nancial times, no one looks forward to taking on student debt. Now
in its eighth year, the annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship aims to make that
burden a bit lighter for those college students with an eye on a career in cartooning.
To that end, the scholar-
ship awards $5,000 annu-
ally to a rising Junior or
Senior. (Applicants do not
have to be art majors to be
eligible.) But its more than
just money thats provided
its also an opportu-
nity to meet professional
cartoonists at the National
Cartoonists Societys Reu-
ben Award Weekend.
The National Cartoon-
ists Society Foundation has
helped students from the
College for Creative Stud-
ies, Ringling College of
Art & Design, Rhode
Island School of Design,
Rochester Institute of
Technology, Savannah College of Art and Design, and UCLA.
The most recent recipient is Renee Faundo, a character animation major at the
California Institute of the Arts.
The rst winner of the Jay Kennedy Scholarship was Juana Medina, who now teaches
at the Corcoran College of Art & Design. She has just turned in her illustrations for
a childrens book called Smick, written by Doreen Cronin (Click, Clack, Moo; Duck for
President), which will come out in 2015. Juana has also signed a multi-book deal with
Candlewick Press, for a series loosely based on my childhood adventures, in my native
Bogot, Colombia, with my sidekick and dog-friend, Lucas. The rst of these books
should be out in the Fall of 2016. (Juana also designed the promotional art for this
years scholarship.)
Chris Houghton, the second scholarship recipient, is currently a Storyboard Director
Te Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship is here to help.
Do You Cartoon?
Juana
Medina
2
0
1
4

J
u
a
n
a

M
e
d
i
n
a
Chris
Houghton
Diana
Huh
2
0
1
4

C
h
r
i
s

H
o
u
g
h
t
o
n
2
0
1
4

D
i
a
n
a

H
u
h
on an upcoming Nickelode-
on show called Bad Seeds,
scheduled to premiere in
early 2015. He has had simi-
lar duties on the animated
TV shows Wander Over
Yonder, Gravity Falls, and
Fanboy and Chum Chum.
In addition, Chris has done
work for Adventure Time
comics, Simpsons comics,
MAD Magazine and his own
creation for Image Comics,
Reed Gunther.
Other recent recipients
include Diana Huh, a sto-
ryboard revisionist for the
Titmouse Inc./Netix show
Turbo FAST, and Charlotte
Mao, who works at Launch-
pad Toys in San Francisco,
a mobile gaming company
that develops educational
childrens apps.
The Jay Kennedy Memorial
Scholarship was established
in memory of the late King
Features editor, and funded
by an initial $100,000 grant
from the Hearst Foundation/
King Features Syndicate as
well as additional gener-
ous donations from Jerry
Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick
McDonnell and many other
prominent cartoonists.
For more information, visit
cartoonistfoundation.org
Charlotte
Mao
Renee
Faundo
2
0
1
4

C
h
a
r
l
o
t
t
e

M
a
o
2
0
1
4

R
e
n
e
e

F
a
u
n
d
o
Read it online at
issuu.com
The
National
Or read it on
our website at reuben.org
@NATIONALCARTOONISTS @NATCARTOONSOC THE NATIONAL
CARTOONISTS SOCIETY
.......................................................................................................................................................................
Follow the NCS for news, art and features
...........................................................................................................................................
THENATIONALCARTOON!ST i
Tom RICHMOND caricatures
A PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY
Vol. 1, No. 1
Jim BORGMAN refects
Mell LAZARUS divulges
STEPHAN
PASTIS
BILL W
ATTERSON
Pearls
Before
Swines
create
comic strip
history
and
............................................................................................................................................................................................
Do You Car t oon? n NCS Ar c hi v e Ar t n Comi c Sc r i pt ed n Rar e, Unpubl i s hed Ar t
Stephanie PIRO illustrates
The
National

The National Cartoonist Issue 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The National Cartoonist Issue 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

THENATIONALCARTOON!

You might also like