Recap: Fall Cartooning Weekend 2018

This past weekend I drove down to Kansas City, MO for the Fall Cartooning Weekend sponsored by the North Central Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. The main event was an afternoon of lectures hosted at the offices of comic book syndicate Andrews McMeel Universal, the company behind GoComics. 

The main lobby features a giant "timeline wall" highlighting the syndicate's most popular strips from the past several decades, in chronological order. Among them were Ziggy, Garfield, For Better or For Worse, Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, Doonsbury, Pearls Before Swine, as well as modern webcomics like Sarah's Scribbles, The Awkward Yeti, and Phoebe and her Unicorn.

There's also a giant wall featuring drawings by their most popular cartoonists, past and present. 

John Glynn, president of Andrews McMeel Universal, served us assorted beverages and gave us a guided tour of the syndicate offices.

Mike Edholm, Ken Alvine, and Bob Hall

Comic book artist Bob Hall admires a framed cartoon about the creative process by the late, great Richard Thompson.

In the lower right corner is Gary Larson's Reuben Award, the most prestigious award the National Cartoonist Society can bestow.

The staff never stop thinking about comics, even on bathroom breaks.

After the tour we gathered in the main conference room. Cartoonist Eric Scott kicked things off with a prevention of his licensing art, his work for clients like MAD Magazine, as and samples from his syndicated strips Back in the Day and 1 and Done. 

University of Nebraska Professor Richard Graham discussed the life and work of illustrator Rose O'Neill, who's Kewpie Doll characters launched the first big licensing craze in American history. Graham is working on a book about the Kewpie Dolls that will be released in 2019. His previous book about World War II propaganda cartoons was an Eisner Award nominee.

Keynote speaker Wiley Miller discussed his syndicated strip Non Sequitur.

Miller designs his gags to work in both horizontal and vertical formats. Using this template, he keeps the main art in the center square and puts one copy of the caption/punchline in the edge of the horizontal zone and another duplicate copy in the vertical zone.

Here's an example of how that works. The cartoon is designed so publishers can crop it two different ways.

After the presentations several cartooning books, prints, and original art were raffled off to raise funds for the chapter.

The day ended back in the lobby with a catered dinner and cocktails, again courtesy of the fine folks at Andrews McMeel Universal.

Everyone drove back home really jazzed and inspired to keep cartooning!