I received confirmation today that our newest member, Mr. Kelly McNutt, is now a member of the NCS. Congratulations and welcome, Kelly. We're happy to welcome you aboard.
In recognition of Mr. McNutt's "making the grade", check out one of his latest projects...
ON THE AIR for the BBC.
Kelly did the 2D bits while Club Cocanut Animation Studio (FL) did the 2D character setup and rigging and Flickerpix in Belfast did the stop-motion/claymation. Check this out... its really cool.
In the meantime, when you have a minute, send Kelly a warm welcome to the NCS and the North Central Chapter.
Welcome brother!!!
Your fearless leader,
ME
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
JAY KENNEDY SCHOLARSHIP deadline
I received this message from Rick Stromoski a couple days ago.
For your consideration....
It is about a month to the December 15 deadline for the Jay Kennedy
Memorial Scholarship and we'd like your help to get the word out. If
you have a website or blog, we would appreciate it if you'd put up
some infomation and art pertaining to the scholarship so that possible
applicants might see it. The info block and the link are below and the
art is attached. (It's a great piece done by John Martz.)
Thanks in advance,
Rick Stromoski
President, National Cartoonists Society Foundation
John Kovaleski
Chair, Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship
------------------
Do you cartoon? You could win a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to Las
Vegas to meet the top names in cartooning. Don't delay - the deadline
is December 15.
Applicants must be students at a 4-year college in the United States,
Canada or Mexico who will be a Junior or Senior during the 2012-2013
academic year. Applicants do not have to be art majors to be eligible
for this scholarship.
For more information and an application, please visit:
http://www.cartoonistfoundation.org/
The annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, in memory of the late
King Features editor, was funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the
Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous
donations from Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick McDonnell and many
other prominent cartoonists. Submissions are adjudicated by a panel of
top cartoonists and an award is given to the best college cartoonist.
The recipient is feted at the annual NCS Reuben Awards Convention
attended by many of the world's leading cartoonists.
For your consideration....
It is about a month to the December 15 deadline for the Jay Kennedy
Memorial Scholarship and we'd like your help to get the word out. If
you have a website or blog, we would appreciate it if you'd put up
some infomation and art pertaining to the scholarship so that possible
applicants might see it. The info block and the link are below and the
art is attached. (It's a great piece done by John Martz.)
Thanks in advance,
Rick Stromoski
President, National Cartoonists Society Foundation
John Kovaleski
Chair, Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship
------------------
Do you cartoon? You could win a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to Las
Vegas to meet the top names in cartooning. Don't delay - the deadline
is December 15.
Applicants must be students at a 4-year college in the United States,
Canada or Mexico who will be a Junior or Senior during the 2012-2013
academic year. Applicants do not have to be art majors to be eligible
for this scholarship.
For more information and an application, please visit:
http://www.cartoonistfoundation.org/
The annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, in memory of the late
King Features editor, was funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the
Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous
donations from Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick McDonnell and many
other prominent cartoonists. Submissions are adjudicated by a panel of
top cartoonists and an award is given to the best college cartoonist.
The recipient is feted at the annual NCS Reuben Awards Convention
attended by many of the world's leading cartoonists.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Passing of a Giant
Bil Keane: 1922-2011
The cartooning world lost a true giant yesterday. Bil Keane, creator of The Family Circus, has passed away at age 89.
I’ll never forget the first time I met Bil…
In 1999, Anna and I attended our very first Reuben awards in San Antonio. I was a new member and basically knew no one, so we walked about wide-eyed seeing all the legendary cartoonists milling about like Charles Schulz, Jack Davis, Jeff MacNelly and many more. One of those legends I knew and admired the most was Bil Keane. “The Family Circus” was a staple in our home growing up, and while my cartooning tastes took a bit of a more “MAD” direction as I grew up, I always had a soft spot for that feature. Not knowing what Bil looked like, I had someone point him out to me.
“Bil always emcees the Reuben ceremony,” I was told. “You’ll get to see him do that tonight.”
Knowing that “The Family Circus” was a very sweet and gentle strip, I mentioned I was surprised they didn’t have an emcee with a little more of a sharp-tongued approach.
“Just wait. You haven’t seen Bil emcee yet,” they replied.
I sure hadn’t. I was laughing so hard throughout the awards I barely recall who won what. To say Bil Keane was only quick-witted is like saying Olympic superstar Usian Bolt is just “sort-of fast”. He was one of the funniest guys I’d ever met. Anna and I shared a shuttle with he and his wife Thel from the airport to the site of the 2002 Reubens in Cancun, and enjoyed their company and stories of how they met and about their wonderful family. One of the things we talked about was Hawai’i, where Anna and I were planning a trip. Bil told us about a hotel he and Thel always stayed at on Waikiki, and when Anna and I visited Honolulu we spend a few nights in that same hotel. Upon check in, the bellman asked what I did for a living as he was checking in our bags. When I told him I was a cartoonist, he said they had a regular guest who was a cartoonist they all knew and thought was a great guy… that was, of course, Bil Keane.
His son Jeff is a good friend of mine, and we have spent a lot of time together on USO cartoonist tours as well as working on the NCS board, where he was president preceding me. I got to hear a lot of great stories about his dad, who also did cartoonist USO tours to Vietnam during that conflict.
Bil was one of the true legends of cartooning. An active member of the National Cartoonists Society, Bil served as president from 1981-1983 as well as emceeing the Reubens for many, many years. It was a true honor and privilege to have been able to meet him and get to know him a bit. He will be sorely missed, and my heart goes out to Jeff and his wife Melinda, their kids and their entire family.
Few cartoonists left a legacy like Bil did. We were all lucky to have enjoyed his talent for so many years.
(courtesy: Tom Richmond's blog)
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Jobs died
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/us/obit-steve-jobs/index.html?iref=BN1&hpt=hp_t1
You'll forgive me but I've been encumbered with Apple since 1985. And especially in the late 80s.
Thank you, Mr. Jobs. Please see if you can get God's email to work properly....
When was the last time you saw people leaving candles and flowers for the CEO of a major corporation? Pardon my age but this is "heavy, man."
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Fall Chapter Meeting Updated:
Here's the general slate of events for our upcoming Fall Chapter Meeting, Oct. 14th - 16th in Minneapolis, MN!:
Friday, Oct. 14th-
- 5:00 pm- Cocktail reception at Jasmine 26
- 6:30 pm- Stephan Pastis Presentation- MCAD Auditorium 150
- 7:30 pm- Cartoonists Panel Q&A with student audience
- 9:00 pm- Dinner and drinks at Cadillac Ranch Bar and Grill at the Mall of America (right across the street from the hotel)
- Complimentary breakfast at hotel on own
- 8:30 a.m.- Chapter meeting in Conference room TBA
- 9:45 depart for FallCon Convention
- 10:30- 4:00- NCS NCC table at FallCon
- 6:00 pm- Dinner and Drinks at O'Garas Bar and Grill in St. Paul
- 11:00 am- Brunch at Casa Del Richmond
This is my list so far of those attending and wanting a comp badge for admission to FallCon:
Tom Richmond
Cedric Hohnstadt
Jim Hungaski
Stephan Pastis
Jerry Van Amerongen
Mike Edhlom
Phil Juliano
John Hambrock
Chris Hambrock
William Whitehead
Paul Fell
Jim Horwitz
If I am missing anyone please email me and let me know. See you in about 3 weeks!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Fall Meeting update...
THIS IS IMPORTANT... A quick note to all those attending the Fall Chapter meeting in Minnesota — we're going to have to put the touch on you. Yeah, yeah, I know..."It's the economy, stupid!" Well, in this case "it's the dinner at O'Gara's, bozo."
We're collecting $20 from each attendee to cover addition costs for the dinner at O'Gara's. Even if you're back at the hotel, drinking your dinner, we need the @ $20. The Chapter is covering a lot of costs for this meeting (no, not the bar bill) so a couple bucks won't kill ya.
AND... As we will have one or two tables at the FallCon, those of you with books, reproductions, etc. to sell, bring 'em! (That means you, John. Remember Omaha?) The Chapter gets ten-percent. (I think Fell is bringing his Model A Ford Pick Up Truck.)
JUST ONE MORE THING... If you have an original piece of your art that you'd be willing to contribute to the Chapter Raffle, please bring it along.
We're collecting $20 from each attendee to cover addition costs for the dinner at O'Gara's. Even if you're back at the hotel, drinking your dinner, we need the @ $20. The Chapter is covering a lot of costs for this meeting (no, not the bar bill) so a couple bucks won't kill ya.
AND... As we will have one or two tables at the FallCon, those of you with books, reproductions, etc. to sell, bring 'em! (That means you, John. Remember Omaha?) The Chapter gets ten-percent. (I think Fell is bringing his Model A Ford Pick Up Truck.)
JUST ONE MORE THING... If you have an original piece of your art that you'd be willing to contribute to the Chapter Raffle, please bring it along.
Fall Meeting update...
THIS IS IMPORTANT... A quick note to all those attending the Fall Chapter meeting in Minnesota — we're going to have to put the touch on you. Yeah, yeah, I know..."It's the economy, stupid!" Well, in this case "it's the dinner at O'Gara's, bozo."
We're collecting $20 from each attendee to cover addition costs for the dinner at O'Gara's. Even if you're back at the hotel, drinking your dinner, we need the @ $20. The Chapter is covering a lot of costs for this meeting (no, not the bar bill) so a couple bucks won't kill ya.
AND... As we will have one or two tables at the FallCon, those of you with books, reproductions, etc. to sell, bring 'em! (That means you, John. Remember Omaha?) The Chapter gets ten-percent. (I think Fell is bringing his Model A Ford Pick Up Truck.)
JUST ONE MORE THING... If you have an original piece of your art that you'd be willing to contribute to the Chapter Raffle, please bring it along.
We're collecting $20 from each attendee to cover addition costs for the dinner at O'Gara's. Even if you're back at the hotel, drinking your dinner, we need the @ $20. The Chapter is covering a lot of costs for this meeting (no, not the bar bill) so a couple bucks won't kill ya.
AND... As we will have one or two tables at the FallCon, those of you with books, reproductions, etc. to sell, bring 'em! (That means you, John. Remember Omaha?) The Chapter gets ten-percent. (I think Fell is bringing his Model A Ford Pick Up Truck.)
JUST ONE MORE THING... If you have an original piece of your art that you'd be willing to contribute to the Chapter Raffle, please bring it along.
Friday, August 5, 2011
August 5
Two features appear on today's THE WRITER'S ALMANAC with GARRISON KEILLOR spotlighting cartoons.
The New York Daily News debuted the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" on this day in 1924. Cancelled in 2010 after a run of nearly 86 years, the street-smart redhead inspired a radio show, a Broadway musical, three film adaptations, mass-marketed books, and merchandise that included everything from lunchboxes to curly wigs. Although only a fraction of this happened before the strip's creator, Harold Gray, died in 1968, it was enough to make him a millionaire.
Gray's wealth drew criticism during the Great Depression, when he used the strip to voice his populist political beliefs: namely, that the poor ought to pull themselves up by the bootstraps without government intervention or assistance. This is how his character Daddy Warbucks, the tuxedoed war profiteer, had succeeded, transforming his modest machine shop into a World War I munitions factory. Gray expressed his distaste for FDR and his New Deal in the strip's storylines, prompting one left-leaning writer to label it "Hooverism in the funnies." The public didn't seem to care — in 1937, "Little Orphan Annie" was the most popular comic in the country.
Forty years later, when the playwright Thomas Meehan adapted the strip for the 1977 Broadway musical, Annie, he subverted Gray's original politics. The updated Annie stumbles upon a "Hooverville" of homeless people who sing the ironic "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover," and she is later saved from greedy imposter parents and the evil orphanage supervisor by FDR himself. The play — and the 1982 film — ends with a rousing chorus of the song "A New Deal for Christmas," celebrating the economic plan that the strip's creator had so despised.
Politics aside, both Gray and Meehan had hard-knock lives, at least as teenagers. Meehan's father died when he was 15, and Gray was orphaned just before finishing high school.
Although Gray credited a girl he'd met on the streets of Chicago as his inspiration for the character of Annie, he took the strip's title from that of a popular poem by James Whitcomb Riley, originally published in 1885. That Annie was based on a real orphan girl who lived in the poet's home during his childhood, earning her room and board by helping Riley's mother with the housework. The child was called Allie, short for Alice, and the poem based on her was supposed to be called "Little Orphant Allie." A simple typo changed her name to Annie, and by the time Riley requested that it be corrected, the poem was gaining popularity and he let the misprint stand.
From the first stanza that started it all:
Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,
An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,
An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,
An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep.
The British tabloid The Daily Mirror debuted the comic strip "Andy Capp" on this day in 1957. A pun on the word "handicap" in the dialect of northern England, where the comic is set and where its creator, Reginald "Reg" Smythe, was raised, Andy Capp is a roustabout who spends his time drinking, gambling, and fighting with his long-suffering wife, Flo.
The strip continues in syndication, despite Smythe's death in 1998, and is read in 13 languages across 31 countries. These days, Andy has kicked his smoking habit, and the Capps no longer engage in domestic violence — they go to marriage counseling.
— Courtesy The Writer's Almanac
© 2011 APM
The Writer's Almanac is produced by Prairie Home Productions and presented by American Public Media.
The New York Daily News debuted the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" on this day in 1924. Cancelled in 2010 after a run of nearly 86 years, the street-smart redhead inspired a radio show, a Broadway musical, three film adaptations, mass-marketed books, and merchandise that included everything from lunchboxes to curly wigs. Although only a fraction of this happened before the strip's creator, Harold Gray, died in 1968, it was enough to make him a millionaire.
Gray's wealth drew criticism during the Great Depression, when he used the strip to voice his populist political beliefs: namely, that the poor ought to pull themselves up by the bootstraps without government intervention or assistance. This is how his character Daddy Warbucks, the tuxedoed war profiteer, had succeeded, transforming his modest machine shop into a World War I munitions factory. Gray expressed his distaste for FDR and his New Deal in the strip's storylines, prompting one left-leaning writer to label it "Hooverism in the funnies." The public didn't seem to care — in 1937, "Little Orphan Annie" was the most popular comic in the country.
Forty years later, when the playwright Thomas Meehan adapted the strip for the 1977 Broadway musical, Annie, he subverted Gray's original politics. The updated Annie stumbles upon a "Hooverville" of homeless people who sing the ironic "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover," and she is later saved from greedy imposter parents and the evil orphanage supervisor by FDR himself. The play — and the 1982 film — ends with a rousing chorus of the song "A New Deal for Christmas," celebrating the economic plan that the strip's creator had so despised.
Politics aside, both Gray and Meehan had hard-knock lives, at least as teenagers. Meehan's father died when he was 15, and Gray was orphaned just before finishing high school.
Although Gray credited a girl he'd met on the streets of Chicago as his inspiration for the character of Annie, he took the strip's title from that of a popular poem by James Whitcomb Riley, originally published in 1885. That Annie was based on a real orphan girl who lived in the poet's home during his childhood, earning her room and board by helping Riley's mother with the housework. The child was called Allie, short for Alice, and the poem based on her was supposed to be called "Little Orphant Allie." A simple typo changed her name to Annie, and by the time Riley requested that it be corrected, the poem was gaining popularity and he let the misprint stand.
From the first stanza that started it all:
Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,
An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,
An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,
An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep.
The British tabloid The Daily Mirror debuted the comic strip "Andy Capp" on this day in 1957. A pun on the word "handicap" in the dialect of northern England, where the comic is set and where its creator, Reginald "Reg" Smythe, was raised, Andy Capp is a roustabout who spends his time drinking, gambling, and fighting with his long-suffering wife, Flo.
The strip continues in syndication, despite Smythe's death in 1998, and is read in 13 languages across 31 countries. These days, Andy has kicked his smoking habit, and the Capps no longer engage in domestic violence — they go to marriage counseling.
— Courtesy The Writer's Almanac
© 2011 APM
The Writer's Almanac is produced by Prairie Home Productions and presented by American Public Media.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Fall Meeting HOTEL INFO
Here it is gang! The information you've been anxiously waiting for.
The number to call is (952) 854-5555 and reference National Cartoonists Society North Central Chapter group.
Remember, we have a rate at the Country Inn & Suites. That rate is $116 per night (single or double occupancy). Tom tells us that its even nicer than the place we stayed at last time, and less expensive. :-) Includes a free full breakfast and is right across the street from the Mall of America. (Click on the Country Inn & Suites and link to their website.)
Rate is guaranteed for Oct 13, 14, and 15 (and one day pre and post). There will be a 3-week out cut-off where rooms will no longer be guaranteed at that price, but if they have availability they will honor the rate but just not hold rooms anymore.
Call them right away as I'm sure this will be a standing-room only meeting and Bucky will probably be bringing a few of his clients.
See you in the Twin Cities in October!
— ME
The number to call is (952) 854-5555 and reference National Cartoonists Society North Central Chapter group.
Remember, we have a rate at the Country Inn & Suites. That rate is $116 per night (single or double occupancy). Tom tells us that its even nicer than the place we stayed at last time, and less expensive. :-) Includes a free full breakfast and is right across the street from the Mall of America. (Click on the Country Inn & Suites and link to their website.)
Rate is guaranteed for Oct 13, 14, and 15 (and one day pre and post). There will be a 3-week out cut-off where rooms will no longer be guaranteed at that price, but if they have availability they will honor the rate but just not hold rooms anymore.
Call them right away as I'm sure this will be a standing-room only meeting and Bucky will probably be bringing a few of his clients.
See you in the Twin Cities in October!
— ME
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Cartoonists Meet The Classics
On June 1, 2, and 3 saw three members of the North Central Chapter, along with guest cartoonist, in Lincoln, NE as the visual arts for the 11th Annual Meadowlark Music Festival, www.meadowlarkmusicfestival.com. The Meadowlark puts on a series of summer concerts that have featured chamber music ensembles at various venues around Southeast Nebraska. As a part of this “classy” arts event, a visual artist is invited to produce a piece of original artwork that reflects the artistic flavor of the festival and the ambience of Nebraska. This year, Tamara Cass, executive director of the Meadowlark Music Festival, decided to have a little fun, choosing cartoonists rather than a painter or sculptor as the visual artist.
Paul Fell, John Hambrock, and Mike Edholm along with Milt Priggee entertained the public in a fundraiser for the Festival with two nights of cartooning and caricatures at the Haydon Art Center in Lincoln’s Historic Haymarket district. The First Friday night event featured the cartoonists drawing caricatures for anyone who would fork over the cash. All funds went straight to the Meadowlark Music Festival. Later, the director of the Haydon Art Center told me that this had been one of the biggest events of their year. Naturally I suggested that they host another cartoonist show.
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