Cartoonist Profiles


Book Description




Cartoon Success Secrets


Book Description

Cartoon Success Secrets offers a veritable comics college education on how to succeed as a cartoonist. It features insider's perspectives from 20 top cartoonists, whose comic strips such as Zits, Garfield, Cathy, and For Better or For Worse appear in at least a thousand newspapers every day. Author Jud Hurd caught the cartooning bug more than three quarters of a century ago, and at age 90 he's still not cured. Now, in Cartoon Success Secrets, the editor of the cartooning industry's leading insider magazine, CARTOONIST PROfiles, shares the colorful stories and sage advice of his cartoonist colleagues. Through his personal encounters with virtually every cartoonist legend of the last four decades, Hurd amassed countless insights from the world's best cartoonists on how they rose to the top of their field. Now, for the first time ever, he shares his early conversations with such famous cartoonists as Walt Disney, Rube Goldberg, H. T. Webster, George McManus, Frederick Opper, and countless others who succeeded in selling their creations to major syndicates and attaining their cartooning aspirations. Their words will inspire all who have dreamed of becoming a famous cartoonist. Many books have profiled cartooning legends, but never before has a book compiled detailed advice from these creators on how they achieved their success. Cartoon Success Secrets is sure to fascinate cartoon enthusiasts the world over, from fledgling cartoonists looking to break into the industry to fans of the funny pages wanting to know how their favorite artists made it big.




Biographical Sketches of Cartoonists & Illustrators in the Swann Collection of the Library of Congress


Book Description

Inside this book are short biographical sketches about the many artists represented in the Library of Congress' Swann Collection compiled by Erwin Swann (1906-1973). In the early 1960s, Swann, a New York advertising executive started collecting original cartoon drawings of artistic and humorous interest. Included in the collection are political prints and drawings, satires, caricatures, cartoon strips and panels, and periodical illustrations by more than 500 artists, most of whom are American. The 2,085 items range from 1780-1977, with the bulk falling between 1890-1970. The Collection includes 1,922 drawings, 124 prints, 14 paintings, 13 animation cels, 9 collages, 1 album, 1 photographic print, and 1 scrapbook.




Cartoonists, Works, and Characters in the United States Through 2005


Book Description

This penultimate work in John Lent's series of bibliographies on comic art gathers together an astounding array of citations on American cartoonists and their work. Author John Lent has used all manner of methods to gather the citations, searching library and online databases, contacting scholars and other professionals, attending conferences and festivals, and scanning hundreds of periodicals. He has gone to great length to categorize the citations in an easy-to-use, scholarly fashion, and in the process, has helped to establish the field of comic art as an important part of social science and humanities research. The ten volumes in this series, covering all regions of the world, constitute the largest printed bibliography of comic art in the world, and serve as the beacon guiding the burgeoning fields of animation, comics, and cartooning. They are the definitive works on comic art research, and are exhaustive in their inclusiveness, covering all types of publications (academic, trade, popular, fan, etc.) from all over the world. Also included in these books are citations to systematically-researched academic exercises, as well as more ephemeral sources such as fanzines, press articles, and fugitive materials (conference papers, unpublished documents, etc.), attesting to Lent's belief that all pieces of information are vital in a new field of study such as comic art.




Cartoon County


Book Description

A history of the cartoonists and illustrators from the Connecticut School, written by the son of the artist behind the popular strips "Prince Valiant" and "Big Ben Bolt, " explores the achievements and pop-culture influence of these artists in the aftermath of World War II.




Of Comics and Men


Book Description

Originally published in France and long sought in English translation, Jean-Paul Gabilliet's Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books documents the rise and development of the American comic book industry from the 1930s to the present. The book intertwines aesthetic issues and critical biographies with the concerns of production, distribution, and audience reception, making it one of the few interdisciplinary studies of the art form. A thorough introduction by translators and comics scholars Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen brings the book up to date with explorations of the latest innovations, particularly the graphic novel. The book is organized into three sections: a concise history of the evolution of the comic book form in America; an overview of the distribution and consumption of American comic books, detailing specific controversies such as the creation of the Comics Code in the mid-1950s; and the problematic legitimization of the form that has occurred recently within the academy and in popular discourse. Viewing comic books from a variety of theoretical lenses, Gabilliet shows how seemingly disparate issues—creation, production, and reception—are in fact connected in ways that are not necessarily true of other art forms. Analyzing examples from a variety of genres, this book provides a thorough landmark overview of American comic books that sheds new light on this versatile art form.




Comic Books and Comic Strips in the United States through 2005


Book Description

This final work in John Lent's series of bibliographies on comic art gathers together an astounding array of citations on American comic books and comic strips. Included in this volume are citations regarding anthologies and reprints; criticism and reviews; exhibitions, festivals, and awards; scholarship and theory; and the business, artistic, cultural, legal, technical, and technological aspects of American comics. Author John Lent has used all manner of methods to gather the citations, searching library and online databases, contacting scholars and other professionals, attending conferences and festivals, and scanning hundreds of periodicals. He has gone to great length to categorize the citations in an easy-to-use, scholarly fashion, and in the process, has helped to establish the field of comic art as an important part of social science and humanities research. The ten volumes in this series, covering all regions of the world, constitute the largest printed bibliography of comic art in the world, and serve as the beacon guiding the burgeoning fields of animation, comics, and cartooning. They are the definitive works on comic art research, and are exhaustive in their inclusiveness, covering all types of publications (academic, trade, popular, fan, etc.) from all over the world. Also included in these books are citations to systematically-researched academic exercises, as well as more ephemeral sources such as fanzines, press articles, and fugitive materials (conference papers, unpublished documents, etc.), attesting to Lent's belief that all pieces of information are vital in a new field of study such as comic art.




The Secret Origins of Comics Studies


Book Description

In The Secret Origins of Comics Studies, today’s leading comics scholars turn back a page to reveal the founding figures dedicated to understanding comics art. Edited by comics scholars Matthew J. Smith and Randy Duncan, this collection provides an in-depth study of the individuals and institutions that have created and shaped the field of Comics Studies over the past 75 years. From Coulton Waugh to Wolfgang Fuchs, these influential historians, educators, and theorists produced the foundational work and built the institutions that inspired the recent surge in scholarly work in this dynamic, interdisciplinary field. Sometimes scorned, often underappreciated, these visionaries established a path followed by subsequent generations of scholars in literary studies, communication, art history, the social sciences, and more. Giving not only credit where credit is due, this volume both offers an authoritative account of the history of Comics Studies and also helps move the field forward by being a valuable resource for creating graduate student reading lists and the first stop for anyone writing a comics-related literature review.




Analecta


Book Description

If you're looking for a trite phrase to describe the essence of this book, try "A trip down memory lane." It might be as apt as any. And Jim Whiting's Analecta fits that mold. His bittersweet telling of a childhood filled with sometimes warm and fuzzy anecdotes may trigger fond memories of your own younger days. The more unpleasant aspects of growing up are also visited here and these tales will have you grateful that your experiences--perhaps similar--are in the past . . . only to be remembered, sometimes painfully. Analecta begins at a critical point in the author's life. He is on the final lap of a solo car journey from upstate New York to Southern California. Six days ago he had left a life that had become routine, comfortable, and very much a part of himself-- in retrospect, perhaps too much so. He would, in a matter of hours be reunited with his wife, who had taken a job a month prior, in Solana Beach. In New York State they had left behind four of five of their grown children and five grandchildren. He also left behind almost twenty-nine years in broadcasting and an overlapping career in cartooning-that's his resume. Flashbacks to his preteen years reveal a kid who shows very early entrepreneurial leanings. He has a tendency to want to "belong" but he has difficulty being at ease in belonging. Whiting touches on the uneasy relationship with his older brother (is that so different from many siblings have?) There are interludes about a twelve-year-old kid getting lost in on his first visit to New York City; a high school girl friend; Navy boot camp; magic in New Orleans; personalities in Radio; poems (some very good-- some not so-- but fun); observations made in classrooms, business offices, and on the tennis court. Don't look for gossip, accusations, or grievances; none of them are in this book. It's definitely not a downer. Returning to Mell Lazarus's Introduction for a final note: "It's a great book! If you're like me, you'll love it. If you're not like me, you'll love it."




Graphic Opinions


Book Description

Through profiles and essays, "Graphic Opinions" examines current work and opinions of two dozen prominent cartoonists.




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