André Valente: Day Two
Do you have what it takes to hang dry your clothes? “Sure I do”, you think. “What could go wrong?”, you wonder. André Valente has the answer, in today’s Cartoonist’s Diary!
Columns
André Valente: Day One
André Valente begins his week of diaries to attention, by answering the big linguistic questions…and chasing around the visual concept of what it would look like if Andre The Giant and Mandy Patinkin got together and had a couple of babies.
Remembering Playboy & Hef
R.C. Harvey first encountered Playboy in 1955, two years after it started publishing. Today, in 2022, he eulogizes what the magazine used to be, and laments what it eventually became.
Jennifer Hayden: Day Four
On staring into black glass in a room of new silence.
Jennifer Hayden: Day Three
A drive to Princeton, a whale of a surprise, and books, books, books: today’s Cartoonist’s Diary has it all. Deadlines are in the rearview for Jennifer Hayden!
Jennifer Hayden: Day Two
A little bit of progress counts as progress: don’t let anybody put your success on a scale! Jennifer Hayden gets it, in today’s Cartoonist’s Diary!
Jennifer Hayden: Day One
There’s probably no more Cartoonist’s Diary then a Diary that includes good food, deadlines, dreams, frustrating emails and good bookstores: Jennifer Hayden, starting it off correctly!
How Comic Books Have Changed
In this installment of R.C. Harvey’s long running column, he switches his focus from the comics of the past to look at the work of today: new work from Eduardo Risso, Sean Phillips, Jeff Lemire, Matthieu Blanchin, Howard Chaykin, and more. Thinks may have changed–but Bob has changed with them!
The Importance of June 16th to James Joyce, And a New Graphic Biography of the Famously Obtuse Writer
Bob has always liked his James Joyce biographies, when they’ve shown up in prose. He also, as you well know, likes his comics. So is a comic biography of Joyce, like the one by Alfonso Zapico, going to be the peanut butter to his chocolate? Let’s put it this way: the word “best” is about to get a bit of a workout.
Westergaard and the World’s Most Notorious Cartoon
Matthias Wivel grapples with the thorny legacy of Kurt Westergaard, the Danish artist behind the most notorious editorial cartoon of the 21st century thus far. Westergaard died last July.
Mister Oswald and His Hardware Store: Russ Johnson’s Long-running Comic Strip
Bob takes us back to the hardware store (which is near the woodshed) to uncover the story behind one of the longest running comic strips in the history books, and the only comic strip that can claim consistent Hardware Retailer serialization on its resume
A Portrait of a Manga Scholar Offering His Arm to Shirato Sanpei
Ryan Holmberg remembers Shirato Sanpei, one of the masters of politically-informed action comics, who died this past October.
Funny Book Round Up
Congratulations, you’re in for a lucky-number-seven capsule reviews of all sorts of comics. Recent, good superhero comics! Small-press erotic comics! Decades-old alternative comics! Extremely unhappy commercial Japanese comics! Austin English brings you everything under the sun, and you should thank him.
Another Look At Bill Mauldin
There’s never a bad time to talk about Bill Mauldin, but it’s especially a good time when you’ve got a whole bushel of Maulidin trivia, history and gossip to share thanks to Bob tracking down a copy of 2020’s Drawing Fire: The Editorial Cartoons of Bill Mauldin.
Basil Wolverton: Daft Drivel Dished on the Daffy Dude Who Drew Us Out of the Dumps
Damn, a doggoned disquisition on the 20th century master, in honor of a new collection of ’40s and ’50s filler frolics.
Scrawling Editoons & Pop’s Place: When Your Surname Is Rawls And Your Initials Are S & C
Bob takes a look at Sam C. Rawls (Scrawls), whose name never provided him a choice about what kind of profession he was best suited for, his work throughout the 80s and 90s both as a strip & editorial cartoonist, and his more recent environmental activism.
MK Reed: Day Five
Good boy, Hank.
MK Reed: Day Four
Scenes from the early life of Hank, as MK Reed’s diary week continues.
MK Reed: Day Three
Garden work; a helpful pet; a fancy dress; trophies awarded before a thousand eyes in an empty room.
MK Reed: Day Two
Today, MK and her sibling try to find some sense of normalcy in the face of 2020’s various awfulness by heading out to the farm!
MK Reed: Day One
A new Cartoonist’s Diary begins, and so does a new era for a dog, depicted by MK Reed as having experienced, for the first time…well, you’ll just have to read on to find out!
Shoes & John Q. Public
Bob is calling class to order, and this time, he’s looking back at Vaughn Shoemaker, the question of who invented the “Q” in John Q. Public, how the Gospels made it past the editing stage, and supplying some professional anecdotes of the way things used to be, professionally..
Max Huffman: Day Five
In today’s conclusion of Max Huffman’s Diary, he turns his pen to the recesses of his memory, delivers a classic “footprints” gag, and touches upon current affairs in a universal fashion. It’s what we in the comics business call a “perfect landing”. Get in here, buddy!
