From 1978: Mort Walker and the the Museum of Cartoon Art

Above: Frank and Ernest pooh pooh the events of 40 years ago in this 1978 ad for the Newspaper Enterprise Association.

From the late, lamented Cartoonist PROfiles magazine No. 38, June 1978, here are 2 articles about BEETLE BAILEY cartoonist Mort Walker. The first one is all about the Ward Castle, in Rye, NY, where the Museum of Cartoon Art was for many years. and the second one is a small feature on Mr. Walker being the Grand Marshall of the Homecoming Parade at the University of Missouri.









Related: Michael Cavna, at today's Washington Post Comic Riffs blog, queries Does 'Beetle' Mania Live On? Time to Defend That 'Toon

Korea Comics Museum of Bucheon

Here's a short video overview of the Korea Comics Museum of Bucheon.




A description of the center and its mission from the video:

Bucheon Cartoon Information Center was founded in 1998 as an active player in the cartoon culture base expansion project of the Korea Comics Museum, Comics Library and Comics Gyujanggak; as well as the opening of the Bucheon International Comics Festival, running of the International Cartoonist Competition, and comic education industry. In addition, to create industrial value for comic content, we are expanding a variety of comic creative support projects, including overseas exchanges and domestic comic market exploitation, as well as the operation of a comic general industry support center for comic-related enterprises and artists.

The International Museum of Cartoon Art & Big Boy

Hey, let's go back to 1994. Back when the International Museum of Cartoon Art has moved from its Rye, NY location ...

(Above: a postcard of the International Museum of Cartoon Art in its Rye, NY days. Photo by Berndt!)

... to Boca Raton, Florida.



Although the move to Florida was well publicized, the Museum would not see the support and foot traffic it needed to sustain the 52,000 square foot facility.

A couple of years later, Craig Yoe and Mort Walker teamed up for BIG BOY MAGAZINE (it's called a magazine, not a comic book) for an adventure with the Big Boy (a restaurant mascot; the restaurant being where one could pick up a free copy of the BIG BOY MAGAZINE) and Mort Walker's BEETLE BAILEY. Copyright 1997 Elias Brothers Restaurants, Inc.










In 2008, Mort Walker's huge collection went to Ohio, to be maintained by The Ohio State University Cartoon Library and Museum.

Related: 2009 events Celebrating the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection

Related: Mike Rhode, over at the ComicsDC blog, has the 2008 press release of IMCA moving to OSU here.

London: Wallace & Gromit Museum Exhibit

The Wallace & Gromit Present A World of Cracking Ideas exhibit at the Science Museum in London thru November 1st.

Creator Nick Park is interviewed, in print and on video, by Maev Kennedy for The Guardian here.

The world of Wallace and Gromit has been recreated in a £2m exhibition on the second floor of the Science Museum, complete with mad machines, giant cabbages, villainous rabbits, extensive research library on cheese, improbable collections – one illustrating the evolution of the welly boot – and kitchen cupboards stuffed with the packets and jars fondly remembered from Park's own childhood in Preston, Lancashire.

Video: The Toy and Action Figure Museum

I didn't even know about this place until today.

If you're in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, stop by at the Toy & Action Figure Museum. In a new 1 1/2 minute video, our host, Josh Kraft, manager, shows us that this place is more than action figures; it embraces comic strips as well.

He shows us some of the comic strip displays, Sunday pages, original art, and sort of a hall of fame of the cartoonists from Oklahoma: Bill Mauldin (the "Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonist" if you please, not just a guy who did cartoons back in the army days, as Mr. Kraft describes him), Chester Gould (DICK TRACY) and Jack & Carole Bender (ALLEY OOP). The Benders assist in curating the museum.




My thanks to Nick for posting this on YouTube!

Schulz & Beethoven Exhibit

Jeannie Schulz and a PEANUTS original. A photo by Peter DaSilva for The New York Times.

From the January 13, 2009 NY Times, here's a photo essay showcasing the Schulz's Beethoven: Schroeder's Muse exhibit currently at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, CA thru January 26th. And then it travels to San Jose State University, to go on display at the Beethoven Center there.

Related: Listening to Schroeder: ‘Peanuts’ Scholars Find Messages in Cartoon’s Scores by April Dembosky

Big hat tip to Steve Smallwood.

Video: Cartoon Research Library

One of the great things about the Internet is it can taker you a lot of places. P. Craig Russell takes us to the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. He's taking a bunch of his CORALINE-related material there, as he says he has with 95% of his output.

We get to see some great originals on the wall, and Lucy Caswell (professor and curator, ad one of the nicest people I know) shows us around. I've always been curious to see the library. Although I've met Lucy saveral times, it's never been on her OSU home turf. Thanks, Mr. Russell, for the peek!



Many more videos at Mr. Russell's site. He's a wonderful comic book artist who lives in Ohio.

Background: CORALINE is a 2002 novel by Neil Gaiman, and is soon to have its motion picture release. Mr. Russell drew the graphic novel adaptation.



Related: Wayne Alan Howard has a documentary on Mr. Russell for sale here.

Sempé Exhibit at the Caricature & Cartoon Museum

I wish I was in Switzerland ....


Along the Rhine, in the town of Basel, Switzerland is the Caricature & Cartoon Museum. The museum will exhibit original works by the cartoonist Sempé from November 8th until April 13, 2009.

Thanks to Matt Jones!

Joe Wos & the Toonseum

Above: From the May 17, 2008 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Wonder Woman, Joe Wos, Betty Boop. A big tip o' the hat to Dr. Lynch for cutting this out of the PG and sending it along.

Last month, I had the chance to visit Joe Wos at the Toonseum, which is part of the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. Joe was kind enough to show my wife and I around, and we all went to Joe's office to peek at some treasures. So, here are a few behind the scenes photos.


Joe took us up to his office. On a table were a couple of boxes and plastic bags full of HALF HITCH originals by Hank Ketcham (with an able uncredited assist by Dick Hodgins, Jr.). These are all awaiting cataloging.


These are gorgeous strips, and deserve to be seen. Above is one wonderfully illustrated panel. Ketcham had donated these originals to an armed forces facility. The personnel discovered that they could not file the strips away in traditional filing cabinets -- so they cut each original down so it would fit. Arrgh! So, not only do the strips need to be cataloged, first they have to be matched up and affixed together.


Joe has an amazing story about this lightboard that I am totally forgetting. I'm sorry Joe! I know it's an animation lightboard from the 1930s and some seminal animation was done on it. Arrgh! again.


Above: Joe Wos, Mike Lynch (Photo by Stacy!)

He's collecting cartoonists' drawings. One day this board will be full of original doodles!


Above: a closer angle. You can see Dan Piraro, Morrie Turner, Robb Arnstrong, Mike Lynch ....


Above: just a portion of Joe's bulletin board with all sorts of fun stuff; originals by Dan Crum. Tom Yeates, a lovely photo of Mssrs. Wos & Guisewite. Click to super-size.

My thanks to Joe for the time he took out of his schedule to show us around. There is a new exhibit of titled Just Kidding Around!: Children in Cartoons and Comics opening June 7th, featuring original art and rare items related from newspaper strips and kids TV. The exhibit runs through August 3rd.

Free Admission to the Charles M. Schulz Museum Today

... If you're a little red haired girl!

Mort Walker on the Cartoon Museum

THE BEAT has the latest on the National Cartoon Museum.

Bunny Hoest, Stan Goldberg & Mike Lynch at the Long Island Museum

Bunny Hoest, Stan Goldberg, Mike Lynch and Howard Huge


There are 3 ages of cartoons for me. When I was a kid, I first read comics in the newspaper that came to our home. When I was a little older, I made money mowing lawns, and I spent my money on comics. And later on, when I read magazines, I always liked the ones that had gag cartoons.

Above: Bunny's characters: Howard Huge, Leroy Lockhorn

We had all three of these kinds of cartoonists at the Long Island Museum on Sunday, June 10, 2007.

Above: Bunny Hoest

Bunny Hoest showed 23 cartoons of THE LOCKHORNS and LAUGH PARADE (the 20-year old gag cartoon feature in the Sunday supplement Parade Magazine). She talked about how she and Bill Hoest would see couples in real life, sniping at each other. "How can they do that to their best friend?" they wondered. Bunny pointed out that the strip was not based on her marriage to Bill, but rather on other couples they knew. She also made sure to credit John Reiner with drawing the strip since Bill Hoest passed away.

An audience member asked about the tiny and hard to read reproduction of THE LOCKHORNS in Newsday. Bunny had to tell the person that she had nothing to do with that -- and encouraged them to write or call the paper.

Above: Stan Goldberg

Stan Goldberg showed a couple dozen slides of his work, from MILLIE THE MODEL to ARCHIE, as well as some commercial illustrations. When I introduced him I reminded everyone that this was the guy who decided on the "look" for all of the Marvel characters. It's true: primary colors for Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and all the heroes. The villains get all the purples and the browns.


A quick doodle of Archie. Stan has drawn about 280 consecutive ARCHIE issues.

When it was my turn to get up, I said that I did truly 21st century cartoons. I draw cartoons for people who have no time to read comic books, no time for a whole three-paneled comic strip. My gag cartoons have to work in 4 seconds.

I told the crowd that I come up with 10-15 cartoons per week, mail them out. Then I do the same the next week and the next, until there are hundreds of cartoons out there. I showed about 20 cartoons, telling some stories about them.

The epitome of the angry boss -- the closest I get to an iconic image.

It was great to look out and see Mort Drucker and veteran gag cartoonist Eli Stein in the audience. Thanks for dropping by, guys!

Peanuts Mural

Five years ago, at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, artist Yoshiteru Otani designed a couple of installations. One of the permanent exhibits that Otani created was the above giant mural, made up of 3,588 dinky, tiled Peanuts strips.

This video here -- despite it being a low res, shakey, home video -- shows how amazing the scale of the thing is. It runs about half a minute.


Above: the artist gives us a sense of scale during construction. Photo taken from these CMS Museum pages that record the installation of the 17 x 22 foot mural.