As a temporary band-aid, the “anti-spam word” device has been deactivated.
So now it is once again possible for you to submit comments and cartoon captions in the contest. Just follow steps 1) click on “Comments”, 2) type in your name and caption and 4) click on “Submit”. Forget about step 3.
Hopefully we'll get back to normal soon.
I was informed by an anxious caption-writer that my anti-spam word is not functioning. So of course it's been impossible for anyone to comment or submit captions for the current contest. Sorry about that — I really don't know how long that's been going on, and I'm trying to have the glitch repaired.
Mary-Lou Weisman is the author of “Al Jaffee's Mad Life”, a recently-published biography of cartoonist Al Jaffee. I wrote an online review of the book on Litkicks, and you can read it here.
Several times in this archive I have written about my friend, artist (and cartoonist) Tom Wesselmann.
Tom died unexpectedly in 2004, culminating a lengthly career as one of America’s original “Pop” artists. For almost his entire life, Tom’s not-so-secret dream was to see his gag cartoons published in The New Yorker. It was not to be. However, as I’ve noted here before, The New Yorker has often published his Pop-Art images in its pages. The latest example is on page 6 of the current issue, dated October 18, 2010.
This is the image: 
Tom is not credited. The New Yorker caption for the image is: “Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen,” at MOMA. Photograph by Martine Fougeron.
Who is the gentleman strolling past Tom’s collage? I have no idea.
The collage, by the way, is “Still Life #30”, and it dates from 1963. It is in the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).
Here are some links to more of my reminiscences of Tom Wesselmann:
Tom Wesselmann painting reproduced in The New Yorker
‘We All Have To Start Somewhere’ Department. Case in Point No. 6
O.K., I'm back, and lots of new captions have been posted. Contest No. 7 isn't over until midnight Tuesday, June 8th, so there's still plenty of time to come up with innovative stuff.
What a shame that I can't win this contest myself — while I was away I came up with two great captions, both on topics that haven't yet been covered by anyone else. I'll tell them to you when I declare the winner.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, I will not have access to a computer for about a week.
So the deadline for captions for Contest No. 7 is extended to midnight Tuesday, June 8th.
I was very sorry to hear about the death of New Yorker cartoonist John Kane. Here's my little remembrance of him:
For a short time a few years ago, I was going in regularly to show my cartoons to Bob Mankoff at The New Yorker. As it says in the linked article, I was also made to feel at home by the likes of Sid Harris and Sam Gross and by a guy, up in years like me, who I had really never heard of before . . . John Kane.
One Tuesday in the waiting room, John was passing around his copy of a hard-cover New Yorker collection of cartoons for everybody to autograph. He eventually passed it to me. I demurred, telling him that I was never actually published in The New Yorker. John's simple response was, “Oh, but you will be.”
I stubbornly didn't sign the book, but his gentle words have stayed with me, and I wish I could have told him how much I appreciated them.
Here’s a photo of legendary cartoonist Al Ross taken in September 2009, when he was 97 years old. He celebrated his 98th birthday on October 19th. That’s him on the right. The photo was taken by his son, Arlen, who also informed me (in a comment, below) that the man with his arms around Al Ross is Arlen’s ex-father-in law.
My thanks to Dave Colombo, a collector of cartoon and comic art, for letting me know about this photo. It was posted by Arlen Ross on his blog, and you can read more about both father and son, and their musical connection, on his blog.
Dave Colombo also told me that he recently acquired this original strip drawn by Al Ross, probably from the 1940’s or 1950’s.
It was of particular interest to me because I didn’t realize that Al Ross ever tackled a comic strip — I thought of him only as a single-panel gag cartoonist.
Dave says he would love to find out if the strip was ever published, and where.
So a belated Happy 98th Birthday to you, Al Ross!
By my rough calculation, I either have recently posted or very soon will be posting to this archive my 1,000th published cartoon. As the political pollsters like to say, this statistical data has an accuracy rating of plus or minus three percent.
On to the next thousand! And what better way to celebrate than by posting a “World Series” cartoon that The Wall Street Journal just printed a few days ago. And if it should happen to snow in New York City tomorrow, when the sixth game of the Series is scheduled to be played, so much the better.
Go Phillies! (As an old Brooklyn Dodger fan, no way am I pulling for the Yankees).
Yesterday I attended the opening reception of “Laugh Lines”, a group show of cartoonists at the Art-trium Gallery in Melville, Long Island, NY. It featured original works of the “Berndt Toast Gang”, the LI chapter of the National Cartoonists Society (named after a deceased member, Walter Berndt, who long ago created the comic strip “Smitty”).
I had gone to the reception hoping to get a chance to chat with the likes of Mad Magazine cartoonist Mort Drucker, fellow blogger Don Orehek and even fellow blogger Mike Lynch (an ex-Berndt Toaster who now lives in New Hampshire). Unfortunately, I had to leave the reception before it was over, and didn't get a chance to see either Drucker or Orehek (I really didn't think that Mike Lynch was planning to attend from so far away). My loss, if any of them showed up later.
A little mystery developed, however. Looking around the exhibition, I noticed that there were no works by Mort Drucker to be found anywhere (press releases for the show featured his name very prominently). I questioned one of the show's organizers, who said regretfully that Mr. Drucker had pulled his work out of the show the day before. She didn't give me a reason and couldn't offer any further explanation. So, as I said, there's a little mystery . . . perhaps someone reading this is in the know and can supply details?
Anyway, here are a few photos:
The Berndt Toast Gang . . . at least all of those in attendance before I left.
Me and Bunny Hoest in front of a couple of her “Lockhorns” panels. Her collaborator, John Reiner, was not in attendance.
Me checking out an original panel of “They'll Do It Every Time” by John Scaduto.
Me straightening out an original gag cartoon panel by Don Orehek.
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