Category: Eli’s Corner

I was watching snippets of “The Twilight Zone” marathon (a New Year’s Day tradition on the Sci-Fi channel) and realized that I actually have a connection to TTZ — far afield, I admit, but a connection just the same.

A few years after Rod Serling’s death, his wife Carol helped subsidize the publication of “The Twilight Zone Magazine”, a monthly which started in April 1981 and continued until it folded in early 1989. It was primarily an outlet for fantasy and horror articles and fiction, but — surprise, surprise — it also ran gag cartoons.

I had this cartoon in the April 1988 issue:

The issue contained just six cartoons, including one each by New Yorker cartoonists Leo Cullum and Tom Cheney. Cullum’s drawing style has evolved so much since 1988. The Cheney, on the other hand, is instantly recognizable.

Also in this issue was a brief article on movie-going by New Yorker cartoonist Gahan Wilson, accompanied by this spot illustration by him.

Digging into my extensive files once again, I find that I have two old original 8 1/2" x 11" cartoon "roughs" by fellow cartoonists. One is by CEM (Charles E. Martin), who died in 1995. CEM's cartoons and covers appeared extensively in The New Yorker over the years. The other is by Vahan Shirvanian, still very much an active gag cartoonist, whose cartoons have also appeared in The New Yorker.

Both cartoon roughs were OK'd by Argosy magazine. Argosy was a prolific cartoon-user in the post World War II years, and published its last issue in 1978. With offices in Manhattan, Argosy was a regular stop for cartoonists on Wednesday "Look Days". The CEM rough is in ink. The Argosy notations on it are: "OK Argosy — line & benday — color overlay". Also, "Extend it .." (no further instructions as to what length to extend it). Below that, "ARGX1304". Martin's name and address are also written in the upper right-hand corner.

The Shirvanian rough is in pencil. The Argosy notation on it is "OK Argosy line & benday — 2nd color". Shirvanian's name and address are rubber-stamped on the back.

I have no idea what year or even what decade these two roughs date from. My guess would be anywhere between 1950 and 1970. Does anybody out there have any additional information on either of these?

Thought you'd be interested in seeing these little bits of gag cartooning history.

In 1985, the Cartoonists Association sponsored an exhibition of original cartoon art at the Master Eagle Gallery in Manhattan. For a poster announcing the show, the participating cartoonists drew self-portraits.

I thought you'd like to see them. There are lots of “big” names here and many are still actively cartooning, especially with The New Yorker. And, sadly, there are quite a few who are no longer cartooning or who have passed away.

Here they are. I've typed in the names of the cartoonists below each set of self-portraits, in case you can't decipher them. For some unfathomable reason P.C. Vey appears twice, with different drawings. There are two self-portraits that I can't identify. They are either Felipe Galindo, Jared Lee or Skip Morrow. If anyone can help me out here, I'd appreciate it.

Al Ross, Lou Myers, Catherine O'Neill, Lawrence Trepel, John Jonik, Tom Cheney

Joe Farris, Henry Martin, Bob Mankoff, David Pascal, Ed Franscino, Boris Drucker

Sam Gross, Artemas Cole, Liza Donnelly, Peter Steiner, Mort Gerberg, David Sipress, P.C. Vey, Richard Orlin, Dana Fradon

Eli Bauer, Bill Hoest, ???? ?????? (it's Skip Morrow — see comments), Charles Sauers, Tim Haggerty, David Jacobson, Mike Twohy, Bill Lee, Roz Chast

Leo Cullum, Aaron Bacall, ???? ????? (It's Felipe Galindo — see his comment), Sidney Harris, Bud Grace

Jack Ziegler, Ed Arno, Michael Crawford, John Norment, Warren Miller, Barney Tobey

Mick Stevens, Howard Margulies, Lee Lorenz, Richard Cline, Bernard Schoenbaum, Arnie Levin

Stuart Leeds, P.C.Vey (again), Lo Linkert, W.B. Park, M.G. Lord

By popular demand (from Mike Lynch), here are profiles of the five other instructors on the staff of "The Professional School of Cartooning". For further details, see my posting in "Eli's Corner" dated January 2, 2008, about the four cartooning Roth brothers. I wish I could give you updates on all these cartoonists, but I have very little info to impart. All of them were prolific and popular gag cartoonists in 1947. Of course, Lawrence Lariar (apparently the founder and "Executive Director" of this correspondence school) was also a Cartoon Editor for several major publications, and also an anthologist of a great many cartoon book collections.

Wow, Adolph Schus was selling cartoons in 1926 — now, that makes me feel young!

Here are some more panels that appeared in "Memos from Gurney Williams". Mr Williams was, among other things, Cartoon Editor of LOOK magazine in the 1950's, and he published a monthly "Memos" to be picked up and read by the cartoonists who visited him on Wednesday, which was Cartoon "Look Day". For more details, see my previous postings on the subject in "Eli's Corner".

Anyway, here are three more "How Not to Get an Okay" panels by Stan Fine, two panels of "The Rat Race" by Jack Tippit and last, but certainly not least, a VIP (Virgil Partch). These all involved cartoonists commenting on this crazy business of magazine gag cartooning. More to come in future postings.