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The
2004 Festival of Cartoon Art in a
Series of Snapshots
by Bruce Chrislip
January 12, 2005
The
2004 Festival of Cartoon Art (subtitled
"Deletions, Omissions and Erasures")
was held on the Campus of Ohio
State University in Columbus on
the somewhat wintry weekend of October
15 and 16.
This year's guest
speaker list included Nicole Hollander
(Sylvia),
Tom Batiuk (Funky
Winkerbean and Crankshaft),
Al Feldstein (former long-time editor
of Mad
magazine), Michelle Urry (cartoon
editor of Playboy),
Charles Brownstein (Director of Comic
Book Legal Defense Fund), author
Bob Levin (The
Pirates and the Mouse), Jay Lynch
(Nard
& Pat), Art Spiegelman (Maus
& In
The Shadow of No Towers), Lalo
Alcaraz (La
Cucaracha), history professor
Cindy
McCreery and three editorial cartoonists:
Joel
Pett, Ann
Telnaes and Tom
Tomorrow.
The Festival
is held every three years under the
auspices of the Ohio
State University Cartoon Research
Library, a compendium of all sorts
of cartooning publications (including
comic books), comic strips and cartoon
original art. The Research Library
grew out of an initial donation of
original artwork and manuscripts by
Ohio State alumnus Milton
Caniff many years ago. During
this year's Festival an interesting
collection of fan mail and original
art for Caniff's two comic strips
Terry
and The Pirates and Steve
Canyon was on display at the Cartoon
Research Library's gallery.
Nicole
Hollander
Nicole Hollander,
cartoonist of the Sylvia
comic strip, shared many amusing stories
and anecdotes concerning the strip
and some of the reactions it receives
from its readers. Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld's staff wrote her
a note requesting a recent strip original.
According to Hollander, "I didn't
want to send it. I shut them up by
requesting money."
Some readers
are bothered by the fact that Sylvia
smokes they keep sending Hollander
notes  to
get Sylvia to stop. Another fan objected
to a comic strip that made fun of
the rock musician Prince. The fan
said, "I think he's more man
than you can handle." Another
disgruntled fan remarked, "Reading
your strip is like talking to a leper."
Oops.
The theme of
this year's cartoon festival was censorship
(hence the subtitle of "Deletions,
Omissions and Erasures.") Hollander
noted that, "A newspaper can
cancel your comic strip and the syndicate
won't tell you about it. The only
way I ever find out is if a friend
that reads that particular newspaper
tells me."
Tom Batiuk
Tom Batiuk started
off by saying, "I don't really
do this kind of thing anymore (giving
speeches about cartooning)."
But then Festival organizer Lucy Shelton
Caswell asked him if he believed in
free speech. "Absolutely! I believe
in free speech!!" Batiuk replied.
"That's great," said Caswell,
"because we want you to give
one at Ohio State!"
The title of
Batiuk's speech was "Ten Things
That Need to be  Censored"
which was a witty way to comment
about things that bug him about the
comic strip business:
Number
10: Gary
Trudeau—"Because I'm
envious of him."
Number 9: Any kind
of change—because newspaper
readers don't like it. (Batiuk suffered
a minor injury and was unable to draw
Funky Winkerbean for a while so he
enlisted another cartoonist to take
over while he recovered. During this
time he got nothing but complaints
from readers who objected to the change
in art style even though the substitute
artist was comic book fan favorite
John
Byrne).
Number 8: Anything
that isn't a gag. Readers only want
funny stuff in their comics.
Number 7: The word
"sucks."
Number 6: Anything
that approaches an adult Point of
View. —Comic strips are ONLY
supposed to be kid's stuff.
Number 5: Anything
that makes the target audience think.
Number 4: What you
(the cartoonist) think.
Number 3: Religion—don't
touch it (or irate readers will quote
scripture at you).
Number 2: Politics—stay
away (see Religion above).
Number 1: The truth.
Even though the
above recital might seem to be the
rant of a bitter cartoonist, Batiuk's
speech was quite funny—and even
good-natured. But the point is that
there are so many critical readers
out there that he felt it didn't leave
him much leeway as a cartoonist.
Playboy
Cartoon Editor Michelle Urry
Urry emphasized
the importance of Playboy
to the cartoon crowd by stating, "I
buy approximately a million dollars
worth of cartoons a year!" Besides
her editorial duties at Playboy, Urry
also serves as cartoon editor or consultant
on other  magazines
like Good
Housekeeping, The
Cousteau Society, Modern
Maturity and even an unnamed religious
magazine. They all have their slants
and restrictions. Modern
Maturity doesn't want any cartoons
about politics, money or sex. "The
Cousteau Society doesn't like
cartoons that make fun of 'tree huggers'
or Smokey
the Bear."
Urry showed many
slides of gag cartoons from Playboy
to show off the wide range of subject
matter and approaches. Besides the
expected sexy cartoons, many had political
or social commentary.
Al Feldstein
Al
Feldstein was the editor of Mad
Magazine for over three decades.
He told the festival audience about
his beginnings in the comic book business
and the career path that led to Mad.
In the late 1940s, Bill
Gaines became publisher of EC
Comics after his father Max died
in a boating accident. Being new,
Gaines followed the current business
model—flood the market with
whatever type of comic book was popular
at the moment.
Feldstein joined
EC to produce a teenage
comic called Going Steady
with Peggy—modeled
after the Archie
comic books. It ceased publication
when the teenage comic fad ended.
Joe
Simon and Jack
Kirby created a sensation with
the first romance comic books. They
became the best selling titles on
the market. Fieldstein started drawing
romance comics for EC.
When sales dropped, Gaines looked
for the next trend.
One day, Al said
to Bill, "This is really dumb.
You're publishing what sells. When
the trend dies, you die. Stop being
an imitator, be an innovator."
Together, they
hatched the idea of producing a line
of horror comic books. Then Gaines
suggested they try science fiction.
Feldstein had never read any but took
to the genre quickly after reading
a pile of sci fi pulp magazines.
Mad comics came
about because Harvey
Kurtzman needed another title
to work on to increase his income.
EC Comics had a brief
run due to anti-comic book sentiment
in the mid-1950s, chiefly stirred
up by a book called Seduction
of the Innocent. "I suddenly
discovered I was one of the prime
seducers," said Al.
The Comic
Book Code came in, restricting
what could be published. The anti-comics
fervor put most comic book companies
and artists out of business. EC
Comics cancelled many titles
and was struggling to survive. Mad
switched from comic book to magazine.
Al Feldstein lost his job in comic
books and was wondering what to do
next.
As fate would
have it, a contract dispute between
Mad publisher Gaines
and Mad editor Kurtzman
led to Kurtzman leaving and Fieldstein
being invited back to EC.
A profit-sharing agreement at Mad
proved very lucrative for Editor Fieldstein
over the years. After decades as cheif
Mad-Man, he retired to Montana to
paint western landscapes.
The Milton
Caniff Tour
During lunch
break on the first day of the Cartoon
Festival  (Friday
October 15), I hiked across the somewhat
wintry campus of Ohio State University
to view an interesting art exhibit
at the Cartoon Research Library gallery.
It was called "Drawing Fire:
Controversial Comics by Milton Caniff"
and featured a combination of Terry
and the Pirates / Steve
Canyon original art along with
fan letters and slam letters pertaining
to the comic strips on display.
When character
Raven Sherman died
in a Terry and the Pirates
strip, Caniff devoted a brief sequence
to showing her burial. Some readers
sent letters of condolences to the
syndicate, often addressed to another
character in the comic strip! But
other readers criticized Caniff for
showing the death of a main character
in a comic strip. Some even accused
him of hurting the moral fiber of
the nation's youth.
 Letters
pertaining to other comic strips in
the exhibit were from readers so outraged
that they threatened to cancel their
subscriptions to the newspaper while
demanding that Caniff send a written
apology to them for the "offense."
From a 2005 vantage point, most of
the so-called offensive comic strips
seem pretty tame. However, I was glad
that Caniff collected and saved the
letters from his readers over the
years. It showed that the life of
a successful cartoonist is not all
india ink and zip-a-tone.
Jay Lynch
Underground cartoonist Jay Lynch gave a highly entertaining talk on
Saturday morning. I spent quite a bit of time with Lynch over the weekend
and found him to be not only a droll wit but also quite a historian of
American humor.
He started his talk by showing slides of favorite comics. "Here's Bunky from Snuffy Smith. Baby or midget—we don't know!" He showed the cover of
Dandy Comics #5, a funny animal title from the 1940s drawn by Vince Fago. "I
remember first looking at it while drinking out of a baby bottle."
Lynch considered E.C. horror comics an early high point. "Like watching a
good B-movie," he said. But Lynch went even further in his praise by
stating, "All modern culture was started or influenced by 225 Lafayette
Avenue." (That was the home of both E.C. Comics and Paul Krassner's satirical mag The Realist.)
In the early 1960s, Jay Lynch and his cartooning cohorts were creating
material for small press satire fanzines with names like Smudge and Wild.
Many of these same cartoonists would go on to create the underground comix
of the counterculture era.
Displaying perfect comic timing, Lynch showed a wacky example of
underground cartooning: "Here's a slide of Gilbert Shelton's Set My
Chickens Free!" After the briefest of pauses, Lynch continued, "LSD did
play a role in these cartoons." This line brought down the house.
Summing up the influence of Harvey Kurtzman and Mad, Jay Lynch offered the
following observation, "It's almost like Mad was an underground comic and we
just continued it."
contact: Bruce Chrislip
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