Merry Christmas !

 

Larry’s Cartoon Vault: Things Don’t Change Much Pt. 2

Another clipping. This one from the September 18, 1919 edition of the humor magazine Life. The drawing is by Walter De Maris (1877-1947). De Maris drew cartoons for Puck, Judge and Life and later in life painted covers for pulp magazine such as Detective Fiction Weekly.

Larry’s Cartoon Vault: Things Don’t Change Much

A clipping from May 8, 1916. The cartoonist is Richard K. Culver. Culver worked for the daily newspapers the San Francisco Call, the L.A. Herald, Baltimore American and L.A. Express and freelanced to humor magazines Puck, Judge and Life. This cartoon was probably drawn for the L.A. Express.

RIP Alan Cumings 1944 - 2022

 With great sadness, I report that my old friend Alan Cumings has died.

                                 Alan at our place on Thanksgiving. He and his wife Claire came every year.

Alan and I first met in San Francisco on our way to a meeting of the graphics guild Artists in Print (AiP) sitting across from each other on the bus. I’m guessing that was around 1976—over 45 years ago.

Alan and me in Golden Gate Park, SF. circa the late 1970’s

Alan came to graphic arts in a roundabout way. He already had a Ph.D. in English (He got his B.A. at U.C. Berkeley and his doctorate at University of Wisconsin) and had spent time teaching English and working for one of the biggest advertising agencies in Chicago.  (He went from studying James Joyce to writing jingles for breakfast cereals). When I met him he was fed up and appalled with advertising and was turning his energies toward political cartooning. 

He was doing cartoons for political publications and the progressive radio station KPFA but ultimately wound up doing illustrations (and advertising!) for a variety of companies.

Alan evolved a very tight, clean, starkly black and white and obsessively concise style which was reminiscent of the work of Otto Soglow.

Appropriately enough one of his early illustration jobs was for the Artists in Print publication Graphiti. Jerry Mander, the author of Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, presented a talk for AiP titled “Four Arguments for the Elimination of Advertising”—which became an illustration job that Alan was perfectly cast for.

Later, Al Hayes, an advertising executive, came forward with a rebuttal—also illustrated by Alan.

After some years in the wonderful world of freelance graphic art, Alan returned to teaching.

I think he was the proudest and most committed to teaching English.  He was an adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Literature and Language at Dominican University of California in San Rafael, Marin county for probably 20+ years. 

Professor Cumings

I found that his online student ratings tended to be pretty consistent:

 

“I've never learned as much from an English professor as I did with Dr. Cummings.if you understand dry humor you will find him really funny.”

 

“He will spend individual time with students making sure they improve and succeed. Very worldly and critical.”

 

“Hard class, but I learned a lot. He was very helpful and funny.”

 

Although I noticed most students referred to him as “not very energetic”. 

 

It’s a shame they didn’t meet the Alan I first met on that bus. The youthful Alan was wildly energetic and deeply intellectual. He could entertain with long lectures on the corrupt nature of society (with a glint in his eye). He gained considerable pleasure from his own cynicism. Health problems took him down slowly but he never, ever, wanted to stop teaching and his eye never completely lost that glint. 

I’ll miss him.

Claire and Alan Cumings

 

 

Kevin’s Frog Guitar

 A really nice recent work by Kevin Brady, an old cartooning chum from days gone by in San Francisco.

Kevin was a founding father and congenial host of the GroundUnder Cartoonists back in the '70’s in San Francisco. The GroundUnder cartoonists was a loosely knit group of cartoonists who would get together once a week--salon style-- to talk and draw cartoons (More on this another time).

This fun, exuberantly painted guitar was done for an Arts Council auction in the California Sierra town where Kevin currently lives.

Jean-Jacques Sempe 1932-2022

 This cartoon is probably one of my top ten favorite magazine cartoons. Created by the late Jean-Jacques Sempe.

I hadn’t considered it when I decided to post  this how much it seems to speak to the current circumstances of our times.

(It such a large cartoon that you have to click on it to see it properly)

Back to the Box Show !

What’s now characterized as a ‘San Francisco Bay Area tradition”, the annual Box Show at Gallery Route One in Pt. Reyes Station, has been running for 23 (!) years. I believe Molly and I have participated in about the last 20 of those (maybe more).

Each year we receive a pine box of some shape or another (this year it came in disassembled pieces) to do with as we see fit. Most boxes go to individual artists. In our case, we work on them as a team. Some years they look more like Molly’s work, other years, more like mine.

Here’s what we did this time around:

I did sketches of an idea we talked about--U / Dys Topia

Drawn directly on the wood (like this one) or transferred from a rough sketch on paper. Then inked by me.                    

Painted by Molly.

Both the Dystopian 

and Utopian sides.

And the central Utopian panel

With the upper and lower Dystopian panels.

We assembled the pieces and screwed them together with metal plates on the reverse.

“U / Dys Topia” in the show.

The 2022 Box Show runs until August 20th.

You can see the show here:  2022 Box Show

or drop by Gallery Route One if you happen to be passing through Marin county.

New Guy Colwell Exhibit

 If you happen to be anywhere near San Francisco. You can see Guy Colwell’s new show at 111 Minna Street.     Guy Colwell at 111 Minna Gallery  

Other posts about Colwell on this blog can be found at:

March 11, 2018

And

February 25, 2018

Cartoon deja vu

Looks like we’ve been here before:

The caption reads: "Russia has already suffered several reverses, and it seemed as if she had created a monster that would eventually destroy her."

An editorial cartoon published in the January 1915 edition of Cartoons Magazine. (Artist unidentified).
 

The Larry and Molly Show pt. 2

 Here’s the second installment of the Larry and Molly Show. This time featuring --me.
In the olden days I drew cartoons for publications. I was involved in the Underground Comix scene but contributed to more ‘mainstream” publications as well. 
Over the years, I gravitated to printmaking (primarily linocuts) but have always maintained my affection and allegiance for my two favorite colors—black and white.

                               

                                    “Nightmare’   White ink on black ink  1978
                                   (Digital print of original artwork)

                                                                “Xavier”

West Room

                                      “Banjo at Armageddon” Linocut with ink wash               

"Feeling a Little Anxious"

           “Portrait of a Henry David Thoreauback”  Linocut with ink wash

"Civilization Ho!"

“Give Me That Old Time Religion"

“Land of Loose Ends”

               “The Misadventures of Psychedelic Mussolini, 2017”

                          Pen, India ink & wash

“Economic Stimulus” 

“Carbon Footprint"

The cover from my mini-comic. Pen and ink

The West Wall

(My nature niche)

“Extreme Still Life"

“A Mazed Minotaur” Two-color block print

“Zooming” Pen and Ink

“A Mazed Minotaur, Pt.1"

“Radio Poland aka R.U.R--Rippee’s Universal Robots"

East Wall: The Blues Series

“Jug Band"

“Pinetop Perkins"

“Louie Bluie Armstrong"

“Snooky Pryor and Harmonica Slim

“Jimmy Rogers"

“Yank Rachell”

“Blues Proverb”

And....

“El Camaron”

from radio KWMR's Mexican Loteria Card Set

(Ink and watercolor)

“You Put a Pen Nib in a Bottle of Ink and Something Falls Out Onto the Paper”                                        Pen and ink