Category: Cartooning

E.nterprising C.ochran

Physics professor turned publisher Russ Cochran of West Plains, Missouri, has passed away. Cochran’s friendship with MAD magazine’s Bill Gaines made it possible for him to reprint every E.C. comic book from the 1950’s in hardcover box sets, starting with Weird Science in 1978. I subscribed to the series and received each set as they were published, which took upwards of ten years to complete, as I recall.

Some of the finest pieces of original comic strip art found today on Heritage Auctions passed through Cochran’s hands decades ago, from his own art auctions as well as his personal collection. In 2005 Cochran published ‘Les Paul In His Own Words’ in collaboration with his brother Michael.

Sven Flintstone

Scott Shaw! (exclamation point included) is a professional cartoonist specializing in Hanna-Barbera characters, especially the Flintstones. A couple of weeks ago I did a favor for Scott by posting this video.

https://youtu.be/yy1uZqdF3wM

I’m a Svengoolie fan, and I record his MeTV show on my PC-DVR every Saturday, so it was easy for me to grab the segment with Sven’s shout-out to Scott. I was careful to include the action right before the break, so that Kerwyn’s joke made sense.

Oliphant SycoFANt

Political cartooning, like printed newspapers, continues its long, slow decline. (Sometimes not so slow.) One of the greatest practitioners of the art was Pat Oliphant. Now retired, much of Oliphant’s work has been collected at the University of Virginia, which is now holding an exhibit.

Even without Oliphant’s consistently original ideas and humor, I have always admired his art. His ink line, for all these years, appeared to me as having come off of a brush. The late Jeff MacNelly, who died 20 years ago in his early 50’s, used a brush, but to my surprise, as this video shows, Oliphant inked with a pen. Even more surprising, he used acrylic ink, not India ink.