Category: Cartooning

Happy Birthday, Monte Schulz!

Peanuts - March 26, 1972
Click to see complete comic strip

“It all started when my oldest son, Monte, was in high school and was involved with an art class where the project was a coat-hanger sculpture. He was telling me about it one day while we were riding home in the car from school, and he said that he was going to transform a coat hanger into the figure of a baseball pitcher. It sounded like a good idea to me, and I was anxious to hear about the final results.

“Several weeks went by before he mentioned it again, and this time he told me that the teacher had handed back the projects and he had received a C on his coat-hanger sculpture. I remember being quite disturbed by this, because I could not understand how a teacher was able to grade this kind of project. I thought about it as the months went by, and finally translated it into the Sunday page where Sally expresses her indignation over receiving the same grade for her piece of coat-hanger sculpture.”

– Charles M. Schulz

Shielding Stephen Colbert

It’s no surprise to this old comic book fan that the death of Captain America wouldn’t last very long. There’s a new hero in action, taking Cap’s place. But what of the indestructible shield that belonged to the original Captain America? Isn’t it now in the possession of none other than Stephen Colbert?
[flv:/Video/2008/JAN/ColbertMarvel.flv 440 330]

A Visit With An Old Friend

Good Ol’ Mike Dobbs, author, editor, and animation expert, has a new book out called ESCAPE! How Animation Broke Into The Mainstream. Click the picture to read an article about it.

Mike Dobbs - Escape: How Animation Broke Into The Mainstream

On Saturday I drove out to Springfield for a talk Mike gave about animation in general, and the book in particular. He gave a great introduction to the history of animation, providing a clear and concise explanation of how we got where we are today. It was fun seeing The Dobbster (no relation to Lou Dobbs, that I know of!) in person after many years. Mike mentions my visit in his blog, at this link.