Category: Cartooning

The Silvermine Beetle

A recent Instagram post by Greg Walker.

My comment, and Greg’s reply.

dougpratt7
I grew up on Adams Lane, Norwalk, CT. Our backyard bordered the Silvermine Golf Course. At age 13, shortly before my family’s move to Massachusetts, I began to realize that I was surrounded by my cartooning professional idols. AAUGH!
grgwalker
@dougpratt7, yes, a number of cartoonists were members there. My Dad, Roy Doty, Dik Browne and others. We held an annual cartoonists golf outing there for 50 years.

I have no regrets, but oh, the direction my life might have taken if my family had stayed in Norwalk.

Joe and Stan Remembered

I took a break from blogging on October 15. The next day would have been Joe Sinnott’s 95th birthday. Having let the occasion get past me, I’ll make up for it now.

This photo was inscribed by Joe to Stan Lee in 2012. Stan kept it in his office until he passed away, three years ago yesterday. Joe first worked for Stan in 1951.

“Stan, you’ve been like a brother to me for 61 years — thanks, Joe Sinnott ’12”
Joe’s tools of his trade — A Winsor & Newton Series 7 #3 brush and a Hunt 102 pen nib. Acquired from the Joe Sinnott estate.

Not a MoMA Too Soon

Neil Gaiman has successfully nudged the Museum of Modern Art into attributing Roy Lichtenstein’s “inspiration” for one of his paintings.

Gaiman also corrected MoMA for giving the wrong comic book title. It’s Secret Hearts, not Secret Love. Presumably, from now on MoMA will properly cite the original comic book issues and artists behind Lichtenstein’s famous works.

Much of the credit for raising awareness goes to fellow Westfield State alum David Barsalou. Decades ago, David began his “Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein” project, identifying the comic book panels Lichtenstein swiped for all of his Pop-Art paintings.

My Loser Blog

Today’s Doonesbury speaks truth. Not to power, but the powerless.

Remember when people actually thought they could make a living by writing as bloggers? A laughable notion today, but taken seriously by many at the time. As my Contact Doug page has always stated, I have never tried to monetize this site. I wouldn’t have made any money anyway.

As I said before taking my 2-month break to fret over technical woes, the “big” stuff associated with this site happened in its first few years. The end of that period coincided with the time when I joined Facebook in 2009. Once I was on Facebook, it was obvious to me that blogging as a thing was already over.