Michael Maslin's Inkspill

The Weekend Spill: New Addition To The Spill Library; The Tilley Watch Online; Videos (And An App) Of Interest: Liza Donnelly Exhibit At The Norman Rockwell Museum

July 11, 2020 michael News

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New Addition To The Spill Library

Part of the Spill‘s (self charged) charge is to keep in mind all those cartoonists who have been and are part of The New Yorker, not just the names up in lights. Larry Reynolds, having contributed to several of the biggest magazines of his day (including Collier’s, and The Saturday Evening Post) also had three drawings in The New Yorker. In the July 1st Spill post I showed you a collection of his ongoing character, Butch, who appeared in Collier’s. Above is the only other example (to my knowledge) of Reynolds’ work in book form. Lines Of Least Resistance, published in 1941 by E.P. Dutton & company, Inc., contains work from all three of the magazines just mentioned as well as drawings from Elks Magazine. If my count is correct, there are 24 of his drawings in the book, plus the cover and back cover (3 drawings found in the book).

In the drawing shown above you clearly see a Gluyas Williams influence in his work — old man Kelly and two of the other characters — the men — on the right side of the drawing could’ve been in a Gluyas Williams drawing. The fellow in the forefront right, smoking a pipe, and the man running just below the Pelham sign look similar to George Price’s style (especially the way Reynolds drew the running fellow’s legs). Other drawings seem to carry a heavy influence of a number of other cartoonists. Look at the one below: shades of Syd Hoff and the early work of William Steig (even, a hint of a Helen Hokinson luncheon lady in the frame). I’m led to wonder if Reynolds ever quite settled on a look of his very own.

Larry Reynolds entry on the Spill‘s A-Z:

Larry Reynolds (Photo from I Feel Like A Cad, 1944; self portrait above right from Colliers Collects Its Wits, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1941) Born, Mt. Vernon, NY, c. 1912. Died, March 4, 2002, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. New Yorker work: 3 drawings: Jan 7, 1939 / Feb 24, 1940 / April 6, 1940. Collection of Note: I Feel Like A Cad (drawings from Collier’s Weekly). Link to Allan Holtz’s Reynold’s Stripper’s Guide Profile here.

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An end of week listing of New Yorker artists* who have contributed to newyorker.com features

July 6 -July 10, 2020

The Daily Cartoon: Yasin Osman, Will Santino, Amy Kurzweil, John Cuneo, Patrick McKelvie, J.A.K.

Video: How To Draw A Child by Emma Allen** & Emily Flake

…and Barry Blitt’s Kvetchbook

*For clarity, the names of artists who have not yet appeared in the print magazine are not bolded.

**Emma Allen is The New Yorker‘s Cartoon Editor

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Videos ( And An App) Of Interest: Liza Donnelly Exhibit At The Norman Rockwell Museum

Here are links to two videos that are part of the Liza Donnelly exhibit at The Norman Rockwell Museum (it opens to the public tomorrow).

This link takes you to a video of Donnelly talking about her live drawing.

And this link takes you to an in depth look at her career.

Also: there’s an app that features Donnelly speaking about individual pieces in the exhibit. See the video about it here.

Personal History: Attended Donnelly’s “virtual art opening” last night, except it wasn’t virtual for me — I was there. Watched as Donnelly (who besides being a colleague, is also my wife) gave a tour, being followed by a cameraman wielding a “live” camera and a photographer documenting the moment (the above photo was not taken by the photographer — it was taken by me with my flip-phone camera as the cartoonist spoke about her sketchbooks in the display case).

For me, the most touching piece on display is also, I believe, the most modest in scale — it may be the smallest piece in the exhibit. It’s the drawing that leaped Ms. Donnelly into The New Yorker; the first drawing of hers bought, but not the first run. Though OKed (bought) in 1979, it did not run until the issue of November 22, 1982. I believe she speaks about it in the longer video I’ve linked to above.

Go see the exhibit, non-virtually, if you’re up that way. It’s a real treat.

Liza Donnelly’s Norman Rockwell Museum Virtual Opening Tonight!

July 9, 2020 michael News

“A Master Class In Using Humor”

— The Boston Globe, July 9, 2020

Here’s the notice from the Globe:

LIZA DONNELLY: COMIC RELIEF (NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM): Donnelly, a cartoonist and children’s book author, has been making wry, powerful cartoons for the New Yorker for more than 30 years. Don’t let the show’s name fool you: Charged with political awareness from feminism to Black Lives Matter, Donnelly’s career is a master class in using humor to heighten and amplify a dead-serious point of view.

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Here’re a few photos from Ms. Donnelly’s exhibit opening this Sunday. There’ll be a live virtual tour at 5:30 by the artist this evening on the Norman Rockwell Museum YouTube channel.

Lars Kenseth To Zoom And Talk Toon…Cartoon,That Is; Thurber Thursday: The Male Animal

July 9, 2020 michael News

Funny guy, Lars Kenseth is set to Zoom today, talking cartoons with a panel of contributors to Alta Journal of California. To watch (it’s free)...link here!

Here’s Lars’ entry on the Spill’s A-Z:

Lars Kenseth: New Yorker work: November 14, 2016 –. Lars is a cartoonist whose lumpy people have appeared in The New Yorker, Barron’s and Food And Wine’s FWx. With a heavy background in animation, Lars has spent the last decade drawing and writing for Fox, Disney, Mondo, Maker, MTV and, most recently, Adult Swim. He’s a 2016 Sundance Institute Fellow, a Dartmouth graduate and a long suffering acolyte of the New York Jets. A New England native, Lars wisely lives in Los Angeles with his wife Liz and their two feline dependents, Omelet and Honeybear. New Yorker work: November 14, 2016 –. Website: larskenseth.com/

For More Lars: Here’s a Spill piece from August of 2017: “Lars Kenseth Talks About Deodorant People and His First New Yorker Cartoon”

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Thurber Thursday: The Male Animal

In my earlier years of collecting Thurber, and reading about Thurber, I was quite aware of Thurber & his pal, Elliot Nugent‘s play (and later a film), The Male Animal thanks to Burton Bernstein‘s Thurber biography. But it wasn’t until my wife and I drove, for the first time, to find Thurber’s home in Cornwall, Connecticut (the home he called “the great good place”) that I became aware of and saw the book shown here (not this exact book — another copy). It was on display in a small building in Cornwall (a welcome center or something?).

Years (and years) later, I finally found a copy — the one shown here (the arrival of the internet helped).

The book has, as you see below, a full page photo of Nugent, but not one of Thurber. Perhaps the publisher thought the inclusion of Thurber drawings sort of balanced the graphics. Who knows!

There are, if my count is correct, eleven Thurber drawings scattered through the book, plus two full page b&w photos from the stage play. Here’s one of the eleven drawings:

Henry Martin’s New York Times Obit; Personal History: Cartoonist Correspondence; Article Of Interest: New Yorker Cover Artist Gayle Kabaker; Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon

July 8, 2020 michael News

Henry Martin’s New York Times Obit

From The New York Times, July 7, 2020, “Henry Martin, Wry New Yorker Cartoonist, Dead at 94″

Here’s Richard Sandomir’s obit for the wonderful Henry Martin, who passed away a week ago today, just two weeks shy of his 95th birthday.

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Personal History: Cartoonist Correspondence

One of the many pleasures of being a New Yorker cartoonist has been, and continues to be communicating with so many other cartoonists, both new and veteran. I opened my binder of cartoonist correspondence this afternoon to remind myself of the content of the half-dozen letters I exchanged with Henry Martin. One, dated March 10, 2000, was in response to a letter I had written him asking about his Spot work for the magazine (you’ll see a link in The N.Y. Times obit for more on his Spots). Here’s how he replied:

“…almost no one is [interested in Spots] but I loved them and they helped me get my foot in the door at The New Yorker. Most of them were done on scratch board — not much in use anymore — and nearly all were done exact size.

I did that so that I knew just how they would look in the magazine and didn’t have to worry about how they would look enlarged or reduced. In many ways they were more fun to do than cartoons, but of course, they didn’t pay as well and had no reprint value except for The New Yorker…at some point around 1965 I quit doing spots, thinking I’d return to them later. When I did, sometime after Lee took over [Lee Lorenz, The New Yorker‘s art editor, who succeeded James Geraghty in 1973] I found my eyes could no longer adjust to the small size, and I was having trouble finding good scratch board. The best I found was made in Austria and the manufacturer went out of business!…There were many great artists doing Spots…I thought they added so much to the magazine.”