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Backstage at the strips

I started reading “Backstage at the Strips” again, by Mort Walker. I bought the book when I was a kid in the late ’70s and every few years I look at it.

I love that whole idea of the cartoonists being in their own little enclave in and around Westport, Connecticut. I like that life. I’m always tempted to move to New London or Mystic CT, but the cold is too much for a Florida guy. Vanity Fair did a story not too long ago called, ‘When Fairfield County was the Comic Strip Capital of the World“, which describes exactly what Mort does in his book.

It seems like a perfect life – living on the waterfront in Connecticut and waking up in the morning and cartooning. I like the way Mort describes living an 80-year-old house at the time, in a shore community and working in an old barn.

I notice that in the book Mort says that Bob Gustafson handled his fan mail, so that letter I received so many years ago that I wrote about here, probably came from Bob and not Mort.

Backstage at the Strips, written in 1975 describes there being over 300 newspaper syndicates at the time and 1700 daily newspapers in the US, but still describes how hard it was to break into daily newspaper syndication. Now it’s almost impossible.

The book is really a great look at a cartoonist’s life with lots of valuable information about the cartooning industry at that time and before that time. The book is timeless. But it also encapsulates a time back then, in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s when things were different and times were simpler. It’s a place you want to go back to and just the fact that I first read the book when I was a boy it sort of does take me back to that time because as I read it, a lot of the passages remind me of the first time I read them back in the ’70s.

International House of Burgers?

I know it’s just a publicity campaign, but I thought of this comic when I heard that IHOP, International House of Pancakes, changed their name today to IHOb – “b for burgers.”

ihob-print

Anthony Bourdain; a friend in my head

Anthony Bourdain is friend in my head. You know how you see people on tv or movies and you just feel as if you know them? Every once in awhile someone famous dies and I feel as if they were/are a family member. I mean I guess I feel that same way when they were alive, but it hits hard when they pass on. Random people have had that effect on me over the years. It was shocking to hear his name announced on the tv this morning. I had my back to the Today Show, I was making breakfast when they announced a famous chef had passed. I held my breath as they said the name, hoping that I didn’t know the person they would announce, so it knocked the breath out of me when they said his name.

I loved Anthony’s attitude and story-telling technique. I was drawn in like so many millions when he took us on adventures of far away places and even places close to home. I’ve lived in Miami most of my life, but on his Miami episode I learned so much.

First No Reservations and then Parts Unknown. I would watch marathons of these shows, always drawn in from the beginning of each episode. The food and the locations were featured, but Anthony was the star.

The New York Herald

Whenever I’m in New York, I look for the New York Herald building in Herald Square. I stand in front of Macy’s and look around and try to imagine which of the old buildings is the Herald. But of course that building is long gone. It stood on the triangle at Broadway and 6^th Avenue between 35^th and 36^th Streets. It originally was downtown on Park Row where most of the newspapers in the 19th century were, but in 1895 James Gordon Bennett, Sr., founder, moved the newspaper uptown.

herald2 — Detroit Publishing Co. (ca. 1900-10) – George Grantham Bain

I had only seen photos from the front, which faces downtown and love seeing these photos which I came upon recently where you can see the whole side of the ornate building. Shame that it is gone as is so much of old New York

herald3 — People watching the presses roll. Photo: Detroit Publishing Co. (ca. 1900-10) – George Grantham Bain

herald4 — Herald Square, New York. Minerva & the Bell Ringers, 1895. Sculptor: Antonin Jean Carles

What’s depressing is that the building is now this bland structure which houses a Santander Bank and a Duane Reade drugstore.

heraldsquare

Paying for views on social media

Cartoonist Clay Jones had something to say about Facebook and his comics, I have been pushing social media for years as a great source for comics and comics strips, but of course if they aren’t being seen, then it’s all a moot point. It’s really horrible how social media sites are gunning for paid content now and I wonder if they treat you better if you do pay to have your content seen. I mean not every day, but if you pay once in awhile, do they see you more favorably? Anyway, here’s what Clay had to say:

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Something analytical I’ve noticed which will only interest you if you pay attention to such things. And yes, I look at these sort of things, and if I don’t fully understand it.

There have been complaints from rightwingers that Facebook is discriminating against them as views, comments, reactions, etc are down on their fan/group pages. They say it hurts their YouTube views which in turn hurts their income. They’re half right.

Facebook is decreasing their views. But, it’s not because they’re conservative. They’re doing it to everyone.

On my fan page I would get thousands of reactions a day to a post. On a bad day, I’d only get around 500. Now, on a great day I might reach 200. This has coincided with me receiving emails and even instant messages from FB trying to entice me to pay for a push, which they promise can net me a certain number of views.

Today, my website got over a thousand referrals from Twitter. It got 99 from Facebook. This is important to me as I do collect revenue from hits to the website. This is why I ask for people to share links to my work, not the images. It’s money, people. An independent freelancing self-syndicated cartoonist needs to eat too.

Most cartoonists don’t pay attention to this sort of stuff because they believe they don’t have to. The times have already changed from the days of drawing a cartoon, sending it to an editor/syndicate, and moving on to your next cartoon. You have to do more. Most of you don’t even have a website. You really need to know this stuff, despite how boring it is.

If you are sharing images of your work and not links, you’re killing yourself. You could be getting paid for sharing your work and when others share it. When you only post an image and boast about thousands of shares, you’re working for free and you’re working for Facebook.

With that said, only about four people will see this post unless I pay to boost it.

Here is his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/clayjones
And his website: https://claytoonz.com/

Comics I recently discovered

fistful1

Some comics I recently discovered are “A Fistful of Babies,” by Reyn. I find myself laughing out loud to his work. Some is a bit racy, but still funny. Here are three clean ones.

fistful2 fistful3

I like Guto Dias Studio’s comics. He posts single panel comics and full color strips. His gags are subtle, I like that about him

guto1 guto2 guto3

I also like Scribbly G., a cartoonist from South Africa. He started doing comics about South Africa then morphed into general interest comics. What I love about his work is that it usually has a non-foreseen twist in the last panel that really makes you laugh out loud.

scribblyg1 scribblyg2 scribblyg3

What did your teacher think of you?

kidsart

I was reading a Q & A column in Hogan’s Alley magazine (the printed issue) where cartoonists were asked, “What did your high school art teacher think of your cartooning proclivities?”

I found that to be interesting. I remember all through school, even high school, I was usually the best artist in art class as I am sure most young cartoonists are. I would cringe over this. I was proud and good enough to do my best and not dumb my work down, but it was quite embarrassing for me year after year being known as the best artist.

I remember one year my teacher told me that she told my mother at a parent-teacher night that I was a great artist and I asked my teacher, “What did my mother respond?” And she said, with a sort of wry look, “She said she knew!” She was almost mocking my mother as not being humble. But what was my mother to do, feign ignorance? That always has bothered me to this day. I’m sure my mother was proud but a bit embarrassed as I was when I was pointed out for my art.

I do regret one thing about my art class days. I remember drawing a whole, full color Sunday comic strip of “All in the Family,” the tv show. What I regret is that I gave it away. A classmate liked it and I just gave it to him.

It was excellent as I remember it. I remember the characters, Archie and Edith and the rest and also the layout of the living room as I drew it and it was quite a large size and full color, colored with water color paint. I would love to see that piece of art today.

The Brooklyn Bridge 1899

This is an old film taken by Thomas Edison in 1899. It’s a trip across the Brooklyn Bridge.

But this week, there is a documentary opening in New York about W. Frank Brinton who took films of the era including the Brooklyn Bridge, also in 1899.

Brinton was from the midwest and he traveled around the the midwest in the late 1890s, early 1900s, showing his films. The Brooklyn Bridge was the tallest structure in the country at the time. Historians are guessing at the year of his film, but are using the advertisements on billboard shown, as a clue. You can see that here at Time magazine’s site, where they also explain the find of Brinton’s old lost films. Brinton’s film is much clearer and easier to view than Edison’s.

It’s interesting how people just run across the tracks. And I love how the same light poles are there today and the feel is the same today if you’ve ever taken a trip across the bridge walking or on the train.

It’s amazing that the film is still around since so many of that era deteriorated over time. Mr. Brinton passed away in 1919 and for almost 100 years, his films were lost with time.

The films were found in 1981, stored in a farmhouse basement.

A new documentary called “Saving Brinton” opened this week which tells Brinton’s story and shows some of his work.

The Cafe

In a previous post, I was mentioning that Babu cafe episode of Seinfeld, which is called The Cafe. What’s interesting is that I was at an Indian restaurant with a friend maybe 10 years ago in New York City and it reminded me very much of Babu’s cafe. They had just opened and the place was sparce. They didn’t have their liquor license so the owner, as he was waiting on us himself, said we could run around the corner and buy a bottle of wine at the liquor store and bring it back. I don’t think we did that. But the place reminded me so of much of that Seinfeld episode. In life, a lot of things remind me of Seinfeld episodes.

I’m happy to say, all these years later, that the Indian restaurant is still there in Greenwich Village, and flourishing.

Another reason I liked The Cafe mention is that I love a British sitcom, a Britcom, called The Cafe, which I watch on one of our local PBS stations.

Like so many British tv shows, there are only a few episodes over two seasons, only 13, which is sad because the show is so great. Another sad thing is that there must be commercials on these because you don’t see the commercials on PBS which makes the show only about 20 minutes long. So you get into it and it’s over!

But it’s so charming and sweet and quirky. It’s about this cafe called Cyril’s, on the ocean in Weston-super-Mare, which is in on the Bristol Channel. It’s a real cafe in a sort of octagon shape, that was built just for the show and plopped right on the boardwalk in that area.

The scenery and place is as much a character as are the characters. A mother runs the cafe with her daughter and her mother (the grandmother) sits around and makes wisecracks, and the characters from the town are in and out.

The writing is so great. The mother says, “Talk of the Devil,” every time someone comes in, even though she wasn’t talking to them. When people leave, they all say, “Laterz!” And when people first see each other, there is a around of “All right?” They all say one at a time, “All right?” “All right?” “All right?” It’s really charming.

Check it out on YouTube here.

Awkward lunch

There’s this new restaurant in the neighborhood, it’s a casual place. You walk up to the counter and order and they bring it to your table. It’s a sort of Asian bowl place, but you can get many things there, they have a large menu.

Well, it’s always empty. I’m usually the only one there when I stop in for lunch. There are maybe four or five employees behind the counter and some preparing the food in the kitchen and my $12 lunch probably doesn’t cover one of their salaries for the day.

babu

They have a few locations in Miami and I don’t know if they are a large chain around the county or just have the few locations here. The food is great at a great price, but no one is going. I’ve told so many people about it, too.

It used to be a Quizno’s and that place was always full, so it’s not about the location.

It reminds me of that Babu, cafe episode of Seinfeld.

As you enter, before you are even in the door, they are greeting you from the front counter, I guess they are so happy to see a person arrive. Then when your food is being prepared, you don’t know where to look, they all just stand and stare at you and when you look at them, they smile. Very weird.

I do hope they make it. I like the food very much and it’s a great place for lunch.