Blog Archives
Simpsons writer lampoons comics world in Learn To Draw vids
The Simpsons writer/producer and The Doozies cartoonist Tom Gammill has a fun video series called Learn to Draw that, despite the title, will not teach aspiring cartoonists how to draw. Instead it offers a fun glimpse into the world of comics as what is possibly the world’s first comedy web-series about comics and cartooning.
Tom Gammill started the web-series three years ago (almost to the date – the first video was posted to YouTube on November 12, 2008) and has since seen guest appearances by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman (Zits), Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), Tony Carrillo (F Minus), Mell Lazarus (Momma), Cathy Guisewite (Cathy), Jeff Keane (The Family Circus), Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Life in Hell), Bill Amend (Foxtrot) and even Jeannie Schulz, the widow of Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts). Gammill and/or his writing partner Max Pross is an excellent director able to get these non-actors to loosen up and do some pretty silly things. Or maybe it’s that after year years and decades of creating comedy every day, cartoonists have built a natural ability to perform with good comedic timing. Whatever the reason, it’s a
Here are a few favorites, culminating in the crazy Arnold Roth episode:
Today in Comics: Roy Thomas & “Cathy”
“Cathy” turns 30!
Today, November 22, is typically remembered as the day United States President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. But the comics world remembers today with two important births.
Today in 1940, Roy Thomas was born in Missouri. He grew up to write for Marvel Comics, starting in the mid-1960s, on Conan the Barbarian, X-Men, The Avengers, and other titles before becoming Marvel Editor-in-Chief for two years. He also worked for DC Comics in the 1980s on such titles as Justice Society of America, All-Star Squadron, and Infinity, Inc. He continues to work to this day, most recently returning to the character he created to write Dynamite Entertainment’s Red Sonja: Monster Island. (Source: Wikipedia)
(Roy Thomas; photo from The Robert E. Howard United Press Association)
Today in 1976, Cathy Guisewite’s comic strip “Cathy” debuted in United States newspapers through the Universal Press Syndicate. The strip, playing off gender stereotypes, still runs in thousands of newspapers and online at goComics. The strip won a Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society in 1993. A Cathy television special won Guisewite an Emmy in 1987. (Source: Wikipedia)
