Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

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Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon May 20, 2019 10:52 pm

So I'm sitting here at the airport, typing about my trip to Huntington Beach, CA. It's the annual Reuben Awards, the "Oscar for Cartoonists". However, the biggest event was the NCS Fest. This was their trial run to see how a comic convention by them would fare.

Of course, I had to go. I like hanging out with cartoonists, and I have books to sell. I had a successful Kickstarter earlier this year, and had advance copies of "The Fuzzy Princess" book sent to me from China so I could bring it to California. I also brought the two "Ask a Cat" books with me as well. I had a LOT of books, to the point that I shipped it to the hotel via UPS because it wasn't worth carrying it through the airport. I timed it so it would arrive the same day I check in, and sure enough I succeeded.

I ended up doing well selling the books. I think it was the best convention I ever had, sales-wise. I ended up selling most of the books I brought, which is great because I was worried I brought too much (plus the prospect i would have to carry it all back thru the airport), but that wasn't an issue, thankfully.

As far as the cartoonists I met, some great people showed up. Highlights include hanging out with Bobby London (Dirty Duck, Popeye), Dana Simpson (Phoebe and Her Unicorn), Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), Will Henry (Wallace the Brave), and others. They were all fun to hang out with. I got to hold Pastis's Reuben Award, which is heavy as fuck.

I'll write more when I return home, but I wanted to get this thread started before I returned home. If you have any questions, ask here!

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon May 20, 2019 11:09 pm

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Stephan Pastis and I. That blue tuxedo look dapper, ain't it?

Image
Me with Will Henry and Dana Simpson at the karaoke night. Dana REALLY loves karaoke, turns out :v:

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With Jerry Beck and Cheryl Chase, who was the voice of Angelica from "Rugrats"

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Tue May 21, 2019 12:34 am

Of the people who turned out, did you have a sense of how many were comics fans vs. curious locals? This certainly wasn't your typical convention, after all, and the event (aside from the award ceremony) was in its first year.

I'm glad you had good sales despite the weather. I wish I could have made it.
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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Tue May 21, 2019 12:36 am

Fizzbuzz wrote:
Tue May 21, 2019 12:34 am
Of the people who turned out, did you have a sense of how many were comics fans vs. curious locals? This certainly wasn't your typical convention, after all, and the event (aside from the award ceremony) was in its first year.
I get the feeling most of the people were curious locals. Many said they didn't know the convention was happening at all (despite all the signs that went up at least a week prior), but that made it more interesting, since you didn't meet "typical" comic fans. Most of the people present bought my books to give to kids.

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Perrydotto (?) » Tue May 21, 2019 12:18 pm

what was Dana's favorite song to karaoke
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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Tue May 21, 2019 5:26 pm

Perrydotto wrote:
Tue May 21, 2019 12:18 pm
what was Dana's favorite song to karaoke
It was this one:


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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Octavia (?) » Tue May 21, 2019 5:35 pm

That's one where no one knows the lyrics until everyone in the bar shouts LEONARD BERNSTEIN.

I karaoked Losing My Religion a few weeks ago. Same band, different album.
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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Madeline (?) » Tue May 21, 2019 8:32 pm

Did you get to ask Bobby London about Mickey Mouse vs the Air Pirates :-I

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Tue May 21, 2019 8:45 pm

Madeline wrote:
Tue May 21, 2019 8:32 pm
Did you get to ask Bobby London about Mickey Mouse vs the Air Pirates :-I
I didn't, but I heard that, during the book signing, Bobby London specifically said that he will never sign any copies of "Air Pirates". The whole thing was a bad experience for him that he didn't want to relive.

He talked about working on the Popeye strip, though, and the kind of restrictions he had to deal with until few years into the run. Bobby knows a LOT about the history of Popeye and gave us some insights. He claims Segar didn't care for the Fleischer cartoons (it's a good thing he didn't live long enough to watch the Famous Studios run, or those made-for-TV cartoons).

According to Bobby at one point during the signing some guy brought in about 2 dozen "Playboy" magazines for him to sign :-I (Bobby drew "Dirty Duck" for the magazine). He asked the guy if he's planning to sell these on eBay, and he said "No no no" while looking shifty.

I did get to buy the complete reprint of his Popeye strips, and he drew Popeye and Olive for me. Both books were over $80 combined, but it was worth it. And besides, I figured I'd never get the opportunity for Bobby to sign these for me.

Bobby was fun to talk to. We both worked for the same editor at different points and agreed he was the best editor to do comics for.

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Madeline (?) » Wed May 22, 2019 12:28 pm

I can’t imagine he has good memories of that period, owing to A) Disney, B) a failed marriage, and C) Dan O’Neil thinking that not being sent to jail for those comics after 10 years of losing in court over and over was some kind of huge moral victory :-I

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed May 22, 2019 12:29 pm

Oh yeah, Bobby London really did get screwed over and he still hates Dan O'Neill to this day.

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Perrydotto (?) » Wed May 22, 2019 12:56 pm

what happened there? I'm not privy to this
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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed May 22, 2019 1:08 pm

Perrydotto wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 12:56 pm
what happened there? I'm not privy to this
Here's a detailed account on Wikipedia, but "Air Pirates" was an underground comic from the 1970s featuring Disney characters in adult situations. Disney sued, and a big clusterfuck happened. Dan O'Neill kinda made it worse.

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Perrydotto (?) » Wed May 22, 2019 1:27 pm

wow, this guy seems like a ballsy asshole! :-I
With the help of sympathetic Disney employees, O'Neill delivered The M.L.F. Communiqué #2 in person to the Disney studios, where he posed drawing Mickey Mouse at an animation table and allegedly smoked a joint in Walt Disney's office
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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Madeline (?) » Wed May 22, 2019 2:09 pm

Perrydotto wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 1:27 pm
wow, this guy seems like a ballsy asshole! :-I
Yes that whole story is a long drawn out affair whee you start by saying “oh no what are you doing” and end by saying “fuck this jerk forever”

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed May 22, 2019 2:25 pm

Since we're talking about London, here's a pic of him with me.

Image

That's not my wine, btw. His girlfriend took the pic for me, so I held it for her.

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed May 22, 2019 9:12 pm

I met Scott Underwood, who was a storyboard artist for "Ed, Edd n Eddy" and MLP while watching a presentation, either during Sergio Aragones's vacation slide (I'm not being hyperbolic, he was doing a presentation of all the vacations the MAD guys went. It was pretty fun!), or Jerry Beck interviewing Floyd Norman.

He's not a NCS member yet, although he's considering joining. He recognized me because he follows me on Instagram, which is neat. I had a brush pen with me, so of course I asked for a drawing:

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Heck yeah

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu May 23, 2019 1:33 pm

One story involving Dana Simpson: We hung out at the karaoke night for several hours, but around 1am I decided it was time for me to get to bed, so I said good night to her and David, her husband. I also said some good nights to other cartoonists who were still up there.

I didn't think I lingered around that long at the lobby, but I must've did because when I got out of the elevator at the floor where my room was, I saw a couple in front of me. It was Dana and her husband.

I yelled out "I left before you did, how the hell did you get ahead of me!?"

They only responded, "Unicorn!".

That "Unicorn" running gag in the strip, they pulled that on me :-I

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu May 23, 2019 9:39 pm

I took part in the "Cartooning for Kids" thing, where we visited Children’s Hospital of Orange County to draw cartoons for the kids there. It was fun! My favorite was when one of the kids asked me to draw a Transformers. I ended up drawing Optimus Prime chasing SpongeBob and Patrick.

Greg Walker later told me one of the kids asked him to draw SpongeBob. I never got asked to draw him, even though I worked on the comic books :-I

Image

Left to Right: Me, Michael Ramirez, Robb Armstrong, Christian J Meesey, Bill Schorr, Ed Steckley, Rick Stromoski, Carolyn Belefski (my roommate on this trip), Jason Chatfield, Mark Tatulli, Greg Walker, Jeff Knurek, and Gary Kopervas

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Perrydotto (?) » Thu May 23, 2019 10:47 pm

oh that's lovely! did you enjoy drawing for the kids?
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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu May 23, 2019 11:17 pm

Perrydotto wrote:
Thu May 23, 2019 10:47 pm
oh that's lovely! did you enjoy drawing for the kids?
Yeah, it was fun! And the kids really enjoyed it. They got a goodie bag with coloring book, sketchpad (of which we drew on), and a T-shirt.

There were a lot of Finding Nemo stuff there. Disney is one of the sponsors of the hospital ("It's a local business," a couple of people quipped :gotcha: )

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by SlateSlabrock (?) » Fri May 24, 2019 12:13 am

Mr. Big wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 9:12 pm
I met Scott Underwood, who was a storyboard artist for "Ed, Edd n Eddy" and MLP while watching a presentation, either during Sergio Aragones's vacation slide (I'm not being hyperbolic, he was doing a presentation of all the vacations the MAD guys went. It was pretty fun!), or Jerry Beck interviewing Floyd Norman.
He's also in this week's pony episode!

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by ixnay (?) » Fri May 24, 2019 2:27 am

congrats on getting that close to michael ramirez without him writing DEBT on you in big letters

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri May 24, 2019 3:00 am

ixnay wrote:
Fri May 24, 2019 2:27 am
congrats on getting that close to michael ramirez without him writing DEBT on you in big letters
Pfft. Ramirez was actually really welcoming to me when we met. He has his own band, too, and performed during one of the outdoor dinners. That performance lead to the karaoke getting delayed by a couple of hours, though, because they could only afford to rent one sound equipment, and after his performance was over they had to bring the sound stuff inside and set it up. Ramirez was there helping them out.

He told me my presence doubled the Japanese membership in the organization :-P (Ramirez is Japanese).

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Perrydotto (?) » Fri May 24, 2019 8:59 am

so Ramirez should keep making music instead of political cartoons, got it
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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri May 24, 2019 12:38 pm

During the Reuben ceremony they played this video made by Tom Gammill (writer for "The Simpsons"). We all pretty much laughed throughout, although this might be too in-joke for non-cartoonists.



That Sergio Aragones bit in hardly an exaggeration. He really IS charming.

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat May 25, 2019 1:39 am



Stephan Pastis's acceptance speech for the Reuben Award. He was nominated 11 times (since 2009) and finally won last week.

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat May 25, 2019 8:21 pm

This actually happened last year, but something I remembered.

I was at a presentation that Jeff Keane, the current artist of "The Family Circus", was part of. He shared some of the weird letters he got, including one where somebody clearly had the hots for the mom in the comic strip.

That one stood out because I recognized the name of the sender in the email. One of the people who follows me on DA :-I

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Princess Flufflebutt (?) » Sat May 25, 2019 10:08 pm

Mr. Big wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 8:21 pm
This actually happened last year, but something I remembered.

I was at a presentation that Jeff Keane, the current artist of "The Family Circus", was part of. He shared some of the weird letters he got, including one where somebody clearly had the hots for the mom in the comic strip.

That one stood out because I recognized the name of the sender in the email. One of the people who follows me on DA :-I
It's a small world. :-I
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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Madeline (?) » Sat May 25, 2019 10:58 pm

Mr. Big wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 8:21 pm
This actually happened last year, but something I remembered.

I was at a presentation that Jeff Keane, the current artist of "The Family Circus", was part of. He shared some of the weird letters he got, including one where somebody clearly had the hots for the mom in the comic strip.

That one stood out because I recognized the name of the sender in the email. One of the people who follows me on DA :-I
It’s Ramirez, isn’t it

watch out family circus dad, DEBT is coming for you

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun May 26, 2019 1:58 pm

Madeline wrote:
Sat May 25, 2019 10:58 pm
It’s Ramirez, isn’t it

watch out family circus dad, DEBT is coming for you
Not Me and Ida Know's lesser known cousin, "Debt." Not the most popular character in the strip :-I

That reminds me. During outdoor dinner, one of the visiting French cartoonists welcomed everyone to the event. A guy sitting next to me said that the French guy looks like Ted Rall and...yeah, he did.

(Rall himself wasn't there during the weekend.)

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu May 30, 2019 8:40 pm

Image

One of the sponsors for the fest was Wacom, which had Cintiqs available for cartoonists to mess around with.

I fiddled around with it. Here's what I drew (the TV refers to how the tablets were connected to TV monitors, and "sideways" because the panels were rotated for some reason)

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Re: Cartoonists know how to party (Trip Report)

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri Sep 27, 2019 10:15 pm

Bumping this. So I've been buying back issues of The Menomonee Falls Guardian, a weekly tabloid that reprinted comic strips.

Issue 110 (July 28, 1975) had this ad taken out by Dan O'Neill, who we talked about earlier:

Image
Image

:-I

(Ironically, the Guardian later reprinted the "Mickey Mouse" comic strips by Floyd Gottfredson)

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