Oy vey! All this talk about anti-Muslim cartoons and anti-Holocaust cartoon contests by Muslims.Tom Spurgeon over at the terrific blog Comics Reporter is doing his usual fantastic job of keeping us informed of the blow-by-blow schtuff. I thought the Arf response would be to show my fave Jewish oriented cartoons. These are by an under-appreciated cartoonist great, Lawrence Lariar. They feature his visual puns he called “Yankee Yiddish.”

(click for a closer look)

And speaking of WACKY, Monday, to commemorate President’s Day, I will be featuring the World’s Tallest Internet Cartoon -a life size cartoon of Abe Lincoln! Honest!

I once invited Will Elder to a wild party at my house I threw for Harvey Kurtzman (I’ll dig up photos from this for a future Arflovers). I found out at the party that Elder is as funny in person as he is in print. This early Mad cover of a Picasso Parody featuring Will “Chickenfat” Elder himself didn’t, alas , make it into the Picasso section of the next Arf, Arf Museum. I had to save room for plenty of rare comics and cartoons by Picasso himself. There ARE cartoonists Art Spiegelman, Paul Webb and Gene Deitch doing riffs on Pablo but no Elder. But, you folks on Arflovers get this:

(click for a closer look)

We authors live in fear that we’ll overlook something great that as a result won’t make it into our books. I didn’t know about this terrific Hi and Lois comic that could have been in the Salvador Dali section of Modern Arf. Hi and Lois’ creator Mort Walker WILL be in Arf Museum in a surprising autobiographical comic (see the opening page by clicking of the Arf Museum cover in the upper left of this page). That comic details when the National Cartoonist Society invited Roy Lichtenstein to speak in order to bushwhack him! And Hi and Lois will be in a future Arf. The current Hi and Lois creative team Brian Walker, Greg Walker and Chance Browne generously gave me a wonderful Sunday original where Trixie imagines herself as a trendy arteest. I’ll be running that in a future Arf—terrific stuff!

(click for a closer look)

Here’s a kick-off of a section of Arflovers that’s sure to inspire. “Give Me Five!” is where I ask a star comic creator five quickies. Colleen Coover is the perfect start for me ‘cause her Small Favors is one of my fave comics of the last few years. And her lighted hearted lesbian duo from that comic make a fabulous appearance in the next Arf in the “Get Your Hands Off Of Me You Big Ape” section.

(click for a closer look)

Colleen and I shared an autographing time slot at the Fantagraphics San Diego Comic-Con booth last summer and she’s as nice as her comics are fun. Give me five, Colleen…

1. What is your earliest comic book memory?

Sitting on a couple of phone books under a hair dryer after my Mom had washed my hair, reading Harvey comics and DC 70′s horror comics. I used to think that reading the captions was optional, so I’d just skim over them and piece together the story from the pictures and word balloons.

2. Who is your favorite old skool cartoonist?

Milton Caniff— I love his line work, ability to set a scene, his use of dramatic suspense (especially romantic suspense!) to keep readers hooked from day to day and week to week, and his ability to make even strips that were full of nothing but exposition interesting and exciting.

3. Current projects?

I’m just starting a new graphic novel written by Paul Tobin, who wrote Banana Sunday under the name Root Nibot. The title is “Freckled Face, Bony Knees, and Other Things Known About Annah.” It’s a character study of a young woman who may or may not be in the thrall of a very strange delusion about a missing sister.

4. I’m excited to have your Ape/Women painting in the upcoming Arf Museum. Any personal ape fantasies?

Whenever I go to the zoo, I want to have the orangutans for my pals. Hang out, go to the ball game, that sort of thing. But really I don’t think they’d be very good companions, no matter how friendly Clyde was in the “Every Which Way But Loose” movies. You can’t believe everything Hollywood tells you, and I’m pretty sure that a grown male orangutan would be a terrible driver.

5. Betty or Veronica…or Archie?

Duh! Betty! You crazy? Veronica’s just lucky she’s got dough, or she’d be kicked to the curb in no time. And Archie— I never understood what the hell those chicks thought was so damn fascinating about Archie.

Charles Bennett is a brilliant unknown genius from the mid 1800’s. His mind-blowing evolutionary cartoons are featured in the upcoming Arf Museum in a section I call “Morph Fiend.” Didn’t have room for them all, here’s a foxy one I had to regretfully leave out:

(click for a closer look)

Johnny Ryan’s comics are so good because he’s such a bad boy! Johnny sent Arflovers a review copy of his latest prank Comic Book Holocaust II. If the Katzenjammer Kids drew comics you’d have the work of Ryan. Johnny remembers to put the comic in comic book. His strips are so funny I didn’t forget to laugh. I’ve got a big bonus…a drawing from the envelope Johnny sent his comic in:

(click for a closer look)

(click for a closer look)

(click for a closer look)

I read that one of the most popular gifts yesterday for Valentine’s was vibrators. That reminded me of this hilarious comic from the book The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton. When I was Creative Director/Vice President/General Manager of the Muppets I instigated sessions where I brought creative people in to present their work in special sessions to inspire the troops. Bill was my first guest and his incredible animation was the perfect kick-off. Bill is funny in his animated cartoons and in print like this comic and in person, too. But what impressed me the most?—the bodacious babes Bill always had hanging on each arm every time I saw him. I get the idea that the sleazy cartoons he draws are rooted somewhere in real life experiences!

Cartoonist C. W. Anderson had two cartoons in the “Artists and Models” chapter in Modern Arf. I wish I could have had room for more. Plus, I talked about how Anderson switched styles mid-career and went from beautiful pencil work to a delightlful scribbly ink technique. But, again, I didn’t have space to show that. This is the kind of thing the blog is gonna be great for…

Anderson’s cartoon as reproduced in Arf…

“Why, Mr. Anderson—What’s gotten into you!”
(click for a closer look)

The artist later re-did the cartoon in his scribbly, scrumbly approach, dropping his own name from the caption. Maybe it was to protect the guilty as by all accounts Anderson lived the wild bohemian life of his cartoons…

(click for a closer look)

And here’s another Anderson cartoon for your viewing pleasure…

(click for a closer look)

Next Wednesday we start the REALLY weird ones!