Mid July , being barbeque season, is a good time to run one of my fave 1950s comic book ads for the Original Kentucky Tavern Barbeque Ash Tray. Beware of buying one that’s not an original but a newfangled cheap shit imitation, I guess. And it’s so much in one: “a miniature fireplace, a cigarette server, a match holder, an ash tray, an incense burner…all in one!” Not only that but it can also be, as pictured, “an attractive decorative planter”. Is there anything this baby can’t do? And all this for only $1.98! What comic reading kid wouldn’t order this, the “most beautiful, most original, most useful ash tray ever made?!?

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Is that Wonder Woman and Angelina Jolie? Nah, but close enough…Â

John Martz is, with his buddies, behind every illustrator and art director’s favorite website, drawn.ca. And that makes John one of the most powerful dudes in the Known Universe. Thankfully he’s a also heck of a nice guy. And-who knew-himself every bit as talented as the artists he daily showcases. Arf interviewed him from his Canadian studio…

1. You highlight so many artists each day on drawn.ca but tell us about yourself including something people would be surprised about.

I think a lot of people would be surprised to know that as the editor of a blog devoted to illustration and cartooning, I’ve only been working full-time as an illustrator for about 7 months. I had been moonlighting for years, with a design and motion graphics day job, but only recently took the plunge into full-time cartooning. Turns out the best thing to come out of the website was my own renewed passion to draw funny pictures for a living. (Some of John’s funny pics illustrate this interview but do yourself a favor and see more here).

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2. What dead artists inspire you and why?

I find dead artists don’t draw as well as they did when they were alive. That being said, a few of my biggest influences that are no longer with us are Charles Schulz, Jim Henson, and Chuck Jones. All three had this uncanny ability to find the perfect balance between extreme silliness and real, honest emotion and warmth. Case studies: a) Schulz: Charlie Brown aside, any Peanuts strip with Rerun. b) Jones: “Feed the Kitty” c) Henson: umm… everything?

3. Oh, boy, I get to name drop. I got to work on projects with Schulz and Jones and worked for Jim Henson. I certainly agree they were geniuses! Favorite Frazetta painting and why?

You know the one with the shirtless warrior standing beside the big-breasted woman and the wild tigers? That one.

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4. Something most people don’t know about me: I modeled for that Frazetta painting! The shirtless warrior that is. John, what should we look for our your new personal illustration site and your blog?

Well, on my illustration site, you’ll find a growing portfolio of my work, and on my personal blog you can find sketches, comics, and other fun things like Cinema Toast, a feature in which I review every movie I watch in rhyming verse. Example:

“V for Vendetta
Coulda been betta”

Genius, I know!

5. Really dig your new comic for the “Syncopated” book about your Grandmother’s life back in 1929. What was the process like and what was it like emotionally to produce that?

I’m glad you like it. I’m currently reworking the script and the format to make it into something longer. All of the content stems from an audio recording of an interview I conducted with her while I was about fifteen. Listening to it, and researching old family photos and newspaper articles has helped me realize what an important role my grandmother played in my life, especially how she fostered creativity and encouraged me to be an artist. There’s also a lot of emotional guilt and pressure involved to not do a half-assed job!

Sounds like a great graphic novel in the making! Good luck with that, John!

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A few years ago my fave mag on comics, Hogan’s Alley (see link to the right) T. E. Powers, “The Worst Cartoonist of All Times”, or something like that. Me thinks they were just trying to stir up some controversy, I dunno. This 1928 vintage promo piece certainly  disagrees as it refers this inkslinger as “unquestionably the greatest cartoonist of the age”. Dan Nadle, too, must like him as he put him in the great book “Art Out of Time”.

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Good use of a phallic symbol for this cover of the comic featuring the story “Dollman fixes a Crook’s Goose”. Say, whaa?!?!?

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Here’s a guy that I’m really not familiar with, but the esteemed comic strip historian Allan Holtz calls him one of the “form’s masters” and that’s good enough for me! I wasn’t able to find any examples of Joe’s comics on the web, if somebody has some I’d sure love to see ‘em. But, what’s interesting is that I found a New York “Bantam-Weight Champion” and a “Light Weight Champion” listed just before this 1928 cartoonist’s promotion. Being that McGurk did a boxing strip could this be our McGurk?!? And, on the web I found this nudie flapper painting by McGurk and the gallery selling it has a clipping about the cartoonist so the painting must be by our man!  Finding this fascinating stuff is why God invented Google! “Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings” has already gone to press, but I’m already thinking about a follow-up book “Dirty Drawings by Clean Cartoonists” so maybe McGurk’s painting could be in there.

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(Order Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings)

If you’re guessing that Little Annie Rooney was a rip-off of Little Orphan Annie you’re right on the mooney. Rooney even had a dog like Sandy, but Zero didn’t say “Arf!”, so there!

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I said that in my continuing series of 1928 cartoonist promotional photos that I’d throw some less famous ink slingers at you. You may or may not know Walter Hoban. I love his strip “Jerry on the Job”, it could actually get quite wacky and surreal at times. This promotion says that Jerry is the wittiest of the office boys. That’s because he had a number of competing office boys in the comic strip world, like Smitty for instance. I think cartoonists had a soft spot for office boys as many cartoonists themselves started at newspapers in that position.

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I was out at the Fourth of July parades today looking for Wacky Wonder Women for you dear Arf Lover. Here, I’m giving you my best shot. Happy Fourth!

Winsor McCay’s strip “Little Nemo is Slumberland” is justly celebrated and has been the subject of a number of prestigious reprint projects. But, as much of a Nemo fan as I am I’ve always pined for a reprint of MCay’s earlier dream explorations, “Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend”. “Rarebit” has a darker side and is often more inventive, each strip uber creatively tackling a different subject. These aren’t prettified reaccuring dreams of a boy in fairytale land, but edgy adult dream dramas. To put it simply, Nemo is a dream, the Rarebit is a nightmare. And, as a result, “Rarebit” is, for me, far more visually compelling.

Checker Publishing undertook a well-meaning attempt to reprint the “Rarebits” recently. While we can acknowledge that they were unearthing totally unseen material and getting it in print, the project was sadly, frankly a bit of a bad dream. There was terrible reproduction from primarily microfilm. The many horizontal strips of the series greatly suffered in the small and vertical format. The paper quality wasn’t great. And, worst of all, there were a number of missing episodes.

Two years before the Checker volumes appeared a German fellow, Urlich Merkl, had started virtually the same project. When Checker appeared with their books Urlich didn’t give it up, but redoubled his efforts to make this everything the Checker reprints weren’t. Urlich’s reprints would be complete, would be reprinted from original art and newspaper tearsheets and would be lovingly, painstakingly restored. In fact, Urlich has spent nearly 6000 hours in restoration work and invested 90,000 dollars of his own money in this. And Urlich’s reprint gloriously has every known Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend strip carefully printed and hand bound in Egypt by consumate skilled craftsmen.

The result is breathtaking and, for me, the absolute without question greatest and most valued comics reprint project in the history of publishing. You’ll be relieved that the price is unbelievably low-a mere 114 measly dollars US! What will give you horrifying nightmares is that there is only 1000 copies printed so you must act immediately to snag this rare treasure for your collection. If ever the phrase “act now to avoid disappointment” applies this is it. Here is the website. (BTW, in case you’re wondering, my effusive praise of this book is “pure”: I had nothing to do with it’s preparation, I have no financial involvement of any kind and I don’t know Urlich from Adam, though I’d like to meet him someday and shake his hand).

This amazing book is going on my bedroom nightstand. I go to sleep each night with original “Rarebits” on the walls and an original “Nemo” above the bed. But, my fave McCay “Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend” original that I own is the one below as it pictures McCay at the drawing board right after he debuted his groundbreaking Gertie the Dinosaur cartoon. I thought I’d share this original with you to help celebrate this stupendous publishing event. (Thanks to my pals Patrick  McDonnell and Karen O’Connell who generously sold this, my favorite piece in my collection, to me).

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