8/30/09 - GLC NCS Meeting News - Superman and Comic Strip Superstar

Last weekend the Great Lakes Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society or GLC NCS had their annual summer get-together in Cincinnati and invited some guests to attend - among whom I was lucky enough to be included. Many thanks to Craig Boldman for the invite! This meeting was fun and informative. Last year, myself and few other CCG members attended a similar event and info gained from then and there led to my being able to attend the NCS Tribute luncheon and presentation of the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award to Frank Frazetta at his museum in Pennsylvania in September 2008.

Well this year had some interesting news items as well. Ed Black, the GLC's secretary told of a project to preserve the homes in Cleveland Ohio of the two creators of Superman. The Siegal and Shuster Society is a registered charity and was founded last year by writer Brad Meltzer. With the generous help of many current comic artists it has raised over $100,000 in the last year to preserve the home of Jerry Siegel. This past July there was celebration of this achievement - see this link to CBR story for more details: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=21998

Another brief Ed shared was about Comic Strip Superstar. This event is a contest (entries must be in by September 12th 2009 to be eligible.

The winner will receive a publishing contract from Andrews McMeel Publishing, a $5,000 advance from Universal Uclick, and a monthly stipend for the development of 20 comic strips that will be considered for syndication.

Two well known cartoonist judges for the event include Gray Trudeau (Doonesbury) and Lynn Johnston (For Better or Worse) Also judging will be two veteran Universal Press Syndicate editors. The contest is sponsored by Andrews McMeel Publishing and hosted by Amazon.com. You need to have two weeks of daily cartoons and two Sunday strips in order to enter.

I did some further web searches upon hearing of this contest and have cooled somewhat in my initial enthusiasm for this project. There seems to be some concern that the contracts are somewhat one sided in the interest of the sponsor and not a good deal for the lucky winner. See these links for some of these commentaries:

• http://forums.leasticoulddo.com/index.php?showtopic=30264
• http://blog.comicspace.com/?p=1686
• http://www.webcomics.com/home/2009/8/19/comic-strip-superstar-contest-announced.html

Revised 09/08/09:
Oops! I forgot to mention previously the National Caricaturists Network (NCN) 2009 National Convention:

http://www.caricature.org/index.php?page=convention-upcoming

The event will be in Sandusky, OH over November 2-7, 2009. Big discounts for signing up before 9/15/09 - see site and below (copy and pasted from Tom Richmond's excellent blog):

On or Before September 15th:

• Members- $165
• Member guests- $100 each
• Non- Member “Seminar Only”- $99

After September 15th:

• Members- $250
• Member guests- $100 each
• Non- Member “Seminar Only”- $125

09/16/08 - My Trip to Frazetta Tribute thanks to the NCS

Somehow our little group got the attention of the Great Lakes Chapter of the National Cartoonist Society. This is the crem de le crem of cartooning groups and was founded by the big boys in syndicated comics back when they were powerhouses of income for the newspaper industry names such as Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond and Mort Walker were well known around the country. An aside: Caniff is known to have outbargained Randolph Hearst when he dictated his own terms for his new comic strip Steve Canyon, Hearst knew he couldn't say no and lose such a bread and butter staple to his syndicates success.

A small group of us, John, Justin and I, jumped at the chance to attend the casual summer NCS luncheon in Lebanon, OH that Craig Boldman, chapter president, had invited us to. This was so that we could tell about our then upcoming LexArts/CCG comic art show. It was during the announcement phase of the meeting that I heard about the request for submissions to a Frank Frazetta Tribute Book Project that another NCS member was organizing and soliciting submissions for. After getting back from that highly enjoyable lunch meeting; I was filled with happiness - talking with so many knowledgeable grown-ups who shared my passion and interest in comics and cartooning had me feeling almost guilty with joy.

But the thought of getting to let Frank Frazetta know how much he had influenced my young artist mind was really getting me stoked up! I emailed Craig for the particulars soon after getting home. Upon getting the information - I was thrilled to see this endeavor included a luncheon where one could actually meet the living legend! Now I was on cloud nine! To make this story short - I was once again pleasantly surprised when my meager art offering was accepted by Jack Pittman for the the tribute book he was lovingly hand assembling to present to Frank.

Saturday August 30th 2008: My trip to East Stroudsburg and to the Frazetta Museum, was not without a few glitches and this made me miss the luncheon and getting to talk with many of the assembled NCS cartoonists - something I truly regret. But I did get there in time for the presentation to Frank of the NCS - Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award.

(Picture here was my art sub and Franks award) Which appeared to stun and touch Frank when his long time friend Nick Meglin presented it to him.

Frank turned eighty this past February and is still recovering from a stroke a couple of years back. He has taught himself to paint left handed nearly as well as he could before using his right hand. His originals are striking in their unusual quality for oils - very smooth - not much texture or impasto. He apparently loved baseball so much that most of his works were completed in under 24 hours - he would work through the night so he could go out in the morning and play ball. He is a very normal sort of guy other than being a savant artist (he could do all this when he was five years old!) But I was amazed at his friendly, down to earth demeanor - not what one would expect from a "living legend"!

He looked at one of my self rejected sketches for his tribute book and asked: "Who did that?" When I told him I had - he replied "..thats good!" I don't think I will ever forget those words of praise. Thanks Frank!

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Other Frazetta tribute posts: (send me your links if you want to be added!)
Ron Hill - Great Lakes Chapter of the NCS