Fearless Predictions (and the Kitchen Sink) Edition!

[Hogan's Alley]

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Dear fellow comics fan:

Thanks to everyone who requested a copy of Hogan’s Alley on Free Comic
Book Day. Response was overwhelming, and we’re preparing the mailing
now to go out soon.

AND THE WINNER IS: If it’s springtime, it’s awards season for
cartoonists! The movies have the Oscars, television has the Emmys, and
cartooning has the only slightly less prestigious Reuben Awards. The
membership of the National Cartoonists Society has nominated
cartoonists in a range of categories, and the winners will be
announced on May 23. The staff of Hogan’s Alley, using our peerless
insight, a Ouija board, some tea leaves and the Magic 8-Ball, has made
our fearless predictions for some of the categories. (Read this now
and believe us later: You might recall that we went five for seven
last year.)

NOMINEES FOR THE COMIC BOOK DIVISION AWARD: Chris Blain (“Gus and His
Gang”), Matthew Forsythe (“Ojingogo”) and Cyril Pedrosa (“Three
Shadows”) SHOULD WIN: Blain’s book combines the best of conventional
narrative and comic book storytelling, and his amiably loose-limbed
style recalls Pat Oliphant. WILL WIN: Voting will be close for all the
first-time nominees, and without a prohibitive favorite (like last
year’s Shaun Tan and “The Arrival”) Blain wins a squeaker.

NOMINEES FOR THE EDITORIAL CARTOON AWARD: Mike Luckovich (The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution), Jeff Parker (Florida Today) and Mike Ramirez
(Investor’s Business Daily). It was another tough year in the
editorial cartooning profession, which saw its ranks thinned by
consolidation, while the seismic changes in presidential
administrations and agendas provided welcome fodder for the remaining
practitioners. SHOULD WIN: The tectonic shift in Washington has
clearly energized Ramirez, who continues to produce scalpel-sharp
cartoons. But he won last year, and we don’t favor predicting back-to-
back wins. WILL WIN: Not having President Bush around to lampoon
hasn’t slowed Luckovich down a bit, and he remains at the top of his
profession.

NOMINEES FOR THE GAG CARTOON DIVISION AWARD: Pat Byrnes, Mort Gerberg
and Werner Wejp-Olsen. The biggest shame is that there aren’t more
markets to buy these gents’ work as contraction in print media chips
away at gag cartooning. SHOULD WIN: We’re unabashed Gerberg fans, but
he took home the hardware last year, so we think voters will want to
share the accolades with another deserving peer. WILL WIN: Fellow
NCSers regard Byrnes highly for his uncanny ability to put out sharp,
insightful and unfailingly funny gag cartoons, and his win will cement
what voters have long known.

NOMINEES FOR THE ANIMATION FEATURE DIVISION AWARD: James Baxter (“Kung
Fu Panda”), Clay Katis (“Bolt”) and Nicolas Marlet (“Kung Fu Panda”).
With no 2D nominees, voters will choose among three CGI nominees (but
with so little 2D being produced, this will be the norm in future
years). SHOULD WIN: “Bolt” was a clever, engaging and thoroughly eye-
catching commentary on the nature of celebrity and the division of
reality from perception. WILL WIN: “Kung Fu Panda” cleaned up at the
box office, but the two nominees split the vote and open the door for
Katis and “Bolt.”.

NOMINEES FOR THE TELEVISION ANIMATION DIVISION AWARD: Bryan Anrett
(“The Mighty B!”), Ben Balistreri (“Foster’s Home for Imaginary
Friends”) and Sandra Equihua and Jorge Gutierrez (“El Tigre: The
Adventures of Manny Rivera”). The plethora of television animation
today makes it difficult to keep up with newcomers. (We have a hard
enough time keeping up with old favorites like “King of the Hill.”)
SHOULD WIN: “Foster’s,” with its nostalgic and bracing take on
childhood, and its inventive visual approach, is one of the best-
looking cartoons on television today. WILL WIN: Voters will have a
hard time deciding among three nominees who all deserve acclaim, but
the nostalgia-dipped-in-Gorey of “Foster’s” takes the biggest bloc.

NOMINEES FOR THE NEWSPAPER ILLUSTRATION AWARD: Lars Leetaru, Mark
Marturello and Sean Kelly. Kelly, last year’s winner, gets nominated
again, a deserved tribute to one of the trade’s current masters.
SHOULD WIN: We’re big fans of Kelly’s, whose work adds a magazine-like
sheen to the newspaper articles they accompany. WILL WIN: We’ll adhere
to our hunch that back-to-back wins are unlikely, so we’ll go with
Leetaru, whose colorful, assured work is not only technically
brilliant but conceptually and visually innovative.

NOMINEES FOR THE NEWSPAPER PANEL AWARD: Vic Lee (“Pardon My Planet”),
Mark Parisi (“Off the Mark”) and Jeff Stahler (“Moderately Confused”).
No repeat nominees in this category, laying the groundwork for an even
voting field. SHOULD WIN: Lee has been producing relationship humor in
the panel format for years, a feat that is as expertly done in his
panel as it is daunting. WILL WIN: NCS members have great respect for
Parisi’s success with his panel, begun as a self-syndicated effort.
Not to mention that it has remained funny and innovative for years.

NOMINEES FOR THE NEWSPAPER STRIP DIVISION AWARD: Stephan Pastis
(“Pearls Before Swine”), Mark Tatulli (“Lio”) and Richard Thompson
(“Cul de Sac”). Perhaps the toughest set of nominees of any category
this year, a Murderer’s Row of strips. And Thompson is a nominee
again, further evidence of the esteem in which his relative newcomer
strip is held. SHOULD WIN: Pastis has been stretching the boundaries
of what the daily strip can say for years, and his work in 2008 was
further evidence of his willingness to use the comic strip form to
challenge and provoke readers. WILL WIN: Even given the merits of the
other nominees, Tatulli and “Lio” have captured the zeitgeist with its
unique combination of the macabre and the surreal.

NOMINEES FOR THE REUBEN AWARD: In the running for the top award
(despite common misperception, this award is the ONLY Reuben Award
given each year; the others are divisional awards) are Dave Coverly
(“Speed Bump”), Stephan Pastis (“Pearls Before Swine”) and Dan Piraro
(“Bizarro”). Unlike some recent years, none of the nominees is going
up against a Living Legend, a slam-dunk voting process that reduces
the merely mortal nominees to cannon fodder. (When you’re on a ballot
against Al Jaffee, Jack Davis or Sergio Aragones, you’re firmly in the
“just honored to be nominated” mode.) The more level playing field
lends the outcome more suspense than has recently been the case.
SHOULD WIN: Piraro has produced top-notch work consistently for years,
and it’s hard to argue that he isn’t the year’s best cartoonist. One
of the medium’s best draftsmen, Piraro’s willingness to advocate for
his pet causes (veganism, animal rights, etc.) in his panel lends his
work weight and meaning beyond a gag a day. WILL WIN: We’re
considering three future Reuben Award winners, so it’s hard to go
wrong. But Piraro’s longevity, repeated past Reuben noms and the
respect of his voting peers tilt the balloting in his favor.

TRIVIA TIME, REUBEN EDITION: While you’re in a Reuben Award state of
mind, mull these questions over to see how much you know about the
people who have won cartooning’s top honor:

A. Who was the first Reuben Award winner whose strip was named after
an animal character?
B. Who was the first Reuben Award winner whose strip was named after a
female character?
C. Who was the first cartoonist to win the Reuben for a single-panel
strip?
D. Who was the first cartoonist to win the Reuben for a strip set in
an historical era?
E. What cartoonist won two Reuben Awards in the 1990s?
(Answers below)

EVERYTHING AND THE KITCHEN SINK: We recently talked to Denis Kitchen,
the legendary underground cartoonist, editor and publisher, about “The
Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics,” the new book he co-
authored with Paul Buhle about the even-more-legendary Harvey
Kurtzman.

HA: What aspects of Harvey Kurtzman's life and career will your book
show us that we haven't yet seen?
DK: Co-author Paul Buhle and I cover Harvey's full career, with
information previously unknown about his childhood and early career
onward. What will especially be new, even to diehard Kurtzman fans, is
a treasure trove of previously unseen artwork. This includes such
material as figure drawings and commercial work from the 40s, a
"private" drawing for Stan Lee, unpublished strips pre-dating "Hey
Look!," illustrated love letters, extremely obscure 40s publications,
never-before-seen page layouts for an EC war story, thumbnails for
other EC/MAD stories, eight color pages from an aborted 1954 (!)
graphic novel adaptation of Dickens, watercolor paintings done during
Harvey's honeymoon, unpublished Jungle Book material, preliminary
never seen drawings to an Esquire story, never seen prelims to Humbug
and Help! covers AND the wonderful never before seen "Little Annie
Fanny" origin story in which Annie grows up in other comics strips
(Li'l Abner, Peanuts, Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, Beetle Bailey,
and Mandrake). And much more!

HA: In looking at the book's previously unpublished work, were you
struck by anything in particular? Did any of the material shed new
light to you on his working methods or processes?
DK: Yes. Harvey experimented with media like tempera and watercolor
and with styles that many would never recognize as the Harvey Kurtzman
we know. For the first time we reproduce some of the few surviving
large pencil roughs that Harvey prepared for his EC collaborators. To
show readers exactly how Harvey worked in later years we have a vellum
section showing the metamorphosis of a single page from "Little Annie
Fanny" in five distinct stages.

HA: Kurtzman was famously painstaking. Were you able to detect an
evolution in his working methods over the decades, or was the way he
approached his work fairly consistent?
DK: Ha! I think Harvey was consistently painstaking over the years,
but the surviving evidence for his levels of thumbnails and layouts
first appears in the early 50s and the multiple vellum layering
appears to have first started with "Little Annie Fanny" in the early
60s.

HA: A whole generation was influenced by Kurtzman's work. In our
culture today, where do you see his fingerprints?
DK: It's most obvious and widely acknowledged, with the generation of
underground cartoonists, myself included, who grew up with MAD,
Humbug, Trump and Help! Art Spiegelman has noted that Harvey laid the
groundwork for such things as "Saturday Night Live," "Monty Python"
and "Naked Gun" In his introduction to our book Harry Shearer repeats
SNL but also credits Harvey's influence on "The Simpsons." I think
it's fair to say that Harvey's approach to humor has left innumerable
fingerprints on our culture.

HA: MAD magazine recently published its 500th issue. What would
Kurtzman think of the magazine today?
DK: Probably not much. From the few recent issues I've seen it seems
more and more to rely on fart noises, boogers and levels of juvenile
crudity that Harvey would wrinkle his forehead at. Ironically it now
includes color, something Harvey longed for in the mid 50s (and that
Hefner used to lure him to Trump). But I suspect he would also note
philosophically that after he left and Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein
lowered the sophistication level, MAD magazine's circulation
increased. He would probably remind us acerbically that "satire
magazines don't sell." That said, MAD's circulation has been in steady
decline now for many years, so whatever brand of humor it's selling
these days isn't resonating with recent or current generations.

HA: What would Kurtzman say about your book if he were here to see it?
DK: The first solo publication I did with him, back in Kitchen Sink
Press days, was "Kurtzman Komix," a comic book format collection of
selected "Hey Look!" and "Potshot Pete" strips. He was very
disappointed that it was not a squarebound collection. Format meant a
lot to Harvey, and a black and white stapled comic didn't indicate
respect. His comic book days were behind him. Subsequently all the
various collections I did of Harvey's work were squarebound and with
hardcover editions.

I think he'd be very pleased and proud of "The Art of Harvey
Kurtzman." Coming from a prestigious house like Abrams would also
please him. As to the content and exactly what Paul and I said, which
images are included, and the objectivity we tried to bring to both the
good and bad moments of his life and career, I think he'd be the first
to say we weren't harsh enough in some areas. If we also got it back
with plenty of notes in the margin, I wouldn't be surprised. But
overall he'd be pleased that people still remembered and still cared
about his accomplishments. And also that it was a genuine coffee table
book.

HA: Speaking of books about painstaking cartoonists, I continue to
hear rumors about a book featuring the cartooning of a certain Denis
Kitchen. I know that Denis can be maddening to work with. What do you
know about this quasi-legendary project?
DK: Maddening indeed. But, yes, I can confirm that Dark Horse will be
publishing "The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen" in spring 2010.

We encourage you to purchase this book to learn more about one of
cartooning’s seminal figures. You can learn more about the book and be
among the first to own it at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0810972964/?tag=hogansalleyma-20.

ANSWERS TO TRIVIA TIME:
A. Walt Kelly, “Pogo” (1951)
B. Chic Young, “Blondie” (1948)
C. Hank Ketcham, “Dennis the Menace” (1952)
D. Hal Foster, “Prince Valiant” (1957)
E. Gary Larson, “The Far Side” (1990 and 1994)

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