Happy 80th, Bruce McCall! (Canadian cartoonist)

[leno...@yahoo.com]

Born in Simcoe, Ontario, he now lives in NYC.

He's worked for National Lampoon, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Playboy, the New
Yorker, and SNL.

His four most recent books are juveniles.

From "Contemporary Authors":

...McCall served as the illustrator of the children's book The Steps across
the Water, written by Adam Gopnik. Rose, the protagonist, is a young adoptee
with a speech impediment that causes her to shift the beginnings of words.
Embarrassed by her problem, she is unhappy and isolated. During a trip to
New York's Central Park, Rose discovers a set of beautiful glass steps
across the park's lake--steps that no one else can see. When Rose finally
decides to follow the steps, she finds herself in a strange mirror world
of U Nork, where the population is in danger from the Ice Queen, who is
out to destroy everything. When Rose finds out the Ice Queen's identity,
things get even worse. Determined to rescue U Nork from danger, she seeks
help from both old and new worlds to derail the Ice Queen's plans and set
things right again...

(About the book This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me):
Billionaires in the Wild):
...McCall and Letterman present a gleefully over-the-top catalog of excess
and vice, indulged in without a hint of shame or social conscious by
the oblivious one-percenters they've created to endure their broad mockery.
The book describes several ostentatious monuments to wealth and
exploitation, including one billionaire's Montana hunting lodge that
has its own indoor landing strip, another's mile-long fireplace that
requires a full-time fire-control crew to take care of the sixty blazes
that burn within it, and a tube made from hollowed-out redwood trees
that extends the width of the country...

https://www.facebook.com/Zany.Bruce.McCall
(includes artwork, of course)

http://www.newyorker.com/uncategorized/cover-story-bruce-mccalls-free-delivery
(New Yorker covers)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_McCall

http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/22/reviews/970622.morrison.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
(1997 profile of McCall)

http://www.robertfulford.com/BruceMcCall.html
(2000 article from The National Post about McCall)

http://adcglobal.org/hall-of-fame/bruce-mccall/
(article with photo)

http://www.ted.com/talks/bruce_mccall_s_faux_nostalgia/transcript?language=en
("What is retro-futurism?" 13-minute video of McCall with interactive
transcript)

http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/9303700-95/letterman-books-it-with-artist-writer-bruce-mccall
("Letterman books it with artist-writer Bruce McCall")

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/books/david-letterman-scold-of-the-0-1-percent.html?_r=0
(more on Letterman & McCall)

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=bruce+mccall&tbm=vid
(videos)



WRITINGS:

Zany Afternoons; and Other Glimpses of the Golden Age of Play, Knopf
(New York, NY), 1982.

(Author of text) Sit! The Dog Portraits of Thierry Poncelet,
Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1993.

Thin Ice: Coming of Age in Canada (memoir), Random House (New York,
NY), 1997.

(With Lee Eisenberg) Viagra Nation, HarperPerennial (New York, NY),
1998.

The Last Dream-o-Rama: The Cars Detroit Forgot to Build, Crown (New
York, NY), 2001.

All Meat Looks like South America: The World of Bruce McCall
(cartoon collection), Crown (New York, NY), 2003.

Marveltown, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2008.
("What's it like growing up in a town founded by inventors? On Saturdays,
the adults open the doors of the Invent-o-Drome and give local children
free rein to create whatever gadgets they can think up. Hypno-Goggles, a
Rocket Chair, a homeworkeating robo-dog - the can-do kids of Marveltown
are never at a loss for ideas. But when an unfortunate short circuit
causes a group of giant robot workers to go berserk - and the adults flee
for their lives - are the kids ready to put their know-how to the test.")

Fifty Things to Do with a Book: (Now That Reading Is Dead),
HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2009.
("What good are books, you may be wondering, if we're not going to read
them? What are we even doing in this bookstore? Not to worry! It turns out
that there are literally thousands of things to do with these chunky stacks
of bound tree pulp. Fun, exciting, adventurous, creative things. In fact,
this familiar rectangular object suddenly offers enough dazzling new
interactive possibilities to, yes, fill a book. This book. From re-creating
world wonders to settling marital disputes, entertaining dinner guests
to channeling your inner secret agent, here are fifty wonderfully zany
things to do with all your favorite books.")

(Illustrator) Adam Gopnik, The Steps across the Water, Disney/
Hyperion Books (New York, NY), 2010.
("Young Rose discovers magical glass steps in New York's Central Park
that lead to the fantastic city of U Nork, whose residents have been
awaiting the arrival of the only person who can save them.")

(Illustrator; with David Letterman) This Land Was Made for You
and Me (But Mostly Me): Billionaires in the Wild, Blue Rider Press
(New York, NY), 2013.
("The 'New Yorker' artist and writer and the late-night comic host present
a satirical survey of the "universally detested" wealthy elite that lampoons
their megalomaniacal fantasies, environmental recklessness and moral
indecency.")



Lenona.