October, Fast!

Two cartoon museums, a cartoonist conference, and more cartoons. And cartoons.

Kate gets her Halloween costume started early. This one appears on October 20.

I’ve been away in San Francisco at the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists convention. The Association of Canadian Cartoonists is a sister organization, and we had quite a few members there whom I have only met on Zoom sessions, to date.

Presenters included the incredible Steve Brodner, who gave us a caricature class. I’d taken it in 2021, so I knew the rules. And I passed the assignment.

Steve is also here on Substack, and he does a new cartoon every day on THE GREATER QUIET.

Steve Brodner caricature of “Lame Duck” President Clinton, 1997.

Cartoonist and cartoon historian/author extraordinaire Trina Robbins gave a presentation on Suffrage in Cartooning. The early work of Edwina Dumm and Nell Brinkley was outstanding. Both women started in comics 20 years before I thought they did. The 1910s was a free for all in comics…anyone could do them. There were no ‘old boys’ so…no old boy network! There were more female cartoonists in 1915 than there were in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

A Nell Brinkley Girl, “Dimples”, is elected PRESIDENT! circa 1914

I visited the Walt Disney Family Museum on the Presidio. It’s a wonderful organization, beautifully designed. I was crying in a few places.

But I was a bit unhappy that Retta Scott was credited as ‘artist’ in three exhibits: once, in a photo in the life drawing class; a second time, with a powerful storyboard sketch from BAMBI where the dogs attack Faline; and in the third, showing one of her excellent illustrated books for Disney. They did not mention that she was the first female animator at Disney’s or that she storyboarded and animated the sequence where Faline is attacked by dogs. This credit appears elsewhere on the Web. It appears under this image, here. Click on the red text to see the context.

We still have a long way to go.

Storyboard drawings from BAMBI by Retta Scott. Layout man Ken O’Connor told me that Scott was “One of the best draftsmen, male OR female, in that studio.”

Then I took a ferryboat and a cute train to the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. Getting there was half the fun…I saw the gorgeous San Francisco Skyline from the water, and saw some pretty little towns from the train.

The Museum did not disappoint. It is a delight, although smaller than I thought it was. There is a magnificent mural in the lobby with Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football…assembled from tiles created from Peanuts strips.

The mural in the Charles M. Schulz Museum is enormous, and composed of tiles made from PEANUTS daily strips.

I had lunch in the Warm Puppy Cafe in Mr. Schulz’ skating rink, which featured food served in Snoopy’s dog dish. Of course I got one, and shall keep it.

I also have this sticker somewhere, but can’t find it right now.

So, I haven’t been posting much but promise to be better now. I’ve had a story arc with Kate watching monster movies for the past 2 weeks. They got progressively less scary, and Kate is just as unimpressed as Shawm, Floof, and Sirius by the time they get to NIGHT OF THE LEPUS on October 14.

The October 15 strip featured a tribute to the famous M. R. James story OH, WHISTLE AND I’LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD. After you read it, you’ll definitely think twice about staying in a hotel room with twin beds, if you are by yourself.

I’ve actually visited the location of OH WHISTLE, AND I’LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD in England, and also been to Viborg, Denmark, where James set NUMBER THIRTEEN. I didn’t count the windows in my hotel room to see if there was one MISSING after dark…

Today I start the Halloween costume arc, which will run until November 2. Mrs. Oldman begins the story by purchasing a superhero costume. It took some doing to find a superhero name that Marvel hadn’t already taken. They LITERALLY have a superhero for everything: fish, fowl, even clouds. Yeesh.

Mrs. Oldman buys a very silly superhero costume and gets her rather useless super power on October 17, then we’re on to Kate’s dilemma: she has a zero budget for her costume, and must improvise.

Mrs. Oldman has a different Superhero Name in the October 17 strip. Find out at gocomics.com/furbabies.

So, back to the drawing board.

Enjoy.