OBAMA IS A CARTOON.

" As for Obama, Thank God for his ears. 

A good-looking president isn't good for cartooning."

PAT OLIPHANT ( from Cartoonists draw blank on Obama By DAVID MARK, POLITICO )

In the morning after a quick scan of the headlines and front page, I head for the opinion page of (at least) the NYT and Washington Post and then the editorial cartoons. Everyone reads the newspaper (or computer screen) in a different sequence. I need my editorial comic "fix". The only remaining "good" comic illustration in newspapers is contained in these frames. We'll discuss the wasted trash on the "funny page" of newspapers in a future blog.

The Chicago Tribune has more editorial Cartoons in one place (online) than any other paper but for quick browsing I prefer The Washington Post. The 9 syndicated editorial cartoonists shown in The Post plus Tom Toles and Ann Telnaes are "top" contenders in the Poison Pen league. They cover the field from right to left. 

My personal favorites are Pat Oliphant and Mike Luckovich. Both are Pulitzer Prize winning artists capable of annihilating politicians globally. Their drawing styles are completely different but they make dramatic use of black and white tones with generous use of cross-hatching techniques to achieve middle values. The Obama face and figure in both of these cartoon panels - for now - is neutral. A spare body frame with big ears and a sun tan. Compare that style to conservative editorial cartoonist Glenn McCoy's rendering of O. His unsparing rendering of big ears, big nose and goofy eyes is brutal.

Ann Telnaes, another Pulitzer winner, adds a delightful animated twist to Editorial Cartoons. Telnaes uses actual sound bites from newscasts. Then, she combines those sound bites with a minimalist rendering of politicos faces, animals, machinery - whatever it takes. A former Disney artist, she combines the limited animation style of the early Hanna-Barbara studio (Yogi Bear, etc) with savage wit.

Mike Peters is a syndicated Editorial Cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize winner from Dayton, OH. Peters has an excellent web site. His drawings are genuinely funny without losing their barbs. Mike uses color very effectively and his site has a very effective archive>farewells which honors people from Dr.Suess to John Denver.

Michael Ramirez is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning, conservative, editorial cartoonist for Investors Business Daily. He was born in Japan and graduated from UC, Irvine. He became interested in editorial cartooning when his first cartoon for the college newspaper, lampooning candidates for student office, had the student assembly demanding an apology. Ramirez is a superb draughtsman and his color cartoons are works of controversial art.

There are scores of other brilliant Editorial Cartoonists and I would appreciate your sending me their names. There are also great illustrators like Ed Sorel, Brad Holland, Barry Blitt and others whose art enlivens The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and the editorial pages and magazine section of The Sunday New York Times and Washington Post. We'll cover them in a future blog.

Finally, back to Obama's ears... the Oliphant quote that begins this blog is a transient statement. As each President's term progresses so do the editorial cartoonists' perception of the man or woman in the cartoon frame - the ears get bigger, the nose gets bigger, the figure grows larger or diminishes in size. Keep watching for things like the war helmet that Gary Trudeau created to represent George W. Bush in his editorial comic strip, Doonesbury.

GARDEN & GUN

The name "Garden & Gun" on a magazine blew me away. I saw it in a waiting room and as I recall, it also said, "The Soul Of The New South" The juxtaposition of names Garden and Gun got my attention real quick. The magazine is "perfect bound", the pages are glued in with a square spine. It is slightly oversize and the magazine is well designed. No, it's a lot better than that - it's opulent. The magazine is printed on fine paper with bold formats, excellent typography and beautiful photographs. It almost went broke but apparently has been rescued for now. G&G lists Roy Blount Jr. and Pat Conroy among the contributing editors and the first advertisement I saw was for a gun, a Beretta. Never judge a magazine by it's name. Go to the website and check it out. I'm curious. There is no price listed on the cover. Have you ever seen the magazine? Let me know.

RIDING THE LEICA TRAIN.

RIDING THE LEICA FREEDOM TRAIN

(ED. I cannot vouch for the veracity of this story. I just received it this AM from a good friend. If you have further information about the train please add to the "comments" section. I used this vintage Leica camera  for gathering data during the Korean "War".) 

"Each new arrival (in New York) had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom - a new Leica."

The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product - precise,

minimalist, and utterly efficient. Behind its worldwide acceptance as a

creative tool was a family-owned, socially oriented firm that, during

the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty.

E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany's most famous

photographic product, saved its Jews.

And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the

closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe, acted in such

a way as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler."

The 'Leica Freedom Train'

As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst

Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking

for his help in getting them and their families out of the country.

As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany's

Nuremberg laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their

professional activities.

To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established

what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as "the Leica

Freedom Train," a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the

guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas.

Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members  were

"assigned" to Leitz sales offices in France, Britain, Hong Kong and the United States .

Leitz's activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany.

Before long, German "employees" were disembarking from the ocean liner

Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office

of Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the

photographic industry.*

Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom - a

new Leica.

The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of

this migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople,

marketers and writers for the photographic press.

Keeping the story quiet

The "Leica Freedom Train" was at its height in 1938 and early 1939,

delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with

the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders.

By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America,

thanks to the Leitzes' efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff

get away with it?

Leitz Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected

credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced range-finders

and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi

government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's

single biggest market for optical goods was the United States.

Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good

works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help

Jews and freed only after the payment of a large bribe.

Leitz's daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after

she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into

Switzerland. She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in

the course of questioning.

She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living

conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women,

who had been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s.

(After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her

humanitarian efforts, among them the Officier d'honneur des Palms

Academic from France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the

European Academy in the 1970s.)

Why has no one told this story until now?

According to the late Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the

Leitz family wanted no publicity for its heroic efforts. Only after the

last member of the Leitz family was dead did the "Leica Freedom Train"

finally come to light.

It is now the subject of a book, "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz

Family: The Leica Freedom Train," by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born

Rabbi currently living in England.

THE DECLINE OF TELEVISION NEWS

The hype about your local news affiliate begins almost as soon as the "award winning" news program starts. Sometime during the newscast the "award winning" station slips you a slick commercial of last years First-On-The-Scene coverage of a street murder, forest fire, blizzard, or a bloody car accident with flashing red lights. Wait a minute. Is this happening now? You lose track of what is real and what is editorial bullpucky. I think a better way to judge a TV station is by the quality of it's Weather Reporting. You can easily compare the way the weather is presented and who is presenting the data. Finally, you can grade the TV channel on its nightly weather report by opening your front door the next morning.

We know the TV channel "cares" about you, deeply and sincerely, like the Banks used to. That's why they created another 10 second segment that cuts into the news flow and ends with an 800 number where the viewer can, "tell us how we can improve our service to you-the viewer". Ted Baxter lives. 

What I care about is a good weather report. You can have your local news anchor. I will switch to the local news channel with the best weather reporting. There is always the Weather Channel. There scope is too wide and I go nuts with the electronic music they generate as it takes forever to cycle back to your corner of the map. 

THE WEATHER AS BAIT.

Before your nightly local news begins, the weather person pops on your screen and announces, "according to my exclusive Weathermatic Channel XX computer-generated forecast, tonight's weather is going to be absolutely terrible. I'll be back later with all the details." This is how the weather is used as bait and you are hooked.

THE WEATHER AS AN ART FORM.

The special effects on the weather segment of our local news channels get better and better. It wasn't too long ago that our weatherman was a cartoonist (honest) who made funny little sketches that would overlay the map of the state. A smiling sun with a swatch of orange color would forecast a fine day. On the other hand, a blue sun with a cloud "hat" and a teardrop would fly to the map and ...you get the idea.

All that is gone.

Now there are super realistic clouds  and downpours of rain or snow. There is fog, thunder and lightning and the camera swoops in like like a low flying plane revealing land contours that are superimposed with temperature numbers and Santa Clause, if its Christmas, a bouncing bunny at Easter. There are dials that spin and arrows - lots of arrows - that shift position. There are isobars that move and squeeze each other. And there are wonderful flow patterns, tubes and tidal flows that show us the jet stream - the "arctic express" that will send us into hibernation. Can 3D be next?

THE WEATHERMAN (OR GIRL).

The Weather "person" doesn't get old, except for Willard Scott, who's selling longevity and jelly. Lots of famous people started as a Weatherman. Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Pat Sajak to name a few. Dave Garroway,  host on the original Today Show, would hand draw the day's weather fronts and areas of precipitation on a big chalkboard map of the United States. Now, if you want to be a serious weather person on TV and get an authoritative AMS seal on screen and call yourself a meteorologist, you have to have a four year degree. Al Roker (NBC) holds American Meteorological Society Television Seal #239.

TOMORROW'S WEATHER

Once again the Internet is taking over the weather. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, has a very good website. Also, your local TV news will have a website with an interactive, radar equipped weather map that includes all the bells and whistles of the TV image. Unfortunately it's surrounded by postage-stamp sized ads and interactive buttons to confuse you. Go back to your lounge chair in front of the TV, drink in hand, and watch the handsome young stud or nervous ingenue in front of the weather screen. When they squeeze that cordless button concealed in their palm, your glorious weather report will come to life.

ANDRE PREVIN PLAYS JAZZ PIANO?

ANDRE PREVIN IS 80.

One of my favorite jazz piano players was interviewed on Charlie Rose PBS program the other day and he looks older than me - perhaps because he has been married 5 times. You probably didn't know that he is Woody Allen's father-in-law. Following his divorce from Mia Farrow, she began a relationship with the director Woody Allen. Allen's subsequent marriage to Previn and Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi makes Previn his father-in-law.

Anyway, Previn made a solo jazz piano CD, several years ago that is one of his best. The title "Alone" is very fitting because the tonal patterns and arrangements on this disc are so powerful. He created this collection after his divorce from his fifth wife, the German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter.

You can listen to Andre Previn's "Alone" at Amazon and I recommend it highly.

While on the subject of Jazz...

The NYT recently wrote a glowing review of a nightclub performance by singer Jessica Molaskey accompanied by her husband, John Pizzarelli on guitar. John, his father, Bucky Pizzarelli and Jessica have performed in Santa Fe courtesy of our local jazz aficionados. In addition to being nice people they are terrific musicians. In these depressing times, I heartily recommend these three albums for mood brighteners - all from Amazon music (and you can listen to samples before you buy). (1) A Kiss To Build A Dream On  (2) Make Believe, and  (3) Dear Mr. Cole.

Treat yourself to some great listening. As Stephen Holden wrote in the NYT, "I could exhaust my list of superlatives describing how Ms. Molaskey and Mr. Pizzarelli’s musical and comedic repartee (at Birdland) sustains an easygoing sophistication that is unmatched in my nightclub experience."

DESIGN MEANDERING 1. (THE PRIVATE PRESS)

Miss Print? 

You can't get ink on your fingers from reading the New York Times on a website. Your eyes may glaze over and your fingertips go numb but the wonderful annoyances that accompany the newspaper are disappearing along with the newspaper. 

You can still buy a printing press. It will be old. There are table-top models (the Kelsey, the Pilot) and there is the regular, grown-up size. Smaller than a refrigerator, but heavy. It can hurt you-smash your fingers. And you will get ink and dirt under your fingernails forever.

We saw an ad for our first printing press in a trade journal. The owner was located on Halstead Street in Chicago. The Press had a cast-iron frame and easily weighed between 500 and 1000 lbs. Frankly  I can't remember how we got it back to Kalamazoo? On a trailer I'm sure. There were four of us and the night before we picked up the Chandler & Price Old Style 8x12 printing press, we had a steak dinner in the Matador Room of the Stockyard Inn in Chicago and much wine. That was over 50 years ago. The press was beautiful. It was powered by a foot treadle and the flywheel had these sinuous curved spokes that I painted red with gold trim. 

Before our Letterpress operation ended, we owned two C&P presses: A C&P Old Style (foot operated) and a New Style with an electric motor. Years later, when we donated the New Style press to a museum in Ohio, our basement floor was ink stained from printing the usual Christmas Cards and birth announcements. The Waygoose press was gone. The name came from an archaic English word for the annual feast for persons employed in a printing office. Along with the press we gave away our beautiful Bulmer type, assorted wood type, all kinds of spacing materials, cabinets and cases to hold this stuff and the composing stick, quoins, printing frames, gelatin rollers, spouted containers of cleaning fluid, cans of new and cruddy old printing ink and a box of pins, spatulas and miscellaneous crap that only a craftsman would appreciate.

"Cooney"illustration from "Casey at the bat"

I never had the guts to print a book on the original Waygoose Press. "Casey at the bat" was a project from the Graduate School of Printing Management at Carnegie Tech. in Pittsburgh. It was printed by Offset Lithography.

There is a pica rule on my desk. It has a" mushroom" head so you could "hook" it over an engraving or a line of type to measure it in points or picas. The metal rule was a freebie from the Mono-Lino Typesetting Co., a powerhouse Canadian type setting business that supplied beautiful proof sheets of black type on glossy white paper arranged to match my carefully marked copy specifications. Using rubber cement you carefully cut and pasted together the type elements from the proof sheets to make a...... Whoa! That was in the mid-twentieth century. The Mono-Lino company is long gone. Google the name and you will find an empty brick hulk of a building in Toronto. (Actually they recently filmed the movie, "Hairspray" in front of the building.) The Pica lives on. Actually, PICA is still the word for standard measurement used in desktop publishing, graphic design and the printing business. 

Now, everybody talks about PIXELS. The word itself is a contraction of Picture (Pix) and Element (El). The Pixel is a measurement system that was created specifically and solely to help create designs on that glowing screen in front of you. Your 21st century sketch pad. Pixels are not so much a measurement system as a unit of resolution. Like, how sharp are the images on your web site? Or your new camera? Asking "how many pixels are enough?" is like the old argument about horsepower vs. engine performance. Lets talk about ETAOIN SHRDLU.

Maybe you remember ETAOIN SHRDLU? Surely you remember the Linotype Machine? The letters on Linotype keyboards were arranged by letter frequency, so ETAOIN SHRDLU were the first two vertical columns on the left side of the keyboard. Run a finger down these keys and you create this nonsense phrase. The Linotype operator, who was a magical genius, could push another key and after much whirring and clanking of moving rods and hanging pieces, a metal "slug" imprinted with your name and ETAOIN SHRDLU would be pulled from the hot pot attached to the massive typesetting machine. The smiling, friendly man (no women in the typesetting union) who quickly handed you the molten slug had deep callouses on his hands. He would laugh as you dropped that incendiary hunk of lead. Way back when, I had to memorize the nine cam-functions of that damn machine for a Graphic Arts Management course.  The Linotype Company is still supplying beautiful digitized typefaces for the computer, but if you want to see the Linotype in action, you'll have to visit a museum like Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.