OT: Favorite Cartoonists (other than animators)

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Just wondering who everybodies favorite cartoonists would be, outside of animation. A few of my favorites are (in no particular order):

Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (R.I.P.)

Theodor Geisel (AKA Dr. Seuss, also wrote Private Snafu cartoons)

Ronald Searle (British cartoonist and illustrator, contributed gag panel cartoons to British newspapers and magazines, created St. Trinians)

Harvey Kurtzman (creator of MAD and Little Annie Fanny for Playboy magazine)

Will Elder (collaborater of Kurtzman on MAD and Little Annie Fanny)

Paul Coker, Jr. (MAD contributor and designer for Rankin/Bass)

Walt Kelly (creator of Pogo and former Disney artist)

Hank Ketcham (Dennis the Menace comic strip and former Walter Lantz studio artist)

Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes)

Thomas Nast (19th century political cartoonist for Harper's Weekly)

Robert Crumb (Fritz the Cat and other underground comix)

Bernie Wrightson (comic book artist)

Robert Osborne (political cartoons and illustrations)

Al Jaffee (MAD contributor)

A. B. Frost (19th century cartoonist, drew very exaggerated pen and ink drawings, almost like an animator's extremes)

Basil Wolverton (comic strips, MAD, won "ugliest girl" drawing constest featured in Li'l Abner, inspired many future underground cartoonists with his beautiful drawings of ugliness)

Winsor McKay (a bit of a cheat, he was a newspaper cartoonist before he became an animator)

[Mibbitmaker]

(In no particular order)

Al Hirschfeld
Mort Drucker
Don Wright
Dave Sim (though he is a sexist)
Jeff Smith
Terry Moore
Pat Oliphant
Jeff MacNelly
Bill Watterson
George Wildman (drew Popeye, etc., in 1970s comic books)
Harry Lucie (fav. Archie comics artist, 1950s-1970s)
Howie Post (fav. Spooky/Hot Stuff artist)
Scott Roberts (Patty Cake comic book)
George Herriman
Walt Kelly
David Levine
Jim Borgman
Angelo Torres
Sam Kieth
Gene Colon (esp. Howard the Duck)
Wally Wood
Will Elder
Jack Davis
Wiley
Charles Schulz
Patrick McDonnell

....Long list, isn't it? :D

[Daffyfan2003]

I'll go with Bill Watterson, Charles Schulz, Bill Keane and Jim Davis (Garfield's creator.)

[chuckamuck43]

Paging Mark Evanier!!!:D

You guys have picked some truly great talent! I'm especially fond of Hirschfeld and Walt Kelly.

I'll add two more :

Frank Frazetta - Drew/painted fantasy, horror, adventure and science-fiction art and IIRC, helped create the appearance of Vampirella.

Carl Barks - The guy who drew (and wrote!) some of the most awesome adventure comics ever. This is the guy most responsible for giving Uncle Scrooge McDuck his personality.
Believe it or not, he also drew some Tom & Jerry comics!

[Sogturtle]

As for me I'd add...

Al Capp ("Lil Abner" and its ruthless satire of Dick Tracy, 'Fearless Fosdick')
Johnny Hart ("B.C." and "The Wizard of Id" both eventually animated)
Gary Larson ("The Far Side")
Berkely Breathed ("Bloom County"
Bob Kane (creator of "Batman") Kane was briefly a Fleischer-ite
Siegel & Shuster (creators of "Superman")

and second the motion on...
Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel)
Charles Schulz
Jim Davis (creator of ...aw you know ;))
Charles Addams (remember the "Addam's Family"...)
Dan Piraro ("Bizarro")
Don Martin (Mad magazine)

(nobody's mentioned
Jim (F.) Davis who drew the Fox & Crow and animated everywhere)

[oldgreypole]

- Chuck Roth ("Dick and Jane")
- Reg Smythe ("Andy Capp")
- Mort Walker ("Beetle Bailey," "Sam's Strip," "Sam and Silo," "Boner's Ark," "Hi and Lois")
- Bud Blake ("Tiger")
- Johnny Hart ("B.C." and "Wizard of Id")
- Russell Myers ("Broom-Hilda")
- Leo Stoutsenberger (Cartoonerama correspondence course)

[Matt Yorston]

I'll go with...

Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey)

Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes)

Berkeley Breathed (Bloom County)

Charles Schulz (Peanuts)

[rodney]

I'll say....

Carl Barks (hands down, my favorite ever)
Don Rosa (heir to the Barks throne)
Walt Kelly
Bill Watterson
EC Segar (what I've read of his work, anyway)
Floyd Gottfredson
Charles Schultz
Milt Caniff

[Pietro]

I really enjoyed the old comics, and for awhile when I first came here to the TTTP, I started researching comics alongside animation. It just never "clicked," though. Anyway, here are my favorites:

Charles Schultz
Jim Davis (both Garfield Davis and Fox and Crow Davis)
E.C. Seager (Popeye)
George Herriman
Matt Groening (Life in Hell)
Bill Watterson
Ted Geisel (Dr. Suess)
Milt Gross (Count Screwloose, etc.)
Chester Gould (Dick Tracy)

-Pietro:D

[Matthew Hunter]

Charles Schulz ("Peanuts")
Jim Davis ("Garfield")
Gary Larson ("The Far Side")
Jeff MacNelly ("Shoe")
Johnny Hart
Mike Peters ("Mother goose and Grimm", various political cartoons)
David Alvarez ("Looney Tunes" comic books)

[Lee Glover]

My favourites are:

Jim Davis (Garfield)
Charles Shultz (Peanuts)
Otto Messmer (Felix the Cat)
Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes)
Matt Groening (Life in Hell)
George Herriman (Krazy Kat)

[mmv3000]

Frank Cho (Liberty Meadows, University2)

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Lots of good cartoonists mentioned. I'll second:

Mort Drucker
George Herriman (there's currently two paperback collections of Krazy Kat out now)
Wally Wood (especially when he worked for Kurtzman)
Al Capp
Frank Frazetta
Charles Shulz
Jack Davis

[Der Captain]

George Herriman
Carl Barks
Tom K. Ryan
Jules Feiffer
Gary Larson
Rudolph Dirks
Harold Knerr
Steve Benson
Charles Schulz
Gary Trudeau
Matt Groening
Al Hirschfeld
Matt Feazell

[Der Captain]

Wait! How could I have forgotten E.C. Segar and Bill Watterson?

[rodney]

And how could I have forgotten George Herriman?!

[Howard]

My favorites would be:

Charles M. Schulz
Bill Griffith (Zippy The Pinhead)
George Herriman
Carl Barks
William Van Horn
Floyd Gottfredson
Paul Murry
Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku)
Don Rosa
Sergio Aragones
Daan Jippes
Romano Scarpa

[bigshot]

Amazing that the thread is so long and no one has mentioned my favorites...

VIP Partch
Milt Gross
Cliff Sterrett

See ya
Steve

[BobChief]

'Howard' mentioned Aragones, who actually made it to television, albeit on a very small scale with interstitial and incidental toons that were part of the "TV Blooper" shows co-hosted and co-produced by Dick Clark.

I'll throw in someone else from MAD's heyday in the 70's: Don Martin. Always cracked me up. (seem to think he passed away in 2001...)

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally posted by bigshot
Amazing that the thread is so long and no one has mentioned my favorites...

VIP Partch
Milt Gross
Cliff Sterrett

See ya
Steve

Pietro mentioned Milt Gross before.

[Boy Wonder]

Any Mad guy, Drabble creator, Boondocks guy, and the guy who made Homestar Runner!

And that Bill Waterson guy, Chuck Schultz,

[barnyarddawg]

The French artist Honore' Daumier was an outstanding caricaturist, and made many political cartoons in the mid 1800s. Anyone interested in social and political satire should check out his work.

As far as modern stuff, Gary Larson is my favorite. On his heels are Bill Waterson and Charles Schultz. My favorite editorial cartoonist is Walt Handelsman of Newsday. I think he is a lot more creative, and funnier, than most political cartoonists.

[Thad Komorowski]

I've always felt Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes was pure genius, so I go with him as my favorite cartoonist...

[Paul Penna]

Most of my top favorites, like Walt Kelly, Carl Barks, Will Elder & Wally Wood, to name but four, have already been mentioned, but I'll add a new one: Dan Piraro, creator of the daily, single-panel "Bizarro." Wickedly off-beat humor and wonderfully funny drawing. I used to think he was a second string Gary Larson, but he's either gotten better, or I've learned to appreciate his real talent. Or both. That and the crossword puzzles are the only things that make the San Francisco Chronicle worth the two bits.

[Boy Wonder]

Originally posted by Thad K
I've always felt Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes was pure genius, so I go with him as my favorite cartoonist...

So that's the one I forgot! Man, I love those comics, so.......

[Andrew Gilmore]

George Herriman
Bill Watterson
Mort Walker
Garry Larson

[Knothead]

As far as I can tell, these names haven't shown up yet.

SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!

Richard Thompson, Arnold Roth, Chris Ware, Dave Cooper,
Ivan Brunetti, Dan DeCarlo, Franquin, Sempe, Uderzo, Herge,
The Hernandez Brothers, Glen Baxter, Saul Steinberg, William
Steig, George Booth, Marty Murphy, Charles Addams, Art Spiegelman,
David Mazzuchelli, Will Eisner, Frank Miller, Lynda Barry,
Shawn Belshwender, and Dik Browne...especially his work
on the first ten years of the "Hi and Lois" strip.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally posted by Knothead
As far as I can tell, these names haven't shown up yet.

SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!

Richard Thompson, Arnold Roth, Chris Ware, Dave Cooper,
Ivan Brunetti, Dan DeCarlo, Franquin, Sempe, Uderzo, Herge,
The Hernandez Brothers, Glen Baxter, Saul Steinberg, William
Steig, George Booth, Marty Murphy, Charles Addams, Art Spiegelman,
David Mazzuchelli, Will Eisner, Frank Miller, Lynda Barry,
Shawn Belshwender, and Dik Browne...especially his work
on the first ten years of the "Hi and Lois" strip.
I also like Arnold Roth, Chris Ware, William Steig, Charles Addams, and Will Eisner (thus I am wallowing in shame right now). Frank Miller and Dik Brown are alright in my opinion. I'm not a big fan of Sempe, The Hernandez Brothers, Saul Steinberg, George Booth, or Lynda Barry, though. I haven't read much by Art Spiegleman, but I loved a comic he did years ago titled, I believe, "The History of Comedy," or something like that. It was very funny! The rest of the artists you mentioned I am not familiar with.

[angilbas]

Originally posted by BobChief
'Howard' mentioned Aragones, who actually made it to television, albeit on a very small scale with interstitial and incidental toons that were part of the "TV Blooper" shows co-hosted and co-produced by Dick Clark.

I'll throw in someone else from MAD's heyday in the 70's: Don Martin. Always cracked me up. (seem to think he passed away in 2001...)

Don passed away in January 2000 ... but from 1956 to 1987 he was 'MAD's Maddest Artist.' A 1965 one-pager, "In Injun Territory," appears to have been inspired by the sheepdog-in-tree bit from "Don't Give Up the Sheep." A settler in the Old West snoozes as two knife-wielding warriors sneak closer and closer ... until the settler's horse shows itself.

MAD has had lots of talented artists ... Mort Drucker (almost 45 years with the magazine), Al Jaffee (since 1955), Sergio Aragones (since 1962), George Woodbridge, Paul Coker. In the mid-1970's, Harry North and Bob Jones added their talents. More recently, Peter Kuiper put new blood into 'Spy Vs. Spy.'

Jim Aparo, Russ Heath, Bob Kane and Joe Kubert from DC Comics.

Editorial cartoonists: Herblock (who was a fan of Jones), Aislin, Cam (who drew 'Agent Fudd Meets Saddam Hussein' in June 2002; search Toon Zone under this title to find the cartoon), Pat Oliphant, Adrian Raeside.

Comic strip artists: Lynn Johnston, Dean Young, Brant Parker, Johnny Hart, Jim Davis.


-Tony

[Davesnothere]

How 'bout Antonio Prohias, the creator of Spy vs. Spy?

[J. J. Hunsecker]

I would like to add Steve Brodner to my list. He's a caricaturist and political cartoonist who has worked for Harper's, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, the now defunct SPY, and The Village Voice, I think. He draws in an exaggerated style using pen and ink with some ink splatter similar to Ralph Steadman. (Hey! Steadman! There's another name to add to the list!) I also like Steadman imitator Gerald Scarfe (he did the album cover to Pink Floyd: The Wall).

Other caricaturists for the list: John Kascht, Philip Burke, David Cowles, Michael Witte and Robert Risko.

Also, if anybody has seen the pen and ink drawings of Heinrich Kley they would know what a great draftsman the man is. He did beautiful and whimsical drawings of anthropomorphized animals.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally posted by Davesnothere
How 'bout Antonio Prohias, the creator of Spy vs. Spy?
He's good, too! He has a very distinct style. As a child I never knew what exactly the two spies were supposed to be: animal or human. They sort of reminded me of birds in a way. This only made them more fascinating to me when I was young.

Prohias did some anti-Castro political cartoons when he lived in Cuba and had to flee the country, IIRC. Or perhaps that never happened and I imagined the whole thing (wouldn't be the first time).