Category: Artists – Cartoonists

Artist Spotlight: Al Baruch (1928-2015)

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I first met Al Baruch back in 2003. He was head of the Cartooning department at Hofstra University’s UCCE Youth Programs at the time and hired me as one of the teachers.

A Navy veteran, Al had studied at the Art Students League of New York, SVA (at that time the Cartoonists and Illustrators School of NY) and Pratt Institute (1949 – 1952). In the 1950s he worked for Disney as an inbetweener on films like Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp. In the 1980’s he turned to teaching and never looked back.

Al was in his seventies when I met him, but had the energy and enthusiasm of a man in his twenties. He mentored a multitude of students through the years, passing on his love and enthusiasm of cartooning to a whole new generation of artists.

He’ll be sorely missed.

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The following are just a few articles, pics and video from around the web on Al. I hope you enjoy…

Al was an amazing man, artist and teacher. To the kids at HAAS, he was one of their magical Art Masters who would visit them and work along side of them at their Art Master Workshop. To me, he was a good friend and mentor. He also taught kids with special needs and was an advocate for the Holocaust Memorial and the Florida Youth Orchestra. You are loved by so many and you are in our hearts forever. Much love to you and your family.
-Hilary Fine

Al Baruch, Mike Stern, Mort Drucker
©Mike Stern – Animator at Pixar Animation Studios

1996 Al Baruch Interview
by Matthew Kalamidas

Ex-disney Animator Draws On Expertise
by Jerry Libonati for the Florida Sun Sentinal – 2005

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Artist Spotlight Hy Eisman

Hy Eisman’s 90th!

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It’s Hy Eisman’s 90th Birthday! (Born March 27, 1927)

I had Hy as a teacher for my first year of the Joe Kubert School (circa 1986-87). Hy taught lettering; which in those days meant Ames guide, a B6 lettering nib and india ink.

Hy was the kind of teacher you’d bring assignments to you’d been working on from other classes. His critiques had straightforward advice, with a little bit of biting wit thrown in for good measure. And if you paid attention and followed his advice, it made you a better artist. The class was INVALUABLE and had a real world payoff years later when I was doing the Flash Gordon comic strip.

Hand lettered Flash Gordon Sunday page from N
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ovember 23, 1997.

A National Cartoonists Society Award winning cartoonist, Hy has worked for many different publishers over the years (Charlton, Marvel and Harvey to name a few) and has also worked on such classic comic strip characters as the Katzenjammer Kids and Popeye.

I point out his Syndicate work as I coincidentally get to work on Hy’s artwork as colorist.
It’s been a privilege to be able to work on Hy’s comic strip work for all these years (Hy started on the Katzenjammer kids in 1986 – I’ve been colorist since 1989).

Color guide for September 4, 2016 Popeye strip.

To wrap up, here’s some links from around the web spotlighting Hy.
Hope you enjoy!

Spotlight on Hy Eisman – by Mark Squirek for Hogan’s Alley

Hy Eisman: A Life in Comics – teaser

Behind the Tracing Paper: Interview with Hy Eisman and Fernando Ruiz
Filmed at the Kubert School in 2016.

What’s more to be said than…

The preceding pic is for a wall of birthday greetings to be displayed at the Kubert School. It was hand lettered to show Hy I’m not slacking off after all these years.

Update: Pictures from the Kubert School Facebook page.
Hy being shown the display of birthday wishes…

Display with illustrations wishing Hy a happy 90th.

Examples of Hy’s work through the years.

Birthday cupc
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akes spelling Hy!

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Al Williamson Neal Adams

Neal Adams on Al Williamson

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“He (Al Williamson) was the inheritor of the Alex Raymond school, and he was the logical inheritor of the Flash Gordon comic strips, and he did not get them because people making decisions for those things were stupid. And remain stupid. But it doesn’t matter anymore because nobody cares about comic strips.”

Neal Adams from an interview by Comic Book Resources.

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Joe Kubert

Joe Kubert – The Nutcracker

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The Nutcracker
by The Joe Kubert School aka Joe Kubert
Click on images to see larger.

The dailies shown above were originally published December 2-25, 1985.
I don’t know if Sunday pages were also produced.
If anyone knows please drop me a line!

-Jim Keefe

– Update –

From George Hagenauer:

“I talked to Joe right before his death about this as I own (among other Kubert originals ) a Big Ben Bolt original that looked like his work.
Basically over the years he would get commercial projects (The Winnie
winkle comic strip, various comic related catalogs etc.) with the idea that
they would involve the students and get them some needed experience and
practice. These projects look like Kubert but usually are not signed by
him. They are often a mix of his direction and the students art .

How much is Kubert and how much is students depended on the students
skill- and sometimes it didn’t work or as Joe said they couldn’t handle
“Big Ben Bolt so I ended up doing it all myself”

From Sam Kujava:

“When I was at Kubert’s School the first year, he offered me a week’s worth of Big Ben Bolt dailies to work on. Joe had already laid out the panels, and I went over them and tightened the pencils, making the art look a little more like my “style”. When I finished, on time, Joe took them back to ink. He showed them to me before he sent it off to the syndicate and it more or less totally looked like Joe did it all. No complaint, just observation.”

From D.D.Degg:

“You probably know by now that the NEA Christmas strips were daily only.

Joe Kubert and School did the seasonal strip from 1982 through 1985.
(Weren’t you a freshman at The School in 1985?)

The Owosso (Mich) Argus-Press ran the 1982 (The Christmas Carol)
and 1983 (Gifts of the Magi) strips.

Unfortunately they switched over to the Disney/King Features Christmas strips in 1984, so I hadn’t seen The School’s Hans Brinker (1984) or their 1985 The Nutcracker – until now (thanks again).

Yeah, they all look like Joe Kubert was deeply involved.

In 1981/82 the Joe Kubert School drew the Winnie Winkle strip. Some of those look like Joe took on more of a role of layout/art director and let the young’uns go at it.

These were actually signed J.K.S., for Joe Kubert School.

D.D.Degg also mentioned “…they switched over to the Disney/King Features Christmas strips”

Coincidentally I colored the Disney strips in the 90s when I was on staff at King.

Examples of Disney holiday strips I colored for King Features.

Many thanks for the added info – greatly appreciated! If I find out anything more (like students who helped work on them) I’ll be sure to keep you posted…

-Jim Keefe

Tags Happy Holidays, Joe Kubert, Merry Christmas, The Nutcracker

Greg Howard Sally Forth

Minikahda Club – The RETURN…

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Back in 1981 Mickey Rooney did a made-for-TV movie (that’s what they called them back then) called “Bill”. The movie was a docudrama of Bill Sackter’s life story, a mentally challenged man (Mickey Rooney), who was befriended by young filmmaker Barry Morrow (played by Dennis Quaid).

Barry met Bill at a staff Christmas Party at the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis where Bill had been employed as a dishwasher.

Cut to the Minikahda Club the summer of 1982 where a high school age Jim Keefe is bussing tables, wanting to become a cartoonist but with no clear path.

The buzz Keefe overhears from members of the Club is about Mickey Rooney and the film crew that has just wrapped filming there, but also about a local lawyer who had quit the profession to become – of all the crazy things – a cartoonist.

The lawyer/cartoonist’s name was Greg Howard. The strip, Sally Forth.

Greg Howard - circa 1982 — Greg Howard – circa 1982

Pic by Alan Light from the 1982 Minneapolis Comic Con.

Strips from the inaugural first week of Sally Forth.

With the cartoon landscape of the 1980s showing housewives mostly in the mold of Blondie and Hi and Lois, Sally Forth would become part of a new generation of comic strips (along with Lynn Johnston’s For Better or For Worse and Cathy Guisewite’s, Cathy) that showed woman taking center stage in a more modern setting. Because of this – and the fact that they were original and funny – success in newspaper syndication followed.

The camera fades to present day as we open on the Minikahda club on a cold winter’s morning.

Today’s Rotary Club speaker is the current cartoonist of Sally Forth, who skipped the law school route, and instead attended the Joe Kubert School.

The camera pans to reveal none other than… Jim Keefe!

I had a great time speaking and would like to thank Christine Daves of Think-Organized.com for the invite.

And also thanks to the Minneapolis Uptown Rotary and the work they do for the community, part of which was a donation in my name to the Jefferson Community School.

Epilogue: I mentioned to one of the wait staff at the Minikahda Club before leaving that thirty-five years ago I had been a busboy there. Her answer, “Thirty-five years ago I hadn’t been born yet.”

Here's mud in your eye! — Here’s mud in your eye!