Im very glad you didn't end it with Cartmen, what a great dive into illustration. i do appreciate all the hard work, research and editing you put into this. thanks!!
I'm finally getting around to some of your older videos, Pete. Great selection of artists and erudite and charming commentary. Kudos. cheers from windy Vienna, Scott
Hello and thanks for your comment. I've got several of her book collections of strips from the Guardian and even so long after they were current they are still remarkably relevant. And of course very funny.
You are balm to my Soul. Amidst the hub bub of these stupid political times in the U. S. That i forgot how sweetly your dulcid csn soothe me. As they say at the Paris Olympics: MERCI Beaucoup!! Respectfully and Gratefully yours Gregg Oreo Long Beach CA Etats Unis
Hello again Gregg, and many thanks for your continuing appreciation. Don't get me started on stupid political times here in the People's Republic of Socialist What Used to be Great Britain. I think perhaps it's all part of the universe's plan so that I won't mind too much when I kick the bucket...
Great and super informative series! Genuinely all about cartoon history. I would’ve loved to see more women mentioned, but other than that it was really good!
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation. And regarding the probable under-representation of female cartoonists it's unfortunately immensely problematic - and probably too ambitious - trying to include as many figures of significance from as many countries over so many years. Maybe my video on women illustrators redresses the imbalance, if only a little.
Thank you that was a very good 4 part watch, as a Yank I can't tell you the influence MAD had on me as a kid, it absolutely shaped my humor, Al Jaffe was my favorite. I look forward to watching more of your videos.
Hello and thanks a lot for your comment. I was amazed to discover Al Jaffee is still with us at 101 years old. If you haven't already seen it there's a video devoted to the gang of idiots on the channel you might enjoy.
@@petebeard I'll be sure to check it out, I think the greatest attribute for MAD was the distinctive styles in the art and writing that went from political commentary to slapstick effortlessly. All your videos look interesting, I love learning about the older artists, its great inspiration, and as others have stated, you have a great narration.
Hello and thanks for your comments. I am a huge admirer of Searle and have been most of my life. In a few video's time I'll be uploading one devoted to his life and work so I hope you'll stick around.
Another great one. Don't know how I missed this series on The Art of the Cartoon before. One strip that I remember from my youth but missed here is 'Nancy' by Ernie Bushmiller mostly. Comic weren't allowed in my home, so these memories are from friends' basements and the ones I remember had a doorway in the back of a fireplace that led to ... Well I can't even remember except that it fascinated me (alas, 'Chronicles of Narnia' was also banned at home). Anyway, the Nancy art wasn't very complex, some similarities to South Park I think, but I wondered if you had come across it in your searches.
Hello and funnily enough it was one of very few American comics (other than the Marvel and DC stuff) that was quite successful in Britain when I was growing up, and I remember it quite well. There was a boy character too in the comic who was built like a fireplug just like Nancy. Little Lulu was also quite popular with me at least too. But with these videos (even multiples) there has to be an editing process and many end up on the virtual editing room floor. I'm afraid these and many many others met that fate. The American Dennis the Menace too. Oh no, here I go down memory lane again...
Amazing! Thank you, Mr. Beard! This is my favourite channel. It's wonderful in a thousand ways. I always look forward to the next one. And, they are always great to rewatch.
Another in what is one of the best series on RUclips, I don't know of any better history of Illustration. You will recognize some, many will have you searching the Net to learn more and some you' ll think what about this artist (Edward Gory or did I miss that one?). Beautifully done well written, well narrated as with all the series.
Hello and thanks for your positive response to the videos. And yes Edward Gorey is a complete oversight on my part. He should certainly have featured in this particular video - and in others. This happens rather too often. I think I've been as thorough as possible in my research only to find after the event that I've left somebody crucial out. And there's Charles Addams now I think of it. Damn...
A remarkably good series, more informative than many of the large-format histories of cartoons published over the last decade or so. Your work is an important resource. I wonder what you think of the cartoonist Patrick McDonnell and his "Mutts" series, one of my favourites.
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation. I get the occasional negative, even hostile comment but it seems the vast majority feel the way you do. I'm very grateful for that.
@@petebeard People who reply negatively to something like this say more about themselves than about you and your lovely efforts. I think they like to pretend they are somehow superior and are "right" about everything.
Hello and thanks a lot. Unfortunately when making videos such as this many more illustrators are inevitably left out than are included. In the case of this video I'm aware I'm only scratching the surface. And I try not to feature any one country more than another - a far from easy balance.
A fine ending to a fine series! As you say, some must inevitably be left out, and two of my favorites missed your cut: Rocky and Bullwinkle and Doonesbury! What made Rocky so appealing was that its creators always threw in little somethings for the adults (like me) watching it with their kids! Like the jewel-encrusted sailboat, the "Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam!" Or the anti-gravity hat, the "Kerwood Derby!" And I intend to further check out some of the Europeans you introduced me to. But the illustration/animation style just coming in with the video games was, of course, animé. Definitely a new approach, whatever one may think of it!
Hello and thanks for your persistence with the series and your appreciation. Never heard of Crusader Rabbit - it didn't make it across the Atlantic. I do remember Bullwinkle though.
Doonesbury and Bloom County are egregious omissions. Then there is the dawn of webcomics in the '90s: Bill Holbrook's "Kevin & Kell" being one of the longest running to date...
Haha no. From this period I’d say Garfield. Bakshi worth a mention. Disney renaissance of 90s is quite important, as the popular Disney 3D films drew their style from little mermaid. Most important 3D films are tangled, frozen. Comics have been basically ignored the whole series but Spawn had an interesting new style.
@@reginaldforthright805 Bakshi I'd agree with, but Garfield is mostly notable for a run of like half a century with nothing but Monday, weight, stupid dog and stupider owner jokes! Although how varied was Krazy Kat? Disney (like most things) hasn't done anything worth a damn since they unionized, and as for the Woke wreckers running it now...
Hello and welcome to the channel. It really is a pleasure to know the videos are being appreciated in countries all over the planet. Many thanks for watching and subscribing.
Love the work of Robert Crumb! So stylized and nasty all rolled into one. and the work of Eric Guillon is superb! His quality of line work, along with his distorted viewpoint is something I really enjoy! but to me, Rick Griffin was the real Master of comic art. (I even did a tribute to him on the back door of my 1950 panel truck/surf wagon)
Hello and many thanks for your comment. And Rick Griffin has long been a personal favourite of mine. In case you haven't seen it there's a video dedicated to him on the channel you might enjoy.
Excellent series, as always: featuring some of the best and most beloved artists France has produced. *Tomi Hungerer* (note: _don't trust_ the automatic subtitles for artists' names) and *Claire Brétécher,* who excelled in the genre (& i'm not even finished watching)
Brilliant stuff. Although you missed a few of my favorites like Gahan Wilson, Maurice Sendak, Sam Gross and Lynda Barry. Guess you can't get everyone in.
Hello and many thanks for your positive response to the channel.It's true that when you make a video such as this you have to leave many talented people out out just to keep the length down. But in this case I'm mildly embarrassed to admit they were left out (with the exception of Sendak who I wouldn't really classify as a cartoonist) for the simple reason I'd never heard of them. So thanks a lot for alerting me to their presence and I look forward to checking out their work.
@@petebeard Gahan Wilson, in addition to his skill as a cartoonist has a subtle delayed 'humor' to his work, i.e. his frame of a decreased butcher laid out in a display case with the caption "Yea, it's bad for business Mrs. Schultz, but it was his last wish" while humorous in itself the small sign in front of him reading "Not for Sale" is the delayed reaction. If familiar with Wilson's work it's understood the sign is only to counter any censorship that he is. Other times there is a 'Calvin & Hobbes' relationship between a human and an entity. An elderly Scot wavering his cane at the Loch Ness serpent saying "And where were you during tourist season!?" is an example. Makes one wonder if being a cartoonist for some isn't a release for inner 'demons'.
@@petebeard Sorry for the confusion due to my bad habit of editing my comments. After posting quickly realized my error and rewrote it but too late. I admire Sendak's work (talked to him briefly at a book signing).
The Flintstones was loosely based on the television series, The Honeymooners. That series is still referenced here in the States as its focus was on working class folks. A bus driver and a sewer worker in this case. Not typical American humor, esp in the '50s. As for Zap Comics..."What does it all mean, Mister Natural?" 😉 Marvelous series, Pete! Oh sure, additional cartoons and comics come to mind but this was a series on cartoons, not an entry in The Encyclopedia Britannica. 😛 Hmmm...I wonder...no, no. I can't imagine they'd cover cartoons anyway.
Hello again, and thanks for your reflections on the content again. I cant even remember if i included Al Capp, but either way thanks for understanding that the aim is not to feature everyone who ever existed, but to show the evolution. I must confess I'd never heard of a Schmoo. I've seen clips of the Honeymooners and it does look pretty groundbreaking.
@@petebeard Had I been a bit older I'd have likely ignored the adorable pear-shapped Shmoo and focused on Daisy Mae. Then again, were I older than 5 when my grandmother took me to Radio City Music Hall to see The Rockettes, I would have grasped the appeal of all those fit and naked female legs performing high kicks in unison 😂
Though I'm asking you after 3 years, but could you do some more of the Art of the Cartoon, beyond the UK, US and the South Americas? There's still a lot that took root in the Asian continent because of the European colonial presence, and well beyond that, into contemporary media.
Hi there and thanks for your comments. You can access digital archives at a few universities such as Madrid and Heidelberg but you have to know what it is/who it is you are looking for. They dont make it easy. And regarding another art of the cartoon I would love to be able to do more about East Asian countries, but there really is very litte information available in the west. I have featured a couple of Japanese illustrators and there are a couple more I know about, but otherwise the East seems to be a closed book.
@@petebeard There really should be an episode about the rise of anime and manga. I remember Osamu Tezuka's work from the '60s, which laid the foundation for other artists, and brought Japanese cartooning into the mainstream of popular culture.
Thank's for a really interesting series... an interesting topic that may not have occurred to a lot of people, yet, like me, they watched it all! Did you have the foresight to realise that everyone who knew someone that brandished a pencil/pen/brush would berate you for omitting them? And... YES, I did know someone, but I will smother the urge to bombard you with every infinitesmal detail of his life! Liked and Subscribed, and looking for more. :o)
Hello and many thanks for your comment and positive reponse to this series. I hope you'll continue to find material that's of interest. And no, I didn't realise viewers would get indignant about omissions. I rather thought they would (like me) just appreciate the necessarily broad brush used for such an overview. Nevertheless I have to admit that some more polite viewers have opened my eyes to illustrators of various kinds that I had been completely unawre of. And now I'm curious to know who your mystery illustrator is.
@@petebeard : It shouldn't be a surprise that his surname is the same as mine! :o) He was my uncle, Neville Colvin. I was nine years old when he left New Zealand in 1956, but I can remember being enthralled by the magic that came from the tip of any pen/pencil/brush that he held. On the wall behind me is a 750 x 450mm print of Neville's work, gifted to me by his widow, Margaret when we stayed with her in Hampstead in 1996. Details: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Colvin Looking forward to relaxing with some of your other videos. :o) Thanks again.
Hello again and many thanks for introducing me to this gifted cartoonist and illustrator. I had never previously encountered his work, and it's a crying shame there is so little evidence of it on a google image search. From what little there is two in particular stood out - first that he had worked on the Modesty Blaise strip and second there's an astonishingly expressive cartoon of a cricket match with a view of a bowler from behind. Now that's drawing. I would love to be able to feature him and his work but sadly there just isn't the volume of material to enable me to do so. Nevertheless my sincere thanks.
*Thanks* for an informative video. 11:06 agree, and would add the schematics on how to draw Felix the Cat and Micky Mouse from the previous presentation foretold the advent of computer animation. Depending on the software to construct a figure required assembling shapes, primitive objects, entities, along a spline similiar to the instructions for drawing a cartoon character in three dimensions similiar to how the software program 'Photoshop' started as a collection of photograhy dark room techniques. First came the desire to draw in three-dimensions followed by technically how to do it. 9:23 really nice looking women drawn by a women. Rushie being the same angle as the man hitting on the waitress ... ?
Absolutely love this series and all your other ones. By the way, what was the name of the French illustrator at the end? How do you spell his last name?
Pete Beard, I want to commend you for all the wonderful videos and countless hours you have put into producing them. They are a magnificent gift to visual artists and to the public in general. Still, I would like to point out two omissions in this video. First, Ben Kliban, a brilliant and original artist, to whom Gary Larson owes a huge debt. Second, shouldn't Art Spiegelman (Maus) have been included?
Hello and thanks for watching and your positive response. My apologies for these (and a whole host of other) omissions. My aim in making a series such as this was to look at the broad progression of this aspect of illustration, and I was well aware as I made it - and others like it - that many worthy names would have to be sacrificed on the altar of brevity. As it is viewers only watch the videos for about half their length. Attention spans aren't what they used to be. However, to be perfectly honest I had never heard of Ben Kliban until now so that's the guilty reason he didn't feature - but thanks for a new name and increasing my knowledge.
@@petebeard What a gracious reply! Kliban made a big splash with his "Cats" collection, though his collection "Don't Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head" really shows his absurd wit and the breadth of his drawing style. Google Image has plenty of examples.
Hello Pete, have you thought of publishing a book about all illustration heroes that you cover? Same materials and your narrative in a printed format. It would make a great reference and encyclopedia. 😁
Hello and thanks a lot for the flattering suggestion. Other viewers have expressed a similar interest, but certainly at the moment I'm too occupied with making the videos, and the list of candidates does seem to keep on getting longer. And to put it plainly I'm not getting any younger. The trouble with books is they take so long to produce even if you can find a publisher, but even so it would be nice to create a series. I'm not ruling it out but it's not my priority.
Hello and thanks. The absence of Manga is (and I admit I'm no authority on the subject) because I can't think of any that's supposed to be funny. I think of it as comic art rather than cartoon, but maybe I'm just unaware of it?
Hello and there are many who get left out of this kind of overview, unfortunately. In this case because I had never heard of him, so thanks for the name.
The necessary suspension of disbelief failed me at the introduction of the Simpsons. A sign of my own aging, perhaps, but my appreciation of the earlier styles remains unaffected. Thanks for the series, I've just watched all 4.
Thanks a lot for watching and your comment. And it's good to hear from someone who shares my disdain for the Simpsons (and so much more of what recent times have brought us). But I try to be even-handed in my approach rather than make videos about just the stuff I actually like.
Another "excell" presentation! It results too difficult follow the comic history line in the XXcentury; a huge amount of contributors - from different countries and styles...and when we follow a style, we not know the others - and now the game industry. I have a child, a lot of time I've found me seeing cartoons channels, if I should not in this situation, I think, I should losen a lot of new launchs, as Gumball, for example.....who has an excellent copywriter, an example : " If you have weird friends, then the weird is you".....as we heard in an episode. I received, as a gift from a friend, a book of compiled stories of "Tex", an italian cowboy comic of Bonelli and Galleppini. I didn't know about this character, but it had a big succes in the 60s and 70s at the italian market... And we can continue to find another, and another..... A comment : from minute 2:27 in advance the music is a bit loud, Pete.
Hello Gabriel, and my thanks as usual for your insight and comments. It's obvious that youshare my enthusiasm for the subject. I apologie for the loud music. Unfortunately my hearing is not very good so I struggle with getting the sound balanced. Some day I intend to go back and fix all the early videos - if I live long enough. In the later videos I'm told the balance is better. It all sounds the same to me.
I CANNOT believe you left out Berkeley Breathed. No one's style is more squarely a callback to early classics than his was. Nor has anyone come close to his level of humor. Of course, if you mention him, you have to mention his biggest influences, Garry Trudeaux and Jim Davis (among others you already mentioned).
Hello again. The trouble with jeeping these videos relatively short is I have to leave out quite a few who are strictly speaking worthy of mention. As it is average viewing time is only about half the kength if a typical video.
Hello and I'm confused by your comment. Neither of the illustrators you mention are cartoonists, so why would they appear in tis video series? They are comic book artists as far as I'm aware. A cartoon is by definition supposed to be funny.
@@petebeard Hi Pete, my mistake, obviously. But seeing as you mentioned Hergé, Morris, and Uderzo/Goscinny I thought both Mœbius and Bilal ought to be there as well. My English obviously isn't as good as I hoped it might be. Anyway, thank you for your videos, the amount of work, the research behind it all, is truly staggering - and most enjoyable!
Hi Pete...felt like you were someone I should report the recent passing of S. Clay Wilson to if no one has....you understandably give him just a passing mention here because his work was, to say the very,very least, not to everyone’s taste. However, he was one of the few “illustrators”...pen and ink people...who genuinely blew out the doors off the museums and galleries of “fine art” crowd. (I remember him saying more than once, if your not good enough to be a cartoonist, you can always be an artist). I was frankly surprised to see as much in depth grasp of what Wilson might have been up to in these obits. Thought you and your many fans might like to see that being an illustrator or cartoonist does not necessarily relegate one to the children’s book section or comic stand, nor does a distaste for turpentine exclude one from the sacred halls of the history of art. Another Wilsonism that has stuck with me for decades, and should guide everyone, including especially the artists out there...”Don’t water the whiskey.” www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/arts/s-clay-wilson-dead.html www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/s-clay-wilson-dead/2021/02/09/8c37e3f0-6af6-11eb-9f80-3d7646ce1bc0_story.html datebook.sfchronicle.com/art-exhibits/s-clay-wilson-ingenious-underground-comix-artist-dies-at-79 www.tcj.com/s-clay-wilson-the-most-influential-artist-of-his-generation/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Clay_Wilson
Hello and thanks for your comment and personal tribute to Wilson and his work. With my hermit-like existence I don't hear much from the world at large so I was unaware. I remember the first time I saw his stuff was in a Zap comix early edition when I was at art school. I thought I was pretty raunchy myself in those days but when I saw what he was up to I was genuinely shocked. Talk about going your own way...
@@petebeard Yes, even his best friends had a difficult time digesting his material, and though it opened up and gave courage to contemporaries like Robert Crumb, no one could, and I doubt will ever follow him into the territory he explored. Like DeSade I suppose he will be remembered by the mere mention of his name standing in for the actual work which no one will want to look at. One interesting thing for you, the observer of illustrators, might be his correspondence with others in circulated hard copy mail which we used to call “jams”. These were the illustrative equivalent of improvisation in mid century jazz groups. It started of course with one sending an illustrated letter, and the other responding in kind, a call and reply kind of thing one might expect. In a jam, one artist would start something, then send it off to someone else who would continue the comic/graphic ‘story’, which was won’t to take radical turns in both substance and technique, then send it to a third; then it might go back to the first and make the rounds a couple of times before it petered out. Some of the results were quite remarkable. Wilson and another artist named Jon Gierlich formalized this in a series of exchanged drawings bought, and I hope retained by the Sheldon Art Museum at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln). It takes illustration, or, at least illustrative technique to a level I have never seen elsewhere. (I have a poster from the original show, but not sure if I can attach a picture here somehow.) In this regard I find it interesting to discover that in 1995 my usually fat folders full of yearly personal correspondence dwindle away to a handful of dry brief christmas cards and thank you notes. As you make clear, the golden age of illustration depended on the available technologies...when those were superseded, so were the most expert creators in those arts. Likewise email killed off real letters. I was shocked to discover not long ago that in writing to much younger friends that a letter I had written to a beginning university student languished in his mail box for months because mail was so unimportant that he didn’t even really know where his mailbox was! It gets worse, in a letter to his younger brother, an A student, I discovered that he was unable to read it! It was in “cursive”, and most people comment that mine is perfectly readable).I use the computer a lot, including for semi commercial things (wmspear.com) but I am never able to write a personal letter on the computer, and I can tell instantly when I see a computer generated graphic, no matter how sophisticated. As Wilson might say, not everything has changed for the better.
Hello again and thanks for your insight and comment about Wilson. And I followed the link you sent and enjoyed myself immensely looking through your products and site. That's quite a biography you've got there.
@@petebeard hahaha..forgot about that bio! I think I coded it myself around 1995 or so...before there was point and shoot web building software...well, my enamels are “kind of” illustration aren’t they? 😇And, we guarantee them for 4000 years. I like to tell my oil painting fine artist friendsseeking immortality through art that when their paintings are shedding paint like a Jackson Pollack, our stuff will be just getting a nice patina!
Hi and thanks for your comment. I don't know where you got your info, but Billy the Fish was a joint creation by Chris McDonald and Simon Thorp, both of whom were born in the 1960s so the 80s thing is a red herring. (Fish pun)
Hello again and I'm sorry to disappoint you but Mr. Wilson got under my radar so he's conspicuous by his absence. He's far from alone. But on the plus side I now know about his work so thanks a lot. Plenty of others that I did know about ended up on the cutting room floor unfortunately.
Is Marcel Godlib's 'Hamster Jovial' known outside France and Belgium? My first impression was that he was into pedophilia, but he just mocked the Scouting movement. I like Gotlib's lively and sharp style a lot, just wonder if his cartoons were ever deemed too racy, and thus rejected. Crumb was horribly sexist, of course. And stoned out of his mind. Abruptly, he started to illustrate the Old Testament. I fell out of my chair! A portfolio that kept close to the Genesis scriptures, save for a few naughty moments starring Adam and Eve. and an illustration that depicts the notorious Genesis character Onan. There I recognize enfant terrible Crumb again, lol! My favorite Crumb character is Mr Natural. Gary Larson's The Far Side: excellent cartoons. And Calvin & Hobbes, of course. A very smart cartoon series.
Many thanks for both your comments about the Cartoon video series. I had never heard of Marcel Godlib or Hamster Jovial so thanks for the information. It's true some things just stay popular in their place of origin, and others go global.
Hello and do you mean Alfred Jarry? I must say I'd struggle to call his drawings cartoons, and in this context I think just too obscure to earn a place. Nevertheless an interesting suggestion.
I'll assume your list is intended as criticism, although it's hard to tell. When making these videos it's inevitable that more get left out than get included, and I try to keep the balance as international as possible, making it even harder to cover all bases. Interesting that all your choices are American - most of the world however is not.
Anyone remember the Furry Freak Brothers strip where they ran out of dope, and the drawings became more and more realistic - like 'proper' real-life art - and the pile of dishes in the sink grew more and more ominous? And then they managed to get hold of some, and everything went back to scribbly cartoon style? I think at the end, Freewheelin Frank, lying on a sofa, toking a spliff, said something like; 'Phew, nearly had to wash those dishes!'.
@@petebeard I thought it may appeal to you, because the way the art style changes to become gradually more realistic was very effective, and original. I loved those comix back in the day (late 60's/early 70's in the UK). And then when I went of hitching round France grape picking, I discovered Bande Designee - wow! I'd never seen anything like it - as Freaky as anything in the OZ Magazine back home, but very high production values. I remember a lot of the strips to this day, and even think about them sometimes, after half a century! Certainly brings back memories, ;-)
While I can't speak to the accuracy of all the details in Mr. Beard's Unsung Heroes of Illustration series, I can speak to many of them in this four-part series. And there are some howlers. Just off the top of my head, Tex Avery did not create Bugs Bunny, and Mad magazine was founded by Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines, not Will Elder. There are sins of omission as well: How 2000 AD. one of the most influential British comics series ever created and one that spawned two Hollywood movies featuring Judge Dredd, was not mentioned is quite beyond me. The almost total absence of manga is similarly hard to understand. It may be that Mr. Beard's strengths lie more in presenting capsule biographies of overlooked artists. Attempting to tie together all the strands of 100 years of the "cartoon"-as very loosely interpreted here to include comic illustration, comic books, comic strips and even 3D animation-and placing them in stylistic and historical context may have been a bit of an overreach, especially in only four short segments. While I've certainly enjoyed his Unsung Heroes series, I cannot say the same here.
I'm sorry you found this series wanting, but there are some points I take issue with as follows... First a quote from IMDb - "Among the many cartoon characters Avery created are Daffy Duck, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, George and Junior and Chilly Willy. Tex Avery is also credited with creating the basic personality of Bugs Bunny". Gaines was the publisher and instigatorof Mad but I was talking about the drawn creative output, and his contribution in that regard was zero. A cartoon by its very definition is expected to be humorous. 2000 AD was a comic book which may have contained a certain dry humour but that was not it's defining characteristic. The same is true of virtually all Manga. The whole premise of the series, as outlined in the first look back at history states my intent quite clearly. You're welcome
Thank you for your reply. Avery is generally credited with animating the "modern" version of Bugs Bunny, but he did not create the character was the point I was making. I appreciate your clarification re: Mad, but I was responding to the statement made in the video. I would disagree with that definition of "cartoon" (there are creations that would universally be regarded as "cartoons" that are serious or sad). That said, certainly, 2000 AD's humorousness is non-standard. However, to dismiss "virtually all Manga" as not being humorous suggests you might want to acquaint yourself with that enormous body of work before holding too strongly to that view. Thanks again for your work and for sharing it with the public. @@petebeard
@@jgdc2023 Hello again. Oxford dictionary definition -Cartoon "a simple drawing showing the features of its subjects in a humorously exaggerated way, especially a satirical one in a newspaper or magazine". You can use your own interpretation if it suits your purposes, but I'll stick with this one.
Thanks again for your reply. I think we can agree to disagree on what constitutes a "cartoon." Is "When the Wind Blows" a cartoon? Is "Grave of the Fireflies" a cartoon? Both of them are deadly serious, but they're animated and are, each in their own way, notable examples of the form. Is the fact that they're not portraying their subjects "in a humorously exaggerated way" grounds for disqualification as cartoons? For that matter, are, for example, Will Eisner's graphic novels disqualified? How about his work on The Spirit? It had comic moments often enough, but some stories were very serious, even downbeat. Yet, he is a giant of the field, as much as Kirby. For that matter, Kirby's superhero work may feature his trademark distortions of anatomy, but it's not humorous, per se. So, should you have featured him or, really, most superhero comic books? Those of the '40s could be pretty grim, not to mention the crime and horror comics of the '50s. I think that hewing to a dictionary definition of "cartoon" is a path more fraught than fruitful and one that, followed literally, would exclude much beyond one-panel gag cartoons, the well-known comic strips, and some "funny animal" comic books. But, again, we can agree to disagree on this point. @@petebeard
@@roberthuismans3533 Wally Wood possibly in Mad, but the others? Have you bothered to look what the definition of a cartoon is? They are supposed to make us laugh. More comments demonstrating your bias and ignorance will just get you disappeared.
@@petebeard Absolutely no need to get belligerent, your effort and commitment to your channel is very impressive and I imagine its a tough job to decide what to include. My only point is that in the discussion of cartooning and it's influence on culture, there seems to be a bit of a blind spot when it comes to the early artists who would lay the groundwork for comic books as a low cost and creatively under appreciated art form.
@@roberthuismans3533 If I had made a video called The Evolution of Comic Books they would have indoubtedly been included. But I repeat, it wasn't. And in polite circles it's usual to express gratitude for what you have been given, rather than complain about what you have not. If you had expressed yourself with even a modicum of good manners my response would have been correspondingly more polite. But your brusque moan got on my nerves. And I notice that your worldview starts and ends with the USA. That's par fir the course.
Hello again and thanks a lot for your comments about this series. Not sure if you ean it's me who is insufficiently interested in narrative function, but that would probably be a fair comment. It's all about the pictures for me. And I have to give up about the beer selling character so please put me out of my misery. Whoever it is it'll be only one of countless omissions, but I have to know...
... Lynda Barry! Lynda Barry! Close friend of Matt Groening, this Macarthur Prize winning cartoonist has been upending our expectations since 1979. She started as an underground cartoonist in lifestyle weeklies and branched out to more complex but still self-contained graphic stories. Google 'ernie pook's comeek' or 'one hundred demons' to see what she does.
Thabks for the comment, and I was totally unaware of her work so thanks for the information. Even so these videos are not an attempt to include everybody. As many if not more are left out as are included.
Fantastic series - if your still doing projects like that my I suggest to look into the french magazine "Pilote", editetd by Rene Goschinny for a long time
Hi and thanks for that. I was dimly aware of Pilote and your comment prompted me to take a look online. But there's alarmingly little information and more imporatantly visual material to be had for more than a brief mention..
Im very glad you didn't end it with Cartmen, what a great dive into illustration. i do appreciate all the hard work, research and editing you put into this. thanks!!
Thanks a lot for yout appreciative comment. I'm glad you enjoyed the videos. I very nearly dis end it with Cartman though...
I'm finally getting around to some of your older videos, Pete. Great selection of artists and erudite and charming commentary. Kudos.
cheers from windy Vienna, Scott
Hello and thanks for your appreciation, as always. I'm currently on the Costa del sol and it's 23 degrees and sunny. Bliss.
So happy you included Posey Simmonds! I'm a great admirer of her comics (in collection) and her illustrated novels. So observant and wry!
Hello and thanks for your comment. I've got several of her book collections of strips from the Guardian and even so long after they were current they are still remarkably relevant. And of course very funny.
You are balm to my Soul. Amidst the hub bub of these stupid political times in the U. S. That i forgot how sweetly your dulcid csn soothe me. As they say at the Paris Olympics: MERCI Beaucoup!! Respectfully and Gratefully yours Gregg Oreo Long Beach CA Etats Unis
Hello again Gregg, and many thanks for your continuing appreciation. Don't get me started on stupid political times here in the People's Republic of Socialist What Used to be Great Britain. I think perhaps it's all part of the universe's plan so that I won't mind too much when I kick the bucket...
Great and super informative series! Genuinely all about cartoon history. I would’ve loved to see more women mentioned, but other than that it was really good!
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation. And regarding the probable under-representation of female cartoonists it's unfortunately immensely problematic - and probably too ambitious - trying to include as many figures of significance from as many countries over so many years. Maybe my video on women illustrators redresses the imbalance, if only a little.
Wonderful 4-part series on the Cartoon. A thorough historical tour of the medium.
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation.
Fantastic Presentation! (Loved the series) - Thumbs up to you Pete with many thanks.
Thank you that was a very good 4 part watch, as a Yank I can't tell you the influence MAD had on me as a kid, it absolutely shaped my humor, Al Jaffe was my favorite. I look forward to watching more of your videos.
Hello and thanks a lot for your comment. I was amazed to discover Al Jaffee is still with us at 101 years old. If you haven't already seen it there's a video devoted to the gang of idiots on the channel you might enjoy.
@@petebeard I'll be sure to check it out, I think the greatest attribute for MAD was the distinctive styles in the art and writing that went from political commentary to slapstick effortlessly. All your videos look interesting, I love learning about the older artists, its great inspiration, and as others have stated, you have a great narration.
Another fascinating survey of this sometimes unappreciated subject. Thanks again.
Thanks a lot for your comment regarding this video. I'm grateful for the appreciation.
You're welcome. A top series!@@petebeard
Just my first view... from several more to come! Very well written!
A grand way to wind up a marvelous history of cartoon art by dropping the name of the most inspiring Ronald Searle.
Hello and thanks for your comments. I am a huge admirer of Searle and have been most of my life. In a few video's time I'll be uploading one devoted to his life and work so I hope you'll stick around.
Another great one. Don't know how I missed this series on The Art of the Cartoon before. One strip that I remember from my youth but missed here is 'Nancy' by Ernie Bushmiller mostly. Comic weren't allowed in my home, so these memories are from friends' basements and the ones I remember had a doorway in the back of a fireplace that led to ... Well I can't even remember except that it fascinated me (alas, 'Chronicles of Narnia' was also banned at home). Anyway, the Nancy art wasn't very complex, some similarities to South Park I think, but I wondered if you had come across it in your searches.
Hello and funnily enough it was one of very few American comics (other than the Marvel and DC stuff) that was quite successful in Britain when I was growing up, and I remember it quite well. There was a boy character too in the comic who was built like a fireplug just like Nancy. Little Lulu was also quite popular with me at least too. But with these videos (even multiples) there has to be an editing process and many end up on the virtual editing room floor. I'm afraid these and many many others met that fate. The American Dennis the Menace too. Oh no, here I go down memory lane again...
Amazing! Thank you, Mr. Beard! This is my favourite channel. It's wonderful in a thousand ways. I always look forward to the next one. And, they are always great to rewatch.
Hello and your appreciation is extremely welcome. It's a real boost to know that viewers such as yourself enjoy the content and my work isn't in vain.
Another in what is one of the best series on RUclips, I don't know of any better history of Illustration. You will recognize some, many will have you searching the Net to learn more and some you' ll think what about this artist (Edward Gory or did I miss that one?). Beautifully done well written, well narrated as with all the series.
Hello and thanks for your positive response to the videos. And yes Edward Gorey is a complete oversight on my part. He should certainly have featured in this particular video - and in others. This happens rather too often. I think I've been as thorough as possible in my research only to find after the event that I've left somebody crucial out.
And there's Charles Addams now I think of it. Damn...
Great channel and series. Loved Calvin and Hobbes. Bloom County and Doonesbury got me through the collage years.
A remarkably good series, more informative than many of the large-format histories of cartoons published over the last decade or so. Your work is an important resource. I wonder what you think of the cartoonist Patrick McDonnell and his "Mutts" series, one of my favourites.
These wonderful videos and terrific narration are a labor of love, I’m sure, and your audience is deeply grateful.
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation. I get the occasional negative, even hostile comment but it seems the vast majority feel the way you do. I'm very grateful for that.
@@petebeard People who reply negatively to something like this say more about themselves than about you and your lovely efforts. I think they like to pretend they are somehow superior and are "right" about everything.
Wonderful Peter.
Thankyou.
Hello and many thanks for your appreciation. It's very welcome.
Thanks for all your great work. Honeysett is one of my favourites if you ever do a best of the rest.
Hello and thanks a lot. Unfortunately when making videos such as this many more illustrators are inevitably left out than are included. In the case of this video I'm aware I'm only scratching the surface. And I try not to feature any one country more than another - a far from easy balance.
Hey Pete I recently found your channel and love it. You introduced me to all these awesome artist and illustrators. Keep up the great work man
Hello and thanks for your appreciation and subscription. I hope you continue to find more to interest you in other videos.
A fine ending to a fine series! As you say, some must inevitably be left out, and two of my favorites missed your cut: Rocky and Bullwinkle and Doonesbury! What made Rocky so appealing was that its creators always threw in little somethings for the adults (like me) watching it with their kids! Like the jewel-encrusted sailboat, the "Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam!" Or the anti-gravity hat, the "Kerwood Derby!" And I intend to further check out some of the Europeans you introduced me to.
But the illustration/animation style just coming in with the video games was, of course, animé. Definitely a new approach, whatever one may think of it!
Hello and thanks for your persistence with the series and your appreciation. Never heard of Crusader Rabbit - it didn't make it across the Atlantic. I do remember Bullwinkle though.
Doonesbury and Bloom County are egregious omissions.
Then there is the dawn of webcomics in the '90s: Bill Holbrook's "Kevin & Kell" being one of the longest running to date...
Haha no. From this period I’d say Garfield. Bakshi worth a mention. Disney renaissance of 90s is quite important, as the popular Disney 3D films drew their style from little mermaid. Most important 3D films are tangled, frozen. Comics have been basically ignored the whole series but Spawn had an interesting new style.
@@reginaldforthright805 Bakshi I'd agree with, but Garfield is mostly notable for a run of like half a century with nothing but Monday, weight, stupid dog and stupider owner jokes! Although how varied was Krazy Kat? Disney (like most things) hasn't done anything worth a damn since they unionized, and as for the Woke wreckers running it now...
Just watched all four parts......most excellent!!!
Hello and I'm glad you enjoyed it. A real labour of love for me.
Amazing series, I'm so happy now that i found your channel, congratulations form Venezuela on your magnificent and very educational work.
Hello and welcome to the channel. It really is a pleasure to know the videos are being appreciated in countries all over the planet. Many thanks for watching and subscribing.
Love the work of Robert Crumb! So stylized and nasty all rolled into one.
and the work of Eric Guillon is superb! His quality of line work, along with his distorted viewpoint is something I really enjoy!
but to me, Rick Griffin was the real Master of comic art. (I even did a tribute to him on the back door of my 1950 panel truck/surf wagon)
Hello and many thanks for your comment. And Rick Griffin has long been a personal favourite of mine. In case you haven't seen it there's a video dedicated to him on the channel you might enjoy.
@@petebeard I have indeed!
Another excellent episode
And another welcome appreciatiative comment. Thanks as ever.
Excellent series, as always:
featuring some of the best and most beloved artists France has produced.
*Tomi Hungerer* (note: _don't trust_ the automatic subtitles for artists' names)
and *Claire Brétécher,* who excelled in the genre
(& i'm not even finished watching)
Hello to you and many thanks for your appreciation.
Brilliant stuff. Although you missed a few of my favorites like Gahan Wilson, Maurice Sendak, Sam Gross and Lynda Barry. Guess you can't get everyone in.
Hello and many thanks for your positive response to the channel.It's true that when you make a video such as this you have to leave many talented people out out just to keep the length down. But in this case I'm mildly embarrassed to admit they were left out (with the exception of Sendak who I wouldn't really classify as a cartoonist) for the simple reason I'd never heard of them. So thanks a lot for alerting me to their presence and I look forward to checking out their work.
@@petebeard
Gahan Wilson, in addition to his skill as a cartoonist has a subtle delayed 'humor' to his work, i.e. his frame of a decreased butcher laid out in a display case with the caption "Yea, it's bad for business Mrs. Schultz, but it was his last wish" while humorous in itself the small sign in front of him reading "Not for Sale" is the delayed reaction. If familiar with Wilson's work it's understood the sign is only to counter any censorship that he is.
Other times there is a 'Calvin & Hobbes' relationship between a human and an entity. An elderly Scot wavering his cane at the Loch Ness serpent saying "And where were you during tourist season!?" is an example.
Makes one wonder if being a cartoonist for some isn't a release for inner 'demons'.
Hello and just for the sake of accuracy I said that Sendak wasn't really a cartoonist. Of course he's an illustrator and a damn good one at that.
@@petebeard
Sorry for the confusion due to my bad habit of editing my comments.
After posting quickly realized my error and rewrote it but too late.
I admire Sendak's work (talked to him briefly at a book signing).
The Flintstones was loosely based on the television series, The Honeymooners. That series is still referenced here in the States as its focus was on working class folks. A bus driver and a sewer worker in this case. Not typical American humor, esp in the '50s. As for Zap Comics..."What does it all mean, Mister Natural?" 😉 Marvelous series, Pete! Oh sure, additional cartoons and comics come to mind but this was a series on cartoons, not an entry in The Encyclopedia Britannica. 😛 Hmmm...I wonder...no, no. I can't imagine they'd cover cartoons anyway.
Hello again, and thanks for your reflections on the content again. I cant even remember if i included Al Capp, but either way thanks for understanding that the aim is not to feature everyone who ever existed, but to show the evolution. I must confess I'd never heard of a Schmoo. I've seen clips of the Honeymooners and it does look pretty groundbreaking.
@@petebeard Had I been a bit older I'd have likely ignored the adorable pear-shapped Shmoo and focused on Daisy Mae. Then again, were I older than 5 when my grandmother took me to Radio City Music Hall to see The Rockettes, I would have grasped the appeal of all those fit and naked female legs performing high kicks in unison 😂
Though I'm asking you after 3 years, but could you do some more of the Art of the Cartoon, beyond the UK, US and the South Americas? There's still a lot that took root in the Asian continent because of the European colonial presence, and well beyond that, into contemporary media.
Hi there and thanks for your comments. You can access digital archives at a few universities such as Madrid and Heidelberg but you have to know what it is/who it is you are looking for. They dont make it easy. And regarding another art of the cartoon I would love to be able to do more about East Asian countries, but there really is very litte information available in the west. I have featured a couple of Japanese illustrators and there are a couple more I know about, but otherwise the East seems to be a closed book.
@@petebeard There really should be an episode about the rise of anime and manga. I remember Osamu Tezuka's work from the '60s, which laid the foundation for other artists, and brought Japanese cartooning into the mainstream of popular culture.
Thank's for a really interesting series... an interesting topic that may not have occurred to a lot of people, yet, like me, they watched it all!
Did you have the foresight to realise that everyone who knew someone that brandished a pencil/pen/brush would berate you for omitting them?
And... YES, I did know someone, but I will smother the urge to bombard you with every infinitesmal detail of his life!
Liked and Subscribed, and looking for more. :o)
Hello and many thanks for your comment and positive reponse to this series. I hope you'll continue to find material that's of interest. And no, I didn't realise viewers would get indignant about omissions. I rather thought they would (like me) just appreciate the necessarily broad brush used for such an overview. Nevertheless I have to admit that some more polite viewers have opened my eyes to illustrators of various kinds that I had been completely unawre of. And now I'm curious to know who your mystery illustrator is.
@@petebeard : It shouldn't be a surprise that his surname is the same as mine! :o) He was my uncle, Neville Colvin. I was nine years old when he left New Zealand in 1956, but I can remember being enthralled by the magic that came from the tip of any pen/pencil/brush that he held. On the wall behind me is a 750 x 450mm print of Neville's work, gifted to me by his widow, Margaret when we stayed with her in Hampstead in 1996.
Details: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Colvin
Looking forward to relaxing with some of your other videos. :o)
Thanks again.
Hello again and many thanks for introducing me to this gifted cartoonist and illustrator. I had never previously encountered his work, and it's a crying shame there is so little evidence of it on a google image search. From what little there is two in particular stood out - first that he had worked on the Modesty Blaise strip and second there's an astonishingly expressive cartoon of a cricket match with a view of a bowler from behind. Now that's drawing. I would love to be able to feature him and his work but sadly there just isn't the volume of material to enable me to do so. Nevertheless my sincere thanks.
Most enjoyable
Hello and thanks a lot.
*Thanks* for an informative video.
11:06 agree, and would add the schematics on how to draw Felix the Cat and Micky Mouse from the previous presentation foretold the advent of computer animation.
Depending on the software to construct a figure required assembling shapes, primitive objects, entities, along a spline similiar to the instructions for drawing a cartoon character in three dimensions similiar to how the software program 'Photoshop' started as a collection of photograhy dark room techniques.
First came the desire to draw in three-dimensions followed by technically how to do it.
9:23 really nice looking women drawn by a women. Rushie being the same angle as the man hitting on the waitress ... ?
Hello again and thanks for the comment.
Absolutely love this series and all your other ones. By the way, what was the name of the French illustrator at the end? How do you spell his last name?
Thabks a lot for your appreciation of my efforts. And if you mean the Minions guy it's Eric Guillon
Pete Beard, I want to commend you for all the wonderful videos and countless hours you have put into producing them. They are a magnificent gift to visual artists and to the public in general. Still, I would like to point out two omissions in this video. First, Ben Kliban, a brilliant and original artist, to whom Gary Larson owes a huge debt. Second, shouldn't Art Spiegelman (Maus) have been included?
Hello and thanks for watching and your positive response. My apologies for these (and a whole host of other) omissions. My aim in making a series such as this was to look at the broad progression of this aspect of illustration, and I was well aware as I made it - and others like it - that many worthy names would have to be sacrificed on the altar of brevity. As it is viewers only watch the videos for about half their length. Attention spans aren't what they used to be.
However, to be perfectly honest I had never heard of Ben Kliban until now so that's the guilty reason he didn't feature - but thanks for a new name and increasing my knowledge.
@@petebeard What a gracious reply! Kliban made a big splash with his "Cats" collection, though his collection "Don't Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head" really shows his absurd wit and the breadth of his drawing style. Google Image has plenty of examples.
Hello Pete, have you thought of publishing a book about all illustration heroes that you cover? Same materials and your narrative in a printed format. It would make a great reference and encyclopedia. 😁
Hello and thanks a lot for the flattering suggestion. Other viewers have expressed a similar interest, but certainly at the moment I'm too occupied with making the videos, and the list of candidates does seem to keep on getting longer. And to put it plainly I'm not getting any younger. The trouble with books is they take so long to produce even if you can find a publisher, but even so it would be nice to create a series. I'm not ruling it out but it's not my priority.
Great info, but no Manga?
Hello and thanks. The absence of Manga is (and I admit I'm no authority on the subject) because I can't think of any that's supposed to be funny. I think of it as comic art rather than cartoon, but maybe I'm just unaware of it?
The only person i would add is Pendleton Ward whose series Adventure Time is a bonafide contemporary classic.
Hello and there are many who get left out of this kind of overview, unfortunately. In this case because I had never heard of him, so thanks for the name.
The necessary suspension of disbelief failed me at the introduction of the Simpsons. A sign of my own aging, perhaps, but my appreciation of the earlier styles remains unaffected. Thanks for the series, I've just watched all 4.
Thanks a lot for watching and your comment. And it's good to hear from someone who shares my disdain for the Simpsons (and so much more of what recent times have brought us). But I try to be even-handed in my approach rather than make videos about just the stuff I actually like.
Another "excell" presentation!
It results too difficult follow the comic history line in the XXcentury; a huge amount of contributors - from different countries and styles...and when we follow a style, we not know the others - and now the game industry.
I have a child, a lot of time I've found me seeing cartoons channels, if I should not in this situation, I think, I should losen a lot of new launchs, as Gumball, for example.....who has an excellent copywriter, an example : " If you have weird friends, then the weird is you".....as we heard in an episode.
I received, as a gift from a friend, a book of compiled stories of "Tex", an italian cowboy comic of Bonelli and Galleppini. I didn't know about this character, but it had a big succes in the 60s and 70s at the italian market...
And we can continue to find another, and another.....
A comment : from minute 2:27 in advance the music is a bit loud, Pete.
Hello Gabriel, and my thanks as usual for your insight and comments. It's obvious that youshare my enthusiasm for the subject. I apologie for the loud music. Unfortunately my hearing is not very good so I struggle with getting the sound balanced. Some day I intend to go back and fix all the early videos - if I live long enough. In the later videos I'm told the balance is better. It all sounds the same to me.
This series inspired my latest satirical drawing. It won't be seen outside the fandom of anthropomorphic creatures tho.
Hello and it's good to know you're getting inspiration from the illustrators featured.
I CANNOT believe you left out Berkeley Breathed. No one's style is more squarely a callback to early classics than his was. Nor has anyone come close to his level of humor. Of course, if you mention him, you have to mention his biggest influences, Garry Trudeaux and Jim Davis (among others you already mentioned).
Hello again. The trouble with jeeping these videos relatively short is I have to leave out quite a few who are strictly speaking worthy of mention. As it is average viewing time is only about half the kength if a typical video.
Barkeley, is that you?
Among the French artists you mention I miss Mœbius and Bilal, both of whom rank among the very best
Hello and I'm confused by your comment. Neither of the illustrators you mention are cartoonists, so why would they appear in tis video series? They are comic book artists as far as I'm aware. A cartoon is by definition supposed to be funny.
@@petebeard Hi Pete, my mistake, obviously. But seeing as you mentioned Hergé, Morris, and Uderzo/Goscinny I thought both Mœbius and Bilal ought to be there as well. My English obviously isn't as good as I hoped it might be. Anyway, thank you for your videos, the amount of work, the research behind it all, is truly staggering - and most enjoyable!
So sad there was no mention of Bloom County.😢
..and I'm sad that your reaction is rather "glass half empty" oh well...
@@petebeard Touche'
Hi Pete...felt like you were someone I should report the recent passing of S. Clay Wilson to if no one has....you understandably give him just a passing mention here because his work was, to say the very,very least, not to everyone’s taste. However, he was one of the few “illustrators”...pen and ink people...who genuinely blew out the doors off the museums and galleries of “fine art” crowd. (I remember him saying more than once, if your not good enough to be a cartoonist, you can always be an artist). I was frankly surprised to see as much in depth grasp of what Wilson might have been up to in these obits. Thought you and your many fans might like to see that being an illustrator or cartoonist does not necessarily relegate one to the children’s book section or comic stand, nor does a distaste for turpentine exclude one from the sacred halls of the history of art. Another Wilsonism that has stuck with me for decades, and should guide everyone, including especially the artists out there...”Don’t water the whiskey.”
www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/arts/s-clay-wilson-dead.html
www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/s-clay-wilson-dead/2021/02/09/8c37e3f0-6af6-11eb-9f80-3d7646ce1bc0_story.html
datebook.sfchronicle.com/art-exhibits/s-clay-wilson-ingenious-underground-comix-artist-dies-at-79
www.tcj.com/s-clay-wilson-the-most-influential-artist-of-his-generation/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Clay_Wilson
Hello and thanks for your comment and personal tribute to Wilson and his work. With my hermit-like existence I don't hear much from the world at large so I was unaware. I remember the first time I saw his stuff was in a Zap comix early edition when I was at art school. I thought I was pretty raunchy myself in those days but when I saw what he was up to I was genuinely shocked. Talk about going your own way...
@@petebeard Yes, even his best friends had a difficult time digesting his material, and though it opened up and gave courage to contemporaries like Robert Crumb, no one could, and I doubt will ever follow him into the territory he explored. Like DeSade I suppose he will be remembered by the mere mention of his name standing in for the actual work which no one will want to look at.
One interesting thing for you, the observer of illustrators, might be his correspondence with others in circulated hard copy mail which we used to call “jams”. These were the illustrative equivalent of improvisation in mid century jazz groups. It started of course with one sending an illustrated letter, and the other responding in kind, a call and reply kind of thing one might expect. In a jam, one artist would start something, then send it off to someone else who would continue the comic/graphic ‘story’, which was won’t to take radical turns in both substance and technique, then send it to a third; then it might go back to the first and make the rounds a couple of times before it petered out. Some of the results were quite remarkable. Wilson and another artist named Jon Gierlich formalized this in a series of exchanged drawings bought, and I hope retained by the Sheldon Art Museum at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln). It takes illustration, or, at least illustrative technique to a level I have never seen elsewhere. (I have a poster from the original show, but not sure if I can attach a picture here somehow.)
In this regard I find it interesting to discover that in 1995 my usually fat folders full of yearly personal correspondence dwindle away to a handful of dry brief christmas cards and thank you notes. As you make clear, the golden age of illustration depended on the available technologies...when those were superseded, so were the most expert creators in those arts. Likewise email killed off real letters. I was shocked to discover not long ago that in writing to much younger friends that a letter I had written to a beginning university student languished in his mail box for months because mail was so unimportant that he didn’t even really know where his mailbox was! It gets worse, in a letter to his younger brother, an A student, I discovered that he was unable to read it! It was in “cursive”, and most people comment that mine is perfectly readable).I use the computer a lot, including for semi commercial things (wmspear.com) but I am never able to write a personal letter on the computer, and I can tell instantly when I see a computer generated graphic, no matter how sophisticated. As Wilson might say, not everything has changed for the better.
Hello again and thanks for your insight and comment about Wilson. And I followed the link you sent and enjoyed myself immensely looking through your products and site. That's quite a biography you've got there.
@@petebeard hahaha..forgot about that bio! I think I coded it myself around 1995 or so...before there was point and shoot web building software...well, my enamels are “kind of” illustration aren’t they? 😇And, we guarantee them for 4000 years. I like to tell my oil painting fine artist friendsseeking immortality through art that when their paintings are shedding paint like a Jackson Pollack, our stuff will be just getting a nice patina!
They don't credit the artists in Viz. I believe Billy The Fish's artist is worth looking into. He was doing it into his 80s.
Hi and thanks for your comment. I don't know where you got your info, but Billy the Fish was a joint creation by Chris McDonald and Simon Thorp, both of whom were born in the 1960s so the 80s thing is a red herring. (Fish pun)
👍👍👍👍👍👍🎬🎬📽📽
I hope Gahan Wilson is somewhere in these uploads...
Hello again and I'm sorry to disappoint you but Mr. Wilson got under my radar so he's conspicuous by his absence. He's far from alone. But on the plus side I now know about his work so thanks a lot. Plenty of others that I did know about ended up on the cutting room floor unfortunately.
Is Marcel Godlib's 'Hamster Jovial' known outside France and Belgium? My first impression was that he was into pedophilia, but he just mocked the Scouting movement. I like Gotlib's lively and sharp style a lot, just wonder if his cartoons were ever deemed too racy, and thus rejected.
Crumb was horribly sexist, of course. And stoned out of his mind. Abruptly, he started to illustrate the Old Testament. I fell out of my chair! A portfolio that kept close to the Genesis scriptures, save for a few naughty moments starring Adam and Eve. and an illustration that depicts the notorious Genesis character Onan. There I recognize enfant terrible Crumb again, lol!
My favorite Crumb character is Mr Natural.
Gary Larson's The Far Side: excellent cartoons.
And Calvin & Hobbes, of course. A very smart cartoon series.
Many thanks for both your comments about the Cartoon video series. I had never heard of Marcel Godlib or Hamster Jovial so thanks for the information. It's true some things just stay popular in their place of origin, and others go global.
No mention of men in tights or japadoodles.
What can I say..SeedyBananas🤟
Ubu Roi? I forgot the name of the French teenage artist.
Birdy
Hello and do you mean Alfred Jarry? I must say I'd struggle to call his drawings cartoons, and in this context I think just too obscure to earn a place. Nevertheless an interesting suggestion.
Thomas Nast. Charles Addams. Hank Ketcham. Bernard Kliban.
I'll assume your list is intended as criticism, although it's hard to tell. When making these videos it's inevitable that more get left out than get included, and I try to keep the balance as international as possible, making it even harder to cover all bases. Interesting that all your choices are American - most of the world however is not.
Anyone remember the Furry Freak Brothers strip where they ran out of dope, and the drawings became more and more realistic - like 'proper' real-life art - and the pile of dishes in the sink grew more and more ominous? And then they managed to get hold of some, and everything went back to scribbly cartoon style?
I think at the end, Freewheelin Frank, lying on a sofa, toking a spliff, said something like; 'Phew, nearly had to wash those dishes!'.
Hello and thanks fir the comment. I don't remember that strip but you described it well enough to make me laugh anyway.
@@petebeard
I thought it may appeal to you, because the way the art style changes to become gradually more realistic was very effective, and original.
I loved those comix back in the day (late 60's/early 70's in the UK). And then when I went of hitching round France grape picking, I discovered Bande Designee - wow! I'd never seen anything like it - as Freaky as anything in the OZ Magazine back home, but very high production values. I remember a lot of the strips to this day, and even think about them sometimes, after half a century!
Certainly brings back memories, ;-)
♥️
While I can't speak to the accuracy of all the details in Mr. Beard's Unsung Heroes of Illustration series, I can speak to many of them in this four-part series. And there are some howlers. Just off the top of my head, Tex Avery did not create Bugs Bunny, and Mad magazine was founded by Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines, not Will Elder. There are sins of omission as well: How 2000 AD. one of the most influential British comics series ever created and one that spawned two Hollywood movies featuring Judge Dredd, was not mentioned is quite beyond me. The almost total absence of manga is similarly hard to understand.
It may be that Mr. Beard's strengths lie more in presenting capsule biographies of overlooked artists. Attempting to tie together all the strands of 100 years of the "cartoon"-as very loosely interpreted here to include comic illustration, comic books, comic strips and even 3D animation-and placing them in stylistic and historical context may have been a bit of an overreach, especially in only four short segments. While I've certainly enjoyed his Unsung Heroes series, I cannot say the same here.
I'm sorry you found this series wanting, but there are some points I take issue with as follows...
First a quote from IMDb - "Among the many cartoon characters Avery created are Daffy Duck, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, George and Junior and Chilly Willy. Tex Avery is also credited with creating the basic personality of Bugs Bunny".
Gaines was the publisher and instigatorof Mad but I was talking about the drawn creative output, and his contribution in that regard was zero.
A cartoon by its very definition is expected to be humorous. 2000 AD was a comic book which may have contained a certain dry humour but that was not it's defining characteristic. The same is true of virtually all Manga. The whole premise of the series, as outlined in the first look back at history states my intent quite clearly.
You're welcome
Thank you for your reply. Avery is generally credited with animating the "modern" version of Bugs Bunny, but he did not create the character was the point I was making. I appreciate your clarification re: Mad, but I was responding to the statement made in the video. I would disagree with that definition of "cartoon" (there are creations that would universally be regarded as "cartoons" that are serious or sad). That said, certainly, 2000 AD's humorousness is non-standard. However, to dismiss "virtually all Manga" as not being humorous suggests you might want to acquaint yourself with that enormous body of work before holding too strongly to that view.
Thanks again for your work and for sharing it with the public. @@petebeard
@@jgdc2023 Hello again. Oxford dictionary definition -Cartoon "a simple drawing showing the features of its subjects in a humorously exaggerated way, especially a satirical one in a newspaper or magazine". You can use your own interpretation if it suits your purposes, but I'll stick with this one.
Thanks again for your reply. I think we can agree to disagree on what constitutes a "cartoon." Is "When the Wind Blows" a cartoon? Is "Grave of the Fireflies" a cartoon? Both of them are deadly serious, but they're animated and are, each in their own way, notable examples of the form. Is the fact that they're not portraying their subjects "in a humorously exaggerated way" grounds for disqualification as cartoons? For that matter, are, for example, Will Eisner's graphic novels disqualified? How about his work on The Spirit? It had comic moments often enough, but some stories were very serious, even downbeat. Yet, he is a giant of the field, as much as Kirby. For that matter, Kirby's superhero work may feature his trademark distortions of anatomy, but it's not humorous, per se. So, should you have featured him or, really, most superhero comic books? Those of the '40s could be pretty grim, not to mention the crime and horror comics of the '50s. I think that hewing to a dictionary definition of "cartoon" is a path more fraught than fruitful and one that, followed literally, would exclude much beyond one-panel gag cartoons, the well-known comic strips, and some "funny animal" comic books. But, again, we can agree to disagree on this point. @@petebeard
I, for one, find "you" rather re assuring. Respectfully submitted for your consideration Gregg Oreo Long Beach CA Etats Unis
Another compliment, and more thanks from me. It's always appreciated.
Video producers must learn not to play background music while they are talking with rare exceptions.
OK - I'll stop right away.
It's pronounced G-RAIN-ING.
Oops..thanks for the correction. I had never heard his name pronounced so I took a guess.
Completely ignored the comic book genre.
That's because it was about cartoons.
@@petebeard Will Eisner, Wally Wood, not even an honourable mention of Jack Kirby.
@@roberthuismans3533 Wally Wood possibly in Mad, but the others? Have you bothered to look what the definition of a cartoon is? They are supposed to make us laugh. More comments demonstrating your bias and ignorance will just get you disappeared.
@@petebeard Absolutely no need to get belligerent, your effort and commitment to your channel is very impressive and I imagine its a tough job to decide what to include. My only point is that in the discussion of cartooning and it's influence on culture, there seems to be a bit of a blind spot when it comes to the early artists who would lay the groundwork for comic books as a low cost and creatively under appreciated art form.
@@roberthuismans3533 If I had made a video called The Evolution of Comic Books they would have indoubtedly been included. But I repeat, it wasn't. And in polite circles it's usual to express gratitude for what you have been given, rather than complain about what you have not. If you had expressed yourself with even a modicum of good manners my response would have been correspondingly more polite. But your brusque moan got on my nerves. And I notice that your worldview starts and ends with the USA. That's par fir the course.
Lack of interest in narrative function!
Hello again and thanks a lot for your comments about this series. Not sure if you ean it's me who is insufficiently interested in narrative function, but that would probably be a fair comment. It's all about the pictures for me. And I have to give up about the beer selling character so please put me out of my misery. Whoever it is it'll be only one of countless omissions, but I have to know...
@@petebeard It is from the land of Hiawatha, Nokomis……The Land of Sky Blue Waters. Hamm’s Bear
Hello again and thanks for that. Being a Brit I'd never heard of the beer or the character. I presume it pre-dated Yogi?
... Lynda Barry! Lynda Barry! Close friend of Matt Groening, this Macarthur Prize winning cartoonist has been upending our expectations since 1979. She started as an underground cartoonist in lifestyle weeklies and branched out to more complex but still self-contained graphic stories. Google 'ernie pook's comeek' or 'one hundred demons' to see what she does.
Thabks for the comment, and I was totally unaware of her work so thanks for the information. Even so these videos are not an attempt to include everybody. As many if not more are left out as are included.
Fantastic series - if your still doing projects like that my I suggest to look into the french magazine "Pilote", editetd by Rene Goschinny for a long time
Hi and thanks for that. I was dimly aware of Pilote and your comment prompted me to take a look online. But there's alarmingly little information and more imporatantly visual material to be had for more than a brief mention..