Out of ‘toon
An exhibit spotlights classic cartoonists’ work that never made it.
Sometimes your best just isn’t good enough. It’s a maxim doodlers have had to accept in order to survive in the fickle world of cartooning. “Cartoon Limbo,” which opens at Venu Gallery on Fri 5, displays reams of rough sketches, illustrations and refusal letters that attest to the universal experience of rejection shared by cartoon artists. It also aims to explain why these works were spurned.
“Actually, the bigger the name the easier it was to get them,” says curator Lewis Matheney, who received pieces from the Charles M. Schulz Museum and convinced the likes of Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker and Archie cartoonist Stan Goldberg to hand over their stashes of circular-filed sketches for the show. “Gerry Greengrass is a perfect example,” says Matheney. “She was selling a lot of her work to Playboy in the ’60s. But when she finally met the art director, and he realized she was a woman, she never sold a piece to them again.”
Racy riffs like the Stan Goldberg one depicted here, didn’t make the cut either. “I don’t think I ever got a reason,” Goldberg laughs. The gagster submitted it to one of the lowbrow “men’s adventure” pulp mags like Argosy (PG-rated by today’s porny lad-mag standards). “It’s just timing and an editor’s mood when he sees it. Nine times out of ten, if you’d submit it again they’d accept it.”
Not everyone is eager to hand over sketches from their scrap heap, though. “A lot of people are scared by the idea of rejection,” notes Matheney, “especially younger cartoonists who haven’t really established a name for themselves.”
Thankfully, some big players like the Schulz Museum share Matheney’s vision. “They donated letters that Schulz had written to a wartime buddy,” says Matheney. “Schulz was telling his friend how nobody was picking up his work. Of course, two years later, Peanuts was syndicated.” — Daniel Derouchie
“Cartoon Limbo” opens Friday 5.
An exhibit spotlights classic cartoonists’ work that never made it.
Sometimes your best just isn’t good enough. It’s a maxim doodlers have had to accept in order to survive in the fickle world of cartooning. “Cartoon Limbo,” which opens at Venu Gallery on Fri 5, displays reams of rough sketches, illustrations and refusal letters that attest to the universal experience of rejection shared by cartoon artists. It also aims to explain why these works were spurned.
“Actually, the bigger the name the easier it was to get them,” says curator Lewis Matheney, who received pieces from the Charles M. Schulz Museum and convinced the likes of Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker and Archie cartoonist Stan Goldberg to hand over their stashes of circular-filed sketches for the show. “Gerry Greengrass is a perfect example,” says Matheney. “She was selling a lot of her work to Playboy in the ’60s. But when she finally met the art director, and he realized she was a woman, she never sold a piece to them again.”
Racy riffs like the Stan Goldberg one depicted here, didn’t make the cut either. “I don’t think I ever got a reason,” Goldberg laughs. The gagster submitted it to one of the lowbrow “men’s adventure” pulp mags like Argosy (PG-rated by today’s porny lad-mag standards). “It’s just timing and an editor’s mood when he sees it. Nine times out of ten, if you’d submit it again they’d accept it.”
Not everyone is eager to hand over sketches from their scrap heap, though. “A lot of people are scared by the idea of rejection,” notes Matheney, “especially younger cartoonists who haven’t really established a name for themselves.”
Thankfully, some big players like the Schulz Museum share Matheney’s vision. “They donated letters that Schulz had written to a wartime buddy,” says Matheney. “Schulz was telling his friend how nobody was picking up his work. Of course, two years later, Peanuts was syndicated.” — Daniel Derouchie
“Cartoon Limbo” opens Friday 5.
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