Goodbye Blaine MacDonald

When I was a kid growing up here in Hamilton our local paper, The Hamilton Spectator had a terrific editorial cartoonist on staff who always signed his work with just the single name, "Blaine."



Although I was too young to understand what they were about, I loved looking at Blaine's editorial cartoons.



They had a lively, effortless - yet very accomplished - line quality that really appealed to me (and still does).



In those days The Spectator ran a games and activities item in their weekend editon called "The Junior Press Club." Kids who were members of the JPC could earn embroidered badges (you worked your way up from Cub Reporter to Editor-in-Chief) for participating in contests and activities. On one occasion when I was around 11 years old, I entered a JPC drawing contest. A few weeks later, the Blaine collection with the yellow cover shown above arrived in the mail. Much to my astonishment, when I flipped to the first page I discovered this hand-written dedication:



I was blown away. Blaine had written a beautifully hand-lettered personal note to me - a kid - and he was encouraging me to keep drawing. I don't think I've ever seen my own name delineated with such a lovely flourish before or since.

I poured through that book, determined to learn all I could from studying Blaine's work. Perhaps one day I too could become a great editorial cartoonist like Blaine!



The topics and politicians Blaine lampooned still were largely a mystery to me, but the drawings were very entertaining and inspiring.



I particularly like Blaine's reoccurring, long-suffering everyman character, The Little Guy. The scenarios Blaine put him into were usually a little more rudimentary and easier for a kid to understand and get a laugh at.







Near the back of this yellow-covered collection was something that really got my attention: Blaine had included a "How to draw" section in his book!



This was something I'd never seen before. Simple step-by-step instructions for drawing caricatures just like Blaine's. I quickly set to work learning how to draw our Prime Minister...






... and that other guy, Nixon, who I recognized from Mad magazine.




I had hoped to find some of my old drawings still tucked inside this book, but they seem to be long gone. (Actually, that might be for the best).

As I wrote yesterday, I was pretty obsessed with Marvel superhero comics at this point in my life, so other flashier stuff quickly distracted me soon after this. I shelved my Blaine book and didn't give it much thought for all these years - until last week, when word came by way of my friend and fellow National Cartoonist Society member, Mike Cope, that Blaine had died.

You see Blaine wasn't just a respected local cartoonist celebrity -- he was a NCS member and Reubens Award winner.





After many long years, I dug up my old Blaine collection - and a second one passed along to me by my in-laws. It was by revisiting these two volumes for the first time in probably 30-plus years that I discovered many interesting things about Blaine I hadn't realized.

He was, for instance, just as good at more realistic portraiture as he was at caricature.



Blaine had met Norman Rockwell - how cool is that?



His work had been recognized beyond our borders - not only by his fellow cartoonists - but by LBJ himself.





Even Hugh Hefner's Playboy Bunnies had an appreciation for Blaine's work - vavoom!







From his obituary:

"Blaine" was syndicated in North America and popular among Canadian, American and Mexican Cartoonists. He won every major award for his artistic abilities and creations. Some were: In Montreal - First Winner of Salon of Cartoons, Grand Prize and Popular Prize (in the same competition). In New York City, he won the coveted Reuben Award. In Toronto, twice winner of the National Newspaper Award.

Blaine was considered a "Master of Brush and Ink Sketching" from life.



Here are a few examples from his 1970 book collection.













I wish I had featured Blaine sooner here on Today's Inspiration, because he really was a huge inspiration to me personally at an early and impressionable time in my life. I'll forever be grateful for the gift of that personalized collection he sent me. His words and his art encouraged and inspired an 11 year old kid to pursue cartooning as a career. Goodbye Blaine, wherever you are!



Blaine MacDonald died on Sunday, February 5, 2012. He was 74 years old.

John Severin (1921 - 2012)

John Severin passed away yesterday. He was 90 years old.


As a kid growing up in the '70s and completely obsessed with Marvel Comics' superhero books I had absolutely no interest in Severin's work.



He typically illustrated traditional adventure stories for Marvel's war and western titles.



At some point in my childhood I stumbled upon some Mad paperbacks in a used bookstore. They reprinted early 1950s issues of Mad, before it became a black & white magazine. I began reading Mad in Grade 3 and had no idea it had once been a colour comic. It was in these small reprint paperbacks that I first saw Severin's "Melvin of the Apes" - a Tarzan parody - and began to realize just how good he was.



His tremendous draftsmanship and natural humour was every bit as appealing as the work of the other giants of the EC Comics era. I had simply needed the right vehicle to come to appreciate that.

Although I still wouldn't spend my hard earned paper route money on Severin's war comics, I did begin studying his work whenever I encountered it. One close buddy collected Cracked magazine with as much fervor as I collected Mad.  During that period (and for many years before and after) John Severin seemed to produce very nearly every bit of artwork in Cracked.



Pouring through my buddy's collection, I began to realize that not only was John Severin prolific and versatile, but that he was also an accomplished caricaturist and painter.



Occasionally Severin would venture into Marvel's early '70s "sword and sorcery" books. As a huge Conan the Barbarian fan, this gave me an excuse to actually pay for a Severin-drawn comic. As always, his work was, of course, magnificent.



As time passed and I grew older and began studying cartoon art in earnest, with the intention of becoming a comic artist, I finally began seeking out John Severin's work wherever I could find it. Happily, there were now reprint collections available of the entire line of EC comics from the 1950s.



As well, tattered "reader's copies" of many older comics could be found at used bookstores and flea markets for a dime a piece.



If they contained John Severin's artwork, I snapped them up.



Severin was never a flashy artist; he never embraced the "Kirby dynamics" that were so influential in the design of most superhero books of my childhood and teens, but the sheer craft - the rich textural authenticity of his style - always made his work a pleasure to look at.



He was among that group of traditional illustrators who approached every assignment, no matter the subject, with professionalism and dedication and no illusions about what it was they were doing - creating commercial art - and yet were always able to tap into their personal wellspring of childhood wonderment and embue the work with a spirit of adventure, drama, or humour that gave it it's authenticity and visual appeal. You look at a John Severin drawing and you can just tell he was enjoying himself!



He will be missed.


* Many thanks to Heritage Auctions for allowing me to use scans from their archives for today's post.

* There is a wonderful in-depth interview with John Severin at The Comics Journal

The Two Roys: "The box art had to fire the imagination, draw the viewer into the drama and convince him to part with his pocket money."

By Guest Author, Roger O'Reilly

Illustrating for box-art required the artist to keep numerous parties happy. The art had to allow the manufacturer to get all the flashing, branding and information on the cover without compromising the image.



Sometimes the packaging might take in a couple of different formats, so that had to be allowed for.



The image had to clearly illustrate the airplane, vehicle or ship in a way that the purchaser could see what the final assembled kit might look like - Pino Dell'Orco's wonderfully dramatic paintings would never have passes muster - while the drama of the image had to be tempered with accuracy of detail.





The right armament had to be in the right place. Markings had to be accurate - history buffs had to be placated.





Lastly and most important were the legion of 10yr old boys who were going to buy the kits. The box art had to fire the imagination, draw the viewer into the drama and convince him to part with his pocket money. If I have anyone to blame for my pre-adolescent penury, it's probably these two guys.



Of the two artists, Huxley was probably the more accomplished.



He could illustrate figures just as well as planes, trains and automobiles...





... but if there was a competition for the iconic image of the age, it has to go to Roy Cross for his cover of the B17 Flying Fortress, complete with fourth engine on fire. For a generation of pre-teens, this was the one.



Along with my friends I tried to recreate this image in model form using everything from plaster and cardboard flames to filling the engine cowling with lighter fluid soaked tissue and setting the thing on fire.



Today, many of these kits carry photoshop generated artwork and they've removed the explosions, gunfire and in fact all the reasons we bought the kits in the first place. While there's nothing inherently wrong with the illustrations, even the aircraft themselves just don't have the excitement and drama that these masters captured with gouache and acrylics.


* Roger O'Reilly illustrates for advertising, magazines and newspapers in Ireland and around the world. His work has appeared in The Daily Telegraph, GQ, FHM, The Sunday Tribune and many others. His fine art paintings have been exhibited in Switzerland, Ireland, Holland and France, where he is represented in the permanent collection of the Musee D'histoire Contemporaine in Paris.