STRIPPER'S GUIDE

Newspaper Comics History

Category : Jim Ivey’s Photo Album

Jim Ivey’s Sunday Comics

Posted on: 17 February 2013 by Allan Holtz

Jim Ivey’s Photo Album, Part Five

Posted on: 3 February 2007 by Allan Holtz

One last look at Jim Ivey’s photo album today. If you’d like to see a great selection of Jim’s cartoons you are in luck. Robin Snyder’s magazine “The Comics – The Original First Person History” starts publishing a retrospective of Jim Ivey’s cartoons in the current issue, with the cartoons personally chosen by Ivey along with his commentary. You can subscribe to “The Comics”, which apparently does not have a website, by sending $28 ($35 foreign) for a 12-issue subscription to:

Robin Snyder
3745 Canterbury Ln #81
Bellingham WA 98225-1186

To be safe you might mention that you wish to start your sub with the first Ivey issue, but it is the current issue as this is written. And Snyder’s publication is well worth the small price, as it features all sorts of really interesting material from all genres and phases of cartooning history. Highly recommended.

Jim Ivey throws a birthday party for Frank King in 1968. Unfortunately invisible in this photo is that the cake is decorated with an image of Skeezix. Frank wonders which one of his assistants is responsible for the bad likeness.

Cartoonist Dick Hodgins Sr., who was for awhile assistant curator of the Cartoon Museum, at the grand re-opening in 1974. Dick is apologizing for only wearing the tie from his Cartoon Museum uniform.

Jim Ivey’s luxurious art studio at the San Francisco Examiner, 1965.

Jim Ivey decorates a Sunset Beach bar with caricatures in 1954. Anything for free drinks.

The Cartoon Museum’s Bull Plaza location being shut down in 1981. The Museum would reopen in south Orlando at Weatherford Square.

C.C. Beck enjoying libations at the open bar at Orlandocon 1979. And you thought the cartoonists flocked to O’Con for the panel discussions.

Fred Lasswell is asked to accept Dik Browne’s Ignatz Award at Orlandocon when Dik couldn’t make it. Fred just happens to have this costume with him.

A cartoonist get-together at the San Francisco Press Club in 1964. Top row, John Holm, Gus Arriola, Lee Holley, Frank O’Neal, unknown, Darrell McClure. Second row, Jim Ivey, unknown, unknown, Bob Barnes, unknown, Jimmy Hatlo. In front Tack Knight.

The king in his castle, 1976.

Jim Ivey’s Photo Album, Part Four

Posted on: 2 February 2007 by Allan Holtz

Jim Ivey’s Photo Album, Part Three

Posted on: 1 February 2007 by Allan Holtz

Jim Ivey’s Photo Album, Part Two

Posted on: 31 January 2007 by Allan Holtz

More photos from Jim’s scrapbook:

A 1948 party of the Washington Star editorial art department staff. From left to right, Jim Ivey, Del Truitt, Zang Auerbach, ‘Pappy’, Bill Perkins, unknown, unknown. A wild night of debauchery did not ensue…

At the 1974 Orlandocon Jim Ivey auctions off a C.C. Beck Captain Marvel original. Roy Crane has entered an opening bid and attempts to stare down anyone bidding against him.

At the 1967 grand opening party of the Cartoon Museum Jim Ivey ruins the market for his own original art by drawing caricatures of all the attendees. Swift move, Jim!

Dapper young Ivey has to erect a barricade of chairs to ward off a swarm of adoring women at the 1967 grand opening of the Cartoon Museum.

In 1968 the National Cartoonist Society sends a delegation of members to visit the Cartoon Museum. From left to right, Ivey, Ray Helle, Les Turner, Mel Graff, Dick Hodgins Jr. The Cartoon Museum squeeks by on the inspection, gets written up for improperly stored meat, dirty oil in the fryers.

The San Francisco Museum of Art stages an exhibit of international editorial cartoons with material put together by Jim Ivey in 1962. Attendence seems to be less than overwhelming.

Caricaturist ‘Pancho’ (squatting) presents sketches to a group of syndicated cartoonists at the San Francisco Press Club in 1960. Standing, from left to right, are Jim Ivey, Al “Priscilla’s Pop” Vermeer, Jimmy “They’ll Do It Every Time” Hatlo, George “Grin and Bear It” Lichty, Charles “Peanuts” Schulz, Frank “Short Ribs” O’Neal, Bob “The Better Half” Barnes. Every one of the standing cartoonists is thinking, “I coulda done better than that.”

Curator of the Cartoon Museum hard at work, circa 1975. Yes, his cash register really was an old cigar box.

French political cartoonist Tim visits Ivey in San Francisco in 1962. The pair shoot a TV pilot about two gritty, hard-bitten caricaturists on the mean streets of Frisco.

Fred Lasswell presents Ivey with the National Cartoonist Society Silver T-Square Award. Ivey supplies his own captions for the dignified ceremony.

Jim Ivey’s Photo Album, Part One

Posted on: 30 January 2007 by Allan Holtz

For those of you who don’t know Jim Ivey, here’s a capsule resume. Jim was a groundbreaking editorial cartoonist, internationally known for his unique style. He worked at the Washington Star, San Francisco Examiner, St. Petersburg Times and Orlando Sentinel, a distinguished career spanning over three decades.

In 1967 he opened the Cartoon Museum, a gallery and collector’s haven for cartooning fans, offering original art, books, comics, tearsheets and ephemera, even cartooning classes. It wasarguably the first establishment of its kind, and always unique in its scope and atmosphere.

In 1974 Ivey started the Orlandocon annual convention series, ostensibly a comic book convention, but actually far more eclectic and far-ranging, embracing all phases of the cartooning art. The roster of guests over the years was a who’s who of cartooning, most of whom were attracted by the presence of Ivey, one of their own — it was one of the few events, other than National Cartoonist Society events, where cartoonists could meet and enjoy each other’s company.

After many successful years of operation, both the Cartoon Museum and Orlandocon succumbed in the 1990s due to the comic book industry implosion. Though Ivey never focused exclusively on comic books, that portion of the business unfortunately financially overshadowed the rest.

Ivey is now in his eighth decade, mostly retired though he does do occasional freelance cartooning jobs. He tries to read a book a day, and keeps both his wit and drawing pen sharp through writing correspondence liberally peppered with cartoons.

Jim Ivey is a raconteur, bon vivant and a very dear friend. We have known each other for a quarter century now, ever since I wandered into the Cartoon Museum as a teen. Jim taught me his love of cartooning, just as he did for so many others, and with Stripper’s Guide I carry on in his footsteps. If you enjoy this blog, you have Jim Ivey to thank. He imparted to me a fascination with comic strip history, an appreciation for scholarship, and the importance to always remember that cartoons are supposed to be fun, so don’t get too all-fired serious about the whole thing.

Jim has agreed to allow me to share with you a big batch of photos from his scrapbook, which I think you’ll find are a darn sight more entertaining than those snapshots of Aunt Millie’s vacation you have to look through each year. The photos came to me in a big stack, in no particular order, and because I’m lazy, I’ll present them in no particular order. I’ll identify the culprits as we go along, and throw in some commentary which is 99% pure baloney. Here we go…

Will Eisner (right) lectures Jim Ivey on some fine point of graphic storytelling at Orlandocon 1979. Jim adopts Thoughtful Pose #3. With his back to us is local radio and TV personality Bill Berry, who hasn’t a clue what Eisner’s going on about.

Jim Ivey and C.C. Beck discuss the relative merits of cigars versus cigarettes at the first Orlandocon in 1974. C.C. seems to have Jim on the ropes in this debate, or is it just one too many vodka gimlets?

Three cartoonists from Red China make a pilgrimage to the Cartoon Museum in 1990. They tell Jim that they are the creators of the only science fiction comic book published in China. Ivey is in no position to dispute their tale.

Photo copyright Charlie Roberts, 1975.

Harvey Kurtzman in his studio, 1975. That impish grin is a direct result of how much he is paid to produce the page he’s pointing at.

Jim Ivey about to cold-cock Burne Hogarth with an Ignatz Award at the second Orlandocon in 1975. Ivey designed the award, a brick sporting a brass plaque, as an homage to some comic strip or something.

Comics historian and author Ron Goulart interviews Les Turner at Orlandocon 1974. Turner is telling Goulart about an idea he’s mulling over for a new comic strip he’s thinking of calling “Star Hawks”. Goulart takes copious notes.

Jim Ivey snatches away the last Dunkin donut in a rare etiquette gaffe at Orlandocon 1982. C.C. Beck and daughter Gladys look on dejectedly as the pastry disappears.

The original sponsors of Orlandocon. From left to right, pulp illustrator Neil Austin, collector and dealer Charlie Roberts, film buff Rob Word, and Jim Ivey. Surrounding them is about $100,000 worth of original art, value then a tiny fraction of that. Among other items, there is a Little Nemo Sunday in the foreground, on the wall behind a Hogarth Tarzan, a Foxy Grandpa Sunday, a Krazy Kat Sunday, a Happy Hooligan Sunday, and a Segar Thimble Theatre Sunday.

Roy Crane and Hal Foster at Orlandocon 1974, looking understandably glum after being mobbed by Disney fans who think they’re Walt and Roy Disney. Well, it is Orlando after all.