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I thought I'd save the best (of this current series of photo-ops with well-known personalities) for last...
The time: May, 1995. The place: Boca Raton, Florida.
I'd already been living in the 'Sunshine State' for over a year, when I'd learned that the International Museum of Cartoon Art was relocating - from its castle-like home in Rye Brook, NY to the southern end of Mizner Park in Boca Raton. Having visited the old location (when I'd still lived up in the Northeast), I decided to inquire about any job opportunities at IMCA.
The museum was still under construction in the early Spring of 1995, when I became a 'volunteer worker' in a trailer that became a makeshift gift shop. Visitors from all over the USA (and numerous foreign lands) would enter the shop, and I would inform them as to what the museum would have to offer, once it was officially opened in March, 1996.
In May, 1995, members of the National Cartoonists Society converged on Boca Raton, as they'd held their annual convention at a hotel near the IMCA construction site. I had the rare opportunity of meeting several noteworthy comic strip artists - including several who specialize in drawing 'funny animal' characters. This group included Jim ("Garfield") Davis, Patrick ("Mutts") McDonnell, and the gentleman standing to my right (your left) in this photo... three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly (the creator of "Shoe" and the co-creator of "Pluggers" - both strips now drawn by Gary Brookins)!
Less than a year before this chance encounter, I had one of my 'pluggerisms' appear in my local newspaper, the Sun-Sentinel. So, naturally, I was thrilled to meet the man who illustrated my idea (RE: a plugger being ready for the next postal rate hike, by purchasing $10 worth of one-cent stamps). I had brought along a sketch book (that used to be a blank-paged ledger), which Mr. MacNelly was kind enough to draw in (rendering an image of 'Cosmo' from "Shoe"). And his wife was equally gracious enough to use my camera to take this memorable picture of the two of us.
(Mr. Davis and Mr. McDonnell were also kind enough to draw their characters in my sketch book.)
I'd continued my 'volunteer work' for IMCA until then end of Summer, 1995. The museum - which was founded by Mort ("Beetle Bailey") Walker officially opened its doors in March, 1996. Needless to say, I was a frequent visitor to the museum, right up until it was forced to close down (for economic reasons) in 2002.
Since then, the artwork for IMCA was kept in storage, until 2008 when Mr. Walker struck a merger deal with Ohio State University and their Cartoon Research Library - which is now called the Cartoon Library and Museum. You can learn more about it by going to http://cartoons.osu.edu/
Mr. MacNelly would eventually succumb from lymphoma in the year 2000. He was 52.
If you'd missed any or all of my past photos, just click onto the keyword 'Jed', and you'll get to see who else I had my picture taken with. I hope to present another assortment of these 'photo-ops' in the near future...
P.S. If you wish to see that 'pluggerism' that Mr. MacNelly illustrated back in 1994, go to https://www.furaffinity.net/view/8926847/
The time: May, 1995. The place: Boca Raton, Florida.
I'd already been living in the 'Sunshine State' for over a year, when I'd learned that the International Museum of Cartoon Art was relocating - from its castle-like home in Rye Brook, NY to the southern end of Mizner Park in Boca Raton. Having visited the old location (when I'd still lived up in the Northeast), I decided to inquire about any job opportunities at IMCA.
The museum was still under construction in the early Spring of 1995, when I became a 'volunteer worker' in a trailer that became a makeshift gift shop. Visitors from all over the USA (and numerous foreign lands) would enter the shop, and I would inform them as to what the museum would have to offer, once it was officially opened in March, 1996.
In May, 1995, members of the National Cartoonists Society converged on Boca Raton, as they'd held their annual convention at a hotel near the IMCA construction site. I had the rare opportunity of meeting several noteworthy comic strip artists - including several who specialize in drawing 'funny animal' characters. This group included Jim ("Garfield") Davis, Patrick ("Mutts") McDonnell, and the gentleman standing to my right (your left) in this photo... three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly (the creator of "Shoe" and the co-creator of "Pluggers" - both strips now drawn by Gary Brookins)!
Less than a year before this chance encounter, I had one of my 'pluggerisms' appear in my local newspaper, the Sun-Sentinel. So, naturally, I was thrilled to meet the man who illustrated my idea (RE: a plugger being ready for the next postal rate hike, by purchasing $10 worth of one-cent stamps). I had brought along a sketch book (that used to be a blank-paged ledger), which Mr. MacNelly was kind enough to draw in (rendering an image of 'Cosmo' from "Shoe"). And his wife was equally gracious enough to use my camera to take this memorable picture of the two of us.
(Mr. Davis and Mr. McDonnell were also kind enough to draw their characters in my sketch book.)
I'd continued my 'volunteer work' for IMCA until then end of Summer, 1995. The museum - which was founded by Mort ("Beetle Bailey") Walker officially opened its doors in March, 1996. Needless to say, I was a frequent visitor to the museum, right up until it was forced to close down (for economic reasons) in 2002.
Since then, the artwork for IMCA was kept in storage, until 2008 when Mr. Walker struck a merger deal with Ohio State University and their Cartoon Research Library - which is now called the Cartoon Library and Museum. You can learn more about it by going to http://cartoons.osu.edu/
Mr. MacNelly would eventually succumb from lymphoma in the year 2000. He was 52.
If you'd missed any or all of my past photos, just click onto the keyword 'Jed', and you'll get to see who else I had my picture taken with. I hope to present another assortment of these 'photo-ops' in the near future...
P.S. If you wish to see that 'pluggerism' that Mr. MacNelly illustrated back in 1994, go to https://www.furaffinity.net/view/8926847/
Category Photography / Human
Species Human
Size 600 x 579px
File Size 191.3 kB
I'm sure that someday, in the future, you'll get to meet a cartoonist or a comic strip artist who will go on to bigger and better things. When I'd met Patrick McDonnell back in 1995, his comic strip "Mutts" was still in its infancy (or 'puppy-hood' and 'kitten-hood', as the case may be). Since then, "Mutts" now appears in over 700 newspapers in 20 different countries, and McDonnell had won numerous awards for it. I think you'll encounter a cartoonist like him, too, one of these days...
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