Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Changed the World

by Monte Beauchamp

Overview

In a first-of-its-kind collection, award-winning illustrators celebrate the lives of the visionary artists who created the world of comic art and altered pop culture forever.

Sixteen Graphic Novel Biographies of:

• Walt Disney • Dr. Seuss • Charles Schulz • The Creators of Superman • R. Crumb • Jack Kirby • Winsor McCay • Hergé • Osamu Tezuka • MAD creator, Harvey Kurtzman • Al Hirschfeld • Edward Gorey • Chas Addams • Rodolphe Töpffer • Lynd Ward • Hugh Hefner

The story of cartoons—the multibillion-dollar industry that has affected all corners of our culture, from high to low—is ultimately the story of the visionary icons who pioneered the form.

But no one has told the story of comic art in its own medium—until now.

In Masterful Marks, top illustrators—including Drew Friedman, Nora Krug, Denis Kitchen, and Peter Kuper—reveal how sixteen visionary cartoonists overcame massive financial, political, and personal challenges to create a new form of art that now defines our world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451649192
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	09/02/2014
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,005,181
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Monte Beauchamp is an art director and graphic designer whose books include The Life & Times of R. Crumb, Striking Images: Vintage Matchbook Cover Art, New & Used BLAB!, and Krampus: The Devil of Christmas. In 2012, Beauchamp was awarded the Society of Illustrators’ prestigious Richard Gangel Art Director Award.

Editorial Reviews

06/09/2014
Giving top cartoonists a chance to draw biographical comics about their major influences is a bit of a no-brainer. Former Blab editor Monte Beauchamp tasked 16 cartoonists with the creation of graphic portraits of the medium’s biggest legends, from Superman’s Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster to the “father of manga,” Osama Tezuka. Sadly, the list of greats lacks women, reinforcing the erroneous idea that there weren’t any prominent female cartoonists active during the period covered. The artists’ approaches to biography are as diverse as the subject matter; their best work avoids straight biographical exposition. Marc Rosenthal’s Chas Addams strip cleverly imagines the macabre New Yorker cartoonist as ghost relating his own story from beyond the grave, while Peter Kuper’s Harvey Kurtzman portrait shows the author pitching the Mad cartoonist his own biography. The Crumb bio by Drew Friedman, meanwhile, is entirely autobiographical, beautifully rendering his interactions with the underground legend in his photorealistic caricature style. Thankfully, few opt to mimic the inimitable style of their heroes, which might have made this colorful traipse through conventional comics history awkward. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Finally there's a book that gives cartoon artists the attention they deserve.Masterful Marks features top illustrators, including Drew Friedman, Nora Krug, Denis Kitchen, and Peter Kuper. The book reveals how visionary cartoonists overcame financial, political, and personal challenges to create a new form of art that now defines so many elements of pop culture."

Complex.com

What a joy to see the raw, unvarnished insides of these handmade lives finally placed in the right hands: their heirs in art—masters who learned from the masters. How smart of Monte Beauchamp to cast their stories in the visual structures, color palettes, and signature rhythms of the very art forms that our strangest and best-loved supermen originally expanded to worldwide glory.

author of Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography - David Michaelis

"If you’re a comics history enthusiast or a comics fan just starting to explore that tapestry of creativity, Monte Beauchamp’s Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Changed the World [Simon & Schuster [$24.99] is a must-have volume.... I read Masterful Marks through my local library and ordered a copy before I was halfway through. That’s how good this book. It earned a place in my own comics library. Highly recommended."

TalesofWonder.com

What an imaginative and appropriate way for today’s cartoonists to salute some of their heroes. The result is a unique blend of love and irreverence.

film critic and historian - Leonard Maltin

"16 fascinating and artistically vivid graphic biographies of such notable cartoonists as Charles Addams, R. Crumb, Walt Disney, Edward Gorey and Dr. Seuss."

Tampa Bay Times

"At long last, someone has taken a refreshing and diverse approach to profiling the giants who shaped the cartoon medium. Penetrating, intimate, entertaining, and bittersweet... Beauchamp has given the world a masterful work."

co-creator and executive producer of 24 - Joel Surnow

Inspiration is cyclic – every cartoonist has a hero, a visionary colossus who ignites their own creative journey. Reading Drew Friedman’s account of how R. Crumb became his spiritual father is, in itself, inspirational, as are the many other memoirs contained in Monte Beauchamp’s celebratory collection of cross-generational comics creativity.

author of Laika - Nick Abadzis

"Its hard not to love the concept behind this hardcover comics collection, in which top-notch cartoonists create comic biographies of some of the medium's biggest names (Edward Gorey, Charles Schulz, R. Crumb, Jack Kirby)."

USA Today

"What better way to pay tribute to groundbreaking cartoonists than in cartoon form? Top contemporary illustrators including Drew Friedman, Peter Kuper, and Nora Krug chronicle the breakthroughs of iconic forbears such as Charles M. Sculz, Dr. Seuss, Robert Crumb, and Jack Kirby."

Entertainment Weekly

"[A] riot of colorful comics homages to the giants of comics, by a great assemblage of currently working cartoonists"

Copaceticcomics.com

"Who were the original comic artists that left an indelible mark upon the world, paving the way for those who followed? Monte Beauchamp identifies the genre's early masters."

Book Forum

"Its hard not to love the concept behind this hardcover comics collection, in which top-notch cartoonists create comic biographies of some of the medium's biggest names (Edward Gorey, Charles Schulz, R. Crumb, Jack Kirby)."

USA Today

09/15/2014
Surprisingly, few comics biographies of cartoonist heavyweights have been published—recently, only The Adventures of Hergé (LJ 3/15/12). These 16 profiled artists are billed as game changers, not merely luminaries, hence the select (and all male) roster beginning with Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Cartoon editor/publisher Hugh Hefner also appears. Many of the illustrators for this collection incorporated some element of the target cartoonist's style and content into their biography. Arnold Roth's swirly inked satirical take on Al Hirschfeld, Drew Friedman's detailed photorealistic brushwork for Robert Crumb, Peter Kuper's creative color reappropriation of Harvey Kurtzman's classic "Corpse on the Imjin" war story, and Denis Kitchen's delightful improvisation featuring Dr. Seuss's ghost are all rich in design and content that includes examples of the cartoonists' art and its impacts. But several biographies disappoint, relying on narration rather then dramatization, and don't contain much image variety or examples of the cartoonist's work. VERDICT Beyond providing easily read introductions to the 16 stellar cartoonists, a worthy accomplishment in itself, this collection offers a praiseworthy sampler of approaches for other artists interested in doing biography comics.—M.C.

Library Journal

2014-06-25
Graphic biographies of 16 of the most influential cartoonists by some of the great cartoonists they influenced.It’s difficult to argue with the concept: Commission some of the finest contemporary graphic artists to pay homage to their heroes, the ones who inspired them to pursue their vocation.Editor Beauchamp (Krampus: The Devil of Christmas,2010, etc.) has done a fine job in selecting subjects and matching them with acolytes (as well as collaborating as writer on a few of the bios).The pinnacle is Drew Friedman’s deeply personal appreciation of R. Crumb, in which he not only celebrates Crumb’s style, but demonstrates his influence. Other stylistic highlights include Mark Alan Stamaty’s visceral rendering of the legacy of Jack Kirby (“Captain America”), Owen Smith’ssepia-tone commemoration of Lynd Kendall Ward (“Father of the Graphic Novel”) and Sergio Ruzzier’s depiction of Charles M. “Sparky” Schulz as Charlie Brown.There are also revelations:Dr. Suess took his mother’s maiden name as his pen name, and the correct pronunciation—or the way her family pronounced it—was “ ‘Soice’ as in ‘Voice,’ but it quickly became ‘Soose’ as in ‘Goose.’ ” Harvey Kurtzman’s role as creator ofMadis just part of what he achieved before and after, when his editorial assistants included Gloria Steinem, R. Crumb and Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam.A major void is the lack of female cartoonists as subjects (and only two as contributors), and even within the stable of white male cartoonists, there are top artists who are glaringly absent. While it’s hard to argue about the cultural significance of either Walt Disney or Hugh Hefner, both of whom have contributed greatly to the profession, at least the latter would have never made the cut on his drawings alone.Common themes include broken marriages and artists not given their due, especially financially.There’s always a hit-or-miss quality to such projects, and some question over the selections, but what’s great here is really terrific.

Kirkus Reviews