Today: an overhang. Next week: a hangover

Stilwell - Christmas cheer

Sort of continuing the digital restoration of "Stilwell," the comic strip that ran in the Cleveland State University student weekly The Cauldron, circa 1971-73... If you were a friend of mine or a relative I was on speaking terms with, you probably received a copy of this Christmas card, which I believe I made in 1972, exactly 40 years ago. This sort of thing is sooooo easy to do today on a home computer using similar textured card stock you can pick up at any Office Depot, but back then, this was a major project and prohibitively expensive for an average Joe Shmuck like me ... unless you happened to have a college buddy who had a part-time job working on an offset press -- ahem. I have probably already said too much. Anyway... I even chuckle at the lettering because nowadays everybody has great access to a wide range of fonts on inexpensive word processing software. Back then, I used sheets of press-on letters sold at office supply stores. Here's a bit of pop cultural trivia inspired by this card: The word "ribbit" as applied to the sound a frog makes traces back to a skit on the "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," which was only a few years before this card. I can even vaguely remember Tommy Smothers dressed up like a frog for the sketch on the show. I find it worth noting, because the word entered the national lexicon and still has traction today, probably because of that one TV bit. "Ribbit" is not in any established dictionary as far as I'm aware, but it's out there, for sure. This image shows both the cover and the inside of my half-fold card. Merry Christmas, everybody!

Stilwell -- student government meeting

Continuing the series of digitally restored cartoons called "Stilwell," which ran in Cleveland State University's student newspaper The Cauldron from 1971 through 1973. While CSU's student government was the subject of my strip a few times, only once did I actually attend a student government meeting. I forget whether I was attending to cover it for a story or merely to get an inspiration for a cartoon, but this was the direct result of it. I don't recall the specific items on the agenda, but this cartoon suggests that at least one of those was related to approving an expenditure of funding from student fees, which I think may have been the one real power the student reps had. The cartoon suggests that those fees provided an annual nestegg of $70,000 to dole out as these yammering yoyos saw fit. I do recall that the meeting included at least a few hothead, self-important and boorish reps whose actual verbiage was close to what I characterize in this strip and a far cry from anything resembling the decorum of Parliamentary procedure. It struck me as being yet another embarrassment for this relatively new urban, state-supported university. It would not surprise me if one or two of these students, probably poli sci majors all, ended up or are even still in Congress.

Rose pedals

Stilwell -- Feminist art

Another in the series of digitally restored comics from the archives of "Stilwell," which ran in the Cleveland State University student weekly The Cauldron from 1971 to 1973. Feminism emerged as a national movement in the 1970s, an era that saw the marital-status-neutral "Ms." not only become a common courtesy title but also the name of a national magazine. In an effort to beautify some ugly construction fencing, some women's groups on campus organized a painting project that included some feminist sentiments. I don't think the act created any public uproar or opposition from anti-feminists; at least I don't remember anything of that sort. But I used the subject for this "Stilwell," which was published on May 23, 1972. It was also one last shot at the crabby cafeteria lady. Her "Canteen" uniform is a reference to the catering company that staffed the cafeteria at Stilwell Hall on campus.

I think I've hit the skids

Here we goooooooooo....

If you need to reach me, I will be at the bottom of the cliff.

Not just dessert

Bunt

More Stilwell - And rest in peace, George McGovern

An appropriately timed posting from the digitally restored comic strip "Stilwell," published in the Cleveland State University student weekly, The Cauldron, from 1971-73. Sen. George McGovern died today at the age of 90. Two weeks shy of 40 years ago, he lost the presidential election to incumbent Richard Nixon. This cartoon was published on Nov. 9, 1972. I brought in Mickey Mouse -- who has his own history, I believe, as a sarcastically cast write-in presidential candidate -- to portray another dejected loser, this one in support of write-in Ben, which is a reference to the rat in the movie and the Michael Jackson song of the same name. After forty years, the idea for Mickey and Ben seemed like a random contrivance, but after a little research, I discovered that the film was in theaters at that time, and that Jacko's single, the title tune from the movie soundtrack, was No. 1 on the charts. It was his first No. 1 hit as a solo artist. So while those facts only modestly help my cartoon gag, I think one could make that case that it was back then, precisely 40 years ago, when America elected Michael Jackson the King of Pop.

Flight

The boxer

Stilwell -- Indian summer

Yet another in the series of digitally restored "Stilwell" comics, a strip that ran in the Cleveland State University student weekly The Cauldron, 1971-73. This one used a W.C. Fields character to represent a CSU student government representative serving the student population relevantly. It also takes a poke at the often irritating ambience inside Stilwell Hall's cafeteria and the weather in Cleveland, where it was not unusual to see the first snowfall of the season in the month of November. This was published on November 23, 1971.

Stilwell -- Tuition increase protest

Another digitally restored cartoon from "Stilwell," the comic that ran from 1971 through 1973 in the Cleveland State University student weekly, The Cauldron. The controversial issue of rising costs of college education -- as fresh at this week's presidential debate -- dates back at least to the 1970s, when state-supported universities were in their infancy. I initially posted this with apologies for long since forgetting the details of this controversy, but a few months later, I stumbled upon a page from an abandoned scrapbook project for these cartoons that included the details. The hubbub was over a $45 per quarter rise in tuition fees, voted by the Ohio Board of Regents in the summer of 1971. In 2013, that rise might seem laughable, but it felt like a crisis to the students, most of whom were struggling Clevelanders stuck with Cleveland State because they couldn't afford to go to college elsewhere. The mention of "Tri-C" refers to Cuyahoga Community College, the junior college a few blocks from the CSU campus. I can't remember what it cost to attend Cleveland State at the time, but an educated guess is that it was something like $200 to $300 for a full-time load per quarter. (For some perspective, 2013 CSU students carrying a 12-unit course load will pay $4,632 per semester.) The burly frog named Hughes is an actual member of the Ohio Board of Regents, a governor-appointed body overseeing the state's colleges. He was, indeed, Robert Hughes, according to my notes. I do vividly remember that he was a vocal supporter of the fee increases. His rather unsympathetic stated attitude was that it was a manageable increase and that anyone who couldn't afford it ought to go out and get a job, and by god, he'd help anyone who needs to find one. Hence the fictional scene on the street, where a lineup of some 50 needy frogs waited for their turn to get job help from Hughes himself. An as yet unsolved mystery, however, is why I drew him wearing a robe that has a patch on it with the word "CLINIC." I have this vague notion that he perhaps had a health problem, such as a mild heart attack, and had been in or was currently at Cleveland Clinic, but there's no easy way to verify that, and I only use easy ways in researching for this collection. The reference to "Enarson" refers to CSU's increasingly absentee president, Harold Enarson. It wasn't long after this was published that he moved on to the bigger and far more prestigious Ohio State University (that departure also inspiring a "Stilwell" cartoon that I have previously posted on this blog), where he became famous for firing Woody Hayes. The setting for this drawing is a geographically correct representation of the heart of the Cleveland State campus, looking north from Euclid Avenue up East 24th Street. Stilwell Hall is half a block up the street on the left, and you can clearly see the cafeteria windows, where the special was selling for 50 cents -- "WITH PLATE AND TRAY $3." In front of that was the "new" science building, now four decades old, of course. That's Fenn Tower on the right, where some destitute students are jumping to their deaths from the third-floor ledge. In the distance beyond Fenn Tower is the fairly new intramural gym, famous mostly for its geodesic dome design. Its twisted support structure pokes fun at the fact that its roof caved in after a snowstorm shortly after it was built. The frog in the lower right corner, cheering the news that the campus bookstore is going to hold down its usual markup on books to a mere 40 percent, is actually coming from the bookstore, which was right there on the south side of Euclid Avenue. This cartoon was published on July 27, 1971, according to my notes. Yes, apparently The Cauldron published during the summer quarter, though there was a considerably smaller student population then. My notes also tell me that I produced the cartoon in five hours, "with the lettering aid of Tim Gallagher and alot of beer, scotch and whiskey." Gallagher was a friend and fellow CSU student who wrote some of the gag lines in this cartoon. It was the only time I collaborated with another person in drawing Stilwell. I was given a generous half tabloid page for this, which I thought was pretty cool. As a statement of protest, it had absolutely zero impact, unless it helped some frustrated students vent about the increase. I don't believe college tuition fees ever go down. Excrutiating technical detail that will read like white noise to most people: I basically had to digitally redraw this entire image in Photoshop. That took about three weeks and an embarrassing number of hours. Yes, I am now certifiably insane. All I had left were grainy photocopies and a very yellowed original newsprint copy. I'm guessing I might have given Gallagher the original, which also would have been pretty yellow by this time. At the peak of "Stilwell's" popularity, I was approached by a bookstore rep about putting out a line of T-shirts and sweatshirts with the frog characters on them. I turned them down because they were offering what I thought was a paltry sum for rights to the cartoons. I don't remember how much that was. But I never pursued producing T-shirts or any other commercial item to cash in on the frogs' popularity on my own, so I probably should have let the bookstore have a crack at it. Oh well.

Beer humor

Making a fist, Gangnam Style

Just as an experiment, I changed the title of this post, just to see if has any effect on the number of hits on it. This blog is not about Gangnam Style, Psi or any parody thereof. It's just a bunch of cartoons that I draw. But I draw them opp ... opp, opp, opp, opp. Oppan Gangnam style. And ... the result after several days: No bump whatsoever. This actually restores some of my faith in humanity.

Stilwell - Typical Cleveland Girls

Continuing the digital restoration of "Stilwell," the comic strip that ran 40 years ago in the Cleveland State University student weekly The Cauldron. Three weeks ago, I posted a cartoon depicting a sad sack male frog being shut down by a standoffish coed frog at a bar scene on campus. Actually, in the strip, there were two variations on the theme of the "typical Cleveland girl" making the meet-market scene but rebuffing guys who approached them. The first one, previously posted, ran Jan. 11, 1972. Three months later, April 11, 1972, the second one ran. In this one, I set the scene at the on-campus basement nightspot called Fat Glenn's, except that I fittingly changed the name of it to "FAT CHANCE." I think the "but don't think that's going to get you anywhere" line came from a female student, actually named Karen, with whom I had a one-time date. Perhaps if I had spent more time getting to know women and less time drawing cartoons, I may have had better luck with my social life. Be that as it may, this was the last time I visited the theme. Below this newly posted comic is a rerun of the previously posted cartoon, for reference.

Stilwell - Stunt Nite

Continuing the digital restoration of "Stilwell," the comic strip that ran from 1971 through '73 in the Cleveland State University student weekly, The Cauldron. Stunt Nite was arguably one of the most entertaining campus events, because it consisted of staged skits poking fun at life at CSU, which, of course, with my cartoons, was right in my wheelhouse. This was largely if not solely a Greek-participation event. Each sorority and fraternity on campus put on a skit. I loved the show the year before, so I attended the 1972 event with great anticipation for a fun night, at Fat Glenn's, the on-campus 3.2 beer bar and dance place. I remember it fondly because two of the sketches presented that night made reference to the comic strip itself. One group, a sorority if I recall correctly, even created costumes representing the frogs themselves. As much as I was not a fan of the whole fraternity/sorority scene, I did feel pretty stoked that my work got acknowledged. But a major turn-off for me that night was the fact that the whole show was almost impossible to hear because of either a non-functioning or non-existent sound system. That had to be frustrating for a lot of people who attended. I know it was for me, and I had to make my feelings known about it in my next cartoon, which was published March 7, 1972. So typical of the Cleveland State vibe to put on a major event like that and not have a fail-safe plan for miking it adequately. It's sort of like having a campus newspaper put in a comic strip featuring frogs instead of, say, a Doonesbury-like strip with some class and sass. Well, I really do think I had the sass, but ... well, I think I made my point.

arty fish

Four

Diva stating

Stereo

Elephant

Juiced?

Tick

Apologies to Mr. Shakespeare.

Hurting, financially

Winded

Whittle Shop of Horrors

Ill eagle

Stilwell - Lonely knights

Another digitally restored comic from the strip "Stilwell," drawn and published in the Cleveland State University student weekly, The Cauldron, from 1971 through 1973. I didn't invent the phrase "typical Cleveland girl." It came from guy talk overheard on the social scene. I found the women at Cleveland State to be largely guarded and unapproachable; I found myself to be painfully shy around them; together, that was a recipe for social disaster. Suggesting that CSU had a lock on this type of female further illustrates my naivity. At any rate, in my fantasy cartoon world, at least misery loved company. I think the setting here is supposed to be Fat Glenn's, the basement on-campus bar that served 3.2 beer swill and gristleburgers. It got in the paper on Jan. 11, 1972. My notes indicate that this was "based on a real-life dating bar experience," but I have long since repressed whatever that referred to. And while I'm pretty sure there was a CSU chapter of the Society of Creative Anachronism -- people who liked to dress up like medieval folks and have jousts and stuff -- I don't believe we actually had a dude randomly walking around on campus wearing a suit of armor.

If Jesus had a dog

No, this is not money laundering

Hack kneed

Resuming summer Facebook page reruns (but newly posted to this blog) while I draw more.

Stilwell frogs -- The war winds down

Here's yet another in the continuing digital restoration project for "Stilwell," the comic strip I drew for the Cleveland State University student weekly, The Cauldron, from 1971 through 1973. This was quite a cheesy pun that I couldn't resist. (If you've checked my other posted works, you already know that there are few that I DO resist.) As for the context, of course, the shadow of the Vietnam War had followed us baby boomers through college. As 1973 began, President Nixon and Henry Kissinger were hard at work on ending U.S. involvement in the very unpopular war, and, in fact, on the very day this cartoon was published, Jan. 23, 1973, Kissinger and North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho signed a ceasefire agreement emanating from the Paris peace talks. Two months later, the last of the U.S. combat troops pulled out of the country. The military draft also ended that year. And, as we know, Nixon would pull out of public office the following year. So, despite my inanity, the subject matter was making front-page headlines at the time. For the record, to my knowledge, there was never an incident at Cleveland State's Stilwell Hall cafeteria involving a slice of pie being tossed up and stuck to the ceiling for months. There is some historic accuracy to it, however. During summers in my college years, my best friend from high school, John Gulczynski, his brother Bill and I worked at a steel drum manufacturing factory, where his uncle Dan worked in management. (Pays to have connections.) We used to eat lunch while sitting on stacks of steel sheets in the warehouse of the factory. One day, I was particularly unenamored with what I think was one too many balony sandwiches that I had packed for my lunch. With a mighty toss, I flung the half-eaten sandwich up into the rafters of the warehouse, where it stuck and remained, perhaps forever. Heck, it might even still be up there. F.C. Thornton is long gone, but last time I checked, the building was still standing in the Polish ghetto of southeast Cleveland.

Fair game

This may not be the funniest cartoon I ever drew, but it is one thing worth remarking about: It's the 100th cartoon in this picture-pun series, which I started early in 2011. Many are posted on this blog, but I haven't posted all of them on here yet. I plan to, by and by.

Stilwell - Encounter Groupie

Another in my series of digitally restored cartoons from "Stilwell," the comic strip that ran in the Cleveland State University student weekly, The Cauldron, from 1971 through 1973. Encounter groups were a campus phenomenon at the time, under the auspices of at least one professor in the Psych department. These groups of students met supposedly to benefit psychologically from their group setting. A couple of people in my small circle of friends participated in these. I was a psych minor, and I remember being interested enough in them to inquire about joining one, and I have this vague memory of talking to the aforementioned CSU prof, in a one-on-one interview situation. I also remember him deciding that I wouldn't make the cut, though I don't remember what it was about the cut of my jib that didn't measure up to encounter group material. In any case, after that experience, I think I felt a little left out and thought that these groups might have been a bit cultish or at least cliquish, and I didn't need to be associated with either type of group, so there. I did work the subject into one of my cartoons, published on Feb. 22, 1973. The sarcastic reference to "Mister Peepers" is obviously a reference to the eye-contact games mentioned in panel 2, those being an example of the kind of exercises they'd do in these group meetings. But it's also a reference to a 1950s-era sitcom starring Wally Cox. Nostalgia freaks can see clips of the show on YouTube. I wasn't really making fun of the groups as much as I was merely referencing a campus phenomenon and contriving a joke to go with it.

More Stilwell -- The Academic Centers

Continuing the digital restoration of "Stilwell" cartoons, the comic strip that ran in the Cleveland State University student weekly, The Cauldron, 1971-73, this one was obviously ripped from the headlines of the student rag back in the day. As I recall, CSU's honchos, or the Board of Regents, whoever, had made a decision to close down the university's satellite campus operations in the suburbs of the Cleveland area and concentrate operations on the main campus just east of downtown. You can glean from the dialogue that the satellites were penciling out financially, but that perhaps the quality standards of classes there were not as rigidly adhered to as they were on the main campus. It appears, from the lettering on the bulletin board, that the setting is Lakewood High School, repurposed for college classes at night. And the implication of the gag line is that those attending classes in the suburbs were unhappy about the closings, in part, because they worried about the crime rate of the downtown campus' environs. After 40 years, I have no idea how many of the aforementioned details are accurate, but there's your context. This one ran on Leap Day, Feb. 29, 1972.

If tableware could talk

More "Stilwell" -- A final shot at student government

Another digitially restored comic from "Stilwell," the strip I drew for the Cleveland State University student weekly The Cauldron in 1971 through 1973. (In previous posts, I mentioned that '71-'72 was the span, but I discovered in this one that I did push the strip into 1973. Oops!) I see that I kind of mailed it in for this one. It was bloated to eight panels instead of the usual four, the detail and lettering is sloppy, and the gag is stolen from an old Warner Bros. cartoon. I always depicted CSU's student government as being a nearly irrelevent body with no significant power or purpose except to maybe waste people's time trying to convince them otherwise. This was my final shot at them.

You'd be fiery, too!

Running gag

More Stilwell -- Cafeteria expansion

Another installment in my ego trip down memory lane, digitally restoring the comic strip "Stilwell," which ran in the Cleveland State University student weekly The Cauldron from 1971 through '73. As baby boomers, we of my generation have spent a lifetime burdening ever facet of society, and so in the 1970s, of course, we were wreaking havoc on the state funded universities that had cropped up to deal with our numbers. Stilwell cafeteria, in Stilwell Hall, centrally located on campus, was apparently in need of more space to handle the growing student body. So in the fall of 1971, space just down the hallway was opened as an annex to the cafeteria. What happens in this Nov. 9, 1971, cartoon is a baby boomer inevitability.

The bulletin board you see in the background actually did exist just to the right of the main doorways into the cafeteria, open for use by all. Seeing my depiction of it reminds me that at some point during my freshman or sophomore years, before I first stepped into the offices of The Cauldron and discovered a career path, and definitely before the comic strip was conceived, I created and posted a parody "newspaper" composed of clippings from the Cleveland Press and The Plain Dealer, pasted up crudely on 8 1/2 by 14 paper and photocopied on a photocopier, then tacked up on that bulletin board. I believe I called it The Cleveland Crumm. It poked fun at some of the content in those two papers, as I recall. Yes, Cleveland had not one but two newspapers, back then. I can't explain what I had hoped to accomplish by producing and posting those, but I think they offer a hint of why I came within one letter grade of flunking out of Cleveland State during my first two years.

A riddle

Nobody actually got hurt...

...in the making of this cartoon. It's just a pun.

More Stilwell frogs -- Reality Bites

Continuing, in no particular order, the digital restoration of "Stilwell," the comic that ran in 1971-73 in the Cleveland State University student weekly, The Cauldron... It's now the fall quarter of 1971. The strip had debuted during the previous spring quarter, and I was beginning to notice that it had a bit of a following. I had never done anything of noticeable significance before (or since, for that matter), so it was somewhat of an ego boost. (I remember that a student actually said to me that the cartoons were the only thing worth reading in the paper. Such was the caliber of intellectual curiosity that I surrounded myself with while I was there.) Be that as it may, realizing that some of the jabs that I took at campus life were resonating with my fellow students, I wondered if the crabby cafeteria lady who often had appeared in my comic had ever seen the strip. That's what inspired this one, published on Oct. 19, 1971. I had heard that they later transferred her to the Fenn Tower eatery across the street and that she eventually lost her job, though I can't verify that. I always wondered if I had had anything to do with that. I did know from personal experience that this woman, whose main job was manning the cash register at the end of the Stilwell cafeteria line, was unreasonably caustic with people who requested change for the vending machines adjacent to the checkout line. You have to remember that back in the early 1970s, coinage was more dominant as a medium of exchange than it is now in the 21st century. You could actually buy a modest meal for under a dollar back then. And while the vending machines at Stilwell's cafeteria made change, they weren't equipped to handle paper currency. So it was a major inconvenience if you didn't happen to have coins and wanted something from the machines. The cafeteria management also made attempts to discourage students from lingering in the cafeteria as a social hangout. I felt that the cafeteria people ought to be a little more accommodating. Anyway, here's how I imagined it might go if the crabby lady had discovered the strip.

More Stilwell -- Frog clothes

Continuing the restoration of "Stilwell," the Cleveland State student paper cartoon I drew in 1971, 1972 and 1973... Here are two strips that ran in consecutive weeks in October 1972 in The Cauldron. Reports of exhibitionists on campus inspired the first one. While brainstorming an angle for referencing that, it dawned on me that most of my frog characters in the strip did not wear clothing. That led me to the idea of having the froggie students come to the same realization themselves. The payoff panel, of course, is pure silliness. The following week, I thought of a way to play off of the previous week's comic. Toward the end of its run, "Stilwell" turned more into this sort of self-contained nonsense and away from what I think made it resonate with a lot of people at CSU: its poking fun at real people and situations at the university.

More Stilwell -- Picher of Duke

Another digitally restored "Stilwell" cartoon, from the Cleveland State University run in the student newspaper The Cauldron 40 years ago. This one takes place at The Downunder, a new campus area bar that was downstairs, naturally, in a building on Euclid Avenue. The bar is real, but Sluggo does not represent a real person. The gag is just meant as word play involving the name of one of the more popular beers sold in the Cleveland area. Duquesne (pronounced duke CANE, and nicknamed Duke), was a pilsener brewed at The Duquesne Brewing Company in Pittsburgh, a brewery with a history that dates all the way back to 1899, that went dark during Prohibition and came back strong in 1933 and enjoyed wide regional success until 1972, coincidentally the year this cartoon was published. It helps, of course, to know that actor John Wayne's nickname was "Duke."

More Stilwell -- student government giveaway

Another "Stilwell" comic, digitally restored for posterity, from the strip that ran in The Cauldron, Cleveland State University's student newspaper, in 1971, '72 and '73. Again, CSU was a commuter school, and most of us were just trying to get a degree and move on, not much invested in campus affairs. Student government was off a lot of the student body's radar, and I recall at least an informal sense that the elected body was engaged in a lot of irrelevant issues that failed to resonate with most people. Daycare obviously was an important issue to students who were also parents and needed a convenient place for their kids to stay while they were in class. But many students, like me, were fresh from high school and nowhere near the child-rearing stage of our lives. Memory fails, but apparently the student council did work to get a daycare service started on campus. "Stilwell" visited the snarky "What's the point of student government?" theme a few times. This comic ran Jan. 18, 1972. Fat Glenn's is a reference to a previously referenced campus bar/eatery that opened around that time. And I do recall that we used to refer to the hamburgers served there as "gristleburgers."