Gallery

Scenes from the 2001 Festival of Cartoon Art, which took place recently on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus.

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‘This is my “go-away-it’s-1-a.m.-I’m-tired-face,” said Patrick McDonnellv, creator of the ‘Mutts’ comic strip, which stars Mooch the cat and Earl the dog. ‘I miss my gag writers,’ he added, referring to his pets. ‘I left them at home.’

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David Levine, big kahuna of caricature whose work appears in the New York Review of Books and the New Yorker, shares his wisdom on draftsmanship: ‘You’ve gotta stay away from drawing people with dark, bushy hair and dark beards. Too much crosshatching. Too much work.’ Comic strip artist Will Eisner, behind him on right, was asked whether he’s been worried about his safety since Sept. 11. ‘Nah,’ he replied. ‘I live in Florida. They just train there.’

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‘When was the last time you drew just for fun?’ asked Lynda Barry, creator of Ernie Pook’s Comeek. ‘We stopped having fun like we did when we were kids. Like, how often do you see a girl shaking her Barbie screaming, By the fourth panel, you better make me laugh’?’

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Meanwhile, Punk the Penguin was overheard kvetching to other artists that he’s been neglected by Oliphant and given no credit for the old man’s success.

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‘Staying away from people like you, you lousy foreigner,’ quipped Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Pat Oliphant, a native of Australia, when asked to reveal the secret of his success. ‘All politicians are built of spare parts,’ Oliphant explained. ‘A touch of some hair and LBJ turns into Golda Meir.’ Behind him, editorial cartoonists Rob Rogers, left, and Lalo Alcaraz, right, demonstrate their maturity level.