Tuesday, July 14, 2009

THE NEW BREED

On May 7, 1989, King Features Syndicate launched a newspaper comic panel called The New Breed.


It featured a randomly rotating stable of cartoonists, and the late Jay Kennedy had invited me to be in on it from the start, based on having worked with me when he was a freelance cartoon editor for various magazines before joining King as a comics editor.


Along with my cartoons, I also did some promo drawings for the launch...


as well as the cover for a book collection later on.


Soon after, I began doing The Fusco Brothers for Universal Press Syndicate, who preferred that I stop contributing to The New Breed, so I did. I'm not sure when The New Breed stopped running.

I guess when 20 years go by on something I feel the need to commemorate it. (Unless there's no drinking involved.)

So, when Fusco turns 20 next month I guess I'll drag myself down Memory Lane kicking and screaming once again.

5 comments:

Arctictoc said...

JCD --

Hearty e-applause on the great, continuing run. I've loved 'Fusco' for at least 10 years. There's never been a time when cartooning was numero uno in my life, with hobbies/careers like writing, travel, brewing, painting & swimming taking the fore. But in 1998 I got to shoot the breeze with Ben Katchor for awhile... my signed Julius Knipl book is treasured to this day. In 2001, I put together a large polar bear collage featuring only one cartoon (you may recall, "Polar? Or simply slow to warm?") When the New Yorker Rejected Cartoons collection came out, my wife Havala and I high-fived. Bravo.

Cartooning may've always been on the periphery for me, Duffy, but our weekly-ish bantering is certainly one of my favorite 2009 things.

Just don't expect me to kiss your ass like this more than once every 20 years.

-- ERD

JCD said...

Thanks, ERD. (And once every 20 years is plenty!)

Jym said...

=v= My brother used to send me clippings of The New Breed from his newspaper. He mostly liked the Mark Parisi stuff. I never saw it in a local newspaper, since I live elsewhere.

Unknown said...

Cool! Jay Kennedy provided lots of good feedback to me during the couple of years throughout which he also gave me a number of opportunities to be exposed (in an artistic manner) to a larger public audience, via "The New Breed". Jay was a really nice guy. Editors never send messages of approval and support to struggling, aspiring cartoonists! Pretty neat to read this thread after about 20 years passage since I last even thought of the strip! GDS (aka Glombo)

JCD said...

Jay was great.