The Ad that Made an Icon out of MAC!

[Horn-Tootin' Dep't] In 1996 I attended the Popular Culture Association's national conference, where I presented a paper on Charles Atlas ads and some of their many parodies. (A sample panel from one of the ads is displayed at left.) I later turned that essay into an article for the Winter 2000 issue of Hogan's Alley (for you bibliography buffs, that's issue 7, pages 80-87, according to my horribly out-of-date c.v.). The HA website recently posted my article, along with a few small illustrations.

I had heard they were planning to do so a couple of years ago, but I think they just got around to it recently - not surprising, given how much work goes into each issue. The website has also archived features like their interview with Bizarro's Dan Piraro and an essay on Johnstone and Cushing, the advertising company behind classics like Postum's pesky nemesis, Mr. Coffee Nerves.

Nieman Reports on Editorial Cartoons

Welcome to "Comics Research & Such" - I'll get to a proper introduction soon, but let's just jump right in for our first post...

While it might be old news to you, it's new to me - and that's enough to qualify listing it here. The Winter 2004 issue of Nieman Reports (vol 58, no. 4) focuses on editorial cartoons, featuring 18 essays by and about editorial cartoonists (as well as other journalism- related features). Download the entire 2.6MB PDF file of the whole issue here. [Get the free Adobe Acrobat reader here, natch.] Glad to see the USA's "first journalism review" - the official house organ of The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University - focusing on this endangered (but still vital, damnit) branch of the Fourth Estate.