VIRTUAL PROGRAM – Zoom reservations are now closed for this event. A Zoom link will be sent to patrons who have RSVP’d for this event. If you were unable to RSVP, you can watch the talk live on the Museum’s homepage and YouTube Channel.
Cartoons and the Picturebook
Join cartoonists and illustrators Liza Donnelly, Elwood Smith, Roxie Munro, and Marc Rosenthal as they talk about writing and drawing books for children and the role of humor plays in the many books they’ve authored.
In the 1980s as Liza Donnelly was building her career as a cartoonist, “people kept suggesting that I try children’s books, but I couldn’t much focus on it.” She did, however, create a mockup of a book concept inspired by the monsters she drew as a child, but editors at Scholastic asked if she might turn her imaginary creatures into dinosaurs. In 1987, Dinosaur Day launched a series of seven books about a little boy and his dog with a fascination for prehistoric animals and a love of adventure. She found children’s books to be an enjoyable respite from the news and world’s realities, which more directly inspire her cartoons. Bright and colorful, Donnelly’s books have minimal text, with narratives that are propelled forward by the fun-filled experiences of her endearing characters. Dinosaur Halloween, Dinosaur Thanksgiving, Dinosaur Beach, The End of the Rainbow, and A Hippo in Our Yard are among her many books for young readers.
As a boy growing up in Alpena, Michigan, Elwood H. Smith loved comic books and early 20th century cartoon characters, particularly those drawn by George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat. Encouraged by his parents and his high school art teacher, Nancy Boyer-Feindt, he developed his drawing ability, taking the Famous Artists School cartoon correspondence course and attending art school at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. His intelligent, inventive drawings have appeared on the covers and pages of Forbes, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, Bloomberg, GQ, Money, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among other noted publications, and have enhanced the corporate profiles of Sony, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Pizza Hut, AT&T, McDonald’s, Cellular One, and Bell Atlantic. Stalling, Hot Diggity Dog, Catfish Kate and the Sweet Swamp Band, See How They Run, The Truth About Poop, Raise the Roof!, and Bug Muldoon are among his many illustrated children’s books. He has also enjoyed exploring the world of animation in creative productions like Kyoti Kapers, Little Green Monkey, and Sweet Dreams, which bring the artist’s drawings to life.
Roxie Munro was born in Texas, and grew up in southern Maryland, by the Chesapeake Bay. At the age of six, she won first prize in a county-wide contest for a painting of a bowl of fruit. She has been a working artist all her life, for a while freelancing in Washington DC as a television courtroom artist. It was great training for life drawing, concentration under pressure, and making deadlines. Clients included CBS, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press. Fourteen of her paintings have been published as covers of The New Yorker magazine. Roxie is the author/illustrator of more than 40 nonfiction, STEM/STEAM, and concept books for children, many using “gamification” to encourage reading, learning, and engagement (including Mazescapes; Amazement Park; the Inside-Outside Books: New York City [New York Times Best Illustrated Award], Washington DC, Texas, London, Paris, and Libraries; Feathers, Flaps & Flops; Doors; Gargoyles, Girders & Glass Houses; Ranch; Wild West Trail Ride Maze; Circus; Mazeways: A to Z; Rodeo; Go!Go!Go!; Inside-Outside Dinosaurs; and the KIWi Storybooks nonfiction series). Her books have been translated into French, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese.
Marc Rosenthal is an editorial illustrator and the New York Times best-selling illustrator of many children’s books, including All You Need is Love written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Small Walt written by Elizabeth Verdick, I Must Have Bobo, I’ll Save You Bobo, and Bobo the Sailor Man, all written by Marc’s wife Eileen Rosenthal, and Phooey, his author/illustrator debut. Marc’s illustration work can be seen in The New Yorker, Time, Forbes, Fortune, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.
This series is generously sponsored by
Tuesday Night Talks: Finding Funny in Complicated Times
We guarantee we can make you laugh once a week. Join a roster of funny men and women every Tuesday evening for a rollicking virtual event. We’ll hear from today’s foremost cartoonists. They’ll share their work, some secrets to their success, views on the role of cartoons in advancing important ideas, and we think there might be jokes.
Sign up here for one or the whole series. We’ll send you the link before each session. Members are free, of course. Not-yet-members pay what you choose, or become a member today and laissez les bontemps roulez.