“Hey, ho, hey!” That’s the greeting of the NCS LA. To those not in the know, NCS LA means the National Cartoonists Society, Los Angeles Chapter!
The NCS LA reorganized this year to become a pretty busy group of professional cartoonists. We used to have one gathering a year in December, but since this past December, we have been doing monthly activities where professional cartoonists can socialize with colleagues, learn something, and hopefully soon will involve some volunteer drawing for worthy causes.
Part of what the NCS LA has discovered is some of the history of our group. Our mascot has become Cornelius the Bear because back in the day he saved the life of Los Angeles cartoonist George Herriman, creator of the comic strip Krazy Kat, from a runaway toboggan. Cornelius is no longer with us here in the City of Angels, of course, so he himself is depicted in angelic terms on our official crest. I recently drew my version of Cornelius as seen above wearing the NCS LA uniform of a plaid sports coat.
That image of Cornelius was used on a flyer I put together advertising to our membership a field trip we took a few weeks ago to Revolutions 2, a fantastic museum exhibit of original illustration art at the museum in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA (go see it before it closes in early August if you haven’t already – it’ll knock your socks off!). Illustrator William Stout showed us around the exhibit, and was able to tell tales of his own art that is in the display. Afterwards, we went to lunch at a place where Walt Disney and his animators used to hang out (yes, that’s my Walt on the flyer, too).
If you are a professional cartoonist creating comic books, comic strips, illustration, animation, editorial cartoons, or any other genre in cartooning here in Los Angeles, or will be visiting our fair city in the future, please get a hold of me to find out when and where our next gathering will be! We’d love to welcome you here!