16 cartoonists who changed the world

[Permalink]

1 Like

Walt Kelly of Pogo fame and Herbert Block of the Washington Post were pretty important, too.

1 Like

While the linked-to article’s title is “16 cartoonists who changed the world”, the sub-header and the title here make it clear that it’s “The 16 cartoonists who changed the world”.

Pretty much all Americans. Sooo disappointed.

3 Likes

I was curious as to why Will Eisner was left off of this list. He’s been the inspiration to so many other cartoonist, including some on this list.

2 Likes

Charles Schulz should really be on this list.

2 Likes

Regardless of who is or isn’t among these 16, this is pretty goddamned awesome.

2 Likes

No, you’ve got it backwards. The BBS thread title is “The 16 cartoonists…,” but the book is called “Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Changed the World.” And it’s 16 biographies, but 17 cartoonists, since Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster share one. You don’t want to count on Boing Boing headlines for accuracy.

The link to the Amazon page is not obvious, since it only appears in a caption, but the complete list is:

  • Walt Disney
  • Dr. Seuss
  • Charles Schulz
  • The Creators of Superman
  • R. Crumb
  • Jack Kirby
  • Winsor McCay
  • HergĂ©
  • Osamu Tezuka
  • MAD creator, Harvey Kurtzman
  • Al Hirschfeld
  • Edward Gorey
  • Chas Addams
  • Rodolphe Töpffer
  • Lynd Ward
  • Hugh Hefner

So Schulz is on there, as well as three non-Americans (Hergé, Tezuka, and Töpffer), plus Americans like Siegel and Shuster who were the children of immigrants and whose work reflected the immigrant experience. The U.S. has always had a huge influence on comics worldwide, especially in the early part of the 20th century; there’s changes I would have made to this list, but I don’t think it’s fair to call it biased.

2 Likes

Al Capp (L’il Abner) had a big cultural influence (Sadie Hawkins Day, Double Whammy, Schmoos etc)

1 Like

Thank you very much for pointing that out! Wow how silly of me. This expanded list looks much better. The only major adjustment I would make would be to scratch Walt Disney and replace him with the man who actually drew the mouse. The great UB Iwerks.

Art Spiegelman (Maus) comes to mind.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.