Kenosha Festival Of Cartooning 2016 A Resounding Success!!

We close the book on KFOC 2016 with another successful festival!

Folks came from miles around to meet our terrific line up of guest speakers and a great time was had by all.

Over the next week or two we will take care of some post-festival details including the following:

Photo gallery for KFOC 2016 - we will be posting an official gallery of photos here on the website but, if you just can't wait, check them out on our Facebook page. (If you haven't "liked" the Kenosha Festival Of Cartooning page be sure to remedy that ASAP!) A big thanks to Mike Cope who once again took about 2000 great pictures of the event and then took the time to whittle that down to a more manageable number!

Audio archive - Thank you again to Greg Berg of the WGTD Morning Show and Kenosha's NPR affiliate for another great interview with the cartoonists. We will be posting a link here in the sidebar and, again, it's already up on the FB page.

Backer rewards - If you made a donation to this year's festival your programs, coins and posters will be on their way to you soon! Thank you for the support!

Huge Thank You's are in order and that we can take care of right now:

Thank you to all our sponsors and community partners:

Universal UClick 

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation 

The Kenosha Public Museum

UW Parkside

The Kenosha News

The Kenosha Community Foundation

Frank's Diner

Andrea's Gifts

TG's Restaurant and Grill

Unbelievable thank you to Tom Racine and Mike Cope for assistance with presentations, school outreach, AV issues of any kind, photography, the kids cartooning class and generally having our back for anything and everything!

Thank you to the artists for taking 5 whole days out of their busy schedules to draw nonstop, give multiple presentations, teach cartooning and interact with fans.

Thank you to everyone who provided art to the gallery shows - most especially George Hagenauer, Rob Stolzer and Richard Pietrzyk who made their collections of comic art by women cartoonists available to us.

Thank you to everyone who worked on the gallery shows - especially Rachel Klees Anderson, Gina Radandt, Amanda Brown and Glen Larson.

Thanks to all the Kenosha News staff who gave us so many terrific articles and coverage of the event.

Thank you to Nancy Matthews and Chris Schlater of the Kenosha Public Museum for their assistance and support with presentations and book sales.

Thank you to Karen Sorensen and Lesley Heins Walker of UW Parkside for their assistance and support with the Thursday night panel discussion and sponsorship of the UWP gallery reception.

Thank you to Mike Schroeder, Scott Plank and Christine O'Regan of the Kenosha Unified School District for their assistance and support with the school visits by the cartoonists.

Thank you to John Glynn of Universal UCLick for overall support and specific sponsorship of the Friday night Drink and Doodle reception.

Thank you to Mike Peterson of Comic Strip Of The Day who, despite the fact that he could not join us this year, still managed to post links and updates to our goings on - some from a hospital room.

Thank you to Danielle Geary and Diane Levesque of Carthage College for assisting in making our artists available to Carthage students.

Thank you to TG's, Frank's, Andrea's and Marsha Caporaso for feeding the cartoonists.

Thank you to everyone who stepped up to host cartoonists in their home when it looked as though our hotel rooms would not be available.

Thank you to the Kenosha Community Foundation for acting as our non-profit fiscal agent.

Thank you to the Copy Center and Proform Technologies for all our printing needs.

Thank you to Meridith Jumisko and Deanna Goodwin of the Kenosha Area Visitor's Bureau for all their help promoting this event, both within Kenosha and to the greater tri-state area.

Thank you to all the other cartoonists - some from 3 states away - who hopped in their cars and came to join us in all the fun!

Finally thank you to the following donors:

Patricia Petretti

Kevin Wolf and Mary Gau

Frances Hybert

Tyrone Payton

Jeff Keane

Jeff Sheppard

Jerome and Joan Quets

Paul Merklein

Mark Anderson

Al Rozanski

Jeff Knurek

Jeff Weinfurter

Tom Clark

Timothy Hanna

Rex Garnett

Jerald Grimson

John and Nancy Morse

Mike Peterson

Ann Andrea

Bob Krohmer

Jose Villena Rodriguez

David Tomaselli

Greg Cravens

Bruce Quast

Michael Hilliger

Tom Stemmle

Sandra Bell Lundy

Richard Pietrzyk

Ellen Abramowitz

Andrew and Tess Carlson

Marybeth Zuhlke

Schlax Christionsen & Lee

Diane Hilbrink

If we have forgotten anyone please contact us at kenoshacartoonfest@gmail.com and we will remedy the situation!

Bending The Lines: Women Of Cartooning

The 2016 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning is fast approaching (Septemeber 15, 16, 17) but if you just cannot wait to get your fix of cartoon art head over to gallery show "Bending The Lines: Women Of Cartooning" on display now at the Kenosha Public Museum! The show will run through the beginning of October and the museum is located at 5500 1st Avenue, Kenosha. Hours are 10:00 am to 5:00 pm daily.

This fabulous show features original art by over 34 cartooning women working in the past and present. In alphabetical order:

       ·    Margaret Ahern
·       Isabella Bannerman
·       Donna Barr
·       Sandra Bell Lundy
·       June Brigman
·       Faith Burrows
·       Fanny Cory
·       Annabel Culverhill
·       Liza Donnelly
·       Edwina Dumm
·       Jan Eliot
·       Ramona Fradon
·       Fran Hopper
·       Helen Hokinson
·       Barbara Kaalberg
·       Columba Krebs
·      Terri  Libenson
·       Marty Links
·       Juana Medina
·       Dale Messick
·       Gladys Parker
·       Rina Piccolo
·       Wendy Pini
·       Hilary Price
·       Lily  Renee
·       Trina Robbins
·       Annie Lou Rogers
·       Maria Scrivan
·       Sylvia Sneydman
·       Jen Sorensen
·       Hilda Terry
·       Ann Telnaes
     Dale Ulrey
·       Odin Waugh 

Also featured in the show are KFOC 2016 guest speakers Wiley Miller, Eddie Pittman, Rob Harrell and John Hambrock

To whet your appetite here are a few teaser images:

Kenosha Festival Of Cartooning News

 2016 Guest Speakers

Ann Telnaes

Wiley Miller

Jen Sorensen

John Hambrock

Rob Harrell

Eddie Pittman

 The 2016 Kenosha Festival Of Cartooning will kick off in just about 1 month! Events will take place from Thursday, September 15th through Saturday, September 17th.

A few bits of business:

Speakers

Full profiles of our lineup of GREAT speakers are available by clicking here. (Or click on each artist's picture in the sidebar.)

Schedule

The schedule of events open to the public is available by clicking here.

Make A Donation

We are still accepting donations of financial support - for details click here. (All persons donating $50 or more will receive the 2016 challenge coin which you can see here.)

Take Out An Ad

We are accepting ads for the program book until August 22 - for details click here. (Folks taking out an ad will automatically receive the 2016 challenge coin and a signed copy of the program book)

Hotels

If you have not yet made a hotel reservation a list of area hotels is available by clicking here.

Important Announcement!

Lastly, we have an important announcement regarding future festivals. The short version is that, after 2016, we are putting the festival on hiatus until 2019 so if you have been meaning to come but always seem to keep putting it off - THIS is your last chance until 2019. If you want the long version you can click here for details.

Guest Speaker KFOC 2016 John Hambrock

John first discovered his love for cartooning in 1991 while working for a Chicago Graphic Design firm. That year he and his wife Anne decided to collaborate on a comic strip titled "Second Nature. Although it was never syndicated, Second Nature reached a long list of loyal readers through their privately run subscription service.

John continued experimenting with other comic strip ideas until one day a little boy named Edison arrived uninvited in his imagination. The precocious little ten year old refused to leave, so John eventually awarded him a starring role in the comic strip "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee," picked up for syndication in 2006 by King Features. The strip, now entering its tenth year, appears in over 200 digital and print newspapers worldwide.

“The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee” was nominated for the Reuben Division Award “Best Newspaper Comic Strip” in 2010 by the National Cartoonists Society. That same year John was a featured speaker at “Toonfest”, the annual Walt Disney hometown festival in Marceline, Missouri. In 2011 he was one of the inaugural speakers at the first annual Kenosha Festival of Cartooning. For the 2015 KFOC he amazed the audience with a one take video in which he drew all the characters of the festival guests.

In addition to Edison Lee, John has been illustrating children’s books and serving on the board of the National Cartoonists Society. Plans for 2016 include creating a series of small Edison Lee books.

John lives in Wisconsin with his wife, daughter, an ancient cat, a passel of comic strip characters and two herding dogs who keep everyone in line.

Guest Speaker KFOC 2016 Rob Harrell

Rob Harrell first got really into cartooning as a fourth grader, growing up in Bloomington, Indiana. By the fifth grade, he was producing his own magazine called Freak Out. While largely a blatant rip-off of Mad magazine, it featured the adventures of two original characters: Henry the Cat and Bob the blob. Reviews were mixed.

After a few years of seasoning, he created the syndicated daily comic strip Big Top, which from 2002 through 2007, telling the story of a dysfunctional group of circus animals in the animal-run Big Top Circus. Currently, he writes and draws the long-running daily strip Adam@Home, about the daily exploits of Adam Newman and his family.

His first graphic novel, Monster on the Hill, was released by Top Shelf Productions in 2013. Set in a fantastical 1860s England where each town takes great pride in their local monster, the book tells the story of one Stoker-on-Avon and their less than impressive monster Rayburn. 

Rob is currently writing and illustrating a series of middle-grade books called Life of Zarf which tell the story of Zarf Belford, a troll just trying to make it through middle school in a fairy tale world. The first book was released in September 2014, and the second, Life of Zarf: The Troll Who Cried Wolf hit shelves in September 2015. The third installment will be out in the fall of 2016.

In addition to his busy schedule as an author and syndicated cartoonist Harrell is a freelance illustrator who has worked with clients that include Mad, Simon and Schuster, American Greetings, Time, Inc. and Volkswagen.

His figurative paintings have been shown around the country, including solo shows in San Francisco, Austin and Indianapolis.

Rob lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Amber and their two dogs, Cooper and Kasey.

Guest Speaker KFOC 2016 Jen Sorensen

Award winning cartoonist Jen Sorensen has been drawing her weekly comic for over 15 years. Formerly known as "Slowpoke," the strip now simply goes by her name.

Jen's cartoons appear in numerous altweekly newspapers around the country, magazines such as The Progressive, In These Times, and Ms., and websites including Daily Kos, Truthout, and AlterNet. Her work has also been published in The Nation, The Village Voice, Politico, NPR.org, and MAD. She has created commissioned long-form comics for the ACLU, NPR, Kaiser Health News, The Oregonian, and other clients. In addition to drawing cartoons, Sorensen edits a comics section for Fusion, a new media company from ABC and Univision. 

Over the years, she has won several accolades for her work. In 2014, she was named the winner of the Herblock Prize, an award endowed by the legendary Washington Post cartoonist Herb Block, as well as the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2013, she was the recipient of a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and she also won the National Cartoonists Society Divisional Reuben Award for Editorial Cartoons. In 2015, Sorensen was given an Inkpot Award for career achievement in comic arts from the San Diego Comic-Con International.

Jen grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and went on to attend the University of Virginia, where she studied cultural anthropology and drew cartoons for college publications.

Additional fun fact: Jen was once clue “12 down” in the Time Out New York crossword puzzle.

Sorensen currently lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and small terrier.

Guest Speaker KFOC 2016 - Eddie Pittman

Eddie Pittman

Eddie Pittman grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where he taught himself how to draw in the back row of math class. As a kid, he won a 10-speed bicycle from the Kellog's "Stick-Up for Breakfast" Contest, which has given him years of validation in his chosen field as he has since been known as an "award winning" cartoonist. For 25 years he has worked in animation, comics, and illustration.

Eddie began his animation career with Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida, working on Mulan, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000, The Emperor's New Groove and Lilo & Stitch. He made his directing debut with Legends of the Night Sky: Orion, the world's first full dome (360°x 180°) traditionally animated movie, giving planetarium audiences the sensation of being immersed in a cartoon environment.

Most recently, Eddie was a writer and story artist for Disney's hit series, Phineas and Ferb and made the jump into voice acting for Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars. He now has the distinction of being the only cartoonist to play the voice of Darth Vader.

Eddie is also the creator of award winning all-ages webcomic and graphic novel series, Red's Planet, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams Books. He resides in Central Florida with his beautiful wife, his two brilliant daughters and their annoying cat.

Guest Speaker KFOC 2016 - Wiley Miller

Wiley Miller

Wiley Miller has always had one simple goal: "Produce the funniest, best-drawn cartoon possible, regardless of theme, subject matter or setting." Non Sequitur has accomplished that and more: A hit with fans of all ages, the strip is distributed to more than 700 newspapers.

Wiley is the recipient of the Rueben Award, naming him Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society in 2014, the most prestigious prize in cartooning. In addition to that, Non Sequitur has won four National Cartoonists Society divisional awards, and Wiley was the first cartoonist to be presented a divisional award after only one year in syndication. He's the only one ever to win in both the comic strip and comic panel categories.

"Innovation" is a constant in Wiley's approach to cartooning, and his ongoing quest to stretch the medium has been integral to Non Sequitur's success. While the strip's sardonic humor and distinctive art have given Non Sequitur an impassioned following among readers, Wiley's technical innovations have earned admiration from newspaper editors and comics connoisseurs. In addition to developing a unique drawing method that allows the cartoon to be used in either a strip or panel format, Wiley also pioneered a cost-effective way to produce the strip using process color, which gives it a depth and richness of color not seen previously on the comics page.

Wiley studied art at Virginia Commonwealth University and worked for several educational film studios in Los Angeles before joining the Greensboro, N.C., News & Record as staff artist/editorial cartoonist in 1976. After a stint at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat in California, he created his first syndicated strip, Fenton, in 1982. He returned to editorial cartooning three years later, joining the staff of the San Francisco Examiner.

In 1988, Wiley was named Best Editorial Cartoonist by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He won the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for editorial cartooning in 1991.

A native of California, Wiley and his family now live in Georgia.

Behind The Scenes With Ann Telnaes

The Kenosha Festival Of Cartooning is very pleased to be welcoming Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes to come speak next September!

Here is a peak inside the process she uses for her weekly animations for The Washington Post as well as links to a couple of her animated gifs from recent weeks.

We hope you enjoy this preview and will come join us in Kenosha September 15, 16 and 17 of 2016!

 

Link for Warren animation

Link For Tweedledee animation

Guest Speaker KFOC 2016 - Ann Telnaes

Ann Telnaes

Ann Telnaes creates animated editorial cartoons and a blog of print cartoons, animated gifs, and sketches for the Washington Post. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for her print cartoons.

Telnaes’ print work was shown in a solo exhibition at the Great Hall in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in 2004. Her first book, “Humor’s Edge”, was published by Pomegranate Press and the Library of Congress in 2004. A collection of Vice President Cheney cartoons, “Dick”, was self-published by Telnaes and Sara Thaves in 2006. Her work has also been exhibited in Paris, Jerusalem, and Lisbon.

Telnaes attended California Institute of the Arts and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, specializing in character animation. Before beginning her career as an editorial cartoonist, Telnaes worked for several years as a designer for Walt Disney Imagineering. She has also animated and designed for various studios in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Taiwan.

Other awards include: The National Press Foundation’s Berryman Award (2006) – The Maggie Award, Planned Parenthood (2002) – 15th Annual International Dutch Cartoon Festival (2007) – The National Headliner Award (1997) – The Population Institute XVII Global Media Awards (1996) – Sixth Annual Environmental Media Awards (1996)

Her television and radio appearances include: – The Newshour with Jim Lehrer – C-Span – NPR – BBC radio -Sirius XM Radio- The Editors, World Affairs Television, Canada.

Telnaes is a member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, the National Cartoonists Society, The International Women’s Forum (Washington DC affiliate), and the American Newswomen’s Club.

Support Kenosha Festival Of Cartooning 2016!

To those of you who have already made a donation in support of the 2016 Kenosha Festival Of Cartooning - Thank You!! We appreciate it so much!

But we still have a ways to go to fully fund the next fest. As always, donations of ANY amount are appreciated and all monies raised go to to following operational expenses:

• Speaker Fees 
• Speaker Travel
• Speaker Accommodations
• Speaker Meals
• Meet & Greet event catering and venue rental
• Gallery Show Expenses
• Printing Needs
• Marketing & Advertising
• Art Supplies

We will be accepting 3 kinds of donations:

• Tax deductible donation via personal check processed by our fiscal receiver (make check payable to Kenosha Community Foundation, put the festival in the memo line, mail to Kenosha Community Foundation, 600 52nd Street Suite #110, Kenosha WI 53140
• Non tax deductible donation via personal check payable to Kenosha Festival of Cartooning (email us at kenoshacartoonfest@gmail.com for mailing address)
• Non tax deductible donation via the paypal button here on the website (You do not need a Paypal account - you can use a credit card)

 Backer Perks!!

We are no longer using Kickstarter or Indiegogo but we WILL offer a few backer rewards for donations at the following levels:

• $0-$25             Your name in the program book
• $26-$49           Your name in the program book and a signed copy of the program mailed to you
• $50 and up      Your name in the program book and an official 2016 KFOC challenge coin with signature card
• $100 and up    Your name in the program book, the KFOC coin, a signed copy of the program book, a signed 2016 poster
• $500 and up    Your name in the program book, potential sponsorship of a reception (with credit on a poster at the reception) the KFOC coin, signed program, signed poster, possible original cartoon art**

** we are working on acquiring original cartoon art for donations over $500. Details upon request