Back in my younger days, I spent a day in a cartooning seminar with Mell. He was a blast to be around. Glad to see he’s still around - his strip disappeared from my paper years ago.

There, see! There IS a cartoonist actually writing on “Simpsons” and “Futurama”.

I want that piano. Most of the drawings are by print cartoonists but I noticed a few from animation artists. Tony Bancroft, Mark O’Hare, and David Silverman in particular.

Thanks. That was funny. I work with a lot of people in the animation industry who are great artists but very boring.

Very funny. The “Draw a Monkey” one on Tom’s site is really funny too.

Tom was a writer on Saturday Night Live, and Late Night With David Letterman. The man knows what he’s doing.

I feel silly now for going ‘oh my gosh, really Segar and Milt Gross WOAH THAT’S INCREDIBLE!!” and then finding out it was a joke.

That was great!

I went to a CAPS art auction at Mell’s house 5 or 6 years ago. Sergio Aragonés was the auctioneer, and the place was full of convivial cartoonists and animators. Mell was a very affable host, and I got to see the piano up close. I think I even planted my spent Juicy-Fruit underneath the thing when no one was looking. Thanks for the glimpse back inside, and thanks for some smiles.

One of my drawings is on Mell’s piano; it’s a shot of Fred Flintstone tickling the ivories carved into a woolly mammoth’s tusk. I probably (unintentionally) knocked a couple thousand bucks off the worth of the musical artifact just by adding my shitty gag.

I guess every Futurama and Simpsons writer wants to be the next Conan O’Brien.

Mell Lazarus has been around professionally at least since the late forties, when he apprenticed on Shmoo Comics at Toby Press. He’s old enough to have met and/or known most Golden Age greats. I’ll bet he wishes he’d thought of the illustrated piano even earlier, resulting in fewer Foxtrot and Dilbert drawings, (and perhaps more by long-gone giants like Walt Kelly and Freddie Moore.)

Mike,

What’s wrong with “FoxTrot”? I think it’s actually a pretty well-drawn strip.

Alot of people seem to think “FoxTrot” is a badly drawn strip, but those people tend to take it for granted. Even though it seems minimal it’s actually pretty detailed, especially during the 1990s. He always included little things in the backgrounds that makes it worth reading.

I’m admittingly biased. I loved FoxTrot as a kid (and still do) and I used to try copying the strip’s art style. Never got the hang of it, so I gave up. The strip’s style is surprisingly difficult to imitate.

I have nothing to say regarding Scott Adams other than that he got “Pearls Before Swine” published. For that he’s an okay guy.

That was fun - do it again!

I know that was a gag, but I’m still disturbed that he broke that!

Without the drawings that white piano stanks of Elton John and Liberace.
Disturbing……

But the peak into history was very cool!