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Jack's Current Teaching Schedule at the John C. Campbell Folk School

Jack’s scheduled John C. Campbell Folk School classes are as follows:

• Caricature, the Art of Cartoon Portraits: August 27-29, 2010 (weekend classes)

• Basic Cartooning and More: March 14-20, 2010

• Cartooning for Kids at the John C. Campbell Little/Middle Summer School Program: June 20-26, 2010 (see catalog or www.folkschool.org )

Watch for additional classes and dates to be announced...

An enthusiastic group completes the weekend Cartoon Portrait Class in December.

Three talented and fun loving students successfully completed the fast and furious basic caricaturing class with Jack at the John c. Campbell Folkschool in December.

Their final exhibit brought many pre-holiday smiles to all Folk School students. Pictured left to right are Cartoon Portrait Class Graduates Sherry, Theresa, and Ted.

Southeastern Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society Meet in Asheville

Jack attended the annual Southeastern Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society meeting in Asheville, NC, in late September. After the business meeting, the chapter was entertained by three cartoonists of Mad Magazine fame. Humorous Illustrator Jack Davis, writer and cartoonist Duck Edwing and editor and cartoonist Nick Meglin all shared their "Confessions of Mad Artists" with the group.

While in Asheville, Jack and a handful of his cartoonist colleagues and friends visited and entertained the patients at the Asheville VA Medical Center. They delighted the patients with stories, funny presentations and cartoon portraits of the Vets.

"Caricature, the Art of Cartoon Portraits" Class Graduates with an Exhibit

Ten of eleven aspiring caricaturists happily finished Jack's week long cartooning class at the beautiful J.C.Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. Their popular final exhibit highlighted moments from the various unique classes being taught at the Folk School that week. For upcoming classes, see Jack's teaching schedule here.

ToonMaker.com Receives Award

Jack Cassady’s ToonMaker.com website recently received a 2008 Apex award for electronic publication excellence. The North American competition recognizes excellence in publications work by professional communicators.

Cassady worked closely on the project with his friend and webmaster Bob DeLong of AMS Web Services.

Cartoonist Goes To The Dogs (and Cats)

Jack Cassady raised $4025.00 Dog Dollars ($575.00 US) for the Cherokee County Animal Shelter and Humane Society. He spent a recent Friday evening at the Daily Grind Coffee and Wine House in Murphy, NC drawing cartoon portraits of people and pets for donations to the VRHS. Jack also auctioned off the original cartoon art used in advertising the event.

One of Jack’s models commented, “woof, woof, grrr, bark”...

Funny Business, the Art in Cartooning DVD's Now Available!

Your chance to order a copy of any of Jack's "Funny Business, the Art in Cartooning" TV shows.

Click here for more info 

A Kind Word by Cartoonist Scott Adams of “Dilbert” fame.

Scott Adams’ comic strip “Dilbert” appears daily in hundreds of newspapers world wide. His characters have also appeared in many books and motivational materials and are licensed for many uses. Dilbert has become a favorite of workers in the Corporate World. Scotts’ Dilbert also has a strong Internet presence. It was to his Internet fans that this letter was written.

Read Scott's letter here.

Tribute to unsung heroes of the funny business of cartooning.

In professional cartooning there are several ways for a cartoonist to come up with ideas. The first is to generate all of his/her ideas alone. Next, the cartoonist may exclusively use ideas generated by professional humor writers. Finally, the most common method used by active cartoonists is to generate their own ideas about half the time and to use gags submitted by professional writers the other half. While writers are compensated for the ideas a cartoonist sells, they rarely receive recognition for their creative products. They are truly unsung heroes of the funny business of professional cartooning.

Some of the talented writers Jack has worked with over the years include: Rex May, Lloyd Byers, Harald Bakken, Rex Stein, Coke Ellington, Norb Otto and others.

Comics Conventions

Each year throughout the U.S. a series of ComicCons appear in many different cities.  These Conventions usually celebrate Comics and Cartoon Art.  Visitors will find many booths displaying collections, original cartoon art and a wide array of other interesting subjects. Most ComicCons are family friendly and make for fun and informative outings.