We had a book signing of ‘The Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 2010’ at Barnes and Noble in Orlando at the Colonial Plaza. Myself and Dana Summers, editorial cartoonist for the Orlando Sentinel, first had a cartoon talk about the business. Below are photos from the event. Many thanks to old friend Richard Scott for taking many of these photos.

Here I am talking about something of other.

Here’s Dana!

Here’s me and my old friend who I went through grade school with, Richard Scott.

The towering Mitchell brothers, fellow cartoonist Dave and Gary, over the diminutive me.

My old buddy and gag writer, Ken Culotta joined us and signed books, too. Here he speaks to Dana and Dana’s friend Michael Bell.

Dana signs the book by drawing a tall Obama.

Fellow cartoonist/ comic book artist, Orlando Pagan, stopped by.

Dana passes along advice to a fellow. Robert Baurle came by. Robert, Ken and I often get together and discuss politics and joke around. Robert is brilliant about the geo-political world and is planning to start blogging about it. I look forward to his writings and his thoughts!

Here’s a group shot of us who care about politics!: Dana Summers, Ken Culotta, myself and Robert Baurle.

Above are the last 9 books I read through November and December. I went to simpler fiction to get to the 52 number. Quite different from the start of the year where the bulk of my reading was non-fiction. I’m aiming for 55 in 2010. Let’s see if I can make it.

I love Charles Geer’s artwork. I first saw it in elementary school and love to now find his illustrated books. This is one I found today. Above is the cover to ‘Open Throttle’, a collection of railroad stories for children. It has just a handful of his wonderful illustrations inside.

Below is a very large caricature I delivered today.

Here’s some art from a few books I picked up. Above is from the old ChildCraft series. This inside the cover of Volume 14- Science and Industry. Below is uncredited art from ‘The Case of the Fugitive Nurse’ by Earle Stanley Gardner. Beside that is Robert McGinnis art from ‘The Seven Sirens’ by Carter Brown.

I met with author John Scolaro, who passed on to me his new book that I illustrated. Above John stands holding the books in front of a major character in the book, The Waffle House.

More books about the Miami area.

Knights of the Fourth Estate

Very well written story of The Miami Herald. Smiley covers the beginnings of The Herald in the early 1900s to the early 60s. The profiles are very well done of staff and owners. Better still are the various stories behind the stories throughout. This book is out of print.

The Hell with Politics

Very good set of stories of Jane Wood Reno, mother of former US Attorney General Janet Reno, amongst other successful children. It’s obvious, though, in this set of nearly disjointed stories that Janet, or Janny Baby, was Jane Wood Reno’s very favorite. Oddly a real fleshing out of her relationship with her children is not included. Jane Wood Reno could be considered a more modern day pioneer in south Florida as she blazed trails in journalism, interaction with the Seminole and Miccosukee indian tribes, etc. The writing of her experience in the disastrous 1926 hurricane is particularly interesting and haunting. The last chapter is a short biography of her life. The author to this is not mentioned, but would assume it’s her grandson and editor of the book. Not just the lack of this credit, but placing dates on the essays included are missing, making it difficult to associate the stories and their place in time. Otherwise well written and lots of south Florida history!

The Executioner – Miami Massacre

Though you would think this book is of pretty predictable stuff, it’s not. A whole other element comes in and becomes a solid part of the adventure of Mack Bolan wiping out the mob at an electric pace. Pendleton really did a good job pacing a story and creating characters. Though, rather forgettable characters and most who don’t survive the story. Thus making the character creation a practical effort that still gives way to not knowing who lives and dies. As always, an exciting time with Mr. Bolan. By the way, on the Miami side, Pendleton did more than a cursory glance to the area. He even mentions the well known Crime Commission effort by Dade County. Though that really was more in force in the ’50s. Also, adding an element to the story that well illustrates a current mood at the time of the late ’60s of a certain people in Dade County. Compared to others, Pendelton does a very nice job of getting a sense of place and being rather accurate.

Two more Florida based mysteries read. One of Mignon Eberhart’s Tampa Bay novels and a later Miami-based Mike Shayne mystery. Eberhart writes of a fictious Florida County on the east coast with a pretty good understanding of the area. The Shayne novel is after the actual series by Dave Dresser. This one stays pretty true to the original series, just with curse words. I veered into one of Vince Flynn’s latest, ‘Protect and Defend’. Another good thriller.