As part of a tribute to the late, great* Jerry Robinson, Mike Lynch has scanned in some of his old National Cartoonist Society programs from the ’60s — comic strips in the Madmen era!

BTW, if you only knew Robinson in recent years, he’s a bit hard to recognize in these photos, but that’s him on the left with the glasses.

Much, much more and larger photos in the link.

Special Ops Beat Correspondent Torsten has already been on the floor for NYCC set-up and filed the following report:

12:39:55 This is the main entrance, Hall 3C?  To the left is the escalator to the Anime Festival on the Fourth Floor, which is hidden by scaffolding.  It might be as bad as last year, but worth the trek, as the Fourth Floor Galleria is a nice space.

12:40:45 a similar, closer shot.

12:41:24 to the right of the Twilight banner.  Phineas and Ferb banner for Disney XD

12:42:04 The other show at Javits.  Content & Communications World
It ends tomorrow, which is why the stockyards in Hall 1C won’t be ready for Friday.  Kinda cool… broadcast technologies (bet they have great wi-fi access!) and other techie topics.

12:44:10 Both cars, near the main entrance (near the Javits statue).  Wouldn’t the Goon prefer an SUV?

12:44:40 The back of the Tokidoki Chevy

12:44:58 a close-up of The Goon-mobile.  There’s another graphic on the other side of his cohorts, a big logo on the hood, and tentacles instead of pinstriping

13:05:29 Taken while I was waiting for professional registration to open at 1.  Located at the far southern end of Javits

13:23:11 The other side of the elevators going up to the Fourth Floor.  Hall 3D?

13:23:43 Mega Bloks Halo soldier.   There’s a Spider-Man as well.

As happens from time to time, The Beat has been engaged in an outside project which takes up a significant amount of time normally given over to Beatage. Between that and all the incredible comics events all around every week, it’s literally hard to find time to sleep, let along post fun pictures.

But we’ll keep pooking along. There are so many great events we’ve attended in recent weeks that we meant to post about — like the signing for Cliff Chiang and WONDER WOMAN last weekend at Bergen Street Comics — people had lined up as early as 4:30 and the line went around the block! The Source had a little write-up. That’s Mike Cavallero and Ali Collucio standing in front of some of the art, above.

The week before, there was a great signing for Anders Nilsen and Marc Bell at Desert Island, followed by a party that included more great cartoonists of Brooklyn than we’ve ever seen in one place before. Trevor Alixopulos and Vanessa were also in from the Bay Area.

And the Brooklyn Book Festival was somewhere in there — the humor panel we moderated was SRO (Crowd, above), and the Craig Thompson/Anders Nilsen/Adrian Tomine panel was one of the hottest tickets at the show. Oh yeah, Keith Knight was there — that dude is so smart and funny.

We’re surely forgetting something. Comics are EVERYWHERE this fall. Craig Thompson’s tour has also been drawing crowds — here he is at the Cartoon Art Museum (photo from Todd Allen.) Torsten or Jen is sure to send a report in from ICAF.

Speaking of contributors, our new recruit Bruce is doing some great stuff. How about them tablets, eh?

So much is going on…even though the New 52 and the reaction to the same and the roar of the women in comics seems to have taken over this blog — and several others at times — there’s some kind of zeitgeist-y reason for that. We have a big long essay that we’ll probably never have time to write that would explain everything. If we can steal a few hours…

The other day we reminded ourselves that we live in a world where John Porcellino drew a graphic novel about Thoreau for Disney. That’s a pretty good world.

It’s been a long time since I posted an arty Hipstamatic photo dump — and I know you missed it!

Road trip!

Jeff Smith signs for fans.

All of these people were lined up for Stan Lee.

Steel drum afternoon.

Giant line for the costume contest!

Not even the Jedi could get in.

This guy had BLACK COMIC BOXES. BLACK COMIC BOXES! Where do you get these? WANT.

There were quite a few paramilitary folks threatening small children at the show.

The family that cosplays as the X-Men together, goes to cons together. Not quite sure what was going on here.

Scott Kurtz, Harveys MC.

Jim Starlin, Ted Adams and Paul McSpadden.

Mike Gold accepting his award.

Stan Lee and Mark Waid ham it up.

Bar harbor view.

Not quite sure what happened here, but as reported elsewhere, when no one from DC showed up, the fans in the room had their own rap session. That’s kinda sweet.

Sunday about noon there was still hubbub in the entrance, and people buying tickets.

For me, the best part of convention costumes is watching them mill around together.

Now this would be a great team-up movie!

More small children threatened by authoritarian costumes.

Draining shoes after the storm.

Everyone loved this Galactus.

Road trip in reverse!

Travel crew of Josh Frankel and Ed Catto.

Michael Mann was right, wet pavement makes the best photos. And so to bed.

.

Okay… this is just a photo post.  Not much text or explanation.

Small Press area, via LA Weekly

Slash Film:

Getty:

Obligatory cute animal snapshot

Eloise Mumford (nice specs!)

Adrianne Curry, Imperial commander

Offerings will occur at 10, 12, 2, and 4 PM. Sacrifices at Midnight.

Darkwing Duck and Megavolt

Vanity Fair slideshow

"How hot was it yesterday? I was so hot..."

Hey look, it's... *choke*

UPI

Paid participants? Fraternity prank? Self-help group?

The "One Nation" bus tour makes a stop in San Diego

Way Radd, Norrin!

Photo: courtesy of MAD Magazine

Wow, we’ve linked to some amazing LIFE Magazine photo galleries before, but here is a doozy:MAD Magazine: A Semi-Secret History with photos of MAD founder Bill Gaines from the files of current editor John Ficarra. LIFE made a few images available, but each is accompanied by Ficarra’s commentary on the site with even more history and insight.

Obviously being parodied in MAD was a badge of honor for this ’80s TV cast.

Photo: courtesy of MAD Magazine

Robert De Niro and son visit the offices in the 80s. The gallery includes the Usual Gang of Idiots in the Alps, in France, in Hollywood and around the world…the MAD crew was always living the life. As rumpled and quirky as they appear, the MAD-men were icons of generation after generation of kids and celebrities. You think comics are cool now…but MAD was there long ago.

Photo: courtesy of MAD Magazine

Gaines, a notorious packrat, was the heart and soul of the operation and not without his quirks, as one caption reveals:

“Back then, if you made a long-distance phone call, you had to fill out a little slip of paper that was part of what we called ‘Bill’s Bills Department.’ If it was a business call, no problem. But if it was personal, Bill would come around and collect that 73 cents it cost, or whatever it was. He was obsessive about this. Bill was as crazy and cheap as he was generous and kind. He would complain all day that no one would fess up to a 73-cent call, then because we were working late he would take us out and blow a thousand bucks on dinner. He loved big things,” says Ficarra. “He loved King Kong. He loved zeppelins. You can’t see it in this but the entire ceiling of his office was filled with antique zeppelins. He was a tremendous slob. Such an interesting guy, and one who could really cut through the bull.”

Photos courtesy of MAD Magazine

We couldn’t resist ganking this photo of Sergio Aragones on the ’60s show Laugh-In. Like we said, there’s a lot of history to go around.

Some piccies:

CNI’s Jimmy Aquino and friends at dinner at Merts.

Crazy day of the dead imagery fills the park near the con.

Andy Belanger sketching away at Friday’s Drink ‘n’ Draw

Baltimore ComicCon’s Marc Nathan showed off his well-coiffed infant son.

The show includes an excellent display of contemporary comic strip art.

A piece from the collection.

Also on display, art from the AKIRA animated movie. The live-action one is, sadly, dead for now.

Roy Thomas and Cully Hamner after the Comics Goes Movies panel.

Tommy Lee Edwards‘ two children charmed everyone as Hit-Girl and Kick-Ass.

Teenage Satan’s Stephanie Buscema.

Ninjasaur’s Jason Horn

Rich Tomaso in Indie Island

We totally coveted Farel Dalrymple’s grunge-era yellow sweater.

Terry Moore, Robin Moore and Billy Tucci catch up.

Ryan Sook whose excellent covers will grace the DEADMAN relaunch.

How many comics folks can YOU spot in the barcon revelry that raged on Saturday?

At the end of the evening, attendees at a White Party mingled with the fun. Amazing!

While we were poking around UGO, we came upon this surprisingly lengthy gallery of Hot Black Widow Cosplay. Well maybe not too surprising — all you need is a black catsuit, some wrist thingies, a red wig, and a good figure and you too can fight for SHIELD.

We found this gallery surprisingly addictive for the number of conventions we could recognize via carpet patterns and other landmarks. Oi. Maybe we have been to TOO MANY conventions.

BTW, the Black Widow costume is notable for being simple yet very distinctive. It was designed by John Romita, who, we would guess, has to be a cosplay favorite for his entire portfolio of strong costume designs.

And since we’re rounding up all things Black Widow here, Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige says a Black Widow move is still under consideration:

“There’s no definitive plans, but we have started talking and talking with Scarlett about what a Widow movie could be,” he said. “Internally we’ve also started thinking what a ‘Hawkeye’ movie could be, how we could continue to explore the organization [which Samuel Jackson‘s Nick Fury leads] S.H.I.E.L.D, which has a pretty big part in ‘Thor,’ smaller parts in the two ‘Iron Man’ films and has a giant part in ‘The Avengers.’ [So it’s like], what would a stand-alone “S.H.I.E.L.D.” be like? It all goes back to the comics. Sometimes the answer is—when looking at a certain run of issues— ‘no way’ and sometimes the answer is ‘maybe, let’s continue to explore it’ and certainly with Hawkeye and Black Widow those are two that we’re exploring.”

YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT! Please help with photo IDs!

Drink &Draw like a lady was packed with the women of comics. Amazing!

L-R: TK, Ellen Linder< and Vern & Lettuce’s Sarah McIntyre, leading the contingent from England.

It was packed at Desert Island for the Peter Bagge/Leslie Stein signing. Blurry Nick Gazin and John Keane can be ID’d here.

Fantagraphics ace publicist Jacq Cohen and Leslie Stein flank unknown lady.

Peter Bagge gave Gabrielle Bell a taco! You heard it here first.

L-R, Pascal Girard, Brecht Evens and Joe Ollmann. D&Q brings the nicest cartoonists to America. Girard and Ollmann are from just north of the border. Young Evens, 25, was the life of the party, jumping up and down, picking people up, kissing men and women and generally living it up. European cartoonists kind of sighed, as they are used to his lovable antics, but it was all new to NYC.

OH NO! Our cartooning friends from away learn a harsh lesson — no open containers! $25 tickets were meted out to all those who were holding a beer.

Next day dawned clear and the ornamental crabapple had just begun to bloom.

Just before the panel I moderated on serial non-fiction, this panel on teaching comics with Karen Green, Tom Hart, Bill K., and Jessica Abel wrapped up — wow, I wish I had seen the whole thing. Green showed the famous panel from Popeye of multiple heads and fists and wondered why it was so easy to understand despite the sophistication of the imagery.

My panel — Nick Abadsis, Nick Bertozzi, Sarah Glidden, and Dean Haspiel went well, I thought.

Alex Cox was rocking his kilt. Seth Kushner wishes he had.

Jane Irwin returned after several years away. She said she needed time away to work out the bumps in her story.

Marianne R. Petit at the ICP booth — they are doing some amazing cutting edge things there.

More of those things!

Authentic Scotsman Simon Frazier was also rocking the kilt. I hear several pictures were taken of the two kilt-wearers were taken; alas, I did not get one. I did, however, remind them that there is a genre of romance/fantasy called the “kiltlifter.”

Over from England, Daryl Cunningham, author of Psychiatric Tales. He says a collection of his various investigative debunking comics is in the works.

Nathan Schreiber and Chris Sinderson

Nick Bertozzi and daughter Sabina. After several years lying low, Bertozzi promises to be more on the scene. He’s currently working on a comic about Ernest Shackleton that has been called one of the most accurate portrayals of that great adventurer yet.

At a show that included lots of very young cartoonists, crammed three to a table, it was hard to stand out, but these fellows, from Carleton College, had discovered a way — a banner!

As you can see in this side view — the banner requires very erect posture.

Beat intern/illustrator Maggie Siegel-Berele and her table mates.

On Sunday programming director Brian Heater caught up with Alex Cox, now dressed like a Rebel soldier.

First Second’s Gina Gagliano and Mark Siegel.

SVA’s Keith Mayerson and cartoonist/teacher/editor Matt Madden.

Stephen de Stefano and Ted Stearn, two of the most talented people you will ever meet.

These very nice folks had incredible stone lithographs of art by Charles Burns, Kim Dietch and others. As soon as we find their card we’ll plug their name.

Meeting of the minds at MoCCA: Anne Bernstein, Emily Flake, Tom Hart and Alex Cox again.

Pizza Islanders.

This is ALL that D&Q had left of their stock at the end of the show. Talk about good planning.

After the show Sunday, artist Sean Pryor relaxes with his incredible hair.

Just sayin’.

If there’s one thing comics bloggers love, it’s those old B&W photos from Life Magazine showing kids reading comics – proof of a simpler time when children read things, bananas were a vegetable and your real father dropped off a bottle of milk at your mom’s house every day. Well, recently on the LA Times Southern California Moments feature of reader-submitted photos, we came across what looks to be a contemporary example of the genre:

CAPTION: Two young boys, clearly aware that life exists beyond Gameboy, entertain themselves the old-fashioned way. Newstand at Beverly Blvd and Kings Road.

This classic subject has been updated with Crocs and soccer jerseys for modern kick — while the kid on the right might be reading an issue of Vogue, the one on the left looks to have a real comic book.

Based on this 1972 photo of cartoonist Rick Veitch (Brat Pack, Army @ Love) you’ve got to wonder who stole whose look.

We totally forgot about this photo from 2008 NYCC. It was taken by Vaneta Rogers, but the original is gone.

So useful!

Raina Telgemeier has had a busy year promoting her graphic novel SMILE — which was just picked as an Honor Book for the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. She shares some of her photos, including stops in Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Toronto, and Queens. Here’s Telegemier at the Dumbo Arts Festival just a week ago.

Spotted in Berlin. Context unknown.

Thanks to Jah Furry for the share.