Comics about Cartoonists: Stories about the World's Oddest Profession #[nn]

In "Scribbly Meets the Editor!!!", cartoonist Ving Parker’s quiet afternoon is interrupted when his boss, Mr. Barlowe, drops by and stumbles upon Scribbly’s comic strip "Why Big Brothers Leave Home." Taken aback by its sharp humor and surprising depth, Barlowe insists on seeing more — and suddenly, Ving’s basement studio feels a lot smaller.

In "Was His Face Red!!!", young cartoonist Scribbly nervously waits to catch a live radio broadcast of the Eddie Cantor show, where child stars Bobby Breen and Deanna Durbin are performing. After striking up a casual chat with two kids in the lobby—only to boast about being a cartoonist—he’s stunned to learn, moments later, that the very same kids were the famous performers he’d just been talking to.

In "Gettin' Up in th' World!", Jo finds himself unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight at the Cartoonist's Dinner, a raucous event broadcast live on the radio. When he’s announced as the next speaker, his nerves kick in—especially with Ving Parker watching from the front row.

In "null," Scribbly is dragged to the movies by his kid brother, who quickly grows uneasy after seeing something on screen—so much so that he insists on leaving. The moment hangs in the air, charged with quiet dread, as Scribbly tries to figure out what could have unsettled his little brother so deeply.

Ray Alexander delivers his latest comic strip, "Dimension," only to have his editor praise its sci-fi flair while rejecting it—citing a public hunger for horror. Left unsettled, Ray begins to wonder if the line between his art and the real world is thinner than he thought.

In "null," the cartoonist Kurtzman character stumbles upon a newspaper headline that spirals into a chain of absurd, nested parodies—each creator mocking the next in a recursive joke that traces back to Shmondie, Shick Shmacy, and beyond, all rooted in the strange, self-referential world of comic strip satire.

In "The Peculiar Pacifier," Doc Gimmick unleashes his latest invention—a device that turns anyone who inhales its gas into a peaceable soul—on a visiting cop, proving its power in a moment of high-stakes mischief. Meanwhile, the cartoonist behind the once-beloved Louie the Lout strip faces a crisis when his editor demands he make his character more repulsive, triggering a nationwide backlash that cancels the comic.

In "Tale of Terror," a comic book editor is drawn into a chilling bargain when Satan himself pitches a story—only to find the creative team haunted by demons demanding the printing plates be destroyed. As the line between art and nightmare blurs, the studio becomes a battleground where ink and infernal forces collide.

In "My World," a lone creator recounts the boundless power of imagination—shaping entire realities with a single line, weaving together alien worlds and human lives, triumphs and tragedies, all drawn in the precise, dynamic style of Wally Wood. The story unfolds as both a meditation on artistic control and a quiet revelation about who’s holding the pen.