Born Oscar Robert Blechman in Brooklyn, NY, in 1930, young Blechman attained early success shortly after attending Oberlin College, when his illustrated Christmas story The Juggler of Our Lady became a hit in 1953. It was turned into an animated film in 1958, and the original book was reissued in 1997. It is now considered a classic and a progenitor of today’s thriving art form of graphic novels. An anthology of Blechman’s graphic stories titled Talking Lines was issued by the esteemed comics and graphic novels publisher Drawn & Quarterly in 2009.
Blechman opened a design studio in 1960, followed by The Ink Tank animation studio in 1977. Projects he directed spawned creative collaborations with eminent peers, such as children’s book author-illustrator Maurice Sendak and Push Pin design studio alumni Seymour Chwast and James McMullan. His diverse client list, which includes IBM, General Motors, Burger King, McDonalds, Johnson & Johnson, Hallmark, Sony, Perrier, the Smithsonian, and MTV, demonstrates just how widespread Blechman’s impact on American visual culture and commerce has been.
Blechman, who has been publishing cartoons and illustrations for the thinking man or woman since 1949, has always imbued his seemingly gentle cartoons with poignant social commentary, from race relations in 1958 and the Vietnam War in the 1960s to intolerance and disenfranchisement today. These have appeared in Humbug, The Village Voice, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Story, The Nation,and Huffington Post.
R.O. Blechman has been appointed to the Art Directors Hall of Fame and the New York Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, and was honored with the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Cartoonists Society. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) curated a retrospective of The Ink Tank’s accomplishments in 2003.
(written by Jaleen Grove)
Author: Jaleen Grove
| MGHL Dowd Modern Graphic History Library
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