Bob Eckstein's Open Salon Blog

For the Old Gang

Mon, 7 May 2012 14:05:03 -0400

I used to do cartoons for Open Salon and the most popular posts were the caption contests we had. Over a hundred Open Saloners would provide funny captions and big laughs. Well, for those who miss those days, I did for this week's caption contest for the New Yorker magazine. To participate for old time's sake here it is.

Hope everyone is well!

Sincerely, Bob

Happy April Fool's Day

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:03:06 -0400

My Visit Back to Open Salon Land

Tue, 31 May 2011 21:05:44 -0400

It's been a long time since I've been back to the old neighborhood, Open Salon, and I thought it would be nice to just revisit and share where I've been. At the risk of sounding like a braggart I will share what I think is a sweet success story from a site which I'm grateful to.

The beginning of my new career in cartooning coincided with the beginning of the birth of Open Salon. With the encouragement of the then editor, Kerry Lauerman, I used Open Salon as my drawing board. Kerry understood the value of visuals, any visuals, to attracting eyeballs and was posting people based on their potential to attract readers. As a result, I was enjoying a forum again after an absence from newspapers. This was tremendously generous and instrumental to my success now. I learned from the feedback and reactions of OSers readers. My craving for attention on OS developed my disclipline and I tried harder and harder to entertain the readers. I recently wrote Mr. Lauerman to personally thank him in his role in my receiving a nomination as 2011 Gag Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonist Society. I just returned from their award reception in Boston–I lost.

The highlight of my time on Open Salon were the cartoon caption contests. Hundreds of readers submitted their best punchlines to politically charged drawings at a time when every corner of OS was alive with the prospect of change and political involvement. It's not the same, but for old time's sake, for those who go back with me to those old days, my drawing is this week's cartoon caption contest in the new New Yorker.

Today, I'm a regular for The New Yorker, Reade's Digest, Barron's, Wall Street Journal and others including the top publications in England like The Prospect, Spectator, The Oldie, Private Eye, etc. My written humor pieces now appear elsewhere, too, the most recent a feature about my midlife crisis published in The New York Times.

My reasons for leaving were both real and petty. 99% of my time here was joy. But the 1% downfall soured the experience. Many of my new friends (Ex., Liz Emrich) had left due to increasing hositilities between writers. My relationships got more intense and I started meeting some OSers in person while my pieces tha were bumped onto Salon's home page would garner death threats and racist slurs. I was spending way too much time on OS and got obsessive. I began work on a movie based on my book (which was supported very well here by my OS friends) but I was still spending way too much time on Open Salon that should have been spent on that project.

Then the new editors came in and they never choose my work as an EP and I stopped getting any covers–you have to watch what you wish for. At first I welcomed it as I was feeling like teacher's pet before. Months later my ego got the best of me and I pouted...I felt the new editors were ignoring my wonderfulness. But what really got me to pack my bags was the unfortunate invasion of spammers and the technical problems which followed.

Many dear friends I made on Open Salon I not only still keep in touch with but I work with as contributors for an online humor magazine I run called the Basement. Some of those still here include the very talented Gary Justis and Con Chapman.

So that's my story. To those who remember me, I hope you are well. To those who don't...hello, it's nice to meet you.

Happy Holidays from Big Bob's Tattoo Studio

Wed, 8 Dec 2010 13:12:15 -0500

At this special holiday season,
one filled with goodwill and cheer.

Thoughts turn gratefully to those
who have supported me thru the year.

If only there were more like you,
I wouldn't be changing careers.

And my drawings would still be in magazines,
instead of on strange people's rears.

The New Big Bob's Tattoo Studio

Wishes You a Healthy, Happy Holidays!

_{(Thanks to all my talented OS friends, Merry Christmas! –Bob)}

Open Saloners in My Basement

Mon, 8 Nov 2010 20:11:34 -0500

This post is for you old school Open Saloners still here, who vaguely remember my name and some of the other oldtimers who made up a very different Open Salon back in the day. Well, I want to invite you to a new magazine called The Basement I started, the first humor site featuring multimedia material–cartoons, prose, videos, audio, animation and song–produced by an elite group of artists and humorists including New Yorker cartoonists, acclaimed writers and award-winning film-makers.

It's free and you'll see many of your Open Salon favorites there. If you happen to appreciate the likes of Gary Justis, Liza Donnelly, Con Chapman, Meg Pokrass and other Open Salon veterans, please pay a visit. Soon there will be a feature called Open Dream Diary where viewers can share their dreams and next week should be a tribute to George Carlin by artist Flash Rosenberg.

Let me know if you want to submit work yourself (Sorry if for whatever reason the invite didn't turn up on your desk–many I invited I didn't hear back from.). We're getting 200,000+ eyeballs a month. Pay is ad trade at moment but will include a slice in near future. Contact me at snowmanexpert@pipeline.com

Thanks.