Cartoon by Dan Collins.
Dan Collins is an American syndicated cartoonist and commercial artist from Ohio. His illustrations, cartoons and comic strips have appeared in magazines, newspapers and advertisements throughout the USA since 1976. Although he is mainly a gag cartoonist, he has also made regular features like the superhero parody 'Captain Hard-On' for Hustler Magazine and the offbeat comic strip 'Looks Good On Paper' (2015) for Universal Uclick. He is also known as Mark O'Collin.
Early life and education
Daniel Collins was born in 1954 in Canton, Ohio, and later moved to Orrville, Ohio. An avid doodler since childhood, Collins published his first cartoons in Lantern, the paper of the Ohio State University. He broke off his studies at both the Ohio University (after two years) and the Columbus College of Art and Design (after one year) to become a full time cartoonist. Among his main graphic influences are Ronald Searle, Robert Crumb, Sam Gross, Al Capp and Charles Schulz among his major influences. Fascinated with the underground comix movement, Collins tried to publish some of his own comics, but to no avail.
'Captain Hard-On'.
Hustler & Captain Hard-On
Collins' professional career took off in 1976, when the 22-year old cartoonist joined the pornographic men's monthly Hustler, founded by Larry Flynt. He not only provided gag cartoons to the magazine, but also the comics feature 'Captain Hard-On'. A sex parody of the superhero genre, and Marvel Comics in particular, Collins directly spoofed Jack Kirby's work. Captain Hard-On is the secret identity of the dedicated gynaecologist Miles Long, who acts as "champion of the sexually repressed" after getting an erection. The captain fights several villains who "rob us of our identities and bend our libidos to their will", carrying revealing names such as Dr Poontang, The Sperminator, Clonus D. Boner, the Creature from the Pink Lagoon and the Glob. The comic ran for about 20 five-page episodes, and was collected in comic book format by Fantagraphics in 2006.
Editorial cartoon for the Delaware Gazette (1999).
Magazine and newspaper work
In addition to Hustler, several other magazines have printed Collins' cartoons, among them Boys' Life, National Lampoon and the Saturday Evening Post. His work was also picked up by newspapers. Between 1996 and 2004 Collins was the editorial cartoonist for the Delaware Gazette of Delaware, Ohio. During his tenure he received 10 First Place awards for editorial cartooning and illustration cartoons from the Associated Press Society of Ohio.
Cartoon from 23 May 2015.
Looks Good On Paper
Since 2015 Collins has syndicated both his older and his new cartoons and comic strips through Universal Uclick. His comic strip/cartoon feature 'Looks Good On Paper' was launched on Uclick's Gocomics.com on 13 April 2015. This idiosyncratic cartoons series is populated by biker cat gangs, frogs who eat out, basketball-playing eyeballs, Amish versions of the 'Star Wars' character Yoda and other weird characters from Collins' unique imagination.
Commercial art
Dan Collins has made cartoons for other outlets, often using the name Mark O'Collin for his more commercial work. He develops cartoons, illustrations and infographics for newspapers and magazines, but also for corporations, who use his artwork for their social media marketing, company blogs, advertising, infographics and corporate promotions. Another important part of his output are the many greetings cards he has drawn for American Greetings, Nobleworks, Marian Heath, Recycled Paper Greetings, John Sands Greetings and many more companies. Despite the various different purposes, his art maintains its singular style of humor.
Comic strip for the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company.
Cartoon collections
Dan Collins' cartoons have been featured in cartoon collections such as 'Moms, Moms, Moms' (HarperCollins, 1991), 'Lawyers, Lawyers, Lawyers' (Contemporary Books, 1995), '100 Greatest Cartoons of the Century' and 'National Lampoon's Favorite Cartoons of the 21st Century' (2006) and several of the Andrews McMeel 'Cat Cartoon-A-Day' calendars. He has released eBooks with cartoons from his archives under the title 'Cartoons That Will Send Me Straight To Hell' since 2011, as well as the 'Looks Good On Paper' collection 'My Cartoonist Is Not Funny' (2019).
'Looks Good On Paper'.