Berndt Toast Gang Show

The last weekend of September The Lovely Anna and I went to New York in part to attend the opening of an art show of work by the Long Island chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, aka the “Berndt Toast Gang”. The show featured, among many terrific artists, the work of my long time friend Ed Steckley.

Ed is a very talented illustrator and cartoonist, as well as being one of the best live caricaturists I have ever seen… and that’s saying something as I have seen some thousands of them. He does a lot of storyboard work for commercials that you have probably seen on TV, as well as publication work including a piece in MAD some years back. For the show he did six beautifully painted watercolors of classic pin up girls but drawn in his distinctive half caricature/half realistic style. Ed was a manager for me for many years in my Six Flags parks in Missouri and in Massachusetts, and started drawing caricatures for me at Valleyfair in 1992. Ed has a recently revamped website well worth a visit.

Any time we get an excuse to visit NYC we take it… it’s a great place to go.

Here are some pictures from the show:

Me and Ed Steckley

Great crowd at the opening

Some great stuff by Ray Alma

More Ray Alma work

My favorite of Ed’s terrific watercolors

The Lovely Anna and the Goldbergs

The work of John Reiner and Bunny Hoest

Caricaturist Marty Macaluso and Don Ohrek

Close up of Don Orhek’s work

Me, Ray Alma and Ed

Heather and Ed Steckley

Work by legend Stan Goldberg

Another Stan Goldberg piece