Strip Search, Episode 48 — Bob Eckstein Talks Museums

Bob Eckstein may, by his own admission, not have especially enjoyed being dragged to museums by his parents as a child. But something changed along the way, which is readily apparent If you take a look at Bob’s new book, “Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums.” It features 155 beautifully painted depictions of more than 75 museums in North America, accompanied by stories that help get to the essence of what makes them so special.

Bob Eckstein

Creating the paintings wasn’t as difficult an undertaking as it sounds, according to Eckstein. “What I did was based on what the museum called for — I simply was the background music to the beautiful museums. And I just kind of tried to lend my skills to what was needed,” Bob says. “But I was very much a secondary person in this whole process, in the sense that the museum itself told me what style I should try to do."

Bob spent about as much time tracking down the fascinating stories behind the museums that he included, several of the best of which he shared in the latest episode of "Strip Search: The Comic Strip Podcast." See highlights from the book, below, and listen or watch to hear our discussion about museums, Bob's painting technique, and (for good measure) some real talk about the future of cartooning and the newspapers that have historically been their home.

And if you want to pick up "Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums" (and why wouldn't you?), Bob recommends your local independent bookstore or, if you live out in the hinterlands with no bookstore in driving distance, bookshop.org. Meanwhile, contact him and tell him you heard him on Strip Search and he'll waive the fee for his paid newsletter. How can you beat that?

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Introducing Strip Search, the cartooning podcast

Hello all! Welcome to Strip Search, a new podcast where we'll be interviewing cartooning professionals and talk comic strips: their history, classic comics, the current state of the industry, and comics to watch out for. If you're a cartoonist or humorous illustrator and want to appear on the podcast with Dave and Pete, email us at petpeevescomic@gmail.com .

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