Etch-A-Sketch Memorial

Bearman-Cartoon-André-Cassagnes-Etch-A-Sketch

Etch-A-Sketch inventor Andre’ Cassagnes passed away last month.   I never could get that damn thing to work well.

Comments

94 responses to “Etch-A-Sketch Memorial”

  1. Comedy Plus Avatar

    I couldn’t either, but I had one and I played with it a lot. Way fun.

    Have a terrific day. ☺

    1. Bearman Avatar

      I could draw something horrible very fast on that thing

  2. duncanr Avatar

    I shouldn’t laugh

    No, really, I shouldn’t !

    This is sad, sad news

    But . . . .

    Love the humor, Bearman !

    😆

    1. Bearman Avatar

      I hope Andre’ would approve

      1. Tony McGurk Avatar

        I’m sure he would.

  3. ltpen315,barb Avatar
    ltpen315,barb

    Wouldn’t it be nice if life worked that way?

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Sometimes I would like a doover under my own control

  4. ltpen315,barb Avatar
    ltpen315,barb

    I loved my Etch-a-Sketch!! Just was not very good with it!

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Most of us were not

  5. DrFaust Avatar

    my 80’s childhood simply wouldn’t have been the same without my etch-o-sketch.

    PS: great cartoon 🙂

    1. Bearman Avatar

      I don’t think I even had one. But most of my friends did so I got my time in.

  6. Sam Avatar

    That was in bad taste. 🙁 But I couldn’t play with an etch a sketch.. I found it too hard…

    1. Bearman Avatar

      sorry it offended you. I was going for more from the aspect of a child’s mind.

      1. Gray Dawster Avatar

        Maybe that is why I enjoyed this
        cartoon so much 🙂 Well my drawings
        are always childlike everyone knows
        that :)Of course your artistry is
        always top notch 🙂

        1. Bearman Avatar

          No my artistry is bottom notch but I write a decent gag once in a while that saves me

  7. Mark Stokes Avatar

    Start all over with a clean slate.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Wouldn’t it be nice.

  8. Michael Corley Avatar

    Shhhhk. Shhhhhk. Shhhhhhhk!

    1. Bearman Avatar

      haha it took me a second to figure out what you were saying.

  9. George Avatar

    As akid who kinda knew how to draw, Etch-A-Sketch only served to vex, confuse, and confound me. I hated it and never owned one. If I’m not mistaken, I believe I tried to break every one of them I ever encountered. 🙂

    1. Bearman Avatar

      You were a spaz kid weren’t you

      1. George Avatar

        I was. Even that electronic Simon Says game drove me crazy along with Operation. It wasn’t until I was a pre-teen that I developed strong hand-eye coordination. 😀

        1. Bearman Avatar

          accck…I don’t want to know how you developed it.

  10. Deb Avatar

    I had one of those as a child, but never could work to make anything special.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      You don’t run across many etch-a-sketch artists

      1. Binky Avatar

        I’ve seen some fantastic images on some of them. Assuming they weren’t faked.

        1. Bearman Avatar

          Can you imagine after 2 hours and someone bumps your table.

          1. Binky Avatar

            That’s what your siblings are for.

  11. Tony McGurk Avatar

    Hilarious comic. From other people’s comments about not being able to draw with an etch a sketch very well I am able to draw comfort. Mine only served to frustrate & annoy.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Which is the brilliance of it. It was an early form of gamification

  12. Gray Dawster Avatar

    You have to shake it for twenty minutes for the best results but then again it helps if you are genius 🙂 I was always brilliant on those 🙂 lmao

    1. Bearman Avatar

      There’s a challenge. Photos of your best work.

      1. Binky Avatar

        Presumably you mean of the etch-a-sketch.

  13. lisleman Avatar

    Thanks for the update. I turned mine into a political campaign speech reader.

  14. The Code Crimson Avatar

    I loved them so very much! Used to love drawing across the whole thing so you could see inside. It was like a window to another world! I think I may still have one floating around.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      I would try intricate patterns but would get bored of that after about 5 minutes and shake it up

  15. Binky Avatar

    It was a rather frustrating thing to try to make anything decent on it. It was still fun, though.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Anyone that could draw a circle on that was a genius in my book

  16. jb Avatar

    I never could rememeber the knobbs.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      they were left and right

      1. Red Dwyer Avatar

        And turned left and right, too.

        1. Binky Avatar

          Mine turned round and round.

  17. frigginloon Avatar

    Etch-a-sketch was the torment of my childhood.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      I thought it was your wild hair

      1. Binky Avatar

        Loon had a childhood?

        1. Bearman Avatar

          She farted into adulthood

  18. Valentine Logar Avatar

    Oh, oh my. I am trying not to giggle at this solemn occasion…but no there it goes. Did anyone notice?

      1. Red Dwyer Avatar

        No, they did not. They were busy whispering about me rolling in the aisle.

        1. Bearman Avatar

          The bride is trying to get through

  19. G.B. Miller Avatar

    About the only thing I could do with an Etch-A-Sketch was to draw straight lines and draw squigggly lines.

    In any event, a tastefully funny cartoon you got there.

  20. spilledinkguy Avatar

    I remember how frustrated I was that I couldn’t ‘end’ a line without running it off to an edge.
    Like that was my biggest problem.
    🙂

    1. Bearman Avatar

      They should have had one with a finger eraser

  21. Red Dwyer Avatar

    Love it. Love Etch-A-Sketch. Bought one to vex my children. They had no clue how I could draw skylines. I was better at ovals than circles, but then again, I cannot draw a circle with a pencil…

    Once again, you are being delivered to my spam folder. le sigh.

    1. Red Dwyer Avatar

      Any clue why your Pinterest button does not pull the featured image?

      1. Bearman Avatar

        No. Was wondering that myself.

    2. Bearman Avatar

      Well I’m not sure. Don’t send more than 40 emails in a batch

  22. planetross Avatar
    planetross

    Classic!
    I really like this one.

  23. soma Mukherjee Avatar

    Lol you are a genius..love you wit n humour , sorry couldnt control a chuckle ..this is so funny

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Why would I want to control your chuckles. haha

  24. Gruhn Avatar

    He was the Steve Jobs of his generation.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      He could have made a fortune if he didn’t sell the company

  25. Japanese Ghost Avatar

    The Etch a Sketch always reminded me what kind of artist I wasn’t 🙂

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Always reminded me of the kind of artist I was…sloppy

  26. Bo Lumpkim Avatar

    When I was a kid we used to just have to sketch images in the dirt.

    Great comic though.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      There was dirt back then?

      1. Bo LUMPKIN Avatar

        It was fresh dirt.

  27. Miss R Avatar

    Hahahaha. So funny Bearman. Amazing artwork. Nothing offensive at all; and so consistent with what a kid would say. Or myself.
    Last line reminds me of the Hokey Pokey..

    You put your left withered leg in
    you take your right chest-spreaders out
    you drain out all of your formaldehyde
    and shake it all about…

    and start all over again!

    ta-da

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Etch a Sketch and the Hokey Pokey guy should have done a duet.

  28. Justin Avatar

    Hilarious! That was brilliant. I bet Andre’ Cassagnes would be proud~

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Thanks Justin

  29. Sarah Avatar

    Put me on the list of kids that LOVED the etchisketch. When I was little, I could actually *feel* the parts of my brain working. Going up and down, left and right was easy, but to make your hands move to make those diagonal lines was a real brain feat. I got a real kick out of that toy.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      The elusive diagonal line. Many tried…few mastered

  30. jynksie Avatar
    jynksie

    It was my favorite toy! Used to draw landscapes with it.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Only cuz rectangles are easy.

  31. JerryBenedict Avatar

    Etch An Immortal!

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Only if you Bronze it.

  32. Chris K Avatar

    It was never easy to draw those tricky diagonal lines.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Now that I work digitally it still isn’t

  33. Nate Fakes Avatar

    I guess he didn’t etch out that concept.

    1. Bearman Avatar

      His plan was etchy

  34. Jande Avatar

    Well, I just laughed out loud at this one, Bearman! Well done! ♥

    I think I was somewhere in the middle because I both loved it and hated it. The OCD part of me spent a lot of time trying to force the little bugger to make circles and curved lines, not to mention diagonals. I’m pretty sure I threw one against the wall in frustration. Aluminum powder everywhere!

    I think that in many ways it was the precursor to the iPad. Steve Jobs must have had one and thought, “What a piece of cheap crap this is, I can do MUCH better!” (and he could, too!)

    1. Bearman Avatar

      Actually my favorite more than the etch-a-sketch was that plastic you drew on and it created art from the black stuff behind it. Then you could life the plastic and start all over.

      1. Jande Avatar

        omg! I’d totally forgotten that one. I think I wore holes in it, I used ot so much. lol

  35. Rent textbooks Avatar

    Aww, if only it were that easy.

  36. Lynn Avatar

    I had not heard he passed away recenty. Funny story: Our organization recently donated etch-a-sketches to a northern Thai tribal village through a toy donation. The kids loved it! when we started our mobile iPad Education Initiative (eMobile)the kids surprised us by turning their iPad upside down in order to erase what they had done. Hilarious and beautiful! 🙂

    1. Bearman Avatar

      There should be an etch a sketch app for the ipad. Cute story

  37. Lynn Avatar

    Recently the CRProject donated etch-a-sketches to a remote northern Thai Lahu village. They loved them! When we started our iPad english language initiative we were amused to find the students would turn their iPads upside down in order to erase what they’d done. It’s a difficult concept for village kids going from etch-a-sketch to iPad. 🙂