Biography: George Herriman

Capsule biography from Martin Sheridan's book,
"Comics and their Creators" (1942)
Here is a treat. Buried in the stacks of Cartoons Magazines that Marc Schirmeister loaned us to digitize, I found a a great article on George Herriman from June of 1917...







Enjoy!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Comics: JoJo Shares His Treasures

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Every year at Comic-Con, Assistant Archivist JoJo Baptista busts his bankroll on old moldy newsprint. He's generously offered to share his treasures with all of us. Thanks, JoJo!


As I always say... if you're one of those folks who don't click on the images because you don't think it's worth the time it takes to read... YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING!

First off, here are some of the backsides of his Comic-Con hoarde...







And here's the GOOD STUFF... choice Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals Sundays...



There's an easter egg in this one... do a google image search for the name hidden in this comic and see what Sterrett was looking at when he created this strip!

And here's some prime Milt Gross...





GREAT NEWS! Marc Deckter just stopped by with a huge pile of Milt Gross and Cliff Sterrett Sunday pages and rare daily strips. Hooray for Marc and JoJo!

For more Milt Gross cartoon goodness, see... The Milt Gross Challenge, Milt Gross Sunday Pages and Dailies Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six and Part Seven. Also see... Milt Gross' Cartoon Tour Of New York

Check these out as well... Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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The State of Cartooning: Newspaper Comics

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


David Apatoff's collection of newspaper comics got me to thinking about the sorry state of cartooning today. I don't think most people realize just how far the market for cartoons has fallen over the past few decades. Newspaper comics are the clearest example of how quickly a once vital artform can go the way of the dodo bird. This weekend, take a close look at your local Sunday funnies. Compare them to these comics from nearly 70 years ago. Keep in mind that this is just an average Sunday from an average newspaper of the time period. I think you'll be shocked at how different it is from what passes for comics in today's papers.


Until I had a chance to look through David Apatoff's collection and actually see a complete Sunday comics section, I had no idea how huge and diverse the Sunday comics section was in the past. Not all these comics are classics, but even the worst of them are more interesting than the crop in current papers. It's a crime how lousy newspaper comics have become.


Here are some statistics to think about, courtesy of Mike Fontanelli's research... At the time this newspaper comic section was published, Li'l Abner had a circulation of over 80 million, and Capp made $200,000 a year from the strip- not counting licensing and other ancillary income. At that time, the population of the United States was 145 million, and adjusting for inflation, Capp's salary in 2008 dollars would be 2.2 million dollars a year. Capp's cartoon was read every day by more than half of the United States, and he made much more money any modern day print cartoonist makes from his work. But Capp wasn't alone. Chic Young made $5,000 a week from Blondie. Milton Caniff, Chester Gould, George MacManus, Hal Foster... all of these men made MUCH more than the typical cartoonist today does, and their work was seen and enjoyed on a single day by more people than current artists can hope for in a decade. The difference in scale is mind boggling.


This week, I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon chatting with Ralph Bakshi. I can't seem to shake one comment he made when he visited the archive and saw what we were doing here. Ralph said, "Cartooning is in jeopardy." He explained that artists who would have become cartoonists in the past are going into other fields, because the market for cartooning has deteriorated so much. In the past, a cartoonist could do a newspaper strip, or contribute one panel gags to magazines, or do spot illustrations for advertisements, create comic books or make animated cartoons. Today, every single one of those branches of cartooning is struggling for survival. There are animated cartoons today that are neither animated, nor cartoons. The comic book business is suffocating under the weight of an unsupportable business model. Magazines rarely run cartoons, and advertisements are usually just Photoshopped collages. Some markets, like newspaper comics may not survive at all. It's clear that if you're determined to become a cartoonist today, you can expect to be swimming against the current.


It's difficult not to be depressed. I'm not sure what can be done to reverse the trend. I can only hope that this website will act as a catalyst to inspire the artists who truly love the medium to create something totally new and exciting. We can only hope that artists will stick with the art of cartooning and build up a totally new market on the internet, because that's our best hope for the resurgence of cartooning. Perhaps today's hard work and sacrifices will spawn a market for cartoons that replaces and surpasses all the old models. I sure hope that happens, and I'm doing what I can to see that it does.


I hope you cartoonists out there understand what I'm saying... I'm not saying that there are no good cartoonists and no good cartoons today. I'm saying that the market for cartooning has been allowed to dwindle down to nothing. That isn't good for the business of cartooning or for cartoonists who want to make a living drawing. I'm reminding you here that there was a time when cartoonists didn't think small or settle for being boxed into a "niche market". To them, becoming successful was the goal, and they didn't consider that to be the same as "selling out". The aimed straight for the mainstream with a variety of challenging, well drawn comics, and they hit it big. Let's find a way to do that again.

The New Orleans Times Picayune
First Comic Section
Sunday, June 25th, 1939






Second Comic Section






Third Comic Section





For more great newspaper cartoons, see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages and Dailies Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six and Part Seven; Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Cartooning: Jimmy Swinnerton

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Today, in David Apatoff's great blog Illustration Art I read the amazing life story of pioneer newspaper cartoonist Jimmy Swinnerton. David's article is titled, Jimmy Swinnerton At The Dawn of Comic Strips, and it's well worth reading.

David's vivid history lesson inspired me to dig into our collection and post some more examples of Swinnerton's pioneering genius. These images were donated by Jonathan Barli of Digital Funnies. Jonathan contributed thousands of high resolution scans of rare newspaper comics two years ago, and we are just now finishing up processing the images for inclusion in our database. Jonathan offers CD-ROMs of Swinnerton's Little Jimmy and Canyon Kiddies for sale, and I highly recommend them. Make sure to click through the link and visit his site.

As I always say when I post newspaper comics... if you're one of those folks who don't click on the images because you don't think it's worth the time it takes to read... YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING!








Here are some illustrations by Swinnerton from the late 20s...










Many thanks to Jonathan Barli and David Apatoff for their great work!

For more great newspaper cartoons, see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages and Dailies Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six and Part Seven; Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Pinups: Bill Wenzel and Stanley Rayon's Girlie Cartoons

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 9 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great pinup art.


You might remember our post a few weeks back on the girlie cartoons of Jack O'Brien and Milo Kinn from the pages of Booby Traps and Nuggets. Today, we have more fun for you.

Time is a strange thing. Some parts of history are written about and analyzed endlessly and are passed down to future generations, while other aspects are totally forgotten. Sixty years downstream from when these cartoons were created, very little information about the artists who made them has survived.

BILL WENZEL
Bill Wenzel is the best known artist in this batch, working here under the pseudonym, "Candace". Fantagraphics recently published a collection of his work, and GoofButton.com posted scans from a late sixties collection of his cartoons, titled Tender Loving Care. Here, we get a rare chance to see Wenzel's rough alongside the finished ink...












STANLEY RAYON
All I know about Stanley Rayon was that he lived and worked in New Orleans. Does anyone have any more info on him? Although his drawings are pretty primitive, they do have that spark of fun that makes post-War girlie cartoons so appealing.





Let me know in the comments if you would like to see more of these.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Jack O'Brien and Milo Kinn's Girlie Cartoons, Eldon Dedini Part One, Part Two (video interview!) and Part Three, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Jack Cole Valentine, Little Annie Fanny Takes A Trip, Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, More Little Annie Fannie, Biography: Jack Davis, Early Erich Sokol Cartoons, A Passel Of Sokol, and More Sokol, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi, Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons and Meet Doug Sneyd.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Pinups: Jack O'Brien and Milo Kinn's Girlie Cartoons

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 9 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great pinup art.


Sometimes I think I must have the best job in the world...

Today some nice folks who had Googled up this website stopped by to offer us some material to digitize that they had rescued from a relative's garage. They had a laundry basket full of 1940s magazines and a big stack of original inks from a 1947 girlie cartoon magazine, colorfully titled Booby Traps and Nuggets. My jaw hit the floor when I started going through the artwork. Here is a part of cartooning history that has been largely overlooked- especially by me. But not any more!

The artwork is quickly executed and sometimes a bit funky... and for good reason. On the back of each ink is the amount the cartoonist was paid for his work. The prices range from $3 to $5. You would have to work pretty doggone fast to make a living at that rate! I have to admit, I don't know much about these artists. So I'm going to present them a couple at a time with the little I do know and see if any of you readers out there can help fill in the blanks about their careers.

JACK O'BRIEN

Jack O'Brien lived in Los Angeles, and if this photograph is any indication, he was an alumni of UCLA and had a cute little daughter. In the 1960s, O'Brien drew the Sad Sack comic books, he came up with a beatnik character named "Cool Cat", and he created the G.I. Juniors line of comics for Harvey. If you know anything else about O'Brien, please post to the comments below.











MILO KINN

All I know about Milo Kinn is that he lived in Seattle, Washington. I'm guessing he was married, (based on the pretty dingle ball curtains!) and it's clear that he didn't mind drawing the exact same pretty girl profile over and over. In fact, he seems to have a lot more fun with the "broads" than he does with the "babes". Anyone have any more details on him?





Let me know in the comments if you would like to see more of these.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Eldon Dedini Part One, Part Two (video interview!) and Part Three, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Jack Cole Valentine, Little Annie Fanny Takes A Trip, Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, More Little Annie Fannie, Biography: Jack Davis, Early Erich Sokol Cartoons, A Passel Of Sokol, and More Sokol, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi, Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons and Meet Doug Sneyd.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Comics: Jack Kirby Presents Forbush Man

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Many thanks to Archive supporter Kevin O'Neil for the loan of these great Marvel parody comics, Not Brand Echh. You might remember our first post featured Jack Kirby parodying his own Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer comics, and our second post was Marie Severin's take on Spidey-Man vs Gnatman and Rotten. Today, we bring you another great team-up of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, "The Origin of Forbush Man".


Mark Evanier has a new book out titled, Kirby: KIng of Comics. I haven't had a chance to take a look at it yet, but I'm sure it's great. Click through the link to find out about it at Amazon. If anyone out there would like to contribute a copy to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive's library, we would greatly appreciate it!


Here we have a story from the fifth issue of Not Brand Echh titled, "The Origin of Forbush Man". It was written by Stan Lee, laid out by Jack Kirby, drawn by Tom Sutton, with lettering by Artie Simek.










If you'd like to see more, let me know in the comments.

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is looking for collectors of gold and silver age comic books, 50s and 60s Mad magazines, 50s Playboys, National Lampoon, etc. who would be willing to lend us their books to digitize. If you'd like to help out, contact me at... sworth@animationarchive.org.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Jack Kirby in Not Brand Echh Number One, Marie Severn in Not Brand Echh Number Two, Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three; Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4; Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women; Here We Go Again and Man The Beast; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Comics: The Animation Business in Boy Comics 1942

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Today, we have another treasure from the collection of Archive supporter, Marc Schirmeister. Here's the oddly titled Boy Comics Number 39 from April, 1942. This comic book isn't as interesting for its art, (check out the wonky perspective on that cover!) but rather for its subject matter...


Yes, this noir style comic written by cartoonist Charles Biro and drawn by Norman Maurer deals with the animation business! And check out the names of the incidental characters...


Sound familiar? And the design of "B.S.", the head of NDN Studios, it a pretty clear caricature of Walt Disney!

It seems that Biro had some sort of connection to the East coast animation scene. Does anyone out there reading have more info on this unique comic book? If so, please let us know in the comments. UPDATE: Mark Mayerson points out the Charles Biro was an animator and director at the Fleischer Studios from 1930-1936. Thanks, Mark!













Thanks to Marc Schirmeister for bringing this rare comic to our attention!

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is looking for collectors of gold and silver age comic books, 50s and 60s Mad magazines, 50s Playboys, National Lampoon, etc. who would be willing to lend us their books to digitize. If you'd like to help out, contact me at... sworth@animationarchive.org.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Jack Kirby in Not Brand Echh Number One, Marie Severin in Not Brand Echh Number Two, Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three; Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4; Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women; Here We Go Again and Man The Beast; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Comics: Marie Severin In Not Brand Echh Number 2

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


A little while back, we posted a story from the premiere issue of Not Brand Echh. Lent to us by Archive supporter Kevin O'Neil, this series of comics produced in the late sixties made fun of superheros in general, and Marvel superheros in particular. Our first post featured Jack Kirby parodying his own Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer comics. Today, we present a parody that mingles the superhero universes of both Marvel and DC. Other stories in this issue lampoon Gold Key's Magnus, Robot Fighter and Tower's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.


Marie Severin is one of the underrated geniuses behind Marvel comics. She started as a colorist for EC Comics in the 1950s, where she established a reputation for creating sophisticated color schemes that raised the level of quality above the arbitrary primary and secondary colors that filled other comics at the time. She transitioned to working as an artist on the Doctor Strange and Sub-Mariner lines, but really made her mark doing parodies in Not Brand Echh and Crazy.


One of those unanswerable questions that never seems to go away (at least at gatherings of comic book nerds) is "Who would win in a battle between Batman and Superman?" Fanboys have expended many hours debating the fine points of this and other match-ups with no clear answer. But now we finally get to see the decisive outcome of a battle royale between the "Caped Crusader" and the "Web Slinger"!

Here we have a story from the second issue of Not Brand Echh titled, "Peter Pooper vs Gnatman And Rotten". It was written by Stan Lee and drawn by the Marie Severin. (Inking by Frank Giacoia and lettering by Al Kurzrok.)









If you'd like to see more, let me know in the comments.

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is looking for collectors of gold and silver age comic books, 50s and 60s Mad magazines, 50s Playboys, National Lampoon, etc. who would be willing to lend us their books to digitize. If you'd like to help out, contact me at... sworth@animationarchive.org.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Jack Kirby in Not Brand Echh Number One, Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three; Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4; Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women; Here We Go Again and Man The Beast; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Comics: Jack Kirby In Not Brand Echh Number 1

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Archive supporter, Kevin O'Neil spotted our feature on Jack Davis' work for Mad magazine earlier this week. It reminded him of some treasures in his own stash of comics. So he came down to the archive and lent us his collection to digitize. Thanks, Kevin!

Current superhero comics (now referred to self-importantly as "graphic novels") take themselves VERY seriously. It's rare for a publisher to allow a parody of its own characters... and unheard of for the creator himself to get the opportunity to make fun of his own creation. But back in the silver age of comics, cartoonists didn't take themselves quite so seriously. Here we have the unthinkable... Jack Kirby and Stan Lee doing a parody of their own Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer comics for Marvel's Not Brand Echh!


Not Brand Echh was a short-lived humor comic line from Marvel that parodied superhero comics. The title was derived from the term of derision used in the letters section of Marvel comics to describe competing comic book companies... "Brand Echh" was a riff on TV commercials that compared products to their competitor, "Brand X". The series ran for 13 issues from August of 1967 to May of 1969, and featured art by Bill Everett (see our recent post on Bob's Big Boy), Roy Thomas and John and Marie Severin.

Here we have a story from the premiere issue of Not Brand Echh titled, "The Silver Burper". The plot was loosely based on the story of Fantastic Four #57 through #60... It was written by Stan Lee and drawn by the great Jack Kirby. (Inking by Frank Giacoia and lettering by Artie Simek.)









If you'd like to see more, click on the splash page below. I'd be happy to introduce you to an underrated artist, Marie Severin and her classic battle royale... "Spidey-Man vs. Gnat Man and Rotten"!


The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is looking for collectors of gold and silver age comic books, 50s and 60s Mad magazines, 50s Playboys, National Lampoon, etc. who would be willing to lend us their books to digitize. If you'd like to help out, contact me at... sworth@animationarchive.org.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three; Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4; Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women; Here We Go Again and Man The Beast; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Comics: Big Boy And The Power Of Licensing

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


In 1936, entrepeneur Bob Wian opened a small lunch stand. He had a brilliant, yet slightly devious idea for a hamburger. If he took a standard hamburger bun and sliced it down the middle twice, instead of once... and if he took a standard hamburger patty and divided it into two small patties... he could create a double-decker hamburger that appeared to be larger than the average without costing him any more to make. He named it the "Big Boy".


Wian hired pretty high school girls as car-hops and dressed them in short skirts and cowboy hats. But something was still missing...

One day, animator Benny Washam was lunching at Wian's stand, doodling on placemats. Wian saw that he was a cartoonist and asked him to draw a caricature of Richard Woodruff, a chubby, apple cheeked boy who helped out at the stand sweeping up after school. Washam obliged, depicting the lad in oversized checkered overalls munching on a burger. He gave it to Wian to use as a mascot for the stand and didn't think any more of it for many years...




Wian turned the caricature into an empire, branding not only his hamburger stand, but a line of sauces and spices and a franchised chain of family restaurants that eventually covered the entire country. A cutened version of Washam's doodle was plastered all over the menus, signage and television advertising.



Wian knew who in the family made the decisions about where to eat... It wasn't mom and dad, it was the kids. Outside each restaurant in the chain, he placed a huge fiberglass statue of Big Boy as a beacon to attract children...


And cartoonists, like assistant archivist, JoJo Baptista!

At the restaurants, Wian gave away free comic books featuring the character. Here is an extremely rare example... Big Boy comics number one from 1956. These comics were produced by Timely Comics, which later became Marvel. They were written by Stan Lee and drawn by Bill Everett. Later issues featured the work of Archie comics artist, Dan DeCarlo. Adventures of the Big Boy is one of the longest continuously running comic book lines. It's still being produced fifty years later.










Years later, when Big Boy had become a familiar figure to the entire country, Washam admitted to his fellow artists at Warner Bros that he was the cartoonist who had created the character. They laughed and teased him, saying, "Benny, you should have been heir to a hamburger fortune, but no! Your lot in life is to toil day and night making animated cartoons!" They were joking, but there's an element of truth in it. Never underestimate the power of a doodle. The Big Boy sketch that Washam traded away for a free meal in 1936 ended up selling millions and millions of dollars worth of hamburgers.

If you would like to see more Big Boy comics, let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; Harvey Kurtzman Comics; Harvey Eisenberg's Foxy Fagan; Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics Part One and Part Two; Virgil Partch's Here We Go Again, The Wild Wild Women and Man The Beast. Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part One and Part Two; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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2007 Review: 6 Milton Caniff

As the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive completes its second year in operation, it's time to review the accomplishments of the past year. Here's a countdown of the ten most important subjects we've covered in 2007. See if your list matches mine. (View the complete list.) Click on the links to read more on this topic.


From Milton Caniff And Norman Rockwell In Coronet Magazine September 11th, 2007
NUMBER 6: MILTON CANIFF

This year, we were very fortunate to be able to digitize and share artwork from the estate of comic legend, Milton Caniff. Archive supporter, John Ellis is producing a series of DVDs of the classic TV series, Steve Canyon, and generously agreed to share his research on Caniff and Steve Canyon with the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.


Milton Caniff in his studio ca. 1947
(click for a larger view)
Ellis shared his thoughts about Caniff with us in our first post on the subject, Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon Dalies...

Milton Caniff has been referred to as "The Rembrandt of the Comic Strip", and oft by himself as "an Armchair Marco Polo", but in fact this whirlwind of a comic strip innovator and writer was essentially a sincerely nice man who loved to draw. Yes this gentleman born in Hillsboro Ohio in 1907 created and drew Terry and The Pirates from 1934 to 1946, which absolutely set the standard for the adventure comic strip. True, he raised the bar with Steve Canyon, which unlike Terry, he owned lock stock and barrel from the first daily strip in January 1947 through to June 1988, the final installment published shortly after his death. Absolutely he worked rain or shine, seven days/strips a week for 54 years, even from his hospital bed, the deadlines never ended.

From Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon Dalies March 28th, 2007
In his article, "Detour Guide For An Armchair Marco Polo" from Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Caniff writes...

There has been a tendency recently for artists to automatically assume they cannot write their own stories because they see so many double by-lines. I contend that any man who can invent pictures can invent situations and dialogue. In fact, it should be easier for the artist to pilot his own action because he is not likely to write himself into one of those undrawable dilemmas in manuscripts about which illustrators have complained for years.

Milton Caniff with Jack Benny from
Milton Caniff- A Remembrance May 30th, 2007
Caniff's nephew, Harry Grant Guyton shared some of his memories of his "Uncle Milt"...

Of course Milton Caniff was a stickler for accuracy, but his fans were eagle-eyed. I was with him at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. He climbed into the cockpit of a fighter plane (an F-104 I believe), and spent maybe five minutes in it. That evening, he used it in Steve Canyon. He had committed the control panel in that cockpit to memory, and months later when the strip was published, he received numerous letters saying that had Steve been flying as high as Milt implied in the strip, one of the gauge readings was wrong.

From Milton Caniff And Norman Rockwell
In Coronet Magazine September 11th, 2007
MORE CANIFF ARTICLES

• Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One March 6th, 2007


• More Steve Canyon Dalies May 30th, 2007


• Parody- Steve Crevace in Whack! Comics May 8th, 2007


• Comic Artists At Work: People On Paper (MGM/1945) April 19th, 2007

John Ellis promises more great material on Milton Caniff in the coming year. You can find out information about the Steve Canyon TV series at his blog...

Steve Canyon on DVD

Go To Number 5 on the list of Top Ten Subjects of 2007

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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2007 Review: 10 Milt Gross

As the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive completes its second year in operation, it's time to review the accomplishments of the past year. Here's a countdown of the ten most important subjects we've covered in 2007. See if your list matches mine. (View the complete list.) Click on the pictures to see lots more on this topic.


From "Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part Four" May 18th, 2007
NUMBER 10: MILT GROSS

Thanks to Archive supporters Mark Kausler, Marc Deckter, Kent Butterworth and Marc Crisafulli, the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has a fantastic collection of comics by Milt Gross.


From "Fulfilling The Milt Gross Challenge" October 17th, 2007

Milt Gross is one of the greatest cartoonists who ever lived, but most of his work has been out of print for many years. He was a master of both words and images. His books Nize Baby, Dunt Esk De Night In De Front From Chreesmas are classics of ethnic New York dialect humor. His masterpiece, He Done Her Wrong, which Gross described as "The great American novel- and not a word in it- no music too", tells a story entirely in funny pictures.


From "Banana Oil!" August 21st, 2007
Milt Gross began his career as an animator in New York, and his comics reflect the same sort of baggy pants humor and keenly observed exaggeration that one might find in a Fleischer cartoon. His style appears loose and free on first glance. Every frame bursts with new and interesting ideas. But behind the energy and fun are carefully thought out compositions and expressive posing. Like Chaplin and Keaton, Gross was a master at making hard work and concentration look easy and natural. Students of animation can learn a lot from studying these techniques.


From "Dave's Delicatessen" July 24th, 2007
Currently, the only book by Gross that remains in print is He Done Her Wrong. This is a shame, because as great as this book is, there's a lot more to Milt Gross. The humor in Gross' comics is timeless. Thanks to Mark, Marc, Marc and Kent, the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has become one of the best places to study his work. Stop by and view the Sunday pages and daily strips in our archive database sometime soon.

Go To Number 9 on the list of Top Ten Subjects of 2007

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Cartooning: Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part Seven

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of cartooning told through the careers of great artists.

Magazine Illustration by Jan Balet (See Lief Peng's Flickr set for more images by Jan Balet.)

We continue our series of posts on Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning with the second part of the section dealing with Magazine Cartooning... I'm afraid I don't have much information on these artists. If you can contribute a fact or two, please post them to the comments below.

MICHAEL BERRY
Michael Berry contributed pretty girl cartoons to Pictorial Review, Esquire, Liberty and The New Yorker.






JOHN RUGE
John Ruge's elegant girl drawings appeared in Colliers in the late 40s and Playboy in the early 50s. His comic about an Irish Setter named Clancy was also popular.




RALPH STEIN & STAN HUNT
Ralph Stein was the author of a collection of pinup girl art titled The Pinup From 1852 to Now. He wrote the Popeye newspaper comic in the 1950s, and was an avid classic car enthuiast. Stan Hunt was a regular contributor to The New Yorker. He attended the New York School of Art and apprenticed under Willard Mullin. He passed away in 2006 at the age of 77.




RICHARD SARGENT
Richard Sargent contributed images to Pictorial Review and The Saturday Evening Post.




JAN BELET
Jan Belet was a childrens book illustrator who also did artwork for several women's magazines.




RICHARD TAYLOR & FRANK OWEN
Richard Taylor was a cartoonist for The New Yorker and Playboy. Frank Owen was a cartoonist for The Saturday Evening Post He was the one who came up with the original story idea for the Disney's cartoon, Morris, the Midget Moose.



THE IMPORTANCE OF CARTOONS IN ADVERTISING
By Don Herold


A STUDY IN LAUGHS



ROY DOTY

Over the past half century, Roy Doty has been a cartoonist and illustrator with over 60 children's books to his credit. He was awarded a Reuben by the National Cartoonist Society in 2006. See RoyDoty.com to see what he's up to lately.




Many thanks to Marc Crisafulli and David King for sharing this great book with us.

If you found this post to be interesting, see... Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics, Part Two: How To Get Ideas / Studies of Comic Strips and Part Three: Single Panel and Sports Cartoonists, Part Four: Editorial Cartoons & Comic Books, Part Five: Sketching, and Part Six: Magazine Illustration

Also see... Nat Falk's "How To Make Animated Cartoons" Part One: The History of Animation, Part Two: The Cartoon Studios, Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: How To Draw Cartoons and Part Five: How To Animate. Also, see... Willard Mullin on Animals.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Comics: Fulfilling The Milt Gross Challenge

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Here's the conclusion of the Marc Deckter Challenge Sunday pages. This gluttonous orgy of Milt Gross goodness comes to you courtesy of Amir Avni, Dragan Kovacevic, Michael Webb, Anonymous, Charlie Judkins, Alexander McCarron, James Middleton, Enrique May, J. Todd Constantine, and Greg Checketts. These folks stepped up to the plate and supported the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive so we can continue bringing great material like this to you for the rest of the year. We all owe them our thanks. The Archive is only as good as you make it. We appreciate your support.

And as I always say... if you're one of those folks who don't click on the images because you don't think it's worth the time it takes to read... YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING!

Count Screwloose & Babbling Brooks Sunday Pages (1930-31)














And Two More Dave's Delicatessens...



For more Milt Gross cartoon goodness, see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages and Dailies Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six and Part Seven. Also see... Milt Gross' Cartoon Tour Of New York Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

Many thanks to Marc Deckter for sharing this wonderful stuff with us.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Comics: Felix Answers The Deckter Challenge

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Here are more great Sunday pages from the collection of Marc Deckter. This sequential run of Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat was brought to you through the generosity of Archive Supporters B. Paul Husband and Christopher Peterson.


Many thanks to everyone who has gone out of their way to support the archive this year. We're making great strides, and it's all because of you.















For more great comic strip action, see... Otto Messmer's Felix The Cat 1932 and Felix In Mother Goose Land; Milt Gross Sunday Pages and Dailies Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five and Part Six; Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Comics: Milt Gross Courtesy of Will And Marc

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Today's post is brought to you through the courtesy of Marc Deckter and Will Finn. These two great guys dug deep into their collections and pockets to ensure that the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is able to continue to bring you the great inspiration you have come to expect. We all owe them a debt of gratitude for their generosity.


The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive isn't one of those stuffy institutions financed by huge corporate endowments. It's a grassroots resource that is supported by the artists and animation fans that directly benefit from it. That means you. Every penny that comes in gets rolled right back into making the Archive even better. But if the people who benefit from it don't support it with their donations, it will cease to exist. What would you do if you woke up one morning and found that animationarchive.org came up as "Server Not Found"? Please contribute using the PayPal links at the top of each post.


And as I always say... if you're one of those folks who don't click on the images because you don't think it's worth the time it takes to read... YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING!

Banana Oil Dailies (1925)






Count Screwloose & Babbling Brooks Sunday Pages (1930)







For more Milt Gross cartoon goodness, see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages and Dailies Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five and Part Six. Also see... Milt Gross' Cartoon Tour Of New York Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

Many thanks to Marc Deckter for sharing this wonderful stuff with us, and to Will Finn for stepping up to the challenge.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Comics: More Great George Lichty Grin And Bear It Comics

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Here are more great comics by George Lichty donated by Archive supporter Christopher Lopez. Lichty was one of the comic page's longest working artists. His style changed little over the years. Compare the examples below from the late thirties to the Sunday pages from the 50s we posted a couple of months back. Lichty's distinctive free flowing lines were a staple of the funnies for over half a century. He may have drawn slouches, but I think you'll agree, as an artist, he was no slouch himself!



Here (thanks to Joseph Campana) is the entry on Lichty from Martin Sheridan's Comics And Their Creators...




1939 DAILY STRIPS






1937 SUNDAY PAGES















Thanks Christopher!

If you enjoyed this post, see Byrne's Complete Guide To Cartooning feature on George Lichty, Our First Post On George Lichty's Grin And Bear It, Virgil Partch's Here We Go Again, The Wild Wild Women and Man The Beast; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two; Part Three; Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Comics: Felix The Cat In Mother Goose Land

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Recently, Marc Deckter shared his collection of Milt Gross Sunday pages with us. That gift just keeps on giving... the back sides of the Milt Gross pages featured Otto Messmer's classic Felix the Cat!


You might also remember our recent posting of 1932 Felix The Cat Sunday pages. Messmer was one of the most influential cartoonists of all time, in both comics and animation. John K called Messmer "the founding father of the American style of animation".


Here's a batch of Sunday pages from late 1930 and early 1931. They deal with Felix's visit to Mother Goose Land. Enjoy!









Many thanks to Marc Deckter for sharing his great collection with us! There's a great book packed with Felix strips... It's called Nine Lives To Live: A Classic Felix Celebration. Pick it up at Amazon. You'll be glad you did.

For more great comic strip action, see... Otto Messmer's Felix The Cat 1932; Milt Gross Sunday Pages and Dailies Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five and Part Six; Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

If you enjoyed these comics, you owe it to yourself to check out Digital Funnies. Jonathan Barli is hard at work on an important project- documenting and restoring early cartoons and comics in digital form. He offers a wide variety of fascinating material for sale on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. Please take a moment to visit the Digital Funnies website, and let him know that the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive sent you.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

Comics: Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part Two

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Continuing Basil Wolverton's Acoustics In The Comics from last week...

My publisher pointed at me demandingly. "If you want a raise, every one of your sound effect words will have to be absolutely authentic! In other words, don't draw a single sound word into your strips until you've actually staged the cartoon situation with real people and things!"

As for my publisher's demands, they resulted in my running out of friends and relatives within a week. Neighbors complained about howls and screams emanating from the studio. People sued. The ASPCA hounded me. My wife and fourteen kids swore sudden allegiance to the Progressive party, then fled to Siberia.


Meanwhile, however, I managed to catalog hundreds of authentic sound words- enough to last me for a lifetime of cartooning, and enough I thought, to cover any and all comic situations, regardless of how terrible. I was so proud of my achievement that I showed the lengthy list to my publisher. Here are some of the more subtle sound words describing various clashings, crashings, slashings, bashings, hashings, mashings, etc. Read the situation, then voice the accompanying sound word to yourself, and note how vividly the picture then comes to your mind:

• Pinheaded person pullingg pate out of a pop bottle: FOINK!
  
• Glass eye falling into tomato soup: PLOOP!
  
• Glass eye falling into a pitcher of thick syrup: PLOFF!
  
• Man sitting on short tack: SQUINCH!
  
• Man sitting on long tack: SQUONCH!
  
• Uppers dropping in gob of putty: FLUP!

• Hungry cannibal filing eyetooth: FWATCH!
  
• Man with calloused feet crossing rough linoleum: SKIRP! SKIRP!
  
• Thumb gouging eye: SPOP!
  
• Hot lava speweing on WCTU convention: FOOSK!
  
• Hot lava spewing on Elks' convention: SSSCRISH!
  
• Person skidding on hot stove in bare feet: SCREESH!
  
• Beaver biting into wooden leg: CRASP!
  
• Car crashing into large vat of frogs' eggs: SKWORP!
  
• False teeth falling through skylight: TWUNK!
  
• Sock in the face with Sears Roebuck catalog: PWOSH!
  
• Sock in the face with Montgomery Ward catalog: PWASH!
  
• Octopus slapping a tentacle on bald bean: SPOOP!

• Man dragging toenails over No.2 grade sandpaper: SKARP!
  
• Man falling on face in a barrel of wet teabags: FROMP!
  
• Sock in the kisser with a wet codfish: SCHALAMPF!
  
• Person socking wet halibut with his kisser: SCHLOOF!
  
• Lowers falling into a bucket of cup grease: UNPH!
  
• Man with small head drowning in a glass of tomato juice: GOIK!
  
• Woodpecker hammering on human head: DUD-DUD-DUD-DUD-DUD!
  
• Cannon ball landing in mush of toothless man: FWOCK!
  
• Two bald men colliding headon: KROCK!
  
• Garter snapping on varicose vein: SCHWIPP!
  
• Single BB shot landing on a cow's udder: PWIP!
  
• Person pulling ponderous pate through a puny porthole: SPOOCH!
  
• Bear trap springing on human noggin: SPROCK!
  
• Rat trap springing on person's big toe: SPACK!
  
• Man falling into a garbage can full of spoiled caviar: CROFF!
  
• Surgeon tossing gallstones into empty garbage can: KRANG!
  
• Man with one hair getting a haircut: WHICK!
  
• Person being kicked in the neck: PFWUMPFPH!
  
• Person getting kicked in snappers: PWACK!
  
• Measle germ snapping at skin: SCHLOPP!

If you've been able to struggle through the foregoing list of cartoon words, perhaps now your acoustical sense has been sharpened to the extent that you can readily guess a situation just by reading a sound word. To test your ability, hee is a list of cartoon words denoting various noises. If you can guess the action by which even one of them is produced, then your extremely something or other.

SNIKK / SPIRP / FAMP / SWORP / SPITCH / KANK / IKK / SPRATCH / PWOT / YOTCH / KZEEP / KLISH / FEEMP / SHZWOP / KOPYP


Now check your definitions with the following list. Even if you missed defining all the words, it's no reflection on your intelligence. Fact is, the more you miss, the brighter you probably are. On the other hand, the more you can guess, the better comic strip cartoonist you can become- unless, unfortunately, you're already one.

• SNIKK: The sound made by an African pygmy idly snapping his fingernail against his skull
  
• SPIRP: Nose being caught in an orange juicer
  
• FAMP: Corpulent person falling on back in a vat of peanut butter
  
• SWORP: Meteor hitting obese dame on back of neck
  
• SPITCH: Man sticking his head inside huge dynamo in action
  
• KANK: Crazed horsefly crashing into dome of empty-headed man
  
• IKK: Person with protruding eyeballs falling face down

• SPRATCH: Court plaster being yanked off polose chest
  
• PWOT: Wet socks being tossed into the corner of the room
  
• YOTCH: Post office pen forming the letter O
  
• KZEEP: Man with rusty eyelid winking at gal
  
• KLISH: Man falling on chin on thin crusted beetle
  
• FEEMP: Mole (on chin) being hit with stray buckshot
  
• SHZWOP: Obese dame's girdle splitting out
  
• KOPYP: Skin pore snapping shut on contact with cold air

"Good work!" my publisher mumbled two days later, when he had finished reading the list. "Then I get the raise?" I gurgled hopefully. His brows knitted. (He was working on a pair of socks at the same time.) "Not until you complete that list by adding one more sound word! The word that's missing is the one that describes the sound of a railway train running over a cartoonist's conk!"

"That should be easy," I chirped. "I'll just-" Suddenly, the awful significance of his demand dawned on me. My publisher had conceived of this diabolical plan to prevent my getting a raise. But I would fool him.

A half hour later my noggin was resting uncomfortably on a railroad rail.


They told me later at the hospital that it wasn't too bad. Only 22 cars, plus the locomotive had been derailed. "The train crew wanted the day off anyway" my doctor said. "They will be up later to thank you." While he poured glue in the cracks in my conk, I struggled to recall the exact sound of the locomotive passing over my pate. I became frantic at the thought that it had eluded me. Then I remembered. How could I forget something that had been so forcefully crammed into my mind?

I raced out of the hospital and downtown to my publisher's office. When that man saw the Scotch tape on my skull, he blanched a little. "Did you find out what the sound of a train running over a cartoonist's head is?" he asked. "I did." I announced triumphantly. He leaned expectantly so far forward that his rear suspender buttons flew off, zipped out the window, and nailed a burglar who was ransacking a safe in an office across the street.


"What is the sound?" he asked shakily.
"It is GJDRKZLXCBWQ."
"GJDRKZLXCBWQ?" he queried doubtfully.
"No. It's GJDRKZLXCBWQ. The L is silent."


My publisher is not emotional. I have never known him to be moved to tears. But now his lips quivered violently. Or perhaps he was just trying to get something out of his teeth. "Now I have heard everything!" he blubbered.

"The raise." I reminded him. "How about it?" "The raise? Oh yes. To show my appreciation for collecting the most complete and authentic list of cartoonists' sound words, I'm going to double your salary!" Whereupon he reached into his wallet and tossed me twice as much as I had been getting previously per week.


Then I realized that my list of sound words wasn't quite complete until that moment. In all my life I had never heard that lush, lovely sound. It was a mild, whispery sound, barely audible.

Here it is: FMNW!

It was the sound made by my new doubled salary- two $1.00 bills brushing lightly together.


Thanks to Marc Schirmeister for sharing this with us. Big news for fans of Basil Wolverton! There's an exhibit of his work in Santa Ana! Here are the details courtesy of DougH On The Go

The Original Art of Basil Wolverton
from the Collection of Glenn Bray
September 1 - November 11, 2007
Opening Reception: September 1, 7-10 p.m.
Grand Central Art Center
125 N. Broadway,
Santa Ana, CA 92701
General Phone: 714.567.7233

For more examples of Basil Wolverton's genius, see Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part One and Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper

Also see... Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women Part One, Part Two and Part Three, Here We Go Again and Man The Beast. Also see... George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Comics: Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Last week, archive supporter Marc Schirmeister stopped by with a stack of rare fanzines from the late 1960s and early 70s. Included among them were two great issues of Graphic Story Magazine devoted to Wolverton.


Here is an article Wolverton wrote in 1948 for the Daily Oregonian...



ACOUSTICS IN THE COMICS
By Basil Wolverton

The so called comic strip on my drawing board showed a heavy horse stepping on a bozo's bean. The horse was tramping on the guy's head in a delicate way, of course, so the situation would be more entertaining than grusome- depending on the reader's sense of humor. But, like an old silent movie, the cartoon needed something, and that something was sound. There had to be a heavily lettered word oozing out from the exact point of contact between the horse's hoofs and the man's head. Thus the reader, pronouncing that sound word to himself, would actually hear within his mind the excitingly comical noise that would eminate from such action.


Summoning both brain cells hurriedly together, I tried desperately to imagine just what sort of sound would ensue if a nag were to step on someone's skull. The word CRUNCH popped into my mind. Then CRONCH. Then CRANCH. I settled for CRANCH because somehow it seemed more refined. But before I could letter the word on the cartoon, I suddenly recalled my latest unhappy interview with the person who publishes my comic strips.


"I want realism!" he had bellowed. "No more of this wild imaginitive stuff that's causing some people to want to ban our comic books! From now on, get that realism in there, and your strips will be horribly funny! Then the readers will go into hysterics and laugh like crazy, and our books will be acclaimed the most laugh provoking on the stands!" That meant that an imaginative word like CRANCH was taboo. It was up to me to get the real sound word. I looked furtively about as a preposterous plan permeated my pate.

It was easy to rent a horse. It wasn't as easy to argue my brother in law into placing his pan on the pavement, and letting me ride the nag over his noggin. "Horses are so heavy!" he foolishly kept countering. "Besides, I have a cold sore." As he waddled away, I realized my plan was hopeless- until he stumbled over something in the street. Before he could pull his chin out of the asphalt, I had steered the rented mare over him, and her hind hoof scored a bull's eye on his bare bean.

The sound? It was far from CRANCH. The real thing turned out to be SLORNK. It was a sort of a slippery liquid sound. That was probably because my brother in law has oily skin and a thin skull. With the noxious noise fresh in mind, I streaked into my studio and feverishly lettered the word SLORNK boldly across the cartoon.


Weeks later the fan mail began pouring in. They all said the same thing. In fact, both of them were worded the same. The first one read "I want to congratulate you on that completely true to life cartoon you drew of the horse stepping on a man's head. The word SLORNK describing the sound was absolutely accurate. I know, because I am always getting my head stepped on by some careless nag." The second letter was the same as the first, except for the signature. I figured when I wrote them that there should be some difference. Otherwise the publisher might get wise when I showed them to him.

He was dumbfounded when he saw them. After recovering, he slapped me on my sunburn and rammed one of his dollar cigars into my mush. Unfortunately, he stuck the wrong end into my mouth. Besides, he was smoking it. "Two fan letters in eleven years" he murmured incredulously. "My boy, you have arrived! It's just like I predicted," my publisher beamed, "your horribly realistic sound words are paying off!"


I leaped on his desk. "Then I'm ripe for a raise?" I queried. peering so anxiously and closely into his red-rimmed readers that I could detect his wife's fingernail scratches on his contact lenses. Anticipation was causing me to quiver like a rat terrier with radio-active fleas on a cold day. The suspense was terrible. Finally he opened his trap. He was grinning. This was the day for which I had waited eleven long years. "It does not!" he roared, brushing me off his desk. "I was merely feeling pleased that at last you may be worth almost as much as I've been paying you!"

While I gathered my teeth up off the floor, he pointed at me demandingly. "If you want a raise, every one of your sound effect words will have to be absolutely authentic! In other words, don't draw a single sound word into your strips until you've actually staged the cartoon situation with real people and things!"


(Incidentally, you readers should stop worrying about my brother in law. Ever since the day the horse stepped on his head, he has had nothing but good luck. Why shouldn't he, what with a horseshoe embedded in the back of his bean? Furthermore, he's the only living person who can slide his head inside those record-in-the-slot phonographs without crushing his ears.)

My publisher pointed at me demandingly. "If you want a raise, every one of your sound effect words will have to be absolutely authentic! In other words, don't draw a single sound word into your strips until you've actually staged the cartoon situation with real people and things!"

As for my publisher's demands, they resulted in my running out of friends and relatives within a week. Neighbors complained about howls and screams emanating from the studio. People sued. The ASPCA hounded me. My wife and fourteen kids swore sudden allegiance to the Progressive party, then fled to Siberia.


Meanwhile, however, I managed to catalog hundreds of authentic sound words- enough to last me for a lifetime of cartooning, and enough I thought, to cover any and all comic situations, regardless of how terrible. I was so proud of my achievement that I showed the lengthy list to my publisher. Here are some of the more subtle sound words describing various clashings, crashings, slashings, bashings, hashings, mashings, etc. Read the situation, then voice the accompanying sound word to yourself, and note how vividly the picture then comes to your mind:

• Pinheaded person pullingg pate out of a pop bottle: FOINK!
  
• Glass eye falling into tomato soup: PLOOP!
  
• Glass eye falling into a pitcher of thick syrup: PLOFF!
  
• Man sitting on short tack: SQUINCH!
  
• Man sitting on long tack: SQUONCH!
  
• Uppers dropping in gob of putty: FLUP!

• Hungry cannibal filing eyetooth: FWATCH!
  
• Man with calloused feet crossing rough linoleum: SKIRP! SKIRP!
  
• Thumb gouging eye: SPOP!
  
• Hot lava speweing on WCTU convention: FOOSK!
  
• Hot lava spewing on Elks' convention: SSSCRISH!
  
• Person skidding on hot stove in bare feet: SCREESH!
  
• Beaver biting into wooden leg: CRASP!
  
• Car crashing into large vat of frogs' eggs: SKWORP!
  
• False teeth falling through skylight: TWUNK!
  
• Sock in the face with Sears Roebuck catalog: PWOSH!
  
• Sock in the face with Montgomery Ward catalog: PWASH!
  
• Octopus slapping a tentacle on bald bean: SPOOP!

• Man dragging toenails over No.2 grade sandpaper: SKARP!
  
• Man falling on face in a barrel of wet teabags: FROMP!
  
• Sock in the kisser with a wet codfish: SCHALAMPF!
  
• Person socking wet halibut with his kisser: SCHLOOF!
  
• Lowers falling into a bucket of cup grease: UNPH!
  
• Man with small head drowning in a glass of tomato juice: GOIK!
  
• Woodpecker hammering on human head: DUD-DUD-DUD-DUD-DUD!
  
• Cannon ball landing in mush of toothless man: FWOCK!
  
• Two bald men colliding headon: KROCK!
  
• Garter snapping on varicose vein: SCHWIPP!
  
• Single BB shot landing on a cow's udder: PWIP!
  
• Person pulling ponderous pate through a puny porthole: SPOOCH!
  
• Bear trap springing on human noggin: SPROCK!
  
• Rat trap springing on person's big toe: SPACK!
  
• Man falling into a garbage can full of spoiled caviar: CROFF!
  
• Surgeon tossing gallstones into empty garbage can: KRANG!
  
• Man with one hair getting a haircut: WHICK!
  
• Person being kicked in the neck: PFWUMPFPH!
  
• Person getting kicked in snappers: PWACK!
  
• Measle germ snapping at skin: SCHLOPP!

If you've been able to struggle through the foregoing list of cartoon words, perhaps now your acoustical sense has been sharpened to the extent that you can readily guess a situation just by reading a sound word. To test your ability, hee is a list of cartoon words denoting various noises. If you can guess the action by which even one of them is produced, then your extremely something or other.

SNIKK / SPIRP / FAMP / SWORP / SPITCH / KANK / IKK / SPRATCH / PWOT / YOTCH / KZEEP / KLISH / FEEMP / SHZWOP / KOPYP


Now check your definitions with the following list. Even if you missed defining all the words, it's no reflection on your intelligence. Fact is, the more you miss, the brighter you probably are. On the other hand, the more you can guess, the better comic strip cartoonist you can become- unless, unfortunately, you're already one.

• SNIKK: The sound made by an African pygmy idly snapping his fingernail against his skull
  
• SPIRP: Nose being caught in an orange juicer
  
• FAMP: Corpulent person falling on back in a vat of peanut butter
  
• SWORP: Meteor hitting obese dame on back of neck
  
• SPITCH: Man sticking his head inside huge dynamo in action
  
• KANK: Crazed horsefly crashing into dome of empty-headed man
  
• IKK: Person with protruding eyeballs falling face down

• SPRATCH: Court plaster being yanked off polose chest
  
• PWOT: Wet socks being tossed into the corner of the room
  
• YOTCH: Post office pen forming the letter O
  
• KZEEP: Man with rusty eyelid winking at gal
  
• KLISH: Man falling on chin on thin crusted beetle
  
• FEEMP: Mole (on chin) being hit with stray buckshot
  
• SHZWOP: Obese dame's girdle splitting out
  
• KOPYP: Skin pore snapping shut on contact with cold air

"Good work!" my publisher mumbled two days later, when he had finished reading the list. "Then I get the raise?" I gurgled hopefully. His brows knitted. (He was working on a pair of socks at the same time.) "Not until you complete that list by adding one more sound word! The word that's missing is the one that describes the sound of a railway train running over a cartoonist's conk!"

"That should be easy," I chirped. "I'll just-" Suddenly, the awful significance of his demand dawned on me. My publisher had conceived of this diabolical plan to prevent my getting a raise. But I would fool him.

A half hour later my noggin was resting uncomfortably on a railroad rail.


They told me later at the hospital that it wasn't too bad. Only 22 cars, plus the locomotive had been derailed. "The train crew wanted the day off anyway" my doctor said. "They will be up later to thank you." While he poured glue in the cracks in my conk, I struggled to recall the exact sound of the locomotive passing over my pate. I became frantic at the thought that it had eluded me. Then I remembered. How could I forget something that had been so forcefully crammed into my mind?

I raced out of the hospital and downtown to my publisher's office. When that man saw the Scotch tape on my skull, he blanched a little. "Did you find out what the sound of a train running over a cartoonist's head is?" he asked. "I did." I announced triumphantly. He leaned expectantly so far forward that his rear suspender buttons flew off, zipped out the window, and nailed a burglar who was ransacking a safe in an office across the street.


"What is the sound?" he asked shakily.
"It is GJDRKZLXCBWQ."
"GJDRKZLXCBWQ?" he queried doubtfully.
"No. It's GJDRKZLXCBWQ. The L is silent."


My publisher is not emotional. I have never known him to be moved to tears. But now his lips quivered violently. Or perhaps he was just trying to get something out of his teeth. "Now I have heard everything!" he blubbered.

"The raise." I reminded him. "How about it?" "The raise? Oh yes. To show my appreciation for collecting the most complete and authentic list of cartoonists' sound words, I'm going to double your salary!" Whereupon he reached into his wallet and tossed me twice as much as I had been getting previously per week.


Then I realized that my list of sound words wasn't quite complete until that moment. In all my life I had never heard that lush, lovely sound. It was a mild, whispery sound, barely audible.

Here it is: FMNW!

It was the sound made by my new doubled salary- two $1.00 bills brushing lightly together.


Thanks to Marc Schirmeister for sharing this with us.

For more examples of Basil Wolverton's genius, see Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper Also see... Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women Part One, Part Two and Part Three, Here We Go Again and Man The Beast, George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

Milt Gross: Banana Oil!

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


The hoi-polloi are out in droves tonight to celebrate this great day!

It's Marc Deckter Appreciation Day!


All of Marc's fans and admirers are jumping on the bandwagon, writing appreciative blog postings. Here's John K's.

For the past couple of weeks, we've been working on digitizing a batch of nearly 200 Milt Gross Sunday pages and dalies that Marc generously loaned to us. That adds up to over a million laughs!


Three cheers for Marc Deckter!


And as I always say... if you're one of those folks who don't click on the images because you don't think it's worth the time it takes to read... YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING!

Banana Oil Dailies (1924)







Count Screwloose & Dave's Delicatessen Sunday Pages (1930-1933)






For more Milt Gross cartoon goodness, see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages and Dailies Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five. Also see... Milt Gross' Cartoon Tour Of New York Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

Many thanks to Marc Deckter for sharing this wonderful stuff with us!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

Comics: More Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.







I'm busily scanning more Milt Gross Sunday pages from the collection of Marc Deckter today, so I don't have time to say much about these great comics. But who needs words when the pictures are as good as this! Thanks to Kent Butterworth for providing us with these great scans!








If you enjoyed this post, see Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics and Jim Tyer: Barnyard Actor;

Also see... Harvey Kurtzman Comics; Harvey Eisenberg's Foxy Fagan; Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics Part One and Part Two; Virgil Partch's Here We Go Again, The Wild Wild Women and Man The Beast. Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Comics: Milt Gross' Dave's Delicatessen

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Archive supporter, Marc Deckter stopped by today with a pile of deteriorating Milt Gross Dave's Delicatessen dalies. The newsprint had become brittle and brown and the strips were fragmenting into chips. I put them carefully on the scanner and digitized them before they had a chance to turn to dust.


Milt Gross is one of the underappreciated cartoonists that the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is dedicated to documenting. Between these wonderful early examples courtesy of Marc Deckter, the Sunday pages lent to us by Mark Kausler and the great book A Cartoon Tour of New York from Kent Butterworth, our collection of Gross is second to none. If you haven't seen any of our previous articles on Gross, check out the links at the end of this post.

And as I always say... if you're one of those folks who don't click on the images because you don't think it's worth the time it takes to read... YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING!



























Read John K's comments on this post...

For more Milt Gross Sunday pages, see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four. Also see... Milt Gross' Cartoon Tour Of New York Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

Many thanks to Marc Deckter for sharing this wonderful stuff with us!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Comics: Otto Messmer's Felix The Cat 1932

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


You might remember our earlier posts featuring the work of Jonathan Barli at Digital Funnies... Dudley Fisher's Right Around Home and Harrison Cady's Boys Life Bird's Eye Views. Jonathan was kind enough to donate a large portion of his collection of meticulously restored scans of vintage comic strips to the Archive, and many of them are for sale on CD-ROM at his website. I encourage you to scoop up all of his collections. He's got a treasure trove of great comics!


Today we feature the depression era comic strips of Otto Messmer. Felix the Cat was the first really famous cartoon star and his popularity is due in large part to Messmer's creativity and craftsmanship. Messmer was a quiet man who eschewed the limelight. For many years, Pat Sullivan took the full public credit for Messmer's work. After Sullivan's death, Messmer quietly continued to pen the Felix strip until 1954.


John Canemaker wrote an excellent book on the history of Felix titled, Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat. It's currently out of print, but if you see it in a used book store, snap it up. It's one of the best books on animation history.

Here are a selection of Felix Sunday pages from 1932...







These fabulous scans of original Sunday pages were provided to the Archive by Jonathan Barli of Digital Funnies. Jonathan is hard at work on an important project- documenting and restoring early cartoons and comics in digital form. He offers a wide variety of fascinating material for sale on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. Please take a moment to visit the Digital Funnies website, and let him know that the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive sent you.

Read how Felix the Cat became a Cultural/Historical Landmark in Los Angeles this week.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

Comics: Kurtzman's Comic Books

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.


Today, Kent Butterworth stopped by on his lunch break to watch Terry Bears cartoons featuring eye popping Jim Tyer animation. I realized that it's been a while since I posted any comic book scans from Kent's great collection of golden age funny animal comics. I'm righting that wrong right now with some great examples by Harvey Kurtzman. Enjoy! (Thanks Kent!)




















If you enjoyed this post, check out our first article on Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny Part One and Part Two. Also see... Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, Milt Stein's Supermouse (Coo Coo Comics No. 7) Dan Gordon's Superkatt, Jim Tyer's Comic Books, Harvey Eisenberg's Foxy Fagan and Boodi Rogers' Babe Comics.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

6.6.09
.

Stumble It!

Comics: George Lichty Grin And Bear It Orgy!

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Archive supporter Christopher Lopez saw our feature on George Lichty a month or two back and decided to donate a big stack of vintage Grin And Bear It dalies and Sunday pages. I grew up with George Lichty's cartoons in the funnies every day, and as a kid, I didn't give much thought to them. But seeing his work from a wide range of years is a revelation. At first glance, Lichty's drawings appear sloppy, with formulaic oafish characters with their jaws agape. But look closer... His compositional sense and skill at putting across a visual gag is remarkable. There's nothing sloppy about his use of perspective either. His lines seem to be alive!


Along with the batch of comics, Christopher included an article on Lichty from 1952. It mentions a feature in the Saturday Evening Post titled "Does Lichty Really Hate People" (does anyone out there have a copy of that article we could scan?) and offers some choice tidbits on Lichty's working habits and lifestyle...

He works best in a crowded, noisy newspaper office. His desk is heaped so high with old drawings, discarded captions, letters he has forgotten to mail, cigarette stubs and fan mail that ever fourth day the janitors are ordered to dig through the debris just to make sure that Lichty is still alive and breathing.

Lichty has a few happy passtimes... He likes to putter around the house. When in doubt he lays little brick walls that wind aimlessly around the Lichty garden. He also plays the bass drum, sometimes at home, but more often as a member of the Guckenheimer Sour Kraut Band, a unique musical institution that he says is perpetuating a dying art form. He is not certain what the art form is, but anyway, he admits it is dying.

Now if that isn't a great description of the life of a cartoonist, I don't know what is!

Lichty was one of the comic page's longest working artists. His style changed little over the years. Compare the examples below from the late thirties to the Sunday pages from the 50s. Lichty's distinctive free flowing lines were a staple of the funnies for over half a century. He may have drawn slouches, but I think you'll agree, as an artist, he was no slouch himself!



Here (thanks to Joseph Campana) is the entry on Lichty from Martin Sheridan's Comics And Their Creators...





1939 DAILY STRIPS






1937 SUNDAY PAGES
















MID 1940s DAILY STRIPS











1950s SUNDAY PAGES











Thanks Christopher!

Check out the fascinating link between Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs and George Lichty in John K's All Kinds of Stuff.

If you enjoyed this post, see Virgil Partch's Here We Go Again, The Wild Wild Women and Man The Beast. Also see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

6.3.09
.

Stumble It!

Cartooning: Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part Six

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.


Thanks to Clarke Snyder for this great Hurst ad.
We continue our series of posts on Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning with the first part of the section dealing with...

MAGAZINE CARTOONING
Introduction by Charles D. Rice


PERRY BARLOW
Perry Barlow worked along side a star-studded group of cartoonists at The New Yorker which included, among others, James Thurber, Peter Arno, Gardner Rea, Charles Addams, Whitney Darrow Jr, Sam Cobean and William Steig. From its inception, The New Yorker was, as its founding editor Harold Ross described it, "a reflection in the word and picture of metropolitan life". The images were equal with the words, and this magazine contributed greatly to the development of cartooning. Here, Barlow discusses his ideating process for a Halloween cover.




WILLIAM VON RIEGEN
Von Riegen was featured in our previous post from this book, Part Four: Sketching. His gesture drawings were greatly admired.



EARL OLIVER HURST

Earl Oliver Hurst has been profiled extensively at Shane Glines' excellent Cartoon Retro site. Hurst was primarily a "pretty girl" cartoonist whose work appeared in Colliers, True and American Weekly. His ads for Jantzen are particularly popular among current cartoonists. If you would like to see more, there is a great book on Hurst at Amazon... The Art Of Earl Oliver Hurst







KURT STOESSEL
H. Kurt Stoessel was born in 1909 in Germany, and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was an illustrator and art director for several national magazines including The Atlantic. He lived and worked in Boulder, Colorado his entire career, and passed away on this day in 1984.






FRED COOPER
You may not know the name of Fred Cooper but you certainly have seen his work. He was a letterer, poster designer, illustrator, cartoonist, writer and teacher. Leslie Cabarga describes him as the original "clip art" artist- his "big head" cartoon characters were seen in dozens of magazines of the teens and twenties, and continue to be in use to this day. For more on this influential cartoonist, see Allan Holtz's tribute in Strippers, and Cabarga's book The Lettering and Graphic Design of F.G. Cooper



GLUYAS WILLIAMS
We mentioned Gluyas Williams in an earlier post on Collier's Magazines From the 1930s. Williams was one of the most prolific and influential cartoonists of the 1920s. His work appeared in The New Yorker, Colliers and Life. Robert Benchley wrote, "I believe that Williams' drawings will be preserved for expert contemplation both as data on the manners and customs of our day, and as graceful and important examples of its art." For more great work by cartoonist Gluyas Williams, see David King's gluyaswilliams.com



ROBERT OSBORN
Robert Osborn was a cartoonist whose style influenced the UPA artists greatly. He worked with John Hubley on the film, Flat Hatting, which is available for download at Cartoon Brew Films.



BARTOLI
Bartoli's ink drawings appeared on the covers of quite a few issues of Holiday magazine in the late 40s and 50s. I haven't been able to find out much information about him. Perhaps someone out there knows and will post some biographic info on him to the comments below.




Many thanks to Marc Crisafulli and David King for sharing this great book with us.

If you found this post to be interesting, see... Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics, Part Two: How To Get Ideas / Studies of Comic Strips and Part Three: Single Panel and Sports Cartoonists, Part Four: Editorial Cartoons & Comic Books, and Part Five: Sketching

Also see... Nat Falk's "How To Make Animated Cartoons" Part One: The History of Animation, Part Two: The Cartoon Studios, Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: How To Draw Cartoons and Part Five: How To Animate. Also, see... Willard Mullen on Animals.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Comics: Dudley Fisher's Right Around Home

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.



You might remember an earlier post I did on the "Bird's Eye View" comics from Boy's Life magazine by Harrison Cady. (If you haven't seen it, by all means, check it out!) Here is a similar format comic, courtesy of our friends at Digital Funnies... "Right Around Home".

Dudley Fisher was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1890. He studied to be an architect, but dropped out to take a job as a layout artist at the Columbus Dispatch. After returning from WWI, Fisher created a comic strip called "Jolly Jingles". Year after year, he cranked out rhyming verse until he couldn't stand it any more. In December of 1937 he decided to take a break from jingles and draw what Christmas on his grandmother's farm would be like (if he had a grandmother and she lived on a farm!) He drew it as one big full page panel and readers immediately took to it and clamored for more. King Features picked up the strip and titled it "Right Around Home". These great Sunday pages date from early in the run- 1939.












When asked by a young artist what sorts of pens and paper to use to draw cartoons, Fisher recommended not worrying about things like that, saying "I feel certain that Michaelangelo could have done a masterpiece on meat wrapping paper with a toothbrush and shoe polish. It's all got to come out of the artist- not the ink bottle."

These fabulous scans of original Sunday pages were provided to the Archive by Jonathan Barli of Digital Funnies. Jonathan is hard at work on an important project- documenting and restoring early cartoons and comics in digital form. He offers a wide variety of fascinating material for sale on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. Please take a moment to visit the Digital Funnies website, and let him know that the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive sent you.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.29.09
.

Stumble It!

Theory: Parody- More Whack Comics

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.


Today, we present more parodies from Whack comics... But first take a look at the picture above. It's an an early advertisement for the Joe Kubert School. 3D comics and movies were all the rage then. Television was beginning to cut into ticket sales at theaters, and producers were looking for a technical advantage over TV to give them an edge. But the fad quickly fizzled out. Movie audiences and comic book readers were more interested in the quality of the movies and comics than the number of dimensions. Today, DVDs and digital media downloading are cutting into the traditional media markets. Some producers are beating the drum for 3D again. Let's hope they realize soon that people are more interested in quality entertainment than formats.

The following story by Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer trumpets their publication of the world's first 3D comic book, Three Dimension Comics in 1953. Strangely enough, the comic this was published in, Whack wasn't in 3D!








PARODY

In my last post on Whack comics, I left something unsaid, hoping someone would pick up on it in the comments. J.J. Hunsecker was the one who finally mentioned it...

I find it kind of ironic that you're using Whack as an example of parody, since it can also be said to be a ripoff of MAD.

It's important to understand exactly where the line lies between exploiting an existing concept and plagiarism. Whack doesn't plagiarise Mad magazine... it simply uses the same basic format- a parody comic book. It doesn't ripoff Mad magazine any more than Roy Rogers ripped off Gene Autry or Star Wars ripped off Star Trek. They are simply working in the same genre.

MIGHTY MOOSE
Here's an amusing parody of Paul Terry's Mighty Mouse. The Super Rodent himself even makes an appearance! This is a "second generation parody". Mighty Mouse himself was a parody of Superman.








FLUSH JORDAN
Flash Gordon was also a comic inspired by the success of another similar comic. Alex Raymond created the strip to compete with Dick Calkins' science fiction comic, Buck Rogers. Here, Flash gets "Whacked"... and Bing Crosby is dragged into the mess too!







Thanks to the Estate of Milton Caniff for allowing us to digitize this.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Ripoff vs Inspiration: Chaplin's Shadow. Also see... Jim Tyer's Funny Animal Comics, Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper, Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, and Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.3.09
.

Stumble It!

Theory: Parody- Whack Comics No. 2 (1953)

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.



A week or two ago, I was taking part in a discussion on the Cold Hard Flash blog about ripping off other artists' work. One of the people discussing the subject brought up the concept of parody, but seemed to have no idea what actually constituted parody. The dictionary defines parody like this...

par-o-dy [par-uh-dee] noun, plural -dies, verb, -died, -dy-ing.
1. a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing: his hilarious parody of Hamlet's soliloquy.

Parody is self-evident. The Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart said, "I find it difficult to define obscenity, but I know it when I see it." Parody is like that too. But if you're going to be a cartoonist, you have to be able to do more than just recognize it... you need to be able to control it and utilize it as a tool. If you succeed, you can create something that does much more than just make fun of another work- it can illuminate an otherwise unthought-of truth, making your parody a creative work that stands on its own. If you fail, you risk plagiarism.

pla-gia-rism [pley-juh-riz-uhm, -jee-uh-riz-] -noun
1. the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.

As a cartoonist, you have to know how to use parody properly. Parody is not an excuse for plagiarism. It's important to add your own caricature and exaggeration to comment on the work you're parodying. And your exaggeration has to make a point. The easiest way to recognize how to do that is to study and analyze other parodies. Here is an example of a comic that parodies other comics... Whack! Today I am presenting two stories from this issue...

WEIRD CREEPY AWFUL SPOOKY GHASTLY COMICS
This story is a parody of the EC Comics horror line, which included Tales From The Crypt, Vault Of Horror and The Haunt Of Fear. If you aren't familiar with these comics, you should check out the reprints produced by Russ Cochran.








STEVE CREVICE
This parody of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon was created by cartoonist, William Overgard. Overgard was a friend of Caniff's. Once, when Caniff was hospitalized, Overgard ghosted a whole week of Steve Canyon dalies so Caniff had time to recouperate. This particular copy of Whack belonged to Caniff. It was lent to us by his estate to digitize.








Let me know in the comments below if you would like to see more from Whack comics.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Ripoff vs Inspiration: Chaplin's Shadow and Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon Dalies. Also see... Jim Tyer's Funny Animal Comics, Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper, Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, and Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.27.09
.

Stumble It!

Cartooning: Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part Five

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.



We continue our series of posts on Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning with the section on the fundamental skill that at is the root of all pictorial art...

SKETCHING
Introduction by Gene Byrnes


WILLIAM VON RIEGEN
"William Von Riegen, with his studies of figure drawing, claims that this type of exercise gives him a looseness and freedom of line that he couldn't get in any other way. Von Riegen is an outstandingly talented young man in the field- an especially fine artist." -Gene Byrnes






FINE ARTISTS
In this section, Byrnes does a fine job of clearly showing the link between fine art and cartooning.




HEINRICH KLEY
"Heinrich Kley as a pen and ink artist is in a class by himself. I know of nobody who ever had the freedom of line with a pen that could compare with Kley's. Each of his drawings is a little masterpiece." -Gene Byrnes







ROGER VERNAM
"Roger Vernam's animals are good examples of on the spot sketching. In his book published by Harper, entitled Drawing People For Fun, he sketches people from all walks of life." -Gene Byrnes



GORDON GRANT
"Gordon Grant, the world renowned marine artist, whose work appears in dozens of art museums, works in oil, watercolor, and pen and ink. Whenever he has any spare time, he uses it to sketch. His sketches on the following pages were taken from his private sketchbooks and were done on a trip through Brittany. They were accomplished with a fountain pen and no preliminary pencil work." -Gene Byrnes






HOWARD BRODIE
"Howard Brodie's portrait sketches were done in Germany when he was an artist correspondent with the United States Army. His drawings of the G,I. the battle scenes, and the action that he portrayed while he was in the Army have made him famous." -Gene Byrnes



FURTHER READING
In his blog, Temple of the Seven Camels, Mark Kennedy has been offering sage advice to beginning animators about the value of carrying a sketchbook with you wherever you go. Make sure to read the whole series...

Carrying A Sketchbook Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four


...And don't miss his posts on Ronald Searle's Secret Sketchbook Part One and Part Two; and Ken Anderson's Africa Sketchbook

If you don't have The Drawings of Heinrich Kley in your library, get over to Amazon right away and order it. As Gene Byrnes says, no cartoonist should be without this book!

Many thanks to Marc Crisafulli and David King for sharing this great book with us.

If you found this post to be interesting, see... Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics, Part Two: How To Get Ideas / Studies of Comic Strips and Part Three: Single Panel and Sports Cartoonists, and Part Four: Editorial Cartoons & Comic Books

Also see... Nat Falk's "How To Make Animated Cartoons" Part One: The History of Animation, Part Two: The Cartoon Studios, Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: How To Draw Cartoons and Part Five: How To Animate. Also, see... Willard Mullen on Animals.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Cartooning: Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part Four

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.



EDITORIAL CARTOONS AND COMIC BOOKS
We continue with the section on editorial cartoons and comic books from Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning. This installment features a gallery of Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoons, features on C. D. Batchelor and Bill Crawford, and a cursory look at how comic books were edited.

EDITORIAL CARTOONING
By C. D. Batchelor
Clarence Daniel Batchelor started as a staff cartoonist at the Kansas City Star. He worked as a freelance illustrator for a time before joining the New York Daily News in 1931. He worked there for 38 years as an editorial cartoonist, He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for the accompanying cartoon of a young man labelled "Any European Youth" being propositioned by a skull faced whore representing war, captioned... "Come on in, I'll treat you right! I used to know your Daddy." (Click on the image to see at a larger size.)








WILLIAM CRAWFORD

As I went to Google to research this blurb on editorial cartoonist Bill Crawford, the first listing I found was a short article in today's New York Times. Sadly, Crawford passed away yesterday of pneumonia at age 68.

Crawford was a master of the medium. He was awarded the National Cartoonists Society awards for best editorial cartoon of 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1966; he was awarded the Silver T-Square Award in 1977; and he served as president of the organization in 1960. His cartoons first appeared in the Newark News, and later were syndicated to over 700 newspapers around the country. He is survived by his wife, Claire, as well as a son and daughter.




COMICS MAGAZINES
By Whitney Ellsworth
Whitney Ellsworth started out as an assistant artist at King Features, working on strips like Dumb Dora and Tilly the Toiler. He was chief editor at DC Comics during the golden age of Superman, Batman, The Spectre, and The Green Arrow- but Superman was the series he was most closely involved in. Ellsworth wrote many of the story outlines for the comic books, and in the early 50s, he wrote the pilot episode of the Superman TV serial, Superman Meets The Mole Men. He retired in 1970.





It's interesting to compare the editorial script to the finished artwork provided here. The only thing the artist used was the basic situations, a few details and the dialogue. The staging of the panels and the pacing of the action from panel to panel had to be completely reworked to function visually. It's surprising that Byrnes gives this section on comic books such short shrift. Ellsworth focuses on the technical and editorial aspects of the comic book business, and barely mentions the artists who actually create them. Perhaps if Byrnes had gotten Joe Shuster, Bob Kane or Jack Kirby to write this section, it would have been a different story.

Many thanks to Marc Crisafulli and David King for sharing this great book with us.

If you found this post to be interesting, see... Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics, Part Two: How To Get Ideas / Studies of Comic Strips and Part Three: Single Panel and Sports Cartoonists

Also see... Nat Falk's "How To Make Animated Cartoons" Part One: The History of Animation, Part Two: The Cartoon Studios, Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: How To Draw Cartoons and Part Five: How To Animate. Also, see... Willard Mullen on Animals.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Comics: Walt Kelly's Pogo

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.


Today, we have a guest blogger- Archive supporter Mike Fontanelli. I asked Mike to write about one of his personal heros. He's provided some wonderful artwork from his own collection to illustrate the article. Take it away, Mike-

FONTANELLI ON KELLY
One of the great heavy-hitters in the entire history of cartooning, Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. was born in Philadelphia on August 25, 1913, although his family relocated to Bridgeport, Connecticut during his second year.

Migrating to California to work on Donald Duck cartoons at Walt Disney Studios in 1935, he stayed until the strike in 1941, long enough to animate on Snow White, Fantasia, Dumbo and The Reluctant Dragon. As good as Kelly's animation was, (had he stayed on, we'd all doubtless be reading about Disney's TEN "Old Men") his greatest achievements still lay ahead.

After leaving Disney, Kelly worked for Dell Comics. Here is a story he did for a 1946 Raggedy Ann & Andy comic book (the cover is from a 1948 issue)...








During his stints at Dell and the New York Star, Kelly introduced his most memorable creation to the world- in the unassuming form of a philosophical, swamp-dwelling possum named Pogo. The true heir of Herriman's Krazy Kat and Uncle Remus, Pogo was an American comic strip masterpiece. A flawless blend of slapstick, parody, allegory, political commentary, intellectual whimsy, social satire and Irish poetry- Pogo can be read on several levels at once, and it set a new standard of excellence in newspaper humor strips that has never been equaled.

Kelly has been compared to everyone from James Joyce to Lewis Carroll to T.S. Sullivant. He was named "Cartoonist of the Year" in 1952, and was elected president of the National Cartoonists Society two years later. He was the first strip cartoonist to be invited to contribute originals to the Library of Congress, and published some three dozen books during his lifetime- classics, all.


It's impossible for Gen X-ers weaned on modern tripe like Dilbert and Drabble to imagine the incredible graphic brilliance within the panels of Pogo. I remember literally getting lost in a Kelly Sunday page as a child, staring at the inspirational artwork for hours on end.

More than any other influence, I owe my choice of profession to the master, Walt Kelly. Here's some cool stuff from my collection. Enjoy!

Mike Fontanelli
Los Angeles, 2007

MIKE'S ORIGINAL KELLY SUNDAY PAGES
Make sure you click on these... They're amazing!






Take a moment to visit the official Pogo homepage.

Art Fuentes has been taking the $100k Cartoon Drawing Course. He got so excited by this post, he made a Pogo run cycle pencil test. Check it out!

ARCHIVAL POGO
Thanks, Mike for allowing us to digitize your original Pogo Sunday pages. For those of you out there who still don't understand how our archive works, what you see here on this blog is just a small representation of what our archive contains. For instance, we scanned Mike's Pogo inks at 1200 dots per inch- much larger than you see here on the blog. Each one of the Sunday pages comes out at a filesize of 1.7 gigs. For a sample of how detailed our scans are, click on the image below and compare it to the last panel of the last Sunday page...


You can see the grain in the paper! We scan every image in our collection at this resolution.

If you enjoyed this post, see also... The Father of Cartooning: T. S. Sullivant, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals, , Harrison Cady's Birds Eye Views, Rube Goldberg's Side Show, and Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.30.08
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Cartooning: Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part Three

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.



SINGLE PANEL COMICS AND SPORTS CARTOONISTS

We continue with the section on two column panel and sports cartoonists from Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning (1950). Here are step by step descriptions of the creation of panel cartoons by George Clark and Lichty; as well as an article on Robert L. Ripley and features on sports cartoonists Pap, Howard Brodie and the great Willard Mullen.

TWO COLUMN PANELS
Two column panel cartoons are a staple of newspaper comics today, even though the width of the standard column has shrunk. As the size decreased, artists were forced to reduce detail. Daily strips are so small now, it's hard to do anything wider than a medium closeup in every panel. The two column panel cartoon has become the last bastion of cartoons with any kind of detail at all. Here, Gene Byrnes covers a few of the most popular single panel comics from the late 40s.




GEORGE CLARK
The Neighbors
George Clark was born in Oklahoma. He began drawing at a very young age, and by 16 years old, his cartoons were appearing in the Daily Oklahoman. His first syndicated cartoon was "Side Glances", and in 1939, he created the one panel comic he is best known for, "The Neighbors". Clark's gags were inspired by quiet observation of people in soda fountains and railroad stations. He would photograph situations, street scenes and expressions to incorporate into his drawings. The family in the comic was loosely based on his own wife and children.

He would create all of his comics for a week in one marathon session. He wrote, "It takes me at least six hours to warm up. I sit there trying to work and wondering what I've been doing all these years that it should still come so hard to me." When the ideas started flowing, he would work nonstop for up to 12 hours straight to complete the six cartoons for the week. He commented on the grueling process by saying, "When I'm trying to think of ideas for cartoons and they won't come, I think it would be wonderful to paint landscapes, with no gags in them."




LICHTY
Grin & Bear It


George Lichty was one of the most famous and highly paid one panel cartoonists in the newspapers. He created the cartoon, "Grin And Bear It" in 1932, and it ran every day for many decades. When asked to what he attributed the popularity of his wonderful lummoxes with names like "Bascomb Belchmore" and "Senator Snort", he replied, "From little acorns mighty oafs grow."




LARGE PANEL COMICS
When newspaper comics were at their zenith, whole pages were sometimes devoted to a single comic. Other comics would be half pages. Interspersed throughout the comics pages were quarter and third page single panels that depicted scenes and panoramas filled with gags. Today, each comic is so small, it's lucky if it can put across a single gag. A lot of the richness and depth of view has been lost.




ROBERT L. RIPLEY
Believe It Or Not
Robert Ripley was unique among cartoonists, because he truly lived his strip. Ripley travelled the world in search of the odd and unusual, which he featured in his daily newspaper comic. He passed away in 1949 at 56 years of age.



SPORTS CARTOONISTS
PAP
Thomas "Pap" Paprocki was referred to as the "Rembrandt of the sports pages". Born in 1902, he began his artistic endeavors at age nine, when he took painting lessons from an artist near his home in New York. A gifted athelete, it was natural that he would gravitate to being a sports cartoonist. In 1932, he began working for the Associated Press, where his column and drawings ran for over three decades. Check out the meticulous planning he put into his work.





HOWARD BRODIE
Howard Brodie worked as a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. During WWII, he became a combat correspondent, creating illustrations of GIs in action that made a huge impact on readers stateside. He was a decorated veteran, and also served as a combat artist in Korea and Viet Nam. In the 50s and 60s became a courtroom artist, famous for his ability to capture the drama and detail of the proceedings in his quick powerful sketches.




WILLARD MULLIN

Willard Mullin has been featured in this blog before in reference to his work on the Famous Artists Cartooning Course. He grew up in Los Angeles, but like most newspaper cartoonists of his era, he moved to New York in 1934. He worked for the New York World Telegram for over thirty years, where he created the iconic caricature of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the "Brooklyn Bum". Mullin eventually became a respected illustrator for Time, Life, and The Saturday Evening Post. Although sports cartooning is pretty much a dead artform, Mullin's work is timeless and will live on long after the game has ended.




Many thanks to Marc Crisafulli and David King for sharing this great book with us.

If you found this post to be interesting, see... Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics Part Two: How To Get Ideas / Studies of Comic Strips

Also see... Nat Falk's "How To Make Animated Cartoons" Part One: The History of Animation, Part Two: The Cartoon Studios, Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: How To Draw Cartoons and Part Five: How To Animate. Also, see... Willard Mullen on Animals.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Comics: Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon Dailies

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.


Today, we have an exciting post for you... original artwork by Milton Caniff for the Steve Canyon newspaper strip.


Archive supporter, John Ellis is working with the family of Milton Caniff on a DVD release of the live action Steve Canyon television series, which debuted in September of 1958 on NBC. In searching through the family's collection of memorabilia, John stumbled across a batch of original inks of daily and Sunday pages that the family didn't realize that they had. The estate of Milton Caniff has generously allowed the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive to digitize the material for inclusion in our cartoon database.


John Ellis has been doing considerable research into Caniff and Steve Canyon. I asked him to write a few words about Caniff...

Milton Caniff has been referred to as "The Rembrandt of the Comic Strip", and oft by himself as "an Armchair Marco Polo", but in fact this whirlwind of a comic strip innovator and writer was essentially a sincerely nice man who loved to draw. Yes this gentleman born in Hillsboro Ohio in 1907 created and drew Terry and The Pirates from 1934 to 1946, which absolutely set the standard for the adventure comic strip. True, he raised the bar with Steve Canyon, which unlike Terry, he owned lock stock and barrel from the first daily strip in January 1947 through to June 1988, the final installment published shortly after his death. Absolutely he worked rain or shine, seven days/strips a week for 54 years, even from his hospital bed, the deadlines never ended.

Milton Caniff in his studio ca. 1947
(click for a larger view)

But beyond the art and dedication, what is true is that I've never heard an unkind word in his regard. His nephew Harry Guyton can't even remember Milton ever losing his temper. My friend David Haft, who produced the NBC Steve Canyon primetime TV series in 1958, made a comment as we watched Milton on a vintage filmclip promoting the series recently. He said "Lovely, lovely man". Happy 100th birthday Milton.

John Ellis
Hollywood, 2007

This is the first of several posts featuring the Caniff Collection. Make sure to click on the images to see high resolution versions. Caniff's amazing adventure strip from the late 40s has never looked better!
















If you enjoyed this post, see... Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One- Meet The Men Behind the Comics and Part Two- Studying Comic Strips, Dan Gordon's Superkatt, Rube Goldberg's Side Show and Alex Toth Model Sheets

STEVE CANYON TV SHOW

For info on the Steve Canyon TV show DVD, see... www.stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com

STEVE CANYON AT AMAZON

Fantagraphics has a great book on Caniff's career, and Checker has released year by year reprints of the classic Steve Canyon strip. Caniff was a master storyteller, and the first few years of Steve Canyon are examples of his genius at the height of its powers. Click on the pictures for more info.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

"Steve Canyon" is a Registered Trademark of the Milton Caniff Estate.
© 2007 Milton Caniff Estate. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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Cartooning: Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part Two

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.



BLONDIE, BRINGING UP FATHER, HENRY, MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN, DICK TRACY, GASOLINE ALLEY, PRINCE VALIANT... Studying The Comics Pages

We continue with the section on newspaper cartoonists from Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning 1950. Today, there are three articles on how to get fresh ideas, Byrnes goes through the newspaper analyzing the appeal of various comic strips, and Chic Young and Hal Foster are featured.

HOW TO GET IDEAS
By Dana Coty
I don't have much information on Dana Coty (Dec. 19, 1901 - March 19, 1962) aside from the fact that he worked at Disney in the mid-30s, and was a story man at Famous Studios.



J. N. Darling (Ding)
on EDITORIAL IDEAS
"Ding" Darling was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist for the Sioux City Journal, The Des Moines Register, the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Globe. His editorial cartoons dealing with conservation causes were a staple of the opinion sections of many papers for decades. He passed away in 1962.



IDEAS FOR ADVERTISING CARTOONS
By Sam Cobean
Sam Cobean was an inbetweener on Snow White, barely surviving on $16 a week, when he joined the strikers fighting for the creation of the Screen Cartoonists Guild. After returning to work when the contract was settled, Sam realized that Disney was not the place for him and took a job as a copy boy at the Washington Post. There, he developed an interest in political cartoons. During the war, he worked in a unit producing training cartoons and pamphlets along with cartoonist Charles Addams. Addams introduced him to the editor of the New Yorker, and Cobean's cartoons appeared there for many years afterwards. In 1950, he created a book of cartoons, titled "Cobean's Naked Eye" which was a bestseller. He died in a car accident in 1951.



STUDIES OF COMIC STRIPS
In this section, Gene Byrnes analyzes the style and appeal of various contemporary newspaper comics. The most interesting thing about the strips he features is the high level of draftsmanship, and the diverse variety of styles and approaches to the medium. Newpaper comics were once considered the pinnacle of cartooning... but today, they have plunged to its nadir. Comparing Prince Valiant to Drabble or Bringing Up Father to Cathy is a depressing task. It's shameful that so great an artform has been allowed to deteriorate so far. I hope there are aspiring cartoonists out there who are willing to take up the difficult task of restoring the comics page to its rightful place in American culture again. This overview is a good place to start investigating the forgotten art of newspaper cartooning.








SUNDAY PAGES
Featuring Chic Young & Hal Foster


Chic Young was born in 1901 and began his career as a newspaper cartoonist in 1923. His first strip for King Features was Dumb Dora and in 1930, he created the strip, Blondie, one of the longest running newspaper comics of all time. He drew it until he passed away in 1973, and his son, Dean continues to write it to this day. Blondie was hugely successful and spawned film and TV adaptations.



Hal Foster was raised in the wilds of Halifax, Nova Scotia where he was an avid boater and outdoorsman. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade and began a course of self education studying sketching and anatomy. He set art aside to become a hunting guide and gold prospector, but at age 28, he decided to devote his life to a career in art. He received classical training at the Chicago Art Institute, the National Academy of Design and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. In 1927, he was contracted to do a comic strip adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes. 1n 1937, Foster introduced an original property, Prince Valiant, the most successful adventure strip of all time. Foster produced the strip for over 40 years, passing away in 1982.




Other artists featured in this section are Jimmy Hatlo, Otto Soglow, George McManus, Chester Gould and Frank King... all worthy of spending a few minutes Googling and reading up on.






The posts I present here at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive blog aren't intended to be the last word on any subject, particularly one as large and multifaceted as the history of cartooning. My hope is that you use these posts as a springboard for your own investigation. Take the names and examples I present here and start searching the web for more... scour bookstores and flea markets... and expand your frame of reference beyond just what is presented here. I wish I had a source of "hot tips" like this when I was first starting out. Take advantage of this great resource we're building.

Many thanks to Marc Crisafulli and David King for sharing this great book with us.

If you found this post to be interesting, see... Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics

Also see... Nat Falk's "How To Make Animated Cartoons" Part One: The History of Animation, Part Two: The Cartoon Studios, Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: How To Draw Cartoons and Part Five: How To Animate. Also, see... Willard Mullen on Animals.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Animation Art: Alex Toth Model Sheets

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see the bonus reason on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts featuring animation art.



Alex Toth passed away last year at the age of 77. Along with Will Eisner and Jack Kirby, Toth is considered one of the giants of adventure comics. Today's post is just the first of several on this important artist. Toth began his career at age 15, creating illustrations for Heroic magazine. He graduated from the High School of Industrial Arts in 1947, and soon was working at DC Comics on The Flash, Green Lantern and The Atom. He left DC in 1952 and was drafted into the Army in 1954.

After his stint in the service, he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked for Dell on the highly regarded Zorro comics. In 1960, he joined Hanna-Barbera as a designer and storyboard artist on Space Angel, Jonny Quest, Herculoids and Super Friends. His designs for these shows are masterful and imaginative.

The pity is that the actual animation on these shows isn't even close to being in the same league. Realistic designs like these are very difficult to animate, and require a draftsman of Toth's calibre to be able to pull off convincingly. But the late 60s was the wrong time for such a challenge. Hanna Barbera was in a mad race with Filmation to see who could put out the cheapest factory-made programming on the tightest schedule. Toth's imagination and skill were left behind in the dust. Instead of respecting what could have been, Toth's designs are now taken completely out of context and subjected to ridicule in current TV programs.

Archive supporter, Kent Butterworth brought us a few original Toth drawings to digitize, and I've supplemented them with some xeroxes belonging to the family of Carlo Vinci.

















If you found this post to be interesting, see also... Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning, Maxfield Parrish's Arabian Nights, Lotte Reineger's Prince Achmed Part One and Part Two and The Wan Brothers.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.22.09
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Comics: Harvey Eisenberg's Foxy Fagan 1946

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.



Here is a vintage funny animal comic by cartoonist, Harvey Eisenberg. Eisenberg started out in New York at the Fleischer and Van Beuren studios, but he is best known for his work with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera as a layout artist on the Tom & Jerry series. He went on to work at Hanna-Barbera as a character designer, layout artist and story man.

This comic is particularly interesting because it is a collaboration between Eisenberg and Joe Barbera, with Barbera providing the story sketches and Eisenberg creating the finished art. (This is very similar to the way they worked together as director and layout artist on the Tom & Jerry cartoons at MGM.) This story is from Foxy Fagan No. 1, published by Eisenberg and Barbera's DIY comic book company, Deerfield in 1946.

John Kricfalusi recently posted an insightful article on Eisenberg's Tom & Jerry comics that you definately shouldn't miss. Mark Evanier has an interesting article on Foxy Fagan too and a link to more scans of it on the web. Thanks to Archive supporter, Kent Butterworth for sharing this great comic with all of us.














See also Harvey Eisenberg and Al White's Huck Hound Builds A House.

For more great golden age funny animal comics, see... Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, Milt Stein's Supermouse (Coo Coo Comics No. 7) Dan Gordon's Superkatt, Jim Tyer's Comic Books and Boodi Rogers' Babe Comics

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive