Cartooning: Zim's Cartoons and Caricatures

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 cartoonists.



Eugene "Zim" Zimmerman was born in 1862 in Switzerland, and his family emigrated to the United States when he was seven. As a poor immigrant, Zim witnessed the "melting pot" of American culture first hand. His depictions of ethnic minorities were pointed, but honest and well observed. Although he is pretty much forgotten today, he was very well known in his time, and his humor captured the essence of turn-of-the-century America.


Zim was the founder of the so-called "Grotesque" school of caricature, and was the first caricaturist to incorporate exaggerated cartooniness not only in the faces of his subjects, but in the bodies as well. Zim worked for Puck and Judge, the two top humor magazines of their day. Along with caricatures by George McManus and Frederick Burr Opper, Zim's caricature of a moon faced grinning kid (an example of which appears on page 3 of this book) was said to be one of the earliest inspirations for Mad magazine's mascot character, Alfred E. Neuman.


Zim was a prolific artist, with more than 40,000 illustrations published in his lifetime. He retired from Judge in 1897 and founded the American Association of Cartoonists and Caricaturists. He was also a writer and teacher. His columns ran in Cartoons magazine during the early years of the century, as did ads for his correspondence course in cartooning.


Archive supporter Marc Schirmeister has been searching high and low for a copy of Zim's early educational materials with no luck. But recently this 1910 book, packed with tips for the aspiring cartoonist, turned up in a used bookstore in Arizona...


It's worth noting that the price tag on the cover is an important clue to the value of these lessons to contemporary artists. According to the Consumer Price Index, $5 in 1910 is equivalent to $116 today. Five dollars represented a full day's labor to many of the cartoonists who bought this book. Zim's name in gold letters on the cover was the selling point that made so many aspiring cartoonists part with the "five plunks (in real Money)" as Zim so colorfully puts it in his introduction.


These 100 pages are packed with great cartoons, helpful drawing tips, technical information and business advice for the aspiring cartoonist. Most importantly, Zim passes along his unique philosophy of life, and offers a shining example of how an artistic career as a caricaturist can be incorporated into a person's lifestyle. At the time this book was written, Zim had twenty years of experience under his belt, and had attained the highest level in his field.

Here are just a few choice snippets from this great book...





Guess who?
If you are a fan of caricature, check out Will Finn's latest post and the blog of my favorite caricaturist, Marlo Meekins.

If you found this post to be interesting, see the... W. L. Evans Cartooning and Caricature Course Brochure, Lesson One and Lesson Two, Preston Blair and John K's $100K Animation Drawing Course, Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics, Part Two: How To Get Ideas / Studies of Comic Strips, Part Three: Single Panel and Sports Cartoonists, Part Four: Editorial Cartoons & Comic Books, Part Five: Sketching, Part Six: Magazine Cartooning and Part Seven: Magazine Cartooning (continued); 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, Willard Mullin on Animals.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Education: W L Evans Course Brochure

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 art instructional material.

We received a surprise in the mail today- a gift from archive supporter, Mark Anderson. Mark is a magazine and greeting card cartoonist who lives in the Chicago area. He ran across a treasure in his travels, and picked it up to donate to the collection of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive. It's a promotional brochure advertising the W. L. Evans Course in Caricature and Cartooning. Shaped like a miniature artist's portfolio, and packed with great vintage cartoons and sales information, this brochure completes our collection of the W. L. Evans Course.

You might remember that we posted a couple of lessons from this series late last year. (Lesson One and Lesson Two) A complete set of lessons was donated by Marc Schirmeister. This brochure completes the set and this wonderful collection will now find a place of honor in our museum. Many thanks for thinking of us, Mark and Marc!

THE W. L. EVANS COURSE (1913)
Promotional Brochure

A cartoonist is a power. His audience is the boundless public. He is talked about. His work is admired in society. He meets the most prominent people, and becomes personally acquainted with them. He is a critic of the world's happenings.

And he receives a large salary for his work.

If you found this post to be interesting, see... The W. L. Evans School of Cartooning and Caricaturing Lesson One and Lesson Two

Also see... Preston Blair and John K's $100K Animation Drawing Course, Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics, Part Two: How To Get Ideas / Studies of Comic Strips, Part Three: Single Panel and Sports Cartoonists, Part Four: Editorial Cartoons & Comic Books, Part Five: Sketching, Part Six: Magazine Cartooning and Part Seven: Magazine Cartooning (continued); 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, Willard Mullin on Animals.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Education: W L Evans Course 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 art instructional material.

Want to learn to cartoon the way Elzie Seegar, the man who brought Popeye to life did? How about Chester Gould, the creator of Dick Tracy, or Hank Ketcham the father of Dennis the Menace? They all learned to draw cartoons with the W. L. Evans correspondence course. A while back, we posted Lesson One. Here is lesson two. If you'd like me to post more, show me you are using this material by posting your lessons on your website or blog.

THE W. L. EVANS COURSE (1916)
Lesson Two







STUDENTS: Print this stuff out and USE IT!

If you found this post to be interesting, see... The W. L. Evans School of Cartooning and Caricaturing Lesson One

Also see... Preston Blair and John K's $100K Animation Drawing Course, Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics, Part Two: How To Get Ideas / Studies of Comic Strips, Part Three: Single Panel and Sports Cartoonists, Part Four: Editorial Cartoons & Comic Books, Part Five: Sketching, Part Six: Magazine Cartooning and Part Seven: Magazine Cartooning (continued); 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, Willard Mullin on Animals.

Many thanks to Archive supporter, Marc Schirmeister for sharing this with us.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Education: W L Evans Cartooning And Caricaturing Course Part One

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 art instructional material.


I don't normally post twice in the same day, but today is special. Cartoonist, Marc Schirmeister stopped by to donate the granddaddy of all cartooning courses to the archive- a stack of 19 mail order cartooning lessons by W. L. Evans.

In 1913, Elzie Segar, aged 18 began a correspondence course headed up by the Cleveland Leader cartoonist, W. L. Evans. The course cost a dollar per lesson and it took Segar a year and a half to complete the 20 lessons. By 1917, he had landed a job penning the "Charlie Chaplin Comic Capers" and "Looping the Loop" strips. In the ad above, Segar is quoted as saying, "I'm getting along fine, and it's all your fault."

Decades later, Segar made mention of his early education in his strip, Thimble Theater. In 1934, his character, Sappo took the W. L. Evans Cartooning Course and delighted readers with cartoon drawings made from letters of the alphabet. Segar wasn't the only cartoonist who got his start with this course. Chester Gould of Dick Tracy fame was a graduate of the W. L. Evans course, as was Dennis the Menace creator, Hank Ketcham.

Here is the first lesson that got these great cartoonists started on their career path. If there is interest, I will post more of this landmark course.








THE PLATES




STUDENTS: Print this stuff out and USE IT!

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 and Part Six: Magazine Cartooning; 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.

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Education: $100,000 Drawing Course Update

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 art instruction posts.


Kevin Langley's Screwy Sketchblog has pictures of how he printed out and bound the instructional texts we've posted.

It's been about nine months since we started the $100,000 Cartoon Drawing Course. That's long enough that you should be seeing a night and day improvement in your work.

Link to a few of your "Before and After" pictures in the comments below, and let's see how you're doing...

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

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Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 10

NOTE: Do not move on to this lesson unless you have completed Lesson One, Lesson Two, Lesson Three, Lesson Four, Lesson Five, Lesson Six, Lesson Seven, Lesson Eight, and Lesson Nine

LESSON TEN

Read John Kricfalusi's introduction to this lesson at...
Animation School Lesson 10A: Model Sheets
Animation School Lesson 10B: Substance and Style

Print out and refer to these pages from the Preston Blair book, keeping in mind the following concepts...

CONTSTRUCTION


LINE OF ACTION


FLUID POSES


CLEAR SILHOUETTES - NEGATIVE SHAPES


APPEAL & CUTENESS


And print out and draw from the model sheets on these pages that John uses as examples on his blog...


Reluctant Dragon Model Sheets


Model Sheets by Hurter and Thorson


Mice and Duck Model Sheets


More Disney Model Sheets


Terrytoons Model Sheets


Berny Wolf's Iwerks Model Sheets
When you are satisfied with your drawings, post them on your blog.

PLEASE NOTE: The procedure for getting your blog listed on this page has changed. Due to the overwhelming response to this course, I don't have time to add each student's link by hand. Your assignment will be automatically linked at the bottom of this page if you...

• Click on "links to this post" at the bottom of this posting.
  
• Click on "create a link".
  
• Copy and paste the HTML code into your completed assignment for lesson number 9.
  
• Publish your post.

Your page will automatically be added to the list of links.

Do not delete or edit your posts or change the title after you have posted them. You will need them later to chart your progress.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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