Thursday Story Strip Day.
Another month of Warren Tufts Lone Spaceman. I may go on after this.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
In Space There's No Up
Thursday Story Strip Day.
Another month of Warren Tufts Lone Spaceman. I may go on after this.
Thursday Story Strip Day.
Another month of Warren Tufts Lone Spaceman. I may go on after this.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Shine A Light
Wednesday Advertising Day.
I wish I could show you every newspaper strip ad I have. And I will, in time. But for now, I have a series of Eveready ads by Greig Flessel from Newspaperarchive plus one I scanned myself. I have writtn about this (probably two-weekly) series before. They always seemed to lean towards the sensational men's magazine type of stories, but in the early fifties they seem to have followed the trend of the time and done more 'horror' type stories. The last one from 1958 is suitably bland. I have also added an Eveready ad from a comic book from the mid forties. It seems the series hadn't started by then, but the idea is similar.
March 16 1948:
Oct 8 1950:
March 4 1951:
March 25 1951:
April 15 1951:
May 6 1951:
Dec 2 1951;
Sept 21 1952:
Oct 12 1952:
Jan 10 1954:
Sept 9 1955:
Feb 16 1959:
April 20 1958:
Wednesday Advertising Day.
I wish I could show you every newspaper strip ad I have. And I will, in time. But for now, I have a series of Eveready ads by Greig Flessel from Newspaperarchive plus one I scanned myself. I have writtn about this (probably two-weekly) series before. They always seemed to lean towards the sensational men's magazine type of stories, but in the early fifties they seem to have followed the trend of the time and done more 'horror' type stories. The last one from 1958 is suitably bland. I have also added an Eveready ad from a comic book from the mid forties. It seems the series hadn't started by then, but the idea is similar.
March 16 1948:
Oct 8 1950:
March 4 1951:
March 25 1951:
April 15 1951:
May 6 1951:
Dec 2 1951;
Sept 21 1952:
Oct 12 1952:
Jan 10 1954:
Sept 9 1955:
Feb 16 1959:
April 20 1958:
Monday, December 07, 2009
Beeva Shot
Tuesday Comic Strip Day.
Looking for some more earlier samples of This Funny World, I came across a ver odd looking Mickey Mouse story by Floyd Gottfredson. I have heard many people rave abot Gottfredson's Mouse, but I am not very familiar with it. Some stories were adapted to comic book fomat and ran in the Dutch Disnet weekly Donald Duck, but I was never a great fan of those, mostly because of the way they were cut up. Now that I have seen this one, I understand why. These daily continuities have a very odd rythm. The story is told in a joke a day, which makes every day jumo just a little bit ahead. If they are cut into a sequence that doesn't respect the daily strip as a single unit, the reader is asked to make a jumo every three or four panels. Reading them this way makes it all a lot more logical. With all the reprint books coming out these days, I'd say a three tiers a page reprint of Gottfredson's most uknown work from the forties would be in order. Still, if you have to wait for the Disney Company to do it...
This story features Eega Beeva, a character invented by Gottfredson and writer Bill Walsh. Eeega Beeva is suposed to be a super evolved human being from the future and he was Mickey's pall and co-star for three years, until he was suddenly removed in 1950. Maybe someone upstairs finally read what the strip people were doing. In this story, which is called Be-junior and the Aints in all the Mouse lists and which is probably one of the longest sequences in the series, running from March 1949 until August, Eega Beeva builds a rocket ship and takes Mickey to the stars. I may ru the full length of this story here finally, at least until the weird aliens start appearing. For now, enjoy the art (and the story isn't to bad either). Gottfredson must be one of the few artists know who can make a character who is doing nothing seem like he is moving.
Tuesday Comic Strip Day.
Looking for some more earlier samples of This Funny World, I came across a ver odd looking Mickey Mouse story by Floyd Gottfredson. I have heard many people rave abot Gottfredson's Mouse, but I am not very familiar with it. Some stories were adapted to comic book fomat and ran in the Dutch Disnet weekly Donald Duck, but I was never a great fan of those, mostly because of the way they were cut up. Now that I have seen this one, I understand why. These daily continuities have a very odd rythm. The story is told in a joke a day, which makes every day jumo just a little bit ahead. If they are cut into a sequence that doesn't respect the daily strip as a single unit, the reader is asked to make a jumo every three or four panels. Reading them this way makes it all a lot more logical. With all the reprint books coming out these days, I'd say a three tiers a page reprint of Gottfredson's most uknown work from the forties would be in order. Still, if you have to wait for the Disney Company to do it...
This story features Eega Beeva, a character invented by Gottfredson and writer Bill Walsh. Eeega Beeva is suposed to be a super evolved human being from the future and he was Mickey's pall and co-star for three years, until he was suddenly removed in 1950. Maybe someone upstairs finally read what the strip people were doing. In this story, which is called Be-junior and the Aints in all the Mouse lists and which is probably one of the longest sequences in the series, running from March 1949 until August, Eega Beeva builds a rocket ship and takes Mickey to the stars. I may ru the full length of this story here finally, at least until the weird aliens start appearing. For now, enjoy the art (and the story isn't to bad either). Gottfredson must be one of the few artists know who can make a character who is doing nothing seem like he is moving.
Funny Is As Funny Does
Monday Cartoon Day.
This Funny World was a dailies series of cartoons that had been published in the important magazines, which ran from the late forties at least into the sixties. As such it gives a good view of the state of cartooning of it's date. These samples are from the late fifties, in itself not the best period. The big foor cartoonists of the fortis had run their course. Most of the really good cartonists had migrated to the newspaper strips. As Mort Walker said when he found out what he got each year when he was named most succesful cartoonist: "If that is the most I can earn, I have got to find a way to make a better living." The new breed of bolder and more modern cartoonists had not yet cme to the foreground yet and the best of them (such as Gaham Wilson) never got to a level where they would be suited for a newspaper audience. Still among the ones represented in januari 1957, we can find later newspaper strip artists Brad Anderson (Marmaduke), Mr. Abernathy's Frank Ridgeway and Bill Yates (who had been editor of Dell's 1000 Jokes all through the fifties and may well have been the editor behind This Funny World as well).
Monday Cartoon Day.
This Funny World was a dailies series of cartoons that had been published in the important magazines, which ran from the late forties at least into the sixties. As such it gives a good view of the state of cartooning of it's date. These samples are from the late fifties, in itself not the best period. The big foor cartoonists of the fortis had run their course. Most of the really good cartonists had migrated to the newspaper strips. As Mort Walker said when he found out what he got each year when he was named most succesful cartoonist: "If that is the most I can earn, I have got to find a way to make a better living." The new breed of bolder and more modern cartoonists had not yet cme to the foreground yet and the best of them (such as Gaham Wilson) never got to a level where they would be suited for a newspaper audience. Still among the ones represented in januari 1957, we can find later newspaper strip artists Brad Anderson (Marmaduke), Mr. Abernathy's Frank Ridgeway and Bill Yates (who had been editor of Dell's 1000 Jokes all through the fifties and may well have been the editor behind This Funny World as well).
Off His Trolley
Sunday Quick Fix.
I don't really know why I like these old Mort Meskin strips so much. They are decidedly oldfashioned, but still they have quality that makes them esciting even today. Of course, the many uses of the duplicate Johnny Quicks to indicate speed are a lot of fun, but I think what fascinates me most are the angles. Almost every shot is an upshot or a downshot. The figures aren't exaggerated in such a way to suggest a special 'lens' on the 'camera', as they often are today, but the shots are more varied than many shots are today (in comics as well as in television or movies). I especially like the 'over the shoulder' shots with the police man and the shot with five onlookers on page seven.
Sunday Quick Fix.
I don't really know why I like these old Mort Meskin strips so much. They are decidedly oldfashioned, but still they have quality that makes them esciting even today. Of course, the many uses of the duplicate Johnny Quicks to indicate speed are a lot of fun, but I think what fascinates me most are the angles. Almost every shot is an upshot or a downshot. The figures aren't exaggerated in such a way to suggest a special 'lens' on the 'camera', as they often are today, but the shots are more varied than many shots are today (in comics as well as in television or movies). I especially like the 'over the shoulder' shots with the police man and the shot with five onlookers on page seven.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Dreams Of A McCay Fiend
Saturday Leftover Day.
Recently I ran across some Windsor McCay material that is not very often seen. McCay is most well known as the artist of Little Nemo, Hungry Henrietta and my personal favorite (and least reprited) A Pilgrim's Progress. He is also known as The Father of Animation, since the handmade animation shorts he did at the begining of the last century were an inspiration to many (as well as miles away in quality from anything procused until years after his death). For the last part of his life he did editorial drawings for the Hearst papers, which are as outdated as they are beautifully drawn. One of his most fanous strips was Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend, depicting the insane nightmares of people who ate to much rarebit before going to sleep. In 2007 the German fan and collector Ulrich Merkl published a huge volume collecting most of these black and white strips, complete with a cd disc tha reprodues all of them as well as many related pieces, some great commentary and comparisons with movies and cartoons which took their inspiration from this great strip. Included with the extra's were a series of strips McCay did about five years after the Rarebit series, alternatively called It's Only A Dream and Dream of a Lobster Fiend. It's from this last series I found a few, as well as an add for a movie with the same name and subject from the same period. I don't know if the movie was inspired by McCay or if McCay was inspired by the movie (not fearing a lawsuit, since they movie director clearly took his earlier strip as an inspiration - and maybe even taking the movie as a chance to take up his own strip for another syndicate or newspaper, this time signing it with his own name instead of the pseudonym Silas he had used on the original). It is even possible he was asked to do the series as a sort of promotion or to change the name of It's Only A Dream to Dream Of A Lobster Fiend for the same reason. Anyway, he is te material. I also checked on Amazon, but Ulrich's rediculously low priced book is still available there. That surprises me because it had only a low print run. It should be in every American library and in the collection of any serious fan of the art form.
March 28 1912:
April 23 1912:
April 26 1912:
April 29 1912:
0ay 1 1912:
May 8 1912:
Another May 8 1912:
May 19 1912:
May 12 1912:
May 27 1912:
May 1912:
May 1912:
Saturday Leftover Day.
Recently I ran across some Windsor McCay material that is not very often seen. McCay is most well known as the artist of Little Nemo, Hungry Henrietta and my personal favorite (and least reprited) A Pilgrim's Progress. He is also known as The Father of Animation, since the handmade animation shorts he did at the begining of the last century were an inspiration to many (as well as miles away in quality from anything procused until years after his death). For the last part of his life he did editorial drawings for the Hearst papers, which are as outdated as they are beautifully drawn. One of his most fanous strips was Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend, depicting the insane nightmares of people who ate to much rarebit before going to sleep. In 2007 the German fan and collector Ulrich Merkl published a huge volume collecting most of these black and white strips, complete with a cd disc tha reprodues all of them as well as many related pieces, some great commentary and comparisons with movies and cartoons which took their inspiration from this great strip. Included with the extra's were a series of strips McCay did about five years after the Rarebit series, alternatively called It's Only A Dream and Dream of a Lobster Fiend. It's from this last series I found a few, as well as an add for a movie with the same name and subject from the same period. I don't know if the movie was inspired by McCay or if McCay was inspired by the movie (not fearing a lawsuit, since they movie director clearly took his earlier strip as an inspiration - and maybe even taking the movie as a chance to take up his own strip for another syndicate or newspaper, this time signing it with his own name instead of the pseudonym Silas he had used on the original). It is even possible he was asked to do the series as a sort of promotion or to change the name of It's Only A Dream to Dream Of A Lobster Fiend for the same reason. Anyway, he is te material. I also checked on Amazon, but Ulrich's rediculously low priced book is still available there. That surprises me because it had only a low print run. It should be in every American library and in the collection of any serious fan of the art form.
March 28 1912:
April 23 1912:
April 26 1912:
April 29 1912:
0ay 1 1912:
May 8 1912:
Another May 8 1912:
May 19 1912:
May 12 1912:
May 27 1912:
May 1912:
May 1912:
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Plunk Revolution
Friday Bandes Dessinées Day.
I should really have done this for my 'silent week' last week, I didn't get around to it until now. Here are some samples of my favorite silent strip of the moment. Plunk is drawn by Luc Cromheeke and written by his pal Laurent Letzer for the French/Belgian comic weekly Spirou. Luc is in fact the only Dutch comic artist working for that famous magazine, so there you go. Plunk was first concieved years ago as part of an exhibition about comics and merchandising. In the first four page story, a comic book artist dreams of fame with his character Plunk. In the last panel we see he was actually dreaming in his poor hovel of a room and the character he imagined being so succesful with is called Plunk because there is water leaking from his room making a constant 'plunk' sound in a bucket.
Years later the team took up Plunk again for a series of one page gags, which has run now for seveal years and four albums have been produced. The new strip features two sorts of gags. First of and most importantly, the weird silent gags about the Plunk character In those gags Cromheeke and Letzer try to reinvent the silent gag genre by visiting known subjects such as the deserted island and fairy tale situations, but always avoiding the obvious jokes and trying to give them their own slant. As n any strip, you may have your own favorites, but Cromheeke's drawing style always amuses me. So here are some samples. For more, you could also visit Luc Cromheeke's website, which I have linked on my favorites.
I can highly recommend the books, either in the French hardbacked version or in the cheaper Dutch softbacked one. Either can be gotten on the web (Amazon, for instance) Language is not a problem as it is a silent strip, remember?
Friday Bandes Dessinées Day.
I should really have done this for my 'silent week' last week, I didn't get around to it until now. Here are some samples of my favorite silent strip of the moment. Plunk is drawn by Luc Cromheeke and written by his pal Laurent Letzer for the French/Belgian comic weekly Spirou. Luc is in fact the only Dutch comic artist working for that famous magazine, so there you go. Plunk was first concieved years ago as part of an exhibition about comics and merchandising. In the first four page story, a comic book artist dreams of fame with his character Plunk. In the last panel we see he was actually dreaming in his poor hovel of a room and the character he imagined being so succesful with is called Plunk because there is water leaking from his room making a constant 'plunk' sound in a bucket.
Years later the team took up Plunk again for a series of one page gags, which has run now for seveal years and four albums have been produced. The new strip features two sorts of gags. First of and most importantly, the weird silent gags about the Plunk character In those gags Cromheeke and Letzer try to reinvent the silent gag genre by visiting known subjects such as the deserted island and fairy tale situations, but always avoiding the obvious jokes and trying to give them their own slant. As n any strip, you may have your own favorites, but Cromheeke's drawing style always amuses me. So here are some samples. For more, you could also visit Luc Cromheeke's website, which I have linked on my favorites.
I can highly recommend the books, either in the French hardbacked version or in the cheaper Dutch softbacked one. Either can be gotten on the web (Amazon, for instance) Language is not a problem as it is a silent strip, remember?
Cold Space Wars
Thursday Story Strip Day.
Here the next month of Warren Tufts' fill-in space opera spoof The Lone Spaceman. There are two dailies missing towards the end, but you can read around that.
Sorry, missed one.
Missed another one.
Three's a charm.
Thursday Story Strip Day.
Here the next month of Warren Tufts' fill-in space opera spoof The Lone Spaceman. There are two dailies missing towards the end, but you can read around that.
Sorry, missed one.
Missed another one.
Three's a charm.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Next Floor, Kid's Clothes, Kitchen Utensils and Non-Stop Involuntary Coughing
Wednesday Advertising Day.
Four more Philip Morris Ads. If I had to guess who the artist is, I'd say Leonard Starr, but I'd love to hear your opinion.
Feb 12 1950:
Dec 10 1950:
March 4 1951:
APRIL 1 1951:
Wednesday Advertising Day.
Four more Philip Morris Ads. If I had to guess who the artist is, I'd say Leonard Starr, but I'd love to hear your opinion.
Feb 12 1950:
Dec 10 1950:
March 4 1951:
APRIL 1 1951:
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
A Tall Step For Mankind
Tuesday Comic Strip Day
Some more black and white Tall Tales Sundays. Next time I will show some more color samples. Most of these are without the topper strip, which often was just as funy as the main gag. Use the tag to see some of those on the color samples. Al Jaffee did this strip for almost six year, so he did about 300 Sundays and up to 2000 dailies. Which means that what I have shown here is just a fraction of his enormous output in those years.
Jan 7 1961:
Jan 14 1961:
Feb 17 1961:
Jan 7 1962:
Jan 21 1962:
Jan 28 1962:
Jan 5 1964:
Jan 12 1964:
Jan 19 1964:
June 7 1964:
Tuesday Comic Strip Day
Some more black and white Tall Tales Sundays. Next time I will show some more color samples. Most of these are without the topper strip, which often was just as funy as the main gag. Use the tag to see some of those on the color samples. Al Jaffee did this strip for almost six year, so he did about 300 Sundays and up to 2000 dailies. Which means that what I have shown here is just a fraction of his enormous output in those years.
Jan 7 1961:
Jan 14 1961:
Feb 17 1961:
Jan 7 1962:
Jan 21 1962:
Jan 28 1962:
Jan 5 1964:
Jan 12 1964:
Jan 19 1964:
June 7 1964:
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