Monday Easter Surprise.
Two posts ago I shred some of Gill Fox' ads in his 'Hank Ketcham stylr" of the late fifties. Around the same time he also did the Sunday filler newspaper strip Bumper to Bumper and a daily Dennis the menace type panel (only smaller) called Wilbur. These two ads for Larry Graebern's carpet stores seems to have been one- (or actually two-) off.
Sunday Easter Booster.
Some time agoI shared some work by the cartoonist Sakren who was one of the regulars of the Johstone and Cushing comic strip advertising company, along with Dik Brown, Gil Fox and Bill Williams. I knew he had a few newspaper strips in the late fifties and early fifties, but it turned out he had had a very funny silent comic strip in the late thirties. Well... it turns out that it was not so late in the thirties he began. Here are some Mortimer Mum dailies from when it started in 1935.
Thurday Superfluous Day.
I'm still here! Something seems to be up with my blog, someone carpetbombed ads in the comments and I removed them all. I am just adding a small little post, to see if it still works. I still have loads and oad of scans that are waiting to go on. If I could just find the time.
Do you know Hayseeds? You should. Harry Hargeaved was a South Africa born artist who lived in Kent and was already know for his funny bird cartoons in Punch (and subsequent books) when he started his own funny animal strip for the London Evening News. It looks a lot like Walt kelly's Pogo, but that probably came about in a roundabout way. Hargreaves worked at the Toonder Studio's in the Netherlands in the fifties (first in Amsterdam and later from home) where he produced the succesful Panda daily strip for many years. In the fifties Toonder discovered Pogo and was influenced by the way Kelly drew bears (as the second character in his most famous series Tom Puss, was one as well). So someone around that time knew about Pogo. It may even have been Hargreaves himself. Combine that with Toonder's house style and Hargreaves's own, and you get this. A lovely, llovely, sometimes very funny daily strip.
There are two books, which I both have. But Hargreaved did the series for many years (before getting even more fame for illustrating The Wind in the Willows and designing the popular Basil Brush character for television). I found a source for these strips and will be pulling them one by one to show here. I am not far yet, but this is the perfect place to save them.
Sunday Surprise Day.
It's been a while since I did a couple of Al Jaffee's Tall Tsles Sundays. But Recently I started cleaning my scans again and tehre is still a lot to go. I do noit have a complete set, but it certainly is the largest group of this excellent Sunday gag strip you can find anywhere on the web. More to come, I promise. Follow the link for the others.
Sunday Johnstone and Cushing Day.
Some time ago I shared some scans from a Johnstone and Cushing produced advertising comic for pertrol stations. I can't recall which oil company company, but the name Richfield, which is mentioned in these strips, doesn't ring a bell. The comic book Under the Hood was produced by Johnstone and Cushing (actually there were two issues) and filled with cartoons and short gags by all of their regular funny artists: Dik Browne, Gil Fox, Sakren, Jack Markow and more. Apparently gil Fox did a comic strip ad for Richfield around the same time, possibly related. They were published once a week, but at various different dates for different papers. Not a lot, but any Fox is Good Fox for me.
