The Fabuleous Fifties

This Funny World

Monday Cartoon Day.

I am a huge fan of the cartoons of Mort Walker. Though stylisticly they may not be as surprising as those of Virgil Partch or even Hank Ketcham, they share one quality with those - they are funny. I have shown many in the past, but here are some I have found since.

First of, there is one I follishly failed to not the publication of. From the look of it, it's pretty early. Maybe even from one of his school magazines.

The next ones are two originals from Varsity I came across on ebay. His cartoons for Varsity were his first professional sales and I think I have shown just about all of them in prevous posts.

The next one is from Liberty Magazine and dates from the period when he became 'the best selling cartoonist' of his year. Which is when he decided he had to get out and create something that would make him more money.

Surprisingly, Mort Walker does not turn up in Collier's until late in 1949. He started in The Saturday Evening Post much earlier, but it must have taken some time before he came to them or was accepted. Of course, he became a regular pretty quickly.

Next up are all of the originals from my own collection. Since I have shown these I have bought seven more. I show them all again, because they are numbered on the back and it is nice to have them in sequence. I don't know if this is the numbering of all his cartoons or just the ones for the Saturday Evening Post (where these came from), but either way it is an impressive amount. I strongly suspect that all of these cartoons are unpublished, since Walker has said he inked his proposals and I have never seen any one of these published anywhere - except for the one with the tricycle which was published with the alteration asked for in this original. Since they came from the desk of the cartoon editor of the magazine, I categorize them as sold but unpublished.

1332:


1343:


1370:


1441:

1490:

1518:


1559:


1579:


1612:


1624:

1626:


1658:

1678:


1733:


1760:


1782:

1786:


1791:

1812:


1818:


1867:


Last but not least, some more cartoons from the magazine Gags (and it's continuation Here!). Walker often opened the magazine and had up to four gags in each issue. I have show some of the other months previously, which I will not repeat here because that would mage the post too long. Anyone who has any issues I have skipped, please contact me.