I have shown some of these columns before and I have to admit they are something of a Holy Grail for me. In 1944 Milt Gross started doing a series of (mostly) weekly illustrated columns for the KIng Features Sunday section The Pictorial Review. It was not the only such regular series, others were done by George Dixon (with illustrations by Otto Soglow) and Bugs Bear (with illustrations by Virgil Partch). others included writing by Damon Runyan and illustrations by Ralph Stein. Dear Dollink was a continuation of Gross' 1926 book Nize Baby, in which a Jiddish momma talks to her newborn child in a heavy JIddish/American accent. Actually, Gross developed his own writing style for that and resused it for Dollink where a Jiddish momma wrties to her son in the army. In 1945 there was a book with the same name, but I never was able to figure out if these were the same stories and illustrations he used for Pictorial Review. If he did, there were many more than would have fit into that book. But since the war was over, I guess one book was enough.
I have always wanted to try and get all of these pages and see if they could be truned into a complete collection. That would be hard to do, because of the huge amount of text (and how hard it is to read). The book woud either have to be as big as the Review (to ensure the letters are visible) or the whole thing would have to be recut in some way. The illustrations are as good as you can expect from Gross at that point in his career. The text is funny, but it can be a bit much to take.
I am curious what you all think...
1 comment:
very funny drwaings! thank you.
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