CRACKING GOOD

Tuesday Cartoon Carnival 

Over the years my posts here have become longer. It also means that sometimes I take a bit longer to get everything ready. I am currently working on three interesting series which will only work if I share a year's worth of Sundays. In the meantime, here is a set of Crcak-Up cartoons from very contributing cartoonist except Virgil Partch. Crack-Up was a daily cartoon series from the leftwing New York PM magazine, with six different artists each contributing one day. In the past I have shared many of these, especially those by Virgil Partch, who usually filled the Sunday slot (PM did not have a saturday edition). 

He did this for six years, which at one a week could mean he did 300 original cartoons. Except that he did not always contribute. To find out how many times he actually delivered a cartoon, I have started anew from a fresh newpaper source. That means I would have a long way to go before I can share muy findings. I do get cartoons by some of the otehrs now and then and I have collected those here to clean up my files. There may be some doubles, I have shown before, but it is the only way to thoroughly clear up everything.

 

A Laugh A Day Keeps The Apples Away

Saturday Leftover Day. 

 This post is especially for the pupils of Mike Lynch's comics class, to whom I had the privilege to speak two weeks ago via Zoom. I talked about the golden age of magazine cartooning and how there cartoons in alle magazines in the forties and all though the fifties. Aside from thatbthere were various daily cartoon features in the newspapers. Every syndicate had a daily panel of its own, which eitehr reorinted cartoons from the magazine or had new ones made. If you follow the links to titles such as This Funny Day (King Features), and there were titles like  Laf-A-Day, Laughing Matters and Today's Laugh. One of the best in my view was Crack-Ups, which was originated by the leftwing newspaper PM and syndicated by Field Enterprices. They got together the six best cartoonists of that period and gave them a day each. The cartoonists were John Price, Chon Day, Mischa Richter, Ned Hilton, Ed Nofziger and Virgil Partch. Partch was the biggest attraction to me, because the 50 cartoons a year between 1952 and 1949 represented the largest set of often not reprinted or reused cartoons by the genius cartoonist in his most weird and absurd style. I shared many of those in seperate posts, often from damaged microfiche sources. But the other contributors are very good and in many cases collected as well. George Price was a respected artist, whith good observational gags.  Chon Day was one of the most stylistic artists of his time. His 'still lives in humor' are quietly funny and he influenced many artists who came after him (including Mort Walker). Mischa Richter was a very funny and sharp Jewish artist and should be remembered more than he is. Ed Hilton is the weakest of the bunch for me, with a gentle style and often too gentle humor. He does have one of the best aautographs I know, which may also be why I keep expecting more from him. Ed Nofziger is a former animator (as was Virgil Partch) and probably the best animal cartoonist around. The later line-up changed every now and then, which is why this post includes Sparber and Irving Roir (on of the four cartooning Roth brothers).

Have fun and your housework assigment for to day is to tell me which is your favorite.