Monday, March 18, 2024
Obscurity of the Day: Adventures of Aaron
Adventures of Aaron, in my opinion one of the most innovative, well-drawn and just downright funny newspaper features of the 1990s was, sadly, ignored by most in the newspaper world.
In 1991, at the tender age of twenty-one Aaron Warner exhibited art and writing chops well beyond his tender years. He was already freelancing to the Kalamazoo Gazette when he created Adventures of Aaron, a zany absurdist take on autobiographical comics. He shopped the feature around to papers in his home state of Michigan, placing it at the Kalamazoo Gazette and a few additional papers. The new comic was well-received and after getting a few years worth of weekly installments under his belt, the series was picked up by Michigan-based comics publisher Chiasmus. Warner's high energy attitude toward his career got him into several more papers, culminating when he snagged the Detroit News as a client. He even found time to write and produce a stage musical version of the strip, create an interactive website, and produce a CD-ROM and other merchandise
With these successes it was time for Warner to approach syndicates, and it wasn't long before the strip was picked up by Tribune Media Services. Tribune had a pretty well-deserved rep for being a bit of a stick-in-the-mud syndicate, but they were trying to upgrade their image a bit in the 90s, and Adventures of Aaron must have seemed perfect for that. Oh, and of course it sure didn't hurt that Warner came to them with an impressive list of clients already on board.
The syndicated Adventures of Aaron debuted on October 20 1995, and to their credit some of the more forward-thinking papers did sign on, though I understand that only about twenty papers total took the plunge. And what ensued was a low-pitched battle between the young set, who doted on it, and the grannies, who were mortally offended. Adventures of Aaron even won the "Most Hated" vote in a poll by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, beating out even Zippy, which normally walks away with that honour.
In the boxing ring teens beat grannies almost every time, but those roles are definitely reversed in the newspaper world. Once those grannies start writing pettish letters to the editor the hammer is poised to strike. Adventures of Aaron managed to stay afloat, due I think in good part to tireless marketing and gladhanding by Warner, until August 3 1997.
Quality may generally lose the wars, but it does occasional win a battle. Adventures of Aaron got a temporary reprieve from the graveyard of cancelled newspaper strips. The Detroit Free Press asked Warner to continue it just for them. Warner accepted and continued producing the strip for another two years, finally deciding to call it quits to pursue other projects with the installment of August 15 1999.
If you're interested in reading more Adventures of Aaron, there have been a number of comic book reprints; all out of print but not terribly hard to source. The only problem with them is that it is hard to figure out what is reprinted in which comics. It would be great (hint, hint) if Warner would take all his almost decade-long run out of mothballs and publish a complete edition.
Labels: Obscurities
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Wish You Were Here, from Cobb Shinn
Most of Cobb Shinn's postcards don't specify a maker, but this one is from Taylor-Pratt's "Automobile Series", #896. The card was postally used in 1913.
Labels: Wish You Were Here
Saturday, March 16, 2024
One Shot Wonders: Nine Red Jokes by Clarence Rigby, 1898
Clarence Rigby, who made the rounds of many syndicates around the turn of the century, pulls out all the stops with some impressive cartooning on this half-page one-shot, but then doesn't really follow through in the gag department. This seems like a Family Feud game show category -- name nine things that are red, and you'll get a big smooch from Richard Dawson.
This one-shot ran in the New York World on January 30 1898.
Labels: One-Shot Wonders
Friday, March 15, 2024
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Chester Sullivan
Chester Sullivan Illustrates Educational FeatureChester Sullivan is another young man who following his association with the Federal Schools as an instructor placed a very successful feature, “Men Who Made the World,” with the National Syndicate. This strip is now running in a large number of papers, whose readers keenly appreciate the picture narrative of the “Men Who Made the World.”John F. Dille, President of the National Newspaper Service says of the feature:Human emotions, motives, personality and great deeds lend the spectacular to this great feature. It is brilliantly written by an historical authority—Granville Dickey, and superbly drawn by a great illustrator—Chester Sullivan.
Acutely conscious of certain trends, 1st Lt. Robert North of Alhambra, Calif., decided that something drastic should be done to offset the inroads made in the Pacific by that amiable, sprawling outfit labeled the Short Snorters.He conferred with M.Sgt Norman Hoch, a citizen in good standing of Oklahoma City, and they decided that there was a crying need for some sort of exclusive organization in the South Seas, where all sorts of improbable things happen. The Short Snorters, they opined, was getting pretty loose. It used to be limited to those persons who had flown over a body of water, but now it could happen to anybody, like Athlete’s Foot, or rundown heels.So they founded the Tarawa Cricket Club, and might have run something up a pole to commemorate the occasion, but poles are scarce in that country. Instead, they enlisted the aid of Maj Peter S. Paine of New York City, and Maj Chester M. Sullivan, of Minneapolis, Minn., to help them get under way.In case you've wondered, the name comes from the fact that there are a lot of idle cricket fields laid out on the islands. The English used to play the game there before the war, but have given it up for more strenuous activities.Maj Sullivan designed a stamp, and unless you’ve had some business in the Pacific war you won’t ever get any closer to it than you are right now. That’s how the thing was made exclusive. Stamps are being distributed to other points—there will be a Kwajalein Chapter, Saipan, Guam, perhaps a Truk Chapter, a Philippines, and no doubt a Tokyo Chapter under the parent Tarawa nucleus.The stamps will be held on each island by some responsible officer, probably the S-2, and if you care to join, look him up and he’ll stamp a replica of the informal coat of arms on your stationery, birth certificate, a pair of souvenir panties, or anything else that will take the ink. It costs you a dollar, which is used to buy more stamps for other chapters.It was felt that the club would promote a certain comraderie [sic] among the men, for it is a thing that is really exclusive. No outsiders can join—you absolutely have to be on the island before you can join.You can have a bill stamped and dash around collecting signatures if you like, but the originators look down their noses frostily on the practice.The club is open to everyone from Dogfaces up, and there’s some highpowered company in it. Even generals—especially generals—are potential members, and some belong now. Maj Gen Willis H. Hale belongs, and plugs the club for a commendable venture, according to Lt North.Membership won’t make you any money or when you get back home (wars always HAVE cure very many of the ills man is heir to, but ended) you’ll have something as exclusively South Seas as atoll-fishing.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Obscurity of the Day: It Seems Like Yesterday
Many local strips look a little rough around the edges, but Howard Overback and Ernie Hager produced a very fine looking feature in It Seems Like Yesterday, which they sold to the Oregon Journal. It looked so professional that when I stumbled across a few clipped samples of the feature in an old scrapbook I thought for sure it had to have been syndicated.
Luckily the clips I found betrayed their origin as the Oregon Journal, and it turned out that GenealogyBank, a newspaper archive website I rarely use, had many years of the paper at my disposal. GenealogyBank, by the way, has a user interface much inferior to its sister site, newspapers.com, and its servers are deadly slow. Watching a newspaper page load can make me quite nostalgic for downloading on a 1200 baud modem connection. Unless there's specific material you need that is only on GenealogyBank, and they do have exclusives on a number of major papers like the Oregon Journal, I would suggest giving them a pass.
Anyhow, after many hours of watching dust accumulate on my laptop screen as I researched the short run of It Seems Like Yesterday, I can tell you that the feature began running in the Sunday magazine section on July 28 1940. The creators soon talked the Journal into taking their brainchild on a 6-day per week basis, and the feature became a daily on September 30. Everything went tickety-boo for a year and a half, and then Pearl Harbor inconveniently got bombed. Seeing the writing on the wall for these two 20-something creators, they ended with a farewell panel on March 27 1942. Overback was called up in summer 1942, and Hager probably about the same time. While Overback doesn't seem to have gone back into the stripping business when he got home, Hager did, as another of his obscure strips, Stubby Stout, has been covered here on the blog.
Labels: Obscurities
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Mystery Cartoonist: Three Samples from 1914
Shoehorning an extra post in on Tuesday this week hoping SG readers can help me through what I think might just be a mental block.
As I'm slogging through my boxes of unsorted material trying to bring some semblance of order, I came upon these three strips, evidently clipped out of an August 1914 bound volume of some midwest paper (I can't narrow it down any farther based on these tearsheets).
The style seems familiar but unfortunately not singular enough for that "Aha!" moment for me. I thought H.T. Webster but no, I thought Maurice Ketten but no, none of them quite make sense. Can you help?!
Labels: Mystery Cartoonists
Monday, March 11, 2024
Selling It: The Heartbreak of Pizza Face
Kleerex was a pimple cream originally manufactured in Canada, but the company crossed the border and set up shop in St. Paul Minnesota to manufacture and market in the U.S.as well. The company seems to have come on the scene in the mid-1920s, and the U.S. arm was active by the end of the decade.
In the 1940s Kleerex hit upon the idea of making comic strip ads, and it must have worked like a charm because they're so often seen they're almost like ... er ... zits on a teenager? Most of the comic ads were black and white affairs for running in weekday papers, but a few Sunday colour ads also extolled the virtues of Kleerex for zapping face invaders.
The comic strip ads from the 1940s plow very familiar ground; that some girl or guy could be a movie star if it just weren't for that darn skin turbulence. Dab on a little Kleerex, and voila, the cartoonist doesn't spray black dots all over your face in the next panel!
So why am I dredging this up? Well, it seems that the cartoonist who drew many of those strips is none orther than Al Papas, who (as you can see above) signed his work on occasion. Papas was an easy find for the Kleerex folks, because he was the sports cartoonist at the Minneapolis Star, right in St. Paul's back yard.
The subject matter might have been a little icky, but Al did a beautiful job on these strips, like the one above that ran in the Detroit News on December 28 1947. But the party didn't last. By 1950 the cartoon ads had disappeared, and a few years later Kleerex stopped advertising in the US altogether. By 1956 they seem to have either gone down the tubes even in Canada, or were advertised through other venues.
Labels: Marketing Madness
During this era there was a Clearasil commercial on "American Bandstand". A too-pretty teen couple is enacting "Romeo and Juliet" and the guy is looking down and mumbling his lines. He has two or three red specs on his unpainted visage. Voiceover: "I was the lead in the class play ... and all I could think about was everybody staring at my unsightly acne blemishes." Didn't those advertising guys know any actual theater kids? My face and back could be erupting like Vesuvius, but I'd give a performance!
Comic strip ads in the newspaper ... very rare in my memory. Comic strip ads in actual comic books, on the other hand, were reasonably common. The much-parodied Charles Atlas was evidently successful enough to run constantly, and DC had odd public service ads (Superman denouncing prejudice as unpatriotic, Miss America revealing that girls like her go for non-smokers, etc.). Also, for some reason, trade school ads. Somebody figured this was the medium and format to reach adults in need of career guidance. But no acne comic strips. Just the occasional offer of a blackhead extractor.
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Wish You Were Here, from Albert Carmichael
Here's another postcard from Albert Carmichael's "Anybody Here Seen Kelly?" series. Taylor Pratt & Company
Series 668 was based on a 1908 hit song, but presumably paid no royalties for the privilege.
Labels: Wish You Were Here
Saturday, March 09, 2024
One-Shot Wonders: Chinese Money by H.C. Greening, 1903
H.C. Greening jumped around, making appearances at most of the New York syndicates in the 1890s to 1900s, and here he is at McClure with a one-shot strip for their January 11 1903 issue. The gag here regards the Chinese wén, a coin of so minor value that the holed currency was commonly strung together in units of 100 or even 1000 to make for any substantial value.
Labels: One-Shot Wonders
Friday, March 08, 2024
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Granville E. Dickey
... Granville Dickey won the two spectacular events of the meet—the 220 and the 500 yards. He had very little trouble in gaining first in the 220, and in the 500 he won by two lengths. Dickey is considered the best all-around scholastic swimmer. ...
The marriage of a former Washingtonian, Mr. Granville E. Dickey, to Miss La Verne Carnes will take place this afternoon in Chicago, the home of the parents of the bride. After an extensive trip to Cuba and Spanish Honduras, they will return to Chicago, where Mr. Dickey is advertising manager for a large wholesale house.He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R.B. Dickey of 1702 Kilbourne place. In 1920, when he graduated from Central High School, he was captain of the swimming team and a captain in the Cadet Corps.In 1924 he was graduated from the College of Journalism of Northwestern University. He was a member of the varsity swimming team, and in his senior year was named as a member of the all-American swimming team.
Dickey, Granville E., J. ’24, “N”; Adv. Man., E. J. Brach & Sons, Adv. for Candy Mfgr., 4656 W. Kinzie, Man. 1200; r. 402 S. Cuyler, Oak Park, Vil. 9283.
Dickey, Ceril. On Thursday, April 5, 1945, at St. Petersburg, Fla. Ceril Dickey, aged 37, formerly of Gaithersburg, Md.; wife of Granville E. Dickey, daughter of Mrs. Florence Cousins, niece of Albert Lancaster, St. Petersburg, Fla. Services and interment St. Petersburg, Fla., on Monday, April 9.
Dickey Granville E. On Wednesday, January 28, 1948. Granville E. Dickey, father of Rosemary Dickey, son of Rose M. Dickey and the late Raymond B. Dickey, brother of Mrs. Alice Beaton, John Maxwell Dickey and Raymond R. Dickey. Funeral from the W. W. Deal Funeral Home, 4812 Georgia ave. n.w., on Saturday, January 31, at 2 p. m. Relatives and friends invited. Interment Cedar Hill Cemetery.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Wednesday, March 06, 2024
Obscurity of the Day: Mr. Lowe
Okay, so when I decided that Mr. Lowe would make a good Obscurity of the Day, I didn't know that the strip had been appearing in re-runs on GoComics for several years. Hmm, not so terribly obscure after all. But hey, it's a great strip, and I did the scanning, so yer gettin' 'em.
Mark Pett's Mr. Lowe is a strip about an enthusiastic young grade school teacher, a subject that Pett knew very, very well since he had recently been one. Pett sold the strip to Creators Syndicate, who in my opinion had every reason to think they had a winner on their hands. The strip is sweet but never saccharine, the gags are consistent, funny and very much rooted in reality, and the art is pretty darn fab. Pile on to that list of plusses that the strip is about a subject very relatable to teachers and students, two big juicy demographics, and it seems like a powerhouse.
So now is usually when I try to explain why it might not have gone so well. But on this one I'm a bit flummoxed. The best I can come up with is that it got lost among a number of other good strips that debuted in 2000 -- Baldo, James, Monkeyhouse, Pooch Cafe, Red and Rover, Soup to Nutz, Six Chix ... that's a lot of tough competition for very few opening slots. I'll say one thing; it'll be interesting to see what Jeffrey Lindenblatt has to tell us about new features in The 300 series when he gets to year 2000.
Mister Lowe debuted in a very small number of papers on May 15 2000*, and the last I can find it running is February 10 2001**. It was a Sunday and daily strip, but if the daily is rare, Sundays are like the proverbial hen's teeth. Surely some paper ran them?!?
If you're intrigued enough to read Mr. Lowe, you can get it on GoComics, and there was also a reprint book of the feature published back in 2002 by Cottonwood Press.
Mark Pett soon returned to syndication with (in my opinion) an even better strip, called Lucky Cow, about employees in a fast-food restaurant. This one managed to stick around for five years, but was barely touch and go for sales the whole time. Since then Pett has recognized the weird newspaper syndication curse that hangs over his head, and has perhaps wisely switched to other pursuits like illustrating books.
* Source: Cartoonist PROfiles #128.
** Source: Salt Lake Tribune.
Labels: Obscurities
I have the reprint book, which contains most, but not all, of the strips. The missing strips I saw for the first time when GoComics reran it.
Monday, March 04, 2024
Firsts and Lasts: King of the Royal Mounted Rides Forth
King Features threw a lot of new tabloid Sunday features up against the wall in 1935. Mostly they were needed to fill the new tabloid format Sunday section that Hearst had decided to experiment with, and hey, if they managed to sell the new stuff in syndication so much the better. King of the Royal Mounted definitely got its name in the "so much the better" column, as it took off quite nicely. Nicely enough, in fact, that a daily was added the next year.
Above is the seldom seen first Sunday of King of the Royal Mounted, which appeared on February 17 1935. The art on this inaugural Sunday was unsigned but by Allen Dean. I love how the story just jumps right in there and rockets right off. No intro, no explanatory dialogue, just slam-bang action.
As much as I should be well-versed in King of the Royal Mounted lore, being a Canuck and all, I must admit to having read very little of the strip. So I think I'll just shut up and ask you to keep reading over at Don Markstein's Toonopedia, where he gives you all the lowdown on this classic adventure strip. He'll even tell you Sergeant King's first name, and I bet there was a lotta reading went into finding that li'l factoid!
Labels: Firsts and Lasts
It would have seemed to be better to launch one of the new Tab features the week that the Hearst chain sections converted, on 3rd of February, but they waited until the 17th.
Years ago, Ron Goulart brought up the obscure "MEN OF THE MOUNTED" strip, syndicated by the Toronto Star, as ending on 16 February 1935, indicating that KFS may have had to wait for, or even somehow hasten, that ending, in order to clear the deck for another, presumably better, Mountie strip.
What do you think? I can see a natural fan base in Canada, of course, was it especially supported there? There were foreign clients, of course, I have comic books in Spanish, for instance, where he's "Rey De La Policia."
That is a real head-scratcher about the Canadian strip. Do you need permission to feature a real public organization in a strip? If so, it makes perfect sense, as the RCMP might have said, effectively, "Get in line, chum." But I don't recall ever hearing that being a rule -- maybe just a smart and ethical business decision not to peeve the organization on which you're basing a strip.
Do you happen to know if "King..." paid any sort of royalties/commission/donation to the RCMP over the years? Did the RCMP keep tabs on the strip and provide guidance?
Gee, I wonder if "Crock" sought the okay of the French Foreign Legion?
--Allan
When it was launched, I think they had really high hopes for it, after all, it had Zane Grey's name on it, and some licensing and movie contracts appeared, thus avoid a direct competitor at the start to eliminate confusion.
Never ran across much promotional material for the strip, on either side of the border, that's why I was curious if there really was any special feeling by Canadians. I get the impression that it never rose above the status of mediocrity. Note that it was killed off in 1954, right in the middle of a story. No way to treat a strip that had a worthwhile fan or client list.
At some point early on, about 1940, Stephen Schlesinger's name started appearing in the copyright line, so maybe that's a reason for the course of the strip's history- he owned it and not King Features.
--Allan
Sunday, March 03, 2024
Wish You Were Here, from Rube Goldberg
Here's another postcard from Rube Goldberg's Foolish Questions series, also known as Samson Brothers Series 213. This is one of my favourites, the first time I read it I could have done a spit-take.
Labels: Wish You Were Here
Saturday, March 02, 2024
One Shot Wonders: The Incubation of Claude Murphy by Carl Anderson, 1897
Carl Anderson's famous creation, Henry, did not come to fruition until 1932 when he was an elderly man. Back in the 1890s he was a journeyman cartoonist whose newspaper work appeared mostly in the Hearst-owned New York Journal. In the 1900s he'd branch out more and have series accepted by quite a few syndicates.
Back in the 1880's and 90s, chicken incubators were the subject of an inventor's race to come up with the best design. Here we see home inventor Mr. Murphy who has come up with his entry in the race. Evidently his version works like a charm based on its efficacy on his son, whose name is either Claude or Mickey -- apparently a miscommunication between the cartoonist and the typographers.
The only problem with Mr. Murphy's invention is that it simply isn't an incubator. Incubators are for hatching out eggs. What he has created is a chicken BROODER. Being a chicken raiser myself, I can't let such an egregious error pass unremarked.
This one-shot strip appeared in the New York Journal on March 14 1897.
Labels: One-Shot Wonders
Friday, March 01, 2024
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Emidio Angelo
This is the first year that humor, in the form of a gallery of original cartoons, has been included in these annual exhibitions. Angelo will speak particularly about this phase of the show.
Emidio Angelo, previously a political cartoonist, Philadelphia Inquirer, now draws for the Chestnut Hill Local, a weekly paper.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Selling It: Mr. E.Z. Duzzit
It's a good thing that cartoonists sometimes got to sign their advertisment work, because I long ago waved the white flag trying to spot the art on many of these ads. Between Harry Haenigsen, Dik Browne, Gill Fox and the other cartooning luminaries who seemed to be able to nimbly ape just about any style, I'm lost.
Here we have a 1943 ad for Duz Detergent, and it's boldly signed by Harry Haenigsen. If it hadn't been signed, Haenigsen would not have been my first guess. Frankly, Adolph Schus might have come to mind first. So thank you to the good folks at Duz who let Harry bask in the limelight.
Although this ad seems like it would have been part of a series, this is the only installment of Mr. E.Z. Duzzit I've been able to find. I checked over on Ger Apeldoorn's blog, The Fabulous Fifties, because he is a real devotee of these comic strip ads, and it seems I've actually managed to find one he doesn't have over there!
PS: Here's hoping that all is well with Ger. He hasn't posted in about three months. You out there, buddy? UPDATE: Ger says he's just fine, but busy with other projects right now.
Labels: Marketing Madness
"Other soaps brag about all the things that they do. Well, DUZNT duzn't do anything!"
Monday, February 26, 2024
Obscurity of the Day: The Adventures Abroad of Peleg Price, American
Cartoonist Frank Wing was a long-time fixture at the Minneapolis Journal, but gained national fame for his "Fotygraft Albums." These were a series of books of humorous 'photographs' -- actually vividly drawn wash cartoons -- with accompanying comedic comments by a family member who tries to explain them to the reader, who is supposedly visiting the home and looking through the family album. These books have aged surprisingly well, and I find them still quite funny. They're not terribly expensive on the used book market, and I think are well worth seeking out.
Long before that, when the Minneapolis Journal was producing an in-house page of comics each Sunday, Wing lowered himself to creating a comic strip series for the one and only time in his life. Sporting the hefty title of The Adventures Abroad of Peleg Price, American, it chronicled the misadventures of Peleg Price and his uncle Imri, a pair of bickering rubes who take the Grand Tour of Europe. Wing drew the strip in a fabulous clean line style and the humour was the match for any New York comic-stripper of the day you might wish to name.
The series began on December 12 1903 with Peleg and Imri saying goodbye to Wheat Corners, Minnesota. They made the whole tour, creating havoc in every European city they visited, and returned to America eight months later on August 20 1904, at which point the strip title changed to Peleg And Imri Return to America. After a few episodes in which they catch up on local doings, they got involved in a political primary campaign when Peleg is nominated to run for his (unnamed) party for Congress. Uncle Imri decides to run against him. On September 17 the strip title was updated once again, to The Campaign at Wheat Corners.
On November 12 1904 Peleg wins the nomination of his party and the series comes to an abrupt end. The next week the Journal began running a page of Hearst-produced strips instead of their homegrown material.
Labels: Obscurities
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Wish You Were Here, from Little Nemo
This is our twelfth and (I think) final card in the Little Nemo series, published by Raphael Tuck. You know the game ... can you identify the Little Nemo strip from which the image was snatched? Or, is it an original penned right out of the noggin of the anonymous Tuck's artist?
The other big question: we've published 12 cards here at Stripper's Guide, and I believe my cupboard is bare. Are there any others that we've missed?
Labels: Wish You Were Here
DBenson ... strangely enough I am presently slogging my way through a couple of "scholarly" books on early comics, and the authors both do exactly what you're talking about -- treating 2% probabilty subtexts as if they are outright definitive subject matter. I think in academia the need to say something new and 'important' about these mouldy oldies is encouraging all sorts of ridiculous notions. As Freud said (or should have), "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
--Allan
Saturday, February 24, 2024
One-Shot Wonders: The Hickman Murder Trial by Willard Mullin, 1928
In the 1920s it wasn't too unusual in the more sensational papers to add graphic interest to news stories by covering them partially in comic strip form, like this example by a very young Willard Mullin. Mullin at this time would have been working for the Los Angeles Herald, a Hearst newspaper, but we see it here in syndicated form via the Denver Post. Mullin later became famous as a sports cartoonist, but this is before that became his specialty.
The story being illustrated here is the William Edward Hickman kidnapping and murder trial. The 20-year old defendant kidnapped a 12-year old girl and murdered her in grisly fashion while attempting to extort money from her parents. Thankfully he was caught before he could make a habit of this activity. Based on his testimony he felt he was perfectly within his rights to perform such acts in his own self-interest, and seemingly would have continued his behavior in the future to finance himself.
Very Odd Postscript: As the rest of the world listened in horror to the details of this psycho's repugnant crime, he became a hero to a young nut named Ayn Rand. She greatly admired him for his unpitying selfishness, and wrote about her admiration extensively in her diary, terming him a "superman." Hickman would become an inspiration and basis for her inhumane philosophy.
Labels: One-Shot Wonders
Friday, February 23, 2024
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Shorty Shope
It was there, in his formative years of 13 throughout 18, that he came under the influence of E.S. Paxson, painter of native Americans and the frontier West.“He gave me my first lesson in anatomy and would correct and trim up my drawings, illustrated on the side of my paper and even let me watch him paint,” he later said….His formal art education began in 1919, when he attended both Portland Art Academy and Reed College in Portland….
In the department of Animal Drawings, Irvin Shope, with his “Stage Coach,” carried away the bacon, as the vulgar say. The picture is full of action. Shope is always good at that—so good that he sometimes, like that great original draughtsman of the moving horse, Frederic Remington, sacrifices drawing to movement. I have seen better things of his than this, yet it deserved a prize. The lad is, I think, very promising.
Irvin Shope, of the State university, is exhibiting oil paints of Glacier national park and the Canadian rockies. He was formerly with the forest service.
Illustrator of Western Life Busy on Mural Paintings for Glacier ResortIrvin Shope’s realism in picturing of Western life secured him a place among the prize winners with a pen line drawing nicely adapted to illustrative uses.Altho adept in drawing of horses and horsemen, Mr. Shope does not confine himself to drawing them.“I have just pleased a young husband and was paid liberally for a portrait sketch of his pretty wife,” he writes in a recent letter which also reports good returns in a cover design for a catalogue, an illustration of a vicious broncho to advertise high power gas for a new Montana gas company; two pen drawings for decorative use in a new Spanish home in Los Angeles and another cover design for Triple-X.The letter continues, “My old friend Justin and Company have asked me to do a painting to be used on a window card advertising their boots, giving me full sway as to subject.“Then I have been doing some drawing to advertise a new lodge or dude camp just over the edge of Glacier park on beautiful St. Mary’s lake. I am going up there in June to paint a couple of large pictures for the lobby.“Four years and some odd months of work under encouragement of the old Federal Schools has brought me thus far and now I suppose I can keep going alone but I still want a word from you now and again for a long time.“I paid my last ten dollars in the first installment for the course and was Wass out of work too. The path between then and now has been rough but I’ll never regret the course I took nor cease to wonder what chance made me write to Federal Schools as I had no first hand information of you folks nor on one to ask who knew anything about you. I was lucky that’s all.”The late Charles M. Russell gave Mr. Shope high commendation on early drawings in the course and assured him that he was on the right track studying with the Federal Schools.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles