Sunday, May 28, 2006
A Dink Shannon Self-Portrait
I mentioned Dink Shannon the other day in connection with his work on the resurrected Constable Hayrick feature. Today we have a rare self-portrait of our man Dink at work in 1901. The feature is a one-shot display of single-panel gags and it ran in the World Color Printing Sunday section. As far as I know, Shannon did his only syndicated cartooning work for this poor-man's Sunday section, where he started in 1901 and was one of the foundations of their success until he disappeared in early 1909.
Few comic strip fan have heard of any of Shannon's strips, but amongst the best and longest lasting were Mooney Miggles And The Magic Cap, Sammy Small and Mister Pest, Book Agent. If you look for Shannon's work, keep in mind that he often signed with just a four-leaf clover symbol.
The sample above has double the fun, because in addition to the delightful Dink self-portrait, the gags are all related to crazy inventions. Don't let anyone spoof you with the claim that Rube Goldberg invented the concept! Goldberg certainly took the idea to a new level of lunacy, but lots of cartoonists were plowing the same ground well before the great man.
