Here's one last Philadelphia Record strip before we change the subject. Heine Himmelbleu is just another in a practically infinite series of strips ridiculing Germans. This one portrays accents so thick that the reader has to decode the dialogue almost like a puzzle. In this case the work is worth it as the gag is well and skillfully told.
The strip ran on the Record's Sunday humor page 1/28 to 5/19/1912, and was penned by a fellow who signed himself R.Pechner (when he bothered to sign at all). Pechner's only other known comic strip credit was Highbrow McAllister, a short-lived feature that ran in the New York Evening World in 1909.
I just acquired a set of artist illustrated New York City postcards featuring immigrant characters (I'm a postcard collector) signed by R. Pechner and published by PCK (Paul C. Kroeber) in about 1906. It appears to be the same as your cartoonist based on a similar sensibility about immigrants, a similar 2-dimnsional illustration style style and a signature that uses characters similar to the lettering used in this strip. Do you have any additional information about this artist?
ReplyDeleteThanks,
- Hy
Sorry, Hy, but the above brain dump is complete. I know nothing else about Mr. Pechner.
ReplyDeleteBest, Allan