Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Obscurity of the Day: The Cynic's Corner
We seem to be in 'lesser-known brother' mode here at Stripper's Guide this week. The Cynic's Corner was penned not by Phil Interlandi, the famed Playboy cartoonist, but brother Frank.Frank was primarily an editorial cartoonist; he worked for the Des Moines Register in the fifties, and then the LA Times in the sixties. Unfortunately I lose track of his career after that -- anyone know what Frank was up to later on?
The Cynic's Corner was drawn using a fascinating double-line technique. I've seen cartoonists employ similar conceits, but Frank Interlandi really used it to great advantage -- the cartoons just seem to pop right off the page. Combine that interesting art with the delightfully pungent gag lines and you have to wonder why in the world this is an obscurity.
My guess is that the Register and Tribune Syndicate's salesmen just didn't push the feature. Perhaps they though the cartoon series was just a sop to the staff editorial cartoonist and of little consequence. 'Tis a shame.
The Cynic's Corner, which was often run as an untitled feature (and the listings in E&P didn't suggest a name) ran from October 12 1953 until sometime in 1956.
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Perhaps the common wisdom of the time saw more humor in depressed, neurotic children (Peanuts) rather than adults. These grown up cynics may have been a little too close for comfort.
While researching the war work of Harvey Kurtzman I found that Frank Interlandi was also the staff cartoonist at the Paris, Texas training camp paper, the Maxey Times.
Here's what I know: He received a fine arts degree from the University of Iowa in the 1950s. He began his career at the Des Moines Register, while pursing a master’s degree. He then worked as the second cartoonist to Paul Conrad at the Los Angeles Times, where he worked from 1962 to 1981. The focus of his work was more social than political. He made his home in Laguna Beach, California for nearly 50 years, moving there around 1962 to be near his brother. His twin brother, Phil Interlandi, was also a cartoonist. He belonged to a group of Laguna Beach cartoonists that met on a regular basis, and included: Virgil (VIP) Partch, John Dempsey, Dick Oldden, Ed Nofziger, Don Tobin and Roger Armstrong. When not cartooning, Interlandi painted. He died on April 4, 2010.
Info from: Steve Greenberg, “Is this the future of local cartooning?,” The Steven Greenberg Blog on Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoonists Index web site, entry for May 4, 2009, viewed online: http://blog.cagle.com/greenberg/page/4/, 05/07/2010; Wikipedia entry for Frank Interlandi, viewed online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Interlandi, 09/22/2010; Dennis McLellan, “Frank Interlandi dies at 85; former L.A. Times editorial cartoonist,” Los Angeles Times, February 10, 2010, viewed online: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/10/local/la-me-frank-interlandi10-2010feb10, 09/22/2010; Barbara Diamond, “The last of a special breed,” Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot, February 11, 2010, viewed online: http://articles.coastlinepilot.com/2010-02-11/news/cpt-interlandiobit02122010_1_editorial-cartoons-frank-interlandi-ivy-house, 09/22/2010
Sara Duke, Library of Congress
PS - Had the opportunity to talk to him at length in 2006 when Martha and I prepared Cartoon America. Wish I had taken better notes.
Info from: Steve Greenberg, “Is this the future of local cartooning?,” The Steven Greenberg Blog on Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoonists Index web site, entry for May 4, 2009, viewed online: http://blog.cagle.com/greenberg/page/4/, 05/07/2010; Wikipedia entry for Frank Interlandi, viewed online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Interlandi, 09/22/2010; Dennis McLellan, “Frank Interlandi dies at 85; former L.A. Times editorial cartoonist,” Los Angeles Times, February 10, 2010, viewed online: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/10/local/la-me-frank-interlandi10-2010feb10, 09/22/2010; Barbara Diamond, “The last of a special breed,” Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot, February 11, 2010, viewed online: http://articles.coastlinepilot.com/2010-02-11/news/cpt-interlandiobit02122010_1_editorial-cartoons-frank-interlandi-ivy-house, 09/22/2010
Sara Duke, Library of Congress
PS - Had the opportunity to talk to him at length in 2006 when Martha and I prepared Cartoon America. Wish I had taken better notes.
# posted by 
: 10/10/2011 9:33 PM
: 10/10/2011 9:33 PM
I remember reading/looking at, and greatly enjoying the Cynic's Corner in the Toledo Blade back in the late fifties and early sixties.
Here's a link that includes a cartoon from 1963: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19631017&id=fi4yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=t-UFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2192,1464170
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Here's a link that includes a cartoon from 1963: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19631017&id=fi4yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=t-UFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2192,1464170
Monday, July 06, 2009
Obscurity of the Day: Peter Popple the Prize Pilgrim
The Glackens brothers, Louis and William, were both prolific, well-known and respected newspaper and magazine illustrator/cartoonists. Amazingly enough, though, between the two of them there were just a few newspaper comic strip series, including Peter Popple the Prize Pilgrim.Louis M. Glackens is responsible for this entry in Stripper's Guide and he was definitely the less famous of the pair. While William was getting out of the newspaper business in favor of fine art, and making a major name for himself as one of the original Ashcan artists, Louis stuck to cartooning primarily as a regular at the humor magazine Puck. When the magazine hit the skids in the 1910s he shifted his focus to animation work.
Louis' only foray into the newspaper comic strip series field was done far away from his regular stomping grounds of New York and Philadelphia. Perhaps this series, done for the Boston Herald, was his way of testing this new sort of material on the road.
Glackens' Boston Herald strip follows the pattern set by that syndicate of choosing their material based entirely on the quality of the art. Peter Popple, like most Herald strips of the era, was nice to look at but a real stinker in the writing department. The strip was set in pilgrim days and concerns a tubby dullard kid named Peter and his father, Jabez. Jabez is the strict disciplinarian who always manages to make a fool of himself while trying to catch Peter in mischief. The strip, other than the era in which it's set, shares a lot in common with the long-running Boston Globe strip, Fatty Spilliker.
Peter Popple the Prize Pilgrim didn't impress anyone in Boston, despite the traditional Boston setting. The strip ran from May 6 to August 26 1906.
Thanks to Cole Johnson for the scans!
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
After reading those two pages and looking closely at the art, I feel as if I've been perusing an alternate universe version of Tintin.
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Sunday, July 05, 2009
Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics
Jim Ivey's new book, Graphic Shorthand, is available from Lulu.com for $19.95 plus shipping, or you can order direct from Ivey for $25 postpaid. Jim Ivey teaches the fundamentals of cartooning in his own inimitable style. The book is 128 pages, coil-bound. Send your order to:
Jim Ivey
5840 Dahlia Dr. #7
Orlando FL 32807
5840 Dahlia Dr. #7
Orlando FL 32807
Also still available, Jim Ivey's career retrospective Cartoons I Liked, available on Lulu.com or direct from Jim Ivey for $20 postpaid. When ordered from Ivey direct, either book will include an original Ivey sketch.
Labels: Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Herriman Saturday
Thursday, September 19 1907 -- George Memsic is training for his fight with Joe Gans. If Herriman's depiction of Memsic's camp boxing ring looks a little off-kilter, don't blame the cartoonist. The makeshift training facility was too small and the ring had to be abbreviated into a sort of triangle shape.
Thursday, September 19 1907 -- A convention of the American Press Humorists is in town, and Herriman (referred to as "George the Greek" in the article) accompanies the funnymen on an outing to Mount Lowe just outside LA. They are:William Hamilton Cline, a local press humorist whose only notable credit seems to be that he translated a book of Russian short stories. He was active in L.A. from the 1890s to at least the 1920s.
William J. Lampton, Kentucky-bred humorist and poet, he worked for the New York Sun. He died in 1917.
Fred W. Shaefer, the only fellow depicted with a cartooning background, he did the writing on several comic strip series for NEA in the 1910s. He was a Cleveland staple for decades.
T. Augustine Daly was one of those dialect poets who proliferated in the era. He specialized in Italian and Irish-accented verse.
Frank Searight, president of the APH, seems to have as his most notable achievement writing a lurid account of the Great San Francisco earthquake. It was rushed to press and sold briskly as a cheap paperback.
I can't find any information on J.M. Lewis or Dunk Smith.
Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons
Comments:
Hello, Allan----Duncan ("Dunk") H. Smith was a member of the Chicago Press Association. He seemed to be primarily on the organization side of things, and delivered an occasional address on it's behalf. He was also a socialist, considered so radical that he was expelled by one faction of that group. His wife was also very involved in the Chicago women's suffrage movement.----Cole Johnson.
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# posted by : 7/05/2009 10:55 AM
: 7/05/2009 10:55 AM Friday, July 03, 2009
News of Yore 1950: Beetle Bailey Debuts
New King Comic Strip Has College Locale
By Jane McMaster (E&P, 8/12/50)
Mort Walker, whose "Beetle Bailey" may be unique in its status of a comic about college life,
is not so far removed from his subject. He finished at the University of Missouri in 1948 after an Army stint interrupted his studies.
The chief character in his daily gag strip, which King Features offers for Sept. 4 release, is an eyeless wonder (his hat covers his peepers) fashioned somewhat after a Kappa Sig fraternity brother of the cartoonist's. (The brother picked up the name of "Spider" after some tall climbing one night of exuberance.)
Anti-study, and regularly mooching off his freshman roommate, Beetle turned up first in the Saturday Evening Post about a year and a half ago. The advice of the Satevepost cartoon editor: "Draw what you know" resulted in more of the same, and eventually, the comic strip.
Authentic Collegiana
With a locale of Rockview University, the strip may cause waves of nostalgia among Missouri grads who will recognize "the Shack," student hangout made out of an old railroad car, and other spots. The 26-year-old cartoonist calls his background authentic collegiana: he's made a study and they all have equivalents of the shack; ivy, arbored walks, etc., he says.
Characters or composites of characters he's known people the feature in his effort to achieve life-likeness, says the artist. A basic realism pointed up with satire and slapstick humorous poses, and universal situations are some of his goals.
The cartoonist seems to have been something of a child prodigy in his field. He sold his first cartoon at 11 to Child Life magazine. At 14, he sold to Inside Detective, Flying Aces and others. At 15 he drew a once-a-week comic strip, "The Lime Juicers," for the Kansas City Journal for 20 weeks before the paper's demise. At 16, he was an editorial designer for Hallmark cards.
An attempt to major in journalism at college was foiled presumably because he lacked the proper courses for the first two years. But the cartoonist darkly hints his post as editor of "The Missouri Showme," humor magazine, probably considered the outhouse of journalism, had something to do with it.
Gag Panels in Magazines
Coming to New York in 1948, he began selling gag panels to the big magazines: Satevepost, Collier's and This Week, among others.
Almost painfully interested in verisimilitude for his strip, Mr. Walker admits pouring over old annuals, "Showme's" and other mementoes in an effort to recall the flavor of those salad days. His wife Jean, who was a classmate, helps on ideas.
Both cartoonist and syndicate feel the strip has comic appeal that goes beyond the ivied walls. Says King comics editor Sylvan Byck: "We think teen-agers will like it as well as adults who have kids in school now, had kids in school or are just plain interested in kids. The fact that the characters are in college is interesting but incidental. The humor has general appeal"
Labels: News of Yore
Comments:
I know that the size and style of comics have changed over the years, but I often miss the kind of art that characterized Beetle (and later Hi and Lois) back in the 50's and early to mid 60's.
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Thursday, July 02, 2009
Obscurity of the Day: Little Bill and Ben of Babylon
Here's one to celebrate the withdrawal of our troops from the cities of Iraq. Congratulations, guys and gals of the military, for getting one giant step closer to coming home!Betcha didn't think I could come up with a strip set in Iraq, eh?
Little Bill and Ben of Babylon was by a fellow who signed his name 'Hampton'. You've gotta give this guy props for coming up with a very unusual spin on that tired old Katzenjammer formula. His two little finks were in ancient Mesopotamia. I particularly like the strip where they take over an oracle to perform one of their stunts -- you just gotta believe that some mischievous kids might have actually done something like that back in the day.
The feature ran in the Philadelphia North American from June 6 to August 26 1906. It's the only strip that Hampton ever did for the North American. I have a guy named Hampton signing one other feature in the New York Journal in 1908, but no other clues to his identity.
Thanks again to Cole Johnson, supplier of todays sample strips!
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
I have to confess, unlike some of thse entries in your Obscurities, I really like this one. If I were reading this way back in 1906, I'd be a fan. I can see a certain amount of Winsor McCay here, but by no means was Hampton a shameless mimic. Seeing the way he moved his point of view around in the lion hunt strip is amazing, when you stop to consider that films of the time were just beginning to do that.
Cool. I love the mix of Middle English and "modern" terminology ("Verily his range finder was out of order"). The art is great fun, too. Any idea why it only ran for three months?
Hi Arkholt -
It seemed to be purely a fill-in strip, thrown in when the North American experienced a turnover in their cartoonist stable. Only nine strips were published, and it was replaced by the always prolific W.R. Bradford's Almost Family.
--Allan
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It seemed to be purely a fill-in strip, thrown in when the North American experienced a turnover in their cartoonist stable. Only nine strips were published, and it was replaced by the always prolific W.R. Bradford's Almost Family.
--Allan
