Monday, June 28, 2010
Obscurity of the Day: The Human Zoo
One of the most gifted editorial cartoonists of the past century, C.D. Batchelor flitted from paper to paper in the teens, worked at the New York Post in the 1920s, then from the 30s on was a fixture at the New York Daily News until his retirement and death in the 70s. His Pulitzer-winning 1937 editorial cartoon, a true masterpiece in my opinion, is impossible to forget once seen.
Batchelor's editorial cartoons are very serious indeed, but he did have a (slightly) lighter side that was put on display in his first syndicated feature, The Human Zoo, and a second, Once Overs. The Human Zoo was syndicated by the Philadelphia-based Ledger Syndicate and ran from November 6 1922 until sometime in 1924, possibly August 2nd. In its earlier days the social commentary in these cartoons was complemented by Batchelor's strikingly handsome artwork, but later in the series he simplified his style somewhat and the feature lost some of the 'wow' factor on display in these gorgeous samples.
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Human Zoo was still running in February 1925 in the Buffalo DAILY STAR.
# posted by 
: 6/28/2010 12:01 PM
: 6/28/2010 12:01 PM
Beautiful artwork, indeed.
BUT when I first saw Oswald Snively I thought Hortense was being wooed by a (mannish) woman! Now that would have been social commentary in 1922!
BUT when I first saw Oswald Snively I thought Hortense was being wooed by a (mannish) woman! Now that would have been social commentary in 1922!
Hi Grizedo --
Thanks for the info on the Buffalo Star run. Do you think it ended there in February, or did it run through the end of the month?
--Allan
Thanks for the info on the Buffalo Star run. Do you think it ended there in February, or did it run through the end of the month?
--Allan
By the way, Grizedo, I still need a name so I can credit you for information in the Stripper's Guide listings, now for this as well. Please email me at stripper@rtsco.com
The Human Zoo ran in the Birmingham Age-Herald from 3/2/1925 until 8/29/1925 with no copyright notice.
Hi Boyd --
Hmm. Seems a little late; if it was running in August 1925 I would have expected it to appear in the 1925 E&P directory, which it didn't. Of course that can be an oversight or the syndicate had already decided to drop it. Is the Age-Herald online, or did you get these dates from microfilm? What other material did they run? (That might give a clue as to whether the material was current or running late).
Thanks, Allan
Hmm. Seems a little late; if it was running in August 1925 I would have expected it to appear in the 1925 E&P directory, which it didn't. Of course that can be an oversight or the syndicate had already decided to drop it. Is the Age-Herald online, or did you get these dates from microfilm? What other material did they run? (That might give a clue as to whether the material was current or running late).
Thanks, Allan
That's from my ongoing microfilm survey of the history of the Birmingham papers; you can get the full story at the link below; my brief comments on the Human Zoo are on the A-H page for the 20's. You can also search for the contents of all the pages for any given date (although I haven't gotten that far yet on the Post), so you can do some experimenting on your question. On August 1, the A-H was running the following lineup:
The Human Zoo
Moon Mullins
Gasoline Alley
Little Orphan Annie
Winnie Winkle
The Gumps
The Human Zoo
Moon Mullins
Gasoline Alley
Little Orphan Annie
Winnie Winkle
The Gumps
Hi Boyd --
Fair enough, it doesn't look like the Age-Herald was in the habit of rerunning old material, so I'm going with your date. Thanks for the link!
--Allan
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Fair enough, it doesn't look like the Age-Herald was in the habit of rerunning old material, so I'm going with your date. Thanks for the link!
--Allan
