Saturday, June 05, 2010
Herriman Saturday
Baldwin used his wealth to indulge an interest in horse-racing, and was quite successful at it. In 1907, as seen in the cartoon, he opened Santa Anita Park, a racetrack with all the most modern amenities, including electric lit stables and a parking lot for automobiles.
Lucky died in 1909 and eventually his racetrack was closed. However, the facility was later upgraded and re-opened in 1934 to become the Santa Anita Park we know today, one of the most famous tracks in the world.
Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons
Friday, June 04, 2010
Obscurities of the Day: The Good-To-Eat Children / The Good-To-Eat Alphabet
The Good-To-Eat Children came first, debuting on July 15. After a few installments he switched over temporarily to The Good-To-Eat Alphabet for a pair of episodes on August 12 and 19, then reprised the original series title until September 2.
A bow to Cole Johnson who supplied both the samples and the correct running dates for these series.
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
I agree with Paul K.--it's a spooky concept when the stars of your strip are all created to be eaten.
Reminds me of the talking cow in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" that came to your restaurant table so you could choose your cut. Or Donald and the Nephews eating roast duck for dinner.
Reminds me of the talking cow in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" that came to your restaurant table so you could choose your cut. Or Donald and the Nephews eating roast duck for dinner.
Reminds me of Charley Tuna constantly trying to get Starkist's attention, seemingly unaware that such attention would result in his own demise.
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Thursday, June 03, 2010
Obscurity of the Day: Uncle George Washington Bings, the Village Storyteller
The star of the show was that staple of small-town life, the old-timer who loved to tell tall tales to anyone who would listen. This sort of character was a regular in prose humor of the day, but curiously enough few of these leg-pullers were employed on the comics pages.
Although the series ended in 1908, McClure occasionally used a reprint of the strip to fill a hole in later sections, and Uncle George can be seen every once in a while popping up as late as 1912.
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Hello, Allan----Were the post-1908 UNCLE GEORGE WASHINGTON BINGS episodes reprints, or were they being used for the first time?-------Quite a difference from my old scanner (Humboldt Standard) and my new one (Columbus Press Post), eh?---Cole Johnson.
# posted by 
: 6/03/2010 4:35 PM
: 6/03/2010 4:35 PM
The 1912 ones are definitely reprints, can't absolutely vouch for the occasional one that ran 1909-1911.
--Allan
--Allan
What great artwork! Strong lines, nice use of shadow and light, great expressions. Feels more like 1950's Mad than early 1900's.
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Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Obscurity of the Day: Best Seller Showcase
Adapting popular novels to comic strip form has rarely been a recipe for success (see Book-of-the-Month for one example) and Best Seller Showcase ran true to form. As with previous attempts, newspaper editors seemed to take an initial interest, then after the first few adaptations the feature lost clients at a steady clip.
Universal Press Syndicate, no stranger in the 70s to throwing features against the wall to see what might stick, distributed Best Seller Showcase with a considerable marketing push before its debut. Part of the supposed attraction was that the adaptations would only be eight weeks long, which of course did no favors to the book being adapted nor to the quality or depth of the strip. Notice above in the samples from The Chancellor Manuscript adaptation that artist Frank Bolle desperately tries to maximize his paltry space by sometimes shoehorning two scenes into one panel. You've got to hand it to Frank for doing his best to show a cohesive narrative despite the restrictions.
Elliott Caplin, that comic strip ghost writer with a list of credits as long as your arm, is said to have written all the adaptations for the series. The ever-capable Frank Bolle and Gray Morrow took turns at the adaptations (with one possible exception). The adapted stories are as follows:
Raise the Titanic by Clive Cussler, art by Frank Bolle, 8/15 - 10/9/77
Storm Warning by Jack Higgins, art by Gray Morrow, 10/10 - 12/4/77*
The Chancellor Manuscript by Robert Ludlum, art by Frank Bolle, 12/5/77 - 2/12/78 (10 weeks)
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks, art by Gray Morrow, 2/13 - 4/9/78
The Second Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders, art by Frank Bolle, 4/10 - 6/18/78 (10 weeks)
Illusions by Richard Bach, art by Gray Morrow, 6/19 - 7/30/78**
All Things Bright and Beautiful, art by Frank Bolle, 7/31/78 - 8/27/78 ***
* The art on Storm Warning is unsigned, and I've heard it being credited to Winslow Mortimer or Jack Sparling, but it looks like Morrow to me.
** End date corrected as per Mark Taylor, based on run in Chicago Tribune.
*** End date from DD Degg based on Austin American-Statesman.
Some sources claim that this Sunday and daily strip ran until 1979, but I've never seen any further adaptations after All Things Bright and Beautiful.
Booksteve's Library has reprinted The Sword of Shannara storyline. Here's a link to the first post.
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Thanks for the listing. My memory was always that there was a Barbara Cartland story in there somewhere but I see not. Did she perhaps have a strip of her own? Or rather one adapting her books?
I had completely forgotten the ILLUSIONS adaptation even though I remember clipping it out because I thought it was a particularly odd choice to adapt! If I still have it, though, I don't know where it would be.
As I've pointed out elsewhere, part of the problem in developing a loyalty to this type of strip was the fact that one who enjoyed spy strips might dislike fantasy strips, etc.
I had completely forgotten the ILLUSIONS adaptation even though I remember clipping it out because I thought it was a particularly odd choice to adapt! If I still have it, though, I don't know where it would be.
As I've pointed out elsewhere, part of the problem in developing a loyalty to this type of strip was the fact that one who enjoyed spy strips might dislike fantasy strips, etc.
I'm in the Win Mortimer camp for artist on the Storm Warning adaptation. While not a great art identifier, it is undeniably Mortimer to my old eyes.
Hi Booksteve --
Barbara Cartland Romances was a separate strip, which we'll cover one of these days as an obscurity.
--Allan
Barbara Cartland Romances was a separate strip, which we'll cover one of these days as an obscurity.
--Allan
I don't think this helps any on the art question, but the Birmingham News ran the strip from 9/19/77 to 4/1/78 with a credit for Frank Bolle and Elliot Caplin, so Caplin wasn't particularly ghostly on this one.
As a boy who grew up wanting to be the next Alex Raymond (hasn't happened yet), Gray Morrow's adaptation of "The Sword of Shannara" was one of the most thrilling things I'd seen in newspapers for a LONG time. As I recall, we had a blizzard that year and I missed several installments, but wow ... great stuff. I'm sure I still have those strips, yellowing away in a photo album somewhere.
I have three further Sundays;
"All Things Bright and Beautiful" with art by Frank Bolle dated 6-Aug-1978, 13-Aug-1978 and 20-Aug-1978.
"All Things Bright and Beautiful" with art by Frank Bolle dated 6-Aug-1978, 13-Aug-1978 and 20-Aug-1978.
Hi Mark --
Uh-oh, that means the end date on Illusions is incorrect. Can you tell me what paper ran your samples? Does the August 20 episode end the adaptation?
Thanks, Allan
Uh-oh, that means the end date on Illusions is incorrect. Can you tell me what paper ran your samples? Does the August 20 episode end the adaptation?
Thanks, Allan
Yeah, I think there is an error with the "Illusions" dates. Those three "All Things Bright and Beautiful" came from the Lake County News Herald. Unfortunately I do not have the surrounding Sundays. August 20th does not end the adaption.
Regards,
Mark
Regards,
Mark
I'm surprised that Gray Morrow's adaptation of SWORD OF SHANNARA has never been collected into a trade paperback. I remember reading the strip in one of the Spokane, WA papers (The Spokesman Review, I think). It was terrific reading and the artwork would have stood up to Prince Valiant, easily. I've seen a couple of sebsites where a few of the old strips have been scanned and posted, but trying to make sense of some of the strips is difficult do to the fading newsprint. A shame, really.
From the Austin American-Statesman; "All Things Bright and Beautiful" ran daily until August 26, 1978. with the last Sunday running August 27, 1978.
As several others have noted, the only Best Seller Showcase adaptation that still shines in the memory of those who followed it was illustrator Gray Morrow's adaptation SWORD OF SHANNARA, by Terry Brooks. I vividly remember reading the dailies for this during the early months of 1978. It's a shame that this will probably never see the light of day again in a reprint collection, because the artwork was wonderful and it really made you want to go out and find a copy of the book. Some of the old dailies and Sunday strips are collected here: https://thefourlands.tumblr.com/post/104955704193/best-seller-showcase-presents-the-sword-of/amp
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Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Obscurity of the Day: Rice and Tapioca, the Famous Pudding Brothers
Rice and Tapioca, the Famous Pudding Brothers ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer from April 24 to July 3 1898. It was one of several features the Inky ran that were 'syndicated'. I put the quotes around that term because there's no evidence that these strips (the two others are The Country School and The Barnyard Club) were sold to any papers other than the Inky. Pudding Brothers is different than the other two -- the others might have been sold directly to the Inquirer by Outcault, whereas this one includes a copyright by the New York Herald on some episodes. Does this represent the very earliest syndication attempt?
The Herald did not run this feature (or have a proper Sunday comic section at all until 1900)*, so if it was producing it solely for the Inquirer in my opinion it's not a case of syndication unless we're prepared to take serious liberties with the term.Cole Johnson tells me that several episodes refer directly to Philadelphia, so it would seem the series was produced with the Inky in mind.
The other part of the mystery, just as intriguing, is the question of who drew these gorgeous strips. The verses are credited to Roy L. McCardell, whose prose and poetry were fixtures at Puck and various New York newspapers starting in the 1890s, but the art is unsigned. Who would take such care on the drawing of a feature yet not sign it? The most likely answer, it seems to me, is that some cartoonist from another paper was moonlighting (Archie Gunn maybe?). Or maybe it was one of McCardell's buddies at Puck who felt newspaper cartooning was beneath him. Or maybe it's Charles De Yongh, the only cartoonist I know of who did a series for the Herald in 1898. What do you think?
Much thanks to Cole Johnson who supplied these lovely samples of a great strip.
* Taking a second look at Cole's notes on this feature, I think he is saying that the top sample DID appear in the Herald, on January 10 1897, over a year before the Inquirer run. I didn't index the Herald before 1898 (there seemed no reason to) so I can't say if they ran just the single example or the whole series.
EDIT: I have now indexed the New York Herald for 1897, and this series DID in fact run there over a year before the Philadelphia Inquirer printed it. In that appearance the first few installments are uncredited (but I'm getting pretty firm about the first installment only being the work of Archie Gunn). Most of the series, though, is signed and credited to someone whose signature looks to be L.M. Pillet.
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
The pudding brothers were an internationally known vaudeville clown and donkey act performed by the "Silent" comedians Burke and Andrus (sometimes Burke, Frisco and Andrus)in the 1890's. Burke was Billy Burke, father of actress Billie Burke.
# posted by : 6/01/2010 10:16 AM
: 6/01/2010 10:16 AM
Hi Grizedo --
Proof, then, that the web doesn't offer absolutely everything. A search on Pudding Brothers comes up dry. I guess Vaudeville REALLY IS dead!
--Allan
Proof, then, that the web doesn't offer absolutely everything. A search on Pudding Brothers comes up dry. I guess Vaudeville REALLY IS dead!
--Allan
A search for William Burke brings up a few slight references. This page mentions him as a singing clown with Barnum & Bailey in the 1880's.
http://www.happytimeclowns.com/history.htm
http://www.happytimeclowns.com/history.htm
I came across this blog after going through my recently deceased father's old hand downs. I discovered a book made from the actual clippings of this entire series ran in the New York Herald in 1897.The book was made for my great grandmother when she was three by "Popsy" - who is either her dad or grandfather. It is amazingly done.
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Monday, May 31, 2010
Obscurity of the Day: This Man's Army
The strip was created by Henri Arnold, who is best known for his Jumble puzzle cartoons and for his fourteen year stint on that Daily News institution, Ching Chow, and for its more politically correct replacement, Meet Mr. Lucky.
EDIT 2/15/2019: Michael Vassallo reports running dates of 3/24/1957 to 4/24/1966. He says that the strip did not run for about four years before that final date.
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Make that at least six in 1957 then, that's not one of the dates I had. I suspect this one still ran in the early 60s because I've seen original art for vertical format strips, which the NYDN seems to have switched to for its fillers in those years.
--Allan
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--Allan
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics
Comments:
Jim,
In case you get this before I write snail mail or see you... the Queen and I made a trip to Orlando Saturday. We called to see if we could take you out to a late breakfast or early lunch, but there was no answer.
best,
Craig
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In case you get this before I write snail mail or see you... the Queen and I made a trip to Orlando Saturday. We called to see if we could take you out to a late breakfast or early lunch, but there was no answer.
best,
Craig
