Saturday, June 19, 2010
Herriman Saturday
Why the Examiner decided to make sport of Walter Hoff Seely's theatrical debut I don't know, but they had so much fun taking him to task that the accompanying article never gets around to naming the play.
Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons
Comments:
He was my grandfather. He worked for William Morris (the man, before he became an agency) traveling across the country, building theaters. He came to San Francisco after the earthquake and built the Valencia Theater. The first actress to star there was Blanche Stoddard, who later married him.
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# posted by 
: 10/25/2011 9:02 PM
: 10/25/2011 9:02 PM Friday, June 18, 2010
Obscurity of the Day: Runaway Ruth
Probably the first of the Russell Patterson magazine cover series, Runaway Ruth started sometime in or before March and ran until June 23 of 1929. It was distributed by Hearst's International Feature Service.
Labels: Magazine Cover Comics, Obscurities
Comments:
I probably should be grateful that illustrations like this do not appear in newspapers any longer, otherwise my house would be filled to the brim with them. Absolutely breathtaking. I notice even tons of comic book artists nowadays have very amateurish styles.
# posted by : 6/18/2010 12:43 PM
: 6/18/2010 12:43 PM
Artists in Patterson's day learned in the classical way, how to draw figures and objects in the realistic representational manner, from which they could simplify it to their own personal styles, to give the clean, elegant artwork that became fashionable in the early 20th century.
Today a cartoonist starts from the simplified line and has little to develop, so they mostly all draw the same way.
Today a cartoonist starts from the simplified line and has little to develop, so they mostly all draw the same way.
# posted by : 6/18/2010 1:37 PM
: 6/18/2010 1:37 PM
Yes, professional cartoonists, when they were children, often copied other cartoonists styles, then they developed a style of their own. An excellent way of learning to draw is by drawing from real life or photographs, then developing your own style from that.
# posted by : 6/21/2010 2:28 PM
: 6/21/2010 2:28 PM
In general, I think I agree with the idea that cartoonists should be privy to a traditional education in drawing. On the other hand, I wonder if such an education would have prevented us from ever knowing E.C. Segar's Popeye, with his biceps somehow located just above his wrists ... :)
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Thursday, June 17, 2010
Obscurity of the Day: Dummydom
Dummydom's main characters are those wooden puppets with strings that make their limbs move. I know there must be a term for these -- not marionettes I suppose because these aren't nearly that complex and they have a base to keep them vertical. Anyhow, Rigby got some good mileage out of these and other types of toys making guest appearances. Sort of Toy Story for the turn-of-the-century crowd.
The feature ran in the World from November 25 1900 to May 5 1901.
Thanks to Cole Johnson for the scans!
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Maybe Rigby had sold cartoons to the Herald some time in advance, and only began using them at the same time as thw World did.
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# posted by : 6/17/2010 9:26 AM
: 6/17/2010 9:26 AM Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Obscurity of the Day: Dizzy Dramas
The strip normally used stick figures for characters and large lettering (our second example above is an unusual entry with detailed art) so it could be easily read where it typically lurked down at the bottom of the page. The gags were simple and didn't use continuing characters. Although the feature was a daily, few papers ran it more than once a week. However, some papers would run a whole weeks worth on Sundays by pasting a strip on the bottom of each page of the Sunday comics section.
Dizzy Dramas was distributed by the Ledger Syndicate of Philadelphia, and they initially ran it in their tabloid paper, the Philadelphia Sun. The feature started there on February 7 1927, though a contemporary article in Editor & Publisher cites a start date sometime in January. Eventually the long-running strip was moved over to the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, where it ended on May 2 1942. Although this was probably the end of new material, the strip was sold in reprints for many years. I've seen it appearing as late as 1957.
The strip was credited to Joe Bowers, but Cole Johnson says that F. O. Alexander told him it "was a pseudonym for a fellow with an Italian name, which I've conveniently forgotten now."
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Dizzy dramas also were reused as early as 1934 and as late as 1942 by Western Newspaper Union.
# posted by : 6/15/2010 2:40 PM
: 6/15/2010 2:40 PM
Hello, Allan----Going back to a 1979 interview I did with F.O.Alexander, he said that "Joe Bowers'" real name was Hugh Dini (Deeney?). -----Morale got so low at the Ledger Syndicate, that they let Bowers/Dini do the last Hairbreadth Harry Sunday! (8-13-39)-----Any info on Hugh D.?----Cole Johnson.
# posted by : 6/22/2010 4:14 PM
: 6/22/2010 4:14 PM
Hugh Dini was a famous escape artist and magician. They made a movie about him starring Tony Curtis -- surely you remember!!
:-}
Allan
:-}
Allan
You see, it's stuff like this that drive one to change your name to Joe Bowers.
# posted by : 6/23/2010 8:07 AM
: 6/23/2010 8:07 AM
Hugh Joseph Deeney was born on April 18, 1894 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hugh was the oldest of three sons born to John and Sarah, both Irish immigrants. According to Hugh's World War I Draft Registration Card, he was a self-employed artist in Chicago in 1917. In the 1920 Census, Hugh was a lodger on Manhattan's west side, and worked as an artist. In the 1930 Census Hugh had returned to Philadelphia, living with his parents; he worked as a newspaper artist. His life came to a tragic end.
Trenton Evening Times
May 12, 1943
Comics Artist Killed on Camp Rifle Range
Philadelphia, May 12 (AP).
Hugh J. Deeney, 41, Philadelphia artist, who drew
the comic strip "Dizzy Dramas" under the name
Joe Bowers, was killed accidentally yesterday on
the rifle range of Camp Blanding, Fla., the War
Department notified his family.
Hugh was actually 49 at the time of his death.
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Trenton Evening Times
May 12, 1943
Comics Artist Killed on Camp Rifle Range
Philadelphia, May 12 (AP).
Hugh J. Deeney, 41, Philadelphia artist, who drew
the comic strip "Dizzy Dramas" under the name
Joe Bowers, was killed accidentally yesterday on
the rifle range of Camp Blanding, Fla., the War
Department notified his family.
Hugh was actually 49 at the time of his death.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Obscurity of the Day: The Baby
Here's a short-lived series that appeared in the top-of-the-line version of the McClure Sunday comics section (the one with Billy Bounce, Simon Simple, etc.).The Baby ran from December 25 1904 to March 5 1905. The feature was never signed, and I tend towards it being by a cartoonist not in the usual McClure creator corral, while Cole Johnson suggests it might be Mark Fenderson's work. The ugly mug on that baby does put me in mind of Fenderson, so Cole may well be right (as usual).
Thanks to Cole for the scan!
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
My apologies for going slightly off topic, but this past weekend I picked up a 1930 issue of Time magazine, and they had a story in there about comic strips. The article discussed, briefly, the ghosting of "Mr. and Mrs." and also discussed a brand-new suburbia strip being started by New Yorker stalwart Rea Irwin. A panel is included. I assume you know of this article and/or the Irwin strip, but if you don't, particulars avail on request.
# posted by : 6/14/2010 5:10 PM
: 6/14/2010 5:10 PM
Hi Eric -
Rea Irvin's strip that started in 1930 was "The Smythes", syndicated by the NY Tribune. Beautifully drawn, as was anything by Irvin.
--Allan
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Rea Irvin's strip that started in 1930 was "The Smythes", syndicated by the NY Tribune. Beautifully drawn, as was anything by Irvin.
--Allan
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics
