Saturday, January 21, 2012
Herriman Saturday
Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons
Friday, January 20, 2012
Ink-Slinger Profiles: Harris Brown
Brown's parents were counted in the 1900 census but he was not. They were farmers in Bristol, Pennsylvania. The local newspaper, The Bucks County Gazette, reported on several events involving Brown. On September 14, 1905, he and Mrs. Stackhouse had organized a lawn party on his father's property. On November 30, 1905, "a freedom party was given to Harris H. Brown at his uncle's residence, by Mrs. Frank P. Warrington, Mrs. William K. Stackhouse and Mrs. Henry C. Brown." Another party honoring his twenty-first birthday was reported on December 8, 1905. The Gazette noted the start of his cartooning career, at the Philadelphia Record, on November 30, 1906:
Harris H. Brown, formerly of this section, has associated himself with the Philadelphia Daily Record and is running a series of comic drawings in the Sunday issue of that paper.
For the Record he created the comic strip, The Adventures of Willie Green, which ran from 1906 to 1928 (with several long gaps).
The 1910 census recorded Brown in Philadelphia, boarding at 733 North 20th Street. He was an artist doing newspaper work. His parents were still farming in Bristol. He copyrighted Adventures of Willie Green, Book No. 1 on March 26, 1915, according to the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 2: Pamphlets, Leaflets, etc. 1915, New Series, Volume 12, Number 4. He signed his World War I draft card on September 12, 1918. His occupation was farm laborer; his description was medium height and build with gray eyes and red hair. He has not been found in the 1920 census; his father, a widower, was retired and staying with the Stackhouse family.
In 1930, Brown was married and lived in Morrisville, Pennsylvania at 456 Stockham Avenue. According to the census, his wife, Alice, was 17 years his junior; they had a five-year-old daughter. He worked as an insurance agent. He signed his World War II draft card on April 27, 1942. He lived at 615 North Pennsylvania Avenue, in Morrisville, and worked for the Prudential Insurance Company in Princeton, New Jersey. His description on the card was "5 ft 10 in, 170 lbs, blue eyes, sandy hair."
Brown passed away on November 11, 1962 in Trenton, New Jersey. The Trenton Evening Times reported his death the following day.
Harris H. Brown died last night at his home, 26 South Westfield Avenue, following a short illness.
Mr. Harris was a retired Prudential Insurance Company agent, and also was retired as a guide at the State Museum.
He was well known as a cartoonist, having created the "Willie Green" comics, and was a cartoonist with the former Philadelphia Record for 30 years. He also had done commercial art work.
Born in Philadelphia, he resided in Trenton for the past 25 years, and previously made his home in the Emilie-Fallsington [Pennsylvania] area for many years. He was a graduate of Williamson College [a vocational school], Media, Pa.
Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Alice Kellett Brown; two daughters, Mrs. Nancianne B. Parrella and Mrs. Sally Jane Bergner, both of Trenton, and five grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Friday at 11 a.m. in the First Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Dr. Andrew Sebben, pastor, will officiate. Burial will be in Fountain Lawn Memorial Park.
The 1910 census recorded Brown in Philadelphia, boarding at 733 North 20th Street. He was an artist doing newspaper work. His parents were still farming in Bristol. He copyrighted Adventures of Willie Green, Book No. 1 on March 26, 1915, according to the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 2: Pamphlets, Leaflets, etc. 1915, New Series, Volume 12, Number 4. He signed his World War I draft card on September 12, 1918. His occupation was farm laborer; his description was medium height and build with gray eyes and red hair. He has not been found in the 1920 census; his father, a widower, was retired and staying with the Stackhouse family.
In 1930, Brown was married and lived in Morrisville, Pennsylvania at 456 Stockham Avenue. According to the census, his wife, Alice, was 17 years his junior; they had a five-year-old daughter. He worked as an insurance agent. He signed his World War II draft card on April 27, 1942. He lived at 615 North Pennsylvania Avenue, in Morrisville, and worked for the Prudential Insurance Company in Princeton, New Jersey. His description on the card was "5 ft 10 in, 170 lbs, blue eyes, sandy hair."
Brown passed away on November 11, 1962 in Trenton, New Jersey. The Trenton Evening Times reported his death the following day.
Harris Brown Dies Following Short Illness
Harris H. Brown died last night at his home, 26 South Westfield Avenue, following a short illness.
Mr. Harris was a retired Prudential Insurance Company agent, and also was retired as a guide at the State Museum.
He was well known as a cartoonist, having created the "Willie Green" comics, and was a cartoonist with the former Philadelphia Record for 30 years. He also had done commercial art work.
Born in Philadelphia, he resided in Trenton for the past 25 years, and previously made his home in the Emilie-Fallsington [Pennsylvania] area for many years. He was a graduate of Williamson College [a vocational school], Media, Pa.
Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Alice Kellett Brown; two daughters, Mrs. Nancianne B. Parrella and Mrs. Sally Jane Bergner, both of Trenton, and five grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Friday at 11 a.m. in the First Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Dr. Andrew Sebben, pastor, will officiate. Burial will be in Fountain Lawn Memorial Park.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Obscurity of the Day: Willie Green
However, although the Record wasn't awash in color, they did make a nod to running Sunday comics. For over twenty years they featured a half-page homegrown strip in black and white titled Willie Green. This wasn't by any means the only strip they ran, but when it did run it was always clearly the star of the show. Most of the other strips tended to be daily size.
Willie Green, a strip about a mischievous boy, debuted on September 2 1906, penned by a local teenaged cartoonist named Harris H. Brown. The strip, initially drawn in a very crisp style that you can see in this old blogpost, seems to have been a real hit with Record readers. The strip ran weekly for the next five years, then began to run every second week, alternating with Cousin Sammy Green (a country cousin of Willie) penned by John F. Hart, from December 3 1911 to May 12 1912.
Willie Green disappeared at that point, and other minor strips ran in its place. Eventually even these pretty much petered out. Then as the new year of 1914 rang in, the Record added a Sunday color comic section, courtesy of Hearst's new Newspaper Feature Service syndicate. In addition to the color section, Willie Green came back. This time the strip ran from January 4 1914 to September 3 1916 (today's samples are from this interval). It was during this run that a pair of reprint books were issued through the Frank M. Acton Company. Both are quite rare.
Once again Harris Brown took flight, but again he returned. On November 18 1917 the strip is resurrected yet again, only to stop on July 14 1918. This time Brown was gone for quite awhile, but either the pull of cartooning for the Record was too great, or his luck at other ventures was too bad, because on May 22 1921 he's back. But not for long. This run ended after a bare six months, on November 13. It was in this period, however, that Brown self-published another Willie Green reprint book; perhaps the 1921 run was intended purely as a bit of promotion.
Willie Green then pops up in the darnedest place, as a feature of World Color Printing's weekly children's activity page. I believe these are reprints of earlier material. One has to wonder if Harris Brown or the Philadelphia Record sold them the rights. Anyway, whatever the arrangement was, it didn't last, as Willie Green ran only three times on that page.
The last hurrah for Willie Green came near the end of the 20s, when it made its last gasp as a feature of the Record Junior magazine section for kids. This final run was from January 8 to August 12 1928.
Why Brown did this feature in fits and starts is a mystery to me. But maybe we'll learn some clues tomorrow when Alex Jay contributes an Ink-Slinger Profile of Harris Brown.
Labels: Obscurities
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Ink-Slinger Profiles: Wally Wallgren
Abian Anders "Wally" Wallgren was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 4, 1891, according to Find a Grave. The 1900 U.S. Federal Census recorded the Wallgrens in Philadelphia at 1631 Chadwick Street. His birth was recorded as "June 1891" and he was the oldest of three children born to Abian and Hilma, both born in Sweden. His father was a tailor.
The book Swedes in America, 1638-1938 (1969) said, "He entered newspaper work at an early age and was indeed, something of a youthful prodigy in the art department of the old Philadelphia North American, for by the time he was sixteen [1907] he had two Sunday comic strips running; 'Inbad, the Sailor' and 'Ruff and Reddy.' " [Allan's note: the series cited actually began in 1911 and 1910 respectively]
In 1910 the Wallgren family of six remained in Philadelphia, at 1208 52nd Street. He was a newspaper cartoonist. In 1915, for the Philadelphia Record, he produced the strip Sammy and Sue and Slobbery Slam. Find a Grave and Lambiek said he contributed to the Philadelphia Public Ledger and the Washington Post. The U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1940 at Ancestry.com said he enlisted on April 25, 1917, almost two weeks after the U.S. entered World War I. A muster roll from September 1917 summarized his conduct violations:
SD, Sign Painter. Tried by S.C.M. 7th charged with violation of the 61st and 96th Articles of War. Specifications: AWL from 9:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on 4th; Drunk in Camp about 7:00 p.m. on 4th; Findings: Guilty. Sentence: To perform hard labor for one month and to forfeit two-thirds of his pay for one month. Sentence approved 8th.
Swedes in America covered his early service career.
…[Wallgren] was among the first to see service in France as a buck private and regimental sign painter, a post which army logic assigned him on his "professional" record. According to his own account for nine months he painted "Latrine" and "Officers Only" signs up and down France, from St. Nazaire, through Menaucourt, to Damblaine in the Vosges. Private Wallgren's light, however, was being kept under a bushel. His great opportunity came when the Stars and Stripes was started as the official newspaper of the AEF [American Expeditionary Forces], and Wally was placed on the staff as cartoonist. In February, 1918, he was transferred to Paris and drew cartoons for this doughboy newspaper throughout the War, until the final issue in June, 1919.
Robert I. Snajdr, of the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio), wrote a remembrance of Wallgren on March 29, 1948; below, an excerpt about his time on Stars and Stripes:
…Incidentally, Wally's utter indifference to deadlines was a cause of continuous, albeit at times humorous, exasperation to his superiors. As John T. Winterich, another brilliant staff member, put it in his history of the paper, "Squads Write!": "The extraction of a weekly strip from Private Wallgren became one of the more monumental tasks of the war."
Sometimes it was even necessary to assign a detail to the carefree artist to see that he produced a job on time. Once, even, so the story goes, he was confined in a room under watchful eyes of M.P.s with instructions not to let him out until he had completed his weekly stint.
Some of his cartoons can be viewed here. His military career was covered in a Time magazine profile on October 17, 1938. According to a U.S. Marine Corps Muster Roll, Wallgren was on indefinite furlough from July 14, 1919 to January 14, 1920, and was discharged on January 15. He was counted in the 1920 census with his family, now at seven members, at the same 1910 address. His occupation was magazine cartoonist.
In 1930 Wallgren and his wife Florence lived in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania at 837 Concord Avenue. They married when they were 28 years old, which was around 1920. He was a cartoonist. In 1938, Wallgren created the newspaper strip Hoosegow Herman; color samples can be viewed at I Love Comix Archive, [Update: The blog has moved and offers a way to access the archive.] and original art can be viewed at Heritage Auctions.
Sunday page, 12/3/1939, courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Wallgren passed away on March 24, 1948 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. The Lawton Constitution (Oklahoma) published the Associated Press story the following day.
Wally Wallgren, Cartoonist of First World War, Dies
Philadelphia, March 25.—(AP)—Abian A. (Wally) Wallgren, 56, cartoonist for "Stars and Stripes" during the first World War and later with the American Legion monthly, died yesterday after a long illness.
Wallgren was credited by Gen. John J. Pershing with keeping up the morale of thousands of doughboys with his travesties on officers and his humorous illustrations picturing the difficulties and problems of soldiers.
Among Wallgren's creations were "Inbad the Sailor," "Hoosegow Herman," and "The Saluting Demon."
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Comments:
LoC's American Memory site has the complete first series of “The Stars and Stripes” available online, February 8, 1918, thru June 13, 1919, as published in Paris, France:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/sashtml/
I'll be sending a few more details via email...
Leonardo De Sá, over here
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/sashtml/
I'll be sending a few more details via email...
Leonardo De Sá, over here
This is really beautiful stuff. This guy should be better known. The "Inbad" strips are highly Opper-damaged, but that later one is so refined, almost European in style. I'm impressed.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Obscurity of the Day: Inbad the Sailor
So naturally fate ensured that Wally's entire adult life ended up entwined with the military. When he wasn't in uniform, he was cartooning about military life. And here's where it all started, in 1911, with Inbad the Sailor. Why Wally chose a sailor for this series I cannot fathom. It's not really germane to the idea, other than providing a pretext for an ever-changing setting. And this was long before the military should have even been on his radar (he was drafted for World War I). But he did, so I get to tell you that this is Wally Wallgren's very first military-themed strip, a portent of the next 30+ years of Wally's life.
Inbad the Sailor, a strip about a tender-hearted tar who gets the snot beat out of him all over the world for trying to do good deeds, ran in the Philadelphia North American from January 1 to June 18 1911.
Thanks to Cole Johnson for the scans!
Tomorrow: an Ink-Slinger Profile of Wally Wallgren by Alex Jay
Labels: Obscurities
Monday, January 16, 2012
Obscurity of the Day: Kiwi
The kiwi is a flightless bird, so it seems sort of amazing that a strip about one had a very long migration, all the way from Australia to the U.S.
Ken Montone, new to Australia from the U.S., and Brian Kirby, fresh from Great Britain via Singapore and India, both came to the country as art directors at McCann-Erickson Advertising. The two found enough free time to come up with a minimalist comic strip about birds, then called Birdwirds, and sold it to the Sydney Sun-Herald as a Sunday feature in early 1965.
Not long after, both Kirby and Montone left Australia, taking their strip with them. They then sold it in England to the London Daily Sketch.
Then Montone returned to the U.S. and sold the strip to the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate. According to Montone the strip was initially tried out in the syndicate's flagship papers, and then was generally syndicated starting on February 12 1968. In the U.S. the title was changed to Kiwi; Montone says this was because the original title was considered "somewhat naughty". (I hate to admit ignorance of anything naughty, but I confess I don't see what's off-color about the title Birdwirds).
Things were tough, though, for the two creators. Kirby tried to immigrate to the U.S., but was unsuccessful. The two creators ended up collaborating long distance, with Kirby living offshore in Barbados. In 1970 the partnership carried on by mail and long-distance calls proved too much, and Kirby dropped out as co-creator of the strip. As Montone tells it, it was the beginning of the end. "By this time, the strip was suffering from a myriad of problems and the circulation showed it. In 1971, CT/NYNS and I parted company".
And thus the Kiwi with by far the longest flight on record became extinct.
Thanks to Ken Montone, who supplied many details about his strip.
PS -- The co-creator's name is definitely Montone, not Monotone -- my samples from the San Francisco Examiner seem to have been typeset by either a practical joker or a comic strip critic.
Labels: Obscurities
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Sunday, January 15, 2012
Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics
