Monday, April 20, 2015
Magazine Cover Comics: Gloria - The American Girl
The well-known illustrator and pretty-girl artist Penrhyn Stanlaws (see Ink-Slinger Profile part 1 and part 2) had an occasional relationship with the Hearst folks, and contributed magazine covers to their Sunday publications. His longest running series was Gloria - The American Girl, a gag series featuring a jaunty athletic flapper-type. Why Stanlaws, who was obviously more comfortable producing detailed feature-rich paintings, would try out a strip format is a mystery. Evidently he did not relish the form, because he puts very little effort into these covers, and it sure does show. The backgrounds are mostly supplied by the Hearst colorist, and the figures are rather slapdash.
Slapdash or not, King Features Syndicate commissioned quite a few of these covers. Unfortunately my files on this series are lacking, so I can only say that there were some covers in the latter part of 1925, and then a long series running through much of 1926, and ending on January 2 1927.
Labels: Magazine Cover Comics
