Friday, January 09, 2015
I AM CHARLIE
In honor of the cartoonists whose lives were lost this week in France,
Stripper's Guide take a week off to mourn.
Thursday, January 08, 2015
Obscurity of the Day: Don, Dot and Duckie
When Frank W. "Hop" Hopkins gave up on his imitation of Rube Goldberg's strip (Hop's Skips and Jumps, yesterday's obscurity), he wasn't about to throw in the towel. He got right back up on the horse with a new strip, titled Don, Dot and Duckie (some papers didn't even bother changing the masthead, so this strip is sometimes seen running under the previous title). But if Hop's Skips and Jumps was unoriginal and not all that funny, it looked like a classic next to this rather strange strip.
The adventures of three bickering siblings have such limp gags that I'm not sure they're really meant to be funny. To add extra merriment, Hop sometimes seems to be trying to get comedic mileage out of the characters' foreign (?) accents, but I'll be doggoned if I can figure out what they're supposed to be. Dutch, maybe? I have to admit, this strip just generally has me scratching my head. Either I'm missing something, or Hopkins was trying to see just how bad a feature he could get International Syndicate to send out to clients.
Well, at least Don, Dot and Duckie wasn't inflicted on the American public for long. The longest run I can find of the strip is from April 13 to May 29 1914 in the Edwardsville Intelligencer, which may be the only paper who hated their readers enough to run the entire series.
Thanks to Mark Johnson for the samples!
Labels: Obscurities
Wednesday, January 07, 2015
Obscurity of the Day: Hop's Skips and Jumps
Even though Frank W. "Hop" Hopkins was already churning out one successful daily comic strip (Scoop the Cub Reporter) for Baltimore-based International Syndicate in 1914, his energy was not being sufficiently dispersed. With some trade publication fanfare, Hop added a second daily feature called Hop's Skips and Jumps to his workload.
Hop decided that in this feature he would imitate the highly successful Rube Goldberg. Goldberg's brilliantly inventive daily untitled strip was a huge success, and it's hard to argue with Hop's logic in hitching his wagon to that particular star. Hop's copycat strip manages to do an incredibly faithful job of duplicating Goldberg's art style (it's downright eerie in some strips), but the gags fall flat so often that anyone who was fooled by the art would quickly realize their mistake.
Hop's experiment in forgery was short-lived. Whether Hop called it quits because of his conscience, or the syndicate pulled the plug I dunno, but the feature was quite short-lived. The longest run I can find of it is from March 2 to April 11 1914 (Edwardsville Intelligencer).Tomorrow we'll see the strip he created to replace it.
Thanks to Mark Johnson for the samples!
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Hi, I came across your blog while researching a piece I picked up at an estate sale. It's a series of framed comic strips of "Scoop the Cub Reporter" from 1913. They look like prints, but not from a newspaper. They're all signed by "Hop." Do you know if this piece is worth anything or should I just hang it up in my house? I can't find any related pieces on Ebay and very little information online. Any info you give would be appreciated, especially as to whether I should pursue trying to sell this or just keep it. Does it have any value? Thanks in advance.
Post a Comment
# posted by 
: 4/25/2015 11:12 AM
: 4/25/2015 11:12 AM Tuesday, January 06, 2015
Watch American Experience "Ripley: Believe It or Not" Tonight !!
Your Stripper's Guide host has been interviewed for a PBS documentary about Robert Ripley, and the program airs tonight at 9 PM on most PBS stations. For all I know I may have ended up on the cutting room floor, but it promises to be an interesting show whether or not yours truly makes an appearance. Be sure to tune in!
To whet your Ripley appetite, here's an essay I wrote about the Believe It or Not man, which ended up not being used on the American Experience website. It's written for a general audience who might not know anything about Ripley, but I think I brought a perspective that you comics scholars might find interesting.
The Shocking Truth about Robert Ripley
As a cartooning historian, I could tell you some fascinating
(to me) minutiae about the man that undoubtedly won’t appear in the documentary,
but that would probably just make you click away to greener pastures. I really
would like you to stick around for a moment, so I’m going to be rather daring.
I’m going to tell you the unvarnished truth about Ripley.
Now I’m not trying to be shocking, or flippant, or
disrespectful. Really I’m not. Before I make my statement, I would like to
point out, with all modesty, that I am a fellow who has devoted a good portion
of his life to studying newspaper cartoons. I’ve written a somewhat
authoritative book on the subject, and have earned a name for myself in the
small (okay, tiny) community of newspaper cartooning researchers. Therefore, I
make the following statement none too lightly, and with some expertise to back
me up.
Okay, here we go. The fact is, Robert Ripley
was not much of a cartoonist. Yes, despite making millions off that art form,
and becoming a household name, I’m telling you, as a cartoonist the guy was just
barely adequate. In New York City
in the 1910s, where Ripley planted his cartooning flag, there was no shortage
of artistic talent. There were plenty of cartoonists who were more proficient
in both drawing and writing than Ripley, though many of them pounded the
pavement to no avail. The closest some of them ever got to a paying art gig was
drawing flowers on dinner plates for a crockery company.
Now you needn’t take my word for it. You can look at the
historical record. With all the chutzpah of youth, Ripley came to New York after a less than stellar start to his
cartooning career in San Francisco.
New York City
was
the place to be for a cartoonist – the home of the most important (and
most numerous) newspapers in the country. There were no less than 15 mainstream
daily papers being published there in the 1910s, all vying for the attention,
and pennies, of the man on the street. Now you’ve undoubtedly heard about
yellow journalism, and how newspapers competed for readership in those days by
out-scandalizing each other. News stories were overplayed in the most shameless
ways, all in order to attract curious readers.
While sensationalism was a big seller, cartoonists were
almost as important. If you enjoyed Rube Goldberg, you bought the Evening Mail. If Mutt and Jeff tickled your funnybone, you bought The New York American. Every newspaper
had its stars, though some shone brighter than others.
Ripley, to his credit, managed to get a cartooning gig in New York right off the
bat. But it was at the Globe and
Commercial Advertiser, a newspaper so low on the totem pole of popularity
that it sold mostly because it was offered for a penny, cheaper than most other
papers. The Globe tried to follow the
example of the more prominent New
York dailies, and succeeded only in looking like the
pale imitation that it was. The Globe’s
cartoonists were second-raters by necessity. If a cartoonist showed up in The Globe
and developed a following, he would have been quickly whisked off with an offer
of better pay and greater exposure at a
bigger paper. Cartoonists didn’t work for The
Globe unless their services were not in great demand.
Ripley was low man on the totem pole even at The Globe. His beat was mainly sports
cartoons, which was a specialty that was already on the wane. Sports cartooning
was a big pull for newspapers only while the art and science of newspaper
photography was still being developed. Once newspapers could regularly offer
shots of boxers and baseball players in action, the handwriting was on the wall
for the sports cartoonists. Although they still had a following, in the 1910s
and beyond their space and audience was steadily eroded by the cheaper and
easier expedience of photography.
Evidently, Ripley’s work at The Globe was not so exceptional as to make waves in New York City. Ripley toiled
in relative obscurity at The Globe
for over a decade, and then left only because the newspaper itself was merged
into non-existence. He landed at the Evening
Telegram, a paper that had a good reputation, but he never really got a
foothold, and barely made it through a year there. By 1924, Ripley suffered a
fate that would have had many cartoonists looking for a new career. He was reduced to working for a second-rate
newspaper syndicate for a cut of the minor earnings to be had from selling his
wares to out of town papers.
So now you might be thinking that it must have been about
then that Ripley came up with Believe It
or Not, his life turned around, and he lived happily ever after. Oh, but
not so. Not at all. Because Ripley was completely oblivious to having caught
lightning in a bottle. He created Believe
It or Not way back in 1918, long before his fortunes took some of their
rockiest turns.
According to some versions of the story, on that fateful day
in 1918, his editor had suggested to him the idea for a cartoon about freakish
sports records. But let’s give Rip the benefit of the doubt and say it was his
own eureka moment. We may as well, because although the idea was in his lap, he
evidently hadn’t a clue what to do with it. I think it is appropriate that we now
invoke that famous line – Believe It Or
Not – for this amazing fact: after that first cartoon, the second
installment of Believe It or Not did not
see print for another ten months! And after that, often months would continue
to go by without a new installment of the sensational cartoon.
I’m not going to give away any of the twists and turns that
led to Believe It or Not becoming a
multimedia sensation, and Ripley becoming arguably the richest newspaper
cartoonist of his era. Suffice to say that Ripley, although he didn’t quite do
everything in his power to keep it from happening, seemed unaware of the
goldmine he was sitting on, and he had to be led by the nose into the promised
land of money and stardom.
Now that I’ve made my case, you may well be thinking that
I’m trying to run down this poor guy. Blah blah, not much of a cartoonist, yada
yada success was the result of dumb luck, blah blah most anyone else in the
same situation would have done as well or better than Ripley. Okay, I admit I
did give the guy a pretty serious goosing.
But here’s the thing. What I didn’t mention is that Ripley
had one quality that is quite rare and amazing, and it is that quality, in my
opinion, that led to his fame and fortune. Now when I say what the quality is,
most of you are going to roll your eyes, and say “Oh, please!” And if I hadn’t
studied Ripley’s life and personality, I promise you, I’d be in the same pew.
Here it is: Ripley’s secret recipe for success was simply
that he believed in himself. From the moment he woke up in the morning, until
the moment he fell asleep at night, he knew that he was destined for big
things. He knew that however dark it might seem, that the sun was just beyond
the horizon waiting to shine its light on his face. He believed in himself to
the core of his being, just like all those cheesy self-help gurus tell us we
ought to.
Ripley had no great ability, no great work ethic, no
dazzling intellect, and I have no doubt he was told that many, many times. New York is not a kind city, and the New York newspaper office of his era was no
place for people who couldn’t handle criticism. Even outside the newspaper
office, Ripley must have been a constant target of derision. He looked goofy,
he dressed badly, and he had a speech impediment. Most of us would be hiding
under a rock if we were in his shoes. But not Ripley. He took it all in stride,
secure in the blissful knowledge that he was Special.
Ripley had no Tony Robbins tapes, no visits to the
Maharishi. He seems to have had little or no spiritual life, his interest in
religion being mostly a fascination for odd or bizarre rituals he could use in
his cartoons. No, it seems to have been
something in his upbringing, something incredibly positive and self-affirming, that
stuck so deep in his psyche that no amount of evidence to the contrary could
shake the belief he had in himself. Ripley knew that he would end up one of
life’s big winners, and he just sat back, enjoyed the ride and waited for the
inevitable to happen – and it did.
Comments:
You did an excellent job! Enjoyed the show. I was watching it with my wife and when you first popped on screen I told her "I know him! He sent me a package once!"
# posted by : 1/07/2015 11:16 AM
: 1/07/2015 11:16 AM
Alan congrats on making the cut! I recorded the show and watched later with my wife. I told her I knew you through Jim and she through that was pretty cool... which it is!
Post a Comment
Monday, January 05, 2015
Obscurity of the Day: Binks
Although Frank W. "Hop" Hopkins was never any great shakes as a cartoonist, he and his work have always occupied some tiny out of the way tender spot in my heart. And here you thought it was made of purest flint (my heart that is, not Mr. Hopkins). We'll discuss three of Hop's series this week.
Although Alex Jay says Hop's career may have begun at the Chicago Daily News circa 1904, I'm afraid I did not come across any signed work of his in my pretty darn thorough indexing of that newspaper. Maybe at that time he was still just a junior bullpenner, churning out border decorations and spot illustrations. I first catch sight of Hop later at one of my favorite newspapers, the Denver Times. My oh my, the Times put the most vivid yellowness in their yellow journalism. If you ever have a chance to review the Denver papers of the 1900s, I promise you a ball.
The earliest I know of Hop being there is early 1908, but since my experience of that newspaper comes only from a very small smattering of bound volumes, he could well have started there quite a bit earlier and I would be none the wiser.
At 24 years old, Hop had all the energy of youth and his cartoons festooned that paper from cover to cover. By January 1908 when I first encounter him there, Hop already had a signature character, Mr. Binks, making constant appearances. He appeared in his own comic strip series on occasion (like Binks on the Job above), and also appeared on just about any other cartoon in which Hop wanted a commentator. The third cartoon above is a good example, and marks when Gilbert, the senior editorial cartoonist at the Times, jumped ship and went over to the Rocky Mountain News in 1908. The energetic Hop, of course, happily added that role to his repertoire at the Times.
Some of the Binks comic series are: Binks on and Off the Job, Binks' Baby Alphabet, and Seeing Denver.
As best as I can tell, Hopkins left the Denver Times sometime in 1910, and that was the end of Mister Binks. But since I lose track of him until 1912, maybe he was in Denver a little longer. Does anyone have access to microfilm of the Denver Times!?!?
PS -- Be sure to watch the American Experience program "Ripley: Believe It or Not", airing at 9 PM on January 6 on most PBS stations. Check it out at their website.
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Sort of a Dreams of the Deviled Egg Fiend.
B'way...Who is Gilbert? Is he someone so well known in early comic strip lore or are you just citing the bottom comic.
More Snuggle Pups, sez I!
Post a Comment
B'way...Who is Gilbert? Is he someone so well known in early comic strip lore or are you just citing the bottom comic.
More Snuggle Pups, sez I!
# posted by : 1/06/2015 7:01 AM
: 1/06/2015 7:01 AM Sunday, January 04, 2015
Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics
PS -- Be sure to watch the American Experience program "Ripley: Believe It or Not", airing at 9 PM on January 6 on most PBS stations. Check it out at their website.
Labels: Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics
Comments:
I'm really going to miss Jim's Sunday Comic. It is part of my weekly ritual. Perhaps Alan, you could run encores?
Jim - I'm hoping the muse will strike you often!
Post a Comment
Jim - I'm hoping the muse will strike you often!
