Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Magazine Cover Comics: Frolics of Florabel
Here is the magazine cover comic Frolics of Florabel, which ran at the rate of one or two per month from May 2 1926 to April 17 1927. This is a rare one since it was distributed by Johnson Features, a not particularly successful syndicate which was one of those formed by William H. Johnson in the years after he left the Hearst fold. The syndicate offered a weekly magazine cover service (and probably the insides as well) and interspersed this running feature with various one-shot covers.
Rare is the occasion that I compliment newspaper poetry, but Berton Braley was a cut above the norm. Not only was his verse actually funny on occasion, but he had a good sense of rhyme and meter. A less complimentary opinion I have to offer for the work of George F. Kerr on this feature, which offers bland and uninspired art. Kerr could do better, and usually did when he was working on Hearst material, which was his real bread and butter. Alex Jay will show you some much better Kerr work tomorrow.
The Florabel character was soon revived in a second series in which her adventures going abroad are chronicled. We'll cover that series one of these days.
Labels: Magazine Cover Comics
