Here's another Buster Brown strip where an amateur hand seems to take a turn. Look at those awful faces in story panels 8, 9 and 10. Also note that the masthead for this episode looks like it would have made more sense on the strip of May 20 1917. It has nothing to do with this strip. What's that all about?
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| 7/1/1917 |
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| 7/8/1917 |
Do we see a littl Ross involvement here? Dad's face in story panels 5 and 6, and mama in her appearance have a Ross look to me.
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| 7/15/1917 |
If there was any doubt about Ross still being in the picture, the strip of July 22 puts an end to that. Ross is all over this one, yet some far lesser hand was obviously also involved. Did Ross pencil this and leave the inking to our hack assistant, who intrudes more and more often these days?
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| 7/22/1917 |
Here is Ross again on July 29, this time doing a far better job on the art than he did last week. Here is a case where Tige's face has evidently not been supplied by Outcault, as it is horrendously off-model. Is this Ross' attempt at the Tige face?
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| 7/29/1917 |
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| 8/5/1917 |
Definite evidence of Ross on August 12, at least in story panel 8. I don't really know what to say about panel 7...
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| 8/12/1917 |
Eddie Loomis is back, and it's been a long time since I saw a strip that looked to be unfiltered Outcault like this.
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| 8/19/1917 |
Did Outcault tire himself out on that last strip? On the 26th it still looks Outcault-ish but a real slapdash job. Poor Cissy Smith seems like a sketch, not a realized character here.
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| 8/26/1917 |
Ross is back, doing the lion's share of the September 2 episode. Is his inability to draw Tige under comment in story panel 1?
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| 9/2/1917 |
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| 9/9/1917 |
Ross is back on September 16, certainly drawing all the ladies. Did he draw more than that? Tige seems back on model, so I'm guessing Outcault did the main character faces. The doctor also has a Ross feel to him.
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| 9/16/1917 |
Ross once again supplying at least the ladies on the 23rd. Does Buster seem unusually tall in this strip? Is that some kind of tell?
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| 9/23/1917 |
The geezer certainly seems Ross-ish in this strip, but the kids look more Outcault-ish to me.
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| 9/30/1917 |
As much as I'm enjoying Buster, this is not a comment on that. I'm wondering if there is an online errata for American Newspaper Comics An Encycopedic Reference Guide. I know Allan has mentioned corrections in the past, but are they collected someplace?
ReplyDeleteHi Jon --
ReplyDeleteNo, sorry. You're stuck with searching this blog for now for late breaking news. As a book owner, you are also quite welcome to ask me about new data I have on features that are of particular interest to you, within reason.
Hopefully in the next couple years some miracles will happen -- I'll carve out some free time, and some web developer type will become interested and we'll get all that data online in a searchable database.
--Allan