Stripper's Guide

March 12 1910 -- I know what you've been thinking. Sure, it's all well and good for Herriman to be doing all these sports cartoons, but when will he get around to an editorial cartoon about prunes? 

Well, my friends, that long-awaited day has finally come. It seems that food prices have been going through the roof, led by meat, dairy and grains. Luckily for Californians the state is practically awash in dried fruits, including that king of dessicated fruit, the prune. Herriman extolls their virtues for replacing all that other expensive stuff in the Angeleno diet.

Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

I'm always delighted to feature our favorite completely bonkers cartoonist, Eddie Eksergian, on the blog. Today we cover one of his highest profile series, Billy the Bell Boy. This strip generally ran on the front page of the St. Louis Star's comic section during its run. 

The strip's unvarying plot involves the dream fantasies of a sleeping bellboy. The kid imagines himself being cuddled, coddled and generally treated like royalty, only to be rudely awakened by the desk manager, who flings a city directory (the precursor of the phone book) at him. 

The art is as wild as anything in the Eks pantheon, but I get the feeling that Eddie was holding his bizarre imagination in check on this feature. Billy's fantasies are pretty firmly grounded in the comic strip version of  reality, not the Bizarro world we often visit in an Eddie Eks production. Maybe with Billy the Bell Boy occupying a marquee position on the comics section covers he wanted to offer a more reader-accessible version of his esteemed brand of dementia. 

Billy the Bell Boy ran from February 8 1903 to June 19 1904. While I think of this (and all Star material) as having been distributed by World Color Printing, it was not the version that was contracted through the New York Daily News, but rather the homegrown material that ran in the Star and a few syndicate client papers. For the extended discussion on this whole Star-WCP brouhaha, check out this post. 

Thanks to Cole Johnson for supplying the samples.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

One day a rash reporter asked Woodie Cowan, the cartoonist and sports writer, to tell him the, story of his life. No more was necessary.

“I’m glad you asked me, old thing,” said the obliging Woodie. “I’ll start at the very beginning and spare neither time nor imagination to make it interesting. To begin with I, was born on Friday at 3:17 a. m. My full name is Woodson Messick Cowan, which you will admit is so full that it staggers. I was a howling, success for six months and then became a democrat. As late as two years I objected to kissing, but I soon learned better. At three, having attained self-consciousness, I turned republican. I showed a fondness for bread and jam in 1896, was dumb at school, but struggled hard and became a bricklayer at 15.

“Work was not in my line, however, so I entered the Chicago Art institute in 1908, where I learned to exist on $2.50 a week. I turned waiter and later sang in cabarets and movies. Then I became proficient in art, and 30 cents sufficed me for a week.

“I first did cartoons for the Chicago Inter-Ocean which is now no more.The rumor that my art was responsible for its demise is false, however. Then I went to the New Orleans Item where I did a humorous column, a court sketch, and a cartoon every day, and slept the other hour. The war found me with the Washington Times. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1914-06-27/ed-1/seq-13/#date1=1777&index=2&date2=1963&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&lccn=sn84026749&words=COWAN+WOOD&proxdistance=5&state=&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=wood+cowan&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 At the opening of the 1916 shearing season, I plunged into Wall street, and am still trying to get even. I am now doing cartoons, comic strips, and articles on sport subjects with a New York syndicate. …

New Orleans, Dec. 10. 

Wood Cowan, cartoonist of the New Orleans Item, makes his stage debut next week at the local Orpheum.

Local Drawer Debuts.

New Orleans, Dec. 17. 

Wood Cowan, local cartoonist, made his stage debut at the Orpheum Monday. He sings while sketching conventional characters in the conventional way. His act lacks coherency evidencing hasty production. It is hardly pretentious enough for the better grade of vaudeville. Cowan is of the staff of the New Orleans Item.

“Newfangles” Artist Is a Genuine Ruralist

Wood Cowan, who draws “The Newfangles”

Truly rural ... but with a New York accent ...  is Wood Cowan, who draws “The Newfangles.” He lives at the end of the end of the trail ... somewhere in Connecticut ... in an old farmhouse, with oak beams and a flagstone walk. In cold weather, though he becomes a city feller, and moves to a studio apartment in New York. Cowan has a reputation for being one of the finest tellers of tall yarns on the Eastern seaboard ... strong men weep when they hear his imitations of nutmeg Yankees. At 15 he had learned the rudiments of bricklaying ... and three years later entered the Chicago Art Institute. Been a cartoonist ever since. He’s happily married ... has one youngster ... is proud of his home-made wines ... and disapproves of spats ... but wears them.

O. I. See

One fine old name not in the directory any longer is that of Orbal I. See. Mr. See, who is really Wood Cowan, the comic artist who draws “The Newfangles,” has moved to Connecticut. Some years ago, though, he went into the phone company’s office to apply for service in his town apartment.

“What is your name?” asked a clerk.

“What did you say?” asked the artist.

“I said I must have your name,” replied the clerk, a little impatiently. 

“Oh, I see,” drawled Cowan. 

“And your first name Mr. See?” Inquired the clerk, busily scribbling on a card.

This so amused the applicant that he invented as name on the spot. “Orbal,” he said. And Orbal I. See it was, through four issues of the directory. His friends had heard the story, so they had no difficulty remembering his nom de telephone. 

Wood Cowan, 90, Dies; Cartoonist, Ex-Official

Weston—Woodson Cowan, 90, of Godfrey road, a former First Selectman here and a nationally recognized professional cartoonist best known for “Major Hoople,” died Friday in Norwalk hospital.

Mr. Cowan drew “Major Hoople” from 1931 until his retirement in 1956. He also drew political cartoons for the Bridgeport Post-Telegram and the New Haven Register, as well as newspapers in New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia.

He was co-author and illustrator of “Famous Figures of the West,” and the author of “Iowa Cracker Barrel.”

Mr. Cowan was born in Algona, Iowa, the son of a pioneer homesteader in that state, where he lived in a sod hut on the Iowa prairie during his first two years. He came to Weston in 1927 and resided here the rest of his life.

He was the town’s First Selectman foam 1955 to 1957 when a dispute with the Republican town committee led to his retirement from politics. Previously, he had also been elected to three terms in the State House of Representatives on the Republican ticket.

During his tenure as First Selectman, Weston obtained its first post office, its first state trooper and the first town fire department, accomplishments Mr. Cowan pointed to with special pride at an Historical society meeting in October 1974.

But the cartoonist’s chief claim to fame was his “Major Hoople,” the fat major who is the chief character in “Our Boarding House,” which still appears in Bridgeport Telegram and Sunday Post.

“When I drew him,” Mr. Cowan said in a 1974 Bridgeport Sunday Post interview, “Major Hoople would do the most outrageous things, but always with a reason. Like crossing a lightning bug with a bed bug so he could read in bed at night.”

Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Frances Cowan; two sons, Thaddeus Cowan [1934–2012] of Manhattan, Kan., and Conrad Cowan [1931– ] of Santa Monica, Calif.; and five grandchildren.

Memorial services will take place Tuesday at 3 p.m. in the Norfield Congregational church, with the Rev. Evelyn Towle officiating. Burial will be private.

The Lewis funeral home, 210 Post road east, Westport, is in charge of arrangements.

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

# posted by Alex Jay @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

The US Treasury Department, tasked with the relatively easy job of selling War Bonds during World War II, nevertheless wasn't above the hard sell to squeeze the last few dollars they could out of the wallets of those not in uniform. 

The panel cartoon series American Heroes offered tales of heroism from the warfronts, always with a stinger about the need to buy War Bonds. The panels were presumably sent out in batches, and newspapers were free to use them as they wished, whether on a regular basis or to fill holes whenever needed. 

The first batch went out in February 1943, and were bylined "by Leff." In my book I mistakenly assigned these to Mo Leff, but later I looked at the microscopic signatures that were inscribed on a few panels (most were unsigned) and see that it actually says "M & S LEFF", indicating that the brothers Mo and Sam both worked on the series, presumably with Mo pencilling and Sam inking. 

The Leffs were responsible for most of the series, but with the batch that went out in November 1944, the new artist was Julian Ollendorff, who offered up the most hell-raising illustrations for the series (see above), showing that at 60-some years old he still had some lively ink left in his pen.

He didn't last long though, as the batch sent out in April 1945 switched to veteran cartoonist Wood (or Woody) Cowan. The batch by Cowan was the last batch sent out, as the war was soon over, though War Bonds did continue to be sold for awhile after the end of the conflict. Although newspapers continued running the panels well into 1946, I'm pretty confident that Cowan only produced a single lot of them. 

I presume the series was weekly, but I confess I haven't beaten the bushes to figure out exactly how many panels were actually produced. There may not have been enough offered for that frequency. If someone wants to put in the work to figure that out, you'll find plenty of papers running them in online archives. 

On a side note, I was able to verify the stories of the men cited in all the panels above except that of Henry G. Bohlen. No one by that name seems to have won a Silver Star, and I find no trace of the name in wartime newspaper accounts. Did Ollendorff make up a hero from whole cloth?

Labels: Advertising Strips

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 4 comments

Here's another of those postcards distributed with Hearst Sunday papers in 1906, the ones they might have called the "Little Arsonist" line of juvenile amusements. 

I wonder if a single person was surprised to see Der Captain magically appear once the heat was applied? You'd think the cartoonists would think just a little about the point of these cards when creating these designs and come up with something ... anything ... a little unexpected.

Labels: Wish You Were Here

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 2 comments