Saturday, August 27, 2022
Herriman Saturday: April 21 1910
April 21 1910 -- Interesting perspective from Herriman on this cartoon about the LA - Vernon ballgame, showing the action literally from behind the screen, even including a vignette of the pressbox.
The game itself was notable in that LA just could not seem to beat the lowly Vernon Villagers in 1910, but finally gave them a sound drubbing, 7-2, yesterday. Unfortunately that only improved their record against Vernon to 2 wins out of 8 games, pretty sad stuff. That might have felt good, but LA continues (and would continue) to trail them in the standings this season.
Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons
Friday, August 26, 2022
Obscurity of the Day: A Tale of the Jungle Imps
Okay, maybe this feature isn't the most obscure obscurity among serious newspaper comics fans, but a strip that ran in a single paper 120 years ago for less than a year? Rightly or wrongly, I'm taking ownership of it here as an Obscurity of the Day. (Besides, I have to show off that I have actual tearsheets from the series, about as rare as love letters addressed to Charlie Brown.)
A Tale of the Jungle Imps was Winsor McCay's first foray into newspaper comics, and his only series done for the Cincinnati Enquirer. His own extremely fertile imagination wasn't put to use but instead he was assigned the job of illustrating the poetry of one 'Felix Fiddle'. Fiddle in reality was George Randolph Chester, a writer with the paper who would later go on to a certain measure of fame as a writer of short stories and screenplays.
The plot of the series was that in each episode there is a fanciful explanation of how an animal came to exhibit one of its well-known features. The series didn't gain its running title until the third episode. Here are the titles of each episode:
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How The Elephant Got His Trunk |
1/18/1903 |
|
How The Quillypig Got His Quills |
1/25/1903 |
|
How The Kangaroo Got His Big Hind Legs |
2/1/1903 |
|
How The Alligator Got His Big Mouth |
2/8/1903 |
|
How The Giraffe Got His Long Neck |
2/15/1903 |
|
How The Pelican Got His Pouch |
2/22/1903 |
|
Why The Polar Bear Left The Jungle |
3/1/1903 |
|
How The Bee Got His Sting |
3/8/1903 |
|
How The Lion Got His Roar |
3/15/1903 |
|
How The Turtle Got His Shell |
3/22/1903 |
|
How The Ostrich Got So Tall |
3/29/1903 |
|
How The Guinea Pig Lost His Tail |
4/5/1903 |
|
Why The Camel Got His Back Up |
4/12/1903 |
|
How The Snake Lost His Body |
4/19/1903 |
|
Why The Stork Brings The Babies |
4/26/1903 |
|
How The Rhinoceros Lost His Beauty |
5/3/1903 |
|
Why The Parrot Learned To Talk |
5/10/1903 |
|
How The Beaver Got His Flat Tail |
5/17/1903 |
|
Why The Goat Learned To Butt |
5/24/1903 |
|
Why The Owl Stays Out At Night |
5/31/1903 |
|
How The Tiger Got His Stripes |
6/7/1903 |
|
How The Mosquito Got His Bill |
6/14/1903 |
|
How The Lobster Got His Claws |
6/21/1903 |
|
Fourth Of July In The Jungle |
6/28/1903 |
|
How The Frog Became A Jumper |
7/5/1903 |
|
How The Peacock Got His Tail |
7/12/1903 |
|
How The Cinnamon Bear Turned Brown |
7/19/1903 |
|
How The Pig Got His Appetite |
7/26/1903 |
|
How The Swordfish Got His Sword |
8/2/1903 |
|
How The Buffalo Got Turned Around |
8/9/1903 |
|
How The Booby Bird Got Even |
8/16/1903 |
|
How The Hound Got So Thin |
8/23/1903 |
|
Why The Hyenas Laugh |
8/30/1903 |
|
Why The Mule Kicks |
9/6/1903 |
|
How The Eagle Got Bald |
9/13/1903 |
|
How The Rabbit Lost His Tail |
9/20/1903 |
|
Troubles Of Mister Whale |
9/27/1903 |
|
Why The Bat Hangs Upside Down |
10/4/1903 |
|
Why The Goose Hisses |
10/11/1903 |
|
Why The Hippopotamus Yawns |
10/18/1903 |
|
Halloween In The Jungle |
10/25/1903 |
|
How The Zebra Got His Stripes |
11/1/1903 |
|
How The Walrus Got His Tusks. |
11/8/1903 |
Each story involved the 'Jungle Imps', a race of tiny primitive African sprites, who unfortunately are delineated with the giant lipped caricature common in that era. But they're basically just another group not unlike the Palmer Cox's Brownies, the Ting-Lings, the Teenie Weenies, etc. McCay evidently enjoyed the characters as he brought back one of their race as Impy for Little Nemo in Slumberland.
The feature was a smash hit with Enquirer readers, if the paper's own gushing can be taken as fact, but the series abruptly ended when Winsor McCay inevitably got the call from New York City. A talent as huge as his wasn't going to hang around Cincinnati for long, and he left for the Big Apple to work at the New York Herald, where he would dream up his greatest comic strip creations.
The Enquirer, left in the lurch, quickly changed gears and 'Felix Fiddle' debuted a new series, The Clown Folks, the next Sunday, with art by Apworth Adams. Adams was himself a very fine cartoonist. He didn't succumb to the siren call of New York City and offered up some fine series of his own for the Enquirer over the next half-decade. I would love to offer up a few of his series, but unfortanately I've never been able to lay my hands on any tearsheets of his work there.
As far as I know, the complete series has never been reprinted, only a sample here and there. Is it because of the negative stereotypes, or is it just impossible to put together a complete run of tearsheets? I dunno.
Labels: Obscurities
: 8/27/2022 11:31 AM Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Bob Davis
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Page 64 captionDick Cole was the creation of [Bill] Everett’s friend, and Funnies, Inc., colleague, Bob Davis.Bob Davis’ Dick Cole was also aboard and was one of the few schoolboy heroes to be found in American comic books. Both a writer and an artist, Bob Davis had sold stories to the detective pulps* and in the early 1930s drawn a short-lived newspaper strip about suave detective Philo Vance.
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Tarrytown Man Killed in Crash On Saw Mill
Car Hits Guard Rail, Somersaults into River Near Ashford Avenue
Dobbs Ferry—Robert B. Davis, thirty-one, of 40 Benedict Avenue, Tarrytown, was killed last night when his car swerved from the Saw Mill River Parkway, struck a stone pillar and plunged into the Saw Mill River, landing upside down in the water. The accident occurred about 1,000 feet south of Ashford Avenue.
According to police, Mr. Davis was driving north on the parkway when his automobile veered to the left, struck a stone pillar and somersaulted into the creek. The pillar was part of a guard rail on a small bridge over the Saw Mill River. The car landed in the water on its roof, with only the wheels exposed.
Lacked Rescue Equipment
Passing motorists notified Parkway Police who in turn summoned the Ardsley Fire Department. Fire Chief Hans Roeser rushed to the scene with a squad of volunteer firemen but were unable to be of assistance owing to lack of rescue equipment. The Dobbs Ferry Fire Department Rescue Squad, in command of Chief William French, was summoned with full equipment of floodlights, first-aid equipment and rescue apparatus. Dobbs Ferry Firemen Lawrence Dawson, Edward Buckley, John Yozzo and former Fire Chief James Brooks plunged into the river, fully clothed, in an attempt to extricate the trapped man.
The vehicle was so badly damaged that the firemen were unable to get into the interior of the vehicle, even after smashing the windshield and side windows. A tow car was called and the car was pulled by tow-rope on its side. After tearing open a door Davis was removed from the car to the bank of the creek where artificial respiration was administered.
Termed Dead At Hospital
After 15 minutes’ effort at resuscitation, Davis was removed to Dobbs Ferry Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival by Dr. Ed ward Ceccolinl, resident-physician. Dr. Ceccolini notified County Medical Examiner Amos O. Squire.
Police report that Davis’ wristwatch stopped at 9:10 P. M. and that the body was in the river one-half hour. Police said they were unable to determine immediately if Davis was killed by the impact or was drowned.
More than 1,000 motorists and onlookers jammed the parkway near the scene, of the accident until Parkway police in command of Captain Frank McCabe cleared the roadway.
… Everett gave Hydroman the secret identity “Bob Blake” ... It’s likely that Everett created Hydroman and used the first name of his best friend and colleague Bob Davis, the artist who followed up Everett’s work on the Chameleon in Target Comics and appeared in the same issues of Blue Bolt ... In the 1961 [Jerry] DeFuccio letter, Everett speaks of Davis thus: “Bob Davis was, indeed, one of my best friends. He met his death on his way home to Tarrytown, when he apparently went to sleep at the wheel of his car (a sedan, not a sports car) and plunged into a shallow pond off the Saw Mill River Parkway. As I recall it, he did not drown, but died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. What made his untimely death so poignant to us was the fact that it occurred after an afternoon and evening of frolic and fun with Carl, myself, and a couple of others from the Funnies gang. I remember that Bob kept calling his wife, Ruth, to tell her he’d be on his way shortly, and we finally persuaded him to leave about 7:00 p.m. That was the end.”
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Monday, August 22, 2022
Toppers: Cicero
When toppers came in style, Mutt and Jeff dutifully added theirs, a one tier strip that almost always featured Mutt's kid, Cicero. So faced with having to document it, a name had to be chosen. I considered Mutt's Bald Progeny, Minor Gags in One Tier, and even, just for the heck of it, Captain Thunderbolt's Mighty Rangers of Destiny. But y'know, with great power comes great responsibility and all that. So taking my cue from Mary Kondo, I chose a name that offers order and simplicity: Cicero. You're welcome.
The untitled Cicero topper debuted on October 17 1926, while Ed Mack was likely the ghost on the strip. It ran for over seven years, until finally being replaced by an actual titled topper, Cicero's Cat, on December 3 1933. By that point Al Smith had been at the anonymous helm for something like two years.
Tempted to make something of Cicero looking so much like Jeff, especially since Jeff often seemed to be in residence in the Mutt household. In the strips running at Comics Kingdom the domestic situation is pretty vague, with the boys sometimes sharing a bed, Mrs. Mutt's design changing, and Mutt occasionally acting like a bachelor on the make. The strip often crams two or three vaudeville gags into each weekday, with no interest in consistency.
Can't remember the last appearance of Cicero or his cat (Maybe they're in the future?).
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Wish You Were Here, from Rose ONeill
Here's a Rose O'Neill Kewpie card, issued by the Gibson Art Company of Cincinnati. This one was postally used in 1919, the earliest postmark I've found for this series so far. Funny, I'd never before noticed that Kewpies have something more akin to hooves than feet.
Labels: Wish You Were Here
