Wednesday, January 04, 2023

 

Can You Identify the Mystery Cartoonist?

 


The Stripper must be getting old and addle-pated, because I feel like I should know who this is. This sports cartoon ran in the February 6 1928 edition of the Atlanta Georgian, a paper that I just clipped up for its cartooning content. As I was clipping this cartoon out, I was just assuming it would be by Feg Murray. But then I looked at the scrawl of a signature, and that sig sure isn't his. 

The style seems sort of familiar, in a generic sorta way, and this was no minor local cartoonist since he was syndicated by King Features, but my neurons refuse to fire properly. Help!

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Comments:
It reminds me of Quinn Hall.
 
What do we make of this 1938 swipe, seen here? A possible lead?

https://www.newspapers.com/image/50169863/
 
Mark -- If there were no sig I could easily be convinced this is Quin Hall. But Quin had a consistent sig he used, so ... ?

Paul -- If Sords swiped it, he could have saved us a lot of trouble and added an "apologies to" line.

 
There is a signature. Just under 'th new champ' looks like a Q to me. DanB
 
Looks like Will Gould to me.

Alberto
 
Will Gould is another good guess based on him being a sports guy for Hearst at this time. But he also had a very identifiable signature (block letters enclosed in a box on box arrangement), and the sig on this cartoon is nothing like that.

 
Hello Allan-
Quin Hall is the man after all. Just have been slogging through the pages of THE DAILY REPORTER of White Plains, NY; a small undistinguished paper, lost in a sea of likewise New York metro area dailies. As a result, they didn't have clout to get first tier strips, and took stuff like "Telling Tommy" and "How Do They Do It?".
So they also took "B" sports cartoons. In 1926 they would run Wil Gould's King Features panels. In December of that year, There are some that are not signed, they are clearly from a different hand than Gould, most apparent in the "Cartoony" elements. On 22 December the first one with a signature appears, that being "QUILL". It would seem a (excuse the pun,) good pen name for Quin Hall. The artwork sure looks like his. There must have been a reason for having one, and as sometimes the style is obviously different, perhaps Gould still in it somewhat, but the "Quill" signature is apparently a house trade mark. There's a lot unsigned as well, but it's QH most of the time.
Sometimes, by July 1928, the "Quill" cartoons are attached to a story about whatever subject the cartoon is about, written "By QUIN HALL". At the same time, fewer and fewer cartoons are done by him, and an unsigned cartoonist takes his place.
In amongst the sports cartoons, A series by itself appears, Every thursday the panel is given over to "The Thurdsay Evening Bowling Club", a group of archtypical worn-out husbands and neighbourhood grouches that do an "Indoor Sports" turn. These are still signed "Quill". From 12 January to 3 May 1928.
On 3 December 1928, Hall, using his full name, starts supplying King Features editorial cartoons, which goes on until 31 October 1931, replaced by Clive Weed.

The last of the "Quill" sports panels was 20 july 1929, replaced by Burnley.

 
Very nice catch there, Mark! And I decided that "The Thursday Evening Bowling Club" qualified for book listing -- Passaic Daily Herald seems to have run the complete series -- Oct 27 1927 to May 3 1928. Thanks, Allan
 
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