Herriman One-Shots: March 9 1902

 

This is a half-page of gags from the McClure section of March 9 1902, and we have few creators signing their efforts in this case. Going clockwise from top left, though, I think that gag is probably by Ed Carey. The next one sports a partial signature that tells us it is by J.A. Lemon, for whom this is a very early McClure submission. Next we have what looks to me to be another Ed Carey effort, then of course Herriman, offering up what is to modern eyes quite an unsettling 'gag.' Next we have a scrawled signature and a style generic enough that I will not venture a guess. Last but not least, we have an unsigned A.D. Reed cartoon done in his very attractive pointillist style -- I wish he did more that way. 

I think this will be the last of the Herriman one-shots for awhile as my ready supply has been used up. There are more lurking in the archives here, but digging them up is hit and miss because I did not generally enter one-shots into my computer inventory until far into my collecting years. That was an unfortunate blind spot for me for a long while. I do have a lot of other one-shots scanned, and I think our Saturdays will now be given over for awhile to interesting examples of one-shots from the early years of newspaper comics. Back then there was a LOT of content that did not feature running characters or titles, and some of it is quite wonderful and not to be ignored. One-shots are also important in that they help in tracking cartoonists, some of whom might spend years at a syndicate and produce ONLY one-shots the entire time. That makes them totally invisible if we track just series material.