Stripper's Guide

Howdy and welcome to Herriman Saturday now reborn as Herriman One-Shots. This will be a short series as I only have a handful of these handy for scanning, but they are an interesting look at how a young George Herriman broke into the ranks of the newspaper cartoonists. 

Here we have a one-shot gag that ran on the inside of the McClure Sunday funnies section for January 19 1902. The gag is simplistic and pretty much pre-ordained by the second panel. The art is typical for Herriman in this period, with everything very rubbery-looking. It's not really unpleasant, but it does look a little slapdash. 

Notice that Herriman will take any excuse to minimize the number of hard to draw human figures. In panel 2 our fellow in the wheelchair is even inexplicably gone. Okay, so the idea there is that this is an entirely different scene than panel one, and the kid is coming up with an invention while the wheelchair guy is off doing non-wheelchair stuff. I get that, but it is awkward. 

Where Herriman offers us a glimmer of his talent is in the word balloon in the final panel. Many cartoonists of the day would have thought that the slapstick was the end all and be all of the strip and left it at that. Pretty lame to us today, but this sort of stuff was all over comic sections in those days and had an  apparently appreciative audience. But where the average cartoonist of 1902 would have given us some lame dialogue in the last panel ("I'll whale the tar out of ye if I ever get better" or some such line that drops with all the grace of a cow patty) instead Herriman gives us a funny and picturesque turn of phrase "... kindly kick that brat in the neck good and hard." I mean, we're not talking Shakespeare or anything, but saying 'neck' instead of 'behind' puts a funnily implausible picture in your head. Result, at least a little guffaw. Okay, so your mileage may vary.

Labels: One-Shot Comics

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 3 comments

Tailspin Tommy indulged the fantasies of kids who wanted to be fliers, and after Lindbergh's flight that was the dream floating around the heads of a LOT of kids. Kids ate, breathed and slept flying. If you went into the average middle school classroom in the late 1920s and asked for the top speed of a Curtiss CR-3 or which plane won the Thompson Trophy last year, you'd get a sea of hands shooting up in response.

The original topper to Tailspin Tommy was a sober affair, a one-panel history lesson titled Progress of Flight. However, when writer Glenn Chaffin left the strip at the end of 1933, artist Hal Forrest took on those chores and he evidently had no interest in writing scholarly features. Progress of Flight flew off into the sunset, replaced by a new slambang aerial adventure strip titled Four Aces on January 7 1934*. 

For what was just a single tier strip, Four Aces took on a ludicrously ambitious story of four fliers, one from each of the major allied nations of World War I. Larry Gale, the American, Ronald Newton the Brit, Anthony Garbilla the Italian and Maurice Dupont, the Frenchman. The story of the comrades-in-arms plays out like molasses at the rate of one quasi-daily strip per week, but manages to shoehorn plenty of action into each strip, if the story itself makes little headway. Eventually only the American flier is seen regularly, with the others functioning as the occasional deus ex machinae to get him out of tight jams as needed. The strip ran until June 16 1935* (episode #106), to be replaced by an instructional feature How To Fly. 

A bizarre footnote to this first run of the topper is that on two occasions it was signed by a different name than Hal Forrest -- the name signed to it on April 8 1934 and January 27 1935 was Harry Paul. Who is Harry Paul, you ask? Well, we don't really have to look far, because Hal Forrest was otherwise known by the full name Harry Paul Forrest.  Okay, so it's weird that the creator of the strip would occasionally use a pseudonym for himself, but what's even weirder is that in this period the last panel of the strip often has an empty box in the final panel, evidently for an artist signature, and it is blanked out. My pet theory? I think that blanked out box was originally enclosing the signature of a ghost, and Forrest generally just blanked it out, but in a few cases substituted his own name, albeit not in its familiar form. Why? Gee, I dunno. Anyone have a theory?

Four Aces returned on March 22 1936* once the How To Fly instructional feature had run its course. This time the strip was allowed a little elbow room, appearing as a two-tier strip. The strip also looks  a lot better now that Reynold Brown was assisting Forrest. Strip numbering was restarted at #1.

In the revived strip the war is now over and our four heroes are running a flying circus, touring the American midwest showing off their aerial prowess to the rubes. Of course they rarely have time for that once they become involved in busting up aerial criminal rings, chasing foreign saboteurs, and other high-flying adventures. In 1940 the aces were in a South American jungle when they picked up two new characters, gorgeous gal Nadine and her jungle boy pal Pogodanda. Forrest seemed so taken with this pair that they eventually evicted the aces from their own strip. 

The revived strip ran until the Tailspin Tommy Sunday itself was cancelled as of March 15 1942**, right in mid-story.

* Source: Casper Tribune-Herald.

** Source: McAllen Daily Press, via Jeffrey Lindenblatt.

Labels: Topper Features

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 1 comments

In the oughts, before they ponied up for a proper colour comics section, the Sunday Minneapolis Journal had a kids' section with colour cover. That cover often featured comic strips, or at least comic drawings, produced by the Journal's art bullpenners. 

The best cartoonist at the Journal was Charles L. "Bart" Bartholomew, who produced their front page editorial cartoons. Despite his lofty position at the Journal, Bart seemed to relish producing some of the kid series (see The Shanghai Twins, for instance). But today's obscurity, Billy Brash the Boy Hero, is not among them -- it was produced by Fred Bartholomew, who had a style that somewhat resembled that of Charles, though of an order or two less polished. One might naturally assume they were related (I certainly did), but I just found an obit for Fred where it turns out he was originally from New York and mentions no blood relation to the Minnesota "Bart." Just a coincidence of em-bart-assing proportions? Thank goodness he was not yet another Bartholomew who signed his work "Bart"!

Fred only produced this one series for the Journal, but it was a long-running one, appearing there from December 12 1903 to November 12 1904. In each strip our title character tries to take on the persona of a hero from history or a daredevil of today, with predictably disastrous results. We have a few interesting examples of the strip above. First, did people really parachute out of balloons at the turn of the century? I never heard of it, but I suppose it's possible. Second, check out that middle example showing a grisly scene that evidently skated right past dozing editors.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 2 comments

Richard W. Thomas Dies; Ex-Reporter, Columnist

Richard Webster Thomas, former reporter and columnist of the Brooklyn Eagle and a candidate for Congress and the State Senate in the downtown area in 1932 and 1934, respectively, died of a heart attack yesterday in his home at 163 E. 81st St., Manhattan.

Born 33 years ago in Manhattan, Mr. Thomas was active in newspaper work in Brooklyn for about ten years, remaining “in harness” during the vigorous campaigns he waged to put political theories formed as a newsgatherer to active use in legislative chambers.

He was educated at the Collegiate School and Rutgers University and was employed by the Standard News Association and the old Brooklyn Standard Union before joining the Eagle staff and launching a busy career in all phases of reportorial endeavor.

A keen student of penology, his views on courtroom procedure were frequently aired in special articles written for the Eagle, and he later became intimately known to this newspaper's readers by conducting a column under the title “By the Way.”

‘Stranger Than Fiction’

In addition to his regular duties Mr. Thomas found time to delve deeply into the odd and interesting, a hobby that led to his collaboration for several years with Walter Galli of the Eagle art department in the syndicated feature “Stranger Than Fiction.”

A stickler for factual reporting, he insisted on substantiating to the last degree the unusual customs and events he unearthed, frequently passing up “real gems” because of inability to establish their proof beyond all quibble or doubt.

On entering the 1932 election campaign as the Republican opponent of Representative John J. Delaney, Mr. Thomas waged a forthright, hard-hitting fight based on a strong anti-Tammany stand and a denunciation of the 18th Amendment.

Although swamped in the landslide for Franklin D. Roosevelt, the then 25-year-old campaigner, the youngest in the country during that election, made an excellent showing in the Heights area, carrying ten election districts.

Before accepting the G.O.P. nomination for State Senator in 1934, to which was added the support of the Fusion, Liberal and Recovery parties, Mr. Thomas published the Brooklyner, a monthly magazine that flourished for about a year.

He was married on March 13, 1933, to Betty Stuart Peck of Brooklyn and Belle Terre, daughter of Mrs. Bayard Livingston Peck and a descendant of Philip Livingston, signer, of the Declaration of Independence. They were divorced on Oct. 8, 1935.

Formerly active in the Golf and Country Club of Belle Terre, Zeta Psi fraternity and the old Crescent Athletic Club, Mr. Thomas is survived by his mother, now the widow of the Rev. Dr. David G. Wylie, former president of the Lord’s Day Alliance, and a half-sister, Mrs. A. Thornton Baker. His father, Richard Henry Thomas, a engineer, died in 1911.

Richard W. Thomas Final Rites Today

Services Arranged In Manhattan Church

Funeral services for Richard Webster Thomas, former Brooklyn Eagle reporter and columnist, were held today in the Second Presbyterian Church, Central Park West and W. 96th St., Manhattan. Burial will be in Woodlawn Cemetery. 

Mr. Thomas died of a heart attack in his home, 163 E. 81st St., Manhattan, Monday. He was 33. Born in Manhattan, he was educated at the Collegiate School and Rutgers University. His newspaper career included service on the Standard News Association, the old Brooklyn Standard Union and the Brooklyn Eagle. He was best known as the conductor of the “By the Way” column and the syndicated feature “Stranger Than Fiction.”

Mr. Thomas was a candidate for Congress and the State Senate in 1932 and 1934 in the downtown area of Brooklyn. Surviving are his mother, Mrs. Martha Wylie, the widow of the Rev. Dr. David G. Wylie, and a sister, Mrs. A. Thornton Baker, the former Elizabeth Wylie.

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

# posted by Alex Jay @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

# posted by Alex Jay @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

I must share the message on the back from a young correspondent to a 'friend':

Willie T --

Ans soon.

Halloo Pete you are so fat you can harly walk you can walk with your big punch. You will fall down punch your eye out.

The mean-spiritedness is beautifully offset by the admonishment to 'Answer soon'!

Labels: Wish You Were Here

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 2 comments