Saturday, March 02, 2024
One Shot Wonders: The Incubation of Claude Murphy by Carl Anderson, 1897
Carl Anderson's famous creation, Henry, did not come to fruition until 1932 when he was an elderly man. Back in the 1890s he was a journeyman cartoonist whose newspaper work appeared mostly in the Hearst-owned New York Journal. In the 1900s he'd branch out more and have series accepted by quite a few syndicates.
Back in the 1880's and 90s, chicken incubators were the subject of an inventor's race to come up with the best design. Here we see home inventor Mr. Murphy who has come up with his entry in the race. Evidently his version works like a charm based on its efficacy on his son, whose name is either Claude or Mickey -- apparently a miscommunication between the cartoonist and the typographers.
The only problem with Mr. Murphy's invention is that it simply isn't an incubator. Incubators are for hatching out eggs. What he has created is a chicken BROODER. Being a chicken raiser myself, I can't let such an egregious error pass unremarked.
This one-shot strip appeared in the New York Journal on March 14 1897.
Labels: One-Shot Wonders
: 3/02/2024 12:58 PM : 3/02/2024 1:32 PM 
Friday, March 01, 2024
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Emidio Angelo
This is the first year that humor, in the form of a gallery of original cartoons, has been included in these annual exhibitions. Angelo will speak particularly about this phase of the show.
Emidio Angelo, previously a political cartoonist, Philadelphia Inquirer, now draws for the Chestnut Hill Local, a weekly paper.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Selling It: Mr. E.Z. Duzzit
It's a good thing that cartoonists sometimes got to sign their advertisment work, because I long ago waved the white flag trying to spot the art on many of these ads. Between Harry Haenigsen, Dik Browne, Gill Fox and the other cartooning luminaries who seemed to be able to nimbly ape just about any style, I'm lost.
Here we have a 1943 ad for Duz Detergent, and it's boldly signed by Harry Haenigsen. If it hadn't been signed, Haenigsen would not have been my first guess. Frankly, Adolph Schus might have come to mind first. So thank you to the good folks at Duz who let Harry bask in the limelight.
Although this ad seems like it would have been part of a series, this is the only installment of Mr. E.Z. Duzzit I've been able to find. I checked over on Ger Apeldoorn's blog, The Fabulous Fifties, because he is a real devotee of these comic strip ads, and it seems I've actually managed to find one he doesn't have over there!
PS: Here's hoping that all is well with Ger. He hasn't posted in about three months. You out there, buddy? UPDATE: Ger says he's just fine, but busy with other projects right now.
Labels: Marketing Madness
"Other soaps brag about all the things that they do. Well, DUZNT duzn't do anything!"
Monday, February 26, 2024
Obscurity of the Day: The Adventures Abroad of Peleg Price, American
Cartoonist Frank Wing was a long-time fixture at the Minneapolis Journal, but gained national fame for his "Fotygraft Albums." These were a series of books of humorous 'photographs' -- actually vividly drawn wash cartoons -- with accompanying comedic comments by a family member who tries to explain them to the reader, who is supposedly visiting the home and looking through the family album. These books have aged surprisingly well, and I find them still quite funny. They're not terribly expensive on the used book market, and I think are well worth seeking out.
Long before that, when the Minneapolis Journal was producing an in-house page of comics each Sunday, Wing lowered himself to creating a comic strip series for the one and only time in his life. Sporting the hefty title of The Adventures Abroad of Peleg Price, American, it chronicled the misadventures of Peleg Price and his uncle Imri, a pair of bickering rubes who take the Grand Tour of Europe. Wing drew the strip in a fabulous clean line style and the humour was the match for any New York comic-stripper of the day you might wish to name.
The series began on December 12 1903 with Peleg and Imri saying goodbye to Wheat Corners, Minnesota. They made the whole tour, creating havoc in every European city they visited, and returned to America eight months later on August 20 1904, at which point the strip title changed to Peleg And Imri Return to America. After a few episodes in which they catch up on local doings, they got involved in a political primary campaign when Peleg is nominated to run for his (unnamed) party for Congress. Uncle Imri decides to run against him. On September 17 the strip title was updated once again, to The Campaign at Wheat Corners.
On November 12 1904 Peleg wins the nomination of his party and the series comes to an abrupt end. The next week the Journal began running a page of Hearst-produced strips instead of their homegrown material.
Labels: Obscurities
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Wish You Were Here, from Little Nemo
This is our twelfth and (I think) final card in the Little Nemo series, published by Raphael Tuck. You know the game ... can you identify the Little Nemo strip from which the image was snatched? Or, is it an original penned right out of the noggin of the anonymous Tuck's artist?
The other big question: we've published 12 cards here at Stripper's Guide, and I believe my cupboard is bare. Are there any others that we've missed?
Labels: Wish You Were Here
DBenson ... strangely enough I am presently slogging my way through a couple of "scholarly" books on early comics, and the authors both do exactly what you're talking about -- treating 2% probabilty subtexts as if they are outright definitive subject matter. I think in academia the need to say something new and 'important' about these mouldy oldies is encouraging all sorts of ridiculous notions. As Freud said (or should have), "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
--Allan
