Friday, September 16, 2011
Ink-Slinger Profiles: Ed Goewey
Edwin A. "Ed" Goewey was born in Albany, New York in July 1871. Goewey's father was a resident of Albany when he received his patent for an improvement to a tea kettle design, as recorded in Commissioner of Patents Annual Report, 1864; also, he was listed in the Albany Directory 1875. The date of birth is from the 1900 U.S. Federal Census.
In the 1880 census, Goewey was the oldest of three children born to J. Augustus and Mary. They lived in Albany at 142 Swan Street. His father was a jeweler. The first time Goewey's name appeared in the Albany Directory was 1887; he was an editor. The listing was the same the following two years.
In the 1890 directory his occupation was reporter for the Albany Morning Express. The following two years his occupation was clerk. According to the 1893 directory he had moved to New York City. His Albany Directory listing was clerk in 1894, then back to reporter in 1895 to 1897. There was a significant occupation change, in 1898, to artist.
The 1900 census recorded Goewey in Brooklyn, New York at 257 Prospect Place. He had been married to Harriet for six years. His occupation was newspaper writer and artist. In 1904 he produced the comics series Fish Stories and Handy Andy, the Man of Good Intentions, and worked on Joco and Jack. He also contributed to Cousin Bill from the City in the second half of the decade.
Baltimore American, 11/13/1904
In 1910 Goewey and second wife, Gertrude, lived in Brooklyn at 581 Park Place. He was an artist and writer for magazines. The New York Dramatic Mirror (New York) reported the following on November 16, 1910 [date corrected 10/28/2013]:
Edwin A. Goewey, who for the past five years has been connected with the Leslie-Judge Company, first as art manager of Judge and later holding a similar post as well as that of sporting editor with Leslie's Weekly, will soon leave for the West to join the forces of the Kansas City (Mo.) Post. On the latter publication Mr. Goewey will have charge of the dramatic desk, acting both as critic and dramatic cartoonist. His series of caricatures of stage folk that has been running in Leslie's Weekly for some two years will be continued as a feature on the Post. Mr. Goewey was with the World for some years as a writer and artist, and later conducted newspaper art departments in St. Louis.
His father passed away on July 25, 1917 according to the Hartwick Village Cemetery website. Goewey has not been found in the 1920 census.
Ten years later Goewey and Gertrude lived in Queens, New York at 162-33 Yuma Lane (later renamed 86th Avenue). His occupation was a writer for magazines. The census said Gertrude was 25 years old at the time of her first marriage, presumably to Goewey, which would have been around 1905.
Goewey passed away on July 18, 1930. The New York Times published a death notice on July 20.
Goewey—Edwin A., husband of Gertrude B. Goewey, July 18. Funeral services Sunday, Albany, N.Y.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Comments:
I've just spent an hour trying to track down that quote from the Dramatic Mirror. The paper didn't go to press on the 6th, only on the 2nd and the 9th.
I know this is an older post, but is there any chance you have any notes or anything on this? I've gone through both issues and can't find it anywhere...
I know this is an older post, but is there any chance you have any notes or anything on this? I've gone through both issues and can't find it anywhere...
You're correct. I made the error of writing 6 instead of 16. The article was published November 16 and is on page 10, at the bottom of column 3.
The Jocko and Jack comic that was in the Baltimore American 11/13/1904 was in the San Diego Union on 11/27/1904 ... first comic I've run into for a while... they've been having Puzzle cartoonish art... the Witches Puzzle, the Elephant Puzzle etc.
The Union had some strips in 1903... artists I don't know...copyright TCMcClure.
The Union had some strips in 1903... artists I don't know...copyright TCMcClure.
Only recently discovered Goewey, and that through his writing. He seemed no average illustrator, one can only wonder where he would have gone if he had lived until the golden age of comics. But, if you want to read his short fiction, one of his stories has been reprinted Gwandanaland Comics facsimile reprint of the January 1927 issue of Ghost Stories.
Post a Comment
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Obscurity of the Day: Joco And Jack
If I haven't mentioned it before, and I'm sure I have, I really love the World Color Printing syndicate. I even made a special trip to St Louis a few years ago to research the history of the company. Didn't find out a great deal. One thing I did learn was why they lost interest in their syndication business in the 1920s (it really nose-dived). Turns out they got the contract to print The Sporting News, a national weekly sports newspaper. The windfall of that contract seems to have ended their interest in providing a low cost Sunday comic section to small papers.Anyway, today we have one of their earlier efforts. Joco And Jack started, as best I can tell from cross-referencing partial Sunday sections, on July 10, 1904. It was drawn by H.C. Greening. This seems to be the only installment he did, as the next known example is from July 24th, and the mantle has been passed to Ed Goewey. Goewey created new episodes on a semi-regular basis until September 11th. Then, on October 2nd we get another artist change, this time to someone signing themselves something like 'Jarrant'. The signature is all but illegible and I could be way off on that name. Goewey returns on November 13th, and the last known episode of the strip runs on December 25th.
Our sample today is the first installment from July 10th.
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
This brings to mind a newspaper timeline
I read recently which gave the date of
1902 as the beginning of comic strip
syndication in newspapers, saying 1902 was when Hearst started leasing his comics to other papers. I believe you
said WCP began preprinting Sunday
sections around this time. Do you think
the 1902 date for comics syndication is
correct? What about McClure? others?
D.D.Degg
I read recently which gave the date of
1902 as the beginning of comic strip
syndication in newspapers, saying 1902 was when Hearst started leasing his comics to other papers. I believe you
said WCP began preprinting Sunday
sections around this time. Do you think
the 1902 date for comics syndication is
correct? What about McClure? others?
D.D.Degg
# posted by 
: 3/01/2006 7:44 AM
: 3/01/2006 7:44 AM
Good question DD.
Actually, WCP and McClure both began syndicating their material in 1901. The earliest syndication of Sunday comics material that I've found is all the way back in 1898, when the NY Herald began syndicating their Sundays to the Philadelphia Inquirer (and perhaps others).
Best, Allan
Post a Comment
Actually, WCP and McClure both began syndicating their material in 1901. The earliest syndication of Sunday comics material that I've found is all the way back in 1898, when the NY Herald began syndicating their Sundays to the Philadelphia Inquirer (and perhaps others).
Best, Allan
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Obscurity of the Day: Handy Andy
No less than four different comic strip series have gone by the name Handy Andy, but Ed Goewey's version, subtitled The Man of Good Intentions, wins laurels as the first. It ran in the World Color Printing preprint comic section from July 24 1904 to February 5 1905. It will undoubtedly come as quite a revelation that in no version of the strip was Andy actually handy at all. Boy, those kooky cartoonists do like to pull our legs.Goewey apparently couldn't find a better gig than World Color. His cartooning work appeared there from 1904-1909, and he never produced a series (that I've found, anyway) for any other concern. Or maybe Ed just loved working for World Color as much as I love reading their loopy, primitive comics sections. Hey, it could happen...
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Hello, Allan--World Color Printing was one of the most fun syndicates ever! Geowey wasn't exactly Winsor McCay,(--Did the calf butt H.Andy over the fence in the last panel, or is he backflipping out of the scene?) but was good enough for World Color. Some of their early stuff is akin to cave paintings, but always lively and amusing. Ed Geowey did find gainful employment during and after his WCP stint doing art for LESLIE'S magazine.--Cole Johnson.
# posted by : 4/10/2008 11:51 AM
: 4/10/2008 11:51 AM
Well thank goodness Ed found gainful employment at Leslie's (which, if my recollector is working, wasn't in too hot a shape by this time). My favorite Goewey work is the utterly looney Mooney Miggles, sure to be popping up as an obscurity on this channel one of these days.
--Allan
--Allan
When looking at the later "Mooney Miggles" by Jack Rogers, I noticed a comic that may be known to you, but about which I couldn't find any info online. It is an October 1909 comic strip (at least 17 episodes) about a boy's plans to commit suicide: "The Sooicides of Sam". A rather bizarre theme for a comic strip... Any info on this? E.g. the artist?
# posted by : 9/02/2009 3:17 PM
: 9/02/2009 3:17 PM
Replying to myself here: the artist is probably William F. Marriner, a name I found through your blog (July 2009). Meanwhile, I have found that the comic started in July 1909 (the episodes are numbered as "first attempt", "second attempt", ...!), no end date yet.
# posted by : 9/04/2009 3:20 AM
: 9/04/2009 3:20 AM
Hi Fram --
You got it right, Sooicides of Sam is most definitely by Marriner. I had never seen the strip before you mentioned it here, but a search turned up one installment (#24) in the Winnipeg Free Press on 12/17/09. This strip would presumably be from McClure. Their early dailies are much, much rarer than their Sunday sections, so I'm not all that surprised I hadn't seen it. Which paper are you finding it in?
--Allan
You got it right, Sooicides of Sam is most definitely by Marriner. I had never seen the strip before you mentioned it here, but a search turned up one installment (#24) in the Winnipeg Free Press on 12/17/09. This strip would presumably be from McClure. Their early dailies are much, much rarer than their Sunday sections, so I'm not all that surprised I hadn't seen it. Which paper are you finding it in?
--Allan
The "Spokane Daily Chronicle", which is almost completely frely available online through Google News Archives, one of the few American newspapers from the early 20th century one can access like that.
The first comic strips start to appear in 1905 (spotchecked), but only in 1909-1910 is there is a serious amount of comic strips. By 1911, most comic strips they publish are well-known classics, but before and between those, there are some more obscure things. I'm slowly going through them...
The first comic strips start to appear in 1905 (spotchecked), but only in 1909-1910 is there is a serious amount of comic strips. By 1911, most comic strips they publish are well-known classics, but before and between those, there are some more obscure things. I'm slowly going through them...
# posted by : 9/07/2009 8:02 AM
: 9/07/2009 8:02 AM
Hi Fram --
I'd be mighty pleased if you'd keep me posted on what you find there. IMHO the Google news archive interface is ridiculously cumbersome and limiting, so I've been sticking with newspaperarchive which, despite its faults, is by comparison a pleasure to use.
--Allan
I'd be mighty pleased if you'd keep me posted on what you find there. IMHO the Google news archive interface is ridiculously cumbersome and limiting, so I've been sticking with newspaperarchive which, despite its faults, is by comparison a pleasure to use.
--Allan
No problem, I'll email them. It may take a while though before you get some results, I'm not the fastest with these things :-)
Post a Comment
# posted by : 9/08/2009 9:05 AM
: 9/08/2009 9:05 AM Monday, September 15, 2008
Obscurity of the Day: Fish Stories
The cartoonists who worked at some of the smaller syndicates, like World Color Printing and McClure, created some really oddball series that, rather than feature continuing characters, derived their continuity from the animals or objects featured. The undisputed king of this rare genre was Eddie Eksergian who had a very strange umbrella fetish and actually did a series featuring anthropomorphic bumbershoots.Ed A. Goewey wasn't willing to rise to quite that level of weirdness, but his fish series is plenty odd in its own right. I call the series Fish Stories even though the strip never really had a running title. In such cases I just do the best I can to supply a title that might be found by someone looking through my Stripper's Guide listings.
Goewey drew this series for the World Color Printing sections from June 5 to December 18 1904. It ran in tandem with his other more conventional continuing series, Handy Andy the Man of Good Intentions which we covered on a post back on April 10.
Labels: Obscurities
Monday, July 04, 2011
Happy 4th of July!
Comments:
I notice that early comics for Christmas or Thanksgiving are also published two weeks before the holiday a lot of the time. Why is that?
Post a Comment
# posted by : 7/05/2011 10:08 AM
: 7/05/2011 10:08 AM Tuesday, July 04, 2023
Independence Day Special
I first posted this page on July 4 2011, but I thought it was time to repost it with a key to the characters.That may seem like a simplistic addition, but since World Color Printing's comic section at the time was mostly just a collection of very similar 'bad kid' comics, and the artwork of the bullpenners was pretty basic, it took me some time to figure out. Below is the 'keyed' version. For the record, here are the creators of each strip:
Dreamy Dave by C.H. Wellington
Mr. Pest Book Agent by Dink Shannon
Cousin Bud by Johnny Gruelle
Grandma's Girl by C.H. Wellington
Peter Barnum Botts by John E. Bernier
Do You Remember Your Kid Days by Ed Goewey
Sammy Small by Dink Shannon
I have no idea which strip or artist is associated with the pretty girl on the right.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Obscurity of the Day: Handy Andy
Blog readers with extra-sticky gray matter may be thinking, "Hey that Stripper schmuck is recycling obscurities. I knew he had to run out of them eventually!" Not so, not so. Still barely scratching the surface!You may remember that back on April 10, 2008 we featured Handy Andy as an obscurity, but that was a version by Ed Goewey from 1904-05. That Andy was a strongman who had a tendency to bite off more than he could chew. This Handy Andy, on the other hand, is a fellow who invents labor saving gadgets, usually for his adoring better half.
Johnny Gruelle would one day be the celebrated creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy, but in the 1900s he was just another journeyman cartoonist. As 'Grue', his pen-name of the time, he created Handy Andy on his second go-round with World Color Printing in 1908-09 (he also did a short stint there in 1905). Handy Andy first appeared in the World Color Printing comic section on November 1 1908 and Gruelle didn't stick with it long, last penning the feature on January 31 1909.
The strip was then taken over by a fellow signing himself 'Bart'. He did the strip from February 7 to July 18 1909. I have always gone on the assumption that this 'Bart' was Charles Bartholomew, the famed Minnesota cartoonist who went on to be a big player in mail order cartooning correspondence schools. However, I've always harbored a niggling doubt. Why would Bartholomew, who was a pretty big fish in the little pond of Minneapolis, be doing journeyman work (and a lot of it) for World Color Printing? Anyone with a dissenting opinion regarding World Color Printing's 'Bart' is invited to make themselves heard.
Labels: Obscurities
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Obscurity of the Day: Do You Remember Your Kid Days?
The bottom sample may be confusing to today's audience, so I should explain that back in those days rag recycling was an actual occupation. Rag-pickers would gather up clothes and other materials that were beyond use and in turn sell them to companies that recycled them. Rags were used in paper-making (you've heard of rag paper?).
Thanks to Cole Johnson for the samples!
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
I don't know about wacky weed, but that first strip is so disjointed that it looks like Goewey was struggling to figure out what ought to come next and how to make it all hang together. The black bear someone just happens to have, the hysterical villagers, and the grandma who changes appearance from one panel to the other is all just part of the odd fun.
The man with the bear is a stereotype of what once would be a familiar sight, the travelling trained bear act. The man(always depicted as an Italian) would make the bear dance for pennies, much as an Organ Grinder with a monkey. In fact there's a comic strip about such a pair, Bruno and Pietro.
# posted by : 9/16/2011 9:46 AM
: 9/16/2011 9:46 AM
Thanks Mark. I assumed it was supposed to be some sort of trained bear act, but it just strikes me as strange ... as well as terribly dangerous.
Post a Comment
Monday, May 02, 2016
Obscurity of the Day: Mr. Pest, Book Agent
Repetitive though they may be, you've got to hand it to the Sunday strips at the dawn of the last century for being full of action. And one of the masters of frenetic strips full of antic wackiness was Dink Shannon of World Color Printing. He certainly wasn't the greatest cartoonist from an academic standpoint, but his imagination, pacing and sense of humor more than make up for it.
Second only to Dink's bizarre masterwork, Mooney Miggles, still not yet featured here on the Stripper's Guide blog, Mr. Pest Book Agent is Shannon at the height of his powers. He obviously loved drawing the strip, and tried to shoehorn in as much action and pithy dialogue as could possibly fit in the space. He also brought himself and fellow World Color bullpenner Ed Goewey into the strip on occasion, as you can see in the top two samples, a sure sign that he revelled in penning this feature.
Mr. Pest Book Agent ran in the World Color Printing Sunday comic sections from April 9 1905 to June 24 1906. Thanks to Cole Johnson for the sample scans.
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Shannon was a great cartoonist, it's a shame he is so overlooked today.
Back in those early days the "Book Agent", was a common figure in cartoons and jokes as indeed, a pest. The character would be modified later as the door-to-door salesman, nearly impossible to get rid of. They pretty much don't exist any more, in real life or in comics, except for the holdouts in Blondie.
Back in those early days the "Book Agent", was a common figure in cartoons and jokes as indeed, a pest. The character would be modified later as the door-to-door salesman, nearly impossible to get rid of. They pretty much don't exist any more, in real life or in comics, except for the holdouts in Blondie.
# posted by : 5/02/2016 10:59 AM
: 5/02/2016 10:59 AM
As a cartoonist, I sympathized with the "It's come! The old, old story!" in re: the inevitable tale of the prodigy who "never took a lesson in his life".
Mr. Pest's unflappable nature and ability to come out on top through sheer perseverance definitely foreshadows silent comedian Raymond Griffith's film persona.
Post a Comment
Mr. Pest's unflappable nature and ability to come out on top through sheer perseverance definitely foreshadows silent comedian Raymond Griffith's film persona.
