Thursday, May 24, 2012
News of Yore: Paul Fung, National Cartoonist
Paul Fung a Newspaper Artist
of Real Distinction.
by Alexander Samalman
The Fourth Estate, 1925
China has produced a myriad philosophers, poets and water color artists, but only one American newspaper cartoonist.
The only representative of the ancient nation in the realms of comic art is Paul Fung, who illustrates Jack Lait's Gus and Gussie for King Features Syndicate.
Circulation 1926, courtesy of Ron Goulart
Paul Fung was born in Seattle, the son of a Doctor of Divinity who presided over a Chinese Baptist Church. All of which goes to show that "Cartoonville" is the proper place for a Chinese minister's son.
When he was 5 he went to Canton, China, where he studied for 6 years, working for some time with a man who painted water colors on fans. An elder sister who lived in Seattle accumulated piles of American comic sheets and sent them to him from time to time. In his Oriental surroundings he devoured them greedily and dreamed dreams of becoming an American newspaper artist.
He returned to the United States. His family at that time lived at Portland, Ore., and there he got his start in the newspaper business as a carrier boy for the Portland News.
He studied at American High Schools and then at the University of Washington, taking an art course. Meanwhile he drew posters for a theatrical enterprise. Later he become a full-fledged newspaper cartoonist on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, doing sport, political and feature pictures.
He attained local fame as a cartoonist and also as an entertainer, for he appeared for some time in a chalk-talk monologue at vaudeville theaters.
Several of his war cartoons, in especial one entitled "The Sweetheart of the Allies," which pictured a Salvation Army lassie, spread his fame throughout the nation.
He entered the employ of the Post-Intelligencer at the age of 17 and worked on that paper for nine years. A daily feature during the last two years of his stay with the Post-Intelligencer was Fitch and Fung, which consisted of verses by Carlton Fitchet [sic] illustrated by Paul Fung.
Billy De Beck, creator of Barney Google, met Fung while on one of his western trips, and persuaded the young Chinese artist to come east. Soon Fung signed up with King Features Syndicate in New York and began The [sic] Guy From Grand Rapids, dealing with the adventures of a lonesome man alone in Gotham. This ran for a year, then Fung began his work as the illustrator of Gus and Gussie, which is written by Jack Lait.
"I draw because I enjoy it," says Fung. "I always liked to draw more than I liked anything else. I have two brothers who are also interested in art. Silas is studing [sic] at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and Timothy is doing well as a commercial artist.
"I must express my gratitude to Billy De Beck, whose encouragement and friendship have meant a lot to me."
"I am a pure Chinese, but please discredit any rumors that I'm identified with a tong!"
And Paul laughed at his little jest while he bent froward [sic] over his drawing board to draw the curls on the head of his character, Gussie.
When he was 5 he went to Canton, China, where he studied for 6 years, working for some time with a man who painted water colors on fans. An elder sister who lived in Seattle accumulated piles of American comic sheets and sent them to him from time to time. In his Oriental surroundings he devoured them greedily and dreamed dreams of becoming an American newspaper artist.
He returned to the United States. His family at that time lived at Portland, Ore., and there he got his start in the newspaper business as a carrier boy for the Portland News.
He studied at American High Schools and then at the University of Washington, taking an art course. Meanwhile he drew posters for a theatrical enterprise. Later he become a full-fledged newspaper cartoonist on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, doing sport, political and feature pictures.
He attained local fame as a cartoonist and also as an entertainer, for he appeared for some time in a chalk-talk monologue at vaudeville theaters.
Several of his war cartoons, in especial one entitled "The Sweetheart of the Allies," which pictured a Salvation Army lassie, spread his fame throughout the nation.
He entered the employ of the Post-Intelligencer at the age of 17 and worked on that paper for nine years. A daily feature during the last two years of his stay with the Post-Intelligencer was Fitch and Fung, which consisted of verses by Carlton Fitchet [sic] illustrated by Paul Fung.
Billy De Beck, creator of Barney Google, met Fung while on one of his western trips, and persuaded the young Chinese artist to come east. Soon Fung signed up with King Features Syndicate in New York and began The [sic] Guy From Grand Rapids, dealing with the adventures of a lonesome man alone in Gotham. This ran for a year, then Fung began his work as the illustrator of Gus and Gussie, which is written by Jack Lait.
A Guy From Grand Rapids 12/19/1923
At the age of 28, Fung is an eminently successful newspaper artist, known throughout America as a careful, capable craftsman.
"I draw because I enjoy it," says Fung. "I always liked to draw more than I liked anything else. I have two brothers who are also interested in art. Silas is studing [sic] at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and Timothy is doing well as a commercial artist.
"I must express my gratitude to Billy De Beck, whose encouragement and friendship have meant a lot to me."
"I am a pure Chinese, but please discredit any rumors that I'm identified with a tong!"
And Paul laughed at his little jest while he bent froward [sic] over his drawing board to draw the curls on the head of his character, Gussie.
Labels: News of Yore
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
News of Yore: Paul Fung, Local Cartoonist
Fung the Only Chinese-American
Cartoonist in Captivity
by Jack Bechdolt
Cartoons Magazine July 1916
Paul Fung, the young Chinese-American cartoonist, of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is prized highly by his paper as the only one of his species in captivity. Young Mr. Fung has thus far succeeded in taking his honors with a degree of modesty which promises well for his future. With the tireless industry peculiar to the Chinese he has coupled an enterprise and a sense of humor truly American, and the combination has enabled him to put over a remarkbly [sic] high percentage of good work on his first newspaper job.
Paul Fung was born in Seattle 18 years ago. When he was five years old his parents returned to their former home in China, taking Paul with them.
An older sister, who lives in America, sent the boy copies of the American comic supplements and he became ambitious to take up newspaper work in the land where he was born. From copying the Katzenjammer Kids and Happy Hooligan, Fung took the next and almost inevitable step of seeking instruction in drawing.
His first teacher was a Chinese artist and he followed the Chinese method of instruction. Fung was taught to copy conventionalized flowers and leaves and birds out of a book of prints, working with camel's-hair brush on a pad of soft paper with Chinese ink as his medium.
During his six years in China young Fung passed through what corresponds to a high-school course. At the end of that time with his father and his brother he returned to Portland, Ore., where he finished an American grammar-grade education.
In Seattle, Fung entered the high school and speedily became the chief contributor to one of the high-school magazines published in that city. Ambitious still to work on a regular newspaper, Fung spent his spare time visiting the art rooms, listening to the advice of the men experienced in the business, and always trying to find his own opportunity.
A large vaudeville theater wanted an artist to make up cartoons of the current acts for use as lobby displays cards, and Fung got the job. He held it so successfully that his work attracted attention from the newspapers, and he figured as the hero of several special articles.
Eventually Fung got his chance, as most boys do who want to join a newspaper art staff badly enough. He went to work for the Post-Intelligencer as a comic artist, and is now making good as a cartoonist.
[If circumstances had been different, Ying "John" Zane may have preceded Paul Fung as the first Chinese American to become a nationally syndicated cartoonist. Cartoons Magazine, September 1915, published a short profile of him and a sample strip (pages 478–9).
Years later his name appeared in The New York Times, October 11, 1924 when a fire erupted on a steamship.
…When the first [fire] engines arrived flames were shooting through the superstructure and about 200 coolies of the crew, asleep below, had been confused by smoke and were shouting for help. Watchmen, firemen and policemen helped them off after they had been quieted by John Zane, a Chinese cartoonist on the China Press of Shanghai, who is working his way around the world as a member of the crew. A few Chinese jumped into the water and were fished out. They gathered with the rest on the pier, which also was aflame for a time, and cheered Zane for having saved them from panic and its consequences….
What happened to him after this event is unknown.]
Labels: News of Yore
Comments:
I've got two "Bughouse Fables" panel cartoons from 1930, clipped from the SF Call-Bulletin and credited to King Features Sydicate. Perhaps he was a KFS staffer?
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Friday, September 09, 2011
Ink-Slinger Profiles: Bil Dwyer
William Raphael Louis "Bil" Dwyer, Jr. was born in Ohio on January 29, 1907, according to the North Carolina Death Collection, 1908-2004 at Ancestry.com. In the 1910 U.S. Federal Census, he lived with his parents, William and Minnie, in Portsmouth, Ohio at 57 West Second Street. Dwyer Sr. was employed as wire chief at the telephone company; his full name was found on his World War II draft card.
Dwyer lived in Perrysburg, Ohio at 348 First Street, according to the 1920 census. The household included his sister and maternal grandmother. His father was a telephone engineer. In the book Milton Caniff: Conversations (2002), Caniff said he enrolled, in Fall 1925, in Ohio State University, where he met Dwyer and Noel Sickles. Presumably, Dwyer had taken art classes during his four years of college (U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946, Ancestry.com).
Dwyer was unemployed in 1930; he lived with his parents and two siblings in Paint, Ohio on Blazer Road. The date of his move to New York City is not known, but he produced material for King Features. In 1932 he took over the strip Dumb Dora from Paul Fung; an excerpt from Milton Caniff: Conversations of Will Eisner's interview with Caniff, which was first published in Will Eisner's Spirit Magazine, numbers 34 and 35:
Caniff: …[in 1932] when I reached New York I called Bil Dwyer who had also worked on the Columbus Dispatch.
Eisner: Oh—he did Dumb Dora, that was it.
Caniff: Well, it's pertinent here. I called him just socially and told him I was in town to say hello. I didn't know where he lived, on Christopher Street. I didn't even know where Christopher Street was. So he said, "My God, I'm glad you called! I've got a problem here. Come on down!" This was like the first night I was in town and he had been submitting things to King Features and selling gags, by the way, to the magazines, Colliers and the New Yorker. Anyway, he had submitted a gag-type strip to King Features and he got a call back saying that Paul Fung was being pulled off Dumb Dora and Dwyer had the assignment. Here he was suddenly with six strips and a Sunday page to do and he'd never done anything except single panels.
Eisner: Oh boy!
Caniff: And he was in trouble. Frank Engli was helping him.
Eisner: Frank Engli...He was a sports cartoonist, right?
Caniff: No, he did lettering. He later on did a strip called Looking Back, about stone age characters—
Eisner: Oh, I see.
Caniff: —very well done cartooning. But his lettering was especially good. So I went down to see them and they were laboring away at the first release. Bil was a good gag writer, but he'd never had this kind of assignment before. So he said to me, "Will you sit in on this thing and especially draw the girls?" So I laid out the first batch of stuff and again, it was not hard for me to do because I had those eleven o'clock deadlines every morning. And so then I inked the girls and he inked the other characters; very simple drawing.
Eisner: Who wrote the stuff?
Caniff: Dwyer. He was a very good gag man. Chic Young had originated the character and then Paul finally took over from Chic when Chic started Blondie. Paul was drawing it before Dwyer. I never did find out, by the way, why he withdrew.
Eisner: Dumb Dora was a very successful strip in its day.
Caniff: Maybe Fung had a fight with King Features. I don't know and I never did ask. So we made the deadline, which was the thing that was bothering Dwyer, but in the mean time I had to go to work the next morning at eight o'clock....
Dwyer's first Dumb Dora daily appeared on September 5, 1932, and his first Sunday on October 30, 1932 (see above); the strip was cancelled in 1936. He was living in Pinellas County, Florida, when he was enlisted in the army, on August 27, 1943. Where and how long he served is not known.
He produced the syndicated strip, Sandy Hill, which ran from 1951 to 1954. The date of his move to North Carolina is not known. The Laurel posted an article about Highlands, North Carolina where Dwyer lived. The author walked on Main Street and recalled his memories of him:
How about more recent times? Leeann and Charlie Maybury moved from Florida and opened the Cheese Shop in the old Talley and Burnette Building, a dry goods store owned by Harvey Talley and Johnny Burnette now occupied by Paoletti’s Restaurant, on Main Street. It was across Main Street from Bill [sic] Dwyer’s Merry Mountaineers shop in what had been Louis Edwards’ wood work shop, later the Bird Barn and now a new building for the Acorns Shop.
I digress.
The Cheese Shop was famous for their piled high sandwiches, much like those of the Sports Page today. Another favorite was their loganberry fruit drink. No carbonation but so different from the other soft drinks. Worth Gruelle, of Raggedy Ann and Andy fame like his father Johnny Gruelle, favored the loganberry fruit juice. He would buy two glasses and walk across the street to see his friend Bill Dwyer and share the juice. Bill was in his second retirement with his wife Louise. He had been a newspaper comic strip artist that included Dumb Dora as well as doing cartoons for many national magazines. He also worked with Walt Disney on a number of animated feature films. He and Worth would sit on the bench in front of the Merry Mountaineer and have many interesting discussions.
Among his books are Dictionary for Yankees and Other Uneducated People (1971); Southern Appalachian Mountain Cookin' (1974, with Louise); Thangs Yankees Don't Know (1975); Southern Sayin's for Yankees and Other Immigrants (1976); 2001 Southern Superstitions (1978); How Tuh Live in the Kooky South Without Eatin' Grits: A Fun Guide Book Fer Yankees (1978); Cookin' Yankees Ain't Et (1980, with Louise); Southern Folks Yankees Should Know (1981); Sexy Birds of the South: Fun Book For Yankee Bird Watchers (1982).
Dwyer passed away on December 13, 1987, in Highland, North Carolina, according to the North Carolina Death Collection and Social Security Death Index.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Comments:
Bill Dwyer was an amazing artist. I have many of his small original works. I am missing a great deal of his work that was given to me by his sister, Ruth Dwyer (White) who was my grandmother aND which was being stored for me by my father, William White who died earlier this year. I believe the collection is in the possession of my step mother who has basically stolen it from me.
Bill Dwyer was an amazing artist. I have many of his small original works. I am missing a great deal of his work that was given to me by his sister, Ruth Dwyer (White) who was my grandmother aND which was being stored for me by my father, William White who died earlier this year. I believe the collection is in the possession of my step mother who has basically stolen it from me.
I met him years ago in Highlands NC. We saw him every summer and he would remember us. He autographed a couple of his little pamphlets for us. I really liked him.
That Laurel article, and a couple of other sources, have also claimed that Dwyer worked on the Disney films Pinocchio and Fantasia, but I have not been able to verify that. (I am limited to extensive googling, though, and haven't been able to check anything but what's available online.) I'd love to know what your thoughts are on that.
I actually purchased this artwork from William White before he passed in Diamondhead, Ms. I still have all of it currently.
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# posted by 
: 9/16/2024 11:12 PM
: 9/16/2024 11:12 PM Wednesday, May 23, 2012
News of Yore: Paul Fung Runs Afoul of Immigration
Seattle Post Intelligencer 8/18 or 19/1923
(The Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in 1882, restricted the entry of Chinese into the United States. Its purpose was to keep out Chinese laborers. The act was renewed in 1892 and eventually made permanent. For the Chinese Americans already in America, they had to notify immigration whenever they traveled to a foreign country or territory, such as Hawaii. The travel documents of the Chinese were made in triplicate and shared with other immigration offices. For example, a Chinese resident of Chicago would have a file there. If he traveled to China through Seattle, then a file would be opened in there.
Back in 1921, Paul Fung filled out Form 430, above, for the U.S. Department of Labor Immigration Service. When he decided to make a brief trip to Vancouver in August 1923, he submitted the form, and it was approved: "Reissued for trip to Canada August 16, 1923. Commissioner". There was a mix-up in Vancouver that was eventually resolved. While Fung waited at the hotel, he wrote a thank you letter to Mr. Weedin. This letter, below, was stamped "Received August 20 1923 U.S. Immigration Service Seattle", and placed in his file. All of the documents are from Fung's file at the Seattle branch of the National Archives and Records Administration.)
Labels: News of Yore
Friday, May 25, 2012
Obscurity of the Day: Gus and Gussie
Paul Fung was generally employed behind the scenes, assisting or subbing for other cartoonists, and brilliantly so, but he does have a few signed credits. Here is the longest-lasting feature with which he was involved, Gus and Gussie. On this delightful strip Fung drew and Jack Lait wrote.
Lait was a Hearst yeoman who at various times was a sports reporter, crime reporter, columnist, syndicate editor, and newspaper general manager -- often wearing several of those hats at the same time. There are claims that in his heyday he had more words published per year than anyone else in the world -- a claim that may well be true, since in addition to his newspaper work he also wrote short stories, plays and novels. In short, this was a guy who torture-tested his typewriters.
Lait probably never spent more than five minutes per day writing Gus and Gussie, but that was enough to make it one of the snappiest strips around. Gus the waiter and Gussie the hat-check girl speak an entertaining Runyonesque patois full of street slang and malapropisms, making every strip an adventure in decoding the duo's jargon.Early on in the strip the focus is on the peppery dialogue and their dealings with the nightclub patrons, but as the series went on the duo branched out into other employment opportunities, and longer, more involved, storylines.
The art by Fung constantly betrays traces of Billy DeBeck and Chic Young, two cartoonists he assisted or subbed for at various times. Whether this is Fung's native style is hard to say as he seemed to be a true chameleon.
Gus and Gussie ran in a modest number of client papers from April 13 1925 to February 24 1930. Fung was called on to replace Chic Young on Dumb Dora at this time, and apparently Lait had no wish to continue the strip with someone else at the art helm.
 |
| Jack Lait publicity photos courtesy of Cole Johnson |
Labels: Obscurities
Comments:
Funny you should mention that about BLONDIE...IN some 1970's CHARLTON comic books such as BLONDIE, ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE, and HONG KONG PHOOEY, the art was credited/signed to "Paul Fung Jr." I guess sonny boy followed in Daddy's footsteps somewhat!
Paul Fung Jr. assisted on Blondie in the forties and fifties and took over the strip offically in the sixties. He was a remarkable artist who deserves a post on his own.
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Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Toppers: When Mother Was a Girl
Dumb Dora began in 1924, and was originally by Chic Young, who left it to create Blondie in 1930. The feature, about a dizzy brunette who often comes out on top despite herself, suffered from a pretty severe case of one-joke-itis, but was always a very pleasant and well-drawn feature.
The strip gained a Sunday page in 1925, and when Hearst decreed that all their Sunday strips needed to have toppers in 1926, Young settled on When Mother Was a Girl after a short flirtation with a strip titled Joe College. This topper, too, was a one-joke strip, in which the genteel and ladylike woman of the 1890s is compared to her daughter, a fast-living, smart young girl-about-town.
When Chic Young abandoned the U.S.S. Dora in 1930, the great King Features bullpenner Paul Fung took over (starting 5/4/30 on the Sunday page), and he produced a strip that looked and read just like Young's, except that he polished the art up just a little bit, because he was just too darn good not to.
In 1932, Fung went on to other assignments, and Dumb Dora was handed off to Bil Dwyer. His style was a little looser, but still maintained a good thread all the way back to Young. Milt Caniff says that Dwyer had trouble drawing pretty girls, and paid him to draw them in Dumb Dora for quite awhile.
Speaking of assistants, expert art spotter Alberto Becattini mentions other assistants -- Bud Counihan, Bob Naylor, Bob Dunn and Howard Boughner -- but I don't know if any of them were particularly involved in producing the topper.
When Mother Was a Girl lasted as long as the Dumb Dora Sunday page, ending on January 5 1936.
If you'd like more Dumb Dora, head on over to King Features' Ask the Archivist blog, where you can see additional samples of this delightful strip, and its topper When Mother Was a Girl.
Labels: Topper Features
Thursday, November 27, 2014
A Cornucopia of Cartoonist Self-Portraits
Alex Jay unearthed this great page from the Literary Digest issue of April 12 1919:
Let me see how many full names I can provide for you -- this is made tougher because my files are all in storage and unavailable at the moment, so I'll depend on memory and the web. Starting at upper left and going across and down:
Carey Orr (Chicago Tribune)
Clifford Berryman (Washington Star)
Jay N. "Ding" Darling (New York Tribune)
W.A. Rogers (New York Herald)
??? Morris (George Matthew Adams Service) -- not sure I've ever known this guy's first name
E.A. Bushnell (Central Press Association)
Maurice Ketten (New York Evening World)
E.W. Kemble (freelance)
Jean Knott (Dallas News)
Burt Thomas (Detroit News)
Rube Goldberg (New York Evening Mail)
Clare Briggs (New York Tribune)
Gaar Williams (Indianapolis News)
Guy Spencer (Omaha World-Herald)
Billy Ireland (Columbus Dispatch)
John T. McCutcheon (Chicago Tribune)
Oscar Cesare (New York Sun at this time?)
Otto Hartman (St. Louis Times)
R.O. Evans (Baltimore American)
H.T. Webster (New York Globe)
Eugene "Zim" Zimmerman (freelance)
C.H. Sykes (Philadelphia Public Ledger)
Lute Pease (Newark Evening News)
Ryan Walker (New York Call)
Daniel Fitzpatrick (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
??? McDowell (St. Louis Republic)
Doane Powell (Omaha Bee)
McKee Barclay (Baltimore Sun)
Jimmy Murphy (Chicago Herald-Examiner)
Harry Tuthill (St. Louis Star)
G.A. Bronstrup (San Francisco Chronicle)
Paul Plaschke (Louisville Times)
Kenneth Chamberlain (Cleveland Press)
A.B. Chapin (St. Louis Republic)
Tige Reynolds (Tacoma Ledger)
Nelson Harding (Brooklyn Eagle)
Edwin Marcus (New York Times)
Ted Brown (Chicago Daily News)
Milton Halladay (Providence Journal)
Harry Westerman (Ohio State Journal)
J. Campbell Cory (Denver News-Times)
Claude Shafer (Cincinnati Post)
Stuart (?) Morris (Seattle Post-Intelliencer)
William F. Hanny (St. Joseph News-Press)
Bob Satterfield (NEA)
Paul Fung (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
R.M. Brinkerhoff (New York Evening World)
Kemp Starrett (Philadelphia Public Ledger)
Ben F. Hammond (Wichita Eagle)
Fred O. Seibel (Albany Knickerbocker News)
J.H. Donahey (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Tom (?) Thurlby (Seattle Times)
Let me see how many full names I can provide for you -- this is made tougher because my files are all in storage and unavailable at the moment, so I'll depend on memory and the web. Starting at upper left and going across and down:
Carey Orr (Chicago Tribune)
Clifford Berryman (Washington Star)
Jay N. "Ding" Darling (New York Tribune)
W.A. Rogers (New York Herald)
??? Morris (George Matthew Adams Service) -- not sure I've ever known this guy's first name
E.A. Bushnell (Central Press Association)
Maurice Ketten (New York Evening World)
E.W. Kemble (freelance)
Jean Knott (Dallas News)
Burt Thomas (Detroit News)
Rube Goldberg (New York Evening Mail)
Clare Briggs (New York Tribune)
Gaar Williams (Indianapolis News)
Guy Spencer (Omaha World-Herald)
Billy Ireland (Columbus Dispatch)
John T. McCutcheon (Chicago Tribune)
Oscar Cesare (New York Sun at this time?)
Otto Hartman (St. Louis Times)
R.O. Evans (Baltimore American)
H.T. Webster (New York Globe)
Eugene "Zim" Zimmerman (freelance)
C.H. Sykes (Philadelphia Public Ledger)
Lute Pease (Newark Evening News)
Ryan Walker (New York Call)
Daniel Fitzpatrick (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
??? McDowell (St. Louis Republic)
Doane Powell (Omaha Bee)
McKee Barclay (Baltimore Sun)
Jimmy Murphy (Chicago Herald-Examiner)
Harry Tuthill (St. Louis Star)
G.A. Bronstrup (San Francisco Chronicle)
Paul Plaschke (Louisville Times)
Kenneth Chamberlain (Cleveland Press)
A.B. Chapin (St. Louis Republic)
Tige Reynolds (Tacoma Ledger)
Nelson Harding (Brooklyn Eagle)
Edwin Marcus (New York Times)
Ted Brown (Chicago Daily News)
Milton Halladay (Providence Journal)
Harry Westerman (Ohio State Journal)
J. Campbell Cory (Denver News-Times)
Claude Shafer (Cincinnati Post)
Stuart (?) Morris (Seattle Post-Intelliencer)
William F. Hanny (St. Joseph News-Press)
Bob Satterfield (NEA)
Paul Fung (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
R.M. Brinkerhoff (New York Evening World)
Kemp Starrett (Philadelphia Public Ledger)
Ben F. Hammond (Wichita Eagle)
Fred O. Seibel (Albany Knickerbocker News)
J.H. Donahey (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Tom (?) Thurlby (Seattle Times)
Comments:
Hi Allan!
Great post! One quick correction: the Bronstrup pictured here is actually Gustavo Adolph (G.A.) Bronstrup, who drew for the San Fransisco Call in the turn of the century and later was on the SF Chronicle staff for decades.
Great post! One quick correction: the Bronstrup pictured here is actually Gustavo Adolph (G.A.) Bronstrup, who drew for the San Fransisco Call in the turn of the century and later was on the SF Chronicle staff for decades.
I believe it is William Charles Morris (1874-1940), was with the Spokane Review around 1903-13.
D.D.Degg
D.D.Degg
This is a really well done collage of the cartoons! I'd like to get one to keep in a mobile self storage pod for a bit and take it out to remember all the different characters!
I have an original picture/cartoon of Teddy Roosevelt by Gustavo A. Bronstrup. It belonged to my grandfather. Is there any information available about the artist or his work?
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# posted by : 5/02/2016 10:35 PM
: 5/02/2016 10:35 PM Monday, November 20, 2023
Firsts and Lasts: Dumb Dora's Not So Dumb ... But Cancelled Anyway
Dumb Dora was on its third artist, or more like a hundred and third if you count ghosts and assistants, when her strip was retired in January 1936. Bil Dwyer was the final credited artist on the strip, taking over in late 1932 from Paul Fung, who in turn had taken over from Chic Young.
Dwyer reportedly brought on a small army of helpers to get the Sunday and daily strip out on time, including Milton Caniff, who R.C. Harvey reports did much of the pencilling for the initial eighteen months of Dwyer's tenure, plus inking some of the girl characters. By the time Dumb Dora ended Caniff was long gone, but we can still easily see vestiges of his style on the dailies above, the last two of the series.
Dumb Dora had begun as a me-too flapper strip in 1924, but had the additional hook that Dora acts dumb but usually turns out to have a bean firing on all cylinders by the end of each gag. The concept is fine, but awfully repetitive. By the time Dwyer took over the conceit was well and truly played out, and flappers were long gone, so the strip had turned into a more generic "teen boys chasing the pretty girl" feature, which left it drowning in a sea of its betters -- Tillie the Toiler, Harold Teen, Winnie Winkle, Etta Kett, etc.
Mark Johnson supplied a scan of the last two rather rare dailies seen above, which offer no farewell or conclusion to the strip. So I went looking online to see if the Sunday, which ended the next day (January 5 1936), offered us some closure. Nope!
Labels: Firsts and Lasts
Comments:
By the end of 1935, Dora had exhausted itself, very few papers were still hanging on to it. I can't think of any clients offhand. The two final dailies are from the bottom third of a proof sheet.
My guess is that the feature lasted as long as it did because Dora had been such famous character that her very name became part of the popular American idiom, everybody said it, there were "Dumb Dora Clubs" organised by college girls; a "Dumb Dora" was a shorthand description of a He said-she said joke or cartoon gag.
Thing is, though still well known, it became stale. It was corny. The name was associated with the 1920s.
It was like calling your strip "Oh You Kid" or "Sheik n' Sheba". And all those change of artists didn't help. There's nothing interesting story-wise, either.
Yung was the only one who really understood the character and material to suit her, perhaps Fung did as well to some extent, but by the time it was dumped on Dwyer's drawing board, the feature had lost its soul.
My guess is that the feature lasted as long as it did because Dora had been such famous character that her very name became part of the popular American idiom, everybody said it, there were "Dumb Dora Clubs" organised by college girls; a "Dumb Dora" was a shorthand description of a He said-she said joke or cartoon gag.
Thing is, though still well known, it became stale. It was corny. The name was associated with the 1920s.
It was like calling your strip "Oh You Kid" or "Sheik n' Sheba". And all those change of artists didn't help. There's nothing interesting story-wise, either.
Yung was the only one who really understood the character and material to suit her, perhaps Fung did as well to some extent, but by the time it was dumped on Dwyer's drawing board, the feature had lost its soul.
# posted by : 11/21/2023 1:02 AM
: 11/21/2023 1:02 AM
The phrase "Dumb Dora" hung on at least until the mid-1970s, when they used it regularly on the game show "Match Game:"
Gene Rayburn: Dumb Dora is SO dumb . . .
Audience: HOW-DUMB-IS-SHE?
Rayburn: She thinks "Night School" is where you learn how to be a ______.
I never knew it was a comic strip reference. I wonder how many people did.
Gene Rayburn: Dumb Dora is SO dumb . . .
Audience: HOW-DUMB-IS-SHE?
Rayburn: She thinks "Night School" is where you learn how to be a ______.
I never knew it was a comic strip reference. I wonder how many people did.
# posted by : 11/22/2023 12:53 AM
: 11/22/2023 12:53 AM
If anybody cares to read a little more about Dora, take a peek at my now-defunct web page's entry on it:
https://comicskingdom.com/trending/blog/2015/09/10/ask-the-archvist-dumb-dora
Post a Comment
https://comicskingdom.com/trending/blog/2015/09/10/ask-the-archvist-dumb-dora
# posted by : 11/22/2023 2:28 PM
: 11/22/2023 2:28 PM Friday, May 24, 2024
Selling It: Horrible Husbands of the Forties
If the Ivory Soap ad writers were correct it was utter hell to be a housewife in the 1940s. Imagine this: a wife with the perfect hourglass figure, a face that Hollywood starlets would envy, a boundless desire to please her husband, and a work ethic for housework that borders on the monomaniacal. And yet, her husband can see only that her hands are a bit red and rough from doing the dishes with strong washday soap (whatever that is). And not only does hubby notice only this tiny flaw in his goddess of domesticity, but he is repulsed, disgusted, and downright nasty in his reaction to this imperfection.
These ads shouldn't have been hawking dish soap. They should have been touting divorce attorneys.
Ivory Soap used the "red 'n' rough" terminology in their ads for years, but the version in which Red and Rough become actual characters seems to have been limited to these ads by Paul Fung, which ran from about March to June 1944.
Labels: Marketing Madness
Comments:
Fung did a lot of ad comics. He even had a series where he brought back Dumb Dora to sell Ry-Crisp about 1943-4.
Post a Comment
# posted by : 5/24/2024 6:29 PM
: 5/24/2024 6:29 PM Monday, May 21, 2012
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month on the Stripper's Guide Blog!
Lynda Barry at Wikipedia, A.V. Club, Drawn and Quarterly and the New York Times.
Brandon Times, April 9, 2004, profiled Ping Chen who assisted Fred Lasswell on Barney Google. (It may take 20 seconds or more to load.)
Asian American Sequential Artists Resource Guide (AASARG) has a list a APA cartoonists' and their web comics.
Be here tomorrow for the start of the festivities!
Comments:
Aren't Vic Lee ("Pardon My Planet") and Karen Moy (writer of "Mary Worth") also Asian-American?
# posted by : 5/26/2012 12:51 PM
: 5/26/2012 12:51 PM
I do not know if Vic Lee is Asian American; the few articles I've read gave no indication of his ethnicity. If you have a source please identify it.
Yes, Karen Moy is Asian American. A comprehensive list of Asian Americans doing comics would be a worthy project.
Post a Comment
Yes, Karen Moy is Asian American. A comprehensive list of Asian Americans doing comics would be a worthy project.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Mystery Strips of E&P: Letter J
After a loooong layoff I'm finally getting back to compiling the list of Editor & Publisher mystery strips. For those of you who are new here, a capsule explanation. E&P has printed an annual directory of syndicated features, including comic strips and cartoon panels, ever since 1924. Some of the features documented there are very obscure, possibly to the point that they never actually ran in any US newspaper. What I'm looking for from you, fellow researchers and comics fans, is documentary proof that any of these listed features did indeed run in US newspapers. If you have a newspaper tearsheet of any of these features or other equivalently concrete documentary proof, get it to me and you will in return get a goodie box of cool comic strip related goodies for your trouble.
Today we cover the mystery strips of the letter J:
Jack And Tyler - Mark Tonra - King Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1995 (Found! in Deseret News)
Jack Knife & T. Spoon - Sarge O'Neill - Southern Cartoon Syndicate - 1970-78
Jackie - Al Smith - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1951-52 (turns out this is the original title of Smith's "Rural Delivery", which is not a mystery strip)
Jackson's Law - Pedro Moreno - United Cartoonist Syndicate - 1981-84
Jason - Foster Moore - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1993-99
Jasper of the Jungle - Eric Erickson - George Matthew Adams Service - daily strip - 1948-50
Jellybean - Bennett and Burkhardt - Press Alliance - weekly panel - 1982
Jennifer - Art Gates - Gates Features - weekly panel - 1968-69
Jericho Jones - Stephen Graham and Kirk Luehrs - Telefriends - daily strip - 1974-76 (found - apparently an alternate title of "Pilgrims")
Jerry Junior Air Warden - Al Zere - Bell Syndicate - daily strip - 1942
Jerry Dare - Clark de Ball - United Features - daily - 1933
Jerry The Giraffe - Ralph Matz - Matz Features - daily panel - 1945
Jes' Smith - Johnny Pierotti - Columbia Features - daily strip - 1953-73 (Hans Kiesl found Greensburg Tribune ran two weeks of syndicate samples -- still looking for a more substantial run on this one)
Jest A Moment - Hugh Kennedy and Bert Nelson - Buffalo Courier-Express Syndicate - daily panel - 1962-64
Jest For Fun - Christine Decker - Lloyd James Williams - daily panel - 1937
Jest For Laffs - Audie Bransford - Centurion Press - daily and Sunday panel - 1972-79
Jest For Laughs - Paul Fung Jr. - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1978-83
Jest For You - Robert Orben - Comedy Center - weekly panel - 1977
Jewish Panorama - Sauberman - Seven Arts Features - weekly strip - 1935
Jill And Judy - Gene McNerney - Watkins Syndicate - daily strip - 1938-40
Jimmy Rivers' Adventures - Joe Buresch - Matz Features - daily strip - 1937
Joe Blow - William J. Miller - Miller News Services - daily panel - 1939
Joe Briggs - Dennis Austin - Bell Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1948
Joe Fann - C.T. Jones - American International Syndicate - daily panel - 1980-81
Joe Gish - Terry Gilkison - Publishers Autocaster Service - weekly panel - 1930-34 Found! by D.D. Degg in the Cass City (MI) Chronicle - thanks DD!
Joe And Judy - Walsh - National Catholic Welfare Conference - weekly strip - 1940-57
John Dough - Susan Wyatt - Mid-Continent Features - thrice weekly - 1976-77
The John Smiths - Harold Magin - Federated Press - weekly strip - 1937-40 (Found! by Hans Kiesl in Kenosha Labor and other labor newspapers)
Johnnie Jones - Bill Savage - Federated Press - weekly strip - 1946
Johnny Scribe - Schaub - Thompson Service - daily strip - 1933-34
The Jones Sisters Ed Gillum - The Comic Factory - weekly - 1991-93
Joshua Trust - Cash Orcutt - Crown Syndicate - Sunday strip - 1960 (ran in Shopping Bag/Family Funnies, a weekly magazine distributed in southern California supermarkets and was done by Russ Manning under this pseudonym)
Judge Pudge - David Watkins - Suzerain Syndicate - daily strip - 1992-93
Julian of the Jungle - Frederick Toran - Editorial Board Syndicate - weekly strip - 1967-68
Julius - Harry, Joan and Nelson - Oceanic Press Service - weekly strip - 1982-94
Junior - Bob Moore - Nationwide Features - daily panel - 1949-50 [Charles Thompson supplies proof that Nationwide was a producer of advertising strips; not eligible for SG listing]
Junior Hall of Fame - Kenneth Cromwell - Junior Features - daily strip - 1935-37
Juniors Viewpoint - C. Mozier - Associated Press - daily strip - 1935
Just Add Walter - Tim Faherty - King Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1992 [found! in Lakeland Ledger]
Just Imagine - Fola - Transworld Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1952-58
Just Like Junior - Stan Asch - McClure Syndicate - daily panel - 1937-38
Just Once - Bob Orso - Feature Associates - weekly - 1979-80
Just So Happened - Kern Pederson - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1980 [found! as "It Just So Happened" in Marengo Beacon-News]
Just For Fun - Ram Onas - Sun News Features - daily panel - 1960-63
Today we cover the mystery strips of the letter J:
Jack And Tyler - Mark Tonra - King Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1995 (Found! in Deseret News)
Jack Knife & T. Spoon - Sarge O'Neill - Southern Cartoon Syndicate - 1970-78
Jackie - Al Smith - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1951-52 (turns out this is the original title of Smith's "Rural Delivery", which is not a mystery strip)
Jackson's Law - Pedro Moreno - United Cartoonist Syndicate - 1981-84
Jason - Foster Moore - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1993-99
Jasper of the Jungle - Eric Erickson - George Matthew Adams Service - daily strip - 1948-50
Jellybean - Bennett and Burkhardt - Press Alliance - weekly panel - 1982
Jennifer - Art Gates - Gates Features - weekly panel - 1968-69
Jericho Jones - Stephen Graham and Kirk Luehrs - Telefriends - daily strip - 1974-76 (found - apparently an alternate title of "Pilgrims")
Jerry Junior Air Warden - Al Zere - Bell Syndicate - daily strip - 1942
Jerry Dare - Clark de Ball - United Features - daily - 1933
Jerry The Giraffe - Ralph Matz - Matz Features - daily panel - 1945
Jes' Smith - Johnny Pierotti - Columbia Features - daily strip - 1953-73 (Hans Kiesl found Greensburg Tribune ran two weeks of syndicate samples -- still looking for a more substantial run on this one)
Jest A Moment - Hugh Kennedy and Bert Nelson - Buffalo Courier-Express Syndicate - daily panel - 1962-64
Jest For Fun - Christine Decker - Lloyd James Williams - daily panel - 1937
Jest For Laffs - Audie Bransford - Centurion Press - daily and Sunday panel - 1972-79
Jest For Laughs - Paul Fung Jr. - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1978-83
Jest For You - Robert Orben - Comedy Center - weekly panel - 1977
Jewish Panorama - Sauberman - Seven Arts Features - weekly strip - 1935
Jill And Judy - Gene McNerney - Watkins Syndicate - daily strip - 1938-40
Jimmy Rivers' Adventures - Joe Buresch - Matz Features - daily strip - 1937
Joe Blow - William J. Miller - Miller News Services - daily panel - 1939
Joe Briggs - Dennis Austin - Bell Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1948
Joe Fann - C.T. Jones - American International Syndicate - daily panel - 1980-81
Joe Gish - Terry Gilkison - Publishers Autocaster Service - weekly panel - 1930-34 Found! by D.D. Degg in the Cass City (MI) Chronicle - thanks DD!
Joe And Judy - Walsh - National Catholic Welfare Conference - weekly strip - 1940-57
John Dough - Susan Wyatt - Mid-Continent Features - thrice weekly - 1976-77
The John Smiths - Harold Magin - Federated Press - weekly strip - 1937-40 (Found! by Hans Kiesl in Kenosha Labor and other labor newspapers)
Johnnie Jones - Bill Savage - Federated Press - weekly strip - 1946
Johnny Scribe - Schaub - Thompson Service - daily strip - 1933-34
The Jones Sisters Ed Gillum - The Comic Factory - weekly - 1991-93
Joshua Trust - Cash Orcutt - Crown Syndicate - Sunday strip - 1960 (ran in Shopping Bag/Family Funnies, a weekly magazine distributed in southern California supermarkets and was done by Russ Manning under this pseudonym)
Judge Pudge - David Watkins - Suzerain Syndicate - daily strip - 1992-93
Julian of the Jungle - Frederick Toran - Editorial Board Syndicate - weekly strip - 1967-68
Julius - Harry, Joan and Nelson - Oceanic Press Service - weekly strip - 1982-94
Junior - Bob Moore - Nationwide Features - daily panel - 1949-50 [Charles Thompson supplies proof that Nationwide was a producer of advertising strips; not eligible for SG listing]
Junior Hall of Fame - Kenneth Cromwell - Junior Features - daily strip - 1935-37
Juniors Viewpoint - C. Mozier - Associated Press - daily strip - 1935
Just Add Walter - Tim Faherty - King Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1992 [found! in Lakeland Ledger]
Just Imagine - Fola - Transworld Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1952-58
Just Like Junior - Stan Asch - McClure Syndicate - daily panel - 1937-38
Just Once - Bob Orso - Feature Associates - weekly - 1979-80
Just So Happened - Kern Pederson - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1980 [found! as "It Just So Happened" in Marengo Beacon-News]
Just For Fun - Ram Onas - Sun News Features - daily panel - 1960-63
Comments:
Mark Tonra talks about "Jack and Tyler" in some of his interviews. Here's Mark on this strip
"Mark: "Jack and Tyler" was my first syndicated strip, distributed by King Features Syndicate (1995-96). It got my foot in the door and left me there!"
You can read the interview at http://www.astronerdboy.com/comic-strips/kiosks/advice/MarkTonra.htm
"Mark: "Jack and Tyler" was my first syndicated strip, distributed by King Features Syndicate (1995-96). It got my foot in the door and left me there!"
You can read the interview at http://www.astronerdboy.com/comic-strips/kiosks/advice/MarkTonra.htm
Hi Charles - thanks for the link; Mark Tonra is one of my favorite of the current crop of syndicated cartoonists. In fact I'll go so far as to say that I think "Top Of The World" ranks up there with any of the great classics. It is truly a masterpiece ... so naturally it died an early death. If anyone reading this hasn't checked out "Top Of The World", go RIGHT NOW and seek it out. I know it's archived on one of the syndicate websites listed here on the left side of the page. I promise you, it's jaw-droppingly, sweat-inducingly, palm-itchingly fantabulous work. And I am not one prone to gushing.
Regarding his comments on "Jack And Tyler", on the surface it sounds like a slam dunk, but there is a possibility that the strip only sold to a few foreign markets, or the few US papers that bought did it only to make it unavailable in their market (yes, a truly nutty concept, but papers in the few big cities left with multiple newspapers actually do it). That's why I'm really inflexible on the tearsheet rule. If I don' see it on newsprint it doesn't qualify for Stripper's Guide.
Thanks -- Allan
Regarding his comments on "Jack And Tyler", on the surface it sounds like a slam dunk, but there is a possibility that the strip only sold to a few foreign markets, or the few US papers that bought did it only to make it unavailable in their market (yes, a truly nutty concept, but papers in the few big cities left with multiple newspapers actually do it). That's why I'm really inflexible on the tearsheet rule. If I don' see it on newsprint it doesn't qualify for Stripper's Guide.
Thanks -- Allan
Ah. Very careful about which strip counts, huh?
Well, since not many newspapers picked the strip up, you'll have to ask Tonra. It could've ran in his hometown newspaper.
He has a website www.tonra.com
Well, since not many newspapers picked the strip up, you'll have to ask Tonra. It could've ran in his hometown newspaper.
He has a website www.tonra.com
Thanks for the link to Tonra's website. I've sent an email asking for info. I'll keep you posted!
--Allan
--Allan
Just to bring y'all up to date, as of two weeks later Tonra has not responded to my email asking about "Jack and Tyler".
--Allan
--Allan
I just got an email from Tonra today (I asked if he would put some strips up on his site). He was apparently busy in September.
Did you get his email yet, Allan?
Did you get his email yet, Allan?
Just a matter of hours ago, Charles. Here's what Mark had to say:
"You asked about Jack and Tyler. I remember the Kansas City paper (KC
Star?) called King to complain that I was late one week, so you might want
to start looking there. I don't think J&T ever had more than 20 papers and
I have no memory of what they were. It definitely didn't run in Manhattan
where I lived. I do remember that the LA times was the first paper to pick
it up, but I'm almost sure they never added it to their page. As for the
launch date, I'm guessing it launched in September of 1995 and ended the
following summer -- June maybe. It ran just shy of a year. All of my J&T
files are packed away somewhere, so I don't have this info at my
fingertips, unfortunately."
Sounds like our only lead is Kansas City. Unfortunately Missouri is one of the states that doesn't have any friendly microfilm lending libraries. Anyone in Missouri that can check the film?
--Allan
"You asked about Jack and Tyler. I remember the Kansas City paper (KC
Star?) called King to complain that I was late one week, so you might want
to start looking there. I don't think J&T ever had more than 20 papers and
I have no memory of what they were. It definitely didn't run in Manhattan
where I lived. I do remember that the LA times was the first paper to pick
it up, but I'm almost sure they never added it to their page. As for the
launch date, I'm guessing it launched in September of 1995 and ended the
following summer -- June maybe. It ran just shy of a year. All of my J&T
files are packed away somewhere, so I don't have this info at my
fingertips, unfortunately."
Sounds like our only lead is Kansas City. Unfortunately Missouri is one of the states that doesn't have any friendly microfilm lending libraries. Anyone in Missouri that can check the film?
--Allan
Well, we got a lead, at least.
LA Times didn't actually run "Jack and Tyler" in their comics page, since I couldn't find the strip in a website that lists every comic-strip LA Times ran at one point or another (it's a very detailed site, complete with the dates when these strips ran in the paper).
LA Times didn't actually run "Jack and Tyler" in their comics page, since I couldn't find the strip in a website that lists every comic-strip LA Times ran at one point or another (it's a very detailed site, complete with the dates when these strips ran in the paper).
Even though I'm mostly just involved in the Japanese cartoon arts these days, I'm glad my old interviews are still useful. ^_^
I am doing research for a history class at the University of Nebraska and the Plattsmouth Journal ran a comic called "Jackie" in the early 1950's. Its ridiculously racist, and follows a black soldier through the Korean War as well as when he returns home.
p.s. nice site
p.s. nice site
jericho jones was the lead
in my cartoon strip
pilgrims
it was sydicated by catholic news
services and then by telefriend
i have some tears from the
capital jurnal in salem or
kirk luehrs
in my cartoon strip
pilgrims
it was sydicated by catholic news
services and then by telefriend
i have some tears from the
capital jurnal in salem or
kirk luehrs
# posted by : 4/17/2007 12:15 AM
: 4/17/2007 12:15 AM
Hi Kirk -
Thanks for the info! If you could send me some photocopies from the Salem paper we can 'de-mysterify' your strip and I'll send you a goodie box of neat stuff.
Please contact me privately at stripper@rtsco.com
--Allan
Thanks for the info! If you could send me some photocopies from the Salem paper we can 'de-mysterify' your strip and I'll send you a goodie box of neat stuff.
Please contact me privately at stripper@rtsco.com
--Allan
Here's another one to add to the mystery "J" list.
In the book "Indiana's Laughmakers", editorial cartoonist William B. Robinson is credited with creating the panel cartoon, Josephine.
Haven't seen many references to this around...
In the book "Indiana's Laughmakers", editorial cartoonist William B. Robinson is credited with creating the panel cartoon, Josephine.
Haven't seen many references to this around...
# posted by : 9/23/2009 1:48 PM
: 9/23/2009 1:48 PM
Can't find Clark de Ball's 1933 Jerry Dare,
but I did stumble upon a magazine comic strip
of his from almost 20 years earlier:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/comic-about-overzealous-maker-kid/
D.D.Degg
but I did stumble upon a magazine comic strip
of his from almost 20 years earlier:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/comic-about-overzealous-maker-kid/
D.D.Degg
Allan,
Looks like Stan Asch's comic strip, Just Like Junior (which may not have been published as a comic strip), did get published in early DC Comics' titles, form 1938 to 1941. Since McClure had a relationship with DC later through Superman, I guess this makes sense.
Here is the listing of the feature from the GCD:
["No M'am, I'm not playing hooky. Teacher says I've got the measles!"]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 2 pages US New Adventure Comics (1937 series) #24
February 1938 DC
["If this medicine is just like candy..."]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 1 page US Detective Comics (1937 series) #13
March 1938 DC
["Won't this be a joke on his stenographer"]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 1 page US New Adventure Comics (1937 series) #25
March-April 1938 DC
["I shoot at his nose, but I always hit the apple!"]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 1 page US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #31
May 1938 DC
["What does the lion make him do now?"]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 1 page US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #33
July 1938 DC
["Oh Pop, I just got through washin' th' dishes fer Mom-"]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #34
August 1938 DC
["There's a bottle of castor oil on the top shelf"]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 1 page US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #35
September 1938 DC
["Hurry, Junior - or you'll be late for school..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #37
November 1938 DC
["Say Uncle Ed, Missus Jones nex' door just gimme a job to give you paintin' her garage..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US Adventure Comics (1938 series) #34
January 1939 DC
["Gee, Mom, I'm fed up with piano lessons..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 1 page US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #41
March 1939 DC
["Young man, I want a good caddy..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US Adventure Comics (1938 series) #55
October 1940 DC
["Bal-loons five-a cents..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US Batman (1940 series) #3
Fall 1940 DC
["Oh, hello, Oswald..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US Adventure Comics (1938 series) #56
November 1940 DC
["Can you handle th' circus alone..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US Action Comics (1938 series) #33
February 1941 DC
["Gee, I wish I could go to th' circus..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US World's Best Comics (1941 series) #1
[Spring] 1941 DC
I wonder if many of these were reprints of the strip offered for syndication...
my best
Ray Bottorff Jr
Looks like Stan Asch's comic strip, Just Like Junior (which may not have been published as a comic strip), did get published in early DC Comics' titles, form 1938 to 1941. Since McClure had a relationship with DC later through Superman, I guess this makes sense.
Here is the listing of the feature from the GCD:
["No M'am, I'm not playing hooky. Teacher says I've got the measles!"]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 2 pages US New Adventure Comics (1937 series) #24
February 1938 DC
["If this medicine is just like candy..."]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 1 page US Detective Comics (1937 series) #13
March 1938 DC
["Won't this be a joke on his stenographer"]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 1 page US New Adventure Comics (1937 series) #25
March-April 1938 DC
["I shoot at his nose, but I always hit the apple!"]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 1 page US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #31
May 1938 DC
["What does the lion make him do now?"]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 1 page US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #33
July 1938 DC
["Oh Pop, I just got through washin' th' dishes fer Mom-"]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #34
August 1938 DC
["There's a bottle of castor oil on the top shelf"]
Just Like Junior / cartoon / 1 page US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #35
September 1938 DC
["Hurry, Junior - or you'll be late for school..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #37
November 1938 DC
["Say Uncle Ed, Missus Jones nex' door just gimme a job to give you paintin' her garage..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US Adventure Comics (1938 series) #34
January 1939 DC
["Gee, Mom, I'm fed up with piano lessons..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 1 page US More Fun Comics (1936 series) #41
March 1939 DC
["Young man, I want a good caddy..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US Adventure Comics (1938 series) #55
October 1940 DC
["Bal-loons five-a cents..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US Batman (1940 series) #3
Fall 1940 DC
["Oh, hello, Oswald..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US Adventure Comics (1938 series) #56
November 1940 DC
["Can you handle th' circus alone..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US Action Comics (1938 series) #33
February 1941 DC
["Gee, I wish I could go to th' circus..."]
Just Like Junior / comic story / 2 pages US World's Best Comics (1941 series) #1
[Spring] 1941 DC
I wonder if many of these were reprints of the strip offered for syndication...
my best
Ray Bottorff Jr
Hi Ray --
Interesting that McClure seemed to have had that ongoing relationship with DC that early. Thanx for the info! --Allan
Interesting that McClure seemed to have had that ongoing relationship with DC that early. Thanx for the info! --Allan
Hello Allan-
Here's a "J" one...maybe. I'm sure you've seen it, but "it's JOAN by Reichhold, 5 December 1927-17 March 1928. This is a local only strip in the Pittsburgh Press. Reichhold was their staff cartoonist, who did three panels, "Rambling With Reichhold" "Mrs. Babble Broadcasting" and "Oh,Lady,Lady!", but this was the only strip. It's about a working girl, who might interact with the Press, the city of Pittsburgh and Reichhold himself, but very soon is centered on another character, a young, weird looking ne'er d well boyfriend named Spider.
Here's a "J" one...maybe. I'm sure you've seen it, but "it's JOAN by Reichhold, 5 December 1927-17 March 1928. This is a local only strip in the Pittsburgh Press. Reichhold was their staff cartoonist, who did three panels, "Rambling With Reichhold" "Mrs. Babble Broadcasting" and "Oh,Lady,Lady!", but this was the only strip. It's about a working girl, who might interact with the Press, the city of Pittsburgh and Reichhold himself, but very soon is centered on another character, a young, weird looking ne'er d well boyfriend named Spider.
# posted by : 11/05/2021 12:33 PM
: 11/05/2021 12:33 PM
I found Joan awhile ago, and oddly enough I have in the queue for later this month a post about a unique Reichhold 'cartoon' that I recently found. I haven't seen the panels so I'll go searching for those in the Press. Thanx!
--Allan
Post a Comment
--Allan
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Obscurity of the Day: Sandy Hill
Sandy Hill, a comic strip about a country boy and his family, was the swan song for Bil Dwyer on the syndicated comics page. Dwyer was a member of the King Features bullpen in its heyday of the 1920s and 30s, assisting, retouching and occasionally ghosting Hearst strips. He got a byline starting in 1932 when he took over Dumb Dora, Chic Young's flapper strip that he abandoned to start Blondie. After Paul Fung spent two years continuing Dumb Dora he too took his leave, and the job was handed to Bil Dwyer. Dwyer continued the strip quite capably, but it was cancelled in 1936.
What Bil did between Dumb Dora and Sandy Hill is a bit sketchy - I seem to recall reading about a stint in advertising comics, and he is also said to have ghosted Wally Bishop's Muggs And Skeeter during the World War II years.
Sandy Hill, a Sunday and daily strip, debuted on January 8, 1951, from the Des Moines-based Register and Tribune Syndicate. The Sunday, which specialized in the sort of down-home material we see in this sample, caught on in a small way with some southern newspapers, but the daily is rarely seen.
The strip packed it in on September 26 1954, but Dwyer must have realized that this Southern-fried material had a potentially lucrative audience. After a long time out of the spotlight, in the 1970s Dwyer started a publishing company named Merry Mountaineers that specialized in pamphlet-sized publications with titles like How Tuh Live In The Kooky South and 2001 Southern Superstitions. These publications were perennial bestsellers on the racks in souvenir shops at Appalachian and Southern tourist meccas, and must have kept the wolf from the door in Dwyer's golden years.
Comments:
Thanks to Ger Appeldoorn I found your blog and your comments on Bill Dwyer's "Sandy Hill." I had just run across micro copies of some of the dailies and posted a request for info on my blog (smurfswacker.blogspot.com). Your blog is incredible; I envision myself spending months browsing here.
Post a Comment
Tuesday, June 04, 2013
Ink-Slinger Profiles: Frank Engli
Frank Engli was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 10, 1906, according to the Cook County, Illinois, Birth Certificates Index at Ancestry.com.
In the 1910 U.S. Federal Census, he and his sister Ella were boarding with Frank and Rose Cosma in Chicago at 1931 Wolfram Street. The two children were recorded with their Hungarian emigrant parents, Colman and Mary, in the 1920 census. They resided on a farm in Tallmadge, Michigan.
Information about Engli’s education has not been found. For his art training, Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999 said he attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute. And in 1928 and 1929 he assisted Milton Caniff who was working for the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio. At some point Engli moved to New York City.
The 1930 census recorded him as a lodger in Manhattan, New York City, at 31 Grove Street. His occupation was commercial artist at an electric company. The New York Evening Post, September 26, 1931, noted the apartment rental of Engli and Bil Dwyer: “H.S. Hillyer & Co. rented apartments to…William Dwyer, Frank Engli…at 33 West Eighth Street…”
Milton Caniff: Conversations (2002) reprinted Will Eisner’s interview with Caniff who, in 1932, moved to New York to work in the Associated Press bullpen. Caniff recalled looking up Bil Dwyer:
Caniff: ...Now about the studio: when I reached New York I called Bil Dwyer who had also worked on the Columbus Dispatch.
Eisner: Oh—he did Dumb Dora, that was it.
Caniff: Well, it’s pertinent here. I called him just socially and told him I was in town to say hello. I didn’t know where he lived, on Christopher Street. I didn’t even know where Christopher Street was. So he said, “My God, I’m glad you called! I’ve got a problem here. Come on down!” This was like the first night I was in town and he had been submitting things to King Features and selling gags, by the way, to the magazines, Collier’s and the New Yorker. Anyway, he had submitted a gag-type strip to King Features and he got a call back saying that Paul Fung was being pulled off Dumb Dora and Dwyer had the assignment. Here he was suddenly with six strips and a Sunday page to do and he’d never done anything except single panels.
Eisner: Oh boy!
Caniff: And he was in trouble. Frank Engli was helping him.
Eisner: Frank Englil...He was a sports cartoonist, right?
Caniff: No, he did lettering. He later on did a strip called Looking Back, about stoneage characters—
Eisner: Oh, I see.
Caniff: —very well done cartooning. But his lettering was especially good. So I went down to see them and they were laboring away at the first release. Bil was a good gag writer, but he'd never had this kind of assignment before. So he said to me, “Will you sit in on this thing and especially draw the girls?” So I laid out the first batch of stuff and again, it was not hard for me to do because I had those eleven o’clock deadlines every morning. And so then I inked the girls and he inked the other characters; very simple drawing.
The Sarasota Herald (Florida), February 18, 1934, carried George Tucker’s column About New York which said: “Frank Engli, the artist, lives at No. 1 Christopher street. In Omaha he lived at No. 1 Sixteenth street, and in Salt Lake City at No. 1 Monto street.”
The Independent, January 10, 1994, explained how Engli helped Zack Mosley on Smilin’ Jack:
It was in 1933 that Zack Mosley felt confident enough to take a flier on his own. This was ‘On the Wing’, starring Mack Martin, pilot, his pal Bumpy, and his ‘gal’, Mary Miller.
It was one of eight new strips selected from over 400 by Captain Joseph Patterson, owner of the Chicago Tribune, for his Sunday comic section. Mosley was given one day to convert his daily strips to a Sunday page, complete with colour overlays. Nothing is impossible to a hopeful cartoonist, and with help from a buddy from his art school years, Frank Engli, Mosley managed it. The strip was launched on Sunday 1 October 1933...
According to Who’s Who, Engli worked as an in-betweener and opaquer on Betty Boop and Popeye at the Fleischer animation studio from 1935 to 1936. His next move would be a long-term association with Caniff, as explained by Bruce Canwell in The Complete Terry and the Pirates: 1937-1938 (2007):
…Caniff and [Noel] Sickles had combined forces and opened their small studio, where Sickles wrote and drew the daily aviation strip Scorchy Smith while Caniff launched the daily-and-Sunday Terry and the Pirates. “It was at that time,” Caniff said as part of a 1982 interview, “we decided that between the two of us, we’d hire a lettering man. We went back to Engli…Between Sickles and me, we were able to afford to have him quit his job and come to work for us. He was glad to be able to leave the [Fleischer Studios]. It was a backbreaker—hell on the eyes.”
The World-Herald Magazine (Omaha, Nebraska), March 19, 1944, explained how Engli worked with Caniff:
Caniff’s procedure is to get a mental synopsis of what he is going to do. He plans the sequence while reading or listening to the radio, then has to document it by reading from his comprehensive library on the orient and matters military and naval or by searching through his files for pictures of, say, a French locomotive.
He says he spends much more time time on actual documentation than on drawing, but it pays.
He next writes the dialogue. He writes it directly into blocked-out cardboard strip forms in pencil, and Frank Engli, one of his two assistants (Engli draws “Rocky, the Stone Age Kid,” and Ray Bailey, his other assistant, draws “Vesta West”), checks the words for spelling and accuracy (not long ago Caniff used a verse from the army air corps song; he used two wrong words; Engli corrected this) and inks them in.
Life Magazine, January 6, 1941, published a photograph of Caniff’s studio with Caniff, Engli, and the secretary at work. Engli lettered Terry during Caniff’s tenure which ended in 1946. He followed Caniff on his next project, Steve Canyon, from 1947 to 1975.
In the 1940 census, Engli, his wife and daughter, both named Mary, lived in Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York on Old Greenbush Road. He was syndicate cartoonist. The strip he produced for the Chicago Tribune Comic Book was Rocky the Stone Age Kid, which ran from August 25, 1940 to October 31, 1943. Two years later Looking Back began on December 30, 1945 and ended on May 25, 1947.
5/16/1943; Courtesy of Heritage Auctions
During the rest of August an exhibition of cartoons, drawings, and illustrations by 15 Rockland County cartoonists and illustrators will hang in the Tappan Zee National Bank, Main Street, Nyack.
…The county cartoonists and illustrators, all with established national or area reputations, are exhibiting 89 pieces.
The artists are Bill Ballantine, John Belfi, Dave Breger, Milton Caniff, Paul Gladone, Rube Goldberg, Charles E. Martin, Bill Maudlin, Sherman Matthews, Bill Overgard, Dick Rockwell, Frank Engli, Vincent Fago, Thurston Gentry, and John Peterson.
The Telegram, November 20, 1958, reported the Theater Arts Ball for the benefit of a fund drive. In the category for best costume representing a play or character: “…Third prize, a man’s leather jewel case from the Penguin Shop, Nyack, went to Frank Engli, of Upper Nyack, who was easily recognized as one of the most famous of all ‘show business’ figures—Emmett Kelley, the sad circus clown.”
Caniff was profiled again in World-Herald Magazine, February 2, 1975, on his Steve Canyon strip. Caniff said: “…I take a ruled Sunday page, which Frank Engli (an associate) has already prepared, rough out in pencil what will be involved as far as drawing is concerned, indicate wording for the balloons, then send it off to Frank (in Tucson, Ariz.) who does the lettering in ink. Next, Engli sends the page on to Dick Rockwell (a nephew of Norman) in Peekskill, New York…”
Canwell said: “…Engli worked on the first ten thousand-plus Canyon strips before retiring in 1977, shortly before his death….” Engli passed away February 16, 1977, in Los Angeles, California, according to the California Death Index at Ancestry.com.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Ving Fuller
Ving Fuller was born Isaac Filler in Kisselynn, Russia, on March 17, 1903, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service form, Declaration of Intention, which was filed in Los Angeles, California, on August 4, 1941. The form said Fuller was a newspaper cartoonist who had sailed aboard the S.S. Canada from Liverpool, England. He arrived in Portland, Maine, on January 15, 1913.
According to the census, Rose emigrated in 1904 and her father in 1911. The rest of the family started their journey in 1912 and arrived in the U.S. in 1913, as seen on the passenger list.
The Fillers’ residence in the 1921 Worcester city directory was 5 Mott Street.
Moving Picture World magazine published “Fuller on Bray Staff” in its August 15, 1925 issue. Ving was doing animation work for J.R. Bray. Ving left Bray and found work at the newspaper, New York Graphic. American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Ving produced Laff-O-Graphics from 1927 to 1929 for the Graphic. A photograph of Ving is here.
The Patchogue Advance 11/6/1928
Ving’s brother Samuel also worked for the Graphic. In the mid-1930s, Samuel moved to California and started a career in filmmaking.
Ving has not been found in the 1930 census. His mother and brother Raymond had the surname, Fuller, and lived with Rose’s family in Queens, New York, at 3825 56th Street. Rose’s second child was Stanley.
The Bridge World, February 1933, noted Ving contribution to the bridge club.
A portrait of assorted contented cows, executed by Mr. Ving Fuller, the club's artist, was unvealed [sic] shortly before the dinner.The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 13, 1933, reported the exhibition of Ving’s portraits.
An interesting exhibition of sketches of officers and members of the Woodmere Country Club by Ving Fuller, former cartoonist for a number of metropolitan newspapers, is now being held in the lobby of the clubhouse. The cartoons are embellished with biographies of the subjects—including their idiosyncrasies and talents. Among the portraits on display are those of Supreme Court Judge Clarence G. Galson, Lewis J. Robertson, president of the club; Timothy McCarthy, Oscar Seagar, William Meissel, Harry Ackerman, William Wolff and Ellis H. Wilner.American Newspaper Comics said Ving drew Helen Kane’s The Original Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl from August 5 to October 21, 1934. It appeared in the New York Mirror.
Ving accepted me, probably because he had few friends. He was at least 25 years older than I and bitter that he had been reduced to ghost-drawing a comic strip called Joe and Asbestos for Ken Kling. The feature enjoyed its popularity on sports pages because each day’s strip contained a horse racing “best bet.” Kling was not much of an artist but he was a respected handicapper.Kanter and Bert Gold, an aspiring artist, contributed more jokes to Joe and Asbestos. Kling eventually assigned the writing to Ving who paid his two young writers.
In Fall 1936, Ving drove his mother, Kanter and Gold to California to see his brother, Samuel. A week after their arrival in Hollywood, Ving ended his relationship with Kanter and Gold. It’s not known how long Ving and his mother stayed in Hollywood.
Back in New York City, Kanter told about a chance encounter with Ving.
Ving Fuller approached me sheepishly on Seventh Avenue and asked it I could afford to buy him a hot dog. He told me he was unemployed, broke, alone. He was remorseful about his treatment of Bert and me in Hollywood….At the time, Kanter was hired to write Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson’s Eliza Poppin. Meanwhile, King Features searched for an artist. Kanter explained what happened.
Ving’s name was, of course, known to the editors at King, and when I urged Ole to give him a shot at the strip, he agreed. Ving quickly drew three or four different faces of “Eliza.” Ole, Chic and Dick Hyman of King Features picked one. I typed out a week’s worth of comic strip dialogue, advanced Ving money to buy a Whatman board, India ink, pens and gum erasers and production began on Eliza Poppin. Ving’s work was fast, crisp, funny and quickly accepted by newspaper editors. The strip got off to a flying start….American Newspaper Comics said Ving drew the strip from June 19, 1939 to January 6, 1940. It was continued by George “Swan” Swanson.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 10, 1939, reported the cartoonists’ contributions to a Chinatown restaurant.
Lum Fong will shortly dedicate a “Cartoonist’s Corner” at his Canal St. restaurant. The Corner will be decorated with original sketches by such artists as Arthur William Brown, Billy De Beck, Rube Goldberg, Ving Fuller, Paul Fung, Chick [sic] Young, Ham Fisher and George McManus.Ving has not been found in the 1940 census. His mother and brother Raymond, a cafeteria worker, lived in Manhattan at 336 West 95th Street. The date of his mother’s passing is not known. Raymond moved to Los Angeles where he died October 22, 1957. Samuel, a writer, lived in Los Angeles at 2050 1/2 Ivar Avenue.
At some point Ving returned to California and in 1941 filed, in Los Angeles, to become a naturalized citizen.
The Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 2, Pamphlet, etc., 1942, New Series, Volume 39, Number 8, had this entry: “Fuller (Ving)* New York. Olive drab. © July 6, 1942; A 125087. 25047”.
During World War II, it was the City of Angels where Ving enlisted in the army on November 10, 1942.
It’s not known when Ving was discharged from the army but he was in New York City when his naturalization was approved October 15, 1943. This was about six weeks after his mother was naturalized on September 2 in New York City.
Ving’s longest running strip was Doc Syke, from January 8, 1945 to 1960, according to American Newspaper Comics. It also appeared in comic books. Later, Ving changed the title to Little Doc and distributed it through his Ving Features Syndicate.
Ving patented a toy bank in 1953.
Be it known that I, Ving Fuller, a citizen of the United States, residing at 4546 Stem Ave., Sherman Oaks, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new, original, and ornamental Design for a Toy Bank or Similar Article…Ving and Walt Kelly were mentioned in Li’l Abner on December 7 and 14, 1958 and September 12, 1959.
Ving passed away August 2, 1965 in Los Angeles. His death was reported the following day by the Los Angeles Times. Samuel passed away October 30, 1997 in Los Angeles.
Further Reading
The Masters of Screwball Comics
—Alex Jay
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
