Stripper's Guide

Arthur Momand's Cartoons

Right away a guy gets conspicuous—next thing you know he's in the moving pictures. That is what happened to Mr. McGinnis and his whole family in the daily-cartoon extravaganza "Keeping Up with the Joneses." So it is that this comic, which graces the pages of a big string of American dailies, is to appear on the Mutual Film Corporation's $8,000,000 program.

Arrangements have been completed with "Pop," father of the series, to put it into animated cartoons for release on the Mutual program. The Joneses matter will be animated by Harry Palmer, cartoonist for the Gaumont Company. Five hundred feet a week of this subject will be released on a split reel carrying an equal footage of "Seeing America First."

"Pop," as he signs his cartoons in the Associated Newspapers, is Arthur R. Momand, a newspaper artist of high repute. Mr. Momand was born in California along in 1888, before it became the fashion to brag about the climate down at San Diego. Shortly thereafter he brought his parents to New York. A few years later he was about to matriculate at Princeton when an editor got in the way and gave him a job. This was Henry Grant Dart, then art editor of the New York World. Mr. Momand stayed with the World seven years, there gaining a name as the maker of various series including "Mr. I. N. Dutch." 

Next Mr. Momand appeared on the staff of the Evening Telegram, where he created the series "Pazzaza." Success encouraged Mr. Momand to go abroad for study. He spent a year at the Julian Academy and there evolved his most human series of them all, "Keeping Up with the Joneses." This series is now running in about 150 daily newspapers in the United States and Canada. It deals in the most cheerful sort of way with the most intimate foibles of American family life. But why analyze and be serious. Look at it and laugh.

'Keeping Up With Joneses' Keeps Pop Momand Busy

Here's what Pop Momand, creator of "Keeping Up With the Joneses," appearing in the Daily News Comic page daily, has to say for himself:

"I gave my first yell in San Diego, Cal., on the night of May 15, 1888 [sic]. Unlike most Native Sons, I haven't yelled much about California since. At a tender age my parents moved to Houston, Tex., where I understand my father tried to make some real money in real estate. About the only thing I remember in connection with Houston is getting a licking for running off and riding on a 'flying jinny," which, above the Mason Dixie line is known as a merry-go-round. From Texas my fond parents made a big jump, and the next thing I remember in life is a flock of cable cars, elevated trains and hansom cabs. Also a large quantity of human beings walking up and down a street called Broadway.

"Shortly after this my father evidently decided it was time I learned who discovered America and who won the battle of Bull Run, and many other things so necessary to a complete education. So I was sent to school, where I didn't cover myself with much glory, but certainly did cover my books with queer looking pictures. The family wanted me to become a prominent lawyer, but I fooled 'em and rapidly became a very poor artist.

"When about eighteen, I met Harry Grant Dart, then art editor of the New York World, who said if I cared to become a "regular artist" he would give me a job. I jumped at his offer and started on the magnificent salary of $6 per week. He was very kind and through his efforts and instruction I was soon making $30 per week. [If Momand was 18 at the time, the year would have been 1905.]

"For about eight years I did regular newspaper stuff—everything from making borders for photographs to sporting cartoons for the sports page. At last I hit upon "Keeping Up With the Joneses," began to make some "real money," and also began to "keep up with the Joneses" myself.

"That was nine years ago, and Aloysius P. McGinnis and his family are still going strong."

Arthur R. Momand, Comic Strip Artist, Dies

Arthur R. Momand, an artist and creator of the comic strip "Keeping Up With the Joneses," died Nov. 10 at the Mary McClellan Hospital in Cambridge, N.Y. He was 101 [sic; 100] years old and lived in a nursing home at the hospital.

Mr. Momand, who was born in San Diego, attended the Trinity School in New York City and began his career as a sketch artist for The New York World in 1907 [sic; 1905].

In 1916 [sic; 1913], he created "Keeping Up With the Joneses," a comic strip parody of American domestic life, which was eventually syndicated in several hundred newspapers in the United States and abroad. After discontinuing the comic strip in 1945 [sic; the strip ended on April 16, 1938.], Mr. Momand, who was known as "Pop," worked as a portrait painter in Manhattan.

He is survived by a nephew, Anthony V. Lynch, of Shushan, N.Y., and two nieces, Keiron Jesup of New Canaan, Conn., and Virginia, of Staten Island.

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

Arthur 'Pop' Momand spent most of his early cartooning years at the New York World, but he did part company with them for awhile to produce Pazaza, It's Great! for the Evening Telegram, the afternoon paper counterpart of Bennett's Herald. The Telegram was notable in the 1900s and early teens for having a constantly evolving and often interesting line-up of weekday comics. Unfortunately their material wasn't widely syndicated, and archived copies of the Telegram itself are quite scarce (this because libraries correctly considered afternoon papers to be comparatively frivolous compared to their morning editions).

Luckily Cole Johnson provides some wonderful samples of this Telegram strip, a particular favorite of mine. Momand's brainchild was deliciously rebellious and snarky. Most newspapers were filled with snake-oil ads at that time, and I don't recall the Telegram being a dissident in that respect, so it's pretty cool that the paper ran this strip which makes blatant fun of such products. In those days the typical wonder elixir was advertised to cure a whole laundry list of aches and illnesses, from the mundanity of psoriasis and warts right on up to cancer and leprosy. Amazing what a little codeine and alcohol can do.

Momand's stand-in for products like Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, Carter's Little Liver Pills and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Extract was Pazaza, and the strip had it being effective for doing pretty much anything the purchaser could ever dream. Although it was a one-joke strip, it was a pretty funny one with a million gag possibilities. Momand didn't quite make it to the million mark, but he did produce it on a pretty consistent basis from December 9 1908 to September 14 1910.

Labels: Obscurities

 

Keeping Up With The Joneses was already quite a venerable daily strip when it added a Sunday page on January 3 1932. The daily began in 1913, almost two full decades earlier. Associated Newspapers, the distributor, was primarily a syndicator of dailies, so it is perhaps not surprising that it took one of their better-known strips that long to take the plunge into colour. Or maybe the wait was for creator Pop Momand to find enough able assistance to take on the extra work. Who knows...

Whichever it was, the Sunday Keeping Up WIth The Joneses was not exactly a gangbusters success, but it did get enough clients to be kept running until both the Sunday and daily were cancelled in April 1938. In this seven-plus year run the strip had one and only one topper that ran with it every single week for the entire span, titled Holly of Hollywood. 

In the earliest few strips, the svelte tall beauty Holly was an aspiring Hollywood actress, but after just a few months she set her sights considerably lower and became a waitress in a greasy spoon. Holly might have been attractive, but her personality left something to be desired -- she was vain, self-absorbed, and lazy. From this Momand eked out the gags of this one-tier usually three panel strip. Typical situations involved her smarting off to the restaurant customers, sassing the other help, or going out on first dates (one can imagine second dates were pretty rare). 

Holly of Hollywood ran from January 3 1932* to April 10 1938**, the same running dates as the main Sunday page. For some reason for most of those years the name Holly in the title panel was lettered within double-quotes -- I have no idea why.

* Source: Brooklyn Times, via Jeffrey Lindenblatt.

** Source: Brooklyn Eagle

Labels: Topper Features

Cole Johnson sends in a group of neat items; first we have a 1914 parody version of the New York Evening Globe. This item was produced for a party thrown at Claridge's Hotel for the staff of the Globe. Several of the Globe's cartoonists contributed cartoons poking fun at various members of the staff. We have, in order of appearance, Pop Momand, creator of Keeping Up With The Joneses; Percy Crosby of future Skippy fame, a fabulous Robert Ripley caricature of the sports editor, perhaps even the editor who recognized the genius of Ripley's one-shot Believe It or Not cartoon in 1918 and encouraged him to turn it into a series. Finally we have two whimsical cartoons by a fellow I didn't even know was at the Globe, H.T. Webster. Apparently he spent a short interlude there in between stints at his long-time home at the New York Tribune.







In addition Cole sent this photo of a bunch of sots on their way to getting rip-roaring drunk. But these aren't just any old juicers.

Standing, from left: Jack Callahan (Freddie the Sheik), unknown, Peck (possibly George Peck, creator of Kayo Kid Klinch)

Sitting: unknown, Bud Counihan (Little Napoleon, Betty Boop), Bonnell (?), unknown (but looks to me like it might be Robert Ripley, though perhaps only because he's on my mind because of the Globule), Jack Farr (Bringing Up Bill).

 

Long before Arthur "Pop" Momand created his long-running Keeping up with the Joneses strip he toiled in the New York Evening World bullpen, turning out mostly forgettable stuff like today's obscurity, Diary of a Bad Boy. This series, like seemingly a billion others of its ilk, concerns the pranks and antics of a rotten li'l kid. The execution is snappy enough, but how many of these kid strips does the world (or the World, for that matter), really need?

The weekday strip ran for eighteen episodes from August 27 to October 27 1906, averaging an appearance every second day until a longish layover befor the last episode.

Labels: Obscurities

Now my convention report turns into a Library of Congress report. I spent three full days nose to the grindstone at the microfilm viewer. Managed to get the Brooklyn Eagle indexed from 1932 through 1942 (pretty much ending my indexing of that paper) and the Chicago Daily News from 1930 - 34, reaching the end of their syndicate activities. I also got through another several years of the Philadelphia Record (1921 - 1925), and did some miscellaneous spot checking of data in the New York Tribune, New York World, Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe.

Can't say that there was much excitement in these papers to report. I did find start and end date for Chester Gould's The Girl Friends, a rare strip that ran only in the Chicago Daily News. Turned out to be a pretty good strip, too. I also finally got all my ducks in a row on Foxy Grandpa. The last Sunday version of that series, which ran in the New York Herald, was for some reason omitted in Ken Barker's index of that paper. Foxy Grandpa was also recently pinned down further when Cole Johnson reported the existence of yet another series, this one a daily, that ran in the Philadelphia Bulletin in 1922 (by the way, Cole, please send me an email -- I can't find your email address).

For those with an interest in science fiction strips I'll report the discovery of what might be the most obscure one yet. The Brooklyn Eagle ran a sci-fi adventure titled The Mysterious Island in their Sunday kiddie section for just two months in 1935.

Another good find was an absolutely certain end date for Keeping Up With The Joneses. I'd always been perplexed that the standard references all place the end of this strip in the 1940s, yet I've never seen any from later than 1938. The Brooklyn Eagle put an end to any question by running the last strip on 4/16/38 which has Pop Momand and his characters officially announcing their retirement.

For those who are interested in photo-comics, as I know several blog readers are, I have one to add to the list. I knew that there was a comic strip series titled Two Black Crows (featuring a popular blackface comedy team of the era) but what I didn't know is that the strip used photographic images of the main characters' faces in the strip, which otherwise was drawn in the normal manner.

After a productive three days at the Library of Congress I swooped back into the convention festivities for the final reception and dinner. In previous days I'd gone through the list of convention attendees and made a list of those who have done strips or panels. My mission at the party was to corner those whose information was sparse in the index. I realized that I wouldn't get particularly specific information out of anyone in the middle of a cocktail party, but I did want to touch base.

I started with Paul Fell who did the art on a feature titled Mulch. Mulch was a strip about a handicapped Vietnam vet. It was written by Bob Shill for whom the strip was semi-autobiographical. Shill created the concept and shopped it around to syndicates with no takers, so he resolved to syndicate it himself through his own company, Signature Features, with a relative beating the newspaper bushes to find takers. Fell was brought on board to handle the art chores and worked on the feature from June 2000 until sometime in 2002. Seeing little progress in the number of papers taking the feature Paul finally had to drop out from the art chores. He recalls that Shill was trying to find another cartoonist to take over for him but never heard if they had any success in that search.

I next cornered Elena Steier, who was on my list for her strip Dinosaur Circus. The strip was distributed by the tiny syndicate DBR Media from 2001 until 2003. I was particularly interested in finding out how DBR Media operates. It turned out that Elena confirmed my guess -- DBR paid creators a flat fee so they never received any feedback about the number or identity of papers running the features. This was unfortunate but expected, as I've had a heck of a time tracking DBR's output until recently. I now subscribe to a newspaper called the Lake Region Times out of Minnesota which runs their complete output every week.

With cocktail hour waning I managed to find Vance Rodewalt, who did a strip titled Chubb And Chauncey. I learned that it was only available in the US for one year, but that it continued outside this country for an even dozen. Rodewalt initially placed the strip with Tribune Media but found the sales in the US disappointing. He switched over to the Toronto Star syndicate (Rodewalt is Canadian) and had much better success. The Toronto Star apparently had an agreement not to sell into the US market, so Rodewalt lost all his US papers (a fact of which he wasn't aware when he switched syndicates). All turned out okay, though, because he also placed the strip with Editors Press, a syndicate that sells worldwide. Rodewalt told me that the strip was very popular in far-flung places such as India, where it ran for many years in the India Times.

Rodewalt and I were still in a huddle after the reception was over, and we ended up having to take it on the run to find the banquet. I do regret very much never having a chance to talk with some of the others who were on my hit list. I missed my last chance to talk to Tom Toles, Jack Ohman, Mike Luckovich, Scott Stantis, Ed Stein, Gary McCoy, Bruce Plante, comics legend Jerry Robinson and many others who were all due for a Holtz inquisition. One I particularly regret is Daryl Cagle -- I wanted to let him know that his very short-lived panel cartoon True! is one of my all-time favorites.

Arriving late at the banquet I found my customary place alongside Ivey and Harvey was unavailable, but was lucky enough to find a seat at the table with Lucy Caswell and Steve Greenberg. Greenberg brought me up to date on the long sad tale of the San Francisco Examiner's demise. Steve had the questionable distinction of being their last staff editorial cartoonist before the grand old paper was remade as a rather pathetic freebie. Greenberg and I found that we had something else in common - I'm embarrassed to admit that I had completely forgotten that Greenberg is a fellow Hogan's Alley magazine regular. He writes the excellent column in each issue about editorial cartooning. So we both got to complain about editor Tom Heintjes (kidding Tom!).

The dinner program was packed with interesting stuff, enough so that no one got to do more than take a few quick gulps of the dinner fare in between speakers. The founding fathers, Ivey among them, were all asked to speak again, this time with a properly working microphone. Rob Rogers had produced a cartoon depicting the founding members as cavemen which gave everyone a good laugh.

David Wallis spoke about his book Killed Cartoons, including his fight with the book's publisher. The publisher, showing an amazing lack of backbone, refused to reproduce a cartoon by Doug Marlette featuring a Mohammed caricature in the book. Considering the subject of the book, this was not only pathetic but also downright bizarre. Wallis told the publisher that their decision would come to haunt them, and apparently media reaction has borne him out on that prognostication.

The featured speaker for the evening was Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. Although his campaign hasn't exactly garnered a groundswell of support, I for one maintain a soft spot for Dennis. Beyond his being the only candidate completely and unabashedly committed to peace and an end to the Iraq debacle, I've always liked him simply because on a previous trip to Washington, hanging out in my usual haunts at the Library of Congress, I saw him strolling to work, briefcase in hand one morning. No limo, no security, no aides. Just Dennis. And here's the kicker - it was a Saturday! That's the kind of guy we need in Washington. Not to mention that his wife is a total babe.

Kucinich was in danger of losing the crowd right off the bat. He led off talking about his love of old comic books, and how his hometown of Cleveland produced Siegel and Shuster. The editorial cartoonists were grumbling, wondering if Kucinich didn't know the difference between comic books and editorial cartoons. Luckily his next schtick went over much better, a very funny plea for the cartoonists to cover his campaign. He showed some cartoons drawn especially for the event showing the cartoonists how easy it is to caricature him, playing on the old "Draw Me" matchbook cartoon course ads. Everyone got a big kick out of it. Kucinich then closed with a very moving story of visiting gravesites on a recent trip to the mideast.

That was it for the big show. Jim and I turned in immediately because we had an early plane flight, but we found the next morning that editorial cartoonists really know how to party. We were up at 6 AM and ran into cartoonists in the hall who were just them stumbling to their rooms after an all-night beer bash.

So that was our trip. Hope I didn't bore you with too many details, but Jim and I really had a great time, and I'd like to once again thank the AAEC, Rob Rogers and R.C. Harvey for making it all possible. See you guys again for the 60th anniversary?

BELATED EDIT: Matt Fletcher tells me the rest of the story regarding "Mulch":

I was recruited by Bob Shill to do the artwork for Mulch, which continued via self-syndication, for another two and a half years. Bob had seen one of my strips on a website Tribune Media had set up to feature new artists.

You may not be aware, but Bob Shill is a quadriplegic. He would write the scripts and e-mail them to me for artwork. It was a real pleasure working with Bob. Towards the end, I think Bob became more interested in other creative pursuits, so the scripting duties fell to me. Self-syndication ultimately proved too difficult, and in the end we chose to pull the plug on the strip in May, 2004.

After a long hiatus, Heritage Auctions has included some more items from my collection in their latest auction. There are some pretty special items in this one, some of which I believe will be of great interest to Stripper's Guide readers. Many of these items they failed to properly describe or highlight, so that blog readers should have a good chance at picking them up inexpensively.

To see all my items on Heritage's website, follow this link. Here are the auction items and my comments:

A group of 17 Editor & Publisher annual syndicate directories. If you are researching comic strip history these are the greatest tools in your library. Every comic strip offered by the syndicates, large and small, is advertised in these annual books. Represented here are the books for 1969, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1996 plus a few duplicates.

These annual books are extremely scarce. I buy them whenever I find them, yet my collection is still missing dozens of the annual issues, for which I am forced to rely on really bad microfilm copies.


An oddball but fabulous conglomeration here. First up is Famous Artists and Writers, an incredible spiral-bound book sent to newspaper editors as a promo by King Features in 1946. It offers samples of all the comics they offer (quite a few in glorious glossy color stock), along with bios of the artists. These are tough to come by and highly prized.

Next is an incredible rarity from 1902 -- a catalog from a cartoon exhibition and sale -- perhaps the very first in history! Would you like to buy a Winsor McCay original? No problem, there were something like 50 different examples up for sale in this exhibit. What an amazing document that shows cartoon art taken seriously so early.

Finally there are five different instructional booklets from Norman Marsh's cartoon school full of interesting art.


Here's another odd but delightful assortment. Three issues of Crapouillot, a French political humor magazine with superb illustrations and cartoons, plus a couple issues of New Masses with those terrific leftist cartoonists represented (one is a special expanded anniversary issue), a rare issue #2 of Americana, a 1932 satire magazine with an amazing high-end list of cartoonist and writer contributors, plus an issue of Touchstone, the humor magazine of Amherst College.



Yet another assortment of wonderful goodies. First and foremost, an original edition copy of Your History by J.A. Rogers, the black historian who authored the weekly cartoon panel series for black newspapers from the 1930s to 1960s. In the same vein, there is also Facts About the Negro #2, a later reprint book of the Your History cartoons. Next up is Eventful Decade, which is a real sleeper item -- this classy booklet was issued by the American Federation of Musicians in 1952 and features a retrospective of political and humor cartoons related to their profession from the mainstream press; lots of interesting material and neat jazz music references of course. Next we have two different editions of Texas History Movies (1935 and 1959), which we've discussed on the blog. Next there is Picture Life of a Great American, a very scarce comic strip reprint book detailing the life of Herbert Hoover (an election giveaway), and finally, In and Around the Lehigh Valley, a book of cartoons about eastern Ohio by Leo Hammer.




For two glorious seasons, Winsor McCay contributed the covers for the New York Hippodrome's annual souvenir books. In this lot, much to my chagrin, the auctioneers have included two (!) copies of the scarcer 1908-1909 edition, along with one copy of the 1909-1910 issue.


In the realm of rare platinum comics, Buttons and Fatty in the Funnies rates at the high end for scarcity. This is the only copy I've ever encountered. Condition isn't the greatest (the original binding was ridiculously fragile and doomed from the start), but as the saying goes, where you gonna find another one?


Another ridiculously rare platinum comic, Comic Cuts is all but unknown to collectors. My guess is that its rarity is even greater because when copies are found, they are often mistaken to be from the British series of the same name. But these rare issues came out of New York, and contain all original material, which makes them among the earliest original comic books ever published (along with The Funnies, below). This is issue #5. Though it has a good size hunk out of the front cover, the same admonishment applies -- where you gonna find another one!


We've discussed the 1929-30 series The Funnies on the blog at length, and here is the only original issue from the series (10-4-30) that I had in my collection. As a major bonus, included is a big batch of photocopies, some in color, of other issues from the series. The Funnies is pretty much without a doubt the earliest regularly issued original material newsstand comic book series, and issues are beyond rare. Don't miss this rare chance to get an issue plus a lot of bonus material.


Three issues of Gulf Funny Weekly, the gas station giveaway series with some great newspaper comics-style art and stories. Issues in this lot are #38, 56 and 319.


Here's a nice group of Platinum books, with the oversize Gumps Cartoon Book, Tad Dorgan's very funny Daffydils, a couple of Briggs books, and a very niuce copy of the scarce original material comic book Knock Knock Featuring Enoch Knox.


A nice batch of Cupples and Leon platinum comics in lesser condition, featuring some of the harder to find issues: Harold Teen, Keeping Up With the Joneses #1 and #2 (by Pop Momand), Percy and Ferdie by the great H.A. McGill, and Tillie the Toiler #2 and #4.


Some absolutely great material here in this lot! T.E. Powers' Joys and Glooms is very tough to find, and expensive if you do. Landfield-Kupfer's very early reprint of The Gumps is also very tough to find, though this copy is in rough shape. Also a tough book to find is Billy the Boy Artist's Book of Funny Pictures as it was probably only sold in the Boston area -- this one is also quite rough.

Much lesser known is A Child's Book of Abridged Wisdom, which is by the naive cartoonist Childe Harold. His work appeared often in Hearst's New York American in the 1900s.

Another really special item, though, is The Adventures of Peter Pupp, which isn't a platinum book at all. It's also not rare, but somewhat tough to find in decent condition It was issued in 1943 by comics pioneer Jerry Iger though his Action Play-Books imprint. The fantasy/sci-fi story is by comic book scripter Ruth Roche, and the illustrations are uncredited. The exciting thing, though, is that those cartoons are adapted from a comics series by none other than a very young Bob Kane! Iger recycled Kane's art for this kid's book and didn't give him any credit.


Getting into the comic book end of things, we have two whopping big lots of early Dennis the Menace comic books (one batch from the regular series, the other from the Giant Size series). I collected these back in the 1970s when I was absolutely loopy in love with the art of Al Wiseman, whose art graces most of these issues. I just couldn't get enough of his work. I don't know if Wiseman has ever gotten much fan press, but I think he's a most incredible stylist.



There are three groupings of miscellaneous golden age comic books in the present auction, but they didn't even bother to picture many of the issues. I understand why they look down their noses at these I suppose -- condition is generally merely average -- but there are some wonderful seldom seen issues mixed in. I hope you comic book fans will take a look at these:

Group 1: Smash Comics #63, Crack Comics #39, Red Band Comics #3 (one-eyed monster in a jive hat cover!), Black Magic #31 (bizarre Kirby cover), G.I. Joe V.2 #9 (Saunders painted cover), Justice Comics #17 (scarce Canadian comic book),  Official True Crime Cases #24 (nice Syd Shores cover), Pioneer West Romances #5 (classic Firehair cover), Super Magician Comics V.5 #6 (strange title and scarce), Young King Cole #4, and the highlight: Picture News #1, 3 and 9 (very tough to find, and full of great art -- Milt Gross and Kirby!). #3 and #9 are in SUPERB condition, which they didn't even bother to mention.


Group 2: Captain Marvel Jr. #24 (Raboy cover), Feature Comics #89, Ibis the Invincible #6 (classic monster cover), Journal of Crime (one of those cool Fox giants with all sorts of strange material inside), Key Comics #2 (oddball issue seldom seen, neat cover), Smash Comics #45 and (my favorite series, again) Picture News #7 (very scarce, not indexed on GCD).


Group #3: Police Comics #30 (Cole and Eisner art), Jane Arden Crime Reporter #1 (uncommon reprint comic), Red Circle Comics #1 (neat and scarce series with adventure, crime and comedy inside), Cow Puncher #3 (classic cover), Young King Cole V.3 #2, Super Comics #28, 33, 51, 54 (all with great Dick Tracy and other comic strip reprints)

Other comics lots:

Gay Comics #27 in superb condition, with Wolverton art and lotsa pretty gals.


Georgie Comics #6 (Georgie visits the Timely Comics office), 9 (Kurtzman art), 24 and 29.


Sexy good girl art lot with Tessie the Typist #14 (Wolverton and Kurtzman art), Margie Comics #44 (Kurtzman), Nellie the Nurse #16 (Kurtzman), Miss America V.3#3, Candy #2 (Gustavson art), Gay Comics #34 (3 Hey Look pages by Kurtzman).


Two Mighty Midget Comics with great covers in nice clean shape.


Three very uncommon sports-related comic books; Sport Stars #4 is the only one that Overstreet even knows about. How Champions Play Football is so obscure that GCD doesn't know about it either -- they only list the companion baseball issue. Sport Slants is a real gem containing sports cartoons and caricatures by famed sports cartoonist Tom 'Pap' Paprocki, and seems to have been issued by his syndicate, the Associated Press. It must have sold terribly at 25 cents in 1946!


We finish off with Zip Comics #8, featuring an incredibly gruesome cover from the pen of Charles Biro. Inside art by Mort Meskin and others.

Harry Grant Dart was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 1868, according to two passport applications found at Ancestry.com. The 1870 U.S. Federal Census recorded Dart as the youngest of three children born to George, a life insurance agent, and Anna. The family resided in Williamsport.

Information regarding Dart’s education and art training has not been found.

The 1887 Williamsport city directory listed Dart as an artist at 412 Elmira. In 1888 resided at 203 Market and the following year he was at 341 Pine. In 1890 Dart made his home in Somerville, Massachusetts, at “291 Elm W S”. The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons (1999) said Dart worked briefly for the Boston Herald.

New York City was Dart’s home according to the 1891 city directory. The illustrator’s address was 369 West End Avenue in Manhattan.

On September 10, 1894, Dart married Luella J. Sheets. The couple had a five-year-old daughter in the 1900 census. They resided in Manhattan at 256 West 85th Street. In the 1905 New York state census, the Dart family continued to live in Manhattan but at a different address, 2790 Broadway.

American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Dart produced comics for the New York World and New York Herald. The Explorigator appeared in the World from May 3 to August 9, 1908. The Herald published Boys Will Be Boys from February 7 to May 9, 1909. Dart wrote Cynthianna Blythe which was drawn by Wallace Morgan. Their collaboration ran from 1909 to 1910 in the Herald. The Sprightly Adventures of Mr. Homesweet Home debuted July 7, 1909 in the World. The strip ended May 25, 1912. Homesweet was published as book in 1914.

Some of Dart’s full-color illustrations for magazines are here. A selection of Dart’s flying machines are here.



At some point Dart moved to Amenia, New York. Dart and his family were recorded there in the 1910 census. Dart was mentioned often in the local newspaper, Amenia Times.

January 8, 1910

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

[Cartoons Magazine, debuting in 1912, was a monthly magazine devoted primarily to reprinting editorial cartoons from U.S. and foreign newspapers. Articles about cartooning and cartoonists often supplemented the discussion of current events.

In November 1913 the magazine began to offer a monthly round-up of news about cartoonists and cartooning, eventually titled "What The Cartoonist Are Doing." There are lots of interesting historical nuggets in these sections, and this Stripper's Guide feature will reprint one issue's worth each week.]



BERRYMAN AND THE TEDDY BEAR
The following sketch of Clifford K. Berryman, cartoonist of the Washington Star, appeared recently in the Louisville Courier-Journal. The writer is Daisy Fitzhugh Ayres.

Everybody knows, of course, that Mr. Berryman is the originator of the immortal Teddy bear. The bear is his emblem and insignia. The saucy little beast that he has popularized all over the world peeps out irrelevantly in many of his bright cartoons. The little familiar bear upon his hind legs appears embossed on Mr. Berryman's stationery. It is incorporated in drawings that he sends his friends and often on the place cards that he is angelic enough to decorate for his wife's luncheons and dinners.

When the man that made the bear famous wants an engagement with his august oculist with whom other people find difficulty in securing an audience, he merely dashes off a little bear upon a post card with a question mark beside it, and the great man at once makes a date with the man as great.
The well-known cartoonist, philanthropically disposed, has drawn many thousands of little bears and drawn many audiences, too, in delivering delightful hundreds of "chalk talks" for charity. Mr. Berryman is as eloquent almost with tongue as with his pencil. The war sufferers have been constant beneficiaries of his talents at public entertainments.

Nor are the artistic and forensic abilities of the family confined to the older generation. Mr. Berryman has a little son, a boy of 12, who is following promptly in the foot prints and the finger marks of his distinguished sire.

Young James is a worthy chip off the ancestral block. He does Teddy bears and chalk talks, too.
Before school was out this summer Mr. and Mrs. Berryman, all "unbeknown" to their young hopeful, stepped into the Friday afternoon exercises of the grade, of which Berryman fils figured on the programme. Proud and amused were the intruding parents to see the confidence with which the youngster, in unconscious imitation of his father, walked to the blackboard and proceeded to illustrate a little running fire of apt comment on things in general, with swift sketches with his chalk. His admiring classmates howled with joy at the boy's clever portraiture of President Wilson, W. J. Bryan and Col. Roosevelt and others of the world's celebrities.

The older of the two children of the house of Berryman, Miss Florence, is a pretty girl in the early teens, with the sweet courtesy of manner of dead and gone generations, and as great a talent for music as her father and brother have for drawing things. She performed Mendelssohn's difficult Rondo Capriccioso with finished technique when she was only twelve.

Mrs. Berryman is president of the Cultus Club, that well-known organization of brainy women. She was a Washington girl.

Before Mr. Berryman's rise to fame he was the special protege of Senator Jo Blackburn, who admired the budding talents of the Woodford county boy,

CLUBB FORCES THE ISSUE
A cartoonist who did not wait for campaign issues, but who made the issues with his cartoons is John Scott Clubb, of the Rochester Herald. In the recent municipal elections in Rochester political leaders admitted freely the influence of his cartoons. Although his party lost, Clubb's work, it is said, will long be remembered.

He centered his drawings about two characters, "Uncle" George W. Aldridge, G. O. P. State Committeeman, and admitted "boss" of the city machine, and Mayor Edgerton, Republican candidate for reelection. So earnestly did Clubb lampoon these partners, and so effective was his satire, that the Democratic-Progressive committee printed 10,000 copies of a booklet containing the cartoons, the supply of which was soon exhausted.

The cartoonist is country-bred, and still retains his love of rustic ways. His home, which was designed by himself and artist friends, contains a unique workroom, a replica of a farmhouse kitchen, furnished to the minutest detail with fidelity to the original. With its rag rugs, rush-bottomed chairs, horn lanterns, and golden corn hung from the rafters, every corner of the room is redolent of old-fashioned country life and comfort.

Clubb is never so happy as when working in the garden with overalls and garden tools. His love of the bucolic is reflected in many of his drawings, which have won for him hundreds of country admirers. One day he drew a cartoon in which a milkman was seen seated on the wrong side of the cow. The flood of protests from his farmer friends amounted almost to a deluge.

USING A McCUTCHEON CARTOON
John T. McCutcheon's cartoon in the Chicago Tribune, picturing the lad whose mother did not raise her boy to be a soldier, has been used as a recruiting poster by the Seventy-First Infantry, New York National Guard. Under a reproduction of the cartoon is the following announcement:

SEVENTY-FIRST INFANTRY, N. G., N. Y.
wants a limited number of the other kind of young men;
the kind with red blood in their veins.
ARMORY, THIRTY-FOURTH ST. 8 PARK AVE.
Headquarters nights Tuesday and Friday.
Drop in and talk it over. 

Mr. McCutcheon is now in the Balkans for the Tribune.

CARTOONS AND CAPITALISTS
"Turning over the leaves of a socialist paper," writes Carolyn Vance, in the New Orleans State, "I came upon the caricature of a 'typical capitalist.' Some day I am going to the editor of that paper and tell him that his staff artist is slipping something over on him. It's all wrong . .  . You know the creature of the cartoons. He is usually pictured sitting, huge and unwieldy, glaring at an emaciated workman. He doesn't look as if he had the strength to deal a hand at cards."

Miss Vance, who is something of a cartoonist herself, to prove her point, looked up some "typical capitalists" on the New Orleans Cotton Exchange. She concludes: "A true picture of the capitalist would be hard to draw. He would have to be both fat and thin; both jovial and taciturn."

BRINK DROPS INTO VERSE
Friends of R. M. Brinkerhoff, the New York Evening Mail cartoonist, have learned not to be surprised at anything he does. Nature endowed him with a number of gifts, including a fine tenor voice, and the ability to write. It is not often, however, that Brink drops into poetry, but some verses over his signature that headed the "Mail Chute" column of the Mail the other day reveal him in an altogether new light. Rather gruesome verses — but here they are:

A GREAT LAKES BALLAD
Just out a ways from Sarnia —
A half a mile or more —
There's a little island lyin'
And the Minnie D is plyin'
Past the little pier
A-pointin' out from shore.

It's here my Island Mary lives
An' stands out on the pier,
Her dress all white and flyin'
A-lookin' out an' tryin'
To reco'nize and hail me
When I sails my cat up near.

I never liked her skipper,
An' swore I never would;
A fairly decent chap he was . . .
But I could never go him, 'cause
A-sailin' out he'd beat too close
To where my Mary stood.

Somehow I knowed he loved her;
I mighta known before;
He'd keep the kids a-sailin',
A-tendin' sheet and bailin'
An 'him just settin' watchin'
Somethin' white along the shore.

An' when I seen him landin'
The sweat come out on me.
'Twas then I swore I'd drown 'im
With his British flag around 'im
So there'd be no Union Jackie
On the schooner Minnie D.

I seen my chance an' done it —
I hope Gawd didn't see.
They found his body floatin'
All soft an' blue and bloatin'.
The papers called it accident —
That's near enough for me.

STATION MASTER CARTOONIST
A station master doubtless has many opportunities for observing human nature, but there are few station masters who can put their observations into concrete form. An exception is Charles Black, the "man in gray" at the Southern Pacific station at Sacramento, Cal. Mr. Black, who cherished boyhood ambitions to become a cartoonist, now occupies his spare time drawing caricatures of prominent persons of his city. Traveling men, policemen, and railroad men are among his favorite subjects.

EXHIBITS WAR CARTOONS
War cartoons from European papers were exhibited recently by Prof. Roland G. Usher in the Washington University auditorium, St. Louis. In the course of an address which accompanied the exhibit Professor Usher said that the cartoonist's art in Europe was a generation behind the same art in America. Many European cartoons, he declared, were drawn down to the comprehension of those who cannot read. War cartoons, the speaker argued, were intended by editors to please their readers by coinciding with the ideas the latter already had formed. Thus, all the cartoonist had to do, he said, was to cheer the people up by depicting to them the stupidity of their enemies, or to anger them by portraying the barbarism of the enemy.

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Harold Heaton, formerly cartoonist of the Chicago Inter Ocean, has been teaching dramatics to certain Chicago north-shore society persons. Mr. Heaton recently returned from an extended Chautauqua tour of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, which reminded him, he said, of his barnstorming days as an actor.



A BROOKLYN PRODIGY
A nine days' wonder just now in Brooklyn, N. Y., is Frank Martin, a 13-year-old cartoonist, who promises to become another Bud Fisher. The New York Herald, in appreciation of the lad's cleverness, publishes a sketch of his representing a reception to the Herald "funny folks."
Frank says that he would rather draw pictures than study. "The only hit I make at school," he says, "is at Christmas time, when I draw Santa Clauses and reindeers on the blackboard. At other times I am not popular with the teacher."

FITZ AS A MODELER
D. R. Fitzpatrick, whose cartoons for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch have placed him within so short a time in the cartoonist's Hall of Fame, has been experimenting in a new field. Fitz has ambitions to become a second Phidias, and to that end has modeled a group of figures which was among the attractions at the recent newspaper artists' exhibition at the St. Louis Press Club. Two rather mournful figures of a tramp, huddling for warmth against a brick wall, were conventionalized in a pair of book ends. Fitz's masterpiece, however, shown herewith, was a candlestick design in which a charming, semidraped female figure is seen. "They are my first attempts," writes the artist, "so go easy on them."

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An exhibition of English recruiting posters has been opened at the Hohenzollern Kunstgewerbehaus in Berlin. The proceeds will be given to the home for airmen established by the German aerial league.

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The Associated Illustrators and Central Art League of New York have opened studios in the McCarthy building in Syracuse.

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Cartoons of the British Tommy by the artists of Kladderadatsch, and other German periodicals, are being used as targets in Bavaria for shooting practice.

WHERE WILDERNESS IS PARADISE
Writing from the New York Globe, H. T. Webster, cartoonist-in-chief for that palladium, says that he has returned safely from Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks, where he got a taste of millionaire camp life, and that he never expects to see such a fancy place again. There were electric lights, bowling alleys, billiard tables, a shooting gallery, a power boat, and a hydro plane. As for birds, Web says that he saw two, and managed to bag one. He also caught one bass. Deer were plentiful, though, he adds, and one of the party shot a fine buck.

While in the mountain camp, the author of "Boyhood Thrills" was introduced to a new kind of thrill — fantan, played not with cards, but with Chinese cash. Anyone, says Web, will become a fantan fan, once he has played the game. Herb Roth made several caricatures of the gamesters.

INFLUENCE OF CARTOONING
An illustrated lecture on "Caricature and Cartoons" was given recently before the Thursday Morning Club of Trenton, N. J., by Arthur M. Howe, editor of the Brooklyn Eagle. Mr. Howe sketched the history of political cartooning in its earlier stages in England and France, and traced the evolution of the art both in Europe and in the United States. He gave considerable attention to the achievements of Thomas Nast, particularly Nast's fight against the Tweed ring.



IN THE STONE-BRUISE AGE
One of Bushnell's. new "kid" cartoons. His series, "In The Stone-Bruise Age", is winning him new friends.




WINS POSTER PRIZE
Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney's $100 prize for the best poster on the subject of "The Immigrant in America," has been won by Adolph Triedler, of New York, who has made a name for himself by his remarkable poster designs. Mr. Triedler is a member of the Art Students' League.

FAMOUS SAYINGS
The New York Tribune has been depicting in cartoon American history as it would be if interpreted in terms of present-day currency in politics.

The first cartoon represented George Washington refusing command of the continental army because he was "too proud to fight;" and other subjects are:

Patrick Henry delivering his famous speech: "Give me liberty or give me 'strict accountability.'"

Benjamin Franklin informing George III that the Declaration of Independence was for home consumption only.

General Grant writing his memorable dispatch: "I intend to talk it out on this line if it takes all summer."

WEED IN A SMASHUP
Clive R. Weed, cartoonist of the Philadelphia Evening Ledger, and Mrs. Weed were painfully injured recently when the automobile in which they were riding collided with a telegraph pole near their home at Fox Chase. Mrs. Weed was thrown through the windshield, and badly cut and bruised. Mr. Weed managed to remain in the car. His injuries were less serious.

HARDING'S VERSES AND THEIR ANSWER
Nelson Harding, cartoonist of the Brooklyn Eagle, recently penned some verses in his newspaper that appear to have got under the skin of some of our good hyphenated Americans. "Issues and Events," a weekly newspaper dedicated to the task of explaining the German viewpoint, reprints Mr. Harding's verses, and then answers them. Thus:

KRUPPODILE TEARS by Nelson Harding
"I weep for France," the Kaiser said.
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Shells of the largest size,
Holding his pocket handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

"HYPHENATED-NEUTRALITY" TEARS
"We pray for peace," some Yankees say.
"We deeply sympathize."
"With sobs and tears," they're sending out
Shells of the largest size
Direct, or via Canada,
To England, France and Russia;
To Russia, butcher of not few.
My dear "N. H.," what right have you
To hypocrit — i — c — i — z — e?

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The Philadelphia Evening Ledger has presented Billy Sunday, the evangelist, with a framed cartoon drawn by C. H. Sykes of that paper. The cartoon, entitled "Safety First," pictures Satan fleeing before the announcement of Sunday's revival.

ONLY A WOODEN BLOCK
IT was only a wooden block, and yet. if it had been the relic of a saint, it couldn't have attracted more ardent groups of devotees. It was the original block of Tom Nast's Tweed cartoon that marked the beginning of the famous fight against the New York ring. The block, its surface engraved with a figure of a heavy man, bowing obsequiously, with one hand between the folds ot his coat, formed part of the November exhibition held by the American Institute of Graphic Arts at the National Arts Club, New York.

In the same case was to be seen a small volume illustrated with woodcuts by Nast, and entitled ''The Fight in Miss Europea's School; Showing How the German Boy Thrashed the French Boy, and How the English Boy Looked On." The cartoons were inspired by the Franco-German war.

Another interesting Nast exhibit consisted of a wooden block bearing an unfinished cartoon. It was drawn at a time when there was much mystery as to whom Grant would pick for his cabinet. It shows Grant shaking seven cats out of a bag, each cat completely, drawn except for the head. The artist sent the block into Grant's private office, with a request that the president complete it. Grant laughed heartily, but he refused to identify the cats that were "out of the bag."

UNCOMMON CENSORSHIP
American cartoons on Russia's reverses evidently are not popular in the land of the Little Father. The Literary Digest prints in a recent issue censored portions of its pages from a July number that had the misfortune to reach the empire of Russia. Thus, a cartoon by Sykes, of the Philadelphia Evening Ledger, showing the Russian bear being ejected from the door of Austria, comes back completely blotted out, as does also one of Nelson Harding's Brooklyn Eagle cartoons, which represents Bruin as rather short of ammunition.

"It must be frankly admitted," says the editor, "that the cartoons are not altogether calculated to fill the heart of a tender-skinned censor with joy. . . . It is a bit disquieting, however, to feel that one's editorial efforts are of such a character that a great Empire of 175,000,000 must be protected from them."





DE BECK'S NEW COMICS
Will De Beck, formerly cartoonist of the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, has removed from Pittsburgh to Chicago, where he is portraying for the Adams syndicate the adventures of two comic characters whom he has named "Finn an' Haddie." So favorable has been the reception of this feature that Mr. De Beck is looking forward to a life of luxury. During his spare time he intends to study at the Chicago Art Institute. He has furnished an apartment near the lake on the north side. One of Finn an' Haddie's adventures is por trayed herewith.

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H. H. Playford, cartoonist of the Johannesburg (South Africa) Post, is planning to make the United States his permanent home. Prior to his South African connection Mr. Playford lived in London, where his work appeared in many of the British illustrated newspapers and weeklies. He will leave soon for America.

NOT UNETHICAL
According to a decision recently rendered by the judiciary committee of the American Medical Association, it is not a violation of professional ethics for a physician to permit himself to be cartooned. This was the verdict given after hours of deliberation following charges preferred by certain Virginia physicians against Dr. George Ben Johnson, of Richmond.

THE SECRET'S OUT
H. Mitchell is one of New York's foremost artists and H. T. Webster is likewise a leading cartoonist. They spend their vacations together in the Adirondacks, borrow each other's cigars and show other traits of untrammeled friendship.

This period of chumminess has extended over several years and in that time neither has known the other's first name. When the subject is ever brought up they have shown such a natural skittishness that they quickly veered to other topics.

The other night, however, both attended a banquet. The toastmaster — an uncouth person with no regard for the finer sensibilities — called upon "Harold Mitchell" to speak. Webster almost fell off his seat with joy until a little later the toastmaster called upon "Harold Webster."

Neither refers to the incident for it seems that they had often discussed with great vehemence how they hated the name Harold. — Passaic (N. J.) News.

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Hal Eyre, cartoonist of the Sydney (Australia) Telegraph, writes that he has been in the thick of a hot political campaign, and that cartoons on international subjects have been sidetracked.

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The body of Phil Porter, the young Chicago cartoonist, who had been missing for several months, was found recently on the shore of Twin Island, near Morris. Ill., by two hunters. Identification was made by Miss Annette Styles, Mr. Porter's fiancee. The body had lain in the water for a long time, and was scarcely recognizable. How he met his death is a mystery.

THE FRAME WAS WORTH IT
Like most great artists, Frank Brangwyn, of London, whose recruiting posters have induced many a young Britisher to join the colors, and whose panels at the San Francisco exposition have won him thousands of American admirers, had hard sledding in his younger days. On one occasion he made an effort to raise the ridiculously small sum of ten pounds on one of his pictures. The dealer looked at it and made an offer of ten shillings. The artist replied indignantly that the frame alone was worth that much. "I am aware of that," replied the dealer; "that is what I'm buying."

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Lewis C. Gregg, cartoonist of the Atlanta Constitution, has opened an art school in Atlanta where he will give special attention to newspaper and cartoon work. Mr. Gregg is a member of the Art Students' League of New York, and one of the leading cartoonists of the South.

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Dayton (Ohio) friends of W. A. Rogers, the New York Herald cartoonist, recall that as a boy he worked in his brother's paper mill in the Ohio city.

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Jack Casey, former New York and San Francisco newspaper cartoonist, who was reported missing after the fighting in the Champagne district, and believed to have been killed, has reached Chalons, where he has been sent to the hospital suffering from a foot wound.

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Bert Levy

Bert Levy, creator of the "Samuel and Sylenz" series of comics, has voluntarily surrendered a salary of $12,000 a year, and paid $2,200 to be released from his contract, rather than continue the series which he found was offensive to his fellow Jews.

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Mr. and Mrs. Edgar A. Schilder announce the arrival of a baby girl. Mr. Schilder, formerly cartoonist of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, is now with the International Syndicate of Baltimore.

NO TIME TO BOAST
Like the person who cried out ungrammatically, "I will drown! Nobody shall save me!" was the Kentuckian in Fontaine Fox's latest story. Fox says that he was swimming in the Ohio River near Louisville last summer when he saw a man leap from a skiff in midstream. He sank two or three times, and came up sputtering. "I can't swim!" he gasped. The companion of the victim, who had remained in the boat, watched the unfortunate with languid interest. "Well," he finally drawled, "if you can't swim, this is a fine time to be bragging about it."

FROM SPORTS TO BOOZE
Thomas Doere, formerly sports cartoonist for the Philadelphia Times and the Boston Traveler, and more recently associated with R. O. Evans in the publication of a cartoon book in Baltimore, is now drawing a daily cartoon for Dr. W. E. Biederwolf, the evangelist. He is at present in York, Pa., where he is waging a cartoon fight against the liquor traffic.

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"Keeping up with the Joneses," the comic series by Arthur G. Momand ("Pop") has been filmed by an eastern moving-picture concern. Mr. Momand was on the art staff of the New York World, and later of the New York Evening Telegram, before going abroad to study.

Labels: What The Cartoonists Are Doing