Saturday, January 31, 2009

Chocolat Treat

Saturday Leftover Day.

In addition to this weeks Peter Pain ads, I also have a couple more samples from Jack Betts' other ad series, Neddy Nestlé

Feb 19 1950:


Dec 7 1952:


Oct 11 1953:


And again on Dec 6 1953:

Friday, January 30, 2009

You Are My Sunshine

Friday Comic Book Day.

Here's another Ray Bailey story from Boris Karloff Tale of Mystery #5 (1963):








There may be a page missing here... but it is missing in my original set of scans as well.


Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Bucking the Trend

Thursday Story Day.

As usual I want to give you something to read on a thursday. Usually that means I am showing a mor realisticly drawn strip. But today we have one of those rare cartoon continuity strips. Buck O'Rue appeared I newspapers between Jan 15 1951 and somewhere in 1953. I first saw it, when Alan Holtz showen two weeks in september 2006. If you go to the Striper's Guide and look for Buck O'Rue, you'll find a publicity piece from Editors and Publishers as well. I agree with Alan that the writing on this stip ia the weak point, but the art is by Paul Murray, who was not the best Mickey Mouse artist ever, but if you grew up with the Disney comics as I did, he will be instantly recognizable as he was one of the most frequent ones. His work outside of Disney (his comic book work outside of Disney as well as his saucy cartoons) have been getting quite some attention on the web. So here are two more weeks of his one and only outing as a newspaper strip artist. The writer wasn't too bad either. He sold a lot of funny cartoons to all the magazines all through the fifties. But having a lot of funny names and satirical characters isn't the same as having good stories.
















Taking Pain

Wednesday Advertising Day.

No matter how many times I notice it, it never stops to amaze me how long some of the comi ad campaigns stayed around. These days any product wil have a new campaign every two years. Back in the forties and fities campaigns sometimes ran for more than ten years. I have shown samples from the Ben-Gay Peter Pain series before, but today I am showing one of th eroldest I have ever seen, from 1946. Since the latest I have sween if from 1956 or later, it means this series and this Peter Pain character was around for ten years at least. All this time the comic strip ads were drawn byartist Jack Betts for Johnstone and Cushing. I don't know if he designed the character as well but that seems possible. Betts drew this series as well as Neddy Nestle in a recognizable style, which he often was allowed to sign. Both series seem to have appeared once a month.

Jan 6 1946:


Feb 17 1946:


Dec 28 1947


Jan 4 1948:


March 21 1948:


Feb 5 1950:


March 12 1950:


Jan 28 1951:


This later ad was marketed just at the kiddies, from Dec 6 1953:

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Where Id's At

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

Some more assorted early Wizard of Id strips.

Dec 26 1964:


Feb 10 1965:


Nov 13 1965:


Jan 30 1966:


June 1 1966:

Monday, January 26, 2009

Almost 75 Years Ago Today

Monday Cartoon Day.

Continuing yesterday's theme of rare Caniff school material, I am giving over todays post to a series of Noel Sickles political cartoons from 1937. In the recent Noel Sickles/Scorchy Smith book it is mentioned that he was 'taken off' the strip in late 1936 and given other assignments to fill out his Associated Press contract. Only two are reprinted in the book, but fortunately I found a paper that ran them in a large size, enabling me to show you a couple more.

Noel Sickles work on Scorchy Smith influenced scores of artists, including his studio mate Milt Caniff. As the sales of Scorchy Smith went up under his guidance, he asked for a raise of his weekly wages. He got one, but not nearly as much as he though he was owed. So he wasn't very sad when he was replaced by his own assistant Bert Christman. Sickles did political cartoons for six months, before taking a two year leave (living off his savings on Scorchy). My selection of cartoons is spotty, because of the way I have used to find them. But you have to take into account that there were no cartoon son Sunday and he was not the only cartoonist working in that period. Even though he did most of the carrtoons, I have also come across cartoons by Morris, Cargill and one very interesting one by an Ian Barrow. Still, there may be more out there from the month I am showing here, januari. Sickles work on Scorchy was influential for a lot of artists, but there is just as much to admire in his cartoons. They are in a style that is no longer in vogue (no jokes, but opinion), but the design and execution is always impressive. There are a few cartoons that have not been aged at all...

Jan 2 1937:


Jan 7 1937:


Jan 8 1937:


Jan 9 1937:


Jan 11 1937:


Jan 19 1937:


Jan 21 1937:


Jan 23 1937:


Jan 27 1937:


Jan 28 1937:


Jan 29 1937: