From the Dick Buchanan Files: Vintage Summer Gag Cartoons 1947 - 1964

I am away from my studio. In my stead, Dick Buchanan has compiled this grand collection of summer gag cartoons about the heat, ice cream, lawn mowing, boating, gardening and other summery events for your pleasure. Thanks and take it away, Dick!

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VINTAGE SUMMER
Gag Cartoons 1947 - 1964


Cool off this summer with a look at summer’s past as illustrated by the cartoonists who witnessed it all from their drawing boards . . .


1. BO BROWN. American Magazine July, 1955.

2. BRAD ANDERSON. Collier’s July 20, 1953.

3. GREGORY d’ALLESSIO. Collier’s September 6, 1947.

 
4. ROBERT DAY. The Saturday Evening Post October 10, 1953.

 
5. CHON DAY. True Magazine July, 1954.

 

6. BOB BARNES. American Legion Magazine August, 1953.

7. WALTER GOLDSTEIN. The Saturday Evening Post June 11, 1955.

8. MORT WALKER. The Saturday Evening Post June 11, 1949.

 

 

9. SIDNEY HARRIS. True Magazine August, 1964.

 

 

10. ROBERT WEBER. Look Magazine September 8, 1964.

 
11. CLYDE LAMB. The Saturday Evening Post July 1, 1950.

12. PETER VATSURES. The Saturday Evening Post April 17, 1954.

 

13. BILL RUBLE. The Saturday Evening Post July 15, 1950.

 

14. DAVE LUCAS American Magazine July, 1950.

 

15. CHARLES STRAUS. The Saturday Evening Post July 10, 1948.

 

16. DANA FRADON. Collier’s August 19, 1955.

 

17. ROBERT KRAUS. This Week Magazine April 27, 1947.

 

18. WESLEY THOMPSON. 1000 Jokes magazine August - October, 1954.

 

19. JOHN GALLAGHER. True Magazine May, 1955.

 

20. BEN THOMPSON. American Legion Magazine July, 1955.

 -- Edited from a July 19, 2022 blog entry.

ART: The Boy Scouts of America Merit Badge Series of Booklets

From 1968, here's the ART booklet, in its entirety. It's one of The Boy Scouts of America Merit Badge Series of Booklets, designed to, of course, assist the young Scouts' earn their Badge. Above is the cover. Hey, we used to have a whole set of those Collier's encyclopedias in our house too!

This is a handy guide, full of information, and boy oh boy, did it make me angry!

Now, looky there. It was reprinted in 1998. Hoo boy. Why did they keep that 1968 boy on the cover? That kid would have been pushing 40 by the time this was reprinted. Also: no mention of the mere existence of the Web, the Internet, that series of tubes or whatever, y'know? Even by 1998, that's a pretty big omission. (The BSA site, according to the Wayback Machine, would not even be in existence until 2000.)

Oh, and there's a typo on the page above, left hand side. Hoo boy.

This is where I started to get just a wee bit steamed. This 2 page spread which opens the official BSA ART pamphlet asks "What Is Art?"

Two pages devoted to defining what this book is about.

And the answer is ...


Even though "the question has occupied the thoughts of philosophers ever since man began to think" the Scouts "will not give an answer in this pamphlet." OK, that's a cop out.

And here's a comic strip drawn by ... well, we don't know WHO drew it. Having your art published without a credit is a "clear story of frustration and disappointment," isn't it? Maybe there will be a credit at the end of this publication. Crossing fingers and toes ....

Scouts revere Rockwell. He may have been one of "America's greatest artists" (we cannot say for sure since there is no answer to "what is art?"), but it should be pointed out that he was foremost a commercial artist who painted that nice scoutmaster for money. The above painting was used for a scoutmaster handbook cover for years.

There is good advice here: show your story, don't tell it.

The uncredited drawing of that chiaroscuro scout and the black blob that's supposed to be a tent disturbs me.

OK, I'll try not to interrupt. 

Can anyone make out the signature above? I'm lost.

Above: even more Rockwell.

Above right: some great spot illustrations.

And this is what REALLY peeves me: no credit at all for the cartoon strip, the spot illustrations or anything other than the photos. The photos get credit in the book about art -- but the artists (except Rockwell) get no recognition.

-- This has been an edited entry of an original blog thingy that appeared way back on September 1, 2011.

 

EDIT: Thanks to Smurfswacker for IDing one of the artists: "The Indian drawing is by Tom Scheuer. He's the ex-comic book and advertising artist who as Tom Sawyer became a big time TV writer and producer (most notably 'Murder, She Wrote')."

Patria by Keith Boynton

The above is from Sandra Boynton's Instagram page today. She adds:

"My son Keith wrote this powerful sad strangely inspiring poem this morning, and it completely upended me." #IndependenceDay

JIm Shooter 1951 - 2025

 

 

Comic book writer, editor and publisher Jim Shooter passed away on June 30th. He was 73 years old. The cause was esophageal cancer.

 

Via DailyCartoonist:

Jim Shooter is mostly famous in comic book circles for writing the Superboy and The Legion of Super-Heroes series as a teenager and creating the best-selling Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars. And as the Marvel Editor-in-Chief who, in the late 1970s, got Marvel Comics back on track by insisting things be done his way.

Jim Shooter’s career is detailed in number of obituaries by comic books sites such as Comic Book Resources, and Comics Beat and non-comic sources like Forbes and Wikipedia, with more to come.

 

Comics Journal has more links here. 

 

The Garden As of July 1st, 2025

The garden as of July 1st. Everything (tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and zinnias) is in and doing well so far. The humid, jungle heat days have made for happy plants. And the hogwire fence has kept out the deer. There’s still a dozen perennials to be planted. More pics on or about July 15th.