MAN THE BEAST by Virgil VIP Partch Part 3

Here's the last installment of cartoons from MAN THE BEAST. It's copyright 1951, 1953 by Virgil Franklin Partch, II, "the funniest cartoonist in the world."

This is Part 3.

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

MAN THE BEAST by Virgil VIP Partch Part 2

Here are some cartoons from MAN THE BEAST. It's copyright 1951, 1953 by Virgil Franklin Partch, II, "the funniest cartoonist in the world."

This is Part 2. Part 1 is here.



There is an apocryphal story that Virgil VIP Partch never got into The New Yorker magazine.

"It's because how his characters looked. He drew nostrils on his people," I was told, more than once, by a cartoonist colleague."The New Yorker didn't like it."

It's not true. I mean it's true that VIP did draw nostrils -- but he DID get into The New Yorker more than once. (According to Michael Maslin's great NYer Cartoonists A-Z list, six cartoons of Partch's appeared between 1942 and 1976.)

And does everyone know about Virgil Partch drawing six fingers?

Cartoonist Ed Nofziger said of his friend:

"As a 'Disney man,' Partch was required to follow such strict edicts as, for example, drawing four fingers on Mickey Mouse to make it easier for animating. So VIP went the other way and drew six to eight fingers on his cartoons. It was sort of teasing (the Disney style) in a way." -- LA Times

More Partch to come ...

MAN THE BEAST by Virgil VIP Partch Part One

This fall, specifically the 17th of October, will be the 102nd birthday of cartoonist Virgil "VIP" Partch. Let's celebrate early and look in on some rare photos and cartoons:

Here's a 1953 Dell paperback, reprinting two books in one: MAN THE BEAST AND THE WILD, WILD WOMEN by Virgil VIP Partch. It's copyright 1951, 1953 by Virgil Franklin Partch, II, "the funniest cartoonist in the world."

Dell marketing department hyperbole may have not exaggerated. It's over a half century later, and lovers of Partch are all over the place.

Partch, like other beloved cartoonists Booth and Addams (to name just two), created a whole comic world of blue collar bars, desperate passion-driven cavemen, absurd visual puns, scheming libidinous suitors, and a good helping of guys-crawling-in-the-desert and desert island gags.

This is a thick paperback of his 1950s gag cartoons. It looks to be published from his actual cartoons with NO typeset caption, just his hand-written gag line. My guess is that these are all cartoons that TRUE Magazine (and his other major markets) did not buy.

These scans are from MAN THE BEAST:

-- From an April 13, 2012 blog entry.