Thank You!

A brief thank you to the wonderful people who, last month, clicked on the PayPal button to donate upon the occasion of this blog's 16th anniversary. I am grateful for the terrific outpouring and the kind comments as well. Not just grateful. Bowled over. You guys are amazing. 

I've written 7,127 blog entries about the art and business of cartooning since 2006.

 

Whether you're a professional cartoonist, on his/her/their way to becoming a pro, or just a big fan of cartooning -- your visits over the years have kept this a vibrant place.

If I've made an impact and you would like to contribute, here's a PayPal button. I appreciate! And see you tomorrow for blog entry 7,128 and beyond.

Marriage Cartoons from YOU'VE GOT ME -- AND HOW! Edited by Lawrence Lariar Part Three

 Above: a 1955 cartoon by Jeff Keate; relevant then, relevant now.

Part three of a selection of gag cartoons from the book titled YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW! , edited by Lawrence Lariar and published by Dodd, Mead and Company. It's copyright 1955 by Mr. Lariar.


Salo was one of the four Roth brothers who drew gag cartoons.


Argumentative spouses became Bob Barnes' bread and butter. A year after this book was published, he began his run 16 year run on the syndicated newspaper panel THE BETTER HALF. In 1958, he received an NCS Division Award for the feature.


Norman Hoifjeld gives me a laugh due to the goofy smiles the husband and wife exhibit. Scan biographical information about Mr. Hoifjeld exists. I know he did magazine gag cartoons in the 50s and 60s, with his work appearing in Baseball Digest and some of the Charlton magazines.

Did Goldstein knowingly or unwittingly draw the wife to look like she's wearing one of those striped shirts like a football referee?



It's the composition -- the fact that are eyes are drawn to the little wiggle lines by the exposed toes -- that Bill Harrison's cartoon works.


Here is Al Ross, another one of those four Roth brothers. He changed his last name from Roth to Ross. Al would develop an even sketchier style as the decades progressed. Oh, and here's a link to Arlen Roth's blog, with a photo of Al from December 2009. Arlen is Al's son.



I like how better dressed everyone was back then. Jim Whiting even makes sure there's a sharp crease in the male guest's slacks.



John Norment (1911-88) was a very busy fellow: a correspondent and photographer during the war, he would later, working for the Sundbloom Studio in Chicago, photograph all of the Coca Cola Santa Clauses. In addition to massive freelance work, John was an editor for Dell Publications. He won the National Cartoonists Society's Silver T-Square for editing The Cartoonist NCS journal. And there's a lot more I'm leaving out. He has a very good Web site devoted to his paintings, as well as an extensive bio. There is even a Zazzle store, managed by his niece, where you can buy one of his designs on a mouse pad.

More Barnes, more marital dischord for laffs.




Jack Markow had such a vervy line style.


Wilkinson reminds us of a time when a monkey named J. Fred Muggs was cohosting The Today Show.


George Wolfe shows the woman behind the man, egging him on, out of the house and upwards and onward.




Reamer Keller is one of my favorite cartoonists. Even for this simple layout, he gives us a bird's eye point of view, which gives a fresh dynamic to the composition.

I liked this cartoon by Mr. Boime, whose work I had not seen before. So far as I can make out, this may be Albert Boime (1933-2008), who dabbled in cartooning when he was in the army, and went on to get get his Master's from Columbia. He became a prominent art historian, leaving, so far as I can tell, the cartooning world behind. All this is according to the Dictionary of Art Historians.

Marriage Cartoons from YOU'VE GOT ME -- AND HOW! Edited by Lawrence Lariar Part Two

 

Part two of a selection of gag cartoons from the book titled YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW! , edited by Lawrence Lariar and published by Dodd, Mead and Company. It's copyright 1955 by Mr. Lariar.

Marriage Cartoons from YOU'VE GOT ME -- AND HOW! Edited by Lawrence Lariar Part One

 
Here is part one of a selection of gag cartoons titled YOU'VE GOT ME – AND HOW! , edited by Lawrence Lariar and published by Dodd, Mead and Company. It's copyright 1955 by Mr. Lariar.


Virgil VIP Partch with the casual pain associated with marriage.



Some of these, like Currier's above, are simple sitcom put-downs. Mean and none too clever.


I saw Harrison's gag coming ...


Bo Brown with some excellent wavy linework.


From active to passive. Martin Giuffre reminds us that there was a time when people went out into the world, to their club, dressed in silly attire. Now we all stay in and watch a rerun of Jackie Gleason doing the above.


I like Al Kaufman's gags a lot.


George Wolfe with the old trope of the clueless woman driver.



Tom Zib concedes marriage is a battlefield.




Pete Wyma, known for his girly cartoons, contributes a mother-in-law joke.



I like Henry Boltinoff's explanation here -- but it's still no way to treat a lady.

I like the moment that Clyde Lamb chose to depict: the moment just after the violent ripping of the paper from hubby's hands.


Bernhardt has a long gag line with a sweet putdown at the end that makes sense of the bitter marriage conceit that is the book's hallmark.


Cartoons signed "Corka" were the husband and wife team of John Cornin & Zena Kavin. More here.


Dam McCormick's cartoon did make me laugh.


I like that Burr Shafer chose to let the reader imagine the off-screen struggle between husband and wife.

Video: Convention Tabling Practices:

If you have questions about how to make money selling your comics at conventions, here's the recording of a live chat from March 22, 2022 that helps. 

Cartoonist Chris Schweizer writes:

"Tuesday at 9pm eastern/8 central/7 mtn/6 pacific, I'll be joining Cara McGee (Over the Garden Wall, Black Canary) and David Petersen (Mouse Guard) for a free online panel about how we table at conventions: how we determine which shows to do, how much to take and how to display it, how to price what we're selling/doing, how we present ourselves, how we manage our sales, and more.

"If you are new to tabling at conventions (or are thinking about it), or if you're an old pro who's keen to hear how your peers approach something we all do, I hope you'll join us. We'll be taking questions throughout."

August 4, 1907 Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend by Winsor McCay

 

Here's a panel-by-panel look at a 1907 Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend strip by the one and only Winsor McCay. A major innovator in the the early days of animation, this nightmarish comic reads like a storyboard from a horror movie. John Canemaker, who wrote Winsor McCay: His Life and Art,  calls this one of his most disturbing Dreams strips.