From a post I made back in the first year of the blog. Here we go, paging through a Saturday Evening Post from 1959. Let's
explore this world of 1950s duplicity and dullness. Below: a gag cartoon
by John Albano in which a cross, angry bald man has inappropriately placed another fellow's wife on his lap.
Below:
A good gag, although today the big boxer would sport tattoos and
piercings. You do get the immediate sense of where his is (a boxing
ring, natch!) even though the cartoonist (whose name I can't make out)
is only showing 2 of the 4 corners.
The great Chon Day
gives us this bizarre gag. Now, did the guy just walk out of the car
and happen to open the hood and walk THROUGH the grill? I like how the
background (grass, bush, mountains) are drawn in 4 lines and that's all
you need for a feeling of place. Economy, kids; Mr. Day has it!
Below:
an advertisement against Generic brands! Buy things made by large
corporations with logos and Madison Avenue ad campaigns!
Bill
Harrison's cartoons shows us the lovable dope of a husband that, to
this day, is the staple for much middle-brow humor. I think that this is
the same fellow who, in the same year as this issue of The Post, began Harrison Greetings.
Veteran
gag cartoonist Edwin Lepper gives us one of those "the moment before
chaos" cartoons. I like cartoons where you imagine what will happen in
the next couple of seconds later. It may have been more fun to draw a
couple of brawling brides, but the choice of this nanosecond before
their mutual discovery was, I think, the funniest choice. The
non-reaction from the groom is a nice touch.
Below:
Some great wash effects. Cartoonist Kirk Stiles' wash efforts reminded
me a bit of Jack Cole's brush work, and that's the best praise I got.
The gag, though, is a bit silly.
A
color ad below: This looks kinda like an anime version of a bee. It
reminded me of the character design in the BEE movie that's opening this
week which, like this 48 year old bee below, is similar and not pretty.
Below: Bob Schwartz
Schroeter gives us "blogging" 1959-style. I like how the regular guys
are all in shirt sleeves and "management" sports grey blazers. A subtle
way of reinforcing the power structure that you need to perceive
understand in this gag.
Stiles and Lepper and Schroeter are three cartoonists who have scant Web presence. I was not able to hyperlink any bio info.
Below:
One of the most boring stories I have ever read, and I have to wonder
why it saw the light of print. Dull, dull, dull. I said there was dull,
and here it is. The only silver lining: It's a good excuse for nice
illustration by Boris Drucker;
a piece of art that conveys more action and mayhem than the actual
story of these two farmers ever had ever, ever in a million, jillion
eons.
I
said there would be duplicity today (other than the gag with the 2
brides). Below: Echoes of that earlier cartoon by Chon Day! This is a
good gag by Joe Zeis, but the fact that Day's similar gag precedes it cheapens the effect.
This being the Saturday Evening Post, the last cartoon you get on the inside back page is HAZEL by Ted Key. Looks like HAZEL has lost her license (probably a DUI conviction) and now must bank via one of the kids' bikes.
Orlando Busino, cartoonist extraordinaire, wrote an email back in 2007 when I posted this, and makes these corrections to my errors:
"The boxer gag on your blog whose signature was hard to read was done by Jeff Monahan and the cartoon attributed to 'Schwartz' is really Bob Schroeter's work. Bob was cartoon editor for the King Feature's Laff-a-day panel for quite awhile. Both cartoonist have passed away."
I thank him for graciously correcting my errors! Thank you, Orlando! And happy belated birthday, sir!
Comic book writer and editor, screenwriter, science fiction writer and TV and movie writer and producer Gerry Conway passed away on April 27th, 2026. He was 73 years old.
He co-created Marvel Comics' The Punisher, Peter Parker's clone Ben Reilly, the super villain Jackal and the first Ms. Marvel. He also wrote the "Death of Gwen Stacy" Spider-Man storyline and the 1976 DC/Marvel crossover Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, which was the comics publishing event of the year. Working for DC he co-created characters like Firestorm, Power Girl, Jason Todd, Killer Croc; in addition to writing the Justice League of America for eight years.
Cover scan from Dan Greenfield's 15th Dimension Article "THE NIGHT GWEN STACY DIED: Still Shocking, Still Painful — Five Decades Later."
His contribution to comics cannot be overstated. There does not seem to be a character that he did not work on. I read his Spider-Man run when I was a kid. It was "my" Spider-Man.
More:
Marvel: Remembering Gerry Conway, 1952-2026
Seen but not bought: a Yankee Doodles lunchbox from the 1970s. What is Yankee Doodles?! I just found out it was a bicentennial themed syndicated comic strip that ran for a couple of years. It poked fun at the founding fathers. As Allan Holtz writes: “Given that Americans aren't all that keen on ridiculing the founding fathers, the gags could often veer from tepid to mildly offensive. It was a tight-rope walk that I certainly wouldn't wish on a cartoonist.”
Related:
Ger Apeldoorn has more strips here.
Star Trek had a two-year run as an animated network series from 1973 to 1975. One of the episodes, Yesteryear, dealt with an alternative future without Mr. Spock. Scott Barrett, who watched the show as a kid and is now in the gaming industry, has been using CGI to reimagine the episode as live-action. Here's a detailed account of his efforts.
Some pics of this lovely 2004 Eric Carle Museum exhibition booklet “From the Silver Age to Stalin: Russian Children’s Book Illustration in the Sasha Lurye Collection.” I didn't actually go to the exhibit, but I DID see this and bought it an an antique shop in Amherst, NH. I know little about Russian illustration, but I sure liked the look of these great works.
Some garden and yard photos. Putting in some alfalfa meal, bone meal, kelp meal and garden lime to refresh the raised beds. (Take a 2 gallon bucket add in 8c alfalfa meal, 1/4c garden lime, 1/2c seaweed or kelp meal and 1/2 cup bone meal. Place about a half cup for every square foot. You can work it in a little with your hands.) There will also be a couple of buried metal colanders with fresh compost in each bed all summer long. It was 29 degrees last night so too early to plant. The trillium and periwinkle don’t care since they are happily blooming away.
The view from the studio window:
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