From the Dick Buchanan Files: Entertaining Company 1940 - 1966

It's Friday night, the beginning of a weekend. After the time change on Sunday, it's going to gets ark up here by 4:30pm or so. It'll feel like winter time. We'll be inside more and people will be bundling up and having pot-lucks. Friends will warm themselves in front of the fire. What could go wrong? Well, these masters of gag cartooning have the answer!

Dick Buchanan has shared a small portion of his immense cartoon clip file with us. As ever, I am thankful and so enjoy it when he shares his treasures with us. Thanks once more, and take it away, Dick! 

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ENTERTAINING COMPANY
  (1940 – 1966)
 

From time to time a couple will invite their friends over for the evening.  Sometimes they’re neighborhood friends, maybe college friends, work friends or best friends. Some “friends” drop by unannounced.  It’s a topic  exploited every which way by gag cartoonists since gag cartooning began. It stands to reason the Cartoon Clip File is chock full of gag cartoons dealing with this subject, so we choose a few to tell the complete story of “entertaining company” as illustrated by the leading cartoonists of the mid-20th century . . .


1.  IRWIN CAPLAN.  The Saturday Evening Post  January 15, 1949.

 

2.  WALTER GOLDSTEIN.  The Saturday Evening Post  February 24, 1951.

 

3.  GEORGE WOLFE.  Here!  November, 1951.

 

4.  TOM HENDERSON.  The Saturday Evening Post  May 8, 1948.

 

5.  FRANK O’NEAL.  The Saturday Evening Post  December 11, 1954.

 

6.  STAN HUNT.  The Saturday Evening Post  June 14, 1947.

 

7.  BEN ROTH.  Collier’s  August 7, 1953.

 

8.  DICK CAVALLI.  The Saturday Evening Post  November 22, 1951.

 

9.  IRWIN CAPLAN.  Collier’s  March 31, 1951.

 

10.  JEFF KEATE.  Collier’s  March 29, 1952.

 

11.  JOHN ALBANO.  The Saturday Evening Post  April  18, 1959.

 

12.  AL ROSS.  1000 Jokes Magazine  March – May, 1966.

 

13.  BOB BARNES.  The Saturday Evening Post  January 26, 1957.

 

14.  WALTER GOLDSTEIN.  The Saturday Evening Post.  March 27, 1954.

 

15.  DON TOBIN.  Collier’s  September 14, 1946.

 

16.  JERRY MARCUS.  The Saturday Evening Post  January 10, 1953.

 

17.  WILLIAM STEIG.  Collier’s  December 4, 1940.

 

18.  CHARLES SKILES.  American Magazine  April, 1952.

 

19.  SYDNEY HOFF.  Collier’s  October 13, 1951.

 

20.  BILL RUBLE.  The Saturday Evening Post  September 26, 1953.

 

-- Edited from an April 21, 2021 blog entry.

Sketchbook: Some Fake Businesspeople

I get a lot of spam from these fake people who work for fake financial companies and fake software companies so, well, what can I do? I have drawn up imagined versions of a few of them here, and some of their email businessese verbiage that are in their emails. Here are Heather Johns, Frank Jones, Trisha Williams and Nikki Cornelius, all drawn as I think they might look. 

The above I drew while waiting for my car last week. Here are another four (Ryan Mitchell, Desiree Thurman, William Campbell, Chelsea Principal) just for fun. I drew all of these, except for William Campbell, out of imagination. William Campbell played a Klingon captain in the original "Trouble With Tribbles Star Trek episode so I just found an old head shot of his and drew it.

This was the next to last page in the sketchbook. On the last page I wrote a short speech I gave at an NCS event -- so that makes one more sketchbook all filled up.

Through the Square Window: British Comics and TV

Some great historical information here, along with some terrific art. 

"In May 2026, Samira Ahmed and Graham Kibble-White from the podcast Through the Square Window visited Rebellion Publishing in Oxford to explore the relationship between British comics and television. Here are the video highlights of their day, delving through Rebellion's archive, and laying their hands on original artwork from the children's weekly, Look-in."

Art Spiegelman Defends His Use of AI: "I was lazy"

 

The above quote is from Publisher's Weekly: Art Spiegelman Revisits His Most Controversial Comic 25 Years Later.

Art Spiegelman is a famous cartoonist, but, honestly, "I was lazy" is not an excuse for using AI to generate an image for a fancy reissue of your book. Come on. Take a nap. Recharge. Come back to it and actually draw it, like everything else you have done of value, Mr. Spiegelman. Does he not understand that AI was built on theft and grifting of images by corporations? Or does he not care?

This is so sad to see.

Grand: The Autobiography of Gromit 📙 On set with Nick Park and Wallace & Gromit

 

If you loved A Grand Day Out or The Wrong Trousers, then this new book about the dog Gromit (of Wallace and Gromit, natch!) will be of great interest. Nick Park, creator of the duo, hosts this behind the scenes look at the forthcoming autobiography Grand: The Autobiography of Gromit, available in the US as of October 27th. 

"Grand is available in the US from the 27th Oct! Gromit finally breaks his silence, publishing his memoir as told to Nick Park, the four-time Oscar® winner and creator of Wallace & Gromit.

"In his first ever book, Gromit presents his never-before-told life story. Famously the world's most intelligent, well-read but also mute dog, the book is the first time the world will have heard directly from Gromit himself. Readers will learn what it's like to wear Techno Trousers, his true feelings about gnomes, and what the moon tastes like.

"Told with utmost candour, Grand promises a fresh perspective on the much-loved adventures of Wallace & Gromit, along with a brand-new escapade. Gromit’s been bottling everything up for a long time. And the time has come to spill the beans...

"🎞️ Watch more Wallace & Gromit videos: https://aard.mn/2U9elvn

"🧀 Subscribe to the Wallace & Gromit channel: https://aard.mn/WAG"

 

Part 6: 1935 HENRY Comic Strips by Carl Anderson

Some more Henry comic strips by Carl Anderson from its first couple of months. These are from the end of February 1935. 

Previous parts: 

Part 1 

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

It's often that black children are drawn as playmates of Henry's in these strips. They are not drawn in a politically correct manner, natch, but it should be noted that Henry may be the first integrated syndicated comic on the newspaper page. The kids are very much part of the same neighborhood with the whites. My thanks to James Conder for pointing out the Hogan's Alley article Henry: Not Black Like Me by William H. Foster which dives into this.

 

 

PRIVATE BUCK by Clyde Lewis

PRIVATE BUCK was a King Features panel created by Clyde Lewis. Mr. Lewis (1911 - 1976) drew a number of strips at NEA (including a strip about kids called HERKY and a gag panel feature called HOLD EVERYTHING), and then jumped to King Features in May 1940 with a panel titled SNICKEROOS. Amongst the many characters, like a hobo and a couple of old maids, was a little guy who one day joined the army. The panel was retitled after this fellow and PRIVATE BUCK was born. When WWII started, Lewis enlisted, and the feature was seen in Stars and Stripes. Clyde Lewis was in good cartoonist company, appearing in the paper with Dave Breger, Bill Mauldin and George Baker. 

After the war, Buck joined civilian life. The panel was renamed THE PRIVATE LIFE OF BUCK. It would continue until 1952. 

The gags are your basic innocent fellow misunderstanding the military world and getting into scrapes. Here are a few gags from the PRIVATE BUCK book, copyright 1942-43 by King Features.

More about Buck at the King Features "Ask the Archivist" blog. 

My thanks to Jeanette Stout for this book!

 

-- Edited from a December 21, 2017 blog entry.