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.

The Ambar Scrapbook of Obesity Oddities Fact & Legend

 

Ambar was a diet drug pill used to "control food and mood all day long with a single morning dose." It was a combo of Phenobarbital and Methamphetamine. Yes, in the mid-twentieth century an upper/downer combo pill was thought to be a smart moneymaker. It was made by the A.H. Robins Company beginning in the mid-1950s. They were made for the next decade plus, and now are no longer made.

 

Here are three of their "Ambar Scrapbook of Obesity Oddities" mail advertisements. These are all inspired by the popular look of Ripley's Believe It or Not syndicated panel. They are letter-size, printed on heavy card stock. The artist is unnamed, but he or she or they were spot-on in imitating the look of the Ripley comics. 

I found these at a large estate sale in New Hampshire.

The Garden As of Mid-October

 

The garden (such as it is) as of mid-October. There was frost on the ground last night but we haven’t had that hard frost yet. The runner beans are spent, but the bushes themselves are still green and lush. It’s always sad when the garden ends, but I just got a couple dozen crocus and daffodil bulbs thanks to a contribution to our local library’s fundraiser. Digging some holes in the yard so there will be some beautiful blooms in the spring will keep things from being too sad. #gardening

 

DMZ America Podcast with Ted Rall and Scott Stantis: The Last Attempt to Monetize Cartooning

Via the DMZ America Podcast:

"Political cartoonists Ted Rall (from the Left) and Scott Stantis (Right) discuss news, politics, current events and culture without the screaming or the shouting...because they're best friends.

"Nick Anderson, a Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist, joins Ted Rall and Scott Stantis on DMZ America. He traces his path from the Louisville Courier Journal and Houston Chronicle to CounterPoint, a newsletter backed by Vivek Garapalli after 2017–18 newsroom layoffs. Paying cartoonists for original work failed once free growth gave way to a paid model; a related syndicate closed, and CounterPoint survived only by going left-leaning and paying syndication rates. They blast Baltimore Sun AI cartoons as wordy, boosterish editor prompts, and worry pros may use AI because reprint fees have collapsed. Polarization, Trump, tariffs, executive power, ICE, and the death penalty lead into why papers and sites drop cartoons despite traffic. The core problem is free social-media copying. Anderson sees partisan freelance work, galleries, Substack, and class actions as partial fixes, and is weighing cheaper countries over U.S. healthcare costs."

 Why the splash is of an AI image, I don't know why. Irony? I dunno.

Midcentury Modern Illustration: 1974 Golden Round-the-World Calendar by Dan Lawler

 

I was at an estate sale on the border of Maine and New Hampshire this weekend. That's where I walked into a large shed and picked up a few what they call "paper ephemera" items, including the 1974 Golden Round-the-World Calendar "with Language Fun and Travel Facts." What a grand piece of Midcentury Modern art. It wasn't until I bought it and took it home that I saw the credit that it was illustrated by Dan Lawler. It's rare that an illustrator gets credit for something like this, so that was an unexpectedly welcome thing to see.

Dan Lawler (1918 - 2018) was best known as the creator and artist for hundreds of covers for Humpty Dumpty magazine, as well as Parents Magazine and cartoons for Reader's Digest. He designed the iconic clock above the NYC FAO Schwartz Toy Store entrance. He passed away in 2018 at the age of 100, survived by his four children and eleven grandkids.

"Dan was a scholarship graduate of the Minneapolis School of Art. He won a fellowship to study in New York City with a master portraitist. His studies were interrupted by World War II where he was deployed with the Army to the European Theater. He landed on Utah Beach on D-Day and fought in the Normandy campaign as a recon platoon sergeant. While on a scouting mission, months after D-Day, his whole patrol was ambushed, and Dan was wounded and taken prisoner. He survived a prisoner of war column heading east towards Germany. His German captors, whom Dan later praised for their mercy, deposited Dan and other wounded soldiers in the town of Tournai, Belgium, where the townspeople treated their wounds and provided shelter for them.

"Dan was later transferred to the VA hospital at Battle Creek, Michigan. His young wife Jeanne joined him there and they were inseparable ever afterwards. Dan and Jeanne were long-time residents of Centerport, L.I., N.Y. They celebrated their 50th anniversary there in 1993. Jeanne died of Parkinson’s disease at Chandler Hall in Newtown in 2003.

"Dan was a long-time artist for Parents Magazine in New York City. He loved art and he loved the Great City. Dan had great charm, imagination, and skill. There was little that he could not create to entertain his beloved wife, children, relatives, grandchildren, and friends, from personalized, humorous anniversary cards every June 18th to rope swings and rocking horses for the children."

-- Joseph A. Fluehr III Funeral Home Inc. obituary

 

 More:

Childs Gallery profile

John K Stuff blog: Humpty Dumpty Magazine - Dan Lawler Illustrations