Roy Delgado shares some memories of the Billy Hon School, Billy Hon's Cartoonist's Magazine, as well as The Cartoonists' Market Letter, which was edited by a trade journal cartoonist named Lew Card.The above is detail from an ad in The America Cartoonist, a trade journal of the 1950s and 60s. I love Roy's descriptions of some of the ads. Here's one:
CARTOONISTS - Get in on the ground floor of new markets as they open up by getting the dope while it's HOT. " CARTOONISTS' WEEKLY MARKET LETTER " supplies you with the latest market info as well as news and inter-studio chit-chat of just about everybody in the freelance gag-cartoon business. FREE sample copy. CARTOONISTS' WEEKLY MARKET LETTER, La Habra, Calif.
I posted some samples from a 1951 issue of The American Cartoonist magazine in January, thanks to Bob Weber, Sr.
Bob, where would Roy and I be without you cleaning out your house?!
Does the Billy Hon Cartoon School still exist?
ReplyDeleteHi Nick - Quick answer, NO.
ReplyDeleteunfortunately, by the time I got there in 1953, it was the first year that because of declining attendance, the school had to change into only a night time school type of operation and it was Mon., Wed., and Fri. nights from 7:00 to 10:00 pm. only. Billy was a real old-timer and was a drinking buddy and roomate of Bud Fisher, creator of Mutt & Jeff.( Since they were both syndicated by Hearst's King Features and both worked for Hearst's San Francisco Examiiner, they became close drinking buddies ) . The school lasted only a few more years and finally went out of business.
I just inherited A Bill Hon caricature from a Los Angeles Leaders publication ca. the early 1920s. It's my great grandfather's cousin, the real and first President of Bank of America Los Angeles. It'd been boxed away since his death in 1936.
ReplyDelete