BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 Part 2

Here are some more page scans from THE BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945, edited and copyright 1945 by Lawrence Lariar, Crown Publishers, New York.

THE BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 part one is here.


Here are a few early cartoons by fresh-outta-the-Navy, pre-DENNIS THE MENACE cartoonist Hank Ketcham, with a little bit of a fatter line, but nonetheless controlled and beautiful to linger over. Just look at those piles of hankies, above, with that slight, soft wave in the form.




The above wordless cartoon took me a minute. I kept looking at the kid's giant eyes and not the hat. I think this is a proto-HALF-HITCH.




The happy, simple look on the dog kicks the humor up in this one.
The thing I like about this BEST CARTOONS book are the biols and the self-portraits of the cartoonists. Frank Beavan looks like he's hiding on the other side of a large piece of celery.



And who knew that the cartoons of this time signed "Corka" were husband and wife John Cornin & Zena Kavin! I didn't until I read this. So now we all know that before Stan & Jan (Berenstain) there was John & Zena!


Above and below is Reamer Keller, who would, later on, retire to the Jersey shore. I love the way the cartoonists take shots at each other in their bios. I love Reamer's lines, so relaxed.



Above and below are two of the four Roth cartoon-drawing brothers.



Eric Ericson mentions Greg d'Alessio, who was married to Hilda Terry.


More anon.

Links to all BEST CARTOONS 1945 threads:

BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 part one
BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 part two
BEST CARTOONS OF THE YEAR 1945 part three