Above: a 1940s ad for the "Cartoon Career Master Outfit" with Cartoonists' Exchange owner David Rand smilingly poking his head up amongst all of the cool learn-to-cartoon items to buy. As you can see, there is a small tear on the lower left hand corner where a coupon was neatly taken out. Another $10 to Mr. Rand!
Here is some Cartoonists' Exchange paper ephemera from the 1940s. These are all advertising flyers and hype that the Pleasant Hill, Ohio company would mail out to prospective students describing the long-running cartoon correspondence course
I have seen the CARTOONING FOR PROFIT books for sale from time to time, but never the whole set. The headline "Each Cover In a New and Different Color" is an example of the shameless huckstering about any banal aspect of the product by David Rand.
(One of the most blatant examples is the Lesson Correction Portfolio, wherein "Rand collected students' submissions, and then, sold the drawings back to them. You just have to shake your head and admire Mr. Rand's monetization of the medium!")
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT MARKETING CARTOONS has a lot of great questions in it -- not that I have seen a copy and know what answers they give.
I do wonder who that older gentleman is in the photo.
And finally here are 2 pages of "a few extra sketches I have made up for your to show you how some of my professional cartoonists friends develop their imagination."
I have a fondness for this material and for Mr. Rand, who I think of as the lovable William Castle-type cartoon huckster.
i wish i still had the instruction booklets from way back. i was a naive kid, but really enjoyed the course, and had no contact with rand, though i knew he founded the school. i learned a lot about cartooning, but not enough, as i continued to search for further instuction from other sources. outside of a few gag cartoons, i never really made a successful career out of cartooning, but it's always fun.
ReplyDeleteI have the complete set of 34 lessons and a three part portrait painting course. All in very good condition. Circa 1944. Any interest ?
ReplyDeletejdeebookman@embarqmail.com
I had the course and got my Certificate from trhe school. It was great. I did sell some of my cartoons, but discovered artists are adime a dozen. I wish I had kept all the materials.
ReplyDeleteI took this course and had all the material. It was a lot of fun. I got my certificate from them after I'd completed all the lessons. I did sell some panel cartoons, but soon discovered artists are a dime a dozen. I wish I had kept all the wonderful materials. I'd buy the set if I could ever find it on ebay.
ReplyDeleteI had the course and got my Certificate from trhe school. It was great. I did sell some of my cartoons, but discovered artists are adime a dozen. I wish I had kept all the materials.
ReplyDelete