From the Dick Buchanan Files: Color Gag Cartoons 1946 - 58

Some rare, vintage color magazine cartoons from the Greenwich Village single panel collection of Dick Buchanan's. Thank you very much for sharing these rarities, and take it away, Dick:

---



COLOR CARTOONS
(1946 – 1958)

Although comic strips were published in color from the beginning, gag panel cartoons did not follow suit. Cartoons were an important feature of magazine covers such as Puck, Judge, Life and The New Yorker. But interior gag panel cartoons did not appear in color until the early 1930’s when Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post began publishing them occasionally. The New Yorker eschewed the interior color cartoon, with editor Harold Ross famously exclaiming “What’s so funny about red?” Whether or not red is a funny color is debatable, right along with other discussions about what is the funniest number, the funniest fruit or the funniest animal. Be that as it may, here is a collection of 20th Century gag cartoons in color. One is in colour.


As always, these are examples of some fine work by the best cartoonists from the “Golden Age of Gag Cartooning.”

1. ELDON DEDINI. Esquire July, 1955.

2. CHON DAY. Collier’s August 2, 1952.

3. DAVE GERARD. Collier’s July 8, 1950.

4. KATE OSANN. Collier’s August 2, 1952.

5. REAMER KELLER. American Magazine circa 1950’s.

6. BOB BARNES. Collier’s August 9, 1952.

7. RODNEY deSARRO. The Saturday Evening Post January 11, 1947.

8. JERRY MARCUS. The Saturday Evening Post April 27, 1957.

9. GARRETT PRICE. Collier’s August 2, 1952.

10. MARTIN GIUFFRE. American Magazine July, 1953.

11. STAN FINE. Collier’s March 28, 1953.

12. STAN and JANICE BERENSTAIN. Collier’s January 17, 1953.

13. WILLIAM von RIEGEN. Collier’s December 16, 1950.

14. MICHAEL BERRY. Esquire May, 1946.

15. RUSSELL BROCKBANK. Punch Almanac 1959. Punch November 3, 1958.