Bob Scott's Bear With Me New Comic Strip Collection from Hermès Press

 

The history of talking animals in comic strips goes way back to the first comic, The Yellow Kid by Richard Outcault. In this first newspaper comic strip to put all of the graphic narrative elements together (sequential art, word balloons and the like), it's revealed that the then-new phonograph has a chatty parrot inside. 

Comic strips that went on to feature talking animals were constant: Buster Brown, Pogo, Peanuts, Animal Crackers, Shoe, Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, Pooch Cafe -- to name a few. 

Bear With Me by Bob Scott, a syndicated webcomic since 2010, continues that tradition. This winter, there will be a new book from Hermès Press collecting the comic strip. (Garfield creator Jim Davis writes the foreword.)

 

Who's Bob Scott? 

Bob Scott lives in both the world of comic strips and animation. Born in Detroit, Bob began drawing at a young age, copying what he saw in the funny pages. Acceptance and graduation from California Institute of the Arts opened the world of character animation for Bob. He has worked over 35 years in the industry as an animator, character designer, storyboard artist and voice talent. His credits can be found on projects from Warner Brothers’ Bugs Bunny in Box Office Bunny (1990), Turner Animation’s Cats Don’t Dance and Pixar’s The Incredibles. He has worked for Jim Davis, co-penciling U.S. Acres and co-directing Garfield: His 9 Lives. Bob has always wanted a comic strip of his own, and so Bear with Me (aka Molly and the Bear) was born and became a syndicated webcomic in 2010.

What's Bear With Me?

Molly has real-world problems; Bear has problems with the real world! It can be tough being a tween. You want to do big things, change the world, and right some wrongs. But you also have to deal with math homework, getting enough sleep and the drama between your dad and pet bear. This is Molly’s world.

Being a tween is so much easier when your BFF is an 800 pound bear.

Bear is no ordinary bear. He sheds like a normal bear, he snores like a normal bear, but he is afraid of absolutely everything. Plus, he is allergic to fur. His own. But with Molly holding his paw, he can muddle through.

 

The deluxe hardcover is scheduled for release this month. Preorder here.

South African Cartoonist Bethuel Mangena Wins Third International Cartoon Contest Award

 

 

African News Agency cartoonist Bethuel Mangena wins ’Human Rights Prize’ at the Third Cartoon Contest. 

 

Via SABC News:

"A South African has recently become the only artist from the continent to win an award at the third International Cartoon Contest. The artistic and satirical work of Bethuel Mangena, a cartoonist at the African News Agency was compared to over 8,000 other submissions from 120 countries across the world."

 

EVER SINCE ADAM AND EVE Part 3

Here we go again with a selection of great cartoons from EVER SINCE ADAM AND EVE, a book dedicated to the National Cartoonists Society by its editors Alfred Andriola and Mel Casson. It's copyright 1955 by them too.

EVER SINCE ADAM AND EVE part one is here.

EVER SINCE ADAM AND EVE part two is here.

"Enjoy yourself while you can, Bertram — I won't live forever!"

Some heavy hitter cartoonists contribute their take on the ongoing battle of the sexes. Al Capp "one of the few cartoonists who is as famous as his creation Li'l Abner," gives us a one-panel gag wherein hubby Bertram is not going to get away with an intimate moment with a devil girl.




Gregory D'Alessio, husband to fellow cartoonist Hilda Terry, draws his wife in this series of wonderfully observed sketches; braiding and washing her hair, drinking coffee, sketching, inking, sewing — ending bottom right with a final drawing of himself, reading the paper.


Otto Soglow is one of the founding fathers of the NCS, and a New Yorker regular as well as a successful syndicated cartoonist. Above is a risque gag with his Little King character, which was syndicated by King Features (no pun intended) from 1934 until Mr. Soglow's death in 1975.


Harry Hanan drew the comic strip Louie from 1947 to 1976. Like The Little King, the character of Louie did not speak.

Allan Holtz at his Stripper's Guide blog gives us a 1952 feature article from Editor and Publisher on Harry Hanan.

Ger Apeldoorn at his All Things Ger blog gives us a series of entries about Louie, with some great insight by Ger.





Above: the one and only Noel Sickles, who has a wonderful hardcover collection of his Scorchy Smith strip, contributes this ink & wash gag.



Rube Goldberg, the man who founded the NCS, is the only cartoonist whose name is in the Webster's New World Dictionary as something other than himself:

"Your mural dresses up the barracks, Killer — but where are the light switches?"

Above: Mort Walker shows us a little more than he can in his strip. Ger Apeldoorn has a great selection of Walker's gag panels. 

Bill Janocha, Longtime Walker assistant, pens the forthcoming Birth of a Beetle: The Magazine Cartoons of Mort Walker, coming from Hermes Press.




The one and only Hirschfeld, the Line King, draws some dubious goings on under the dress. Here's a link to the NY Times Hirschfeld Archive.



"I left when he wanted to show me how his outfit in Korea captured Hill No. 234 and Hill No. 235."

Alex Raymond shows us why men go to art school: to draw pretty girls!




Nebraska-born Russell Patterson, who studied under the artist Monet, designed the original (and still in use) logo for the National Cartoonists Society (below):






Frank King draws Skeezix and Nina in separate beds, having a marital tiff. It looks like Skeezix is wearing a Where's Waldo? shirt.



And finally, here is a two-pager by Milton Caniff. From the book:

"Milton Caniff, superb adventure-strip artist, created a vogue as seen in Steve Canyon. Here he satirizes his own style in which the hero, even in villain's disguise, must triumph."

EVER SINCE ADAM AND EVE Part 2

 Above: Alfred Andriola and Mel Casson collaborate on this pair of not-so-innocent cherubs for the frontispiece.

Here are a series of cartoons from the hardcover collection EVER SINCE ADAM AND EVE. This is all just so much great stuff in this book, I'm scanning way too much of it.

EVER SINCE ADAM AND EVE was co-edited by Alfred Andriola and Mel Casson, and copyright 1955 by those two great cartoonists as well. This collection is dedicated to and features a wide variety of National Cartoonists Society cartoonists. The first series of scans from the book are here.

Of the 11 images below dealing with dating and teen angst, five are drawn by professional women cartoonists.


Above: Hilda Terry sketches teenagers -- on the phone, talking, sitting, lounging, dancing, goofing -- for the "Jean, Janes, and Growing Pains" chapter. This looks so much like a page ripped out of her sketchpad. I don't know if it is, but it looks like it. I wish there was more Hilda Terry in print.

From the Mike lynch Cartoons blog:

More on her comic strip Teena.

Hilda Terry remembrance.

"He's ideal for Jane. He has all the qualities she likes to change in a boy."

Above is George Clark, with his dry brush on pebble board, giving us another deft look at middle America. One of my favorite originals that I won is a Neighbors panel by George Clark, that I got from Don Orehek.

Related: Some great originals by George Clark from the Mike Lynch Cartoons blog.

March 21, 1955 Time magazine on feature on George Clark.

"I'm trying to warn you about men, Alicia -- stop screaming 'How wonderful!'"

George Lichty is another cartoonist with a loose style. Don't you love Alicia's expression, and Lichty's choice to have her staring at the reader?! Another sly, smoky glance like those angels that open the book.

More from his Grin and Bear It panels.

"Well, there's one thing -- she certainly isn't controversial."

I like the soft, almost gauzy, wash that Barbara Shermund uses in this slice of teenage life from days gone by. 

More Barbara Shermund:

The Library of Congress exhibition and a profile by Michael Maslin

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Women Cartoonists: Barbara Shermund, Hilda Terry, Mary Gibson and Dorothy McKay 1935 - 1952

 

"I think I oughta drop Hughie . . . . I'm learning too much about boys from him, and not enough about men."

Hilda Terry, who created the Teena newspaper comic strip, is neck-and-neck with Marty Links for her ability to portray gangly teens.

Teena by Hilda Terry

Hilda Terry June 25, 1914 - October 13, 2006

 


Above is a two page spread by Carl Rose. A name that's not familiar now, Rose had a long and prolific cartoon career. His clients included This Week, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times Magazine, among others. His seminal New Yorker cartoon with the mother and little girl at the dinner table is a classic:

MOTHER: It's broccoli, dear.

CHILD: I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.

Actually, yes, Carl Rose drew it. As was accepted practice back in the early New Yorker days, a writer wrote the line. In this case, the one and only E.B. White.


Alfred Andriola shows he can draw lanky teens that out lank all others.

"No, this is not the home of Emmylou Merriweather -- this is Grand Central Station!"

Above is a cartoon by the creator of Bobby Sox, Marty Links, "one of the top teen-age delinaeators," so states the book. Her long-running comic outlived the bobby socks craze and it was rechristened Emmy Lou.

Related: More Bobby Sox

"Oh, Ronny, you shouldn't have. My father just planted that bush."

Here's the text that accompanies the above cartoon:

" ... Kate Osann, an equally deft artist, does Tizzy for Colliers."

Here are some more from her Tizzy collections:

Tizzy by Kate Osann

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Kate Osann's "Tizzy" 1953 - 1956

 

"Nothing doing! If this is Dutch treat, I'm handing over my money to the waiter myself!"

Any chance to show more of Irwin Caplan's designerly work. These two are on their way to the getting hitched for life, don'tcha think?



And last, one of the all-time champ cartoonists: Henry Syverson, with a message of love and loss!

More Syverson? OK!

Henry Syverson Cartoons

 

Back Soon

 Busy today. Hope to be back very soon. All is well. Stand by.

EVER SINCE ADAM AND EVE Part 1

  

EVER SINCE ADAM AND EVE is a hardcover collection that was co-edited, and with contributions from, Alfred Andriola and Mel Casson. It's also copyright 1955 by Mssrs. Andriola and Casson. It features a bunch of National Cartoonists Society cartoonists, all doing gags about men and women.

Previously, I reproduced many of the cartoons of Mel Casson's here.


Above: a typical Bushmiller NANCY strip, reproduced nice and large.

 

Harry Devlin, along with wife Wende, "produced six children and put them in their feature Full House."



Here's Charles Schulz with a rare one-panel style gag and, even rarer, done with a wash!


Stan and Jan Berenstain doing one of their great kids gags.


Above, one of my personal favorites; the British cartoonist J.W. Taylor. I love the little girl's blissful look as all of those cartoon men hurtle to their doom!

Walter Berndt drew the long-running comic strip SMITTY, and is the nickname namesake for the Berndt Toast Gang.


Ronald Searle's messy wash style is so interesting to linger over.



OK, so my question about the above DENNIS THE MENACE cartoon by Hank Ketcham is: Did it ever really run in the paper? It's darn risque!

I love Caplan's line style here.




Alfred Andriola, drawing in a pen and wash single panel style, proves he was a master.




Henry Syverson uses the black spotting to focus our eyes on the poor hubby.

Chon Day's 2 word gag line was one of the funniest in the book.

Next time: More.

IN FOCUS Discussion: A Conversation with Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Cartoonist Pat Bagley

From January 20th 2021: a retrospective interview from Utah TV ABC4 with Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist Pat Bagley:

 

"He's the longest, continually-serving political cartoonist at any newspaper agency. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. This year, Pat Bagley was named Political Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society. If you're a Utahn, you've likely come across one of Bagley's cartoons, who's been with the Salt Lake Tribune for more than four decades. His cartoons have sparked controversy over the years, but also awareness, change, and dialogue. Bagley joined ABC4's Rosie Nguyen on the CW30 News at 7 p.m. for an IN FOCUS discussion about his work, his beliefs, and his personal background."

The Stan Lee Talk Show (1968)

 

Via ComicBookHistorians:

"At the height of his popularity as Marvel Comic's Editor-in-Chief, Stan Lee explored the possibility of recording a talk show in 1968 of a round table discussion with local youth. The youth represented here were Chuck Skoro - managing editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator, Jeff Shero - editor of RAT Subterranean News, and Skip Weiss - Editor of the Daltonian Newspaper. Topics included: politics, the Vietnam War, protests vs riots, and race relations. Sound and video remastered by Alex Grand."

 

THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS by Joe Musial

Here's a popular entry first posted in 2015, with a few added strips as requested.

Hello Dollinks! Here are a few hi res scans from the tiny KATZENJAMMER KIDS paperback collection of Sunday strips by Joe Musial. It's copyright 1970 by King Features.

THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS were created by Rudolph Dirks who, at William Randolph Hearst's request, nicked them from the German cartoon MAX AND MORITZ. 

"The strip relates in the frenzied style the war-to-the-death carried on by Hans and Fritz against any form of authority, whether parental, educational, or governmental."

I had this paperback when I was a kid and studied it. It was lost and so, last week, I bought a copy off of eBay. Such wonderful manic writing and terrific cartooning by Musial. Reading it now for the first time since I was nine years old, I was surprised at how many of the gags I remembered. 

Obviously, these are great fun (if not politically correct) to read out loud. 

That last panel, where Hans and Fritz kiss with a "smak!!" is funny and chilling and perverse at the same time.

And, as requested, here are a couple more great Sunday strips dealing with theft, smoking, lust and deception. What fun!