From the Dick Buchanan Files: Stan and Jan Berenstain Gag Cartoons 1947 - 1955

Before the children's books that they would be known for, the husband and wife team of Stan and Jan Berenstain were cartooning for magazines -- primarily covers and interiors for Collier's. Most of these cartoons focused on children and parenting, a theme that would be present in their children's books. (Check out Mike Berenstain's great book about his parents titled Child's Play for more.) 

You know, a lot of midcentury art/architecture/design talents worked as a couples. People like Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman, Edwin and Mary Schier, Otto and Vivika Heino, Alva and Aino Aalto, Lotte and Gunnar Bostlund, Gordon and Jane Martz, and the Eames, of course. These are just some. There are others. 

Dick Buchanan has pulled twenty of these early collaborative cartoons by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Thank you, Dick -- and take it away:

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BERENSTAIN GAG CARTOONS
  (1947 – 1955)

Stanley and Janice Berenstain were born and raised in Philadelphia. They met on their first day of art school at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art.  During WWII, Stan served as a military medical illustrator while Jan was a draft artist for the Army Corps of Engineers. 

They are best known for their Berenstain Bears series of children’s books.  The first of these was The Big Honey Hunt, published in 1962. More than 250 books followed. The Berenstain Bears became a lasting franchise which included a television series, toys, and stage productions. 

From the beginning, the couple worked as a team, starting their career drawing gag cartoons for The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, This Week, McCall’s and The Saturday Review of Literature, among others. Here is a selection of their gag cartoons, clipped from midcentury national magazines . . .

1. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  May 24, 1947.

 

2. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  The Saturday Evening Post  December 13, 1947.

 

3. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  This Week Magazine  July 18, 1948.

 

4. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  September 11, 1948.

 

5. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  July 17, 1948.

 

6. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  The Saturday Evening Post  February 21, 1948.

 

7. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  American Legion Magazine  October, 1949.

 

8. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  November 12, 1949.

 

9. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  The Saturday Evening Post  March 5, 1949.

 

10. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  The Saturday Evening Post  May 14, 1949.

 

11. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  This Week Magazine  April 10, 1949.

 

12. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  The Saturday Evening Post  November 5, 1949.

 

13. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  June 17, 1949.

 

14. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  The Saturday Evening Post  February 11, 1950.

 

15. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  March 11, 1950.

 

16. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  July 1, 1950.

 

17. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  February 25, 1951.

 

18. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  January 26, 1952.

 

19. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  January 3, 1953.

20. STAN and JAN BERENSTAIN.  Collier’s  April 4, 1955.