Dick Buchanan has a wonderful profile of prolific midcentury gag cartoonist Clyde Lamb for us today. As ever, I am thankful and happy that he is sharing his sharp research, as well as his grand collection of comic art with us. Many thanks and, take it away, my friend!
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THE ART OF LAMB.
Brown & Bigelow Oils
1961 – 1966
Clyde Lamb. What’s Funny About That? E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. New York, New York, 1954 .
Clyde Lamb was serving two consecutive 25 years in the Indiana State Penitentiary when he began painting and drawing cartoons for the amusement of his fellow inmates. Encouraged to submit his drawings to magazines, Lamb gave it a shot and soon his work appeared in Judge. Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post and This Week Magazine soon followed. Paroled in 1947, he returned to his Montana birthplace, re-married the wife he divorced while in prison and enjoyed a successful career as free-lance gag cartoonist. He also continued to paint.
In the late 1950’s Lamb found a home for his oils with Brown & Bigelow, a company which provided a variety of promotional materials for small businesses. Founded in 1896 and still operating today, Brown & Bigelow was at one time the largest calendar manufacturers in the world. The calendar artwork also appeared notepads and blotters. Brown and Bigelow published many fine artists over years, including Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell, Gil Elvgren, and Cassuius Marcellus Coolidge, among others. One of the others was Clyde Lamb.
Clyde Lamb was no Rembrandt. On the other hand, Rembrandt was no Clyde Lamb, either. Hardly any of his paintings are funny. So, while Lamb was not the best draftsman he did have the most important asset any cartoonist could have--he drew funny. That, combined with an array of quirky gags, made his drawings comical marvels.
The oils Lamb created for Brown & Bigelow fell into two categories. The first was Call of the Wild, cartoons about inept sportsmen and their hapless companions. The other category was Out of this World, a series cartoons in a science fiction vein, featuring Lamb’s bumbling spacemen encountering an array of colorful aliens.
This is a sampling of Clyde Lamb’s oils published by Brown & Bigelow, taken from their blotters and calendars. Also included are two original oils, found in les Arts Médiocres, a quaint little gallery near the Old Joke Cemetery, somewhere in New York’s scenic Greenwich Village. Take a look . . .
#1 “CIRCLE BACK – I THOUGHT I SAW A MOUNTAIN GOAT!”
#2 “QUICK ELMER – SNAP THE PICTURE BEFORE HE GETS AWAY!”
#3 “DID YOU SEE A RABBIT BOARD THE 438 TO ALASKA?”
#4 “THIS MUST BE WHERE WE PORTAGE, ED!”
#5 “GOOD HEAVENS . . . WE FORGOT TO BRING COLOR FILM!”
#6 “SCHOOL’S OUT!”
#7 “WELL, WHAT IS IT THIS TIME?”
#8 “NOW WHAT?”
#9 “AROUND THE CAMPFIRE, YOU’’LL BE GLAD I BROUGHT IT ALONG!”
#10 “THERE’S NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF MEN . . . I PULLED A THORN OUT OF HIS FOOT!”
#12 “I STILL SAY IT’S TOO COLD TO GO DUCK HUNTING THIS MORNING!”
#13 “ACT NONCHALANT!”
#14 “I DON’T KNOW—I’M LOOKING FOR A RIVER MYSELF!”
#15 “THOSE DECOYS COST MORE, BUT THEY’RE WORTH IT!”
#16 “HENRY! LET HIM GO THIS INSTANT!”
#17 “OF COURSE, I RESEMBLE A HUMAN, YOU IDIOT . . . I’M FROM TOPEKA, KANSAS!”
#18 “QUICK—MY FISHING LICENSE!”
CLYDE LAMB. #9661-I. Brown & Bigelow calendar art. Oil on 14” x 19” Crescent Heavy Illustration board. Dated September, no year noted.
#19 “STUPID OF US NOT TO BRING A CAN OPENER!”
CLYDE LAMB. #9425-I. Brown & Bigelow calendar art. Oil on canvas wrapped on 14” x 19” Lechertier Barbe Illustration board. Dated September, 1963.
#20 “DON’T BLAME ME—I JUST WORK HERE!”
Related:
From the Dick Buchanan Files: Clyde Lamb's "Millicent" 1950 - 1961
From the Dick Buchanan Files: Clyde Lamb Gag Cartoons 1946 - 1965
From the Dick Buchanan Files: Clyde Lamb Roughs 1946 - 1965
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