From 100 Years Ago

 Billy DeBeck for The Cartoon School of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

Will There Be a Blog?

Internet issues today. I have had them for months. I'm only able to post this through the Bluetooth on my phone. This is not good, and, yes, everything has been redone here: new wiring, new router, brought in new lines to the house. I feel like giving up. I was on the phone with my local internet company for a half hour this morning after an hour of outages; on, off, on, off, etc. The rep said that that had not happened according to what he could see and everything was fine. And so I told him that if what he is seeing is the opposite of what I am seeing, then we are at an impasse. 

Good weekend, regardless.

"Belvedere" by George Crenshaw

 

George Crenshaw (1917 - 2007) was a Disney and Hanna Barbera animator, a ghost for Hank Ketcham, a comic book artist, as well as a gag cartoonist. He drew a number of syndicated features, including: Nubbins, Nerdley and Simpkins -- but his long-running claim to fame is the newspaper comic panel about a dog named Belvedere.

Here are a few cartoons from this great "big foot" cartoonist from a Belvedere collection published by Tor Books in 1982. It's copyright 1974-1981, 1982 by Field Enterprises, Inc. 

 

This is a chunky ""2 Books In One Turn Over" book that's the width of two ordinary paperbacks together. Half the book is printed one way, and then you turn it over and there's a second cover (above) with the then-new, then-giant ISBN code.

Belvedere is a know-it-all dog, inspired (so the story goes) by Crenshaw's own little pet. That may be so. But don't expect this to be any kinda reality-based feature. The gags are the thing here. Some tend to be gags inspired by everyday life with a dog. Others are just gags for gags' sake. I mean, there's a cruise ship cartoon, with Belvedere and his owner accidentally in the ocean. Will they get saved? Well, there is no continuity here -- only gags.

Belvedere ran from 1962 to 1995. It is a gag-a-day panel that's mostly about a spoiled dog outsmarting his owners (Orville and Emma). There are a couple of other pets in the house: a cat, Jezebel, and a parrot, Chi-Chi. Belvedere does not speak, and does not have thought balloons ala Snoopy. He is silent, but he gets his point across. 

Mr. Crenshaw sometimes signed his name as "Nat," which you can see on some of these panels. Oh - and when I use the term "big foot cartoonist," I mean just that: the style of drawing big feet, big noses accompanied by big and outlandish gags all fit the standard big foot cartoon mold. And take a look at the clean, sweeping ink line. This is some great cartooning, even if some of the gags are groaners.

-- Edited from an original blog entry of December 8, 2021.

Counter Media Zine Number 6 Spring 1992

 

In the spring of 1992, I spent $3 to buy a copy of Counter Media, a short-lived zine that featured articles about underground cartoonists. Since there is little online about this 1990s zine -- it was literally 68 pages of copy paper folded over (no staple) and sold here and there -- I thought I would scan a small sample and show you what it was. I probably bought my copy at Forbidden Planet in NYC. 

So far as I can tell, it may have been put together by writer Patrick Rosenkranz. There is no masthead, but he had written a 1974 history of underground comix, ARTSY FARTSY FUNNIES (Crown, 1974), and would author YOU CALL THIS ART? A GREG IRONS RETROSPECTIVE, published by Fantagraphics in 2006 (and so much more; see link at the bottom). So, he is my prime suspect for The Man In Charge of Counter Media. This issue, Counter Media Number 6, Spring 1992, was a dry run for his book on Greg Irons. There are also stories about cartoonists who died too soon, articles about Rick Griffin, Basil Wolverton and the people who worked at Topp's bubble gum company (Woody Gelman, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, Basil Wolverton, Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Jay Lynch, Howard Cruse, John Pound, Tom Bunk and many others) making novelty items like cards and comics that would be packaged with the gum. The Wacky Packages site has a scan of a ten page article in issue #5 by Patrick Rosenkranz here.

 

So here are a couple of the articles that I scanned this morning after rediscovering my copy of Counter Media in between a couple of Gold Key MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER comic books in a storage box. 

Dead Cartoonists Society by Patrick Rosenkranz

The Last Days of the Great Basil Wolverton by Barry Bernard

Patrick Rosenkranz would also author the 2008 book REBEL VISIONS: THE UNDERGROUND COMIX REVOLUTION 1963-1975. Here's a link to a 2008 Comics Journal interview with him. He continues to write as one of the leading scholars of the underground comix movement, with books about Jay Lynch, Rand Holmes, and others. Amazon has 18 books credited to him. 

 

#newyorkerstudio

This week, some New Yorker cartoonists are showing photos of their studios on Instagram. Here are a few. 

 

Feggo:

Zoe Si:

Jason Chatfield:

Amy Kurzweil:

Emily Flake:

Tyson Cole:

Joe Dator:

Amy Hwang:

Ali Solomon:

Sarah Morrisette:

The Merchant of Dennis by Hank Ketcham

 

Matt Barnett over at the Cartoon Research Facebook group posts 25 images from THE MERCHANT OF DENNIS by Hank Ketcham. The 1990 book is a great behind the scenes account of the production of the Dennis the Menace panel. This autobiography of Ketcham was reprinted in 2005 by Fantagraphics. You can really see Ketcham's animation background in these model sheets.

"From Hank Ketcham's book "The Merchant of Dennis." It's a fantastic book and I urge anyone who has not read it to pick up a copy. Fascinating stuff."

 

 

 

 Related:

I WANNA GO HOME by Hank Ketcham

 
Hank Ketcham Gag Cartoons

 
Hank Ketcham Roughs

 
Hank Ketcham Banking Gag