"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.