Over ten years ago this week I asked the elementary school kids in a cartoon class I was teaching what they would like to dress up as for Halloween. This was my favorite then and it still is.
In her drawing "Bacon by Rachel," she captures the wavy rivulets of meat and fat with an excellent on-model depiction of the breakfast meat. By now, she must be twenty years old. I wonder if this is still a Halloween costume go-to.
Since it's the day before Halloween, it's time to look at some old gag cartoons with gags so old they SHOULD be dead, but, like zombies, they live on. Thank you, Dick Buchanan, for fearlessly dealing with these undead bad jokes. They are moldy oldies, but we love them.
---
OLD JOKE CEMETERY
(1948 – 1971)
The Old Joke Cemetery is where old jokes are laid to rest. We say rest
because some of them are only resting, lying in wait until someone
calls for an encore and they spring to life. We’re not sure these will
spring to life, but they’re old favorites of ours so give them one more
chance . . .
1. HARRY MACE. The Saturday Evening Post November 21, 1953.
2. DICK CAVALLI. The Saturday Evening Post October 28, 1950.
3. BILL KING. Collier’s February 23, 1952.
4. LEW FOLLETTE. The Saturday Evening Post June 5, 1948.
5. TOM HENDERSON. Look Magazine July 28, 1948.
6. CHON DAY. True Magazine July, 1963.
8. LAFE LOCKE. Collier’s March 28, 1953.
9. DON OREHEK. American Legion Magazine December, 1967.
10. STAN HUNT. The Saturday Evening Post June 5, 1948.
11. CORKA (Jon Cronin) True Magazine March, 1952.
12. AL CRAMER. American Magazine June, 1955.
13. BILL HOEST. American Legion Magazine March, 1971.
14. JEFFREY MONAHAN. The Saturday Evening Post November 2, 1963.
15. SCOTT TABER. The Saturday Evening Post March 9, 1957.
16. ERNEST MARQUEZ. American Legion Magazine November, 1950.
18. SYD HOFF. Collier’s January 26, 1952.
20. ROBERT DAY. This Week Magazine April 8, 1956.
Edited from a blog entry that originally appeared on October 29, 2021. So, like Michael Myers, it just came back.
William Henry Mauldin, better known as Bill Mauldin, was born on this day in 1921. He would win two Pulitzers for his cartoons. The first award was at the age of 23, which was for his wartime body of work. (Six cartoons a week for Stars and Stripes.) The cartoon above, "'Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed with victory, are bringing in thousands of hungry, ragged, battle-weary prisoners ... ' (News Item)," is typical his sardonic take on American newspaper headlines with the reality of the life of a soldier.
From his Wikipedia page:
In 1959, Mauldin won a second Pulitzer Prize, while working at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, for a cartoon depicting Soviet author Boris Pasternak in a Gulag, asking another prisoner, "I won the Nobel Prize for literature. What was your crime?"[12] Pasternak had won the Nobel Prize for his novel Doctor Zhivago, but was not allowed to travel to Sweden to accept it. The following year Mauldin won the National Cartoonist Society Award for Editorial Cartooning. In 1961, he received their Reuben Award as well.
Here are a few photos and links celebrating the life and legacy of Bill Mauldin.
Below: 1958 cover story "Bill Mauldin Takes You on a Family Tour" from the Sports Illustrated Web site.
"LOS ANGELES, Oct. 23 1945 -- MAULDINS IN HAPPIER TIMES -- William H.
(Bill) Mauldin, 24-year-old cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize winner, greets
his wife Norma Jean, and their son, Bruce, 2, after his release from
the army. Yesterday, he charged his wife with adultery in a divorce suit
here, in which he asked for custody of his son. AP Wirephoto."
Here's Edward Hopper's notebook, looking like a comic book or graphic novel. This is from the Today's Inspiration Facebook group.
Hopper and his wife kept detailed notes on the paintings he’d sold or which were being bought in installment, and these are those notebooks, like ledgers almost. There's a book that reproduces them: Edward Hopper: A Journal of His Work.
A few more samples. Via Rob Stolzer, here are some prelims for his Nighthawks painting:
Some Fall of 2024 colors along the Maine/New Hampshire border (Province Lake) and around home.
This is from a trip this past weekend.
I'll be away for a couple of days. Back to the blog soon.
From the BBC Archive:
Here's a great 30 minute PSA film hosted by Bob Hope! "See You At the Polls" was produced by the Heritage Foundation and the Ad Council.
From the jeffsabu YouTube page.
Groucho shows up with George Fenneman around six minutes in, with an
appeal to the public to exercise their right to vote, oddly sincere
considering it's Groucho!
Also featured: Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Spring Byington, Danny Thomas, Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, William Bendix, and many more.
This note from @fromthesidelines is on the YouTube page:
"Incidentally, most of the segments were lifted from other TV shows and movie excerpts. For example, Bing's musical number was originally featured on the March 21, 1954 filmed episode of 'THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM.' Rosie Clooney's musical segment was from her syndicated TV series. Bob Hope and Jane Russell in an excerpt from 'The Paleface' (1948). Ethel Merman and Donald O'Connor in a number from 'Call Me Madam' (1953). And Byron Palmer was in a segment from the syndicated 'THIS IS YOUR MUSIC' series. Jimmy Durante, Anna Maria Alberghetti and Peter Lawford's musical number was originally presented on the final episode of Durante's 'TEXACO STAR THEATRE' [June 23, 1956]."
From 1987, here's an interview with gag cartoonist B. Kliban conducted by Heidi MacDonald (and it's copyright that year by her) from SPLAT! #3, SPLAT! sports a cover by Howard Cruse and was published bi-monthly by Mad Dog Graphics, a division of Strnad Publishing and Tom Mason.
What's amazing here is the backstory to his Cat book, which was and still is a big deal. It almost didin't happen at all. Kliban was just doing weird cat drawings and filing them away. One day Playboy cartoon editor Michelle Urry just happened to drop by his studio and open the drawer of cat drawings. She loved them. It was she who said these should be published.
Michelle was a great editor and much missed by Playboy cartoonists. Playboy was, after all, a premiere cartoon market that was very difficult to break in to. I remember getting a rejected cartoon from Playboy in the mail. (This was back in the day when submissions were mailed, natch.) There was a note from Michelle to me that she thought it was a good, funny cartoon and disagreed with Hef who had decided not to buy it. That's what is called a "good rejection" in the business.
Here's this terrific interview by Heidi MacDonald:
Tom Henderson's single panel magazine cartoons were everywhere. Within a year of his first sale, he was a top-selling gag cartoonist. Here's Dick Buchanan with a lot more about Tom Henderson's life, work, and, also, of course, many samples of his work. Thanks and take it away, Dick!
TOM HENDERSON
(1920 – 1970)
Tom Henderson. “What’s Funny About That?” E.P. Dutton Inc., 1954.
Tom Henderson was a cartoonist and illustrator best known for his work in The Saturday Evening Post.
He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but grew up in Chicago where he attended Wabash College and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.
Henderson sold his first cartoon in 1945 and he was top cartoonist in point of sales to five largest magazines for 1946. He contributed to the Saturday Evening Post. Collier's, Look, This Week Magazine, True Magazine, Popular Science and1000 Jokes Magazine among many others.
In 1956 Henderson created a weekly feature, “Fan Fare,” for This Week Magazine. This series appeared weekly featuring one of Henderson’s favorite targets, the wealthy, entitled, clueless members of the upper crust.
Like many other cartoonists Henderson, in addition to drawing gag cartoons for magazines, had many advertising clients. He created illustrated advertising campaigns for clients including General Electric, Shell Oil Co., American Express, Yale & Towne, Pennsylvania Tire Co., and Johnson & Johnson, among others.
Here just a few of the gag cartoons Tom Henderson created over the years . . .
American Magazine April, 1945.
This Week Magazine April 1, 1945.
Liberty Magazine August 10, 1946.
True Magazine August, 1946.
This Week Magazine April 27, 1947.
American Legion Magazine March, 1947.
The Saturday Evening Post September 27, 1947.
The Saturday Evening Post February 21, 1948.
Holsum Advertisement, week of May 28, 1949.
The Saturday Evening Post July 1, 1950.
The Saturday Evening Post February 7, 1951.
The Saturday Evening Post June 21, 1952.
This Week Magazine July 13, 1952.
The Saturday Evening Post June 6, 1953.
The Saturday Evening Post October 23, 1954.
Collier’s July 8, 1955.
American Legion Magazine March, 1956.
This Week Magazine August 4, 1957.
Look Magazine April 29, 1958.
The Saturday Evening Post November 21, 1959.
American Legion Magazine January, 1964.
Boys’ Life November 1968.
Related:
Tom Henderson's son has a site here.
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