From the Dick Buchanan Files: Favorite Gag Cartoons 1947 - 1958

Dick Buchanan, who frequently contributes great vintage gag cartoons to this here blog, has another terrific batch. These are his favorites from the golden age of magazine cartooning. As ever, thanks for sharing and take it away, Dick:

 

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20th CENTURY FUN

GAG CARTOONS 1947 - 1958 

It is time once more to dip into the Cartoon Clip File and emerge with another hodgepodge of cartoons haphazardly clipped from the great magazines of the 20th Century—one of the funniest centuries ever. 

Here are just a few examples of vintage American humor by some of the leading cartoonists of the era.  

1.  CHARLES ADDAMS. True June 1949.

2.  MARTHA BLANCHARD. The Saturday Evening Post December 15, 1956.

3.  PETER VATSURES. The Saturday Evening Post July 18, 1953.

4.  CHON DAY.  The Saturday Evening Post January 31, 1948.

5.  JOSEPH KIERNAN. For Laughing Out Loud April-June 1958.

6.  JOHN GALLAGHER. Collier’s December 1, 1951.

7.  BRAD ANDERSON. For Laughing Out Loud January-March, 1958.

8.  HERB GREEN.  1000 Jokes Magazine June-August, 1958.

9.  SIDNEY HARRIS.  Laugh Parade May 1957.

10.  JOHNNY HART.  American Legion Magazine January 1956.

11.  TOM HENDERSON.  American Legion Magazine March 1956.

12.  GEORGE LICHTY.  Lichty’s NCS award winning syndicated panel Grin and Bear It was created in 1932. Lichty drew the panel until 1974. Collier’s October 11, 1947.

13.  IRWIN CAPLAN.  The Saturday Evening Post.  November 22, 1952.

14.  CARL ROSE.  Rose illustrated one of The New Yorker’s most celebrated cartoons—the “I say it’s spinach and I say the hell with it” gag. Collier’s October 11, 1947.

15.  JOHN DEMPSEY.  Another example of Dempsey’s “not for prime time” gags that were perfect for 1000 Jokes. 1000 Jokes Magazine November-January, 1958.

- This has been an edited version of a blog entry that originally appeared on January 5, 2018.

Chinese Artist Xu Weixin Posts a Drawing Every Day Protesing China's Support of Russia's War on Ukraine

 

From "A Chinese Artist Takes On Beijing, Carefully" by Lingling Wei for The Wall Street Journal, via MSN:

"Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Xu Weixin has made one drawing every day. In his modest studio in New York, on visits to his mother in China, or just about anywhere he travels, he has sketched desolate Ukrainian cities, wounded Ukrainian soldiers and ordinary citizens trying to make it through the conflict.

"Xu uses an iPad application and posts his drawings on both American and Chinese social media. He’s now made more than 1,000 of them. His cause is one that few other Chinese artists have been willing to embrace: defying Beijing’s support for Russia’s war.

"The Chinese government has frequently imprisoned or harassed artists, writers and activists for challenging the authorities. The best known cases are artist Ai Weiwei, who has spent time in detention and now lives in exile, and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died in 2017 under police surveillance and after long years of imprisonment.

"Xu’s Ukraine-themed work has already run afoul of Chinese censors twice, and the 67-year-old artist is well aware that he is walking a tightrope by taking on a project of political sensitivity in China.

"'What I do is a tough balance,' said Xu, a former dean of the school of arts at Renmin University in Beijing, as he sat in his studio in front of a large oil painting he made of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A U.S. green card holder since 2017, he now makes his home with his wife and daughter in New York City. But he remains a Chinese citizen and goes back to visit his mother at least a couple of times a year.

"Xu’s studio, converted from a warehouse, sits in a diverse neighborhood of Queens where single-family homes mix with small factories. Earlier artworks arrayed along the walls showcase his daring approach, dating to when he lived in China full-time."

The rest is here.

Xu Weixin's Instagram

Veterans Day with Charles Schulz and Bill Mauldin

 
Last month, I attended a get together of the Berndt Toast Gang. The National Cartoonists Society chapter will have been in existence for sixty years in 2026. It will also be the 80th anniversary of the NCS. I was thinking about the NCS and its "Academy Awards for cartooning" that the group bestows every year. What do awards mean?

I'm enough of a realist to feel that awards are all fine and good -- but, in the cold, cruel world -- they do not give you any career protection. In other words, most editors won't hire you because of or in spite of an award. They'll hire you because they think you're right for the job.




When Charles Schulz was asked what award -- of the many awards he received during his life and career -- meant the most to him, he answered:

"The Combat Infantry Badge."

 

Brian Hoag writes about Bill Mauldin and Charles Schulz at the McCook Daily Gazette Blog (This blog no longer exists, sadly) (Oops. It does. My thanks to the great DD Degg who sent on the link via The Wayback Machine!):

"Schulz had a special appreciation for one of his fellow cartoonists ... Bill Mauldin. For years, Schulz would send Mauldin the original Veterans Day Peanuts cartoon (Here is an example... Snoopy, Willy, and Joe), and Mauldin finally got a chance to find out why. At a cartoonist convention, they ran into each other and Mauldin asked why? Schulz replied that he had been a machine gun squad sergeant with the 20th Armored Division in France and Germany in 1945. 'That's all he needed to say,' Mauldin was quoted as saying. He understood the rest."

Hat tip to Comics Reporter.

 

Out of Sorts

I'm out of sorts. Just a nasty cold. I'm on the couch with the cats, making a fire in the woodstove and watching an old Powell and Pressburger movie ("The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp"). The blog will resume.

Panels and Prose Video: Reprinting Alley Oop with Chris Aruffo

Chris Aruffo just finished an impressive run reprinting all of the Alley Oop comic strip dailies from the early 1930s through the 2000s. 

Chris Aruffo''s Alley Oop library is available at http://www.aruffo.com/alleyoop/

 

New York Times: The Real Horrors of America by Lynda Barry

 

Lynda Barry writes about horrors in the movies and in real life. I have gifted the comic from the October 31, 2025 New York Times so it's not behind a paywall.

Berndt Toast Gang Luncheon October 30, 2025

 

Here are some photos from last week's Berndt Toast Gang get together. We bring a spooky drawing (I offered up my Let Me Out original.) and raise some money for charity. That's Bunny Hoest, me and Karen Evans.

Thursday brought together the Halloween Berndt Toast Gang get together. It's a Halloween tradition first created by Bill Kresse back in the day. So many wonderful, talented friends. The fact I don’t get to see these faces as often as I would like to made it all the more dear. Grand to see National Cartoonists Society president Karen Evans and Mark Habegger, who flew out from California. Thanks especially to Jim Salicrup and Sarah Booth for making the time to attend.

Jim Salicrup and Sarah Booth.

Francis Bonnet and John Reiner.

Roberta Fabiano, Carmen D'Adamo and Bunny Hoest.

Mark Habegger and Andy Eng.

Adrian Sinnott and Karen Evans.

Mike Lynch Cartoon: Let Me Out

 

When I just started drawing strange cartoons that I thought were funny, that was when they began to sell. Here’s an example of a cartoon of mine that was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

I will be away for a while from this here blog. Just a short time and then I plan to be back. 

The 125 Year History of the St. Louis Weatherbird Exhibit

 

Original illustrations by the artist Albert Schweitzer, who drew the Weatherbird until 1986 when cartoonist Dan Martin took over. Photo: Whitney Curtis for The New York Times

 

The Weatherbird cartoon has appeared The St. Louis Post-Dispatch front page every day for almost 125 years.

"The Weatherbird, considered the oldest, continuously running daily cartoon in American journalism, is the subject of an exhibit, 'Behind the Feathers: A Century of Weatherbird History,' which opened in June and runs through Feb. 15 at the Field House Museum in downtown St. Louis.

"The exhibition includes drawings of the Weatherbird over the decades, profiles of the artists who have drawn him, Weatherbird collectibles, fan art and instructions on how to draw the Weatherbird on your own." -- A St. Louis Bird That Crosses Divides Gets His Own Show, New York Times, by Valerie Schremp Hahn. I have gifted the article so it's free from its paywall and you can read it. 

 

It's the longest continuously running newspaper comics feature ever. Dan Martin currently draws the Weatherbird. He's been doing it for the past 27 years.

 

 

A Mike Lynch Cartoon: Protest Signs

 

Sometimes I'm asked if I am a political cartoonist. I was just asked this last week. I say I am more of a person who comments on society. Like all cartoonists, I would like to make a point but I also want the cartoon to be funny. I don't get to decide that. Only the editor and then the reader does. But since this here blog is editor-less, then it's all up to you, the reader.

Bennett Cerf’s Pop-Up Silliest Riddles

Selling $10 postpaid in continental US: Bennett Cerf’s Pop-Up Silliest Riddles, a 1967 Random House hardcover. Some wear but intact and the pop-ups work. Fun graphics, but uncredited. Email me to claim.

I have A LOT of kids' books that I have collected through the years because I like the art. I need to downsize! 

 Related:

THE MAN WHO WOULDN'T TALK

 
Carl Rose Illustrations from TRY AND STOP ME by Bennett Cerf