A little ways to go to New Years still, but here’s an example I scanned of Cicero Sapp from December 31, 1922 by Fred Locher.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read about Fred Locher at lambiek.net.

A excerpt from a weird and ugly (but interesting) WWII propaganda cartoon made by inept and humorless nazis featuring Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Donald Duck, Goofy, Felix, and horrible Jewish stereotypes. I’ve seen a lot of WWII propaganda from the Allies, but not much from the Axis… presumably most of it was destroyed. If all their animation was this uninspired, it is no wonder we won the war.

WARNING: This cartoon contains offensive ethnic caricatures. If offensive stereotypes bug you, you may not want to view it.

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

Boing Boing points us to The Harvey Kurtzman Collection, where Joey Anuff is posting scans of his huge collection of rare Harvey Kurtzman art, including a ton of unpublished preliminary materials.

• Adventures in Hollywood Thursday Story Day
  from Those Fabuleous 50’s
• Andy’s Early Comics Archive
  from konkykru.com
• Krazy Kat 1921-05-13
  from Comic Strip Library News
• Krazy Kat 1921-05-12
  from Comic Strip Library News
• Walter M. Dunk
  from Yesterday’s Papers
• The origin of the Octopus!
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Haven of Terror
  from THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
• A Dizzy Dame Named Moronica!
  from Again With the Comics
• A Short Untitled Strip
  from Top Shelf 2.0 Webcomics
• Bucky’s Christmas Caper
  from Fortress Of Fortitude
• Woman in Red: Murder at the Ajax Power Company
  from Nedor-A-Day
• Number 437 Straight Arrow and the bloody bridge
  from Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine
• Rockin’ around the Crackedmas tree…
  from Hairy Green Eyeball
• The Quints’ Christmas — Day 4
  from Stripper’s Guide
• Lynda Barry’s The Most Obvious Question
  from The Crib Sheet
• Lynda Barry’s The Most Obvious Question – Coda
  from The Crib Sheet
• Yoshiharu Tsuge’s Nejishiki – Coda
  from The Crib Sheet
• Mat Brinkman’s Teratoid Heights
  from The Crib Sheet
• Mat Brinkman’s Teratoid Heights – Coda
  from The Crib Sheet
• Fabulous Harvey Kurtzman collection
  from Boing Boing
• Holiday Hot-Tubbin’
  from Amazing Facts…and Beyond!
• LOST IN THE SCENERY
  from The Woodring Monitor
• Herbert Merrill Wilder (1864-1915)
  from Yesterday’s Papers
• legacy
  from Jim Flora
• Trondheim’s Little Nothings
  from NBM Blog
• Christmas Rerun
  from cul de sac
• UN MONSTRUO DEL AIRE
  from Viñetas
• EL MUNDO Y EL PROGRESO
  from Viñetas
• Holiday Tales: The Black Widow “…And to All a Good Night!
  from Diversions of the Groovy Kind
• Go, Look: Godless and Penniless
  from CR Briefings
• First Joker Origin story.
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Love is blind.
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Bowl Haircut Days
  from lowbright
• Jetta in Pardon My Power!
  from Nedor-A-Day
• Number 436 Santa’s new suits
  from Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine
• The Quints’ Christmas — Day 3
  from Stripper’s Guide
• “No-Harry holiday”
  from In This Corner
• Crawling Evil
  from THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
• Tony Weare’s City Under the Sea
  from Bear Alley
• Krazy Kat 1921-05-11
  from Comic Strip Library News
• Krazy Kat 1921-05-10
  from Comic Strip Library News
• Dr. Seuss, Commercial Artist
  from Brief Window
• Jack Kirby does 2001…
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Ringol Banannavulva Vs Chicho macho Almibaraz
  from Monster Without A Cause
• Supermouse: Daze of Yore
  from Nedor-A-Day
• The Secret Little Origin of the Little Batman!
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Monster Museum!
  from Magic Carpet Burn
• Wood Chips 6
  from Potrzebie
• The Ghost: The Stone Age Terror
  from Nedor-A-Day
• Daffy & Dilly: Safetree First
  from Nedor-A-Day
• Nickie Norton: The Menace of Professor Klar
  from Nedor-A-Day
• The Black Terror: Clash By Night
  from Nedor-A-Day

Looking over the Time-Warner owned Zuda contract, cartoonist Spike of the webcomic series Templar, Arizona tellingly concludes that she makes more money selling 100 of her self-published books than Time-Warner’s Zuda creators make selling 10,000 books. It is also worth noting in bold that she also keeps all of the rights to her work, which in my view is a much more important distinction. Very few comics sell more than 10,000 copies any more. Click on the image above from Spike’s Templar, Arizona… which appears to be a metaphorical image of a Zuda comics creator getting throttled by Time-Warner lawyers… to go to the article the quote comes from on fleen.com.

“…with a 1% cover price share and assuming the books are equal in cost, a Zuda book would have to sell 10,000 copies to make the creator what I would selling 100 copies of Templar? And that’s assuming there are no penalties in the payout for deep discount/damaged/give-away books, and the payout isn’t be split in half between a writer and an artist or something.” -Spike

• PRONOSTICOS DE COLORÍN
  from Viñetas
• Donald Rumsfeld, War Criminal
  from Boing Boing
• Hobo Gadget Band
  from HOBOTOPIA
• In the Place of Excrement
  from Myrant
• Comic Book Legends Revealed #186
  from Comics Should Be Good!
• Thierry Gröensteen’s Why Are Comics Still in Search of Cultural Legitimization?
  from The Crib Sheet
• UR : Utopia Report : No. 1
  from transatlantis
• A Fat Albert Christmas Special
  from Neatorama
• Dec. 19, 2008: Winter hibernation
  from Journalista – the news weblog of The Comics Journal
• Update
  from news from me
• The Comics Journal Message Board :: View topic – How To Ruin Christmas
  from The Comics Journal Message Board
• Ripley’s Believe It or Not cartoon turns 90
  from The Daily Cartoonist
• Edgar Rice Burroughs The Mars Series
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• 100 Cereal Box Covers
  from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog
• Sixteenth-century watercolor reportage from the New World
  from Boing Boing
• Tha fuck?! Newsarama offers two choices for “Comic Book of the Year 2008″
  from Poor Mojo Newswire
• 15 Teeny Tiny Animals
  from Neatorama
• Nick Noir: 1924
  from Shorpy Photo Archive – History in HD
• Internet Explorer Users Are Urged To Switch Browsers Until Serious Security Flaw is Fixed
  from Disinfo.com
• Farting Gorillas Force Brussels Sprouts Off Zoo’s Christmas Menu
  from Monkeys In The News
• Rutu Modan
  from Inkstuds
• Video: Ernie Kovacs Meets Esquivel
  from Martin Klasch
• Abused Chinese Monkeys Beat Up Trainer
  from Monkeys In The News
• Zoo Chimp Takes Revenge On Visitors
  from Monkeys In The News
• Google Earth Adds Photo-Realistic Buildings to NYC [Google Earth]
  from Lifehacker
• ANITA
  from Viñetas
• POLLY RECORTABLE
  from Viñetas
• RECORTABLES DE OPISSO
  from Viñetas
• Window shopping
  from Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities
• Spike Speaks
  from Fleen: Enjoy Our Semi-Abusive Opinion Mongering
• William Moulton Marston’s OTHER pastime
  from THE BEAT
• The Christmas At The Ford Rotunda Covers Are The Best Christmas Covers
  from CR Briefings
• Barclay’s Jesse James
  from Yesterday’s Papers
• THE NAKEDNESS OF GOYA
  from ILLUSTRATION ART
• Dec. 18, 2008: Reasons for concern
  from Journalista – the news weblog of The Comics Journal
• Mary Evans Picture Library
  from Shared stuff from sstwalley
• Jim Backus Memorial Cocktail Napkin Museum
  from Mt. Holly Mayor’s Office
• Rod Serling on Censorship
  from Mt. Holly Mayor’s Office
• Ape Lincoln
  from Mt. Holly Mayor’s Office
• Alex Schomburg
  from Brief Window
• There’s a Tom Lehrer concert video!?!!
  from Brief Window
• Big Little Adventure
  from Hairy Green Eyeball
• Scans of vidgames from 1983 Sears catalog
  from Boing Boing
• 2 masques
  from Agence eureka
• Illustration: EInar Norelius’ Bland Tomtar Och Troll
  from ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
• Interview with Derf
  from SLG: Better Comics Through Superior Firepower
• Retro HOWTO: Keyboard Art
  from Boing Boing Gadgets
• Short Term Profits Over Long Term Principles; Google’s Caving On Book Scanning Is Bad News | Techdirt
  from Techdirt
• Yahoo to anonymize logs after 90 days
  from Boing Boing
• Random Cache of Wonderful ’70s Images
  from Boing Boing

Allan Holtz at the excellent blog The Stripper’s Guide (which, if you follow this blog, you have probably noticed I link to it almost every day I post) had a special offer the other day… he was giving away three free month-long memberships to newspaperarchive.com. Anyhow, I wrote him quick and I got one. Thanks, Allan!

I was just exploring it a little bit, and found the below article from the June 1, 1920 New Castle News. Ironically, the two issues of the New Castle News that I just explored had the comics cut out of them (other than George McManus’s Bringing Up Father, which was on it’s own page). I would guess most of the New Castle News editions on the site are that way if some of them are… presumably a comics fan or comic strip dealer “strip mined” the comics out of them before they were scanned, which is not at all an uncommon scenario (I would approximate that 60-70% of the bound books of newspapers that come up on Ebay have been cannibalized this way). Sunday editions appear to be entirely missing.

Strangely, this article seems to be referring to the comics section of The Pittsburg Press… I am not sure what the relationship was to The New Castle News. This is most likely an ad for a paper owned by the same company, I think.

Anyhow, the cannibals missed this article, so, enjoy! Click the image to download a pdf of the page. It is titled The New Pittsburg Press Staff Includes the World’s Greatest Humorists Cartoonists Writers and Illustrators. It has art by and photos of Herriman, McManus, Opper, Hershfield, Tad and many others… although, as I said, the quality is absolutely terrible.

The papers at newspaperarchive.com are simultaneously fascinating and heartbreaking… there is so much to see, but the artwork and text is all converted to vector art (and in most or all cases, they were first mutilated into microfilm or microfiche, and then to vector art)… the quality is abysmal, but the strips can usually be deciphered for their codified meaning with some patience, like the dead sea scrolls.

Nobody believes me when I tell them this, but I invented the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” Only when I invented it, I called it “Celebrity VD.” Players would follow the path of a theoretical strain of venereal disease passed from one celebrity to another based on movies or television shows they had been in together.

Usually this would involve thinking of two celebrities, figuring out the quickest way to link them to Jack Nicholson or Michael Caine, and then linking to the other celebrity the same way. Years ago I used to play this inane game in my head for hours while I had a gig doing landscaping work.

I told some people about it, and a few years later the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon meme is everywhere. Coincidence? Could be, it isn’t that great of an idea… but it is a good way to pass time while landscaping if you are somewhat of a movie buff.

It’s a lot easier to market it to the public under the much more wholesome name with Kevin Bacon than Celebrity VD, I suppose.

Yeah, I didn’t think you’d buy it either- but it is true, I tell you.

UPDATE: One other thing I should have noted is that one advantage of Celebrity VD over Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is that the VD angle makes it so you can play with different assumptions to make it more challenging. The beginners game would be “Hollywood orgy free-for-all” rules, where anyone can give vd to anyone else… but for more advanced play you can have it transmit only through the celebrity’s actual or rumored sexual orientation.

Anyhow, I have a new game I invented to share with you all. I’m calling it “translatophone.” It is based on the game “telephone,” but this is a version you can play solitaire.

To play, you simply take any phrase, drop it into Google Translate or another internet translator, translate it to another language, and translate it back. Keep going to a variety of languages and observe the amusing results. Here is an example:

It was the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.

To Japanese:

クリスマスとは、すべての前の夜は家ではない生き物でも、マウスではなかった感動した

Back to English:

And Christmas, all the previous night in the house not a creature, was not impressed with the mouse.

To Hindi:

और क्रिसमस, घर में सभी पिछले रात नहीं एक प्राणी है, माउस से प्रभावित नहीं था.

Back to English:

And Christmas, all in the house not a creature is the last night, was not affected by the mouse.

to Ukrainian:

І Різдво, все в домі не витвір це останній вночі, не постраждали від мишей.

Back to English:

And Christmas, everything in the house not a creature of this last night, is not affected by the mice.

to Filipino:

At Christmas, lahat ng bagay sa bahay ng isang hindi nilikha ng huling gabi na ito, ay hindi apektado ng mice.

Back to English:

At Christmas, everything in the house not a creature of last night, and it has not affected the mice.

to Arabic:

في عيد الميلاد ، كل شيء في المنزل وليس مخلوقا من الليلة الماضية ، وأنها لم تؤثر على الفئران.

Back to English:

Christmas, everything in the house, not creature of the night, and that it did not affect mice.

to Greek:

Χριστούγεννα, τα πάντα στο σπίτι, δεν πλάσμα της νύχτας, και ότι δεν επηρεάζουν τα ποντίκια.

Back to English:

Christmas, everything at home, no creature of the night, and that does not affect mice.

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM: Click the above image to check out some amazing covers from the series Los Vampiros Del Aire (which ran at least 38 issues!) courtesy of Viñetas. Google translate translates the above phrase “Era Una cabeza terrible. ¿Era de hombre?” as “It was a terrible headache. He was a man?”

Update: Reader Gabriel was nice enough to correct Google’s translation for me in the comments. A better translation is “It was a terrible head. He was a man?”

• LOS VAMPIROS DEL AIRE
  from Viñetas
• Dustin Harbin
  from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog
• FOUR COLOUR KONGA
  from Gorilla Men
• Lowbright
  from The Ephemerist
• It’s a bird, it’s a plane ??????????
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Have a very Creepy Christmas
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Classic Covers – True Love, Young Lust and a rope
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Cause’ your life needs more Omac in it…
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Golden Age Gay Robots!
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Machine man does customer service ….
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Richard Corben does ALICE (oh dear)
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Master Post: FRANK MILLER
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• An adventure in Superdickery.
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• The first Joker story…
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Crime Fighter
  from Top Shelf 2.0 Webcomics
• Red Plains: Range War #2, part 1
  from Top Shelf 2.0 Webcomics
• Before Crikey Tuesday Comic Strip Day
  from Those Fabuleous 50’s
• A Double Moccachino With An Extra Shot of Nerves
  from Those Fabuleous 50’s
• Your Head for Mine
  from THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
• Gallery of the Dead
  from THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
• “The Lahassa, Where Life Is Cheap And Death Is Free” (Fox Comics)
  from The Comic Book Catacombs
• Fraser of Africa
  from Sean Phillips
• Heros the Spartan
  from Sean Phillips
• The Quints’ Christmas — Day 1
  from Stripper’s Guide
• The Quints’ Christmas — Day 2
  from Stripper’s Guide
• Two jiggers of “Jigger”: Animal Comics 25 & 27
  from Stanley Stories
• Number 435 Comic book cuties
  from Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine
• More Fountain pens
  from Mattias Inks
• By Degrees
  from Fortress Of Fortitude
• Yuletide One Upmanship
  from Fortress Of Fortitude
• Holiday Tales Bonus! The Marvel Family in “The Year Without a Christmas!”
  from Diversions of the Groovy Kind
• Black and White Wednesday: Doc Savage faces “The Inferno Scheme!"
  from Diversions of the Groovy Kind
• Happy Birthday, Ludwig van
  from cul de sac
• Krazy Kat 1921-05-06
  from Comic Strip Library News
• Krazy Kat 1921-05-05
  from Comic Strip Library News
• Krazy Kat 1921-05-07
  from Comic Strip Library News
• Krazy Kat 1921-05-09
  from Comic Strip Library News
• Storyboards: Huckleberry Hound in Caveman Huck – August 18th, 1961
  from Cartoon SNAP
• Christmas Comic Covers – Part 8
  from Blimey! It’s another blog about comics!
• Christmas Comic Covers – Part 9
  from Blimey! It’s another blog about comics!
• A Day of “Fun With Pop”
  from Again With the Comics
• 19th century illustration of “Pre historic animals and reptiles"
  from Boing Boing
• A propósito de Crumb.
  from Little Nemo’s Kat
• A propósito de Crumb (II).
  from Little Nemo’s Kat
• A propósito de Crumb (III).
  from Little Nemo’s Kat
• Gory Stories Quarterly, underground paródico.
  from Little Nemo’s Kat
• Illustration: Disney Christmas Cards
  from ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
• Signed bookplate update: Burns, Malkasian, Millionaire
  from FLOG! Entries
• Bakshi Blast: Jack Cole’s Plastic Man
  from ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
• Go, Look: Jeremy Eaton On Drugs
  from CR Briefings
• Adventures of the Big Boy
  from Hugo Strikes Back!
• Guest Comic by Danno Klonowski
  from Introspective Comics
• The Home Stretch
  from Boltcity
• Bill Patten at Dusty’s
  from transatlantis
• I’ll Steal This From Dirk Straight Up
  from CR Briefings
• The BMs Page Two As stated last week
  from bewilderedkid.com
• Guest Comic by David Steinlicht
  from Introspective Comics
• Batman #143 – Bat-Hound and the (Christmas) Creature
  from Magic Carpet Burn
• HISTORIETA MUDA COMPLETAMENTE
  from Viñetas
• PRIMAVERA, VERANO, OTOÑO E INVIERNO
  from Viñetas

TODAY’S FEATURED LINK:

Click on John the Baptist’s severed head above to see the Secret Fun Blog’s bizarre collection of old testement Christmas ornaments. Note that this is not even close to the best one.

• Edgar Rice Burroughs The Pellucidar
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• Muntadar “Shoe-Tossing Iraqi Guy” al-Zaidi: Jailed, Beaten, Status Unknown
  from Boing Boing
• Krazy Kaleidoscope
  from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog
• Oscar the Grouch Hates Christmas
  from WFMU’s Beware of the Blog
• Krampus
  from Cryptomundo
• Hofkleiderbuch
  from BibliOdyssey
• Jesse Clinton Parker and prize squash
  from Shorpy Photo Archive – ShorpyBlog
• Warner Bros. Animated Industrials
  from Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation
• Interview: Kevin Huizenga Pt. 1 [of 2]
  from The Daily Cross Hatch
• Vintage Movie Poster: Zombies on Broadway, 1945
  from Found in Mom’s Basement
• 1971 ad for Fisher-Price toys
  from Found in Mom’s Basement
• Eddie Fitzgerald visits Wally Wood’s last apartment
  from Potrzebie
• AN OLD TESTAMENT CHRISTMAS
  from SECRET FUN BLOG
• Celebrities recommend smoking in these vintage ads
  from Found in Mom’s Basement
• Vintage motel signs
  from Found in Mom’s Basement
• A Blog for Animation Legend Fred Moore
  from Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation
• konichiwa kong!
  from Gorilla Men
• Apealing or Unappealing?
  from John K Stuff
• Art Deco L.A.
  from BibliOdyssey
• The Twelve Animated Days of Christmas, #4
  from Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation
• Rankin/Bass’s Tale of Holiday Woe
  from Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation
• 7 Images Too Badass To Be Real (That Totally Are)
  from Cracked: All Posts
• Cabaret Performers
  from Little Hokum Rag
• Cleave’s Coffins
  from Yesterday’s Papers
• Christmas: Gifts From the Air
  from Uncle John’s Crazy Town
• Graphic Novel Review: Burma Chronicles
  from Steve Duin – The Oregonian – OregonLive.com
• The Christmas Rush is On!
  from SLG: Better Comics Through Superior Firepower
• Edgar Rice Burroughs The Venus Series Art by J. Allen St. John
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• Video: Alison Bechdel “Stuck in Vermont”
  from Mike Lynch Cartoons
• Spain Rodriguez video
  from THE BEAT
• Recounter Intelligence
  from news from me
• First look: The Squirrel Machine by Hans Rickheit
  from FLOG! Entries
• Iraq Shoe Tosser Guy: The Animated Gifs
  from Boing Boing
• Send your old shoes to Dubya’s Liberry
  from Boing Boing
• Classical music performed by the Muppets: Ode to Beeker and the Blue Gonzo Chicken Waltz
  from Boing Boing
• N is for….
  from Neil Gaiman’s Journal
• Nuclear slide-rules from a time after nukes and before pocket-calculators
  from Boing Boing
• Creepy CCTV posters in the Brighton, UK train station
  from Boing Boing
• Charles Platt on life in prison
  from Boing Boing
• New York Public Library joins Flickr Commons
  from Boing Boing
• Flowchart: How to read flowcharts on XKCD
  from Boing Boing
• Retro-future Santa art
  from Boing Boing
• Array of strange animals found in Southeast Asia
  from Boing Boing
• Henry Jenkins’s Neil Gaiman interview video
  from Boing Boing
• “The Art-Comix Crowd”
  from A Trout In The Milk
• Miami U. Libraries – Victorian Trade Cards
  from Hugo Strikes Back!
• Dec. 17, 2008: Message received
  from Journalista – the news weblog of The Comics Journal
• WFMU’s Antique Phonograph Music Program from Dec 16, 2008
  from WFMU’s Antique Phonograph Music Program
• Webcomics ad networks — one goes, one arrives
  from THE BEAT
• Music Selections at the World-Famous Guantanamo Bay Beach Resort
  from Boing Boing
• Cop seen on video knocking over bicyclist has been indicted
  from Boing Boing
• Is Google Squandering Its Biggest Asset?
  from Techdirt
• Go Watch: James Kochalka Interview
  from CR Briefings
• St. Paul Cartoonist Conspiracy Jam! This Thursday, December 18th, 2008!
  from CONSPIRE!
• Dec. 16, 2008: Not a number
  from Journalista – the news weblog of The Comics Journal
• Alternative Tentacles – Jello Biafra – Open Letter to Barack Obama
  from Alternative Tentacles
• Lying In The Gutters – 12-15-2008
  from Lying In The Gutters
• Sat. Open Studio, Dec. 20, noon to 4 p.m.
  from CONSPIRE!

Here’s an example I scanned of Bub, He’s Always to Blame from 1905 by Everett Lowry. This strip would appear to be very influenced by Swinnerton, specifically his Little Jimmy (which I’ve featured here previously).

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read Everett Lowry’s Mr. Bones in these Chicago Tribune Sundays at Barnacle Press. These also include some amazing, experimental proto-jam comics called Crazy Quilt, done with the Tribune’s staff of cartoonists at the time (which included Gasoline Alley’s creator, genius Frank King). Don’t miss these!

Here is another example of Everett Lowry’s Bub, He’s Always to Blame at Shorpy.

Click here to read more about Everett Lowry at lambiek.net.

The Saturday Morning Blog pointed me to this absolutely bizarre Terrytoon for your viewing pleasure.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database.