Crumbling Paper: Buster Brown Smokes a Cigar (strip #1)

Buster Brown the character was already long dead in the 1950’s… but he was quite a character before they sucked his soul and made him and his dog Tige as innocuous as Hello Kitty. We’ll be focusing on Buster both in his original form as a mischievous imp on the comics page, and also take a look at his bizarre television bedfellows here for the next couple weeks.

“He’s really just a picture… but it’s fun 2 play pretend!”

Crumbling Paper: As Usual, Willie Spoils the Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted on May 9, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s a Thanksgiving example I scanned of Willie Westinghouse Edison Smith, The Boy Inventor by Frank Crane from November 25, 1906. You know how sometimes when you tell someone something you saw that was funny, but it isn’t funny at all when you describe it? Well, this is a strip apparently devoted to that phenomenon.

There is also a lovely Howdy Doody-like illustration in the middle of the page by “Walker” or “Halker”… if you can identify this cartoonist, please let me know and I’ll update the post. Bonus points if you can identify any of the characters in the illustration.

To top it off (or bottom it out, as the case may be) we have The Almost Family- They Have Nothing to Be Thankful For by W.R. Bradford. It appears to be a Little Jimmy clone from this example, right down to the corporal punishment in the last panel.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Please be advised that like many of the comic strips of the era, it contains offensive racial overtones. If this sort of thing offends you, you may not want to view it.

Click here to read about W.R. Bradford at lambiek.net.

Click here to read about Frank Crane at lambiek.net.

Crumbling Paper: Billy DeBeck Cartooning Tutorial #2: Cartoonists Wanted!

Posted on May 8, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s another great Billy DeBeck (of Barney Google fame) tutorial called “Cartoonists Wanted!” from Cartoons Magazine, courtesy of Kirk Taylor of the previously mentioned Taylor-Morse Collection website. Thanks again, Kirk!

Click the image to see a larger version.

Go here to view scans from the January 1916 Cartoons Magazine at the ASIFA Animation Archive.

Here is a large collection of Cartoons Magazine from 1915 at Google Book Search… wish the resolution was a little better, but still a treasure trove.

Read examples of Billy DeBeck’s Barney Google at Barnacle Press.

Read STWALLSKULL’s previous posts on Billy DeBeck and Barney Google.

Check out the Yahoo GoogleGang group that sporadically posts Barney Google strips.

Crumbling Paper: Waggles in Wonderland

Posted on May 6, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s an example I scanned of Waggles in Wonderland from 1908 by Hi Coultaus.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read more examples of Waggles in Wonderland at Barnacle Press.

Click here to read about Hi Coultaus at lambiek.net.

Crumbling Paper: Record of An Early Jam Comic and Billy DeBeck’s Hints on Pen Handling

Posted on May 2, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Kirk Taylor of the previously mentioned Taylor-Morse Collection website sent a couple of very interesting scans to share. First of all, here is an article from a 1915 issue of Cartoons Magazine, about a jam drawing made by a number of cartoonists including Carl Edward “Bunny” Schultze (Foxy Grandpa) and Claire Briggs (Mr. and Mrs.. I’m happy to report that I recently scored a stack of his wonderful work that I will scan and post here eventually. You can see a large sampling of his early work at Barnacle Press here.). Click here to read the article.

Second of all, Kirk sent a wonderful Billy DeBeck tutorial called “A Few Hints on Pen Handling.” Apparently, DeBeck did a regular series of tutorials in Cartoons Magazine… boy would these make a great book. If anyone has more of these to post, I would sure love to post them. I’m definitely going to harass Kirk for some more!

About these, Kirk says:

Cartoonists of the ’20s were a clubby bunch,
I’ve been surprised at the camaraderie among them,
guys like DeBeck serving as mentor to so many younger
unknowns. He’d even invite unpublished comikers from
across the country to write into him from his
instructional editorials in Cartoons Magazine,
encouraging them to submit samples.

Click the image to see a larger version.

Go here to view scans from the January 1916 Cartoons Magazine at the ASIFA Animation Archive.

Here is a large collection of Cartoons Magazine from 1915 at Google Book Search… wish the resolution was a little better, but still a treasure trove.

Read examples of Billy DeBeck’s Barney Google at Barnacle Press.

Read STWALLSKULL’s previous posts on Billy DeBeck and Barney Google.

Check out the Yahoo GoogleGang group that sporadically posts Barney Google strips.

Crumbling Paper: The Awful Result of Having Too Much Curiosity

Posted on May 1, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s a primitive and twisted strip I scanned of what is presumably a one-shot strip titled The Awful Result of Having Too Much Curiosity by an unknown artist… I don’t know the year, but it is over 100 years old. If you think you know who drew it, please enlighten us in the comments.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Crumbling Paper: Polly and Her Pals (strip #3)

Posted on April 30, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s a gorgeous example I scanned of Polly and Her Pals with a Sweethearts and Wives header strip from 1930 by Cliff Sterrett. Sterrett really hit his stride in the late 20’s.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read more examples of Polly and Her Pals at Barnacle Press.

See more examples of Polly and Her Pals from 1936 at the ASIFA Animation Archive.

See another beautiful example of Polly and Her Pals at Michael Sporn Animation, Inc.’s Splog.

One more example of Polly and Her Pals from Shorpy.

One more example of Polly and Her Pals from John K via Bugpowder, where it no longer seems to reside.

See some more Polly and Her Pals (and Dot and Dash, a header strip for Polly by Sterrett) at Coconino World.

Here are some examples of Polly and Her Pals translated to French, from a French collection of 1929-1930 Polly strips which appears to be in print.

Click here to read more about Cliff Sterrett at lambiek.net.

Click here to read more about Polly and Her Pals at Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.

Click here to read more about Cliff Sterrett at stevestiles.com.

Crumbling Paper: Polly! When Your Own Sweet Daughter Cries, You May as Well Give Up (strip #2)

Posted on April 29, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s an example I scanned of Polly and Her Pals from 1914 by Cliff Sterrett.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read more examples of Polly and Her Pals at Barnacle Press.

See more examples of Polly and Her Pals from 1936 at the ASIFA Animation Archive.

See another beautiful example of Polly and Her Pals at Michael Sporn Animation, Inc.’s Splog.

One more example of Polly and Her Pals from Shorpy.

One more example of Polly and Her Pals from John K via Bugpowder, where it no longer seems to reside.

Click here to read more about Cliff Sterrett at lambiek.net.

Click here to read more about Polly and Her Pals at Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.

Click here to read more about Cliff Sterrett at stevestiles.com.

Crumbling Paper: Polly – When Pa Digs in He Has to Stay in (strip #1)

Posted on April 28, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Boy have our friends at the fantastic online comic strip library Barnacle Press been on a roll lately! They’ve posted a collection of more of Swinnerton’s Dear Little Katy, which I published examples of recently. They just posted a bunch of examples of the bizarre and mischievous Uncle Mun (which I’ve also published examples of). Last week they posted examples of one of the earliest daily comic strips, The Hallroom Boys. Best of all, they put up an enormous library of one of the funniest and most visually inventive comic strips of all time, Cliff Sterrett’s Polly and Her Pals. Don’t miss this one. It is a travesty that the few reprint books there have been of this strip are all out of print.

Here’s an example I scanned of Polly and Her Pals by Cliff Sterrett, from 1921. I’ll have a couple more of these this week.