150 Greatest Cartoonists Countdown: #142 Harold Gray

Posted on May 21, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

I’ll start with saying I haven’t read nearly as much Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie as I would like… I’ve picked up some reprints recently that I haven’t got to yet that I’m looking forward to. That said, what I have read has been extremely impressive. I love Gray’s bleak, straightforward art, his sparse, simple backgrounds, and his sense of composition. His storytelling skills made Annie one of the most popular comic strips of the thirties. Fantagraphics did some reprints a while ago… recently IDW Publishing picked it up. A number of different Annie reprints can be found here, including some very cool facsimile editions of her old reprint books from the 20’s and 30’s that were published by the Pacific Comics Club.

Click the above image to see the full strip at comicartfans.com. One other interesting thing I ran across at comicartfans.com while making this post… the last Annie strip by Harold Gray (from 7/20/68).

Click here to read the entry on Harold Gray at lambiek.net.

Crumbling Paper: Happy Hooligan (1911) by Frederick Opper (strip #13)

Posted on May 21, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s another example of Frederick Opper’s strip Happy Hooligan from 1911. Click the image to read the strip.

You can see more examples of Happy Hooligan (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press. Here are some other Opper strips at Barnacle Press.

Here are some other Happy Hooligan examples from Bugpowder.

Here are some other Opper strips from Coconino Classics.

150 Greatest Cartoonists Countdown: #143 Rick Altergott

Posted on May 18, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

#143 Rick Altergott

Rick Altergott’s Doofus and Henry Hotchkiss are the Laurel and Hardy of modern “alternative comics.” Doofus’ obliviousness to and pride in his unintentionally anti-social behavior is always hilarious. Altergott’s style is clean and realistic, which makes his comics that much more effectively unsettling. Click the above image to view the whole Doofus strip at comicartcollective.com (where he sells original art)… more Doofus strips can be found on Mr. Altergott’s website, although the image quality there is terrible, unfortunately. You are much better off doing yourself a favor and buying the Doofus Omnibus anyhow.

Click here to read the entry on Rick Altergott at lambiek.net.

Crumbling Paper: The Love of Lulu and Leander (1905) by F.M. Howarth (strip #13)

Posted on May 18, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s another example of F.M. Howarth’s strip The Love of Lulu and Leander from 1905. Click the image to read the strip.

You can see more examples of this strip (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press.

150 Greatest Cartoonists Countdown: #144 Steven Weissman

Posted on May 17, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

#144 Steven Weissman

Steven Weissman’s does great kid comics in an almost early Charles Schulz big-head style… however his kids are not the Peanuts gang. His heroes are Li’l Bloody, a young vampire, Pull-Apart Boy, Kid Medusa, and a gang of other young monstrous miscreants. Also like Schulz, Weissman is a master of character-based humor. So his comics are kind of like Peanuts, only with violent mayhem and death. So, basically, it isn’t like Peanuts at all. Never mind. You can find many excellent books by Mr. Weissman at Fantagraphics, buy original art from him at the Comic Art Collective. He also has a blog.

Click here to read the entry about Steven Weissman on lambiek.net.

Crumbling Paper: Happy Hooligan (1917) by Frederick Opper (strip #12)

Posted on May 17, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s another example of Frederick Opper’s strip Happy Hooligan from 1917. Click the image to read the strip.

You can see more examples of Happy Hooligan (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press. Here are some other Opper strips at Barnacle Press.

Here are some other Happy Hooligan examples from Bugpowder.

Here are some other Opper strips from Coconino Classics.

150 Greatest Cartoonists Countdown: #145 Bill Wray

Posted on May 15, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

#145 Bill Wray

Alas, Bill Wray has apparently decided to abandon the world of cartooning for landscape painting. His comics are hilarious, gleefully offensive and beautifully/crazily drawn. .. most notably in his Dark Horse comics Big Blown Baby and Hellboy Junior. He also is well known for his memorable work on Ren and Stimpy. You can still buy copies of Big Blown Baby and Hellboy Junior on the Dark Horse Comics site.

Click here to read the entry about Bill Wray on lambiek.net.

Crumbling Paper: The Love of Lulu and Leander (1904) by F.M. Howarth (strip #12)

Posted on May 15, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s another example of F.M. Howarth’s strip The Love of Lulu and Leander from 1904. Click the image to read the strip.

You can see more examples of this strip (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press.

150 Greatest Cartoonists Countdown: #146 Patrick Smith

Posted on May 15, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

#146 Patrick Smith

I wrote about Mr. Smith the other week… he’s the man behind the flash site vectorpark.com. More relevant to our current post, he’s the fella behind the comics in The Ganzfeld Reader #1. Yes, I am including him based on that one book… he is that good. His comics are like nothing else I’ve ever seen. The closest comparison I can come up with is he’s kind of like a cross between Jim Woodring, Mat Brinkman and Pac Man, but that’s not really accurate. His comics are weird, simple and spooky… they feel like they take place in a vacuum. I really hope he makes more comics some day… I have a feeling he would be a lot higher on this ridiculous list pretty quickly.

Above image taken from The Ganzfeld website (which was also designed by Smith).