Crumbling Paper: George Carlson’s Pie-Faced Prince of Pretzleberg (strip #1)

Posted on April 8, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

I found these nice scans of an installment of George Carlson’s Pie-Face Prince of Pretzleberg from an unknown issue of Jingle Jangle Tales a while ago on Ebay. These are black and white scans from the original art (which is what they were selling). The pages are gorgeously and inventively designed and illustrated, as always seems to have been the case with Carlson. Fun and crazy stories as well.

I wish someone would reprint his entire output, I’d love to read it all. You can see some more of Mr. Carlson’s work in The Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics, if you can find a copy… he also did a Learn to Draw Comics book that I’ve been meaning to order for ages. It is a cheap Dover reprint, only $5.95, which has gotta be a steal.

Sooner or later, I plan to get around to scanning the issues of Jingle Jangle that I’ve acquired.

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4

Crumbling Paper: Uncle Pike by A.D. Reed circa 1903 (and some miscellaneous gags) (strip #1)

Posted on April 6, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s another huge old Sunday scan for you. There are two strips on this page from 1903… the top is

a series of one panel gags by a number of different cartoonists. The only legible signature is that of “Joe Rigby” in the second panel. Here are close ups of the other ones… can anyone out there identify these cartoonists?

From panel 1.

UPDATE: Cole Johnson identified the artist of panel 1 as Carl Anderson.

From panel 3. Looks like “Sanders.”

UPDATE: Cole Johnson identified the artist of panel 3 as C.R.McAuley.

Panel 4 is unsigned.

From panel 5.

UPDATE: Cole Johnson identified the artist of panel 5 as Carl Anderson (as with panel 1).

From panel 6.

UPDATE: Cole Johnson speculates that panel 6 may be by George Herriman… definitely looks like a likely possibility to me as well, although that signature-like scribble may indicate otherwise.

From panel 7. The art looks a bit like James Swinnerton, but I doubt it is him.

UPDATE: Cole Johnson identifies this panel as being by William Marriner.

The second strip is “How Uncle Pike Secured the Unanimous Vote” by A.D. Reed. According to the Ohio State collection, Uncle Pike ran from 1902 to 1905.

I’m not sure what paper these are from… the Ohio State copies are from The Philadelphia Press, and the copyright on these is McClure. Click on the below image to view the strip.

700 Things, and the Vigilant Hound

Posted on April 5, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

I previously mentioned the 700 Hobo project I participated in, which had cartoonists from around the world draw interpretations of 700 hobos named by hilarious author John Hodgman.

Since I wrote, the project has expanded in new directions… all the hobos were completed some time ago. Now the group that brought you 700 hobos has conceived of 700 things to draw 700 of… aka the 700 Things Project. These will be tackled gradually, but the first nine are already active.

700 Things
700 Hoboes (give or take 100)
700 Zombies
700 Pirates
700 Underwear Clad Vigilante Mutants
700 Bunnies
700 Unicorns
700 Robots
700 Clowns
700 Knights in Splendiferous Armor

Here’s how it works… at the start of a project people submit names to a list on flickr until it becomes a list of 700 items in the subject. Then they are put into an “official list” and people start drawing. Different peoples’ interpretations of the same character are fine. Once you’ve drawn your illustration, you post it to Flickr and tag it appropriately to be added to the appropriate group. Some of the organizers are also going to do a 700 things website which will eventually suck in the info from Flickr and organize it.

I’m going to try to eventually do at least one drawing for each group as they appear… I’ll post the results here.

Here’s my first drawing for the 700 Underwear Clad Vigilante Mutants (i.e. superheroes) Project… #21 The Vigilant Hound.

THE VIGILANT HOUND

Real Name: Richard Bruce

Identity/Class: Human

Gender: Male

Age: 26

Occupation: Playboy

Group Membership: The Kennel Club

Enemies: The Flea, Bulldog, Hell Hound, The Mail Man, Fire Hydrant

Aliases: The Mutt of Mystery

Base of Operations: New York, NY

First Appearance: Sideshows of Justice #26

Powers/Abilities: Enhanced sense of smell, counter-balancing tail, The Big Bone of Justice.

History: The Vigilant Hound designed his costume with the intent of striking fear into the heart of evildoers… unfortunately his childhood fear of hound dogs proved not to be as universal a fear as he had hoped.

Nevertheless, he had chosen the life of a crime fighter, and fight crime he would. Besides, the tailor who custom designed it for him wouldn’t take returns.

Armed with his big bone of justice, and aided by his 8-year old sidekick Puppy, he mostly strikes laughter into the guts of criminals everywhere. However, in his view, a laughing criminal is almost as vulnerable as a fearful one. At least, that’s what he tells himself.

Also, in my 700 Hobos post I mentioned above showing off my artwork I did for that project, realized I forgot to include one of my hobos… here he is…

Colin that Cheerful Fuck

This cheerful rapscallion is widely hated for his positive attitude in the face of extreme hardship and poverty.

Crumbling Paper: Gluyas Williams Circa 1927 Strip #26

Posted on April 4, 2007 by STWALLSKULL

This is the last item in a series of scans of 1927 strips from cartoonist Gluyas Williams. Thanks again to Zander Cannon for passing these great strips my way. I’m donating the scans to gluyaswilliams.com to give them a more fitting home on the web… hopefully their collection of strips will continue to expand. Click on the image below for the full strip.