STWALLSKULL

Amusements, diversions, whirligigs, geegaws, humbugs and comics, comics, comics.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Carl Barks’ Porky of the Mounties : February 17th, 2009

Posted on February 17, 2009 by STWALLSKULL

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

Carl Barks is best known for all his fantastic work on the Disney Duck comics, but he did other wonderful kids comics for Dell as well. Today, Cool-Mo-Dee brings us his one Porky Pig comic book, Porky of the Mounties, which was Four Color issue #48. Pictured above is a small image of the Porky of the Mounties painting that Barks did for the cover of the 1977 Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.

CRUMBLING PAPER: Herr Spiegleburger by Carl Anderson

Posted on February 16, 2009 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s an example I scanned of Herr Spiegelburger aka Herr Spiegelberger from May 7, 1905 by Carl Anderson. Anderson later went on to create the wordless strip Henry, for which he is best-known.

Click the image to view the full strip.

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

Click here to read about Carl Anderson at lambiek.net.

Here is a Carl Anderson fan site with a number of Henry strips.

Somewhat improbably, Henry still exists as a King Features comic strip to this day. I don’t recall ever seeing it in a modern newspaper during my lifetime.

Click here to read more about Carl Anderson’s Henry at Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.

You can find a couple complete Henry comic books here and here.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Jack Kirby’s 2001: A Space Oddysey : February 13th, 2008

Posted on February 13, 2009 by STWALLSKULL

TODAY’S FEATURED LINK:

I’ve been on a Jack Kirby kick lately. I just wrote a Kirby homage my friend Danno is going to illustrate for the Minicomics Dumptruck project (to be called Phenomenal Tangents), and it got me rereading some of the Kirby comics I had in the basement.

A lot of people love Jack Kirby the artist… a smaller group love Jack Kirby the writer. I like Kirby’s writing as much as his art… he is endlessly inventive and bizarre, if often more than a little incoherent. In addition to all his other numerous achievements, he made some of the most dreamlike comics of all time.

Much of his writing seems almost like he is doing a jam comic with himself… rather than seeing a clear big picture, he constantly changes direction, introducing whatever new idea or plot element catches his fancy to talk about and to draw. He writes like a cross of Ed Wood and Phillip K. Dick… inventiveness and surrealism drips from every page of his best work.

One of his best and least-recognized accomplishments I’ve seen is his interpretation of Arthur C. Clarke/Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Oddysey for Marvel Comics in the 70’s. Divorced from having a single protagonist or defining concept beyond the mysterious obelisk through the series, Kirby just goes nuts. I’ve only read random issues of it… however, I’m going to download it and read the whole thing because both The Cross-Eyed Cyclops just posted it (here and here). This is highly unlikely to get reprinted, I think, since it is tied to the 2001 franchise. Don’t miss it.

INTERESTING LINKS: The National Digital Newspaper Program : February 13th, 2009

Posted on February 13, 2009 by STWALLSKULL

Happy Friday the 13th!

TODAY’S FEATURED LINK:

I’m excited to call your attention to The National Digital Newspaper Program, the first online newspaper site I’ve seen where the comics appear to be in reasonably good resolution (you could actually print these and have it look decent)… and it’s free! Thank you, gubbmint, for doing something worthwhile for once! Unfortunately, no color, but still fantastic. Check out the great comics sections from The Salt Lake Herald, for a good example. Those of you out there participating in the previously mentioned BIG FUNNY project will want to check this out for sure!

Also, here’s an index of online newspaper digitization projects.

Below: An example of Gus Mager’s Rhymo the Monk from The Salt Lake Herald, courtesy of the National Digital Newspaper Program. A WHOLE LOT more at the link.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Jack Kirby Illustrates Your Dreams at Cartoon SNAP : February 4th, 2009

Posted on February 4, 2009 by STWALLSKULL

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

Sherm Cohen at Cartoon SNAP brings us some examples of readers’ dreams illustrated by Jack Kirby for the 50’s comic series The Strange World of Your Dreams.

CRUMBLING PAPER: Barney Google by Billy DeBeck

Posted on January 29, 2009 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s a typically funny example I scanned of Barney Google, with header strip Parlor, Bedroom and Sink, which appears to have turned into Bunky eventually, from November 23, 1930 (the depths of the Great Depression) by the great Billy DeBeck. Hard to believe no one is reprinting Barney Google yet… it is truly one of the great strips of the last century. I was thinking I had heard about a reprint project for this a while ago, but if I did, damned if I can find any mention of it now. If there is a strip more deserving of a complete reprinting, I don’t know what it is.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Here are examples of Married Life by Billy DeBeck, courtesy of Barnacle Press.

Here are some assorted strips by Billy DeBeck at Barnacle Press.

Here are some Barney Google/Snuffy Smith strips courtesy of John Adcock at Yesterday’s Papers.

Here’s an old article about Billy DeBeck at The Stripper’s Guide.

Here’s another an old article about Billy DeBeck at The Stripper’s Guide.

Click here to read more about Billy DeBeck at lambiek.net.

Click here to read more about Barney Google at Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.

Click here to read more about Snuffy Smith at Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.

Click here to read more about Bunky at Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.

Here’s a self-portrait of DeBeck (among other cartoonist self-portraits) at entrecomics.com.

Here’s a gallery of fantastic Billy DeBeck sketches at comicartfans.com. Note that there is a lot of other fantastic Billy DeBeck art on that site as well if you do a search for his name (like this one for example… and this one)… for some reason, they unfortunately don’t make it so you can copy and paste a search there.

Here is a bio of Billy DeBeck courtesy of Sekvenskonst

Here is the Wikipedia entry on Billy DeBeck.

Here is Time Magazine’s obituary of Billy DeBeck.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Popeye in Organ Grinder’s Swing (1937)

Posted on January 20, 2009 by STWALLSKULL

A Fleischer Popeye cartoon to add to the Vintage Monkey Cartoons list.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : F.M. Howarth in Scribner’s at Unattended Baggage : January 16th, 2008

Posted on January 16, 2009 by STWALLSKULL

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

Unattended Baggage brings us some rare F.M. Howarth (author of the wonderful Lulu and Leander strip which I have featured numerous times on this site) cartoons from Scribner’s Magazine. See them here and here. Both Howarth and Frederick Opper (Happy Hooligan) were magazine cartoonists who adopted a simpler style for their transitions to the newspaper comics page (not that Howarth’s style ever looks simple)… I wonder if this was a common phenomenon at the time?