Here’s the other Foxy Grandpa short film still in existence and on the internet.
Husband and wife team of Joseph J. Hart and Carrie DeMar perform a vaudeville-style dance as cartoon characters Foxy Grandpa and Polly.
From the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.
Here’s an example I scanned of Foxy Grandpa from 1904 by Bunny (Carl Edward Schultze).
Click the image to view the full strip.
Click here to read more examples of Foxy Grandpa at Barnacle Press.
Click here to read more about Carl Edward Schultze at The Stripper’s Guide.
Click here to read more about Carl Edward Schultze at lambiek.net.
Click here to read more about Foxy Grandpa at Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.
Foxy Grandpa was popular enough in 1902 to be in a series of short films (1902 AMB mutoscopes, preserved by the Library of Congress). I imagine this is very likely to be the first adaptation of a comic strip to the screen… hard to say, though, since old film has fared even worse than old newsprint. Beats the hell out of the Garfield movies.
Here’s an example I scanned of Foxy Grandpa from 1905 by Bunny (Carl Edward Schultze). In spite of being one of the best known comics of its era according to Don Markstein’s Toonopedia, looking at Amazon it appears that there hasn’t been a reprint book of Foxy Grandpa since 1916.
Click the image to view the full strip.
Click here to read more examples of Foxy Grandpa at Barnacle Press.
Click here to read more about Carl Edward Schultze at The Stripper’s Guide.
Click here to read more about Carl Edward Schultze at lambiek.net.
Click here to read more about Foxy Grandpa at Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.
Here’s an example I scanned of Glad Rags, the Corpulent Tramp by William F. Marriner and How Would You Like To Be John? by an unknown artist from 1905. Can anyone out there identify the artist of the John strip? If so, please let us know in the comments. Omne-bo-point?
UPDATE: Cole Johnson identified the artist of How Would You Like To Be John? as J.A. Lemon. Thanks, Cole!
Click the image to view the full strip.
Click here to read about William F. Marriner at lambiek.net.
Winsor McCay was a pioneer in both comic strips and animated films, and he did both disciplines more skillfully than anyone else attempting them at the time. This lovely cartoon was hand animated on rice paper and color tinted by hand on the film by Winsor McCay in 1911, if you can believe that. 1911!
Please be advised that like much of the popular culture of the era, it contains offensive racial depictions. If this sort of thing offends you, you may not want to view it.
Read more about this cartoon on the Big Cartoon Database here.
Read more about Winsor McCay at Lambiek.net.
Read more about Winsor McCay on Wikipedia.
There is a DVD that collects Winsor McCay’s cartoons that can be purchased here.
I think all his cartoons are available on the internet as well.
Here’s a wonderfully animated example I scanned of Gus Mager’s Hawkshaw the Detective. See previous entries I’ve made about Mager here. Notice how much the art looks like a Rudolph Dirks’ Katzenjammer Kids strip? That’s because Mager was Dirks’ assistant.
Can anyone out there name all the characters in the footer bar?
Note that this strip contains offensive racial depictions, as was typical of the comic strips of the era… if you are deeply offended by that sort of thing, you may not want to view it.
Click the image to view the full strip.
See examples of Mager’s Hawkshaw the Detective on Barnacle Press here.
See examples of Mager’s Monks on Barnacle Press here.
Read more about Hawkshaw the Detective on Don Markstein’s Toonopedia here.
Here’s one of the two cartoon adaptations of Milt Gross’ Count Screwloose. It isn’t a very good translation of the feel and charm of the comic strip, but it is fun and very well animated. The loony bin is nowhere to be seen. Why they decided to change Iggy’s name to J.R. the Wonder Dog I have no idea… and they stole his funny hat! You can see the other Count Screwloose cartoon, Wanted: No Master (also from 1939), here.
Note that this cartoon contains offensive racial depictions, and if this sort of thing offends you deeply you may not want to watch it.
Read more about this cartoon on the Big Cartoon Database.
Here’s a wonderfully funny strip I scanned titled Majic Pictures and Cut-Outs by Prof. Bughouse by an unknown artist from 1905. If you can identify the artist, please let me know… his signature is in the lower right panel.
Click the image to view the full strip.
UPDATE: Troylloyd in the comments pointed out something obvious I forgot to mention… the cartoonist’s last name signed in the last panel appears to be Anderson. He also pointed out that there was a Professor Bughouse strip by John A. Lemon in 1904, which is likely to be related to this feature. Thanks, Troylloyd!
Here’s an early (September 1904) example of rarely-reprinted but excellent cartoonist, Gus Mager. He was best known for his strips Sherlocko the Monk and Hawkshaw the Detective, and was also an assistant to Rudolph Dirks on the Captain and the Kids. His “o” ending names for his monkey characters (Sherlocko, Watso, Groucho, etc.) inspired the Marx Brothers names.
See more of Mager’s Monks on Barnacle Press here.
Click the image to view the full strip.