CRUMBLING PAPER: Barney Google by Billy DeBeck

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 exampleand 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.

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

STWALLSKULL'S HEY! KIDS! COMICS!

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?

INTERESTING LINKS: georgeherriman.com: January 16th, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S INTERESTING LINKS

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

Easy pick today. There is much of interest to see at the new George Herriman website, courtesy of Craig Yoe.

INTERESTING LINKS: webcomics.com : January 14th, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S INTERESTING LINKS

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

For the last few months, webcomics.com has been posting a ton of excellent cartooning lessons… it is quickly becoming one of the best places to look on the web for this sort of information (along with the Cartoonist Conspiracy’s Cartooning Lessons rss feed, which you can find here). Many of the articles are user submitted, so if you have information to share, it is a good opportunity to do so. Go check it out!

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : The Harvey Kurtzman Collection : December 19th, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S HEY! KIDS! COMICS!

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

Boing Boing points us to The Harvey Kurtzman Collection, where Joey Anuff is posting scans of his huge collection of rare Harvey Kurtzman art, including a ton of unpublished preliminary materials.

CRUMBLING PAPER: Bub, He’s Always to Blame

Here’s an example I scanned of Bub, He’s Always to Blame from 1905 by Everett Lowry. This strip would appear to be very influenced by Swinnerton, specifically his Little Jimmy (which I’ve featured here previously).

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read Everett Lowry’s Mr. Bones in these Chicago Tribune Sundays at Barnacle Press. These also include some amazing, experimental proto-jam comics called Crazy Quilt, done with the Tribune’s staff of cartoonists at the time (which included Gasoline Alley‘s creator, genius Frank King). Don’t miss these!

Here is another example of Everett Lowry’s Bub, He’s Always to Blame at Shorpy.

Click here to read more about Everett Lowry at lambiek.net.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Carl Barks’ Donald Duck : December 15th, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S HEY! KIDS! COMICS!

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

“The Good Duck Artist,” Carl Barks excelled at both short humor comics (his ten-pagers in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories) and longer adventure stories… in fact he did both better than just about anyone else in comics at the time he worked (using the pseudonymn of “Walt Disney”).

I have examples of both types of stories today… on the adventure side of things, Rodney Bowcock’s Comics and Stories brings us the Donald Duck classic The Gilded Man.

On the short humor strip side, courtesy of the Fortress of Fortitude we have Donald Duck in Silent Night, doing battle with his ongoing next-door nemesis in the 10-pagers, Neighbor Jones. Although drawn in 1945, this story was initially rejected for violence, and was not printed until decades later.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS!: Feininger, Herriman, Capp and Much More at Tras Las Turquesas Cortinas: November 20th, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S HEY! KIDS! COMICS!

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

A lot of nice stuff linked to today from a Spanish blog I ran across called Tras Las Turquesas Cortinas, including Lyonel Feininger, George Herriman, Al Capp and a lot more. The best way to check it out is to just go to the site and explore. Above is a crop from one of the marvelous Feininger Kin-Der Kids strips reprinted there.