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.

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.

CRUMBLING PAPER: Cicero Sapp

Posted on December 19, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

A little ways to go to New Years still, but here’s an example I scanned of Cicero Sapp from December 31, 1922 by Fred Locher.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read about Fred Locher at lambiek.net.

CRUMBLING PAPER: Taking a look at Newspaperarchive.org… The New Pittsburg Press Staff Includes the World’s Greatest Humorists Cartoonists Writers and Illustrators

Posted on December 18, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Allan Holtz at the excellent blog The Stripper’s Guide (which, if you follow this blog, you have probably noticed I link to it almost every day I post) had a special offer the other day… he was giving away three free month-long memberships to newspaperarchive.com. Anyhow, I wrote him quick and I got one. Thanks, Allan!

I was just exploring it a little bit, and found the below article from the June 1, 1920 New Castle News. Ironically, the two issues of the New Castle News that I just explored had the comics cut out of them (other than George McManus’s Bringing Up Father, which was on it’s own page). I would guess most of the New Castle News editions on the site are that way if some of them are… presumably a comics fan or comic strip dealer “strip mined” the comics out of them before they were scanned, which is not at all an uncommon scenario (I would approximate that 60-70% of the bound books of newspapers that come up on Ebay have been cannibalized this way). Sunday editions appear to be entirely missing.

Strangely, this article seems to be referring to the comics section of The Pittsburg Press… I am not sure what the relationship was to The New Castle News. This is most likely an ad for a paper owned by the same company, I think.

Anyhow, the cannibals missed this article, so, enjoy! Click the image to download a pdf of the page. It is titled The New Pittsburg Press Staff Includes the World’s Greatest Humorists Cartoonists Writers and Illustrators. It has art by and photos of Herriman, McManus, Opper, Hershfield, Tad and many others… although, as I said, the quality is absolutely terrible.

The papers at newspaperarchive.com are simultaneously fascinating and heartbreaking… there is so much to see, but the artwork and text is all converted to vector art (and in most or all cases, they were first mutilated into microfilm or microfiche, and then to vector art)… the quality is abysmal, but the strips can usually be deciphered for their codified meaning with some patience, like the dead sea scrolls.

CRUMBLING PAPER: Bub, He’s Always to Blame

Posted on December 15, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

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.

CRUMBLING PAPER: Billy Bragg

Posted on November 19, 2008 by STWALLSKULL

Here’s an example I scanned of Billy Bragg by C.W. Kahles (the man who brought us the previously posted Billy Bounce strips). I don’t know the year on this one. I don’t believe the prolific Mr. Kahles ever did a comic strip that didn’t feature a protagonist with an alliterative name describing their character.