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One of the few Homer Davenport sporting cartoons with vignettes I have found. Davenport was really the first popular Americana newspaper sporting cartoonist, before Swinnerton, Dorgan and all the rest. George Dixon was a Canadian pugilist. He was the first black world boxing champion in any weight class (the heavyweight champion title was strictly reserved for white men until the era of Jack Johnson), while also being the first ever Canadian-born boxing champion. Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer ranked Dixon as the #1 Featherweight of all-time. New York Journal, Sept 26, 1896
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I love the sports cartoons of the early strip cartoonists and political cartoonists. They were uninhibited, fun, probably often done while drunk, and really capture the spirit of those early fights. Davenport was often challenged as an artist, for instance with anatomy, but it is hard not to appreciate the fun and the spirit of this cartoon!
ReplyDeleteGreat to see your newest post, John! (from Alan C.)
ReplyDeleteI am very saddened to report that 'YESTERDAY'S PAPERS' founder JOHN ADCOCK has passed away.
ReplyDeleteJohn was a cartoonist, illustrator, storyteller, born in Nelson, B.C. in May 1950, has contributed to Chronicle, Weirdom, and Visions fanzines. John illustrated ‘Ronald and the Dragon’ by Lawrie Peters in 1975. ' From 'A.B. Frost' to 'Zorro', his remarkable 'YESTERDAY'S PAPERS' blog offers a wealth of comic art history and more. He and other comic art historians have written a wonderful selection of illustrated articles. His last post was on May 16th 2024. Since 2008, his blog has had 5,577,150 page views! I have had four articles featured since 2015, but there are many other interesting bit of history to submerse your mind. Thanks John for being such a wonderful person. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and giving others a chance to share as well. RIP JOHN ADCOCK, you will be missed. https://john-adcock.blogspot.com/search?q=Bill Leach