BARTON IS SUCH SWEET SORROW

The Candle That Burns Twice As Bright

Burns Half As Long

by Rick Marschall

Ralph Barton and his friend Charlie Chaplin

A few words about Ralph Barton (1891-1931), one America's great cartoonists, caricaturists, writers, and wits. In his day he was prolific to an almost superhuman degree. Beginning in his early 20s he sprang like a desert flower, his cartoons appearing in major publications. He was tapped to illustrate many books, including some of the decade's best sellers; and he wrote several books of his own. As a wit, he was sought out as an intimate companion by some of the greatest talents of the day. As a caricaturist he ranks with the best of American artists, in apparent effortlessness "capturing" the likenesses of hundreds of notable celebrities.

Ralph Barton's collected work would fill proverbial volumes -- there ought to be a catalogue raisonné of his work -- and is, in fact, a challenge to track because of the many and varied outlets for which he drew. I have many of the magazines he drew for, and most of the books he wrote and illustrated. I also have original art -- "more than I need but not all that I want" -- as well as photographs and correspondence with his many friends. 

Actors populated his world as much as cartoonists did. Charlie Chaplin was a friend, as was the actor Roland Young (who was himself an excellent, published caricaturist; the Barton-Young correspondence of which I have many pages, and the actor's drawings, will be a feature in the upcoming revival of NEMO Magazine); and of his four wives, two were in the arts -- the actress Carlotta Monterey and the jazz composer (Les Six) Germaine Tailleferre.

Barton in his early 20s became a prominent contributor to Puck Magazine after it had been sold to the Straus family which sought to transform it into an American version of the iconoclastic German and French cartoon magazines. In the early days of the Great War Puck sent the young Barton to Paris as its European correspondent. In those days his drawing style resembled the linear and avant-garde hallmarks of Lawrence Felloes and the Russian-French fashion designer Erté, at that time being introduced to American in the pages of Harper's Bazar (a young John Held Jr was similarly influenced at this time). 

Puck cover, 1916

After Puck Barton worked for Judge, Photoplay, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. In fact Harold Ross named Barton a Contributing Editor of The New Yorker from its first issue, an honor in company with Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott, and Marc Connolly despite the fact that no contributions were required and no compensation exchanged. As with the others he did soon contribute many clever and memorable pieces -- in his case, caricatures, theatrical criticism, and full-page cartoons.

 

                

An example of caricatures -- spot on! -- that Ralph Barton frequently created. He executed these for magazines and newspapers; for ads and theatre programs; even for fabrics and huge theater curtains. 

The books Barton illustrated are testaments to his eclectic vision. He drew full-page cartoons for a deluxe edition of Balzac's Droll Stories; wrote his own humorous books including God's Country and Science In Rhyme Without Reason. The great editor H L Mencken suggested to the movie scenarist and humorist Anita Loos an idea for a series of stories that were collected in one of the 1920s' greatest books, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Her friend Ralph Barton illustrated it and its sequel and a spate of similar humor books. His work with Loos inspired many spinoffs in print, stage, and movies, down unto Marilyn Monroe and Carol Channing's theatrical versions. 

Illustration from Anita Loos' s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

The world was, as the saying goes, his oyster. Barton, as the 1930s dawned, had more assignments than he could handle... yet he did. His output was amazing. He continued to write as well as draw, and he even had dabbled in the movies himself, with the assistance of Charlie Chaplin. He generously introduced another great caricaturist, Miguel Covarrubias, to the American public. However, living half his life in France, his letters to Roland Young reflect a man experiencing severe mood swings about his art, his real-estate searches, and his love life.

His love life, or lack of one, became an obsession after his third wife, Carlotta Monterey, left him. She soon married the playwright Eugene O'Neill, and that loss sent Barton into -- so to speak -- a long day's journey into nightmares. (Note: this is a cheap attempt at a literary pun; there was no relation between the play and Barton. It is ironic, however, that Oona, daughter of O'Neill, eventually married Barton's friend Charlie Chaplin.)

A caricature of  Marion Davies (I believe) (if any reader can identify the actress, please let me know!). From the original art; published in Photoplay Magazine. 

One evening in 1931 the increasingly distraught Barton, in his Manhattan penthouse, wrote a note about having lost the only woman he ever loved. He raised a pistol to his temple and blew his talented brains out.   

There are many geniuses in humankind's history that have lived relatively brief lives; perhaps disproportionately. I have tracked such lives, and deaths, in desultory fashion, and in the 1980s wrote an article for The Comics Journal on the anomaly of cartoonists' suicides. But among creative figures in history -- not all cartoonists; and not all suicides -- there is the very sad list of geniuses who died young: Caravaggio, Raphael, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Beardsley; Purcell, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Gershwin; Bix Beiderbecke, Fats Waller, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Gram Parsons.

Different factors took these creators from us. Schubert died of  syphilis. Van Gogh was a presumed suicide (I am persuaded it was not suicide); as I said there have been many cartoonists, and many "distraught" creators who overdosed or otherwise committed "soft suicides." And of course accidents have claimed the lives of many such as Buddy Holly.

The word "tragedy" is often applied, or misapplied, and these days vulgarized: stripped of its distinctions. Oftentimes, deadly storms are, really, just bad weather (and when not categorized as tragedies are more seriously mischaracterized as "acts of God"). When people "tsk-tsk" over someone's momentary encounter with bad luck, we can be inured to the healthy and contemplative grief wherewith we should reflect on cultural losses. "What if?" is more than a parlor game. 

Mozart and Schubert and Van Gogh created bodies of work that would have exhausted other creators who might have lived to 100. So we think of the adage at the top of this essay (an ancient Chinese proverb, allegedly). If tragedy is, as Aristotle defined and as Elizabethan dramatists thematically affirmed, more than a horrible circumstance but something from which a protagonist is virtually doomed or finds inextricable due to inherent "character flaws," then we must choose our words carefully.

In that view we can imagine what works might have been produced if, say, Ralph Barton had lived to twice his age. Eighty is not an unusual age for artists to attain, and moreover "active till the end." We might have had Ralph Barton's cartoons and caricatures and illustrations and written humor into the 1970s. I am tempted say that the tragedy is ours, too.

An admirer asked Ralph Barton for an autographed and was blessed to receive one... and a self-caricature... and a poem he wrote!

"My autograph cannot be read, (a frightful task to start on!) I'll draw my effigy instead -- Sincerely yours, Ralph Barton"

Before Terry AND the Pirates...

 ORIGINS:

THE ROOTS OF

MILTON CANIFF -- HIS FIRST PUBLISHED STRIPS

by Rick Marschall

In 1925 Milton Caniff of Dayton, Ohio, was a senior at Stivers High School. He was torn between his creative muses, cartooning and the theater. Young Caniff pursued a dual path until he graduated -- he was an actor in the senior class play "Going Up," about an aviator's romance; and he drew cartoons for the school newspaper.

His major contribution was an ongoing strip starring two students, Chic Woozle and Noodles Dingle. It was a humor strip featuring gags and, about half the time, school activities: sports, plays, trips, etc. Chic and Noodles was the awful eponymous title.

Stivers High School began its life in 1908 as Stivers Manual Training School. It has merged with other schools and had its building renovated, and had its named changed from Stivers High School to is today known as Stivers School for the Arts. Milton Caniff is its most famous graduate, and Milt occasionally paid homage to his alma mater, calling it "St Ivers" in his strips. The school honored its alumnus by naming an adjacent street "Milton Caniff Drive."

 

When Milt attended Ohio State University the next year he continued both activities, and progressed in talent and notice. In a story he recounted many times, he besought one of his heroes, the local political cartoonist with a nation reputation, Billy Ireland. The cartoonist's supposed advice: "Stick to your inkpots, kid. Actors don't eat regular." He acted in campus plays, but also signed up for the mail-correspondence cartooning course, the Landon "School."

In my collection I have a rare reprint book he produced at his own expense, collecting the Chic and Noodles strips. It was in the style and format of reprints books of a few syndicated strips -- Mutt and Jeff; Bringing Up Father; TAD's Silk Hat Harry; Roger Bean; Doings of the Van Loons. I also have, and will reproduce material from here in Yesterday's Papers, Milt's college yearbooks (he was Art Editor) and a bookplate he designed.

But here is the cover and three strips from his "professional debut," the Chic and Noodles book. R C Harvey, in his ponderous cinderblock of a biography, nonetheless devoted only a couple paragraphs to Chic and Noodles (spelling it Chick and Noodles in its first reference) and sharing only three strips.

Three strips here, too: one with a self-caricature of Milt (in his mustachioed role in the school play); and a strip in which the two characters unsuccessfully try to outwit a Black sleeping-car porter. Within 10 years Milton Caniff would be depicting other ethnic stereotypes -- and much more: action, adventure, pretty girls, danger, and exotic locals -- in Terry and the Pirates.
  

 

WHEN ELECTION DAY IS CONFRONTED BY DEADLINE DAY

 

How Cartoonists Addressed Presidential Campaigns' Results...

BEFORE the Votes Were Taken

by Rick Marschall

Appropriate to the theme of this post, I wrote this before the results of the Trump-Harris were known (medical distractions...) and before the votes were cast. The "mysterious" aspect resonates, however. 

Back in B.I. (Before the Internet), voting in America was different than now. There were election days, although some rural areas extended the times to cast ballots. Paper ballots everywhere, excpet for arcane wrinkles -- dropping balls in separate boxes (hmmm... poll watchers could tell who you were and which party you favored); glass "fishbowls (so observers could see your ballot), and so forth. Eventually, the United States adopted the "Australian Ballot" -- private preferences.

Results were, of course, eagerly awaited. Telegraph messages were prized. And for years the New York World cast giant magic-lantern messages with the latest headlines and vote tallies onto the face of their imposing building on Park Row, New York City.

But the staffs of weekly magazines -- especially their cartoonists -- had a tougher challenge. The journals might appear on newsstands the day of the election, or close to it... but conceiving, drawing, engraving, printing, and distributing the magazines obliged the cartoonists to either skip the topics (no way!) or fudge the issue. Somehow. 

Joseph Keppler, the founder, chief cartoonist, and editor of Puck Magazine embraced the challenge. He loved creating cartoon puzzles -- if they could be called that: incorporating faces into the backgrounds, props, peripheral elements of his cartoons. One Christmas, Puck even offered a readers' contest for those who could discover and identify the faces of celebrities Keppler "hid" in his cartoons. In 1880, the political wisdom reckoned that the presidential candidates were neck-and-neck. Republican James Garfield was challenged by Gen. Winfield Hancock. 

How to address the campaign, which would be stale news -- anyway, not "new" when the issue would be on sale? Keppler draw two figured representing the two parties, shaking hands in unity. And he incorporated a great number of contemporary politicians' faces on the trees, rocks, and bushes. Here is the cartoon, from the issue dated Nov 3, 1880 -- but drawn and printed several days earlier:

You will find Sen. Roscoe Conkling (after whom the comedian Fatty Arbuckle was named); Sen. James Gillespie Blaine; Interior Secretary Carl Schurz; Marshall Jewell, former postmaster-general; GOP vice-presidential nominee Chester Alan Arthur; former President Ulysses S. Grant, who had contended for the nomination in 1880; Pres. Rutherford Birchard Hayes; Samuel Jones Tilden, 1876 Democratic presidential nominee; Democrat VP nominee William English; Senator John Logan; Tammany Hall boss John Kelly; presidential aspirant Benjamin Butler; Sen. Thomas Bayard; and future New York City Mayor (he would defeat young Theodore Roosevelt in 1886) Abram S Hewitt.

Bernhard Gillam addressed the same challenge in 1892; but he answered in a different manner. Grover Cleveland had been elected president in 1884, the first Democrat since before the Civil War. In 1888 he lost to Benjamin Harrison -- despite winning the popular vote, he lost in the Electoral College... corruption and chicanery winning the day for Harrison in his own state of Indiana. Not unique.

In 1892 the two "incumbents" met. The race was expected to be tight, so Gillam did not feel safe drawing with crossed fingers. His outlet was Judge Magazine. It was a Republican version of Puck, which was generally Democrat. Gillam had drawn the effective "Tattooed Man" cartoons at Keppler's side in 1884, be bolted and made Judge his new home.

Gillam's idea was to draw a political train wreck... and leave blank on his lithographers' stone the pertinent elements until the very last minute! This included the face of the losing candidate. One can discern that he expected, or hoped, that Cleveland would be the loser, because the body on the tracks is more like the corpulent Cleveland than the diminutive Harrison. But... Harrison's bearded and bewildered face was drawn in at the last moment. As were a few other elements, including the annoyed face of The Judge, the magazine's symbolic boss. And -- the elephant with the eye patch? Gillam originally intended that the animal would be a triumphant, rampaging GOP pachyderm.

Two more "in jokes" Gillam managed to fit in: lower left, the bitter face of Judge's publisher and Republican activist James Arkell; and Gillam's self-caricature on an upside-down monkey's body, with an arrow pointing to him from the signature. 

"Honesty is the best politics." 

-- Stan Laurel 

PERCY CROSBY ASPIRES TO PLAY IN THE MAJOR LEAGUE...

 

Now that the Whirled Series

Has Ended -- 

by Rick Marschall

Percy Leo Crosby was born in New York City, on the border between Queens (where the Mets now play) and Brooklyn (where the Dodgers first played). Ironically, he died within sight of his birthplace, sadly in a mental institution where he was cruelly and unjustly assigned by his wife and daughter -- which is a story I shall share in Yesterday's Papers and in the pages of the revived NEMO Magazine. I have inside stories from Crosby's cartoonist friends who pleaded his cause; documentary material in Crosby's hand; etc. 

For the moment, however, from the beginning of his career, not the end: Around 1910-1912, one step above amateur status, Crosby contributed to Judge magazine; the New York Sunday World's FUN supplement; and in postcards. He drew series of themed and titled cards -- "Who's Loony Now?" and "Do It Now," two such. Of these series, and a baseball-themed series, there are no copyrights or publishers indicated, and he might have produced and sold these as a private enterprise.

1905-1915 was the Golden Age of cartoon and comic-character postcards. I have more than 1250 of these in my collection -- major cartoonists, frequently drawing their major characters, or ongoing-themes and observances. Dwig (Clare Victor Dwiggins) was the first among equals, producing hundreds of first-rate drawings and clever ideas.

The young (and equally as little known as Crosby at the time) C A Voight was another cartoonist of the day who produced cartoon postcards with baseball themes -- as with Crosby's cards, usually built around awful puns and wordplay.

These cards I reckon are earlier than 1912, because by that year Crosby's signature on other cards actually was legible. Dik Browne once told me that the mark of an amateur is a cartoonist whose signature can barely be deciphered and sometimes is larger than the figures in the drawing (!) In any event, this selection of P L Crosby's baseball series is interesting regarding Crosby's origins but also sports history. "Cherchez la femme" is an eternal theme, if not an extra-inning game -- but the comment about players' salaries is dispositive in context. The best players of this time barely approached five-figure paychecks, and many stars worked mundane jobs in factories and butcher shops in the off-seasons...

But after his time in the "minor leagues" of cartooning, about a dozen years subsequently, Percy Crosby called up Skippy onto his team...
           

AT THE INTERSECTION OF FUNNY AND FUNNY -- CHARLIE CHAPLIN AND BUD FISHER

 AMERICA'S FAVORITE

FUNNY-MAKERS OF THE 1910s MEET

by Rick Marschall

If a poll had been conducted in the early 'teens in America -- and there might indeed have been such surveys -- despite the heavy competition, it is certain that the nation's favorite comedian was Charlie Chaplin; and the nation's favorite comic strip was Mutt and Jeff.

Chaplin burst on the scene in 1914, and was an immediate hit. His tramp character evoked sympathy, affection, a bit of derision, and even identification, all at once. Seemingly overnight he was a major star of the nascent "movies"; there were Chaplin dolls and toys; and there would be two comic strip featuring him as a character (one would be drawn by the newcomer E C Segar, years before Popeye). In 1915 he was writing, producing, and starring in a series of shorts for Keystone; Mutual, Essanay, and United Artists in his lucrative future.

In newspaper comics, Bud Fisher was the virtual father of the daily strip, certainly the first successful one. After Mr A Mutt wowed readers in San Francisco, Fisher moved to New York, was hired by William Randolph Hearst, introduced a second-banana, Jeff; and -- where have we heard this before? -- had a national sensation on his hands. Toys, dolls, sculptures (!), lapel pins, and comics' earliest successful daily-strip reprint books flooded the nation. A coupon-clipping promotion of a Boston newspaper proved that the public would be interested in comic-strip compilations, and the Ball Publishing Company produced five reprint books during the 1910s. 

Here is the cover of Volume 4, published in 1915, the year Chaplin hit it "biggest" in moving-picture theaters... and the year that Mutt and Jeff was so popular that (thanks in part to the legerdemain of syndication pioneer John Wheeler) Bud Fisher slipped away from Hearst and drew his strip for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World.

In a "meeting of the mirths," we see in my copy of this book that the funnyman Bud Fisher inscribed it to his cinematic counterpart, Charlie Chaplin. (Even though he spelled Charlie's name wring. So, he didn't win any spelling bees...) And the book has Charlie's bookplate! This is how he saw himself at the beginning of his career -- the drawing (alas, unsigned) show the Tramp, rather more bedraggled than usual, as a new arrival in the Big City.

Chaplin recently had arrived in America from England as a member of Fred Karno's music-hall troupe (Stan Laurel, his young understudy) and this indeed might have represented his very first impressions of America. 

VISITING KING FEATURES' ALL-STARS, 1928

 

MAJOR CARTOONISTS GATHER FOR GROUP PHOTO, AND ALMOST SMILE -- 1928

by Rick Marschall

Well, I am being a little sarcastic about America's most prominent fun-makers of the day displaying lassitude, if not boredom. This is a snapshot, and perhaps a moment later they all beamed from ear to ear. Plus, it was while Prohibition still in effect, and newspapermen never "wet their whistles" during the Dry Era.

Seriously, this moment-in-time is interesting glimpse into the people and activities of comics' Golden Age. I have amassed a huge collection of cartoonists' photos -- I mean candids and informal shots; not promotional portraits -- and intend to fashion a History of Comics viewed "behind the drawing board," weaving the growth of the business through anecdotes and private tales. This will unfold in Yesterday's Papers and in NEMO Magazine, maybe into book form. My friends Ivan Briggs and Jim Engel, fellow collectors of this specialized genre, have valuably pledged their help.

The occasion of this jolly gathering was related to the "Just Kids Safety Club," a feel-good promotion built around Ad Carter's eponymous strip. It promoted, obviously, safety -- like encouraging young readers to form clubs and pledge not to walk in front of moving trucks. It promoted, collaterally, the Just Kids comic strip. It lives today, among collectors, by the dozens of character-themed pinbacks that subscribing newspapers distributed to kiddies.

We could run the photo and list the names of the King Features artists and executives; but I will identify the guys, too, by their creations or credentials. Usually I am good at this, but there is one face I cannot place. I will correct in the future when my memory returns. (The photo comes from the collection of my late friend Mary Joe Connolly, daughter of the KFS president.)

I am guessing the photo was taken in 1928. All the guys are wearing Just Kids buttons in their lapels... the "Safety" campaign lasted from 1928 to about 1931... some of these cartoonists were just "hitting" at King Features (Chic Young); some would be leaving (Gene Carr); one was recently hired (Connolly, succeeding Moe Koenigsberg). After 1930, there would have been other faces. 

I will provide the guys' most prominent strip or job, not their full biographies. Left to right, standing: Jimmy Murphy (Toots and Casper); Jack Callahan (Freddy the Sheik); Chic Young (Dumb Dora at the time); Rube Goldberg; Russ Westover (Tillie the Toiler); Harry Hershfield (Abie the Agent); H H Knerr (The Katzenjammer Kids).

In the center, at a slight angle, Ad Carter himself. His role in the promotion included appearances at local newspapers. My own mentor as a cartoonist was Harry Neigher who was on the staff of the Hearst paper in Albany, the Times Union. He told me stories of being assigned the task of shepherding Carter through his appearances and propping him up when asked to draw sketches for the kiddies. (Despite Prohibition, his condition was common among cartoonista and newspapermen of the era.)

Continuing: J T Gortatowski (Hearst executive; head of the Newspaper Feature Service; connected to King Features; later an associate of John Wheeler); then... the manager of the hotel where this event was held (this according to Mary Joe Connolly); Ed Verdier (Little Annie Rooney, which he he drew only into July of 1929, another clue that this photo was taken before then); [unknown to me]; and Joseph V Connolly himself. When Koenigsberg was fired, partly for accepting a medal from the French government, Connolly was hired from the New Haven Register and immediately initiated promotions like the Banshees extravaganzas during American Newspaper Publishers' annual conventions. He guided Blondie through its early years, including the ideas of her marriage to Dagwood and a readers' contest to name their baby. And the Just Kids Safety Club was his brainchild.

Seated, left to right: Guy Viskniskki (Hearst executive, former colleague of John Wheeler as syndication pioneer); Walter Hoban (Jerry On the Job); George McManus (Bringing Up Father); T E Powers (editorial cartoons); Gene Carr (creator of dozens of strips for many newspapers and syndicates since ca. 1902, at the time drawing a daily-strip incarnation of his classic Lady Bountiful).

Speaking personally, among the carr-toonists shown here I have a couple connections. A classmate in first grade was a granddaughter of Gene Carr, and one day her mother brought a scrapbook of his work to class (the cartoonist recently had died). I met John Wheeler, mentioned here, as well as Joe Connolly; I acquired archival material from the widow and daughter, respectively, of these giants of journalism. And I many times met with Rube Goldberg and, especially, Harry Hershfield, when I was young.

A few of the pinbacks issued as promotions in the Just Kids Safety Club campaign. Children actually were encouraged, through local newspapers, to form clubs for which membership certificates and rules sheets were printed. In the strip itself, a storyline featured the character Mush Stebbins almost being injured on a city street.

WHAT'S SO FUNNY? -- ANALYZING THE HUMOR COMIC STRIP IN AMERICA

By Rick Marschall

In 1988 I was invited to be Guest Curator in Salina, Kansas, for the opening exhibition at the new Art Center building. The focus of the exhibition was determined to be the Humor Strip in America, and the Art Center -- one of Middle America's premier independent institutions -- went "all out" to make it a memorable show.

Director Saralyn Reece Hardy contacted me at the suggestion of Marvel artist Kevin Nowlan, whose fine work I knew from my Marvel days and through both our work for The Comics Journal. When all was said and done, it was a six-week adventure, a grand exhibition with 64 originals from my collection (including a Yellow Kid painting, a Calvin and Hobbes daily, and the first Peanuts Sunday page). My friend Jim Scancarelli (Gasoline Alley) drew the poster.

I spoke to a variety of local groups and wrote study guides; a local chorale society sang vintage show tunes based on comic characters; a giant wall of the new center was painted in a Krazy Kat landscape; Universal Press Syndicate sponsored the appearance of Lynn Johnston as a Visiting Artist for a week; the Smithsonian Institution (through the Mid-America Arts Alliance) arranged for a two-year tour of the exhibition; and a handsome 48-page catalog was produced with Jim's fantasy of the Gasoline Alley crew and other legendary characters reading the funnies.

I filled the catalog with articles that would be informative on the subject; scholarly but not academic. I reproduced some noted essays from the past, but wrote one myself, and asked Ron Goulart, Donald Phelps, and Bill Blackbeard to write essays too. 

In the future I will share all these pieces in Yesterday's Papers, with illustrations, and with quotations from cartoonists about their craft. I hope they download legibly (click to enlarge images).  

The first essay has been reprinted occasionally since its first publication in 1924, exactly a century ago: The "Vulgar" Comic Strip by Gilbert Seldes. I secured permission from Seldes's son Tim, my friend who was a literary agent; it appeared in his father's iconic book The Seven Lively Arts.. It has never been reprinted in Yesterday's Papers here -- and since this great archive is a go-to site for scholars... here it is!

 

THE ANTECEDENTS, RELATIVES, FOREBEARS, COUSINS, AND GODPARENTS OF THE COMIC STRIP

 

... THAT IS, THE HISTORY OF THE KINETOGRAPH, KINETOSCOPE, AND KINETO-PHONOGRAPH.

Whew. A project on which I have worked for years -- whether it will be a book or several volumes, ultimately; or articles in NEMO Magazine and here in Yesterday's Papers -- will trace representational art and the written/printed word and how their functions originally were conjoined; their separation at Gutenberg's hands; and how myriad experiments, creations, inventions, even toys, reconciled the these modes of expression.

And how those expressions were manifest in the comic strip, the cinema, and the animated cartoon. Interesting to me (and confirming the evolutionary imperative that was at work) is that, at least in the United States, these three disciplines largely came into existence in a period of a half-dozen years... in a few-square-mile space in Manhattan... and except for only one or two people, by people who neither worked together nor knew each other. Remarkable, really.

The story is not of mere synchronous events and coincidences. The results of the very exciting experiments are fascinating -- inheriting the culture's patrimony of what Prof E H Gombrich called the psychology of pictorial representation; varying degrees of sophistication when story and art partnered their wares; and (what I think is an essential component) the role of commerce, business, and profiteering in their development. Commercial factors were inspirations, enablers, and wet-nurses to these art forms that both mirrored and defined Western Civilization of the 20th century. 

Thomas Edison played a part, as he did in many spheres of life, but so did others associated with him. Typically, these people did not always receive credit (hence, the man you will meet, and his sister, in a moment)... or, largely had their contributions copied, denigrated, or outright stolen. The Patent wars often were hilarious; and the slander, or worse, endured by people like Eadweard Muybridge and Nikola Tesla is sad.

The stories of the early contraptions of Edison and his assistants are fascinating. The Wizard of Menlo Park was a gifted inventor, yet his motivations frequently were commercial -- not impulses that are mutually exclusive. But his priorities were displayed in efforts like his (failed) obsessive pursuit of a substitute for butter, and artificial mother-of-pearl. Many of his dreams and experiments were devoted to exploiting his phonograph. The motion picture (in his mind) would somehow expand the appeal, and profitability, of the phonograph. And when motion pictures themselves were developed, Edison resisted theatrical projection, believing that greater profits would be realized by "peep shows" -- coins dropped into single-person devices.

As the industry grew, in the hands of inevitable rivals, his rejection of theater-projection slowed him... but he caught up with a vengeance, and became a major producer of movies and movie stars in the first years of the form. 

The history's cast of characters is as interesting as any primitive cliff-hangers (often filmed in Fort Lee NJ, the "first Hollywood") --  Muybridge; the cartoonist and film pioneer J Stuart Blackton; Albert E Smith; Grey Latham (one of cartoonist Rose O'Neill's husbands) and... world-wide readers take note, I am well aware of parallel developments, particularly in France at this time; I am focusing on the American aspects of this creative revolution. But an assistant of Edison named William K L Dickson was responsible for many innovations claimed by and developed by Edison.

Dickson (1860-1935) was a Scottish-American inventor whose work for Edison was fecund and entreprenurial... perhaps too ambitious for him to want to remain under Edison's wings. But before he left Edison to pursue his own movie concepts and inventions and partnerships, around 1895, Dickson was either grateful enough, or hero-worshiping, or wily, to kiss up to the Wizard of Menlo Park.

In an article in The Century monthly magazine, subsequently printed as a slim book, Dickson -- or rather his sister Antonia, who was a better writer and promoter -- explained to laymen the theory of moving pictures (we learned of it as persistence-of-motion), the technical challenges of photographing action, the challenge of inventing cameras and projectors, the need of malleable film, etc. He praised Thomas Alva Edison to the skies; and Edison wrote a commendation of Dickson, and himself.

I reproduce here the cover of my copy of his book, printed in 1895. For all of its persiflage and self-promotion, it is a remarkable record the challenges, experiments, solutions, and technical variations undertaken by Edison, Dickson, and others in the 1880s and '90s. Shortly after publishing his paeans and promos, Dickson left Edison's employ and worked with varying degrees of success and accomplishment, on the fringes of the emerging industry.

Meanwhile, across town so to speak, other inventive people were doing with drawings what Edison and Company were doing with photographs -- comic strips in newspapers, and animated drawings on film and in flip-books.

Beneath the cover is a link to the Dicksons' entire short book, a PDF with illustrations including the methodical frame-by-frame sequences of humans and animals in motion. 

       

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002595158&seq=62            

'WE WUZ DOGPATCHED!'

 A vignette, a step back in time, regarding a legendary cartoonist, a neglectful studio, and the Golden Age of comics collecting.

More than (gulp!) half a century ago, I was cartoonist, columnist, and editor at the Connecticut Sunday Herald. In college I had been active, during the turbulent '60s, in conservative student publications and campus politics across the country. In that capacity I got to know Al Capp a bit -- the Li'l Abner cartoonist was enjoying his new "home" on the Right (he had been a liberal icon for years) -- with more contacts than through the comics world.

And within a couple years, I became Al's editor at the New York News Syndicate. And I conducted what would be the last interview with him. On the basis of that interview I was contacted by Al's nephew Tony (his agent) and Simon and Schuster to write, or ghost-write his biography. That never happened: a story for another column.

But while I was at the Herald, the legendary columnist and my mentor Harry Neigher said that he spotted a classified ad in, I think, Saturday Review of Literature. Someone was selling vintage original artwork, send for info. Li'l Abner and Popeye piqued our interest. Someone named Don Brown offered original daily strips ca 1935 for, if I recall, $35 each -- even then, ridiculous bargains.

The "list" was minimal; no reproductions or specific dates; and the seller was a Don Brown, no phone number listed, at a PO Box number in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I sent a check for all the available cash I had and trusted to fate (there was the feeling that Don Brown was cover, perhaps for someone who knew, or preferred to hide from, Al Capp, whose studio was in Cambridge).

Vintage Popeyes primarily floated my boat. None arrived, but a few Abners did... but short of my blind order. Then followed months of inquiries, complaints, networking with other collectors. Since I knew Al, I threatened to make inquiries... at which point "Don Brown" sent a stack of Li'l Abner Sunday tabloid tearsheets from the mid-1930s. Fine, but nothing rare or special, nor desired by me, not negotiated by the mysterious Brown.

I wrote to Al about the whole affair -- never undertaken with any hint of his involvement: quite the opposite -- and received the note from his secretary. In essence, they frequently cleaned the office, and disposed of such treasures (um, not her characterization of 1930s Segar and Capp originals). A few months later I appeared with Al at a conference... asked him directly about a Don Brown and stacks of Abner and Popeye originals. He was supremely uninterested, and didn't even remember why he had multiple Segar originals.

If "Don Brown" is still alive and out of jail, he might be the only person, even among many swindled collectors of the 1970s, who has more regrets than we do. Those original drawings have increased in value a little bit since the Good Old Days...

         

THE FAMILY JULES

 Jules Feiffer, the 95-year-old cartoonist inhabited by the 7-year-old joyful kid.

A couple of profiles and interviews with the great Jules Feiffer recently have appeared in various outlets. The occasion, or excuse to luxuriate in his insights, charm, and wisdom, in Jules' latest book Amazing Grapes, a graphic novel for children.

Predictably, the best interview has been conducted by Steven Heller in his PRINT Magazine blog, Daily Heller -- 
https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-jules-feiffer-at-95-doing-the-best-work-of-my-life/  

(Do you know Steve Heller's site? He has written more books on graphic design and illustration than the fabled library at Alexandria could have held; and has been Art Director of consequential publications; and was a fellow faculty member of the School of Visual Arts. Yesterday's Papers readers should follow his essential work!)

Jules Feiffer is a national treasure, a polymath whose station-stops in the comics world have been mere details, perhaps his most cherished, in a busy life. Comic books (The Spirit), strips (his mononymous Feiffer), books (many collections, and original titles like Passionella and Other Stories), children’s books (including A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears), animation (script for Munro, 1961 Oscar),graphic novels (Kill My Mother and others), illustration (The Phantom Tollbooth), musicals (The Man In the Ceiling), plays (Little Murders), screenplays (Carnal Knowledge and Popeye), novels (such as Harry, The Rat with Women), histories (The Great Comic-Book Heroes), and autobiography (Backing Into Forward). Jules has collected so many awards and honors that he had to move from Manhattan to Shelter Island, just to make room. 

I have been blessed to have known Jules for many years, and occasionally to work with him. When I was Comics Editor of Publishers Newspaper Syndicate I technically was his editor... but with certain cartoonists like Jules and Bill Mauldin and Herblock under my wing, I was taking money under false pretenses. What was there to do but sit back at every creation and marvel at their craft? 

I visited Jules in his Upper West Side apartment during a visit from Chicago, when I was the nominal editor of his weekly Feiffer. It was, more, an excuse for a meet-and-greet, and I had a grand time. I knew that Jules was a historian of early comic books, and learned that he loved vintage newspaper strips too. (In fact, during our visit I agreed to sell him an early Gasoline Alley Sunday original that I had acquired from Vaughn Shoemaker, the Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist and friend of Frank King. 

I had had dinner, that evening, with Maurice Horn, who had hired me to write entries for his World Encyclopedia of Comics. He waited in a local coffee shop for word that he could join us; I asked Jules if that would be OK. It was not. Horn was cordially despised by the National Cartoonists Society, the Newspaper Comics Council, and individual cartoonists -- in fact this even before his imputed offenses in the WEOC; there were controversies stemming from an exhibition at the New York Cultural Center and, well, himself. So Maurice languished in the coffee shop, like one of Edward Hopper's Night Owls.

But my contacts with Jules remained cordial. He wrote an introduction to one of my Popeye reprints volumes for Fantagraphics; and for a Terry and the Pirates reprint book under my Remco imprint. He signed copies of his Barrel of Laughs book for each of children, treasured by them and their father.

In the 1990s I was living in Abington PA. One day I received a call from my friend Tony Auth, the Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist of the Philadelphia Inquirer. He was to host Jules Feiffer and ferry him to an appearance at a Temple in the neighboring town of Cheltenham; would I be interested to have them visit beforehand? I rtaised the ante and invited them for dinner. We spent most of the afternoon looking through books and old magazines and drawings in my collection; then Nancy made a wonderful dinner; then, with a teacher from France who was staying with us at the time, we drove to the packed house in the town's high school.

Now, Abington and Cheltenham are toney communities in the Philly suburbs. Bill Cosby lived in the latter town then, and on the high school's wall of celebrity graduates was Benjamin Netanyahu (if you ever wonder why he speaks like an American). So, it was a sophisticated and literate audience that evening. Jules had his slide-show (note to younger readers: slides were the primal ancestors of PowerPoint...) and talked about politics and art and drama, but kept returned to what had him buzzing -- this cartoonist, that drawing, those great days of graphic satire, that he had just seen at Rick Marschall's. Amazing grapes of my own, that day and evening.

As mentioned in Steve Heller's interview, Jules is having macular problems. Well, his drawing just fine; perhaps a little onerous to produce. His mind is just as facile... and our own eyes and ears and hearts and minds are as open as always to Jules Feiffer's wonderful work.