THE STYLE IN COMIC ART -- AMERICAN STYLE, 1909 STYLE

In its November 1909 issue, The Strand Magazine published a remarkable article. We remark, that is, in admiration for its clever concept; and in gratitude for how it arranged for prominent cartoonists of the day to "speak" to us via drawings and quotations.

"Style in American Comic Art" was inspired by the magazine's English edition -- an article displaying how one premise was given to various cartoonists for them to interpret, and share with readers their approaches and conceptualizations. Despite the popularity of Punch and other British magazines (and reprint books and postcards) in the United States, most of the English cartoonists would have been strangers to Americans. So the American edition of The Strand declared it independence and surveyed Yankees.

Actually, Yesterday's Papers can declare something, too -- a "gotcha" on one of the magazine-history field's most prominent authorities, Frank Luther Mott. Respected for his five-volume History of American Magazines and other works -- essential and exhaustive, all -- the estimable Dr Mott nevertheless wrote about the American Strand Magazine that it was "wholly British" -- that is, its contents entirely reprinted from the iconic British monthly.

Not so. Indeed the American magazine was spun off the British original, its contents dated one month differently to appear to be simultaneous. And many features were imported word-for-word. However, not every article in the fiction-and-current-events journal was pertinent or even intelligible to Americans. Also, there were rights entanglements with famous authors and popular series. Finally, to appeal to American readers, home-grown articles and domestic subject-matter was essential to its acceptance.

Hence, the American Strand became a hybrid; it was not "wholly British." (By the way, several otherwise impeccable internet magazine archives confuse, and cross-identify, the British and American editions...) It ran in the US, with respectable readership, between 1891 and 1916, eclipsed by the "mother" edition, whose dates were 1891-1950.

Bibliophiles, and fans of Sherlock Holmes, will immediately associate The Strand with Arthur Conan Doyle's writing. The original appearances of many Sherlock stories were in The Strand. Eventually Doyle wrote directly for the American Collier's; but he wrote other work for The Strand. Among the writers who contributed original work for its pages of both editions were Agatha Christie, P G Wodehouse, Rudyard Kipling, Graham Greene, Georges Simenon, H G Wells, Dorothy Sayers, Count Leo Tolstoy, Edgar Wallace, Max Beerbohm, and (a personal favorite) the great W W Jacobs. 

An enterprising Strand editor in 1909 duplicated the original British theme (since YP has international readership, we will reprint that article in coming days) and prominent American cartoonists were approached. Their challenge was to illustrate this premise: 

A large dog is rushing madly among a crowd of terrified pedestrians, who are scattering in all directions. Holding grimly to the "lead" attached to the supposedly ferocious animal is a very small boy who, far from having any control over the creature's actions, is being whirled through space at the joyous animal's pleasure. But he hangs on manfully, exclaiming as his body cleaves the air, "What's the matter with the folks? Can't they see I've got hold of the dog?"

Even granting for the changes in taste between the Edwardian Age and now, this idea promised fewer laughs than insights into cartoonists' creativity. It is interesting to note that of the nine artists, five were from the weekly comic magazines, and four were newspaper cartoonists -- a good sampling of perspectives and disciplines.

The cartoonists were Eugene Zimmerman (ZIM), Judge Magazine; the young James Montgomery Flagg, Judge and Life; Walt McDougall, various newspapers; Winsor McCay (also identified as "Silas"), the Bennett newspapers; W H Gallaway, Puck Magazine; Albert Levering, Puck; James Donahey, Cleveland Plain Dealer; William J Steinigans, New York World; and Hy Mayer, freelance cartoonist and illustrator.

The cartoonists' comments can be seen by enlarging these pages; and I will quote from them, with British cartoonists' ruminations, when we share the UK part of the story.

        

MUG SHOTS

Caricature is a special category of art. It is midway between portrait and parody; reality and exaggeration; truth and...

Well, it usually can be closer to Truth, in its special manner, than a photograph. Caricaturists focus on more than likenesses, but seek to capture the essence of their subjects -- what is "beneath the surface," character traits displayed through a single image, and (more than in paintings or even photographs) the personality of the victim.

Among the first caricatures studied as such are sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. He presumably was interested in drawing some people's faces because of their bizarre or exaggerated features -- huge noses, malocclusions, warts and all. Yet Leonardo exaggerated even more than nature graced (or cursed) these people who faced the world. So to speak.

Many caricaturists are serious artists and painters. But very few artists -- not even all cartoonists -- have the gift of caricature. One needs the special talent of a discerning eye (and, some might say, a venomous spirit) to be appreciated as a caricaturist. In a further anomaly, if it be such, not every cartoonist or caricaturist can succeed in auto-portraiture -- self-caricature. Milton Caniff, for instance, could depict anything under the sun, even exaggerated drawings of others. But when he attempted a humorous self-caricature, he routinely looked more like Lou Costello. Fred Lasswell finally drew a dashing matinee idol when asked to sketch himself.

Can I go a step further? The biggest challenge of a caricaturist is choosing to draw a profile. If you are drawing someone and want to amuse his or her friends, draw a profile, but if you want to please (or be paid by) an actual victim... avoid a profile. Most of humanity never sees themselves in profile, except when being fitted by a tailor in a clothes store's multi-mirrored platform; or in the occasional photo snapped at an event. (Or when booked by the cops...)

The legendary humorist and monologist Jean Shepherd was a talented cartoonist. I once drew a caricature of him in the days when he sported a goatee (he said I made him look like "a cross between Lincoln, Lenin, and Castro...") and he gave me a valuable tip seldom expressed elsewhere. He advised me to study and depict the neck of the subject; the size, shape, tilt of the head would follow, thus to capture of attitude as well as the likeness. But he agreed: avoid profiles!

And most difficult of all, challenge upon challenge therefore, is for the cartoonist to draw his or her own caricature in profile. You cannot pose or study oneself and draw at the same time. Yet... it is not impossible. I will offer here some self-caricatures in profile -- drawings that I think have succeeded.

The upcoming revival of NEMO Magazine, with which Yesterday's Papers will connect as a web-arm, will have a running feature, "About Face!" sharing great caricatures and caricaturists. You might see some of these people in days to come: 

Peggy Bacon. If you think she might have been hard on herself, here is her word-description of herself: "Pin-head, parsimoniously covered with thin dark hair, on a short, dumpy body. Small features, prominent nose, chipmunk teeth and no chin, conveying the sharp, weak look of a little rodent. Absent-minded eyes with a half-glimmer of observation. Prim, critical mouth and faint coloring. Personality lifeless, retiring, snippy, quietly egotistical. Lacks vigor and sparkle."

At the other extreme, kinder to himself and possibly to humanity at large, was the great German cartoonist Wilhelm Schulz. He drew for the legendary Simplicissimus magazine from the 1920s till the '50s, was also a poet and a book illustrator.

The great political cartoonist Homer Davenport spared no invective when he caricatured Washington's movers and shakers. He was no less flattering to himself.

I watched Al Capp draw this for me, and he used no three-way mirrors, honest. He was not as jolly as pictured, however. It was near the end of his life. His wooden leg no longer fit well, and he was dying of emphysema. Yes, he chain-smoked all afternoon. "I can do one of two things," he said. "Quit smoking or stop breathing," as he lit another cigarette.

An easy formula -- bald head, bow tie, broad smile? Not automatic. But longtime political cartoonist Cy Hungerford was exactly as advertised -- jolly, outgoing, enthusiastic.

Similar angle to Cy's was Harry Hershfield. Some people believed he looked like his character Abie the Agent, but this disproves it...

The great ZIM -- Eugene Zimmerman -- drew many self-caricatures through the years, 1880s to 1920s, but few in profile and few as fun as himself at the lithographic stone, at work.

 

           

A Gallery of Zim

A gallery of comics by Eugene ‘Zim’ Zimmerman from the pages of Judge, 1908.

Nye and Riley's Railway Guide

From Nye and Riley's Railway Guide by Bill Nye and James Whitcomb Riley illustrated by Baron Constantin V. de Grimm, Eugene (Zim) Zimmerman, Walt McDougall and others, Dearborn Publishing Co., 1888. All shown are inked by Zim.

Read Nye and Riley's Railway Guide HERE

Eugene 'Zim' Zimmerman (1862-1935)

“I have been a baker, a wine bottler, a fish peddler, a silk weaver, a cotton spinner, a farmer, a news-butcher, an oyster opener, an assistant bartender and a sign painter -- and I haven’t gotten over the latter habit yet.” --Zim, 1904 Syracuse Telegram interview.

Eugene Zimmerman, the caricaturist, who signed his eccentric and comical drawings Zim, made his first pictures in frosting on the cakes made for his father’s Paterson bakery. He was most renowned for his magazine cartoons but had contributed caption cartoons to newspapers as early as 1900.

In 1882 Zim settled in Elmira, New York, where he worked in a shop with Brassington, a sign painter.

“Brassington brought to the (Syracuse) Telegram office some deucedly clever crayon cartoons and asked if we could not use them. When asked who drew them Brassington said they were the work of a “kid” that he had working for him; but added: “He’s a wonder and ought to be given the chance to get ahead.” The Telegram men agreed with Brassington.”

“In those days however, all newspaper cuts were made on wood -- a very expensive and slow process. The Telegram could not afford the luxury of cartoons in its babyhood. It had half a dozen made from the drawings that Brassington left. These at once attracted the attention of Puck as being the handiwork of a promising cartoonist.”

After a period of supplying cartoons to Puck, Zim accepted the post of assistant art director at Judge. In 1911 the Syracuse Herald published his Sunday comic strips “Lena Undt Loui” and “Raphael Rembrant” which led off a crew of Sunday pages that included “Sambo and his Funny Noises,” by Billy Marriner; “Mr. O. U. Absentmind” by pioneer animator J. R. Bray; “Cwaking Cwacks with Cwack” by ‘Quack;’ and “Bub -- He’s Always to Blame” by Everett E. Lowry. Zim also drew a series of panels of drawing lessons for the readers. Zim was author of Zim’s Characters in Pen and Ink and Caricature for Students of Comic Art. Zim was the director of Zim’s Correspondence School of Cartooning, Comic Art, and Caricature.

Zim was born May 25, 1862 and died March 26, 1935.

Syracuse Herald, New York, August 20, 1911 >

America's Greatest Cartoonist, Zim, Will Draw for The Sunday Herald

America's foremost living: cartoonist, Eugene Zimmerman, known the world over as Zim, has for the first time entered the newspaper field with his clever drawings, and The Syracuse Sunday Herald has secured the rights to a series of sketches which are to appear in the colored comic section beginning Sunday, September 2d.

At the time or his introduction to the American public through the pages of Puck, Zim was only 22 years of age and he had been the hero of many trying experiences. Born in the Swiss city of Bagel in 1862, at the death of his mother, which occurred when he was 2 years of age, he was sent to Alsace to be cared for by an aunt, and as a boy was a close observer of the thrilling events in that province, during the Franco-Prussian war. At that time he was sent to America to join his father, who had opened a bakery In Paterson. N. J., and had made up his mind to remain permanently in this country.

Zlmmerman began his American career by becoming a pupil in the public school and by delivering the product of his father's ovens nights and mornings. The life did not appeal to him and he proceeded to vary it with a succession of occupations which embraced a brief trial of the real estate and insurance business, a trying experience as a silk weaver, and a subsequent experience with a cotton loom, an unsuccessful try-out as a fish peddler, and an unsatisfactory experience as a farm hand. 

Then Zim became a sign painter, was graduated speedily into an advertising pictorial sign artist and stencil cutter and for the first time in his life began to take on interest in work. Then his inborn talent for caricature asserted itself and some of his signs of that period are veritable works of humorous art.

His development into a full-fledged cartoonist he ascribes to accident. His business as a sign painter grew slack In Western New York and on a borrowed capital of $10 he made his way to New York city, where he failed to make good at once at his trade and in sheer desperation went to Joseph Keppler, the influential man at the office of Puck, with a bundle of his water color sketches. Keppler recognized the merit in these drawings and offered the young man a position on the paper.

Three years later, then known as Zim throughout the country, the cartoonist joined the staff of the recently established Judge. Its instant success was due in great part to his genius for political caricature and his apparently inexhaustible store of graphic humor. For more than a quarter of a century Zimmerman has maintained his connection with Judge and has become so identified with the journal that the signature of Zim has long been its most successful feature.

And now for the first time in his long career as a caricaturist Mr. Zimmerman has consented to lend this product of his rare and always refined art to newspaper publication. As a friend has written of him, "There are many cartoonists and comic artists — many good men with their heart in their work, men who are real creators, artists who have established the serial drawings which appear In the Sunday editions of the metropolitan papers, but who among the vast number can in any measure equal Zim? Who besides Zim can draw a real hand, a real foot or a smile upon the face and still make it funny? There is none. Zim is in a world by himself."

Watch for Zim on the front page of The Sunday Herald's comic section. In his first sketches he will show how easy it is to be a cartoonist.

Original Zim drawing courtesy Don Kurtz

*Thanks to Leonardo De Sá for obituary clippings.