Sports: Indoor and Outdoor

I could care less about sports (is it could or couldn't? Whichever one means “who gives a shit?”). I just see a bunch of flying colors when they're on the screen. I never even know when the Superbowl is. If you were to show me a picture of a strong person and falsely tell me they were a professional athlete, I'd believe you. Mention a team name, I won't even know what sport that is. That said, I like these cartoons.

These cartoons, from Comic Art In America in 1959, represent what was prominent on the sports pages of newspapers at that time. The captions to all these cartoons say more than I ever could.

As much as I like these cartoons, they still haven't convinced me to care about sports.

Herewith the captions:

Floyd Johnson never reached the top, but HYPE IGOE did. The cross-hatching was almost an IGOE trademark.

Sketches of Tim Hegarty and Kid Lavigne, by the great DORGAN, from the New York Evening Journal in December 1904.

TAD DORGAN once more. This Outdoor Sports was drawn shortly before he died.

RUBE GOLDBERG's preview of the Dempsey-Carpentier fight. This was done fifteen years after he left San Francisco, and the figures at the right give some idea of the kind of thing he had been doing all along.

Four immortals drawn by BOB EDGREN for the New York World in 1927. He used many techniques; this was soft pencil.

Some of EDWARD WINDSOR KEMBLE's baseball figures, from Harper's Weekly of July 28, 1900.

A typical Believe it or Not, this one from 1935. Two of the items are on sports,ROBERT RIPLEY's first love.

The lost days of fistic glory: comment by BURRIS JENKINS. JR., on the Ross-McLarnin fight, September 1934.

BILL CRAWFORD helps the Dodgers toward victory.

Golfing luminaries as drawn by PETE LLAZUNA in 1931.

[BELOW LEFT]WILLARD MULLIN's comment on the desertion of the Dodgers and the Giants.

[BELOW RIGHT] Another MULLIN. His bums—originally Brooklyn Dodger fans—are now classic.

LOU DARVAS, in the Cleveland Press, comments on the infrequency of Floyd Patterson's heavyweight title defenses. 1958.

MURRAY OLDERMAN's comment on Bill Veeck, a startlingly individualistic baseball executive.

A group of sketches by KARL HUBENTHAL for the Los Angeles Examiner. Hubenthal does editorial cartoons for the same newspaper.

This is one of TOM PAPROCKI's great cartoons for the AP. Pace, Variety, and good drawing. Drawn in April, 1937.

JOHN PIEROTTI looks askance at the complicated struggle for the middleweight championship.

LEO's version of the old Brooklyn Dodger fan.

Sorry I couldn't include everything in the tags. Blogger will only let me use 200 characters.

Comics: Here to Stay

These were all the illustrations for Comic Art in America, a 1959 book by Stephen Becker about the medium up to that time.
The last strip in the chapter The Beginnings of a Big Business. As per the accompanying caption:
One of RUBE GOLDBERG's famous Foolish Questions, with the old sports cartoonist showing through.

From the chapter Comics: Here to Stay:
The Gumps, 1935, by SIDNEY SMITH. The horizontal line near the bottom was for the benefit of newspapers—even then—which economized on space by trimming their strips.

Another Gumps of 1935. The preoccupation with lost financial opportunities is typical of Andy.

Somebody must have moved this strip while shooting it with a stat camera.  
The first Gasoline Alley, a classic panel, dated August 14, 1919. Walt Wallet is instantly recognizable.

Frank King's Skeezix in a typical scene of army life—griping and deploring officers. 1942.

More army life by FRANK KING. These strips were authentic; what Skeezix went through, we all went through. 1943.

A Sunday Gasoline Alley by FRANK KING. A domestic comedy of errors. 1949.

HAROLD GRAY's Orphan Annie with her Sandy, in a formal pose, backed by a partial gallery of Gray's characters.

A Sunday page of Little Orphan Annie, full of good drawing, suspense, and pathos. Switching from Annie to Daddy Warbucks and back again is highly effective; conceiving and laying out such a Sunday page is no easy task. 1956.

The ageless Harold Teen. This strip is dated 1951, and there are Harold and Shadow at the same old soda fountain, still dreaming.

FRANK WILLARD's beautiful slapstick in a Moon Mullins of 1941. Emmy, as usual, bears the brunt.

A rare technique for WILLARD—a whole daily Moon Mullins in one panel. The dialogue and expressions—especially Willie's—are Willard at his best.

WALTER BERNDT's Smitty. Adults underestimate Smitty, who often makes exactly the same mistake with little brother Herby. 1952.

GENE BYRNES's Reg'lar Fellers, with Jimmy Dugan, Puddn'head, and Pinhead.

AD CARTER'S Just Kids, in 1931. Mush Stebbins and Ignatius Conway were often at sword's point.

One of PERCY CROSBY's war sketches. 1918.

An early and great Skippy, by PERCY CROSBY in 1925.

A superb Skippy by PERCY CROSBY from 1934.

Another great Skippy by PERCY CROSBY, from 1935.

Just the Comics

I'm continuing from two weeks ago using just the strips from Comic Art in America, subtitled “a social history of the funnies, the political cartoons, magazine humor, sporting cartoons, and animated cartoons”, a book by Stephen Becker from 1959.

This was the frontiespiece. The caption said:

WALT McDOUGALL and MARK FENDERSON: “The Unfortunate Fate of a Well-Intentioned Dog”, from the New York World of February 4, 1894. One of the first Sunday comics in color.

It's too bad the book itself doesn't have color reproductions.

The caption here read:

An early version of The Katzenjammer Kids by their originator, RUDOLPH DIRKS, from the New York American of May 22, 1898

From the second chapter, The Beginnings of a Big Business. The caption read:

HARRY HERSHFIELD's Abie the Agent. The strip added several new dimensions (and emotions) to the dialect story.

Another Abie from October 10, 1930. The man's troubles were endless, but so was his ingenuity.

CLIFF STERETT's Polly and Her Pals. Paw never did get used to the younger generation.

Polly again, and a fine example of CLIFF STERRETT's composition.

One of the earliest Newlyweds by GEORGE McMANUS, June 19, 1904. Readers of Bringing Up Father can easily identify this as McManus' work.

A daily Jiggs from 1919, when the strip was already entrenched as a national favorite.

One solution to domestic strife. Jiggs escapes the world of manners for the world that matters.

KNERR's Katzenjammer Kids twenty years after the copyright battle. Mischief everywhere.

The Captain and the Kids by RUDOLPH DIRKS, who lost his original title The Katzenjammer Kids, but retained his rights to the characters.

GOLDBERG's Boob McNutt in his usual pack of trouble. The artist was never short on imagination.

A Boob McNutt heading from 1925. Everybody had heard kids shouting, ”Get a horse”, but only Goldberg would take it literally.