Monday, March 18, 2024

 

Obscurity of the Day: Adventures of Aaron

 




Adventures of Aaron, in my opinion one of the most innovative, well-drawn and just downright funny newspaper features of the 1990s was, sadly, ignored by most in the newspaper world. 

In 1991, at the tender age of twenty-one Aaron Warner exhibited art and writing chops well beyond his tender years. He was already freelancing to the Kalamazoo Gazette when he created Adventures of Aaron, a zany absurdist take on autobiographical comics. He shopped the feature around to papers in his home state of Michigan, placing it at the Kalamazoo Gazette and a few additional papers. The new comic was well-received and after getting a few years worth of weekly installments under his belt, the series was picked up by Michigan-based comics publisher Chiasmus. Warner's high energy attitude toward his career got him into several more papers, culminating when he snagged the Detroit News as a client. He even found time to write and produce a stage musical version of the strip, create an interactive website, and produce a CD-ROM and other merchandise

With these successes it was time for Warner to approach syndicates, and it wasn't long before the strip was picked up by Tribune Media Services. Tribune had a pretty well-deserved rep for being a bit of a stick-in-the-mud syndicate, but they were trying to upgrade their image a bit in the 90s, and Adventures of Aaron must have seemed perfect for that. Oh, and of course it sure didn't hurt that Warner came to them with an impressive list of clients already on board. 

The syndicated Adventures of Aaron debuted on October 20 1995, and to their credit some of the more forward-thinking papers did sign on, though I understand that only about twenty papers total took the plunge. And what ensued was a low-pitched battle between the young set, who doted on it, and the grannies, who were mortally offended. Adventures of Aaron even won the "Most Hated" vote in a poll by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, beating out even Zippy, which normally walks away with that honour. 

In the boxing ring teens beat grannies almost every time, but those roles are definitely reversed in the newspaper world. Once those grannies start writing pettish letters to the editor the hammer is poised to strike. Adventures of Aaron managed to stay afloat, due I think in good part to tireless marketing and gladhanding by Warner, until August 3 1997. 

Quality may generally lose the wars, but it does occasional win a battle. Adventures of Aaron got a temporary reprieve from the graveyard of cancelled newspaper strips. The Detroit Free Press asked Warner to continue it just for them. Warner accepted and continued producing the strip for another two years, finally deciding to call it quits to pursue other projects with the installment of August 15 1999. 

If you're interested in reading more Adventures of Aaron, there have been a number of comic book reprints; all out of print but not terribly hard to source. The only problem with them is that it is hard to figure out what is reprinted in which comics. It would be great (hint, hint) if Warner would take all his almost decade-long run out of mothballs and publish a complete edition.

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Sunday, March 17, 2024

 

Wish You Were Here, from Cobb Shinn

 

Most of Cobb Shinn's postcards don't specify a maker, but this one is from Taylor-Pratt's "Automobile  Series", #896. The card was postally used in 1913.

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Saturday, March 16, 2024

 

One Shot Wonders: Nine Red Jokes by Clarence Rigby, 1898

 

Clarence Rigby, who made the rounds of many syndicates around the turn of the century, pulls out all the stops with some impressive cartooning on this half-page one-shot, but then doesn't really follow through in the gag department. This seems like a Family Feud game show category -- name nine things that are red, and you'll get a big smooch from Richard Dawson. 

This one-shot ran in the New York World on January 30 1898.

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Friday, March 15, 2024

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Chester Sullivan


(An earlier profile was posted in 2020.) 

Chester Milo Sullivan was born on March 12, 1898, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, according to his birth certificate at Ancestry.com. His parents were Frank and Margrethe. Sullivan’s middle name was on his World War II draft card. 

In the 1900 United States Census, Sullivan was the youngest of four siblings. His family resided in Minneapolis at 759 Washington Street NE. Sullivan’s father was a post office clerk. The family’s address was the same in the 1910 census. 

Sullivan attended East High School. He was the art editor of the school’s monthly magazine, The Spectator

1915 Cardinal yearbook

During World War I Sullivan enlisted in the Marine Corps on July 3, 1918. He was a gunnery sergeant stationed with the Central Reserve Division. His veteran’s file said he was discharged on December 20, 1918. 

According to the 1920 census, Sullivan’s mother, a widow, was the head of the household. The family of four lived at the same address. Sullivan was unemployed.

Sullivan continued his education at the University of Minnesota. He was a member of the fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, and the Aero Club

1922

Minneapolis city directories from 1922 to 1928 listed Sullivan as a commercial artist who lived at 759 NE Washington. 

American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Sullivan was the first artist on the series, Men Who Made the World, which ran from September 21, 1925 to April 16, 1927. The following artists were not credited. Writer Granville E. Dickey was replaced by Dr. Elliott Shoring who may or may not exist. John F. Dille Company was the syndicate.

The Federal Illustrator, Summer 1926, said
Chester Sullivan Illustrates Educational Feature
Chester Sullivan is another young man who following his association with the Federal Schools as an instructor placed a very successful feature, “Men Who Made the World,” with the National Syndicate. This strip is now running in a large number of papers, whose readers keenly appreciate the picture narrative of the “Men Who Made the World.”

John F. Dille, President of the National Newspaper Service says of the feature:

Human emotions, motives, personality and great deeds lend the spectacular to this great feature. It is brilliantly written by an historical authority—Granville Dickey, and superbly drawn by a great illustrator—Chester Sullivan.

In 1929 Sullivan’s address was 2555 Bryant Avenue South. 

On February 11, 1929, he married Marian Lund in Minneapolis.

The 1930 directory said they resided at 2808 Chowen Avenue South. The same address was recorded in the 1930 census. Sullivan was a self-employed advertising artist who had a five-month-old daughter.

According to the 1940 census, the Sullivans lived at 2100 Dupont Avenue South in Minneapolis. Sullivan operated an art studio. He had three years of college.

On February 16, 1942 Sullivan signed his World War II draft card. His home and studio was at 3517 West 28th Street in Minneapolis. He was described as five feet eight inches, 150 pounds with gray eyes and brown hair. He enlisted in the Army on on June 24, 1942. His rank was first lieutenant. 


The Army Air Force magazine, Brief, August 15, 1944, mentioned Sullivan’s contribution to the Tarawa Cricket Club. 
Acutely conscious of certain trends, 1st Lt. Robert North of Alhambra, Calif., decided that something drastic should be done to offset the inroads made in the Pacific by that amiable, sprawling outfit labeled the Short Snorters. 

He conferred with M.Sgt Norman Hoch, a citizen in good standing of Oklahoma City, and they decided that there was a crying need for some sort of exclusive organization in the South Seas, where all sorts of improbable things happen. The Short Snorters, they opined, was getting pretty loose. It used to be limited to those persons who had flown over a body of water, but now it could happen to anybody, like Athlete’s Foot, or rundown heels.

So they founded the Tarawa Cricket Club, and might have run something up a pole to commemorate the occasion, but poles are scarce in that country. Instead, they enlisted the aid of Maj Peter S. Paine of New York City, and Maj Chester M. Sullivan, of Minneapolis, Minn., to help them get under way. 

In case you've wondered, the name comes from the fact that there are a lot of idle cricket fields laid out on the islands. The English used to play the game there before the war, but have given it up for more strenuous activities. 

Maj Sullivan designed a stamp, and unless you’ve had some business in the Pacific war you won’t ever get any closer to it than you are right now. That’s how the thing was made exclusive. Stamps are being distributed to other points—there will be a Kwajalein Chapter, Saipan, Guam, perhaps a Truk Chapter, a Philippines, and no doubt a Tokyo Chapter under the parent Tarawa nucleus. 

The stamps will be held on each island by some responsible officer, probably the S-2, and if you care to join, look him up and he’ll stamp a replica of the informal coat of arms on your stationery, birth certificate, a pair of souvenir panties, or anything else that will take the ink. It costs you a dollar, which is used to buy more stamps for other chapters. 

It was felt that the club would promote a certain comraderie [sic] among the men, for it is a thing that is really exclusive. No outsiders can join—you absolutely have to be on the island before you can join. 

You can have a bill stamped and dash around collecting signatures if you like, but the originators look down their noses frostily on the practice. 

The club is open to everyone from Dogfaces up, and there’s some highpowered company in it. Even generals—especially generals—are potential members, and some belong now. Maj Gen Willis H. Hale belongs, and plugs the club for a commendable venture, according to Lt North. 

Membership won’t make you any money or when you get back home (wars always HAVE cure very many of the ills man is heir to, but ended) you’ll have something as exclusively South Seas as atoll-fishing.
Sullivan’s veteran’s file said he was a lieutenant colonel at his discharge on September 9, 1944. 

The 1950 census counted Sullivan, his wife and daughter in Minneapolis at 120 West 32nd Street. He was a freelance artist who serviced advertising agencies. 

Sullivan retired from the Air Force on August 31, 1958. 

Sullivan illustrated the 1964 book, A Secret for Christmas

Sullivan passed away on February 10, 1973, in Minneapolis. He was laid to rest at the Fort Snelling National Cemetery

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Wednesday, March 13, 2024

 

Obscurity of the Day: It Seems Like Yesterday

 




Many local strips look a little rough around the edges, but Howard Overback and Ernie Hager produced a very fine looking feature in It Seems Like Yesterday, which they sold to the Oregon Journal. It looked so professional that when I stumbled across a few clipped samples of the feature in an old scrapbook I thought for sure it had to have been syndicated. 

Luckily the clips I found betrayed their origin as the Oregon Journal, and it turned out that GenealogyBank, a newspaper archive website I rarely use, had many years of the paper at my disposal. GenealogyBank, by the way, has a user interface much inferior to its sister site, newspapers.com, and its servers are deadly slow. Watching a newspaper page load can make me quite nostalgic for downloading on a 1200 baud modem connection. Unless there's specific material you need that is only on GenealogyBank, and they do have exclusives on  a number of major papers like the Oregon Journal, I would suggest giving them a pass. 

Anyhow, after many hours of watching dust accumulate on my laptop screen as I researched the short run of It Seems Like Yesterday, I can tell you that the feature began running in the Sunday magazine section on July 28 1940. The creators soon talked the Journal into taking their brainchild on a 6-day per week basis, and the feature became a daily on September 30. Everything went tickety-boo for a year and a half, and then Pearl Harbor inconveniently got bombed. Seeing the writing on the wall for these two 20-something creators, they ended with a farewell panel on March 27 1942. Overback was called up in summer 1942, and Hager probably about the same time. While Overback doesn't seem to have gone back into the stripping business when he got home, Hager did, as another of his obscure strips, Stubby Stout, has been covered here on the blog.

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Tuesday, March 12, 2024

 

Mystery Cartoonist: Three Samples from 1914

 


Shoehorning an extra post in on Tuesday this week hoping SG readers can help me through what I think might just be a mental block. 

As I'm slogging through my boxes of unsorted material trying to bring some semblance of order, I came upon these three strips, evidently clipped out of an August 1914 bound volume of some midwest paper (I can't narrow it down any farther based on these tearsheets). 

The style seems familiar but unfortunately not singular enough for that "Aha!" moment for me. I thought H.T. Webster but no, I thought Maurice Ketten but no, none of them quite make sense. Can you help?!

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I can't not think of Jules Feiffer...
 
Out of interest, what's on the other side of these clippings? The little bits of text visible on the edges of these appear to be syndicated blurbs, as they show up in a bunch of papers of the (narrow) time period. I might be able to narrow things down if I could spot, say, a store's advertisement. It's obviously an evening paper, though, based on one blurb.
 
Mostly stock prices, a few ads indicate a midwest location. Since they would have been clipped out of my cache of bound volumes, there's a decent chance they were clipped from a Minneapolis volume, as I had stacks of them.
 
Got it. These are from the Minneapolis Journal. "The Morning Greeting" strip is from page 26 of the 8/7/1914 issue. "That Settles It" is on page 16 of the 8/17/1914 issue. "Five Minutes" is from page 14 of the 8/24/1914 issue. All of these are available on newspapers dot com.
 
And they're by .....?
 
Charles Bartholomew ("Bart") was The Journal's editorial cartoonist at the time. Does the style in the above strips match any of the dozen or so listed in American Newspaper Comics?
 
No, Bart has a very recognizeable style. My guess is that this is a syndicated feature. --Allan
 
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Monday, March 11, 2024

 

Selling It: The Heartbreak of Pizza Face

 

Kleerex was a pimple cream originally manufactured in Canada, but the company crossed the border and set up shop in St. Paul Minnesota to manufacture and  market in the U.S.as well. The company seems to have come on the scene in the mid-1920s, and the U.S. arm was active by the end of the decade.

In the 1940s Kleerex hit upon the idea of making comic strip ads, and it must have worked like a charm because they're so often seen they're almost like ... er ... zits on a teenager? Most of the comic ads were black and white affairs for running in weekday papers, but a few Sunday colour ads also extolled the virtues of Kleerex for zapping face invaders. 

The comic strip ads from the 1940s plow very familiar ground; that some girl or guy could be a movie star if it just weren't for that darn skin turbulence. Dab on a little Kleerex, and voila, the cartoonist doesn't spray black dots all over your face in the next panel!

So why am I dredging this up? Well, it seems that the cartoonist who drew many of those strips is none orther than Al Papas, who (as you can see above) signed his work on occasion. Papas was an easy find for the Kleerex folks, because he was the sports cartoonist at the Minneapolis Star, right in St. Paul's back yard. 

The subject matter might have been a little icky, but Al did a beautiful job on these strips, like the one above that ran in the Detroit News on December 28 1947. But the party didn't last. By 1950 the cartoon ads had disappeared, and a few years later Kleerex stopped advertising in the US altogether. By 1956 they seem to have either gone down the tubes even in Canada, or were advertised through other venues.


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As a former Pizza Face (early 60s), I am presented horrible memories by seeing this strip.
 
I had to re-read the strip to be sure the guy in the blue suit is supposed to be a fellow student. With that receding hairline he looks like a teacher so the last panel brought me up short. Come to think of it, Nancy gains several years after her Kleerex treatment. Maybe the relationship is appropriate after all.
 
My problem was an extreme case; I was a Pepperoni Pizza face. Fortunately I found some Kleerex at a bottle dig site, and my salvation arrived.
 
As a theater kid of the 70s I call BS. None of us adolescents were in a position to discriminate on the basis of pimples. Onstage we had to wear greasy makeup, which covered the zits (possibly making them worse) so complexion didn't figure in casting. Under theatrical lighting and paint we all looked, temporarily, good. Only when you got close -- closer than the audience -- would icky facial topography give us away.

During this era there was a Clearasil commercial on "American Bandstand". A too-pretty teen couple is enacting "Romeo and Juliet" and the guy is looking down and mumbling his lines. He has two or three red specs on his unpainted visage. Voiceover: "I was the lead in the class play ... and all I could think about was everybody staring at my unsightly acne blemishes." Didn't those advertising guys know any actual theater kids? My face and back could be erupting like Vesuvius, but I'd give a performance!

Comic strip ads in the newspaper ... very rare in my memory. Comic strip ads in actual comic books, on the other hand, were reasonably common. The much-parodied Charles Atlas was evidently successful enough to run constantly, and DC had odd public service ads (Superman denouncing prejudice as unpatriotic, Miss America revealing that girls like her go for non-smokers, etc.). Also, for some reason, trade school ads. Somebody figured this was the medium and format to reach adults in need of career guidance. But no acne comic strips. Just the occasional offer of a blackhead extractor.
 
The reason It disappeared may have been that Kleenex was a mercury based product.
 
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Sunday, March 10, 2024

 

Wish You Were Here, from Albert Carmichael

 

Here's another postcard from Albert Carmichael's "Anybody Here Seen Kelly?" series. Taylor Pratt & Company Series 668 was based on a 1908 hit song, but presumably paid no royalties for the privilege.

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Saturday, March 09, 2024

 

One-Shot Wonders: Chinese Money by H.C. Greening, 1903

 

H.C. Greening jumped around, making appearances at most of the New York syndicates in the 1890s to 1900s, and here he is at McClure with a one-shot strip for their January 11 1903 issue. The gag here regards the Chinese wén, a coin of so minor value that the holed currency was commonly strung together in units of 100 or even 1000 to make for any substantial value.

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I've seen some of those coins. The holes in the centre were square!
 
"John" was colloquial slang for a person of Chinese extraction, a term that by 1900 had already been in use for some decades.
 
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Friday, March 08, 2024

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Granville E. Dickey


(An earlier profile was posted in 2020.) 

Granville Edourd Dickey was born on June 24, 1902, in Washington, District of Columbia (DC), according to his World War II draft card. His middle name was found in the Northwestern University Bulletin Annual Catalog 1919–1920

In the 1910 United States Census, Dickey was the oldest of two children born to Raymond and Rose. The family and two servants resided in DC at 1358  Otis Place. Dickey’s father was an attorney. 

At age six Dickey was hit by a truck as reported in the Evening Star, February 13, 1909. 

Dickey’s disappearance was front page news in the Evening Star, March 18, 1913 and Washington Times, March 19, 1913. 

Dickey attended Central High School where he participated in swimming. His triumphs were noted in Washington Herald, June 8, 1919. 
... Granville Dickey won the two spectacular events of the meet—the 220 and the 500 yards. He had very little trouble in gaining first in the 220, and in the 500 he won by two lengths. Dickey is considered the best all-around scholastic swimmer. ...
The Dickey family continued to be DC residents, at 1702 Kilbourne Place NW, in the 1920 census. 

Dickey graduated in 1920.

1920 Brecky yearbook

The Central Bulletin, June 15, 1920

In 1921 Dickey attended George Washington University. 

Cherry Tree yearbook

Dickey transferred to Northwestern University in Chicago. In 1924 Dickey graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism. He was a member of the varsity swimming team, and in his senior year was named a member of the all-American swimming team.



American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Dickey was the first writer of Men Who Made the World, which was drawn by Chester Sullivan. The strip started on September 21, 1925 and after five dailies Dickey’s name was replaced by “Dr. Elliott Shoring, Noted Eminent Historian”. Records of this person have not been found. Shoring may have been a pen name. The John F. Dille Company series ran for many years as reprints.

The Evening Star, April 4, 1928, reported Dickey’s marriage. 
The marriage of a former Washingtonian, Mr. Granville E. Dickey, to Miss La Verne Carnes will take place this afternoon in Chicago, the home of the parents of the bride. After an extensive trip to Cuba and Spanish Honduras, they will return to Chicago, where Mr. Dickey is advertising manager for a large wholesale house. 

He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R.B. Dickey of 1702 Kilbourne place. In 1920, when he graduated from Central High School, he was captain of the swimming team and a captain in the Cadet Corps.

In 1924 he was graduated from the College of Journalism of Northwestern University. He was a member of the varsity swimming team, and in his senior year was named as a member of the all-American swimming team.
According to the 1930 census, the couple resided in Oak Park, Illinois at 402 South Cuyler Avenue. Dickey was an advertising copywriter.

The Northwestern University Club of Chicago 1932 Year Book had this entry: 
Dickey, Granville E., J. ’24, “N”; Adv. Man., E. J. Brach & Sons, Adv. for Candy Mfgr., 4656 W. Kinzie, Man. 1200; r. 402 S. Cuyler, Oak Park, Vil. 9283.
Dickey’s father passed away on April 1, 1940. 

Dickey divorced in 1941. 

On November 25, 1941 Dickey testified before the House of Representatives’ committee hearings on the conservation of wildlife. 

On February 14, 1942, Dickey signed his World War II draft card. He lived in Silver Spring, Maryland at 8003 Eastern Avenue, apartment 104. Dickey was employed at the U.S. Conservation Corps in DC. His description was five feet eight-and-a-half inches, 145 pounds, with brown eyes and hair. 


In 1943 Dickey wrote radio scripts for the Food Distribution Administration of the War Food Administration. 

An Evening Star death notice said Dickey’s second wife passed away April 5, 1945. 
Dickey, Ceril. On Thursday, April 5, 1945, at St. Petersburg, Fla. Ceril Dickey, aged 37, formerly of Gaithersburg, Md.; wife of Granville E. Dickey, daughter of Mrs. Florence Cousins, niece of Albert Lancaster, St. Petersburg, Fla. Services and interment St. Petersburg, Fla., on Monday, April 9.
Marketing Activities, January 1947, published Dickey’s article, “Burley Tobacco—New Export Crop?”. 

Dickey passed away on January 28, 1948. Death notices appeared in the Evening Star, January 29, 1948 and the Washington Post, January 30, 1948 (below). 
Dickey Granville E. On Wednesday, January 28, 1948. Granville E. Dickey, father of Rosemary Dickey, son of Rose M. Dickey and the late Raymond B. Dickey, brother of Mrs. Alice Beaton, John Maxwell Dickey and Raymond R. Dickey. Funeral from the W. W. Deal Funeral Home, 4812 Georgia ave. n.w., on Saturday, January 31, at 2 p. m. Relatives and friends invited. Interment Cedar Hill Cemetery.
Dickey was laid to rest at Cedar Hill Cemetery

Dickey’s first wife passed away on February 2, 1966. 

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Wow. Died young.
 
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Wednesday, March 06, 2024

 

Obscurity of the Day: Mr. Lowe

 







Okay, so when I decided that Mr. Lowe would make a good Obscurity of the Day, I didn't know that the strip had been appearing in re-runs on GoComics for several years. Hmm, not so terribly obscure after all. But hey, it's a great strip, and I did the scanning, so yer gettin' 'em. 

Mark Pett's Mr. Lowe is a strip about an enthusiastic young grade school teacher, a subject that Pett knew very, very well since he had recently been one. Pett sold the strip to Creators Syndicate, who in my opinion had every reason to think they had a winner on their hands. The strip is sweet but never saccharine, the gags are consistent, funny and very much rooted in reality, and the art is pretty darn fab. Pile on to that list of plusses that the strip is about a subject very relatable to teachers and students, two big juicy demographics, and it seems like a powerhouse. 

So now is usually when I try to explain why it might not have gone so well. But on this one I'm a bit flummoxed. The best I can come up with is that it got lost among a number of other good strips that debuted in 2000 -- Baldo, James, Monkeyhouse, Pooch Cafe, Red and Rover, Soup to Nutz, Six Chix ... that's a lot of tough competition for very few opening slots. I'll say one thing; it'll be interesting to see what Jeffrey Lindenblatt has to tell us about new features in The 300 series when he gets to year 2000. 

Mister Lowe debuted in a very small number of papers on May 15 2000*, and the last I can find it running is February 10 2001**. It was a Sunday and daily strip, but if the daily is rare, Sundays are like the proverbial hen's teeth. Surely some paper ran them?!?

If you're intrigued enough to read Mr. Lowe, you can get it on GoComics, and there was also a reprint book of the feature published back in 2002 by Cottonwood Press. 

Mark Pett soon returned to syndication with (in my opinion) an even better strip, called Lucky Cow, about employees in a fast-food restaurant. This one managed to stick around for five years, but was barely touch and go for sales the whole time. Since then Pett has recognized the weird newspaper syndication curse that hangs over his head, and has perhaps wisely switched to other pursuits like illustrating books.


* Source: Cartoonist PROfiles #128.

** Source: Salt Lake Tribune.

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I remember this strip well (I was also a fan of "Lucky Cow" for its entire run). Mark Pett's strips deserved more love than it actually got.

I have the reprint book, which contains most, but not all, of the strips. The missing strips I saw for the first time when GoComics reran it.
 
I sent the link to a teacher.
 
I found Salt Lake Tribune running "Mr. Lowe" Sunday strips https://imgur.com/a/xNCyw7A
 
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Monday, March 04, 2024

 

Firsts and Lasts: King of the Royal Mounted Rides Forth

 

 King Features threw a lot of new tabloid Sunday features up against the wall in 1935. Mostly they were needed to fill the new tabloid format Sunday section that Hearst had decided to experiment with, and hey, if they managed to sell the new stuff in syndication so much the better. King of the Royal Mounted definitely got its name in the "so much the better" column, as it took off quite nicely. Nicely enough, in fact, that a daily was added the next year. 

Above is the seldom seen first Sunday of King of the Royal Mounted, which appeared on February 17 1935. The art on this inaugural Sunday was unsigned but by Allen Dean. I love how the story just jumps right in there and rockets right off. No intro, no explanatory dialogue, just slam-bang action. 

As much as I should be well-versed in King of the Royal Mounted lore, being a Canuck and all, I must admit to having read very little of the strip. So I think I'll just shut up and ask you to keep reading over at Don Markstein's Toonopedia, where he gives you all the lowdown on this classic adventure strip. He'll even tell you Sergeant King's first name, and I bet there was a lotta reading went into finding that li'l factoid!

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Trina told me that when she was a kid, she just natcherly figgered that the hero of this strip was THE King of the Royal Mounted. Mounties would have a King, wouldn't they?
 
Hello Allan-
It would have seemed to be better to launch one of the new Tab features the week that the Hearst chain sections converted, on 3rd of February, but they waited until the 17th.
Years ago, Ron Goulart brought up the obscure "MEN OF THE MOUNTED" strip, syndicated by the Toronto Star, as ending on 16 February 1935, indicating that KFS may have had to wait for, or even somehow hasten, that ending, in order to clear the deck for another, presumably better, Mountie strip.
What do you think? I can see a natural fan base in Canada, of course, was it especially supported there? There were foreign clients, of course, I have comic books in Spanish, for instance, where he's "Rey De La Policia."
 
In France, this comics was first issued with the title: "Le Roi de la Police Montée".
 
Hi Mark --
That is a real head-scratcher about the Canadian strip. Do you need permission to feature a real public organization in a strip? If so, it makes perfect sense, as the RCMP might have said, effectively, "Get in line, chum." But I don't recall ever hearing that being a rule -- maybe just a smart and ethical business decision not to peeve the organization on which you're basing a strip.

Do you happen to know if "King..." paid any sort of royalties/commission/donation to the RCMP over the years? Did the RCMP keep tabs on the strip and provide guidance?

Gee, I wonder if "Crock" sought the okay of the French Foreign Legion?

--Allan
 
Never did I ever run into any official connexion to the RCMP with King of the mounted. It would seem that "King" and company are all fictional people, and so the organisation's reputation has no direct stake in it, unlike strips like "War On Crime" which were supposedly actual FBI cases.
When it was launched, I think they had really high hopes for it, after all, it had Zane Grey's name on it, and some licensing and movie contracts appeared, thus avoid a direct competitor at the start to eliminate confusion.
Never ran across much promotional material for the strip, on either side of the border, that's why I was curious if there really was any special feeling by Canadians. I get the impression that it never rose above the status of mediocrity. Note that it was killed off in 1954, right in the middle of a story. No way to treat a strip that had a worthwhile fan or client list.
At some point early on, about 1940, Stephen Schlesinger's name started appearing in the copyright line, so maybe that's a reason for the course of the strip's history- he owned it and not King Features.
 
It should have been well-known here in Canuck-land. The Toronto Star, a de facto national paper, ran the strip to the bitter end.

--Allan
 
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Sunday, March 03, 2024

 

Wish You Were Here, from Rube Goldberg

 

Here's another postcard from Rube Goldberg's Foolish Questions series, also known as Samson Brothers Series 213. This is one of my favourites, the first time I read it I could have done a spit-take.

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Saturday, March 02, 2024

 

One Shot Wonders: The Incubation of Claude Murphy by Carl Anderson, 1897

 

Carl Anderson's famous creation, Henry, did not come to fruition until 1932 when he was an elderly man. Back in the 1890s he was a journeyman cartoonist whose newspaper work appeared mostly in the Hearst-owned New York Journal. In the 1900s he'd branch out more and have series accepted by quite a few syndicates. 

Back in the 1880's and 90s, chicken incubators were the subject of an inventor's race to come up with the best design. Here we see home inventor Mr. Murphy who has come up with his entry in the race. Evidently his version works like a charm based on its efficacy on his son, whose name is either Claude or Mickey -- apparently a miscommunication between the cartoonist and the typographers. 

The only problem with Mr. Murphy's invention is that it simply isn't an incubator. Incubators are for hatching out eggs. What he has created is a chicken BROODER. Being a chicken raiser myself, I can't let such an egregious error pass unremarked. 

This one-shot strip appeared in the New York Journal on March 14 1897.

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Apparently the Incubator was a brand-new, exciting, imagination capturing invention in the late 90s. If one reads lots of comics of that era, it's very noticeable that Incubators are seen or mentioned all the time, often hatching out all kinds of humourously unnatural things.
 
Any specific reason why the "invinter" is Irish, other than making fun of the Irish in general?
 
A similar scene is a photo in a National Lampoon satire of a nonexistent Negligent Mother Magazine.
 
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Friday, March 01, 2024

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Emidio Angelo


(An earlier profile was posted in 2019.) 

Emidio “Mike” Angelo was born on December 4, 1903, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to his World War II draft card and several volumes of Who’s Who in American Art

In the 1910 United States Census, the family name was recorded as Angelone. Angelo was the oldest of three children born to Stanley and Laurens, both Italian immigrants. The family were residents of Mahanoy, Pennsylvania at 216 East Centre Street. His father was a baker.

The 1920 census recorded Angelo as the oldest of six children. The family resided in Philadelphia at 1325 Garnet Street. Angelo was an assistant at a newspaper office.   

Angelo took the correspondence course of the Federal School which was based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He appeared in a Federal Schools advertisement published in Wayside Tales and Cartoons Magazine, November 1921. 

Detail

Angelo was mentioned in The Federal Illustrator, Winter 1926–1927. 

Who’s Who (1989) said Angelo studied at the Philadelphia Museum and School of Industrial Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA). The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 15, 1953, said he started at PAFA in 1924. The 1936–1937 Who’s Who said he was a pupil of George Harding and Henry McCarter. Angelo was awarded PAFA’s European Traveling Scholarship in 1927 and 1928.  

A passenger list, at Ancestry.com, said Angelo arrived in New York city on September 20, 1927. He had departed Cherbourg, France on September 14. His address at the time was 1255 South 21st Street, Philadelphia.

Angelo shared his European experience in The Federal Illustrator, Summer 1928.





According to the 1930 census, Angelo’s mother was a widow who had seven children. The family lived at 1628 South 22nd Street in Philadelphia. Angelo’s occupation was commercial artist. 

The same address was in the 1936–1937 Who’s Who that said Angelo was a member of the Da Vinci Alliance and Fellowship of PAFA. His pen portraits from life included Mussolini, ex-Presidents Coolidge and Taft, William Jennings Bryan, Premier Dino Grandi, Rudolph Valentino and others. His cartoons were published in Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, Life, Judge, Ballyhoo, College Humor, Sales Management, Bell Telephone News and the Public Ledger. He lectured on “Cartoons and Caricatures.”

Who’s Who (1989) said Angelo was the editorial cartoonist for the Main Line Times (Ardmore, Pennsylvania) from 1937 to 1954 and 1981.

The Inquirer, December 12, 1943, said Angelo joined the Inquirer staff and married Yolanda Marinelli in 1938. At the time they had a four-year-old daughter named Joya. Anthony A. Chiurco wrote about his uncle in Up from South Philly (2014) and said Angelo joined the Inquirer staff in 1937. The book has a photograph of Angelo. 

According to the 1940 census, Angelo, his wife and daughter lived in Philadelphia at 845 North 65th Street. The artist had two years of college and earned $4,500 in 1939. A 1940 photograph of Angelo, his wife and brother- and sister-in-laws is at the Archives of American Art

On February 16, 1942, Angelo signed his World War II draft card. His 845 North 65th Street in Philadelphia was crossed out at a later date and updated to 1510 Crest Road in Penfield Downs, Pennsylvania.  


American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Angelo produced Funny Angles from January 1, 1945 to 1958. The panel was known later as Emily and Mabel. Vincent Schiller contributed to the writing.

The Inquirer, February 23, 1952, reported Angelo’s Freedom Foundation “third-place award for an editorial cartoon published last July 11 and entitled, ‘No Let-Up On Vigilance.’ He pictured Uncle Sam scanning storm clouds over Korea.”

The Inquirer, November 15, 1953, reported the annual PAFA exhibition and said 
This is the first year that humor, in the form of a gallery of original cartoons, has been included in these annual exhibitions. Angelo will speak particularly about this phase of the show.
In 1957 a collection of Angelo’s cartoons, The Time of Your Life, was published by the John C. Winston Company.

Who’s Who (1976) said Angelo received the Da Vinci Award silver medals in 1958, 1960 and 1968, and a bronze medal in 1961. He was awarded a gold medal from the Philadelphia Sketch Club in 1969. His memberships included the National Cartoonists Society and the American Editorial Cartoonists. He was the producer of the 1967 short color film, Alighier’s, The Inferno

Editor and Publisher, January 19, 1980, said 
Emidio Angelo, previously a political cartoonist, Philadelphia Inquirer, now draws for the Chestnut Hill Local, a weekly paper.
The 1989 Who’s Who said Angelo was an advance art class instructor at Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. He received the Freedom Foundation Award in 1983. His mailing address was 419 Redleaf Road, Wynnewood Pennsylvania 19096.

Angelo passed away September 2, 1990. An obituary appeared in the Inquirer, September 5, 1990. 


Further Reading and Viewing
The Image of America in Caricature & Cartoon, caricature of Herbert Hoover
Editor & Publisher, February 18, 1950, Emily and Mabel to Hunt a Man Six Days a Week
Editor & Publisher, May 31, 1952, Two Humor Features From Inquirer Staffers


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Wednesday, February 28, 2024

 

Selling It: Mr. E.Z. Duzzit

 

It's a good thing that cartoonists sometimes got to sign their advertisment work, because I long ago waved the white flag trying to spot the art on many of these ads. Between Harry Haenigsen, Dik Browne, Gill Fox and the other cartooning luminaries who seemed to be able to nimbly ape just about any style, I'm lost. 

Here we have a 1943 ad for Duz Detergent, and it's boldly signed by Harry Haenigsen. If it hadn't been signed, Haenigsen would not have been my first guess. Frankly, Adolph Schus might have come to mind first. So thank you to the good folks at Duz who let Harry bask in the limelight. 

Although this ad seems like it would have been part of a series, this is the only installment of Mr. E.Z. Duzzit I've been able to find. I checked over on Ger Apeldoorn's blog, The Fabulous Fifties, because he is a real devotee of these comic strip ads, and it seems I've actually managed to find one he doesn't have over there! 

PS: Here's hoping that all is well with Ger. He hasn't posted in about three months. You out there, buddy? UPDATE: Ger says he's just fine, but busy with other projects right now.


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Admittedly slightly off-topic, but this ad reminded me of a funny Fred Allen radio skit I heard years ago. Fred and Portland played a "realistic" morning show hosts--grumpy, half asleep, and bickering. They were sponsored by Little Panther Spot Remover and DUZNT.

"Other soaps brag about all the things that they do. Well, DUZNT duzn't do anything!"
 
October 27, 1946 Fred Allen Show. He was, for this skit, opposite Tallulah Bankhead, not Portland Hoffa. It's an absolutely brutal takedown of "Tex and Jinx," a morning show on NBC's local New York station, hosted by Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenberg, which had a lot of advertiser plugs in it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vznctFrOUes
 
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Monday, February 26, 2024

 

Obscurity of the Day: The Adventures Abroad of Peleg Price, American

 


Cartoonist Frank Wing was a long-time fixture at the Minneapolis Journal, but gained national fame for his "Fotygraft Albums." These were a series of books of humorous 'photographs' -- actually vividly drawn wash cartoons -- with accompanying comedic comments by a family member who tries to explain them to the reader, who is supposedly visiting the home and looking through the family album. These books have aged surprisingly well, and I find them still quite funny. They're not terribly expensive on the used book market, and I think are well worth seeking out. 

Long before that, when the Minneapolis Journal was producing an in-house page of comics each Sunday, Wing lowered himself to creating a comic strip series for the one and only time in his life. Sporting the hefty title of The Adventures Abroad of Peleg Price, American, it chronicled the misadventures of Peleg Price and his uncle Imri, a pair of bickering rubes who take the Grand Tour of Europe. Wing drew the strip in a fabulous clean line style and the humour was the match for any New York comic-stripper of the day you might wish to name. 

The series began on December 12 1903 with Peleg and Imri saying goodbye to Wheat Corners, Minnesota. They made the whole tour, creating havoc in every European city they visited, and returned to America eight months later on August 20 1904, at which point the strip title changed to Peleg And Imri Return to America. After a few episodes in which they catch up on local doings, they got involved in a political primary campaign when Peleg is nominated to run for his (unnamed) party for Congress. Uncle Imri decides to run against him. On September 17 the strip title was updated once again, to The Campaign at Wheat Corners

On November 12 1904 Peleg wins the nomination of his party and the series comes to an abrupt end. The next week the Journal began running a page of Hearst-produced strips instead of their homegrown material.

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Hark! Do I detect a Mr Dooley neologism?
 
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Sunday, February 25, 2024

 

Wish You Were Here, from Little Nemo


 This is our twelfth and (I think) final card in the Little Nemo series, published by Raphael Tuck. You know the game ... can you identify the Little Nemo strip from which the image was snatched? Or, is it an original penned right out of the noggin of the anonymous Tuck's artist? 

The other big question: we've published 12 cards here at Stripper's Guide, and I believe my cupboard is bare. Are there any others that we've missed?

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Looking at this with sarcastic modern eyes: Nemo is appearing before an enthusiastic audience composed almost exclusively of pretty ladies, several of whom are proffering bouquets or waving lanterns with his name. Would-be valentines. But Nemo, looking coy and maybe even blowing a kiss, appears focused on the lone man holding up flowers. And he's holding hands with his buddy, the two of them in costumes Buster Brown would mock. Certainly no such subtext was intended, or subtext of any kind, this being well within the precious sentimentality of the strip and the era. But it does read funny now.
 
This is based on May 13, 1906.

https://www.comicstriplibrary.org/display/179
 
Brian ... thanks for the ID!

DBenson ... strangely enough I am presently slogging my way through a couple of "scholarly" books on early comics, and the authors both do exactly what you're talking about -- treating 2% probabilty subtexts as if they are outright definitive subject matter. I think in academia the need to say something new and 'important' about these mouldy oldies is encouraging all sorts of ridiculous notions. As Freud said (or should have), "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

--Allan
 
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Saturday, February 24, 2024

 

One-Shot Wonders: The Hickman Murder Trial by Willard Mullin, 1928

 

In the 1920s it wasn't too unusual in the more sensational papers to add graphic interest to news stories by covering them partially in comic strip form, like this example by a very young Willard Mullin. Mullin at this time would have been working for the Los Angeles Herald, a Hearst newspaper, but we see it here in syndicated form via the Denver Post. Mullin later became famous as a sports cartoonist, but this is before that became his specialty. 

The story being illustrated here is the William Edward Hickman kidnapping and murder trial. The 20-year old defendant kidnapped a 12-year old girl and murdered her in grisly fashion while attempting to extort money from her parents. Thankfully he was caught before he could make a habit of this activity. Based on his testimony he felt he was perfectly within his rights to perform such acts in his own self-interest, and seemingly would have continued his behavior in the future to finance himself.

Very Odd Postscript: As the rest of the world listened in horror to the details of this psycho's repugnant crime, he became a hero to a young nut named Ayn Rand. She greatly admired him for his unpitying selfishness, and wrote about her admiration extensively in her diary, terming him a "superman." Hickman would become an inspiration and basis for her inhumane philosophy.

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I just got in a bound volume of internal, house magazines for Scripps-Howard covering this period. It was a period when the SH owned Rocky Mountain News was in a fierce battle with the Denver Post, so it's no wonder the Post went all Hearstian in this, with sex and violence.
 
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Friday, February 23, 2024

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Shorty Shope


(An earlier profile was posted in 2019.) 


Henry Irvin “Shorty” Shope was born on May 11, 1900, in Boulder, Montana, according to Shope’s birth certificate at Ancestry.com. His parents were Ira Daniel Shope and Emily Alvis Shope.

In the 1900 United States Census, month-old Shope was the youngest of three children. Their father was a stationery engineer. The family resided in Boulder. 

According to the 1910 census, Shope was the third of seven siblings. The family resided in township six of Jefferson County, Montana. Shope’s father was a farmer.

The Great Falls Tribune (Montana), November 23, 1977, said the family moved to Missoula, Montana when Shope’s father died.
It was there, in his formative years of 13 throughout 18, that he came under the influence of E.S. Paxson, painter of native Americans and the frontier West.

“He gave me my first lesson in anatomy and would correct and trim up my drawings, illustrated on the side of my paper and even let me watch him paint,” he later said….

His formal art education began in 1919, when he attended both Portland Art Academy and Reed College in Portland….
Shope graduated in 1932 from the University of Montana with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. The Missoulian Sun, September 4, 1966, said Shope met artist Charles M. Russell and studied with Harvey Dunn in New York City.

Shope was mentioned in the Missoulian newspaper on September 5, 1913“Irvin Shope, 13 years old and a nephew of Mrs. W. W. Wickes, was operated upon for appendicitis yesterday morning at St. Patrick’s hospital.” In the May 27, 1914 issue, Shope was one of several speakers in the Roosevelt School’s declamation contest. Shope was listed as an honor student in the February 23, 1917 Missoulian. Shope was a guest at the Christmas party hosted at the Wickes home. 

Farmer Shope signed his World War I draft card on September 12, 1918. His address was 425 West 5th Street in Missoula. His description was short, medium build with blue eyes and light brown hair.

The 1920 census said Fargo, North Dakota was Shope’s home at 1043 Tenth Street North. The head of the household was his widow mother’s brother-in-law, Carl Greenwood. Shope was unemployed.

In the 1920s Shope was a correspondence student with the Federal School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His art was printed in the school’s publication, The Federal Illustrator, Winter 1925–1926 and Fall 1926. 


In the department of Animal Drawings, Irvin Shope, with his “Stage Coach,” carried away the bacon, as the vulgar say. The picture is full of action. Shope is always good at that—so good that he sometimes, like that great original draughtsman of the moving horse, Frederic Remington, sacrifices drawing to movement. I have seen better things of his than this, yet it deserved a prize. The lad is, I think, very promising.
Shope was one of several artists who wrote about the late Charles Russell in The Federal Illustrator, Winter 1926–1927. 




Shope wrote about his painting in The Federal Illustrator, Summer 1927. 


The Poplar Standard (Montana), November 18, 1927, said 
Irvin Shope, of the State university, is exhibiting oil paints of Glacier national park and the Canadian rockies. He was formerly with the forest service.
Shope appeared in The Federal Illustrator, Summer 1928. 

Illustrator of Western Life Busy on Mural Paintings for Glacier Resort
Irvin Shope’s realism in picturing of Western life secured him a place among the prize winners with a pen line drawing nicely adapted to illustrative uses. 

Altho adept in drawing of horses and horsemen, Mr. Shope does not confine himself to drawing them.

“I have just pleased a young husband and was paid liberally for a portrait sketch of his pretty wife,” he writes in a recent letter which also reports good returns in a cover design for a catalogue, an illustration of a vicious broncho to advertise high power gas for a new Montana gas company; two pen drawings for decorative use in a new Spanish home in Los Angeles and another cover design for Triple-X.

The letter continues, “My old friend Justin and Company have asked me to do a painting to be used on a window card advertising their boots, giving me full sway as to subject.

“Then I have been doing some drawing to advertise a new lodge or dude camp just over the edge of Glacier park on beautiful St. Mary’s lake. I am going up there in June to paint a couple of large pictures for the lobby.

“Four years and some odd months of work under encouragement of the old Federal Schools has brought me thus far and now I suppose I can keep going alone but I still want a word from you now and again for a long time.

“I paid my last ten dollars in the first installment for the course and was Wass out of work too. The path between then and now has been rough but I’ll never regret the course I took nor cease to wonder what chance made me write to Federal Schools as I had no first hand information of you folks nor on one to ask who knew anything about you. I was lucky that’s all.”

The late Charles M. Russell gave Mr. Shope high commendation on early drawings in the course and assured him that he was on the right track studying with the Federal Schools.
The 1930 census listed Shope, his mother and three brothers in Missoula, Montana at 425 South Fifth Street West. Shope was a self-employed artist.

The Great Falls Tribune said Shope married Erva Vivian Love, on June 23, 1932 in Missoula. 

Shope received his University of Montana fine arts degree in 1933.

The 1934 Missoula city directory listed artist Shope at 517 Connell Avenue.

American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Shope drew Rusty Rawlins, Cowboy which was written by Glenn Chaffin. The McClure Syndicate strip began in late 1934 and ended in early 1936. The last three weeks were drawn by Tom Maloney.

Shope was mentioned in The Federal Illustrator, Spring 1935. 


The 1940 census recorded Shope, his wife and three daughters in Helena, Montana at 1337 9th Avenue. The advertising artist worked for the Montana Highway Department. The census said Shope had lived in Los Angeles, California in 1935.

During World War II Shope registered with the draft on February 16, 1942. The Helena resident was employed at the Montana Highway Department. 


1956 and 1964 Helena city directories said Shope’s occupation was artist whose address was 1337 9th Avenue.

The Missoulian Sun, September 4, 1966, said several paintings by Shope were to be exhibited at the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Shope was a member of the Cowboy Artists of America, Inc. Shope had three dioramas at the Charles M. Russell Historical Society Museum in Helena. Shope “painted many portraits of Indians, mainly from the Blackfeet tribe in Browning who adopted him as a ‘blood-brother’ in 1937 and gave him the name ‘Wolf Bull.’”

The Independent Record Sun (Montana), August 24, 1969, said between 1950 and 1965 Shope painted murals for the Highway Department, Western Life Insurance Company, First National Bank, Helena Junior High, St. Paul Fire & Marine Building, and the Federal Building in Webster, South Dakota. He contributed a painting every year to the Shedd-Brown Calendar Company starting in 1956. 

Shope passed away November 22, 1977, in Burlington, Massachusetts. The Great Falls Tribune said Shope and his wife were visiting their daughter when he suffered a stroke. He was laid to rest at Boulder Cemetery


Further Reading and Viewing
Montana Historical Markers
How About the Roads?: Montana’s Highway Maps 1934–2004
Montana’s Historical Highway Markers; cover art by Irvin Shope
Meadowlark Gallery; signature
Montana Historical Society, Museum Collections Online
Map: Montana Highway Dept. Frontier & Pioneer Montana, 1937
University of Montana; Irvin “Shorty” Shope Oral History Collection
Surveys and Surveyors of the Public Domain, 1785–1975, Photograph from an oil painting by Montana artist Shorty Shope


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