Saturday, October 25, 2014

 

Herriman Saturday


Thursday, August 27 1908 -- In New York City today an odd news story is reported. It seems that there was this rather diminutive husband of a pretty gal. He was walking the boulevard with her when she came upon a man for whom she had a distinct "affinity." That is to say, their eyes locked and it was lust, love or something to that effect at first sight. The subject of the wife's "affinity", for that is the word the news story used to describe it, was a rather large muscular fellow. The gal and her affinity left the husband high and dry, right there on the sidewalk, and were in the process of boarding a bus, when hubby jumped into action. Though small, hubby was a gamer, and started beating the living bejeezus out of the bruiser. A cop momentarily stopped the brawl, but when the situation was explained to his satisfaction, he let the little fellow continue on his mission to make hamburger out of the affinitee, to the delight of all on hand. Once the bruiser begged for the beating to stop, the cop arrested both men. The wife later on came to the station and tried to bail out both of the men, but only had enough money for hubby.

Herriman uses this curious use of the term 'affinity' to report on a completely different situation, one that is MUCH less interesting, among local Democrats.

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Friday, October 24, 2014

 

Sci-Friday starring Connie


Connie, May 9 1937, courtesy of Cole Johnson. 
Follow the Connie story every Friday here on Stripper's Guide.

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I know this is nitpicking but how did this Borgg managed to excavate his underground lair? And seemingly in hardly any time? I did enjoy the way the ice on the wings melted due to the heat rays that prove this thing is a real menace, not simply the delusion of a crazed nutcase.
 
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Thursday, October 23, 2014

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Clyde J. Newman


Clyde James Newman was born in Racine, Wisconsin on May 13, 1873, according to several newspaper and magazine articles, and his birth date was on his World War I draft card.

In the 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Newman was the second of three children born to Seneca, a bookkeeper, and Frances. They lived in Racine on Superior Street.

A few Racine city directories listed Newman’s occupation and whereabouts. In 1890 he was a painter who resided at 1205 Grand Avenue. Two years later he was assistant secretary at the YMCA and resided at 920 Center, the same address found in the 1897 directory. 

Newman’s profile in The Inland Printer, June 1901, revealed some aspects of his childhood and early career:
A Promising Chicago Cartoonist. 
Considerable attention has been attracted to the work of Clyde J. Newman, of the Chicago Record-Herald, whose cartoons have appeared daily upon the front page of that paper for some time past. While his draftsmanship is of a high order, this talent is only secondary to his keen insight into the motives which govern men in political or social life, and his unique manner in delineating human frailties and making even the passions of men ridiculous. Thus his pen-drawings are more powerful than the word pictures of the writer could be, for they reach the humblest understanding and make their impression upon the minds of the wisest. It is in the talents of the cartoonists in modern journalism, among whom Mr. Newman has already won his spurs, that the greatest power of the press lies.
Mr. Newman was born at Racine, Wisconsin, May 13, 1873. His parents moved to South Dakota when he was about nine years of age, taking the lad with them. After an absence of nine years the family returned to Racine and young Newman obtained employment in the machine shop of J. I. Case Company of that city. He had shown some aptitude for drawing, but had never had any particular training. Before the callous hands had become softened, in 1896, he began work on the Chicago Journal, under Charles M. Peck. then, as now, the managing editor. In January, 1899, he accepted a position on the Chicago Record, continuing until its consolidation with the Times-Herald, where he now is. When with the Record, Mr. Newman undertook the making of cartoons during the absence of John T. McCutcheon in the Philippines, filling the position satisfactorily.
He has rare talent, but is one of those modest young men who does not desire to be “puffed.” He says he considers it a genuine misfortune to be overestimated. Simple, strong, and with meaning in every line, his cartoons are watched for each day with much interest. His work speaks for itself and no lengthy article concerning it is necessary. Inland Printer readers will be glad to have this opportunity of seeing a few miniature reproductions of some of his regular newspaper work, and a portrait of the young cartoonist.

The Inland Printer June 1901

The 1900 census recorded Newman, his wife, Edith, and two sons, Clyde and John, in Chicago, Illinois at 573 South Oakley Avenue. The Wisconsin Marriages records at Ancestry.com said he married in Racine on October 19, 1897.

In 1900, Newman’s illustrations for three books were published: George Ade’s Fables in Slang and More Fables; and J.E. Connor’s Uncle Sam Abroad.

American Newspaper Comics (2012) includes two works by Newman in the Chicago Daily News: New First Reader (started by Raymond Garman), from July 6, 1900 to September 30, 1901; and People We Know, from November 22 to December 1, 1900.

Around 1908, Newman settled in Wheaton, Illinois. The 1910 census said his address was 112 Chase Street where he now had six children. His occupation was newspaper artist.

Newman copyrighted some of his art as recorded in the Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 4: Works of Art, Etc. 1914, New Series, Volume 9, Number 3:

Newman (Clyde James) Wheaton, Ill. [15954, 15955Memoirs of an old master. Old musician seated with violin in hand while in background appear scenes of his past life. © 1 e. July 13. 1914; G 47219.
Spirit of the dance. Draped dancing girl in center, with man playing piano at left and dancers of various nations in background. © 1 c. July 13, 1914; G 47220.
Newman signed his World War I draft card on September 12, 1918. He resided at 501 Willow Avenue in Wheaton, and was an artist with the Meyer-Both Company, 2314 Indiana Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. The description on the card said he was of medium height and build with gray eyes and dark hair. From this point onward his address and employer remained the same throughout his life.

The Chicago Tribune profiled Newman on April 21, 1957. Halfway through his Civil War assignment he lost vision in his left eye. After some adjustment, he completed the 48 drawings. He rode a motorcycle for 23 years until he was 76. A motorcycle injury required him to use a cane. After his wife passed away in 1950, he lived alone, read the Bible and learned some Greek and Hebrew.

Newman passed away June 16, 1959, in Wheaton, Illinois. His obituary was published June 18, 1959 in a local newspaper which was found at an Ancestry.com family tree:
J. Clyde Newman, 86, of 501 E. Willow avenue, nationally known commercial and newspaper artist and resident of Wheaton for 51 years, died Tuesday in the Zace Retirement Home at Winfield.
Mr. Newman, born in Racine, Wis., on May 13, 1873, spent more than a half-century drawing news pictures for Chicago papers. His biggest assignment was the Iroquois fire, where he was one of the first reporters on the scene.
Mr. Newman is survived by seven children children, Clyde C., John F., C. Fred, Joseph H., Mrs. Dorothy Gauger, David W., and Mrs. Margaret Roeslem.
Services were to be held this afternoon (Thursday) from the Hanerhoff Funeral home, 304 N. Main street, with burial in Forest Home cemetery, Forest Park.
Mr. Newman taught himself Hebrew and Greek and read the Bible thoroughly. He was also a student of Sanskrit. Abraham Lincoln was his ideal and he took a great interest in the Civil War history, once being commissioned to paint pictures of generals involved in both sides of the civil conflict.
Motor cycling was one of his hobbies and he rode a cycle until he was 76. In 1938 he went by motor cycle through Wauchatchee Valley visiting the Civil War battlegrounds.
—Alex Jay

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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Jim Seed


1945

James Edward “Jim” Seed was born in Toledo, Ohio, on April 14, 1927. According to the 1927 Toledo City Directory his family resided at 1036 Page Street. His birth date was at the Ohio Birth Index at Ancestry.com.

In the 1930 U.S. Federal Census, he lived in Portage, Pennsylvania at 823 Main Street. His parents were Edward, a steamship machinist, and Marie, both Syrian emigrants. His brother, Aniese, was born in Toledo in 1924. They shared the same address with the Haddad family, whose parents were Syrian emigrants, too. At some point the Seeds returned to their old address in Toledo; the 1933 Toledo directory listed his father. According to Seed’s obituary in the Toledo Blade, October 11, 2010, he attended the Sherman Elementary School where his art talent was recognized.

The family was at the same address in the 1940 census. That year Seed’s “…larger-than-life Nativity scene…painted on the window of his eighth-grade homeroom at Sherman…received acclaim. With his pastor’s encouragement, he enrolled in an art course for illustrations and cartooning...He was given a waiver for his age to enroll in Federal Schools Inc.,” according to the Blade. The following year, at Woodward High School, he was awarded first prize for his poster, “Fire Is a Dangerous Playmate”, as reported in the October 9, Blade (below).




His artwork was featured in the yearbook, Saga-Tattler of 1945. In Tales of Terror, number 2, September 1985, Cat Yronwode talked to Seed and said: “…he had gotten his start as a background inker in Toledo, Ohio when he was a high school student—working for Bill Woggin….” How and when he met cartoonist and Toldeo resident Don Dean is not known. While a senior in high school, Seed inked Dean’s Cranberry Boggs and continued on it while attending the University of Toledo. The strip began January 8, 1945 and ended July 30, 1949.




Seed’s wife, Ruth, said he collaborated with Bill Scott on a 1950 comic strip about a chaplain, but that ended when he joined the Army, for two years, during the Korean War. A few years later, he drew the medical strip, Dr. Guy Bennett, which started April 11, 1955 in the Long Island Star-Journal. His involvement ended January 19, 1956; Frank Thorne succeeded him. The strip was conceived and written by Dr. Michael Bennett who used the pen name “B.C. Douglas.”

Star-Journal 4/11/1955

Ottawa Citizen 12/22/1956

Sometime in 1955 Seed dropped Bennett to draw Jane Arden, a strip that went unsigned for several months. In the Dallas Morning News, January 20, 1956, the strip was signed “Graham and Seed” but had the old byline “Barrett and Ross”. Seed stayed on through September 3, 1960. The Blade said he contributed, without credit, to “Steve Roper, Judge Parker, and Rex Morgan, MD.” Dr. Guy Bennett was not mentioned in the article and may have been confused with Rex Morgan.

During the 1960s he worked as a studio illustrator and photo retoucher, and taught illustration for two years. He married in 1963.

In the mid-1970s he returned to teaching, first at the Toledo Museum of Art from 1976 to 1979, then Whitmer High School from 1977 to 1999. Arthritis was the reason for his withdrawal from drawing. In the mid-1980s he pencilled and lettered three stories for the comic book, Tales of Terror.

Seed passed away October 9, 2010. His death was reported in the Blade two days later. He was buried at Toledo Memorial Park.


—Alex Jay

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Allan,

I was wondering how can you tell if a comic strip/character is in the public domain?
 
Anon --
You're asking the wrong question, I think. What you really want to know is whether you can be sued for using a previously copyrighted character (in p.d. or not). The answer is yes, YES and most emphatically YES! My opinion, no matter how learned it might be, will not keep you from being sued.

--Allan
 
Likely one would need to consult an attorney versed in intellectual property, maybe one who specializes in dealing with entertainment law. Maybe the National Cartoonist Society could provide a lead for who has expertise. Copyrights and trademarks are complicated.
 
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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

 

News of Yore: A "Prescription" for Writing Comics




Boston Traveler
(Massachusetts)
October 4, 1957

New Medical Strip to Start

A doctor’s approach to medical problems—written by a doctor in collaboration with a doctor—that’s the story of the new medical strip, Dr. Guy Bennett.

It will appear daily in the Traveler starting Monday.

Brockton Native Author of Strip

The author is Dr. Michael Petti, a Brockton native now practicing in Cleveland. For his newspaper work he uses the pen name “Dr. B.C. Douglas.”

His collaborator, also a doctor, is his wife. He met her while they interned together at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland in 1941.

They have three boys: Michael, 10; Richard, 8, and Robert, 6.

Dr. Petti grew up in Brockton with two ambitions, to be a doctor and to be a writer. He has combined the two.

He was graduated cum laude in 1937 from Dartmouth, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and served in the Navy as a lieutenant commander from 1942 to 1946.

He is a senior clinical instructor in internal medicine at Western Reserve University and is a lecturer at the university’s dental school. He is affiliated with several hospitals and has a private practice in Cleveland.

His strip is devoted to medical subjects. He has treated cancer quacks, allergies, epilepsy and alcoholic problems. In Australia, his strips dealing with diabetes symptoms uncovered a large number of cases.

Those who know Dr. Petti and his intimates can pinpoint the characters in the strip. They are modeled on his medical associates, friends and members of his family.

Each panel in the strip is laid out on paper by the doctor and his wife. It then goes to an artist for drawing. The completed work is returned to the doctor for a final check for accuracy.

The first strip Monday will introduce some of the principal characters in Dr. Guy Bennett. The sequence that follows involves Br. Bennett’s own family in a medical problem that completely disrupts his home life.


Boston Traveler

September 15, 1959

Doctor Satisfies Desire to Write with Comic Strip

(excerpts)

“I always wanted to be a writer….A couple of years ago I got the idea for a comic strip with a medical theme. I thought about developing a story line to revolve around a particular medical problem, the problem to be portrayed with unfailing accuracy.

“I did a pilot story without pictures—I’m not an artist—and took it to Lafave Features in Cleveland. They liked the idea, so I hired an artist and we were in business.”

***

“Here’s how I work. I usually block out an entire story at a time. Each story covers two months worth of strips.

“I get my ideas from my work, reading, colleagues’s suggestions. And each story is built around a definite medical problem.

“Actually, what I do is to select the problem—that’s educational—then weave a dramatic tale around it.”

***

“I write a one page story outline. Then I work it out the way it will appear in the paper, a day at a time. I do all this without drawings. I write directions for the artist, however. He’s Frank Thorne of Westfield, N.J.

“Now, my training is all in internal medicine. For that reason I don’t feel qualified in dealing with story ideas outside my specialty.

“Thus, when I do stories with psychiatric, say, or surgical themes—anything specialized—in each case I consult with a specialist in that field….

“After the story is checked for accuracy I give it to the syndicate. After I get the syndicate’s OK, I mail the whole thing to Thorne in New Jersey.”

Dr. Petti said Thorne let’s him know when the newspaper deadlines fall. Thorne works up the drawings in pencil and sends them back to Petti.

“I check them for accuracy.” Dr. Petti said. “It’s surprising the way readers and colleagues search for the slightest deviation from actual medical practice. The angle of a hypodermic needle during an injection, for instance.

“When I've gone over Throne’s drawings, maybe suggesting changes, I mail them back to him. He does them again in ink. That’s the finished product. He sends them to me, I check them, then turn them over to the syndicate for distribution.”

“I give the syndicate a week’s work at a time.”


(Michael Anthony Petti passed away September 4, 2008. His death was reported in the Enterprise, September 19.)

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Monday, October 20, 2014

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Buford Tune


Buford Malcolm Tune was born in Eastland County, Texas on August 26, 1906. His birthplace was named in the Dallas Morning News (Texas), July 10, 1949, and Social Security Death Index had his birth date.

The 1910 U.S. Federal Census recorded Tune and his parents, Martin and Allie, in Abilene, Texas at 1410 Mesquite Street. His father did odd jobs.

Sylvester, Texas was Tune’s home in the 1920 census. His mother, a widow, was a telephone operator with three children to care for.

The Morning News said “Tune attended Abilene Christian College and took a course in the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.” In Boody Rogers’ autobiography, Homeless Bound, Rogers attended the academy and wrote:

I paid my tuition for the summer course and asked the lady if she knew anyone I might split the rent with. She introduced me to another student from Texas, Buford Tune, who later was to draw the feature, “Dottie Dripple.” Tune and I found a room on the near north side, and each moved in his one suitcase.
At some point, Tune moved to Dallas. A 1923 city directory listed him at 3221 Forest Avenue as a Western Union messenger. He was a “Dallas News” artist in the 1925 directory. According to the Morning News, Tune also worked at the Philadelphia Public Ledger.

In the late 1920s Tune moved to New York City. For United Feature Syndicate, he produced Doings of the Duffs from June 23, 1928 to August 15, 1931.

Tune resided in New York City at 51 Leroy Street, as recorded the 1930 census. He was a syndicated cartoonist. Roots Web has information about the Tune family. On December 15, 1930, Tune married Sylvia “Tibby” Newman. The Seattle Times (Washington), November 1, 1949, said, for ten years, Tune produced one-line gag cartoons while Tibby handled the sales. Also, Tune had a job in the advertising department of Paramount Pictures in New York.


This Week 5/12/1935



In 1940, Tune resided in Great Neck, New York, at 22 Hicks Lane. He had two sons, Donald and Bruce. Tune’s occupation was artist in the motion picture industry. A few years later Tune returned to comic strips.

Publishers Syndicate distributed Dotty Dripple which Buford took over from Jim McMenamy on October 16, 1944. The strip began June 26, 1944 and ended June 9, 1974. According to the Morning News, Tune’s family worked on the strip: Sunday page coloring by his wife, and lettering by oldest son, Donald.




Dallas Morning News 7/10/1949

Dotty Dripple also appeared in comics books and in its own title.

Some time in the 1940s, the Tunes moved to California. The Seattle Times said: “The Tune home is a sprawling seven-room Monterey bungalow in Los Angeles….”

Tune passed away May 21, 1989, in Santa Ana, California. An obituary appeared in the Orange County Register (Santa Ana, California), May 25.


—Alex Jay

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Sunday, October 19, 2014

 

Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics


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Excellent points. You forgot to list manure. People pay top dollar!
 
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