No American Home etc.

Another slew of excerpts from the book Comic Art in America By Stephen Becker, which was a history of the comic strip up until 1959 when the book was published.

These are all from the chapter Comics: No American Home Complete Without Them. The caption are all from the book accompanying each strip, so remember any reference to anything current refers to then.

A Sunday Pete the Tramp by C. D. RUSSELL. Pete is as popular abroad as he is in this country.

Buck Rogers in 1934, when PHIL NOWLAN had taken over the continuity.

Secret Agent X-9, by DASHIELL HAMMETT and ALEX RAYMOND, in the early days. Note the straw hats.

A Jungle Jim by ALEX RAYMOND, 1940. Superb drawing—note the light and shadow, and the change of pace in “camera angles”.

One of the early Flash Gordon pages, 1936, by ALEX RAYMOND. Less light and shadow here, but more action. The combination of narrative and dialogue in characteristic.

A Rip Kirby of 1953, by RAYMOND, with Desmond, Kirby's Man Friday. The lighting effects add eerily to the obvious mood of the suspense.

Another Rip Kirby, by RAYMOND, this one of 1954. The man is an unashamed intellectual—pipe, typewriter in use, spectacles.

A Rip Kirby of 1958, drawn by JOHN PRENTICE. The illustrator's style is still brilliant, the facial expression excellent.

V.T. Hamlin's Alley Oop. A recent strip, but happily the same old prehistoria, complete with caveman carrying off sweetheart.

A <"http://www.erbzine.com/mag8/0827.html">REX MAXON Tarzan. Danger, action, and the ever-present jungle. The strip is now done by JOHN CELARDO and DICK VAN BUREN.

A full page of HAROLD FOSTER's Prince Valiant. Note the variety of some of the literate narrative, the accuracy of medieval detail.

A broad panorama by HAL FOSTER. The succession of long shots, close-ups, and interiors in Prince Valiant is very effective in maintaining pace and authenticity.

CLIFFORD McBRIDE's Napoleon, making trouble for himself and Uncle Elby, 1935.

The British import, Pop, by J. MILLER WATT. The artist liked to run his scene across more than one panel. The drawing is not as simple as it looks.

OTTO SOGLOW's famous Little King, probably the most put-upon monarch extant.

More next Thursday. Save the date.

Zany #3, 1 of 4

Another humor magazine from the 1950s and Ace Paperbacks' magazine division, which included Candar Publishing, which did a number of mens' magazines, as well as Cracked. It differed from many of those others with spot color, mostly parodies of comics and no Severin art. This issue is from March 1959.

The Universal Monsters were really popular around this time, so this is the magazine’s cashing in.

art by Bill Everett.


Many magazines parodied Norman Rockwell's “Look ma, no cavities!” Crest Toothpaste print ads, this time by Don Orehek.


The masthead, like many of the magazines of the time, was full of obvious pseudonyms, which I believe were probably those of the ubiquitous Paul Laikin. As the book If You're Cracked, You're Happy states:

“Although he did not originate the form or create any of the spin-off titles (save for Wacko in 1981), Laikin did write for virtually every black and white humor magazine that was created from 1956-1986 and edited three of the four magazines with the lengthiest runs (Cracked, Crazy, Sick) at one point or another.

Laikin explains, 'When Mad made the big splash and then Cracked came out, there was Thimk, then I got calls and when I saw Frantic. As soon as I saw that, I went there, too. There was no one to stop me. I could write for all of them. I was writing for Thimk, and every one. All I had to do is see the first issue and I went over there. I couldn’t write it with Mad's kind of criteria with every word checking this. My own level of humor was sustainable in these magazines and there really was no one else to question it. They had to take me. Only Mad objected and with Bill Gaines, they paid good money and were #1. The rest didn’t care. The readers didn’t care. Just change your name, which I did. I would change my own name. I was writing for Thimk, Frenzy, Loco, all while writing for Cracked. I was writing for Zany too, yeah. [...]I guess [Robert Sproul] felt there was enough market for two humor magazines.”


Another mandatory Believe It or Not parody


Orehek also drew did this parody of Smilin' Jack.



I'm not sure who did this parody of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, another popular target of 1950's humor magazines.




Or this parody of Alley Oop.


The mandatory article about how people are portrayed versus what they're really like.



Continued on Thursday.