Saturday, August 24, 2013

 

Herriman Saturday

Wednesday, April 22 1908 -- As part of the amateur boxing extravaganza put on at Chutes Park for Fleet Week, apparently there was sort of a comic relief round-robin between five amateur negro fighters. If Herriman's cartoon is accurate, I gather they were basically pulled off the street -- they didn't know anything about boxing technique, and they didn't wear boxing trunks.

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Friday, August 23, 2013

 

Sci-Friday starring Adam Chase

Adam Chase (c) renewed 2013 by Russ Morgan. All rights reserved.

Adam Chase strip #35, originally published January 29 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.

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Thank you for bringing this back into the light! I'm the son of the artist and it's wonderful to see this on the web. :)
 
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Thursday, August 22, 2013

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles: Harry Paschall


Harry Barton Paschall was born in Ashley, Ohio on November 27, 1896, according to his World War I draft card. However, according to the 1900 U.S Federal Census, he was born in March 1898. And there is a third birth date
, November 27, 1897, in the Roark Report which was not sourced. In the 1900 census Paschall was the youngest of four children born to Francis, a machine salesman, and Cynthia. They lived in Marion, Ohio at 402 Windsor.

The 1910 census recorded the Paschall family in Marion at 216 Mark Street. The Marion Daily Star, December 30, 1915, reported 
Paschall’s appearance in an advertisement.

Finely Developed Is Harry B. Paschall
High School Graduate’s Picture in Advertisement

In the January issue of the Physical Culture Magazine, the eighteen-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. F.M. Paschall, of Mark street, and a graduate of the class of 1915 of the Marion High School, is shown as a type of the near-perfect physical young man. The picture is shown in the advertisement of a Philadelphia company.

Mr. Paschall took special training under the rules and regulations set forth by the magazine, “Strength,” issued by this company. He also spent a great deal of his spare time doing apparatus work on the Y.M.C.A. gymnasium floor. The article goes on to say that a year before Paschall started his physical training he was undeveloped, but after a few months of special training under the direction of the company he had developed seven inches about the chest and three inches in the biceps and other parts of the body accordingly. The article says that the three hours a week of this training has made him one of the most beautifully developed athletes in the country. He was on the last year’s football squad of the High school.


His art talent was noted in the Marion Daily Star, July 10, 1916:

Marion Boy’s Crayon Sketch Shows Talent
Harry B. Paschall Draws Likeness of Charles E. Hughes.

The Star has received a crayon sketch of the likeness of Charles Evans Hughes, Republican candidate for president, drawn by Harry B. Paschall. The sketch is well drawn and gives evidence that the young artist has more than common skill with the crayon.

Mr. Paschall is a graduate of the class of 1915 of the Marion High school. During his High school career he was the artist and designer for the Quiver, the High school paper, and his work always received praise from the High school students.


Paschall married when he was 19, according to the 1930 census. When he signed his draft card his address was 720 West Fifth Street in Dayton, Ohio. He worked at the Pyramid Film Company in Dayton, and named his wife, Vera, as his nearest relative. Paschall’s listing in the 1918 Dayton City Directory said he was a cartoonist. In the 1919 directory he resided at 235 West Fountain Avenue.

According to the 1920 census, Paschall, his wife and two daughters resided in Dayton at 235 Fountain Avenue. His occupation was artist at a film company. In this decade he moved several times. The 1921 directory said he worked at 25 South Main Street in room 524. In 1922 he was treasurer of the Screen Art Picture[s] Company at 16 4th Street. While in Dayton, he produced the comic strip Everything’s Up to Ma which debuted in the Woman’s Page section of the the Daily Star (Long Island City, New York), December 19, 1921.




Marion, Ohio was Paschall’s new home, in 1923, where he was an artist at the advertising agency, Jay H. Maish Company, 400 South Main Street. He resided at 252 Lincoln Avenue. In the 1925 directory his address was 131-1/2 South State Street. He worked as an artist at 148 West Center Street.

The 1926 Columbus, Ohio City Directory listed Paschall as manager of the Jay H. Maish Company. He commuted to work from Pickerington, Ohio. In 1927 he was an advertising agent in Columbus at 36 West Gay Street, and resided at 96 South Ogden Avenue. His 1928 listing said he was a cartoonist living at 610 South High Street. Apparently he divorced his wife in 1928 because in the following 1929 directory she was listed separately as “wid[ow] Harry”. Paschall was a manufacturers agent at 50 West Broad Street, room 3640.

Paschall’s first name was recorded as “Henry” in the 1930 census. Divorced, he lived in South Bend, Indiana where he was an advertising agent. His wife and three daughters remained in Columbus. The 1933 Columbus City Directory listed his residence at 1438 Haines Avenue where was married to Myrtle and continued as an artist. Their address in 1938 was 1137 Franklin Avenue, Columbus.

In the 1940 census, Paschall and Myrtle remained at the same address. His occupation was artist who had two years of college. The 1949 city directory’s business section listed his advertising agency at 30 East Broad Street, room 503, which he shared with Thurston A. Waters and Daniel W. Boggs. Paschall’s residence was 323 Mayfair Boulevard in the 1954 Columbus City Directory.

Bodybuilding and weightlifting were Paschall’s life-long interests. The Evening Leader (Corning, New York), August 25, 1926, published the Associated Press report of his accomplishment:


Weight Marks Set
Philadelphia, Aug. 25—(AP)—Two new records were established in the national weight lifting championships, held under the auspices of the National Continual Weight-Lifting Association here….In the snatch event of the middleweight class, Harry Paschall, Columbus, O., set a new mark by lifting 185 pounds. His total was 595 pounds.

Paschall created cartoon character Bosco, a German strongman, who first appeared in 1936 in Strength and Health magazine. (Bosco can be seen in action here.) In his books Paschall employed Bosco in Muscle Moulding (1950), Bosco System of Progressive Physical Training (1950), Development of Strength (1951), and Bosco’s Strength Note Book (three numbers in 1951 and 1952).

According to the Roark Report, Paschall passed away September 24, 1957. A family tree (see number 121) said he died in Delaware, Ohio.

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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles: Louis Richard


Louis Joseph Richard was born in Bardstown, Kentucky, on May 3, 1885, according to his World War I and II draft cards at Ancestry.com. In the 1900 U.S. Federal Census he was the second of five children born to Richard and Nannie. They resided in Columbus, Indiana at 508 California Street. Richard was a bell boy and his father, a French emigrant, was chief hotel cook. The census recorded Louis’ date of birth as May 1885.

The book, Indiana’s Laughmakers (1990), profiled Richard and said: “...Cartooning ‘came to me by chance,’ he once said, ‘while a bellhop at the St. Denis Hotel, when I caricatured guests in unusual or amusing poses on the backs of menu cards….’ By the time he was 17 years old he was making money with his cartooning…” In the early 1900s, he was cartoonist for The Evening Republican.

The 1910 census recorded the family in the same city, a few houses from their old address, at 602 California Street. His mother’s name was recorded as “ Margarette”. Richard was an assistant claim agent for a railroad company.


Richard’s Indiana Daily Times cartoons of the 70th Indiana General Assembly were collected in a book and published in 1917.

According to American Newspaper Comics (2012), Richard produced the strip Squire Edgegate, which was distributed by World Color Printing beginning in 1918.

Elkhart Truth 3/25/1918

Rockford Republic 3/25/1919

In 1919 Richard was one of several artists to contribute drawings to the Louisville Courier-Journal’s “Marse Henry Edition”. The Literary Digest, April 12, 1919, said: “…Harry C. Temple and Louis Richard, both of the World Color Printing Company, St. Louis, contributed drawings…the latter picturing Uncle Sam thanking ‘Marse’ Henry for the many volumes his genius had filled.”On September 12, 1918 he signed his World War I draft card. He was employed as a claim agent by the Pennsylvania, Railroad Company. His description was medium height and build with blue eyes and brown hair.

Indiana’s Laughmakers said: “…when he was transferred to Pittsburgh around 1920, he became chief claim agent of the railroad’s Central Region.” Richard has not yet been found in the 1920 census.

In 1927 he filed to trademark Squire Edgegate. The Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, September 13, 1927, published this notice:

Ser. No. 252,662. Louis Richard, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Filed July 28, 1927.

SQUIRE EDGEGATE

Particular description of goods. — Cartoons in Newspaper Publications.
Claims use since Jan. 1, 1918.


In 1930 Richard lived with his wife, Justine, and two daughters, Louise and Justine, in Crafton, Pennsylvania at 24 Creighton Avenue. He married when he was 39 years old and continued as a railroad claim agent.

Bellevue, Pennsylvania, at 18 Kenndell [sic] Avenue, was the home of Richard, his wife and three daughters in the 1940 census. They had lived there since 1935. The census said he had six years of schooling and remained a claim agent for the railroad. He signed his World War II draft card on April 27, 1942. He was described as five feet five-and-a-half inches, 165 pounds, with blue eyes and gray hair.

Indiana’s Laughmakers said: “…He retired from the railroad in 1951 following a heart attack and died in Pittsburgh on October 31, 1959.” One source for the book was a number of articles in The Republican (Columbus, Indiana) dated October 8, 1930, October 10, 1930, August 10, 1935, February 24, 1936, October 14, 1936, and October 31, 1959.

Princeton University Library has a collection of American comic strip printing plates and drawings which includes “…200 aluminotype plates for the six panel strip called Squire Edgegate by Louis Richard.”

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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

 

Obscurity of the Day: Squire Edgegate




During one of the fits and starts when World Color Printing wanted to get into the daily comic strip biz, they produced a pretty long run of this strip, Squire Edgegate. The strip about a country judge/attorney (his job description was a bit fluid) was drawn simply, and the gags were simple, too. There wasn't anything really wrong about the strip, but there wasn't much particularly right about it either.

As is typical with World Color strips, determining start and end dates is nearly impossible. The strip was not dated, and the codes that appeared instead seemed to mean little -- notice that two of these samples bear the same code, S-59! The strip seemed to have been sold in lots to newspapers, as there was certainly no rhyme or reason to the order in which they were printed in any paper I've seen.

The strip began in 1918, penned by Louis Richard. I assumed that Mr. Richard was likely a non-entity, a house name assigned to the strip. But Alex Jay has turned up the cartoonist who goes along with that name, and you'll read about him tomorrow. Sometime during the run in 1919, Richard, though still getting a byline, was replaced by Harry Paschall. Or maybe they spelled each other. Impossible to tell because, as I said, the strips were never run in any obvious sequence.

The original daily run seems to have ended in 1919. However, the stereotypes were barely cold before WCP put them back in use, making Squire Edgegate a regular part of their weekly black and white kids page, which began around the fourth quarter of that year. The Squire ran in reprints on that page for years.

However, even that wasn't enough reprint exposure for WCP. They also sold the Squire Edgegate strips off to National News Service and the International Cartoon Company, two bottom-of-the-barrel reprint syndicators. These two companies sold Squire Edgegate to small, rural papers during the 1920s.

In the late 1930s, the strips popped up in some small papers yet again. This time they still had their original World Color Printing copyright slugs intact, but it wouldn't surprise me if this round of selling was from yet another syndicator who didn't even bother putting their own copyright on the now very well worn plates.

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Monday, August 19, 2013

 

Obscurity of the Day: Oh, You, Patricia!


There were some really big name artists contributing Hearst magazine cover cartoons in their heyday of the 1920s and 30s -- Nell Brinkley, Dan Smith, Russell Patterson and John Held Jr., to name a few. In the company of all those heavy hitters there was another frequent contributor who, as best I can tell, is a complete unknown. Philip Loring did at least five different series, but otherwise seems to be a non-entity. I can find no information at all about him, and even master sleuth Alex Jay comes up completely dry.

Loring, or whatever his/her real name is, has a nice elegant drawing style, though the faces tend to be a bit cookie-cutter. If someone were to threaten me with an atomic wedgie if I didn't take a guess at an ID, I'd have to say it was Paul Robinson. But what in the world would Robinson have to gain by not admitting his real moniker on such a prestigious berth? It's not as if he's really moonlighting -- he was working for Hearst subsidiary Central Press at this time.

Oh, You, Patricia, is a lightweight series even by the standards of magazine cover cartoons. Our heroine goes off to 'camp' for the summer and meets various eligible bachelors and a bunch of catty women. It is one of the shortest series I've seen, running a mere six episodes between June 14 and July 19 1931. It was syndicated through Hearst's Newspaper Feature Service division.

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Sunday, August 18, 2013

 

Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics


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