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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

E. Simms Campbell

Here are three by E. Simms Campbell. One is a 1935 watercolor cartoon from Esquire showing tourists with cameras. The full-color cartoon with the caption is from his 1948 Esquire Calendar, "Ladies of the Harem." The Cuties cover is also from 1948. Cuties was Campbell's syndicated gag panel for King Features. Tina Fey used this same backwards dress situation as a pantomime gag in one of last season's 30 Rock episodes.

Born January 2, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri, Campbell was the first African-American cartoonist to appear regularly in national mainstream slick magazines. Beginning in 1933, he was the leading cartoonist in Esquire, appearing in every issue for years, and he also was published in Playboy, Cosmopolitan and The New Yorker. He died January 27, 1971, in White Plains, New York.

3 comments:

  1. I love this blog. So many wonderful images and flowing, informing text to accompany them. And your Wallace Wood book is amazing.

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  2. Thanks, Vince!

    Keep drawing Shadownose. It's a funny character, sort of like Bill Elder's Mole meets Tom Sutton's Schlomo Raven.

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  3. For more of E. Simms Campbell's art and excerpts from a 1945 interview, check out my blog post at http://wetoowerechildren.blogspot.com/2010/10/e-simms-campbell.html

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