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In the world of Gus Edson's The Gumps, people could actually read The Gumps, as evident in the first panel when seen enlarged. But it raises a few questions. Had Min, week after week, read her own life story?

In the next to last panel, Edson curiously confused the gag. He could have moved the characters to the left so that the sign would not have been in Andy's sightline. If he could so easily read the sign, then no need for him to run to the optometrist.

This Sunday strip is from January 23, 1955. For a few earlier Gumps, click on the labels at bottom. All 20th century radio-TV situation comedies can be traced back to The Gumps. It was the basis for the radio series Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll developed as Amos 'n' Andy, such a success that it became the prototype for radio comedies and soap operas. Elizabeth McLeod has written extensively on this strip-to-radio evolution which can be read here. (Wait for page to load.)

Created by Sidney Smith, The Gumps began February 12, 1917. Here's how it looked on March 8, 1925. In 1922, when he signed a new contract with the Chicago Tribune, he was given a Rolls Royce (see ad below). Smith died October 20, 1935, in a head-on collision.

Labels: gumps, gus edson

  ¶ 11:11 AM 3 comments

  Irwin Hasen's Green Lantern .

Irwin Hasen's cover for Green Lantern #29 (December 1947). Below is his painted recreation of that cover.



Irwin Hasen's autobiography, Loverboy (Vanguard, 2009) was written when he was 91. Below is "Wildcat", the character he created with Bill Finger for Sensation Comics #1 (January, 1942). In 1961 and 1962, he received the National Cartoonists Society's Newspaper Comic Strip Award for Dondi, which he created with Gus Edson in 1954.

I spoke with Irwin not long ago while trying to solve the Tex Blaisdell Mystery. Bob and Ray's Western character, Tex Blaisdell, was around in the early 1950s, but why did they give him the same name as the cartoonist Tex Blaisdell? The leading experts in vintage radio couldn't give me an answer and neither could Blaisdell's daughter, Barbara. It's an enigma wrapped in a comic strip.





For NY Graphic's interview with Irwin Hasen, go here. Below is Dondi on a plaque in Gus Edson Park (Stamford,Connecticut).

Labels: green lantern, gus edson, irwin hasen, tex blaisdell

  ¶ 6:49 AM 0 comments

  Martin Landau, cartoonist
It's well known that Martin Landau was a cartoonist in the late 1940s for the Daily News. He was studying art at Pratt Institute at the same time, but he left the Daily News in 1951 to begin as an actor.

However, I don't recall ever seeing any of his artwork, so I went in search. I failed to find his illustrations for Billy Rose's column, "Pitching Horseshoes". I did learn that Rose's column was ghostwritten by novelist Bernard Wolfe, later author of the acclaimed dystopian sf classic Limbo (1952). Some readers were surprised to find that a supposedly true incident described in one Rose column was identical to the plot of the 1936 Evelyn Waugh short story, "Bella Fleace Gave a Party". Rose, who was probably equally surprised, claimed, "It's one of those stinking, unbelievable coincidences." Sounds like Rose couldn't wait to fire the writer who had put him on the hot seat. One of Rose's "Pitching Horseshoes" research assistants was Milton Subotsky, later the producer of Tales from the Crypt and other horror-fantasy films.

In Nik Fackler's Lovely, Still (2008), Robert Malone (Landau) is shown drawing early in the film. See screen shots above and below. According to Landau, he did not paint the self-portrait he works on later in the film: "The paintings were created by an artist from Omaha—where the movie was shot. He completely captured the feeling of my character, and the film." The painting is by Daniel Boylan, and some of his other expressionistic paintings are seen around Malone's house. For more Boylan, go here.

Landau's job at the Daily News led to work as an assistant to cartoonist Gus Edson on The Gumps. Edson also went to Pratt, so perhaps that was their connection. Interviewed by Mark Evanier, Landau recalled, "I started working at the News in New York doing illustrations in '47... or maybe it was '46. I was working for them while I was still in high school. Gus had a fellow working with him before me named Sam Hale. He was an old United Features cartoonist and he left. So after I'd been at the News for a few years, I became Gus' assistant. I started off lettering and doing backgrounds, and in just a few months, I was drawing whole strips by myself, usually the Sunday page. Gus had a continuity on Monday through Saturday but the Sunday page was an entity unto itself, and he eased me into doing it. At first, he'd write it and maybe rough it out, but pretty soon, I was doing the whole thing. I did it for about a year, maybe a little longer."

So if "a few years" means 1948 or 1949, then we can speculate that the Sunday strip for April 24, 1949 (below) is by Landau. If I've guessed wrong, I'm sure someone will surface to correct. The problem with calculating this is that Landau says he began at the Daily News when he was 17, yet some sources say he was born in 1928 and others say 1931. (See comments for Alex Jay's research confirming 1928 as correct.)

At any rate, a comparison with Edson's daily for December 8, 1952 (at bottom) shows distinctly different art styles.






On NPR, interviewed by Neal Conan, Landau remembered, "I started on the New York Daily News as a kid when I was 17 years old, as a cartoonist and illustrator, and I was being groomed to be the theatrical caricaturist. And I know if I got that job, I'd never quit. So I quit... It was a great job, actually. I'd go to opening nights, and the PR people would give me 8x10s of the dress rehearsal. I would go home, actually - I didn't have to go to the news building - and do a drawing of the cast, which would appear in a Sunday paper. If there were two openings that week, two drawings. The old fellow, Horace Knight, was an old English fellow who had that job was retiring. I had the ability to do that, but I knew I wanted to go into the theater. I mean, I wanted to act. And I knew if I got that job - which was, again, a cushy job and very well-paying job. My style was sort of an art nouveau style, an art deco style, as opposed Hirschfeld's, who had a very flowing line... And it was a different look, but it had a look."

Also see Film Threat and Mike Lynch Cartoons.

Labels: fackler, gumps, gus edson, mark evanier, martin landau, pratt

  ¶ 3:53 PM 5 comments