Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook! - 8-3-12

Last peek at my sketchbook for the week.  I flipped back to the beginning (from before I put it away, not getting how sketchbooks work, probably back in 2008-9)

I think my concept here on page 1, was to make the sketchbook an anthropological notebook written in the 1920's and 30's by the worlds dumbest explorer.  See here the hilarity as he discovers an elephant (not knowing that they'd already been discovered) and miscategorizes it as an insect.  Hilarity ensues?

Then I think I got the concept of doing a strip featuring EVERY comic and cartoon character EVER created.  Not thinking about the logistical nightmare of telling an understandable story with 8 million characters, I just thought it would be cool to see.  I kind of did that any way (and will again) with my "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Book Super Heroes" thingy I do here from time to time.

Here's me attempting (and liking) my take on the Duck's (Donald and Daffy) and then being thwarted by that dang hard-to-draw-for-me-anyway, Mickey Mouse.

My horrible Mickey meeting Daffy Duck, Superman and Ko-Ko the Clown at what ever event I imagined them all meeting at.  Batman and The Yellow Kid look on.

You see, I'd never really drawn other peoples characters before.  I have always (from a very young age) known that it's the cartoonists style that makes the feature cool, the character comes second.  Jack Cole's Plastic Man is awesome.  Joe Staton (who is extremely talented in his own rigth) doing Plastic Man was a bad take on a character and missed the point.  So at 45-6 years old, I was trying to see if I could even draw them, and have them be recognized.

Here's a sketch of me looking bad-ass with my posse:  Goofy, Donald, Mickey, A horrible Bugs Bunny, the Golden Age Green Lantern and being evesdropped on by a very Bob Clampett-y Tweety Pie and a sloppy Sylvester.  Over all a decent Mickey there.

Which brings us back to the present as I doodle myself some more.

Sketching trying to find a new avatar for facebook and Twitter and the like.

Not the way Van Gogh spent his time...but I am a cartoonist...and that's a wonderful thing.

Thanks for sifting through this with me this week.

Talk to you soon.

San Diego Countdown Cartoons - 4th and final!

It's almost here.  The excitements, the disappointments, the crowds, the toys, cartoons and comics!

Comic-Con actually begins TONIGHT with a special preview set of programs, I don't begin my fun until tomorrow morning though, still one more day of work between me and geek-nirvana.


Here's the final 6 days of my 22 day countdown to Comic-con that I've been posting (and perplexing all my non-geek friends with) over on Facebook.  I'm reposting "Day 16" here because it sets off a running gag through days 17 and 18.


As wordy as I can get, I kind of enjoyed doing these little one-panel bits.

Ooooooooooooh, one...more..sleep...it's going to be worse than the night before Christmas.

I'll report back to you all the drama and comedy that happens in San Diego when I return.  Until then I've pre-loaded a few blog posts that I hope you'll enjoy.   Until then...

Talk to you soon.

Craig Yoe Comic Strip Sirocco - Unca Jeffy's Toy Box!

Continuing from last weeks peek at the nifty Craig Yoe Studios sirocco figurines of classic comic strip characters that were distibuted by the smart folks at Dark Horse Comics and continuing pimping the new "All Color Sunday Funnies" right here inside my head, here's a look at a few more!

From George Herriman's "Krazy Kat", everyone knows Krazy loves Ignatz Mouse who does NOT love her back, but Offica Pup does. Here he's got his standard "Move along mouse, and stay out of Kelly's Brick Yard look. See 'em every Sunday right here.


"Hully Gee!" Here's he very first newspaper comic strip star ever, Richard Felton Outcault's Mickey Dugan from right outen Hogan's Alley, "The Yellow Kid"!


Everyone what has any sense already knows, my blogger buddy Thomas Haller Buchanan celebrates the wonderfully talented Walt Kelly regularly in his blog "Whirled of Kelly" which covers all of Kelly's work, including the land of Pogo Possum in the Okefenokee Swamp. Here's Pogo's pal, "Albert Alligator"!

The king of fantasy art in the comics, master of design and perspetive, innovator in animation Winsor McCay is represented on my library shelf with "Little Nemo in Slumberland"! You can check out all of his adventures in high-res scans at this h'yar web page "The Comic Strip Library"!

And finally for today's batch. Everyone knows my love for the epic work of Harold Gray and his famous little redhead, "Little Orphan Annie".

More next week.

Talk to you soon.

From the Yeller Kid to Yellow Journalism

Getting back to "Sunday Funnies" and wondering what to tackle first now that I've posted all the "Nemo: the Classic Comics Library" I have on hand, I'm going through a stack of magazines and scanning all I've got until inspiration strikes me.

Here's an issue of "Civilization", a magazine published by The Library of Congress, from 1995 discussing the advent of "Yellow Journalism" and the origin of it's name.

This was always a favorite subject of mine in school as it was actually a time when my teachers would talk about comic strips. :)

I hope you enjoy.

Talk to you soon.

Richard Felton Outcault: The American Comic Strip is Born!

Born this day in 1863, today is the 147th anniversary of Richard Felton Outcault -- the Great-Grandaddy of ALL American Comic Strips!

Outcault was a spot illustrator for Joseph Pulitzer on his New York World when Pulitzer acquired one of the first color printing presses. Outcault did full page drawings of New York slum life with lots and lots of activity in them, in the foreground was a small Irish boy in a nightshirt named Mickey Dugan. On this nightshirt would be Dugan's commentary on the scene in question. Pulitzer's printing press colored that shirt bright yellow. And so the American comic strip was born as a color Sunday feature on May 5, 1895 with the color debut of "Hogan's Alley"!

The strip is responsible for another infamous first, when Outcault was offered more money by Pulitzer competitor William Randolph Hearst and went to work for the New York Journal instead. Pulitzer kept running the strip in The World done by other cartoonists and a copyright battle ensued. It ended up in both papers..."Hogan's Alley" by whoever in The World, "The Yellow Kid" by Outcault in The Journal...and the term "Yellow Journalism" got it's name.

Here's a couple of samples of the strip from later years after it took on page panels, word balloons and other conventions of the modern comic strip...and shows an example of another innovation...the "Spin-Off". Turns out Mickey Dugan's cousin is a well-to-do little boy named Buster Brown.

That's right. Outcault also pioneered in franchising his characters. The Buster Brown above is the very one that we all know as the character used by the shoe manufacturer in marketing their kids shoes. Mary Jane was Buster's sister.

The Yellow Kid appeared in novels:

Sheet music of a popular song written around him:

Picture puzzles:

Pin-back buttons:

And even periodicals like this one, a fore-runner of the comic book:

Here's Buster Brown

He lives in a shoe

Here's his dog Tige

He lives in there too:

Not only is this probably the first example of a product using a cartoon character to market itself, it may be one of the most successful. You can still buy Buster brown shoes over a century after most folks even remember that it was a comic strip first!

Buster was a mischievous boy, who after every cataclysm, would make a resolution...usually with his fingers crossed and a wink to the audience.

Being bad is so much more fun than being good!

These are both a couple of early masterpieces of the comic strip. And ones that laid a path for over 100 years of fun on Sunday mornings!

Thanks Richard, for paving the way!