Sunday Funnies - March 12, 1960 - part 3 of 4!

Part 3 of my posting of "The Toronto Star" from March 12, 1960.  Thanks to Katherine Collins who in last week's comments, pointed out the city of the paper.

This time around, the "Superman" newspaper strip.  May be the first time I've posted any of those in the ol' blog and it's a Lori Lemuris!  Awesome!

Here's some post-Caniff "Terry & the Pirates" by George Wunder.  This is one of the few examples of a comic strip, where it changed creators hands and became something just as valid, albeit totally different.  The Hal Foster to Burne Hogarth "Tarzan" is the other that come to mind.

"Bringing Up Father" still in his cut-away coat and spats and without George McManus.  The syndicates just won't let a cash cow die.

Harold Grey is still at the helm of "Little Orphan Annie" in 1960, but as crazy old man conservatism gripped the guy, THIS strip became something all together different than in it's salad years as well.  

Splitting the page is Ferd Johnson's "Moon Mullins" another strip from an earlier time that the syndicates kept on life-support too long.  Still with all these aged features short-comings, they were nice to see.

Talk to you soon.

"Bringing Back Father!" - Will Elder - Mad Monday!

Mad THE COMIC BOOK #17 from November 1954.

The cover looked like this...kind of...

...but, actually more like this.  

The entire issue was printed upside down.  Even the experience of holding their comic book was meant to feel funny.

I love Kurtzman HARD!

Here's Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Elder's take on that comic strip classic by George McManus "Bringing Up Father", "Bringing Back Father".  Even in the few short decades since the original had premiered, the notions of a drunken Irishmen and his abusive, harpy of a wife just weren't socially acceptable anymore.

c'est la vie.

Ah, the good ol' days.

Talk to you soon.

Sunday Funnies...in the middle of the week - Nemo issue #14

...or hell...even the middle of the week!

Connectivity problems here seem to be on the ebb, though it's still a mystery as to what was causing me the troubles. So I thought I'd post Nemo: the Classic Comics Library issue #14 that was scheduled for this Sunday last, I know y'all need yer classic comics fix! It's much more reliable, though still a trifle slow, so I'll break this issue up over today, tomorrow and Thursday.

It's a feature packed issue for sure, and I want to give y'all time to drink it in!

Here's a glimpse of what's to come in the next couple of days!


First Up! A look at Frank Willard's sometime overlooked lowbrow farce, "Moon Mullins"...glorious comic stuff from the seedier side of us all...

AND the long-awaited, much-anticipated (at least since my teaser post a few days ago) look at the art-deco design work of George McManus, sometimes even featuring Maggie and Jiggs and the world of "Bringing Up Father"...

A little bonus here...this was featured on the inside front cover of this issue...

I'll be back tomorrow and the next day with the rest of this issue and by Sunday we'll be back on track with the Sunday Funnies as they should be...

Though, doesn't it feel good to sneak in the nonsense behind your stuffy official papers at work mid-week?

I think so too.

Talk to you soon!

George McManus - Poet of the Successful Irish-American Immigrant

Born this day in 1884, George McManus would have been 126 years old today.

McManus is one of the premiere first string of great American Cartoonists who worked in the newspaper comic strip field...in fact his strip "Bringing Up Father" is credited as being the prototype for all family strips to come. Every comic strip from "Hi and Lois" to "For Better or For Worse" to "Blondie" came from the mold cast by McManus, and likewise I think you can find the roots of every television sitcom that's been based around family life to the work he did.

His wasn't just run of the mill humdrum family stuff we might think of though. His work was long before America and the world became homogenized in the 1950's. His tale of an Irish immigrant and his family that finally make good and move up in society, only to find that they are what they are, was a really artful commentary on what was happening dynamically in the real world to hundreds of thousands. Not just Irish-American immigrants, but plenty of other European settlers that came through Ellis Island in it's heyday.

Here's a very early sample of McManus' work on his first strip, "The Newlyweds":

And a couple of examples of his beautiful draftsmanship in his heralded "Bringing Up Father":

Jiggs (the father in question and husband in the strip) was the one really having trouble moving up to high society from his working class roots. His wife Maggie was constantly trying to get Jiggs to become more gentile and accept his new position in the world, but as much as Maggie cared about social climbing, Jiggs cared for sneaking out to "Dinty Moore's Saloon" (that's right, this is where the famous brand of canned beef stew gets it's name) for some corned beef and cabbage and to jaw with the boys from the construction site.

It's a great time to discover McManus' work on Maggie and Jiggs, as evidenced here in this post by Allen Holz on his great blog "The Strippers Guide". Check it out and see where to catch some pristine reprints of McManus' work!

Here's a cool little item I found this morning worth your time seeing as well. It's a little piece explaining the process of engraving and printing, and today's birthday boy takes center stage as the masterpiece being printed!

George McManus' clean pen lines and spot-on depiction of the Irish-American sense of humor were a feast for the eyes and minds. They probably did a lot to welcome his fellow Irishers to this country, as well as preserve an adjustment a lot of them had to face for all history.

And more importantly, he made us laugh.

Thanks George! For making us laugh...especially at ourselves!