Cover of Insider histories of cartooning

Insider histories of cartooning

"Many fans and insiders alike have never heard of Bill Hume, Bailin' Wire Bill, Abe Martin, AWOL Wally, the Texas History Movies, or the Weatherbird at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. And many insiders do not know why we call comic books "comics" even though lots of them are not at all funny.Robert C. Harvey, cartoonist and a veteran comics critic, author of several histories of comics and biographies of cartoonists, tells forgotten stories of a dozen now obscure but once famous cartoonists and their creations. He also includes accounts of the cartooning careers of a ground-breaking African American and a woman who broke into an industry once dominated by white men. Many of the better known stories in some of the book's fourteen chapters are wrapped around fugitive scraps of information that are almost unknown. Which of Bill Mauldin's famous duo is Willie? Which is Joe? What was the big secret about E. Simms Campbell? Who was Funnyman? And why? And some of the pictures are rare, too. Hugh Hefner's cartoons, Kin Hubbard's illustrations for Short Furrows, Betty Swords' pictures for the Male Chauvinist Pig Calendar of 1974, the Far East pin-up cartoon character Babysan, illustrations for Popo and Fifina, and Red Ryder's last bow"—

Audience
adult
Length
short · 192 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Insider histories of cartooning? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Insider histories of cartooning. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Comic Strip Art of Lyonel Feininger Shares graphic novels, cartoonists, comic strips cartoons
  2. Why comics? Shares graphic novels, cartooning, strips
  3. Drawing heroes in the backyard Shares cartooning, cartoonists, graphic novels
  4. Shonen art studio Shares graphic novels, cartooning, strips

“If you want more of the same (humor), start with these.”

  1. The Comics of Charles Schulz: The Good Grief of Modern Life
  2. Pearls Freaks the #*%# Out: A (Freaky) Pearls Before Swine Treasury
  3. Bloom County Episode XI: A New Hope
  4. Comics, Trauma, and the New Art of War

“If it was the graphic novels that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Fearless: A Cartoonist's Guide to Life
  2. Jews and American comics
  3. MacDoodle St
  4. Rebel Visions

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The ungentlemanly art
  2. Pretty In Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013
  3. Pioneering cartoonists of color
  4. 9-11: Emergency Relief