NEWSPAPER COMICS, ETC

James Carver Pusey, Jr., born in Avondale, Pennsylvania, was a newspaper cartoonist best known for his pantomime strip, Benny. His first strip was Cat Tales, which was also mostly pantomime, though a few feature vaudeville-style gags. Cat Tales ran in the mid- to late 1920s (and a brief resurgence in the 1930s), with the same strips showing up in different papers in different years. Pusey’s talent with pantomime briefly took him to Hollywood, where he was one of several writers working with the Marx Brothers on the movie Monkey Business.

Jimmy Hatlo's newspaper panel comic, They'll Do It Every Time!, was one of the best-loved cartoons for decades. Hatlo focused on the small frustrations in life, the foibles and follies of the common man (and woman), and readers sent in plenty of fodder for his detailed sketches.

Comic artist Erwin L. Hess (1913-1999) featured nostalgic memories in his popular newspaper comic panel The Good Old Days. His detailed art combined with easily-recognized themes from American family history resonated with readers who grew up in small towns and farms across the country. The Good Old Days was published from 1946 to 1981. There are over 200 full-color Sunday newspaper comic panels in this collection, published between 1952 and 1963.

This 1930s newspaper game challenged readers to solve and collect word game clues as they followed the comic strip adventures of Detective Blynker Byrnes on the trail of the ruthless killer, King Kobra. At the conclusion of the strip, readers could send in their answers to the word game and their guess as to the identity of the killer. You can follow along in this collection of the comic strip, and see if you can guess who the killer is. (The official answer is included at the end of the booklet.) This is a free, printable PDF at the Coachwhip Ebook Store.

Cartoonist Walter Berndt (1899-1979) created Smitty as a hard-working office boy, drawing from the experience of his own youth. Smitty was published from 1922 to 1973, and the character slowly matured from a young teenager to his early twenties. Young Smitty lived with his parents, his younger brother, Herby, and his dog, Scraps. This collection was first published in 1928 by Cupples and Leon.

James Swinnerton (1875-1974) began his professional comic art career in 1892, and is regarded as one of the significant early contributors to the development of this art form. His strips included The Little Bears, Mr. Jack, and Little Jimmy. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1906 (and told he had only weeks to live), but a move to the dry southwest brought him back to health. The beautiful southwestern deserts became his favorite subject in landscape art. His passions for comic art and the southwest (and his affection for the Hopi and Navajo people he befriended in his travels) merged in 1922 into a regular feature for Good Housekeeping magazine, the Canyon Kiddies, pairing comic art scenes with descriptive rhymes. The early popularity of this feature led to the publishing of this collection of comics in book form in 1923. No further book collections were published, though Canyon Kiddies was included in the magazine (with one 7-year hiatus) until 1941. This reprint of the 1923 collection includes full color and black-and-white sketch art.

First published in 1916, this collection of black-and-white golf comics (both panels and strips) showcases the slice-of-life sporting humor that Clare Briggs (1875-1930) did so well. He captures both the pleasures and frustrations of the game of golf. Briggs was one of the first cartoonist to develop a daily continuity comic strip. His work included "When a Feller Needs a Friend," "The Days of Real Sport," "Mr. and Mrs.," and "Danny Dreamer."

Foolish Questions was a long-running newspaper single-panel comic that played on the idea of sarcastic comebacks to obvious (foolish) questions. It was immensely popular, with readers sending in their own questions for artist Rube Goldberg to answer. This book reprints the original black-and-white comic collection put out soon after the comic began. Added, on the back cover, are reprints of two postcards that showed examples of Foolish Questions in full color.

E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971) was the first African-American cartoonist to be published in nationally distributed magazines. His watercolor comic art was published in Esquire, Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker, and many other magazines, and his artistic talent was sought out by numerous advertisers. Cuties was his gag panel, featuring attractive young women and their romantic foibles. This volume brings together his two Cuties in Arms collections from 1941 and 1943, during those war years when soldier-oriented humor was particularly popular. (Among other things, we see glimpses in these panels of women at work for the war effort and other aspects of civilian and military life during WWII.)

That Little Game was a classic slice-of-life newspaper comic from the 1920s. Bert Link's artistry is often overlooked in comic history, but his ability to detail both figure and personality still entertains with poignant and mischievous humor. Link took the traditional comic panel to new heights even while specializing in one subject — the foibles of poker players. The card game is the background for wit and good-natured sparring with friends and spouses. That a daily comic could run for a decade, and still entertain today, is a tribute to a fine comic artist. This 2-ebook collection contains over 220 poker comics from 1920.

This is a cleaned scan of the original (and rare) oversized 16-page comic booklet, Charlie Chaplin in the Army, published in 1917. The black and white cartoon strips were illustrated by E. C. Segar, creator of Popeye and Thimble Theatre. Available in secured PDF.

Cartoonist Gene Byrnes (1889-1974) brought “Reg’lar Fellers” characters to life in 1917, and they continued to entertain newspaper readers through 1949. In 1943, two patriotic collections of “Reg’lar Fellers” were published honoring the Army and the Navy, with comics interspaced with official military photos of soldiers and sailors, along with their military equipment. As Byrnes noted, “People, in these trying war days, must find time for more smiling.”

The second patriotic volume by cartoonist Gene Byrnes, including both cartoons and official military photos.

Jack Hamm was well-known for his Christian editorial cartoons (single panel comics) published in newspapers across the country. (He also wrote a popular series of instructional drawing books.) This volume collected the most popular of his newspaper comics. (Free PDF)

A young American Indian boy and his animal friends . . . A. T. Crichton's classic newspaper comic ran from 1906-1907, relating the adventures of a young boy and his animal friends. Includes several "just so" stories about North American wildlife, and a long story arc about a young white girl, Fanny "Yellow Hair," who is lost. Detailed stories accompany well-drawn comic art. This is a compilation of Library of Congress scans, and are in grayscale. (The original comics were in full color.) (Free PDF)

Playing with a Magician's wand can lead to trouble . . . W. O. Wilson's classic newspaper comic is delightfully detailed compared to the simplicity of modern comic strips. The hijinks of Madge as she plays with a magician's wand are a fun precursor to many of the children's fantasy novels today. This is a compilation of Library of Congress scans, and are in grayscale. (The original comics were in full color.) (Free PDF)

Back in the mid-1910s, the editor of the New England Philatelist coaxed an artist friend, Leroy Bartlett, into providing some comic illustrations for that publication. Primarily inside-jokes about the various stamp dealers and collectors, these were collected into a brief booklet in 1916 after the NEP was bought out by another stamp trade publication. This is more of a historical novelty with limited appeal, but gives a little insight into a subsection of American culture prior to WWI. (Free PDF)