I'm uploading old newsletters for work to the Medical Heritage Library, and just ran across this page from the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth newsletter for July 2009.
Wednesday, October 04, 2023
Mark Parisi was 'That Guy'
Thursday, July 06, 2023
Skipper/s in the Spotlight panel from the Navy Times
Mario DeMarco illustrated this panel comic in Navy Times from 1961-1981, and maybe longer. These examples from the US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery's Historical Office's biographical files run from 1961-1981. The GCD and the Marvel Wiki have credits for DeMarco, but Jerry Bail's Who's Who in American Comic Books has the best data, and shows him as doing "Sports comics (pen/ink/) 20 yrs in Navy Times." I could only find two other examples online (which are at the bottom), and the Times search engine is useless returning almost 7000 results.
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Skipper in the Spotlight, Frances T. Shea, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy, Director, Navy Nurse Corps. Navy Times 09/01/1980 |
And two strips from the web, the second deleted from a Wikipedia article.
RADM Floyd H. Miller, Commander, Navy Recruiting Command |
Benjamin T. Hacker, Sr. |
Wednesday, June 07, 2023
Good Heaven! Changing understanding of a cartoon postcard
I picked up this postcard at a flea market last weekend. These days, you're most likely to see an image like this in a history of medicine collection although when it was made it was just a gag cartoon, and not graphic medicine. So what's going on? The presumably newly-married pair has gone to bed and the man sees all the prosthetics the woman has removed to sleep - a wig, dentures, an artificial leg, and hand. One wonders where his thick glasses were if he didn't notice these before bedtime.
The card's artist signature is cut off on the lower right, but the company is Lotus Pub Co, NY. They seem to have published a bit of everything, but there's a few more cartoon postcards online. There's nothing at all on the back.
If anyone has any further information, please leave it in the comments. I'll probably donate the card to the Library of Congress.
Monday, April 03, 2023
Secret Histories of Comics - Finds in an Arlington Flea Market
Arlington has a perfectly pleasant monthly free market put up on by Civitan for charity. It started up again for the year on April 1st, and I spent about $30 on this pile. I wonder how much of this will be familiar.
Tuesday, November 09, 2021
Original art of Ding, Lolly, and... Carl Ed's Victor Veribest? (UPDATED 2x)
So a clump (gaggle? flock? murder?) of cartoonists walk into the American Visionary Art Museum's giftshop...
Cellphone photo with caption |
Sure, it sounds like a shaggy dog story, but this past weekend I went to the museum with a group of local cartoonists, and someone opened a flat file drawer in the gift shop, and pulled out a 'Ding' Darling panel.
Scan, with caption cut off
There were 3 of these, which appear to tell the story of a young potato growing up into a crop. Barbara Dale said she and another friend had already bought 2 others on a previous visit. I bought this one.
Lolly June 21, 1970 |
Lolly Sept 3, 1972 |
Finally, there were 3 strips by Carl Ed of 'Harold Teen' fame. These 'Victor Veribest' strips seem like they might just predate 'Harold Teen' that started in 1919, or more probably, be running parallel to it as an advertising strip for an Armour Hour radio show of which I've found mentions of for 1929 and 1933-1935. I'd be glad to hear from anyone with more knowledge about them.
UPDATE: My friend, the crack comics historian Rodrigo Baeza, comes through "I found a sample of the Victor Veribest strip that ran in 1933: https://the-avocado.org/2018/
Monday, May 17, 2021
Sports cartoons found at estate sale - Christy Walsh and Morris Scott
I grew up in the tail end of the life of the sports cartoon. Bill Gallo was still at the NY Daily News, and the local Bergen Record had a sports cartoonist. By now, the field is mostly gone, but as Eddie Campbell has written about it, in its heyday, it launched the careers of many a cartoonist.
This past weekend I found an original sports cartoon and a pritnted comic strip at an estate sale.
The original cartoon is by Christy Walsh, a failed sports cartoonist. However, Michael Cavna, of the Washington Post, used to be a sports cartoonist himself and he put me on the track of finding out Walsh was the Kevin Bacon of his day and knew everybody. He might have not been a great cartoonist, but he became a fantastic sports agent and syndicator and became a rich man, representing Babe Ruth and others. (UPDATE 5/26/2021: I gave this to the Library of Congress' Prints & Photos division)
Blue, All-American First Baseman, 1923 |
Comics historian Steven Rowe tells me "Blue is wearing a cap with what seems to be the letter D.
Since Lu Blue played first base for Detroit in 1923, Blue is indeed likely to be Lu Blue."
The other item is a clipping of a comic strip about the World's Series in baseball by Morris Scott from the Boston Post, October 8, 1913. The New York Giants are facing the Philadelphia Athletics.* I've cleaned the image up; the original is perfectly legible, but yellowed from being displayed for years.
Two crack comics historians helped out with tracking this bit of history. Rodrigo Baeza provided me with the artist identification, and Art Lortie found a couple of the articles that Rodrigo suggested from Newspaper.com. Here's 3 items about Morris Scott, who appears to have died rather young, as well as another comic strip from 1918.
*Rod Beck sent in the following bit of baseball history - "Frank Baker (shown on the back of the elephant) was known as Home Run Baker. The year 1913 was in what is called The Dead Ball Era. Baker led the American League in home runs from 1911 thru 1914 with 11,12,10 and 9 homers respectively. The Philadelphia Athletics beat the New York Giants 4 games to 1 to win the 1913 series."
Boston Post March 3, 1918 |
Obituary, BP Dec 5, 1922 |
"Scott with Squad," BP March 3 1918 |
Funeral, BP Dec 7, 1922 |