Last comics from Naval Hospital Long Branch's Santana newspaper

Previous posts here, here, and here. 

The paper ran until at least 1950 according to the National Library of Medicine, but the issues I have access to ended with May 1946, and the cartoons stopped with a VIP panel in March's issue. A.G. Santomauro returned one last time with a note saying he was cartooning for magazines in Hollywood; does anyone know anything about him? Karl Hubenthal had a page reprinted from the Marine Corps' Leatherneck and Navy cartoonist Bob Woodcock had a reprint in November 1945. Other one-shots were Nick Pouletsos' Stalemate also in November, and Saltshaker by Keziah in December. An Art Brewster sports cartoon of golfer George Lake ran in April 1946.

VIP

Karl Hubenthal

Bob Woodcock

Art Brewster sports cartoon of golfer George Lake from April 1944.

My friend Rodrigo Baeza found a picture of Santomauro from 1944 in his previous command. This is from a cruise book (yearbook) for the hospital in Pearl Harbor, and is in the National Library of Medicine.

Almost a decade ago, I posted some cartoons from Hospital Hi-Lites here that included VIP, Woodcock, and Santamauro (whose first name was Al).

Comics from the Naval Hospital Long Beach newspaper, continued

The Aorta becomes the Santana in June 1945. A.G Santomauro's Roughly Speaking is still the regular comic panel, but it's joined in October by Ward Whacky! by Karl Hubenthal, a professional cartoonist.

The newspapers themselves can be seen here.

World War II cartoons from Naval Hospital Long Beach, CA newspaper

Scans of 'The Aorta,' the Naval Hospital Long Beach, CA newspaper are going into the Medical Heritage Library. Runs of the newspaper are in the National Library of Medicine and the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery's history office archive (which is scanning them). It's likely that no one has really seen these cartoons since they were published 80 years ago.

 

 October 1944

 

November 1944

Fall 1944 issues had "Our Little Helper" comic panel by Lloyd Hawthorne. December 1944 featured a cartoon by, and picture of, William Abshire.

 

 

 

In 1945, the comic panel shifts to being "Roughly Speaking" by A. G. Santomauro. These are from January.

 

 

I don't know if any of these men continued as cartoonists after the war.

Secret History of Comics - Ephemera Finds in TN

 One of the things I like to do is wander around antique stores and junk shops. Here's some stuff I found in Tennessee last month.

This is a Herblock cover caricaturing Art Buchwald for Newsweek that I didn't know existed, so I was quite surprised by it.

This appears to be an advertising card for Union Pacific Tea from the latter half of the nineteenth century. It's being donated to the Library of Congress soon.

This matchbook looked like a New Yorker cartoonist to me so I reached out to historian/cartoonist Michael Maslin:

Maslin wrote back, "Not all of the faces, but a few (figs a&b), look like Steig's early work. The fellow extreme lower right most especially (fig. a) . But I'm not confident enough to say it is Steig's work."

fig. a

fig. b

Beetle Bailey original comic strip 9/13/1993. 

Note that the dealer thought it was a print, and not the original, and priced it accordingly.

A Buck Rogers post-production mini-poster by Dave Perillo that's being donated to Library of Congress.

Three British digest-sized comic books that will be donated to the Library of Congress comic book collection. The cover photos have been added to the Grand Comics Database already.

WorldCat doesn't list any copies in the United States, and almost none worldwide. When Randy Scott was at Michigan State's comic book collection, I would feed material such as this to them.

Love Story Picture Library #1259

Star Love Stories #591

Love Story Picture Library #1254

World War II cartoon postcards are easy to find, but the antique mall was waiting 

on me to close so I felt compelled to buy something.

Note the dental drill, for graphic medicine fans.

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Sierra Barnes

by Mike Rhode

 Sierra Barnes, aka Sierra Bravo, is a local webcomics creator. I'm going to lift her bio from her website, since we haven't met in person during these crazy times.

Sierra Barnes is a historian-turned-comic-creator who currently lives in Washington, DC making webcomics and print comics based on history and folklore. She graduated in 2014 from the College of William & Mary with a double-major in History and German Studies, and graduated in August of 2019 with a MFA in Comics from California College of the Arts. She is particularly interested in the relationship between history, mythology, and memory, and her comics (including webcomic HANS VOGEL IS DEAD) reflect this. When she’s not making comics, you can usually find her haunting cafes and museums like a very nerdy ghost.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I do graphic novels and webcomics! Mostly long-form a la Monstress and Namesake.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

Digital art all the way, baby. I started out drawing pencils and scanning in but found it really cumbersome, so now I work directly in photoshop/clip studio with a Cintiq tablet.

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

I was born in 1991 in Houston, Texas! Don't ask me anything about it though, my family moved out of state six months later.

Why are you in Washington now?  What neighborhood or area do you live in?

I moved to Arlington to be with my fiancee (I've spent most of my life in Northern California), but mostly because I was done living in a small rural town with not a lot of art prospects.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I taught myself how to draw with help from my mother, who is a fine artist, and got an MFA in Comics from California College of the Arts last year.

Who are your influences?

Writing-wise I love Susanna Clarke, John Connolly, and Marjorie Liu, and visual art-wise I draw a lot from Mike Mignola, Natasha Alterici, Ivan Bilibin, and Alex Alice. I love Eastern European folk art as well!

Is Sierra Bravo a pen name that you use?

Sierra Bravo is a pen name I use! It's just my initials in the NATO alphabet, but since my first name is also Sierra, I thought it was kinda funny.

Are you a full-time artist now, or do you have a job that pays the bills?

I wish I were arting full time! I work part-time as an admin assistant for AASHTO's publications wing working with transportation and infrastructure oversight. My favorite part about the gig--other than my coworkers haha--is that they have all the records of transportation standards and whatnot stretching back to 1914, so I've gotten the chance to look at some really cool transportation history in America! Road materials in 1920 pre-standardization were WILD.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

I don't think my career is far enough along for me to have regrets, per say, but I think I definitely would have resized all my pages to be industry standard comic size if I knew five years ago I would spend 40+ hours trying to format my weirdly-sized webcomic pages for print!!

What work are you best-known for?

I would say my webcomic of five years, Hans Vogel is Dead. A dead Nazi realizes in the afterlife his actions in our world have had greater consequences than he could have imagined, and must journey through the world of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales to rectify them. 

What work are you most proud of?

Probably still Hans Vogel is Dead, I finished Volume 1 in August of this year and had a print run that sold out in three days!! Very exciting.

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

I'd love to be picked up by a publisher for HViD, but I also have another series I've been pitching around to agents as a print-only run. I really would love to be working on graphic novels full-time someday...

Why are you doing a World War II flying story? 

I did a lot of work studying various aspects of aviation history and mythology in undergrad: the Nazification of the German air force from 1918 to 1940, how that was framed in popular culture, the general myth of the "Knights of the Skies," how Manfred von Richthofen's life was weaponized as propaganda--stuff like that. I found the intersection of the popular conception of heroic and chivalric pilots and the reality of the 2-week life expectancy and horrible deaths to be really interesting, and I also found that the weaponization of those popular conceptions went hand-in-hand with how the German Air Corps of WWI became the Luftwaffe of WWII. I knew I wanted to tell a story about how regular people could become radicalized, and with my background in aviation history and the rich imagery of WWI and WWII pilots, I felt like pulling from the visual library of the Battle of Britain and the Luftwaffe would have some cool and poignant results. I did a lot of research while I was living in Austria on my Fulbright, spoke to people, and visited a lot of war memorials to get more information on how that trauma was processed--and is being processed now--in collective consciousness, and sort of solidified the idea of Hans Vogel as who he was and how he became what he did. While I was there, the far-right FPÖ party gained power in the state where I was living, and seeing the rise in right-wing nationalism around the world since has galvanized me in my decision of making this anti-fascist story. I hate it when people try and divorce things like the German Military in WWII from politics--and I see it a lot in military history nerd circles!--you just can't do that ethically. In a lot of ways, Hans Vogel is very much pushing back against the whole "Good German" myth and trying to have a conversation about culpability even when you don't "mean" to do bad things. You gotta step up.

Will Hans Vogel have a second printing?

Hans Vogel will have a second printing, but I'm waiting to hear back from a publisher before I pull the trigger on ordering a second print run myself. I should know by mid-October, so I'll be making an announcement then! 

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

Despair mostly. I'm really struggling with figuring that out!

What do you think will be the future of your field?

I've really loved seeing the growth in digital and webcomics recently, as well as seeing a rise in independent and self-published comics. I think there's a real future in non-superhero comics and comics from smaller, independent creator-owned publishers! There have been some truly fantastic indie comics, especially webcomics, that have come out in the last few years and I think the industry is coming around to recognizing these self-published pieces can be really great. Seeing the success from smaller publishers like Iron Circus and Vault has given me hope that this is the future of comics.

What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Awesome Con, or others? Any comments about attending them?

I've done one year of Small Press Expo in-person, one year of AwesomeCon in-person, and one year of DCZinefest digitally (scheduling issues between COVID and masters program has made things complicated!). I highly recommend all of them, although I will say that SPX and DCZinefest are much more indie-friendly than AwesomeCon. Even so, all of them were a great time!

What's your favorite thing about DC?

Oh man, I can't pick just one!! I love the museums, I love the National Zoo, we've got some really great restaurants, but also the hiking and kayaking around here is great? I guess most of those things are "before-COVID" pastimes but someday I believe we'll be able to go back in and draw animals at the zoo again... I appreciate that there's a lot of boba tea places near me that do good takeout at least!

Least favorite?

The weather. I don't think I'll ever be used to the humidity, or the summer thunderstorms, or snow. It's just so wet all the time here...

What monument or museum do you like to take visitors to?

I always make people visit the Air and Space Museum with me, I love to go look at the planes in the WWI and WWII exhibits. A few years ago they had a traveling exhibit on WWI artists that was INCREDIBLE. I was really happy I got to go see it.

How about a favorite local restaurant?

Daikaya in Chinatown, Sakuramen in Adams Morgan, and Hanabi Ramen in Clarendon! I'm a huge ramen fan. I also love Chill Zone in Arlington, it's a lil mom and pop Vietnamese place that I used to go pop down and grab banh mi and work for a bit.

Do you have a website or blog?

My art website is here: https://www.sierrabravoart.com/
webcomic is here: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/hans-vogel-is-dead/list?title_no=62633
Twitter: @chjorniy_voron
Instagram: @sierra_bravo_art

How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected you, personally and professionally?

Closing shows has really bummed me out, and that's really the biggest impact it's had on my professional career as well. Online shows have not had the same response as in-person, and they're nowhere near as fun. I miss getting to do the networking and hanging out. Personally, it's been a struggle to keep up with productivity and burnout is real, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to use the end of the year to kinda collect myself and figure out how to start the next volume of my webcomic and get some more pitches out there!

PR: Announcing Dead Reckoning Fall 2020 Titles

Dead Reckoning announces three new graphic novels in Fall 2020.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Great Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century: Tsushima, Jutland, Midway

By Jean-Yves Delitte and Giuseppe Baiguera

In the history of civilizations, sea power has always played a preponderant role. This symbol of a nation’s scientific and military genius has very often been the deciding factor during major conflicts, putting the names of several clashes down into legend. With this collection, Jean-Yves Delitte and Giuseppe Baiguera plunge you into the heart of three of the twentieth century’s greatest naval battles:

Tsushima, Jutland, and Midway.

“This is an immersive tour of war at sea in the twentieth century that brings readers alongside sailors and pilots in the battles that shaped the modern world. Delitte and Baiguera are masters of the form, crafting elaborate comics art to recreate time and place in ways that will transport, teach, and thrill you.” —Jeff Parker (James Bond: Origin, X-men First Class, The Hulk and Batman ’66)

9781682475249 | 21 October 2020 | Paperback and eBook | $24.95

Atlas at War!

Edited by Michael J. Vassallo; Art Restoration by Allan Harvey

Atlas at War! collects fifty hard-hitting stories from Atlas Comics, the company that became Marvel Comics and published more war titles than anyone in the industry between 1951 and 1960. Comics historian Dr. Michael J. Vassallo has chosen the best of the best, many of which are coming back into print for the first time, from sixteen different Atlas war titles and featuring the artwork of twenty different artists—giants of the genre, including Russ Heath, John Severin, Bernie Krigstein, Joe Maneely, Jerry Robinson, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby. Each page has been meticulously restored from its first printing by comic art restorer Allan Harvey.

Atlas at War! covers the brutal pre-code period where graphic depictions of war action were rendered by artists who were World War II veterans themselves, as well as the post-code period, where code restrictions forced creators to tell stories without graphic violence but produced some of the most beautiful comic art of the genre. In addition to the artists, stories cover all aspects of war—from famous campaigns, weaponry, and personal soldier stories to political topics, Nazi atrocities, and even one story tinged with pre-code horror! Often overlooked in favor of its competitors, Atlas at War! will finally show that Atlas’ war titles were second to no one.

“Michael Vassallo knows more than anybody in the Marvel Universe about the rich history of the company's comics. His grasp and insights are astonishing! Make mine Michael's!” —Craig Yoe, curator of Don Winslow of the Navy and Marvel Masterwork Pin-Ups

“Atlas at War! is a treasure trove of lost war classics.”

—PJ Holden, artist for The Stringbags

9781682474709 | 9 September 2020 | Hardcover and eBook | $65.00

The Photographer of Mauthausen

Written by Salva Rubio; Drawn by Pedro J. Colombo; Colored by Aintzane Landa

This is a dramatic retelling of true events in the life of Francisco Boix, a Spanish press photographer and communist who fled to France at the beginning of World War II. But there, he found himself handed over by the French to the Nazis, who sent him to the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp, where he spent the war among thousands of other Spaniards and other prisoners. More than half of them would lose their lives there. Through an odd turn of events, Boix finds himself the confidant of an SS officer who is documenting prisoner deaths at the camp. Boix realizes that he has a chance to prove Nazi war crimes by stealing the negatives of these perverse photos—but only at the risk of his own life, that of a young Spanish boy he has sworn to protect, and, indeed, that of every prisoner in the camp.

Now a major motion picture streaming on Netflix.

9781682476277 | 11 November 2020 | Paperback and eBook | $19.95

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Library of Congress collection used for wartime comic book research

#22 from Grand Comics Database

Paul Hirsch used the papers of the Writers' War Board held in the Library of Congress, specifically Box 11 of the collection, to look at how a semi-official government body influenced the depiction of the Axis in comic books during the war. DC Comics, Fawcett Comics, and Street & Smith are specifically mentioned.

The WWB also encouraged racial reconciliation in America at the same time, with a 'Race Hatred Committee' which helped with an anti-lynching story in Captain Marvel, Jr. #22.

Here's the citation and the abstract:

"This Is Our Enemy" The Writers' War Board and Representations of Race in Comic Books,1942–1945

Author(s): Paul Hirsch

Source: Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Aug., 2014), pp. 448-486

Published by: University of California Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2014.83.3.448

Abstract

During World War II, the U.S. government, through the Writers' War Board (WWB), co-opted comic books as an essential means of disseminating race-based propaganda to adult Americans, including members of the armed forces. Working with comic creators, the WWB crafted narratives supporting two seemingly incompatible wartime policies: racializing America's enemies as a justification for total war and simultaneously emphasizing the need for racial tolerance within American society. Initially, anti-German and anti-Japanese narratives depicted those enemies as racially defective but eminently beatable opponents. By late 1944, however, WWB members demanded increasingly vicious comic-book depictions of America's opponents, portraying them as irredeemably violent. Still, the Board embraced racial and ethnic unity at home as essential to victory, promoting the contributions of Chinese, Jewish, and African Americans.

Posters at the National Library of Medicine

'Could you poison your child?': images from a century of medical propaganda;  Health, history, and design collide at the National Library of Medicine.

 By Amar Toor

The Verge April 12, 2013

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/12/4214262/national-library-of-medicine-online-image-archive-health-psa-posters

The first image, about a sailor blinded at Pearl Harbor, is by the noted cartoonist Alex Raymond.

A Dental Tech's Scribbles: The Collection of Bill Baltezar

A Dental Tech's Scribbles: The Collection of Bill Baltezar

Andre Sobocinski

The Grog - Vol 6 Number 2 - Spring 2011

online at http://archive.org/details/TheGrog-Vol6Number2-Spring2011 - click thru for pictures

Recently, the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Library and Archives accessioned a collection of artwork by a Navy dental technician named William "Bill" Baltezar (1924-2009). Before enlisting in the Navy, Baltezar was a trained artist; and through service on active duty (1943-1946) and in the reserves (1946-1953), he never stopped exercising his talent or need to present the daily life of an enlisted sailor through sketch and scribble. This collection consists of letters to his mother while at boot camp and later Hospital Corps School in San Diego, CA (1944), 26 pages of sketches drawn aboard Patrol Cruiser Escort-851 (1945-46), and illustrated envelopes that once enclosed love letters to his future wife, Dorothea. Dorothea Baltezar recalled of her husband, "he illustrated every envelope of every letter he ever sent—I kept all that he sent me over a two-year courtship." After leaving the Navy, Baltezar worked as an artist in Salinas, CA, where, in addition
to earning a reputation for his art work, Baltezar was a popular character in the community known for his fanciful stories, and performances in local community theater productions. In 2010, the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA, posthumously honored Baltezar with an exhibit of his watercolors entitled "When Ya Gonna Give Me a Damn Show?"

Donald Duck in Navy medicine

I was filing some material at work today, and ran across this image of Donald Duck.

There's two other uses of the same image in the book that can be seen on the Flickr site. The caption for this one is:

Disney's Donald Duck "Mob 8 Insignia" page 160 of The Story of U.S. Naval Mobile Hospital Number 8 by CAPT. William H.H. Turville, NY: Robert W. Kelly Publishing Corp, ca. 1946.

From BUMED's Navy Medicine Historical Files Collection - Facilities - Base Hospitals.  12-0185-003

Donald in pre-World War 2 US Navy yearbook

I'm not an expert in Disney history, but most people know the company helped America's war effort in World War II by designing logos for units, and making training films. At work, I've stumbled across this pre-war (to America at least) example of the Naval Air Station Pensacola Florida yearbook The Flight Jacket 1940, which was compiled for the training class for new pilots. At some point in the next few months, the yearbook will be transferred to the more appropriate Navy Department Library in the Washington Navy Yard which appears to need a copy. In the meantime, one can see scans of the famed Duck here.