Maslin's Inkspill on Library of Congress' Thurber originals

Thurber Thursday: Thurber Originals At The Library of Congress, Smith College, And The Art Institute Of Chicago

Michael Maslin

Inkspill August 29, 2024

https://michaelmaslin.com/thurber-thursday-thurber-originals-at-the-library-of-congress-smith-college/

I pointed these out to him, after he mentioned being interested in original art. His blog is the best resource I know on New Yorker cartoonists.

Greg Bennett collection of cartoon drawings at Library of Congress

Greg Bennett may have sold his share of Big Planet Comics and decamped to Northern Europe, but part of him remains here... at the Library of Congress. Most of these pictured are from SPX when Greg was more involved in organizing it. The Stan Sakai might have been done at a signing at the store, and I don't recognize Mike Luce at all, but I remember most of the others. Whatever happened to Joe Chiapetta anyway? Reference photos are by Sara Duke.

Bryan Talbot

Craig Thompson

Jonathan Ames by Dean Haspiel

Bacchus by Eddie Campbell

Farel Dalrymple, The Wrenchies,

Jeff Smith

Jessica Abel

Joe Chiapetta

Jhonen C. Vasquez's Squee

Jon Lewis

Metaphrog

Mike Luce

Ronja Berge from Tusj magazine, Norway

Stan Sakai

Unknown Mexican cartoonist

[The Greg Bennett collection of cartoon drawings]

Published/Created

• [between 1992 and 2020]

Request this Item Item Availability

More Information

LCCN Permalink

• https://lccn.loc.gov/2023631531

Description

• 41 items ; sheets 61 x 46 cm and smaller.

Rights advisory

• Rights status of individual images not evaluated. For general information see: "Copyright and Other Restrictions...," http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/195_copr.html opens in a new window

Access advisory

• Served by appointment (Unprocessed). To make a request, see "Access to Unprocessed Materials," http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/info/022_unpr.html opens in a new window

LC classification

• Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2023:074

Contents

• 1. Darick W. Robertson, Damned space beavers, 2002, ink drawing; -- 2. Mark Burrier, [Underground pool], stamped Sep 23 2009, ink drawing; -- 3. Nick Bertozzi (artist), Bill Weaver (writer), Incredible drinkiN' buddies versus postmodernism, ©1998, 6 ink drawings; -- 4. [Drawing of man playing guitar flying over another man], graphite on tracing paper; -- 5. Brett Warnock, Cherry poppin' daddies, © 1992, porous point pen drawing; -- 6. Jon Lewis (writer and penciler), Dave Nothing (inker), and Jeff Mason, letterer, Veiled phantom, 5 drawings; -- 7. Thom Hartigan, [Sea captain], 9/17/97, porous point pen drawing; -- 8. Dean Haspiel, [Yellow man wearing suit jacket], 2008, watercolor and charcoal; -- 9. Jessica Abel, [Four people reading comics, perhaps SPX promotional art], 2007, ink drawing; -- 10. Joe Chiapetta, [Young child clutching crayons and drawing], 1992, ink wash drawing; -- 11. Pete Sickman-Garner, Hey, Mister comics #4, [1998], porous point pen drawing; -- 12. Tom Scioli, Philip K Dick Total recall, [between 2001 and 2020], porous point pen drawing; -- 13. Nick Bertozzi, Living with Dean [Haspiel], 1998, porous point pen on envelope; -- 14. Matt Wagner, For Greg [Robot lifting off into space], colored pencil, porous point pen on black paper; -- 15. G., [Four panel vertical drawing featuring a turtle, rabbit, and a fox, as well as a dachshund wearing "policia secreta"], ink drawing; -- 16. Hurricane Lamps, [between 1999 and 2004], ink and blue pencil drawing; -- 17. Tom Hart, Is that all of them?, 1998, ink and tonal film overlay drawing (w/letter); -- 18. [Comic about music in English and Danish, 5 out of 7 drawings], 5 drawings, watercolor, ink, and graphite with overlays; -- 19. Jeff Smith, [Presentation drawing featuring characters from Bone] [2013?], porous point pen drawing; -- 20. Brian Talbot, [Presentation drawing featuring a woman with her hair tied up and wearing a red hat], 2000, watercolor and ink drawing; -- 21. Jhonen C. Vasquez, [Presentation drawing featuring the character Squee], porous point pen drawing; -- 22. Stan Sakai [Japanese-American artist], [Presentation drawing featuring the character Miyamoto Usagi from the series Usagi Yojimbo], 2000, porous point pen drawing accompanied by letter; -- 23. John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs aka Metaphrog, [Presentation drawing featuring a turtle and a bee], 2001 watercolor and ink drawing; -- 24. Callum Campbell, [Presentation drawing featuring an insect-like creature], 2001 crayon and charcoal drawing; -- 25. Farel Dalrymple, Petite investigator gets in this sheet, [ca. 2013] watercolor and ink drawing accompanied by letter; -- 26. [Five design drawings for a mini comic cover] 5 ink wash and graphite drawings, some with blue pencil; -- 27. [J. J. Liu?], [Rat or guinea pig], 1997 porous point pen drawing; -- 28. Eddie Campbell, Eddie Campbell's Bacchus [2002?] porous point pen and opaque white drawing; -- 29. Mike Luce, [Drawings for and of iron, includes letter and illustrated envelope, 1997 ink and porous point pen drawings; -- 30. Jim Woodring, Small Press Expo 2011, 2011, 1 print accompanied by envelope; -- 31. Farel Dalrymple, The Wrenchies, [ca. 2014], 1 print; -- 32. Hope Larson, Salamander dream, [2005] risograph print accompanied by sticker; -- 33. Paul Pope, Pulphope, [2021?] photomechanical print on mount; -- 34. [Hurricane lamps logo design], [between 1999 and 2004], photocopy with ballpoint inscription; -- 35. John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs aka Metaphrog, [Character facing window in bedroom with robot Comforter] 17/50 photomechanical print; -- 36. Primal Groove Press, So distinctly Top Shelf, © 1996, photomechanical print; -- 37. Brian Biggs, Topshelf on parade, 1998, screenprint; -- 38. John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs aka Metaphrog, [Woman lying on bed] photomechanical print; -- 39. The first ever AdHouse patch, embroidery mounted on photomechanical print; -- 40. Craig Thompson, Neil Gaiman The last angel, [2000] screenprint; -- 41. Mike Zulli, Neil Gaiman The guardian angel tour, © 1994, offset lithograph, 2 variants

Browse by shelf order

• Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2023:074

Notes

• This catalog record contains preliminary data.
• Title devised by Library staff.

Acquisition source

• Gift; Greg Bennett; 2023; (DLC/PP-2023:074).

LCCN

• 2023631531  

Original art I picked up at Baltimore Comic Con

 A pre-existing Thom Zahler sketch of Green Lantern Katma Tui, 2 drawings by Howard Chaykin who doesn't draw full pages any more, a nice Shadow by Andy Price, and a Batman and Batmobile sketch by the awesome Jose Garcia-Lopez. Not shown: a nice page from Amelia Rules by Jimmy Gownley.

The Post notices 2 pages 0f Spider-Man art goes for the price of a minor Impressionist painting

Spider-Man comic-book page sells for a record $3.36 million

By Michael Cavna

Washington Post January 14 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/comics/2022/01/14/spider-man-art-record/

Original art of Ding, Lolly, and... Carl Ed's Victor Veribest? (UPDATED 2x)

by Mike Rhode (updated 11/19/21 with scans)

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

 

The next strips I pulled out were 'Lolly' by Pete Hansen, a working woman gag strip that I read in the New York Daily News as a kid. It started in 1955, but these are from the 1970s when I was reading it.

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/2018/05/10/thriftstorm-6-news-and-views-of-armour-crews/ And a few years ago Rob Stolzer was selling another original (which he believes was done in the late 1920s):https://web.archive.org/web/20180509214243/http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1326468  I was just reading a couple of days ago that Carl Ed was one of Roy Crane's teachers at Chicago's Academy of Fine Arts in 1920."

  

 

So, the strip is actually for the Armour meat company's internal newspaper. And these 3 strips more than double the amount of them that can be found on the web apparently.

 

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

Bruce Guthrie on UVA's Oliphant exhibit

by Bruce Guthrie

I went down to Charlottesville this weekend to see the new Oliphant exhibit there.  While there, I met with Molly Schwartzburg who was co-curator of the exhibit that I had been sending emails to regarding photo policies and such.  We had a good chat!

This is the official exhibit description:

Oliphant: Unpacking the Archive
September 23, 2019 – May 30, 2020
Celebrating the recent acquisition of editorial cartoonist Patrick Oliphant’s voluminous archive

In 2018, Patrick and Susan Oliphant donated almost 7,000 drawings, watercolors, prints, sculptures, and sketchbooks to the UVA Library. Complementing the art is a wealth of archival material: correspondence, photographs, professional papers, scrapbooks, and recordings. This, the first exhibition to juxtapose the archive with Oliphant’s artwork, shows how and why Oliphant became the most widely syndicated, most influential political cartoonist in America, shaping the political consciousness of generations.

What happens when a great artist takes up the profession of political cartooning and deploys all the weapons in his considerable arsenal to send a message? Endowed with a skepticism of the status quo, a love of drawing, and little formal training, Oliphant began his career at eighteen as a copy boy in Adelaide, Australia. When he joined the Denver Post in 1964 he introduced a linear fluency and wit—a studied awareness of adversary traditions from Hogarth, Goya, and Daumier to David Low—as well as an expansive imagination and conceptual reach as yet unknown to American newspaper audiences.

Oliphant’s swift rise to prominence, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1967, was followed by five decades of sustained, uncompromising work. From Watergate to Bridgegate, from Duoshade to digital delivery, and from the ephemeral newspaper cartoon to the lasting medium of bronze, Oliphant’s work both embraces its immediate context and transcends the particulars of time, place, and medium to reify universal traits of human character.

Today is a moment of great change for political commentary and visual satire. As newspapers continue to fold or merge, and the number of staff editorial cartoonists drops from hundreds to dozens nationally, Oliphant’s archive will be essential for understanding the place of political cartoons in newsprint’s last decades of dominance, and inspiring paths forward in an era of turbulent uncertainty.

It's a wonderful exhibit, filled with bunches of his daily strips, his sculptures, etc. 

For me, the major disappointment was that most of the artwork were reproductions.  Apparently, the originals were hung for the first couple of months when it opened in September, but were then rotated out.  The signage was not changed to reflect this so I'm not entirely sure what was original and what wasn't.  That's not the way it's supposed to be in a research library.

But ignoring that, there is a lot to love about the exhibit:

• The sketchbooks -- so many sketchbooks! -- are wonderful.  There's even one (clearly a reproduction) that you can pick up and look through.  Pat drew everything! 
• There's a huge doodle picture on an easel that's just amazing.  Between classic drawings are phone numbers, addresses, and appointment reminders.
• The sculptures -- two of which are downstairs -- are great.  The National Portrait Gallery has copies of most of them too, but they all went off display when the presidential gallery was reorganized.
• There's a free poster and a fairly modest brochure.  Both feature a self-portrait that he did for San Diego Comic-Con back in 2009. That was the one that I sat next to his wife Susan during his talk while he drew obscene things on his writing tablet (Susan kept covering her eyes during the demo).
• The history lesson about growing up in Australia and coming here on assignment were interesting.  I always wondered why he was here.
• There was a display about Punk, the penguin character that visits most of his strips.  Punk has been around.... well, hell, almost forever.  It's his signature like Ralph Steadman's splatter.  And like at Steadman's Katzen exhibit, you'll find Punk on the walls in something like ten places throughout the building including on floor landings and in the elevator.  (Some Katzen folk got splatters added to their business cards.  I'm not sure that happened with Punk.)

They did a really nice job and it's well worth the trip.  Plus that library also has an interesting exhibit about the Declaration of Independence and offset printing. 

I of course did my normal photo obsessive thing -- so many photos! -- and they're up on http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2020_02_20B2_UVAL_Oliphant