Did you miss the pre-SPX Little Nemo and Dylan Horrocks events?

Did you miss the pre-SPX Little Nemo and Dylan Horrocks events?

If so, not to worry. ComicsDC had people there covering them for you. We got audio recordings of both events. The Library of Congress filmed the Little Nemo presentation, and it'll eventually be on their website, but for now, you can listen to it here. Click on the title to be taken to an audio file.

  

DRAWING ON HISTORY - Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream

by Josh O'Neill, Andrew Carl and Chris Stevens of Locust Moon Press

Bruce Guthrie has photographs of their presentation on his website and you can follow along by syncing his pictures and the audio.






Dylan Horrocks was last at SPX in 1999, talking about his book Hicksville and bring a traveling exhibition with him.

He's back and better than ever. 

Dylan Horrocks - Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen - at Politics and Prose bookstore

by Dylan Horrocks

 

March 29: How Early American Comic Strips Shed Light on the Nature of the Child

Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington DC 20540

March 6, 2012

Public contact: Martha Kennedy (202) 707-9115, mkenn@loc.gov

Swann Foundation Fellow Lara Saguisag to Discuss
How Early American Comic Strips Shed Light on the Nature of the Child

Swann Foundation Fellow Lara Saguisag, in a lecture at the Library of Congress, will examine how early 20th-century comic strips that featured child protagonists revealed the nature of the child during that era.

Saguisag will present "Sketching the 'Secret Tracts' of the Child's Mind: Theorizing Childhood in Early American Fantasy Strips, 1905-1914," at noon on Thursday, March 29, in Dining Room A on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Avenue S.E., Washington, D.C. The lecture is free and open to the public. No tickets are needed.

Saguisag will focus specifically on fantasy strips such as Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" and Lyonel Feininger's "Wee Willie Winkie's World." These strips featured child characters who inhabited dream worlds and transformed their environments through their imaginations. According to Saguisag, central to these works is the idea that a child's perception and experience of the world was shaped by his/her proclivity for fantasy. This natural connection with fantasy, moreover, made the child a complex, sometimes inscrutable figure, one who was essentially different from an adult.

Comic strips that linked childhood and fantasy drew from and built on themes of late-19th and early-20th-century children's books such as Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" and Frank L. Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Such literature portrayed and celebrated the child as a highly imaginative being who enters and sometimes creates fantasy worlds that an adult could not readily access.

According to Saguisag, during the same period, psychologists and practitioners associated with the Child Study Movement were also intrigued by what G. Stanley Hall termed the "secret tracts" of the child's mind. Many psychologists concluded that imaginative play and reverie were healthful childhood activities and advised parents to take an active role in cultivating the child's imagination. The intersection of children's literature and psychology encountered in early American "kid strips" helped perpetuate and naturalize the image of the imaginative child.

Born and raised in the Philippines, Saguisag completed an M.A. in Children's literature at Hollins University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at The New School. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden, where she held a University Presidential Fellowship from 2007-2009.

This presentation is sponsored by the Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon of the Library of Congress and the Library's Prints & Photographs Division. The lecture is part of the foundation's continuing activities to support the study, interpretation, preservation and appreciation of original works of humorous and satiric art by graphic artists from around the world. The foundation strives to award one fellowship annually to assist scholarly research and writing projects in the field of caricature and cartoon. Applications for the 2013-2014 academic year are due Feb. 15, 2013. More information about the fellowship is available through the Swann Foundation's website: www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/ or by e-mailing swann@loc.gov.

# # #

PR12-48
3/6/12
ISSN: 0731-3527

March 29: Early Comics and the Nature of the Child Lecture

Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington DC   20540

March 6, 2012

Public contact:  Martha Kennedy (202) 707-9115, mkenn@loc.gov

 Swann Foundation Fellow Lara Saguisag to Discuss
How Early American Comic Strips Shed Light on the Nature of the Child

Swann Foundation Fellow Lara Saguisag, in a lecture at the Library of Congress, will examine how early 20th-century comic strips that featured child protagonists revealed the nature of the child during that era.

Saguisag will present "Sketching the 'Secret Tracts' of the Child's Mind: Theorizing Childhood in Early American Fantasy Strips, 1905-1914," at noon on Thursday, March 29, in Dining Room A on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Avenue S.E., Washington, D.C.  The lecture is free and open to the public.  No tickets are needed.

Saguisag will focus specifically on fantasy strips such as Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" and Lyonel Feininger's "Wee Willie Winkie's World."  These strips featured child characters who inhabited dream worlds and transformed their environments through their imaginations.  According to Saguisag, central to these works is the idea that a child's perception and experience of the world was shaped by his/her proclivity for fantasy.  This natural connection with fantasy, moreover, made the child a complex, sometimes inscrutable figure, one who was essentially different from an adult.

Comic strips that linked childhood and fantasy drew from and built on themes of late-19th and early-20th-century children's books such as Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" and Frank L. Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."  Such literature portrayed and celebrated the child as a highly imaginative being who enters and sometimes creates fantasy worlds that an adult could not readily access.

According to Saguisag, during the same period, psychologists and practitioners associated with the Child Study Movement were also intrigued by what G. Stanley Hall termed the "secret tracts" of the child's mind.  Many psychologists concluded that imaginative play and reverie were healthful childhood activities and advised parents to take an active role in cultivating the child's imagination.  The intersection of children's literature and psychology encountered in early American "kid strips" helped perpetuate and naturalize the image of the imaginative child.

Born and raised in the Philippines, Saguisag completed an M.A. in Children's literature at Hollins University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at The New School. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden, where she held a University Presidential Fellowship from 2007-2009. 

This presentation is sponsored by the Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon of the Library of Congress and the Library's Prints & Photographs Division.  The lecture is part of the foundation's continuing activities to support the study, interpretation, preservation and appreciation of original works of humorous and satiric art by graphic artists from around the world.  The foundation strives to award one fellowship annually to assist scholarly research and writing projects in the field of caricature and cartoon.  Applications for the 2013-2014 academic year are due Feb. 15, 2013.  More information about the fellowship is available through the Swann Foundation's website: www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/ or by e-mailing swann@loc.gov.

# # #

PR12-48
3/6/12
ISSN: 0731-3527

Be a Ripsnorter with Winsor McCay

From an April 1913 newspaper. I figured I wasn't going to find an original button, but could enjoy a reasonable facsimile. Buy it now, and use it in comics con crowds.

Winsor McCay's Legion of Ripsnorters' Rhinocerous by mrhode

Winsor McCay's Legion of Ripsnorters' Rhinocerous

Round the Ripsnorters' Campfire - Pipe the button especially designed for members of the Legion of Ripsnorters. Isn't it a corker? The rhinocerous is probably the greatest ripsnorter of all big game. When he charges something's got to go. And so with our own fellow Ripsnorters. When one of them yells "Gangway!' ordinary people had better jump. Henceforth the rhinocerous is the Legion's mascot and emblem. The button has been especially designed by Winsor McCay, the famous Ripsnorter of Sheepshead Baya. He has been elected official artist by the executive committee. All members of the Legion of Ripsnorters should wear one of the buttons. (April 13, 1913)

Little Nemo animation entered into Library of Congress Registry

Winsor McCay's Little Nemo animation entered into Library of Congress Registry, reports the Associated Press on the Washington Post website.

The Library's press release says:

Little Nemo (1911)

This classic work, a mix of live action and animation, was adapted from Winsor McCay’s famed 1905 comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland." Its fluidity, graphics and story-telling was light years beyond other films made during that time. A seminal figure in both animation and comic art, McCay profoundly influenced many generations of future animators, including Walt Disney.

This is not the 1990s Japanese animation of course. Speaking of McCay, I had an original of one of his political drawings in my hands this weekend. Hoo-hah!

Another cartoon I'm not familiar with was added as well:

Quasi at the Quackadero (1975)

"Quasi at the Quackadero" has earned the term "unique." Once described as a "mixture of 1930s Van Beuren cartoons and 1960s R. Crumb comics with a dash of Sam Flax," and a descendent of the "Depression-era funny animal cartoon," Sally Cruikshank’s wildly imaginative tale of odd creatures visiting a psychedelic amusement park careens creatively from strange to truly wacky scenes. It became a favorite of the Midnight Movie circuit in the 1970s. Cruikshank later created animation sequences for "Sesame Street," the 1986 film "Ruthless People" and the "Cartoon Land" sequence in the 1983 film "Twilight Zone: The Movie."

92 years yesterday ... the SHOC of McCay!

Another Secret History of Comics entry by Warren Bernard:

92 years ago this past Sunday, March 23, 1916, the members of The Albany Legislative Correspondents Association got together for their annual dinner. Not unlike the Gridiron Club, it was a boys night out to rib and celebrate the then occupants of the New York State Legislature and the sitting Governor, Charles Whitman.

The program for this event features a Winsor McCay drawing that to my knowledge, has not been reprinted before. This dinner and its associated program was done for over 60 years, and each year political cartoonists did both the covers and in some years, up to a half dozen specialty pieces for the inside text.

How many more did Mccay do? For what other obscure organization did he do such material? The former I do not know the answer to, the latter, one day soon this question will be at least partially answered.

So stay tuned to the SHOC...

Warren

I had to reduce the image dpi from 300 to 150 to get a reasonable size to post - if anyone wants the supersize original, click here.

Geppi's Entertainment Museum photos from 'Scrooged' exhibit and more

I, along with some friends, got a tour of the new exhibit at Geppi's Entertainment Museum which opens at the end of January. Curator Arnold and Registrar Andy kindly took us through the whole museum. I'll post more thoughts later, but here's the pictures. As I've said before, it's a cool museum, and there's a lot of Barks originals here that none of us would see any place else. And for fun, a Happy Hooligan toy where the cops beat on him as it rolls and an ad by Winsor McCay in a section not open to the public. The Museum's closed on Monday's during the winter, so watch out for that, but it's well worth seeing. Steve Geppi's got a collection to envy.

Larger versions of the pictures can be seen and downloaded on my flickr site.

A couple of duck oil paintings.

Part of the complete North to the Yukon story that's on display.

The atypical section with non-Disney Duck watercolors, and some other oddities including a landscape.

A Faberge egg offered by Another Rainbow.

Pirate's Gold oil painting.

Duck family statue from Another Rainbow. That's an oil of Donald lying next to it.

Ah, McCay... This was opposite an original Krazy Kat, but this is all I had eyes for.

Happy Hooligan gets bopped by the cops when you roll this toy.

Look at that lovely Winsor McCay ad.

Cartoons Magazine from 1918 online

This is not the REAL SHoC (Secret History of Comics) promised yesterday, but it's a pretty good one. It's a scan on Google Books of Cartoons Magazine from 1918 - actually it's over 500 pages long so it must be most of the year's issues! Hoo-hah!

These are pretty well-known to hardcore collectors, but out of the price range of ordinary guys like me. Let's give a moment to appreciate the bequest of John Amory Lowell.

Now... to print or not to print...

Here's a 1920 Keeping Up with the Joneses from Pop Momand...

...Winsor McCay's Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend...

...Thomas Masson's 1922 Our American Humorists has a chapter on comics artists - with few kind words...

...and a microfiche version of The Good Things of Life, Sixth Series, which is early gag cartooning.