In the News-John McCutcheon

John T. McCutcheon Featured on Moment of Indiana History

Originally posted Nov. 2, 2010

Indiana Public Media recently featured a Hoosier cartoonist on its radio program, Moment of Indiana History. The subject was John T. McCutcheon (1870-1946), onetime dean of American political cartoonists and longtime front-page cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune. Born in South Raub, Indiana, McCutcheon graduated from Purdue University in 1889. That's where he met his fast friend and sometime collaborator, humorist George Ade. In addition to being a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, McCutcheon was also a foreign correspondent and adventurer. He even owned his own Caribbean island. The full story can be found on the website of Indiana Public Media, here. You can find more art by John McCutcheon on my blog, Indiana Illustrators, at www.indianaillustrators.blogspot.com.

Copyright 2011, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

In the News-Ron Rogers

Ron Rogers Laid Off at the South Bend Tribune

Originally posted Sept. 20, 2010

Ron Rogers, believed to be the only black editorial cartoonist on staff with an American newspaper, recently lost his job with the South Bend (Indiana) Tribune. As a teenager, Rogers dreamed of being the nation's first black editorial cartoonist. His dream became a reality in Aug. 2005 when he hired on with the Tribune. His last cartoon was published in the Sept. 3, 2010, issue of the paper. Look for the full story at the website of Editor and Publisher, here.

Note: Ron Rogers is now working as a freelance editorial cartoonist. You can see his cartoons at the website of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), here.

Copyright 2011, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

In the News-Dale Messick

Dale Messick Featured in Traces

Posted Sept. 17, 2010

Traces, the magazine of the Indiana Historical Society, has just sent out its summer issue, and among its contents is an article called "Dalia Messick: Creator of Brenda Starr" by Joan Meister. Dalia, or Dale Messick as she was known to readers of the comics, was one of the first successful female cartoonists in the United States.  Born on Apr. 11, 1906, in South Bend, Indiana, she broke into syndication with Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter (later just Brenda Starr Reporter) in 1940. In forty-three years of drawing the strip, Messick never missed a deadline. Dale Messick died in 2005, a year and a week short of her century mark.

Brenda Starr continues as a daily and Sunday comic strip under the guidance of June Brigman and Mary Schmich. (To my knowledge, all the lead creators on Brenda Starr have been women, although Messick was assisted by a number of men, including Mike Grell, creator of Warlord for DC Comics.) If you want to see Messick's original art, you'll find a large collection of dailies at the Lilly Library at Indiana University.

Copyright 2010, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

In the News-Little Orphan Annie

Little Orphan Annie Comes to an End

Originally posted Sept. 15, 2010
After eighty-six years in the comics, Little Orphan Annie, that indomitable chatterbox with the auburn locks, bid farewell in mid-story on Sunday, June 13, 2010. Annie's creator, Harold Gray, was born on Jan. 20, 1894, in Kankakee, Illinois, but lived in Indiana as a child and graduated from Purdue University in 1917. At its height, Little Orphan Annie appeared in hundreds of newspapers and made Gray one of the most well known (and controversial) cartoonists in America. Gray passed away in 1968. His work has been carried on by a number of artists and writers, most recently Ted Slampyak and Jay Maeder. Annie will go on, just not on the comics page. See the full story on the website of the New York Daily News, here.

Text and captions copyright 2010, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Little Alpha Annie, Tuesday, August 5, 1924 . . .

And Little Omega Annie, Sunday, June 13, 2010.

Cartoonist of the Month-Nov. 2010

Grover Page (1892-1958)

Originally posted Nov. 2010

Grover Page wasn't born in Indiana, nor did he work here, but for seventeen years, he crossed the Ohio River from his home in the Hoosier State to the offices of the Louisville Courier-Journal, where he drew a daily cartoon.

Page was born in Gastonia, North Carolina, on November 10, 1892, only a few days after the election of Grover Cleveland to the presidency. That’s how the future cartoonist got his Christian name. He decided at age ten on his calling and began drawing at the Gastonia public schools--in art class and out. "I had to find something to do in Latin class," he often said, "so I drew." Page completed his formal education at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

Page became an editorial cartoonist at age eighteen with the Baltimore Sun. After working for the Nashville Tennessean for two years, Page moved on to the Louisville Courier-Journal. He spent the next thirty-nine years there drawing pointed and strongly opinionated cartoons. For the first seventeen of those years, Page lived in New Albany, Indiana, just across the river from Louisville. He and his son, Grover Page, Jr., were also fine artists and members of the Wonderland Way Art Club of New Albany. Page senior also worked as an illustrator and won many art awards during his years in Indiana.

Page’s long career came to an end with his death on August 5, 1958. His successor at the Courier-Journal was Hugh Haynie.

Grover Page cartooned for the Louisville Courier-Journal for nearly four decades and lived in Indiana for about half that time. Here's a cartoon, captioned "Consultation," from the mid part of his career. Czechoslovakia is understandably alarmed as the powers of Europe discuss his fate.

Text and captions copyright 2011, 2024 by Terence E. Hanley

Cartoonist of the Month-Oct. 2010

Roy W. Taylor (1876-1914)

Originally posted Oct. 2010

Early newspaper comics were everything that comics today are not: big, adventurous, innovative, violent, and politically incorrect. For every ethnic group, there was a comic strip that poked fun and perhaps helped ease relations among the myriad groups poured into the American melting pot. The Katzenjammer Kids (1897) was an early example, one of the earliest in fact. In our hypersensitive age, the Captain or Hans and Fritz's Mamma, with their plump bodies and comical accents, could be taken as unfair stereotypes. Or you can look at them as just plain funny.

Pioneering cartoonist Roy W. Taylor made his own contribution to ethnic comic strips with Yens Yansen Yanitor, a Sunday page drawn for the New York World between 1906 and 1912. The title character is a skinny Scandinavian with a bushy mustache and a clay pipe. The example here plays like an episode of Happy Hooligan as Yens' scheme falls apart and he is hauled away by a policeman. In a mere six panels, the cartoonist fits in three ethnic characters, two of which, the Italian organ grinder and the Irish cop, are drawn from stock.

Roy W. Taylor was born in Nov. 1876 into a Richmond, Indiana, family. Little is known about his early life, but during the first part of the twentieth century, he cartooned for the Chicago Daily News, the New York World, and the Philadelphia North American. His earliest known comic strip was Brainy Bowers, which began appearing in the Chicago Daily News in about 1901. Taylor was succeeded on that strip by Ed Carey (1870-1918), one of the most popular and prolific cartoonists of his day. By the time Taylor gave up Brainy Bowers, he had already started Yens Yensen Yanitor. Three other short-run strips for the New York World followed: Mrs. Firstlove (1908), Mr. Meanto (1910-1911), and Uncle Mose (1911-1912). Yens Yensen outlasted them all and came to an end in Sept. 1912.

Towards the end of his career, Taylor made the move to the Philadelphia North American. He soon fell ill with Bright's disease. Nearing death, he was taken to his mother's house in Washington, D.C., where he died at age thirty-six, on Oct. 20, 1914. His body was delivered to Richmond for burial.   

You can see pictures of Brainy Bowers on a blog called Yesterday's Papers, here.

Yens Yensen Yanitor was one of Hoosier cartoonist Roy W. Taylor's entries in the long list of ethnic comic strips of his day. The date for this episode is unknown, but Yens Yensen ran in the New York World from 1906 to 1912.

Text and captions copyright 2011, 2024 by Terence E. Hanley

Cartoonist of the Month-Sept. 2010

Cobb Shinn (1887-1951)
Originally posted Sept. 2010

A hundred years ago, before Facebook, Twitter, and all our modern wonders, Americans were enthralled by the possibilities of a new medium, the picture postcard. In the early years of the twentieth century, millions of postcards flew through the mail every year. Other than the telephone, they were perhaps the quickest and most convenient medium of communication available. Postage was a penny and delivery came as often as twice a day. You didn't have to wait long or pay much to send a message (or a mash note) to a friend. Printers and publishers rushed to fill the demand, and a young artist from Indiana was Johnny-on-the-spot. His name was Cobb Shinn, and at the height of his career, his postcard designs sold twenty-five million units a year.

Conrad X. Shinn, later known as "Cobb" or "Uncle Cobb," was born on Sept. 4, 1887, in Fillmore, Indiana, and grew up on the west side of Indianapolis. He studied at the Herron School of Art under William Forsyth and William Merle Allison (later a comic book artist of note). In 1907, at the outset of Shinn's art career, the first postcards with divided backs appeared. That development freed up the front of the card for graphic embellishment. Shinn jumped into postcard design and eventually created 165 different series involving cars, drunks, kids, and pretty women. He also illustrated verse by the Hoosier Poet, James Whitcomb Riley.

Once the picture-postcard craze died down, Shinn drew cartoon features for newspapers and illustrations for children's books. In the 1920s he went into the business of selling what we now call clip art. Cobb Shinn married Ramona Bowin in 1925, and the couple lived near Greenwood, south of Indianapolis. Shinn was described as "a cheerful man who liked to study people, smoked cigars occasionally, and had a homespun sense of humor." Uncle Cobb died on Jan. 28, 1951, and was buried in his native soil.

You can read more about Cobb Shinn in Sylvia C. Henricks' "Sharp Mind and Clever Pen" in the Winter 1997 issue of Traces, the magazine of the Indiana Historical Society (the source of the quote above).

Two designs from the early days of picture postcards. I believe these to be the work of Cobb Shinn. Neither card is signed, but both have the initals "C.S." followed by a three-digit number printed on the back. Shinn is known to have drawn postcards depicting Dutch children. Holland and its people were popular subjects for artists and writers of his time.

The cover of Cobb Shinn's Fun-Artists Picture-Show-Book (1924), a compilation of shadow plays, magic tricks, riddles, rebuses, and other activities, perhaps taken from Shinn's newspaper features. . .

And a picture from the book with a saying as true now as it has ever been.

Note: This posting is taken from my website and the first of my Cartoonist of the Month entries. Wait awhile, and I'll have my blog and website up to date.

Text and captions copyright 2011, 2024 by Terence E. Hanley