I was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last weekend, and stopped in the (going west) rest stop outside of Breezewood. There's a nice exhibit on PA Turnpike tchockes which includes this Turnpike Man cup and inaction figure, which I believe has artwork by the late Paul Ryan, a longtime Fantastic Four and Phantom artist. Can anyone confirm that?







Anyone want to sell me a cup? I just bought the inaction figure on ebay, where 8 of them are being sold as cake toppers.

Yesterday we published some articles on cartoonists from World War II-era Look Magazine. Here's some advertising from the same issues. I can't identify the cartoonist for Aunt Jemima (although the style appears to be lifted from Jimmy Hatlo's They'll Do It Every Time strip) or the Briggs tobacco ads which are signed "F". They're not by Clare Briggs because he was already dead.

Updated 11/23/2017: The Aunt Jemima artist was Dudley Fisher, who did a regularly syndicated single-panel cartoon, “Right Around Home,” featuring multi-generational family members and neighbors in multiple brief conversational exchange against a usually large outdoor (say, neighborhood) setting. Speakers were usually paired; even a dog and cat, or two birds might be interlocutors. —Arthur Vergara

Not Jimmy Hatlo? 12/15/1942

Not Jimmy Hatlo? 4/6/1943

Paul Webb, drawing hillbillies, 4/6/1943

Keith Ward, 2/23/1943. Was Ward only an advertising cartoonist?

R. Taylor, 2/23/1943

Otto Soglow, 2/23/1943

Rube Goldberg, 4/6/1943

Rube Goldberg, 2/23/1943

Richard Decker, 2/23/1943

Richard Decker, 12/15/1942

Briggs tobacco, but not by Clare Briggs, 4/6/1943

Briggs tobacco, but not by Clare Briggs, 2/23/1943

Review of William Steig's book, 2/23/1943

In 1976, the American Dental Association sponsored a National Children's Dental Health Week. This advertisement shows a cartoon done by animation shop Rick Reinert Productions and is from U.S. Navy Medicine (February 1976).

Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising talk by Warren Bernard, August 24, 2011. I like this book a lot. Here's more photographs.

I'll be there.



Warren Bernard - Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising

Aug 25 2011 7:00 pm



The comic strip has its roots in advertising as well as in art. In the first book-length study of these dual sources, Rick Marschall, founder of Nemo: The Classic Comics Library, and Warren Bernard, a prolific commentator on and extensive collector of cartoons as well as the Executive Director of Small Press Expo, look at work from the 1870s to 1940, documenting how popular cartoon characters like the Yellow Kid, Little Orphan Annie, and Popeye have figured in advertising campaigns, and how their creators were highly sought-after pitchmen, selling products alongside the best movie stars in Hollywood. As part of his presentation, Bernard will have on-hand select original ads and other advertisting items from the era.



In anticipation of Small Press Expo (SPX) 2011 - being held September 10-11 in Bethesda, MD - a complimentary one-day pass to the show will be available with the purchase of Drawing Power at Politics and Prose on the night of the event. More information about SPX 2011 at www.spxpo.com.

My buddy Warren Bernard will be signing his book on comic artists and advertising later this month at Politics and Prose. Here's a couple by noted cartoonists Ed Nofziger and William Steig I found today that he may or may not have in the book - happy hunting!

New Yorker cartoonist George Price ad for Chival Regal scotch in Playboy, March 1981. What a wonderful wacky line he has!


Edward Sorel art for an ACLU ad against the Moral Majority in Playboy, March 1981. Oooh, Sorel can be hard-hitting.


Arnold Roth caricature of William Buckley in letters section, Playboy, March 1981. Roth just had a lovely color illo in a recent New Yorker issue.

Jack Davis Dexter shoe ad in Playboy, Dec. 1980. Around this time, Davis seemed to be everywhere. He regularly covered TV Guide, drew a postage stamp, did posters for the American Cancer Society... hard to believe this is almost 30 years ago.



Cassette recorder? What's that? Charles Saxon gag cartoon ad in Playboy, Dec. 1980. Saxon's best known for his New Yorker work.

The Story of Mr. Is - Episode 3: "The Reveal", 24 Sep 2008.

In "Comics," By JOHN HODGMAN, New York Times Book Review June 1, 2008, Hodgeman looks at Kirby and Evanier's new biography of him, Shanower's Age of Bronze and Y the Last Man.

In today's Times, Garfield Minus Garfield is again featured, this time in "Is the Main Character Missing? Maybe Not," By CATE DOTY, New York Times June 2, 2008.

Also in Business, M. Night Shyamalan said "He wanted to market “Unbreakable” as a comic-book movie — the tale of an unlikely superhero — but Disney executives insisted on portraying it as a spooky thriller, like “The Sixth Sense.”" For more of the story, see "Shyamalan’s Hollywood Horror Story, With Twist," By ALLISON HOPE WEINER.

Finally, tomorrow's paper features the return of the animated clay character Mr. Bill. See "Mr. Bill Returns (in One Piece) to Pitch a Debit Card," By WENDY A. LEE, New York Times June 3, 2008.