Noel Sickles and Milton Caniff--2

The Great Postum Face-Off

In my last post I presented a Noel Sickles Postum ad. I mentioned having once seen an alternate version. I am grateful to Fortunato Latella for turning up a copy of that version. (In case you don't know, Fortunato curates an excellent comics blog which is always worth reading.)

Fortunato's ad is in third-page format, while mine is a half page. I had misremembered that the art in each version was completely different. In fact some panels were the same. The two make an interesting comparison.
Panel 1 of the third page is a completely different drawing from panel 1 of the half. Note that in the third page the girl sits on the passenger's side of her car. In the half page the car points the other way and she sits (more logically) behind the wheel. The dialogue in the third page panel is shorter, which is a good thing because the panel is only half as wide.The second panel of the third page telescopes into a single frame what takes the half page three panels to tell. The half boasts a lot more great artwork, but the third-page version takes the prize for economical storytelling.The next panels are the same in both formats. However the third page's panels have more art. We see more of Mr Coffee Nerves' vest and the hero's coat in the first panel. There also seems to be more "air" at the top. The next panel shows more of the house in the third than in the half, and we see all of Mr. CN's left arm, which is cropped in the half page.

The dialogue has been tweaked between versions. Some changes are so small I wonder why they bothered: "What does he advise" in the third is "What did he advise" in the half, while "If you give up flying" becomes "If you give up trying." The hero's dialogue is considerably simpler in the third page. Mr. CN's lines are the same in both versions.
The last two story panels are the same in both formats. Again they show more art in the third than in the half. In the award scene we see an extra aviator on the left side and an extra spectator on the right. The officer's dialogue differs slightly between versions. The girl's dialogue is the same, but her balloon is lettered anew in each version to fit the different panel sizes. The hero's final balloon has also been relettered between versions. In the half page the hero's picture is larger relative to the copy, pushing the final paragraph into a narrower column.

When I first saw this ad I assumed that the half-page version was the original. But comparing the versions I believe the third-page came first. I'm pretty sure panels from the third were cropped to fit the half-page layout. It makes more sense than extending the edges of smaller panels for the third.

Why would the agency draw three new panels and add extra dialogue to convert a third page to a half? Why not? It occurred to me that my assumption that the half-page was the "real" one was based on the syndicate procedure of using expendable panels to convert half page Sundays into thirds. But when this ad was produced in 1940, that process wasn't yet standard procedure. Probably after the agency finished the third page the client asked for a half-page version. The agency reformatted existing panels and added extra art and text to fill the space.

Noel Sickles and Milton Caniff

A Postum Posting
This is the only tearsheet I own from the "Paul Arthur" Mr. Coffee Nerves adventures. A fine one it is! Caniff has said that "Bud" Sickles handled all the art on the CN strips except Mr. Nerves himself. That is borne out by this half-page, which features a sort of Scorchy Smith gone to the Dark Side. What love and enthusiasm Sickles put into drawing those planes and cars!Reading these old ads one wonders if 1930s women were really as materialistic as all that. Don't bother calling me until you get those wings, loser! (Nitpicker's afterthought: doesn't it look as if the balloon in panel 8 was re-lettered? A Comics Code change?)

Interestingly, in a library magazine archive I discovered a versiion of this strip (printed in black and white) with the same script but entirely different art. Still by Sickles, but a complete re-draw. Unfortunately I didn't have a portable scanner in those days. If anyone has the alternate version I'd love to see it again. Were there other similar variants?

Strange Moments in Comics

When Good Objects Turn Human

Last week I found this cartoon plea from a yogurt carton on a box at the grocery store where I work.

It set me thinking about the human's love for anthropomorphizing animals and objects. It also started me reflecting upon some of the weird things that have been anthropomorphized. Obviously, any creature with arms and/or legs can eventually be turned into a human-like character. Inanimate objects present a greater challenge. Over the years advertisers--ever the standard bearers of anthropomorphic objects--have met that challenge with mixed results.
Perhaps the strangest humanized object I've encountered in comics is an anthropomorphized milking machine.
Here are the cover and three pages from "Johnny Surge," a booklet from 1947. I wonder just who the advertiser thought would read this? The subject and the "we know we're kidding you" tone of the cover blurb suggest an adult audience, specifically the dairyman they hoped would buy the milker. But somehow I can't picture a self-respecting dairyman being caught dead reading a storybook about a cutesy milking machine.

Maybe they thought the the farmer's kids would read it and propagandize the Old Man. "Shame on you, Daddy, you're hurting our cows with evil milking machines!" This was not only a strange character, but a strange book.

All the same, milking machines weren't the oddest anthropomorphized object. Unquestionably the least likely--yet somehow endearing--humanized object was...who else?

Advertising Comics, 1940

Comics Go Legit, Sorta

In an earlier post I presented some comic-strip-style ads that found their way into the New York Art Director's Club 1939 Annual of Advertising Art. In this installment I offer the three strips that appeared in the 1940 edition.

In those bygone days three kinds of comic-like strips appeared in American magazines and newspapers. The Art Director's Club lumped all three into one category, "continuities." In my blogs I limit "continuities" to the most common sequential ad form: a series of photos or drawings illustrating a story told in typeset captions beneath the pictures. These continuities tended to be illustrated by "classy" illustrators like Albert Dorne, Jon Whitcomb, and James Williamson. The second category, the least common, told the story comic style with balloons and captions, but used photos instead of drawings. The third group was the standard comic we know and love, drawn either by noted cartoonists or by anonymous specialists.

In the hallowed halls of the Art Director's Club, all three types received short shrift. In the Annuals a magazine illustration was often reproduced on a full page. Comics were crammed three to a page at the back of the section. Nonetheless, given the books' high-quality printing, it's possible to extract viewable copies. Of the three 1940 entries the halftoned Wizard of Oz strip suffers the most.

Note the blank spots in the Pep and Oz strips. This suggests they were reproduced either from originals or from early proofs taken before type and stock cuts were added.

This full-page ad introducting Wizard of Oz was drawn by Joe King. In my earlier post you'll find speculation about King, who may have been an eccentric painter--or just someone with the same name. I'd love to see this strip in print. This tiny (3-1/4 by 3-3/4 inches) repro looks really good. I get the impression that in the finished product there may have been typeset captions beneath the panels.Next is an outing with The Captain and the Kids (or was it the Katzenjammer Kids?) credited to Rudolph Dirks. Advertising agency Kenyon & Eckhardt, Inc. produced it for Kellogg's All- Bran cereal. If you read the copy you'll find All-Bran is promoted as a laxative.Finally an energetic geezer named J. Fuller Pep teaches a bunch of kids the glories of Kellogg's Pep cereal. I don't know if J. Fuller was a continuing character. I've never seen another strip featuring him.Another Kenyon & Eckhardt project, the Pep half-page originated at the Johnstone & Cushing comic art studio. These Annuals are useful because sometimes they reveal the names of unsigned commercial artists. Not this time. Only the studio receives an art credit. Has anyone ever seen it in print?

GE Giveaway Comics

Adventures in Antiquity

Those of you who don't know goldenagecomics.co.uk ought to check it out. This site archives hundreds of rare old comics from a galaxy of publishers. One collection includes several of the giveaway comics released by General Electric during the 1950s.

These 16-page, cover-free comics feature Johnny, a red-sweatered high-school boy, and Ed, a business-suited know-it-all who never stops smiling. In each comic Ed takes Johnny to some place where they'll find lots of General Electric products and explains the related technology. One issue deals with the history of jet power, another the story of television, and so on. We learn during the course of the series that GE is a kindly, selfless benefactor responsible for inventing and/or developing almost all the life-simplifying technologies of the modern world.

I used to own most of these comics, but they went in the Great Collection Sale some 20 years ago. Finding them at goldenagecomics.co.uk allowed me to revisit the series and see if the art was as good as I remembered. Some of the GE books stuck in my mind as quite well drawn. In later years I doubted those memories, because the art was credited to George Roussos, who (as George Bell) had unimpressed the hell out of me inking early Marvels.

Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn and other bloggers, I've learned that early Roussos work was actually pretty good. Ger has questioned the common assumption that Roussos did most of his old comics work teamed with Mort Meskin. The GE comic I reprint here supports Ger's theory. The art certainly looks like Roussos, despite the faces on the main characters (which have a weird Lou Cameron vibe, but that's probably coincidence). The middle-aged men, a Roussos specialty, have his look. So does the drapery inking. I see no Meskin here, however.

Be that as it may, if this is George, it's one of the finest and most painstaking jobs he ever did. Good figure drawing is surpassed by even better background work, and the sheer effort he put into some of these pages (check out page 9) is impressive. Despite the fact that most of the story is walk-and-talk, this is an exciting old-school art job.

This comic, "Adventures in Electricity," is identified as "number seven" and bears a 1950 copyright date.

Advertising Comics, 1939

This Time We'll Name Names!
From the pages of the Art Directors 18th Annual of 1939, here are a number of advertising newspaper comic strips with an unusual twist: credits!

At this time the focus of the New York Art Directors Club annuals was not on design, but illustration. They're a gold mine of nicely-reproduced illos by both the famous and the not-so-famous practitioners of the Golden Age of American illustration. A priceless feature is that the volumes credit artists (and art directors, agencies, etc.). These books are often the only credit some of these guys got in a notoriously-anonymous business.

Leading off is an ad for Krueger's Beer, one of the countless local brews that soothed American throats in the days before national corporations pushed them out of business. This New Jersey brewery started in 1858 and held out until 1961. A unique bit of trivia is that Krueger's put out the first canned beer. The initial test batch debuted in Richmond, Virginia in 1934 (they ran the test out of town so that if the project flopped it wouldn't hurt their reputation in their main market). The cans had conical tops with a crown cap, like on soda bottles. The cans were a hit, by the way.

I don't know much about artist Walter Early. He appears to have illustrated children's books in the early 1940s as well as painting some of Borden's Elsie the Cow ads.

The next page begins with a 3-panel silent gag for Ballantine's ale. The artist, William Sakren (1902-1991), is represented three times in the annual. AskArt.com identifies him as a pioneer of the American silent gag cartoon and says he later worked for Johnstone and Cushing. He drew cartoons into the 1980s, numbering The New Yorker among his clients.

Walter Hoban follows with one of two Jerry on the Job strips pushing Post Grape-Nut Flakes. Bet Hoban didn't paste over old balloons for this job! Am I the only one who thinks Jerry resembles Calvin (the "and Hobbes" one, not Coolidge)?

John Holmgren does a really nice job on a hysterically-titled half page for Fletcher's Castoria. The kid thinks Mom's a beast because she makes him "take that awful stuff"--a laxative. But after drinking Castoria the lad thinks Mom is "swell" again. Jeez, if he thought Castoria tasted good, the "awful stuff" must really have been gross! I've seen Holmgren's illustrations in places like Collier's and Judge as well as in advertisements. He often worked in watercolor. I discovered from Googling that in 1920 he graduated from Columbia College on Morningside, the alma mater of Rockwell Kent. I don't know much else, not even whether his mother gave him Fletcher's Castoria.

The next page leads off with art from a Beeman's Gum ad by the legendary Albert Dorne. In the printed ad balloons with typeset dialogue overlaid the art. I hardly need say anything about Dorne, except that he'd have made a great comics artist if he'd hadn't preferred to become a wealthy, famous illustrator.

Judging by the art style, Howard Williamson's Eveready Batteries ad might have come from the 1950s. Williamson is yet another artist I don't have much on. He did several of these flashy (pun pun) Eveready ads and some book illustration. I've seen a signed 1939 ad illo in wash, drawn in a refreshing style reminiscent of marker comps from thirty years later. Jerry and his Grape-Nuts round out the page.

On the next page William Sakren peddles new, wonderful Jell-O Pudding in two separate strips.

Sandwiched between them is a half-page ad for Sal Hepatica, another laxative. They needed to loosen a lot of bowels back in the 1930s. Maybe it was the lack of junk food in their diets. Anyway, the artwork by Joseph King is an interesting combination of cartoony and straight styles. I went crazy trying to Google Mr. King. The internet is awash with references to painter Joseph Wallace King (1912-1996), who gained international recognition under the signature "Vinciata." Apparently something of an eccentric, King served in the North Carolina legislature and painted portraits of the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, King Fahd, and Richard Nixon. However most of the paintings and prints available online are capable but somewhat fuzzy paintings of idealized 1960s-style young women baring their breasts. (I presume Elizabeth had her blouse closed when he painted her.) One site said this King had once been an illustrator. Given his dates it's conceivable he did some ad work (he would have been 26 years old when the ad was published). Other cartoonists have become big shot painters...think of Everett Raymond Kinstler. Still, Joseph King isn't that uncommon a name. Does anyone know who this guy is?

(Sidebar: I'd swear on a stack of Esterbrook Probate Stub pens that the lettering on this strip is by Frank Engli. It looks just like the lettering on Terry and Sickles' Scorchy Smith.)

Concluding the Annual's comics section are strips by two familiar names from the newspaper strip world. John H. Striebel of Dixie Dugan fame offers two crispy, flaky ads for Crisco super-creamed pure vegetable shortening. Dixie makes a cameo appearance in one of them.

In between is a half page ad starring Mr. Peanut, drawn by Ham Fisher, of all people. Jack the Giant Killer kayoes the Giant with the the help of a fistful of Planter's Peanuts. Ever the pragmatist, Mr. Peanut also points out (to Jack's mom) that they're great for bridge parties, too...and they keep you trim. Often when a noted cartoonist did an advertising strip he'd get to sign it, but well-known egoist Fisher didn't get a byline on this one. Pity poor John Striebel. He masqueraded as both "Rush" and "Winifred Carter!" Is it my imagination, or does Fisher's Mr. Peanut look rather sinister?

1950s Advertising Comics--2

When You Cash In On a Star
I don't know how far back one can trace the use of celebrities to advertise products. My guess is the turn of the twentieth century, at least. Anyway, the comics pages were always glad to call on a familiar face to hawk food...cigarettes...beauty supplies...automobile parts...you name it. In descending order of fame, here are four advertising comics I enjoy.

Coming in first place is Mr. Ray Milland, a screen star who will be familiar to anyone who likes classic American movies. In 1952 Ray discovered V-8 Vegetable Juice Cocktail while building a cabinet with his friend "Bob." As he recounts in his typewritten voiceovers, Ray had never had a V-8 before, and he promptly introduced everyone at the movie studio to the drink. No wonder Campbell Soup Company hired him for this strip!

A lighter line than most ad strips of the time, and some decent likenesses of Mr. M. As always I'd appreciate any artist ID's.

Golden-voiced Vaughn Monroe was one of the kings of the late Big Band era. He recorded many hits, including the best-known version of "Ghost Riders in the Sky." He also took a fling at being a singing cowboy. Vaughn's music made him rich and famous, while his movies made him a comic strip star. In 1950 he promoted Quaker Puffed Wheat while performing stunts for his new feature, "Singing Guns." Helping him was a remarkably literate six-year-old ("Hello, Mr. Monroe. Your fans are thrilled that you're starring in your first movie!" ) Bet the kid grew up to be an ad copywriter. The artist here did a good job capturing Monroe's likeness. Nice painting of him in the splash panel, too. I notice his movie debut was filmed in the notorious Trucolor process...which means its color probably looks as good today as does this beat-up tearsheet's!

By the way, my folks often tried to get us to eat Puffed Wheat, but it tasted dry and bland. The only thing that could liven up Puffed Wheat was LOTS OF SUGAR!! Which was available pre-applied to Sugar Jets, my favorite breakfasttime tooth-rotter.

Speaking of teeth, give an open-mouthed smile to Bert Parks, unforgettable host of a zillion radio and TV game shows, as well as the Miss America pageant. In this undated strip (probably circa 1950-1952), Bert shows his pearly whites for Vitalis Hair Cream, which guarantees the TV camera won't catch him with a "gooey film" on his hair.

It appears Vitalis left a gooey film on the illustrator's Art-O-Graph, though, because he seems to have had only one photo of Bert to work from. I'm reminded of an old Cracked parody of The Millionaire that John Severin drew . He had obviously been given only one still of Marvin Miller (playing "Michael Anthony," the guy who distributed million-dollar checks). I gather it annoyed him, because Severin drew one caricature of Miller (a full-face shot), made multiple stats, and pasted one onto each Michael Anthony figure throughout the strip, regardless of the position of his body!

Be that as it may, we have one more face from the past: lovely Kitty Kallen, who may not be remembered at all. After a career in the Big Bands, Kitty made a comeback in the 1950s with two hit singles, "Little Things Mean a Lot" and "Chapel in the Moonlight." 1954 was Kitty Kallen's big year. It was also the year she thanked Halo Shampoo for helping launch her career.

To me, using quotation marks within balloons was one of the sure signs of an ignorant comics scriptwriter, right up there with having the tail of a pointer touching the speaker's mouth. But Miss Kallen doesn't mind so long as she has her Halo.

I remember that Halo package well. It was a slick design, a ridged spindle-shaped clear bottle of thick glass. The golden color of the shampoo made a neat glowing reflection on my grandmother's vanity as the sun shone through it. The only shampoo that was aesthetically superior was Prell, with its thick Oz-green bubbles. But I digress.

1950s Advertising Comics

Mr. Coffee Nerves and his Rivals
I don't know if Mr. Coffee Nerves was the first advertising comic strip "super-villain." He certainly was one of the longest-lived. I have plenty of Postum strips in various reprints, but the only real one I own is this battered one-third-page from 1949. It stars the modernized Mr. C. N.: A snazzy jet-pack replaces the old opera cape and a Buck Rogers helmet substitutes for the top hat. The artist is surely Lou Fine. The surprisingly awkward balloon placement interferes with the slick professionalism that marks most Johnstone & Cushing strips.

But Mr. Coffee Nerves wasn't alone in the world of invisible enemies whose lives were devoted to bringing misery to the American family. From 1952 comes this adventure of Peter Pain, the little green man with a strange flat hat and the chin of a 1930s safecracker. Ben Gay to the rescue! The delightful drawing is by Jack Betts. If you want even more Pain, Ger Apeldoorn has a gallery of them here:
http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/search/label/Peter%20Pain

From 1954 comes this chronicle of a rather flabby-looking green guy with "Mr. Stomach Upset" scrawled on his tummy. His flaming trident is about as convincing as his "hep" dialogue in panel two. When he's banished by Pepto-Bismol, he says "Curses!" like his old mentor. Strictly bush league, if you ask me.

I wonder how many of these series pain-pushers there were. If anyone knows who was the first such mascot, won't you let me know?

1935 Advertising Comics

Suds and Cigs
These are the earliest Sunday advertising comics I have. They're from The Milwaukee Journal of mid-1935 (one has strips dated 14 April on the back). Nice reproduction and a variety of art styles make these quite interesting.

While the other strips are drawn in traditional comic-strip styles, the Lifebuoy ad uses a clean-outline style common in magazine illustrations of the time. The balloon-less dialogue further detracts from the comic-strip look. Flash Gordon was one of the few strips that used this approach. It always seemed as if the creators felt balloons lacked class, and eliminated them to achieve a magazine illustration feel. At least we get three lingerie shots and a nude scene (although I defy any real woman to pose her arms that way without revealing her left breast).

Sandwiched into the bottom of the page is the tiniest strip ad I've seen. This Lifebuoy Shaving Cream ad is just over an inch high! You can barely see the stubble on Otto's chin.

On the flip side of this page is an elaborate full page ad for Camel cigarettes. I don't know who the artist is, but he does a solid variation on the drawing style of contemporary strips like King of the Royal Mounted. The extra space gives plenty of room to develop the action. It's a very nice page, except for that poorly-lettered "In the meantime" caption. The last panel is odd. "Jim" delivers a plug for Camels, then refers to a real-life rancher who appears as a photo in the next panel. My first time reading the strip I thought Charley Belden of Pitchfork, Wyoming, was the cowboy in the comic. No, he's only a one-panel wonder. Perhaps the client felt a real person was necessary to attract readers who don't listen to sales pitches from cartoon characters.

On the 14 April 1935 page are two strips for Lux soaps: toilet soap on top, soap flakes on the bottom. "Dixie in Hollywood" is apparently a continuity strip, a rarity in advertising features. The two rows of panels provide the story plenty of room, though the narrow gutters between panels give the whole thing a crowded look.

But what was in the writer's head? Our heroine, Dixie Darling, is almost fired because she can't act. Only her gorgeous Lux Toilet Soap complexion saves her. That's fine for Dixie--she launches into an embarrassing paen of praise to her soap bar. But the fact remains that our heroine can't act! Dixie's boyfriend has reason to worry. In his note the director doesn't assure Dixie that she's a good actress after all. Instead he says don't worry, her body will get her by. Clear a place on the casting couch for Dixie! I like that portrait of Joan Blondell in the final panel. though.

The "Peggy Lux" feature also has story problems. Peggy fingers the ludicrously-dressed "court detective" in panel 4 and the man confesses. That means he must be the guy wearing handcuffs in panel 5. If so, he's changed clothes and lost his hat. He doesn't even look like the same person.

What's more, who is saying "She's there!" in the same panel? It should be Peggy making the big reveal, not Lady Marie. Lux may have made good soap, but they hired sloppy writers and artists.

I usually associate advertising comics with the 1950's, but as we see the format was already well-established twenty years earlier. I'd like to find more ad strips from this period. Especially "Dixie in Hollywood." Did poor Dixie ever learn to act?

Big Readership with 10% Balloons!

I'm going to delay describing the other obscure strip I found so I can post this unique item, re-discovered while excavating my computer room. It's from a 92-page, tabloid-sized softcover book called ADvisory Service for Students of Advertising. On the first page is "Copyright 1954 by Thomas E. Maytham, Publisher, Westport, Connecticut." There's no other information about who produced the book.

An introduction positions the magazine-like volume as a way for students of advertising to understand how real ad campaigns are created. The remainder of the slick-paper book comprises full-color spreads featuring case histories of numerous national ad campaigns: Coca Cola, Bufferin, Westclox...and Vaseline Hair Tonic. On the left page is a detailed description of the thinking and research that went into creating the campaign; on the right is a sample of a finished ad. Credits are given for agencies, art directors, even copywriters...but never, ever artists.

The star of the show for me is the final case history: selling Vaseline with Rusty and Dusty comic strips. I scanned the article so you can read it for yourself. It's a fascinating nuts-and-bolts piece, brimming with statistics like "When the total number of balloons occupies less than 10% of the total area of the comic strip, the advertisements fall more often in the high [readership] groups."
Another intriguing statistic maintains that Rusty and Dusty "leads the list of the ten best-read comic strips, with an average 'Men Noted' of 35% and 'Read Most' of 31%."

I don't have the eye for ad agency comics artists that some other bloggers do, so I have no idea who inked the strip. But based on the caveman in panel 2 and, especially, the typical "sock" scene in panel 6, I'd bet dollars to donuts Mike Sekowsky had a hand in the penciling.

In conclusion, I direct you fellow strip artists out there to heed point number 6: "Two or more balloons in this [first] panel may discourage reading appreciably." You've been warned!