A Comic Book Scrapbook 1 1

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

I wish the early New York Phil Seuling cons were as well documented as that first San Diego show!

[jpepx78]

[font:Book Antiqua]

This month is the 61st anniversary of Mad magazine, the only remnant of EC Comics to survive the Comics Code.

Mad poked fun at society and popular culture and its satircal humor spawned many imitators.

Much of the success of Mad was from the input of Bill Gaines, editors Harvey Kurtzman, Al Feldstein and from contributions from the usual gang of insufficiently_thoughtful_persons.

 

Mad magazine staff 1965

 

Mad had a ubiquitous presence in American life in the second half of the 20th century as seen in these pictures.

Sister has a paper tablet but he has Mad #47.

 

reading Mad #27 in Orange Coast College in California 1950s

 

Mad #60 at City Lights bookstore San Francisco 1961

 

Mad #44 Union High School Lodi CA

 

doing college homework with Mad #61

 

Midshipman Peter Rodrick reading Mad #63 in 1961.

Rodrick was a Navy squadron commander and pilot who died when his plane crashed in the Indian Ocean in 1979.

 

Son of Mad paperback from unknown movie.

 

girl reading Mad #90

 

miniskirts and Mad #131

 

firemen from Truro Township Ohio reading More Trash from Mad #4

 

grandpa reading Mad #73 in 1962

 

camping with Mad Special #23

 

Mad #200 in 1978

 

Mad #126 at University of Maryland in 1969

 

Alfred E. Neuman nose art

 

Alfred E. Neuman aerogramme 1944

 

 

How many of these celebrities reading Mad can you recognize?

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

4.

 

5.

 

6.

 

7.

 

8.

 

9.

 

10.

 

11.

 

12.

 

13.

 

14.

 

15.

 

16.

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[markseifert]

Whoa. I missed the NY World's Fair '39 color video footage earlier. That is AMAZING.

[Cat-Man_America]

1-MacGyver

2-Mickey Jagger

3-Geroge Bush?

4-Nimoy and Shatner

5-Stafford Repp aka Sgt O'Hara

6-Jack Nicholson and Angelica Houston and ?

7-Lucas

8-Cast of Magnum, PI (Tom, John, Roger and Larry)

9-Sid Vicious

10-Siskel and Ebert

11-Spielberg

12-Phyllis Diller

13-X-Files cast

14-Jimi Hendrix

15-Weird Al

16-Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman

 

I am not sure about #3 but they don't look like Howard Stern or Casey Kasem

 

[font:Times New Roman]You may have missed one on #14, although technically she isn't reading the Mad magazine.

 

If I'm not mistaken that's Linda Eastman (McCartney) doing Jimi's hair prior to the Miami Pop Festival (1968).

 

She dyed blond streaks in his hair that can be seen in the bonus footage from the concert included on the Hear My Train a-Comin' documentary (coming out in November). [/font]

 

[BB-Gun]

1-MacGyver

2-Mickey Jagger

3-Geroge Bush?

4-Nimoy and Shatner

5-Stafford Repp aka Sgt O'Hara

6-Jack Nicholson and Angelica Houston and ?

7-Lucas

8-Cast of Magnum, PI (Tom, John, Roger and Larry)

9-Sid Vicious

10-Siskel and Ebert

11-Spielberg

12-Phyllis Diller

13-X-Files cast

14-Jimi Hendrix

15-Weird Al

16-Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman

 

I am not sure about #3 but they don't look like Howard Stern or Casey Kasem

 

[font:Times New Roman]You may have missed one on #14, although technically she isn't reading the Mad magazine.

 

If I'm not mistaken that's Linda Eastman (McCartney) doing Jimi's hair prior to the Miami Pop Festival (1968).

 

She dyed blond streaks in his hair that can be seen in the bonus footage from the concert included on the Hear My Train a-Comin' documentary (coming out in November). [/font]

 

 

I knew it was Jimi but couldn't determine the identity of the woman even with the help of the internet. thanks? how about #3? It probably isn't George W.

[BB-Gun]

OK, my wife said it (#3) was probably Doug Kenney and Robert Hoffman of the National Lampoon reading Mad on their radio show. I had no clue but she has a wider knowledge of pop culture than I. I like Chevy in Lampoon's Vacation and "Bored of the Rings" was a perfect follow up after reading the Hobbit and the Ring Trilogy but I wasn't a big reader of either Mad Magazine or the Lampoon. I prefer reading a murder mystery and a stack of golden age comics. Or watching a moldy old movie like Topper or Red River.

Edited September 21, 2013 by BB-Gun

[jpepx78]

Ok the guy in #3 is probably not that famous. On the left is Frank Sinatra Jr and I don't know the guy on the right.

 

[adamstrange]

Thanks for cross-posting the SD Con pics!

[catrick339]

Not 100%, but I believe the movie still of the feller reading the Mad paperback on the train is from A Hard Day's Night.

[BB-Gun]

1-MacGyver

2-Mickey Jagger

3-Doug Kenney and Robert Hoffman

4-Nimoy and Shatner

5-Stafford Repp aka Sgt O'Hara

6-Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Houston and Michelle Phillips

7-Lucas

8-Cast of Magnum, PI (Tom, John, Roger and Larry)

9-Sid Vicious

10-Siskel and Ebert

11-Spielberg

12-Phyllis Diller

13-X-Files cast

14-Jimi Hendrix

15-Weird Al

16-Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman

 

My final guess, I guess. I think Jack is with Anjelica and Michelle, two former girl friends. Always a dangerous situation but Jack survived.

Remember Jack, it isn't the years, it's the mileage.

 

How did I do?

 

 

Edited September 28, 2013 by BB-Gun

[jpepx78]

My final guess, I guess. I think Jack is with Anjelica and Michelle, two former girl friends. Always a dangerous situation but Jack survived.

Remember Jack, it isn't the years, it's the mileage.

 

How did I do?

I think you did great! Here's a bonus pic that I forgot to include:

 

[ciorac]

Jon Voight

[jpepx78]

 

In the Comics General forum, a board member was questioning some comic readership statistics mentioned in the PBS documentary "Superheroes: A Never Ending Battle" that during WW2, 90% of kids read comics and that the purchases of comics by GIs are ten times the sum of Saturday Evening Post & Reader's Digest purchases. The source of these statistics is from an often-cited article "The Comics" about the comic book industry during WW2 from the November 23, 1945 issue of Yank, The Army Weekly. It should not be surprising that about 90% of the kids read comics since those statistics include pass-through readership where comics are passed on and read by many others. The article also mentions that the Market Research Company of America estimates that during WW2 70,000,000 people, or about half the population of the U.S. was addicted to comics. This level of comic readership would fuel the tremendous growth of the comic book industry during WW2.

 

I'm reposting since I believe this article would be of great interest to forumites here (the info may get lost in the general forum) since it describes the state of the comic book industry during WW2 and some of the popular comics during that period. It is interesting to think about the comparison of wartime comic readership with present day comic readership.

 

Here's some readership data from the article:

The comic-magazine industry is only about 12 years old, but it has been one fast-growing baby. At the moment there are some 150 of the publications on the market, most of them monthlies costing a dime apiece, and they have a combined circulation of around 30,000,000 copies, a total that has been fairly well frozen lately, thanks to the paper shortage. But this figure is only the beginning, because people who go in for comic magazines in a big way have a habit of passing their treasures on to their pals. After making a survey of the situation not long ago, the Market Research Company of America estimated that 70,000,000 people, or just about half the population of the U.S. are addicted to comic magazines. So you can see that if you happen to be one of those who have been bit by the bug, you've got plenty of company.

 

Some people have been inclined to be harsh in their criticism of comic magazines. The Chicago Daily News, for example, once called them "badly drawn, badly written and badly printed- a strain on young eyes and young nervous systems." The News apparently felt that the comic-magazine public consists of mostly of kids. If it did, it was wrong, because figures show that plenty of adults, are just as hepped on the strips as are youngsters. Market Research found that these "books", as comic magazines are often called by their admirers, are read by 95% of all boys and 91% of all girls between ages 6 and 11, by 87% of all boys and 81% of all girls from 12 to 17, by 41% of all men and 28% of all women in the 18-to-30 age group, and by 16% of all men and 12% of all women 31 and over.

 

It's no news to anyone who has ever killed a Sunday sprawled on his sack in a barracks that GIs go for comic magazines in a big way. At PXs in the States purchases of these books run 10 times higher than the combined sales of the Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest. What's more, we've got Market Research's word for it that 44% of all Joes in training camps read the books regularly and another 13% take a gander at them now and then.

 

The full article can be found here.

[jpepx78]

 

February 1st is the birthdate of this actor/musician/writer. Many people will recognize his work. On a memorable day on January 10th 1987, this person invited a few friends, some special guests and their wives to a party at his home. They talked about and looked at old and new comic books. Identify this person and see if you recognize his friends and the special guests. Also identify his books in the back.

Happy birthday!

What would you discuss if you were a guest at this party?

 

photo in color

 

photo in black & white

 

[Moondog]

Happy Birthday, Billy Mumy!

 

Jack, Jerry, Bob, Miguel and Mark.

 

It would have been the coolest afternoon ever to be a part of this.

[BB-Gun]

February 1st is the birthdate of this actor/musician/writer. Many people will recognize his work. On a memorable day on January 10th 1987, this person invited a few friends, some special guests and their wives to a party at his home. They talked about and looked at old and new comic books. Identify this person and see if you recognize his friends and the special guests. Also identify his books in the back.

Happy birthday!

What would you discuss if you were a guest at this party?

 

photo in color

 

photo in black & white

 

The photo was published in Alan LIght's CBG wasn't it.

[jpepx78]

I'm not sure when the first photo was first published but it appeared in other magazines, books (The Art of Jack Kirby) and online.

 

Here's a magazine article of Mumy from 1989.

 

[jpepx78]

[font:Times New Roman]

Harlem New York

 

We will take a detailed look at two pictures of a Harlem New York newsstand taken for the Federal Art Project by Sid Grossman in 1939. Harlem New York, a 3 square mile section of Manhattan, is well known as a major African American residential, cultural and business center. In the period after World War I to the mid 1930s, there was a literary, cultural and artistic movement that kindled a new black cultural identity that was called the “Harlem Renaissance”. This outburst of African American creative expression resulted in many literary works and artistic works of which the best known is jazz music. There were many socioeconomic factors contributing to the Harlem Renaissance. There was a great migration to northern cities because industrialization created demand for unskilled industrial labor and offered escape from the institutional racism of the southern states. However, job losses during the Great Depression and the deindustrialization of New York City after WW2 contributed to increased rates of crime and poverty in the neighborhood in later years.

 

A few of you might have seen this picture before but may not have taken a closer look. See if you can figure out the exact date of when these photos were taken from all the details in the closeup pictures.

It may be possible to determine the exact address of this newsstand from a 1939 or 1940 New York City phone book.

This stand was packed with newspapers, magazines and comics and in the closeups you will be able to identify many of them.

 

 

You could get a lot of things for a 5 cents in 1939: a newspaper, a loaf of bread, and from the pictures a jumbo malt, a shoeshine, a sausage or a ham or bologna sandwich with a free root beer. A dime could get you a valuable comic if you picked the right one and held onto it for 60-70 years. What would you get? Notice the gumball machine on the left.

 

Let's get to the the good stuff first: comics! Okay, I'll pick out the easy one. Can you see that Action 14?

Identify the other books.

 

I'll let someone else to do the work of identifying all the pulps in the newsstand.

 

Can you identify the movie stars on the bottom 4 movie magazine covers?

 

More pulps, magazines and a newspaper are on the left side.

 

In these closeups, you can see some of the major African-American newspapers and tabloids of the period.

 

Newspapers and tabloids are held by clothespins near the gumball machine.

 

Hitler was the subject of tabloid fodder in True Story magazine but probably wasn't a major concern yet in many American lives since most people were concerned about getting out of the depths of the Great Depression. In a short time, he will become one of the faces of the enemy and on the minds of nearly everyone.

 

Here is the second picture of the same newsstand.

 

How many of you have ever used a relic from the past like a rotary dial payphone?

 

Another closeup of the comics from the second picture.

 

Here's a closeup of the pulps.

 

Here's more pulps to the left of the newsdealer.

 

This is a closeup of the newspapers.

 

 

Elmer Simms Campbell

 

Coincidentally the name Elmer Simms Campbell appears prominently on the headlines of African-American papers that day.

 

The subject of race relations is still a divisive issue after the end of forced segregation and after the civil rights movement in America. So it is noteworthy to recognize individuals who acheived successful careers despite the social barriers during their lifetimes. Elmer Simms Campbell (1906-1971) was the first African-American nationally syndicated cartoonist and a very successful commercial artist who is best known for his art and cartoons in Esquire magazine.

 

Campbell was born in St Louis, Missouri to school teacher parents and later moved to Chicago. He first gained national attention in 1926 with his award-winning Armistice Day cartoon for his high school newspaper. In the cartoon, Campbell drew a soldier kneeling in front of his comrade's grave with the caption “We've Won, Buddy!” At age 14 he attended the University of Chicago for a year and then finished his education at the Art Institute of Chicago. Upon graduation he went to work as a waiter in a dining car on the New York Central Railroad. His big break came one day as he was drawing caricatures of train passengers. J.P. Sauerwein, the manager of Triad Studios was so impressed with his work that he offered Campbell a job at his St Louis art studio. That job gave Campbell the courage to move to New York where he worked at an advertising agency and was able to sell his work to many magazines. In October 1933, Esquire magazine hired Campbell and gave him creative freedom as long as there were beautiful girls in his drawings. He contributed art in nearly every issue of Esquire from 1933 to 1958 and created the magazine's pop-eyed mascot “Esky”.

 

His work might be of interest to aficionados of good-girl art since Campbell is known for his drawings of voluptuous women in harem outfits.

 

His good-girl art was compiled in this 1945 Cuties magazine.

 

Here is an example of a 1939 cartoon.

caption: Esquire, "Personally, I'm willing to close my eyes to Reverend Thornton's methods

-- after all, the basket fund has already doubled last year's record."

 

Campbell's most popular character was a voluptuous red-head named Cutie who appeared in these 1944, 1946 and 1950 Barbasol ads.

 

Campbell describes the interesting origin of the character Cutie in the interview below.

 

Campbell describes his working methods, friends and frank opinions in this September 1, 1945 article from The Afro American newspaper.

Campbell 1945 bio

 

Campbell was certainly aware of the irony that he was making a successful living drawing white women in lingerie at a time when southern states mandated jail terms for blacks whistling at white women. It is unknown if Campbell ever met Matt Baker but since they were both artists known for their drawings of beautiful women, Baker certainly would have been aware of Campbell's art and it might have had an influence on Baker's drawings of women.

 

He also drew children's books and penned comic strips such as Phantom Island that was primarily for an African-American audience.

 

 

Campbell had an interesting personal life. There was much newspaper speculation about the circumstances of the death Campbell's first wife Constance, however the medical examiner pronounced the case as a suicide and attributed her ill health as a motive. Incidentally, Elmer married Constance's younger sister Vivian in 1940.

 

Campbell wasn't just an artist since he wrote articles about racism and music for Esquire. Campbell socialized with many famous jazz musicians and many were his close friends including Cab Calloway. Here is Calloway singing one of his signature songs, Minnie the Moocher.

 

If you thought Michael Jackson's moonwalk and spin moves were original, take a look at Calloway's dance moves from the 1930s and 1940s.

 

A map of the night clubs in Harlem drawn by Campbell.

 

His later commercial art appeared in other national magazines such as Ebony, Cosmopolitan, New Yorker and Playboy.

His daughter Elizabeth, a fashion model, married the famous photographer Gordon Parks (1912-2006) in 1962. Campbell was not happy with his daughter's marriage since Parks was twice the age of Elizabeth at that time. Parks would later divorce Elizabeth in 1973.

In the mid 1950s Campbell moved to Neerach Switzerland because he was tired of the racial prejudice in America and stayed until his wife died in 1970. He returned and lived in New York until his death in 1971.

 

Can you figure out the exact date from these pics? Answers to follow in a few days.

 

A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

References

Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African-American National Biography, H.L. Gates, E. B. Higginbotham editors, 101-2 2009

 

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library Museum blog, Ohio State Univ.

http://library.osu.edu/blogs/cartoons/2013/02/28/found-in-the-collection-e-simms-campbell-letters/

 

Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, Sandra West, 56 2003

 

Escape from the Rat Race, Ebony November 1966, 133-138

http://books.google.com/books?id=9zlc1lcRd44C&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&dq=simms+campbell+ebony+1966&source=bl&ots=9_iHXItTzK&sig=DCGvplu_IaCrOpjVF9c38Wes0HM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BsVuU8qoCYOxyAS5noKICA&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=simms%20campbell%20ebony%201966&f=false

 

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[comicdonna]

I aw 2 Action #14's I think.

[MB1952]

jpepx78: excellent work, thanks for sharing.