Last week I showed illustration work by Mel Lazerus for the 1953 New York weekly children's magazine Story-A-Day. Or at least what I had of those issues. Today I have a similar lot, by Jack Sparling. Sparling was a capable realistic artist, whose work on the comic strip Hap Happor, I am currently showing on Thursdays. After that I will also share what I have of his second newspaper strip, Claire Voyant. Later in the fifties he did another newspaper strip called Mr. Rumbles. In between he mostly worked for some of the smaller comic ook companies, doing quick and easy work for them, concentrating on volume rather than quality. So it is nice to see him do his best in these children's stories. Like the Sundays from the forties, you can see there is a very capable artist at work here.
Showing posts with label Mr. Rumbles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mr. Rumbles. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
One Sparling My Fall Makes
Wednesday Illustration Day.
Last week I showed illustration work by Mel Lazerus for the 1953 New York weekly children's magazine Story-A-Day. Or at least what I had of those issues. Today I have a similar lot, by Jack Sparling. Sparling was a capable realistic artist, whose work on the comic strip Hap Happor, I am currently showing on Thursdays. After that I will also share what I have of his second newspaper strip, Claire Voyant. Later in the fifties he did another newspaper strip called Mr. Rumbles. In between he mostly worked for some of the smaller comic ook companies, doing quick and easy work for them, concentrating on volume rather than quality. So it is nice to see him do his best in these children's stories. Like the Sundays from the forties, you can see there is a very capable artist at work here.
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Last week I showed illustration work by Mel Lazerus for the 1953 New York weekly children's magazine Story-A-Day. Or at least what I had of those issues. Today I have a similar lot, by Jack Sparling. Sparling was a capable realistic artist, whose work on the comic strip Hap Happor, I am currently showing on Thursdays. After that I will also share what I have of his second newspaper strip, Claire Voyant. Later in the fifties he did another newspaper strip called Mr. Rumbles. In between he mostly worked for some of the smaller comic ook companies, doing quick and easy work for them, concentrating on volume rather than quality. So it is nice to see him do his best in these children's stories. Like the Sundays from the forties, you can see there is a very capable artist at work here.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Sprawling Sparling
Friday Comic Book Day.
Jack Sparling was an interesting artist who worked in and out of newspaper comics for all his career. He did Hap Hopper in the early forties and moved on to Claire Voyant. I have shown some of the first and will show some of the latter. In the fifties he created Mr. Rubbles, a weird strip about an irish leprechaun influencing peoples lives. As I wrote when I showed some of it, I guess it was sold on the back of the succesful Irish themed movie(s) of that period, like Finian's Raibow and more specificly Disney's Darby O'Gill. After that he is mensioned as the artist of Sam Hill, which must have been some sort of adventure strip. I could never find more than a couple of very small samples of those. After that he workedon a strip called Honor Edens, which seems to have been some sort of detective strip (other than the name suggests). The copies I have of those are even worse than the Sam Hill ones. In between that he worked as an artist on comic books, usually in a very identifyable style. In the fifties you see him everywhere at the second rte companies, usually doing romance but sometimes also war stories (as in G.I. Joe or Harvey's war titles). Although he was a good storyteller, his work was usually unremarkable. But the early stories I want to show here show how well he could drawn and compose his panels.
And here are some of those newspaper clippings I mentioned.
Jack Sparling was an interesting artist who worked in and out of newspaper comics for all his career. He did Hap Hopper in the early forties and moved on to Claire Voyant. I have shown some of the first and will show some of the latter. In the fifties he created Mr. Rubbles, a weird strip about an irish leprechaun influencing peoples lives. As I wrote when I showed some of it, I guess it was sold on the back of the succesful Irish themed movie(s) of that period, like Finian's Raibow and more specificly Disney's Darby O'Gill. After that he is mensioned as the artist of Sam Hill, which must have been some sort of adventure strip. I could never find more than a couple of very small samples of those. After that he workedon a strip called Honor Edens, which seems to have been some sort of detective strip (other than the name suggests). The copies I have of those are even worse than the Sam Hill ones. In between that he worked as an artist on comic books, usually in a very identifyable style. In the fifties you see him everywhere at the second rte companies, usually doing romance but sometimes also war stories (as in G.I. Joe or Harvey's war titles). Although he was a good storyteller, his work was usually unremarkable. But the early stories I want to show here show how well he could drawn and compose his panels.
And here are some of those newspaper clippings I mentioned.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
The Irish Connection
Thursday Story Strip Day.
A week ago regular visitor and comment guest Jeff Overturf scanned a whole comic section from June 1955 and put it on his blog. I've put the link along the side. He comments on each strip. Biggest surprise is a full color tabloid page from Jack Sparling's Mr. Mumbles. I had known about this trip for a long time, but have never seen a color sample. Sparling was a very familiar atist in the fifties, tuning up a all kinds of publishers, mostly doing war an romance stories. For Mr. Mubles, he created (or cocreated with a wriiter, more likely) a bearded leprachaun. I wondered if there as a specific culturl event that made a newspaper syndicate think this could be a good and saleable idea. The announcement I found, shows that althoug leprachauns were all over the place in the midfifties (where artists of Irish decent were often well represented) but my guess is the movie Finian's Rainbow had a lot to do with it. The strip started on Monday April 18th, 1955 and it doesn't seem as if the Sunday started until May 15. But there could have been one earlier in other papers. The quality of these sans aren't the best, but a least you can see how the strip got it's start. I may share more later.
Thursday Story Strip Day.
A week ago regular visitor and comment guest Jeff Overturf scanned a whole comic section from June 1955 and put it on his blog. I've put the link along the side. He comments on each strip. Biggest surprise is a full color tabloid page from Jack Sparling's Mr. Mumbles. I had known about this trip for a long time, but have never seen a color sample. Sparling was a very familiar atist in the fifties, tuning up a all kinds of publishers, mostly doing war an romance stories. For Mr. Mubles, he created (or cocreated with a wriiter, more likely) a bearded leprachaun. I wondered if there as a specific culturl event that made a newspaper syndicate think this could be a good and saleable idea. The announcement I found, shows that althoug leprachauns were all over the place in the midfifties (where artists of Irish decent were often well represented) but my guess is the movie Finian's Rainbow had a lot to do with it. The strip started on Monday April 18th, 1955 and it doesn't seem as if the Sunday started until May 15. But there could have been one earlier in other papers. The quality of these sans aren't the best, but a least you can see how the strip got it's start. I may share more later.
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