Rent Boys

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

Mrs. Fitz's Flat was often only as funny as it's gags. Fortunately for the first couple of years they were made by the Mort Walker team, which then were at the top of their game.

Toby or not Toby

Monday Cartoon Day.

Last month, in the second part of his interview in Alter Ego #101, Jack Mendelsohn said he breifly worked for Toby press, doing cartoon magazines for them. He describes buying up the left over cartoons that were not bought by any of the major publications and somtimes having to write new captions to them. At first, these vottom of the barrel carton books were hard to find until someone pointed me to Minoan, one of the publishing names of Toby. The cartoosn I am showing today are from one of their titles, Inside Stuff. It was published in 1956, which might be just after Mendelsohn worked there - or just in the middle of that period. In the interview he doesn't give any dates, although 1955/56 seems the most likely. He also mentiones a piece of original art that the previous editor had bought for one of the magazines by Harvey Kurtzman and that turned out to be a piece from 1951, which was used in US Crime. As Mendelsohn tellts the story, that piece of art came in when he was just working there. whch makes 1956 a bit late. He also took the art home and later sold it to Glen Bray, or at least three pages of it.

Anyway, the cartoons I chose to show all have a comic book or comic strip connection. Vic Martin was a popular cartoonist from the fifties, who worked in a lot of Mad imitation, before landing a spot as a regular at Cracked. Jack o'Brien moved to Charlton, where he became the packager of Mad imitation Crazy and drew some of the Sad Sack spin-off titles. Gill Fox is there, whose work in comics and newspaper strips I have showcased here from the start. There's Frank Ridgeway, who created the newspaper strip Mr. Abernathy. And Jerry Fasano, who most comic book collectors know fo one of those comic strip ads that appeared in many comic books for years.

People in Chairs

Monday Cartoon Day.

Some time ago my old friend (and pretty smart cartoonist) Mike Lynch announced on his blog that some cartoons from the Laaf-A-Day series were offered again by the McNaught Syndicate. This daily cartoon series has been around for a long time, but it probably wasn't the first featre of it's sort. I think that honor goes to This Funny World, a daily caroon series, that offered the best of magazine cartoons for the newpapers subscribing since the late forties. Like Laff-A-Day, it used the top cartoonists of the day. It may even ave been a bit more upmarket. Here is a selection of both.

Harry Mace, from Jan 24 1950:


Harry Mace from Jan 26 1950:

I will show more about Mace later. A pretty good catoonist, who had his start in the fifties, but certainly peaked in the sixties with several strips and ad accounts.

Mort Walker from Feb 9 1950:

Remind me again who this guy was?

The Berenstains from Feb 13 1950:

A cartooning husband and wife, they created a sensatio with their busy Collier covers of the forties, did a strip (called Sister) in the fifties and finally found fame with their Children's books.

Garrett Price from Feb 20 1950:


Harry Mace, from Feb 21 1950:


Henry Boltinoff, from April 6 1950:

If cartoons were bought, Boltinoff sold them.

Hank Ketcham, from Nov 27 1950:


Ted Key,from Jan 2 1952:


Ted Hilton, from Jan 7 1952

One of a few cartoonists who never sold a strip or cartoon series to the newspapers.

Cavalli, from Aug 30 1952:

Didn't get his own newspaper strip until late in the fifties.

Ben Roth, from Dec 19 1952:

One of the four cartooning Roth brothers.

John Monahan, from Dec 27 1952:


Chon Day, from Dec 29 1952:


Cavalli, from Dec 30 1952:


Henry Boltinoff, from Dec 31 1952:


Dave Gerard, from Dec 19 1948

An unjustly forgotten cartoonist. His style may have been old hat at the time and he may have been older than th eyoung generation finding their own style and tone, but his work was always funny. He had several interesting strips as well, which I will show sometime.

Henry Boltinoff, from March 5 1953:


Frank Ridgewy, from March 1 1958:


Busino, from Jan 16 1967:

I have loads of work by Busino, from Boy's Life, just waiting to be scanned.

Don Orehek, Oct 14 1976:

Another cartoonist who drew for everyone.