For our third Back-to-School installment of comics created by college students, we return to Ohio State, home of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, to take a peek at some of the cartoons that Ireland did while at OSU. Below, the cover from two copies of his 1909 collection, Teck Haskins at “Ohio State” (Also “Towser” — his dog). The book had a quilted cloth cover, atop which was pasted a sticker with Ireland’s cover art. Ignoring that the quit pattern differs on the examples shown (and possibly varies on every copy), the slight difference in book dimensions, plus the color of the ink on the pasted cover art – to match the quilt color — indicates these are different printings. Which is earlier, I have no idea. (Perhaps the 35 cent price on the left-hand copy, versus absence of price on the right-hand copy, offers a clue.)

Click on any picture to enlarge it.

Following, W.A. Ireland’s introduction to Teck Haskins, plus the opening cartoon showing Teck (and Towser) headed to college. 

Living the college life…

Below, what Teck became best known as — a rabid Ohio State football fanatic. The majority of cartoons and humor in Teck Haskins at “Ohio State” involve his devotion to team & game (becoming ridiculously extreme further in). 

Teck Haskins at “Ohio State” was published by Lea-Mar Press of Columbus, Ohio. Below, Ireland gives his publisher a plug, redrawing their faces from photographs as per the style of As We See ‘Em caricature books of the era.   

W.A. Ireland’s second published collection of Teck, had a baseball-angle, so we’ll see him again in another month, during the World Series. 

Meanwhile next Monday, we’ll close (this year’s) Back-to-School theme, with excerpts from a second 1850 comic book. Click Here to find the prior two weeks’ postings of college student comics.  

Doug Wheeler

CollegeComics

For our second week of comics published by college students — in honor of the Back-to-School Season — we present the circa 1850 sequential comic book, The College Experiences of Ichabod Academicus, by Yale University student William T. Peters.

Peters structured Ichabod Academicus into four chapters, covering his four years of college. This being our first presentation of Ichabod, the below is his Freshman Year. Ichabod’s format & layout is patterned after that of Swiss graphic novelist Rodolphe Töpffer, while Peter’s art style appears influenced by French cartoonists such as Cham (who got his start copying Töpffer comics) and Daumier. Enjoy!

Click on any picture, to open an enlarged version.

Chapter Two (Sophomore Year) of The College Experiences of Ichabod Academicus, will be presented next year at this time! Slightly sooner – next week — we’ll present some of Billy Ireland’s Teck cartoons, published while he was at OSU. Click on Sidney Wells’ “Life at College”, 1922-24 to view last week’s Back-to-School entry.

Doug Wheeler

CollegeComics

Well, for many of you out there, the Back-to-School Season has, or soon will, arrive. In honor of this (and of my girlfriend’s daughter heading off this weekend for her Freshman Year at NYU!), I’ll be subjecting all of you to extracts from college student-published comics, today and the next three Mondays!

First up, published at Ohio State University (home of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum ), are the early-1920s cartoons of Sidney Wells. While at college, Wells published a book of his cartoons every year, for three years running. All three books were over-sized oblong-shaped, mimicking the format of early 20th century Hearst era comic strip reprint books (what the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide labels “Platinum Age”). Below, from 1922, is the cover of Wells’ Life at Ohio State.

Click on any picture, to open an enlarged version.

Below, the foreword from the last of Sidney Wells’ three books. Wells mentions having contributed to Ohio State’s humor magazine, the Sun Dial (in which, I would imagine, the cartoons in his book perhaps originally appeared?). A few years after Wells left, Milton Caniff would attend Ohio State, and also contribute to the Sun Dial. According to the Foreword, Wells was working on a 1925 edition of Life at College, but, I’ve yet to find evidence that such an edition was published. 

In fact, it’s likely nothing was lost to us by the lack of a 1925 edition, as the truth is that the interiors of all three of his titles, contain the exact same set of cartoons! Only the title and cover changed! (They are good cartoons, though.) Below, the cover from his 1923 edition, Life at Ohio Wesleyan.

Below left, a loose flyer/insert that came with the 1924 edition of Life at College — the cover for which is shown below right. (Note, apart from variation in the title, this is the same cover art used for the 1922 Life at Ohio State.)

Following, a few cartoon extracts from Sidney Wells’ book(s). Below, farm boy freshman heads off to college, returning three months later a sophisticate…

Conflicting correspondences, to home, and to girlfriend…

Cross Section of a Fraternity House During Rush Season. Again, click on any picture to make it larger.

To close out, we’re shown the college graduate having obtained his diploma, stepping out into the world — and onto the unemployment line! (Unfortunately, our situation again, today.)  

Next Monday, the Freshman Year from a circa 1850 American comic book. In the meantime, if you missed Craig’s posting of it this past March, check out the 1925 University of California Yearbook, containing cartoons from a number of top-ranking cartoonists!

Doug Wheeler

CollegeComics

Born 130 years ago on August 22, 1880, George Herriman is known today as one of the most imaginative cartoonists of the 20th century. But early in his career, The Bookman magazine published an article that quoted him arguing that cartoonists are impervious to inspiration, preferring instead to serve the "inartistic majority." Herriman’s quote contains the visionary landscapes, incongruous juxtapositions and curious contradictions that would later become stylistic hallmarks of Krazy Kat.

George Herriman

From American Caricature and Comic Art, Part II by La Touche Hancock
The Bookman, November 1902

Art combined with poetry is the characteristic of George Herriman. Were his drawings not so well known one would think he had mistaken his vocation. Listen!

"Inspiration! Who ever heard of a comic artist being inspired? Take him out into a field where the green grasses, swept by caressing zephyrs, bend and nod in rapt delight, dodging the nibble of the frisky, hungry lamb as it gambols hither and thither, and see if he (the artist, not the lamb) can see in this any blissful clutch, grasping heart, mind and soul in a grip of steely delight. No! He’ll draw a lamb all right – a lamb so distorted that the green nodding field will rise in disgust to smite him.

"What does he know of the inspiration to be obtained from blue, azure, turquoise skies with fleecy clouds riding on and on, whither no one knows. Now take the clouds and skies of which I speak, blend them with the green grass and gambolling lambs, and a few trees, a few red-roofed barns, little hamlets in the distance, a lake, a creek, a rustic bridge, a nestling home amid clinging vines, and lots and lots of other things so dear to an artist’s heart, place them in full view of the inspired one and see the light of imagination fire him. They never will. His mind and soul have lost that delicate sense of the poetic and artistic, which one would naturally think were indigenous and he will turn away with a sigh, sit down at his desk and continue to worry out idioticies for the edification of an inartistic majority!"

As Herriman entered his 56th year, the Tiger Tea series was in its fourth month. Today’s episode features the strip that was published on Herriman’s birthday in 1936:

Krazy Kat – "Home, James" by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 22, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – "Home, James" by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 21, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Note to Krazy Kompletists: Yesterday’s episode featured the Tiger Tea strip from August 18th, 1936. Today’s episode is the strip from August 20th, 1936. The August 19th cartoon is included in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in “Tiger Tea“ (BUY THE BOOK! It’s a great collection and the best deal in Coconino  County! More info below!).

Today’s episode:

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in “Tiger Tea,” a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – Paradise Lost by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 18, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – Riffraff! by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 17, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – At the End of His Rope. by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 15, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today, we present the conclusion of artist John Leighton’s 1847 British comic book / graphic novel, London Out of Town, or, The Adventures of the Browns at the Sea Side.  

In the prior two parts (Click Here to view them), the Brown family leave London for a summer vacation at an unnamed English sea port. Their adventures have included the coach and ship passage to get there, searching for the promised view of the sea at the place they are staying, and being chased by insects and a bull during an inland, country-side picnic. Apart from the journey itself, and one walk on the pier, they’ve spent very little time down by the seashore.

As we begin Part Three, we find the Browns bored in their rented lodgings, as it is raining outside. The young master Brown heads off on an excursion to the seashore on his own, frightening his mother who imagines him devoured by sea monsters, and who employs a town crier to get up a hunt for him. He returns, having caught crabs, whose escape from his basket give the family a lovely morning awakening!  For their final vacation day, they at last get to the beach, then “go for a sail in what proves anything but a pleasure boat,” and finally end their vacation in a night of merriment.    

Click on each picture, to open a larger version.

This installment concludes (this year’s) run of Victorian Age Summer Comics. Next Monday, we’ll start a four-week run of comics themed on Back-to-School/College

Doug Wheeler

SummerVacation