The great Ed Wheelan’s Comics McCormick is on display here with a fun story…as all of his were.

http://atocom.blogspot.com/2012/07/reading-room-comics-mccormick-captain.html

A couple of nifty posts on the great Napoleon artist Clifford McBride can be found here.

http://potrzebie.blogspot.com/search?q=clifford+mcbride

And here we see a photo gallery of Jack Katz’s wacky Skywald jungle covers from the seventies.

http://atomic-pulp.blogspot.com/2012/07/wednesday-covers-jungle-adventures.html

Finally today, what were comic book conventions like 40 years ago?-Pretty much the same according to Grass Green.

http://fourcolorshadows.blogspot.com/2012/07/comics-convention-grass-green-1970.html

Nearly every monthly issue of Cartoons Magazine featured pages on the abuses, and battles against, unfettered, monopolistic corporate power. In 1912 U.S., regulations to attempt to reign in the abuses which the people well knew, had only recently been passed. Politicians and officials who want to implement those regulations, struggled with other politicians and officials, still in the corporations’ pockets. Having first hand experience with the worst aspects of Capitalism, the people wanted these these abuses restrained; today, we’re being taken back to evils once contained, by politicians again in the pockets of Wall Street (or who in some cases, are of Wall Street itself), touting nonsensical ideological cures to a public ignorant of what they’re unleashing.

From Cartoons Magazine‘s July 1912 issue, above, we have the Coal Trusts — coal operators who sans regulation, openly colluded with each other to hold the public hostage to whatever price they could squeeze out of them; below, we have the J.P. Morgan Company (yes, the same company today involved in one of the most recent Wall Street scandals), buying control of coffee supplies, then manipulating the coffee market to jack up the price.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Artists above include Fred Morgan, Boardman Robinson, and Arthur G. Racey; below, John Campbell Cory.

Doug Wheeler

Financial Reform

Even without the tragic violence surrounding the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, today’s Batman is very, well… dark.

Maybe it’s just a reflection of the dark times we live in. Some say art imitates life, others say life imitates art. Just in case it’s the latter, let’s look back at a brighter time when Batman was a little ray of sunshine.

“Look both ways before crossing the street, kids.”

Back in 1966, when Batman first became the biggest thing in pop culture, he was a force for good in a world that wasn’t all that bad. Batman wore a leotard instead of body armor. The villains were silly, like The Riddler and The Penguin. And Robin said things like “Holy hole in the doughnut, Batman!”

The Batman TV show gave us what has to be the most popular theme song in the history of television, with countless cover versions including a couple that even made the hit parade. It was a simple tune with even simpler lyrics made for a simpler time. We’ve been saving this song for a special occasion. It’s the original theme from the original TV soundtrack. It may be just what the people of Gotham City and Aurora, Colorado need in these darkest of days.

You know the words. Sing along!

Click the link below to listen.

Batman Theme OST

This week’s cartoon misadventure with science, involves a contemporary of Prof. Tig. — The Great Wiggins, “Weather Prophet”, by artist Grant Hamilton. From the front page of the January 17th, 1883 edition of the (New York) Daily Graphic.

Click on the above comic strip, to view it in detail, and read its captions.

To find the prior postings of Tigwissel Tuesdays, click here.

Doug Wheeler

NYDailyGraphic

I have some strange items in my horde of of illegal digital downloads but one of the strangest may well be Huck and Yogi Jamboree from 1961. It’s not a comic book (it’s definitely not in the Grant Comic Book Database), being a 117 page black and white paperback, and you could make a case that it’s not even “comics”, seeing as how it’s a collection of drawings with text (there’s not a word balloon to be found). But there are drawings that are sequential which tell stories and it is an interesting artifact as well as evidence of just how popular The Huckleberry Hound Show was back in the early 1960′s. Because it’s pretty clear from even a casual read (especially the somewhat introductory copy) that this was intended for Huck and Yogi’s adult fans. Of which there apparently were more than a few, given the format and high price — $1!

Check out the crazy end papers,

There are a bunch of relatively long stories of Huck and Yogi that do a fairly good job of approximating their cartoon adventures; the art (which one pretty much assumes has to be done by Hanna- Barbera studio artists) is especially on model. Here’s one featuring Huck; Yogi I don’t care so much about.

And here’s a brief bio of the “authors” of record of the work, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera ,

I especially love this back cover where Huck actually shows rank and lets that damn bear know who exactly the star of the show was. It’s a pity it couldn’t last.

Above, we resume our up-to-the-century Election Year coverage, from the July 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine, with cartoons involving Democratic candidate for President, Woodrow Wilson. Art by Alfred West Brewerton, Robert Minor, Jr., and Arthur V. Buel.

Click on the above picture, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics

Artist Rich Buckler presents the first in a fascinating new series of columns about his art and his theories on the very concepts of same.

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2012/07/rich-bucklers-secrets-behind-comics.html

One of my earliest comics favorites was Metal Men. Here’s a look at the earliest issues of that title.

http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2012/07/metal-men-1-10.html

Frank Springer did much of his best work in National Lampoon such as Tarzan of the Cows written by SNL’s Michael O’Donoghue.

http://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-burroughs-bovinity.html

Finally, here’s the first issue of 1966′s Champion comic from the UK as a treat for fellow I.T,C.H.er, Steve Bennett.

http://theyellowedpages.blogspot.com/2012/07/champion-issue-1-26th-february-1966.html

From fellow I.T.C.H.er Tom Heintjes’s Hogan’s Alley, here’s some lovely Sunday comics examples of Dudley Fisher’s Right Around Home.

http://cartoonician.com/2012/07/the-view-from-on-high-dudley-fishers-right-around-home/

An interesting turn in the ongoing Superman rights case as dutifully reported by the ever-vigilant Daniel Best.

http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-history-behind-dc-comics-joe.html

You’ve heard of the popular Fifty Shades of Grey? Well, here’s Fifty Shades of Jean Grey, the comics fan’s version.

http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2012/07/fifty-shades-of-jean-grey.html

Here’s a fun letter from Popeye’s Bela Zaboly (as well as other Zaboly posts).

http://potrzebie.blogspot.com/search/label/zaboly

Even as those politicians in league with Wall Street continue to decry any regulation of them at all, Wall Street and the Banks can’t just stop themselves from cheating everyone for even long enough to attempt pulling off an insincere “Just Trust Us” smile. I refer, of course, to the most recent two of an unbroken string of scandals: Libor (banks violating the Free Market, to manipulate and fix rates to their personal aggrandizement); and, J.P. Morgan (long the crier of “we don’t need regulations”, now caught in their own web of stock market gambling and manipulations).

So, what better time for the above? A Bird Whose Wings Need Clipping, from the front cover of the March 16th, 1881 issue of Puck magazine.

Click on the above picture, to view it in greater detail.

To find prior episodes of this series,click on Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons. And, to find earlier posts concerning financial reforms in general, click here.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYPuck

Today, the first part of artist Nelson Harding‘s ABC book parody, “A Political Primer”, making fun of Teddy Roosevelt. Found within the magazine-sized booklet, The Political Campaign of 1912 in Cartoons, collecting Harding’s cartoons published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics T.R.