Billy Ireland’s “Teck Haskins at Ohio State”, 1909
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.
CollegeComics
— Doug
[...] Ireland was a college student at OSU in 1909 — his Teck Haskins character was featured here last month, on SuperITCH. That entry showed excerpts from Ireland’s 1909 book Teck Haskins at [...]
Hello. I was looking up Teck because I have an old Teck comic book from 1909 that my mother found in a box of my father’s things. I googled “teck w.a., ireland” and came across your website. I almost fell out of my chair as I scrolled down and saw my great-grandfather (John Marquardt) in the Lea-Mar press comic panel. (He is the guy on the left.) I believe he owned and/or ran this printing company in Columbus in the early 1900s. Very cool!
Oh Wow! Cool! Thanks for the information about your great-grandfather, and glad you and your family came across it!
Doug Wheeler