1944.08.24 “Bringing Up Father”

1944.08.24 “Bringing Up Father”
by George McManus (1884-1954) and Zeke Zekley (1915-2005)
23.25 x 5.75 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

In 1904, young George McManus was hired by Pulitzer’s New York World as a cartoonist. While he was there he created such strips as The Newlyweds, which comics historians consider the first family comic strip. In 1912, William Randolph Hearst hired McManus away to start a comic strip about a guy called Jiggs, a lower class man who came into a lot of money. With their new wealth, Maggie, Jiggs’ wife, wanted to enter the upper crust of society but Jiggs just wanted to hang out with his old friends at the local bar playing cards and pool and eat his simple favorite foods. This is the classic strip Bringing Up Father.

McManus had masterful line work with a strong deco feel to his designs. Over time, he developed the recurring motif of animating the background paintings in certain panels, and this is generally delightful.

Slang is generally considered a universal constant and an intrinsic feature of language. The enormous growth of broadcast media (movies, radio) in the 1930s and 1940s brought American slang to a wider audience than in previous eras. These two strips I have from August 23-24 highlight the usual generational divide that characterizes slang, as used by youth to set cultural identity. With each generation, although much of the usage dies out, a set words will also always persist and become part of the mainstream, common vernacular.

The whimsy in the funny papers often sits in sharp contrast to the news of the day.

The liberation of Paris began on August 19, 1944 and ended with the surrender of the German garrison in the French capital on August 25, 1944.

1944.08.23 “Bringing Up Father”

1944.08.23 “Bringing Up Father”
by George McManus (1884-1954) and Zeke Zekley (1915-2005)
23.25 x 5.75 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

In 1904, young George McManus was hired by Pulitzer’s New York World as a cartoonist. While he was there he created such strips as The Newlyweds, which comics historians consider the first family comic strip. In 1912, William Randolph Hearst hired McManus away to start a comic strip about a guy called Jiggs, a lower class man who came into a lot of money. With their new wealth, Maggie, Jiggs’ wife, wanted to enter the upper crust of society but Jiggs just wanted to hang out with his old friends at the local bar playing cards and pool and eat his simple favorite foods. This is the classic strip Bringing Up Father.

McManus had masterful line work with a strong deco feel to his designs. Over time, he developed the recurring motif of animating the background paintings in certain panels, and this is generally delightful.

Slang is generally considered a universal constant and an intrinsic feature of language. The enormous growth of broadcast media (movies, radio) in the 1930s and 1940s brought American slang to a wider audience than in previous eras. These two strips I have from August 23-24 highlight the usual generational divide that characterizes slang, as used by youth to set cultural identity. With each generation, although much of the usage dies out, a set words will also always persist and become part of the mainstream, common vernacular.

The whimsy in the funny papers often sits in sharp contrast to the news of the day.

The liberation of Paris began on August 19, 1944 and ended with the surrender of the German garrison in the French capital on August 25, 1944.

“Research is a Nuisance” (Non Sequitur, March 12, 2023)

“Research is a Nuisance” (Non Sequitur, March 12, 2023)
by Wiley Miller (1951-)
16.66 x 6.33 in., ink on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Miller

In 1991, Wiley launched his popular Non Sequitur strip, eventually syndicated to 700 newspapers as well as published on Go Comics and distributed via email. The strip oscillates between one-panel commentary and stories with recurring characters. In either event, the strips have a history of politically leaning and sharp commentary. I really wanted Danae’s commentary in the last panel, not only because it was so representative of the anti-intellectualistic, post-truth world (“Research is a stupid nuisance that takes the fun out of stuff you think is probably right.”)

I asked Wiley to inscribe the strip with one of my all-time favorite quotes about science. From 1834, the letters from Liebig to Berzelius, that I stumbled upon by accident and understood just enough German to recognize as interesting:

Die schönsten Theorien werden durch die verdammten Versuche über den Haufen geworfen, es ist gar keine Freude mehr Chemiker zu sein.

… which, roughly, translates as “The most beautiful theories are thrown onto the heap by these damned experiments, it is no fun at all to be a chemist any more.”

“DIY News” (Non Sequitur, February 13, 2023)

“DIY News” (Non Sequitur, February 13, 2023)
by Wiley Miller (1951-)
8.5 x 14 in., ink on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Miller

In 1991, Wiley launched his popular Non Sequitur strip, eventually syndicated to 700 newspapers as well as published on Go Comics and distributed via email. The strip oscillates between one-panel commentary and stories with recurring characters. In either event, the strips have a history of politically leaning and sharp commentary. I was strongly taken by the comment here and I am pleased to have this art to display. Completely democratizing the world through self-publication on the Internet flattened the world (sic, Thomas Friedman), much like the step of the elephant flattens the mouse.

The note from Wiley: “All the News that’s Fit to Print”

A reminder – Wiley composes these to be able to be cropped as a horizontal or vertical format (see additional images).

“Blue Meanies No. 5 of 9” (2021)


“Blue Meanies No. 5 of 9” (2021)
by Carson Grubaugh (1981- )
11.75 x 16 in. on 2 pages, blue ballpoint ink on paper
Coppola Collection

When “The Strange Death of Alex Raymond” was initially printed during the summer of 2021, the printer made a critical and quite mysterious error, leaving off four pages worth of blue-line printing that caused the entire edition to be scrapped and the release of the book to be delayed for several months while the printer gathered the materials for a full reprint. Even odder, Carson and Dave had a history of printing issues related to blue line artwork when working on the second half of the book, what Dave referred to in conversation with Carson as “the Blue Meanies.” After the book was finally correctly printed in November, Carson took nine of these misprinted copies and created original artwork on two of the pages missing printing, depicting the “Blue Meanies” in each copy, each one unique, and in blue ballpoint ink, of course. The draw appears on pp. 256-257.

I put my request in for one of these, immediately, and Carson did me a solid: not only reserved one for me, but turned me into the Blue Meanie in my copy.

“Iron Man Cave” (2022)


“Iron Man Cave” (2022)
by Carson Grubaugh (1981- )
6.8 x 10.5 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

At the Patreon site organized by Sean Michael Robinson and Carson Grubaugh, which accompanies their collaboration on “Living the Line,” they offer a premium based on Carson’s Google Grab-Bag schtick.

He offers an original straight-to-ink sketch. Here is how that works. You are asked to provide a word or phrase (and obviously you can game this a bit). Carson then searches this word or phrase using Google Images. The first photographic image listed by Google Images will be the source material for the straight-to-ink sketch.

Carson has got a great eye. In fact, it freaks me out. He can use a brush (or pen) on paper with NO underlying outline, lay down lines or brushstrokes all over the page, and in about 20-30 minutes he produces a sketch. And all without the training wheels! He records it live. There are videos of this on YouTube (and at the Patreon site).

The April 2022 Grab-Bag phrase came from me. The first vote was between “Cave Iron Man,” “Chris Evans Cap throws shield,” “Dave Sim & Matt Dow” and “Dave Sim & Margaret Liss.” And then a tiebreaker between between “Cave Iron Man” and “Dave Sim & Margaret Liss.”

“Spider-man swinging pose Andrew Garfield” (2022)


“Spider-man swinging pose Andrew Garfield” (2022)
by Carson Grubaugh (1981- )
8.5 x 11 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

At the Patreon site organized by Sean Michael Robinson and Carson Grubaugh, which accompanies their collaboration on “Living the Line,” they offer a premium based on Carson’s Google Grab-Bag schtick.

He offers an original straight-to-ink sketch. Here is how that works. You are asked to provide a word or phrase (and obviously you can game this a bit). Carson then searches this word or phrase using Google Images. The first photographic image listed by Google Images will be the source material for the straight-to-ink sketch.

Carson has got a great eye. In fact, it freaks me out. He can use a brush (or pen) on paper with NO underlying outline, lay down lines or brushstrokes all over the page, and in about 20-30 minutes he produces a sketch. And all without the training wheels! He records it live. There are videos of this on YouTube (and at the Patreon site).

The March 2022 Grab-Bag phrase came from me. A new high-tier member joined, so there was a 5-way contest. I went with the superhero route, drawing on Spider-Man: No Way Home. I suggested “spider-man swinging pose Andrew Garfield,” “spider-man swinging pose Tobey Maguire,” and “spider-man swinging pose Tom Holland.” In addition there was “Matt Dow & Dave Sim” and “Margaret Liss & Dave Sim.”

Andrew Garfield was the winner.

“John Vassos Phobia” (2022)


“John Vassos Phobia” (2022)
by Carson Grubaugh (1981- )
8.5 x 11 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

At the Patreon site organized by Sean Michael Robinson and Carson Grubaugh, which accompanies their collaboration on “Living the Line,” they offer a premium based on Carson’s Google Grab-Bag schtick.

He offers an original straight-to-ink sketch. Here is how that works. You are asked to provide a word or phrase (and obviously you can game this a bit). Carson then searches this word or phrase using Google Images. The first photographic image listed by Google Images will be the source material for the straight-to-ink sketch.

Carson has got a great eye. In fact, it freaks me out. He can use a brush (or pen) on paper with NO underlying outline, lay down lines or brushstrokes all over the page, and in about 20-30 minutes he produces a sketch. And all without the training wheels! He records it live. There are videos of this on YouTube (and at the Patreon site).

The February 2022 Grab-Bag phrase came from me. In fact, all three phrases that were voted on came from me. I really like the art of John Vassos, so I offered up “John Vassos Phobia,” “John Vassos Wilde’s Salome,” and “John Vassos Ultimo.”

Phobia was the winner.