"Masters of Zowie!"

At long last, here's a blog entry that has nothing to do with The Phantom!  Sorting through stuff in my studio, I came across this article from a 1941 issue of the digest-sized magazine Coronet.  I thought its profiles of cartoonists Chic Young, Ham Fisher, Al Capp, Milt Caniff -- and Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were well worth sharing. Enjoy!

Studio Tour Part Six:Tracy, Abner, Cantor, Kirby and more

The studio tour continues with several more bookcases full of stuff. The top of this bookcase holds a vintage Li'l Abner candy box, a recent 4-pack reissue of the Aurora monster models and an original Weird-oh's Digger box. I love Bill Campbell's wild artwork for these Weird-oh kits. Digger is built and painted -- but some parts came loose in the move, so it's not on display at the moment.

My Dick Tracy shelf contains a mix of vintage and modern items. A built Tracy Aurora kit is missing in action, as it, like Digger, fell apart during the move. Decades old model kit glue is either like no glue at all -- or so strong you can never get the kit parts separated!

The most meaningful piece on this shelf is a note from Tracy creator, Chet Gould. I'd sent him a drawing of him as Tracy -- he sent back the best advice I ever got: "Never give up."

The Secret Files paperback contains a short story co-written by me.

Li'l Abner is one of my favorite comic strips -- and I've collected a lot of Abner stuff. Not shown here are another set of figurines, greeting cards ghosted by Frazetta, a batch of albums, a movie poster -- and who knows what else.

One of these days I'll score the matching Abner chalk figure to go with the Daisy Mae shown here.

This is a rather deep bookcase, so it's ideal for the wide format strip reprint books you see here. Yes, I love vintage newspaper strips. And Sgt. Bilko, it seems.

I'm a huge fan of the nearly forgotten comic actor and singer, Eddie Cantor. Not too many folks are collecting Cantor, so that means I've gotten some good buys on these items -- but I do wish he were still better appreciated by modern audiences. The photo is a repro -- not a real autograph -- but I do have his signature in a copy of one of his books.

The rarest item here has to be the store display for the boxed jigsaw puzzle. It's tough enough to find vintage jigsaw puzzles in complete and nice condition -- but how many of these store counter standees could possibly still exist? Big little books, arcade cards and a board game round out the collection. Not shown: CDs, LPs and a big stack of sheet music. Wishing for a nice DVD collection of his movies -- not likely to happen -- but I can dream, can't I?

Jack Kirby content dominates this bookcase. Modok, Etrigan and Galactus action figures represent Kirby's creations. Why Galactus is giving the "high sign," I don't know.

The autographed photo of TMBG's John and John is a little out of place here -- but for now, that's where it sits.

Gotta finish the Marvel collection up with the last couple Thor volumes....

More good stuff here -- Jack Cole's Plastic Man and Will Eisner's The Spirit, bound volumes of Metamorpho (Ramona Fradon) and Red Sonja (Frank Thorne) and more. I had more Spirit volumes -- but they, and many other books, were ruined when a former landlord, in the act of watering the lawn, sprayed water into a window above the built-in bookcase in which they were stored. I was not aware that the water dripped down into the back of the case -- and the books were later discovered to be water damaged and riddled with mold. Hundreds of dollars worth of books were ruined. I presented him with a bill which he dismissed and never paid. I should have gone to small claims court over it I suppose -- but I knew he was going broke -- I'd have never collected from him.

The desk that holds my scanner/printer has this nifty little batch of shelves on the side. The Dark Horse editions of Lone Wolf and Cub take up two of the three. Hulk is a Happy Meal toy left behind by one of my grandkids! That chunk of wood is part of a wheel from a Planet of the Apes wagon -- a gift from a UMA friend. Garage is a pop-up book from the UK that I've had since childhood.
A vintage GI Joe sits atop this bookcase -- mostly out of frame. A pressbook for the Karloff/Lugosi film The Invisible Ray is another UMA gift. My painting for the Johnny Dynamite trade paperback is the only piece of my own art on the wall. Joe Rubinstein's oil portrait of Ms. Tree from the back cover of issue #50 seems to be being ogled by a clown-faced Elvis Costello. A lovely little K.O. Munson pin-up fills a little wall space.

The Aurora Tarzan box top is a repro. Russ Cochran's Edgar Rice Burroughs Library of Illustration boxed book set is a favorite item. I've spent a lot of time admiring the art reproduced in its pages. Flanking it are bookends of Will Rogers and Wiley Post that belonged to my father. The paper Howdy Doody puppet is a Snickers premium from the '50s. A little bust of Eddie Cantor sculpted by me and a gorgeous red and black bakelite box round out this batch of stuff.
A Gil Elvgren pin-up is featured on this cool figural 26 Girl game board. My Jayne Mansfield hot water bottle (or bubble bath container -- whatever it is) is missing its cap. Anybody have a spare one? The great box art on this Japanese Batmobile model kit is far superior to the kit itself! More books, of course, and a couple vintage baseball patches with my name on 'em finish up this segment of the studio tour. More to come!

More comic strip ads

As promised, here are a pair of Fearless Fosdick Wildroot Cream Oil ads.  I'm also posting a couple Terry and the Pirates Canada Dry advertisments, a Sgt. Bilko photo comic (for Camels) and several more Li'l Abner Cream of Wheat strips.  I have MANY more Abners -- comment if you want to see them here.

Li'l Abner -- pitchman!

It's a testament to the popularity of Al Capp's comic strip, Li'l Abner, that clients must've been falling all over themselves to use Abner as pitchman for their products.  Have a look at the variety of ads shown here.  As always, click on the images for larger versions.

 Abner and family want us to buy Fruit of the Loom underwear -- Abner seems to prefer boxers, while the next generation is sporting briefs. 

Abner is knocking back Kraft caramels in this ad.  A previous blogpost on comic ads featured the Daisy Mae version of this advertisement.

Abner hawks laundry soap, while urging you to name this Shmoo!  Heck, I'll name a Shmoo for 20 grand!

Abner plugs the Bob Hope movie, That Certain Feeling -- which, not so coincidentally, features a cameo by Al Capp!

And now we come to the cream of the crop -- literally!  Cream of Wheat ran an ad campaign featuring Li'l Abner for over a decade -- from the early '40s into the '50s. The two full page ads directly below are not typical of the campaign.  Most of the ads were of the comic strip variety -- keep scrolling down to see three examples of those.

The first comic strip ad is an early one -- from 1941.  Early examples all have this "long shot" look to them, but it wasn't long before someone figured out the format allowed for a big top panel - and that panel could feature a big sexy shot of Daisy Mae (or Wolf Gal, on a few occasions) -- and the strips started looking more graphically pleasing (in more ways than one).   Ads usually ran in black and white or two color -- I've only seen a very few full color examples.  I have dozens of these -- and if you folks like them, I'll scan and post more -- just ask.

Alas, all good things come to an end.  After a decade of  selling their product with comic strips featuring a lunkheaded hillbilly and (more importantly) his gorgeous backwoods gal, Cream of Wheat retired the Li'l Abner campaign and brought in a rambunctious kid to pitch their cereal.  Here's Dennis the Menace taking Abner's place.  Dennis' mom is kinda cute -- but I must admit -- she's no Daisy Mae.
Now before anyone takes me to task for forgetting the Fearless Fosdick Wildroot Cream Oil ads -- I do have a few -- and will scan and post them soon.  In the meantime, please let me know if you'd like to see more of these comic strip ads!

 

Al Capp's "Li'l Abner"

There was a time when comic strips and the artists who created them were so popular, they'd appear on the cover of major national magazines -- as is the case here with Li'l Abner and his creator, Al Capp.  Time and Life both cover-featured Capp's comic strip. 

The Shmoo was a hugely popular Capp character  -- shown here on a certificate given out to kids who'd  bought government savings bonds.

Mammy and Pappy Yokum make an appearance on this child's valentine.

Abner and his folks in a B&W still from the motion picture version of the wonderful Broadway musical based on the strip.

A pair of Abner frame tray jigsaw puzzles.  Y'know if you turn these upside down to place 'em on a scanner bed, comedy  and/or tragedy may ensue....

The Harvey Comics Group, which published the Abner comic book, put together this promotional booklet showing media coverage of the strip.  Cover and first page shown.

Li'l Abner sheet music cover illustration.

One of many examples of licensed Abner merchandise.  This candy box comes from the defunct Dogpatch theme park in Kentucky.

I have more Capp/Abner items I'll eventually share here.  Stop by again....

Comic Character Ads

Comic strip characters have served as spokesmen for many a product.  I've been collecting comic character advertising for quite a while and thought I'd share a few examples.  Today we have three print ads for Canada Dry Ginger Ale featuring the Terry and the Pirates characters -- all from the George Wunder era.  Below those are two ads for Kraft caramels starring Chet Gould's Dick Tracy and Daisy Mae from Al Capp's Li'l Abner.  I swear I have another Kraft ad featuring Abner himself, but can't find it at the moment.  Abner was also the star of a long running series of ads for Cream of Wheat.  I'll eventually scan some of those and share them here as well.