"He HATED me in the tunnel of LOVE!"

I love seeing advertisements in comic strip form.  This beautifully drawn piece might be the work of Tom Sawyer (Scheuer) who specialized in strip format ads. If anyone knows for certain -- or even has a better guess as to who drew this, please let me (and my readers) know. 

Big Funny is still on the way!

Yogi Bear and Boo-BOO!

Batman wasn't the only pop culture craze of the '60s to worm its way into the comics -- monsters were a big deal for the boomer generation.  With The Addams Family and The Munsters making a big splash on television, why not give Yogi Bear some funny monster neighbors?  Again -- some really good cartooning.  And dig that scary logo lettering! So who drew this?  At least one of you toon-heads knows, so give with the info, will ya?

More Batmania!

The world was Batman crazy in the mid-60s, thanks to the twice-weekly television series (which I love, by the way).  Ads in these Sunday comic sections I've been scanning tend to run to appliances, furniture, breakfast cereal and sugary drinks for kids.  But once in a while, you get a doozy like this one! POW!  Batman toys for FREE!?! Why, oh why, was there no Mister Donut in my neighborhood!?!  I had those Batman trading cards -- and wanted that helmet awfully bad -- but, alas, I had to make it through childhood without one.  

And dig this Yogi Bear strip goofing on the Batman craze.  I don't know who drew this -- but there's some mighty good cartooning going on here!

More vintage comics posted here regularly as Big Funny looms large....

Steve Roper

Steve Roper (later called Steve Roper and Mike Nomad) was a terrific strip drawn by WIlliam Overgard.  I picked this example for the carnival background.  Is it just me, or does the Dog Faced Boy have a bit of a Pee-Wee Herman vibe...?  I have some Dell Western comics drawn by Overgard that are just fantastic -- I ought to post a sample page or two one of these days....

Pogo!

Walt Kelly messes around with comic strip "reality."  More vintage comics in anticipation of Big Funny to come....

Alex Raymond's "Rip Kirby"

One of my favorite things to do is to browse through the original comic art, illustration art and vintage movie posters offered up by Heritage auctions.  Most of my cartoonists pals agree that it's a real treat to see the large art scans posted on the site.  If you're a student of cartoon art, it's the next best thing to actually seeing the originals.  Anyone wanting to learn pen (and brush) and ink techniques will have a field day just studying the Alex Raymond Rip Kirby strips that show up fairly regularly.  If my budget allowed, I'd be bidding on this lovely example below! 

Thankfully the wonderful folks at IDW will be publishing collected editions of this long-neglected strip starting in September.  This is a GREAT time to be a fan/collector of classic newspaper strips -- with gorgeous hardcover collections of  the great strips being offered by various publishers.  I just hope my bank account and bookshelves can keep up!

Prince Valiant Feature Book cover

Sorry to say I don't own a copy of this great comic book -- this is just a scan that I cleaned up to look brand spankin' new.  What a great Foster illo!  Enjoy!