Tag Archives: cartoonist

Cartoonists of the Southern Tier — Johnny Hart

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From Jamestown to Binghamton, the Southern Tier is a grand place to find… cartoonists. Some of the best-known, best-loved, most enduring cartoons and comic strips were crafted day after day after day, right here where we live. And we begin on the east, with the “Hart” of Broome County.
Long after Alley Oop, but well before the Flintstones, Johnny Hart brought forth “B.C.,” a deceptively-simple humor strip about cavemen. Bill Mauldin contrasted Johnny’s style with the work of “rivet man” – cartoonists who drew every rivet on the boiler. They could overwhelm the reader with rivets! But place two cave men against a horizontal line, said Mauldin… a line that could be “the top of a swamp or the bottom of an overcast…” and you’d better get that line RIGHT. This, he enthused, Johnny Hart always did. Charles M. Schulz was another enthusiast.
“B.C.” first hit the stands in 1957, which means that the strip (now helmed by a grandson) has been running for just over 50% of the history of comic strips. Johnny was the subject of a WSKG documentary, “Hart of B.C.” – B.C. standing in the case for Broome County, Johnny’s lifelong home. He repeatedly used his characters to boost the community, including wheel-riding Thor on the Broome County buses. (Though one of his gags, as a character contemplated “nothing,” was, “This reminds me of a weekend I once spent in Endicott, New York.”)
That was in “The Wizard of Id,” which he co-created. In 2007, at the age of 76, Johnny Hart died literally at his drawing board.
In his later years Johnny drew flak for bringing Christian religious themes into “B.C.” One in particular showed a menorah transforming into a cross. I’ve studied that strip, and I think what he was TRYING to do was show Christianity’s origins in Judaism, and its debt to Judaism. But even if I’ve read him aright, appropriating somebody else’s religious symbol, and literally transforming it into one of your own, is discourteous and wrong.
With 50 years on “B.C.,” and 43 on “The Wizard of Id,” Johnny Hart racked up almost a century of jokes, gags, thought-provokers, and funny pictures, and he did it for EVERY DAY of 93 years . Al Capp wrote that one of Johnny’s books was “full of genius, and if you happen not to be an older and envious cartoonist, you’re going to have a very good time.” Rod Serling put it even more simply, in the forward to another collection of “B.C.” strips. “Just don’t sit there, Johnny Hart… go ahead and make me laugh!” Mission accomplished, Johnny. In fact, we’re STILL laughing, even at strips we’ve read a million times. Thank you. Rest well.

Lots Going on at Chemung County Historical Society Museum

Chemung County Historical Society in Elmira has several very interesting exhibits up just now.

*What took us there last week was an EMBROIDERY EXHIBIT, “When Needle, Thread, and Fabric Meet”… all contemporary work, not historical pieces.

*These are dozens of creations from members of the Chemung Valley Chapter, Embroiderers Guild of America. Some works LOOK like historic pieces… many serious needleworkers are very interested in antique designs and techniques, and “samplers” – some of them copies of historic pieces – give them a chance to dig in with multiple approaches in one composition.

*But other works are clearly modern pieces, sometimes with caution thrown to the wind.

*In one picture piece, butterflies stand out three-dimensionally from the fabric. In several others, every square millimeter of the surface is stitched. In others, the design stands alone, stark and self-confident in a sea of fabric.

*Cross-stitch, stumpwork, needlepoint, and bargello are among the techniques on exhibit. If you don’t like butterflies, you might like tigers. Anything goes.

*Another special exhibit was on CARTOONS BY EUGENE ZIMMERMAN (“Zim”), a Swiss immigrant who lived in Horseheads, and was nationally enjoyed for decades on either side of the turn of the century.

*This was especially interesting to me, as I’m a cartooning fan who worked hard at documenting Zim’s books in the Grand Comics Database (www.comics.org). This exhibit includes a review of Zim’s life and career; samples of his work; print blocks of his cartoons, with demonstrations on how they were used; his drawing board and other tools.

*Particularly moving was the original, the very cartoon he had already sketched out in pencil, and was inking literally on the day he died, mocking Depression-era radio radicals Huey Long, Hugh Johnson, and Father Coughlin. It was the last work ever from his hand, after a long and well-loved career.

*Believe it or not, time was when the N.A.A.C.P. was considered a radical, even subversive organization. This made the exhibit on the CENTENNIAL OF ELMIRA’S N.A.A.C.P. CHAPTER all the more interesting. The national organization was barely a decade old when local residents asked for help with “fair housing” issues – owners refusing to sell or rent to African Americans.

*After that issue was addressed the chapter went into abeyance until revived during the Great Depression and World War II, when there were numerous employment issues to be dealt with. Elmira chapter members also engaged in historic national actions, such as Freedom Rides and the several Marches on Washington. And the work continues as the struggle continues.

*Another exhibit focuses on the CENTENNIAL OF ELMIRA’S KIWANIS CLUB, which for many years was in the top ten worldwide for membership. Kiwanis have supported local parks, and athletics, and the Arctic League, and much, much more.

*The Museum has an ongoing program of focused exhibits on Chemung County municipalities in turn. Just now the spotlight’s on BALDWIN, the rural town east of Elmira.

*In the Brick Barn Gallery is a large exhibit, GETTING AROUND: TRANSPORTATION IN CHEMUNG COUNTY. I found this to be a great deal of fun. I enjoyed seeing trolley paraphernalia, including a horrifying safety booklet, “The Little Girl Who Didn’t Think.” More entertaining were the annual early-1900s bicycle tags, receipts for which supported sidepaths… dedicated bike tracks that ran alongside the execrable highways.

*Canals, early autos (with all their marvelous retail accessories), and horse-drawn vehicles… including a sparkling phaeton with the fringe on top… all come into the story, along with buses, the Chemung County Airport (now Elmira-Corning Regional) and Schweizer sailplanes.

*Of course the permanent galleries, A HISTORY OF CHEMUNG COUNTY and MARK TWAIN’S ELMIRA, are always open, and always a pleasure. The Zim, embroidery, Kiwanias, and N.A.A.C.P. exhibits are through September, so if you want to see them you need to hop to it. Baldwin is up until January, and “Getting Around” until May. The museum’s open Monday through Saturday, 10 to 5. Adult admission is $5, with seniors, students, children and members either discounted or free, depending on category. We don’t even live in Chemung, but we usually go at least once a year. Really, it’s worth the visit.

Two Cartoonists From Western New York

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*Western New York is home to two popular syndicated cartoonists.

*Back in 1954, Brad Anderson started drawing single-panel cartoons about a family that was overwhelmed by its own huge dog. What he wanted to eat, he ate. Wherever he wanted to sleep, he slept. When he wanted to take off running, no leash ever made could hold him. His name was Marmaduke.

*The early Marmaduke was foreboding, even frightening, with his constant glare and his coiled muscular stance. Over time Anderson learned to soften him, in part just to open opportunities for more gags, but also to make him more likable. Nowadays great dane Marmaduke rules the roost just by virtue of his vast size and vaster enthusiasm, rather than dominating through intimidation and the hint of danger.

*Brad Anderson was from Jamestown, and he freely reported that his home region often entered into Marmaduke’s world. An early cartoon includes a road sign for the old U.S. Route 17. “It wasn’t easy to make up characters and names for people in the cartoon, so I decided to use real people I knew in western New York. I could relate to them and it helped to establish the characters.” Even the original for Marmaduke lived in Jamestown, with Brad’s mother.

*The cartoon started syndicating in 1954. Brad Anderson continued it until his death 61 years later, and since then his son Paul has taken over, and it’s still going strong. During Brad’s lifetime his work brought him a Reuben Award (from the National Cartoonists Society), the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement award (also from the cartoonists), and the George Arents Pioneer Medal from alma mater Syracuse University. Besides a daily panel and a Sunday strip, Marmaduke has also been in TV cartoons, and in a live-action movie. On his 50th anniversary, 660 papers were carrying Marmaduke.

*John McPherson, who now lives in Saratoga Springs, came from Corning originally, and went to Corning Community College before heading on, like Brad Anderson, to S.U. (and later Bucknell). Also like Brad, McPherson does a panel cartoon that appears in well over 600 newspapers. It’s called “Close to Home.”

*People either like it a lot, or dislike it intensely. Personally it ain’t my style, said Casey, but I laughed right out loud at the shocked farmer’s wife reading “Fifty Shades of Hay.” That alone has to make up for a multitude of sins.

*Apparently they love it in Norway, judging by John’s listings for art credits in the Grand Comics Database (www.comics.org). The GCD only lists one U.S. collection, and I put that one in myself: “McPherson’s Sports and Fitness Manual,” a 1993 book of sports cartoons. One on-line source says he’s done 20 books, which I think must be true. His Facebook page shows that he also does calendars and the like.

*Many people make comparisons between “Close to Home” (debuted 1992) and “The Far Side” (ended 1995). Both are panel cartoons, both employ a deceptively slapdash look in the art, both emphasize weird or goofy humor. But while “The Far Side” often took flights of wild fancy, “Close to Home” pretty much stays where its title proclaims it… with people, and people at that who are… well, certainly not ordinary, but not at all high-flying.

*Unlike “Marmaduke,” John McPherson’s panel does not feature a recurring character, and so has never developed the warm following that the great dane and his exhausted family enjoy. But “Close to Home,” in a day of collapsing print media, still appears in almost 700 papers. Not too many can top that!