Proper plops and flops are almost nonexistent now. Mastering this beautiful and prominent mainstay from old comics will be a challenge.
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Tag Archives: newspaper comic strip
A few sketches
No story today – just a few quick images to post.
First, from George Herriman’s The Family Upstairs:
[image removed]
That’s a snake peeping down.
Study of panel from The Family Upstairs
Study of Happy Hooligan
Day 4 of Learning to Draw Comics
A month ago, before I had my hands on a copy of Fantagraphics’ 1st volume of Popeye, I thought E. C. Segar‘s Popeye was going to be a really boring comic strip. Boy was I wrong. I was a full convert by the 5th strip (on the first page) printed in that book.
I had no idea what an African Escape Hen was until a few weeks ago. If you aren’t already acquainted, meet Bernice. She is an Escape Hen from Africa. She can vanish; she can reappear; she can not be captured or killed; and she is the only member of her species ever to be held in captivity.
Segar’s was a genius to introduce such an unlikely character into what in almost all other regards seems like a very natural world – and he does this numerous times with a great array of wonderful characters. I can’t wait to read the entire run.
He won me over immediately and I’ll always be glad of it.
And my sketch of Bernice… It yams what it yams.
Study of Bernice the African Escape Hen
Some Thoughts on George Herriman
George Herriman is the greatest of all the great master newspaper cartoonists. Not only witty and wise he was one of the greatest masters of the pen.
No one ever mentioned comics or cartoons of any form when I was in art school. Even the elder teachers, who had grown up during the hay-day of Sunday newspaper strips like Krazy Kat and Gasoline Alley, never once mentioned them. My teachers loved to say that Picasso drew like an angel, but no one ever mentioned that he and Gertrude Stein (among many other elites of the art world) were enthralled by Krazy Kat.
When it came to what types or qualities of art and artists would be tolerated as being worthy of attention, praise and adulation, there was a very definite snobbery among my teachers. Naturally, that snobbery filtered down to us students. The result was that only those artists whose work resided in the great collections of the world’s museums were praised. That’s no knock on those collections or those artists. I’m just pointing out how restricted the cultural view was among my teachers. Herriman had about as much chance of getting the respect of my art teachers as a badly lit adult film from the 1970s.
It’s unfortunate that it took me so long to discover him and it’s sad that he didn’t have a place in my art school education. Herriman offers so much depth and beauty and hilarity and sweetness that surely everyone can find some way to relish in the little stories he tells.
This is the last panel from the last Krazy Kat Sunday strip. This image, especially when seen in context of the strip, is haunting. Pup’s heart has stopped in terror and panic over the possible drowning of Krazy. He tramps desperately to nowhere while clutching Krazy tightly; his mind already puddled in madness and grief and despair. He looks out at us… past us, not seeing or noticing anything. Without Krazy, he is an aimless and deranged zombie.
It’s a folly that I would even bother… but here’s a feeble study / sketch by me:
study of Krazy Kat
Day 3 of Learning to Draw Comics
Billy de Beck created Barney Google long before I was born. Eventually, Barney Google became Snuffy Smith.
Snuffy Smith (no longer penned by De Beck) was the strip’s title when I was a child and I remember that my grandfather (who always read the Sunday comic strips to me) would often call Snuffy Smith, ‘Barney Google’. I didn’t realize at the time why he would continually make that mistake, but I think I just accepted that Snuffy Smith was also called Barney Google somehow.
Bill Blackbeard’s Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics has several terrific Barney Google strips. The following two sketches were made from de Beck’s panels.
I should say that I’m just drawing directly in pen with no pencil sketch done first. Barney’s face is a wreck in this one…
study of Barney Google
I think this little sketch turned out OK. De Beck, like Herriman and H.C. “Bud” Fisher was a master with a fountain pen.
study of Barney Google
