The comic strip, Little Orphan Annie, was created by a young cartoonist by the name of Harold Gray (1894-1968). Gray’s parents both died before he had finished school, so he was independent and entirely self-made, qualities he imbued in Annie.

Gray’s first job was as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune; he left there to serve in the military during World War I. When he returned he wanted to pursue what he really loved—cartooning.  He was soon hired as an assistant to Sidney Smith, who created The Gumps, a comic strip about a middle class family.

How Little Orphan Annie Came About

As Harold Gray began to formulate ideas for his own strip, Gray decided to make his main character an orphan meaning that she did not have to worry about a hometown or family roots the way most people did, Gray also decided to draw the main character as a girl, feeling there were plenty of adventure strips featuring young boys.   He took the strip’s name from the 1885 poem “Little Orphant Annie” by James Whitcomb Riley.

The strip first appeared in The New York Daily News on August 5, 1924, and the early stories displayed Annie’s indomitable spirit. Gray frequently described Annie as “tougher than hell, with a heart of gold and a fast left, who can take of herself because she has to.”

From the beginning, Annie, always wearing a red dress, was generally accompanied by her loyal dog, Sandy.  Daddy Warbucks, dressed in a tuxedo with a diamond stick pin, figured prominently in the strip as her protector, but the Annie of the strip never makes a permanent home with him as she does in the musical version of the strip. She would stay in Warbucks’ home occasionally but then some sort of adventure always called her away.

Other regular characters included Punjab, an 8-foot native of India, and Asp. Both functioned as Warbucks’ and Annie’s helpmates.

Gray’s artistic style was viewed as primitive; people’s bodies were uniformly stocky (tree trunk-like), and most notably, the eyes of many of the characters were drawn as empty ovals.  (Although many of the characters wear hats that obscure much of their faces.)  Today Gray’s work would probably be viewed as stylistically noir.

By the late 1930s, the strip was exceedingly popular and spawned a long-running radio program as well as two early films.

 Comic Strip Story Arc

During the 1920s, Annie focused on solving crimes and getting herself out of tricky situations using her good sense and gumption. She often had to step in to help Daddy Warbucks get out of a tight spot.

As the country dipped into the Depression in the 1930s, the strip became more political. Gray had always been very conservative. He staunchly supported big business and objected to labor unions, income taxes, and any sort of governmental interference in American life. Roosevelt’s New Deal program was frequently under attack in the strip, and Gray was beside himself when Roosevelt won a fourth term.

Strong Support for War Effort

Gray was a strong supporter of the Allies during World War II.  In the strip Annie forms a group called the Junior Commandos to help with the war effort.  While Warbucks took on spy rings and Annie helped with other war-related adventures like foiling submarines, Colonel Annie still encouraged schoolchildren to become Junior Commandos, and this inspired action.  All over the country, Junior Commando groups were formed.

The War Production Board was also busy with their plans for a school-based Junior Army, but Gray’s creation of Junior Commandos certainly helped build enthusiasm for both programs.  Many of the groups organized by the War Production Board took the name, Junior Commandos, as that increased popularity. The young people spent afternoons combing their neighborhoods for scrap materials to turn in to the government, collecting bits of aluminum, rubber, nylon, kitchen fats, and paper.

While the program was considered a very successful domestic operation, the eventual conclusion was that what it did best was build morale.  Technology to convert scrap materials into useful products was very expensive at the time, so most scrap did not get used.  The one primary exception was the collection of kitchen fat.  The fats could be processed into glycerin, which could be used as a compound in medicines and some of it was converted into nitroglycerin for manufacturing explosives.

Gray, however, felt that his good deed in launching the Junior Commandos should earn him extra coupons for gasoline.  When his local ration board denied the request, the strip soon had a Local Ration Board headed by “Fred Flask” who got all the gas he needed for the three cars he drove around town. Angry readers wrote in to complain about Gray’s “whining” when they learned that the cartoonist expected to be an exception to the rationing rule.

After the war, Gray used the strip to politic during the Cold War, and Annie and Warbucks frequently hunted “commies.”

The Strip Continued after Gray’s Death

After Gray’s death in 1968, a few artists attempted to write and draw in his stead, but the public rebelled. For seven or eight years, the syndicate re-ran strips of the past.

Then in 1977, Annie was in the spotlight again with the mounting of a Broadway musical. This gave rise to the Columbia Pictures film of 1982, and Annie’s national fame skyrocketed off the funny pages.  With this renewed interest in the strip, the syndicate recruited cartoonist Leonard Starr to draw the strip; he did so until his retirement in 2000. The strip ran for ten more years being drawn by two other cartoonists, but it was cancelled in 2010.

While Gray’s conservatism grated on many, at heart, he stood for moral rightness, independence, and he held eternal optimism for the fate of the country.

To read about Annie, the musical, click here.

Here is a link that will let you read the comic strip above: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Orphan_Annie#/media/File:Sunday24.jpg

Today our cultural images of parenting are formed by movies, television, and what we see online.  But in the 1940s and ‘50s, societal images were influenced by earlier forms of media, including radio programs and comic strips.

With that in mind, I wanted to look back at some comic strip fathers. What messages were conveyed about dads at that time? After a little research, I decided to hopscotch through time and take a look at the father figures in Gasoline Alley, Blondie, and Dennis the Menace. (Both Blondie and Dennis the Menace are still printed in those papers that continue to run comic strips. The messages have been updated slightly.)  A more recent strip, Family Circus, brings us up-to-date.

Great Role Model in Gasoline Alley

Gasoline Alley, created by Frank King (1883-1969), surprised me by offering the perfect role model for a father in its main character, Uncle Walt.  The strip itself first ran in the Chicago Tribune, and its name derived from the fact that it was about a group of men who spent their spare time tinkering with old cars.

When the co-publisher of the Tribune wanted to broaden the focus of the strip so that women might read it, King needed a new plot line. Uncle Walt was unmarried, and no other character had a significant back story. However, Frank King came up with a plot device: Walt wakes up one morning to find a baby in a basket on his front doorstep. He instantly becomes a single father.

Love and Care to Spare

Gasoline Alley was notable for permitting the characters to age. The relationship that develops between Uncle Walt and Skeezix, the boy he raises as a son, is one of the most loving and caring relationships imaginable. Two prime examples come from both father and son: When Skeezix is only a toddler, Walt takes the much-too-young Skeezix to the circus because Walt is so excited to share the experience with him. Walt points and shares and enjoys all that they see; Skeezix remains focused on the balloon Walt buys him. (How many parents can identify with that overwhelming desire to share what you love?)

Much later, Skeezix is serving in the infantry in Europe during World War II. At mail call, he receives a couple of letters. Skeezix eagerly rips into one of the letters, saying, “Nina first! I hope Uncle Walt doesn’t mind.” (Skeezix goes home to marry Nina and run Walt’s garage for him as Walt ages.)

Any father today could turn to Walt as an example of the beauty of a caring and involved parent.

Dad Dagwood

Today we know this comic strip, Blondie, because of the bumbling dad, Dagwood. He’s often in trouble at work, doesn’t always know what to do with his kids, and he’s famous for loving a big sandwich. (“Dagwood” sandwiches—tall and multi-layered–are still occasionally offered on menus.)

But the strip started out being called Blondie for a reason.  The strip by Chic Young (1901-1973) began in 1930 and was about Blondie Boopadoop, a flapper with many boyfriends. But as King Features felt the impact of the Depression, they asked Young to come up with a new story. It seemed that Americans facing the challenges of the 1930s were not amused by Blondie’s superficial social problems.

Young and the syndicate came up with a plot twist. Blondie would marry one of her rich boyfriends, Dagwood Bumstead. But his family would be so upset that they would disinherit him. This propelled Dagwood and Blondie solidly into the middle class, facing regular family woes.

Regular Family

Though Dagwood fulfills the stereotype role of reluctant family participant in things like chores, Blondie and Dagwood’s offspring reveal themselves to be pretty good kids.  Son Alexander is a star high school athlete; Cookie, their teen daughter, is an A student.

Blondie plays the more active part in parenting, but Dagwood is a lovable family member. He comes home after work and is often seen with devoted dog Daisy by his side.

While Dagwood is far from serving as a role model for fathers today, he was a man of his era, and he displayed enough positive qualities to be a part of a good and loving family.

Dennis the Menace’s Dad

Dennis the Menace, created by Hank Ketcham (1920-2001) in 1951, is still enormously popular.

Dennis, always age 5, expresses childhood innocence as well as an abundance of curiosity. He has a streak of mischievousness that often lands him in trouble. Then he is sent to the corner to sit in his rocker and think about what he has done.

Henry, Dennis’s father, is tolerant and usually doing yardwork or puttering in the garage.  He is probably best remembered for his various intonations of “DENNIS!” depending on the level of Dennis’ most recent transgression.

Dennis’s sweetness is underlined by the fact that his bedtime prayers often include a Dennis-style apology for any wrong doing.

Family Circus

More up-to-date families are depicted in comics like Family Circus, created by Bil Keane (1922- ) in 1960. Keane realized his own family was providing him with daily ideas for a comic panel.

The strip started with three children and added a baby, PJ, bringing the kid count to four. After a few years of letting them age, Keane locked the children into specific ages and stages, ranging from Billy, the oldest at 7, and PJ, the baby, one and a half. While the mother in the Family Circus does the bulk of the house and child care, the father is very much in the center of what is happening.

Best Role Model

But for my money, I would send readers off to re-read some of Gasoline Alley. The loving relationship between Uncle Walt and Skeezix shows that the spirit of fatherhood is in the heart, not necessarily the genes.

It would be hard to find a more loving father-child relationship than that shared by Walt and Skeezix.

For more about comic strips, see Marmaduke, or read about the first African American female cartoonist to create a strip that was syndicated,  Jackie Ormes.

Forty or fifty years ago, parents either tolerated their children reading comic books or outright discouraged it because they “took up time that could be used reading real literature.”

In the mid-1950s, so great was the public concern about the dangers of comics (and some comics did contain violence and crime), that the industry created a Comic Code Authority to self-police content.

But children — and some adults — knew all along that comic books had value. In Comic Book Literacy, a documentary film produced by Todd Kent, the value of comics through the ages is reported on many levels.

The documentary is being screened at various locations throughout the country, with the next screening scheduled for this weekend’s seventh annual Staple! Independent Media Expo on March 5 & 6, 2011 in Austin, Texas. This event was begun by Chris Nicholas, often referred to as “Uncle Staple,” to support independent comic creators in the Southwest and provide them with an opportunity to get together and exhibit their work for interested fans.

Learning to Read Using Comics
Among the highlights of this year’s two-day event will be the screening of Todd Kent’s documentary, which was sent to me to preview. I was struck by many fascinating points made by the film. To begin with, numerous people in the industry, including Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman and Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, are interviewed about what drew them to comics, and invariably, they remember comic books as the way they learned to read. Several excellent points are made:

• Things happen in comic books, and that’s exciting for a young reader. Art Spiegelman speaks of the Dick and Jane books as pretty dull “training wheels” on the way to literacy. “If you’re reading a comic, you’re trying to figure out an exciting story, and that drives a desire to read.”

• The vocabulary in comics is more advanced than “early reader” books because readers can get the meaning from the context of the picture. Several of the illustrators interviewed talked about going to the dictionary to look up new words.

• Comics teach “visual decoding,” something that is more important today than ever, with visual messages bombarding us from television and computer screens and from billboards and signage. One of the educators interviewed notes that in a comic, the readers see and observe body language that goes with the word balloon. Today we know the importance of being able to interpret all types of indicators, so if children learn to pick up on visual messages, that’s all to the good.

• Long before there were “graphic novels,” there were comics known as “Classics Illustrated,” and again, those interviewed talked about how reading the comic about a classic book led to reading the book itself.

• Many myths are also told in comic book form, providing young people with the background for plot lines we now know have been used for great literature through the centuries.

• “Four-color crack” is the way one young girl interviewed for the documentary describes comic books. Certainly an advantage of comics is the fact that publishers get behind a popular character and publish a series of titles about that character. Most educators would be thrilled with anything that got kids “hooked” on reading.

Early Texans Knew the Value of Comics
In 1926 E.B. Moran, whose title was Director of News and Telegraph for the Dallas News and the Dallas Journal (predecessor of today’s Dallas Morning News), came up with the concept of telling the history of Texas via a comic strip that ran in the newspaper. The strip was titled Texas History Movies and after beginning in the fall of 1926, they suspended publication of the strip the following June at the request of teachers who didn’t want the students to miss installments that ran during the summer. (The strip picked up again the following year.)

This little-known history was later uncovered by Weldon Adams who found a bound copy of the strips and began investigating the history. It turns out that the comic was so popular that Magnolia Petroleum (which became Mobil Oil, now part of ExxonMobil) paid for the strips to be collected into a book format and distributed them to schools. The book remained in print until the mid-1950s. Adams, who is at work on a book about the strips, notes that the books would not be considered politically correct today.

“When Your Life Depends on It, You Can Depend on Comics”
That great quote comes from Scott McCloud, the writer/artist of Understanding Comics. As McCloud notes, comics have long been used for communicating emergency information, and one need only pull out the instruction card in the back of an airplane seat to have this verified. When the chips are down, pictures provide a more effective way than words to convey needed information, and they can be understood by a person speaking any language.

The military figured this out many years ago, and young illustrators such as Will Eisner, who found himself in the military during World War II, was put to work writing and illustrating very clear instruction manuals on all sorts of military equipment. Eisner went on to be a very successful cartoonist and came to be known as the “father of graphic novels.”

Social Commentary
The Denys Wortman exhibit still at the Museum of the City of New York (until March 20) tells another important story about the use of comic-style illustrations: Particularly when Wortman was just beginning to work in the mid-1920s, newspapers did not cover much news of the lower classes. Without Wortman and other illustrators like him, there would have been no telling of the stories of tenement life and that of others who were struggling to make a living in New York. Those stories were noteworthy then, and they are vital now for us to understand the past.

A Diversion for the Military
Comic Book Literacy also tells stories of comic book collectors who are giving back. Kent tells of organizations like Heroes4Heroes that collect comic books to send to the military. While today’s military has access to computers and the Internet some of the time, there are still times when they are stuck in today’s equivalent of a “foxhole,” and comics are a light-to-carry perfectly pleasurable diversion for those hours that can drag by. One illustrator notes that comics are a perfect way to fill “hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror.”

But Where are the Women?
This is Women’s History Month, and while I have on order a book entitled A Century of Women Cartoonists and another about the first African American woman cartoonist, Jackie Ormes, my early research into this subject still makes it look like a boy’s club.

I see that in Austin there will be some female cartoonists, and I’ll report back on what I learn from the books, but if you’re a female cartoonist… or want me to take note of a female cartoonist whom you loved, or want to comment on why girls haven’t gravitated to comics in the same way boys have, send me an e-mail: kate@americacomesalive.com

Comics used to be for kids, and nobody really approved of them. Whether the comics were about Archie, Richie Rich, or Batman, no one felt they had any redeeming value. Parents and teachers saw them as time-wasters that kept children from reading “real” books.

Then the world began changing. Will Eisner (1917-2005), known as the “father of the graphic novel,” expanded his cartooning, and he began using sequential art to tell visual narratives that were of interest to adults. The first book of this type created by Eisner was “A Contract with God and other Tenement Stories.” During the next decade, Art Spiegelman wrote his two-volume Maus, about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, and in 1992, Spiegelman was given a special Pulitzer Prize for his work.

From that day forth, comics — graphic novels — took on a more literary reputation. Suddenly, “comics weren’t just for children anymore.”

And it hasn’t been just literary comics that have pulled the attention of adults; they also flock to Comic-Con. In 2020, it will celebrate its 50th year. Attendance at this annual event is about 150,000 (and is limited by being held in the San Diego Convention Center, a quite large venue that the convention has actually outgrown). 

Authors, Publishers, and Educators

As educators have struggled to compete for children’s attention with the new technologies and the graphic presentations of websites, they have come to realize that comics — graphic novels — are a great asset for school teachers and librarians. As a result, publishers are investing in producing these books on all types of subjects.

The Center for Cartoon Studies, a two-year MFA program in cartooning in White River Junction, Vermont, entered into a contract with Hyperion Books that appears to be a win-win relationship. Hyperion has thus far contracted with the Center for Cartoon Studies for historical biographies about Houdini, Satchel Paige, Amelia Earhart, Thoreau, and Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller.

“We knew we didn’t want to create the equivalent of a Wikipedia entry with pictures, so we’ve shown students the process of researching these figures and selecting some compelling aspect of their story that can resonate with readers,” explains James Sturm, director and co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies. “Our students get to observe and help with the process from concept through production.”

Graphic Novel about Satchel Paige

Sturm and artist and writer Rich Tommaso worked together on “Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow,” released in 2007. Satchel Paige’s story is told in short scenes by a former Negro League baseball player. Through the narrator’s eyes we experience the culture that not only barred African Americans from playing Major League baseball but also kept them from sitting in the stands at baseball games played by white players. Through words and pictures, readers feel the incredible power of Satchel Paige and witness how he understood just how to play the crowd, play the game, and then leave quickly. He was often expected the next day at another paying gig, but it was also safer for him not to stick around.

By choosing a former player to tell the story, Sturm and Tommaso are able to provide perspective on life for “coloreds” in this country in the 1930s and ’40s where the narrator is regularly subjected to taunting by whites and harbors a very real fear of being lynched.

Through the sequential art, readers feel the tension of the various scenes, and perhaps because the words are so spare, they have more impact. When the lead character wonders aloud about the men who have threatened his family’s security, he says: “How do men so small get so large? Who made it so?”

What more needs to be said?

Another Form of Storytelling

“Today instructors have come to evaluate comics as just another form in which to tell a story, and they ask ‘what can comics do well that other forms can’t?'” says Joe Sutliff Sanders, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Children’s Literature who will be speaking on comics at a Celebration of Teaching and Learning, a professional development conference sponsored by WNET and Channel 13 in New York City in March.

Sanders feels strongly that the nuances of literature can be discussed in a classroom when the focus is on a good graphic novel. “Students are less likely to be intimidated by a graphic novel; dramatic irony, point of view, and foreshadowing are just a few of the literary devices that can be viewed when discussing comics.”

Sanders, who is currently at work on a book about classic orphan girl novels for Johns Hopkins University, first realized how strongly comics sometimes related to literature when he was taking a college honors class in mythology: “I kept knowing where the professor was going with the different myths; I was so familiar with the plot lines which are often re-told in super hero comics. Ultimately — albeit reluctantly — the professor let me write my paper on that topic.”

The Value of the Graphic Novel

Other educators agree that graphic novels have value. “So many nonfiction text books assume a level of background knowledge that not all students have,” adds Jill Lauren, a learning specialist in New York City. “When a graphic novel format is used, it brings the concepts into 3-D. Research shows that the more senses we activate with kids, the better they will remember what they read.”

Joanne Kaminski, of the website, www.theskypingreadingtutor.com, says, “With graphic novels, children can jump into the past,” she adds. “I also find it interesting that the wording used in many of these books is at a higher level than an author might have selected otherwise; they know that kids will also have picture clues for understanding the story.

“But ultimately, when you have kids who are struggling at reading, what you really want is to find something that excites them,” says Kaminski.

Graphic Novels and Kids

Graphic novel artist and educator Alex Simmons, has a long list of professional credits in cartooning, voice-over work and teaching, but among his projects is an Imagination Literacy Program where Simmons works directly with kids as well as sharing his methods with teachers via professional development programs.

“When I work with students, we may read a graphic novel, but I also want them to create their own,” says Simmons. “I’ve found that if students are introduced to the concept that drawing — even with something as simple as stick figures — is a way to get a story going, you have given them yet another pathway to explore.

“You can’t build a house with just a hammer,” says Simmons. “Teachers need many ways to engage students. Once you have them involved, they’ll go on and explore something else. To take ownership of their actions today, they need to be able to imagine a future, and that’s what I stress in my teaching.”

In 2007, Simmons put together the first of what has become an annual Kids Comic Con with supplies donated by Canson Art Papers. “Kids meet professional artists, and they learn to create their own comic books; it really stimulates their imagination.”

Simmons adds: “As a matter of fact, one of the reasons we were able to get backing for the second year of the convention was because that first year, Hyperion had donated copies of the Satchel Paige book that had just been published. When adults came and found kids sprawled all over the floor reading that book, we didn’t have to say much more.”

The Future Will Include the Graphic Novel

And, in a perfectly timed moment, Joe Sutliff Sanders shared with me an e-mail that came into his inbox just before I interviewed him. For the first time ever, a sitting member of Congress, John Lewis D-GA, had just signed to write a graphic novel about his life experience. The book will be called March and will focus on Lewis’ involvement in the Civil Rights movement. (The book is written in three parts and is now available.)

Thomas Nast (1840-1902) is referred to as the “most powerful and influential political cartoonist that America has ever known” by well-regarded historians Eric Foner and John A. Garraty.

His political commentary was influential in the mid-nineteenth century. His opinions affected how people felt about the Civil War and much of what they learned about politics of the day.

Nast is also remembered because he created iconic drawings that are still with us — Santa Claus, the Republican elephant, the Democratic donkey, and the Tammany tiger, among them

Political Cartoons Part of Early Newspapers

Before Thomas Nast achieved a name for himself in the 1860s, political cartoons were already popular in early newspapers. At a time when many people were illiterate, the images broke up the text and communicated social commentary to those who could not read well.

All types of illustrations were important until well after the Civil War. The mechanics for reprinting photographs did not exist until much later. Even illustrations were difficult to print. A wood block of the picture had to be created first…all time-intensive.

Thomas Nast’s Career

Thomas Nast was not interested in school. He began drawing for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper in 1855 while still in his teens. Several years later (1862), he was hired by Harper’s Weekly and spent the bulk of his career there.

He became well-known for depictions of the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln described him as a “recruiting sergeant” for the Union cause as his sketches encouraged men to sign up.

Thomas Nast Creates Santa Claus

The image of Santa was actually created rather early in Nast’s career.

Before Nast, Saint Nicholas was usually depicted as a tall, thin man. The story goes that in 1863 Nast’s wife read him Clement Clark Moore’s 1822 poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas.” Based on Moore’s description, Nast created the image of a “round jolly old elf.”

Santa was further refined in 1931 by Haddon Sundblum, an artist who specialized in advertising for the Coca-Cola Company. Sundblum depicted Santa in a red suit with white fur trim, a black belt and black boots. He wore a soft, red cap. (It is Sundblum’s image based on Nast’s concept that is the most common model for Santas today.)

Influential Commentary

After the Civil War, Nast continued to draw political commentary. His depictions of Reconstruction and the characters involved left little room for misunderstanding. He showed the plight of the freedmen during Reconstruction, the negatives of Andrew Johnson and the Democrats, the menace of the Ku Klux Klan, and the perils brought on society by the Tweed Ring. Many credit his anti-Tweed cartoons with heightening public anger and bringing an end to Tweed dominance of the political scene.

But perhaps the most stunning story about Nast’s drawings of Tweed was the recognition factor. Today we regularly see still and video images of newsmakers from around the world. In the 19^th century, people did not have access to clear images of those in the news. They relied on newspaper sketch artists or political cartoonists to provide an idea of what someone looked like.

In the 1870s, anger toward Boss Tweed was growing. Normally an unpopular fellow in that day had a good chance of not being recognized by those who did not personally know him. That was what Tweed hoped when he fled to Spain. But the police in Spain found Nast’s caricature of Boss Tweed to be accurate enough that Tweed was identified and arrested in 1876.

Leaving Harper’s Weekly

Nast’s final illustration for Harper’s Weekly was a Christmas illustration that appeared in December of 1886. He had several things he tried after that. In 1890, he published a book of Christmas drawings. Then in in 1892, he took over a floundering magazine and re-introduced it as Nast’s Weekly. Nothing, however, gave him the platform he had at Harper’s Weekly. It was a loss for Harper’s Weekly, too, as the newspaper lost its political bite without Nast.

Despite falling on hard times, Nast maintained friendships with Ulysses Grant, Mark Twain, and other notable Americans. In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt came to his rescue, appointing him to serve as U.S. Consul General in Ecuador.

Nast was in South America during a very bad outbreak of yellow fever. He remained on the job to help Americans get out of the area, but he contracted yellow fever while helping others. He died at age 62 from the disease.

For information on another terrific political cartoonist, read “Political Cartoons — Surprisingly Timeless” about the work of Denys Wortman.

A new exhibit of political cartoons drawn over a thirty-year period by illustrator Denys Wortman (1887-1958) has recently opened at the Museum of the City of New York. The drawings appeared in New York newspapers, the World-Telegram and the Sun from 1924-54, and though they depict people and cultural issues that were of note during the first half of the twentieth century, they remain surprisingly relevant and appealing to people today.

Consider: A landlady stands on a front stoop of a Manhattan apartment building and says to a young gent hoping to rent from her: “Well, sir, it’s not the room you’re paying for, it’s the address.”

Two of his characters, Mopey and Duke, were men who had hit on hard times (tramps). In one cartoon Duke looks down at Mopey who is splayed out on the street having been knocked over by a street vendor’s fruit-filled pushcart. Duke says: “It would be just our luck, Mopey, to have you run over by a pushcart instead of a Rolls Royce.”

In another, Duke says to Mopey, who is sitting at a table looking perplexed : “Mopey, what’s the use of trying hard to think up a New Year’s resolution when you know you’ll only break it anyway.”

Wortman’s illustrations originally appeared in the New York World’s Metropolitan Movies. This panel initially featured political cartoons by a variety of artists, but Wortman’s talent and feel for the city soon knocked out the competition, and the feature became his — he produced six cartoons a week for thirty years.

Cartooning Then and Now

While the style of political cartoons today tends to be minimalist and representational, Wortman’s work was quite detailed, almost photographic. Wortman attended art school with painters who went on to be considered members of the Ashcan School, and though Wortman stayed with oil painting for a long time, he eventually took a different path, realizing that illustration was his calling.

One of the reasons the cartoons are so timeless has to do with the fact that Wortman had a collaborator: his wife Hilda. The detail of his illustrations required time to complete, so Wortman spent days at his desk working hard on the illustrations, while his wife Hilda served as his on-the-street eyes and ears. She photographed street scenes and reported back snatches of conversation, which showed the couple’s shared sensitivity to the world around them. In a nod to her contributions, the Museum has featured a selection of her photographs, thereby also showing museum goers how Wortman was able to capture the detail of street life that he did.

As a result of Hilda’s participation, the feelings of women are much more prominently displayed than they likely would have been otherwise. Women on a beach during World War II are examining a letter one of them has received: “Look what the censors did to this letter I got from Joe. I’m sure he said he loved me a coupla times in there where they’ve blacked it out.”

Or two women talking window-to-window in an apartment house: “Believe me, when the war news is bad I’m glad sometimes I got a sink full of dishes to occupy my mind.”

Denys and Hilda Wortman’s only child, Denys Wortman VIII, began a website in 1998 to archive his father’s work. The site is remarkable for the abundance of illustrations, but also included are some excerpts of Wortman’s writing. Reading his description of how and why he created Mopey and the Duke is a great way to spend a few minutes. Wortman was as talented and sensitive in his writing as he was with his drawing.

Museum Recognition

This museum-level recognition of Denys Wortman is largely due to graphic novelist James Sturm, who is also the director of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction. He came across some of Wortman’s work and was delighted to locate Denys Wortman VIII and discover that he has maintained a very complete collection of his father’s work, some of which will now be donated to the Center for Cartoon Studies.

The museum opened the exhibit with a symposium to discuss Wortman’s work, and in addition to Denys Wortman VIII and James Sturm, they were joined by cartoonists Jules Feiffer, Joshua Brown, and Stan Mack. Among the fascinating points made by the panelists was one by Jules Feiffer that very much caught my attention. Feiffer noted that political cartoons, and Wortman’s work in particular, were notable as one of the few ways that the lifestyle of the lower and middle classes were depicted in the newspapers. At that time, news stories about matters other than crime would not have focused on the plight of the poor, so the political cartoonist was important then and their legacy is vital to us now in understanding how life was lived at that time.

If you’re in New York, I urge you to pop in to see the exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York at 103rd Street and Fifth Avenue where the exhibit is on display until March 29. In addition, spend a few minutes on the website: www.dwortman.com

I am spending another day visiting sites along the Journey through Hallowed Ground and will soon begin reporting back. To stay in touch, sign up for my free monthly e-letter at www.americacomesalive.com.