An Agony in Eight Fits

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

The New Yorker covers: December 7, 2009

I don’t get too excited about holidays, with one major exception. I’ve always had a warm spot in my heart for Christmas. The New Yorker has run many Christmas covers over the years, some of which, such as those by the late George Booth, are quite memorable.

Jan Van Der Veken
"Holiday Cheers"

The (old) Down East covers: April 1980

Ever since its founding in 1954, Down East has billed itself as “the magazine of Maine.” There are other Maine-centered mags, but Down East remains the most prominent of the bunch. Nowadays, the Rockport-based monthly features glossy, memorable cover photos, but there's a lot to be said for the charming, old-timey look of covers from the publication’s early decades.

J. Philip Richards, "Solitude"

Movie Posters, 1972: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

"What is art but a way of seeing?" Saul Bellow

“Street Scene,” 1910, John Marin

Today in the history of the American comic strip: October 15

American cartoonists and writers may not have invented the comic strip, but some argue that the comics, as we know them today, are an American creation. Clearly, the United States has played an outsize role in the development of this underappreciated art form.

10.15.1905: Winsor McCay introduces his pioneering strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland. Comics historian R. C. Harvey has called McCay "the first original genius of the comic strip medium."

10.15.1912: Harry Hershfield’s Desperate Desmond ends its run after less than three years. It featured a villain (Desmond) in constant, but unsuccessful, pursuit of Rosamond, a damsel in distress.

10.15.1955: Simple J. Malarkey, a wildcat who first appeared in Pogo in 1953 as a caricature of red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, turns up once again with his face covered by his own speech balloons. Cartoonist Walt Kelly had previously covered Malarkey’s face with a bag in 1954, after The Providence Bulletin threatened to drop the strip if Malarkey’s face appeared again. Malarkey donned the bag when a Rhode Island Red hen approached him, because, Malarkey said, “no one from Providence should see me!”

10.15.1962: Kenneth Bald’s daily Dr. Kildare strip, based on the television series, premieres. It ran for more than two decades, outliving the TV series that spawned it. A Sunday strip ran from 1964 to 1983.

10.15.2012: To celebrate the 107th anniversary of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland, Google displays an interactive Google Doodle called "Little Nemo in Google-land.”

Little Nemo in Slumberland

Most of the information listed here from one day to the next comes from two online sites -- Wikipedia, and Don Markstein's Toonopedia -- as well as 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics, edited by Maurice Horn. Note that my focus is on American newspaper comic strips (and the occasional foreign strip that gained popularity in the United States). Thus, comic books and exclusively online comics are not included here.