Comments on: Unknown Unknowns about Post-War Gag Strip Cartooning in New York

By: Belle Waring

Belle Waring — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 02:12:57 +0000

Also, Trina, John has intended to do this for some time but has lacked the opportunity, but clearly they had the chance to chat during this visit, which has now drawn to a close as my family has already boarded their aircraft for Singapore from Eugene via SF and Narita. Blegh. A mere schmear 28 hours or so.

By: Belle Waring

Belle Waring — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 02:10:15 +0000

I think the middle cartoon is directed directly at LizardBreath. Not because she cruelly writes such novels, but because she reads enough old detective novels to understand kvetching about Nero Wolfe. Or Lord Peter Wimsey maybe, although that’s more often wine.

By: Trina Robbins

Trina Robbins — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:54:14 +0000

Sorry, that should be “Nazis,” not “zis.”

By: Trina Robbins

Trina Robbins — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:53:02 +0000

I found this fascinating because of all the research I have done on Golden Age comic book cartoonist Lily Renee Wilheim, who signed her comics either L. Renee or Lily Renee. Lily was also a Viennese Jewish teenager who escaped the zis to England in 1939 via Kindertransport, and who eventually got to America and drew comics. I believe she is approaching 90. Are all these 90 year old women cartoonists suddenly showing up?

By: engineer27

engineer27 — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 21:13:15 +0000

Question for Susi:
How long did she have to wait before drawing gags about the war? Did she ever? Did publishers ask for them?

By: engineer27

engineer27 — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 21:11:45 +0000

I assumed bianca was asking about the box-like thingy in the larger lady’s hand. I was going to inform her that it’s what we used to call a “book”. It’s what we used to read before we had Kindles.

By: e julius drivingstorm

e julius drivingstorm — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 08:27:17 +0000

Second time through, I noticed the Studio B background in the first cartoon. I did see the statuette the first time.

By: notjonathon

notjonathon — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:04:10 +0000

Afraid I’m old enough to have understood “man of distinction.”

By: garymar

garymar — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 05:29:43 +0000

UserGoogol, yeah I saw that in the Wikipedia article. But I stopped reading the funny papers around 1969 or so.

By: UserGoogol

UserGoogol — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 22:23:17 +0000

garymar: “They’ll Do It Every Time” ran until 2008, actually.

By: chrismealy

chrismealy — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 05:05:47 +0000

This might be too obvious but I’m curious about what she brought from the old country to her work.

By: garymar

garymar — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:34:37 +0000

When I was a kid the papers still carried one-frame cartoons like “There Oughta Be A Law” and “They’ll Do It Every Time”. I remember a lot of the action occurring in urban boarding houses — noisy neighbors, eating at the common table with these same neighbors, people reading the note you pinned on the door, etc. A glimpse into the world of my parents.

By: Western Dave

Western Dave — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:56:08 +0000

Doing life history/oral history interviews one rarely gets what one is directly looking for and often when you ask a direct question about what you are interested in, the answer is “why would anybody want to talk about that, this other thing is really what you are interested in.” So, she’s going to control the interview, you are just along for the ride. Try to find the leakages and exploit them (a quick refresher with The Death of Luigi Transtulli and other Stories by Allesandro Portelli would help).

By: Jeff R.

Jeff R. — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:41:22 +0000

The box has the cards from the checked out books. My first library card had a little metal tab. The librarian would slip my card in the machine, the card from the book in another, and KTHUNK, my card number would be impressed on the books card. Then the card goes into the box.

Here’s a photo I found of the charging machine and a box of cards (from 1999!):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgs/30024441/

By: Cranky Observer

Cranky Observer — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:28:08 +0000

That box didn’t just hold the catalog cards for checked-out books; it usually had a series of grooves so the cards could be sorted via long metal rods slipped through holes punched in the cards (McBee Keysort or equivalent).

Cranky