"American Cartooning" Artist List

In support of my new book From Panels to Frames: Comics Art in Museums (coming out in 2018), I'm going to be posting some checklists and exhibition photos. The first of these is the artist list for the 1951 show American Cartooning, exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY) May 11 - June 10. 

The show brochure includes a paragraph about the show's purpose: "This exhibition was planned, in cooperation with the National Cartoonists' Society, to illustrate the art of the American professional cartoonist in our time. Members of the Society, together with other cartoonists, were invited to submit several original drawings to a committee of selection composed of representatives of the Metropolitan Museum and the Society. Those drawings were chosen which, in the opinion of the committee, best represented each artist's work, and at the same time provided a broad picture of contemporary cartooning in this country."

I have not found many photos of this show. Here, for scholarly purposes only, is a clipping from the Colorado Springs (CO) Free Press, showing the Mondrian style grid display. Otto Soglow was the Chair of the NCS committee that organized the exhibit.

The NCS wanted to include at least one piece from all members who submitted work, plus some classics (such as McCay, Herriman) and a few drawings from the Met's collection. The drawings, over 250 of them, were displayed unframed, lined up in a grid inspired by Mondrian (a concept mentioned in NCS correspondence). The exhibit followed the nation-wide publicity the NCS received during the US Saving Bond Tour in 1949, a multi-city cross-country tour for the US Treasury Department that kicked off with NCS members sketching President Truman at the White House and included 20,000 Years of the Comics, a touring exhibition on comics history that started at the Library of Congress.

The Met show was planned to run over the summer but was cut short by a large remodeling project at the museum. My book includes details of the many reviews, which were mixed (the NCS wanted a neutral representation of everyone's work and the critics wanted the Met's curators to take more of a hand in the selection), info about how this show came together, and its effect on future exhibitions of comic art.

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Here are the 239 artists, in alphabetical order as published in the Met's brochure: Jay Allan; F. O. Alexander; Clarence C. Allen; Colin Allen; Carl Anderson; Alfred Andriola; Emidio (Mike) Angelo; Gus Arriola; Edd Ashe, Jr. - Mickey Bach; Ray W. Bailey; Perry Barlow; James D. Barstow; C.D. Batchelor; Frank H. Beck; Janice Berenstain; Stanley Berenstain; Walter Berndt; Michael Berry; Jame T. (Jim) Berryman; Jim Bettersworth; Charles B. Biro; Daniel Bishop; Wally Bishop; Merrill Blosser; Henry Boltinoff; Wayne D. Boring; Dave Breger; Morrie Brickman; Clare Briggs; Bo Brown; Ernie Bushmiller - Milton Caniff; Irwin Caplin; Al Capp; Mel Casson; Sam Cobean; Roland Rae Coe; Fred Cooper; Gibson M. (Gib) Crockett; Percy Crosby; Herbert E. Crowley; Matt Curzon; Otho Cushing - Gregory D'Alessio (NCS Secretary); Phil Davis; Chon Day' Abner Dean; Billy de Beck; William de la Torre; Harry Arthur Devlin; Anthony Louis (Tony) Di Preta; Walt Disney; Walt Ditzen; Ed Dodd; T. T. (Tad) Dorgan; Stephen Anthony Douglas; Daniel B. Dowling; Frances (Edwina) Dumm; Courtney Dunkel; Bob Dunn; Bill Dyer - Carl Ed; Gus Edson; L.G. Edwards; Will Eisner; Lee Elias; Frank Engli; Eric Ericson; Ray Stevens, Sr. - Jo Fisher; Dudley Fisher; Hammond E (Ham) Fisher; Daniel Robert Fitzpatrick; Don Flowers; Frank Fogarty; Vic Forsythe; Harold R. Foster; Gil Fox; Ving Fuller - Tom Gill; Frank Godwin; Reuben Lucius (Rube) Goldberg (Past President/NCS committee member); Ray Gotto; Chester Gould; Mel Graff; William Karr (Bill) Graham; Harold Gray; Milt Gross; Chad Grothkopf; Carl Grubert - Harry Hanan; Lou Hanlon; Fred Harman; Irwin Hasen; Jimmy Hatlo; George Herriman; Ned Hilton; Burne Hogarth; Bill Holman; Hugh M. Hutton - Jay Irving - Burris Jenkins, Jr.; Ferd Johnson; Roy B. Justus - Bob Kane; Al Kaufman; Jeff Keate; Reamer Keller; Ted Key; Frank O. King; Rollin Kirby; Ken Kling; Karl Kae Knecht; Clayton Knight; A. Kovarkey; Robert (Bob Kay) Kuwahara - Clyde Lamb; Fred Lasswell; George Lichty; Marty Links; Tom Little; Scott Long; Martin Lowenstein; Gustav Lundberg - H. A. Mac Gill; Stan Mac Govern; Bill Mac Lean; Neyer Mael; Gus Mager; Reg Manning; Jack Markow; Ernest Marquez; Charles E. (Cem) Martin; Fran Matera; Rex Maxon; Winsor McCay; Darrell McClure; Wilson McCoy; MC Cuthcheon; Elmer R. Messner; McGowan Miller; Tarpe Mills; R. B. Modell; Bob Montana; Edward MdDowell (Ed) Moore; John (Milt) Morris; Carl Louis Mortison; Zack Mosley; Willard Mullin - Fed Neher; John Norment; Paul Norris; Irving Novick - Robert Stanley (Bob) Oksner; F. Opper; R. F. Outcault; William Overgard; Frank Owen - Grover Page; Gladys Parker; David (Pascal) Pascolsca; Russell Patterson; Bill Pause; John Pierotti; Alfred John Plastino; Al Posen; T. E. Powers; Garrett Price - Connie Rasinski; Hal Rasmusson; Alex Raymond (NCS President); Gardner Rea; Rranciscc Xavier (FOXO) Reardon; Ed Reed; Paul Reinman; Laurence (Larry) Reynolds; Mischa Richter; Frank Robbins; Carl Rose; Hy Rosen; Michael J. (Mike) Roy; John Arthur Ruge; D. D. Russell; Rod Ruth - Jose Luis Slinas; William Sandeson; Leonard Sansone; Robert D. Scholnki;  Lew Sayre Schwartz; Fred O. Seibel' Irma Selz; Claude Shafter; George Shellhase; Barbara Shermund; Vaughn Shoemaker; Erle B. Slack; Dorman H. Smith; George Smith; Otto Soglow (committe chair); Howard Spraber; AndrewSprague; John Spranger; Stanley Stamaty; Russell Stamm; Ralph Stein; Cliff Sterrett; J. Striebel; T. S. Sullivant; V. A. Svoboda; Swinnerton - Hilda Terry; Paul H. Terry; Barney Tobey; Buford Tune; Leslie Turner - Philip Albert (Flip) Uzanas - Charles A. Voight - Mort Walker; Dow Walling; Jerry Walter; Linda Walter; L. D. Warren; Coulton Waugh; Morris Weiss (Wes Morse); Peter Wells; Elmer Wexler; Bert Whitman; Frank H. Willard; J. R. Williams; Dick Wingert; Basil Wolverton; George Wunder - Richard Yardley; Chic Young - Bill Zaboly; Eugene (Zim) Zimmerman.

Writings on labor & union labels

one of the classic television commercials from the early 1980s featuring members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union

A few years ago, I was obsessed with the stories and symbols involved in union labels and the label movement. Most people remember the Look for the Union Label ad campaign of 1978/81, but labels have had a long and complex tale that is completely intertwined with the history of the labor movement.

Here I am collecting links to some of my label related projects. It is my hope, someday, to do a book about this.

Here's an old blog post about my original concept for the label project: Signs of Unity: Stories and Symbols of the Union Label Movement.  

In 2008, I participated in "Syndicate," a piece for Bay Area Now 5 at YBCA, a collaboration with Jessica Tulley, Wendy Crittenden and Tom Griscom that included a gallery installation, street stencils of historic photos, and a walking tour. Out of that project grew our 2015 Labor Landmarks show Dual Views, hosted at SFSU by the Labor Archives and Reseach Center, featuring the photography of Griscom and Crittenden. In support of this show, I wrote "The Fight for San Francisco" which was published in Places Journal about the historic sites in SF important to the labor movement.

I have several articles published on academica.edu and on slideshare, including "Evolution of an Emblem: the Arm & Hammer" and "100 Years Hand-in-Hand: a Brief History of the AFL-CIO Emblem." I was honored to speak at the AFL-CIO Union Label Department's national convention about their history in 2009 (Pittsburgh, PA), as well as at the national convention of the Popular Culture Association (Albuquerque, NM).

As more people are giving up the power of numbers that unions provided them, I hope that in some small way I have been able to help the stories of the sacrifices workers made to win fairer pay and treatment live on.

Two articles in Fall/Winter 2016 IJOCA

Two articles I finished last year have been published in the Fall/Winter 2016 issue of the International Journal of Comic Art: "A Collaborative Journey: Malcolm Wyte, Troubador Press, and the Founding of the Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco," and "How the French Kickstarted the Acceptance of Comics as an Art Form: the Books and Exhibitions of Maurice Horn" (pages 61-155) The IJOCA does not publish articles on-line. They are posted on Academia.edu, and IJOCA articles sometimes appear in the JSTOR database.

Thanks to the following people who shared their stories with me: Maurice Horn, Brian Walker, Rick Marcshall, Denis Kitchen, Paul Gravett, Art Spiegelman, Carol Tilley, Trina Robbins, and Steve Leialoha. Malcolm Whyte, Jenny Robb, Andrew Farago, and Mark Bode. Also, thanks to Brian, Randy Duncan, Matt Smith, and Marc Greenberg for their advice throughout these projects. 

The article about Maurice Horn, French scholarship, his publications, and the 1967 exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs will be the topic of my upcoming presentations at WonderCon and the Popular Culture Association's National Convention.

cover of the Fall/Winter 2016 issue of the IJOCA.

Conference schedule 2017

After a hiatus, I've scheduled speaking slots a few upcoming conferences:

San Diego Comics Fest, Feb 17-19. Print Magazine's Michael Dooley and I will talk about the art of Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, and Jules Feiffer, particularly about the way that exhibitions of their original art keep their legacy alive with fans old and new.

Comic Arts Conference at WonderCon (Anaheim, CA), March 31-April 2. 50th Anniversary of the Bande Dessinee et Figuration (1967) Exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. 

Popular Culture Association National Conference (San Diego, CA), April 11-15. 50th Anniversary of the Bande Dessinee et Figuration (1967) Exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. 

Comic Arts Conference at San Diego Comic-Con International, July 20-23. Exhibitions of Will Eisner and Jack Kirby.