A Post Post

It's been a while since I've posted any comic book stuff, so let's post some Howie Post!

Howie, who passed away not so long ago, had a long and respectable career in cartooning. One of his early gems was Jimminy and the Magic Book series, back in the '40s. As has been noted by BookSteve, Howie was influenced early on by Walt Kelly's work—but certainly not imitating him.

We have OtherEric, of the Digital Comic Museum, to thank for these scans. He sent them over a long time ago, but I just now got around to cleaning them up a bit. OtherEric has shared a bunch of The Adventures of Peter Wheat over on Whirled of Kelly, and I certainly appreciate his continued friendship!

Mighty Fine

Just a reminder for those who don't always check in on the Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Whirled of Kelly that there's some mighty fine artwork and story-telling going on over there.

Woodland Serenade

Here's a big piece of candy, all sweet and chewy, by Harrison Cady.

Y'know, Cady—as a cartoonist and children's book illustrator—was a huge influence on the young Walt Kelly. Sometime I hope to show some specific parallels.

Harrison Cady — Woodland Serenade —

St. Nicholas Magazine — 1907

Stuff Your Stocking

Don't forget to stop over at Whirled of Kelly, to stuff your stocking with Walt Kelly's art for The Night Before Christmas.

Help Defend the Wheatfield

If you're not a regular visitor over to The Whirled of Kelly (WALT Kelly, that is) you should pop over to see another of Kelly's classic Adventures of Peter Wheat . . .

To Keep Busy the Little Hands and Little Head

I have no idea if or how Gordon Robinson might be related to the Brothers Robinson — Wm Heath, Chas Heath & Tho Heath. But his work is interesting to me in that none other than Walt Kelly claimed him as one of his early inspirations for his own fairy tale work.

Robinson has a few books with his illustrations out there available in one form or another, but it seems there ought to be more than are currently itemized. I'm going to keep looking for some, but in the meantime you can see a nice example here, from the 1930s, Sleeping Beauty. I'm going to show the whole book, cover to cover, and would claim generosity except that the book is only 10 pages in its entirety. I'm also including some zoom-in details cuz I really like his pen style.

Robinson's work coulda/woulda been great in fairy tale comic books.

Below, for the sake of completism, showing the mostly blank back cover too.

Below the sweet trademark slogan of the publisher:

The Jabberwock, with Eyes of Flame

Walt Kelly has Albert really hamming it up with Lewis Carroll. Come over and check it out on Whirled of Kelly.

Peter Wheat is My Name

Whether you are a fan of Walt Kelly or a fan of great sequential art, be sure to check in over at Whirled of Kelly, where the rare FIRST issue of The Adventures of Peter Wheat has been posted for your enjoyment. It's something that you probably haven't seen before.

Above, a reconstruction of a 1948 poster that will give you a synopsis of what you need to know about the world of Peter Wheat.

Below, the first panel of the first issue of The Adventures of Peter Wheat: