COMIC ART IN AMERICA: A Social History of the Funnies, the Political Cartoons, Magazine Humor, Sporting Cartoons, and Animated Cartoons

A Social History of the Funnies, the Political Cartoons, Magazine Humor, Sporting Cartoons, and Animated Cartoons. From the Yellow Kid to Li'l Abner, from Ben Franklin's severed snake to Herblock, from stereopticons to Disney, Comic Art in America is a joyous romp through America's most popular art form. It is also a brilliant interpretative history of the past half century as seen through the comic strips, the sports and editorial-page cartoons, national magazines and every other medium where one picture (with or without captions) is worth a thousand words. In addition to its wealth of information on the cartoons themselves, it gives a hitherto-unknown view of what goes on behind the scenes. It names the master craftsmen, tells how they create, reveals who holds the purse strings that govern them, shows how many of your favorite features started and evolved into what they are today. All the beloved comic strips are here: family strips like Blondie and Dagwood, The Gumps, Moon Mullins, Gasoline Alley; alliterative career-girl strips-Dixie Dugan, Tillie the Toiler, Winnie Winkle, Juliet Jones; adventure sagas-Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates, Superman; the nonsense strips, adopted by the intellectuals, relished by the masses-Little Nemo, Krazy Kat, Pogo, Peanuts. The editorial cartoons are presented as they appeared in their day: hard-hitting, incisive comments about the state of the nation. Some of them affected history (Thomas Nast dethroned Boss Tweed and Tammany) ; some of them pulled heart strings; some were very special; and others, like Mauldin's Willie and Joe, were the distillation of a whole country's young manhood. Out of Print. Condition: Fine Minus in a very good jacket. Light bumping and rubbing on the corners, Light yellowing to pages.. Jacket has small tears & creases at the corners and back top edge.