It’s a Whatnot World
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A roundup of stories tangentially connected to comic strips. A history of the Jeep that brings to mind Mort Walker’s army, a non-cartoonist barber creating comic strip promo with a.i., a real cartoonist who has moved on to using skin as his canvas, a comic stripish font for official documents, and a 1960s Saturday Morning Cartoon Quiz which includes some who appeared in comic strips.
The Comic Strip Jeep
The history of the manufacture of the Jeep is recalled (is that a word to used about motor vehicles?) with a digression about its comic strip appearance. No mention of Segar’s Thimble Theatre character, rather Indiana Gazette Auto Reporter Greg Zyla’s Jeep recollection is from another comic strip:
My favorite military Jeep memory comes not from the battlefield, but from the newspaper comic pages. Many readers remember that the Jeep lived on daily in Mort Walker’s classic comic strip “Beetle Bailey.”
For many of us baby boomers, Beetle Bailey was our earliest introduction to the Jeep, long before we ever saw one up close or drove one ourselves…
From a Real to a Faux (A.I.) Comic Strip
In today’s world it is no longer necessary to be a cartoonist and there is no need to hire an advertising agency with a stable of artists to promote your business with a comic strip display. Or to advertise in the local newspaper. St. Albans Times reports:
A Marshalswick bar and barbershop has taken an innovative approach to marketing – telling its story in the form of a serialised comic strip.
Using assorted old photographs and more than a bit of AI, he has started charting Phoenix’s history in twice-weekly instalments, posting them on Facebook to reach a wider audience.
He explained why he has decide to tell the story of the company in comic strip form…
The Goodkind of Art
For that matter paper is not needed to lay down art. Seth Goodkind has passed (graduated?) from cartooning for alternate print newspapers to human skin as a tattoo artist. Seth talked to Shin Yu Pai and that was turned into an illustrated interview by Olivier Kugler for the University of Washington Magazine.
For many years, I worked as a freelance illustrator and cartoonist. I found my artistic voice in Seattle’s welcoming underground comix community.
I published my early work in Real Change, The Stranger and The Seattle Weekly. I made history comics and local color comics on true crime.
Comic Sans for a Serious Certificate
Illustration by Mendy Kong/WBEZ
Sofi LaLonde for The Chicago Sun-Times on certificate fonts (or here):
Have you ever ridden a Chicago elevator that groaned a little too loud or jerked a little too hard? Maybe to reassure yourself, you looked at the inspection certificate, but what you found was even more concerning: not the inspection date, but the font of just a few words on the document.
The words “this certifies that” are in Comic Sans. Yes, the font used for lemonade stands is used on an official city document. But Comic Sans doesn’t appear on every inspection certificate.
A Ridiculously Easy Cartoon Quiz – Except When Its Not
Abby Zinman present a ’60s Saturday Morning Cartoon Quiz for BuzzFeed that seems to be too too easy, especially when the answer is given away in the question. But then she gets into some minutiae with a few.
1960s animated cartoon characters in the quiz that showed up in syndicated comic strips include Bugs Bunny and fellow Looney Tooners, Fred Flintstone and Yogi Bear, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Batman and Superman.
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