- Society of Illustrators - January 16th 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

The golden age of newspaper comics spanned the first half of the Twentieth Century, cresting in the Thirties and Forties. Whether humorous, serious or melodramatic, the comic strip was, and still is, as American as apple pie.

Before the true comic strip there were many great cartoonists working the papers. One of the greatest of the late 1800s was Arthur Burdett Frost, gifted as a skilled draftsman, with a great eye and a true comic sense of the human condition, as seen in his work here.

Heroic series featuring courageous leading men like Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Terry and the Pirates thrilled daily readers, paying dividends on Sundays with a full-page, full color spread. Artists like Hal Foster, Milton Caniff and Alex Raymond drew smashing sagas that always left their Depression-era readership begging for more. Many remember the sultry sirens as “Copper Calhoun” from the popular postwar “Steve Canyon”, reminiscent of an earlier evil woman, “The Dragon Lady” from Milton Caniff’s “Terry and the Pirates” of the 1930s.

Comical subjects abounded with national papers carrying dozens of beloved strips every day. Perhaps the most iconic one for social satire and sheer inventiveness was Al Capp’s “Li'l Abner”. His draftsmanship was superb and his unique stylization created unforgettable characters like Li'l Abner, Daisy Mae and Mammy Yokum. Another perennial favorite was “Toonerville Tales” by Fontaine Fox, featuring that crazy trolley car of his.

Then there is the World War II serviceman’s favorite, “Sad Sack” as drawn by Sgt. George Baker and Roy Crane’s comic naval subject “Buz Sawyer”.

Dramatic stories of “Dr. Kildare” by Ken Bald were aimed at fans of the soap opera genre. This series lived on, working successfully in film and television. Westerns proved quite popular, like the pulps that drove the Depression dime novels of the 1930s. Heroic horseman Gene Autry did more than sing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”; he was also the hero of dozens of high-flying tales of the Wild West, as drawn by Bernard Thompson in big bold strokes.