Saturday, April 04, 2015

 

Herriman Saturday


Sunday, September 20, 1908 -- William Randolph Hearst effectively ends the public life of Senator Joseph Foraker when he publishes letters to him from Standard Oil vice-president John D. Archbold. In the letters Archbold seems to indicate that Foraker was being bribed for killing legislation that was harmful to Rockefeller's rapacious oil company.

Sorry for the reproduction on this cartoon, but the microfilm was in really bad shape on this page. The text along the bottom of the cartoon is a replacement, as the original was close to impossible to read.

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Friday, April 03, 2015

 

Sci-Friday starring Connie

 
Connie, September 4 1938, courtesy of Cole Johnson. 
Follow the Connie story every Friday here on Stripper's Guide.

This is the final sci-fi Connie story we have available from Cole Johnson. If anyone out there can contribute scans of another complete Connie story (later than 3/26/1939), or can offer another sci-fi strip to take its place on Sci-Fridays, I'd be delighted and grateful to hear from you! Note that we elitists at Stripper's Guide do not generally use digital microfilm material here on Stripper's Guide, so we would need sharp 300-600 dpi scans from newspaper tearsheets or syndicate proofs. 

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Thursday, April 02, 2015

 

Obscurity of the Day: Sea Urchins






If there were a sweepstakes for the most unlikely plot in a modern daily comic strip, Sea Urchins would no doubt take the prize. Let’s see if I can capture it all in a nutshell. The strips stars the Unrun family; mom Ali, dad Ole, and seven kids (Cuss, Germy, Sherfew, Ella, Darla, Shirley and Lucky Mordy), and they live in the mythical land of Terrasfumato. Ole has the whole brood living aboard a ship he built named the Banana Moon, erected by mistake too far from water to be launched. Ole is a veteran of the Great Sea Ape War, in which he lost a toe, and he has vowed revenge, just as soon as he can figure out how to get the boat in the water. Meanwhile, this decidedly eccentric family gets involved in wacky adventures with their friends and enemies in the nearby community of Nettletown.


If this seems like a rather involved plot to throw at readers at the rate of one 2" x 6" strip per day, you're right. However, that was the dream of Sea Urchins creators Scott Eckelaert (writer) and Jason Whitley (art), and they actually realized that dream when they convinced the Myrtle Beach Sun News into running the strip on their daily comics page starting in February 2001. Early admirer Tom Heintjes (editor of Hogan's Alley) said of the strip, "When I first read Sea Urchins ... I didn't get it. When I went to the strip's website to read more of it, I still didn't get it ... But I kept reading it. And eventually I got it."


I have to go along with Heintjes. Reading the reprint book of Sea Urchins first published by Plan Nine Publishing in 2003, and now available as an e-book, I was initially confused, then dismissive, but by the time I got to the end of the slim book I was intrigued and hungry for more.


The creators claim to be trying to resurrect the old-time continuity strips, citing Thimble Theatre and Prince Valiant among their favorites. They mention that the kids, oddly enough, were patterned (very loosely) on the street urchins found in Gene Carr’s Lady Bountiful.


The early Sea Urchins strips are frankly a bit tough to read. Eckelaert and Whitley don’t really introduce the characters or explain their odd world (think Popeye’s Puddleburg crossed with Middle Earth). The strip meanders, not sure how to structure the gags or storyline, weaving between serious and humorous, and juggling a (literal) boatload of characters we don’t know, but that the creators assume we are as comfortable with as our own family.


Once we get over the initial bumps, though, the writing starts to gel. The continuity begins to hang together, the story becomes sensible in its own weird and whimsical way, and the characters become familiar enough that we don’t feel like we walked in on the second act of a play.


To the great credit of the Myrtle Beach Sun News, they stuck with the strip through those bumpy early days. In fact, the strip lasted over three years there, ending only when Whitley, who was employed by the paper, left for greener pastures. The strip ended October 30 2004, a victim not of reader disinterest but of creators who had too many other projects going on.


However, Eckelaert and Whitley have never been able to completely close the door on Sea Urchins. Since the newspaper strip ended they have produced occasional comic book stories featuring their characters, and just a few weeks ago they began a Kickstarter campaign to gather funds to print new reprint books of Sea Urchins, since only the earliest bit of the strip has been reprinted, and then only in a very scarce book (most of the publisher’s print run was destroyed). I was certainly entertained enough by book one to want the rest of the Unrun family’s saga in print form, so I made a contribution, and if you would like to place a vote that continuity strips aren’t yet dead, I suggest you do so too. Whitley and Eckelaert also promise that if they can find a demand, they would still be delighted to produce new adventures of the Sea Urchins. However, their experience in trying to tell stories in a postage stamp space leads them to prefer that the new adventures be produced for an online or graphic novel audience. I wish them all the best!

[PS -- thanks very much to Jason Whitley, who answered questions and loaned me some of his archive of Sea Urchins material to make this post]

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Wednesday, April 01, 2015

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Audrey Blum



Audrey Anthony Blum was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 11 or 12, 1918. On November 5, 1919, Alex Blum, her father, submitted his Petition for Naturalization, which included the birth dates of his wife, Helen, born August 17, 1886, and daughter, January 11, 1918. In an interview published in Alter Ego, #99, January 2011, Audrey’s husband, William “Bill” Bossert, thought she was born on January 12, 1918.

In the 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Audrey and her parents resided in Philadelphia at 1001 Pine Street. Her father’s occupation was newspaper illustrator, while her mother’s occupation said “none.” In fact, Audrey’s mother was an artist according to Who’s Who in American Jewry (1926) which published this entry:

Blum, Helen Abrahams:
Artist; b. Aug. 17, 1886, Phila., Pa.; d. Simon and Theresa Abrahams; ed. Public and high schools (awarded four year scholarship); School of Design for Women, Phila.; Academy of Fine Arts; m. Alex A. Blum, Jan. 17, 1917, Phila., Pa. Exhibited at Phila. Art Club, Water Color Show, 1909; portraits purchased by William Chase (noted artist and teacher); 1910, won second Water Color Prize at Wanamaker Exhibit; Still life picture in oil purchased by permanent collection of Fellowship of Academy Fine Arts, 1915; exhibited in various galleries throughout country. Designed scenery and costumes for Little Theatre Movement; managed, staged and acted in various religious orgs, in Phila.; participated in many artistic pageants and plays. Author of a short story, numerous articles, etc. Fellow: Penna. Academy Fine Arts. Member: Rodolph Shalom Sisterhood; Internatl. Peace Movement. Address: 3303 Queen Lane, Germantown, Pa.
The 1930 census recorded Audrey, her parents and brother, Robert, in Philadelphia at 3303 West Queen Lane. Sometime in the early 1930s, Audrey’s family moved to New York City where her father had previously lived and worked beginning in 1900, the year he emigrated from Hungary.

In Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History (2001), William B. Jones, Jr. wrote:

…Around 1938, [Alex] Blum signed on with the Eisner-Iger shop; it was an association that lasted until 1954. The artist’s daughter, Audrey (“Toni”) Blum Bossert, also joined the team in 1938 as a scriptwriter.3…
Jones’s source for the dates was Who’s Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. I believe Audrey joined the Eisner and Iger Studio in 1937. According to Who’s Who and Bossert, Audrey’s nickname was Toni; some of her pen names included Toni Blum, Toni Boone, Toni Boon and Toni Adams.

The Eisner and Iger Studio’s syndicate was called Universal Phoenix Features and one of its comic strips was Stars on Parade which originally had a “Lora Lane” byline. Below are two samples from Alter Ego #99 which reproduced them from Jerry Iger’s Classic Jumbo Comics #1. The strip dated November 22, 1937 was signed “Toni Rossett”. Another strip, December 6, 1937, was unsigned.




I believe Audrey was the writer on the series because the byline was a woman’s name and the artist’s signature has Audrey’s nickname, Toni. It’s not clear who drew these two strips. According to Who’s Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999, the Eisner and Iger Studio personnel, in 1937, included Bernard Baily, Dick Briefer, Don de Conn, Will Eisner, Lou Ferstadt, Robert Golden, Jerry Iger, Bob Kane, Jack Kirby, Les Marshall, and Itwin Myers. Will Eisner drew several strips under various pen names, including Willis B. Rensie and Carl Heck, and in various styles. Maybe, Toni Rossett, was another Eisner pen name.

It’s not known if any newspaper published Stars on Parade in 1937. The name of the series apparently originated in the Jerry Iger-edited Wow—What a Magazine! #1. Some of the strips appeared in half-a-dozen issues of Jumbo Comics beginning in 1938. American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Stars on Parade ran in the Brookshire Times in 1938, and 32 strips appeared in the Philadelphia Tribune from November 16, 1939 to June 27, 1940. These strips carried the Toni Rossett byline. A few of the strips were signed “Gustafson”, a name not found in the Eisner and Iger Studio. At least two strips, below, were signed by Bernard Baily who was in the Eisner and Iger Studio.






In 1939 Eisner ended his partnership with Iger. Audrey continued working for Iger until 1942, when she joined the Eisner Studio.

The 1940 census recorded Audrey in her father’s household. They resided in Manhattan, New York City at 60 East 94th Street. Her occupation was writer.

Bossert 1939

In 1942, Audrey married Bill Bossert whom she met when he joined the Eisner and Iger Studio in 1939, the year he graduated from Pratt Institute. The Daily Argus (Mount Vernon, New York), August 17, 1951, profiled Audrey and said she had been married for nine years. Bossert served in the army during World War II; he enlisted March 7, 1941.

The Daily Argus profile of Audrey said:

…During World War II Mrs. Bossert was a nurse’s aide at Bellevue, worked with service men’s wives for the American Association for the United Nations, and studied story writing at Columbia University. Her friends were other wives whose husbands were in service.
…Before her marriage, Mrs. Bossert did some acting at a Summer theater near Newburgh, radio work on dramatic programs, and extra work for a movie company in New York. She says “I didn’t have success, but I did have lots of fun.”
The New York Sun, April 16, 1945, published a list of wounded soldiers and it included Bossert:
Pacific Area: Bossert, William T., capt.; Mrs. Audrey A. Bossert, 60 E. 94th st.
The Brooklyn Eagle (New York), September 26, 1945, said: “Capt. William T. Bossert of 235 86th St….is a civilian again and expects to return to his former work as a commercial artist.” He served his country again during the Korean War. The 1951 profile of Audrey in the Daily Argus said:
…Last April as a member of the Pleasantville Players, she played the lead in “The Women” by Clare Booth Luce, presented for the benefit of the Westchester Mental Hygiene Association. Rehearsals took almost two months. Once a week she meets with a sketch group and is teaching herself to draw from her husband’s old anatomy book.
Mrs. Bossert entertains friends and their husbands at her home frequently. She advises others in similar circumstances to do the same. She finds activities with others more satisfying than trying to entertain herself.
…This Summer she has been busy taking her own and neighbors’ children to the pool and visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alex Blum of Rye. Mr. Blum is a well known painter and etcher. Mrs. Bossert also spends hours talking with adolescent children who drop in to see her about their problems.
The big question facing her now is next Winter. “I’m scared of it,” she admits. With Tommy in kindergarten, and baby-sitters to stay with Jill, she hopes to get into school activities, participate in civic affairs, and continue the art and drama group work.
Bossert came home after his service in the army and resumed his commercial art career.

The Boston Traveler (Massachusetts), April 2, 1956, printed the Associated Press report on the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation’s award-winners in the comic book field. The winning publishers received a scroll while the artists and writers were given citations and $100 cash prizes at the Waldorf-Astoria luncheon. In the category, Best Comic Book for Children Under 8, the winner was Gliberton’s Ugly Duckling, which was drawn by William A. Walsh, of Colonia, New Jersey, and written by Audrey, of Pleasantville, New York. Audrey’s father also worked for Gilberton during the 1950s.

The Herald Statesman (Yonkers, New York), August 9, 1962, reported the Bossert family-of-five’s month-long trip to the Far West.

Audrey’s father passed away September 5, 1969, in Rye, New York.

Audrey passed away in either 1972 (Who’s Who) or 1973 (Bossert’s date in his Alter Ego interview; he said the cause was breast cancer). Audrey has not been found in the Social Security Death Index, which recorded Bossert’s passing on June 5, 2013.


—Alex Jay

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Examples of the "Stars on Parade" strip can be found in the Fulton County History archive (Search for "Toni Rossett"). The one you post above with Constance Bennett ran in the _Long Island News and The Owl_ on 26 Mar 1943.
 
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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Alex Blum / Al Boon


Alex A. Blum was born in Budapest, Hungary, on February 7, 1889. Blum’s birthplace and birth date were found on his application and petition for naturalization, and his World War I and II draft cards. Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999 said his name was Alexander Anthony Blum. According to Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History (2001), his birth name was Sándor Aladár.

A passenger list at Ancestry.com listed “Alader Blum”, his mother, older sister Hedweg and younger brother Inare. They sailed on the S.S. Potsdam from Rotterdam on May 17, 1900, and arrived in New York City on May 29. The Herald Statesman (Yonkers, New York), August 22, 1964, said Blum and his family settled in Cincinnati:

“I always had an interest in drawing,” he Blum says, “and when I won three prizes in a contest run by Cincinnati newspapers at the age of 13 I was sold on art.”
He attended the Cincinnati Art Academy and then was lured to New York, where he worked and attended night school. “As reporter for the old New York Herald I really banged around,” recalls Mr. Blum. “I was in and out of all the courts and precincts.”
At night he studied at the National Academy of Design, winning a scholarship after a few months. While a student there he was awarded a bronze medal in a city-wide etching competition and first prize in the National Academy show in 1909.
The New York Herald, May 15, 1909, named the prize: “Etching Class—First prize, A.H. Baldwin Fund, $50, Alexander Aladar Blum”. Two years earlier, the New York Tribune, May 11, 1907, reported Blum’s Suydam bronze medal for illustration at the academy. 

According to the American Art Annual, Volume 29 (1932), Blum was a pupil of Frank Duveneck and Charles F.W. Mielatz.

The 1910 U.S. Federal Census recorded Blum (as “Alex A.”), his mother and siblings in Manhattan, New York City at 500 West 172 Street. He was a newspaper artist. At some point he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he filed his Declaration of Intention with the Naturalization Service district office. He lived at 40 Huntington Avenue when he signed the form as “Aladar Blum” on April 18, 1913. 


In the 1915 New York State Census, “Alex Blum” resided with his mother and brother in Brooklyn New York at 2060 83rd Street.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York), October 21, 1915, published a glowing review of his work.

Alex Aladar Blum of 2060 Eighty-third street, Brooklyn, is showing until November 6 in the Print Gallery, above Ehrlch’s, on Fifth avenue, Manhattan, about two score etchings, this being his first exhibition in Greater New York. He is only 26 years old, and yet his works exhibit both the delicacy and strength of men far older than he. Moreover he shows that he is open to tho most modern influences, such as those of the French school, instanced by Matisse, although he taboos the ultra tendencies of that school. The collection is singularly interesting, in that it shows Mr. Blum’s development in various phases of the art of etching. While he is master of expressive drawing and modeling, he evinces, especially in his latest work, a gift for suggesting light and color and rhythm, in the latter using the slightest means for producing large results.
More than mere cleverness is revealed in the “Rhythm of line; a sequence,” as he terms nine examples. In them he gives a feeling as of music, and all by the use of the line. Perhaps the most beautiful in the nine etchings is “The Wave,” lines in a cure of grace passing across the picture and, in various well composed attitudes, accompanying the wave is a number of nudes. “The Comet” is also striking, with nudes posed as though mounting upward in a curved course, while effect in opposition is given by lines curved in the background. In the same category are “Nudes,” “The Lake,” “Mother and Child,” a peculiarly interesting composition; “Bathers,” “Hills and Lake,” “The Castles" and “The Dance,” in which the interfering line of the main motive has a stimulant effect to the eye.
Many of Mr. Blum’s etchings of fact were done in Boston and other parts of Massachusetts. He knows exactly where to be delicate and atmospheric, as in “On the Beach,” the frontal of tho Boston Public Library, “Copp’s Hill,” “Brewer Fountain.” “Pigeons,” “Revere Bench” and “Bath Beach.” Also, he knows where to be a faithful reporter, as in the on board ship “Halting Hooks” (two examples), “T Wharf,” the Paul Revere house, and in “Tho Two Giants,” a capital presentation of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. He also knows emphatically, how to bring out character, as in the two examples termed “Ghetto,” with a man and a woman as excitedly engaged in bargaining as in a bazar in an Oriental city; furthermore, in a lovely “Study,” a young girl at her books; “Mother and Baby,” “Apple Mary,” “The Pretzel Vendor” and “Old Woman.” Two studies in dry point show soft and velvety blacks, and distinctive are two roulette works, “Danseuso” and “Roof Garden.”
Mr. Blum was born in Cincinnati, Ohio [sic], in 1889, and after visiting Europe he returned to the art school in his native city. Later he was a pupil at the National Academy of Design, where he won first prize for etching and a bronze medal for drawing. For a time he taught at the Boston Art School.
The Herald Statesman told of the next major event in his life.
Working on a newspaper during the day, Mr. Blum did some oil painting and etching before becoming involved with a theater group. He designed a stage set for one production and at the theater he met an attractive costume designer. “We were co-workers, both young, and—you know—one thing led to another.” Mr. Blum married the former Helen Abrahams in 1917.
A marriage notice appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, January 3, 1917: “Aladar Blum, an artist, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was granted a marriage license to wed Helen Abrahams, of 3119 Diamond street. Blum is 37 and his intended bride 30. Miss Abrahams’ father is a manufacturer.” On January 17, 1917, Blum and Helen Abrahams married in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to her profile in Who’s Who in American Jewry (1926) and Jewish Women in America (1997).

On May 6, Blum signed his World War I draft card, which had his name as Aladar and Manhattan address at 12 West 8th Street. The artist’s description was tall, medium build with brown eyes and black hair.

Blum, his wife and daughter, Audrey, were in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 1001 Pine Street, when the 1920 census was enumerated. He was a newspaper illustrator. Two months earlier on November 5, 1919, he had filed his Petition for Naturalization in Philadelphia. It was approved on May 14, 1920. When Blum swore his oath of allegiance to the United States, he also changed his name:
…It is further ordered, upon consideration of the petition of the said, Aldar [sic], that his name be, and hereby is, changed to Alex Blum, under authority of the provisions of section 6 of the act approved June 29, 1906...
Who’s Who of American Comic Books said Blum worked in advertising during the 1920s. Advertising Arts and Crafts (1927) had this listing: “Blum, Alex A., Baker Bldg., Rit 7893 Philadelphia, Pa. Figure, Etching.”

Blum illustrated two books by Mary Hazelton Wade: The Boy Who Dared: The Story of William Penn (1929) and The Boy Who Loved the Sea: The Story of Captain James Cook (1931).

In the 1930 census, Blum was an artist and remained in Philadelphia but at a different address, 3303 West Queen Lane. New to the family was a son, Robert. Sometime before 1935, the Blums moved to New York City. According to Who’s Who of American Comic Books, around 1938 Blum joined the studio formed by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger.

The Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Books, Group 2, Pamphlets, etc., 1936, New Series, Volume 33, Number 8, has an entry for Oddities of the News by Dic “Lacalzo”, which was a misspelling of Loscalzo. Loscalzo produced a limited number of strips that were signed Dic. Editor & Publisher yearbooks credit “Alex Boon” in 1937, “Al Boon” in 1939 and “Al Blum” in 1942 for the remaining Oddities strips. Who’s Who of American Comic Books credits Blum on the strip, Oddities in [sic] the News, and said “Alex Boon” was a pen name. I believe Blum produced the Oddities strips after Loscalzo’s departure.

In the 1940 census, Blum lived in Manhattan at 60 East 94 Street. He was a freelance artist who had eight years of elementary education. His move to New York was explained in the Herald Statesman:

Then early in the depression, when, as he says, “things were awkward for artists”, Mr. Blum became art director of Classic Magazine, a position he held until after World War II.
Blum signed his World War II draft card April 26, 1945. His address did not change and employer was “Iger Eisner, 204 East 44”. Blum referred to the partners even though Eisner and Iger had parted ways in 1939.
In 1946, Blum illustrated a version of Puss in Boots by Ruth A. Roche, who worked in Jerry Iger’s studio.



Blum was one of several artists who worked on the Illustrated Classics series which was published in newspapers. Blum’s Alice in Wonderland was serialized in four parts with each part consisting of four full-pages. Each page held the equivalent of four comic book pages, so the adaptation was a total of 63 pages of art plus a page about the author. The New York Post published its weekend color comics on Saturday; Alice appeared on June 21 and 28, and July 5 and 12, 1947. The comic book version used 44 of the 64 pages. Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History has a chapter devoted to Blum, “Alex A. Blum: ‘A Prince of a Man’”.



Blum’s comic book career ended around 1961; many of his comic book credits are here.

The Herald Statesman said Blum and his wife moved to Rye, New York in 1946. They bought a 275-year-old barn (287 Rye Beach Avenue) and converted it into their home and studio.

The artists held informal art classes starting in the mid-1950s.

Who’s Who in American Art (1953) had an entry for Blum. 
Blum, Alex A.— Etcher, P.
287 Rye Beach Ave., Rye, N.Y.
B. Budapest, Hungary. Feb. 7, 1889. Studied: NAD; Cincinnati A. Acad. Awards: prize. NAD. 1924. Work: MMA; LC; Yale Univ.; BMFA; Weslcyan Col.
Blum passed away September 5, 1969. His death was reported in the Rye Chronicle (New York), September 11.
Alexander Blum, 80, a noted artist, of 287 Rye Beach Ave., died on Friday at United Hospital.
Mr. Blum, was born in Budapest Feb. 7, 1889, the son of the late Alexander, and Rose Blum.
He moved to Cincinnati with his family before he was 10. He had won three prizes in art by the time he was 13 and attended the Cincinnati Art Academy. He moved to New York and became a reporter on the old New York World and attended the National Academy of Design at night.
In Boston he continued as a daytime reporter and did free lance etching at night. He and his wife the former Miss Helen Abrahams, moved to Great Neck, Long Island where the artist became art director of Classic Magazine until after World War II.
Mr. and Mrs. Blum moved to Rye 23 years ago in order that the artist might paint in quiet, scenic surroundings.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Blum is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Audrey Bossert of Pleasantville; a son, Robert Blum of Deerfield, Ill.; five grandchildren and a sister, Mrs. Hedwig Bleier of New York.

—Alex Jay

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Dear mr. Jay, in your profile of Alex Blum 6 years ago you mentioned his etching "The Wave". First of all thank you for all the information you gathered. Maybe interesting to hear that this etching popped up in a charity shop in The Netherlands some weeks ago! Yours sincerely, Magda van Veen
 
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Monday, March 30, 2015

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Dic


Dominick “Dic” Loscalzo was born in New York, New York, on March 5, 1896, as recorded on his World War I draft card.

In the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Loscalzo was the third of four children born to Leonardo, a peddler, and Theresa, both Italian emigrants. They resided in Manhattan, New York City at 333 East 11th Street, which was their address in the 1910 census. Shortly after the 1910 census they moved to Brooklyn.

By the mid-1910s, Loscalzo was a cartoonist. His advertisement appeared in Cartoons Magazine, April 1916.




Loscalzo signed his World War I draft card on June 5, 1917. He lived at 296 Bergen Street, Brooklyn and would remain there into the 1940s. Loscalzo worked at a cartoon company located at “354 40th St. New York City”. His description was short and slender with brown eyes and dark brown hair. He was inducted March 28, 1918 and honorably discharged December 24, 1918.

His early life was recounted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York), August 4, 1918.
Upton Cartoonist a Former Newsboy 
Dominick Loscalzo of Brooklyn, Now Art Director of Camp Paper. 
Started Life as a Bootblack. 
Enthusiastic Over Army Work—Surprises Friends with Skill as Boxer.
Camp Upton, L. I., August 2—A self-made man has been discovered in this cantonment and he is a Brooklyn boy. He made himself known on his arrival a few weeks ago by furnishing the camp paper with a cartoon which caused considerable comment. The cartoonist turned out to be Dominick Loscalzo, newspaper boy, bootblack, cartoonist, art director of the Modern Cartoon Service and now Private Loscalzo.
Dominick is 24 years old, and lived with his parents at 296 Bergen street when he was drafted in June. Besides his mother and father, he has three brothers and a sister. He was born in New York City of Italian descent and received a public school education. About six years ago his parents came to Brooklyn to live and have been at the Bergen street address ever since. When Dominick was a small boy he started his business career by shining shoes in front of a Manhattan hotel. He later sold newspapers in Park. Row. He spent hours in the Public Libraries studying. Loscalzo admired cartoons and one day made up his mind that this would be his life’s work. 
Although Loscalzo is in the Army he is still a cartoonist. He has become associated with the camp paper, Trench and Camp, and now holds the position of art director of that paper. The young soldier has appeared on almost every vaudeville circuit in the country and his cartoons have usually made a hit. 
When Dominick attended Public School 19, in Manhattan he took an active part in school athletics. He has won twenty-five medals for running.
Several days ago when scheduled to give an exhibition in one of the Y. M. C. A. huts, Frank Daily issued a challenge to box any man at 124 pounds. 
Daily was about to give up looking for anyone to fight, and the crowd seemed disappointed, when Dominick, who claims that he wanted the boys to have some fun, came strolling out on the platform and announced that he would meet young Daily for two rounds. Dominick, who is very small and weighs only about 104 pounds, was advised by his friends.to get off the stage, while others who were looking for fun, advised him to stay. He stayed, went the two rounds to the surprise of all, and gave Daily a merry time. The contest was a draw.
Dominick is now spending all his spare time on art work for the camp paper and hopes to furnish the sheet with some good cartoons. When asked what he thought of soldiering, he replied it was the greatest life in the world and that if every young man in the city took the exercise given to soldiers, there would be few cases of sickness.
The Board of Elections of the City of New York voter enrollments said Loscalzo was a Democrat in 1919.

In the 1920 census, Loscalzo’s occupation was newspaper cartoonist. His Modern Cartoon Service was listed in the 1922 Queens Copartnership and Corporation Directory. Loscalzo advertised his service in magazines such as Film Fun, May 1922; Boys’ Life, June 1923;
 Popular Mechanics, August 1923; and Popular Science, September 1923.

Loscalzo had an entry in the Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 2, Pamphlets, etc., 1922, New Series, Volume 19, Number 2.
Loscalzo (Dick) [3344,3345 
Cartoon stunts, cover-title, [8] p. illus. 8vo. © Dec. 15, 1921; 2 c. awl aff. Dec. 28,1921; aff. Jan. 19, 1922; A 656110.
Complete course of cartoon stunts. Brooklyn, Modern cartoon service, 1921. cover-title, 10 loose 1. illus. 4to. [Text parallel with binding] © Dec. 15, 1921; 2 c. Dec. 28, 1921; aft. Jan. 19, 1922; A 656111.
© Modern cartoon service, Brooklyn.
2595—1922—4
A 1924 Catalog of Copyright Entries had two entries for him:
Loscalzo (Dominick) Brooklyn. 088
Razzberries. [Comic cartoon drawing in four sections showing boy masquerading in girls’ bathing suit and wig] © 1 c. Mar. 4, 1924 ; G 70891.
Loscalzo (Dominick) Brooklyn. 9392
Why don’t you broadcast it? [Cartoon strip drawing of man talking to small boy asleep in chair] © 1 c. June 9, 1924; G 71668.
Apparently, both were not published. Later, Loscalzo adopted the name “Dic”.

The Fourth Estate, December 18, 1926, reported Loscalzo’s latest work. 

Does Golf Comic Strips
Dic Loscalzo, of Brooklyn, N. Y., creator of On the Links, formerly of the Wheeler-Nicholson Syndicate, is the author of a new book of golf comic strips, On the Links, which has just been issued by the Associated Feature Service. The volume contains 48 large pages and an article on The Folly of Trying Too Hard, by Walter Hagen, the golf champion. A write-up of Dic’s rise from newsboy to cartoonist appears in the January issue of Cartoons Magazine.
(Does anyone have this issue of Cartoons to share?)

Loscalzo illustrated two children’s books by Elizabeth Lucy Gallagher: Music Rhymes (1927) and Musical Nonsense Primer for All Children Under Eighty (1928).

The 1930 census said Loscalzo was a freelance artist.

The Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 2, Pamphlets, etc., 1931, New Series, Volume 28, Number 10, had an entry for Loscalzo’s book on cartooning.

[Loscalzo (Dominick)] Fundamentals of cartooning by Dic. © Oct. 6, 1931; 2 c. and aff. Oct. 7; AA 79825; Associated features, New York. 37622

Loscalzo’s surname was misspelled in the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 2, Pamphlets, Etc. 1936, New Series, Volume 33, Number 8.
[Lacalzo] (Dic) Oddities of the news. © July 23, 1936; A 74650; General features syndicate, inc., New York. 29174
Some of the strips were credited to and signed “Dic”. Other strips had the byline “Al Boon” who, most likely, was Alex Blum, an Eisner and Iger Studio artist. Oddities of the News ran from March 19, 1937 to February 25, 1938.



It’s not known when Loscalzo joined the Eisner and Iger Studio; Loscalzo’s name is not listed in the studio personnel at Who’s Who of American Comic Books. On Loscalzo’s World War II draft card, his employer was “Izner & Iger, 202 E 44th St, NYC”. Although Eisner and Iger parted ways in 1939, that was the business name Loscalzo remembered.

In the 1940 census, cartoonist Loscalzo and his father were the only occupants at 296 Bergen Street in Brooklyn.



Images from Chimpsey at Play, art by Dic Loscalzo

In 1944 Loscalzo illustrated the children’s book, Chimpsey at Play, which was written by Ruth A. Roche, whose employer was Jerry Iger. Action Play Books was one of Iger’s publishing ventures. Chimpsey was published in 1945, probably after Loscalzo had passed away on January 31, 1945, in the Bronx, New York, according to the New York, New York Death Index at Ancestry.com.


—Alex Jay

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I have a signed copy of On the Links by Dic Loscalzo

Tony Albanese
BestHC@aol.com
 
I have a signed copy of On The Links by Dic Loscalzo
 
If anyone has copies of Loscalzo's 2 booklets on Cartoon Stunts I'd be grateful to see them (even photocopies). I'd like to add them to my chalk talk archive site at Golden Chalk Classics. Contact me at chalkshow@gmail.com
 
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