Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising

Fantagraphics’ new imprint Marschall Books presentsDrawing Power, a lively collection of mass market print advertising from the1890s to the recent past, starring both cartoonists and cartoon characters.While critics debate whether comics is high art or low art, the fact is that thecomic strip was born as a commercial medium and was nurtured by competition, commerce, and advertising. Drawing Power will be the first book-lengthexamination (and celebration) of the nexus of art and cartoons. It will focuson the commercial roots of newspaper strips; the cross-promotions of artists,their characters, and retail products; and of the superb artwork that cartoonists invested in their lucrative freelance work in advertising. Drawing Power iscultural history, chronicling a time in popular culture when cartoonists werecelebrities and their strips and characters competed with the movies for theattention of a mass audience.

The book will examine cartoonists as public personalities, and their advertising efforts from the first heartbeat of the comic strip as an art form. Here are surprising and familiar examples of products, accounts, memorable ad campaigns, and examples of widely known catch-phrases.Examples of individual cartoon ads through the years include:

Yellow Kid advertising

Buster Brown Shoe campaigns

Dr Seuss’ “Flit” cartoons and his longtime career hyping motor oil

WWII ads

Pepsi and Pete by Rube Goldberg

The best-looking comic strip ads ever: Milton Caniff and Noel Sickles (under pen names!) depicting characters’ personal crises relieved by a coffee substitute

Little Orphan Annie’s famous Ovaltine campaign, and Mickey Mouse as pitch-man

Peanuts shilling Falcons and B.C. shilling Dr. Pepper

Dagwood selling atomic energy

and virtually every super-hero trafficking in the mortal realm to shill every product imaginableA special section will showcase ads that featured cartoonists themselves as hucksters; can you believe The New Yorker’surbane Peter Arno selling, not nightclub cocktails, but working-class beer? Walt (Pogo) Kelly selling cement?