Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising - Softcover

Various Artists

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1606993992 ISBN 13: 9781606993996

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books, 2011

Synopsis

Drawing Power is a lively collection of mass-market print advertising from the 1890s to the recent past, starring both cartoonists and cartoon characters. While critics debate whether comics are high art or low art, the fact is that the comic strip was born as a commercial medium and was nurtured by competition, commerce, and advertising. Drawing Power will focus on 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 is cultural history, chronicling a time in popular culture when cartoonists were celebrities and their strips and characters competed with the movies for the attention 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 catchphrases.

oDr Seuss' "Flit" cartoons and his longtime career hyping motor oil
oThe best-looking comic strip ads ever: Milton Caniff and Noel Sickles (under pen names!) depicting character's personal crises relieved by a coffee substitute
oLittle Orphan Annie's famous Ovaltine campaign (as seen in A Christmas Story.)
oPeanuts shilling Falcons, Dagwood selling atomic energy, and virtually every super-hero trafficking in the mortal realm to shill every product imaginable.

About this title

Product Description

Drawing Power A unique mix of comics, pop culture and Americana. Full description

Review

The best thing about the book is the art, which shows classic characters like Little Nemo and the Yellow Kid hawking all manner of suspect gee-gaws.... Plus, there's a nice selection of Mr. Coffee Nerves strips at the back, and I'm always a sucker for that guy.--Chris Mautner

Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising is a book that will surely pique the interest of those involved in the communication sector, but also all who are drawn to pop culture.--Lida Tsene, Comicdom (translated from Greek)

Edition details

• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1606993992
• ISBN 13: 9781606993996
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128
• Editor: Marschall Richard