Have a Comic Weekend
Hi Readers, Must be some kind o’ record for the Catblog, three posts in a week! Hope you like them. Here’s the next batch of Herriman’s “Now Listen, Mabel” from 9-4-1919 to 9-10-1919. Look at that last panel in the 9-10, a real balcony crowd scene masterpiece! Have a great Comic Weekend!
Paul Groh says:
These old comic strips are very educational. I didn’t know that a “polonaise” was an article of women’s clothing; I only knew it as a musical dance form. As for the “balcony crowd”, well, the French expression “Il y a du monde au balcon” (There’s a crowd in the balcony) is used to describe a woman with a large bust. I knew better than to expect that in a comic strip of the ’30s, but I have to admit it was the first thing that popped into my mind.
Say, ‘Mark’, was this habit of always putting characters’ names inside of quotes just a personal idiosyncrasy of ‘Herriman’, or did other cartoonists of the time do that?
Mark says:
Hi Paul, Herriman was really hooked on putting quotation marks around not only character names, but sometimes nouns and verbs. Some other comic artists did it to a more modest degree, such as “Tad” Dorgan, in his “Silk Hat Harry” and “Judge Rummy” comics. Also Billy De Beck in Barney Google occasionally used quotation marks around words he wanted to emphasize. These quotation marks look to me like the artist is trying to make the letters vibrate or move a little, to attract the reader’s attention.