Dave Gerard's Will-Yum!!

Today is going to be a fun day! Why? Because I’m posting today an artist completely new to me (but perhaps not to some of my expert readers) making his first appearance on the Big Blog! I love it when that happens.

The cartoonist in question is Dave Gerard, who worked as a magazine cartoonist (Colliers, The Saturday Evening Post, Evening Post and others) during the 1940s and 1950s. Mr. Gerard tried a number of panel strips with limited success before he struck gold this his legacy creation, Will-Yum, a precocious but endearing small boy. Will-Yum was in syndication from 1953 to 1966.

I really love Gerard’s clean style here – very free, organic, and lively, much like his subjects, and his storytelling is charming – again, much like his subjects. Another thing I love? Mr. Gerard, after retiring from cartooning, went into politics and became the mayor of Crawfordsville, Indiana from 1972 to 1976. To my knowledge, Mr. Gerard is the only cartoonist that has made this professional transition!

Dave Gerard passed away in August of 2003.

This comes from Dell Four Color No. 676, February 1956

And just for good measure, here are a couple of B&W inside covers. I love these pages as they always show off the brushwork. Isn’t it gorgeous?

Well, that's all for now, Kids! Coming up: Let’s do a story from Coo Coo Comics (1947) by the great Jack Bradbury!

I will see you all again very soon. Until then, I hope you are all warm, safe, and happy!

--Your friend, Mykal

Laugh, Hardy Har Har, Laugh!

Good afternoon, Kids! So nice to visit with you all again!

Today the Big Blog will be highlighting another work from the wonderful team of painter, Norman McGary and draftsman, Hawley Pratt

As was true in my last post regarding Mr. McGary, I can find virtually no bibliographic information at all. McGary and his work are listed in several art gallery online sources as an “illustrator of children’s books” or as an illustrator of Hannah-Barbera and Disney characters (as here). And other than a birth/death date (Born October 20, 1930; Died February 10, 2012 – he passed away in California) not much was found.

Mr. McGary did a great deal of work for Golden Books (both big and little). And it all was simply gorgeous. I’ve collected many in my collection and will be sharing them. He often collaborated with the great Hawley Pratt, who always supplied the drawing (as here).

This is from Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har, A Little Golden Book from 1963. The author is Gina Ingoglia Weiner, and I find the story sweet (and a touch melancholy), as I find the cartoons involving the Hanna-Barbera character, Hardy Har Har – the laughing hyena that couldn’t laugh.

Well, that's all for now, Kids! Coming up: An artist and a comic strip character new to me (I love when that happens)! Dave Gerard and his creation "Will-Yum" appearing in a Dell Four Color comic from 1954!

I will see you all again very soon. Until then, I hope you are all warm, safe, and happy!

--Your friend, Mykal