Archive for the ‘harrison cady’ Category

Monday, January 16th, 2023

Comic Strips: Cady and Fisher- Masters of the Bird’s Eye View

Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Dudley Fisher

Harrison CadyHarrison CadyHarrison Cady was one of the most famous and prolific cartoonists of the early decades of the 20th century. Although he is best known as the illustrator of Thornton W. Burgess’ Peter Rabbit series of books, and the cartoonist behind the newspaper comic bearing the same name, Cady was an active illustrator as well. His illustrations and comics appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Life, St. Nicholas Magazine and Boys’ Life.

These “bird’s eye views” are masterpieces of visual organization. Instead of just one overall composition, there are dozens spread all through the image. The amount of planning and pencil milage that must have gone into these complex images is impressive.

Animation Resources supporter, Jonathan Barli of Digital Funnies contributed these amazing scans to the archive database. Jonathan is hard at work on an important project- documenting and restoring early cartoons and comics in digital form. When I spoke to him about Animation Resources, he instantly understood what we are trying to do. Jonathan has donated high resolution TIFF images of his entire collection to Animation Resources.

Here is a selection of Cady’s Birds’ Eye View illustrations for Boys’ Life magazine…

Harrison Cady
Harrison Cady
Harrison Cady
Harrison Cady
Harrison Cady
Harrison Cady

Here is a similar format comic… "Right Around Home".

Right Around Home by Dudley FisherRight Around Home by Dudley FisherDudley Fisher was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1890. He studied to be an architect, but dropped out to take a job as a layout artist at the Columbus Dispatch. After returning from WWI, Fisher created a comic strip called "Jolly Jingles". Year after year, he cranked out rhyming verse until he couldn’t stand it any more. In December of 1937 he decided to take a break from jingles and draw what Christmas on his grandmother’s farm would be like (if he had a grandmother and she lived on a farm!) He drew it as one big full page panel and readers immediately took to it and clamored for more. King Features picked up the strip and titled it "Right Around Home". These great Sunday pages date from early in the run- 1939.

Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher
Right Around Home by Dudley Fisher

When asked by a young artist what sorts of pens and paper to use to draw cartoons, Fisher recommended not worrying about things like that, saying "I feel certain that Michaelangelo could have done a masterpiece on meat wrapping paper with a toothbrush and shoe polish. It’s all got to come out of the artist- not the ink bottle."

Thanks for the wonderful scans, Jonathan!

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

Newspaper ComicsNewspaper Comics
This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Newspaper Comics.

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Monday, December 6th, 2010

Biography: Harrison Cady

This posting is a stub. You can contribute to this entry by providing information through the comments link at the bottom of this post. Please organize your information following the main category headers below….

Birth/Death

Birth: 1877
Death: 1970

Occupation/Title

Illustrator/cartoonist

Bio Summary

Walter Harrison Cady 1877-1970 Gardner, Massachusetts.
Illustrator/cartoonist
Best known for his illustrations in “Bedtime Stories”, a creation of Thornton W. Burgess

Early Life/Family

Born Gardner, Massachusetts.
First published illustration in “Harper’s Young People”
After his father’s death, he moved to New York City to work for “Brooklyn Eagle Newspaper”, then “Life” magazine.

Education/Training

Apprenticeship with Parker Perkins, a local painter in Gardner, Massachusetts

Career Outline

Illustrator/ cartoonist for:
Harper’s Young People
Brooklyn Eagle newspaper
Life magazine
Saturday Evening Post
Country Gentleman
Ladies Home Journal
New York Herald Tribune (where he worked on “bedtime stories”)

Comments On Style

Whimsical and cartoony, mostly animals, yet fairly realistic structure and anatomy

Influences

Personality

Anecdotes

Miscellaneous

Filmography

Honors

Related Links

Harrison Cady’s Wiki page
Harrison Cady’s Peter Rabbit cartoon

Bibliographic References

Contributors To This Listing

Daniel Phillips

To make additions or corrections to this listing, please click on COMMENTS below…

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