Above: the August volume V, issue 1, 1951 issue of American Cartoonist. The scan is unclear, but the man on the cover is holding a slip of paper: "Sorry does not fit our present needs. The Editors."
Ahh. Those were the days. Even a mediocre cartoonist could get by. There were a lot of magazine markets. American Cartoonist, edited by L.T. Benson, was a trade publication for and by cartoonists.
Let's see what is happening with the markets! Jack Markow and Gurney Williams need gags!
And this back when $60 was real money.
American Cartoonist published cartoons as well. Here's a cartoon from the Marketplace pages by Ed Morgan:
After cleansing our palate with the above panel, let's delve back into the markets. Click to supersize:
No more stenographer on the boss's lap cartoons? Darn! Those are classics!
What about the boss chasing the secretary around the desk cartoons?
Collier's cartoon editor Gurney Williams even had a newsletter for his cartoonist contributors. It's excerpted in American Cartoonist:
And below is a "letter" from Hank Ketcham. 1951 was the first year of his Dennis the Menace panel:
These are a few of the highlights from this 55 year old issue. I thank Bob Weber (not the Bob "Slylock Fox" Weber or the Bob "New Yorker cartoonist" Weber, but the Bob "Moose & Molly" Weber") for copying this little gem for me.
Related: Wednesday: Cartoon Look Day
Also related: Seminal Cartoons at Eli Stein Cartoons
Final note: It was a wonderful time to be a cartoonist. Not like magazine cartooning today, huh? Below is the one and only Bob Vojtko's take on the declining publication industry from a 2003 cover of The Gag Recap trade magazine.
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