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The Action-Packed Stop-Motion of T.S. Sullivant
Much has been written about T.S. Sullivant’s wonderful work over the years, so I’ll try not to rehash what’s been written previously, but for those new to Sullivant’s work, 1) I envy your first-time exposure to his incredible drawings, and 2) I’ll present the briefest of biographical blurbs. Thomas Starling Sullivant (1854–1926) was born in Columbus, Ohio and raised partially in Germany. When Sullivant was 18, he moved from Columbus to Europe for a few years, eventually moving back to the States, where he studied with the famous painter and teacher Thomas Eakins, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. At 32, Sullivant was a late entrant…
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The Visual Verve and Vibrancy of Bud Blake and Tiger
The Home News was the newspaper in central New Jersey that my family subscribed to when I was a kid. It’s where I was introduced to the weirdness of Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy, the trials and tribulations of Harry Hanan’s Louie, and the beautifully drawn, sweetly humored Tiger by Bud Blake. Growing up, Tiger was comfortably familiar to me. Blake’s gags revolved around everyday kid stuff. The strip didn’t have the psychological weight of Peanuts. There wasn’t a ton of depth to the cast of characters. We knew that Punkinhead could be a nudge, Hugo liked to eat, and Julius was a bookish type. Tiger himself was sort of his strip’s…