• Blog

    H.L. Drucklieb’s Fabulous Illustrations and Enigmatic Life

    As these things sometimes go, I was gobsmacked.  I ran across these two marvelous little ink and watercolor illustrations on eBay 20-some years ago.  The drawings are a skootch over two inches square each, but pack a big punch, with lovely and delicate line work and color throughout. Only one of the two illustrations was signed, and it took me a while to figure out that the artist was someone named H.L. Drucklieb.  I fancy myself a pretty good lay-historian of the comic and illustration arts, but Drucklieb was not someone I was familiar with.  After a couple of decades of on-and-off research into the life and work of H.L.…

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    Bully For Edwina Dumm!

    Edwina Dumm (1893-1990) remains one of the great unheralded ink-slingers of the 20th century.  Edwina, as she signed her work, was doing some of the most beautiful drawings found on the comic strip page from the early 1920s through the 1930s.   The line quality found in her Cap Stubbs comic strip was full of thick and thin bounciness, which helped convey the wonderful action in her strips.  In addition to the quality of the line work was Edwina’s wonderful figure drawings.  It didn’t matter if they were humans or animals.  Edwina’s figures moved effortlessly in an animated fashion, combining a beautiful sense of realistic movement in comic strip bodies.  So…

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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…