Edwina Dumm, Dog Lady

Comic Con has announced new inductees to the Will Eisner Hall of Fame this year, including Edwina Dumm (1893-1990), one of the earliest women in the field of American cartooning. The Graphical History Tour highlighted Dumm in our Women's History Month episode a few years ago; since she is about to be enshrined in a hall of fame, let's highlight her again.

Dumm started out drawing editorial cartoons (among other things), as reported in the May 7, 1921 edition of The Fourth Estate, a publishing industry journal: "Edwina started her career at the Columbus (Ohio) Monitor, a weekly at that time and later a daily, now defunct. At that time she drew political cartoons."

I have not been able to find any on-line archive of the Columbus Monitor, but I have found two of her editorial cartoons in Cartoons Magazine. She was the all-purpose cartoonist for the Monitor from its first edition in August, 1915, (her editorial cartoons went unsigned until that November).

This is from an article in Cartoons Magazine's January, 1916 edition introducing her to her colleagues.

"Adrift and Handicapped" by Edwina Dumm in Columbus Saturday Monitor, ca. Dec., 1915

"It is not often that the ladies make a success of political cartooning, but Miss Edwina Dunn [sic.] of the Columbus Saturday Monitor, refuses to be handicapped by precedent. No subject is too big for her to wrestle with, and she interprets world events in real masculine cartoons."

In a feature article one year later, Cartoons Magazine got her name right.

"Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now" by Edwina Dumm in Columbus Daily Monitor, ca. Dec., 1916

"She had always wanted to be a cartoonist, so she went to work to pay for an art education, thus showing a lot of spunk and independence. She is quite old, being in her early twenties, and is the daughter of a newspaper man."

According to her biography at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum, at the start of her cartooning at the Monitor, Dumm relied on her father — the paper's editor — for political information. After he suffered a stroke, she found inspiration from her friends, including some serving in the military. She later told an interviewer, "I thought you had to know a lot about the politics of the past... [but] all you had to know at that time — and possibly today — was what was going on that day and the policy of the paper."

The Monitor ceased publication in 1917, whereupon she moved to New York City and pitched a comic strip she had drawn for the Monitor to the George Matthew Adams Syndicate. "The Meanderings of Minnie" was about a tomboy and her dog; she and the editors agreed to change the girl to a boy, and "'Cap' Stubbs and Tippie" was born.

"'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dunn for George Matthew Adams Service, March 4, 1918

ibid.

A Local Girl Makes Good article in Marion [OH] Daily Star on Feb. 20, 1918, states that "now she will have a daily comic strip in some of the leading newspapers of the country, including the Boston Globe and the Pittsburgh Post. ... It deals with kid life, humor, thrills, action and human nature." The earliest examples of the strip I can find were in neither of those two newspapers, but both published on March 4, 1918: the top one in Rock Island [IL] Argus, the lower one in Beaumont [TX] Journal. 

(This was not at all unusual for comic strips when the cartoonist didn't write a date in the cartoon. Editors received a bundle of cartoons at once, perhaps a week's worth, and printed them in whatever order they wanted.)

Advertisement in Morning Post, Camden NJ, March 8, 1926 (also in Camden Courier, March 6, 1926)

100 years ago this month, her comic strip, "'Cap' Stubbs and Tippie," was finding a new home in the Morning Post of Camden, New Jersey. In a note to Morning Post readers, Cap, the boy starring in the strip, explained, "You know, we useta live there at the Currier [sic.] about 4 (four) yrs. ago. Well, we come back today, but we ain't gonna live at the Currier, but at the Mornin' Post, which I hears is a New Brother to the Currier, or something."

Women cartoonists being very much a rarity in the 1920's, The copy headlined "Meet Edwina, Too" leaned into her gender as a selling feature:

"You can regard this as confidential or not, as you please. Edwina, who draws ‘Cap’ Stubbs, is a girl.

"The male members of the comic profession are falling over flat on their backs to see a MERE girl running off with the honor of what is undoubtedly the truest-to-life humorous strip depicting the every-minute experiences of a boy and his dog.

"When we reveal Edwina's identity to anybody who has studied her comic strip for several weeks, the usual comment is, 'Impossible! A girl couldn't draw such a good strip about boys and dogs!'

"All we can say is, 'Well, she does.'

"And how Edwina can draw dogs! Your ordinary newspaper cartoonist can only draw one side of a dog, and that's all. Most of them can draw a dog going South. But Edwina can draw the ANATOMY of a dog.

"And so there is real drawing in 'Cap' Stubbs, and in the other people in Edwina's pictures. None of the tricks and short cuts of conventional comic art are evident in her work."

I have no idea what ordinary newspapers cartoonist Ms. Dumm (a "MERE girl" of 32 years) or her publicist were dissing. 

"'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for Geo. Matthew Adams Service, March 1, 1926

Dumm's strip occasionally spread a story arc over several days, as in a series of strips in which Cap's mother and grandmother had been planning a tea party. In these cases, it did make a difference in what order they were printed.

"'Cap Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for Geo. Matthew Adams Service, March 2, 1926

Other times, the day's strip was a one-off. Either way, it's unlikely that the Cap Stubbs fans in Camden New Jersey needed much time catching up with the four years of Cap Stubbs strips that they had missed after the Courier had dropped the feature.

"'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for Geo. Matthew Adams Svc., March 8, 1926

Cap was a sometimes ornery boy who got into minor trouble every so often, always with his dog by his side. A girl friend of his appeared in the strip from time to time, but Cap was a bit young to have a girlfriend. The women in his house figured more prominently than his father, mostly because they were around the house most of the time and Milt Stubbs had a job somewhere.

"'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for Geo. Matthew Adams Service, March 18, 1926

You may have noticed that the credit line for Cap Stubbs was always "By Edwina." That was certainly intentional, and she kept it that way throughout her career. 

Dumm was not the only woman cartoonist in the 1920's, as remarkable as her accomplishment was. Fay King was perhaps the most famous in the day; Juanita Hamel and Nell Brinkley drew stylish panels for newspapers' "Women's Page"; Barbara Shermund achieved fame as the "flapper cartoonist" for several popular magazines; and Virginia Huget would be the artist behind the comic adaptation of  Anita Loos's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" debuting on June 7, 1926.

"'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for Geo. Matthew Adams Service, March 31, 1926

Tippie didn't have much to do in these strips from 100 years ago. He didn't speak, you can't read his thoughts, and he didn't fantasize about flying a Sopwith Camel in World War I. He pretty much just followed Cap around on his adventures.

"'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for Geo. M. Adams Service, March 29, 1926

Dumm's strip was a Monday-through-Saturday feature to begin with. Once a Sunday color comic was added in 1934, the additional newspaper real estate opened up more opportunities for Tippie to take center stage.

"Tippie and 'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for Geo. M. Adams Service, March 29, 1956

Eventually, Tippie got top billing in Edwina Dumm's strip. Even if the basic gags had similar premises.

"Tippie and 'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for Geo. M. Adams Svc., March 31, 1956

Although apparently the dog wanted to go to Washington D.C. for some reason.

Meanwhile, in 1931, Dumm launched another canine-centric cartoon feature, "Alec the Great," a one-column-wide drawing of a little puppy (very similar to the later, shaggier Tippie) over quaint little couplets written by her brother Robert. The Miami Herald introduced it to readers in 1936: 

"Alec the Great is a puppy. A rollicking happy-go-lucky, awkward pup that steals his way into your heart, and makes you want to cuddle him or give him a piece of hamburger and a pat on the head. Alec is waiting to welcome you on the editorial page of the Herald. He's a regular there."

"Alec the Great" by Edwina & Robert Dumm for Geo. M. Adams Svc., March 29, 1936

The Herald was one of several papers that used "Alec the Great" to break up the type on their otherwise gray editorial page; other papers relegated it to the classified ads for the same purpose.

"Alec the Great" by Edwina & Robert Dumm for Geo. M. Adams Svc., March 30, 1936

As if Tippie and Alec the Great weren't enough, Dumm also contributed cartoons about a dog named Sinbad to Life magazine. If it's Sinbad in this 1929 cartoon, it was before a readers' contest gave him a name.

"Gee, I'm So Hungry, I Could Eat a Sandwich Man" by Edwina Dumm in Life, Jan. 18, 1929

Here's Sinbad, and I have to say he looks mighty familiar. So does Grandma.

"Sinbad/I'm Sorry" by Edwina Dumm in Life, Aug. 8, 1930

Edwina Dumm never married. When she first moved to New York, she roomed with and collaborated with singer-composer Helen Thomas, and you can a make of that (and "The Meanderings of Minnie") what you will. Living in New York has never been inexpensive. 

She retired from cartooning Tippie and Alec in 1966.

The last installment of "Tippie and 'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dunn for Washington Star Syndicate, Sept. 3, 1966

Inducted into the National Cartoonists Society in 1950, she received the Gold Key Award from the NCS Hall of Fame in 1987, the first of only two women to receive this honor. (The other was Bunny Hoest of "The Lockhorns," in 2013.)

Edwina Dumm died in New York on April 27, 1990, at age 96.

Happy Valentoons Day

Our Graphical History Tour has been wrapped up in scandal and death lately, so it's time to lighten up a little bit. Let's check out what love notes the cartoonists had in store for their readers on Valentine's Day 100 years ago, when my grandparents were newlyweds!

"St. Valentine's Day" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Gazette, Feb. 14, 1924

And fortunately for me, they all abstained from the jakeloo new divorce craze sweeping their generation.

"To Our Valentines" by Rube Goldberg for McNaught Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

I don't know what 1920's-ese is for "snark," but Rube Goldberg has plenty of it in his Valentine. It is, however, a wonderful study in fashion styles of the time.

I tried looking up the phrase "the alligator's vest," coming up mostly with advertisements for actual alligator-skin vests, and a zillion posts of the following Dad Joke:

Q. What do you call an alligator in a vest?
A. An investigator!

Let us now get back to the topic at hand. Quickly.

"A Few Valentines We'd Like to Deliver" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., Feb. 14, 1924

Good gosh, such violence! Smith's was not the only "Outbursts of Everett True" sort of Valentines Day cartoon I came across while gathering today's assortment. What on earth had these cartoonists so cranky? Was this really what Valentines Day was all about in the heart of the Roaring '20's?

"The Leap Year Valentine" by Charles H. Kuhn in Indianapolis News, Feb. 14, 1924

American editorial cartoonists must have used up their Sadie Hawkins ideas earlier in the year (see John McCutcheon's and Sam Armstrong's cartoons back in January); Chas. Kuhn's valentine for Mr. Voter from Miss Presidential Year Politics is the sole example I ran across published on February 14 that year.

"Those Coolidge Valentines" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, Feb. 14, 1924

Carey Orr crams a front-page's worth of headline news into his Valentine's Day offering, from Teapot Dome and tax cuts and federal farm aid to dunning European nations in debt to the U.S.

"A Valentine" by Thomas E. Powers for Star Company, Feb. 14, 1924

But enough of politics! Valentine's Day is a day for l'amour (And a famous massacre, but not for a few years yet.)

"Somebody's Valentine" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, Feb. 14, 1924

Leaving politics, scandals, vamps, and divorces behind, many of the Valentines Day cartoons in 1924 celebrated the early pangs of love experienced by pre-teen lotharios. We lead off with the most straight-forward of the bunch, by Magnus Kettner, a well-established cartoonist who supplied his syndicate's mostly rural papers with a choice of political cartoons and homey, nostalgic stuff as this. 

By the way, how strange that Kettner didn't finish drawing the house in the background — only the overhang continues to the right of that tree!

"A St. Valentine's Day We'll Never Forget" by Bob Satterfield for Bonnet Brown Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

Bob Satterfield's work used to appear regularly in these century retrospectives when he drew editorial cartoons; but 1924, he was focusing instead on gag cartoons and strips. The above cartoon was part of his "Days We'll Never Forget" series for Bonnet Brown Syndicate. Before long, he dropped the panel in favor of a strip, "The Family Next Door," which lasted less than two years. 

Bonnet Brown Syndicate would be a casualty of the Great Depression, going bankrupt and out of business in 1933.

"Life's Darkest Moment" by Harold T. Webster for New York Tribune Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

H.T. Webster was considerably more successful with (and dedicated to) his series of panel cartoons, which regularly cycled the themes "Life's Darkest Moment," "The Thrill That Comes Once in a Lifetime," "How to Torture Your Wife/Husband," and "The Timid Soul." For that last one, he created the character Caspar Milquetoast, who was spun off into a very early television series and whose surname entered the English vernacular.

"Gee Whiz Junior" by William Holman for New York Tribune Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

Here's something that has been missing from the last several cartoons: the object of Gee Whiz Jr.'s affection actually has a name!

"Gee Whiz Junior" was one of Bill Holman's many short-lived attempts at creating a comic strip before he eventually hit the big time with Smokey Stover (1935-1972). You young whippersnappers may never have heard of Smokey Stover, but some of you might appreciate that he was the OG Foo Fighter.

I did want to make sure to include the woman's point of view today. Failing to find Valentines Day cartoons by Fay King or Juanita Hamel, here's a woman's point of view of a little boy's point of view:

"'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for George Matthew Adams Service, Feb. 14, 1924

Sticking with the women but returning to the adults' table, Nell Brinkley ends up more interested in expressing some fella's viewpoint than a woman's:

"His Saint Valentine" by Nell Brinkley for International Feature Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

"Saint Valentine was a gentleman," Brinkley begins, "a venerable man, in those gone days when bright St. Valentine's Day used to be taken so seriously that men did battle under their loves' windows... But Bill's Saint of Valentine's Day is a girl. ...

"'I don't believe in men-angels, anyway,' says Bill, as he ties to his offering of dark, fragrant, purple violets, his name with his love and his hope. 'Angels are girls. I know my Saint Valentine is a girl — all girl.'"

"Pop" by Gaar Williams in Chicago Tribune, Feb. 14, 1924

And just like that, we're back to the menfolk. Perhaps this anxious fellow in Gaar Williams's cartoon explains why some of the cartoonists at the top of today's post were in such a foul mood over the holiday.

"Gasoline Alley" by Frank King for Chicago Tribune Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

Finally, of special note to classic cartoon fans, Valentines Day 1921 was the day that infant Skeezix was left on Walt Wallet's doorstep, creating a family saga out of a strip that up to then had been entirely devoted to men and their jalopies. Over the years, Skeezix grew up, married, and had children and grandchildren of his own.

Because of the forced homogenization of newspaper comic pages by Gannett, McClatchy, Lee, and the other (aptly named) chains, you probably can't find "Gasoline Alley" in your local newspaper — even the Chicago Tribune doesn't run it any more — but 103-year-old Skeezix and 130-ish Walt are still out there on line.

Back to School, 1922 Style

I had intended to publish this Graphical History Tour last week, but then Mikhail Gorbachev up and died, so I had to post cartoons about him instead. So here, with apologies to the British royal family for not coming up with a collection of QEII toons, is my 1922 Back to School tribute.

"Freckles and His Friends" by Merrill Blosser for NEA, Sept. 5, 1922

Freckles must have been utterly oblivious to the passage of time that summer if he somehow was completely unaware of the start of the school year. I could see him forgetting about it if he were just entering kindergarten, but he's obviously a year or two into schoolboydom if he views going to school as "Just Like Going to Jail."

From the look of things, he's getting the school year off on the wrong foot. The school bell is ringing, and he's at least a quarter mile away. Pop's was not a generation whose cars lined up for blocks dropping off and picking up their younguns at school.

"Life's Little Tragedies" by Alfred "Zere" Ablitzer in New York Evening Post, Sept. 9, 1922

Yeah, kid, go ahead and blame it on the dog.

"'Cap' Stubs" by Edwina Dumm for George Matthew Adams Service, Sept. 5, 1922

Mutts have feelings, too, you know.

"Aw―Gee Whiz" by Gaar Williams in Chicago Tribune, August 27, 1922

With the end of summer, the rest of these schoolboys, unlike Freckles McGoosey, were well aware of their impending doom. The lad in Gaar Williams's cartoon may try to hide, but he won't be able to hold his breath underwater long enough to do much but make his own self late for the bell.

"The Hardest Part" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Association, ca. August 30, 1922

As you have probably noticed, these cartoons are all about boys. Girls went to school, too, but they apparently didn't grow up to draw cartoons about it. 

"'Cap' Stubs" by Edwina Dumm for George Matthew Adams Service, Aug. 28, 1922

Even in Edwina Dunn's strip, the girls are peripheral characters — like Violet and Patty, or Susie Derkins, or Katie Franklin. (As we discussed last March, Cap, too, would also be relegated to the margins as Tippie the Dog took over the strip.)

"Another Strike Possibility" by Terry Gilkison for Autocaster, ca. August 18, 1922

Reluctant schoolboys are already a cliché in 1922, so let's turn to a cartoon that made an extra effort to be timely. Terry Gilkison references here the months-long and contentious strikes by coal miners and railway workers in his back-to-school cartoon.

By the time my generation was matriculating, teacher strikes were no longer the stuff of a kid's fanciful imagination. For a while, teachers in my school district were going on strike just about every other year. A strike during my senior year lasted nearly two months; when it was over, the district had to add several Saturdays and the entire month of June to the school year in order to meet the state-mandated minimum number of school days. (We seniors got to graduate on schedule so that those of us going to college could meet their deadlines for sending in our graduation records. Everyone else had to go to school for three more weeks.)

"The Days of Real Sport" by Clare Briggs in New York Tribune, August 17, 1922

School has not been the only option for older kids, then or now, as illustrated by this Clare Briggs cartoon. For some people, an early entry into the workforce is the right answer. Ma and Pa do not believe that Malcolm here is one of those people, and are old enough to remember a time when many kids Malcolm's age had been in the workforce for years.

(Malcolm, for that matter, is old enough to remember those days, too; even if he didn't personally know anyone in that situation.)

"The Road to Success" by John Knott in Galveston Daily News, September 12, 1922

John Knott's Mr. J.H. Wisdom would give Malcolm the same advice as his parents.

And not just to boys like Freckles, Cap, and Malcolm:

"School Authorities Report..." by John Knott in Galveston Daily News, Sept. 25, 1922

Now, I'm putting together something for next Saturday already, so nobody important gets to die next week, okay?

The Ladies Who Sketch

In celebration of Women's History Month, howzabout we check out some examples of women cartoonists of the 1920's?

from Cartoons Magazine, August, 1921

Cartooning has long had a reputation for being a male-dominated business, probably because of all those men hunched over drawing boards, but there have always been women among the ink-stained wretches. And not just to clean up after them.

Fay King was one of the most prominent of the bunch. She launched her career at the Denver Post at the age of 23 in 1912, drawing a regular cartoon panel and interviewing celebrities. A celebrity in her own right, her 1916 divorce from boxer and small-town mayor Oscar "Battling" Nelson was in all the papers.

"Flu Stories" by Fay King in San Francisco Call, 1918

King wasn't shy about appearing in her own cartoons; that's her caricature of herself peeking in from the side of the frame in this cartoon during the "Spanish flu" epidemic of 1918-19.

"Women Now read Newspapers" by Fay King, May 1, 1928

Nor was she shy about self-promotion; her name appeared prominently in the headline over her cartoons. (And there she is again at the newspaper stand.) She wrote articles to accompany her cartoons – or maybe it was the other way around — letting everyone know what Fay King observed, advised, remarked or said.

"Women Made Valentino Noted" by Fay King, 1926

Think she forgot to include herself in this cartoon? Nope. There she is, right next to her signature. 

Perhaps it will surprise you to learn that there was a select society of other women who, like King, found in cartooning a "promising and lasting success for women." I'm sure King was not being desperate for company when she explained in the above advertisement for Federal School of Illustrating and Cartooning: 

"It does not matter if she gets to weigh 200 pounds, has three chins and fat ankles. While her work meets with popular demand, she can continue as long as her ability and ideas hold out."

"Cap Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for George Matthew Adams Service, March 11, 1922

Edwina Dumm started her daily comic strip, "Cap Stubbs" in 1918 after a few short-lived cartoon projects. This cartoon, however, lasted until 1966. Along the way, Tippie the dog was added to the strip's name, then got top billing, and eventually Cap's name was dropped from the strip title. 

"Cap Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm, March 16, 1922

Trade publication The Fourth Estate paid Dumm, who signed her strip with her first name, this clumsy compliment in their May 7, 1921 issue:

When “Edwina’s” identity is revealed to anybody who has studied her comic strip, the usual comment is: “Impossible! A girl couldn’t draw such a good strip about boys and dogs!” “Edwina” has been drawing ever since she was a child. Although she has just passed her twenty-second birthday, she has had a great deal of newspaper experience, as her comic strip “Cap” Stubbs, featuring the funny dog “Tippie,” has been syndicated for several years by the George Matthew Adams Service and has appeared in newspapers all over the country. 

"Cinderella's Dream" by Juanita Hamel for Newspapers Features Service Inc., March 18, 1922

A female cartoonist drawing about a little boy and his dog may indeed have raised eyebrows a century ago. What those eyebrows had been expecting were cartoons like the ones Juanita Hamel drew for the "Women's Features Page" of major newspapers: romantic fantasies and other heart-tugging fare told here in a single panel above a very short story.

"Mother's Memory Babies" by Juanita Hamel, Dec. 14, 1921

Hamel started her career at the St. Louis Times and Chicago Herald before getting syndicated by Newspapers Features Service out of New York. "Frequently I have been asked how I happened to take up art," she told an interviewer in 1923. "As a matter of fact, art took me up. I was raised in an atmosphere of art. I remember the work done by my grandmother — paintings of the Civil War time, with the atmosphere of real romance, and this with the stories of adventure and hardships endured by the pioneers of the middle west imbued me with the desire to paint."

"The Triumph of the Green-Eyed Monster" by Nell Brinkley for International Features Service Inc., Jan. 1, 1921

If romanticism isn't your thing, Nell Brinkley here gives us an example of another topic open to the fairer sex: Sunday School morality tales. "Poor little Dan" in this story, pays the price for entrusting his safety to two adults and their pet dragon, Jealousy. 

Brinkley drew romantic vignettes, too, of course. But perhaps she was in a particularly foul mood that day.

This second cartoon topped a full-page story by Brinkley.

"Four Things Too Wonderful" by Nell Brinkley in New York American, Aug. 29, 1926

In addition to the ladies shown above, notable women cartoonists of the early decades of the 20th Century included Emma Gordon, Ethel Hays, Virginia Huget, Alice McKee, Lou Rogers, Eleanor Schorer, Edith Stevens, and Dorothy Urfer. Trina Robbins, author of The Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists of the Jazz Age, observes: 

“There’s this myth that women didn’t draw comics or that they had to change their names; this is untrue. If you were good, they published you. Women were drawing comics and people loved them. Just as many women read newspapers as men, and the editors were smart enough to carry the strips the women liked.”

✍

P.S.: The New York Times yesterday printed a very belated obituary for "flapper cartoonist" Barbara Shermund (1899-1978), whose cartoons appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, the original Life, Colliers, and Pictorial Review. Definitely worth a look-see.