The Mysterious Brownies: Calling All Comic Art Historians!

This Christmas I was given an unusual gift by my Brother's partner, Lauren. It was a framed color drawing of odd little people helping children learn how to read. A fitting gift for a librarian! Apparently it had been in Lauren's family for awhile, and she said her Mother told her those little people were Brownies.

I saw that some backing tape was eating at the paper, and could tell the drawing was from out of a book. So I removed the frame and found on the reverse side that the little guys were indeed Brownies, just like Lauren said:

When to the seaside off you go

The Brownies will come too, I know;

They'll take you in the sea, no doubt,

And laugh to see you splash about.

On the color page, note that two Brownies have numbers attached to their hats.

I'd love to know the source book for this. Is this by Palmer Cox? Somehow it looks too primitive to be his work, but I could be wrong. One could argue that the two images are by different illustrators, the line drawing being much less polished.

Hopefully I am giving you comic art scholars out there a nice mystery to solve.

Brownies, along with elves, trolls, and fairies, were part of the mythology I grew up hearing stories about. But we knew it was all make believe. Sasquatch, however, was another matter.

Christmas, ca. 1964

Thanksgiving is over, let the Seasons Greetings greetings begin!

I found this large tempera painting on butcher paper in my studio yesterday. I'm guessing this was created about 1964. Santa and an elf are trying to move a stubborn reindeer in the snow. It is no accident the reindeer looks a little bit like a Shetland pony, since at that time we had a herd of about 70 ponies (mostly Shetland, some New Forest) on the family farm.

End of the Earth and Turn Left

This jam with Clint Hollingsworth was published by him under the Kage Comics label in Pullman, Washington, 1986 (I know, I know, the copyright statement says 1985, but it wasn't printed until 1986). I believe he only printed 50 copies in enlarged digest size.

I first met Clint when he was an employee of Kinkos in Pullman. I had seen one of his comics for sale in a comics shop in neighboring Moscow, Idaho and tracked him down as the only other self-publishing cartoonist in the area at the time. He was active in martial arts and his comic art reflected this interest. Clint later found a job with Washington State University, where I worked, and we sent this jam back and forth through inter-campus courier. I enjoyed visiting with him and having the opportunity to talk with another cartoonist in person while living at the left turn at the End of the Earth.

Today Clint lives in the central part of our state and, I'm happy to report, is still very active in drawing. I see by this link we share having an abundance of cats.

Trivia:

Page 5: I love the old eye poke.

Page 9: Those of us who were raised in the Puget Sound area used to joke about the "Aroma of Tacoma." In fact, once when I was a little kid we were going up to Seattle on Highway 99 and as we drove through Tacoma I announced, "I didn't do it!" But since the paper mills and other industries have vanished or cleaned up their act in the past couple decades, the aroma is almost gone.

Page 10: Leavenworth, Washington is Clint's hometown.

Page 16, panel 1: Paraphrases from Camus and Sartre in this feelgood comic of the year.

Page 22, panel 6: Ignatz! George Herriman was one of my cartoonist heroes.

Page 24: Clint is making a reference to a then recently published jam I had with Brad Foster called One Normal Guy Talking With a Nut.

Page 25: "Use as tool for evil plan!" They just don't make sound effects in comix like that anymore.

Page 27: Actually I really did like Pullman. Working at WSU wasn't all that wonderful, however. And yes, being born in Spokane, I am a native of Eastern Washington.

Page 38, panel 4: Although I really hate it whenever this happens, I must say this bit by Clint is one of my favorite panels in the whole comic.

Inside back cover. A little plug for Will Shetterly. We regarded him as one of us independent press guys. In 1985-1986 Will was really becoming well known and we were excited to see one of our own make it big. I still have my signed copy of Will's first book, Cats Have No Lord, which considering the title makes Will's "Viva Morty" inscription sort of ironic!