The Tradition of no Tradition

This chapter explores the origins of Israeli comics, with a particular focus on three early women comics creators: Leah Goldberg, Friedel Stern, and Elisheva Nadal. It then explores the work of three influential artists from the 1970s-1980s: Dudu Geva, Uri Fink, and Michel Kichka. It then describes Modan's entry into comics, including her army service, her training at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, her first newspaper comics, and her short-lived editorship of Israeli Mad magazine.

Gary Larson and The Far Side

This book explores Gary Larson’s unlikely career as the creator of the groundbreaking, syndicated panel cartoon, The Far Side. To help contemporary readers understand the controversial qualities and cultural significance of Larson’s work, the author recreates the historical context in which The Far Side first emerged: the early 1980s when “family-friendly” mainstream mediums like the newspaper comics page were largely intolerant of alternative worldviews or irreverent brands of comedy. As a self-taught cartooning auteur with a morbid sense of humor and subversively scientific perspective on life, Larson resisted or bypassed most of the established rules about “appropriate” art and comedy on the Funnies Page. That independence allowed him to introduce a set of innovative aesthetic devices, comedic tones, and philosophical frames that challenged and delighted many readers, while upsetting and confusing others. In sum, this book reminds old fans and new readers of the ways that Larson’s iconoclastic work and career effectively broadened the culture’s palate for alternative comedy, profoundly shaping the worldviews and comedic sensibilities of a generation of cartoonists, comedy writers and every day readers.

Performing ‘Jiggs’: Irish Caricature and Comedic Ambivalence toward Assimilation and the American Dream in George McManus's Bringing Up Father

Many fans and scholars of newspaper comics have observed that an excellent way to chart a social history of American culture in the twentieth century is to look at the mainstream comic strip page. This may be especially true of the first half of the twentieth century when comic strips were avidly followed by readers from almost all age, class, and ethnic demographics. Because of this breadth of popularity, the comics page was a fairly accurate reflector (and occasionally, shaper) of fashions, fads, humor, politics, and racial prejudices. Early cartoonists' ability to place their fingers on the American pulse can largely be attributed to the industry's eagerness to please readers: as a lowbrow entertainment that targeted broad audiences through street corner sales, and later, national syndication, it tried to anticipate the characters, comedy, and ideological content that would attract and retain devoted readers. A few iconoclastic cartoonists such as Al Capp (Li'l Abner) and George Herriman (Krazy Kat) challenged readers with topical satire or appealed to niche audiences with quirky humor and aesthetics; but even the most innovative work in the medium relied on a sort of call and response between core readers, syndicates, editors, and artists—a back and forth that insured that the cartoonist's work resonated with, or spoke for, its fans.