The Art of the Funnies: An Aesthetic History (Studies in Popular Culture) [Paperback]

Robert C. Harvey (Author)

Book Description

Series: Studies in Popular Culture | Publication Date: July 1, 1994

This work examines the comic strip throughout its history for the elements that make cartoons one of the most appealing of the popular arts. The comic strip was created by rival newspapers as a device in their circulation battles. It quickly established itself as not only an effective device, but also as an institution that soon spread to newspapers world-wide. This historical study unfolds the history of the funnies and reveals the subtle art of how the strips blend word and pictures to make their impact. The book also unearths new information and weighs the influence of syndication upon the medium. Milestones in the art of cartooning featured include: Mutt and Jeff, Dick Tracy, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Popeye, Krazy Kat, and others. More recent classics are also included, such as Peanuts, Tumbleweeds, Doonesbury and Calvin and Hobbes.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

"A cartoonist," writes Harvey, "is a kind of one-man band...scriptwriter and story editor, casting director and camera operator, prop man and make-up artist...producer and director and actor and actress." Harvey examines the newspaper comic strip cartoonist in all these roles, tracing the history of strips in the United States from the early 1900s-when they were employed by Hearst and Pulitzer as weapons in the circulation wars-to the World War II action adventures of Terry and the Pirates, the satirical humor of Walt Kelly's Pogo, and popular contemporary strips such as Calvin and Hobbes. A cartoonist himself, as well as a lifelong student of the comics, Harvey has formulated precise standards for judging comic strips-standards that emphasize the importance of a skillful combination of both visual and verbal elements. Highly recommended for both academic and public libraries. (Color illustrations not seen.)-Janice Zlendich, California State Univ. Lib., Fullerton
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

Exploration of the comic strip for elements that make the funnies one of the most appealing of the popular arts

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (July 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878056742
• ISBN-13: 978-0878056743
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,376,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book, July 27, 2007

By 

Ian Gordon (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of the Funnies: An Aesthetic History (Studies in Popular Culture) (Paperback)

In his seminal 1979 essay "The Aesthetics of the Comic Strips" ( in the Journal of Popular Culture) Robert Harvey argued that serious critical discussion of comics required an articulated theory of comic aesthetics. This volume, which opens with a reworked version of that essay, offers a history of comic strip art that flows from Harvey's two main premises:

1. Comics are unique in the way they "weave word and picture together to achieve narrative purpose" (p. 9).

2. The criteria for evaluating comic strips can be found in the history of the form because artists gave different ingredients of the form their finest expression in the "great" strips (pp. 11-12).

Although The Art of the Funnies covers many of the same artists as Richard Marschall's America's Great Comic-Strip Artists (Abbeville Press)- the usual suspects McCay, Herriman, Segar, Raymond, Caniff, and the rest - Harvey explains why and how individual strips were great. For instance, Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates stands out as much for Caniff's witty counterpoising of images and text as it does for his use of chiaroscuro techniques. One of the strengths of Harvey's account is that he draws his explanation out of the comic strips he reproduces in the volume rather than expecting his audience to acknowledge intrinsically that his favorite artists are great.

Harvey's careful argumentation sets him apart from other comic strip commentators. Whereas other writers seem to engage in conjecture and flights of fancy Harvey footnotes the sources for his opinions and explains his logic. I also find it refreshing to read a work on comics in which, as far as I can tell from my own research, every date is correct. Another of Harvey's accomplishments is to extend the social context in which comics developed beyond the usual accounts about the growth of newspaper chains and features syndicates. He cites the importance of copyright laws and the maturation of consumerism in the 1920s as crucial factors that shaped comic strips. Harvey's attention to these sorts of details make his book a convincing read.

The aesthetic sensibilities Harvey brings to his readings of comic strips made me wish he had tackled the issue of caricature and racial stereotypes in comic art. He briefly touches on this subject when discussing Mort Walker's introduction of a black character to Beetle Bailey, but a fuller examination seems in order. Martin Barker, in his Comics: Ideology, Power, & The Critics (Manchester University Press), dismissed comic art stereotypes as a non issue in a field where all representation is caricature, but a fuller discussion of this issue seems warranted. To return to Caniff what can we make of the Chinese sidekick Connie's language and visual representation compared to the mysterious sexuality of the other major Chinese character, the Dragon Lady. Harvey's suggestion that the strip's reader wanted sexy oriental women, and by extension Yellow Kid like Chinese cooks, and that presenting these characters gave the strip greater verisimilitude deserves further exploration.

I have two minor quibbles with Harvey. First I think a work of history should be written in the past tense and he slips into present tense for dramatic effect on too many occasions. Second, he suggests that the comic strip in America achieved a form and importance it did not attain elsewhere. While comics may have achieved such a status in America before they did in other countries, the French, British, Japanese, and Australians would have trouble with this statement.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peddlers and Poets Abound, May 26, 2000

By 

Ryan R Buck - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of the Funnies: An Aesthetic History (Studies in Popular Culture) (Hardcover)

Once again R.C. Harvey has laid bare the skeletal structure of what makes comics a truly great medium of personal expression and artistic accomplishment. His insightful and often poignant anecdotes help bring the casual comics reader to a level of deeper appreciation and reverence for what many people regard as "kids stuff".

Most touching is his examination of George Herriman in Chapter 10. His ability so see beyond the surface "gags" and expose the boundless themes of love and pain truly make Herriman the metaphysical poet that Harvey titles him. Harvey's own observations are particualrly powerful and coalesque into not just an observation on the art of the funnies or the medium of comics in general, but serve as a reminder that all art is a personel expression and that these "comics" can be a bridge to a deeper understanding of human nature and American society.