dr_hermes (dr_hermes) wrote in scans_daily, @ 2009-06-19 20:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | era: golden age |
Screwed by the Syndicate
LI'L ABNER never drew me in. Some of the concepts were imaginative, and several of the characters have an iconic status, but the writing always seemed mean-spirited and unpleasant to me. The strip left a bad aftertaste mentally, which is too bad, since I can see a lot of good ideas in it. Anyway, see if this 1947 sequence showing two cartoonists being misused by the Squeezeblood Syndicate don't remind you of Siegel and Shuster. It's not something fans necessarily see, but the writing and drawing are only half of the comics trade; there's a good deal of wheeling and dealing, manuevering and scheming going on if the creators are ever going to make a living. And it's seldom fair. A lot of minimally-talented people have been well-off because they knew how to haggle (Bob Kane might be a good example), while some artistic geniuses never got their fair share (Jack Kirby comes to mind).