Wednesday, June 3, 2009

My early dreams of becoming an artist

Here are some of the ads that used to intrigue me when I was a kid. I don't remember responding to any of them but the idea of becoming an artist, especially a comic book artist, was always on my mind. My mother was very supportive and my dad thought I was nuts. Some of my favorite comic books were Blue Bolt, Action Comics and Jumbo Comics. A few of the artists that I admired were Simon and Kirby, Lou Fine, Will Eisner and Fred Guardineer.

32-2 Old Ads
Just what is a lightning trick cartoonist ?

32-3 Draw Me
Yes, I drew her many times but never sent my drawings in.

32-4 Frogs
Here's another funny ad from the same era. Did anyone ever make a fortune raising two pound bullfrogs ?
I used to draw a daily comic strip for the kids in my grade school class. Here are a couple of surviving pages of THE BATTLE OF THE PLANETS.

32-5 Battle of P 1941 A

32-6 Battle of P 1941 B

2 comments:

Vince A said...

I have seen those 'learn to draw' ads in Superman comics (1970s). But since we were not in the US, I never wrote to them.

Do you recall what grade you were in when you drew those strips? I also drew comic strips in grade school, and my drawings were WAY better than yours! :-)

Harry Borgman said...

Hi Vince,
I think I found those old ads in a 1935 Popular Mechanics magazine. I drew those comic strips when I was around 12 or 13 years old, I don't recall what grade I was in. You're right, they are pretty bad. Thanks for checking out my blog.
Harry