Heads up! The Levine Museum of the New South, located on Seventh Street here in uptown Charlotte, will be opening its new exhibit "Comic Stripped: A Revealing Look At Southern Stereotypes In Comics" on Saturday, September 8. Shelton and fellow blogger Andy Mansell consulted with the exhibit's curator, Dr. Tom Hanchett, and helped put the museum in touch with some of our local cartoonists, including Dennis the Menace's Marcus Hamilton and Gasoline Alley's Jim Scancarelli. The exhibit will cover a host of Southern-inflected cartoons, including Doug Marlette's Kudzu, Walt Kelly's Pogo, Al Capp's Lil Abner, and much more. Marcus will be giving a lecture, there'll be food and music on hand, and much more--don't miss it! More information available on the Levine Museum's website.
7 comments:
Gotta see this! Love me some Lil' Abner and the Shmoo!
I'm going to make a bold statement. I like Snuffy Smith. I miss it. It reminds me of my Poppa.
I'm interested in what will be in this exhibit that isn't as well known!
I was lucky enough to be a (very small)part of the creation of this exhibit and it looks like it will be great. Dr. Tom has a genuine fondness and respect for comics. His vision for the project and his choices in strips for the exhibit are dead on. Bring the family!!
Snuffy Smith? Oh, Shawn...
I like Snuffy Smith, too. I used to it as a kid--I didn't realize how good the art was until I was much older, but even as a kid I would puzzle out their weird speech. The language in Snuffy Smith is almost like the grotesque characters in Dick Tracy.
Most grew up with the gag-a-day Snuff Smith from the pen of Fred Lasswell. Originally Snuffy and crew were introduced in a long sequence in Barney Google where Billy DeBeck-- the strips creator-- brought Barney Google out to the mountains. Well, they caught on like a house afire and soon Barney Google-- one of the most popular characters from the 20s all but disappeared from the strip. Then Snuffy joined the Navy during WWII.
Both DeBeck and Laswell have a genuine affection for the characters that makes all the difference in the tone of the strip and the success of the images. The older we get the Smith's become more appealing while the cynical and oft times mean spirited Lil' Abner does not.
Thanks for listening
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