Neill Newspapers

Here are a couple more early newspaper pages by John R. Neill, published in the Philadelphia North American in 1902.

The first is a simple carousel scene, with ink paints at the bottom of the page. These can be used with a damp brush for coloring the image - less messy than pulling out the paint pots! Another of this style of page can be seen on the Hungry Tiger Press blog here.

This particular page was to be used for a painting contest that the paper was running. There seem to have been contests every week in the comics - another good example is the "What Did the Woggle Bug Say" contest which ran with the Queer Visitors From the Land of Oz comics in 1904 - 1905.

The second page is a variation on this painting idea. For this, you just use a damp brush on the images themselves and the moistened ink colors the page. Some of the blue ink color can be seen on the cat and one of the figures.

This page is also interesting as a very clear example of the ethnic stereotypes that were so common and accepted at the turn of the last century - of course many are still with us, although perhaps not always depicted quite so graphically in the Sunday paper!