Denslow's Par-lor Pets

In 1907 and 1908 W. W. Denslow produced a series of comic drawings, illustrating verses written by Dudley A. Bragdon. These are collectively known as the Par-lor Pets series, and the individual panels comment on the various objectionable behaviors of guests. They were published in the Sunday Magazine, a weekly newspaper supplement that was syndicated and issued with a number of papers around the country. Denslow and Bragdon had previously collaborated on the book Billy Bounce, in 1906.

I have found ten examples of the comic on the Library of Congress Chronicling America website. I'm not certain if it is the entire series, but it seems like a good round number that could be a complete set. These ten pieces were published from November 24, 1907 to June 21st, 1908; they were not issued weekly, but vary from month to month. Some months feature one cartoon, others two, and May of 1908 doesn't seem to have any!

(In the comments below, Michael Gessel mentions that Doug Greene catalogued 12 examples from this series - I've since found the examples for July 12 and Sept 6, and included them with the others.)

The series is numbered from I to X, with the subtitle "Extract from Ill Nature Studies", and they were published in numerical order. Click on the images to read the complete text.

 

November 24, 1907 is The Parlor Thanksgiving Turkey:

Oh, look and see! Whom have we here

With coun-te-nance so smirk-y?

He's saying grace. Of course you've guessed.

'Tis a Thanks-giv-ing Tur-key

December 8, 1907 is The Par-lor Li-on:

Oh! see the gen-tle Par-lor Li-on!

Ob-serve his taw-ny mane!

For our de-light he opes his mouth

And roars and roars a-gain.

Jan 5, 1908 is The Par-lor Kit-ten:

The Par-lor Kit-ten next we see.

Ob-serve her cun-ning pose!

What do I think that she’ll do next?

My dear, no-bod-y knows.

January 19, 1908 is The Par-lor Bore:

Of all the beasts that roam the room

Be-ware the Par-lor Bore;

He stalks the so-cial jun-gle and

He lurks be-hind the door;

 

February 16, 1908 is the Par-lor Owl:

 

What is this bird that looks so wise?

Pray name this won-drous fowl

In yon-der sol-emn bird you see

The fa-mous Par-lor Owl.

March 15, 108 is The Par-lor Clam:

 

Ob-serve the silent Par-lor Clam

In clam-my calm-ness sit-ting.

Al-though 'tis sel-fish to be so

A shell-fish fit is fit-ting. 

March 22, 1908 is The Par-lor Bear:

 

Pray note with care the snarl-ing beast

That sulks in yon-der chair;

That fierce out-rage-ous an-i-mal.

So called The Par-lor Bear.

 

April 12, 1908 is The Par-lor Pig:

 

Oh! see the pant-ing Par-lor Pig!

Ob-serve his tense ex-pres-sion! 

How val-iant-ly he fights to lead

The din-ing room pro-ces-sion!

 

April 26, 1908 is The Par-lor Pup-py:

 

Oh see the Par-lor Pup-py! He

Is mouth-ing some one's glove.

He'll steal it if he gets the chance,–

We call that "Pup-py Love."

 

June 21, 1908 is The Par-lor-Fer-ret:

 

Be-hold the Par-lor Fer-ret! See

His black and bead-y eye!

At dig-ging bur-ied scan-dal up

He-s cun-ning, sharp and sly. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As far as I know, this was the last of the series; it even features portraits of Denslow and Bragdon as the two gentlemen fleeing the room!

Below are the two missing episodes mentioned in the comment section:

July 12, 1908 is The Par-lor Shark:

Ob-serve the Wall Street Par-lor Shark -

You won-der what he's say-ing?

Don't spec-u-late on what he says

Be-cause I'm sure he's prey-ing.

September 6 is The Par-lor Cat:

 

Ob-serve the Par-lor Cat my child.

And when you chance to meet her

Be care-ful not to cross her path,

Be care-ful how you greet her.

I recently purchased the original drawing for the fifth pet of the series, The Par-lor Owl. It's possible to think of the Owl as another self-portrait of Denslow, with its parted hair and walrus mustache. Perhaps he identified with this particular pet!

 

As with so much antique illustration art, this piece has some condition issues; but it's a fine large example of Denslow's bold style from that period. The panel measures 15" x 15".

Denslow's Red Riding Hood

In December 1902, the comic section of The New York Herald published four adaptations of classic stories, rewritten and illustrated by W. W Denslow. These would be the genesis for the series of Denslow's Picture Books for Children, which were published by Charles Dillingham in 1903 and 1904.

Among these first stories was Little Red Riding Hood, adapted in poetic form and revised to eliminate horrors - in this case, Grandma subdues the wolf and he becomes as tame as a pet dog. This idea of eliminating nightmares from stories for children was common to both Denslow and L. Frank Baum; Baum writes of this concept in the introduction to his modern fairy tale, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. As to how successful they were at achieving their goal is another question! 

At any rate, here is an original piece of the artwork from this story. Red Riding Hood is seated in a high chair as the newly domesticated Wolf begs for a treat. Various traces of preliminary pencil work can be seen, which is always an interesting part of viewing original artwork!

The drawing is cut from a larger sheet, and mounted on a backing piece. I seem to remember hearing that some of Denslow’s newspaper comic drawings suffered water damage many years ago, while in the possession of a book dealer. Consequently, what could be salvaged was cut from the various pages for later sale. At least the artwork was not entirely scrapped!

Macaronis

 Life Among the Macaronis was a series of comical drawings created by John R. Neill, and published in The Sunday Magazine, a syndicated Sunday newspaper supplement used by a variety of papers around the country. The magazine was in circulation from 1904 through 1916, using a small title change depending on what city and paper it supplemented. Neill seems to have contributed around the period of 1904 - 1906.

This example was the rear cover of the May 15th, 1904 issue, not long before the publication of Neill's first Oz work in The Marvelous Land of Oz. The series of limericks were written by Neill, to accompany his humorous drawings. Postcards of the characters were also produced; here are three examples, distributed by the Boston Sunday Post, showing cropped versions of the characters seen above:

The individual cards have been titled “Off for the links”, “A terrific drive”, and “A disaster on the links”. The extra space at the right of each card was for jotting a short message - the back of early postcards was reserved for an address, no additional writing.

Neill seems to have been fond of his Macaronis; he used the same elongated figures over a number of years, as seen in a 1901 single panel Christmas cartoon.

 

They also bear a strong resemblance to the Soldier with the Green Whiskers in 1904's The Marvelous Land of Oz, and the Hilanders in John Dough and the Cherub, from 1906 -

 Here's an undated original drawing by Neill, of a musical Macaroni puffing on a horn and surrounded by other whimsical wind instruments. This piece is inscribed "To my old friend M. L. Stein", over the artist's signature.

A Macaroni was a late 18th century fop or dandy, an overly elegant figure extravagant in clothing and manner. This helps explain the traditional lyric from Yankee Doodle Dandy - "Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni"!

Valentines with Billy Bounce

My posts have been few and far between lately, but here's a slightly belated view of a Billy Bounce comic page for Valentine's Day, by W. W. Denslow. This page dates from 1902, and shows some of Denslow's originality in dealing with the layout of the comic for the standard newspaper page. If you click on the image, it will enlarge for reading. And remember - look before you kick!

Bouncing Along With Billy

W. W. Denslow covered a lot of ground in his artistic career. Newspaper artist, poster artist, designer of book covers, theater designer, children's book illustrator, and comic postcards are all among his credits. Another was innovative comic strip artist.

In 1901, Denslow created Billy Bounce. This was an early comic strip that made use of a continuing story line, rather than a simple weekly gag. Denslow played with novel layouts in the early pages, and his designs jumped across the paper.

Here is a later episode, from early in 1902. The complete date is missing as the page has been trimmed and is a bit rough. By this time the strip has become much more standard, in layout and concept, than some of the earlier examples. Denslow quit the comic later that year, but it continued for several more years under another artist.  Some of Denslow's Mother Goose characters are included in this particular episode. (Click on the picture for an enlarged image of the page.)

The strip was popular, even after Denslow gave up drawing it in 1902. Buttons were produced to publicize it, and it even inspired a brand of cigars. Two button designs are known, but it is unclear whether they were drawn by Denslow. The one I'm showing does not appear to be his work.

Billy Bounce

Billy Bounce was a comic page created by W. W. Denslow in 1901. The strip was innovative in its use of a continuing story line, as well as Denslow's design and use of the space on the page. In 1902 Denslow retired from the strip, and the characters were picked up by Charles W. Kahles who continued the comic until 1906. The example on the left is from the Sunday Press volume Queer Visitors from the Land of Oz, which includes a number of strips by Denslow.

Denslow returned to the character in 1906, in hopes of creating a story that could be turned into a Broadway extravaganza. The result was a rather uninspired book, written in conjunction with Dudley Bragdon.

The character was popular and inspired a variety of merchandise such as pinbacks, cigars, and a toy bank. The bank seems to have been reproduced recently, with an example I picked up shown below on the left. On the right is an advertising cut for the original bank.

While the character is largely forgotten today, an animated cartoon based on the book was created in the 1960's as a pilot for a projected series. The project never took off, but clearly someone had remembered Billy fondly!

Christmas Greetings from Denslow

Here's a holiday cartoon panel by W. W. Denslow, that appeared in the St Paul Globe on Dec 13th, 1903. It was syndicated in other papers as well; a variety of characters from various Denslow books are here, even a familiar looking lion... Merry Christmas!

Fun with Father Goose

In 1900, W. W. Denslow created two Father Goose comic pages. Father Goose, His Book had been a huge hit the year before, and Denslow owned a joint copyright on the characters, together with L. Frank Baum. In some opinions, the success of the book was largely dependent on the artwork; it was certainly a uniquely produced book.


This is the second comic page, from June, presenting Father Goose at the Seashore. The verse is written by Paul West, who would co-author The Pearl and the Pumpkin together with Denslow a few years later. This image has had some quick digital touch-up, as the original is rather rough around the edges!

Jack at Home

The recent Marvel editions of the first six Oz books have been an great opportunity for new readers to discover the Oz series - Eric Shanower and Skottie Young did an excellent job of adapting and illustrating the stories. Unfortunately, the series has ended with The Emerald City of Oz; a logical place to stop, as that is where L. Frank Baum originally ended the series, before returning with additional tales. Perhaps Marvel will do the same, and return at some point!

It has also been an opportunity to acquire artwork of some favorite Oz characters and scenes; I've shown several other examples in previous posts. This is Skottie Young's version of Jack Pumpkinhead at home, from The Road to Oz. John R. Neill's version of this scene has always been one of my favorite Oz illustrations, but I think Skottie's Jack looks great! And you couldn't find a more organic home, tendrils and all...


Another character I've always been fond of is the Braided Man from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. He doesn't play a large role in the story, and we only ever see him once more, briefly, in The Road to Oz. Still, he's a memorable character among the many fascinating people of Oz and its environs. Here he is in all his glory, as envisioned by Skottie Young.

Denslow's Scarecrow and Tin Man

In 1904, W. W. Denslow produced a comic page called Denslow's Scarecrow and the Tinman, which ran for 14 weeks. The strip showed the comic pair traveling to various places and encountering adventures, with mixed results. Two episodes were taken from his 1903 picture book of the same name, and the remaining 12 were new stories for the characters. Sadly the strip wasn't a great success, and it disappeared and faded from memory. Fortunately, some of the original comic page artwork survives, and when Bonham's auctioned a few pieces this past December, I was one of the happy winners. It isn't easy to find original Denslow art of this famous duo!

Denslow and L. Frank Baum owned a joint copyright on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, making it possible for either man to make use of the characters as he wished. They do pop up in several of Denslow's picture books, but I'm a little surprised that the artist didn't do more with them!

The original comic page art was cut into panels in the late 1950's by bookseller Charles Sawyer, in order to sell it more easily in his shop. Sawyer's bookstore in New York City was a favorite stop for early Oz collectors eager to find a piece of artwork, until the entire stock was bought up by one or two clients. Only one complete uncut page of artwork for the comic survives.

Sunday Press Books included all the episodes of this strip in their oversized compilation of Baum's Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz comic pages. These were running at the same time as Denslow's effort; I don't think either strip is Oz at its best, but they are fascinating examples of marketing for the series and the characters. The color page above, which includes the drawing in my collection, is from this book.

For a more affordable version of just the Denslow stories, Hungry Tiger Press also offers the comics in book format, with line artwork that has been cleaned up and printed in black & white - just like the original drawings!

Merry Christmas!

Once again, the Oz characters celebrate a holiday! Be sure to click the image for a larger view.

Happy Thanksgiving!

An Ozzy Thanksgiving story from 1904 - if you click on the image and expand it, you might almost be able to read it!

Denslow's Christmas Tales

On December 14th, 1902, the New York Herald published four comic pages by W. W. Denslow. These were Denslow's Christmas Tales, and used artwork Denslow was preparing for his series of picture books published in 1903, with additional titles in 1904. I've recently obtained a set of these pages, courtesy of Cindy at Wonderful Books of Oz .





The four stories are told in verse, and Denslow has revised each one from the traditional version, to remove the "horrors" of the original. Hence, Red Riding Hood's wolf is tamed, Humpty Dumpty Jr. is hardboiled to prevent breakage, the Giant becomes a sideshow exhibit, and little Golden Hair becomes housekeeper for the Three Bears and stays with them. The same changes occur in the picture book versions, but the stories are rewritten in prose with additional illustrations. 

The newspaper pages are bright and colorful, and would certainly have caught the eye of a young reader. These were part of a Sunday Christmas Edition supplement - Red Riding Hood was the cover page, Humpty Dumpty and Three Bears were the interior pages 4 and 5, and Jack and the Beanstalk was the final page. Modern newspapers certainly don't compare to this!

Beware the Wheelers!

Here's another page by Skottie Young from the award winning Eric Shanower/Skottie Young adaptations of the Oz books, published by Marvel comics. This one comes from Ozma of Oz, and shows Dorothy finding an ominous warning scratched into the sand on an unfamiliar beach. And very good advice too!

Also, a pair from The Marvelous Land of Oz - here we see the companions captured by General Jinjur - and their escape in the flying Gump!

I obviously enjoy Skottie's artwork, and his take on the Oz characters and situations. I also think it's one of the better opportunities out there for acquiring published Oz illustrations!