Now here is a very cool find. The artists who run a site called Fecal Face (yeah, I would’ve thought it hilarious in my 20s, too) discovered a leather-bound book in a box of flea market items. Just an old curiosity, they thought, until they looked inside and found an unsigned sketchbook of a Chicago cartoonist from 1913!
The sketches are simply wonderful slices of life from back then, showing the restaurant where the artist worked, Chicago cops, “Jones out for a swim,” el train conductors and soldiers on parade. As the bloggers point out, 1913 was seven years before Prohibition, and four years before the US entering WWI. I feel lucky when I discover a receipt or a photo in an old book–imagine finding all of these!
In the comments section, someone posits with authority that the artist is one Andy Hettinger, a young Chicago cartoonist and animator who died in 1915. The commentator signed the message “Jay Lynch”–could this be underground comix legend Jay Lynch of “Nard & Pat” fame? Read all the comments, they’re pretty interesting.
via Gaper’s Block.