SCREWBALL! The Cartoonists Who Made the Funnies Funny

<p><strong>The story of screwball comics, with new research and rare art from some of the most hilarious cartoonists of all time.</strong><br /><br />Before "screwball" became a movie genre, it was a staple of other forms of American culture, including newspaper comic strips. Emerging from the pressures of a rapidly accelerating technological and information-drenched society, screwball comics offered a healthy dose of laughter and perspective. The disruptive, manic, and surreal verbal-visual comedy of these "funnies" fostered an absurdist sensibility embraced by The Marx Brothers (who took their names from a popular comic strip), W. C. Fields, Tex Avery, Spike Jones, Ernie Kovacs, and Mad magazine. Comics scholar Paul C. Tumey traces the development of screwball as a genre in magazine cartoons and newspaper comics, presenting the work of around fifteen cartoonists, with an art-stuffed chapter on each. <br /><br />The book offers a wealth of previously un-reprinted comics unleashing fresh views of some of America's greatest and most-loved cartoonists, including <strong>George Herriman</strong> (<em>Krazy Kat</em>), <strong>E.C. Segar</strong> (creator of Popeye), <strong>Rube Goldberg </strong>(<em>The Inventions of Professor Lucifer G. Butts, A.K.</em>), <strong>Bill Holman</strong> (<em>Smokey Stover</em>), and <strong>Frederick Opper</strong> (<em>Happy Hooligan</em>). In addition, readers will be delighted to discover previously "lost" screwball masters, such as <strong>Gene Ahern</strong> (<em>The Squirrel Cage</em>), <strong>Gus Mager</strong> (<em>Sherlocko the Monk</em>), <strong>Boody Rogers </strong>(<em>Sparky Watts</em>), <strong>Milt Gross</strong> (<em>Count Screwloose</em>), <strong>George Swanson</strong> (<em>$alesman $am</em>) and others.<br /><br />Both humorous and educational, this book is aimed at a general audience of all ages and at university comics studies programs.</p>