Exhibition:
A Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle
June 1 - August 31, 2006
The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library
27 West 17th Avenue Mall, Columbus, Ohio
It was an Antiques Roadshow experience: In early January,
a stranger called The Ohio State University Cartoon Research
Library to say that she had found some old cartoons tucked
in a stack of boxes that had been sitting in her family's
business for decades. She wanted to know if they were valuable.
Lucy Shelton Caswell, Professor and Curator of the library,
was skeptical since she often receives calls from people
who have found items in grandma's attic that end up having
only sentimental value. The caller was insistent however,
and said she was near to campus and would like to bring her
find to the library for Caswell to see. An appointment was
made for the next afternoon. The caller arrived with a battered
cardboard folio. When it was opened, Caswell knew that this
time a treasure had been uncovered. Inside were original,
hand-colored drawings from Winsor McCay's first comic strip,
A
Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle. Up to that
moment, no original drawings of the strip were known to exist.
Best known for his comic strip
Little Nemo in Slumberland,
McCay has been described variously as "the first authentic
genius in the comic strip medium," "one of American's rare,
great fantasists,"
and a cartoonist for whom there has been "no equal before
or since."
During the 1890s McCay worked as an artist for the Vine Street
Dime Museum and Palace Theater in Cincinnati. In 1900 he
joined the staff of the Cincinnati Enquirer as an artist/reporter.
In 1903 he created forty-three episodes of
A Tale of
the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle , illustrated stories
about pixies and the imaginary animals they encounter that
were printed full-page in color. McCay's biographer John
Canemaker notes the importance of this "proto-comic strip" for
McCay: "
Tales of the Jungle Imps was Winsor McCay's
first attempt in an extended series format to bring together
all of his eclectic talents in a cohesive graphic style.
On each page, he found fresh ways to combine his exquisite
draftsmanship, dynamic staging, sense of caricature, mastery
of perspective, and feeling for motion with his version of
the decorative art nouveau style." Until January 2006 none
of the original drawings created by McCay had been seen for
more than a century.
The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library acquired
five of the original hand-colored drawings from their finder: "How
the Turtle Got His Shell," "How the Quillypig Got His Quills," "How
the Rhinoceros Lost His Beauty," "How the Hound Got So Thin," and
"Fourth of July in the Jungle." "It's remarkable that these
originals would turn up in Columbus, Ohio which is the only
city in the country with an academic library devoted to cartoons," said
Caswell. "We're delighted that the family who found these
important works understood that some of them belonged in
an institution where they would be preserved and protected
while also being made accessible to scholars, researchers
and students." The finder has asked to remain anonymous.
The works have undergone conservation treatment and will
be exhibited to the public in the Cartoon Research Library's
Reading Room Gallery June 1 - August 31, 2006, with a digital
album of the strips forthcoming on the library's web site
http://cartoons.osu.edu/.
* An image of
A Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix
Fiddle for one-time use is available upon request.
