Did Rube Goldberg work in a primitive style
!!??? Absolutely not!!!!!!! He was working in a deliberately comedic style, one of the most sophisticated and effective styles in all of cartoon history!
Poor Rube is always lumped together with Bud Fisher's "Mutt and Jeff" (the long, narrow strip above). Fisher was a funny and creative artist in his prime but he was never as funny, as innovative or as warm and "human" as Goldberg.
Goldberg had more in common with Milt Gross (no example here). Both were funny as hell and both seemed to love the people they were making fun of. I don't know about you but I find Goldberg's bottom two pictures of couples (above) to be extremely tender and appealing at the same time they're caricatured. Bud Fisher couldn't touch stuff like this.
So, is Goldberg's style primitive? No!!! If the purpose of a cartoon is to get laughs then this style is shockingly efficient. The audience is already smiling before they read the caption. If any style can be called primitive it's the modern style (with very notable exceptions), which simply doesn't deliver the comedic goods.
One last look at Goldberg (above) ...(Sigh!) and I turn you back to the modern comedic style below.
Note: I know the guy who did the color drawings above. He's a talented guy and he'd probably jump at the chance to work on something genuinely funny.
Did Rube Goldberg work in a primitive style!!??? Absolutely not!!!!!!! He was working in a deliberately comedic style, one of the most sophisticated and effective styles in all of cartoon history! 
Poor Rube is always lumped together with Bud Fisher's "Mutt and Jeff" (the long, narrow strip above). Fisher was a funny and creative artist in his prime but he was never as funny, as innovative or as warm and "human" as Goldberg.
Goldberg had more in common with Milt Gross (no example here). Both were funny as hell and both seemed to love the people they were making fun of. I don't know about you but I find Goldberg's bottom two pictures of couples (above) to be extremely tender and appealing at the same time they're caricatured. Bud Fisher couldn't touch stuff like this.
So, is Goldberg's style primitive? No!!! If the purpose of a cartoon is to get laughs then this style is shockingly efficient. The audience is already smiling before they read the caption. If any style can be called primitive it's the modern style (with very notable exceptions), which simply doesn't deliver the comedic goods. 
One last look at Goldberg (above) ...(Sigh!) and I turn you back to the modern comedic style below.
Note: I know the guy who did the color drawings above. He's a talented guy and he'd probably jump at the chance to work on something genuinely funny.
27 comments:
agreed,its a shame stephen silvers talents havent been put to better use
what do you think of Saul Steinberg? To me hes the bridge between cartooning and "high" art
any thoughts on mitch hedberg?
I understand now why you love this early Goldberg stuff.
I like how it's really cartoony but also has this real solidity to it.
It looks like Ralph was really influenced by him.
"any thoughts on mitch hedberg?"
Go away!
Goldberg is pretty cartoony and funny! I need some alcohol too (only for rubbing purposes as noted).
Just for the record(because based on part of your response to my earlier remarks I suspect that's how you took what I wrote when I alluded to the differences between Nast or Sullivant and Goldberg) I never wrote that Goldberg was "primitive"--I'd never use that word, it wouldn't even have occurred to me.
I did say "crude" as in rough, NOT as in "not as good as---"...and to me the difference is VAST.
I make much of this particular word versus that one when I write something; opinions can be so easily misunderstood when one's writing short posts, you know).
Goldberg had a drawing style that, as I said, perfecdtly suited his POV and moreover was funny, and totally deliberate; I wouldn't want him any other way. : )
BTW, Fred Moore, like a gazillion other kids, was hugely influenced by Goldberg and Bud Fisher, and obviously copied them slavishly as an aspiring cartoonist)he also took from John Held Jr., a very different artist's style...and I'd never call Fred "primitive". He took from among the best.
I hate to think of you fulminating over slights I most definitely didn't lob at wonderful RUBE! My dad used to talk about him all the time(even though he wasn't born until the 1930s); he just loved saying that name, and also loved his cartoons. We had a volume with Goldberg drawings in it at home, along with a bunch of Pogo books. Nice to grow up with!
Anyway, whatever your fierce motivation--great post!
Thank you again for educating me on this stuff. So much to absorb here...
Eddie, maybe not Rube Goldberg specifically, but do you think some of these old 1900s strip cartoonists influenced Akira Toriyama?:
http://lambiek.net/artists/t/toriyama_a/toriyama_akira_arale.jpg
http://lambiek.net/artists/t/toriyama_a/toriyama_dragonb.gif
http://rationalmagic.com/Comics/DragonBall1.jpg
http://www.animejump.com/modules/ProdReviews/images/manga/drslump2.jpg
Thanks Edeeee! I've ordered "The Best of Rube Goldberg" at my public library(also "The Complete Polly and Her Pals" by Sterret). My education continues!
Jenny: Holy cow! Sorry for the rough treatment you got here! I did have your comment in mind when I sat down to write, but then I changed my mind and decided to talk about the way artists in general perceive Goldberg. I should have explained that in print.
You obviously have a great deal of affection for the guy and your comments were very much appreciated.
you dont like mitch hedberg kali?
probably some "he wasn't a performer, blah blah Buster Keaton, bullshit answer for that.
Thanks for posting more of Goldberg, Eddie! I'm in love with this stuff.
Do you know where I can buy reprints of these cartoons??? I searched Amazon.com and can only find his "inventions" cartoons (which are still great..but I'd really like to find these cartoons you're posting here).
Whoa! A.B.Winegar! Wasn't being facetitious, I was being serious! Actually, after you typed that, I started thinking about how great a pizza-by-mail service would be. Then I remembered they deliver them.
I too, am moneyless. So if you could give me the tracking number...
William: HA HA HA! I was afraid, I said something wrong. I can't tell good jokes. Every once in a while, I can come up with some good jokes. Like Groucho Marx said, "These are the jokes, folks. They all can't be good."
I try. Thanks for being understanding. I fell like I tick off so many people trying tell jokes.
"The Complete Polly and Her Pals"
How many volumes are there? I was just looking at Volume 1 with John and it's amazing!!!
"you dont like mitch hedberg kali?
probably some "he wasn't a performer, blah blah Buster Keaton, bullshit answer for that."
Wow. So much hatred directed toward me! All I said was go away, haha.
I've seen his act, mister. I know funnier stoners than him.
Aw shucks, Eddie. I likes it rough. ; )
Anyway, I waxed emphatic only because seeing so many Fitzgeraldian exclamation points in a row frightens me! No, not really.
But I'd better couch my comments on your blog with so many "smilies" Mike will posiitively PUKE. : D
: ) : ) : )
Okay, enough of that. I know what you're saying...wasn't Goldberg much admired by his cartoonist colleagues? I mean(I've never read a bio of him, I'm ashamed to say)he was in his heyday an icon among them, wasn't he? I ask because I'd love to read contemporaneous accounts/critiques/reviews from others, whether cultural critics or his peers...again,my mind drifts over to Fontanelli; I'm guessing he must be the man who's most likely to have the goods in that department. Or yourself!
Here's another smiley for good measure: : )
P.S. I'm not being sarcastic(only added because I habe sometimes been perceived as such--it's my overwritten style, doubtless)! When I type a smiley I mean it! ; D
Kali said: "'The Complete Polly and Her Pals' How many volumes are there?"
The library only has one, which, having arrived, I see is actually "The Complete Polly ... 1912-1913." Jumping bluefish! It's only the first volume!
Sure thing A.B.W.!
Jorge: Thanks for the unexpected Akira Toriyama links, I love that guy! He was definitely old-school inspired. I think of all the modern Manga-ists, he was directly influenced by Tezuka the most.
>Jorge: Thanks for the unexpected Akira Toriyama links, I love that guy! He was definitely old-school inspired. I think of all the modern Manga-ists, he was directly influenced by Tezuka the most.
No problem. What's weird aobut anime is that it can all be traced back to Tezuka, who was influenced by 1930s Fleischer, and 1960s angular Disney.
Friends, should I begin my own blog?
you should jorge, im dying to see your drawings
Didn't anyone else think of ROBERT CRUMB here, seeing some of those Goldberg panels??
It reminded me of the real early Flakey Foont stuff.
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