Monday, July 15, 2013

CARTOON LAPEL PINS

I LOVE the kind of cartoon buttons people wore on their lapels a hundred years ago. Aging doesn't seem to have hurt them, in fact the acquired yellow tint makes them look even better. 


A lot of these buttons were given out as freebies in packs of cigarettes.


 Buttons like these were everywhere in the 1920s.


Above, a Robert Crumb button? Nope, it's by Rube Goldberg.


Above, another Goldberg! Did he invent the idea of cartoon buttons?


Maybe not. Here's (above) a Yellow Kid button that may have pre-dated Goldberg.


Anyway, lots of cartoon characters have appeared on lapel buttons.  Me, I think a lapel is naked and unappealing without one. 



Goldberg was really good at this. The light watercolor and round lines on the character make a perfect contrast to the angular lettering.



Here's (above) one of his best. The design of the lettering perfectly frames the cartoon. 


Nice!


Al Capp (above) did a lot of buttons...


...and so did Chester Gould.

I've gotta do this for my own characters!


5 comments:

kellie said...

O that's what I need - wearing one of those Goldbergs I'd feel I was really living it!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Roberto: I am SOOOOO sorry! I accidentally deleted one of your comments. I've done that before and surely deserve death for doing it again. Sorry!

Unknown said...

That's okay, Eddie. No harsh feelings. You've been very kind, patrient and understanding when it comes to comment moderation. There's another animation blog where I've been having trouble getting some of my comments on there when they go through moderation and felt very very ostracized as a result and I apologize to that specific person if I had offended him by accident.

I'm probably am going to comment on certain animation blogs much less due to all the constant elitism and negativity I've been saying more of lately or avoid those sites all together. I felt very out of it over the past few days and thought I was a completely worthless, hack cartoonist for even trying to stay positive and to give input on certain stuff. (Reluctantly) Experimenting with the animation community yet again on Facebook and deleting my page a few days after also made me feel like this.

All I was saying in my original comment was that I ordered a Wacom tablet over the weekend that I'm probably going to start inking drawings digitally soon and I wanted some tips on how to use the program. Someone told me I could save a ton on paper and pencil costs if I started doing drawings digitally and then I can buy an animation light table and paper when I have the money.

My college orientation also went amazing well last Friday and I got to see all the cool welding equipment that I'd get to use. I have to buy some of my own stuff though, but the instructor believes that if I bought my own stuff, I'd be more likely to take care of it better. I kinda got through to my parents about my decision but they are still reluctant and waned me to do something with computers. I might still consider computer programming or computer technician instead if there's still time and depending on the situation.

Unknown said...

Update: Due to many reasons, I think I'm going to stick with computer programming and eventually go from there and get an engineering degree.

Unknown said...

The lapel pins is a sign of something special.