Showing posts with label lapel pins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lapel pins. Show all posts

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!