Animation
» Some suspect the Homer Simpson character is a caricature inspired by Irish comic strips of the late 1800s – dumb and drunkard.
Children’s Books
» Stephanie McMillan has put together a video preview of the children’s book she’s illustrating. The book is entitled “Mischief in the Forest”
Editorial Cartooning
» David Willson, the editorial cartoonist for the Palm Beach Daily News, will teach a cartooning class at the Armory Art Center Jan. 6 through Feb. 24.
Exhibits
» Reading Eagle (PA) cartoonist Leroy Gensler died in 1976, but his mountainous collection of original art, is now on display at the Yocum Institute for Arts Education. Leroy was the cartoonist for the paper from 1952 to 1976.
Interviews
» Tom Racine’s Tall Tale Features Radio interviews Scott Hilburn creator of The Argyle Sweater
» Scott Nickel interviews Justin Thompson, creator of Mythtickle.
Mobile
» Ave!Comics has launched Bludzee comics for BlackBerry users.
homer, as a child…looked like “the yellow kid”
“Homer Simon specifically resembles a character called Jiggs in an American comic strip from 1913, according to Heer. Jiggs is an illiterate layabout construction worker who gets rich quick (heâ??s also a social climber).”
What a load of rot. Jiggs was a symbol of the Irish-American who refused to be assimilated, while Maggie couldn’t wait to get the stink of the Old Country off her. The comic strip made a hero of Jiggs and a laughabe, nagging, social-climbing phony of his wife. As for the idea that the stereotype of the Irish drunk was concocted by Victorian England to suppress the revolution, it is utter nonsense. The music hall Irishman was a product of a racist society, certainly, but so were minstrel shows and depictions of stuck-up English toffs. The same music halls curried favor with Irish-American audiences with American-written songs like “Mother Macree,” “Galway Bay,” “The Boston Burglar” and, godhelpus, “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.”
Jiggs was as positive a character as Mr. Dooley and just as much a symbol of the Irish attitude of “Oh, yeah? Come say it to me face!” “Bringing Up Father” is cited as a turning point towards a positive depiction of the race in mass media.
This fool needs to show up for the second lecture in his sophomore Irish history course before he starts lecturing the rest of the world on the topic.
Erin Go Braugh!