German-American artist Lyonel Feininger was born on July 17, 1871 – 150 years ago today.
He became the most recognized (and successful) of the German cartoonists hired by The Chicago Tribune in 1906 to re-create the Sunday color comics section of that newspaper.
From the Lambiek Comiclopedia biography:
His highly imaginative art work displays interesting uses of linework and colour which still inspire artists today. Together with Wilhelm Busch, Winsor McCay and George Herriman he is one of the earliest comic pioneers whose work is considered high art.
As if Feininger’s first effort The Kin-der-Kids wasn’t imaginative enough, he pulled out all stops with the follow-up Wee Willie Winkie’s World. Lambiek again:
Feininger shaped highly imaginative and surreal worlds. The Sunday pages itself were true works of art, where the artist ornamented his panels to one entity.
Peter Maresca reproduced the entire Wee Willie Winkie’s World run on his GoComics page.
I saw some originals of his in a big show that we saw in Hackensack once. “Wee Willie” is so gentle in comparison to the Kin-Der-Kids. Now if I want to see his originals, I can see one of his canvases at a gallery here in town.
Thanks for the link to the complete series! I’m off to that after this.
GoComics also has the entire Kin-Der-Kids run, starting at https://www.gocomics.com/origins-of-the-sunday-comics/2021/04/05. I prefer the Kin-Der-Kids to Wee Willie.
Thanks, Usual John!
This seems like a good place to mention some bookmarklets (see the page–they’re little applets that live in your bookmark bar) that expand GoComics comments, enliven links, and make saving the full-size image easier.
http://worldofdt.info/gchelp.html
They do other things, but those are the three I use.