Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900-1969

by Dan Nadel

In five thematic sections, this anthology is a counter history of comics, containing nearly 30 undiscovered visionary American cartoonists from 1900-1969. These artists, including Harry Grant Dart, Milt Gross, Charles M. Payne, Harry Hershfield and Charles Forbell, foreshadowed and influenced the comics medium of today.

Genres: Comics, Art, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Anthologies, Comix, Graphic Novels Comics

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2006

About the author

Dan Nadel is the author of Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life (Scribner, April 2025). His previous books include, It’s Life as a I See It: Black Cartoonists in Chicago, 1940–1980; Peter Saul: Professional Artist Correspondence, 1945–1976; and Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries, 1900–1969. Nadel has curated exhibitions for galleries and museums internationally including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is the founder of PictureBox, a publishing and packaging company that produced over one hundred books, objects, and zines from 2000 to 2014, including the Grammy Award–winning design for Wilco’s 2004 album A Ghost Is Born. Dan is the curator-at-large for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his family.

Reviews

[Tone · Rating 2 out of 5]

What might have been an interesting insight into comics past is harmed by the poor reproduction on some of the older reprints are so highly reduced that the text is unreadable.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of these are simply not interesting to read. This is especially true when many of the comics are not printed so that the writing is reasonable. Also some of the art is designed in a way so that the writing is hard to read even when zoomed in.

But a couple are real gems. . . . In particular, "Herbie." Wow, I would like to read more of that.

Not that my only problem is with the design of the comics . . . It's also not really clear why these comics are bound together and organized this way.

Maybe next time only the good stuff?

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually, I am exposed to the past in prose. It is tremendous to have a new way to travel back to the past. Also, visually delightful. Also, horrible racist stereotypes. Tangentially, I like tiny type. Finally, how much better would this book and everything be if Native, Asian and African Americans had been able to fully express themselves in the culture. Let's now boost all the beneficial details of the variety of people's expressions!

[Kris Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an excellent overview of the forgotten and the esoteric comic strip and comic book artists of the early 20th century. The material is broken down into five categories, Exercises In Exploration, Slapstick, Acts Of Drawing, Words In Pictures, and Form And Style. I will list each artist covered as well as the material that is reprinted in this book.

First up we have Harry Grant Dart's The Explorigator strip, a beautifully drawn surreal series obviously inspired by Winsor McCay's Little Nemo In Slumberland. The strips for 6/14/1908, 6/21/1908, 7/26/1908, and an undated 1908 page are all shrunk down too small to comfortably read.

Next is Howard Nostrand's classic What's Happening At...8:30 P.M. from Witches Tales #25 from 1954. This tale has since been reprinted multiple times by multiple publishers.

Herbert Crowley's The Wiggle-Much is completely ruined due to the strip being shrunk down to fit into this standard sized book. It seems fascinating, but is unfortunately too small to read. The strips reprinted here are 4/3/1910, 4/17/1910, 5/1/1910, 5/8/1910, 5/15/1910, 5/22/1910, 6/5/1910, and 6/12/1910.

Odgen Whitney's Herbie is brilliant. It is bizarre and doesn't make much sense, but that is what makes it so great. His emotionally abusive father certainly doesn't help him any. Old comic books are fascinating snapshots of bygone eras. Societal mores are on full display, albeit often in caricature. A story from 1964's Herbie #3 is reprinted here.

Not everything here is a winner, though. Take Rymond Crawford Ewer's Slim Jim. It would suck even if it were presented in full size. The 4/30/1911, 5/27/1911, 6/17/1911, 6/24/1911, 7/8/1911, 12/16/1911, 11/29/1914, 4/11/1915, and10/31/1915 are reprinted here. This strip will likely never be reprinted again anywhere. Indeed, one has to wonder if any company could even piece together a full run of the series to reprint even if they wanted to.

Another one that has been reprinted many times since this book is Bob Powell's godlike Colorama from 1953's Black Cat Mystery #45. Psychedelic before the term even existed.

I'm not much of an anthropomorphic animal kind of guy, but I can appreciate anything that is well done. Walter Quermann's Hickory Hollow Folks is highly derivative but enjoyable nonetheless. The strips collected here are from 7/3/1938, 7/31/1938, 8/21/1938, 9/11/1938, and 10/23/1938.

As we move to the Slapstick section of the book my enthusiasm waned. I am not a fan of slapstick comics. Milt Gross' Nize Baby is tolerable. The strips from 4/3/1927, 5/28/1927, 8/6/1927 are reprinted here. A 15 page Pete The Pooch story from 1947's Milt Gross Funnies #2 rounds out his section of the book.

Stan Mc Govern's Silly Milly is wretched. The less said about it the better. Daily strips collected here are from 7/3-5, 10-13/1944, 9/5/1944, 12/11, 19-22/1944, 3/26-30/1945, 4/2-6/1945, 5/21/1945, and 6/11-15, 1945.

Dick Briefer's Frankenstein is shown here years before all of the other collections sans the Idea Men Productions book which introduced me to the character. PS Publishing, Yoe Books/IDW, and Dark Horse have all taken a stab at reprinting his run. The story reprinted here, 1946's Frankenstein #4, is great.

Jack Mendelsohn's Jacky's Diary is such an obvious influence on stuff like Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. My son loves those books. Stories from 1960's Jacky's Diary #1 are reprinted here.

In the third section of the book, Acts Of Drawing, we get Charles M. Payne's S'Matter, Pop, which was titled Say, Pop! in the first strip shown here. An undated strip from 1918, 7/21/1918, 2/20/1921, 4/1/1921, 5/?/1921, and an undated 1924 strip round it out.

Fletcher Hanks in batshit insane. His nonsensical writing, coupled with his bizarre artwork make for an awfully memorable (or is it memorably awful?) reading experience. I had both Fantagraphics books which reprinted his stuff but dumped them years ago. Rereading 1940's Fantastic Comics #10 reminded me that I did the right thing, as his work is like a train wreck.

Sunday Press Books recently issued a hardcover of Garrett Price's White Boy, and after reading a sampling here I want it. I likely won't even get around to buying it, but my OCD homeskillet Ferjo Byroy has it and would loan it to me if I asked. It's great stuff that is worth reading. The Sunday storyline from 6/3/1934 through 9/30/1934 is reprinted here.

A.E. Hayward's godawful Somebody's Strong harshed my buzz from the previous strip. The 7/23/1922, 8/20/1922, 3/28/1926, 5/12/1929, and 4/3/1932 strips are a waste of your time.

Jefferson Machamer's Gags And Gals is unreadable. I like old stuff, but sometimes things just don't translate. It's a historical curiosity and nothing more. Reprinted here are the strips from 4/11/1937, 7/11/1937, 8/1/1937, 8/29/1937, and 11/28/1937.

Underground Comix were never my thing. I understand the historical significance of them, but this one kinda sucks and certainly isn't one of the important ones. Rory Hayes' stories from 1969's Bogeyman Comics #1 and 2 are forgettable.

Harry Hershfeld's Dauntless Durham Of The U.S.A. is brilliant. Great art and a great ongoing story, it is marred by the shrunken size of it in this book. It is so difficult to read that I gave up after a while. It's a shame. Maybe IDW/Library Of American Comics can reprint it in one of their strange small landscape format books. There is lots of great slang of the era here. None of the strips' dates here are known, save that the 62 dailies reprinted here are all from 1913. There was a hardcover from 1977, and it makes me envious of the “old guys”, those collectors from the first and second generations of our hobby. They already knew how cool this stuff was 40 years ago, and here I am just discovering it.

Cecil Johnson's Elmo, from 1948's Elmo #1 is unremarkable. There was a time where I would buy anything that was old, so long as it was slapped between two hardbacks with nice paper and sewn binding. The novelty of reading old comics has worn thin after hundreds of these over the past dozen or so years.

I am not a fan of slapstick comics, but I can appreciate anything so long as it is well done. Boody Rogers' Sparky Watts, from issue 8 of the same title from 1948, is great fun. I especially enjoyed it when Sparky was shrunk down to the size of a flea on the monkey. Dimwitted Slap Happy decided to help the monkey get rid of it's fleas by spraying it in the face with D.D.T. Crazy. As goofy as the two stories from Sparky Watts #8 are, I would be all over a collected edition of it.

Harry J. Tuthill's The Bungle Family is so marred by the shrunken size that I gave up trying to read it. What a shame. The 1/1/1933, 8/6/1933, 8/13/1933, 11/26/1933, 12/3/1933, 12/17/1933, 2/4/1934, 3/04/1934, 3/11/1934, 3/18/1934, 4/15/1934, 4/22/1934, 7/29/1934 and 12/26/1937 full page strips are ruined here.

C.W. Kahles' Hairbreadth Harry is genius. I suffered through the smaller size, reading it through the zoom on phone's camera. There is something wrong with a book when you have to use an electronic device to read it. This is very clever strip with gorgeous artwork that needs to be rescued and reprinted. The 2/9/1924, 2/23/1924, 3/8/1924, 4/5/1924, 4/12/1934, 4/19/1924, 4/26/1924, 5/3/1924, 5/10/1924, 5/17/1924, 1/20/1929, 2/3/1929, 3/24/1929, and 3/31/1929 strips are reprinted here. They are not enough. I want more.

Naughty Pete by Charles Forbell is unreadable in this book. It's a second rate Little Nemo In Slumberland anyhow. Strips collected in this book are from 8/17/1913, 8/24/1913, 10/5/1913, 10/12/1913, 10/19/1913, 10/26/1913, 11/2/1913, 11/16/1913, 11/23/1913, 11/30/1913, and 12/7/1913.

T.E. Power's Joys And Glooms is a slice of irony. Hipsters like old stuff and irony, and since this is really old and really ironic they would really like it. The 10/14/1911, 10/16/1911, 10/30/1911, 11/8/1911, 11/13/1911, 12/2/1911, 12/12/1911, and 12/21/1911 certainly pleased men with lumberjack beards the first time around that they were popular.

Gustave Verbeek is all but forgotten with even the strips fans. His artwork has a surreal, childish look to it. The Upside-Downs Of Little Lady Lovekins And Old Man Muffaroo is represented here by the 5/1/1904, 5/8/1904 , 5/22/1904, 6/5/1904, 6/12/1904, an undated 1904 strip, two undated 1905 strips, 7/31/1910, and 6/13/1913.

I couldn't even stomach Gene Deitch's Terr'ble Thompson, as cutesy stuff doesn't float my boat. I did not read the 2/5/1955, 10/20-11/6, 11/10-13/1955, or the 3/04/1956 strips.

Comic books were aimed squarely at children when they came out. While there was certainly a sizeable adult audience for many titles, things like Jingle Jangle Tales #2 from 1943 were for the kiddies. George Carlson's artwork is whimsical and kid friendly for the day.

Norman E. Jennett's Monkey Shines Of Marseleen is godlike. It has a definite Winsor McKay influence, but it so well done who cares! I would love to see it reprinted in its entirety. The 2/28/1909, 3/14/1909, 3/28/1909, 4/4/1909, 4/18/1909, 5/2/1909, 9/26/1909, and 11/21/1909 are all marred by the reduced size.

There is a lot of great vintage material in this book which is not available elsewhere. Unfortunately it is ruined, as the strips are shrunk down in size to such a degree that it causes eye strain. I have 20/20 vision and I had trouble reading it. I ended up using my phone's camera to zoom in, but after a while I became aggravated and gave up on some of the strips. It's a shame that this is the only place to get printed examples of some of these lost classics. I checked this out of the library and I am glad that I didn't pay for the substandard presentation. Saturday or Sunday comic sections were huge, and to see them reduced to this size is painful and heartbreaking.

Still, this is the only game in town to get a lot of this material, so as long as you understand what you are getting you should be okay.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love seeing the beginnings of comics, considering what the graphic novel has become today. The artwork was inspiring and fun. Too bad there weren't any women artists included.

[kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

descriptors: amazing. boring. racist. insane. gorgeous. poorly reproduced. incredible.

pretty much spans the gamut.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is indeed a collection of great material from unknown artists from the past. Some are nearly forgotten, most of their work lost except for a handful of pages, others have been re-discovered recently. Often these were regional comic strips from lesser known papers, rarely distributed by any of the cartoon syndicates, but still exceptional in their own way. The book is broken into several sections focusing on commonalities in expression rather than chronology. Exercises in Exploration where it seems the author is playing with form and function in the comic medium. Slapstick - the great use of physical humor in a static medium - the art transcending its frames. Acts of Drawing - where the expressionism of the art supersedes other parts of the narrative. Words in Drawing - Where the plot comes out leaps and bounds above the art. Finally ending with Form and Style where the sheer graphic inventiveness of the strip is celebrated.

While this is a great book in many ways, there are a few niggling detractions. Part of the problem is that several of the illustrators in this book have been “rediscovered” in recent history. The whole comic-ology of both Fletcher Hanks - head of the superhero so-bad-its-good department - and Ogden Whitney - with his immortal Herbie, the Fat Fury comic - have been reprinted over the last ten years. The same is true of much of Milt Gross. So some of these weren’t new to me. Most were, however.

The largest problem, and one noted by many besides myself, was that often the material was difficult to read. Many of these were printed originally in old time papers and given a full length newspaper page to develop. In order to reprint them, they had to be shrunk down to the books size - which in itself is not small, but still not big enough for a full reprint. This is about a third of the book. And while you can admire the art in these parts, reading them is a chore. But what there is here is a unique collection of material.

[Chloe A-L · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is super interesting, but has quite a few structural issues.
Many of the strips are printed egregiously small, so the text end up TINY.

It’s unclear why some strips got as much room as they did vs others, in the biographies at the end it states a few times that what’s reprinted is the totality of what’s been found and preserved, but several strips that don’t have that note get a big chunk of pages and some truly fantastic strips I wanted to read more of only get a few.

My biggest complaint is that the author is entirely too comfortable with publishing a book of all-male cartoonists. He says in the introduction that it’s a reflection of the mostly-male publishing environment of the time period, but most doesn’t mean all. Especially a book about FORGOTTEN AND OVERLOOKED cartoonists should absolutely have female artists. That feels so on theme that the author should be ashamed of not bothering to include any women.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an archival effort, this gets five stars. Not quite the ground breaking act of preservation that we see in, say, William Blackbeard's Smithsonia Guide to Newspaper Comics, but still, a worthy work that keeps a large number of creators from disappearing from modern memory altogether. The content falls short in some places, and in others, reminds us of why these strips might have fallen from the public eye in the first place. Some are clearly overshadowed by their more famous peers (the various Nemo in Slumberland competitors are a notable example). And some just appeared to have been marginal from the get-go. So for content, this gets three stars, bringing the final effort to four. A good addition to your old comics library, but probably not a volume you'll return to often.

[Todd Glaeser · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm surprised by the title "Visionaries" used in the title. Most of the artwork in this book is derivative of the more well known, acknowledged masters, of the field. There are a handful of original strips, but the reproduction is typically too small to enjoy.
I was disappointed.

[Gustav Gerät · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good book, I like it

[Yvette · Rating 3 out of 5]

属于美国漫画艺术史了，汇编了20世纪初到六十年代的一些漫画作品，特别是已经不为当代读者所知的 lost comic。很多还是带着时代色彩，有几部作品感觉挺有超前意识。这本书唯一的问题就是需要配个放大镜来阅读 >.<

[HUCOSA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the book very interesting and entertaining, I enjoyed reading it

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for all comic book historians and buffs, Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries, 1900-1969 by Dan Nadel reprints cartoons and comics from forgotten artists. The book includes samples from the great Dick Briefer, Bob Powell, Ogden Whitney, and others. This incredible survey of previously lost art sits in its rightful place on my shelf beside the excellent A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics.

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing collection of odd and forgotten comics - comics and comic book creators that should be household names (at least to those who are interested in comics). Two of the comics in here now thankfully have their own books: Fletcher Hanks: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets and Rory Hayes: Where Demented Wented, but there's enough here for ten more books, all of which are worth your time if you love great (and in this case, pretty unusual) comics.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a motley collection of comics whose memories have been lost to the sands of time. With so many artists, the results of course will vary in quality and interest. I personally liked “Little Lady Lovekins & Old Man Muffaroo,” an unusual, topsy-turvy comic that must be read both upside-down and right side-up to get the full story.

My only complaint is that some of the reprints of the comics were so small they were difficult to read.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man. This book is overdue to the library but I just can't let it go quite yet. The book contains rare and in many cases previously unseen comics artwork from the first half of the 20th century. I'm already an enormous fan of Herbie, Slim Jim and White Boy.

This may be the best book I read all year and it's only February.

[Leonard Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic review of forgotten artists of the pre-modern era of comics by Dan Nadel. Despite the high-quality glossy paper, some of the detail's hard to make out, and there could be more biographical information to break up the pages, but those are small quibbles for what is one of the best collections of rare comics I've ever seen.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most exciting comics anthology I've ever seen. I typically make it about three panels in before an overwhelming, ecstatic druggy feeling forces me to put the book down. I could happily repeat this ritual every day forever.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of nearly forgotten comics artists who were far ahead their time. Some of the most original ideas, fantastic designs, and sometimes downright bizarre situations in 20th century comics.

[Amelia Halverson · Rating 5 out of 5]

saw this at the library today, had to check it out, I love the T.E. Powers stuff. I can't put this book down!

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great primer on (mostly) forgotten freaks and geniuses who were pushing the boundaries of the medium long before anyone even knew what those boundaries were

[Bob Shaffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for those interested in the obscured history of cartooning. This is art that has otherwise disappeared, despite inspiring generations of sub/counter culture artists.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scrubbles.net book review, January 26, 2008 -

http://www.scrubbles.net/2008/01/26/book-review-art-out-of-time/

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential

[Mills College Library]

741.5 A7848 2006

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love that Wigglemuch!