Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: May 10, 2021 at 12:17:17 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [Jhistory]: Neumann on Campbell, 'The Goat Getters: > Jack Johnson, the Fight of the Century, and How a Bunch of Raucous > Cartoonists Reinvented Comics' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Eddie Campbell. The Goat Getters: Jack Johnson, the Fight of the > Century, and How a Bunch of Raucous Cartoonists Reinvented Comics. > Studies in Comics and Cartoons Series. Columbus IDW Publishing, > 2018. Illustrations. 320 pp. $49.99 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-68405-138-0. > > Reviewed by Caryn E. Neumann (Miami University of Ohio Regionals) > Published on Jhistory (May, 2021) > Commissioned by Robert A. Rabe > > Eddie Campbell revives the newspaper cartoons of the late nineteenth > and early twentieth centuries in _The Goat Getters: Jack Johnson, the > Fight of the Century, and How a Bunch of Raucous Cartoonists > Reinvented Comics. _The title is a misnomer as the book lacks a clear > argument and does not focus only on Black heavyweight boxer Jack > Johnson and the hapless Great White Hopes who fought him. The value > of this book--and it is an immeasurable one--lays in the depth that > Campbell brings to his discussion of cartoons and the richness of the > comics that are reprinted. > > Campbell has spent his life working in comics as a writer and artist. > He collected enough material on early newspaper cartoonists to pen a > book and then added additional material drawn from the San Francisco > Academy of Comic Art and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum and Library > at The Ohio State University. _The Goat Getters _focuses on East and > West Coast writers, skipping over the rest of the country. As > Campbell is not a historian, he stays away from analysis and tends to > blunder when he makes historical claims about the world outside of > comics. His claim that women were required to turn over their money > to their husbands in 1900, for example, is simply inaccurate. > > These criticisms do not mean that the book is limited. Campbell's > depth of knowledge is stunning. He tracks cartoonists, including > Jimmy Swinnerton and Robert Edgren, from newspaper to newspaper and > newspaper section to newspaper section. As Campbell discovered, San > Francisco _Bulletin _cartoonist Tad Dorgan drew political and sports > cartoons while also sketching advertisements in the classified > section and drawing Victor Hugo for the books section. Campbell > discusses artistic techniques, relating that learning art in this era > began with shading shapes and that a particular drawing clearly > relies on photographic references. Long-legged characters are not > worth much analysis, Campbell explains, as this type of drawing was > encouraged by the columnar architecture of the newspaper page in this > era. Every page is packed with comics, often story comics or sports > comics. This is material that is largely inaccessible and the > reproductions here will doubtless be a godsend to teachers and > scholars. > > Campbell has so much wonderful material that it appears he struggled > to organize it effectively. This weakness does not detract > significantly from the book. The two or three illustrations on every > page make this an enormously fun book to read. Possibilities for > further research are woven throughout the work. For example, Laura E. > Foster, born in 1871 and known sometimes as LEF, may have been the > earliest woman drawing political cartoons in the United States. > Boxing historians will see many primary sources. In summary, Campbell > has created a significant contribution to the comics field, and > libraries should strongly consider purchasing his reasonably priced > book. > > Citation: Caryn E. Neumann. Review of Campbell, Eddie, _The Goat > Getters: Jack Johnson, the Fight of the Century, and How a Bunch of > Raucous Cartoonists Reinvented Comics_. Jhistory, H-Net Reviews. May, > 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54257 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8485): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8485 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82724417/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
