“Regardless of how little you know about cartooning now, you can easily qualify for a position in this attractive, high-salaried business.” --------- “New Method Makes Cartooning Astonishingly Easy to Learn!” -------
“You will be amazed at how quickly it teaches you to draw salable work…”
”Enjoy the fascinating life of a successful cartoonist – easy hours, freedom from routine, your own boss, and $3,000 to $15,000 a year for this work that is play!” …and that’s in 1925 dollars! Sign me up!
A couple years ago, our pals at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive scanned in this "how-to-draw" book by animation pioneer William C. Nolan: "Cartooning Self-Taught"
Update: seems like all the old links to the Archive site are broken, so I'm posting all the images right here until they return to the Asifa Archive blog.
Bill Nolan is one of the hugest unsung heroes and animation -- is often credited with creating the rubber hose style of cartoons. It was Bill Nolan that helped Otto Messmer refine Felix the Cat into the bouncy, round, cartoony character that he became in the mid-20s.
I just love the giant hands on all these characters, reminding me of Bud Fisher's Mutt& Jeff, Elzie C. Segar's Thimble Theater (Popeye) and George Herriman's Stumble Inn. It'skinda strange how different decades have different cartooning styles. I wouldn't mind at all if this old-timey "bigfoot" style started to make a comeback!
This book is a quick survey of the most basic building blocks of how to draw cartoon characters: There are different mini lessons on how to draw the head, hands, feet, full figures, action poses, animals and kids. Like a lot of books of this type, it doesn't go into great detail, but it's fun for what it is!
Thousands Can Draw Cartoons Who Have Never Even Tried
"Why work at drudgery when through a remarkable new method you can easily learn at home in spare time to draw cartoons that sell?"
"Many are earning pitifully small salaries who could make wonderful salaries in cartooning."
This is my favorite part:
"Just watch a cartoonist work. A few little lines -- a couple of simple curves --a splash of black here and there -- and then you see a splendid cartoon before you."
Ad ripped from Popular Mechanics via Google Books.
For the first time (since 1979's Sergio Aragones on Parade), here is a “greatest hits” collection of one of MAD’s most popular and prolific artists—Sergio Aragonés—hand-picked by the artist and featuring his greatest work from his debut with MAD in 1963 to the present. Assembled chronologically, it’s packed with 272 pages of cartoons,interviews, and a special pull-out poster of Sergio’s “Marginals,” the wildly popular mini-cartoons that have appeared in MAD’s margins for over 40 years.
Looking at Dan Moynihan's drawings makes me feel like a little kid again. His playful doodles have a happy childlike quality that reminds me of PD Eastman, Quentin Blake and my ol'pal Craig Bartlett. But of course, he's totally got his own thing goin'!
Anyway, I just had to share this with everybody because it's so darn good!
“Regardless of how little you know 
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