Number 1237: “. . . the one about the farmer’s daughter.”

I like a good dirty joke as much as the next guy. But I've heard the question, “Have you heard the one about the traveling salesman and the farmer’s daughter?” many times in movies, yet have never heard anyone tell an actual traveling salesman and farmer’s daughter joke. I didn't know there really were jokes about the traveling salesman and the farmer’s daughter.

The Farmer's Daughter #1 (1954) is interesting. This story is about the traveling salesman and the farmer’s daughter! Aha. Now we're getting somewhere. It’s published by Stanhall. Its indicia lists Adolphe Barreaux (“Sally the Sleuth” and various crime comic books) as executive editor, and Hal Seeger as editor. Hal Seeger, an animator, went on in the ’60s to create Batfink. A copyright notice in The Farmer's Daughter gives him the copyright for the book.

Paul Spector, in his apparently vacated blog devoted to his father’s work, Spectorphile, credits Irv Spector with writing and art on The Farmer's Daughter. A commenter to that posting said that title character Amy appears to be drawn by Bill Williams, who also did comic books for Stanhall, and later in association with John Stanley.

The head swims. The Farmer's Daughter, despite its racy-sounding premise, Amy's busty, bare-legged and barefoot cuteness, and its cast of very funny characters, was short-lived. It lasted four issues in 1954. Seeger created a couple of other short-lived comics for Stanhall with Oh, Brother, and G.I. Jane, both with art signed by Bill Williams. The comics all ended just about the time the Comics Code was implemented. Had they submitted The Farmer's Daughter to the Code it might not have passed, based on the storyline and dialogue, and one of the best punch lines ever in a mainstream comic book.

Number 1191: More Irv Spector's Lucky Duck

It's Friday the 13th today, and we need all the good luck we can get. So how about Lucky Duck?

In a prior post, Pappy's #1099, I showed the first of cartoonist/animator Irv Spector's stories from Lucky Duck #5 (actually #1) from 1952. Here are the balance of Spector’s pages from that issue.

Irv Spector fits into that category of true screwball cartoonists like Bill Holman (Smokey Stover). His panels are bursting with energy. His characters explode with action in the best traditions of the animated cartoons from whence he came.

Number 1099


Irv Spector's Lucky Duck


Irving Spector, like many other funny animal and humor artists of the 1940s and '50s, had a background in animation. His artwork is free and loose, and looks like it was a lot of fun to draw.

Spector did four issues of Lucky Duck for Standard. In the way of that publisher the first issue was issued as number five (to fool retailers into thinking the comic book had a track record). I found this issue at a local antiques mall...lucky me. I love stumbling on comic books as fun as this.

I like the bold, free inking, which to me is reminiscent of Walt Kelly, and there are other elements of comic art history in Lucky Duck, too. There are shades of Krazy Kat, and in the best tradition of animated shorts, the characters, both of them tricksters, are given to bashing each other with wooden mallets in displays of animation mayhem.

Spector's son, Paul, has a blog devoted to his father's work: irvspector.blogspot.com, with examples of original art, like Spector's newspaper comic strip, Coogy. There are reproductions of correspondence and other ephemera Spector left after his death. It's a goldmine of information on a working cartoonist of that incredible era, and if you're like me, you'll find the background information as fascinating as the work he produced.