Happy 50th Anniversary of Funky Winkerbean

A Fresh Look at J.C. Leyendecker

I recently came across this insightful and well-researched YouTube video about illustrator J.C. Leyendecker by Kaz Rowe, a cartoonist, illustrator and YouTube historian and commentator.

< p>J.C. Leyendecker was one of the giants of American illustration in the early 20th century. Responsible for the iconic Arrow Collar Man ad campaign, his covers for the Saturday Evening Post and work in other venues served to mainstream the image of jolly old Santa Claus as we know him today, as well as the images and traditions of Baby New Year, flowers on Mother’s Day and July 4th fireworks. While many of his images remain iconic, the artist himself has largely been forgotten except among hardcore illustrator (and some comics) circles. It should be noted that Norman Rockwell, who succeeded Leyendecker as the defining cover artist for the Saturday Evening Post, idolized Leyendecker and became friends with him.

Leyendecker has been somewhat forgotten due to the very private nature of the artist himself, likely because he likely led a closeted life. Much of Rowe’s work looks at history through an LGBTQ lens, so they approach Leyendecker’s life from a fresh perspective with insight and sensitivity. The video covers the somewhat scandalous and dysfunctional nature of his family and siblings, as well as his art training (he spent time in France, mixing with contemporaries like Alphonse Mucha) and the incredible success he achieved as an illustrator. It then segues to his relationship with model Charles Beach, who was the basis for many of the idealized male figures found in Leyendecker’s work, including the Arrow Collar Man himself. Beach’s role gradually evolved from model to artist’s assistant, personal secretary, financial manager, and he even acted as an agent of sorts for Leyendecker, sharing his home for 50 years until the artist’s death.

Little is known about Beach, or indeed the nature of his relationship with Leyendecker. Amazingly, no photographs of Beach are known to exist, aside from one late in life from a newspaper article, years after Leyendecker had passed. Rowe’s thorough research uncovers some details of his early life before he was discovered and hired as a model by Leyendecker’s brother. What little else is known about Beach comes from Norman Rockwell’s memoir, which labeled Beach as “a real parasite," reinforcing the belief that Beach was the cause for the wedge between Leyendecker and his siblings (and, later, the outside world). But Rowe examines their relationship with more nuance—Leyendecker was always very private and probably moreso given his need, as a public figure, to protect his personal life. In the newspaper story referenced earlier, Beach clearly still deeply missed his friend and took great pride in helping him in his career and life.

Like many artists, I’ve always admired Leyendecker’s work. As I mentioned, Rockwell idolized Leyendecker although their work was very different—whereas Rockwell primarily tried to capture a small town Americana in his work, Leyendecker reflected a more idealized, cosmopolitan world (indeed, many of his figures possess the kind of heroic proportions that would not be out of place in a superhero comic book). I was fortunate to see a traveling exhibition of Leyendecker’s work that came to California in 2007 (organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum) and have one of the early books on Leyendecker that Rowe references in their video, J.C. Leyendecker, by Michael Schau.

Anyone with an interest in Leyendecker may find this of interest, though it does focus more on his biography than his work. I should mention that while many of Rowe’s videos are LGBTQ-related, this is not exclusively so. I first came across their channel due to a fun and interesting video they produced on the making of the 1939 musical film adaptation of Wizard of Oz, and enjoyed another that demystified the myths surrounding the Winchester Mystery House.

Funky Dinner

In my roundup of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, I mentioned that one of the highlights was having dinner with Funky Winkerbean cartoonist Tom Batiuk and his lovely wife. I first became acquainted with Tom around 2014 or ‘15 at the San Diego Comic-Con, where I discovered he was aware of my work and enjoyed the series. In fact, that morphed into a commission to produce a faux-comic book cover featuring characters he had created as a budding kid cartoonist that appeared in the February 14, 2016 Funky Winkerbean Sunday strip, fulfilling a lifelong dream to be a newspaper cartoonist (albeit in a one-off)! Shots of that commissioned piece are included in the attached photos.

Prior to this year’s Comic-Con, Tom reached out to me and said he had been invited as a special guest to this year’s show and asked if I’d be up for having dinner one night. He came by my table the first day of the show and we confirmed it for that evening. We ended up taking a cab up to Little Italy where we had a lovely dinner. We talked shop, about the strip business (and contracts!), old comics, the comic book industry, family, and much more. It was truly an evening I’ll remember with great fondness (regrettably, my wife couldn’t join us since there was a panel she wanted to attend). Tom has a real love of comic books as well as comic strips, having initially looked for work at Marvel and DC when he was starting out—in fact, he has commissioned a number of comic book artists (with far more greater name recognition than me!) to do similar kinds of work in his strip. Tom has always been generous in telling me that he loved the piece I did for him, as I had clearly understood what he was aiming for and that I then ran with it; he kindly mentioned that again during dinner!

When we met, I was able to tell Tom I grew up reading Funky Winkerbean in my local newspaper in New York City, the Staten Island Advance. I lost touch with it when my family moved to California since it was not carried in any of my local newspapers in California. For those who are not familiar, it's a gag strip launched in 1973 centered on the students and teachers of a high school. (By the way, Comic-Con recognized Tom’s work with an Inkpot in 1999.)

Shortly after hearing from Tom before Comic-Con, I decided to re-visit the strip and discovered that it is currently being collected in its entirety by the university press of Tom’s alma mater, Kent State. I picked up the first volume and, upon learning that the strip decades later had “time jumped” several years so that Tom could age the characters and tackle new kinds of stories, I picked up a later volume as well (as a surprise, Tom kindly also sent me another volume!). I have greatly enjoyed the strips and am still in awe of the skill to come up with fresh gags every day and the "world building" needed to keep them coming! Tom, of course, succeeds in doing so by tapping into the memories most people share of their high school years, particularly the awkwardness of trying to fit in.

Anyway, our get-together made this year’s San Diego Comic-Con especially memorable and fun.