Cartoons and comic strips in the Bangor Daily News have been making people laugh — and think about current events — for the entire century.

They’re about history and changing social mores. And despite the advent of movies, television and the Internet, they’re more popular now than they were in 1900, even though they’re still produced by single individuals using pen and ink on a piece of paper.

We asked our cartoonist, George Danby, to pick his favorite cartoons and comics of the century from the pages of the Bangor Daily News. The project broadened into a history of political cartooning and comic strips in the NEWS.

This is the third in our 100 Years in Maine series celebrating the end of the century. It begins on Page D1.

Political cartoons and comic strips have played an important role in our newspaper for most of this century. For nearly half of it, we’ve offered readers the work of our own full-time political cartoonists as well as many syndicated artists from around the nation.

To help celebrate the end of the millennium, we asked George Danby, our political cartoonist since 1985, to choose his favorite cartoons of the century for this special supplement. His review broadened into an outline of the history of cartoons and comics in the NEWS.

By the turn of the century, the NEWS was printing only occasional political cartoons scattered throughout the paper. They did not become established on the editorial page until Sept. 24, 1930, and then only for a year or so, disappearing until 1938.

The first comic strip printed on a consistent basis in this newspaper did not appear until 1922, and it wasn’t until 1933 that comics filled an entire page.

Cartoons and comics, once considered fare fit only for the illiterate and crude, have grown in popularity throughout the century, even as our readers have become better educated and more worldly.

And they still can have a major impact on events.

Our political cartoons have helped elect the state’s and some of the nation’s leaders, and afterward let them know if they were misusing the public trust.

Our comics helped readers find something to laugh about in the darkest days of the Great Depression and the great wars that followed.

Old comics and cartoons are an enduring window on the past. As our first full-time cartoonist, Vic Runtz, once wrote in a book of his work called “Here Today,” “Cartoons, like the newspapers which carry them, are `here today.’ They are destined to wrap tomorrow’s fish. Yet, looking back, we discover that much of yesterday and the yesterdays before remains here today.”

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Political cartoons and comics were published only sporadically in the Bangor Daily News for the first couple of decades of the century.

“Harmony on the American Continent,” which appeared on Nov. 4, 1901, highlighted the role of Maine politician and Secretary of State James G. Blaine in developing the Pan-American Movement in the previous century.

Two months before the publication of “A Viper’s Nest” on Nov. 3, 1901, an anarchist assassinated President William McKinley.

“The Merry Ha! Ha!” which appeared on Nov. 22, 1902, was based on an unsuccessful bear-hunting expedition in Mississippi in which President Theodore Rooevelt declined to shoot a bear his guides had tied to a tree. Media attention to this event led to the naming and marketing of the first “teddy bears.”

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In “We Stand on Our Record,” which appeared in 1917, cartoonist, James Montgomery Flagg, critiqued President Woodrow Wilson’s record in the White House. Flagg created the famous World War I recruiting poster declaring, “Uncle Sam wants you.”

Early comics like “Hitt and Runn” and “That Little Game” made rare appearences in the NEWS during this period. These early examples appeared in 1917.

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The first political cartoons to appear on the editorial page on a regular basis were by Gaar Williams. Mainers can still identify with this early example of an editorial cartoon, which appeared on Jan. 20, 1931. The cartoon as it appeared on the editorial page is displayed below.

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Political cartoons by local artists appeared occasionally in the century’s early years.

The police, the city council and other institutions were fair game for Tom Kane, a Bangor advertising executive, and other artists. Kane’s “The boil is petty politics: the Cure Council Management” and “A la Garbo” appeared on the front page on Sept. 14, 1931, and Jan. 3, 1934, respectively. “Do You Know This Poor Man,” one of the earliest locally drawn cartoons, appeared in Jan. 1916. The artist is unknown.

The traditional Thanksgiving football rivalry between Bangor and Brewer high schools provoked an early sports page cartoon on Nov. 11, 1930.

Bill Geagan, author and NEWS sports editor, also penned cartoons to go with his outdoors column on the sports pages in the 1930s and 1940s.

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Roosevelt, Hitler, Truman and Eisenhower were favorite subjects of nationally syndicated cartoonists during the war years.

Syndicated political cartoons almost disappeared from the pages of the NEWS after their initial appearance on the editorial page in 1930, then they reappeared in 1938, as these examples show on this page and the next. Franklin Roosevelt, Adolph Hitler, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were favorite subjects, along with the impact of the war years on average citizens living at home.

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Besides the editorial page, the sports pages began featuring panels on famous athletes.

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“Gas Buggies,” which appeared initially in the NEWS on Nov. 2, 1922, was the first comic strip printed consistently.

Gradually, the amount of space devoted to the comics expanded to include Mickey Mouse, Blondie and other longtime favorites. Notice how the themes and characters have changed in many of the strips that are still published today.

“Family Portraits” offered a different type of comic, focusing on humorous foibles and everyday situations.

Comic strips had also hit the sports pages on a regular basis by 1940 with the adventures of boxer Joe Palooka.

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The first full page of NEWS comics appeared on Nov. 20, 1933. Above is a portion of the first comics page in the NEWS.

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“Right Around Home,” a full-page cartoon by Dudley Fisher, was a regular NEWS feature around 1940.

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In 1958, the NEWS hired a young cartoonist from the Charelottetown (Prince Edward Island) Guardian. Ontario native Vic Runtz was the NEWS’ first full-time cartoonist. His gentle satire and trademark cat were synonymous with the Bangor Daily News for 24 years.

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More Vic Runtz

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The NEWS has also featured the political cartoons of several local artists during the past decade. Walter Beck is now the paper’s systems coordinator. Tim Cozens was a NEWS advertising manager.

In the early 1980s, Dave Young, now assistant foreman in the composing room, drew the NEWS’ only locally produced comic strip.

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Eric Zelz offered his point of view in the early and mid-’80s. He is now the NEWS director of graphic and design.

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George Danby is the NEWS’ current editorial cartoonist. His work frequently appears in The New York Times, USA Today and many other newspapers.

George Danby was drawing political cartoons for the NEWS while still a student at Bangor High School. He became the paper’s full-time cartoonist in 1985 after working as staff cartoonist at the New Haven Register and the Providence Journal-Bulletin. Syndicated by Editors Press Service, his work appears in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post and dozens of other newspapers. His work was previously used by the McNaught Syndicate.

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More Danby

Credits

Project Editor: Wayne E. Reilly

Cartoon Editor: George Danby

Design: Eric Zelz

Graphic Coordinator: Gaylen Smith