Table of Contents
Scope and Contents of the Collection
Freckles and His Friends cartoons
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Overview of the Collection |
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| Creator: | Blosser, Merrill |
| Title: | Merrill Blosser Cartoons |
| Inclusive Dates: | 1966 |
| Quantity: | 2.5 linear ft. |
| Abstract: | Original daily and Sunday cartoons from the newspaper comic strip Freckles and His Friends. |
| Language: | English |
| Repository: |
Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center |
Biographical History
Merrill Blosser (1892-1983) was born in Nappanee, Indiana on May 28, 1892. He spent one year at Blue Ridge College, Maryland, took a correspondence course in cartooning, and studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. His first cartoon was sold to the Baltimore American in 1912. He held several art jobs with magazines and newspapers and drew political cartoons for the Wheeling (W.Va.) Register and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In 1915, he went to work for the NEA syndicate, where he created the comic strip Freckles and His Friends, which eventually ran in some 700 newspapers.
Blosser's initial style for Freckles and His Friends was very simple, but over the years as Freckles grew older and the strip became more narrative, he shifted to a more realistic style. He was particularly influenced by fellow cartoonist Walter Hoban, who drew Jerry on the Job. In the mid-1930s Henry Formhals became Blosser's assistant on the strip, eventually taking over the daily version in early 1966. Blosser continued to do the Sunday feature until his retirement at the end of that year. Formhals continued doing both the daily and Sunday versions of Freckles and His Friends until the end of its run in 1971. Merrill Blosser died in Pasadena, California in 1983.
Scope and Contents of the Collection
The Merrill Blosser Cartoons collection contains 61 original daily cartoons and 36 original Sunday cartoons from the newspaper comic strip Freckles and His Friends (1966). The Sunday version of the comic strip also includes a single strip, companion feature titled Hector.
February 12, 1966 was the last daily strip signed by Merrill Blosser. Daily strips between February 14 and March 19 have the signature of Henry Formhals covered over with opaque white. The March 21, 1966 daily strip is the first to officially show the signature of Henry Formhals (see Henry Formhals Cartoons). Sunday cartoon: traces of graphite, blue pencil, opaque white, paste-ons, brush, pen and ink on illustration board, approx. 17 ¾ x 26 in. Daily cartoon: traces of graphite, blue pencil, opaque white, paste-ons, brush, pen and ink on illustration board, approx. 5 ¼ x 16 ½ in.
Arrangement of the Collection
Daily and Sunday cartoons are grouped separately in chronological order.
Restrictions
Access Restrictions
The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.
Use Restrictions
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
Related Material
See the Henry Formhals Cartoons collection for additional material related to Freckles and His Friends. Special Collections Research Center has collections of over one hundred other cartoonists. Please refer to the SCRC Subject Index for a complete listing.
Subject Headings
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Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
Merrill Blosser Cartoons,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
Finding Aid Information
Created by: -
Date: 1966
Revision history: 8 Aug 2005 - EAD file created (MRR);
16 Mar 2009 - revised (MD)
Inventory
| Freckles and His Friends cartoons (97) | |||||||||||
| Click here for detailed inventory. | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Daily cartoons 1966 (61) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Sunday cartoons 1966 (36) | ||||||||||