Mister Oswald Update!

Nine 1930s Mister Oswald tearsheets from old issues of Hardware Retailer have been added to the 1920s/30s Gallery. Only one of these pages appear in Russ’ 1968 book, Forty Years with Mister Oswald, so the rest of them are being pictured here for the first time since they were originally published.

These pages show off Russ’ writing and drawing chops very well, but there is one curious page in the bunch. The February 1939 page depicts the Oswalds at the State Convention, but the page was not drawn by Russ Johnson. If you look carefully at the drawing, you’ll see that it is far sketchier than Russ would work, and Mister Oswald barely looks like himself in some panels. In addition, Russ always signed his work and this page is unsigned. I do not know who the mystery artist is, but it ain’t Russ’ work! Here’s the page in question:

While scanning these pages, I found a pleasant surprise on the back of the December 1937 Mister Oswald cartoon: an uncommon Russ Johnson editorial cartoon. The cartoon deals with the problems retailers run into between wholesalers, manufacturers and the competition. It is ever so. From an editorial cartoon standpoint, it’s not Russ’ strongest work, but it is still a pleasure seeing him step outside of the world of Mister Oswald.

As always, thanks for checking-in.

Rob Stolzer

Rob Stolzer has been collecting original comic strip and cartoon artwork for over 40 years. He has written numerous articles for Hogan’s Alley, the CFA-APA 1506 Nix Nix and other journals. Stolzer taught art at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for 33 years, where he taught Drawing, Figure Drawing, Graphic Narration, Illustration, and Painting.  Stolzer was granted emeritus professor status upon retirement in 2023.