Wikipedia

Mel Cummin

Melville Porter Cummin(January 29, 1895 – December 1, 1980), popularly known asMel Cummin,was a magazine illustrator and a newspaper staff artist; a notable cartoonist in the early decades of Americancomic strips;and aGolden Agecomic book artistandart director.He was active in theSociety of Friends.[2]Cummin was also a well-knownnaturalistand explorer.[3]

Mel Cummin
Portrait photo of Mel Cummin
from the files ofThe Explorers Club.
BornMelville Porter Cummin
(1895-01-29)January 29, 1895[1]
Brooklyn, New York
DiedDecember 1, 1980(1980-12-01)(aged 85)
Fort Montgomery, New York
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)cartoonist, naturalist
Notable works
Good Time Guy,
McCall's Magazinepaper-dolls
AwardsThe Edward C. Sweeney Medal (1978)

Biography

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Early years

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Mel Cummin was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 29, 1895. OfQuakerorigin, Cummin attendedFriends Seminary(his mother, wife and both daughters were all educated there).[citation needed]On course at a young age for his eventual career, Melville Cummin is listed inMary Mapes Dodge'sSt. Nicholas Magazinein 1909 as president of a seven-member chapter of the St. Nicholas League called "St. Nick Drawing Club".[4]He attended National Preparatory Academy and theArt Students League of New York.He held no college degrees. He was ateetotaler.Cummin married at around age twenty.[3]He became a father at age twenty-one in 1916.[5]

Graphic artist

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Cummin worked as a graphic artist for many decades. At various times he was a staff artist for publications of theBoy Scouts of America(c. 1912, shortly after the organization's founding) andWest Point.

He served as art director for theAmerican Kennel Club"Gazette". The editors of the "Gazette" paid tribute to Cummin in 2005 by revisiting his work, and called him "the master draftsman whose cartoons were such a distinctive part of the GAZETTE during the 1940s and '50s."[6]In fact, Cummin drew for that publication at least as early as 1937.[7]

Cummin drew editorial cartoons forThe Middletown News-Signal,anOhiodaily. He worked as an illustrator for theSan Francisco Examineras well as a number of New York newspapers, and also contributed to magazines, including the originalLife.

When the renownedWinsor McCayleft the employ of theNew York Sunday Americanin 1924, the great newspaper journalistArthur Brisbanehired Cummin to fill the vacancy, because of a similarity of style. Brisbane told Cummin however that the job would be McCay's again if he desired to reclaim it. McCay did so in 1927. After McCay's death in 1934 Brisbane rehired Cummin (Brisbane died December 25, 1936). Therefore, Cummin originated and drew many of the big, eight-column cartoons for Brisbane's editorials in theNew York Sunday American,theNew York Evening Journaland occasionallyThe Mirrorfrom 1924 to 1927, and again in 1934 and 1935.[8]Cummin called Brisbane "a well-informed naturalist," and said the two collaborators discussed the subject of Naturalism frequently.[9]

Mel Cummin's paper doll pages forMcCall'sin 1922.

One of the endeavors that brought Cummin popular notice was his recurringpaper dolls/cut-outs section forMcCall's Magazinebeginning in the early 1920s. Examples of his subjects includeTeeny Town,[10]Martha and George Washington,Dappelton Farm's Wagon House and Hay Barn,Strike Out for the Camp-Fire Trail!(shown),The Madisons and Their Family CarriageandJohn Adams and Abigail, His Wife.Our American Humorists(1922 ed.)[11]lists Cummin among many others including Winsor McCay as "Our Comic Artists," and (in a probable reference to this work forMcCall's) credits him with "Children's Cartoons."

Early comic strips

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Debut strip of Cummin'sGood Time Guy(1927)

Later in the decade, Cummin was the first artist forGood Time Guy,which began in 1927. During the strip's short run atMetropolitan Newspaper Service,Cummin worked with writerBill Conselman,a notablescreenwriterwho was writing under the pen name "Frank Smiley". Cummin was succeeded the following year byDick Huemer.[12][13]

Around the same time, Cummin began developing a comic strip calledHap Hazzard(alternatively titledHap McSnap),[14]which may not have ever seen publication.Hap Hazzardfeatured anart deco-influenced style (the originals surfaced in the 1990s comic art market), with dialog full of puns and complicated wordplay, suggesting it too may have been written by Conselman. Cummin made another foray into comics in 1929 withTraveler in the Land of Trundletree,a daily strip that may have been nationally syndicated, or only local.[14]

Back to nature

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Cummin was a well-known artist-naturalist, who produced work for museums (including backgrounds and drawings for exhibits) and their publications,[15][16]and was a benefactor and Life Member of theAmerican Museum of Natural History.[17]His deep personal interest in nature is further evidenced by his very active "Life Fellow" membership in New York'sExplorers Club,which he joined in 1937. He was elected the club's third vice president in 1954, and he also served as secretary. Over the years, Cummin joined expeditions to Haiti, Santo Domingo, and the Canadian Arctic (on the latter expedition he carried the Explorers Flag). He collected specimens, took photographs, and painted and drew what he encountered in nature. In 1978 he was awarded theEdward C. SweeneyMedal for service to the Explorers Club.[3]Cummin rounded out his credentials with memberships in the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, New York Zoological Society, and National Geographic Society.

His willingness to take a public stand in favor of science and thetheory of evolutionis demonstrated by his involvement with a publication calledEvolution: A Journal of Nature.The magazine was published between 1927 and 1938. Its twelfth and final issue notes the addition to the group of Contributing Editors of "Melville P. Cummin, Artist and Naturalist, associated with theAmerican Kennel Gazette."[18]

Mel Cummin'sBack to Naturefeature.

In the late 1930s, Cummin decided to marry his comic strip experience to his passion fornaturalismin creatingBack to Nature,for which he was granted a copyright on May 10, 1937.[19][20]This educational syndicated daily newspaper feature spotlighted flora and fauna facts with the subjects rendered in a naturalistic art style. In promoting the feature Cummin wrote, "We pride ourselves on our culture, on our mastery of the principles of modern science; and, like peacocks, we like to display the social graces. Yet, many would trade places gladly with our forefathers who lived so close to nature. Our so-called civilization is merely a thin veneer covering a framework of rough wood that has been thousands of years in the making."[21]

Golden age

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Mel Cummin drew covers, interiors, and he also served asart directorfrom 1946 to 1949 for Novelty Press,[22]one of the numerouscomic book publishersof theGolden Ageof the 1940s (his tenure as art director there is alternately listed as 1943–1948 on theWho's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999website).[14]The cover toTarget Comics#V7 #1,[1]for example, was produced from Cummin's pencil and ink artwork.

Later years

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Cummin's home studio, which he designed and built himself, was set in four acres of the beautiful wilderness of theHudson Highlands,inFort Montgomery, New York.In 1977, he listed his present occupation on a questionnaire as "trying to convince myself that I'm retired," and his avocations as "model-making, dioramas, and designing wooden toys for children."[3]

Melville Porter Cummin died the first day of December 1980,[23]survived by his wife of 65 years, Marion (Van Buskirk) Cummin, and two daughters, Eleanor Claire and Miriam Louise.[3][5]

Cartoonist Herb Roth, assistant and successor toH. T. Webster,was an intimate friend for decades. Roth wrote of Mel Cummin in 1937, "Knowing him as I do, I believe the newspaper that contains his work is fortunate; and far more fortunate are its readers. He is an exceptional man."[24]

Notes

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Mel Cummin art fromHap Hazzard,c. 1929. This work, left unfinished, reveals his method.
  1. ^"United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VSFC-CW5:accessed 22 Feb 2013), Melville Cummin, December 1, 1980; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
  2. ^Proceedings of the... Session of New York Yearly Meeting... By Society of Friends, Published 1936, Original from the University of Michigan. Digitized Oct 8, 2007.
  3. ^abcdeThe Archives of the Explorers Club Membership Files (Deceased Members)"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2009-01-05.Retrieved2007-10-14.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)andhttp:// explorers.org/
  4. ^St. Nicholasby Mary Mapes Dodge. Scribner & Co., 1909, Item notes: v. 36, pt. 2 Original from Princeton University Digitized May 21, 2008 p.667
  5. ^abFriends' Intelligencer.Friends' Intelligencer Association. 1917. pp. 27–.
  6. ^AKC Gazette.American Kennel Club, Inc. July 2005.
  7. ^The American Kennel Gazette.American Kennel Club. July 1937.
  8. ^John Canemaker (October 2005).Winsor McCay: his life and art.Harry N. Abrams.ISBN9780810959415.Retrieved17 March2013.
  9. ^Back to Nature, the New Daily Feature for Newspapers that was Created on Popular Demandby Mel Cummin, Copyright, 1937, by Mel Cummin (a self-published prospectus for newspaper staffs), p.5
  10. ^"The History of Paper Dolls".
  11. ^Masson, Thomas L. 1922.Our American humorists.New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, p.429.
  12. ^Goulart, Ron.The Funnies: 100 Years of American Comic Strips,pg 63 Adams Publishing 1995ISBN1-55850-539-3.
  13. ^Metropolitan Newspaper Service, & Conselman, W. (1927). "Good Time Guy,a new sunrise in the comic world "by William M. Conselman, author ofElla Cinders,writing under thenom de plumeof Frank Smiley with drawings by Mel Cummin. New York: Metropolitan Newspaper Service.
  14. ^abcWho's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 website -http:// bailsprojects /(S(g4ngwu55g2z4c245gv1xfc55))/whoswho.aspx?mode=AtoZsearch&id=CUMMIN%2c+MEL
  15. ^The Naturalists' universal directory By Samuel Edson Cassino, Published by The Cassino Press, 1933, Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Sep 5, 2007
  16. ^Ingersoll, Ernest. Explorers Journal. New York: Explorers Club, 1921.
  17. ^The... annual report of the American Museum of Natural History By American Museum of Natural History- Item notes: v. 67-69 - 1936 - Nature
  18. ^EVOLUTION: A Journal of Nature, January, 1938:http:// ucl.ac.uk/silva/sts/staff/cain/projects/ejn/ejn_issues/ejn4_02.pdf
  19. ^Library of Congress. Copyright Office (1938).Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [B] Group 2. Pamphlets, Etc. New Series.pp. 457–.
  20. ^Catalogue of Title-entries of Books and Other Articles Entered in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, Under the Copyright Law... Wherein the Copyright Has Been Completed by the Deposit of Two Copies in the Office.U.S. Government Printing Office. 1938.
  21. ^Back to Nature, the New Daily Feature for Newspapers that was Created on Popular Demandby Mel Cummin, Copyright, 1937, by Mel Cummin (a self-published prospectus for newspaper staffs)
  22. ^The Who's Who of American Comic Books,p. 37, by Jerry Bails & Hames Ware (Detroit, Mich.: J. Bails, 1973-1976).
  23. ^"Family History Search with Historical Records - SuperSearch".
  24. ^Back to Nature, the New Daily Feature for Newspapers that was Created on Popular Demandby Mel Cummin, Copyright, 1937, by Mel Cummin (a self-published prospectus for newspaper staffs), p. 27
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  • [2]- Lambiek Entry
  • [3]- Comicstripfan Entry
  • [4]- A summary of the contents of Cummin's membership file at the Explorers Club: Membership materials of Melville Porter Cummin (1895- ). This file contains several photographs, including photos of Cummin photographing in the wilderness (note: these photographs total nine but are within an envelope labeled “10 pictures” ). In addition, there are newspaper clippings including an extensive New York Times obituary. Also within this file are: two examples of a daily newspaper supplement (Back To Nature) that Cummin headed up; and historical postcards, designed by the Melville Cummin Studios.
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