Lot 144: Wally Wallgren [1892-1948] Cartoon drawing

Offered here is an original 1937 cartoon drawing by Wally Wallgren. Approx. 6-1/2 x 13-7/8 in., signed bottom middle and dated 37. Done on transparent paper. Condition is very good. Wally_æ_s original drawings are very scarce! Wally wallgren (1892-1948) A native of Philadelphia, PA, Wallgren_æ_s biggest claim to fame was the cartooning he did for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in The Stars and Stripes during World War I. In R.C. Harvey_æ_s write-up on Wallgren in the March-April 1999 issue of Comic Art Professional Society (CAPS), he states that A.A. Wallgren was to WWI what Bill Mauldin was to WWII. And yet, like so many other unsung greats, his accomplishments seem lost to history. A cartooning prodigy, by 18 Wallgren was creating sports cartoons for a number of newspapers in the city, and already had two running comic strips Inbad the Sailor and Ruff and Ready, with the addition of his fantastical Sammy and Sue and Slobbery Slam in 1915, a spinoff of a Bud Counihan strip. After joining the Marine Corps in 1917, his talents led to his work as a sign painter for military vehicles and facilities throughout France, and he was eventually recruited to work for The Stars and Stripes. Legend has it that Wallgren was notoriously ill-suited to military life, and especially to all responsibilities requiring deadlines and punctuality- even for his cartooning work. On multiple occasions he was under military discipline for drunkenness, or smuggling cognac into the barracks, and arriving late or not at all for particular posts. However, it_æ_s clear that the AEF venerated him for his cartooning work, whether they had to hold him captive at the drawing table until he finished his latest cartoon (a true anecdote retold by one of his contemporaries) or had to track him down at bistros throughout Paris to beg him to draw. His most popular military cartoon character was for the American Legion magazine, the Saluting Demon, a meek soldier who instinctively saluted everything and anything that walked by, be it a horse or inanimate object. After Wallgren_æ_s time overseas, he returned home to the States where he did cartoons for Life, and created The Muddledups as well as Hoosegow Herman for his hometown newspapers. The story ends when Wallgren was offered a daily and Sunday strip by the editor of the New York Morning World, but immediately turned it down. His logic in this decision, as explained to the prestigious editor, was that he didn_æ_t want the two of them to grow to hate each other, as he was certain they would as soon as Wallgren patently would. He felt instead that they should maintain a liking for one another by not working together at all, quoted saying: _æ_Right now, I like you, and you like me. I_æ_m going on thirty, and at my age, I can_æ_t afford to make enemies. Let_æ_s stay friends. No comic strip, and no deadlines._æ

VG