Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-03-17
COMIC IDEALS CHANGING.

Passing Of the ssHe and She Draw
ings-Acti0n Of Cartoons.
There appears to be a vast change
in the pictorial work of the humorous
periodicals in the last few years, so
much SO, in fact, that the humorous
ideal seems to have been shifted. A
few years ago the illustrations in a GER
tain class of these pR.pers were almost
invariably OF some artistic merit in a
serious though often unmeaning way;
now they are. for the most part, grote-
sque and broadly comic. Before the
Joke" was to be found in the text be
meath the picture. Now it is in the
picture itself, and often the text is dis
pensed with altogether. Most of the
humorous papers still retain n or two
artists whose work is of the finer or
der, as a connecting link between the
old n and the new, and in order
that he may furnish a slight counter
poise to the comic prepOnderanee. But
the man whose wares are most readily
accepted and which command the high
est figure is the earicaturist of the
original" who has discovered some
distorted point of view OF things. Their
pictures amuse in themselves, and the
text, If text there be, is a Fictitious aid.
A New York artist, who used to com
mand a comfortable living by drawing
for the humorous papers,, comments
rather ruefully on this change in style.
Have you observed" he said, that the
he and she picture has gone the way
OF all flesh? There is no market for it
now. | used to support myself doing
he and she pictures and nothing else.
They would take as many of them as
| cared to draw. All that | had to do
was to put a man. and a woman on a
bench or a sofa, or strolling down a
shady lane, or sitting on the seashore,
and their funny men did the rest. |
would not know what was going with
the picture until | saw it in the pa
per. The jokes were always He
then his remark. and 'She'-and her re-
ply. that is the way this type of pie
ture got its name.
FINALLY, however, the editors of
these papers drew the artistic reins
tighter. They said that there was
nothing in the expressions of the he
and She to indicate that they were say
ing the lines the funny man had given
them. Sometimes, you see. | would
have a man leaning carelessly over the
back Of a rustic seat smiling down
at a girl while, according to the lines.
she was giving him the 'mitten.' The
members of the he and she school
were gradually crowded out by the
comics and if they could not adapt
themselves to the new styles, had to
seek other fields. OF course, | do no
mean to say there are no more he and
she pictures in the comic papers.
They will appear, but you will observe
that they are not very well done from
an artistic point of view. but that the
of the lines beneath.
What is the reason for this change
In the humorous papers," echoed the
artist to a question. .sWell, it would
be hard to say. 1t is more than a
fashion. | think. Call it an evolu-
ton. One reason. | believe. is the
great improvement in the last few
years of the Illustrations in the serious
monthlies and weeklies. The public
sees so much excellent pictorial work
In these nowadays that it would be
surfeited if it found this work in the
comic papers too. They turn to them
for the funny pictures