Milt Gross, 20th Century Renaissance Man

There used to be a great magazine called "Cartoonists Profiles"

that featured articles about every imaginable kind of cartoonist. Mike Fontanelli brought over this issue which featured an article about Milt Gross who was not only a top cartoonist, but a playwright, a gag man for Charlie Chaplin, an animator and a hundred other things.

He was all these things and more in an age of giants - During America's Golden Age - when it seems almost everyone was talented and no one could have imagined that popular amateurism was mere decades away.






Look how cool his early "Mutt 'N' Jeff" style was! Totally different than his own personal style that came a bit later.



These strips below are courtesy of Marc Deckter
http://blog.marcdeckter.com/?p=75



who spends every red cent I pay him on great old comic strips.Marc told me he bought a bunch of Gross strips from 1930 and 31 and that they were among his best.
Here's 3 of them and they are beautiful all right.

Look at the great mood in this last one! I love all his compositions. So clever. Every shape he draws is beautiful.

Thanks Mike and Marc for giving me an easy post to do!