Belated Christmas Greetings from Karl Hubenthal and Burris Jenkins, Jr.

 

The other day I was going through some of Jim Ivey’s voluminous files, of which some boxes still remain in process to be wedded with my filing system. I came across a folder marked “Optical Illusions.” In amongst clips of op art and clever bits of drawing, I found these three clippings that knocked my socks off. Apparently it was a thing, at least for a few editorial cartoonists, to do a Christmas greeting in their regular space. Burris Jenkins Jr. (top two, 1965 and 1960) and Karl Hubenthal (bottom, 1964) produced these incredible cartoons, in which the entire drawing is made up of hundreds or probably even thousands of expertly lettered names to whom they wished to send Christmas greetintgs. I can’t even imagine the time and expertise that went into creating these masterpieces.

There’s no way you’ll be able to read all these names at the size I can put on the blog, and the smallest of the names are tough to read even at full size on the crumbling old yellowed tearsheets filed away by Jim Ivey, but I can supply high-resolution versions to anyone with a serious interest. Just let me know.

PS: Jim and Hubenthal were pals, and I finally found his shout-out — it’s right next to Arnie Palmer in the deer’s left (from his perspective) antler. Jim had actually circled it and I didn’t notice.

One comment on “Belated Christmas Greetings from Karl Hubenthal and Burris Jenkins, Jr.

  1. Oh gosh, this is really impressive (and also "good gawd how long did it take to finish this?")

    In the first one I saw names of famous cartoonists listed in Santa's cup and hand, including Walt Disney, Otto Soglow, Mort Walker, Gus Edson, and others.

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