Tom Heintjes at Hogan’s Alley kindly put my 2019 article on a popular early cartooning contest for young people online for free. For more than a decade, the magazine Open Road for Boys gave aspiring artists a chance to share their “solutions” to a problem cartoon. At the head of this post, you can see 16-year old Mort Walker’s contribution for January 1940.
This March 1931 entry by Reed Crandall, who went on to comics glory with his work for Quality and EC, is just a glimpse of what you’ll find. Other cartoonists, animators, and comics artists including Jack Davis, Bill Peet, Woody Kimbrell, John Stanley, and more are among the youthful contestants.
Read the full article here: https://www.hoganmag.com/blog/2023/1/4/on-the-road-to-the-big-time-the-open-road-for-boys-cartooning-contest And, if you don’t already subscribe to the award-winning Hogan’s Alley, consider doing so.