Otto Soglow (1900–1975)

Late in 2011, IDW released “Cartoon Monarch: Otto Soglow and the Little King.” Although collections are still in print in Portuguese and French, this is the first time that “The Little King” has been made available to the US public since the strip ended in the 1970’s. (Somebody correct me if I’m wrong). “Cartoon Monarch” collects dozens of “The Little King” strips, as well as a run of the off-shoot “The Ambassador.”

In the introduction, one of the editors mentioned that they first read Otto Soglow’s work in a collection of “The New Yorker” cartoons at the library (don’t get me started on “The New Yorker”). It was the same for me. After seeing “The Little King” in one such book, I looked up and down for a copy in print and found a Dell comic from the 1950’s titled “The Little King” and featuring the King, but obviously not written by Soglow. It was a standard Dell comic with a couple 10 page stories that cashed in on the popularity of the strip. I was disappointed. This collection of “The Little King” is the first time I’ve really been able to read the strip.

According to the introduction, Soglow got his start in leftist newspapers before moving on to “Collier’s” and “The New Yorker.” Soglow joined William Randolph Hearst’s King Features Syndicate. “The Little King” quickly became an advertising juggernaut, pitching everything from Standard Oil (BP, Exxon, Chevron) to Pepsi to toys.

There are hundreds of “The Little King” strips in “Cartoon Monarch.” The strips are presented in a very nice hardcover (IDW has really nailed publishing cartoons with class). The printing is nice and clean, so I assume they had to go back and clean up scans from old newspapers or whatever old copies they could find. I’m not sure why the publisher chose to print the first quarter of the book in color and the rest in black and white. It certainly does not detract from the book in any way, because I prefer black and white.

The introduction is nice because it includes some fun samples of Soglow’s work before “The Little King” as well as examples of his advertising. The introduction puts a little too much emphasis on Soglow’s early cartoons for politically left newspapers. There don’t seem to be many years in which he was cartooning for such papers, so the thesis that “The Little King” represented Soglow’s inner struggle between leftist social views and his marketing machine seems off. Soglow was all-in for making money.

Artistically, I enjoy looking at “The Little King.” The lines are tight, rigid, and mathematical. A lot of people, including the editors, think that Soglow is one of the most economical cartoonists out there. I disagree. Every strip has several unnecessary panels that add nothing to the final gag. Such panels are visually pleasing, but they serve only to show the process of the King as he drives in a car or walks past his guards or runs down a hallway (but mostly drives in a car). The whole strip could often be presented as the first panel and the final “shock” panel. This is not economical to me, which isn’t a bad thing because the art is pleasing.

There is one thing about the art that makes me cringe. When I’ve seen “The Little King” in microfiche, some of the pictures are very dated because they have racist images of Africans or people of African descent. Drawing an entirely black face with enormous white lips and a tiny cranium was pretty common in the 1930’s and Soglow wasn’t alone. The animated adventures of “The Little King” (another marketing ploy) had even worse images of African tribes-people, so the book, which has only one or two such images in the background, is relatively tame. I imagine the editors tried to keep those types of images out of the book, even though they are important from a historical and social perspective.

Soglow’s jokes are as consistent as his controlled lines. In each final-panel, the King is put in a very un-regal position, whether he is chasing a pretty blonde, joining a mob, or trying to put the Prince to bed. Each gag has a lot of build up and no disappointment. It’s not exactly a pantomime strip because most strips have speech that set up the scene; however, the words are sparse compared with other strips.… (more)

Apparently Otto Soglow was a comic strip artist's comic strip artist, praised for his economy of line, handling of dark and light, etc. Sure, they're economical enough. But, for me, so is his repertoire of subject matter. Not-terribly-funny jokes are repeated over and over again.

Luckily this is a retrospective, not Volume 1 of a complete census of his work. I can only imagine how tedious sitting through all of it!

The Little King himself is charming and likable in small doses, but that's as far as it goes. Even on a once-daily basis I'm surprised he didn't outstay his welcome.

If you're interested in classic comic strips, please, make sure you read Pogo (brilliant) and Little Nemo (visually stunning) or Barnaby (incredibly charming) long before this one.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).… (more)

"The Little King", a minimalist comic strip by Otto Soglow about a short, rotund non-speaking royal, is considered a classic and was one of the most popular comic strips in America during its peak in the 1940's and 1950's. Darned if I can see why. Until now, I didn't question the strip's reputed genius; the one example that appears in most of my comic strip reference books is indeed brilliant: a wordless series of panels in which the Little King awakens, proceeds through his enormous castle down a huge stairway, through an imposing hallway, to lower his drawbridge and cross his moat, to retrieve a quart of milk left by the milkman.

It's the one good strip in the book. Most of the strips are variations on a few tediously repeating themes: wind-blown hats, escaping the heavy burden of royalty by chasing women or escaping through underground passageways, conflict with the neighboring kingdoms, etcetera. And the minimalist art, which seemed so clean and innovative in that one example, quickly becomes a chore.

Soglow was the toast of the town, and a founding member of the National Cartoonists Society. The dog Otto in "Beetle Bailey" was named after him, although it's not clear whether Mort Walker considered this an homage or a dig.

A great strip can do endless variations on a theme (Krazy Kat), or can be drawn with a simplicity of line (Barnaby). But this strip for me has joined the ranks of those inexplicably beloved by their readers (Brenda Starr, Blondie, Garfield).… (more)