Virgil Franklin Partch

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Virgil Franklin Partch (October 17, 1916 - August 10, 1984) , known by his pen name "VIP," was one of the most prominent American gag cartoonists of the postwar era.

Born on Saint Paul Island, Alaska, Partch attended high school in Tucson, Arizona. In 1937, Partch enrolled at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, studying under Rico LeBrun. Months later, he began a four-year stint working for Disney studios — his departure was connected to the Disney animators' strike of 1941. Soon, he began selling gag cartoons to large-circulation magazines, including Collier's and True. After he left Disney, he worked for a short time for Walter Lantz on the Woody Woodpecker cartoons.

Patch was drafted into the US Army in 1944, and by the end of his two-year stint had been transferred from the infantry to become art director and cartoonist of the Army's weekly newspaper, the Fort Ord Panorama.

Out of the Army, Partch freelanced for ERA Productions, with great success. He published a number of books of single-panel cartoons, some previously published, others done specifically for the books. His 1950 bestseller, Bottle Fatigue, focused on alcohol-themed humor, and sold nearly 95,000 hardcover copies by the decade's end. ^[1] Many of VIP's cartoons depicted a suave urban sophisticate or trendy suburbanite, revealing him to be a dipsomaniac obsessed with sex, power, prestige and money. In "VIP Throws a Party", one of his cartoons shows a depressed man sitting over his drink in a dark corner table, all alone, saying, "Sometimes, I get so tired of me, I make myself sick." On the cover of Cartoon Fun, he's aboard a surfboard, with a woman in front of him, her bra unfastened, with him holding one strap in each hand. She's saying, "I hope you know how to steer this thing, Sam", as if the bra straps were a horse's reins. Later in his career, Partch also had a successful syndicated comic strip, "Big George," and illustrated a number of children's books.

Partch's artwork was instantly recognizable, by huge triangular noses, heads, and breasts, and ankles and wrists that were impossibly thin, often excessive numbers of fingers, lipless mouths, and incredibly dry, even sardonic, wit. He is said to have been a regular gag-writer for The New Yorker magazine, but his own cartoons were rarely published there because, according to VIP biographer Bhob Stewart, "New Yorker editor Harold Ross couldn't stomach Vip's drawing style."^[2]

Partch lived in Orange County, California since 1956. At the time of his death was a resident of Laguna Beach, California. He retired from cartooning in January 1984 due to cataracts and donated his collection of 3,700 original cartoons to the University of California, Irvine library.

He and his wife died in an auto accident on August 10, 1984 on Interstate 5 near Valencia, California.

His uncle was the composer Harry Partch.

[edit] References

^ Bhob Stewart, "R.I.P. VIP," Nemo, No. 14, August 1985, Agoura, CA:Fantagraphics, p.44
^ Bhob Stewart, "R.I.P. VIP," Nemo, No. 14, August 1985, Agoura, CA:Fantagraphics, p.39

Moore, Scott. Life Inside a Comic Strip. Los Angeles Times, December 26, 1974, p. E1

Obituary. Los Angeles Times, August 12, 1984, Metro Section, p. B1.