Mel Cummin

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Melville Porter Cummin (1895-1980), popularly known as Mel Cummin, was a magazine illustrator and a newspaper staff artist; a notable cartoonist in the early decades of American comic strips; and a Golden Age comic book artist and art director. Cummin was also a well-known naturalist and explorer.

Mel Cummin was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 29, 1895. Of Quaker origin, Cummin attended Friends Seminary. He also attended National Preparatory Academy and the Art Students League of New York. He held no college degrees. [1]

A 1922 excerpt from one of Cummin's paper doll pages for McCall's.
A 1922 excerpt from one of Cummin's paper doll pages for McCall's.

Mel Cummin worked as a graphic artist for many decades. At various times he was a staff artist for publications of the Boy Scouts of America (c. 1912, shortly after the organization's founding), the American Kennel Club, and West Point. Cummin drew editorial cartoons for The Middletown News-Signal, an Ohio daily. He worked as an illustrator for a number of New York newspapers, and also contributed to magazines, including the original Life Magazine.

One of the endeavors that brought Cummin popular notice was his recurring paper dolls/cut-outs section for McCall's Magazine in the 1920s. Examples of his subjects include Martha and George Washington, Dappelton Farm's Wagon House and Hay Barn, Strike Out for the Camp-Fire Trail! (shown), The Madisons and Their Family Carriage and John Adams and Abigail, His Wife. Our American Humorists (1922 ed.) [2] lists Cummin among many others including Winsor McCay as "Our Comic Artists," and (in a probable reference to this work for McCall's) credits him with "Children's Cartoons."

Later in the decade, Cummin was the first artist for Good Time Guy, which began in 1927. During the strip's short run at Metropolitan Newspaper Service Mel Cummin worked with writer Bill Conselman, a notable screenwriter. [3][4]

Cummin art from Hap Hazzard, c. 1929. This work, left unfinished, reveals his method.
Cummin art from Hap Hazzard, c. 1929. This work, left unfinished, reveals his method.

Around the same time, Cummin began developing a comic strip called Hap Hazzard (alternatively titled Hap McSnap).[5], which may not have ever seen publication. Hap Hazzard featured an art deco-influenced style (the originals surfaced in the 1990s comic art market), with dialog full of puns and complicated wordplay, suggesting it too may have been written by Conselman. Cummin made another foray into comics in 1929 with Traveler in the Land of Trundletree, a daily strip that may have been nationally syndicated, or only local.[6]

The artist had a deep personal interest in nature, as evidenced by his very active "Life Fellow" membership in New York's Explorers Club, which he joined in 1937. He was elected the Club's third Vice President in 1954. Over the years, Cummin joined expeditions to Haiti, Santo Domingo, and the Canadian Arctic (on the latter expedition he carried the Explorers Flag). He collected specimens, took photographs, and painted and drew what he encountered. In 1978 he was awarded the Edward C. Sweeney Medal for service to the Explorers Club. [7]

An example of Cummin's Back to Nature feature.
An example of Cummin's Back to Nature feature.

In the 1930s, Cummin decided to marry his artistic talent to his passion in creating Back to Nature. This educational syndicated daily newspaper feature spotlighted flora and fauna facts with the subjects rendered in a naturalistic art style. In promoting the feature Cummin wrote, "We pride ourselves on our culture, on our mastery of the principles of modern science; and, like peacocks, we like to display the social graces. Yet, many would trade places gladly with our forefathers who lived so close to nature. Our so-called civilization is merely a thin veneer covering a framework of rough wood that has been thousands of years in the making."[8]

Mel Cummin drew covers, interiors, and also served as art director from 1946-49 for Novelty Press, [9] one of the numerous Comic Book Publishers of the Golden Age of the 1940s (his tenure as art director there is alternately listed as 1943-1948 on the Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 website).[10] The cover to Target Comics #V7 #1, [1] for example, was produced from Cummin's pencil and ink artwork.

Mel Cummin's home studio was set in the beautiful scenery of the Hudson Highlands, in Fort Montgomery, New York. In 1977, he listed his present occupation on a questionnaire as "trying to convince myself that I'm retired," and his avocations as "model-making, dioramas, and designing wooden toys for children." [11]

Melville P. Cummin died in December of 1980, survived by his wife of sixty-five years, Marion, and two daughters, Eleanor and Miriam.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Archives of the Explorers Club Membership Files (Deceased Members)http://www.fleurwerks.com/findingaid.pdf and http://www.explorers.org/
  2. ^ Masson, Thomas L. 1922. Our American humorists. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, p.429.
  3. ^ Ron Goulart The Funnies: 100 Years of American Comic Strips pg 63 Adams Publishing 1995 ISBN 1-55850-539-3
  4. ^ Metropolitan Newspaper Service, & Conselman, W. (1927). Good time Guy, a new sunrise in the comic world by William M. Conselman, author of "Ella Cinders", writing under the nom de plume of Frank Smiley with drawings by Mel Cummin. New York: Metropolitan Newspaper Service.
  5. ^ Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 website - http://www.bailsprojects.com/(S(g4ngwu55g2z4c245gv1xfc55))/whoswho.aspx?mode=AtoZsearch&id=CUMMIN%2c+MEL
  6. ^ Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 website - http://www.bailsprojects.com/(S(g4ngwu55g2z4c245gv1xfc55))/whoswho.aspx?mode=AtoZsearch&id=CUMMIN%2c+MEL
  7. ^ The Archives of the Explorers Club Membership Files (Deceased Members)http://www.fleurwerks.com/findingaid.pdf and http://www.explorers.org/
  8. ^ Back to Nature, the New Daily Feature for Newspapers that was Created on Popular Demand by Mel Cummin, Copyright, 1937, by Mel Cummin (a self-published prospectus for newspaper staffs)
  9. ^ The Who's Who of American Comic Books, p. 37, by Jerry Bails & Hames Ware (Detroit, Mich. : J. Bails, 1973-1976).
  10. ^ Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 website - http://www.bailsprojects.com/(S(g4ngwu55g2z4c245gv1xfc55))/whoswho.aspx?mode=AtoZsearch&id=CUMMIN%2c+MEL
  11. ^ The Archives of the Explorers Club Membership Files (Deceased Members)http://www.fleurwerks.com/findingaid.pdf and http://www.explorers.org/

[edit] External links

  • [2] - Lambiek Entry
  • [3] - Comicstripfan.com Entry
  • [4] - A summary of the contents of Cummin's membership file at the Explorers Club: Membership materials of Melville Porter Cummin (1895 - ). This file contains several photographs, including photos of Cummin photographing in the wilderness (note: these photographs total nine but are within an envelope labeled “10 pictures”). In addition, there are newspaper clippings including an extensive New York Times obituary. Also within this file are: two examples of a daily newspaper supplement (Back To Nature) that Cummin headed up; and historical postcards, designed by the Melville Cummin Studios.