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[The Ghost Man]

Greetings all and welcome to #236 of the CBP Comic Book Reading Group. I am The Ghost Man and host a blogsite called The Vintage Inkwell Academy (TVIA) https://tvia.ingenuityserials.com. Some of you are already familiar, but to those who may not be, TVIA was created as a 100% free art resource academy for new and developing artists. I study illustration myself with plans to create and publish my own content in the future and I struggled greatly to find excellent, traditional art books and useful art instructional material. After some success uncovering, reviewing and compiling first-rate art training books, I decided to share what I found and learned to make the next art student's life easier. TVIA is now a year old and grown significantly in scope since its inception.

I was cordially invited to host this week's post which will feature the two books: Gibson New Cartoons and How to Draw, A Practical Book of Instruction in the Art of Illustration by Leon Barritt. Usually books of this nature are of limited appeal, with artists and students being the primary designated audience. Oft times the age of these publications, and pre-judgemental dismissal usually slims down interest in this market even further. I chose these two books because of my background in art and because they're both outstanding in their subject matter. I'll begin with Gibson New Cartoons, published in 1916, this book compiles a collection of the exceptional pen and ink work of Charle Dana Gibson. Along with the phenomenal Joseph Clement Coll, Charles Dana Gibson's pen and ink innovations stands out and displays his mastery of the craft. It's not just simply fine-looking pictures, there's a vitality, life and energy sublimated into each and every one of those sweeping lines that bring the whole of the composition to life. Take the time and look at the work closely, closer than you have ever before and you'll start to see exactly what I mean. As an artist I know full well the intensity and labour that goes into producing art and it goes beyond just rendering here and there, it takes forethought, engaged emotive transfer and an essence of oneself that's infused into it. There's a ton of calculations and micro-calculations that occur within seconds and fractions of seconds during the creation process. I can impart to you ad infinitum that Gibson's works are remarkable, however unless you immerse and experience this yourself it's meaningless. One needs to judge for themselves what it is that makes his art special, something that when viewed you immediately recognise as something extra-ordinary.

How do you get such skill to create these works of wonder? The answer is blood, sweat and toil bound in dedication, practice and consistent elevation of technique. This is where our Leon Barritt and others come into focus, as they are the master teachers who lay down the knowledge and techniques to build artistic skills upon. In my personal experience, How to Draw, A Practical Book of Instruction in the Art of Illustration by Leon Barritt is an early and concise book to teach the fundamentals of drawing. It is by no means comprehensive but it does contain vital points to learn and use regularly. Tons of great tips and valuable content that answers some key questions developing artists have in surmounting rendering challenges they often run into. Barrett's illustrations have a clean and attractive quality in the line-work and his technical educational descriptions are easy to comprehend and to the point. Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone studying traditional art instruction from the beginner to the more advanced. I think there's much to learn from this tome, as I've read and incorporate its key teachings in my illustration knowledge base.

What are your thoughts and experiences with these two books?

Gibson New Cartoons
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=74827

How to Draw by Leon Barritt
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=64971

[The Australian Panther]

Excellent post, GM. Glad I invited you. I hope CB+ and The Vintage Inkwell Academy (TVIA) can continue to have a mutually supportive relationship.
New Technology doesn't have to and shouldn't, replace all traditional tools and methods of drawing.
I also note that ElectricMaestro in his excellent 'Golden Age artists you'd like to know more about.' Thread has recently highlighted Robert Peterson's 'Cartoon and Story Illustration'   A book which we don't yet have on CB+
Speaking of Charles Dana Gibson, Crash Ryan has started posting some copies of the 1899 LIFE magazine, for whom Gibson was a regular, and there is some great work there.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=77498   
It seems to me that CB+ in its current form has now been in existence since 2006 -please correct me if I'm wrong.
So that is 15 years. We are well into our teenage years. While the early years were all about getting the site up and running  and scanning and posting books - and this is still an on-going process, [and will continue to be] what I see happening now, with the aid of people like ElectricMaestro, Robb, Crash and Ghost Man for example, is the mining of the material for reference, history, criticism and research.
I really think, and I will continue to say so, that the threads are becoming as valuable as the books on the site. 
And that's a credit to those who initiated CB+, they created something that's fun, but also important and useful. So if you are one of those, take a bow!
Cheers!   

[Robb_K]

Thanks, Ghost Man, for hosting and choosing these 2 comic art skills-related books for review; and thanks for developing your very helpful website The Vintage Inkwell Academy (TVIA), which is already a very much needed resource for both young and aspiring cartoonists and professionals at various levels, to improve their cartooning drawing skills.  I could have taken advantage of such a one-stop storehouse of great instructional and exemplary books 40 to 45 years ago, when I was aspiring to get into the comic book and animation art fields, as well as trying to improve my penciling and inking techniques during the first decade of my employment.  At that time, there was no Internet.  So, I spent a lot of time at libraries, searching for the physical, paper books.  I'm sure that a website such as yours would have saved me a lot of time, I could have put to better use drawing.

Gibson New Cartoons
I love your choice of choosing this book containing a lot of Charles D. Gibson's later Life Magazine pen-and-ink illustrations.  He is one of my favourite late 19th Century artists.  The drawings in this book really illustrate well his phenomenal control, knowledge of anatomy, facial expression showing emotion, and shading skill.  He is one of the best ever at bringing figures to life, instilling them with energy and vitality, and infusing them with character, thus bringing them to life, using a pen and ink.  He can be considered one of the best early cartoonists, as well, as he often made satirical statements by taking a humouristic view of society's peculiarities.  For me, he is in the top tier of late 19th Century illustrators, and his work played a significant role in the early development of cartooning.

How to Draw by Leon Barritt
This book is fairly thin on the drawing basics, assuming that most artists start with pencil drawing, and learn the basic drawing techniques before they put a serious effort into inking and ink drawing.  Then, it concentrates on inking techniques, and is very heavy on examples of a wide variety of different inking styles in various genres.

Both books are excellent resources for aspiring pen and ink artists and all types of finishing cartoonists.

[The Ghost Man]

Thanks AP and Robb_K for your very gracious praise of the site. TVIA was germinated after a suggestion by AP when I first approached ComicBook + with my initial idea. He advised quite correctly that I should host it on its own and since then it has quickly and considerably grown into a life of its own. As someone who has developed artistically, gaining great creative inspiration and knowledge from CBP's existence and sister site DCM, I felt I should do whatever I could to give back. I've endeavoured to both promote and support CBP as much as I can, to attract new members and cultivate interest with newer generations. Hopefully, my efforts to do so have been fruitful and both TVIA and CBP have grown mutually since the inception of our association. CBP is a unique collective of individuals who all work harmoniously like solo instruments within an orchestra to bring this about and a salute and slow clap for you all are well overdue. This site would not exist without these cohesive yet diverse personages and their tireless contributions to which I extend my personal gratitude.

Robb_K thanks for your review which is of particular value due to your artistic background and insight. I wish there was a TVIA in existence for us both back then, but then if it had, you and I might be very different artists than we are today. Meaning, that destiny and the arduous struggles we go through define whom we become and the most important thing that we can return is knowledge and resources back to humanity so that we all grow. That we all transcend our challenges and rise to achieve the summit of being the best that we can be as humans in all our endeavours.

Cheers to you all.

[gregjh]

Perhaps one of the reason I enjoy comics is that I am, truly, the worst artist I have ever known. There are no words to describe how poor my drawings are and I'm certainly not going to show anyone. I am a kindergarten teacher, and my students laugh at my drawings. That's the best perspective I can give.

This book "How to Draw" is good because it starts from the absolute basics and gives practical, step by step advice for practice and understanding of technique. Perhaps if I had a book like this as a child I may have been at least able to draw a picture that someone else can recognize for what it is. Perhaps not though: I agree with the author when he says that some talents are natural and some are made and nurtured, but I also think that when it comes to artistic pursuits, not everyone is meant to be  great, or even competent. Still, even at my age, I learned a few things from the book that I've been doing wrong, such as starting from the bottom up instead of top down.

[The Ghost Man]

* Gibson Fun Fact - The Gibson cocktail has been claimed to be named after him, as it is said he favoured ordering gin martinis with a pickled onion garnish in place of the traditional olive or lemon zest.

* Gibson Horrific, Not at All Fun Fact - One of Charles Dana Gibson's best known models Evelyn Nesbit THE Gibson Girl, fell victim at age 16 to a sex obsessed predatory paedophile named Stanford White. White was a well-known architect amongst the rich and decorated the Fifth Avenue mansions of the Astor's and Vanderbilt's. According to an investigation, The affluent and married White maintained a separate apartment with a rear entrance in Manhattan that he used to entice and groom his victims amongst which was 16 year-old Evelyn Nesbit. The multi-room apartment sat above famed toy store FAO Schwartz, which was no doubt deliberate. One room was outfitted all in mirrors save a lone green velvet sofa and another was decorated in green like a forest  with a large, red velvet swing attached to the ceiling. After a month of grooming Evelyn into his confidence using opulence as a lure, White sexually assaulted the underage Nesbit whilst unconscious from possibly narcotised champagne. Eerily reminiscent of a Jeffrey Epstein of his time, Stanford White belonged to a coterie of select depraved members of the Union Club who regularly organised orgies and worse at secret locations scattered throughout the local area.

According to White family historian Suzannah Lessard: "The process of seduction was a major feature of Stanford's obsession with sex, and it was an inexorable kind of seduction which moved into the lives of very young women, sometimes barely pubescent girls, in fragile social and financial situations?girls who would be unlikely to resist his power and his money and his considerable charm, who would feel that they had little choice but to let him take over their lives. There are indications that Stanford would sometimes adopt the role of a paternal benefactor, and then would take advantage of the trust and gratitude that had been built."

In June of 1906 during a live Madison Square rooftop stage show, attendee Stanford White was shot three times in the face with a 22. calibre pistol by Harry Kendall Thaw. Thaw himself was a Sally the Sleuth grade predator himself who had married Evelyn Nesbit only a scant year previously through use of violence, grooming and coercion. Thaw was a violent, drug addicted multi-millionaire who utilised hideous manipulative tactics to crush the will of the emotionally damaged and vulnerable young Nesbit. His persistent belligerent demands for marriage to him included traveling through Europe and ending at a secluded Katzenstein Castle in Austria. Whereupon he set upon whipping, beating and sexually assaulting Nesbit over a 2-week period after isolating and alienating her from her mother. Seeing no foreseeable end, the abused Nesbit capitulated under these hellish circumstances and they were married. To compound his cruelty instead of a traditional white wedding dress, Thaw made Nesbit wear a black traveling suit decorated with brown trim.

Thaw escaped justice in the "Trial of the Century" Stanford White murder, by using family influence and buying his way out of imprisonment. However, he was eventually imprisoned for 9 years in 1916 for the enslavement, vicious rape and beating of a 19 year-old young man named Frederick Gump. A crime he repeated earlier by luring, molesting and assaulting a bellboy in a London hotel then suppressing the incident by paying out $5,000 (the equivalent today of nearly $155,000). During his earlier trial for Stanford's murder, evidence revealed that Thaw under assumed names, maintained apartments he used as torture rooms to violate and brutalise women using a custom silver-capped dog-whip. Some of the women were prostitutes he procured and others were girls deceived into believing they were coming to audition for theatrical roles.

Apologies, this bit of information got unintentionally dark quickly and is something  straight out of a shudder pulp. Whilst I was looking for interesting Gibson anecdotes I fell down this nasty little rabbit hole. My true-crime investigative side clearly got the better of me and my sources are listed below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_White
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Nesbit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kendall_Thaw
https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2018/10/scandal-scoundrels-lost-1887-208-west.html
https://www.famous-trials.com/thaw/405-home
https://keithyorkcity.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/murder-at-madison-square-garden-evelyn-nesbit-stanford-white-and-harry-kendall-thaw-made-headlines-in-1906/
https://www.headstuff.org/culture/history/harry-thaw-millionare-murderer/
https://www.historicalcrimedetective.com/the-famous-thaw-white-case/

[Captain Audio]

* Gibson Fun Fact - The Gibson cocktail has been claimed to be named after him, as it is said he favoured ordering gin martinis with a pickled onion garnish in place of the traditional olive or lemon zest.

* Gibson Horrific, Not at All Fun Fact - One of Charles Dana Gibson's best known models Evelyn Nesbit THE Gibson Girl, fell victim at age 16 to a sex obsessed predatory paedophile named Stanford White. White was a well-known architect amongst the rich and decorated the Fifth Avenue mansions of the Astor's and Vanderbilt's. According to an investigation, The affluent and married White maintained a separate apartment with a rear entrance in Manhattan that he used to entice and groom his victims amongst which was 16 year-old Evelyn Nesbit. The multi-room apartment sat above famed toy store FAO Schwartz, which was no doubt deliberate. One room was outfitted all in mirrors save a lone green velvet sofa and another was decorated in green like a forest  with a large, red velvet swing attached to the ceiling. After a month of grooming Evelyn into his confidence using opulence as a lure, White sexually assaulted the underage Nesbit whilst unconscious from possibly narcotised champagne. Eerily reminiscent of a Jeffrey Epstein of his time, Stanford White belonged to a coterie of select depraved members of the Union Club who regularly organised orgies and worse at secret locations scattered throughout the local area.

According to White family historian Suzannah Lessard: "The process of seduction was a major feature of Stanford's obsession with sex, and it was an inexorable kind of seduction which moved into the lives of very young women, sometimes barely pubescent girls, in fragile social and financial situations?girls who would be unlikely to resist his power and his money and his considerable charm, who would feel that they had little choice but to let him take over their lives. There are indications that Stanford would sometimes adopt the role of a paternal benefactor, and then would take advantage of the trust and gratitude that had been built."

In June of 1906 during a live Madison Square rooftop stage show, attendee Stanford White was shot three times in the face with a 22. calibre pistol by Harry Kendall Thaw. Thaw himself was a Sally the Sleuth grade predator himself who had married Evelyn Nesbit only a scant year previously through use of violence, grooming and coercion. Thaw was a violent, drug addicted multi-millionaire who utilised hideous manipulative tactics to crush the will of the emotionally damaged and vulnerable young Nesbit. His persistent belligerent demands for marriage to him included traveling through Europe and ending at a secluded Katzenstein Castle in Austria. Whereupon he set upon whipping, beating and sexually assaulting Nesbit over a 2-week period after isolating and alienating her from her mother. Seeing no foreseeable end, the abused Nesbit capitulated under these hellish circumstances and they were married. To compound his cruelty instead of a traditional white wedding dress, Thaw made Nesbit wear a black traveling suit decorated with brown trim.

Thaw escaped justice in the "Trial of the Century" Stanford White murder, by using family influence and buying his way out of imprisonment. However, he was eventually imprisoned for 9 years in 1916 for the enslavement, vicious rape and beating of a 19 year-old young man named Frederick Gump. A crime he repeated earlier by luring, molesting and assaulting a bellboy in a London hotel then suppressing the incident by paying out $5,000 (the equivalent today of nearly $155,000). During his earlier trial for Stanford's murder, evidence revealed that Thaw under assumed names, maintained apartments he used as torture rooms to violate and brutalise women using a custom silver-capped dog-whip. Some of the women were prostitutes he procured and others were girls deceived into believing they were coming to audition for theatrical roles.

Apologies, this bit of information got unintentionally dark quickly and is something  straight out of a shudder pulp. Whilst I was looking for interesting Gibson anecdotes I fell down this nasty little rabbit hole. My true-crime investigative side clearly got the better of me and my sources are listed below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_White
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Nesbit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kendall_Thaw
https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2018/10/scandal-scoundrels-lost-1887-208-west.html
https://www.famous-trials.com/thaw/405-home
https://keithyorkcity.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/murder-at-madison-square-garden-evelyn-nesbit-stanford-white-and-harry-kendall-thaw-made-headlines-in-1906/
https://www.headstuff.org/culture/history/harry-thaw-millionare-murderer/
https://www.historicalcrimedetective.com/the-famous-thaw-white-case/

Cocaine was not illegal in the USA till 1914. You could buy it by mail order from the Sears& Roebuck catalog.

[The Australian Panther]

The Rumour is, that it was actually an ingredient in the first Coca Cola Recipe.   

[Morgus]

Absolutely so, Mr Panther.
They STILL use the coca leaves for the flavour, but they have a process to take out any kick. It' prepared by a plant in New Jersey, I think....they sell the removed cocaine to another company and the leaves to Coca-Cola.

But back to the books at hand..

Nice collection of Gibson girls. You always HEAR about The Gibson girls, and they were a delight. But his style seemed to influence just about every other illustrator in that era.  His work was so influential I went back to other hard cover novels to see if he had drawn the pictures for them. (Sometimes yes, more often no...) What struck me was how relevant his work still is today...the expressions on the faces wouldn't be hard to find just outside my door. The swimsuits were probably pretty racy for the time.

Barritt's book was a cool read. (Okay...not a full read...but a nice browse) There isn't a lot of info left on the man so it was interesting to read about his ideas and disciplines involved in drawing. And it IS a discipline.

I keep forgetting how much more there is to this site beyond the golden age comics. Thanks for the reminder.

[Captain Audio]

The Rumour is, that it was actually an ingredient in the first Coca Cola Recipe.

They used an extract from expended Coca leaves.
I've seen several theories of how Coca Cola came to be but the most logical is that a former slave, an elderly cook, passed on to Pemberton a ancient African recipe for Cola Nut syrup for use in treating babies that had digestive problems. Pemberton diddled with the formula a bit and added carbonated water.

I once met a descendant of Pemberton, and knocked him cold with one punch, he was a real idiot. My grand nephew met him many years later and also knocked him out with one punch.
I've never met a more hateful slob in my life. Old money does that to far too many people.

[The Ghost Man]

Interesting story Captain Audio, thanks for sharing, I had no idea Pemberton was a thieving conniving deceitful cola entrepreneur. It's amazing that the same Pemberton creep gets laid out twice by two separate members of your family. What are the odds? He's either an infernal, knock-off copy of a human being or has magnets in his face for people's fists.

[Captain Audio]

Absolutely so, Mr Panther.
They STILL use the coca leaves for the flavour, but they have a process to take out any kick. It' prepared by a plant in New Jersey, I think....they sell the removed cocaine to another company and the leaves to Coca-Cola.

An older drink I'd like to see brought back in original form is Sassafras tea or Root Beer. They banned the main ingredient when they found it could be easily converted to MDMA (AKA the party drug Ecstasy).
We used to make our own Sassafras tea when I was a youngster.

[narfstar]

Interesting books. I dabble at drawing, other than the basics, both books are way beyond me but nice to look at. Anyone who has not seen this book needs to check it out https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=41209

[Robb_K]

Interesting books. I dabble at drawing, other than the basics, both books are way beyond me but nice to look at. Anyone who has not seen this book needs to check it out https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=41209

That's a collection of New York Herald political cartoons published during WWI, by editor Rogers.  But, sadly, we have no indication of who the individual artists were.

[The Australian Panther]

Rogers may have been an editor, but he was also an Artist. All the cartoons are by Rogers.
A number of them are signed, including the cover. He's photographed at the Drawing Board. And in his introduction, he writes, 'In the following pictures the Artist has attempted to show 'Why we are at War.'

Rogers "had an incredible career, intimate with everyone from Abbey to Frost, held in high esteem by critical bullies like Joseph Pennell. Drew for Harper's Weekly and Monthly; Life and Puck; New York Herald and distinguished books. ......... His autobiography is a TERRIFIC source for information and gossip about cartoons, illustration, politics, journalism, the theatre, and much more, especially the personalities in each field, 1875-1920."

Sounds like his Autobiography would be quite the find.

This and the similar work of the same period [Rogers also contributed to LIFE.] demonstrates the power of cartoons to influence public opinion.
Bear in mind this in the early days of Radio and Film, before TV -and before Photographs in Magazines were standard - So political cartoonists could become superstars - These magazines and newspapers were extremely popular, and therefore influential  - gigantic by today's standards. 

Category:Illustrations by William Allen Rogers
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Illustrations_by_William_Allen_Rogers
Cheers!

[lyons]

Gibson's pen-and-ink people are as individual as Dickens' characters and as true to life as any camera product.  The 'Gibson Girl' set the standard for fashion, manners, and beauty - bringing Gibson unrivaled popular and professional success in one of the most exacting of all artistic mediums.  His instinct for the essentials of character earned him a place apart among the worlds great illustrators.  A good read.  Thanks Ghost Man.

[Robb_K]

Rogers may have been an editor, but he was also an Artist. All the cartoons are by Rogers.
A number of them are signed, including the cover. He's photographed at the Drawing Board. And in his introduction, he writes, 'In the following pictures the Artist has attempted to show 'Why we are at War.'

Rogers "had an incredible career, intimate with everyone from Abbey to Frost, held in high esteem by critical bullies like Joseph Pennell. Drew for Harper's Weekly and Monthly; Life and Puck; New York Herald and distinguished books. ......... His autobiography is a TERRIFIC source for information and gossip about cartoons, illustration, politics, journalism, the theatre, and much more, especially the personalities in each field, 1875-1920."

Sounds like his Autobiography would be quite the find.

This and the similar work of the same period [Rogers also contributed to LIFE.] demonstrates the power of cartoons to influence public opinion.
Bear in mind this in the early days of Radio and Film, before TV -and before Photographs in Magazines were standard - So political cartoonists could become superstars - These magazines and newspapers were extremely popular, and therefore influential  - gigantic by today's standards. 

Category:Illustrations by William Allen Rogers
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Illustrations_by_William_Allen_Rogers
Cheers!   

The cover clearly shows that Rogers drew ALL the drawings in the book, by stating on the cover: "100 drawings by W.A. Rogers".  I should have noticed that giant clue.  That is really not seeing the forest for the trees!     Instead, I saw only SOME of the drawings signed by Rogers, and thought that the others must have been drawn by other artists who worked for The Herald.  And the sentence, "'In the following pictures the Artist has attempted to show 'Why we are at War.' [/b] implies to ME that he would have simply stated "I attempted to show.........".  So I assumed there WERE other artists represented in the book.  I guess this is the kind of thing that happens when one becomes elderly.   

[crashryan]

A lovely choice of books, Ghost Man.

Charles Dana Gibson has been one of my favorite illustrators ever since I discovered the Dover Books Gibson collection during junior high. He was King of the Pen. Gibson inspired a vast number of artists. I'd venture that he was the single most influential figure in American illustration history, surpassing even Wyeth and Cornwell in the number of acolytes and imitators.

In New Cartoons Gibson is still in top form. While his drawing style is the same as ever his characters reflect changing turn-of-the-century fashions. Many of his beauties sport the shorter coiffures and narrower dresses that replaced the hourglass figures of the 1890s. The men look much the same, for suits and evening clothes hadn't changed much.

The vigor of Gibson's ink work amazes me to this day. I was fortunate to have attended the "200 Years of American Illustration" exhibition and to have seen some Gibson originals. They were huge! A centerfold cartoon like "Mr Pipp" measures 20 inches high by 30 inches wide. Apparently Gibson worked standing like a painter, drawing with his whole arm, not just his hand. The strokes were thick and so heavy that I bet he wore out a dozen nibs on a single drawing. He made corrections and scratched highlights out of the paper with a razor blade. Bristol board was a lot sturdier in those days. You couldn't get away with Gibson's sort of gouging on modern surfaces. I could gush on and on about CDG...his knack for expression, his mastery of hatching in modelling heads (one of the toughest challenges in pen and ink work)...but I'll stop before I bore you further.

How to Draw by Leon Barritt is weak as an instructional book but excellent as a showcase of turn-of-the-century illustration. Today illustration fans tend to concentrate on book, magazine, and advertising illustration without realizing what a wide field commercial art was back then. Barritt touches on several forgotten vocations: the newspaper sketch artist, the layout and border man, the letterer, the livestock illustrator. The comics section is a treat.

The instruction chapters offer good basic information but jump too quickly from stick figures to fully-rendered drawings. The subject needs more than forty pages to be of real use to novice artists. However there is much to be learned from studying and copying the sample drawings in the latter half of the book.

[SuperScrounge]

The computer I normally read these on stopped working so I was only able to read Gibson New Cartoons. Funny, very well drawn, although a few felt more like the punchline was an afterthought to the drawing rather than a drawing based on the joke.

Here's the GCD listing for the book https://www.comics.org/issue/2185573/

[The Australian Panther]

Charles Dana Gibson.
The work is superb but the style makes it look as if he has just quickly scribbled them up,. That adds to the effect I believe.
As an illustrator, Gibson had the instinct of a Photographer. Clothing, facial expressions, body poses ans social context all go into making the drawing work. By the standards of the day, some of these would have been judged quite risque.
Drawing on page #7 - Look at the hands and the angles of the heads.
Page 15. Was Skating such a craze that they had indoor skating rinks - for the upper classes?
Page 27 - 'Advice to the mentally feeble - keep out of politics'. but they don't, do they?
Looks like he sketched that from life.
page #40 - most of the eyes are looking toward the central figure - this is a good way of centring the viewers attention.
# 46 The Hen-pecked Husband and the overbearing wife are a running cliche in his cartoons. Definitely not politically correct by todays standards.

# 57. The Policeman is used as the visual divider of the two groups and is drawn very emphatically, almost in silhouette and aggressively leaning over, with night-stick in hand, the group he is trying to suppress.
# 70/71 look at the expression on the dog!
# 72 Keeping Neutral - context - reading the war news. Before the US had joined the battle.
Reading these today we see the pictures but lack the context that we would have had we read them at the time. Since they are social commentary we miss a lot. But with a draftsman and talented as Gibson, the work is still and will always be powerful.       
Barritt__How_to_Draw_1904
His list of atist contributors is interesting.
Amazing how many are obscure now.
Among the fictions illustrators I am only familiar with Howard Pyle. Granville Smith?
With the comics illustrators we have Winsor McKay,Outcault, George McManus, Rudolph Dirks.
The context of the instruction is how to do a drawing for publication in a book or magazine or newspaper, and at that time photo printing had just been introduced, so the image had to be photographed and then the photograph was printed. So drawing in black ink was the method, so the image would photograph clearly.
Presumably you could sketch in pencil and then finish in ink, as comic book artists did later.
Back then too, ink was in a bottle often, not in a pen. You had to be very careful not to blot the page.
#33 and #34 'on comics' well worth reading. 
The selection of professional art is presented without comment. The McManus is a very early strip.
A glimpse into the past of cartoon illustration.
Thank you GhostMan.       
         

[The Ghost Man]

My brief summation commentary is to first thank all the viewers and responders who brought great added dimension to this round of the Reading Group. I have no further book review elaborations on Gibson and Barritt books to impart and encourage new viewers to share their opinions and thoughts. Moreover, I do hope that these books are a catalyst to inspire new traditional-style artists to draw and become the NEW Gibson's, Coll's, Pyle's, Cornwell's, Leyendecker's and Wyeth's. I know they're out there which is why I established and maintain my TVIA blogsite.

Cheers to all and enjoy all the good the world has to offer.

- TGM

https://tvia.ingenuityserials.com