THE BEAR MUSEUM

The Berenstains Before the Bears: Gag Cartoons

This is a regular series of features at the Bear Museum which focus on the early career of Stan and Jan, before they created the Bear family in 1962. These works are part of a traveling exhibition, Child’s Play on the Crabgrass Frontier, organized by The Strong Museum of Play. Accompanying the exhibition is a lavishly illustrated book, Child's Play: The Berenstain Baby Boom, 1946-1964: Cartoon Art by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Early Gag Cartoons

The first pieces of furniture Stan and Jan bought after getting married was a drawing table; the second was a bed. Their early cartoons focused on their cultural interests such as art, music, and history. Although they sent their work to every imaginable publication, the Berenstains did not sell a cartoon for one year.

What Is A Gag Cartoon?

Gag cartoons first appeared at the turn of the century as illustrated anecdotes in humor magazines that featured anywhere from six lines to two paragraphs of text with an illustration. By the 1920s, captions were pared down to two or three lines, often in a “he/she joke” context. The New Yorker is generally credited with perfecting the single line caption, and remains one of the only places where one can find gag cartoons today. In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, gag cartoons appeared in the pages of the all the leading magazines, and artists could support themselves with regular submissions.

Caption: " The Picture Has Been Temporarily Interrupted Due To Homework."

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