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. A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books generally thought as lasting from the 1930s until late 1940s during which Comic books A comic book creator is any one of a number of people working to create a Comic book or Graphic novel. The term art director is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in Advertising, Publishing, film and Television, the Internet Cummin was also a well-known naturalist and explorer. Natural history is the Scientific research of Plants or Animals leaning more towards the Observational than Experimental methods

Mel Cummin was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 29, 1895. Of Quaker origin, Cummin attended Friends Seminary. Friends Seminary is a private Quaker school located in downtown Manhattan. He also attended National Preparatory Academy and the Art Students League of New York. The Art Students League of New York is an Art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. He held no college degrees. ^[1]

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. The Boy Scouts of America ( BSA) is the largest youth organization in the United States with over five million 1912, shortly after the organization's founding), the American Kennel Club, and West Point. The American Kennel Club (or AKC) is a registry of Purebred Dog pedigrees in the United States. "USMA" redirects here For other uses see USMA (disambiguation The United States Military Academy (also known as USMA, Cummin drew editorial cartoons for The Middletown News-Signal, an Ohio daily. The Middletown Journal is a morning newspaper published in Middletown Ohio, United States seven days a week by Cox Communications. Ohio ( is a Midwestern state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region, Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads 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. Paper dolls are figures cut out of paper with separate clothes usually held onto the dolls by folding tabs McCall's was a monthly American women's Magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century peaking at a readership of six million The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada 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. Winsor McCay ( September 26 1867 (? – July 26 1934) was an American Cartoonist and Animator. "

Later in the decade, Cummin was the first artist for Good Time Guy, which began in 1927. Good Time Guy was a humorous syndicated Comic Strip that ran from 1927 to 1929 and was distributed by Metropolitan Newspaper Service During the strip's short run at Metropolitan Newspaper Service Mel Cummin worked with writer Bill Conselman, a notable screenwriter. William M Conselman (1896&ndash1940 known as Bill Conselman, was a successful Hollywood writer Screenwriters or scenarists are Scriptwriters who write the Screenplays from which Films and Television programs are made ^[3][4]

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. Art Deco was a popular international design movement from 1925 until 1939 affecting the decorative arts such as Architecture, Interior design, and Industrial 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. The Explorers Club was founded in New York, NY in 1904 The club as explained in its charter was formed to further general Exploration, to spread knowledge of the 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. Mount Edward ( is a prominent rock Mountain (1635 m located centrally along the south margin of the Sweeney Mountains, in eastern Ellsworth Land. ^[7]

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. The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. 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). The term art director is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in Advertising, Publishing, film and Television, the Internet The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books generally thought as lasting from the 1930s until late 1940s during which Comic books The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949 Events and trends The 1940s was a period between the radical 1930s and the conservative 1950s which also leads the period to be ^[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. The Hudson Highlands are the Mountains on both sides of the Hudson River in the U Fort Montgomery is a hamlet (and Census-designated place) in Orange County, New York, United States. 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.

Notes

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.