Willard Mullin: "Tops in Sports Cartooning!"

A note arrived a few weeks ago from a TI list member... "Seeing today's Robert Bugg post with sports illustrations made me think of the great Willard Mullin. To me, his drawings--so full of vitality, character, and humor--ARE baseball in its golden age (1940s and 50s). How about doing a feature on him?"


I am only too happy to oblige. I've been setting aside pieces by Willard Mullin for quite a long time now. What I know about sports could fill a thimble... but I do love great cartooning - and Willard Mullin certainly was a great cartoonist!


As luck would have it I recently acquired a terrific article on Mullin that will provide some very interesting background on the artist - and show us step-by-step how he did his thing.


And although I don't share our reader's passion for baseball, I did happen to hear that the World Series is currently underway - so what better time to highlight the work of this remarkable cartoonist?


Besides, if the above article from the October 1949 issue of Look magazine still holds true, these posts might be as close as anyone's going to get to a front-row seat at the big game!

* Bob Staake has a wonderful tribute to Willard Mullin at his website - go check it out.

* My Willard Mullin Flickr set.