Edgar Stow Wheelan (1888–1966), who signed his work Ed Wheelan, was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip ''Minute Movies'', satirizing silent films, and his
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. ...
''Fat and Slat'', published by
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950 ...
. He was one of the earliest writer-artists to introduce daily narrative continuity and
cinematic techniques
This article contains a list of cinematic techniques that are divided into categories and briefly described.
Basic definitions of terms
; 180-degree rule
:A continuity editorial technique in which sequential shots of two or more actors within ...
to comic strips.
Born in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, Wheelan was the son of costume designer
Albertine Randall
Albertine Randall Wheelan (May 27, 1863 - January 9, 1954) was an American illustrator, cartoonist, and costume designer.
Early life
Albertine Randall was born May 27, 1863, in San Francisco, California. A 1921 article in the '' American Maga ...
, who drew the 1920s strip ''The Dumbunnies'', and businessman
Fairfax Henry Wheelan Fairfax Henry Wheelan (September 27, 1856 – March 26, 1915) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and political reformer. As the chief complaining witness of voter fraud in 1904, he played a primary role in the eventual downfall of San Fran ...
Phillips Exeter Academy
(not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God)
, location = 20 Main Street
, city = Exeter, New Hampshire
, zipcode ...
, he graduating from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...
in 1911, Wheelan found employment at the ''
San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corpora ...
'', moving on to the ''
New York American
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
'', where he drew an eight-column comic strip about sports.
For
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
's
King Features
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product License, licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, columnist, newspaper c ...
, he created the strip ''Midget Movies'' in 1918, but he left in 1920 after a dispute with Hearst. To replace ''Midget Movies'', Hearst launched ''
The Thimble Theatre
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Elzie Crisler Segar.
Wheelan continued to mock movies in his ''Minute Movies'' for the
George Matthew Adams Service
George Matthew Adams (August 23, 1878 – October 29, 1962) was an American newspaper columnist and founder of the George Matthew Adams Newspaper Service, which syndicated comic strips and columns to newspapers for five decades. His own writings w ...
. He drew the two-tiered ''Minute Movies'' from the early 1920s until 1935, developing one of the characters into a spin-off strip, ''Roy McCoy''. Near the end of the 1930s, Wheelan teamed with Bill Walsh on ''Big Top'', a circus strip.
Comic books
In the early 1940s, DC Comics brought back ''Minute Movies'' as a feature in 58 issues of ''
Flash Comics
''Flash Comics'' is a comics anthology published by All-American Publications and later by National Periodical Publications (DC Comics). The title had 104 issues published from January 1940 to February 1949. Despite the title, the anthology featu ...
''. In 1944,
Max Gaines
Maxwell Charles Gaines (born Max Ginzberg September 21, 1894 – August 20, 1947) was a pioneering figure in the creation of the modern comic book.
In 1933, Gaines devised the first four-color, saddle-stitched newsprint pamphlet, a precursor t ...
published the ''Edgar Wheelan Joke Book'' with Wheelan's Fat and Slat characters, who returned in their own title, ''Fat and Slat'', which ran for four quarterly issues in 1947 and 1948. The book also featured Wheelan's ''"Comics" McCormick'' ("The World's #1 Comic Book Fan").
In the late 1940s, Wheelan drew ''Foney Fairy Tales'', fairy tale parodies that ran as a feature in ''Wonder Woman'' and ''Comic Cavalcade''.Grost, Michael E. "Ed Wheelan and His Humor Comics" /ref>
After leaving comics, Wheelan created paintings of clowns. He died in 1966 in
Fort Myers, Florida
Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 2 ...
.
Reprints
In 1972, Woody Gelman reprinted ''Minute Movies'' in his ''Nostalgia Comics''.
Other reprints include:
*''Minute Movies'' 1977 Hyperion Press, (reprints from 1927 & 1928).
* ''Let's Go to the Movies'' aka ''Murder City'' 1990 Malibu Graphics (reprints April 30, 1934 to August 4, 1934).
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