Larry's Cartoon Vault: Cartoon Correspondence School Ads

From time to time I‘ve enjoyed featuring material from the various correspondence school art courses
that were so common in the early part of the 20th century.

Back then "Make big bucks in cartooning!" wasn't just a come-on --it was a potential reality.

Not so well-to-do kids on farms who felt that art institute or university educations were beyond them  signed on with the Landon Cartoon Correspondence Course, or similar courses offered by W. L. Evans, Billy Hon, Zim or Dorman H. Smith.

The fact is these course —especially Landon's—really delivered.

Many alumni went on to professional careers working as newspaper staff artists, syndicated comic strip artists, editorial cartoonists, animators and illustrators.
 
Among them were Milton Caniff , Bill Maudlin, Ethel Hays,  Floyd Gottfredson, Edwina Dumm,  Carl  Barks, Jack Cole, Gil Fox, Chic Young, V.T. Hamlin, Gene Byrnes, Clifton Meek, Merril Blosser, Roy Crane, Stanley, Link, Edgar Martin, and Bill Holman.  

Here are a few of the ads that appeared in publications such as Cartoons Magazine, American Artist and other journals back in the olden days.

And you'd need a good drafting table...

And the long gone profession of Chalk Talks...

And some ads from circa late 1940's...

You can see more on cartoon correspondence courses by looking in the archives of this blog. 

(Some related posts are February 6, 2011, February 20, 2011 and July 22, 2012)