Nancy Goldstein (2)Críticas

A dry but informative biography of a pioneering cartoonist.

The best part of the book is the generous sampling of Ormes' cartoons from her four major comic strips that appeared from the 1930s through 1950s. Most of the selected strips are humorous gags or romantic soap opera, but some are politically based criticism of very specific events that require explanation by the author to help make sense of them.

Nancy Goldstein came at the project from an interest in the Patty-Joe doll that was licensed from Ormes' Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger comic panel, so there are a lot of details about Ormes' involvement with the Terri Lee company that didn't do much for me.

My interest in Ormes comes from two recent picture books:
• Holding Her Own: The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes by Traci N. Todd and Shannon Wright
• Jackie Ormes Draws the Future: The Remarkable Life of a Pioneering Cartoonist by Liz Montague

I hope someday someone is able to produce a definitive collection of all Ormes work that does justice to the glamorous and independent women she showcased.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Preface -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Small-Town Roots, Big-City Ambitions -- Chapter 2. The Chicago Years -- Chapter 3. Newspapers, Comic Strips, Cartoons -- Chapter 4. Torchy Brown in "Dixie to Harlem" -- Chapter 5. Candy -- Chapter 6. Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger -- Chapter 7. Torchy in Heartbeats -- Chapter 8. The Patty-Joe Doll -- Conclusion -- Correcting the Record -- Excerpts from the FBI File of Jackie Ormes -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Though the writing is repetitive, this is a fascinating book with reproductions of many of Ormes’ comic strips. She was a trailblazer in both the medium and the message of her art.

In Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist, Nancy Goldstein discusses the current dearth of scholarship on non-white comics creators, writing, “Largely missing from many of the scores of histories, retrospectives, and anthologies of comics and cartoons is work that documents and surveys the artistic production of African Americans” (pg. 2). Her work demonstrates how Jackie Ormes used the medium of newspaper comics to tell entertaining stories and debate social issues relevant to her readers. In addition to tackling issues including restrictive covenants, environmental pollution’s affects on the urban poor, and lynching, Goldstein argues, “Especially remarkable is the extent to which Ormes in Patty-Jo ’n’ Ginger boldly critiques American foreign and domestic policy during the cold war years,” including HUAC (pg. 4). Goldstein continues, “Regardless of their subject, many of Ormes’s cartoons and comics served to advance the cause of racial uplift, important to the [Pittsburgh] Courier’s editors and columnists, community leaders, and other African Americans” (pg. 4). Looking ahead to future scholarship, Goldstein writes, “An encyclopedic study of African American cartoonists needs to be undertaken. As the only black woman cartoonist of the time, Jackie Ormes seems an exceptionally fitting subject with whom to begin that effort” (pg. 5).

Linking Ormes’s art to the Chicago Renaissance of the Great Depression, Goldstein writes, “The topics that she chose for her cartoons reveal that Ormes had much in common with others who were using their art to address the many obstacles facing African Americans” (pg. 25). Ormes’s later political activism in the 1940s and 1950s brought her to the attention of the FBI, as many of the civil rights causes she supported were also supported by the Communist Party. According to Goldstein, Ormes’s “complete [FBI] dossier stands at 287 pages, surpassing baseball star Jackie Robinson’s 131-page brief, but it is considerably outstripped by Eleanor Roosevelt’s 3,371-page FBI file” (pg. 30). Goldstein continues, “In spite of the possibility that the FBI might use her art against her, and at considerable risk to her privacy, Ormes continued to express her outrage at foreign and domestic policy, racism, and class bigotry. Had the FBI scrutinized the cartoons, their strongly polemical messages alone may have spurred investigation” (pg. 31). As to the manner in which Ormes used her characters as extensions of herself, Goldstein writes, “Her [character Patty-Jo’s] comments, humor, and opinions are decidedly Ormes’s, expounding, for instance, on taxes, labor strikes, McCarthyism, and the vagaries of abstract art, as well as fashions and relations between the sexes” (pg. 40).

Discussing the black press, Goldstein writes, “Cartoons added wit and humor to the colorful mix of the black press in the middle of the twentieth century. But beyond their entertainment value, comics often carried messages of protest, satirizing unjust laws and social norms in ways that at times would have been risky for writers to take on in print” (pg. 54). Goldstein continues, “Comics in the black newspapers were remarkable in their energy, skill, timeliness, and original points of view that were conveyed by every character in the series – whether cowboy, detective, space invader, hero, villain, funny kid, or glamour girl” (pg. 61). In terms of content, Goldstein describes Ormes’s character Ginger, “She remains safely within the erotic boundaries of the time: desirable but never provocative, a charmer but not a seductress, viewed partly unclothed, yes, but only in private spaces like her dressing room or when accidentally slipping on Patty-Jo’s misplaced roller skate, with her skirt flying above her shapely legs. When she gazes directly at the viewer, her look is one of surprise at Patty-Jo’s words, never the sexy come-hither glances of other pinups” (pg. 83). Beyond the unique editorial space that Ormes found for mild sexuality in comparison to more mainstream (read: white) comic strips, Ormes’s use of herself as a model also offered a form of agency. In terms of dialogue, Goldstein writes, “Today some of Patty-Jo’s ongoing complaints and attacks on the status quo would likely be found on a newspaper’s editorial pages. She railed against racism, against restrictions on free speech, and against the confining nature of popular ads, fashions, or styles” (pg. 85).

Discussing the preservation of newspaper comics, Goldstein writes, “Original copies of the Courier’s comic section are nearly impossible to find today. In spite of the good intentions of our nation’s libraries, they must take the blame for many comics that were destroyed, including hard copies of Torchy in Heartbeats missing from the more than two hundred strips that Ormes drew during its four-year lifetime” (pg. 132). Part of this was due to a lack of space and the prioritization of material for microfilming. Goldstein turns to Ormes’s content, writing, “Ormes’s 1953-54 series introduces something entirely new to American comic strips, when Torchy tackles environmental racism… It is this activist story line with which Ormes is most frequently identified in anthologies and encyclopedias today” (pg. 137). In this way, she brought attention to the condition of south side Chicago neighborhoods where affluent communities dumped their waste in neighborhoods that were primarily home to people of color.

Goldstein concludes that Ormes’s “messages of strength, resourcefulness, and humor communicated strategies for people of color in their pursuit of the American dream. When the political associations that nourished Ormes’s opinions became risky – and no doubt unpopular with some people – her strength of character helped her remain steadfast in her activism and hold close her friendships” (pg. 180). Goldstein further cautions that a great deal of progress remains to happen, for while cartoonists like Ormes and others have recently gained scholarly attention, the field remains white-dominated and scholarship focusing on black cartoonists is still lacking. Goldstein uses this book for her own activism, “to call for old African American newspapers with comic strips and cartoons or original art to be offered to the Cartoon Research Library,” the Comic Art Collection at the Michigan State University Library, or the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago (pg. 181).

This is a great book about a fascinating woman. It made me realize that I know less about the comics/cartooning industry than I thought. Of course this is more a biography of Jackie Ormes than it is of cartooning and while interesting, it is a bit dry for my tastes. I must admit to being more interesting in the industry than the life of the artists.
I would recommend this to anyone into history and wanting information on one of the female pioneers of cartooning.

This book is a fascinating look at real pioneer. Not only did Jackie break a race barrier, but she worked in a nearly all male field. Wow. The book is well researched, well written, and contains loads of photos and samples of her work as a cartoonist. I highly recommend this book to folks who love biographies, people interested in the world of comics/comic strips, and anyone looking a good bit of social history.

Another lost review. I was fascinated by this book. Growing up in a WASPy, area I can't recall when I first saw an African-American in a comic strip. Fascinating to learn of the woman, her process and her background and what a loss that her work appeared in so few places. When I was finished reading, I lent it to our neighbor who may have seen some of the original strips and whose daughters have been studying sociology and related fields. Ultimately, it will be donated to the library at which I work, which has not yet expanded our collection to meet the changing service area.

A stunning book, filled with cartoons by Jackie Ormes, who was the first African American woman cartoonist. There are many black and white cartoons, as well as many pages in full colour. Her characters: Torchy Brown, Candy and Patty- Jo 'n' Ginger bring full-on delight! The expertise and artistic ability of Jackie Ormes cannot be questioned after even just setting eyes on this tome. The fine lines, bold lettering, and witty bubbles are just a start of what this amazing cartoonist gave to her readers. There is an incredible power behind her cartoons, the pride she feels in her heritage, and wants to pass on is at the forefront of every page in this book.

Not only was Jackie Ormes an exceptional cartoonist, she was also a firm believer in the joys of children, and began making her own line of dolls as well. She wanted African American little girls to have a doll they felt was their own, a doll that looked like them. Jackie wanted these young women to fester up their pride in who they were from the start, knowing full well that they were still in a difficult period for African American women to walk in the freedoms that were easily enjoyed by their Anglo counterparts. This was HUGE since, all the other African American dolls in the 20's were stereotypical raggedy little boys and girls, or mammies and "picaninnies".

I enjoyed this book, however there is one thing that really did not sit well with me. The sexualness of the female characters in Jackie Ormes cartoons is offensive to me now, I can't imagine would have been happily accepted then. Page after page I felt that she was selling sex, and wanted people to stare at the overly emphasized breasts and tiny wastes on her lead female characters. It just is way too sexual, and feels pushy. However I say this in no way to discard all that this woman did for the African American community, and her involvement in political standpoints, African American pride, and so on....the overtly sexualness of it all though, I just don't get it.

This is a somewhat lackluster treatment of a fascinating and important woman.

First, the positives: Jackie Ormes, who worked as a cartoonist in the black press for nearly three decades, definitely is past due for a full book-length treatment. Because her work was mainly single-panel cartoons, and because she did not work in the mainstream press, Ormes has often been overlooked in discussions of the history of comics and cartooning. It's wonderful that this has been remedied. The book is a thing of beauty, as well; nice glossy pages, big margins, and a large enough format that the sometimes-muddy reproductions of Ormes' art (muddy because they have been reproduced from microfilm, not due to any fault of the author) are intelligible and as clear as possible. There are eighty reproductions of Ormes' popular "Patty-Jo n' Ginger" single-panel comic, as well as representative samples of her serial comics "Dixie to Harlem" and "Torchy in Heartbeats."

Nancy Goldstein's writing, however, is pedestrian, and she frequently repeats the same information. The first section of the book, a biography of Ormes, is something of a slog because of this. Perhaps the biggest problem, from my perspective, is that Goldstein originally came to the topic of Ormes' life through interest in doll collecting and the Patty-Jo doll. Thus, Goldstein's analyses of Ormes' talents and role as an artist are pretty shallow, and frequently glossed over in favor of discussion of the fashions displayed in the comics and information about the Patty-Jo doll. The book tends to feel a bit like it's neither fish nor fowl; the biography is pretty sketchy, the art isn't deeply analyzed, and even the interesting historical and sociological aspects of the Patty-Jo doll are often glossed over.

In all, I would tend to think of this book as a good start. Ormes deserved the book-length treatment, and perhaps this volume will spark interest in her life and artwork, giving rise to better books in the future.

Nancy Goldstein’s Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist can be broken down into three sections. It begins with a short biography, placing emphasis on her cartooning career from the late 1930s to the mid 1950s with two of the largest African American newspapers in the United States. It continues with a closer examination of the four comic strips that she created during this time, and finishes with a chapter describing the manufacture of a doll based on her most popular cartoon creation, placing this production within the larger history of African American Dolls.

While the short biography provides the readers with an overview of Ormes’s life and career and the necessary context in which to place her artwork, it is hampered, as noted by the author, by a lack of any personal writings or correspondence. (The death of her only child is essentially dealt with in one paragraph ).Despite this lack of depth, the author is still successful in giving the reader a taste of Ormes’ humorous, sparkling and feisty personality although, by the shortness of her biography, one is left with the impression that her life is more inspiring than it is compelling.

The final section, dealing with the creation of the Patty-Jo doll is bound to be of most interest to doll collectors. While some of the asides are a case of “too much information” for the non-initiated, it provides the reader with a useful overview of the problems of marketing an African American Doll and why Ormes’ doll was of such importance.

It is in the lavishly illustrated middle section that Goldstein’s book truly shines. Dozens of cartoon panels, dealing with such subjects as racism, the House Un-American Activities Committe and the Korean war, are reproduced and annotated, placing the often topical humour and allusions in context for the reader. It was also enlightening to read about the differences between cartooning for the smaller African American newspapers and the large mainstream syndicates, and Ormes’ working her fashion interests into her panels was delightful.

This well-researched book combines biography and cultural history. Goldstein offers a somewhat brief account of Ormes' personal/social life and political involvement and her cultural milieu. The real gem here -- and what fleshes out the book -- is the large selection of Ormes' cartoons that are included, some of them with annotations.½

Mildly interesting, rather too in-depth for me. I don't really care about her childhood, marriages, living arrangements - and about her politics only as they relate to her cartoons. A good display of her work as well. If you really want to know about African-American life in the South and Midwest in the early parts of last century, this is great. Not for me.½

I received Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist by Nancy Goldstein as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. It took several weeks to get the book, so I decided it must have gotten lost. When it finally arrived in the mail, the book was warped and seemed to have been wet. I was a little disappointed. The accompanying letter was soiled too, so it must have happened in the mail.

The cover was attractive so I looked forward to jumping into the reading experience. Although the book was well-researched, it lacked many of the primary source documents I would expect from a book focused on a cartoonist's life. She describes cartoons rather than showing them. She talks about locations in Chicago rather than showing a map or photos of a particular location. She talks about many of the African American newspapers, but never shows a sample cover or page.

Ormes' work reflects the political and cultural atmosphere of the times (1937-1956) including environmental issues, the Cold War, women's roles, and racial segregation. As an African American woman, Jackie Ormes was able to speak directly to these issues through characters like Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo. In the Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger section of the book, the author did an excellent job of providing narrative to describe the background and political climate associated with each cartoon. However I was disappointed that the first section of the biography contained very few of Ormes' cartoons. Instead, selected cartoons were presented within chapters associated with specific characters. Because so many of Orme's cartoons reflect the particular era, it would have made sense to integrate them into the story of her life. Or, another approach would have been sections related to the key issues of the time and how her cartoons reflected these topics. Instead the book felt like a standard biography followed by a report about each character.

Being a fan of sequential art of all types, I found it odd that there was little focus on Ormes' technique as an artist. For instance, more time was spent discussing her doll collection than her interesting technique of incorporating paper dolls into her comic strips.

Although the book was informative, it was not very engaging. However as a fan of biography and sequential art, I enjoyed learning about Jackie Ormes' life and works.½

Full comments here: http://lintel.typepad.com/plentyofnothing/2008/03/jackie-ormes-th.html

One of the pleasures of March was reading the beautifully produced Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist.

Independent scholars come to their books in odd ways: Nancy Goldstein began with a doll. Made of plastic, the Patty-Jo doll stood 18” high and was marketing with her own range of clothes. Manufactured between 1947 and 1949 the dolls were designed and in some cases hand-painted by Jackie Ormes who also included multiple references to the doll in one of her comics.

The most striking and valuable thing about this biography are the dozens of reproductions it includes. It’s clear that Goldstein spent hours in the microfilm room recovering what remains of Ormes work. Paper copies of Ormes' work are long gone: either suffering the fate of much mid-century newsprint or destroyed by librarians overly enamoured of microfilm. The images Goldstein has found have been patiently cleaned up and carefully annotated.½

As the title might suggest, this book is a biography about Zelda Jackson "Jackie" Ormes, the first African American woman to be a professional newspaper cartoonist. She drew four strips, Torchy Brown in "Dixie to Harlem", Candy, Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger, and Torchy in "Heartbeats" from the late 1930s through the late 1950s, at a time when there were few women in newspaper work at all, much less working as cartoonists. Her work appeared in newspapers aimed at the African-American community of that era, such as the Pittsburgh Courier and Chicago Defender and her work is known for its timeliness, humor and broad appeal. The Patty-Jo character was even made into a successful upscale child's doll for a number of years, and is now a sought-after collectible.

It's the Patty-Jo doll that got author and collector Nancy Goldstein interested in Jackie Ormes. For someone who is not primarily a scholar, Goldstein does a pretty good job of researching and telling the life story of this interesting, multifaceted woman. Jackie Ormes was an artist, fashionista, activist and social butterfly, mixing with the likes of Lena Horne and Eartha Kitt through the hotel managed by her husband Earl, and her comics ranged from cute gags about clothes or kids to romance to biting social commentary. She was also investigated by the FBI for possible Communist sympathies, one aspect of her story I found fascinating. Goldstein acknowledges the gaps in the available material about Ormes- there are, for example, no personal letters and little original art extant to help round her story out, and Goldstein's purpose in writing the book is in part to call out for anyone owning such material to donate to specific archival institutions, to enable further study. As such, the story sometimes feels like little more than a bare outline of dates and places, with little of Ormes's personality coming through. Goldstein also has a tendency to speculate openly when she doesn't have all the facts, which I found a little annoying.

Even with these gaps, Goldstein has done a decent job bringing together the material which is available. Unfortunately, her research is undercut by her writing and presentation, both a little bland. Even the chapter on the Patty-Jo doll, for which I had high hopes considering Goldstein's background as a collector, is a little dry. It took me a little longer than I hoped to get through the book, in particular the sections devoted to the comics, which seem dated. Goldstein's analysis is sometimes helpful in providing historical context but I think much of the true flavor of the comics has probably been lost with the passage of time. Torchy in "Heartbeats" series has aged the best of the bunch- its themes of pulp romance and environmental activism aren't as dependent on the day's headlines as the smart one-liners in Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger, for example. People who read these comics when they were published might enjoy the trip down memory lane, though, and doll enthusiasts will enjoy the helpful tips for identifying genuine Patty-Jo dolls in the chapter devoted to her, as well as some interesting information on the history of African-American dolls in general.

For the casual reader, though, the book is probably a pass. It's not bad, but I think Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist is best suited for either dedicated fans of the Patty-Jo doll or those with a serious, academic interest in cartoon- or African-American history. Jackie Ormes seems like an important figure, and I think Goldstein has done her a service by calling attention to her work- and preserving a taste of it- in this volume. More personal material is needed, though, to really make Ormes come alive in print. Hopefully those with information to share will come forward and allow a more detailed biography to be written in the future.

Read my review at http://www.bostonbibliophile.com/2008/03/review-jackie-ormes-first-african.html½

While it’s not unusual that I had never heard of Jackie Ormes, it is unfortunate. I have always been interested in the early days of comic art and have read many histories of comic books and cartooning without coming across her name.

Why is Jackie Ormes so important? Not only was she an entertaining African-American cartoonist, but she was also an important contributor to the American civil rights movement by making sure her voice was heard in the best way she knew how. She was never afraid to confront prejudice and racist bigotry in her strips, but remained entertaining while she did it. Her work at different times appeared in the Chicago Defender and, later, the Pittsburgh Courier, a paper that had regional editions and delivered news, opinion and Jackie’s cartoons to the African American family from coast to coast.

In 1945 she began what is arguably her best, and certainly most political work, Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger. The precocious and politically wise Patty-Jo was able to speak the truth as honestly as perhaps only Boondocks and Doonsbury have mastered today, and certainly in a much more volatile era. The single panel cartoon “expounding on taxes, labor strikes, McCarthyism, and the vagaries of abstract art, as well as fashions and relations between the sexes” was an outlet for Ormes’ frontline political voice, leading eventually to her being investigated by the FBI during the McCarthy Inquisition.

Jackie Ormes was always interested in fashion and in 1950 she created Torchy in Heartbeats, a multi-paneled feature that ran for four years of adventure and romance and included, as a bonus, fashion paper dolls called Torchy’s Togs.

Nancy Goldstein’s book is very well researched, despite the lack of documents such as personal letters, letters to editors or articles and essays about her cartooning. The book is a pleasure to read and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the work of Jackie Ormes, the first African American woman cartoonist.

As Nancy Goldstein says in her preface, she was unable to locate any of Jackie Ormes ' personal letters, any letters to the editor commenting on her cartoons, any articles about her cartoons, or any essays or papers she wrote. This makes "Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist" a somewhat insubstantial biography.

Her life is basically summed up in the first two chapters of the book, and it's not a particularly interesting life. Yes, she was a pioneer--besides being the first female African American cartoonist, she also produced the first high quality African American doll and was well ahead of her time in some of themes of her comics--but there wasn't much in the way of conflict in her life story. Without conflict, or adventure, it's just not that interesting a life.

The next five chapters in the book deal with her cartoons. Chapter three is all about her cartooning in general, and mostly expands on information given in the previous chapters. The other chapters in this section each concentrate on a specific Ormes comic: Torchy Brown in "Dixie to Harlem", Candy, Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger, and Torchy in Heartbeats. Each of these chapters gives a brief history of the comic and a small sample of the comics themselves. The two Torchy comics are serial stories, and as such reading a small selection makes it very hard to follow the overall story. Candy and Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger are both single panel comics with a strong element of political/social commentary and a good helping of cheesecake. all of the comics have become slightly dated in the 50+ years since their original publication, but they are still interesting.

The final chapter tells the story of the Patty-Jo Doll. It is also largely an expansion of information from the previous chapters and is likely to be of interest mostly to doll collectors.

There are also a few appendixes, including corrections to other people's accounts, excerpts from the FBI's file on Jackie Ormes, notes, and a bibliography. None of it is particularly interesting.

Overall, I didn't much care for the book. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I personally wouldn't mind seeing more about Ms. Ormes, especially a more comprehensive collection of her comics, but as it stands, this book is just kind of boring.