If you're trying to get a feel for a historical period, not seek out profound insights into the times, but just get a sense of what things were like, you are often better off opting for what Kael would call the good trash rather than the first rate art of the period.
Great art is of a time but timeless. Its creators see further, deeper. They have a unique vision, The works connect with audiences in entirely different ways as the years pass. It would be a mistake to assume we see Lear in the same way groundlings did four hundred years ago, just as it would be a mistake to assume Shakespeare was a typical Elizabethan.
All of this is problematic when you just want a picture of an era. For that, you'll probably be better off going with something competent and popular in its time that has aged badly. John O'Hara instead of William Faulkner. Dennis the Menace instead of Peanuts.
Hank Ketcham seldom pushed boundaries but he and his assistants were solid cartoonists and sharp observers who, probably unintentionally and more in the background than the foreground, caught all sorts of interesting details.
The following panels are from 1960 and 1961.
Note the bench seat and the small child standing on it while his father drives. Unsafe at Any Speed was years away.
Though they were a ubiquitous part of American life for almost one hundred years, I wonder how many people reading this know what trading stamps were
Even in the safest escapist entertain, 1961 was a scary time.
Mark:
ReplyDeleteYou've rediscovered the Speed Racer principle. And I see that you even commented on the original post on the topic!