'The Bridge Jumper's Joke or The Origin of The Life Preserver' (Scribner's Magazine, 1900).
Albert Levering was a late 19th/early 20th-century American illustrator, cartoonist and comic artist. When illustrating parody books by satirical author John Kendrick Bangs, he often used sequential narratives. His cartoons appeared in most of the major turn-of-the-century U.S. magazines. Some are notable for being text comics, with text captions underneath the images.
Early life and career
Albert Levering was born in 1869 in Hope, Indiana. He was the son of carpenter Levi Levering, who later moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri. Father Levering later switched to architecture, joining his partner G.M.D. Knox in the architectural firm Levering & Knox. Like his father, Albert Levering studied architecture as well, and then worked as an architectural draftsman in Kansas City and Minneapolis, Minnesota (with the firm Orff & Joralemon), while possibly also working for firms in San Antonio, Texas. After eight years, he switched to newspaper and magazine cartooning, while taking night classes from Burt Harwood's art school. In the late 1890s, Levering spent some time abroad, studying at the National Academy in Munich, Germany and touring through Italy by bicycle.
'Artful Arty and Alex Smart' (The Philadelphia Plain Dealer, 22 October 1905).
Newspaper cartooning
Initially, Levering's cartoons ran mostly in papers circulating in Kansas City, but later also appeared in The Minneapolis Times and The Chicago Tribune. In 1896, Albert Levering moved to New York City, where he became a contributor to William Randolph Hearst's The New York Journal and to The New York Tribune and The Herald Tribune. Between 15 October 1905 and 14 October 1906, Levering's Sunday strip 'Artful Arty and Alex Smart' was syndicated by the Philadelphia Press to Illinois and Ohio newspapers. Between 7 August and 10 September 1918, he filled a summer replacement spot for holidaying cartoonists in The New York World with the weekday panel 'The Flatt Family'. In addition to his own cartoon sections and comic features, Levering also served as illustrator for syndicated text features, for instance George Ade's 'New Fables in Slang' (1911-1912). Through the McClure Syndicate, Levering illustrated the 1919 'Potash and Perlmutter' series by Montague Glass, which appeared nationwide in newspapers. Montague Glass passed away in 1929.
The 'Potash and Perlmutter' feature, illustrated by Albert Levering (The Washington Herald, 18 May 1919).
Magazine cartoons
Besides newspapers, Levering's cartoons additionally ran in magazines like Puck, Life, Collier's, Cosmopolitan and Harper's Weekly. Some of these magazine cartoons make use of sequences and can be described as picture stories, or comics. In 1900, his illustration 'The Bridge Jumper's Joke or The Origin of The Life Preserver' appeared in Scribner's Magazine. The surreal pantomime comic depicts a man jumping from a bridge. Rather than fall to his doom he uses smoke clouds from a steamboat as a life vest. For the 6 December 1905 issue of Puck, Levering made another notable cartoon, 'Some Childish Concepts of Christmas'. The drawing is divided into five images, each with a two-sentence rhyme underneath. Still it's not entirely a text comic, because the five images aren't sequences: they only have a thematic connection. In each picture, Santa Claus is imagined the way children from different backgrounds see him, namely Bostonians, Chinese immigrants ('Chinatown'), rich people ('The Smart Set'), Jews ('The East Side') and black people ('Georgia'). In all incarnations, Santa has a stereotypical look. On 28 November 1906, another multi-panel contribution by Levering was published in Puck: 'The American Indian. Past. Present'. This two-panel cartoon shows the contrast between Native Americans in the past and the present. In the first panel they do a war dance around a totem pole. In the second, Levering depicts them preparing for an American football game in the Carlisle Indian School.
'Suburban Hospitality' (Puck, 1 December 1909).
'Suburban Hospitality', printed in Puck on 1 December 1909, is a picture story made for the Christmas holidays. The comic shows a man visiting a family on Christmas Eve. The hospitable couple literally pulls him inside to join the holiday spirit. However, they force him to do all kinds of things, such as carving the turkey, decorating the Christmas tree when the children are in bed and discussing building plans at night in the snow. The unlucky visitor isn't given much sleep, because the next day the children already wake him at 5:00 AM. Once again he is forced to help the parents, this time to pull the children's sled. Eventually, the exploited visitor finds an excuse to leave. The punchline is that he ends up at the station, waiting for his train back home, while its freezing cold.
'Back To Nature' (Puck, 20 July 1910).
'Back to Nature', printed in Puck on 20 July 1910, is again a multi-panel cartoon, but no real story, just images sharing a thematic connection. Levering depicts various people who go out hiking or hunting in the woods. On 13 November 1911, he made a three-panel cartoon showing the differences between three social classes. Each image shows the same restaurant, but with visitors from a different class. The first scene presents upper class rich people. In the second panel, middle class clients are depicted, next to a sign which reads: "Souvenir Evening". The third scene portrays only a few lower class clients, while most of the seats are empty. Not all that surprising, since a sign reads: "Notice! This Hotel to be Torn Down Jan 1st, A Modern Loft Building 18 Stories Will Be Erected by the Hustleup Trust Co." In 1918, Levering drew a text comic titled 'Broncho Billy "Gentles" His New Steed', published in Film Fun. The comic features Hollywood western star Broncho Billy Anderson trying to ride a car in the same way he would mount a horse.
'Broncho Billy "Gentles" His New Steed' (Film Fun, 1918).
Book illustrations
Levering illustrated books by the American satirical author John Kendrick Bangs, who, from 1904 on, was also editor of Puck. Their first collaboration could be seen in 'Mollie and the Unwiseman' (Henry T. Coates & Co., Philadelphia, 1902), a children's book co-illustrated by Albert Levering and Clare Victor Dwiggins (under the pseudonym Grace G. Wiederseim). With 'Alice in Blunderland: An Iridescent Dream' (1907), Bangs wrote a political parody of Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland'. The story is a satire of corporate greed and corruption. Levering mimics John Tenniel's original drawings, down to re-using many character designs from the 'Alice' novel. Levering additionally illustrated Bangs' 'Jack and the Check Book' (1911), a parody of famous fairy tales.
Bangs also wrote two sequels to E.W. Hornung's 'A.J. Raffles' series. Raffles was in itself an unofficial spin-off of Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective series 'Sherlock Holmes'. In Hornung's official stories, Raffles is Holmes' brother-in-law, who works as a gentleman-thief. Bangs' first book, 'Mrs. Raffles: Being the Adventures of an Amateur Cracks Woman. Narrated by Bunny' (Harper & Brothers, New York & London, 1905) has pages livened up with Levering artwork. However, for the second book, 'R. Holmes & Co: Being the Remarkable Adventures of Raffles Holmes, Esq., Detective and Amateur Cracksman by Birth' (Harper & Brothers, 1906), artist Sydney Adamson was hired to provide illustrations.
Albert Levering also illustrated Guy Wetmore Carryl's 'Grimm Tales Made Gay' (Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1902), Edward W. Townsend's 'Chimmie Fadden and Mr. Paul' (The Century Co., New York, 1902) and 'Fort Birkett: A Story of Mountain Adventure' (W.J. Ritchie, New York, 1903), Hugh Pendexter's 'Tiberius Smith: As Chronicled By His Right-Hand Man, Billy Campbell' (New York and London, Harper and Brothers, 1907), Ellis Parker Butler's 'An Experiment in Gyro-Hats' (Q and C. Co, New York, 1907) and George Ade's 'Knocking the Neighbors' (Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, Page and Co, 1912).
Death
Dealing with heart problems for several weeks, Albert Levering died in his apartment at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City on 14 April 1929. He was survived by his wife, Frances Jewell Levering.
'Alice in Blunderland: An Iridescent Dream' (1907).