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Darrell McClure - Little Annie Rooney - Sunday - 2 November 1958

Artist: Darrell McClure (All)

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Darrell McClure - Little Annie Rooney - Sunday - 2 November 1958 Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	Darrell McClure - Little Annie Rooney - Sunday - 2 November 1958
Artist:	Darrell McClure (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Comic Strip
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	440
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	1
Added to Site:	4/19/2022
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Darrell McClure had a low-key illustrational style, nowadays underappreciated. His focus on gesture and small, domestic detail is on display in this Sunday. The top tier establishes the warm kitchen interior, and the multi-generational female cast, including two close-ups of Annie establishing her as the point-of-view, if not protagonist, of the strip -- the dominating profile image of her in panel one, and the pensive "looking outward" angle on her in panel 2.

In panel 3, the shadowy hood of the sedan suggests a more sinister intrusion of the outside world (though the Sheriff, whose car it is, is a Good Guy). The strongest blacks on the page -- Annie's hair in panel 1, the car hood in panel 3, and the silouhette and shadows in the final panel -- create a zigzag or "<" visual structure underlying the page.

In a dialogue-heavy scene, McClure maintains a sense of naturalness and pace with a detail like Mrs. Openlander pouring the coffee in panel 5, which the SHeriff then sips as he continues his explanation in the next panel. Shifting to an exterior, the nicely-drawn ranch house in panel 6 works well to emphasize the story being narrated in the text.

I wouldn't consider McClure as gifted a writer of dialogue as an artist. The exposition is fairly flat, and Annie's child-like voice is indicated fairly broadly with dropped g's and expressions like "golly gee whiz" (hopefully not as corny-sounding in '58 as it is today), but undercut by construcions like "we'll soon know" in panel 2. The sheriff's analogy of the bad guy's plan to "concentric circles from a stone cast into water" seems a bit flowery and out of place -- though fun in its way, I guess.

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About the Owner

	Dan Mazur
Joined:	November 2020
Last Login:	September 2025
Website:	http://www.danmazurcomics.com/
Country:	UNITED STATES
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Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

1 - Posted on 4/19/2022

Really engaging illustration work in every panel to serve the layer of story. McClure makes this Sunday look like a full episode of a family drama.

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