George Scarbo (1898 -1966) is most well-known for the wonderful animals he drew in his Sunday topper strip, The Comic Zoo. The strip was created by Joe King in 1932 and was used as a topper for King's rather pedestrian strip Clownies. Scarbo took over the NEA feature for a one-year stint in 1933. The strip started up again on June 28, 1936, as a topper to J.R. Williams' Out Our Way. Scarbo previously worked as one of Williams' assistants and he stayed with The Comic Zoo until May 30, 1965, a year before he passed away. While never a Dickensian wordsmith, Scarbo had the ability to walk between illustrative and cartooning approaches with ease and was simply a terrific ink-slinger. He had an animated approach to his cartoons, but balanced that with a more realistic approach to drawing as well. We saw these modes of drawing most combined in Scarbo’s Zoo's Who feature, which ran on "The Girls and Girls Page" or "Young Folks" pages in newspapers. It was a sort of nature-based version of Ripley's Believe it or Not aimed at kids, but without the over-the-top approach. Scarbo drew Zoo's Who from June 5, 1948 until May 13, 1963. I’m pleased to offer a wonderful example of Zoo's Who from July 8, 1948, pretty early in the run of the feature. Scarbo shows off his drawing chops in this panel, with a realistic polar bear, a cute-as-hell chipmunk, and a wonderfully cartoony archeologist who has found the remains of a prehistoric armadillo. The juxtaposition between Scarbo’s two approaches in one panel is fascinating, displaying the full range of his talents. Really lovely stuff. I had a few of these panels at one time, but this is the last one I have for sale. Measuring 13½”x 10½”, the panel cartoon is in terrific condition, solid Fine+. There are some pencil notes on the back about the drawn elements; most likely research by Scarbo or his studio. Great stuff! $215.00 + 14.00 first class shipping. SOLD!
