Hey, all of you cartoon aficionados! Help us identify the characters in this incredible embroidered textile
When we received the Bill Blackbeard collection, among it was this textile of over 100 embroidered cartoon characters. Unfortunately, we do not know who produced such a marvel, but we’re working hard to at least identify each character they lovingly stitched into the fabric.
Do you recognize any of the characters? We have digitally numbered the textile, and you can enlarge the image by clicking on it (we recommend using your browser to zoom even further). Below it you will find our best guesses as well as a number of blanks that we would love your help on.
Please leave us a comment with your expert findings!
—-UPDATE—-
Wow! Thanks so much, everyone! Incredible detective work- we’re all in awe and ever-so-grateful over here at the Cartoon Library. Thank you for your patience as we fact-checked and updated our list. There are still some more to go! Unfortunately, our blog software does not allow us to upload very large files. Instead, I have provided details below of the unidentified characters. We hope you’ll keep contributing!
1. Buck Rogers2. Joe Stork (Krazy Kat) (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
3. Napoleon
4. Uncle Elby
5. Checkered Demon
6. Marsupilami (Thanks to reader Eric Newsom!)
7. Bug Rogers (Gordo)
8. Churchy LaFemme
9.
10. Pogo
11. Albert Alligator
12. Dick Tracy
13. Offisa Pup
14. Krazy Kat
15. Ignatz Mouse
16. Mock Duck (Krazy Kat) (Thanks to reader Paul!)
17. Rudy
18.
19. Hawkshaw the Detective
20. Major Hoople
21.
22. Farside
23. Giff Wiff (Katzenjammer Kids) (Thanks to reader Jean-Paul Jennequin)
24. Eugene the Jeep
25. Farside (Thanks to reader Eric Newsom!)
26. Sheena
27. Little Orphan Annie & Sandy
28. Sparkplug
29. Sunshine
30. Barney Google
31. Old Doc Yak (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
32. Mamie (Moon Mullins) (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
33. Baron Bean (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
34.
35. Emmy (Moon Mullins)
36. Uncle Willie ? (Moon Mullins)
37. Mr. Beans (Robert Dickey) (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!) & Tippie (Edwina Dumm) (Thanks to Tom Spurgeon!)
38. Farside (Thanks to reader Eric Newsom!)
39. Dirty Dalton (Thanks to reader Paul!)
40. Texas Slim (Thanks to reader Paul!)
41. Wimpy
42. Maggie & Jiggs (Bringing Up Father)
43. Maud
44. Happy Hooligan
45. George Booth dog
46. Felix the Cat
47. Salesman Sam (Thanks to reader Roger Langridge!)
48. Scrooge McDuck
49. character from Casey the Cop (by Charles Rodrigues) (Thanks to reader Frank Pauer!)
50. Buster Brown & Mary Jane
51.
52. Boob McNutt (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
53. Mutt & Jeff
54. Tige and Midnight (Buster Brown)
55. Shmoo
56. Little Joe (by Ed Leffingwell) (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
57. Bunky (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
58. Jerry on the Job (Thanks to reader Chris Mautner!)
59. Casey the Cop (by Charles Rodrigues) (Thanks to reader Louis Wysocki!)
60. Kitty (Polly & Her Pals)
61. Polly Perkins
62. Maw (Suzie Perkins)
63. Neewah (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
64. Paw (Sam’l Perkins)
65. Ashur Earl Perkins (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
66.
67. Tater (Snuffy Smith)?
68. Abbie the Agent
69.
70. Captain Easy
71. Wash Tubbs
72. Foozy (Alley Oop)?
73.
74. character from “Casey the Cop” (by Charles Rodrigues) (Thanks to reader Frank Pauer!)
75. Skeezix (Gasoline Alley) (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
76. Bennie the Swink (Wash’s pet in Captain Easy) (Thanks to reader Todd Hillmer!)
77.
78. Little Jimmy
79. Broom Hilda
80. Alley Oop
81. Bécassine, mother, and Uncle Corentin (From L’enfance de Bécassine) (Thanks to reader Jean-Paul Jennequin!)
82. General Halftrack (Beetle Bailey)
83. Der Captain (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley)
84. Tehuana Mama (Gordo)
85. From Bécassine, unknown character (Thanks to reader Jean-Paul Jennequin!)
86. Oola (Alley Oop) (Thanks to reader Roger Langridge!)
87. The General (Little Joe) (Thanks to reader Richard Olson!)
88. Getafix (Thanks to reader Andres Denkberg!)
89. Obelix (Thanks to reader Mike Lynch!)
90.
91. Dolly Dimples (by Grace Drayton) (Thanks to reader Holmes from Barnacle Press!)
92.
93. The Sea Hag (Popeye) (Thanks to reader Brian Hagen!)
94. Alice The Goon (Popeye) (Thanks to reader Mike Lynch!)
95. Sappo (Popeye) (Thanks to reader Roger Langridge!)
96. Der Professor (Katzenjammer Kids) (Thanks to reader Mike Lynch!)
97. Popeye
98. Swee’Pea sitting in the mouth of Toar (Popeye) (Thanks to reader Paul!)
99. Fritz (Katzenjammer Kids)
100. Mama (Katzenjammer Kids)
101. Hans (Katzenjammer Kids)
102. Little Nemo in Slumberland (The Imp, ?, Flip, The Princess, Little Nemo)
103. Snoopy
104. Oat Willie (Gilbert Shelton) (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
105. Woodstock
106. Fat Freddy’s Cat
107. Yellow Kid
108.
109. Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse
110. Mr. Jack (Swinnerton)
111. Physically Powerful Katrina (Toonerville)
112. Mickey “Himself” McGuire (Thanks to reader Mike Lynch!)
113. Snake (B.C.) (Thanks to reader Brian Bonelli!)
114. Fat Broad?
115. Count Screwloose (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley!)
116. Senor Dog (Gordo)
117. Ponce De Leon (Gordo)
118. Poosy Gato (Gordo)
119. Uncle Bim (The Gumps) (Thanks to reader Jared Gardner!)
120. -Not numbered in image- anteater from B.C. (Thanks to reader Steven Stwalley)
August 7, 2012 at 1:18 pm
#16 may be the Whiffle Hen from POPEYE, but the image is darn small and I could be completely wrong. Any chance of larger images?
August 7, 2012 at 1:19 pm
#6 is Marsupilami
August 7, 2012 at 1:20 pm
I think that #112 is Mickey “Himself” McGuire from TOONERVILLE TROLLEY.
August 7, 2012 at 1:22 pm
#96 is The Professor (or “Der Professor”) from THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS.
August 7, 2012 at 1:27 pm
#95 is Alice the Goon from POPEYE.
#88 and 89 are Asterix & Obelix.
#86 sure looks like a Roy Crane-drawn female character.
What fun! Post larger scans if at all possible!
August 7, 2012 at 1:31 pm
6. Yellow Dog
89. Obelix
August 7, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Oops, got beat to the punch, AND corrected!
August 7, 2012 at 1:42 pm
#88 – Getafix
#89 – Obelix
August 7, 2012 at 1:46 pm
#16 is Mock Duck from Krazy Kat
#39 is Dirty Dalton
#40 is Texas Slim
August 7, 2012 at 1:51 pm
88 is the Druid Getafix from Asterix + Obelix! (Panoramix in French)
August 7, 2012 at 2:10 pm
All of these are Popeye/Thimble Theatre characters:
#93 is Bernard the Vulture
#94 is Alice the Goon (Mike mistyped it as #95 above)
#95 is Castor Oyl
#98 is Swee’Pea sitting in the mouth of Toar
August 7, 2012 at 2:16 pm
#2 is Joe Stork from Krazy Kat
August 7, 2012 at 2:17 pm
No. 58 is Jerry on the Job
August 7, 2012 at 2:23 pm
31 appears to be Old Doc Yak… or it could be Chester Gump. They both owned the same car with the number 348.
August 7, 2012 at 2:24 pm
33 is Baron Bean by Herriman
August 7, 2012 at 2:29 pm
37 is Mr. Beans by Robert Dickey… I don’t believe that is Mrs. Beans he is with. Any chance we can we get a larger scan, please?
August 7, 2012 at 2:31 pm
Character on the right in 42 is Boob McNutt by Rube Goldberg.
August 7, 2012 at 2:32 pm
I’m sorry… I meant 52.
August 7, 2012 at 2:34 pm
57. Bunky by Billy DeBeck
August 7, 2012 at 2:37 pm
65 appears to be Ash from Polly and Her Pals by Sterrett
August 7, 2012 at 2:40 pm
104 is Oat Willie by Gilbert Shelton
August 7, 2012 at 2:42 pm
I think #86 is probably Ooola from Alley Oop (hard to tell from the low resolution). #67 is Jughaid, not Tater, I believe.
August 7, 2012 at 2:45 pm
#47 is Salesman Sam and his assistant (Awltummy?).
August 7, 2012 at 2:50 pm
I would have said #95 was more likely Sappo than Castor Oyl – I think there’s a definite whiff of moustache there, and Castor was as bald as an egg.
August 7, 2012 at 2:50 pm
19 Sherlocko appears to be next to his assistant Watso (and someone else)
August 7, 2012 at 2:57 pm
32 Mamie from Moon Mullins by Frank Willard
33 Emmy from Moon Mullins by Frank Willard
August 7, 2012 at 3:01 pm
Is that Andy, or Bim Gump? Hard to tell at this resolution. Any chance for a larger version of the image for your eager detectives to play with?
August 7, 2012 at 3:04 pm
I believe 56 is Little Joe by Ed Leffingwell, although I’m not positive.
August 7, 2012 at 3:06 pm
Here’s a reference for Little Joe:
http://dangertrail.blogspot.com/2007/05/newpaper-reprints-little-joe.html
August 7, 2012 at 3:15 pm
I think you had 63 before, but is appears to have disappeared… it is Neewah from Polly and Her Pals.
August 7, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Ashur is 65 not 63, I believe… hard to tell definitively from the scan.
August 7, 2012 at 3:20 pm
75 seems most likely to be Skeezix from Gasoline Alley… although the face is pretty rough looking. Still, the hair would indicate this is the case.
August 7, 2012 at 3:26 pm
83 would appear to be Der Captain rather than Der Inspector. 96 is Der Inspector or Der Professor. Reference:
http://www.marklansdown.com/pinbacks/pages/strip-katzenjammerkids.html
August 7, 2012 at 3:32 pm
Hard to see on 102, but in addition to Little Nemo, I think I see Flip, The Imp, and maybe the Princess?
August 7, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Not numbered below and to the left of the Nemo image is the anteater from B.C. by Johnny Hart.
August 7, 2012 at 3:36 pm
104 is actually spelled Oat Willie rather than Oat Willey.
August 7, 2012 at 3:38 pm
112 actually appears to me to be Kayo from Moon Mullins.
I’ll confirm also that 110 is indeed Mr. Jack, since you have a question mark after it.
August 7, 2012 at 3:41 pm
115 is actually Count Screwloose rather than Pop of That’s my Pop (both by Milt Gross)
August 7, 2012 at 3:43 pm
119 is actually Andy Gump’s uncle, Uncle Bim
August 7, 2012 at 3:48 pm
#23 is the Giff Wiff, a character from the Katzenjammer Kids that was used as a mascot by one of the earliest French fanzines on comics, the title of which was Giff Wiff.
August 7, 2012 at 3:53 pm
#81 is Bécassine, the French character created in 1905. In this picture, she’s still a child, and is shown with her parents, so this must be from “L’enfance de Bécassine” (Bécassine’s Childhood).
August 7, 2012 at 3:55 pm
FYI, that leads to an interesting Google search:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1908&dat=19660814&id=o0grAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ktQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1506,5299299
http://anafbd.free.fr/giff.htm
August 7, 2012 at 3:59 pm
After looking into it, 112 is correct as it was (Mickey “Himself” McGuire)… sorry for any confusion on that.
August 7, 2012 at 4:25 pm
#93 is misidentified, I believe. That’s not a vulture, but rather E.C. Segar’s Sea Hag, playing her flute to hypnotize Pappy in the 1936-1937 sequence “A Mystery as Deep as the Sea.”
August 7, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Thank you!
August 7, 2012 at 4:29 pm
…from Thimble Theatre / Popeye. I thought I wrote that.
August 7, 2012 at 5:48 pm
#38 is this fella from The Far Side:
http://i.imgur.com/TeZSm.png
August 7, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Oh, hey, #25 is the surfer in that cartoon too….
August 7, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Number 59 reminds me of Casey by National Lampoon cartoonist Charles Rodrigues.
August 7, 2012 at 7:22 pm
Not sure about #111. I think it should be “Physically Powerful Katrinka”
August 7, 2012 at 8:48 pm
85 is Becassine from France, I believe.
August 7, 2012 at 8:49 pm
#59 On the right is Casey the Cop by Charles Rodrigues.
August 7, 2012 at 8:50 pm
9 might be the hand of the Yellow Claw from the comic book cover.
August 7, 2012 at 8:55 pm
59 – early Jerry van Amerongen’s The Neighborhood?
August 7, 2012 at 8:58 pm
I concur w/ Roger – 86 is Oola in time-travelling clothes.
August 7, 2012 at 9:00 pm
87 looks like Frank King art to me…
August 7, 2012 at 9:04 pm
#85-Becassine?
August 7, 2012 at 11:42 pm
76 is a swink (as seen in a 1938 Wash & Easy Sunday adventure)
August 7, 2012 at 11:51 pm
More specifically, 76 is likely Wash’s pet swink, Bennie: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantagraphics/7513087078/in/set-72157630445759682/lightbox/
August 8, 2012 at 12:04 am
86 is likely Ooola, this shot looks very similar: http://sofarfromheavendotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/alley-oop-1st.jpg
August 8, 2012 at 4:09 am
#86 is definitely Ooola from Alley Oop. I’ve even found the source image, I think:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/29404053/Ooola.gif
August 8, 2012 at 5:58 am
#92 looks quite a lot like Clifford McBride’s dog Napoleon laying on his back. Could anybody confirm ?
August 8, 2012 at 6:02 am
#85 is wearing a typical Breton dress, so she’s most likely also from the Bécassine strip, along with the nearby group of Bécassine and her parents. I don’t know the strip well enough to be more precise, but she could be either an incidental character or Bécassine’s cousin, Marie Quillouch.
August 8, 2012 at 6:10 am
In the #81 group, the man on the right is not Bécassine’s father but her uncle Corentin, who gave her her nickname (her ral name being Annaïk Labornez).
August 8, 2012 at 6:29 am
#87 looks like an early picture of The General from Little Joe.
August 8, 2012 at 10:21 am
Napoleon and Uncle Elby already appear at the top of the embroidery (#3 and #4)!
August 8, 2012 at 12:06 pm
I’m going to second that…87 sure looks like Ze General: http://www.thrillmer.com/comics/general19390409.jpg
August 8, 2012 at 12:14 pm
I think #91 is Grace Drayton’s Dolly DImples.
I want to think that #108 looks like someone out of Byrnes’ Reg’lar Fellers, but can’t find an outfit that matches.
#87 reminds me of Billy DeBeck, somehow…
August 8, 2012 at 2:17 pm
#51 makes me think of the style of a George Booth character
August 9, 2012 at 11:28 am
Regarding the bizarre stegosaurus-like thing in image #9… my hind-brain is telling me I’ve seen it somewhere before, and my subconscious suspect is that it something from sixties bay-area underground comics. I have no conscious reason to think this. Something from Dan O’Neill’s Odd Bodkins, perhaps? I really want to know what the heck that one is.
August 12, 2012 at 5:34 pm
Is 18 a Steve Canyon character? Perhaps the dragon lady or other. Just a guess.