Saturday, April 6, 2019

The joyous illustrations of Johnny Gruelle's "The Paper Dragon"


Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938) was, among other things, the creator of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy. (He was also a newspaper cartoonist who signed many of his works "Grue".)

In 1926, Gruelle wrote and illustrated The Paper Dragon: A Raggedy Ann Adventure. It was published by the P.F. Volland Company (as one of its "Happy Children Books") and dedicated to Evelyn, David and Judy Chambers. I came across an appropriately raggedy copy of the book a while back. It was given as a Christmas gift to "Sonny" in 1935 and has been drawn and doodled on over the years. It's also missing at least one page and has numerous other torn pages. But the story and vibrant, amazing Gruelle illustrations are still there. And they're well worth sharing. (Note: There have been recent reprints of this book, including the illustrations. And while they're pricey, they wouldn't be as raggedy or incomplete as this copy.)

First up is the back cover...


Here's the left-hand side of the endpapers...


And here's the right-hand side of the endpapers...


I have no idea who that man or woman with the green glasses is, but it's one of the coolest images I've ever come across for this blog. It looks like it belongs more in the psychedelic 1960s than the 1920s, doesn't it? Here's a closer look...


Moving along, here's the title page...


And here are three full-page, full-color interior illustrations by Gruelle...



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