The Davenport Project

New gig in Portland! CARTOONS!! Do we know any CARTOONISTS from OREGON?!? ;-)

NWMOCA is officially OPEN! 11 AM-5 PM Wednesday-Sunday 322 NW 8th Ave. Portland, OR General Admission: $10 Senior, Student, and Veteran: $8 SNAP Beneficiary: $2 Kids 12 and Under: FREE! 1-Year Membership: $40 #cartooning #cartoons #comics #animation #pnwartists #pnwart

In Sack-cloth & Ashes

While working in San Francisco, Homer Davenport, worked first, albeit briefly, for Hearst's Examiner at $10 a week. He was let go, apparently due to his "lack of artistic skill," (actually he asked for a $2.50 a week raise). He then found work, at a higher salary of $15 a week, on Michael de Young's Chronicle, before being re-hired by the Examiner, (at Hearst's personal request) for an even higher salary or $75 a week.

This period has been lacking in content, but the "Newspapers.com" online archive service recently added both the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner are now available to subscribers. This album contains five illustrations by Davenport that were published in the February 19, 1893 edition. The column was titled "In Sack-cloth and Ashes," and featured a tongue-in-cheek overview of how various noted citizens observed (or not) the Christian fast of Lent.

These pieces employed a "silhouette" technique. He also used this effect in the only surviving comic strip he did, featuring himself as the foil, with pigeons in Venice's St. Marks Square. The quality of course is what would be expected from online reproductions by way of archival microfilm, but still shows the gist of his illustrated jests.

His Chronicle work was signed with his initials, "H.D." like his previous work on the Portland Oregonian.