That is it. Witt. We don't know their full name, sex, history, or if Witt was a pen name or not. Like Cobb Shinn, they were a prolific illustrator in the first part of the 20th century. Their name is attached to many different series of postcards, and magazine illustrations. But they, like Shinn, produced cards based around the Model T.
We can with some careful deduction and research come up with a bit more information about his work for Ford. The imprint on the rear of the cards that I have tells that "Witt" produced a minimum of three series of cards, and each series had 10 designs. Some are labelled on the back "Ford Booster Comic", and some "Ford Comic" , others "How Lizzie keeps down the HCL" (High cost of Living).
Those marked "Ford Booster Comic show how the little T is more agile and economical than the bigger cars of the day.
The other two series are more humorous. The "Ford Comic" brand gently poke fun at the size of the car and its low cost. While the "How Lizzie keeps down the HCL" show how a couple of "Hillbilly" farm types, called Ezra and Si, keep their costs down by using the T for all manner of tasks on their farm.
I find Witt's work more complimentary of the brand, with no references to Louse or Cockroaches,
Witt's illustrations also seem to have more depth and a cleaner style, certainly in the "Ford Booster Comic" series. On the whole I think I prefer Witt to Shinn. It's just too bad that we don't know any more about the person.
We can with some careful deduction and research come up with a bit more information about his work for Ford. The imprint on the rear of the cards that I have tells that "Witt" produced a minimum of three series of cards, and each series had 10 designs. Some are labelled on the back "Ford Booster Comic", and some "Ford Comic" , others "How Lizzie keeps down the HCL" (High cost of Living).
Those marked "Ford Booster Comic show how the little T is more agile and economical than the bigger cars of the day.
The other two series are more humorous. The "Ford Comic" brand gently poke fun at the size of the car and its low cost. While the "How Lizzie keeps down the HCL" show how a couple of "Hillbilly" farm types, called Ezra and Si, keep their costs down by using the T for all manner of tasks on their farm.
I find Witt's work more complimentary of the brand, with no references to Louse or Cockroaches,
Witt's illustrations also seem to have more depth and a cleaner style, certainly in the "Ford Booster Comic" series. On the whole I think I prefer Witt to Shinn. It's just too bad that we don't know any more about the person.
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| One of the "Ford Booster Comic" series. The little Ford conquers the muddy road that the bigger car can't cope with. |
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| In this Booster comic card the Ford heads off into the distance as the big car is confounded by a washout |
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| In this "Ford Comic" series card a child asks a T owner if they can spare a wheel for his toy car, playing on the small size of the T |
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| These two cards in the "HCL" series introduce Si and Ezra. A couple of farmers who use the Lizzie for all manner of tasks around the farm. There other characters in this series. But these two appear on most of them. |
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