Comments on: How Do They Produce Newspapers in Iowa, Charlie Brown?

By: John Pemble

John Pemble — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:50:09 +0000

Running into to this is the highlight of my day. Love this yesteryear stuff. The Tribune has been gone for a long time but I remember it. Also recall peach pages back in the day.

By: Shirlie

Shirlie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:23:16 +0000

I worked with Dav for several years at The Des Moines Register and Tribune. Dav had remarkable insight into human nature. I logged on to his family’s website and still see some of the wonderful cartoons he did. I am fortunate to have known this tremendous person and to have seen his talent first hand. Dav was one in a million and to be a friend and a colleague was an honor indeed.

By: Tom Davenport

Tom Davenport — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:14:21 +0000

Hi, this is Tom Davenport brother of Bob Davenport (whose post I am responding to) and nephew of the Late Bob Davenport (Dav) whose promo piece using Peanut’s characters was the subject of your blog. It was fun for me to see the piece since it is one I have never seen before (one of thousands drawings used by the R&T that wasn’t included in the artwork given to my father).

I have scanned most of the pieces that came into the possession of my father, these are the files my brother was looking for when he found you site. They are located at

http://homepage.mac.com/tsmd

The easiest way to see the pictures would be to download the entire collection, then load them into a good photo viewer (like iPhoto or Picassa).

Remember, the family holds the copyright but we allow any non-commercial use. The “Open Season” cartoons are still under copyright by the R&T but they have allowed us to distribute them for non-commercial use.

Enjoy,

Tom Davenport

By: Harry

Harry — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 05:31:31 +0000

Great info, thanks! I’d love to know more. Both my parents did some or all of their growing up in Des Moines, so I’m sure a bunch of my relatives read your uncle’s work.

Regards,

–Harry

By: Bob Davenport

Bob Davenport — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:36:18 +0000

Hi,

I came across your web-site and thought I’d let you know that Bob Davenport (or “Dav”) is my name-sake uncle. He passed away in 1972.

Bob was a well-known cartoonist for the Des Moines Register and Tribue during the 50’s and 60’s. He started with two local strip in Des Moines – “Oscar the Calf” based on his experiences growing up on a dairy farm and “Rock-Age Roy, the Carrier Boy”, intended to attract boys into a child-hood career of hawking newspapers. His last and longest running strip was “Open Season”, which was a syndicated one-panel cartoon on various aspects of outdoor recreation.

My uncle once mentioned his close friendship with Charles Schulz. My guess is that the permission to use the “Peanuts” characters came out of that friendship. Bob was no fan of plagiarism, having had his own work plagiarised and published in Canada.

In addition to cartooning, Bob illustrated books and was a silent contributor to an underground Des Moines newspaper (some VERY funny stuff!) He also designed the signs that mark the Lewis and Clark Trail in the Northwestern US.

When Bob died, the R&T kept some of his work for their gallery and gave the balance to my father. I think my brother may have posted them on-line (in fact, I was searching the web for his site, when I came across this link). If you would like to know more about “Dav” please let me know.