Cartoon SNAP: Ponytail by Lee Holley – Superbly Drawn Teen Comics from the Sixties

Meet Ponytail from cartoonist Lee Holley!

After a long career of drawing cartoons for Warner Brothers, ghosting newspaper comic strips, and drawing the Dennis The Menace Sunday page, Lee Holley got his own comic strip in 1960. It was about a teen girl named Ponytail, and it’s drawn in a fun and breezy cartoony style that just dances and sings all across the newsprint. A couple of years later, Ponytail starred in new stories published in Dell comic books. This little story is from Ponytail #6 from 1962.

Here’s the inside-front-cover gag:

There’s a lot of great information about Lee Holley on the web – including this VERY in-depth interview:

http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/interviews/holley/home.asp

Take a look at some of these links for more insight
into the career of cartoonist Lee Holley:

http://lambiek.net/artists/h/holley_lee.htm

http://www.toonopedia.com/ponytail.htm

UPDATE! Pat from the Silver Age Comics blog has just shared his thoughts on Ponytail and Lee Holley, featuring lots of juicy comic art from Dell's Ponytail #1!

cartoon kids sharing a drink in the maltshop Ponytail comic book scans by Lee Holley

Click on the cover for more on Ponytail #1
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More Ponytail comics here:

Blonde hair teenage cartoon girl talking to brunette comic book friend

Ponytail in "Little League Lament"

Ponytail in "Sticky Situation"

4 comments:

chrisallisonSeptember 1, 2009 at 11:06 PM
GREAT find, Sherm. I'm going to start calling you professor, because I'm learning so much off your blog. I love the loose linework. I actually think the black and white sutis his style better than the color. He doesn't really use too many thicks to thins, but it makes his solid blacks really sing. Saving this one to the inking reference file, thanks again!
ShermSeptember 1, 2009 at 11:26 PM
Hiya Chris...so glad you like this stuff! There's more Ponytail comics coming soon, and the next story in the book is even better than these pages I already posted! See you soon...

--Sherm
Mike NassarSeptember 2, 2009 at 4:03 AM
wow! nice looking stuff. it immediately hit me that his dude FEELS like Denis the Menace. really great looking stuff.

can't wait to see somemore pages. lookin at this stuff is really artistically motivating. A pretty high bar is set from a lot of comic and cartoon artists in the 60's.

thanks for sharing sherm!
CathySeptember 8, 2009 at 7:45 PM
Good job Sherm!I cant wait to see more ponytail!Ponytail is my all time favorite book.They all have great lessons to teach the children in a funny way.I also love watching the complete dvd collection of the muppet show and Sesame street.