PBA Galleries

4 issues of Judge, including: March 21, May 23 and June 6, 1931 and June 4, 1932.

Probably the earliest work by an African-American artist featured in a popular national periodical. After studying art in Chicago and working in a St. Louis art studio, Elmer Simms Campbell (1906-1971) moved to New York City to work in an advertising agency while contributing cartoons to national humor magazines. A year after drawing these covers, Simms began a 25 year association with the new Esquire magazine, including creation of its pop-eyed cover mascot. During World War II, he also produced the “Cuties” cartoon series featuring sexy blond women which were popular with GIs. Though he had close ties to Harlem Renaissance culture – illustrating a novel about Haiti by Anna Bontemps and Langston Hughes, a book of Black poetry, and a spectacular “Nightclub Map of Harlem”, as well as encouraging a young Romare Bearden to pursue his art studies – Campbell only occasionally included Black characters in his early cartoons, recognizing a sad reality of the Depression years when national magazines like Life and Saturday Evening Post only would only depict Blacks with racial stereotypes.