Burr Shafer: Behind the Scenes with a Santa Ana Comic Artist

Fletcher Robinson (Author), Burr Shafer (Illustrator) The cover of “C. Hamilton Blight Looks at Santa Ana” 1954 Ink on paper; 8 ½ x 11 in. Bowers Museum Collection, 31106.1	Burr Shafer American, 1899-1965 Illustration for “C. Hamilton Blight Looks at Santa Ana” 1954 Ink, watercolor, and correction fluid on paper; 8 ½ x 11 in. Bowers Museum Collection, 31106.2

The Funniest Smith of His Day

As Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form enters its last couple of weeks at the museum, the Bowers Blog ends its series on narrative art by looking at Burr Shafer (American, 1899-1965), a local Santa Ana cartoonist whose artworks were published in major national periodicals such as The New Yorker, The Saturday Review of Literature, and Gourmet magazine. Described as a “historian with a talent for art,” Shafer is perhaps best known for his character J. Wesley Smith whose individual panels were anthologized in Through History with J. Wesley Smith and The Wonderful World of J. Wesley Smith. This post explores Shafer’s life and oeuvre through a City of Santa Ana annual report illustrated by him, the original drawings for said pamphlet, and a watercolor nude that Shafer titled Cartoon.

Photograph of Burr Shafer, mid 20th Century

Shafing Up to Be a Legend

Aaron Burr Shafer was born in Fostoria, Ohio in 1899 to Robert Ranney Shafer and Philomena A. Spruck. Little is known about his early life, but by the mid-1920s he had moved out to Santa Ana, California, studied at Occidental College, and married Gladys Alma Simpson. Thought clearly instilled with a passion for art, his daytime profession was running a musical instrument store called Shafer's Music House. Irrespective of which profession he considered a side-gig, it was his career as a comic artist that garnered him national acclaim. His political and satirical cartoons caught even the attention of President Truman, who dryly commented “I’m very proud that I’m smart enough to get the point.” Shafer passed away in Santa Ana in 1965 at the age of 65.

Pages 2-3 of “C. Hamilton Blight Looks at Santa Ana” Bowers Museum Collection, 31106.1

Pages 10-11 of “C. Hamilton Blight Looks at Santa Ana” Bowers Museum Collection, 31106.1

Cautionary Males

Shafer’s cartoons range from satirical political commentary to chuckle-inducing tromps through history with his characters, often J. Wesley Smith, finding themselves humorously lacking in foresight in the face of some major historical event. The character that Shafer created for the City of Santa Ana publication in Bowers’ permanent collection does not fall far from his archetypal apple tree. The titular character of “C. Hamilton Blight Looks at Santa Ana” is not all there and the publication leaves nothing to chance in ensuring the reader does not decide otherwise: “Middle-aged and highly mediocre in most departments, Blight excels only in his stupidity.” In the fifteen-page illustrated annual report from 1954, Blight grifts and bumbles his way across Orange County’s seat, somehow avoiding or otherwise missing the flagrantly apparent signs that since the 1940s Santa Ana has become a lovely place to settle down.

Burr Shafer American, 1899-1965 Illustration for “C. Hamilton Blight Looks at Santa Ana” 1954 Ink, watercolor, and correction fluid on paper; 11 x 8 ½ in. Bowers Museum Collection, 31106.9

Burrought to You from a Local

The booklet was a version of the City’s 1954 annual report that was designed to be captivating enough to draw in otherwise uninterested readers. It begins by discussing its purpose and introducing its artist, Shafer, as Santa Ana’s “own ‘hometown’ illustrator but one with a national reputation.” Clearly the city is quite proud to be home to Shafer, even though his creation, the aptly named Blight, is ultimately sent packing. Like many artworks in Asian Comics, both “C. Hamilton Blight Looks at Santa Ana” and another pamphlet illustrated by Shafer in Bowers’ permanent collection, an advertisement for Santa Ana ‘s Barr Lumber Co., evidence how comic art styles are widely employed in governmental and promotional efforts due to how accessible they can make even complicated subjects.

Burr Shafer American, 1899-1965 Cartoon c. 1930 Watercolor on paper; 15 x 11 in. Gift of Weston Clive Walker, 34568

Renaissance Man

The original drawings by Shafer for C. Hamilton Blight Looks at Santa Ana offer wonderful insight into his artistic process, one which seems to altogether mirror that of artists in our Asian Comics exhibition.  Errors in dark linework are covered over by correction fluid, shading is beautifully rendered in watercolor, and Shafer employs the same visual language of emanata—invisible or theoretical things like speed, heat, drunkenness made visible through a familiar lexicon of symbols. One example of the latter is lines of motion following "the book" quite literally being thrown at C. Hamilton Blight.

Shafer was not just a cartoonist (and a musical instrument vendor), he painted in oils and watercolors. His paintings have been featured in museums and galleries along the West Coast. Cartoon is a watercolor of a nude woman in a style not dissimilar to that of other California regionalist painters like Millard Sheets. Though both the unnamed nude figure in Cartoon and C. Hamilton Blight are relatively abstracted takes on the human form, the effect is entirely different, illustrating that Shafer, like so, so many other comics artists, was immensely talented with an exceptional artistic range.  

Researched and co-written by Alyssa Richardson. Text and images may be under copyright. Please contact Collection Department for permission to use. References are available on request. Information subject to change upon further research.