R.I.P. (1951)

 "From the 1930's [sic] through the early 1970's [sic] the Travelers Insurance Co. produced an annual pamphlet that collected the year's data on roadway accidents & fatalities.  These booklets were in general surprisingly light-hearted, given their grim subject matter, with groan-inducing puns & jokes for titles, & featuring new creative work by many prominent cartoonists & illustrators of the eras of their creation.  Some of these artists remained anonymous, able to be identified only by their styles, while others had enough draw to sign the work, which, again, was original cartooning created specifically for these booklets.  The 1951 volume, for example, rare & otherwise unreprinted cartoons by Virgil Partch."

Virgil Partch (1916-1984) was a popular gag cartoonist of the 1940s and 50s who signed his work "Vip" or "VIP."  In 1960, he created the syndicated comic strip Big George.  When Partch died in an automobile accident in 1984, he had been retired from cartooning for eight months due to cataracts, but he had stockpiled enough new panels that the strip was able to continue for six years after his death.  Partch had also created the comic strip The Captain's Gig.  Among his many books of cartoons were Water on the Brain (1945), Bottle Fatigue (1950), Here We Go Again (1951), The Wild, Wild Women (1951), Man the Beast (1953), The Dead Game Sportsman (1954), Hanging Way Over (1955), Crazy Cartoons (1956), The Executive (1959), VIP Tosses a Party (1959), New Faces on the Barroom Floor (1961), Cartoons Out of My Head (1964), and Relations in Strange Locations (1978); He also illustrated True Magazines best-selling Bar Guide (1950).  Many of his collections were released as paperbacks for the general public.  Partch was awarded an Inkpot award at the 1979 Comic-Con. 

R.I.P. showcases VIP's work as he illustrates the many things that have statistically led to automotive fatalities.  Included in the pamphlet are charts of all the statistics broken down by subject.  It's a grim subject made more palatable by the illustrations.  This is not everyone's cup of tea and is certainly not a substitute for the many wacky cartoons VIP has drawn over his career.  I'm afraid he is not well-remembered today, but I grew up loving Partch's work and purchasing as many of his books that I could find.  As a VIP fab, I was glad to come across this little pamphlet; it has brought back many memories of this talented artist.

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