ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Roland Keith Young

Alfred J. Frueh · 1920

Roland Keith Young
Alfred J. Frueh's caricature captures the theatrical silhouette of actor Roland Keith Young in characteristic profile—a technique fundamental to early comic art. The bold geometric blocking, flat color planes of navy, yellow, and slate blue, and economical line work define Frueh's modernist approach to portraiture. Working in the 1920s, Frueh helped establish caricature as a serious art form for publications including *Vanity Fair* and *The New Yorker*. His exaggerated features—elongated jaw, pronounced nose—follow caricature convention. The figure's stooped posture and sharp profile express personality through posture itself, a visual grammar that newspaper comics were simultaneously codifying through recurring characters and standardized panel sequences.

Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com CC0