Mercer (And Others) Palace Cartoons

[arussell]

Way back in the 1920's/30's - a chap called Mercer used to draw Palace cartoons for the Croydon Advertiser, describing match action and showing portraits of some of the players (they've occassionally turned up for example, in some of Nigel Sands books).

My questions are ...

Whatever happened to Mercer ? - and were these wonderful cartoons ever published in a book or anything like that ?

Neil ?

[Neil the Eagle]

Yes?

[Neil the Eagle]

Contrary to Mal Come Ally Son's belief, I don't know everything...

[arussell]

Why not - you're old enough aren't you ?

[Neil the Eagle]

You can •••• right off

[Dorking .Eagle]

If you have a look at Nigel Sands' books, most of them are in there - I mean the big red and blue books - A-Z of Palace, The Club History 1905-95, Palace Parade, Centurions etc.

[Ruskin Old Boy]

No books published in the UK that I can find (and Jim Mercer's not such a common name) nor any books published by the Croydon Advertiser.

[Freddy Kurz]

Haven't heard of Mercer's cartoons being
brought out in book form (more's the pity),
but think they were regularly published
in the "Croydon Advertiser"* Micro-fiche
copies could perhaps be retrieved from
Croydon's archives at the Town Hall, but
then there would be a question of who
owned the copyright and whether permis-
sion could be obtained therefrom to re-
produce for widespread distribution and
sale. With our Centenary only two
years away, such a book could become a
best-seller among Palace aficionados.
*or "Croydon Times".

[Psychokiller]

I wasunder the impression that the Mercer cartoons were actually published in the 50s and 60s, chronicling historical matches from decades before?

[Ruskin Old Boy]

Originally posted by Freddy Kurz
Micro-fiche copies could perhaps be retrieved from
Croydon's archives at the Town Hall, but
then there would be a question of who
owned the copyright and whether permis-
sion could be obtained therefrom to re-
produce for widespread distribution and
sale.

Would depend on the arrangement Mercer had with the Advertiser - the Adder probably holds the copyright. I think PK is correct with the dates so the cartoons would be protected by copyright for some while.

[Freddy Kurz]

Originally posted by Dorking .Eagle
If you have a look at Nigel Sands' books, most of them are in there - I mean the big red and blue books - A-Z of Palace, The Club History 1905-95, Palace Parade, Centurions etc.

Believe me Dorking Eagle, the Mercer cartoons used
to illustrate some of Nigel Sands's books form only a
small part of the artist's total output covering Palace
matches, although they do deal with some of the
more memorable games.

[Freddy Kurz]

Originally posted by Psychokiller
I wasunder the impression that the Mercer cartoons were actually published in the 50s and 60s, chronicling historical matches from decades before?

In Nigel Sands's "Crystal Palace F.C. The A-Z".
on p13, you will see a contemporary Jim Mercer
cartoon from the 'Advertiser' illustrating Palace's
record 9-2 win v Accrington Stanley in 1961.
Mercer's post-match cartoons were a regular
feature in that paper. As you correctly point
out, he also enjoyed reminding readers of
the Club's historical heritage.

[arussell]

Couple o' points ...

Mercer's cartoons can indeed be viewed on microfilm, which is how I have seen a large number of them

The Mercer I have been looking at is A.Mercer, who drew cartoons of most Palace GAMES in the 1920's and 30's for the local papers of the area (and indeed he drew cartoons of other sports too such as local cricket matches, rugby and cycling). One or two of his player drawing's turned up in Sands 100 best players book.

These were published every week so as you can imagine there would have been many hundreds, if not more, drawn by him. Nigel Sands wouldn't have published even one tenth of them, especially as most featured cartoon reports of a game.

Perhaps there was a second Mercer who then followed him on later ??

Hopefully I shall get to use one or two of them in some stuff I'm currently gearing up to write. In the meantime, perhaps I shall contact the Advertiser to investigate more.

The copyright on cartoons usually runs to around 40-50 years or so before needing renewal, so I wonder if newspapers sport cartoons that are 75-80 years old would have been re-copyrighted ? (at a guess I'd say unlikely)

A book would be a wonderful idea, and I wonder what happened to the original drawings ......?

[Ruskin Old Boy]

Originally posted by arussell



The copyright on cartoons usually runs to around 40-50 years or so before needing renewal, so I wonder if newspapers sport cartoons that are 75-80 years old would have been re-copyrighted ? (at a guess I'd say unlikely)

Everything you needed to know (or didn't) about duration of copyright is at To view the link you have to Register or Login

Extract - artistic works: "Author known

All except posthumously published engravings - Death + 70 years" - so if Mercer died in 1950, the cartoons will be in copyright until 2020.

[Captain Black]

Jim Mercer followed in his father's footsteps as the Adder's cartoonist. I can remember the cartoons in the early 70s when I was too young to go to games.

[Freddy Kurz]

Originally posted by Ruskin Old Boy
Everything you needed to know (or didn't) about duration of copyright is at To view the link you have to Register or Login

Extract - artistic works: "Author known

All except posthumously published engravings - Death + 70 years" - so if Mercer died in 1950, the cartoons will be in copyright until 2020.

Jim Mercer was still producing contemporary
cartoons in his own inimitable style up to at
least the 1961/1962 season as illustrated
by the one he did to commemorate our 9-2 win
over Accrington Stanley(reproduced in the Nigel
Sands book, I referred to earlier). Think he may
well have lived to a ripe old age. Artists often
do: eg. Michelangelo(89), Monet(86), Picasso(92)
Augustus John(83) to name but a few! Wonder
if the earlier Mercer was related to Jim? Certainly
the styles are very similar.

[Dorking .Eagle]

You've just reminded me of another 2 sets of funny cartoons - Supa-Al in Eagle Eye, and Donny the Beastie's cartoons which were packed with loads of stuff going on - loads to read and look at!
One lot I never really got were Mousatche Trek in Palace Echo - bizarre!

[arussell]

Going back even further (as I was looking at earlier yesterday) there are pre-Mercer cartoons (drawn slightly more seriously) by a guy called Frank Lazenby in the early 20's, which are also good.

An enjoyable one was the 6-0 cartoon of Palace's historic FA cup win away to Everton on 1/1/22.

I'll try and do a few scans of some if there's any interest ?

[Freddy Kurz]

Originally posted by arussell
Going back even further (as I was looking at earlier yesterday) there are pre-Mercer cartoons (drawn slightly more seriously) by a guy called Frank Lazenby in the early 20's, which are also good.

An enjoyable one was the 6-0 cartoon of Palace's historic FA cup win away to Everton on 1/1/22.

I'll try and do a few scans of some if there's any interest ?

Great idea, especially our 6-0 win! My Dad missed
that great FA cup triumph at Goodison like most of
our fans because in those days few working men had
either the money, or the time off to follow their team
to distant away grounds. Sadly he was one of the
38,000 who turned up at Selhurst to see Everton turn
the tables on us, by the same score, in the FA Cup
4th Round on 24.1.31, but witnessed a super display
by Dixie Dean who got four of their goals!

[Dorking .Eagle]

Originally posted by arussell
Going back even further (as I was looking at earlier yesterday) there are pre-Mercer cartoons (drawn slightly more seriously) by a guy called Frank Lazenby in the early 20's, which are also good.

An enjoyable one was the 6-0 cartoon of Palace's historic FA cup win away to Everton on 1/1/22.

I'll try and do a few scans of some if there's any interest ?

I believe the Lazenby ones have Palace depicted as a Water Tower, which the Advertiser still use as a cartoon character now

The 6-0 of Everton I believe includes the tale of the Palace keeper spending most of the game eating oranges thrown from the crowd, he had so little to do!