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Barlier
The Smithsonian Collection of
Edited by Bill Blackbcard and Martin
Williamn
Foreword by John Canaday
The American newspaper comic
strip (like jazz
and the movies) is a major innovative and creaUnited tive cultural accomplishment of the States, one that has spread around the world. From the outset, the comics were widely read and enjoyed by the American public, oblivious But for sevand scholarly the supposedly lowly
to cultural history or art criticism. eral decades, historians of the arts
shunned
mostly
critics
comic
strips, largely l)ecaiise the finest of thi'se
features originally appeared
in
popular
this
press.
Fortunately,
changed, and those
American
arts
and
in
the sensational situation
has
positions of authority in
now
literature are
taking the
comics seriously, recognizing the often subtly
and creatively
imaginative, splendidly inventive,
memorable national
<|iialitics
of the best products of this
art.
Although essentially a narrative art, comic strips have provided an extraordinary vehich' for inspired graphic and narrative experimentation and accomplisliment for major comic-strip ar-
McCay
including VVinsor
tists,
(The
Feininger
Lionel
Nemo),
(Little
Kin-tler-Kuh).
E.
C.
George Ilerriman (Krazij Kat), Cliff Stcrrett (Pollij and Her Pais), Roy Crane (\Va.v/i Tuhhs), and many others.
Scgar
(Thimble
First-rate
lery" art
Included
some
of
Theatre),
comics can be enjoyed both as "galin continuity iis fiction or drama.
and in
this
Collection
.Smithsonian
and Kid r)f
the most accomplished
notable strips from the
Ve/Zoit,
are
critically
1896-tli<'
form— to such admired contemporary works as Peanuts, B. C, and Doonestmrij. Along the way we come across old favorites; Katzenjammer Kids. Mutt and ]ef). The CUtnips, C.asoline Allei/, Moon Mullins. first
to attain
/{rin^jiii^
Vj)
definitive
I'atUer,
Mirkei/
Orphan Annie, Dick Tracij, Li Pof^o, and ever so many more.
I
Mouse,
Little
Aimer, liarnnhij.
Most of the work.s chosen for this vohnne have and wer<' popular with tlic readers of their time. The editors have looked intrinsic excellence
comics that are important, interesting, arfunny, representational, curious— some or all of these— take your pick. These newspaper comic strips ar<; an important part of our culfor
tistic,
tural history.
meant
to
They
are also fun to
be enjoyed.
read— and are
The
(g Edit!
Fore
The and tivc
Stat
Froi
and to
(
cral crit
con ft-al
poi chi
An c-or
im:
mf nal All lia
spi
an tis
Li
Sc (/ K< Fi Ic
In
so ni fii
c( r, fi
7
H (
F t i
I
I I I I
I
have enormous respect
for the comic strip as a potential story and art form, although far too few
of its productions have
realized that potential. If those few, however,
could be gathered into some sort of complete collection,
the effect on those who
have scorned the comics as a whole might well be
devastating.
.
.
.
Edmund Wilson from a letter to Bill Blackbeard 1966
6 AM» JMAT*
asft r*4i
The Smithsonian Collection of
ll!lWilP^!F!l!B (g(DIM!!(0 Edited by Bill
Blackbeard and Martin Williams
Foreword by John
Canaday
Copublished by Smithsoniaii Institution Press
and Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Note
to reader
The comic
strips in this
book are numbered
in the order in
which they are repro-
duced. References in the text and index to particular strips are indicated by those
numbers
in brackets.
Frontispiece:
Johnny Wise, 1902, by Tad Dorgan.
Library of Congress Cataloging
in
Publication Data
Smithsonian Institution.
The Smithsonian Bibliography:
Includes index. 1.
Comic books,
Blackbeard,
I.
III.
newspaper comics.
collection of
p.
strips, etc.
Bill.
— United
Williams,
II.
States.
MarUn
T.
Title.
PN6726.SS
77-608090
741.5'973
1977
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 20560
ISBN 0-87474-172-6
ISBN 0-87474-167-X pbk
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York 10022 ISBN 8109-1612-6 ISBN 8109-2081-6 pbk
Designed by Elizabeth Sur Printed and bound in Japan. All rights reserved. Third printing
The cartoons strip
referred to here by numbers are reprinted with
Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate: 23, 96-107,
128-129,
151-156, 221-277,
138-139,
438-441, 644-715, 720-722, 740, 760
the permission of:
Robert C. Dille: 427-428 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.: 429 Field
Newspaper Syndicate:
3-4,
11-14, 20, 22,
126-127, 142, .505-539, 755-757, 759
Johnny Hart: 755, 757 I.
H.T. Corporation: 126-127, 142
Crockett Johnson: 505-539 Jack Kent: 744-749 Selby Kelly: 7.34-737
King Features: 5-10, 32-37, 40, 47-83, 92-95, 130135, 140-141, 144-1.50, 1.57-161, 170-174, 278-
319, 430-431, 444-484, 718, 723-733, 750-753, 758, 761-763 Mell Lazarus: 756, 759 McNaught Syndicate, Inc.: 28-29, 41-46, 108-125,
136-137, 16.3-169,540-541
Newspaper Enterprise
Association: 175-178, 320-
426, 432-437. 497-504
The Philadelphia Inquirer: 162 Scripps-Howard Newspapers: 30-31,38-39,716-717 The Seattle Times: 84-91 Skippy, Inc.: 174 Jessie
Kahles Straut:
Warren
1,
15,
19,
24-27,
14.3
Tufts: 741
United Features Syndicate: 738-739, 742-743 Universal Press Syndicate 754 Raebum Van Buren: 485-496 Walt Disney Productions: 542-643 :
Contents Foreword by John Canaday
Acknowledgments Introduction:
I
Pagliacci,
Struwwelpeter,
and Puss
in Boots:
Folklore Figures in the Early
Sunday Comic
Strip,
1896-1916
19
9
The Comic Treasures
Johnny Wise 23 Buster Brown 24 Katzenjammer Kids Hans und Fritz 28
Little
30
Nemo in Slumberland
Nibsy the Newsboy
36
The Kin-der-Kids
II
Mr. Caudle, Sherlock
Holmes, and the Artless Dodger: Popular Images
in
the Early Daily Comic Strip,
1907-1927
51
Mr. E.
Z.
Mark
37
54
54
Mr. Jack
Braggo the
Monk
55
The Hall-Room Boys Sherlocko the
Monk
Desperate Desmond Chantecler Peck
S'MatterPop?
56 56
Midsummer Day Dreams A.
Mutt
58
American Newspaper Page
Naughty Pete 43 Mama's Angel Child 44 Bear Creek Folks 45 School Days 46 Mutt and JefiF 47
27
29
Happy Hooligan Jimmy 31
of the
The Newlyweds 40 Mr. Twee Deedle 41 The Naps of Polly Sleepyhead
22
Hogan's Alley
Maud
7
32
Slim Jim
49
Hawkshaw the Detective
50
11
42
)
Sunny Toonenille and the Darkling World:
IV
Anecdote and Narrative
\'
in
Comic
Strip,
1917-19.33
131
the Daily
Popeye, the Skipper,
and the Abysses of Space and Time: Anecdote and Narrative in the Sunday
Comic
Strip,
1930-1941
183
VI Shadow Shapes in Moving Rows: Extended Narrative in the Daily and
Sunday Comic
Strip,
1928-1943
231
Cats, Dogs, Possums,
VII
Counts, and Others:
A
Comics Miscellany, 1928-1950 287
Out Our Way ia3 Bobby Thatcher 134 Minute Movies 136 School Days 138
Oop
Abbie
Wise Guys, and Witches: The Return of the Funnies 313
Bamabv
233 233
Dave's Delicatessen
Cat
199
The Bungle Family 246 Mickey Mouse 248 Little Orphan Annie 265 and the Pirates Dick Tracy 279 Terr\-
Abie the Agent
290 291
Krazy Kat
Pogo
297
298
310
Texas Slim and Dirty Dalton
315
316 317
Miss Peach
321
The Wizard
of Id
Hi and Lois
322
Momma
318
Hagar the Horrible Doonesbury 319
318
311
312
Casey Ruggles
296
Beetle Bailey
274
306
Gordo
292
293
Tumbleweeds
A
237
239
Nize Baby 289 Count Screwloose
B. C.
198
Thimble Theatre ( Popeye
235
an' Slats
King Aroo
197
Toonerville Folks
Up Father
Peanuts
196
Little Joe
White Boy
Our Boarding House
Felix the
156
165
193
Secret Agent X-9
Bringing
Tubbs
190
Captain Easy
Hejji
Little People,
\A'ash
Buck Rogers 185 Tarzan 187 188 Flash Gordon 189 Prince VaUant Alley
144
Barney Google and Spark Plug
141
Toonerville Folks
Li'lAbner
VIII
Moon Mullins
322
322
Broom Hilda Sam's Strip
323 323
320
Selected, Introductory Bibliography of Books
Comics
324
An Annotated
Index of the Comics
325
and
Articles
on Newspaper
——
Foreword be lucky enough to have been around for a rather long stretch of years to remember a time when newspaper comics were just newspaper rather sociological documents and works of art with their own set of innocomics than vative esthetic principles, which they have become. If you have been really lucky, luckier than all but a handful of people I know, the comics are tied to the time when you were a small boy in a small town about a hundred miles from Kansas City and your weekly reward for good behavior in Sunday school was five cents for a copy of
You have
to
say seven decades
—
the Sunday Kansas City Star. Along with reports of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912,
Europe in 1914, and other events in the fictional area outside a ten-mile radius from the Bourbon County Court House in Fort Scott, the Star kept you abreast of the adventures of the Katzenjammer Kids, Happy Hooligan, Busthe declaration of
war
in
Brown, and other familiar personalities of the real world. The transmutation of the old newspaper comics from their
ter
initial
character as en-
tertainments to be read lying on your stomach on the Hoor before Sunday dinner, into their current status as sociological testaments for intellectual evaluation, as
strated
by
ability
may
here
not at
gia,
is
which
it is
follow thoughtless youth. But all intellectual.
The
it
was. This holds
to
response to the comics reproduced
me
how sweet
about the time
I
to a quivering jelly of nostal-
hfe used to be and forgetting
was
my
collector's period,
with thousands of strips clipped from daily papers and
Upon
eight,
when we moved from
to Texas.
years from eight to twelve were
The
my own
early ones reduce
up
demon-
always reassuring to see that solid respect-
the condition of remembering
is
how terrible Kansas
book, pleases me, since
this
entering high school
I
with suit boxes
filed b\'
threw the collection out as kid
stuff,
filled
date and subject.
and
for the next four
years the comics, although assiduously followed, occupied a residual spot in my attention, badgered as I was, as everybody is at that time, by geysers of hormones. The trouble with having been lucky
and up
to
1919
is
that you
enough
have
to
know newspaper comics
to settle for the 1920s for
shortly after 1907
your teen-age years, and
was a much more embarrassing time for an adult to look back on. Teenagers since then have passed through more dangerous, more violent, and more tragic periods, but not more embarrassing ones. We were silly, let's let it go at that. there never
The
point in mentioning that period here
is
that in spite of so
much
that
is
painful
were marked by one discovery that saves my self-respect. Krazy was not a general favorite with my contemporaries Kat. This was Krazij adolescent or adult. They liked Barney Google and Moon Mullins. So did I. The more sophisticated of my colleagues went for Toonerville Trolley. So did I. But they couldn't see what was fimny about Krazy Kat. nor could they see that that was exactly to recall,
the point
my
early teens
— that
Krazy
tcasn't funny.
He/she was
(is,
and surely always
wall
be) a
combination of a lot of things, including hilarious, but not funny.
The Seven Lively Arts wrote the famous essay on Krazy, celebrating Kokonino Kounty and its inhabitants on a philosophical premise identifying Krazy with Don Quixote, but this was several years after I used to go through the In 1926 Gilbert Seldes in
Strouds's discarded copies of the to
have a Hearst paper
in the
San Antonio Light
house and
to find Krazy.
My father refused
the Strouds, less fussy, lived next door.
\ATienever self-doubts as to
my
cal
acumen, or
on
my record as
me
later in life:
my
my intellectual capacit>', my poetic sensitivity, my criti-
humanistic discernment threaten to sink me,
a precocious
The only
member of what was
explanation
I
to
become a
can see as to
I
can always surface
Kult.
why my
Krazy
also
saved
mistakes as a parent
by then collected in a book with another appreciation by e e cummings, was always at hand instead of the literary' pap usually fed to kiddies. Within the family we mastered Krazy s dialect for use on special occasions, and could recite back and forth the dialogues from favorite episodes. It sounds precious and would have been precious if there had been anything self-conscious or Kultish about it, but it wasn't like that. Krazy was a kind of pet, mascot, and Keeper of the Peace around our house, a benign presence and good example even today from his/her spot on the bookshelf. Somehow I never managed to get really involved with any of the comics later than Krazy a loss for me, I'm sure, which this book may correct. There was a brief period at the University of Virginia when it was voguish among the young professors to pretend to be fascinated with Mary Worth. We would tell each other we could hardly wait to find out how she would straighten out so-and-so's troubles. But it was all pretty phony, a kind of reverse academicism. During those years I remember also stumbling over stacks of comic books upstairs in the boys' room, probably Buck Rogers and Superman operating on different wave lengths from Krazy 's in the library downstairs. But I never looked into these. So I lost track of the comics. The closest I ever came to post-Krazy involvement was in the spring of 1944, serving in the Marine Corps with Alex Raymond, who relinquished the authorship of Flash Gordon in order to enlist with a group of officertrainees at Quantico, Virginia. Raymond was held in downright veneration by the rest of the class; even the drill sergeant, who was otherwise the meanest man in the world, regarded him as a rare and fragile object that might shatter if commanded to shoulder arms in too rough a tone of voice, giving me some idea of the power that comics still held in America and, I am sure, still do. The comics are ubiquitous. You don't have to have followed a strip for its identity to have somehow entered your consciousness: the comics affect your way of feeling about the daily world whether or not you read them. So far as I can tell, the effect on me has been salutary, and I am content with the idea of strengthening it with the aid of this anthology. The function of art, we are told, is to clarify, intensify, or enlarge our experience, and the comics are now art. Without much expectation of clarificadidn't scar
offspring
is
that Krazy,
—
—
tion, or of intensification, let
me now
meanwhile, although grateful for that allowed
me
to
know
17,
1977
John Canaday
New York, May
this
set
about expanding
book,
the comics when.
I
am
my
boundaries. In the
also grateful for the
time-scheme
Acknowledgments The names
of the
many
syndicates and individual artists
who have
tributed to this volume appear on the comics pages which follow. especially to thank the following:
King Features Syndicate and Charlotte MacCleary Field
Newspaper Syndicate
Mell Lazarus
The
late
Crockett Johnson
Selby Kelly
Robert
S.
Reed and the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate
Johnny Hart
David Stolberg and the Scripps-Howard Newspapers Charles V.
McAdam
and the McNaught Syndicate
Robert C. Dille Jessie Kahles Straut
Thomas
E. Peoples
and the Newspaper Enterprise Association
Joan Crosby Tibbets
Raeburn Van Buren
Edgar Rice Burroughs,
The
I.
Inc.,
and Robert M. Hodes
H. T. Corporation
Jack Kent and Stanleigh Arnold
William Ravenscroft and United Features Syndicate
Walt Disney Productions Universal Press Syndicate and,
finally,
Rick Marschall
generously con-
Here we would
like
Sports writers
.
are surpassed in ingenuity and success as
.
.
diligent coiners of neologisms only by the comic strip artists, of whom Thomas A, (Tad) Dorgan, Elzie Crisler Segar and Billy De Beck are examples.
...
Dorgan
drugstore cowboy
is said to have invented or introduced
nobody home
,
.
.
.
and to have launched such popular
'Yes, we have no bananas,' and 'You said
phrases as 'You tell him,'
Segar (creator of Popeye) is credited with goon
it.'
.jeep ,
,
and
various other teuiis that, in the hands of others, took on wide extensions of meaning, and with starting the vogue for the words ending in burger. To De Beck ajid
.
.
are ascribed heebie .jeebies
.
horse feathers
.
.
hot mamma
The comic strip artist
.
.
,
very diligent maker of terse and dramatic words.
.
.
.
hotsy-totsy
,
,
has been a
In his grim comments
upon the horrible calamities which befall his characters he not only employs many ancients of English speech, e.g., slam
mee-ow zowie
.
,
smash and biMp bam, socko
fooie and grrr .
.
.
bang
,
plop
wow,
,
wham
,
glug
oof
.
ulk
,
.
.
.
H. L. Mencken
10
quack
.
,
whap
,
bing
,
Their influence upon the general American vocabu-
.
lary must be very potent.
The American Language
,
but also invents novelties of his own, e.g.,
,
yurp
.
,
.
1919. and Supplement One
.
19^5
Introduction
The Comic Treasures
of the
American Newspaper Page
a
The elements
of the
American comic
strip
were already
there.
A
succession of draw-
— they are
ings expressing a continuous action, an anecdotal event, a narrative
and had been
as cave paintings reliefs,
like
and
vividly rendered in
in Giotto frescoes. "Talk balloons,"
European
speeches
wisps from the mouths of characters, were fairly
art, in
oflFered in encircled,
common
as old
Greek temple smoke-
in eighteenth-centur>'
commonplace by the mid-nineteenth century. And so, in the British "comic papers," were captioned cartoon narratives offering, usually in broad burlesque, farcical incident and anecdote which largely derived from the conventions of circus clowning and the music hall-vaudeville sketch. It remained for the United States, then entering fully into its own era of mass communications, to put all these elements together and make something new of them, something new and compelling, and so irresistible that it spread (along with our movies and our music around the world. Only in the past decade has the American newspaper comic strip begun to be recognized in its own country as an innovative and creative cultural accomplishment. It has long been hailed in France and elsewhere in Europe as one of the important achievements in the arts of this century, and it has been studiously examined there in a number of journals exclusively devoted to the subject. That is perhaps not so exceptional or extreme a cultural default as it may at first seem. Notoriously, Europeans and particularly the French have recognized, researched, praised and sometimes overpraised the American arts our movies, our jazz, our comics before we have. And it would perhaps not be too chauvinistic to point out that we have produced those things, after all, and loved them, and that scholarship, art criticism, and cultural history are secondary pursuits. At the same time, many of our own historians of the arts, having borrowed their principles, procedures, and attitudes largely from European cultural historians, have caricature,
and graphic caricature was
fairly
)
—
—
(
)
—
proceeded
rowed the
to
we have
bor-
to literary history, to the theater, to concert music,
and
apply those principles only to such traditional categories as
directly
like,
from abroad
—
sometimes pausing to scorn or reject those
American,
like the
artistic
genres that are particularly
movies, jazz, and the comics. Europeans, meanwhile, have applied
their principles of cultural history
creations
—
and
criticism in modified
and transmutations which we
still
form
to those
American
think of as our "popular" or even our
"light" artistic pursuits.
Thus the comic
strip
has been critically neglected in the United States, and has
even been openly attacked. But a further, and perhaps crucial reason of the comics lay in the aversion of
persuasion for the sensational press of the turn of the century and
11
for the neglect
most well-educated Americans of every later.
political
The
profes-
)
and literati of the time usually did not see these newspapers and amusing but saw them instead as vicious, crude, and frightening in their instant and openly demagogic appeal to a mass readership. And the papers they most grimly eschewed the Hearst titles connected in a chain from coast to coast, the Chicago Tribune, the New York World (until 1920), the New York Daily News were precisely the papers which carried the largest array of comic strips by the most talented artists. The papers most respected and read by these educators and
sors, teachers, prelates,
as colorful
—
—
—the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Boston Tranand the Times carried and the Baltimore Sun —carried fewer
tastemakers script,
none
strips,
at
carries
(
all.
Comics seemed
lowbrow Pied Piper which lured the inno-
to the elite the obviously
cents to their journalistic
doom
at the
hands of the Hearsts, McCormicks, and
Pulit-
Nemo, Buster Brown, Happy Hooligan, and the Katzers. zenjammer Kids being paid for and distributed by Hearst? They must therefore be tainted by his political ambitions and social attitudes; any intrinsic merit they might possess as works of art was perhaps accidental, certainly irrelevant, and surely Weren't Krazy Kat,
Little
best ignored.
majority of those in authoritative positions in American literature and art dur-
The ing the tive,
half of this century simply
first
may
not have seen the
more subtly imagina-
gorgeously inventive, and creatively memorable strips at
were being published
exciting works
in the
wrong
And
papers.
all
because these
concomitantly, they
overlooked the colorfully bound strip reprint volumes issued by minor publishers at the time, both as entertainment for themselves and as gifts for their children.
At the same time, even the most gifted and creatively involved comic-strip
tended
to
They made their
artists
hold themselves and their work in a modest and unpretentious low regard. small jokes about their strips in public, surrendered their original art to
employing syndicates without expecting or wanting
return, supplied
its
funny
anecdotes for superficial articles about their careers, sighed after "serious" art pursuits,
and
of their
—perhaps worst
for the historian
— maintained
virtually
no reference
files
own work.
Similarly, our libraries
Many would
have been negligent.
not even stock the
New
York Graphic or certain of the Hearst newspapers. Only one substantial book has ever
been devoted in
American
to the Graphic, possibly the
history.
A
scant half dozen have been written about Hearst's highly im-
portant chain of journals. the Chicago Tribune.
most iconoclastically innovative newspaper
A
And none
side result
maintain any comprehensive
file
failure of the
of Hearst's
journalism as well as to that of the comic
has apparently not survived at left
all;
New York Daily News or New York Public Library to
has yet appeared on the
was the
there
New York Journal, And indeed
strip.
may be no
file
crucial to the study of
the
New
York Graphic
of that paper, public or private,
on earth.
Had
the comic-strip material which ran in the shunned popular press been pub-
lished instead
New
of the
by Vanity Fair or The
New
York Times, there can be
Yorker, or
little
form would have readily received the
wards
as H. L.
we have missed such
it is,
symbol and graphic leitmotif
in the
all,
there have been
some nine
strip;
Kenneth Burke's analysis of strips; and Ed-
popular inythos of the
Wilson's consideration of the potential of
and
theoretical re-
narrative; Lionel Trilling's consideration of the renovation of the
sustained characters and narrative of the comic Still
strip
accolades and appreciative discussion
Dickensian character in the literature of the comic
mund
reached the august pages
Mencken's comments on E. C. Segar's Thimble Theatre as Americana
and sustained comic linguistic
it
doubt that the best example" of the
critical
they should have had from the outset. As
had
Edward Corey's working with
the
strip.
studies of historical
and
critical
substance
dealing with the newspaper strips published in the United States since 1897. Perhaps there
12
is
some record
of appreciation of a national art form after
all.
m
This collection presents, in a single volume, an extensive gallery of newspaper comics,
an anthology which the
editors
hope
ofiFers
some memorable and amusing
art
and
narrative.
The comic
as a strong story
camera and
well-conceived story, character, or
work functionally acceptable, may redeem films with slipshod
or barely competent art
make clumsy
incident can
much
A
strip is essentially a narrative art.
and good character actors
directorial work. Indeed,
draftsmanship or graphics, no
some
strip artists
What
artists at all.
were, by
strict
standards of
they had was a point of view (a
sometimes rowdy point of view, to be sure ) on the human animal and
and
actions,
and a functional means
to
convey
his attitudes
it.
the art of the comic strip did provide an extraordinary' vehicle for inspired
Still,
graphic experimentation and accomplishment by some major comic-strip
artists, in-
cluding Winsor McCay, Lyonel Feininger, George Herriman, ClifiF Sterrett, Roy Crane, Milton Caniff, and others whom the reader will readily note in the following pages.
As we indicate, however, comic strip stirred its most light a
number of
talents
it
was
as a challenge to the storytelling imagination that the
striking response
who were
among
able to use
its
creative minds,
and
it
brought
to
highly individual techniques of con-
remarkable advantage. Compare, for example, the graphic competence of Roy Crane in his Wash Tubbs stor\' in this volume with that of E. C. Segar in the Thimble Theatre narrative. Crane's sensitive mastery of pictorial composition
tinuity to often
Tubbs whaling sequences are as defdy evocative of the cetacean majesty and movement as Rockwell Kent's illustrations for Moby Dick), and they are in sharp contrast to Segar's obviously limited graphic concerns. However, both artist-narrators were readily able to spin stories of arresting incident, humor, strong characterizations, and sustained plot interest, and few readers and technique
can
resist the
is
self-evident (his panels in the
compulsion
Thus the dual purpose strip
medium
itself,
to
read their narratives raptly through to the end.
of this collection reflects the remarkable dichotom>- of the
shared only with cinema,
both as "gallery" art and
in that its best
in continuity as fiction or
Indeed, this division of esthetic possibihty
is
works can be enjoyed
drama.
reflected in the divergent
emphases of
the only two national institutions at present devoted in full or great part to comic-strip art: the Museum of Cartoon Art in Greenwich, Connecticut, which is largely con-
cerned with rotating displays of original
emy
of
Comic
Art,
which
files all
strip
drawings; and the San Francisco Acad-
of the printed strips, so they can be studied in rela-
tion to other printed narrative arts, as story-carrying material.
m
The comic
strip
may
functionally be defined as a serially published, episodic,
open-ended dramatic narrative or fied characters, told in successive its
series of linked
equivalent and minimized narrative
Not
all
anecdotes about recurrent, identi-
drawings regularly enclosing ballooned dialogue or
the features contained herein
text. fit
that functional definition, in detail, to be
Johnny Gruelle's Mr. Twee Deedle, for example, has no ballooned dialogue and might actually be considered a kind of comic version of an illustrated children's book. Similarly, the comics page Tarzan, in any of its several versions over the years, is a
sure.
condensed-narrative, fantasy-adventure tale in text-and-illustration form.
The American comic strip first attained definitive form in a Sunday Yellow Kid page, drawn by Richard Felton Outcault for William Randolph Hearst's American Humorist weekly comic supplement
to his
New York Journal, on October 18,
1896.
was probably the illustrated novel of the nineteenth century, which in England, France, and the United States usually featured caricature and cartoon art as intimate accompaniment to the texts of such popular authors as Dickens, Thackeray, Balzac, Hugo, and others. But the strip failed to
The immediate progenitor of the comic
13
strip
THE YELLOW KID TAKES A HAND AT GOLF.
develop as an immediate outgrowth of the reading pubUc's enormous rehsh for cartoon-supported narrative in the 1830s and 1840s.
bound
by the same pubHsher who
parts
A
Pickwick comic
strip,
issued in
originally hired Dickens to write text for the
popular cartoons of Robert Seymour, thus bringing Pickwick Papers into being,
With
by Phiz ( Hablot Knight Browne) and script and balloon dialogue by Dickens, such a work might well have had wide popularity. But it would have taken a prescient imagination to conceive of a full-fledged fictional narrative being carried forward by means of dialogue within successive drawings, much as drama was performed on a stage, and without need of might seem
in retrospect to
have been a
likely event.
art
extensive prose explication. Such an imagination did not exist in Dickens's time, not
own
and graphically oriented mind. was presented by means of short sets of successive drawings was largely limited to pantomimic pratfall gags and occasional simplistic political parables. In these forms, captions and dialogue, whether presented outside or within the panels, essentially served as embellishment to the art. In the Outcault Yellow Kid of October 18, 1896, however, the whole point of the vaudeville gag depended on the dialogue between the Kid and the parrot, and that was the first time this had occurred in a graphic work which also met the other prerequisites of the strip form. Both Outcault's publisher, Hearst, and his fellow cartoonists on the staff of the American Hunwri.sf were quick to perceive and to pursue the broad possibilities the Yellow Kid's turn with a comic-dialogue payoff had for the comic-character features the Humorist was then emphasizing. The crucial and relevant effect of rapidly exchanged dialogue in a Weber and Fields vaudeville skit could now be paralleled in even
in his
Any
comic
fertile
narrative that
art.
Possibly Outcault's innovation struck the Humorist staff in something of the
same way that the direct addition of movie industry, startling them into a
14
.sound to film struck most workers in the silentrealization of expressive possibilities
undreamed
of.
Cartoonists of the time had" long been
should
exist well apart
from
wedded
to the notion that art of
prose exposition, like a
any kind
kind of frozen tableau.
on the potential of the art form he had created, enlarging on the dialogue and prose essentials of the comic strip with pioneering gusto and imagination, as did his companions in the new field. By the turn of the century, dialogue and art had been commonly wedded in the newspaper comics. Outcault himself promptly seized with
relish
was minimal or nonexistent, such as J. Carver Pusey's Bennij and Carl Anderson's Hetny, were regarded as inventive and original in their refreshing departure from convention. Prolonged graphic narrative was an obvious step for cartoonists turning out weekly newspaper strips to take, and two of Outcault's confreres on the Hearst Journal, Ru-
And by
the 1930s comics in which dialogue
dolph Dirks (whose Katzenjammer Kick had entertained readers since 1896) and Fred Opper (the creator of the comic strip's own divine and Dostoevskian Idiot, Happy Hooligan) were the
first
to carry
the next. Other early strip artists actual
thematic concepts from one week's strip episode to to enlarge on narrative possibilities and to develop
suspense were Lyonel Feininger
cliff -hanging
in his
Kin-der-Kids for the Chi-
McCay in Little Nemo in Slumberlaml and Charles W. Kahles in Hairbreadth Harry for
New
cago Tribune in 1906, Winsor
for the
York Herald
the Philadel-
in 1905,
phia Press in 1906. black and white were initiated in the Hearst morning and afternoon papers across the country in the early 1900s. At first, these were miniaturized versions of the Sunday comic strips, self-contained gags about reappearing char-
Weekday comic
strips in
were Cus Mager's Knocko the Monk, H. A. McCill's Padlock Bones, the Dead Sure Detective, and F. M. Howarth's Mr. E. Z. Mark. ) Some might appear for as many as ten successive weekdays, but that was accidental; the average frequency was three days a week, and
acters for
whom
the strips were named.
(
Some
early examples
the editorial purpose was to provide daily variety in strips, not daily duplication of the
same features. In 1907, however,
Henry Conway "Bud"
Fisher, sports-page cartoonist for the
San
Francisco Chronicle, introduced a seven-day-a-week sports-page comic strip called A. Mutt, which gave the reader daily, tongue-in-cheek horse-racing tips. Mr. Mutt suffered or prospered according to the next-day outcome of these tips. Fisher had, in fact, gotten his idea for the Chronicle feature from an earlier but
ill-
by Clare Briggs and Moses Koenigsberg for the and Examiner. Called A. Piker Clerk, the American Hearst Chicago papers, the Briggs-drawn sports-page strip, primarily an y\merican feature, was intended for daily pubhcation, but was late for many of the paper's several daily editions and was fated try for a similar strip created
crowded out of others by
late sports
news. Finally given the coup de disgrace by
Hearst—who found Briggs's twitting of foreign dignitaries (i.e., the Czar of Russia) in develin the strip vulgar— A. Piker Clerk remains a vital if premature experiment oping a daily comic
strip.
Mutt (later Mutt and Jeff) literally became an overnight sensation in San Francisco and materially increased the daily circulation of the Chronicle. The paper's bitter local rival, the Hearst Examiner, sensed a good thing in the strip and promptly hired Fisher away from the Chronicle at a hefty boost in salary. The local Fisher's A.
and the impressed Hearst wasted no time in moving Fisher to New York and syndicating A. Mutt nationally. An aroused nurtured public's interest in daily character strips with strong thematic narrative was
delight with Fisher's daily episode continued,
which quickU' followed on the sports pages of papers everywhere, including Sidney Smith's Buck Nix in the Chicago American, Russ Westover's Luke McGluck in the San Francisco Post, C. M. Payne's
by a myriad
of other six-
Honeybunch's Hubby in the
and seven-day-a-week
in the
New
York World, and George Herriman's Baron Mooch
Los Angeles Examiner.
On January 31, 1912, Hearst introduced the his New York Evening Journal, adding it to his
15
strips
nation's
first full
daily comic
page
in
other afternoon papers from coast to
made up
coast a few days later. Initially
of four large daily strips, including Herri-
man's Family Upstairs and Harry Hershfield's Desperate cliff-hanger )
,
the Hearst page expanded to
five,
then
sLx,
Desmond
and
finall>'
(a continuing
nine daily strips
through the teens and early twenties. Other papers emulated the Hearst example, and
by the 1920s the phenomenon was to be found in hundreds of newspapers around the coimtry, fed by dozens of daily strips distributed by a multitude of small syndicates. From these early small svudicates emerged the giants of the thirties, such as Hearst's King Features, Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), the Chicago TribuneNew York News Syndicate, the Associated Press, and United Features from United Press.
By were
by the
the 1930s, comic strips to
be found
in
daily pageful
and Sunday color section
most American and Canadian newspapers. Vital
collections
to the then
wide-
spread urban and rural competition between newspapers, the comic strip was given
and was to be seen at its most varied, inventive, the thirties and early forties a peak of creativity and
increasing space and prominence, with editors vying for the newest, strongest,
most
original.
result, the
and exciting
colorful,
popularity
m
As a
it
plent>' in
strip
—
has not held since.
As an introductory
our volume has
collection,
(
and must have )
its
limitations. Eight
presented here in extensive continuity' with complete narrative sequence,
strips are
but perhaps as ber of fine to
comic
many
strips
as thirty deserve that kind of representation. Moreover, a
which a large body of the included
strips
have been limited. But
in
order to estab-
had
a functional basis for the selection of representative material, the editors
lish
set a
few general
num-
have been crowded out of even the group of single-episode examples to
rules of procedure.
we drew up two
One of them contained the editors' choices of memorable strips, considered both as graphic and narrative works. The other set forth the most generally famed, popular, and typical strips. Thus The Kin-der-Kids, Mr. Twee Deedle, and School Days would be on the first list, but not the second; while Tillie the Toiler and Joe Palooka would be obviFirst,
lists
of comics.
the most accomplished and critically
A number of strips, of com-se, appeared on both lists and Her Pals, Thimble Theatre, Katzenjammer Kids, Dick Tracy, and Mickey Mouse), and clearly these were strong contenders for relatively extensive representation in the collection. The bulk of our volume is built around examples of those works which combine intrinsic excellence and wide popularity with readers of their time, while titles relegated to just one list or the other were included as space and the need for reasonable representation of both bodies of material seemed to ous choices for the second. (tides such as Polly
dictate.
We
also took into account those strips
printed to meet the in these
demands
which have recently been so widely
re-
of their still-active aficionados that inclusion at length
pages might be considered wasteful of valuable space
Gordon, Buck Rogers, Tarzan, and Prince Valiant. Dick Tracy
—such is
strips as
Flash
included in a fairly
long excerpt because of the nearly exclusive focus on the post- 1940 strip in current reprints.
Our
selection
different in quality
and
is
Ultimately, of course,
own
choices out of their
whether every
from the mid-thirties, when Chester Gould's work was rather
tone.
strip or
what the
We
have done their
every continuity herein
claim that the volume at hand be).
editors
own knowledge and is
in this collection
own
art or
is
is
have put together a selection of comics we
feel are interesting, important,
—and the reader, of course,
take his choice from
among
Further comments on the selections wdll be found
16
The
be found
in
will
those descriptions. in brief prefaces to
several period divisions of the book. Extensive discussion of collection will
their
a "definitive" comics collection (whatever that would
representative, funny, curious, exceptional, artistic
Art:
make
We may disagree as to even artistic. We do not
tastes.
all
each of the
the material in this
coeditor Bill Blackbeard's forthcoming book
Literature of the Cotnic Strip (Oxford University Press).
The Endless
On
the matter of authorship',
lems of
strip history.
A
we make no
some knotty prob-
effort to disentangle
illustrator-author might hire an assistant
successful strip
some
in
retain
an outright ghost or ghosts to take over for a while. Yet he
cases,
an
to
—
help draw, an assistant to help plot, or both, at one or more periods of his career
artistic control
still
or,
might
over his creation. (Or he might not. Indeed, the trade gossip
has long held that the "author" of one of the most successful strips of the 1930s
and 1940s never drew the feature at all, even in the beginning, and probably that gossip tells the truth. However, such matters are properly the province of other scholarship
w
and other books.)
The pages
that follow
some
stereotypes of
have
their share of stereotypes
Comedy and melodrama
types are racial.
kind, although in such contexts
some
such.
What
relate
them
to reality.
acters" or "traditional types" or is
to bring his types to life
There
and
and some
of those stereo-
are always based on the manipulation of
we
them "stock char-
usually call
remains for the true
artist,
of course,
a distinction between a simply careless or insensitive or even racist exploi-
is
tation of national
and
racial types
on the one hand and a quite legitimate satire or difficult to make, and
burlesque on the other. But such distinctions are sometimes
American
The
artists
have not always made them.
distinctions are important, to
be
sure.
And you
will find in these
pages exam-
ples of both unthinking racial exploitation and, occasionally, true satirical observation.
In the popular culture of this country,
fairly recently, (
nothing and nobody was
Happy Hooligan )
,
we
are dealing with an art to which, until
sacred.
And
in
which a
guileless Irish
made
a confused black janitor, or a mysterious Oriental could be
humor
the subject or the butt of
bum
or of melodrama, fairly or unfairly, without any
hesitation.
At the same time, we are
we
in the 1970s
television
by
also
sometimes the victims of our passing
are apt to find the
conman Tim Moore) Kingfish
a skillful black comedian,
disquieting.
But
Foxx's Fred Sanford of "Sanford and Son" comfortably amusing.
Richard Pryor's
and
satiric
attitudes.
Thus
( although he was portrayed on
we
Redd
find
And we
acclaim
array of scatological black street characters as examples of bold
insightful theatrical art.
Collective attitudes change. Perhaps popular insight changes as well. But
and drama both remain, and
so, therefore,
comedy
do the basic types that are a part of
their
substance.
In any case, as presented here they are a part of our history, a part which
be pointless
The
it
would
for us to attempt to suppress.
question of content and meaning in these strips
sue further in this introduction. But
it is
is
one
we do
not intend to pur-
a question quite worth pursuing, and one
would encompass collective and archetypical ritual; theatrical, literary, and graphic tradition; and contemporary social attitudes, conscious and unconscious. It would involve the individual strip author's intentions as well. Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie clearly invites us to admire the sizable empire-and-fortune-building prowess of Daddy Warbucks on the one hand, and the thrifty and loyal virtues
that
by day-to-day poverty on the other. Similarly, Dick Tracy was frankly conceived by Chester Gould as a policeman who would save us from rampant 1930s gangsterism by shooting first and asking questions afterwards.
the author sees as encouraged
m
As indicated, much of the text of this volume represents the collaborative effort of both editors. As a result, the stylistic habits of each writer have been set aside to produce a harmoniously unobtrusive body of infonnation to accompany the much more important graphic content of the book. Such opinions and historical interpretations as are set forth indicate only that
The
17
one or the other of us held them; not necessarily both.
current material in Section Eight, included to
augment the general appeal
of
the collection and necessarUy limited in scope through space considerations, was chosen mainly for its stylistic or thematic relation to the older and earlier material in the book and does not represent, by any means, of us
By
would
have included. and juxtaposing our
all
of the current
titles
either or both
like to
collecting
strips as
we have
here,
we do them some
admit-
and the rest are, after all, intended to and each such fragment of narrative has its own rise and fall and an implicit suspense that is supposed to be relieved (and then continued) twenty-four hours later with the arrival of the next day's paper. But we have placed ted injustice.
The
narratives of Segar, Kelly,
be read in daily episodes,
the next day's episode further
Read them with
And enjoy.
Bill
Blackbeard
Martin Williams
18
down
that in mind.
the page.
a
Struwwelpeter, Pagliacci,
and Puss
in Boots
Folklore Figures in the
Early Sunday Comic
Strip,
1896-1916 two decades the new comic-strip medium appeared chiefly on large, in color-printed Sunday humor and magazine sections of the more prosperous metropolitan newspapers. ( Tabloid-size color comic pages first appeared when the Chicago Tribune, Portland Oregonian, and other papers introduced them
During
its first
pulp paper pages
as a paper-saving
measure
in 1918.)
nated virtually to the exclusion of
all
Three comic figures of popular others: the
demon
fiction
domi-
child, the clownish innocent,
and the humanized animal.
And
the
demon
child led all the rest.
The character
also appeared, in varying de-
grees of rascality, throughout American fiction at the time the
first strips
were being
Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, George W. Chimmie Fadden. However, he was Townsend's W. Peck's Bad Boy, and Edward perhaps even more luridly and seminally rendered in such earlier German popular
conceived, notably with such hellions as
graphic figures as Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter
(
1845; but anticipated
by a
fig-
ure in Paul Gavami's illustrations for Les enfants terribles of 1843) and Wilhelm Busch's
Max and
The premier
Moritz (1865).
figure of juvenile genius
and subversion
in the
comics was, of course,
He was almost immediately followed by Rudolph Dirks's Katzenjammer Kids team of Hans and Fritz, which had originally been copied directly from the two schrecklichkinder of Busch. Subsequent demon children of the early Sunday comics were Outcault's Buster Brown, Winsor McCay's Little Samwy Sneeze, Nemo's troublesome buddies in Little Nemo in Slwnherland, George McManus's Nibsy (hero of a short-lived spoof on McCay's Nemo page, Nibsy the Newsboy in Funny Fairyland), James Swinnerton's Jimmy, Penny Ross's Esther (in R. F. Outcault's Yellow Kid.
longer-lasting
Mama's Angel Child), Tad Dorgan's Johnny Wise, George Herriman's Bud Smith. C. W. Kahles's Bobby Bounce continuing in the strip briefly done in 1902 by W. W. Denslow, illustrator of The Wizmd of Oz, as Billy Bounce), A. C. Fera's Elmer (in (
19
)
Tom McNamara's
Just Boy), Walter Hoban's Jerry,
city
gang
Us
in
Kids, Clare
—
and many others. common on the early Sunday comic page was the well-meaning, even saindy, fool, who ranged in nineteenth-century literature from Dickens's Mr. Toots in Dotnbey and Son to Dostoevski's Prince Mishkin of The Idiot, but who was perDwiggins's rural kids in School Days
Almost as
haps most popularly rendered century opera,
in the
/ Pagliacci. Initially
sad clown hero of Leoncavallo's later nineteenth-
introduced to the comic strip in Fred Opper's 1900
Sunday page, Happy Hooligan, drawn for Hearst's New York Journal, clownish innocents promptly swarmed across the color strips in the guise of such characters as Raymond Ewer's Slim Jim, Billy Marriner's Sambo, Norman R. Jennette's Marseleen (a clown in full Pagliaccian regaha), George McManus's Lovey and Dovey (in The Newlyweds), C. M. Payne's Pop (in S'Matter Pop?), Rube Goldberg's Boob McNutt, Winsor McCay's Little Nemo, James Swinnerton's Sam (in Sam and His Laugh), George Herriman's Major Ozone, Charles Schultz's Fo.xy Grandpa, and many another.
Sunday comics as the two types cited, but a and appeal, was the humanized animal, found in children's tales and cautionary parables as far back as Aesop, most memorably captured as a prototypical image in Charles Perrault's cocky and adventurous Puss in Boots, and abundantly present in nineteenth-century fiction, notably in Hans Christian AnderNot quite
as
widespread
in the early
close third in popular usage
monumental Scenes in the Private atui Public Lives of Animals L L Gerard), and Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus series. In (J. the new narrative art of the comic strip, the humanized animal was first introduced by James Swinnerton in the figure of his philandering Mr. Jack, an initially unnamed sen's Fairy Tales, the
by Grandville
feline character ton's popularly
who first began to emerge as named Little Tigers feature.
a distinct individual in 1902 in Swinner(
and
his
On and Off
work feaand Tykes panel of 1893,
Earlier Swinnerton cartoon
turing anthropomorphized animals, such as his Little Bears
the Ark of circa 1900 and later, did not qualify as definitive comic
because of the lack of dialogue balloons and/or individualized and regularly
strips,
recurrent characters.
At about the time of Swinnerton's creation of the nattily dressed and highly hu-
manized Mr. Jack,
was putting salty and sarcastic ripostes in the mouth of Buster Brown's bulldog, Tige, and casually granting speech to other animals in the strip. By 1904 Fred Opper had introduced the demonic, high-kicking Maud the Mule into his cast of comic-page characters but by then, humanized aniR. F. Outcault, in 1902,
—
Among
others prominent at the
time were Charles Twelvetrees's Johnny Quack and the
Van Cluck Twins, Gus
mals were becoming commonplace
in the comics.
Mager's Jungle Folks, the Animal Friends of Walt MacDougall's Hank,
Uncle Remus characters (Br'er Rabbit
et al. in
J.
M. Conde's
Uncle Remus Stories), the fantastic
The Explorigator and Bob Dean's Swots. Sherlock Bones in Lyonel Feininger's The Kin-der-Kids, Sidney Smith's Old Doc Yak, George Herriman's later Krazy Kat (made a Sunday-page figure by 1916), C. M. Payne's
animals in Harry Grant Dart's
Bear Creek Folks, and R. K. Culver's Roosevelt Bears. Several of these
humanized animal
features
were not true comic
strips; rather, like
the currently published Prince Valiant, they were lavi.shly illustrated prose fiction,
without balloons or linking panels of action, but their frequency
in
comic sections of
the time and their emphasis on animals speaking intelligently call for their mention here,
if
not their inclusion in the body of this anthology
Virtually ignored in the
male hero
itself.
Sunday comic pages of these early years was the serious
figure, fiercely active in the
popular
fiction of the time,
from Sherlock
Holmes to Tarzan. When present at all, he was treated as a butt of .satire, notably in F. M. Howarth's Old Opie Dilldock, H. A. Mc-CJill's daily Hairbreadth Harold in Hearst's New York Journal, and C. W. Kahles's syndicated Hairbreadth Harry. Women, considered a.s sympathetic heroines, received little concern until Gene Carr's
20
Lady Bountiful appeared
as a
Sunday page
in early 1920,
although a few ear-
)
Wallace Morgan's Fluffy Ruffles, ran in newspapers' sections, rather than with the comics. Seriously suspenseful narra-
illustrated-story pages, like
lier,
Sunday magazine
tive continuity, too,
and 1916, when
Notes on
strips in this section
The strip numbers, in brackets, accompany individual comments as an aid to easy reference.
was simply nonexistent in these two initial decades between 1896 humor was the bell-capped, starry-kicked king.
slapstick
That's the anticipatory grinning face of George B. Luks looking cault's
Hogan's Alley characters
World
feature over from Outcault for Hearst's Journal
drawing
in the
opening selection
down on
Luks was
[I]:
when
R. F.
Out-
to take the
the latter
left,
after
this final page.
Johnny Wise
was a very early page from Tad Dorgan, a cartoonist chiefly noted appeared only in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Little Nemo in Slumberland episodes [11-14] were selected from McCay's first version of the strip, which ran in the New York Herald between 1905 and 1911. [2]
for his later, daily sports-page strips. It
(Two subsequent
versions ran in other papers.
The
papers between 1911 and 1914, and the second in the
first
appeared
in
the Hearst
New York Herald Tribune be-
tween 1924 and 1927. Examples of pages from these two
later versions will
be found
in the third section of this book.
The appearance
of Lyonel Feininger's remarkable Kin^der-Kids [16-18] page in
the Chicago Tribune in 1906 marked the strip
first
being drawn and imported from abroad;
rial difficulties
arising
from
this
occasion of a regularly appearing comic in this instance,
procedure led to the
strip's
from Germany. Edito-
demise
in less
than a year.
Johnny Gruelle, creator of the charming fairyland fantasy Mr. Twee Deedle later, of course,
wrote the Raggedy
[20],
Ann book series.
C. M. Payne's Bear Creek Folks [24-25] was derived in part from Albert Bigelow
Hollow Tree book series with their striking J. M. Conde illustrations, and more remotely from Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories, but it often reads like an anticipation of Walt Kelly's later Pogo. Clare Victor Dwiggins's School Days [26-27] is notable (aside from its art and wacky humor) as having been the first strip to feature the screwball devices or "inventions," with which Rube Goldberg later became identified. The Mutt and Jeff Sunday pages reproduced here were among the first to be released in color, but they are typical of the earlier Sunday black and white pages published in the Hearst press circa 1911-1913, and reflect the inspired slapstick qualities which made Bud Fisher's team one of the great strip hits of all time. [28-29] Gus Mager's Hawkshaw the Detective [31] was the Sunday-page continuation of his earlier daily strip, Sherlocko the Monk. Originally supposed to be called Sherlocko the Detective, the Sunday page was retitled Hawksliaw borrowing the name of the detective once famed in Tom Taylor's melodramatic play of 1863, The TicketPaine's
(
of-Leave
Man)
—with the name of Sherlocko's
—because of threatened
onel
titular
21
suit
associate,
Watso, changed to the Col-
by A. Conan Doyle's American representatives
infringement of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson characters.
for
Hogan s
Alley
R. F. Outcault
1896
[1]
OPENING OF THE HOGAN'S ALLEY ATHLETIC CLUB.
22
Johnny Wise
.TOHIS-N"!'
I
9
*M6 HIM
I»Mrt
N«ME|M
AVISE
JtMr
A
-VMAUU&T
23
Thomas
GrP^Ts^
Aloysius "Tad" E>organ
1902
TflK "DOTJBT.K nROSS.
[21
Buster
[3]
24
Brown
R. F. Outcault
1904 / 1906 / 1913
New
25
ytxk H«rold Co., 1905
[5]
That
REJtolA/E D wad itTo Do OVER asA
irr
0» WEtt., NtVER. MlNP.tVEHYBOPYKUSHfp. LAUCHTIR. l5Hffll.TrfY. HUIHOR ISSANlTV. ^^UCH iANE. HMLTKy PEOPLE LAUCH AS ASTMtyMN. ITKEERJ TmEMWEUL AND ARE You MAIWl/AIUJJ HAPPY. You CAMT BC WCLL./INDYouCANTBE WELLIFYoUfAKRY • USTS A GROUCH flROUNp ALL TheTime OF JiCK PWrtt Think ThE>' HA« A CROUCH
BECAWe THtY««
TuEY A«
5ICK.
ITS
TXC OTHtRWAY'
BtCMSt TNfV HAVf < S«OuCM. CQIiSvO'* Bo"'S LETS LAUSH- ThaTJoR^Y ^ 5Tufr WoMTCcrVouANrrMiN«. Jlf<
IFA MAN tWESToO^n IKJURY LAUCH euWSl. Y«/W«E NOT _ .HE one WHO DID The INJUR/ LAUCH flHYHOV- DoNf WORRY
^/. ,
26
^m-fS^m,/
IJ«v»ipupcf foaK
«
Katzenjammer Kids
Rudolph Dirks
1911
-|
of
jsiisiiii^er's IWFt TKIY «t THt umt 3«»n
_
r
,
I
f^
Revenue, or—
( "
iiomm' rwusiiNtii;
11"'
The Americon Exomin«r,
27
[6]
Hans und Fritz
Hans und Fritz-A Vadvester
Rudolph Dirks
1918
^ ^ ^
By
R. Dirks j^^L^^S;
©
28
Prea Publishing
L.>
llho
Now
York World)
1918
Maud
Fred Opper
1905
GOMIG 5UPPLEMENToFmE
BOSTON
MASTER'S
VOICE.
AMERICAN.
«IUI.Y9&
1005
-+:4»<»»-
AND HER NAME WAS MAUD!
Americon-Journol-Examincr, 1906
29
Happy Hooligan
KtSC-i^lSg* MfK ^'^
Fred Opper
1905
.liiuriJgra
if -^
Happy Hooligan Dropped Among t9J
the GWiering
^
^
.>^-'-'"-^
Into the
COMIC 5UPPUMENT o'' "«
«of7RlGMT1^5 p/Tut AMERICAN- JOURNAL-EXAMINEffAIL BRITAIN KtanTS RXitRVE^
House of Lords
Throng Were Ntontmofency and Clooniy Gus
^
•
30
Ani«lcon-Jouri>ol-tKamin«r. 1905
Jimmy
James Swinnerton
1915
[10]
JIMMY Pinkey Gives
What
a
Him
a Clear Explanation oi
Symphony Concert
Is
Slor Comporty, 1915
31
utile
Cll]
Nemo
in
Slumberiana
Winsor McCay
1908
Ig.
WHAT ARt
WE GOINC
fitT OCT
Of
.
MERE. A5 Wfl^
Now
32
Voik Iteiold Co.. 1908
[12]
New
33
York Herald Co.. 1908
[13]
£ Now Vwk
34
H«rold Co., 1908
[14]
N.;.-.
35
v^-k Herold Co., 1908
Nibsy the Newsboy
George McManus
1906
[15]
SAN FRANCISCO. CAL.
.^..^.i
^
I
tfttii.'iiwiig^iiWiiaarttfii^ijji^^
p
36
.
i
Publishing
Compony,
The
Kin-der-Kids
Lyonel FeininKrr
1906
tI6]
(2
37
Tribun* Componv. ChicOQO,
III.,
1906
[17]
i,
38
I„bun. Compony, Chicago.
'»
>'<>*
©
39
Tribune Cooipony, Chicogo,
IN.,
1906
The Newlyweds
[19]
I
George McManus
1909
THE NEWLYWEDS— THEIR BABY
40
^
By Geo. iVlcManus
Mr. Twee Deedle
P^ J^^vj7(S(S
—After their escape from the tngry owTier of the lake, the friends came upon s queer looking luft of gnat with e^ht flowsn "It looks hke a porcupine." »aid Mr. Twm groift-ing from it Deedle; "we'd better not disturb it"
>^*^^ia
Johnny Cruelle
1914
The Naps
of Polly Sleepyhead
Peter Newell
1906
[21]
'gV'
|._Peiiy wa* aiiiinQ out ey ih« rabbtt^ c*g* watchlAi ni«s niCbl* carrou. The day «M»a warm and It ^wa* aJ Id
do lo kcvp f rorn
go.r.9 to kl««p.
ind. lurnina, bowad vary low ici I bow ihal Via aMvaplpa hai v>aa ina ocfupanta of tha raar aaat and tha • of iha drauflht from Ihr crcwn atnt tham nyino out of w.ra not hurt Bui tha Jokar waa rar Pontjna<«ly thay baraiM) Chil-chat tor hia carclviaBoundly «i»4 t^t ha lib
rantbling No. 3.— Polly raadliy*. Stia ihan noticad a vary peculiar inlng In baalda tha JoKar TTia amok* ^waa pufTtng oui or hiatail aiova* pipa hati Tha Jokap obaarvad tha iniarM 10 akcita in the liuia girl and aaldr— *'A vary able ehauFTaur, ha. Kara, Chlt-ehi Miaa Polly, vho to Sh»apw Land >Mth ub
No. fi.— AU at onc« aha hcare the ehii chit, cMt Of an autO« mobila, and aoon vea aurpr.^Ml to a«« nar (ri«rtd tha Jokar, aaatcd la a b>«nd nav/ macnma. Ha tock ott bia &M, aod, bowing profoundly, aald to nor;— — da< r. toSnaitow Land, tha fair. 1 ma. my unny pfant naiyrvAa bo rankly inar«."
abcut tha driver.
—
IS
No
S
—Onca again Ihay look
-In an
... .a thay arrived Bthe automobile. Thau
_.
of pt>^nm Odd looking plajita the Joker moiionad in tha dlr directly balora tham and aalc '• the Dunny Plania. my daar; go pull ona. aAt tha root lurky rabblt*a foot." fault, •M>« at You'll find. If I an
Utair placaa In ih
aton'j tha lana t aoon ihry wara m*rriiy l>owlinp a* """ ihai had Shadow Land, cnuraly totvalttiT lof III* mtahap
-
i
lately befallt
[
"i^^^wB
Naughty Pete
Charles Forbell
1913
® New
43
Yofk Hofold, 1913
Mamas
[23]
44
Angel Child
Penny Ross
1916
Bear Creek Folks
Charles M. Payne
1911
BEAR CREEK FOLKS,
BEAR CREEK FOLKS
45
neg'lar election
off the track.
[24]
[25]
School Days
Clare Victor Dwiggins
1909
[26]
%
'Sf*
SCHOOLDAYS
Going Dpi Be Good and Maybe Pip Will Let Yon Side io Hia Elevator.
%
and Ophelia.
[27]
-*
^OK
SCHOOL-DAYS
OVT
PiP.'
46
r^'i^r^iVK%'^\^:sX^tU^.'^^
I
and Ophelia
^
Mutt and
Jeff
II.
^ MRi. ttOiTi MOTHtH.
MUTT AND JEFF — Eight
C. "Bud" Fisher
1918/1919
[28]
CICtRoJ 'I
_>^
Dollars
Is
Some
Money— By BUD FISHER
i, H. C. f.sher. 1918
47
[29]
©
48
H. C. Fiihc-r, 1919
slim Jim
Raymond Crawford Ewer
1911
[30]
49
Hawkshaw
the Detective
Gus Mager
1914
[31]
Hawkshaw
the
50
Detective— The
Colonel
Is
a
Little
Too
Hasty
m Mr. Caudle,
Sherlock Holmes,
and the Artless Dodger Popular Images in the Early Daily
Comic
Strip,
1907-1927 Comic
strips in their definitive
turn of the century, acters in black
when
form did not appear in weekday newspapers
until the
the Hearst daihes began to feature recurrent cartoon char-
and white, multipanel gag sequences. Some were
in
an illustrated
text
format, but most were in true comic strip style of four to six panels per sequence. At first
they were drawn by Hearst
Monday through
day,
cartoonists in
staflF
some were created
papers; later,
Saturday, until
Bud
first
page of
this section,
York and mailed
to the other
Fisher began his A. Mutt strip in 1907.
These early and irregular Hearst weekday on the
New
None, however, appeared regularly every
locally.
strips,
were aimed more
a group of which are reproduced
at adult readers than
were most
of
the early Sunday comics, and their characters and attitudes were therefore different
from those of the weekend color pages. This retained for the daily strip as
its
use spread
three additional figures of popular lore
and the
tive,
relatively sophisticated orientation
among newspapers and
— the henpecked
the strips
was
added
father, the omniscient detec-
luckless, therefore lovable, scalawag.
Married figures had already appeared
in the color strips, of course,
but virtually
all
{The Netchjweds, Their Only Child, S'Matter Pop? and so forth), while the prototypical image of the henpecked husband (with its countervailing image of the domineering wife), which was to be so widely utilized in the early weekday strips, appeared only indirectly in the early Sunday pages, in the form of the rolling-pin-belabored Captain in Dirks's Katzenjammer of these fell into the innocent fool category
Kids,
The
who was
not married to the Kids' often irate mother, but was her star boarder.
classic figure of the wife-beset,
but cynically struggling, husband was portrayed
often and well by Dickens, particularly in his rendition of the paterfamilial
worm
in
Mr. Snagsby of Bleak House and the foredoomed Captain Cuttle of Domhetj and Son, but he was perhaps most memorably set forth in popular nineteenth-century
51
fiction
Douglas
as
Jerrold's vocalK' berated hero of Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures in 1865.
He appeared in the
notably for the
weekday
strip of the
first
time in strips as Gus Mager's Henpecko the Monk,
same name,
circa 1908.
Two years later, George Herriman
introduced E. Pluribus Dingbat in his Dingbat Family, followed in the strips by a
number
of similarly browbeaten breadwinners. George McManus combined the hapless husband image with that of the socially rising family (a theme long treated satirically in popular American literature and
drama)
in his daily
Up
Bringing
Manus's Jiggs was an
Father
strip of
1914 in the Hearst papers. Mc-
Maggie was an ambitious became a stock subject in the daily strips broadening later into the Sunday pages ) Sidney Smith's The Gumps, Billy De Beck's Barney Google, Gene Ahem's Our Boarding House, Harry Tuthill's Home, Sweet Home (later The Bungle Family), A. D. Condo's The Outbursts of Everett True, Cliff Sterrett's Polly and Her Pals, Bud Fisher's Mutt and Jeff, Irish bricklayer-become-millionaire,
virago of a wife, and after their appearance, henpecker\' (
W.
R. Allman's
The
:
Doings of the Duffs, and many more. detective, a mythic figure essentially developed
all -perceptive
century fiction and drama (the term
Home
Graham,
British
made up
of the most intelligent
Secretary',
itself
coined
London
it
in
in nineteenth-
when
only dates from 1843,
Sir
James
forming his "Detecti%'e Police," a body
police officers of the time),
was
first
effectively
introduced to popular hterature as a figure of detached, analytical intellect in Edgar Allan Foe's C. Auguste Dupin of "The Murders in the
Rue Morgue
image of dogged strength and hard-boiled professionalism
sonality in a classic
(
1841
)
and
as
an
Charles Dickens's In-
House 1853 ) But it was A. Conan Doyle who, in his A 1887, combined brain with cold professionalism and strong perversion of the fictional sleuth Sherlock Holmes. The Holmes con-
spector Bucket of Bleak
Study In Scarlet of
in
"
(
cept spread like paper-fed
fire
.
through popular literature during the following de-
cades and reached the comic strip in a short-lived Hearst weekday spoof of 1904 called Padlock Bones,
by H. A. McGill.
Burlesques of Holmes followed in other
strips,
both daily and Sunday, but the de-
most famous early strip avatar was Gus Mager's weekday Sherlocko the Monk, who first appeared in the strip of that name in Hearst's New York Journal for December 9, 1910, later to become even better known as Hawkshaw the Detective. The Holmes character was burlesqued further in Sidney Smith's early Sunday Sherlock Holmes, Jr. for the Chicago Tribune, and as a comic figure in such established strips as Dirks's Katzenjamtner Kids, which featured an Eskimo detective named Sherlock Gunk, and Segar's in Thimble Theatre, which involved a Gimlet the Detective and a Shamrock Jones in its daily continuity. More generalized detective figures appeared elsewhere, as in Harry Hershfield's weekday Dauntless Durham of the U. S. A. and Sidney Smith's daily Buck Nix. The third and perhaps most widespread new figure in the daily comic strip was tective's
the inept but charming rogue.
He had
long been a figure in popular literature, of
more ) as Dickens's Seth Pecksniff in Martin Chuzzlewit, or Mark Twain's King and the Duke in Huckleberry Finn, or in the more heroically presented Tom and Jerry of Pierce Egan's Life in London and Sut Lovingood of George W. Harris's American fables. This image had appeared in the early Sunday pages, but almost always as either a subsidiary character (i.e., Long John Silver in Dirks's Katzenjammer Kids, or Rudolph Rassendale in Kahles's Hairbreadth Harry), or as one or more titular figures whose roguery was implicit, in dress and course, notably as Falstaff, or
manner, rather than expUct
in
(
recently
behavior
(i.e.,
Alphonse and Gaston,
in
Opper's
strip
Tom
and Jerry in Rube Goldberg's early The Look-a-Like Boys). The one notable exception was Svvinnerton's married flirt in Mr. Jack ( whose weekly strip behavior in pages read by children upset many readers and led to the strip's
of that name, or
being relegated to infrequent daily appearance of the sports tially
52
and
editorial
in the safe,
pages after 1904). But
smoking-room atmosphere
in the daily strips,
with their essen-
adult audience at the time, scurvy vagal)()ndage prospered. Artless Dodgers
were memorable
in
A. Piker Clerk,
Gus Mager's
such early daily strips as
Bud
Fisher's
various conniving
course), George Herriman's Baron Bean,
Dok
Mutt and Jeff. Clare
Monks (excepting
Briggs's
Sherlocko, of
Hager's Dippy Duck, Sidney Smith's
Buck Nix and Old Doc Yak, Billy De Beck's Barney Google, Frank Willard's Moon MuUins, E. C. Segar's Thimble Theatre, Harry Hershfield's Desperate Desmond and Abie the Agent, and many, many more. The order of the day in daily strips between 1907 and 1927 was satire, cheerful cynicism, and subdued slapstick, centered on helpless husbands, burlesque detectives, and inept scoundrels. But new kinds of strips and heroes did enter the scene in the 1920s and shape the character of all strips in the following decade. For instance, the image of the self-reliant working girl in an office background enjoyed its most extensive use in the daily strips, and developed in the 1920s in such strips as Tillie the Toiler and Somebody's Stenog; it was not a part of the group of prototypical figures which shaped much of the content of the initial daily strip work.
Notes on
strips in this section
Gus Mager's Monk strips [34, 36] ran initially under a number of alternative tides, name of the character featured in a given episode: Tightwaddo the Monk. Knocko the Monk, Nervo the Monk, and so on. Their popularity inspired the stage names given to four of the Marx Brothers during a poker game, and the team used them during the rest of their career. The Desperate Desmond [37] strip was named for its top-hatted villain protagonist; the opposing hero was named Claude Eclair, and the heroine Fair Rosamond. The prose narrative under each panel was auxiliary rather than explanatory, making the feature an odd combination of illustrated fiction and comic strip. Midsummer Day Dreams [40], the Winsor McCay work, is typical of a large number of daily graphic anecdotes he drew at this time. Few, if any, involved rereflecting the
peated characters, and no comic
The
developed out of them.
strip
Mutt episodes included here [41-46] ran only in the San Francisco Examiner of the time (Bud Fisher having been hired away from the Chronicle by that paper in 1907 ) and involve the first appearance of Mutt's later partner, Jeff. The casA.
ual comic use of a lunatic asylum as the setting
ing content of the early daily
is
typical of the irreverent, freewheel-
strips.
The Family Upstairs [48-53], first named The Dingbat Family, and later given that name again, carried the earliest exploits of Herriman's Krazy Kat krew, at first around the feet of the human cast of the strip, and then in a separate row of panels below them. The "family upstairs" of the title refers to a mysterious menage living in the apartment above that of the Dingbats, none of whose members are ever seen in the strip,
and whose weird doings drive the Dingbats
to a frenzy of curiosity
and
animosity.
Baron Bean [54-77] featured a pretentious, ragtag
Montague Tigg/Tigg Montague
bum
of Martin Chtizzlewit,
of similar
who was
mien
to
Dicken's
often at fanciful
war
with his strangely loyal manservant. Grimes.
Stumble Inn [78-83] was an extraordinarily lavish daily dicated in the selections here. Short-lived as a daily,
day page and exhibited Herriman's fancy
in a
it
strip of the
dimensions
in-
ran for several years as a Sun-
somewhat more restrained context than
usual.
Dok's Dippy Duck [84-91] was the strip-in-residence of the Seattle Times, appearing only in that paper and running seven days a week, either on the front page or just inside.
The resemblance
evident, reflecting a
of the cocky
common human
Dippy
to the later
Disney Donald Duck
is
self-
perception of the nature of ducks.
Buck Nix [92-95] first appeared as a strip outgrowth of the sidelines master of ceremonies to Sidney Smith's Chicago American sports-page cartoons, which displayed Smith's comic genius as an absorbing storyteller. An audience quickly developed which preferred Buck Nix
53
to
more formal
sports art. Hired
away by
the Chicago Tri-
bune. Smith continued Buck as Old
Doc Yak
[103-107],
briefly as a daily in order to introduce Smith's
new
first
as a
Sunday page, then
strip concept.
The Gumps
[96-
102].
The second group of Bud Fisher episodes selected are a random potpourri of Muti and Jeff [108-125] from its best period in the late 1920s and earl\- 1930s. The reader will note the descriptive phrases and subheads assigned to the early strips in this section. As strips became more and more popular, and more and more widely syndicated, the composition and addition of a daily descriptive subhead gradually became the prerogative of the comics editor of each subscribing local paper, not that of the author or the syndicate's
own
editor. Accordingly,
subheads from most of the daily episodes which follow
in this
we have dropped
the
volume.
'
Mr. Jack Mr. E.
Z.
Mark
F.
M. Howarth
1907
Mark Makes Protest
—
1. MH. E. Z. Look h«r«. ilr: whit doca Voy K»v« boon fOllowl«o mo owof •mco
Ihia I
mMnT
loft
th«
train.
THC tHAOOWCn— Mr. tactiwa jrow
hirod ky Mro. wtiao iKa
ffo*"
o*
Vm
Mark.
Mark
lo
a
prUaU
follow ai^
th,
do-
protact
bwnke-otatm
and
An Inaultl I'll 2. MR. E. Z^Thla la on owtraga! to rtghl Into thia ato*^ and 'phono Mrs. Mark for tho mooning of har inoo'ant and uncallod for Into rf< ran eo. THE t^/AOOWER— Yaa, olr; aalloty yowroatf that what oaj la trvo. Lat mo hold your bog until yov I
com«
L MRS.
HARKS
VOICE OVER
PHONE— Vaa.
iti
ma. What la tha mattar with row, onjrwajrT No, No, No. No! I hlrad n« man to ahadow you. Car> Ulnly not. Now. for goodnaao aaka. E. Z, dont tali Thara'a ma yow ara akoui to bo buntiead again, oonMthing wrong. Watch youroalf. Oood-by.
1904
rVTR.
[32]
E. Z.
James Swinneiton
4.
mont
owl.
MR. Is
fallow!
E. Z.
(ruohing Owt of
Vow Vi godal
faloa.
otoro)
Ulnlng ont thousand dollars' worth oocurltloo.
WtOWl
— Vowr
oUto-
an an Whjr, whara la OONB' And with my bag
DONE
of
AOAINI
that connogotlabla
DONE
AOAINl ^ASARAAftAA )
54
Amoricon-Jowrnol-Exomlner, 1907
JACK.
Braggo ine
Monk
ous Mager
lyvi
rue Hall-Koom Boys
Braggo the Monk.
M. A. Mcuiii
tiall-Room Boys. The ON S9.SO PER. THEY DO
Can't
Keep From Bragging. Even
©
The funny paper has
.
.
.
in
[351
IT
They
He
is*u/
His Sleep.
Steal a
March on
the Star Boarder.
©
Americon-Journal-Exominer, 1907
Americon-Journal-Exominer, 1907
become not only a faithful reflection of the tastes and ethical principles
of the country at large; it is also manifestly an extremely powerful organ of social satire.
The
daily block of cinema-squares is the medium through which the vices of man are held up for all to see
....
The few cardinal virtues that we sometimes venture apologetically to call our own are dis-
regarded by the funnies as comparatively uninteresting to the non- church-goer, and as 'old stuff to the veteran of the Sunday-school bench or the straight-backed pew.
All of them, it is true, draw
largely on contemporary mainners for their subject matter, but the genuine masterpieces of the art use these merely as machinery for the display of the essential Satan, the unquenchable 'Peck's Bad Boy,' in all of us.
Ernest Brennecke "The Real Mission of the Funny Paper," Century Magazine
55
,
March 192^1
1
Sherlocko the MonJc
Gus Mager
1
1911
Desperate
[36]
Sherlocko the
By
Monk
;
Chantecler Peck
F. G.
Long
N'olionol
Gxts
Mtger
New*
Desmond
© New
S'MatterPop?
Charles M. Payne
S'Matter. Pop?
[38]
(C
Pr«» Publlthing Co. (The
New
York World). 1911 IS
56
1910
^
A riAeiAnn<1 Despe;Vaf I ale LieSniOna
Associolion, 191
191
Harry Hershfield
Picture
Drama
with a
nmU
of Love and Hate, ^ Every Picture '0
[37]
in
York Evening Journal Publishing Compony, 1910
1911
|K
|g
By C. M. Payne
Preu Publiihing Co. (The
New
York World). 1911
[39)1
iici
i^uv i^rcuni>
>vin>iur JMCv^ay
laii
[40]
Midsummer Day Dreams t'oiijr'''
}••
•
'-
^-
'•
v....,
\,,„,|
Bv WINSOR M'CAY I
THINK
RE-
I'LL
TIRt FKOr^
THE
smoe. UNLESS OF C0UR5E THEY
PAT.
Ka
G OFFERED
ME
Five
HUM:u
©
57
Notional
Newi AhocopIoo,
1911
H. C. "Bud" Fisher
A. Mutt
1908
[41]
A.
MUTT
SUMMONED BEFORE THE INSANITY COMMISSION FOR EXAMINATION
IS
)
I^^rr DC*-**,*.*
a^aron «WTT*5 -^htbi ConDon,SA«^— •( I
TO
?^P'*Cr Wtio
»*0 T*«r rV
iijKW^n; rffcrti
P^tOnE^BhPOf
'I
p:
in
rtgari fo
.Un.'f J ment-Al Itait
— ^^•*T
S«
-^S St^te t*M) Alt
»**U: OF f«S MBl• I l^iN, Txe FATMnt 0U> AVtn A
bm^iScsmthB booby "1*1^
lb
^riO TB*T Tl* eOC>B&
'^^
^-«.
[42]
DIVERS OPINIONS
AMONG BOOB INSPECTORS! MUTT ASKS POSTPONEMENT TILL TO-MORROW y
Boob
!,'if.-elor
d{datet that ilatl
u «•-, wlif'tufci
Bco^ir tnakei ta
««.*«caTricNOM^ ^""^ •ooena^eToe, "" !*•» - "^TTT I*
^r^
HOT
r I'/ CCICO
^•»
»>%rrT
-J-TT ..»•«
I
»w«
9ooe e
A«
0&TftiCk«
«»«o ret TUC n«
p«pc««0"»<'»
[43]
THE LOON COMMISSIONERS. AT DEFENDANT'S REQUEST. SEND HIM TO THE BOOBY CAGE r kaf trir4
nrrgtHnf Hit •tf
m-amlt la fa tki rn(r.
TS1>«0#IH«T
tVftCTAOM* tO^'M
ON
[44]
MUTT SPENDS
HIS FIRST
DAY
IN
THE BUGHOUSE AND
IS
WELCOMED BY ALL THE BUGS
[45]
THE RUDYARD KIPLING OF THE BUGHOUSE GIVES MUTT A LIVE TIP ON LEE ROSE A
.Suf it* J taid^ivl k'tit:i Iht firfl litft tKi flma^fr ^ tif
tw
ikt f*tlry
fOmU
•^S^KCMV on A
nnD
V,
(MKK&on TH* too*
^
tmx
Afc
con «•» Th«^ flMMT
58
[46]
EFFORT BEING MADE TO HAVE CITY PAY FUTURE EXPENSES OF GREAT MUTT CASEi U«..
)*..( ]t,
rt
•CLl wit rtxtnicovt V>^Mt.
1 Oftrt'T
«I ^*
'^''*''"'
^^"'^O a«"TkT
f^tr WHO »Yr-
»To*
A. Piker Clerk
A.
»-f
Clare Briggs
1904
[47]
PIKER CLERK COMES TO THE RESCUE OF CHICAGO WITH A TIP ON THE RACES— KITTY CLYDE TO WIN.
-•+•+•+•
u
A. Ptlicr
"Take tbu," be
iTovcdlr k rcneroo* mm. Be he&n ot IU70T Hutuod'* won? ora tbi Uck ot fl»nce* to ran the city prvpcrly. b« iuidi tbc mnuapttl btf to A. Fikcr. OS to the bookmaker (oe« our b«ro. Set to-d«r'i nc« raolti.
He plsafu
inio tbe brcAcL
"Xttty Clrd* to wis." be wbiapcn.
Tbc Haror
i«et
a
ray of bvpc
wn u
The Family
Upstairs
George Herriman
1911
[481
'iii&i
'
st«*. louBi *yi
ȣV/^
?^ ^
^1- -_:.-
< f
'-
Hottona\
59
N«ws
Atiociolion, 1911
[49]
>
A^
#-
XVT *
ilTIt» **tm »
^€.
e^
r
•J
^*rf?^
©
Notional
News
Associotion, 191
©
hJotionol
N«ws
Association, 1911
I
[50]
I
152]
Nalionot Nttws Associotion, 1911
60
[53]
©
Baron Bean
George Herriman
Naf'onal
News
Aisoc.alion, i9ii
1917
[S4J
© HOLE
/*J ctft
SHifi.
t
tnternafional
News
Service, 1917
[55]
c«us
C*AJVA6t COM-M(Y>e£" Dft-t'MS TWt. CflJwflL. tvMifw i^Aves cue -swif hi6n-aa;d Dey. 1^^ we Ptr4 CCitn- /a; the wtt >"=''ce wwrcw ,
~IJE.
CC'M'MrrTtfi OF ilQt'DS Tl/«A-^ (7to
&(?*r cwjCE 'Wofte ftois
^>
®
Internotiortot
News
Service, I9I7
[56]
[57]
:£ International
News
Service, 1917
[58]
[59]
[60]
[61]
[62]
I
62
Internotionol
News
Service. 1917
[63]
[65]
[66]
[67]
©
63
Inlernationol
News
Service, 1917
[68]
[69]
(Fl
International
News
Service, 1917
©
Internotionot
N«wj
Service, I9I7
[70] M-
tW*T Nt Ootsvr MA^t 70 *j«&
TiiEy Si,PHy Alt. To You^ -i^jb y^ JuCT ciffE y-w«; Cam
'
5MATH6
^27 A
[71]
r
[72]
!|
inl«rnatlonot
Newt
Service, )9I7
64
I
ie«^JlNaTo Om'Aff >tXJ ?
FlW/ tue
.»
wac
ST/^y
-
uM>e*
ivA"^ft
&o*^
*WtetL. »*E HlktD
A c
OtEf JE« FlSM TD Tl>0< (OV Fish /iitmco cf S7-«v/\6 .
(UOEIL ht IN I
VMS SUCH A 6M0 PVNC 7XOT1 HE. HAB OUtFONtp l>t
"I
f73)
WOliuc
^lAVEO So
VjlM
""IE
UNS
UTOtt
PoOK FiSN'
«AT»ft.
DMwMDtD
©
Internorionol
Newi
Service, 1917
(74)
[75]
[76]
[77]
Internolionol
65
New»
Service, 1917
Stumble Inn
George
Hemman
lyzz
[78]
r King frotur«» Syndicate, Inc. 1922 (£i
King F«atur«i Syndicate.
66
Inc..
1922
[83]
31]
©
King Features Syndicote,
Inc.,
1922
King Feolures Syndicote.
King Feolurcs Syndicote,
[82]
67
Inc.,
192
Inc..
1922
Dok's Dippy Duck
[88]
[891
68
John "Dok" Hager
1917
[901
[91]
0UCK
i^ix
oiuiiey oiniui
ivii
[93]
HELD AT QfMMNTlNE
BOtK
WAD Btf M
[941 W*rrMi«r^
THE QOOf) Sujp'NevPR S'WX" AROm T*iC little tV'NDOW M T-iE NOtP|T*L '.V&RD I
View <^'TN iTi pnccioo& CAR wo
^ilH HAPPlHCiS AND MiS NATIVE LAND-iFJ
W&MT,WiTM WNHt BTWi &i»t AND LIPE&«e«iVtjLY A'tOWER &TfttTCNiMfi OUT
BEFORE- Mt« -
4 HANff MOrDflCVU.f-,
HPT •» * ViAiTOff, CNABLFP 6ulK MiJL T6 fUHE Hli[4CAPC ^*0M tHC4UA(tANrfMe ^UAftTFNS,
•tm( irom T>*tt AM ABOur ronEcArf k*S ••tVlBEti -EAR 6 BY EA^ioF mortai. m« ^rARS UPON ItARS «*»( PAiiEP OvrR My "OARl nEaO SJ«|(t Fift 3T. /N ''hE SlOOmO 'WNCH-tNT CKilOHOOe THf StCRET WHuN A* AfiOor TO SflAff W*i W^ShCO yPON PReMfORI WCAI}-,^ IT WAS CvOiD! *OUN(, MAN-GOUJI-'-TW T£«ilBlf C(y#iF - THtliRftO for -Ui OwABFeo m -TkE VT»'"«& fOOP«»«W "f^AI COWtiONi-t WTM ON fOl* »< *« J J ^^Si!" 'i - A in4M ei.i*
ME (tCKU&6iN
Mftf ERKWS THAN F*f R, "THERt iPTS TXEOLDMAV Of MVSTfRt.
t.OO«IN(T A^bAE
BUCK
PAiLSO
N(K 0
VTMJO ^
?'*
'-^^^ A
I
»i
WT
I
Rotior coAir.
69
lOuEFTtO A^AjMST 'XP LiT »KT .IxC Acii I
*U(»t OF
ftuK
l
,
i
LI
O'tR
MtRO 11 »e(M WrU AND OAlE.
QE^T u^OV TM£
i>WRA*lLUIi>6i
[95]
The Cumps
[96]
Sidney Smith
1917
INTRODUCING "THE GUMPS." Hope-
Gump
TWE-rAWVO CAT-
OVbT/V PLAIN ORDINARY _.
VIHO NVlENTECi THE FLOWER POT. H6A.LS0 /
INTROOOCED
TXE-
POLKADQT
TIE- IN T>1l5COONTR-<. hE-HAS
AMD
Klkl^^
yCKs&UMp THE
^NOREVJ GUMP
SEEN WORKlNli ON PERPETUAL /MOTION '=OR. 30 YEAeS
t?^
"T>te
QUK*^
r^i, VilNOHAS NEvEf? MAO A KNOCK OOT SCORE-P
HAKE
A<3Anl%T HI^A» HIS PET TRAINIftd
IMCOLLC^E
"^tuNT
AND I^^TftLKjH — XE
THEY'LL KA'Jt ^MS SHOOT M|^AON
To
--^>^
ISLl(.KIN(j
PLATED EVEM K^ORNrNU TO KEEP IN
TR(N\
OUOCaMtNT
DAV.
NiNtm GOMP reaily The BSHiNScf TXf FAWllll dtNTVE.LtXINll ^N^^o is
CHESTER GiUlAP WHOSE P6T STONT
The Gumps new mqnveThEREARE (AANT STRANfat RUIWRS ABOOT THl^ HOUSE- SOTAt iAY TMEPtAtE 14 MAONTEO- OTHERS RoisiA^" ^PT^ THt l*Ot.lCE T>«INK "Tli A
*^ENCE-
FOR STOLEN
AvVOW\OSH.F-S.
we SMALL
AHB tNOUR^Nti. \NI1>I A oT^CWir
1% VoRNiNft IN FALSE ALA«tlA5>
BOl/LE-VARD
VA^Af»IRE-
euTA TERRAIN
ON Z.ERO
NKjHTS to iEE THE
Fl?E ENtilNt^ ftOBV.
WS tATS PICKLES \N1TH HI ^
ice CREAsAS .^
[97]
[98]
THf rnKT
^A/WLT
UKtD
ftHE BEfOW
HtVl MI5IW\ ^OTT*. BLOW out LEMNiE I
WERE\buNUI
[
\
\
Of «OU<»H HtCR. HEWUSTKAilt WtflT'T'lNTO oCaHTMiS PlPt f>N THAT. OH VI ELU IXL
MA
TXAT
Mil
is confusion mTUEStlf M0y4t MOLb- THEIR PolhllTUI AHR\>ltD LAST NI(»M»- AT IX
O tkOC>C-^"N0»T»l«i^lM THE PIAHO WERE B«0(Clf4 AH^ ^ VK.TROIA RECORDS AW\ASH10 LITTUCMtVIft llfHn*E«1^RE HI^M IN A bUI)(AU DRAWED.
•
70
^ibNfT awiiTji^
u
[09]
[100]
'
tion
— ^H^NEH,HBOR^A UTTifrCLA^^,— T»tY HAVE- OUST
aOUbHTA,NEW PAR 1.0ft UAfV\P A.N& %HE tif\\
DKlOEB TOUVWBEB
OWM
NAT FROWy^iW.
^Cp VMiNOOv*.
The AiDO^ a WACOvK PfAlMtR
vtiTM
TVAT «a«.8EEn8«<
OF APttniRC-fRAMt, AGiLriED^nntit
AXt>Al-»ST(EAA4
^HAP( 4V4E-HA^ SET Out TTi St
^^fcMUl6AWB Af»D "liA^/t ^^oNt-<—
RV— BUCK" TVl BOOUtVAI^O VAMPll^e- li
STILL AT LARtiE TWef THINK.
THt
.
OOti tATCWtR\
71
[102]
Old Doc Yak
Sidney Smith
1917 (precedes The
Gumps
in
date)
[103)
[104]
[105]
^nt^ie^'Jf^S^ HAS NOTltt FWOfA HIS LANDLOftD TWAT IP •n*» BtNT PORTHi^ SPACE 1^ hOT PAID By ^ATuRCAf RCCClveO
HSAHD HIS UTTLeCOM YUTtM WlLU HAVe ro leAWE TmiS PA6E ANO tr WILL BC RENTED TO ANOTmEU
PAATT —
Doc MA^ But T>4C
•<*^
in
A^A OFFtWNtj A CAW \ \ TKAT i^ iuPtmoR ro ah/ \ ON TNC ^AARKtT TO OAX AT ANY PRICE- A CAH. rWAT> »AflH CiO RtGHT OUT NOV* ON TMt BOUlf VA(tt> AHt> TI^IN^
'
I
ANY TNIN&-
FOANCii Q«tf FIN
PBRCy FORD O^ ANY BODY. A CAR TNAT HAi ^TOOO TMt TEST OP- YEAW^, THAT HAS auMpeO tVCR^i bu*A(> PROfA HKKC- TO aLt-NCOtAMD BA^K IF XOU DONT BtLlt^C ir AS«. OOC SPAi- '* -
NOYfr TmC E^kTRftAt Lines OF TmC aoDX AMD THAT FA^HlONAALt CHiNpStCOWL
(T
f
AND
THJ-N
ao UNDtft
The hooo and take- it APART NUT 6t NOT 60lT BTf BOi-T DCFT XOl; TO FiNOA FLAW - TAKE iTAl-L
NOW GtNTlEMCN — OFFER THii vvON0eRFUl-\
I
plfcCt OF y
FOR SAUt-
COOK3 PARK
PO(%
Dot- MC^-t* MAYC A HARO T'ME PAYIN* T>iAT ^ftO<-eRT
fliL*.
UtT ALONE ON >*H1%
3rAYIN<3 PA<»6-
I
APAf^T
BRlNb YOU** OWN
,
BlDP-OR\T?
COonT ThE NUfABBROF bPOKpV
CAR£ -
TV
BANK. AWO HA^ POOMlUO
TO PAY A <«ft(KCR ati-L OF
TXtUt 1^ ONt MOPt — l^LlKt PyiLlNti TttTU. HE ^YlLU HA\ Ml^ CA.K Hr^ I.IFCL0N<1 FR»CnO - 't WILU Ok& PART vs/iTM THATIT
i^&
IT
15%OP^ -
>*t wrV.L AUCTfOH vii50f«».y NieA#«i
I
[106]
[107]
Mutt and
Jeff
H. C. "Bud" Fisher
1927 / 1928 / 1932
[108
®
73
H. C. Fiilwf. 1927
[110]
[HI]
^
[112]
[113]
li.
74
M. C. F.ih.r. 1928
[1141
ICMA
IN
BUYIM& TOU
TUG •an
FTtOWV
tfbNty »
I
[115]
[116]
[in:
£
75
H.
[118] THG:
ICCMAW
GlwBATTte
STlU"-
CALL OU
wHCM MR.
MRU
GlttBATTL*
LASr MftMTM?** HA -HA- ha:
M\iTT THtMMS
OOWAH.' "THAT'S
THt
CTOFF-'
1% &»l*A&
11191
[120]
[1211
H. C. Fiiher. 1932
76 li
[122]
JWtt has mt. -reuju UIITM Hit
KCYHOia C01.UMW-
[123)
[124]
[125]
©
I have
H. C. fisher. 1932
that fallacious feeling of absolute knowledge that a first edition of Theodore Dreiser will
have only the value of its covers for a quaint period chocolate box in 2000 A.D., whereas the single copy known of three famous comic strips, say 'Mutt and Jeff,'
complete from their beginnings,
'Andy Gump,' and 'Krazy Kat,'
cut out and pasted in endless oilcloth- covered volumes by an invalid
spinster of the epoch on an isolated fann, will have something like the value of the original manuscript, say, of the Book of the Dead.
William Bolitho "Comic Strip," Camera Obscura
77
,
1930
**No No, t-APV! NOT HIM ? THE LITTLE BITTY FELLER WITH THE DERBY HAT? THAT'S MICKEY McdUIRE !"
TOONERVILLE FOLKS B^ FONTAINE FOX SUNDAY. DECEMBER 21,
TOONERVILLE FOLKS
Seaaonable Trials «
"
THERE'S THAT KtP
NOW
!
IT'S
eONNA BE DARK IN A MINUTB AND MAY»E I CAN NAB HIM ? "
"I WONPen
IP M« PHONEP THE WIFE TO eCT THE KID/
AWAY ?
HE'S STILL
^A
-•
U% IM OU
1930
fontaine Fox
m Old Cunning Stagers Long-Lived Stars
Comic
Strip's
of the
Second Two Decades
1916-1936 This section of Sunday pages
is devoted to famous and long-surviving characters hfe in the multitude of comic strips which packed the color comic sections of the 1920s and early 1930s.
brought
to
That was the period in which weekend comic sections went from four to eight and then to sixteen pages, with the Hearst papers initiating a fantastic thirty-two-page tabloid section in 1935. And that encouraged the proliferation of new strips from the dozen or more syndicates which were by then supplying an insatiable newspaper
market.
The
old and established strips seemed to retain their earlier places through
new titles, and a few of the new strips (Moon MuUins and others) displayed the qualities necessary to match the audiences for the classic works, and to continue through the subsequent decades with them. have included a short-lived but very typical new strip of the period, The Smythes. the floodtide of
We
This was also the
last great
period of full Sunda\' pages for each and ever\' strip. In and even one-third pages for major strips gradually became a common and accepted thing. The galaxy of the comic strip never again was to glow the 1940s half pages
so brightly as during these last marvelous years of
Notes on strips in
this section
its
springtide.
The Smythes [126-127] represents one of the few occasions (but not the only) in which one of the circle of Neic Yorker magazine panel cartoonists ventured into the comic strip. Rea Irvin, the strip's creator, did these Sunday pages for the New York Herald Tribune, whose comic section was marked by a special sophistication and restraint.
The Gumps pages included of the 1920s, fancy.
whose saucy
The "Old
348,"
[128-129] are typical of this immensely popular strip
familial banter
Andy Gump's
and obsession with
large-licensed auto,
Sidney Smith's previous Sunday-page hero. Old Cliff Sterrett
cars suited the pubhc's
was inherited by him from
Doc Yak.
was, after George Herriman, the unbridled and unflagging graphic
master of the comic Sunday page. In
fact, Sterrett
so far from formal graphic reality that his syndicate
took his popular strip of family
life
became alarmed and ordered him to restore some measure of comprehensive nonnality before his readership abandoned him in the same perplexity with which they reacted to Herriman's Krazy Kat. The
79
pages of Polly and Her Pals reproduced here only suggest the extent of hant graphic work in the
These
Moon
later
pearance in the first
Mullins Sunday pages [138-139] are concerned with the
strip of
Gamp into Dickens's Nemo pages [140-142]
This second group of McCay's
second Hearst period (the
period with the Herald Tribune
imagination did not
first
Moon's earthy Uncle Willie, an event roughly similar
tentative introduction of Mrs.
strip's
Sterrett's bril-
1920s [130-135].
late
(
first
two
ap-
to the
Martin Chuzzlewit.
combines examples from the
selections of 1912)
the last selection of 1925
)
.
and
its
third
and
final
As can be seen, McCay's
although his graphic verve was hampered by the Herald
flag,
Tribune's policy of a standard twelve-panel format for most of his later work.
The
unforgettable images of C.
W.
Kahles's delightful cast of melodramatic char-
acters are showoi to advantage in this
example of Hairbreadth Harry [143] from
Kahles's last decade as a cartoonist.
In the mastery of strip graphics, few cartoonists have equaled George as these
two
humor he
selections of his Bringing
Up
McManus,
Father will demonstrate [144-145]. The
sustained over the years in developing the familial conflict between Jiggs
and Maggie
is
also well evidenced.
Included here are the Katzenjammer Kids pages of Harold H. Knerr [146-148],
drawn
for the Hearst papers
from the mid-1910s on, after Rudolph Dirks
to continue his strip elsewhere,
left
Hearst
and now called The Captain and the Kids. Both Dirks but they were both ingenious in handling the Katzen-
and Knerr have their partisans, jammer menage. Barney Google [149-150], the rogue and vagabond strip ne plus ultra, along with Frank Willard's equally perceptive Moon Mullins [138-139], caught the raffish, des-
perate, yet raucously colorful quality of lower-class, pool-hall-and-race-track life of
the twenties. Billy of
De Beck
Hemingway and
De
even extended the scope of
Fitzgerald, as will
be noted
Beck's later turn to backwoods hillbilly
in the early thirties
which replaced the place
life
in
and
one of the selections included here.
with the introduction of Snuffy Smith
probably resulted from his roisterous twenties,
his strip to the expatriate Paris
his
own
distaste for the grim
attempt to find an
idyllic
decade
world
to re-
it.
Frank King had a highly fanciful way with
Sunday-page work which
his
is
often
overlooked in discussions of his cradle-to-maturity family saga, Casoline Alley, fea-
Walt and Skeezix. Here we have reproduced some of King's finest pages [151-156], including one which mildly parodies German expressionism, one which brings the look of woodcuts to the comic strip, and others which startlingly follow turing Uncle
the twelve-panel progress of the characters across a full-page field of static back-
ground.
Rube Goldberg's Booh McNutt suspense a
strips
Sunday page
[157-158] was one of the few major narrative and
which never appeared only.
in a daily format,
The two examples shown here
running from
start to finish as
are from the strip's earlier, anec-
dotal phase.
Merely Margy [161] was the comic strip of John Held, Jr., renowned artist for College Humor and other youthfully oriented publications of the period. Like most of Held's popular work,
Margy
reflected the
view of college and "flapper"
life
held by
most collegiate youths of the time, from coonskin coats to hip flasks. Somebody's Stenog 162] was a Sunday page of fine graphic verve, a point which [
has sadly been lost because of the feature's later reputation as a kind of second-string Tillie the Toiler.
Harry Tuthill was the Louis-Ferdinand Celine of the comic page, and jaundiced view of lower-middle-class family
humor and
a fancy
which
filled
magicians, and time-travel
)
is
life
(
his bleakly
happily offset by a wild sense of
the later strips with gnomes, enchanted mice,
fairies,
well reflected in the group of early 1930s Bungle Family
pages reprinted here [ 163-169].
George Herriman's Krazy Kat, the apogee of comic-strip puzzled so
80
much
of the readership of
its
time that
art
and narrative
many Hearst
to date,
chain editors pub-
lished the
Sunday pages only under
direct orders from Hearst himself,
nized and appreciated Herriman's fey genius. However, Hearst had
it
who
recog-
printed in the
where it had to run in black and white, rather than in the full panoply of color which Herriman could put to the stunning use demonstrated in Section Seven of this collection. Virtually all of Herriman's Sundaypage work between 1916 and 1934 accordingly ran in black and white (except for a brief group of pages published in the New Yor^ Journal in 1922) and the preponderweekly drama and
ance
is
arts section of his papers,
reflected in the selection
reproduced here [170-172].
The Blondie page is typical of the early strips [173]. Our Skippy selection demonstrates Percy Crosby's and mobile
line [174].
81
early unfettered strip
humor
The Smythes
[126]
82
Kea Irvin
1»30
[127J
83
[128]
<& Ih«
84
Chicago Tribune. 1924
[129) HAND
^
»V
\
^V\RtVJ
^5^
^
^
'M»0 \\ POURlMCi OUT «>» VKKT f^OKVUIte
VvKW&N*
0>R«i\OlE
SKVXOON KVlD .CROVVM*-
s\\^
vrn\.t tviPT< ^ootA
CAMT WEVP
/
drama oP idvenlure and
£»CS«Ces KMtEIRS
Uirilh
roef EvE>»
TMCBE
MMUb
OE
HI
MiH <,u
85
n> (w^.
ihp Chicago Ir.bune
1
1926
PoUy and Her
Pals
Cliff Sterrett
1926 / 1927 / 1930
[130]
Polly and
86
Her
Pals
[131]
FciiR^SwJOCTT
Polly and
Her
Pals
i:
87
Nr-w.cacor
r.-otv-f
k".
St.. 1927
88
[133]
©
89
Newipapcf Feoturc
Service. Inc., 1927
[134]
i^
90
h4«
Inc.,
1927
,
I
Polly and
Her
Pals
fe)
91
Newspopcr Feature
Service. Inc., 1930
l:J.5)
Mutt and
Jeff
H. C. "Bud" Fisher
1925 / 1928
[136]
MUTT AND
JEFF
-:-
They Fire Off Seventy-Five Poands
92
of Giant
Powder
-:-
By
BUD FISHER
[137]
eouU>e/^T
MO FAT?
MUTT AND
JEFF
Mutt Needed a Blow-Out Patch
93
By
BUD FISHER
Moon
Mullins
[138]
Frank WiUard
1927
Moon Mullins
94
ri39]
iicogo Tnbun*, 1927
95
Uttle
Nemo in
96
the
Land
of
Wonderful Dreams
WinsorMcCay
1912/1925
[141
Americon-Exoftiiner. 1912
97
[142]
<5
98
N«w
Yo
Hairbreadth Harry
C.
W,
Kahles
1924
=^3^
n^iXUQ-l
[143]
C.W. KAHLES
iSNT IT wonderful! aw'T ITA WONDEK^UL A(£ WE'RE 1.IVIN6 iw?io to$Mie *NP evERrmiN
'
WELl.OFAUreRSONfi PEL16HTED, I'M SOKE. LAW INNE2-VI22 HOW LOVELY AND ETHEREAL YOU'RE i, LOOKINg.MY PEAg
HOW
AMO SO T«15 15 LITTLE KNOTT THEYCK' iNTn?EsriN<;. HE6 WELI'WHAT ASTUEff LITTLE RUDOtPH IS OETTINfi TD BE' lAST TIME SAW HIM ONEOFTWSE Ht WAS UsrH A jPKfTE Of A i:XllD
OW
I
I
PilCHIC PERSONS
'J
FWRtlOH ME, BUT THOiE WEBE FRiENOS OC f MINE OF THE INVIS4BLE yvOELD.'OFCOUtSE igxi iArfT SEE T>fEM IJUCESS TOU ARE TU MED
WEIL.IF THIS iNorri-Nirril
H>THEA»SOUJTEJ AH» VIBRATE M*n
»4N'T
I
I
I
i
THECOONTFiS
never a
LOOK 30 CHAPHAHOUS; THIS ji A TREAT, IM SURE
^
INAWJWlEAueAJ
PARDON The INTEI^KUPTlON, MY PEAR OXJNTESS.' THAT LOW u VUL
99
Bringing
Up
Father
George McManus
1918 /1920
[144]
BringngUplather It's
Too Bad Mo-'iahan Didn't Get There and Have Some Fun
Earlier
p^^t-^^^* Star Cuiripony.
100
[145]
or SECTION THE
COMIC SAN FRANQSCO EXAMINER November
Bringing m 1
^
WONT
>kUI_Ow VOO'bE Ifl TOO V/C <.OTT*kCIT TO e***"^^ *>N>r ci<.*^Q*) 12 em in tiOMenow INTO •^o*-t' — mB^YOO COi-ie'vjlTH COT A r^^J^_NE Dl^4TV.' ,^^B -^
^
Up
FatLer
14,
1920
Katzenjammer Kids
Harold H. Knerr
1925 / 1926 / 1932
[146]
The
Katzenjamiiicr Kids
VCKJ »u\^
8l*WK
1
f^"''< '^'i*'
RicvAT ^v^r
Tou \V> Soi^t UNO I'M
IS^ OF"? ffVPTL^
-
®
102
ojwe^l'iEN ot*? vjn
l>
J
—
Inlornolional F»otufd Servic*. Inc., 1925
[147]
„ "l^rtA, MWE TO \*/a.\T,£AlD MR
OoRStT.
l^tWuTj^AS (O (MWT.fAlOMR DO«V*.T. " YouXV H^Vt To VNft'T .5ft>a fV\ ,Don5tT_- j
^^SV VAll.CO>.M
.
)
'.
Internoiionol feature Service, Inc.,
103
IW6
[148]
King Footurei Syndicate.
104
Inc.,
1937
Barney Google and Spark Plug
Bill\
Do Beck
1929
Z
ACT youst Tb K«ei» v€«t pew V
A'M-r
,
X
0«
muTwm *«eT. u*vt 1 ( y-
tl49J
^"^ »*"'^«SS't X vnr WOT
Teix'*otj&*
mmB
uAvK you ^j«Ne«. wtA^oo^
s-§ocax
C*^zeM
'-
AND
'^
"^y
Vi«»*t:vmi« &OVT vow
I
Barney Google and Spark Plug CAKTE POSTAlye_
/ FeLLER OET lo ste Tme S»GmT^ here
^
I
\
ANJO,
SO
FAR..
TmS
OCT ANvTmpSJG rVE
SAO
efc^eo^o'^
A
van ofAKEwcwi toubists
LtJ THE MclNTMftBni. tiTn: AVftb BEKwe THe.V>OUC€/ vHHIVeu.UUT THeWOMGN IN TVO, cJAve mRrf A <5cc» DeSCRVPTioM C* HIM Tf^&C SftY H€, Y#V£ TT«/ 1
V IHr C/wP^
m-
•
PlBRCti 1.0
sefiET HavtfsS yjwRiNG
J^
105
a shiny
King Features Syndicoto, inc. 1929
[150]
Barney Google and Spark Plug
106
I
CasoUne Alley
Frank King
1929-1931
[151]
'^
^\
[152]
Ih« OilcoBO Trlbuiw. 1930
108
[153]
GB&iAme Alley
Ky ine v_nicago
109
i
£154]
£)
110
Tho
Chkogo
Tribune, 1931
(155)
Th« Chicago Tribune. 1931
111
tl56]
i, Ihc Cli,.jao Iiibu.K-
112
1931
Boob McNutt
£\^
Rube Goldberg
1919 / 1920
[158]
\
\0^
1
Ap'\RTMexx
30,000,000
'
i.
For.
IS FtFTY
oe>JTS
MOKiey. I'lL
VJP
Moye
I
I
THiiOfc
"V
TO MACS
I
COMIC SECTION THB SAN RANQSCO EXAMINER April
18,
1920
R((iii>
t:
e r«t*M
ncM*
Boob McNutt
C
114
Slor
Compony. 1920
Happy Hooligan
Fred Opper
1925
[159]
115
S'Matter Pop?
Charles M. Payne
1929
~| l.i
TiETvweehj
Mt bo MUCrt, too mJ I'm
/
,
'
Tf+A
KiT^EW
..':~mrT _._«_"-Tt-R^^OT To'Pt?OTeCT
AI
"''/ilMSi€L-F
Sufficient
.--V*
8
116
Ball
SvndlwH,
Inc..
1959
Merely Margy
John Held,
Jr.
1930
[161]
King Feoturej Syndrcote,
117
Inc.,
1V30
Somebody's Stenog
A. H.
Hayward
1931
[162]
The Back'Seat Driver
118
The Bungle Family
Hany
Tuthill
1931 / 1932 / 1930
[163]
THE BUNGLE FAMILY MtAVENiy a*rs, GeoRise BUNOLE, I JU3T SAWV THOSE NOSy \fl*'^NGLeS V«*£XXJNG UP TWE WAJ_K AND KNOW TWCVRf
By
ONE MORE FRIENDLY LESSON
I
WW4IU£
!
Wef
AND
TUTHILL SEE aOMCTMrNO MOVIMS.,.. MOVIN9. VDU KJCK ON TMC OOOR, HAROOI..
,
1
HERE.
H. J.
I
WNO
i
TWI9
HOUSE LOOKS wwrLE n-l
J
»*!y,'5EClXANI'*3._)
J
H.
119
J.
Tuihill
and ^AcNaught Syndicate.
Inc..
1931
[164]
>^^^
THE BUNGLE FAMILY
TROUBLE ALWAYS MEETS CEORCE HALF
WAY
H.
120
By
AT LEAST
J
lulhill
H. J.
TUTHILL
ond McNought Syndicole.
Inc.,
IWI
[165]
THE BUNGLE FAMILY
121
TUTHIU.
[166]
® McNoughl Syndicoo. 122
Inc.,
N.Y.. 1931
[167]
e 123
McNought
Syndicolt,
Inc.. N.Y..
1931
[168]
':^
124
r/cNoughr Syndicola,
Inc.,
[169]
CI H.
125
J.
TulhlM. 1930
Krazy Kat
George
Hemman
1922-1923
[170]
THIS MOST AMUSINa COMIC
"KRAZY KAT" APPEARS EVERY DAY IN
THE NEW YORK EVENING JOURNAL
C«fftnr»t.
\uHicfc
*e To*i.«i-n;s Hat,
To m>AtV 5
P»3«>A
,
IKS. tv lalw>klt«^
Fwiw
Svrw.
^i^cHUcik 6«£>we;^.
^OU-S -V
IT
W6At
/V 'THt
fetLATwes ey 6t»'Aj& His 'HAiett
CD Inrvrnotional Faotur* Sffrvics, Inc., 1922
126
p [171]
Krazy Kat
127
By
H erriman
[172]
128
Blondie
Murat "Chic" Young
1933
[173]
©
129
King Feofures Syndicote,
Inc.,
1933
Skippy
[174]
I
Percy Crosby
1930
S1CII»I»
M«YMAP. But to cowfiNuf: WHICJ r AM WOT AT 5UJ0RDS POiNTi uiTM TMS Cosmic MCSiACC OF A SHftLtV *S
MANIFEJT60 iN'PBOMfTHfUS OWeOON0,"wf MOST TAKE C06K>lZANCe Of rut pANTMflSTIC P0CT«IN£S of UOOOSu'oerH
YfH,
r
BfMfMSfR
rwe SIXTH T/ME I
KAp'TRfAJoee
IJ£.AND"I LtHtD
THAT pABTWttflif Got his arm X.MOST SHOT OFF VP on TH6
I^erey Qrogiby^
U)£tt, UIHAT I0K.L YOW; THf ON0«AT0P0«IC VACUfS OF'COtePlOCt, OR, iHAtC Ult SAY THOJC OF A CONTEMPORARY SOCH AS CMfSTfRTON IN HIS if PANTO,. OR IINOSAV IN HIS CON 60 ?
m
W
THfY'S A
PART IN TRtASoRE IJtANP <
MAST
I
BARREL
p
M •iiir
MY FBiCnD, that VOO HAVf A PeoCLlViTY TO CO IN fOff Th6 SANGUINARY Sort of thiws. this roietc. /•wouch for a IT
Slim
-flMf
i
TO Mt,
IVf P OOnjN,
MAY PR0V4 RttRoOtSCfNT
THAT YOU C(XT)V/ITT MY ONS0tlCIT£0 ADV1C6 PUSSOEO WITH IMPUNITY, TASTES THAT CAN SOMCTHINC MORE COMPATiece U/fTH THf ADOLESCENT Mind, cood pay. my friend. IS
M
/
©
130
Percy
L.
Croiby ond King Features Syndicole.
Inc.,
1930
|
—
m Sunny
Toonerville
and the Darkling World Anecdote and Narrative
Comic
in the Daily
Strip,
1917-1933 The
reality of death,
fiction are based,
and the recurrent threat
came
to the
comic
of
strip in the
on which adventure and detective
it,
winter of 1925, quietly, unexpectedly,
and somewhat obscurely. There had been hints earlier: a few men had been brought low as part of the plot mechanics in the movie satires of Ed Wheelan's Minute Movies and Chester Gould's Fillum Fables, but only as jests poked at the mayhem of some silent film melodramas. And a cold-blooded murder plot, which had been hatched against Oliver Warbucks in Harold Gray's Orphan Annie in mid-1925, built some brief suspense but ended farcically, with the plotters booted offstage. Roy Crane's Wash Tubhs, which had begun in early 1924 and was to become the greatest adventure strip of the 1920s, had not yet moved beyond comic melodrama and village romance, with an early seafaring treasure hunt handled largely as knockabout farce. In Phil Hardy, however, a new, short-lived daily strip of late 1925, and in Out Our
Way, an established daily panel anecdote strip with recurring characters and settings by J. R. Williams, a good deal of realistic blood was often shed in full view of the reader. Out Our Way was distributed largely to rural papers and second-string urban afternoon dailies, so that the impact of realistic death in the comics was somewhat muted. But the opening note for serious action and adventure had been struck, and the monopoly of humor on newsprint space began slowly but with an accelerating
pace to yield
A
to
suspense and melodrama.
few established
strips
moved
Wash new em-
to suspenseful adventure, notably Crane's
Tuhhs, Gray's Orphan Annie, and Smith's Sunday Gumps. But most of the came with new, largely daily, strips such as George Storm's Bohhy Thatcher (1927), Gus Mager's Oliver's Adventures (1927), Hal Forrest's Taihpin Tommy
phasis
Tim Tylers Flying Luck 1928), Monte Barrett's Jane Arden 1929), Rex Maxon's and Harold Foster's Tarzan 1929), and Phil Nowlan's and Dick Calkins's Buck Rogers (1929). After 1930 came the deluge, permanently altering the content of the comics pages with crime and adventure strips Skyroads, Jack Sicift. Dick Tracy, Scorchy Smith, Dickie Dare, Patsy Ming Foo, Little Joe, Dan Dunn, (
1928), Lyinan Young's
(
(
Donnie,
131
(
On The Wing,
Broncho
Bill,
Brick Bradford, and others, endless.
)
The major humorous strips held their own, retaining the static shape of yesterday and the da>^ before, much as ^^ C. Fields and Laurel and Hardy brought their earlier comic trappings securely and successfully into the sound films of the thirties. The daily panels of Toonerville Folks and School Days illuminated the pages of the .
Moon MuUins and Minute Movies continued to spin irreverent narrative were as many laughs as ever to be had. The comic strip had
daily papers.
of a high order. There
grown and performed an amoebic split into two spheres ing was lost in the act, and a great deal was gained.
Notes on
strips in this section
Out Our
Way was
anecdotal or
series,
a curious strip in that
alternated
it
of appeal, but almost noth-
among as many
as four separate
involving four separate sets of characters and settings, devoting one
two days per week
to each continuity [175-178].
Moon MuUins and Barney Google were two
of the great daily narrative strips of
the 1920s and 1930s, as the selections included here will attest [221-319], (Dover
Books has repubUshed two narratives from 1929
Another
erratically
and 1931
stor\- strip
condensed but
still
delightfully roguish Mullins
respectively.
of the period,
which held readers
was
for several decades,
it was in some ways as a and unassuming as it was in its stance and tone, does not excerpt well: it depends heavily on the reader's intimate knowledge of what has happened before in the strip, and to whom. The same is true of the daily episodes of Sidney Smith's The Gumps, which were remarkable in that they gripped millions of readers with continuity on two disparate levels: that of a straightforward, bathetic, and deadly serious melodrama and that of a hilarious and deeph' engaging takeoff on their own outward content. There is httle doubt but that Smith, a Rabelaisian and irreverent man of comic wit and imagination, knew what he was doing to his readers
Frank King's Gasoline Alley, but this work, extraordinary as
chronicle of an American family,
on both
levels,
and
as a greatly gifted storyteller
was able simultaneously
expectations of the two groups. But the story line
veloped that any excerpt of
less
is
so
to satisfy the
complex and extensively de-
than eight or nine months would
fail to
be
self-
explanatory as a unit. Regrettably, therefore, the daily Gumps, as well as the daily
Gasoline Alley, have been passed over in this collection. Both surely deserve extended, carefully edited, anthologies.
Roy Crane's Wash Tubbs (published Easy) the
is
work of
a
man who had
Caniff and his Terry
garded by
132
in a
reputedly the finest adventiire strip of
its
and
companion Sunday page its
as Captain
time, surpassed only after 1934 by
self-admittedly been Crane's devoted student: Milton
the Pirates.
The Wash Tubbs sequence
reprinted here
is
devotees as the graphic and narrative apogee of the strip [320-426].
re-
Out Our
Way
J.
R.
WilUams
1925 / 1927 / 1932 / 1935
[176]
[178]
© NEA
133
Services, Inc., 1932
)
NEA
S
Bobby Thatcher
[179]
George Storai
1932
Wev6R HACT NOeOOV UKS T«E PROFESSCR WB KMOW SOiwEBOCV CHARGE BEFORE HBLPED HIM DOWN WI-TH TMATT SIGN, BUT HE JUST SET3 M HE WOh'T SAV who THE CALABOOSS AND WOHT WOhV eat HI! AMO TALX
©
Bell Syndicale. Inc.,
©
Bell
1932
[180]
1
[181]
TUE PROCESSOR WAS esGM IM TME CALASQOSe reHES OAVS, Al«0 STia_ ME WOMT TBLL. how he OOT THAT SICM DOW>J NOR WHAT HE DID WITH THE COLD FILLIMCS HE HOOKED FRO* THE OEMTISTS HE WOnV TAKE THE MOHE/ OFFKie like TO DO HE PlAlO US EITHER. ••• OOnY -/ SO-STHIM' TO MeiJ».HlM^ BUT
^
1
KHOW WHAT"
vV.__r_—r
SyndicoK
?AuT DARK FORCES ARE jy MOVIMC TO FURTHER CCXPLIOTE THE SCrE«TlSTS TROUBLED AFFAl*2S--- THE DREADED COVE GAMO IS TO EHTERINC THE VULLAOE EFFECT HIS RESCUE IM TWE ,
eCUEF THAT THEY ARE AIOIMC A PARTMEFi IN Crime
THE SILEMT VILLAGE
IS
WRAPPED IH SLUAHSER AHD THE Clock im the steeple STRIKES
otte'.'.
ell
[182]
lO'FF TOLl.y -'
Svndico
JUST THE SAME weos CONNA. "Tai FOR rOUH. OWK you OUTA TUBOS GOOD--- '"V OLD RAP ALWAVS SAO
AMD
THE MOST
'A BIRD OH A LIMB S'NCS A
RESOLUTE MEMBERS
SWEETER THAW OME
OF TME DREADED COVE C^XC
IN
ABE GROUPED
AROUND THE CALAaOOSE,,.,
THE OnlV SOUNDS TO BE HEARD IM THE SLUMBERIHC village 'S the distaht BavihC
of a
watch ooc--
If'
[183]
Bell Syndicate,
Inc..
19321
stout bars of the calaboose WINDOW
["XIhe
DIO NOT LONG RESIST THE MIGHT/ Blows Of a sixteeM pound spike aaaul wrapped in burlap. WIELDED By biff
toll/
Himself...
l-^^
®
134
Bell Syndicale, Inc.,
19: t
[184]
[185]
[186]
[187]
1932
idicaie. Int.,
—1
ALBeRX BEWARE
PETTIBOHE'. '.'.
THE OUTIAW CHiEP IS A
AMO desperate
v«lC
mo
mam' cooo cam
COME OF
T14e
FRlGWOSHIP VJHlCX ME
TMRUSTS UPOM vou'
S
135
B«ll Syndicate, Inc..
1732
[188]
[189]
O
SMUT JP
BORROW A CC^ 86CAUSE "THE" PROFESSOR WAMTS A CLASS FlRS-r THIUC OF MILK WAVE VOO rt3u KWOW Bin=Ll. yS
1M >
WAVIH' "no
A KITCHEN
amo oowt
LCX THIS
SWIWC
!»
tJ
SCOW THE
CuBtaeMT...
^^ "
r-',_,»^ I
^MEBBE THE PROFESSOR. DO»T V/AKTA PUT IM WitM US BECAUSG HE TMIMKS WEtJE POUCH-WSCXSWS'ul- ALl_ SLICK UP Fo« MtM AWHILE
...
WHEN HE GETS A LOAO OP THIS OUTFIT HEVl KUOW/ TH6RES OMS CEMTLEMAH 1" the: PACK
>
AP»e?0>4
CAKES
BAKIW ANCeU FOB »
[1901
II
Minute Movies
[191]
IlONG ACO
ED WHEEL AH m? COMEDIANS
IN
*
fcURLESQUF OF •DTW
OOlltOTE:
DOW
K,
A CERTAIN SBON IN LA UOOCWA IMERE LWED AN OLr>
•^iSg
prcscorff
Edgar Wheelan
IN
\;iLLAfiE
.
FACT
TVIca
A PROP
WE
—
AJEVCl?
[192]
136
TonCUFD
1929
5»nd)coi8.
Inc..
1932
I
[193]
[194]
(aJftcr being, -meoujN fob A LOSS By TUE WlNDMliL WUICH HE MISTOOK FDR A 'GIN MIU." , DON K. UiAlGV^y. THE AJUTT/ KMISUT, «/AS
fm^"^^ ED UWEELbH'S
muE
HEARTENEO
OTTMSfoiriT
COUIAfsP,
SAPC
FiSR'-
TUftN
H OF
50N(1,"C!CIN
UAuewTy LOVE VOO* IS softlv INTRODUCED ON THE OBOE
k. 1
I
Si>ND TiMCS I SHOUiDn
„.-
-SAV NOT-"
d)
[195]
OUFS THEME.
NO-NO-ATWOU-
PRETT/ UIEIL BUNCrED UP.BUT/loT D)S-
SlAPSTiCK
BURLESQUEPART
AM I A CRAVEN, tWAT I SHOULD CEASE MV EFRORTJ To MAkTEJJE MOJLOJ SlieNOE.POOl,'.' UIUAT
A
faithful
PANCHO STAN2A l=INAl.Ly
SUCCEEDED
pippy DOH ON HS STKED
AewN AND ,
so.
OFF THEy KODE
For TeouBiE -
Lookinc, rooree
now A GREAT CROWD
coNie ON. Fellers. UTS K>40CK TVllS SOOFy eOV FOfe A Row OF ASH
/iND
ED
UJUEEIAN'S
'&JRiESQUE'
OF RUNMEtSS.
DON K. HAUfiHiy
CI?0SS-COUNTtey
EN&A&ED I
IN
'
CANS
A
MAKATHOM, APPROACWCP DON k.
-
_ui.
o.
[aJfTer it uas All OWER.TWE
Hut
IHFUBIATED ATHLETES D(2A
/'COME TD think: OF
VLiTTiE
(T. Good Rxncuo, MAyse aj and then /^EVEG HueT/ ^
AMVBOD^^
FAITHFUL
ED
FKlNCHO STANZA
High Moi?se /SND Gave MiM
GATHERED OP THE REMAIN? And off the/
P(?OHlE>niON fiJXHj OFF HIS
THE
di?ink noui
WORKS '-
SIABTED for'
MOMC -
137
/ svsrW 4.AA iSj
-i*
"ysA
AGAIN
;:
;
'~^Al
[196]
^cuuui i^ay5
[197]
Vtemoxl
-^
[1991
»--iare
v icror L/\\iggms
lyiii /
lyzo
/
lyzo
/ lii'^b /
lyzY
tVoW C0I« AIL
T -
[U
"^--"
.^
® 1
138
McClure Syndicate, 1953
McClure Syndicoia. 1723
® ©
139
McClure Syndicole, 1926
McClur. Syndicole.
IM7
205]
vm
207]
IMi
McClure Syndicate, 1927
140
ToonerviUe Folks
Fontaine Fox,
209]
HE DOESN'T GET running stakt Good A SKIPPER HAS TO USE THE vjHe.H
A
•SPCCIAU EMERGENCY POWER* To GET THe CAR UP HOMAn'S
141
}\IUU.
Jr.
1917 / 1924 / 1928
[213]
fl\f. A^ATlVfeS Att-iohle.
ASKS
ALWAYS iAY^ASKTMe SMPff k" WHfH WMY THC TRAdKS WSRE UAIP oUT
Zld ZAd oN MAIhl
S-r(^E6T
,
Mov^ Lof/a MP IT 2!iii To FiaoKP OUT THIS MYSTiei^Y ? -TAKf
couucee BoV wjho rne. SH6».t PlPt torW/sce
frit £)
6-fooO
RiCrt-t'
v<1*.aRiiJ6
Ov/fe«
A PAIR
of-
rnose.
fAAWa-
wiofc
(C»fr"i'"- 1*** *y ^'^ ^*" Srnd-«tt. iiK)
YSTaRS ArJp YPARS Aao, WMChi TMC SKlfffR WAS iTlUL A YoUPJai MAf^, MIS AMSlTloM WAS T" »*/^ 0ti^lf4eeK .
^fU^'t
^^^^:^^
—
Ai^o
Hc
thikIk;*
A
SArAP
no
fVeKi oricf
ifJ
A
oNC wilu sre
OF "t-ET'S
WHILE hc
HirA
\fji\t.r4
ri-AYS
rReTfr>/P.*'
142
1
[218]
[220]
LICK ANIY MAhi
llJ
3Cfj 1684 v/Hehi -THF sKirreK col/ld -THC CoUaJTY, ME HAP TrtE TffACKS 1-AIP
OUT TMAT Way eecAose ne was ai^o villasf
143
LAMfi.icHTe'/^.
Moon Mullins
Frank Willard
1928
[221]
[222]
[223]
[224]
«
144
Th« Chlraso Tribunt.
I93(.t
[225]
[226]
[227]
[228]
fcl
145
The Chicopo Tribune. 1928
[229]
[230]
[231]
The Chicago \r.bune. 1928
[232
/ MOOm^WlwE'. /
/ I
I
\ \
/ /
CAM
NtXJ
HAMDUE BECAUIt MAJCX9 SLOEPOINT CjlVE HER THAT EV-EtiAtJT ORAV40 P\AM0 when SHE WA'S EXPECT(KJ' A AuTVMoeiii Foa HEB BIRTHOAV
\PACK OP AHO CO AWXW
[233]
N
IMA.CilNt tUCM A NiWNV? EivPT MA^ FLEW OFF TH^
[234]
NEXT
l/7_ ^ __H AUMT EMMV-. BETTEO 6eT I CA.M GET NOU *. ME A Nice OUTSIDE BOOM ROOM FOB EICiHT OOUUJIS IMSlOe ECiVPXA OAV AT h»V rr LOOKS HOTEL. KINOA LIKS TtStlN.
The Chicago Tribune, 1928
^\
—AMD IN THE 0LOAMIN6
HtAVENUY OAVs!
WHEN HE CALLED WITH A PEACE OFFEPINO. LITTLE DID THE OALANT MAJOR SDSPECT -THAT THE OIRLOF HIS DREAMS WAS FAR, FAR AW«< ^ ANJO AT THAT VERV -^^ MOMENT FiaUBlN<, OHjJ
VHtH MlJt MMV
[235]
>
Puttimcj him BAS>*^'5> INTO ClRCUljiKgO^ "•
SCHMALTZ AKJD HGa LOVtUV Miece
LBFT
»5WN
,
DIO
NOT KISS
.
euvPTs FlANCe' THE V/CALTWV I
MAOOR BLUEPOINT, COOO-evE". CyPT HAVING LEFT VN A HUFF, A*40 MISS SCHMALT2. NOT SEINCi ABLETO LOCATE Hlh^ .
The CHicogo Tribune, 1928
HOW COULO THAT STUPID WOMAN THINK THAT MEANT THOSE FLOWERS FOQ HER? WHV DID I UUN LIKE A COWARD WHEN SHE fiAO'
UNCLE WILLIES BACH TOWM— WHAT-LL HE SAV IF HE FINDS
IN
I
STARTED RE^OINO THOT BIT OF SENTIMEMTAL . \ SLUSH I WROTE TO ^IHW \VES.l MUST EyPLAIM THIS!
"-V~OASPta,MT
.
A \
OUT -you're GET-nN' , FLOWERS FROM ANOTHEW I 1^ , ODV, MAMIE?
^
I
[236]
OHt I M16HTA KNOWEO HFD COME BOTTIMO IW JUST THE MINOTE THE FIRST MAW VJITH MONEV EVER TOOK A FANCY -to ME Orr VOOR U6Uf FACE AWW
FROM
MEVJEl
ciTAW*«<-
H«cr
_^ V^HO STICK!
£;
The Chicago Tribune. 1928
[237]
The Chicogo Tribune, )928
[238]
Hcoe .oocToa- vou TAKE CHWICE OF THE hAAJOQS VALUAB\.ES--rHtV'n£ 5APE ENOUCiH KEQE SO FAO AS IM
LCOh4CEC!NED OF COURSE, eoT \ THEOEi OUST Me AhJD KtocMSKOlE HEOE AND L DOMT WANT KiO S*_>SPiOOKtS CAST MN- WAV W CASE AKiVTWlMOS M>SS\M' VJHEN OET3 BACK HIS rAEMORY. I
•
^j^ )
Ni B a N>
M
.'rc-r*
The Chicogo Tnbone, 1928
-
.
[239]
OH -THEtre VOU ABE EGVPT-IVE BEEN UOOKIMO HIGH AND IJDW FOR VOU "TO R6AO >OU HIS LETTER I 005T FROM AOONSHINC
FOB PIXV SAKES!
/*7
'
I
r ave too to unoerstano "VOUT^O MAN. THKT X WOULDMT PAt" TWEhTTX FIVE CE»^TS "tO SET OKI THE THROME
WITH THE KINO OF EMOLAMO, HISSELF'
.
TWEKTTV-Flve CEKT5POO-noOH — «UCM CRUST.
VJELL TO CONTINUE WITH THIS EPISU-E MOONSHINE SAVJj
XUf Atr»~^- L NOW ISNT THAT J05T k*Y UJCK.EOVPT-THE WEAtTHy IN MY VEPY. OWN HOUSE ANO ME AWAV^ fAAJOR BLUePOIHT HEU>LESS
TSK-tSV<
''fev..'
•••V.vi3-
fca V^*^. CM; l^*r<»^ » £:
[240] MOW, Mr OEaA nephewVOOSE SHOUUONT TDIN / WE dOWN UKETHAT WHEN I AST FERA 3UOHT LOANTCHE
HELLO. VUkMlE-
(
I
OUST SEEN
VOOR DEVOTED HOSaANO DOWN I THE STREET.
'
,
ONE RELATIVE SHOULD AUWAVS BE HAPPV TO HELP
The Chicogo Tnbune. 19J8
OTHER
T [241]
rr
WHKT? YOU BACK HERE ae^/att^ACAJM,
/weu.>«eoeAB LITTLE
The Chicago Tribune, 1928
'
WOMA^
COME ON WTTM ME. BUM
PCTST I BOU6HT ME SELF ANEW SMD HE
tM OONMA HUN MOO IN
WlLLIAMt MOONSHIHE
.
1
f
W""*. OFFICER
A aOKA THAra WHIT, --OAWN N-OU AINT &Crr._/ HOWCAN VISIBLE MEANS OF / \OUSe SAY SUPPORT
FOR -
BWMATO ^THEATER AHO A -r—l—»r r^ ^|» /IT-,/ jOLC^< NJOHT CLUB AFTER ^jJ^T / WHICH I REMTEO MtiELF J^i>5o VARooM»A^THeom.
'
WHAT FOR?
BEIN
f
AMY
HCV.MAMIC! POKE VER HEAD
OOTTH'WWBtR AND LET TH' OFFICER TAKV A LOOK AT
I
'^^\
"rr l^iZ^ The Chicago Ir.bore. 1928
^
[242]
WHAT nJTHB
WOILD
ON
EATING , -yOUSE. WN OEAH?
WILLIE,
15
HOW
you COT A LOOK
ON NOUR
A CAT
WOLn.O
/^WHy,tAV DEAH fAAMIETHAT WOULD SUIT ME _ JUSTQ^NOY.,
VOU LIKE TO OO FOR A Nice LON6 WALK IM THE MOONLIOHT?
FACE LIKE CAUtjHT IN "
CHICKEN HOUSE
--_
XI ^-y
M. (243)
i I
1
kj
\
WK tr n.
O*— ^
A 8UMP ON Hit eEAKl. EH? W«LL..H«R«hAMOTWeR TO KEEP IT COMFAmy 3NAKC t4TX CRASSI
:^^^^
»B^^>MlftlH»iLimn ;
The ChicoQO Tribune.
[2141
[245]
[246]
6V CEOQOE.MR MULLINSIT NA/A-S WIMO OF VOL)
TO COKAE, SIR* VOU UMOEB STAND THAT t AM A
fcAAJOa
Blue POINT I'VE BEeKJ
HEBE BEFORE, LOTS*.
TIMES
BUODV VOU'BE FADED!
^TRANCjEC \m\our. CITV AMO THEV REFUSE TO ACCEPT MY CHECK IMPA/MENT
A
S1UV.V
r
^
-c^
J^/jl\\
TnTm
TTrTT
JlOfiE-FiME-
VJOMDER iF COULD TftOOBLE VOO TO OET l
I.
IT
SO
CACHED FOR. ME t CAM 6ET OLJT OF THIS / BEA-STLN-
^
The CKicogo Tnbune, 1928
weiXOME HOMe r CALLS -rwiS-NOTASOLn-^ AT TXE STATION TO MEET JM A
rv
J
Mt
VVMBRI IS / uit.MULi.iNS,MAMieT A
[247] JAvlL.
-THANK heaven!
[248]
[249]
[250]
[252]
[253]
The ChicoQO Tribune, 1928
© ma! vjeh. MA><^e
MV CjOOO WOMAl-i
VOU CAN EH-P^JkIN t A^A VMIU\_1M<* "TO TH\S NOTE HE TESTIFY »N COURT VJROTE BEFORE THAT NECe.55AflV HE COT THAT IF CEQTA1NI.V. THE MAJOQ WAS BUN^P ON H\-S I ALWAVS EMTIOEtN' OUT OP W(5 BEAN, OOC VJOlTE THAT 'HEAO OUUVMC THE. "TO THE SWEE"«'EST TOMVSSECVPT. -TBM DAVS I TREAXED I WAS NOTAWAQE UlfA MERE-ME DlOMTl THAT 5HE AND THE EVEN KNOW VJHER& MISS SCHfAAin^X He WAS.DUETO A HAD LEFT THE SU<:4HT CONCUSSION CITY OR I MOST OF THE BOAiM CERTAIN "^
,
VJOU\.0
WEU-VJEHAve AUU OF THE MAJOR'S TROUBLES WITH TOUR VAMPlNO COOK SETTLtq
MISS SCHMACrZ.
The Chicago Tribune. 1928 [2;
AND
t
KNOV^ YOU VsflUL BE
OH SOU POOR OOVl^
-THAT
OONT NEED TO TCU. THE DOCTOR TO Put a oooo BAMDAtiE OMVOUR /
HAPPY TO KNOW THE DOCTOR HAS VINDICATED
ME.
I
I
A.BNA
ANO UEAVE
VT TIUC TVtE S\WEU\_lN4i <*oe5
J
("^ '
DOWN.
W
NOT
HAVE CAULCD.
(?)
The Ch.cOQO Tribune. 1928
.
IZOMJ , I
NOW-
SIR
—
'
-nwcr I HAVE TMOoouomv EXPUAtfJEO HOW UTTEOli^
BASELESS ABE VOUO ClAIMS F0O»S0,00O'« FOfJ VOUCl V>'lFrt
AFFtCnONSHAVE HAD KAV LAMvTVED
I
.
—WHICH VOO WILL StCN OH THl DOTTED Llh4e BEFORt THREE MINUTES ELAPSE am A PCH-ICEMAM WlTM WAOBAINTT FO« BLACKMAIL WHOM 1 HAVE ITATtONEO OOTSlOt WH4. COME W V^iHE^a I WHISTLE TVJiCE OUT TMAT VN/IMOOW.
CQAW UP TX\S STATEMENT 1
COMPUETEi:*'
exONOOATIMO
K*E-
WILLIAM, V.MEPE
1260]
©
The Chicogo Tribune.
©
Th« Chicogo Tribune. 1928
1«8
IS
YOUR Buimcss
I
—
SAOICITV LA.T DOWN THEWt A*JD CDCAN umE ATWAT1 PIPE COClA^J-
HOOT 3MOKE! LOCH AT UNCLE WILLIE
MAJOff BlUEPOihtS CAR Af>*0 WE OUGrtTA
WXkLKVsf 0\CKr
FCONT OF IM Ft tW TMATCAW! \tvw
liET BIG
DAMAGE* FOB
THIS -I WOULOtJT Be 5LIRPRI6EO IF HEDIO^rr -TVAT
OH ^
T~
"
PV^^POSE 71 OW!
[261] I
HATE TO BOTHEO
'*OUSE AT THIS
t
HOoa
OOKTT
KMOVSf WHEnE SHE'S WEKT^ VWILL16
OF THE MIGHT, MISS SCHMVAUTl
BUT ME AMO MAMIt TME LAST I MAO AMOTHEO ONE ISEEN OF HER SHB OF Oun BOAJS AMO V/AS HEAOEO WHEM t LEFT SHE FOR TME HIVEO WA'S THOEAT-BNIN' TO OO JUMP IM TME PIVER AND I JUST \A/ANT TO tOMOW >F SHE'S O.H
I
[262]
KVOU MEAN
-TO SAN/ I MOPE TMKT MAJOR BLOePOiNT TO TELL MAO -TME CALL TO OFFEO \A I OtO, CGVPT >0»J ^ffOO-' TO LEAVe l>^ molOim" TOvgN A>jO HEvEO *,6t OUT Fta ME. AOJ^lN? SUCH CROST/ A etTTER I
WELL I WOPE N-oo TUONEO MiM OOWM COOD AMD HAOO
.
OPPE»
5AV All NOU %WAf4T
MARRiEO
[
»5
TO GET
vjOmV STAtJO
VOUa WAVIT-L PIX THATUO FOR VOO IM
>
i<^l^ [263]
WELL, W«LL WAU.-SO E^vP-r AnQ bUOOi) «LUCPOint MAO A lAAT AND
The Chicago Tribvne, 1938
LISSEKI, MAu>OR-)F
} )
The Chicaoo Tribuna. 1920
(Ti
The Chicago TribufW, 1928
V,
THE MAJOU ts GOING TO CO lACW ILL JU5"T GO BV Do 0>4C'»^»J*Ti
—
TV4C oAPAoC AMD BiO HiM OMt CAfi NtVCR TEI.C WHAT WILL KA»*P«>4 •bWY AAV 3 TMAT M« JinT OVIM*. TO 0«T MAPRlBD
00-«VE
-
f
mO
[26-
ABOUT MOSHMOOTM-TMAn" MA.KES tvEQveoov sMiue and POlMT AT ME WHEN W/E -
ViHArr IS "THtRE
'
>
THBOUOM A -TOWM<
£i
Ihe Chicogr,
1928
T,,Djr,.,,
[265
©
The Chicago Tribune,
[266
WEMT AmO
VJA-STEO PlFTCCH
OOUOENi hAlNUTES
Vs/A»Xih4'
FOR THAT OUO BVJM TO WAvefi UO ASV< mr^ THE DlOeCTIONS AND THEM HE OOK T EVEM
,
V
)
The Chicago Tribune, 1928
[267
MV USSEM MOONSMlME- NOOSE UNCLE VJlLLlE' WILU C*E.T VOUR TWO HOVvJ ABOUT OUST AS SOON THEM TWO BOCKS DOUUARS AS MAiOK BLOePOlKT" ><0\J BOUnVED KVCKS IN VJ>T>t ALL FROM ME THEM Bl£j PROMISES HE MAOE ME FOR. WEEV<. FlSMlK W\M OUT OF TH- RIVER OEAR.
5HS,
C
c.
PCPHAPS TWS
13
MAJOR BLUEPOINT PHOhilNC-
I
canV
UNO€BSTAnO wmv Ht wasn't showed UP- W£ PQOM
THAT
I
AOMiRED,
The Chicogo Tribune. 1928
[268]
USSEM. EGYPT ^U- THAT OLO TIGHT VJAS> OFF ECHO MV UNCLE \AJILLie
IP
FOR SAVING HIM
TTIOM DROWN \MO, WAS A JOa OF WOR«. VOU GOT A PAT CHANCT OP GCT-TIN- ANVTM\NG GOT OP -THAT eABY FQH TEY^LING HIM HE OUGHT TO BE IN THE fAOVlES W»TH H»* LOOKS - ^PX HE WOULDN'T £ilV£ VOU -TH"
TIMt
tij
The Chicogo Tribune. 1928
IS XA.T (S
SO?
1*.T SO?
t
\
[270]
[2711
[272]
[2731
fB
Tho Chicooo !nbun«, 1928
©
155
The Chicogo Tribune, 1928
Bamey Google and Spark Plug
[278]
Billy
De Beck
1930
pr
King Feotures SyndiCote,
Inc.,
1930
ng Feolurat Syndkat*.
Inc..
1930
[279] SeJtflbR, S»4Mtf>PS
**^f
A SUCKER
OUflANou-WUerC WCULO H& «£ ~E)D««« IP
IT
^U&£ WE. DO
tS
WPSUr POR "rc»e
T5 PAV Voo
^*)Ot
LEAST WE BfiC'K
ThE.
O^
^*>y SPENT OnIhEM cisri«'3r scrs we. coulO lcame^
MCNEf
9JSHT M*C.
£u
^
ur To Mrs MOTtL AMD
[280]
[281]
[282]
156
t^ft
t^
Google t
^
iwOeClSiO^*-A.LL Woo WAvJE is Tb Livy£ iisi C<-i(r>jA For. RCST of "
Do
ft
/,
T;«.
A^ VOUR LECiAL AO^'SeR
1 "<
~>
111
wy
[288]
[289]
[290]
[291]
.ndcoir
[292]
MAOAME AffoRMCV
1 AM
•
1
(N
AM Q0'N6 LOVt
(nc
1930
lA Mousse^
15
v*1(TH
mi*-'
QEAK
3.
CA»4**ftT
7i LOOK.
AT «T
©
158
King Ftofurej Syndicot*.
Inc..
1930
d:
Kmg
Inc..
1930
Xing Feoturei Syndicate
Inn
1930
King Feorures Syndicate.
Inc.,
Feolurcs Syndicate.
mmsj
®
159
1930
[298]
[299]
[300]
[301]
[302]
£i
160
Kmg
F«alurei Syndicolo,
Inc.,
1930
[303
[30
Feal^rei Syndicote,
Inc..
1930
[305:
\"1he" MAOAME lA MOUSSE SEMSIOR -MV PRWATE SECBElAOV. MISS SWCMJERS. > 1«_"II^C FOBE^K IS CWJ
Will
HER V*W OP- She ASREE To VAMP
[30(
[30
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161
King Feolures Syndicole,
Inc..
1930
C308] To
GOoeLt ANO MADE AW APSC"*4^S*jT
«»ie CP-a.i_
FOR
-h rv^EET M^M "C41E
AT
BiS«T OCUOCn: tVENIfjES
— TwE.
eer TbocTHEa
i.
SMAIJ. 'PWOWE.
LA
MOUSSE AWO
TwEM
1W
A TA1<»
[309]
[310]
[311]
[312]
(^ King F«oturas Syndicotv,
162
Inc..
[313
SMC^ A Mice OLD
GAL, Bur SOOTA
DUMG -
"TVC EVEAJIKJG9
I "^ASTt Ckm wer. ARE. <3KTTI
R&aov
To
cur OUT
LA MOUCSIN'
II
©
King Feoiures Syndico'e.
Inc..
1930
[314:
/ '
WOPt 5ME OOWT
OET
mello.TomTomno! DomT OisTuRa
NO',
MADAME LAMOU55et
^-M^SC Tf*tfr
TCc cooee is A PMC^^ BdCUSe
kMQW VJMERE
OH. " tALA*
Foft.
A
DARw eooo
C
I'X),
Fhnra
KIni
Synfciw, Uc.
ituirf litlat
>}'!&<
n*tr^
Of Pice. EARCV, MISS
X woNcea
wwtfT SHS LOOkS LlKC^
"S/ J FEEL SHCW6RS - VOVj MdiWE. / So^J£RVOUS AM C»-iaoeEMewT voir?* MR.QOOGLe "TUlS EvjeWiNQ/ ABCoT MeSTTAJd IwGois;G ANO /a CTiWUoCE MAW ^_^
r&^
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v
I
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^
King Feorures Syndicote,
Inc.,
1930
[315
\^ WELL. WELL .MR, 21 rzV
Sdod
tbo'RE ffOlTt
IM
A MCW
\AjiTft
evEft-YlWlMS?
eusi^jEss
?
Lootc Me. cwee. €TePOIN( CUT
MR GOOGLE HOW \%
SWE AiwT«3oTA &EEZER Oj HCR. Like. l-K>PE
!
A
STRAMQCft
evEwiuQ,
OfWL SHOWERS.' J
MR.ZIT2.
i
V
g yooe^
(.^
u^)^fi£^
© AU Oe DA OA DC DOO.
CAN MM:K.y
NtiU
Those soeahs
MAI^'lA
TEiNHOwT
At>*0
PiMS
0*J'
JM
WeeDLE5
I
cot-It! WALK, UP TUB. •STIiS&'r Ar40 VMS LL UM-IE.
LiTTLC 04ATHCMtS HORStf^ee SCWJOPPS ,
A
*r
;
g3 <^i-^^ ng Features Syndicote,
Inc.,
1930
[3X6
A LtfTlE. \
PEACH
-
Swe,
OOiJT lOOW: Hk.E TCie. ^ofTwHOD vgont,
V
(w*A3U
WCfeS To A
sTbAMoe Gut i Gutss r-\v
1
BoeBLE eves QCTHef*. /^ ,
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© ZIT2 - VA 'mem BER. TUAX PfiDPoSlTToW SEMATJJe sewMows JOft.
•ifr
2ZOCC
«p
a'D So Ta
c
ia TAKE IT LAST MIGHT O OF LAMousse-s JUMeocALMOST Tore Me To RIBBONS !
^(bo
eeTTEii
Go HOME AND TALK
King Features Syndicate,
Inc.,
1930
[317;
T^IKlGS
H»S
To Tte.
SGWrtTOfi.'.
WOfAiRE.
lAMOUSSlM'RS
,
RESrMioRMeBNts! jll OUONE. VOU AffeR 1
ARE WCiRKIMQ OuT BEAUTTFULLV " - J TWIMK SENATOR SCHMO^PS AMD lACW LC^/e,,^lAClAME- LAf-10uSSe.,VA;itL SOOM BE SVoEeTWEAftTS AJSAlf4 —
AMM!
L '-^^
SOCIAL
EVeWT OP
"fftC.
SeaSOKJ-
Nt,7lT£
©
163
King Features Syndicote,
Inc.,
1930
[318]
[319]
King Features Svndicatfl,
.
.
.
Ihe comic strip, especially after you leave the domestic-
relations type which is itself realistic
ajid
unsentimental, is
specifically more violent, more dishonest, more triclcy and roguish,
than America usually permits its serious arts to be.
.
.
.
Mutt
and Jiggs and Abie the Agent, and Barney Google, and Eddie's
Friends have so little respect for law, order, the ri^ts of property, the sanctity of money, the romance of marriage, and
all the other foundations of Americaji life, that if they were put into (popular) fiction the Society for the Suppression of Every-
thing would hale them incontinently to court and our morals would be saved cigain,
Gilbert Seldes "The 'Vulgar' Comic Strip," The Seven Lively Arts
164
,
1924
Inc.,
1930
Wash Tubbs
Roy Crane
1933
^iPflNO PMiVEMOMIA. fdREWEU., WUSH ANP \i/EAS-( SPENP StMERAl tMY, PELIftHTFUL PASS AeoARP A R\>JE«. BARtie.
/
H«t « -(OUR
(
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mes TWx »«t, etPH Foiiy, na le MMUV Ik VMKiX. er SIMWI'MS us E«K IE CLAK>£S ^VEJ 0«.
, J
AMI <(U>M MOM OM, Ht ttfe^ TMt ftO«\.'^ MAT6 — WTW H»S BtMIUACK TMK-T H01UK\«L6 STtSU HOOK, KEAPV ANP WfkrnN&.
OMtM
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hilt
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tMtf STM<» -roe is Toe. ittc
ulcmu it
^
cexmif.
^TV^wt
a OMW
owe
(B
•
NEA
S
Inc..
1933
"Sr^lCTUftE. IF
VOU CAN, TMt LOMGIMG Of A ^ CAPTfMW To QETUftM 10
VPlUL^.OtO ^W^LING lUe teA
FOft
/^
'^ /^NO
'ntt
9ACKMED
Of WihCil B£C6Mt*
^ MtGHTMARtJ
OHE lAST VOVA(i&.
NEA
Service, Inc.,
337]
*(E"LL
E«ER
_
I
V
ME,
fXXe TOM'S PlACt IN t^ ROAT, 'N- IF SEE >(6 SO MUCH AS TKEWBLt 0.T 1 " ""^^
lU
l"""'^ ANE,
WE
BKt ^R BWtttS
0\)T!
'
SIR".
[338]
Tuis GOES ON. SO SlCKENlItt IS TUe SMELL Of W^^\.E oa AHP «0 AMFUL TUC oREfLSV SMOKE, T^fcT THEV MOPE Ito ttCMlEN TWtV
© 339]
VfiHKT A aeilEf IT IS, »I«SN TME lASTOF TWE WM-t OIL S STOWEO KWAN, AV*D TWt PCNUDe.9 CARCASS IS LEFT CD TV*e SHARKS ANP OUUS.
^
VTJUT THEN BE6IHS MORE BOAT 1 li^PBACTlce, miTW UASW TAKING TOM'S
PLACE.
CRACK VER BACk;-' / BONES, ve LArV LOfvfERSl
PULL,
BLAST
POLL'.
NE'.
W
g\*, WHAT A
NEA
MISERABLE VOVAat!
Service, Inc., 1933
BOTAT
PASSING SHIPS eeCOME NUMEROUS
LAST,
"mtv ARE
NEARIMG The PANAK\A CAHAL. /^"
340]
[341]
[342]
vti
SAILORS HAVE WHAT -mty CONSIDER A JOKB C3N TVE MATS POR (T &CCI«
'C)R«AT
1»AT TWE MATS
,
rs
lEKV fOMO 0»
WPLE
?\i.
£ N[A
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— '~»*»^tA>'-
M&H
IMTTO TV-i
VJhniUO VmKV«*
© NEA
Service. Inc.. 1933
349]
msn'vfs/^
sreuvVi uwt Roiry. 65 wcr wwetLW^st. 40-000 T1M« kl UkBjb% KS 1UKT eiG 9M9
350]
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[352]
/-
353]
[354]
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Inc.,
I»33
fJoLP. HUM69.V, M*P M\S6RA^», TM»
© NEA Vi«(TW TUt PtK^ wMKtl, BUT TUERE
DNe TV«HK
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IC601W'
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Service, Inc., 1933
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vi^TXAK C* COTTIHQ
IN,
MJO
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(w^S 16T.
GO 1
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'YOWP IN fioina
TO
1
1
COULPN'T
tvJCN CUWR IN THE
LOKf ER4'.
EMEW MAN
.'
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1V6 BOOTS.
BOW.
J
o
,
© NEA
,
Ser.ice, Inc., 1933
CONTEST?
WHALE -V we AlWT aCTT RVPPA IK lAST 0N6
5« euo&s IS mis? AN
I
Service, loc
,
1933
[361]
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MUTE'S tOKT fUJOB-
-THE seeOKB K*Tt TO -niE Rescue Ik BOMB OUH.
ClU«iklH6
mw
[362]
[363]
[364]
[365
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Slrr.io, Inc.. 1933
'
FROft\
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HOVl OH, NCU,X V6 eLINKlN" OtO
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[367]
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TOiw is Bfre<«MiUEP to Bfc MO&Tttk Of W\S OWM SHIT.
CURSeSl
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[368]
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a,s
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i
I
CMtBSy
w Popeye, the Skipper,
and the Abysses
of
Space and Time Anecdote and Narrative
Sunday Comic
Strip,
in the
1930-1941
Adventure, crime, and comedy were as mixed in the Sunday comic pages after 1930 as they were in the daily strips, but a new narrative genre, science fiction, entered the
had already been touched on humorously in such strips as Segar's Thimble Theatre and Kahles's Hairbreadth Harry. With the daily and Sunday Buck Rogers, the concept of time and space as a realistic, fullcomic
serious
strip at the turn of the
decade.
It
was transferred from contemporary pulp magazines into the comics, and almost immediately accepted by the public and by other comic-strip artists and
scale playground
writers.
An
eariy close follower of
Buck Rogers was the
daily Jack Swift of Cliff Farrell
and
by William Ritt and Clarence Flash Gordon of Alex Raycelebrated Gray (1933), followed a litde later. And the mond appeared in the Hearst Sunday pages in the first week of 1934. Science fiction themes also appeared on other and sometimes unlikely narrative strips such as Frank
Hal Colson (1930). Another
daily, Brick Bradford,
The Bungle Family, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, Norman Marsh's Dan Dunn, Lyman Young's Tim Tyler's Luck, Lee Falk's Mandrake the Magician and The Phantom, and others. A most successful and well sustained comic treatment of science was in E. C. Segar's Sunday Sappo, where the brilliantly
Godwin's Connie, Harry
Tuthill's
cracked Professor O. G. Wottasnozzle came up with continually ingenious and highly risible inventions.
by the furor of action, adventure, and horror on the pages about them. McManus's Maggie and Jiggs went their bickering and battling way through the thirties as they had the twenties and teens before. The bucolic populace of Toonerville meandered as ever be-
The
great old-timers in the strips continued as before, often untouched
tween the architectural bulk of Aunt Eppie Hogg and the mobile
clatter of the Skip-
per's trolley.
New humor
strips
were introduced, such
as
Rube Goldberg's Lala Talooza and Ed
Wheelan's Big Top, but there were few real successes in the thirties against the bi-
and exciting competition of the fantastic, criminal, and adventurous strips, although Lank Leonard's Mickey Finn and Al Capp's Li'l Abner survived the era zarre
handily, as did V. T. Hamlin's Alley Oop.
183
Notes on
strips in this section
Dick Calkins drew only the daily Buck Rogers. Despite his signature on the Sunday thirties, Russell Keaton was responsible for the striking artistry of
pages of the early
the two pages which open this section [427-428].
The
realistic or illustrative
beaux
arts style of
drawings entered the comic
strip
was foreshadowed in the work of \\'insor McCay. Probably its most effective use was in the work of Alex Ra\inond in his early (1934-36) Flash Gordon [430]; and in that of Harold Foster in his Tarzan with the advent of
realistic
adventure, although
it
period (1931-36) [429]. Foster's figures are often particularly notable for their move-
ment and
force.
Almost universally published
at the time in full-page size, with ade-
quate space for the presentation of varying spatial concepts from panel to panel, the skillfully free-flowing
and open
visually compulsive, multipanel
style of
both
artists
permitted the
movement and necessary
full
integration of
narrative development so
vital to the creation of effective comic-strip color pages.
Subsequent realistic work in the comic-strip vein, additionally hampered by the reduced reproductive space available in later years, has tended to be increasingly detailed, with an almost obsessive need to fill every part of every panel with black shadow and complex linework. Such visual weight can slow down a reader's eye movement across the narrative panels, and even draw his attention to irrelevant detail.
Like Buck Rogers, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Prince Valiant [431] are frequently reprinted here and abroad, and are (or soon will be) accessible to collectors in
siz-
able editions.
One man who offered a highly fanciful Sunday page was V. T. Hamlin with his Oop [432-434]. He was also the first major comic-strip artist to take the reader
Alley
back into prehistoric time
for his narrative setting, thereby reversing the direction of
Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. With Cliff Sterrett, George Herriman, and Winsor McCay, Roy Crane was one of the great technical masters of the Sunday-page layout. In addition to his graphic dexterity with page space, Crane told a rattling, tongue-in-cheek adventure tale, which made his Sunday Captain Easy [435-437] the equal of his daily Wash Tubbs strip. Little Joe [438-439],
ground
nominally bylined for
Orphan Annie, was
Ed
Leffingwell, Harold Gray's back-
by Gray through the thirties and him for drawn by a number of years. This littleknown Sunday half page was an entertaining and gripping strip. Replete with a sardonic and often bloody humor. Little Joe was a thoroughly adult strip. At the time it was relished by a few cognoscenti, but was apparently of little interest to the genartist for
and
early forties,
its
in fact scripted
characters were
eral public of the thirties,
which
still
thought of western
fiction in
terms of Zane Grey,
Tom Mix, and preferred western strip work of a similar nature. White Boy [440-441] was another imaginative, nonderivative western strip of the time, drawn by New Yorker artist Garrett Price in an often stunning graphic style, and told by him with many skillful touches of the fantastic and unexpected. It was Richard Dix, and
caviar to the average reader,
had
little
circulation,
and expired
in the late thirties.
The extended Thimble Theatre Sunday sequence with which we is
not only the comic and narrative apogee of E. C. Segar's work,
it
close this section
may be
the finest
example of pure comic-strip narration [443-474]. Segar is almost unknown to any reader under fifty who has not encountered the only extensive reprint of his work since 1940 (the Nostalgia Press
humor on
of Dickens.
ures
is
Popeye the
Sailor collection of 1971).
He
based
his
the interaction of one of the most inspired casts of comic characters this side {
The inherent conceptual
strength of
many
of his
perhaps demonstrated by their continued popularity
Thimble Theatre
in the
fig-
hands of several
successor writers and illustrators since Segar's early death in 1938.) But introductory
words are unnecessary with Segar: the great sequence awaits only the turn of reader's eye to the
the propitiative
184
first
episode to speak for
itself in
murmur of J. Wellington Wimpy,
the
the salty, epic speech of Popeye,
or the cursing cackle of the Sea Hag,
Buck Rogers
Phil
Nowlan and|Dick Calkins
1932 / 1933
1
John D;lle Co., 1932
185
[427]
[428]
w
couc> cojTWX 6(awnv fcWOO&M tD UUOV A 1.0TC*
>
1
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voo SuftCiv
C001.0 ^ASC -^ TMe*^ T06CTUEP
Tarzan
Edgar Rice Burroughs and Harold R. Foster
1933
[429]
187
Flash Gordon
[430]
Alex
Raymond
1935
PH! I SEE FLASH-OFiOER TVt FIRST COMPAMV OF L/WCERS TO CHARGE. COLOJEl-/ J \r-^
ALEX RAYMOND
The
:* Da ?ARKCV AMD A RECWEWT l^*-* :" OF HAVWKMEW MARCH TO RESCUE r-^ FLASH, NK3T KKJOWIKJG THAT HE, UNDER THE WITCH QUEEN'S DRUG, IS LEADING THEIR EMEMIE5
FIRST LANCERS.THE GREATEST
FLIERS IW Tl-e HAWMMEN ARMY, CIRCLE TO A DIZ^y HEIGHT AND, AT A SIGNAL FROM THEIR LEADER, FOLD THEIR WINGS AND DIVE ON
AZURA'S ARMV/
Flash is quick to see themHE raises mis sworo— THE GUNS OF THE -
\
>
COMeuSTlOM-RAV MACHINE SWING INTO ACTION /
WEXT week: »'
cohiat/"
K>ng Feoiurti Syndicot», Inc. 1935
Prince Valiant
mm SYNOPSIS-VAL APPEALS TO MERLIN. THE GREAT MAGICIAN. FOR AID IN RESCUING SIR GAWAIN FROM THE POWER OF MORGAN L£ FEY, THE SORCERESS .
MERLIN
ASK.5
POSSESSION
TO WORK
FOR SOME PERSONAL LE FEY'S WITH WHICH MAGIC AND VAL STEALS
OF
HIS
HER PET FALCON, BUT SO SWIFT IS THE PURSUIT THAT HE IS CORNERED AT MERLIN^
Harold R. Foster
1938
L,
IN
THE DAYS OF
^ KING ARTHUR
[431]
Alley
[432]
M
Oop
V. T.
Hamlin
1935 /1940
[433]
:
191
NEA
Service, Inc..
1935
[434]
® NEA
192
S-
Captain Easy
Roy Crane
1935 / 1941
[435]
CAPfAlM 501DU R Of ^ORTUME k« »•«•««
ni^JO
THtrKE M.I
Ta.NKETS OP UII H I«M6,*M0
SRA-^iS AfcJb
JADE. OTmeb^ Tviceow 80K£ NECKLACES ACOU*C MIS MECK. Li>l60 THAT SOUM05 UK> A BUUCM OF tOUEALiMS.
MIWOIMG *
M«
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193
Service, Inc.,
IWS
[436]
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CAPfAlM setou^^jwuwE wo HCURS LATER, THE COMSPlRATORS CLUB A SEWTBi! A cuse imto a powder MAaAziwe, and u5nr
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ILIZES,
H£ia«£6K
TROOP TRAINS. 9
194
NEA
S
(^
^PTAIN dWCE A6A\U, FATE DRAWS EASVS MOBTAL BNEMy MEAR. ON AWOTHER OF HIS (OEFABWUS M1S610WS, DAWSOM DISEMBARKS FROM THE: «CHOONE« 'OUEEW OF THE MAY "
Little Joe
Ed
Leffingwell
[438]
^^^^^^
TftKE IT
EASY
|
1938 /1941
White Boy
Garrett Price
1933
[440]
New
York Ne
[441]
(£-
197
New
York
Newi
Synd'cote Company,
Inc.,
1933
Toonerville Folks
oh!
v^as
X
that
-rwe TRoi-Ley
WAgON
Jr.
1930
car
TMOOCMT THAT WAS A t-UNCH
Fontaine Fox,
TOONERVILLE FOLKS ^r
!
FONTAINE FOX SUNDAY, OCTOBER
A Bad Risk
TOONERVILLE FOLKS
5,
1930
Fontaine Fox
©
198
Fontaine Fox, 1930
Thimble Theatre
Ebae
Crisler Segar
1933-1934
[443]
©
199
King Features Syndicote,
Inc.,
1933
^W«M /"
[444]
(
I
MMOH&
IKXro EITHER VTOP
GOOF-/ WV^NTIOtft 0« WK D_ftl«>THeB. ;
n NOT
^rrs
(V
GooFv:
MMJvcuuV
A RW THW UJIU.
CftUSE f\ PERSON TO CiROW eftCKUJftRO IS NOT Sial-HDOR.
weiu. ^Re «o aoMb TO TrtAT POKER GtSHE? COME ON. ITS LATE '
^eEw»iM6
SOMETIMES
^TWr4&
I
iLUSisriaii:^: CUT OUT STftCE ANO FILMMW*6 OOTTEO
UNES Ot* SCRE6t*jCtV^N66
HAG
HEADS
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MCWlNCl
THROO
FILJ-V
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.^Sids^ti^ SM VOOTBE NOT CiCHHrt. TO N« POKER GAME ftNOj IS ,^
<
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THKTS AU. THWt
TO
ru fin «Eft-Oo voo Mmo\ TO RN f^l IW EKTION _ >MEM> M. 0« HERt,
IF
I
-
u*wr 00 care;
IT
1
Tl«rs VUrtKT SAlO-lUWEN \ 1
—
\UJW« TO PUAi POKER ILU 00 n, Shvv ? 1
Thimble Theatre BLOU ME DOWN, OC BILL BARNACLE!
I
VIRM
/ COUNTED /^TWENTI-SEVEN I
,
LATIK 0« THE SuSt GIAO «R IN Towrv. I FLOOR.POPt*OlONT ViE HOME FUN S LIKE -OL TIMES. LAS NKittr EH HOW .
MANV TOOCiH
C> King Faoturet Syndicol*. Inc., 19^
200
[445]
/'rvE
GOT TO "^
,
AVJ, DON'T 8E 40 TIMPERAMtHTM..
JHtRE 14NT f\N EGG UjnmH MlV-tS OF HERt
r8t61N>*lN& I
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mmmf^^ COT COT STWat MAD FlUM MAKtsuTs M.ON& ocrreo l.lNEi>
HO.TIUO
ON SCRtEN
CVtfvNGE. HEM)S 9V MOVINCj HV.M THROOCjH SV-ITS —
ANOTHER SHOW NEXT UDEtK.,
TMIMBLETriEATRE.
^iS:
^ MOVIES ^
:i
_CL enO King Feaiucei Syndicate,
201
Inc..
1933
[446]
202
King fvalvtvi $ynd>COl«, Inc,
19;
[447]
203
[448]
King
204
Ftolum
Syndlcolt.
Inc.,
1934
[449]
SWIM TO SHIP
^V)W» BWN& MEN BACK ^^fc.
—«VW^Vv
HOUJ
(BE6lNN«^ I
THt MAGIC BOTUE
MfflMHSfer^ CUT OUT STfVit MAO FIV-MMAKE SUTS WJ»te DOTTED UNES ON SCREEN- BRING DIFFERENT HENIS OOT OF TWE BOTTLE eV MOUINt.
Film through slits ^NOTrtER SW!W next week
^
TmimbleTheatrl
a MOVIES
jg^
^
^"3
P if
PftST6
TO
©
205
King Feofurei Synd-cate,
Inc.,
1934
[450]
WOTA<,N02ZLE tf*JENT60 A ptUL THAT SHR»*KS
MATTER- THE
[^(iVNNlV46^
P11.1..
AFTER OlSSOWlNt.. SPREADS THROUCH THE SfSTEM Af*0 ACTOAlif CAUSES THE ATOrft TO SHRINK —A RMJIKnoN THROOGrt T«e PORES Of THE SWr* CAUSES
THE CUOTrtlNCa
NOSE^
MiKfian:;; r^^ Cut Out stage ako F\lm mf\k.e slits alon& dotted on screen-chpin&e NDSES BV f-o\)lNCi FILM lines
THROOOH SUTS ANOTHER. SHOVU NtXT UJEEK -.
TO
o
ThimsleTheatrl
_«»^5^
MOVIES ja ILL GET A SHEET OF > PAPER AND TR-( TO
Kbut hes so 'SMAVL to MASH
AH! THERE HE 15
IF
I
PlCki
T151E0 TO J
SKOOT
it
ONDER
HIM OP
O' A HOOSEf L-f 5EE% SAPPO ANOCKCES TO MAKE A MEAV OF HIM-
1
1
^^
GONE' MA-( NEVER. FiNO^ HIM (\&(MN BECAubE HE b GETTlNfa SMALLER EVERV > MIHJTf. 1
,^. H'^
PASTE TO I
Co^iTl^^oEO ^*EXT
a;EEK
pPPOSlltftLn
Thimble Theatre
(S)
206
Kinfl Feolurai Syndicoi*. Inc.,
19)4
[451]
Thimble Theatre mtHl
THe DOPETTHt SEA HfviS GOON I _ SUll-6 TOPOPeiESiuP.CM'loRtiUJlMPyoMO T-nJ RSTuRnS to the P\RM6 S v€SSEL -TWE ooon 1^
^UJIMS BftCK-TlE^POPe-
OEL>UEB^ HIM TO THE Sef».H^C3- OJIMPV LEARNS TKftT THE OUO HA& H^S MftNV POONOS OP FROZEN Hftr-\6URCiER AdOARD m€ PLATTeR^ KtR ArVO (KK.0
S"€ FAl.l.% IN L0\* HJITH Him- POPEVe GETS lOOSE. AMD STARTS TO CLEAN UP TrtE CReiU. BOT lower*
HE SEES
UMMPV
KISSINC)
The SEAHA& ME
BECOnESiuEAHENeO
U;iTM LAUGHTER ^0 CANNOT FIOHT TMt
Pirates ujho scuart-
UPON
HiH
King Features Syndicate,
207
Inc.,
1934
)
SCPPO ESCOPtO
[452]
CROM JVX. SP'OERS WE8-B0T HES FftH
[
BEGINNING \
FROM
MfvKt Lif^ES
tiLM
SOMEiUMAT
I
UtartTER TKf^N BOOV. SOT HEftUV ei^OCjH tti4
TO DO O'^MACiE P»*0 UJ»^t«E
^
OO voo SUPPOSE,
SAPPO IMAOS -rt^'. RiortT On TOP OF "iSUJifE'S NOSE.
A ^UOOEN DRtvFT PROM uf^iOtR THE OOOR CARftlCa rtlM H^tiH INTO THf '^i^^
—
iM^CiNE mtRTlE GRiEViNC: HERE _i ftND UJt SEE A Him Sitting on heR noi>E- PftftT OF MRS. of course. she doesnt SAPPO'5 NOSE '^NO SftPPO hnovj it noo does he. FOR HE IS NO 8l6(iERTHW< Mft&NIF.ED
AN
6000
HtfMJENSl ^
ONE THOOSWO
AOlJLT
GERM
TIMES
AND
IT
PROVES TH^T HE REfti.UV IS
SITTING
THERE OPr^^nt f H.M
Thimble Theatre TOUiMR WtMPV, BUT BEFORE ACCEPT 1 AS A CLOSE FRlENO.J 1
LIKE
i
VOO MUST PRoye you HAv/e nervej
N
OH'. 60&0 HEWt»iS / ' I'M NO / UJMRT An A96yT .il-'r^ 1 \ KWROERES. ^ TO OC'. MERC-/.' );V(^?*i. :>j-— niUOOVONT BE All ••A^'''^ RltKT TO ^J— _ "" -M :
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KM
C0NT1NUM.V.V"iHf ftae
FOft HER. MUSBf>sNO
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iiij:i:iiaii:ferPftSTt \
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iNTtRtST
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IN
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Tmi ^VOMENT X)WN
JOHN AO^^^^
WHW CfvO'SED
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[453]
itijgRiianiife
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IF
SHEt)
CUT OOT STft&E
SWE
MAKt
CLOTMCS TO SHRlMW.
tJJELU.rtt IS STILL SHRlNKINti. HE IS IsiOuJ
ANOTHEft
THE.
OOTTeD
SHOW
NEXT VJEEK
MACROSCOPIC LAST UJECK (^ POCF OV OJiNO l^NOED Hin ON His ujifes Nose
-*s>.r^Tj^^si^
M« FILM-
SLITS ftLON<>
LINES ON SCRtttA-C«(>»<6t ^tTlo^^ Bv kovincj film THROUCsrt SLITS
HIS
HECK OF IT l^, HE'S ^ SMAatft E\ftRV
ATEf\ftlSR0LUNC3
GETTirHCs
SECOND-
HOW
FIND HIM'HOUJ ) IBftlKCD HIM BACK?/ I
TO SAPPO
Y^ CAN
CftN
M-(RTltS NOSE SetMS TO BE .
.^ N
ft
HUCsE.
Sft?PO
COf^S UPON ^ SKIN
PORE- A
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SEEN
MH&NlFltD'3.000' TIMES
>«<^.l
TINV HMR, Cf\N 6E
IN Tcit
Mft.GNIg-iE.D
BACKCaROOND-
/QOOQ' TIMES
-THE TEftR
ABSORBS SAPPO AND
INSIDE OF TEhR.
SftPPO
SUMMM*N6^<^W&l.lF6
TO St CONTtlNOEO
—
-«
Thimble Theatre
King Feoiures Syndicole,
209
Inc.,
1934
[454]
King Features Syndkol*,
210
Inc..
1934
I
/ ALU Hfi^OS
GET W.ON0 SO u-ieaj
HftGGv
IS
eecAose
KtLL
/
THE
HOW VOO 00
OF MftSCULlNlTV ANOy VOO ARt THE ACME /^
ON
f^f^T'.
I
[455]
OeCK'. CP^Re
OOKT
n. aOT
ofcTHlH:
^^^
OC fCMtNlNlTV. LIT i
Kft\;e
iiij:i:riaii:R:
etbiNNiCHCa
pop£ve I
^
COT OOT STAGE AuO tn.H_ SUTb ALQNtjOOTTfO
Mf\KL
hE^Os qv movin
SV-l"T^
—
ANOTHER Shoo; NEXT Lueei^-
r^
^
ThimbleTmeatrl
H MOVIES
jSl
Bill eAR'^tv-L'.
(
)
PASTE TO OPPO-iiTC
©
211
King features Syndicote,
Inc.,
1934
[456]
UJiMP-y
aLIJ!l2llllli:^! CUT OOT 6TA6t '\kO PlL(-\S SL1T5 iM-ONib OOTTtO LINES ON SCReeS- MAKE OLD UJiMPN EAT SPAGHETTI Sf PULLING FILM OP THROUGH SLITS — TRIM BLACK LiMES FROM PiLMS '^NO PAST -
CUT
.
Mf J
A
Pit
:
J
RM
U.MEl^Of*
RftV-
RftV
Irt
— THE
"
lb
UtftU't
TOO UjOUtOWT
INVISl&UT* TO fKl.L KIHD^OF AHlHPiLS P^HO "TO AtL ASIMAL PROOOCTS SOCrt Pi's - WOOL Cl-OTHlNti - SlLK'
-1
LEMHtR. tTC - J ,7J-N.-^ SEE-M^M>MS^ 1
OOUT IRtTOTeUMt ''Ou CAN fAAKE A PeRSO«lNVftlBL.t. liJONiT USIEN TO SOCM TAUK-VOU LC^T VOOR ARM^-
.
- I'HEf. LUHAT S (lOlTrt
I
i
[
> (
Twe
t>RAPes
HANGING
KNOUJ
OtTAltS
AND TOUT ^
(NSiOE JFlNO
iNviSlQluTV IS Ari lMPOi>SieiUTY
'it*^-
h£h:
mEm; MtH! h€w. heh:
tAtH'
f>^iii/
Thimble Theatre AW
LET EM SCRAP SALTV LE'S GO ON OCCK AN' Clean op the rest of
THEM
SUi^ABS
Me
-rKer-A
TOGE.Tt^eR
[457]
©
213
K.ng feolurei Syndicore,
Inc.,
1934
SO "^OO CDHT BEUtve CCOLD INvEKT RA>-^3 THM UJOClD CM>4£ iNViSl8ll.tT¥- REMEMBER UJHEN fOU STUCK yOUR HEf^O
(IF rvE 5T1LV.
TMl^4G UlUTh pRhPE'S
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INTO ftftOUNO
SORE-
GOT
iTS JCST
H£^
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INVISIBLE. THKTS W. f-lf SPeClftL UP'"^. t-lAKE IT
ITS~ OKM
lieP-ICAN |'Bc6»W*lK0 > S VEELIT
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GOOFV FACES
VISIBLE
^£(t^e^
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THROOGM SUTS ANOTHER. SHOUJ ME>.T UjEeK —
CAT*
plm
p
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me
L]
poker
MR^SAPPC- IHtRt'S
5APP0 COOLOHTr^'SAV, %T0P -OU- ^
?^£*VSO»A SEiNCj in
R5ft.
IS
MO
MOVIES
'
VOOR.
SED
DOMT TEH.)^
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OPPCSiTe PlLM
Thimble Theatre HA- WMCr^ v-Z-PV iS
Hf CAN corr^w
f*
SCAPED rashit
<£
214
King Feotyre* Syndicate,
Inc.,
1934
[459]
^ iij;i;waii:feY^
BlOlNNl^4G»
COT OUT STft&L WAO f ILMMRKE 5LITS AV.OM6 00TTEO
U5E ^)OfT ftLC^K.
LINES ON SCB.EE.N CHANGE HEPOS 6^ MOV/lNCj Film through SLns-
.
(VMO FINIirt
ftMOTHER SHOW -NEXT IDEEK-
_1_L.
ThimbleTheatre.
MOVIES
?'
_LL
WE'LL
PM
0-,
V
lOuJ
ft
v^-
fp
rn^
V. _LL
pASTe TO 'tlridiUir rv.
Cm-
I
Aoii-
Thimble Theatre
© Kmg
215
Feotures Syndicate,
Inc.,
1934
[460] [StGlNr^NO I
Ui>e
SOFT
Bl-ftCK.
Pencil ano fihvsm faces;
1^
i^
iLij:i:ria»;K r^ COT OUT STftCE
WO FIVJI.
fAM<.t SLITS fvLONG
LINES
ON SCRtEN
DOTTED
Change heads By mov/inCi FILM THfiOD&rt SLITS— ANOTMER SKOU^ fSEXT LOEEK —
ThimbleTheatre.
1^
MOVIES
^
o
^< -LT
.v<>
PASTE TO
Thimble Theatre
King Fealurai Syndicol*.
216
Inc.,
1934
[461]
1" r ! UX>OL0NT JMSgSS^^S^^ —\\WyA,V ON THIS I^^^^^^^^S
-\
r
'1
1
1
1
r
r
rii
'
1
[462]
Wlt^PW.
VA KSOW
UJHfVT
THE euftSTEO SEA H^CsS
GONER DO f-HftH'. SEED SPlNftCH TO THE GOON SOS IT KIN LICK MtjW ftN' If THE GOON f-:XZ LICKS ME THE rV^
(
'
yO^T^
Of HAG UJILU GET ALL Of r*~A^'?A5
[4631
cP\c^e^G
King Features Syndicote,
219
Inc.,
1934
t464]
®
220
King Ffroturei Syndicote,
Inc.,
1934
[465]
THIS WttH. DRWgi) CWE PlCTORtS OF PtTG /COM€ OK,K>D'j IN DlFf ERENT PO-bES CiET vf^ f\ XJFT
—
1
PENCll.
ft.N'
DRhvo PvTCKtRS
tt
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K
[466]
1
1^
*
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"^
St3H
»*r^~
^
222
King Feature) Syndicoi*.
Inc.,
1934
poPevE'5"
VOOR
UJiFE TO
r^ V^LC.THfb AND
[467]
'^-"^'^it- .-
303333:^^013]
A\.L
rv€ ftttN UJAIT1N&
FOR NiNETV YCARS 50 TneOE SURELV OUGWTA Be ONE. AvoNG PeRTtxrrC-
Thimble Theatre
©
223
King Feoiures Syndicote,
Inc..
1934
[468]
King Featur«i Syndico'r. Inc
224
,
1934
riTO]
Thimble Theatre THE GOON
IS
6S i^9ntb »s) / LISTEN, itai.
1
NOT
|
'POPe,v&'5'
[470]
aaacdiPDszE
A CaOT TO
PcT FACE.5
**
EM- ^
1-t.P.R.M 5i.
®
226
TO
Dftf>MJ
^ t/ ttt^ei-^aeO-.iF vA
King F«otur*i Syndtcoi*,
COT A <
Inc..
1934
'ft*tTl
©
227
King Features Syndicote,
Inc.,
1934
[471]
[472]
POPL^LS CARTOON
&I.VJ&
(0 King Footurcs Syndicot*. Inc.,
228
1934
ArtQW,BKL*).TO
DM
UJC got ftKOTMtR. *\
IP
>A GtT*i ATAV
ShOUJ TOUU.S
HOUj TO OO
en UP—
iF
EVJERBODV
Do Right me'' ujOolONT be MUCM TROUftLt
ON THi*.
ol:
tAPT'
229
King Feorures Syndicate,
Inc.,
1934
[473]
[474]
King Feoiursi Synd'COte, Inc.
230
m Shadow Shapes in Moving Rows Extended Narrative
in the
Sunday Comic
Daily and
Strip,
1928-1943 doubt that a day-to-day narrative continuity was attractive to the thirties and forties. It was hard to find a simple anecdotal strip among the daily comics. Such strips as adhered to a daily gag pattern Carl Anderson's Henry, or the Disney-produced Donald Duck, by Al Talia-
There
is
little
reading public in the comic strips of the
—
ferro, or
J.
Millar Watt's English import,
of story strips.
ing
Up
Even
the
humorous
strips
Pop
—stood out oddly among the multitude
from the twenties and before, such
as Bring-
Father and The Captain and the Kids, turned in the course of these two de-
cades to story lines with carry-over subsidiary characters.
New
daily narrative strips, with the
most graphic pretension
to realism,
included
The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician; Briggs's daily Tim Tyler's Luck; Forrest's Tailspin Tommy; Godwin's Roy Powers, Eagle Scout; Fanny Cory's Babe Bunting; Zane Grey's King of the Royal Mounted and Tex Thorne, with their various artists; and a number of others. Ritt's
Brick Bradford; Falk's
version of Flash Gordon; Young's
Characterizations, plots, and dialogue tended to be stereot>'ped; the aim of the narrative strips girls
was
who paraded
at the
audience for boys' adventure stories
(
new
although the leggy
through Mandrake, Flash Gordon, and The Phantom probably
drew some interested glances from adult readers too ) There was a good deal of genuinely inventive, sharply original, and often captivating narrative, serious and comic, among other daily strips of the period, and a number of examples have been selected for inclusion in this story-oriented section.
Notes on strips in
this section
Alex Raymond's Secret Agent X-9 of 1934-.35, based in part on scripts by Dashiell Hammett, reads as freshly and forcefully today as it did at the time it was published.
For a long period adapted
in the
middle of 1934, when Hammett's script seems to have been form by Raymond, X-.9 was so superbly executed and nar-
in unadulterated
rated that
it
seems one of the
finest
achievements of the story
strip.
The
selection here
[475-478] hints at the quality of the whole. Nostalgia Press has published X-.9 for
of
1934 and 1935 in one volume.
The Abbie an
231
much
Slats
pages selected here inc-orporate the opening weeks of
this
—
'
)
drawn strip, for which Raebum Van Buren maintained a high level of narrative and humor [485-496]. In Barnaby, illustrator Crockett Johnson brought a memorable whimsical fantasy (or itas the fairy godfather fantasy?) to the comics pages, one which appealed to both adults and children. Our episode reflects its World \\'ar Il-period origins [505539]. (Dover Books has reprinted the Barnaby and Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley colbeautifully
lections in current paperback.
The Mickey Mouse narrative chosen here [542-643] is dehghtfully topical of those drawn by Floyd Gottfredson between 1930 and 1950. It is full of colorful incident and character and demonstrates the kind of absorbing, ingenious, risible comic-strip story often overlooked at the time by strip readers, who thought of the Mouse feature as intended solely to entertain cliildren. The qualit>' of these early Mickey Mouse narratives has recently been recognized by the Disney interests, and one, in a papercovered volume by Gold Key Mickey Mouse and the Bat Bandit has already been released. With the last strip selections in this section. Little Orphan Annie, Terry and the Pirates, and Dick Tracy, we encounter the sequential linking of daily and Sunday
—
strip episodes
through continuous narrative, standard practice of the Chicago Tri-
bune-New York Daily News Syndicate through which uted.
These
fine
Tribune-News Syndicate
years in various formats.
And
Little
strips
these three strips were distrib-
have been widely reprinted
Orphan Annie was
in recent
reissued in the 1970s (with
some minor but pervasive changes in episodes that originated in the thirties. Terry and the Pirates is being reprinted from the beginning by Nostalgia Press and the first three volumes are available. Vintage Dick Tracy has recently appeared in a number of forms, including a paperback series from Fawcett Gold Medal Books. )
The Orphan Annie selection included here may surprise many individuals who had assumed that the Harold Gray strip was an exercise in sentimentalit>' and political It was a work of a much higher order of narrative imagination than Gray devoted the majority of his waking hours to researching, writing, and drawing Annie, and he told an often gripping story with a variety of strong characters. This one, the end of a much longer narrative, is one of his best [644-672]. ( Dover Books has republished two Annie narratives from 1926 and from 1933, as orig) inally collected and somewhat condensed by the Cupples and Leon Company. Most of the reprinting in recent years of Chester Gould's detective strip, Dick Tracy, has emphasized Gould's relatively fanciful work of the forties, with its amusing galaxy of grotesque villains ( Flattop, Pruneface, and the rest ) Here we draw on his often savagely realistic material of the middle thirties, the pursuit and dispatching of Boris Arson. Gould's delineation of the character and the environment of a type of midwestern desperado of the period (for example, Cutie Diamond) is exceptional, as is his handling of the Indian officer working with Tracy, unusual and interesting in
conservatism.
most
Hardcover anthologies which draw on Little Orphan Annie (daily episodes only),
Dick Tracy
(again dailies only), ToonerviUc
The Gumps, Bringing Up Buck Rogers have appeared recently enough still to be
Folks.
Father, and
found in "remainder" bookshops and on bargain tables.
strips.
—
—
.
the context of the time [688-715].
232
Secret Agent X-9
Dashiell Hanunett and Alex
Raymond
1934
[475]
[476]
[477]
[478]
King Feoiures Syndicate,
Bringing
Up
Father
George McManus
Inc.,
1934
1936
[479]
WRCTTE THE OEAN OC THE COU-ESE THAT OUR SOKI WAKPTED TO QUTT ANO THAT WE WERE C0N>S10«EQIJES.T. HE IS COfAlNS S2!iS' iil? tgae TO SEE LTS- KKJCW HEU. TKV TO COMV1I.JCE US (OCT TO OO ITI
1
SO-OCH.
1
WkMT VOU TO SEE HIW t^
1
1
CA.M'T
(^
233
George McMonui ond King feoiufei Syndicate,
Inc.,
1936
[480]
WE MUST
FIX 1*5
SO*MS
HE ©ers &ACK FPOM COLX-BSG>^'S SUCH A voME ecrrRoo»A e£(=ORE l
VrfAMT HIM
TO PESU
e [481]
King Features Syndicate,
Inc..
1936
HURRV TO TVE STACTIOM ANO *AEET OUR SOKL AS KKOW v-e WH-U BE LXADSO COMM WITH HIS eootce AKo stuoes. i-cui- meeo SOME 1-El.P yCXl kWJST
t
[482]
[483]
[484]
<£)
234
King Feoturct Syndicot*,
Inc.,
1936
Abbie
an' Slats
Raebum Van Buren
1937
[485]
[486]
[487]
[488]
[489]
i.
235
United Feature Syndicate,
Inc.,
1937
{-HE AINT FOOLIN'ME.' HE HATES IT HEPIE, ALREADY— BUT HE WONT LETO/V. SO-/ GUESS l-l BETTER NOT LET ON -HOW TEmiBLE
[490]
—
MUCH- WANT I
TO trAY.'-)
TH- BOY
[491]
[492]
[493]
[494]
Ci United
236
Fwtyrt Syndicat*,
Inc.,
1937
[495]
[496]
©
Gene Ahem
Our Boarding House
7]
£
Some taV ue>eX loeex
cuRikis
•VoUR LUklCH HOUR, BBoP iii -tW RummleV art eAa6«y To see Aki EXHiaiTioKj ot=
600FV MoDERti Asr.'— Ttl' MAJOR HAS ekiTeRED A sfArue hs MABe OF -PLmV, tMat looks LIKS Me BID if
U)HI1.E
/—
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•FAaiJa
I
STAIRS ABE PtAVlJa A 6AS 16 WORK A lOAT> OP lAUtSrtS OFF oJ
TJOWkJ
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(Jlir
Atl^
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S'POSSP Ta CotAB "RJOM Arf
in
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— ru
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Bcflfl
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0\)ER TH'
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I'll
MV
COMPOSURE
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HAVE
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'.
IT
IDEST, SHoUlT>
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'STATUE UliflL THeV TtN To SELL iT Tb MS,
J
MASTERPieCE, tVlE STATuc //_ "
TAClJS
TRAJCES, All' START -RAOlOS
BESAltl
HEAJEtJS; MAlJ,
14IS
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TMoie
ARTisTic
1937
Inc.,
1929
GREAT
DoiJ' (f
foR A LAUSH, £H ? WELt,
UP -TbVkJ' To
United Fealore Syndicate.
(7UICK, / TURkJ'iT ARoU>lr>, 3EfoRE vou caJFiise IT'S
ART vJlBRAtiokls/
— aJd The sTaTue
MJST
-REST o4
AiJTiqJue "RoJe
vJEUVET/ • oHiTHiy IS
Au)T=UL
® NEA
237
Service. Inc
,
1929
©
NEA
Service. Inc.. 1929
[498]
—
[499] Art-ri-
MlSTAlR VIlSTADJ,
-I AW OV^ERCOME
'
—
MeVL
JoV/ AUARD
VOIZ
WlJ SRAkJ' OT -FlfTV DoLiAlRE, AllP 26
SoO
l^AvJE
TiRST PRiie
OkI
VqdR VAR
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MASkll'FlQLie.
ART MODERJE
/
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KISSES?
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NEA [501]
yes siR,->>-rriE ouRvar M01>eRJ ART CRlT-iCS VoTEO The Tirst pbize oJ mV S-TaTuE,— AdD AvOA-RBeP M6 # 50. Iki
/— iJouJ, ur
CASM HEAR
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THAT uliu. TiT AiJVBolW '-~~-MEAklTo' SaV »,*xl CAU ulOiTE VouR tJAnE uJder mike
M£
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YheV said MV STaTuE "fte
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COULD
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M -M - UM - A«_ 6o EGAD,— OM"- Z-zz- <• I MADE *85. out'
yuJn
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Sfylite
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1929
Pocket SLUMBERS,
llJPEEP THE IS SlU <* SiklS', lb MW WAW OF ThiiJkiJg.' AvJd were I A JJDGE, With a Wife ARRAieoED BEfoRE ME Okl TMAT MOkJSTeoUS TELOklV, E6AD, I WOULD
—
—
IMPOSE A SEllTEklCE
OF
"SilEllTV
WEARS
//
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1929
,
A UUGH., Akl'To RiB TrilS MODERiJ ART CRATE ; VoO DID rr To PRoxJE That Aiiseopy CodLP po iT /—
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Se.-..ce.
what
V'gOkJJA pa^ him off. \k1,— cash,'
AT?e
Service. Inc
.
1929
Barnaby
1943
Crockett Johnson
[505] N«//o,
Bomoby. Hwett
again tonight! Thai
saw ft 01 / fitw
I
Intriguing
.
Dork night
light*
wf hfm!
in th9 Jtj$t
.
.
.
Gloomy .
old mantton
window
.
.
.
Wind howling
. .
tht sort o' thing your fairy
Godlalhtr findi itfuttibh
^Oo»h,Mr.O'Mall9y
.
i»tl» lightt fiathing
...til
hav to tolvt lhi$ mysttry, m'boy.
Nobody I
ffvti in fhot aki ruined hovt«.
II
-^
v^
Mom ...U
it
all right for
me fo kind oi look
around in that hauntod house vp the road?
ss: The Joeksoft p^oce? If$ nof hounfed, Bornoby. Peop/e soy fhor obout of/
^
!5 Field
II
Svf yov stoy owtry from
it
.
.
.
ffs too
Thof « right ff you're curious obout if yov con invettigato H when some .
one thing, ond H you prowl around in a ramthackh building by far, for
yourtoH. you'll
tall
and got
hurl
.
\\ . .
o/der, responsible person
it
with you.
.
o/d deserted bvtfding*.
H^lloJai-. I or*
My f oiir eedfarlwi>rand lovte' way to a hauntud fiovM'
M ^^
Of course / don't wort of fraunting houses, littlo girl f don't work of onything. Fm, or. rotirod. Not thof ail my humanitarian ond scienffAc .
infereefs don't
.
And at present am engoged in o I
heep me occupied
danger— an a curious psychic a haunted house.
mission fraught with
.
irrvestigotion of
phenomenon
in
.
Mr. CMalley is aduatly going right up to the front door and gain...
Publicationv 1943
is: Olmy.Mr.O'MaHcy. Mom tayt I con 90 wrfh yov.
1
[506]
[510]
[511]
[512]
[513]
[514]
..
[520] f
m torrf
I
Do yo« ntod onyf hing?
Mom to
ptnvode
Did up th« 9u«lt room tor you yov ^—p wcfJ h«re in rh« ce/lor? .
fix
.
—
And V#iy wtH, »/»onii yo« ( hod f h« iov«(i*sf dfoami.
. «
Pop'i foofhbfusli. Of
O'Moffey Air f xpress Compony.' Here's 'Morning, Sornoby. your bog, Gus .
No. And I won't have you going toalolot froub/e. Your Foiry Godfothtr is geffing my bag from tho hauntod hous*. Ihavt ovo/ything in H fU n«od
.
—
.
.
.
—
chains, c/*an sheers
r
Field Publi C»»,.f»" l»«3>.»M^itli n ii.M
[521]
1
Af /osf o break in fhi$ baling COM of rhe havntod house.' A cfew.'
Ah.'
[
This b*g
IX
bog o< coWee?
Certainty, Bornoby.
This But I ahalt vanquiih rhe Ihnd communiry will fee/ secure once more. Chifdren will go peace*u//y fo fheir .
.
.
.
.
.
/ittiebeds
.
.
Obviously, m'boy.
A coffee fiend!
AndGus wi/f beobfefogo
bock fo his haunted house, vnairaid
.
J
.
Now we know
ihe fype o* evi( creofure your old fairy Godfather hoi pitied his w'rtt A diabolicai opponenf.' agamsf .
^c)
[522]
»•(/ Itn copi oboirt rfiof Co*m rt.
ShouMn'f wt
H»n6 in
CoW In tfit poDo? TfioM burtfhnlt When /ovr f oiry Codtof»«f Uonlhm tom7 Hon—n—, toinabyl My ^alhlkt, baM<< on MTtiof?
my 9xhovsthf ttudy ol trlm» /fforofuro, show rfiof
b* glod to inok> Q formo/ cortiploinf onrf—
rll
rh«
mystoWM Miv«d b)r coppora can b*
cminrod pra
fjfno flngor
. .
Field Publicotions. 194
(ve ore fo flr*d out what tha fiend h cfumsy pof Jcemon vnwHtingty Informing him of our intent. . No, m'boy. A problem like this caffs
If
vptawe can't have any .
.
for the brilliant anafyticat brain of
on
Augusfe Dx/pin, an Hercule Poirot, o Doctor Ihorndyke, a Nero Wolle, or o
f hifo VorKO
.
.
.
iucUcy I'm here, aren't
we?
Field Publicafion?,
[523]
H J_
Gvt is very onidoui for you to anafy>* what the fiend il doing in hit hauntod house, Mr. aMof/ey ... Did yov find out? OhgosK'ooA ...Hele/ios^eepogoin.
ff
rve thought of a hidJrtg p/oce for that important eviderKe f unearthed fn cose the Fiend in desperotion, attempts .
to rogain H... brittg the
bag
.
.
upstotrt
.
.
he searches the house
H, naturally he'll rip
the
woodwork
.
.
.
Then
he'll
s/osh rhe upholstered chairs artd pry -jp rhe Aoor boards So I shall put il where he'll
never expect
ir
ro
Who would expect ro find a twenty-pound bag of Coffee on a pantry theW?
down all looking
firti,
far secret panels
for
.
.
be hidden.
^ [5241 White we're fn the Aifthen, omofcy, / t/iink o bit of bodi/y nourishweni mighf aid my ar>alyti
^
Whot Ivckl TufM nthi
•
AiSfcorfocANofmeeof fmtt Fairy Godfather, 'Allmentory, ory Get H. m'boy? A devef dear WotMn' .
pun
.
.
.
Ho/met
.
.
said,
"AUmentary,
my —
w9e tttavght
tt
wrot
itty
Aome,
o* course
frfertd Professor Moriority,
oitfy the light of
my
Arte
who ofwoys
Havaf*a
Field Publlcaiions. 194
.
He dedwcod ft ... If was dork in the (order at hh Baker Stroet flot. Tou see mv good there, forgot his fontern tfiat night arid
Iralii feorff
19<
ota
Mr. (y/MoOeyf I know how yov con fir>d out whor the fiend Is doing in the haunted houtet
wond
^^
^^^Ir
hold Publicolioni.
242
19'
Yt. d eouf«», my faiiy Godfath*/* Handy Pocfcaf GuM* tWf* how to
Th*n you tan 90 righf Info ffw haunted hou$m and find out
VQnqulth fiundt ...rll look In thm "^anqviMhing of: Demons; ind9X
what rh* fitnd it doing th^fl Jvtt wova yout magk won
.
.
.
tvil Spirit*"— tfs
an
IhHng
.
.
.
.
.
.
o/p/»ab«f Jcof
H»n!—''fi*ndt, pag* 2$."
And C«or9«'i
company and vry probob/* fhot
insurants
rh« po/ic« think if*
thoM gongiferi who hav« b««n ho/ding vp fh« coffe* tiueks hove headquorfsn And that fh»M tight in this vicinity ton* of stolen coff«e may b« stored in a .
house right
in this
.
.
very neighborhood
Cif,.l»lil
IMl rmU
.
.
•^•bic«fkwM
^
Yot/ro, mr. conHdent, aron't you, O'Malley, that nothing can
powbfy go awry? Doar mo bvf
I
keop
focallirtg
.
.
.
What a
thing to think of now,
yovr sura fhJng of BWnfonf whan
Stop worrying, Gus .1 have my fine Hovono Oh, THAT warni in roadiness and my thumb at the page of my Good fairy Godfather's HarKiy Pocket Guidebook on which ora rha magic words for vanquishing alt type* of fiends .
.
.
.
.
.
--JP
.
h
[530]
Ws a vBPf good thtng Mr. 0'A1o//ey, my Foiiy Godfaf her, couM grvt such a ffn« Green, wrf dneriptlon of o Fiend o fong foi/ with o hooic on it and red Otherwise / wouldn't fining eye* Juiow whot fo focJi for in this house. . . .
.
.
.
[531]
fm looking for o Wend He's got o long tail and my Foiry Codfother it
going
to
vanquish him
wifh his mogic wand.
.
w
do with What will Ihit Krewy brot. Boss? He $*0n all them bag*.
MM Field Pi.'blicQiions, 1943
[532]
1
See,
fcJd.
'til
all the coffee
old joint
down here tomorrow when we move we got hid in this spooky
IVe got to fceep you
in the cellar
...
So you won't
tell
the cops.
[535]
[536]
[537]
[538]
[539]
®
245
Field Publicolions.
1943
The Bungle Family
[540]
^
Harry Tuthill
1936
[541]
®
247
McNouohl
Syndicote,
Inc.,
NY., 1934
Mickey Mouse
Floyd Gottfredson for Walt Disney
1935
[542]
[543]
© [544)
^ VtS, INDEED, Miss COW, ^^ ^sO^ERE AlNTA aAL MERE \ Wy ^ pi CAN TDUCM VEl ONLV ,^ WlSHT WAS M3LJNG J ^ //^'JVy\ ENOUtSM TO STEP / /
I
Wolt Disney Enterprlsei, !935
10U SHOULD
[548]
H*iVft
KNOWN BETTER
{0UINCH5 lONSTD
CLARABEU-E HAVB SOT
TM« WMOLB -TOWN
THAN TO TELU
CLARABELI.E THAT SOUINCH IS CROOKECl^
ONLY \t)U KNEW ANVTMINa ABOUT women!
IP
TALKING! HIR FRIENDS THINK TMCREiS
A CATCH IN
IT
BUT THEV CAH'r CONVINCE
clakaselle!
[549]
[550]
[551]
[552]
CAN'T
vfe
(ty
249
\^BLn:
ELI
T
rr^ .such a >
Wolt Disney Enterprises. 1935
[553]
[554]
[555]
[556]
ICKBV TWcT S«(jiNC«
BUTT>.I!?e\
COULO BE soMe<>V< IN TH«T -nnjNK /
-THAT ttouV
o^ vAiAjm AMOHa XKE RBUCS OP c.An^aeu.b e«ANOm
WHEN e^lNCH WOnV OPKN IN
He
MlCKmV% I*
OP
auvs IT
I
>VOUlONY
KNOW HAD ANY VALUE,
[560]
dARABCLLE RESENTS MlCKffS SUSPICION
OF SOU INCH AND INSISTS THAT ME UOOK TXROUGM HER SRAHOfATHERS TMINSS, HIMSELI"!
(
[566 J
I
tMOOSKT
WE BentR
OM, MERCIFUL SOODNeSS! .
,
,
MERC MS
SOMfc
VBS, ITS MSUF?
MOirtBAaE
—I
OOUfiHT IT F??UM TM« bank! now WILL Va TALK
TALK OVW?
,
WAY
"IbSET HOLD
.TURKEY?/
OF VDUR SRAN'DAOS solo"
^
[567]
Wolt Disney
HAVBItJU
rhally
@gIQUINCH HAS
sen-
PL AN?
""^^
aoucvfr uc> CLAKABELLlk
Enterprises, 1935
I'm ooiN'visn'
TO oia ui» iwin aRAN'ChAIJ's OOLOl
WHEN I SET BACK V CAN
USB
rr-ro Pixt'
MorraAsi
OFPTHAT
ANO
wsaobl!
THRCATEN*
HBK wiTM UNUBSft
SHE
MARRIES HIMl
>t'
''what 1
[568] TrtJlCKBY
TWUL.S
HORACa. ABOLTT 60UtNCH ouvit^ta
CLARAOELLES MORTisAae
OROERTO K>RCH HBR
IN
-TO atvk
MlM TME
treasure map!
^
Wolf Disney
Enterprises. 1935
[572]
[573]
[574]
[575]
[576]
[577]
Uisnev Enterpriiei, 1935
253
[578]
[5793
IT LU
TAKE A
COUP-wE O'
DATs
"TO
Put THAT CAN
[581]
[582]
Y
HAD AN
^
lyA>CVDENT?i
^HAVE V SEEN An
AND ^ORACK
.
ON V^HAT
8BEM6 A HOPELESS PURSUIT
OP THB
VILLAIN
PLANE
S' 1
K
2P\ OVER fY\^ERE?|; '
REPAIR
CAR AND BET OUT
Y^
AIRPLANE /
Several
HOURS LATER
[590] )ICKBV
AMO HORACm
ARKPORCED
TO USE "me STOLEN POU&E. MOTORCVCLE,
AJSTEH PHTt AND QPUINCM
«o
oft: in
HORACe'S
car!
[591]
[592]
[593]
[5941
[595)
(D
256
Wall Diinty Entsrprt
WA'AL.AtioRBiM'-ib the WlR£ fRUM THE PO" LEECH T
YDU ainT TME
FBLLER5 WHAT TME i.
MOTOR,
CYCLE
?
^^^^r
(£)
Wall Ditn«y
Ent«rprii«i. 1935
258
i
/^ P^BTB AND SQUlNCH "X ARC aOlNTO &e AWFUL ( A DISAPPOINTED "TMAT *i^,we DIDN^ FALL FOR/
[614]
''
MICKEt' AND HORACe TRV
TO
HURR^ Uf»' WHERE DO WE Dl©?^
J
t=lNO
THEIR.
v*\-l'
OT= A MAZE OF
OUT
TORTUOUS CAMVbNS^ PETE ANO SQUINCH ARRIVE AT THE. PUACE THE
BURIED GOLD IS suPPoseo Tt>
BE
,
uocated;
[615]
[616]
rTME MAP S/Vr-STHERElS \ A SMALLEI* TREE '
'
[617]
[618]
[619]
©
260
Wolt
Diifiey Enlorprii«i, 1935
[620]
Bnra&ed and HUMORCq S&CAuSE.
ILL-
Of" -TMSIR
FAILURE
TO FINP
THE BURIED SOLD.
PETE AND SPUINCH START A OUN BATTLE WITM MICKEY
AND HORACE!
Woll Diincy
Enli'.prno-.,
1935
*\1 \Jjo«Ace MOLDS PETB AT bat; MICKEV -TRIES
-TD as-r WHINP HIH
UNOBSERVED.
®
Walt DisneY Enterprises, 1935
[621]
[626]
[632]
[633]
[634]
[635]
[636]
[637]
Wolt Dime/
263
Enterprises. 1935
V
'NOWTHEN, MISS HIGH ^/ OH AND Mier&Y, I w^NT J INDEED') My MONEY -mAT THIS YVl""""^ MERE. MOfTTSASE
jy
//"vT^
»
Little
Orphan Annie
Harold Cray
1938
[644]
HM-M--GUC>CES PLACE SURE LOOKS DESERTED - BL\NDS ALL DRAWN- CRASS IN THE YARD A FOOT HIGH--
FUNNY WHERE
HE COOLD HAVE GONE
OR WHY-
^Jhree
weeks have supped bv
since tvwt fateful hight oh which uriah cudge, the town's leading citizen. put on his hat. pocketed a loaded pistol. and went out "for a little walk'- "out of sight. out of mind: thevsaf how true- already pubuc interest j
in his
whereabouts
is
almost nil
Chicago Tribune-New York Newi Syndicor©,
265
Int.,
1938
-
!
--
[645]
AND. 'CEPT FOR HIM. GUOGE MOULOK BURNED DOWN TK HOUSE WTTH US IN rr TH/rr -hmeHE1S SURE A REAL FRIENDANO ALWIWS DOW SOMETWIK THAT NEEDS DOIN-
LIKE RLLIN'
WELL. FORE SOME KID Fax INTO rr - too hard WORK FOR ANYBOOV ELSE BUT NOT FOR SHANGHAI WORKED AS IF HIS LIFE DEPENDED ON fT-
I
f
/fsrtri -"
J Chicago Tnbune-New York News Syndicole,
[646]
WELL. DRAG
SCUPPER^MY KEEL FER A SON OF A SEA-WTTCH! SUJPP1N'
I
SHANGHA\
-SHARK". IVE GOT A CARGO OF RKXT PRIVATE BUSINESS WONDER COULD WE HfJS A UTTLE BUSINESS SESSION OUST YOU AND ME -
SHANGHAI. I WE GOTT I PLACES I
I
I
HERE OUST MADE FBJ SECH-COME
WHERE DID ^TXJ
LEM/E
I
I •
SHANGHW?
I* GOT" OFF DOWN T AT THE WATERFRONT 1
AND HEADED INTO
TW TOUGHEST. MOST ORNERTV DIVE
t£
1647]
VES-HTS THE SORT OF VITAL PERSONALITY HIS PRESENCE FELTAROOND- YV WQJ.. HE'LL SOON OOKT VOU?kl BE BACK%. /
CEE.
I
SURE MISS f. HMnN' SHAHQHAt
V
WHO MAKES
V
HE SAIOHES EARNED A \*«:AT10N MY, MY- ALL THE THINGS HE'S DONE-- HE SEEMED lE'S SO CHEERFUL L«TEi:<- HE'S TURH.^H BEEN SO SORT OF TAOTURH. UP UNTIL OUST THE PAST THREE WEEKS OR SOFRIOAV.
^H
BUT
I
1
ACTED AS THOUGH HET> FINISHED SOME BIG OOBFACT HE SAID THE OTHER DAY HE FELT UKE A MAN WHO'D DONE HIS BIG TASK AND COOLO RETIRE
Inc.,
1938
GUESS
WE D ONT HO/B TD WORBY ABOUT THAT
OLD iEA- GOING WILD-
\
I
MEANS TO
HAVE ONE.
IMAGINE-
Chicogo Tnbwne-Ne/^ York News Syndicate,
LATEL-Y HE'S
IN
HAt HAI
1
i)
)
1
EVER StEN- HOPE
HE KMEW WHAT HE WAS t>0»*'-
'
—
THAT OCO
-f
Inc.,
1938
HMM" HIS
BIG
'WHOrO DONE TASK AND CCXXJJ
RETIRE" THATS SC3RT OF A FUNNV REMARK TO COME FROM HIM, ALL THINGS
C0NSI06REO - THAT COULD
I
MEAN---HM-MM--
[648]
[649]
[650]
®
Chicogo Tnbune-N«w Yo'k N«wi Syndkot*.
Inc..
1938
[651]
MIDNIGHT- UITTLE ANN\E, BLESS HER HEART. SLEEPING AS ONLY TVTOSE WITH THE CLEAR CONSOENCE OF A CHILD CAM SLEEP- BRAVE. LCrtAL LITTLE SOULHOPE sHen.L Ntrr think too lu. I OF ME" GOOD-BYE. MY CHIUD-,
1
WEEKS HAVE ROLLED BY USTLESSLV STNCE OUR DEIAR FTirErND. URIAH GUDGE,
'OUR
PUT ON total obscurity. OR WHATErVER HE DID TO DISAPPEAR- ALREADY HE IS UTTLE MORE THAN A MEMORY TO MOST- WHERE DID HE GO? WHY? HOW? APPARENTLY NOBODY KhWWS AHU AFTER OKE MONTH. NOBODY SEEMS TO CARE— SH-H-H—
©
267
Chicago Tribune-Now
Vofl:
N«ws
Syndicols,
Inc..
1938
1
[652]
A JOB WELL DONE - AS POR
RX< -TO ST»C ft BTTBUT NEVER WAS Or« "TO TARRY W»«^ MY *Joe WAS CX)NE - CAP>* ALDB1. SUEEP1NG ON T>C HIU.- HA', HEX) ENJOY THK- HE WAS ALWm^ ONE FOR A GOOD JOKE - PERHAPS SOMEWHERE, SOMEHOW, HE KNOWS-] «fE. rro BE
•ROU.
MIS
ROLL REALLY DOWN TO RlOl OH. I'D LCWE TO ROLL TO R» SOME OM BEFORE I'M 0LD1' AHOy, THE'f^'
MISSUS. FOR ROSE AND JACK, OR LTTTLE ANMIE--THEY CX3N~T NEED OLD SHANGHAI - NO - PTS TIME WHO TO GO. AND I'M OFF CARES WHB«E? ffT" LAST I'M FRffi
I
j
j
AiGAlN
DOWN- ROLL OOWH TO RIO-^
© [653]
_ LOOK IN W THE BorTOM
TK PUCE GOT A NOMYMOOS lETTtH- I rr SAID -LOOK IN I TME BOTTOM OF THE I OLD WEU--- GEE. A rrs GOT EM QOIN' n ABOUT CRAZY- / 1
irYEAH
YES. ha! Ha( I'LL SAY AND KS HE DID- WTTM ROCKS HE AND OLD IRON AND lENT EVEN A FEW BAGS O' CEMENT SODDED WHEN NO ONE WAS WHY. HOW TONS ANO LOOKIN", AND CAN THEY? f IT :ar f TONS O' DIRT- CLEAR SHANGHAI . TO TH' TOP
^
OF THE OLD WELL?
*»
J^
^S
SCHOONER*
AND OFF TO SEA-
1
i
-
SAID
THAT
1
Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicole,
BLTT
WHY irEH? HWE
IT-
(
,
THE OLD
OH. BOY' THEYT?e I WELL? WHAT MEMBERIN LOTS O' TKJ COOLD BE THINGS SHANGHAI THERE"?
I
SAID
I
rr
1
O REMEMBERIN"
FORGOTTEN?
1938
WAS THPT Niorr when ACE GOT KILLED, TK NIGHT JOST BEFORE TM' MORNIN' ,'' „ Tl-WT SHANGHAI STARTED { EH FILLIN THAT WELL, THAT MR. FOLKS SAW THEIR LAST i GUOGE?
WAS SO FOLKS WOULD LOOK IN THE FORGET IT. -STEAD BOTTOM OF
I
VOL)
Inc.,
'.
1
NOW-
O'
MR. GUDGE -
I
[654]
Chicago Tribune-Nev.
Ji
[655]
IP MY WE BROADCAST ALARM ALL \ THEORY RYIS RIGHT OWER TVC COUNTRY M FG lAlF-l WITH THAT PEG LEG WTLL HA»/E HIM HE CANT GET FAR THE BEFORE HE'S NEXT TEN PICKED UP
THIS
I
1
I
I
IS
THKT
TOUGM
WATERFRONT
•THE
!
DIVE THE TRUCK DRIVER TOLD OS
LOOKING PLACE L
ALL RIGHTWE'VE BEEN SEEN- COME
SHANGHAI? SHANGHAI PEG? ONE-LEGGED BIRC NOPE. NEVER HEARD O' NO SUCH SWAa- BUT LOOK AROUND - YOO DONT NEED NO SEARCH WARRANT- MY BUSINESS IS A OPEN BOOKHEY— STINGER-
1
t£
^H
WELL. WELL- BEEN Ov/ER EVERY INCH >4 PLACE. EH?
BUT WE
1
HO' ho! YOO COOLO BE
RIGKT, FRIEND-
A
9 KNOW I I SHORT MEM'RY- FERGIT ME ND S HE WAS I OWN NAME. ONLY IT'S M4D VOU AINT FOUND •H' HERE r TATTOOED ON ME STUMM»CK HIDE NER HAIR O' TH' iKIN' SCOL»«>REL YER LOOKIN' A WEEK WHAT WAS TH' SWAB'S
C MY
I
GCTT
I I
FER? CHKl CHK
I
,A
I
THEY OQnT Wirz\ NO ACCIDENT
1
MINUTES
ALL
^ WATER UNDER T ^ HERE HAVE YE STEP
I
I
I
[656]
SHOW THESE ^M aye! this WAtY- WATCH HERE GENTS AROUND. STINGER-' YER STEP- GOT AND BE SURE A MITE O" DEEP
,
*'
NAME AGAIN? PEKING 7
COME ONWE'RE
NOT
GET-TING ANY.
WHERE HERESHANGHAI'S
NOT HERE OR WE'D HAN^ FOUND HIM-
|
HATTE
BOARD MEeee-
Chicago Tribune-New YofW Newi Syndicote.
WELL. SO SORRY YOO GOTTA PUSH OFFDROP IN AGAIN ANY TIME - IT AINT ALW«YS
"whew! I'M SWEATIN' ICE WOTER-THAT
LONG. MATES-
\
-
ON A LOOSE
OUtl.-HEftE-;
PLACE GAVE
ME THE CREEPS-
)
WHY, A MAy COULD DISAPPEAR IN
THERE AND
/
Inc.,
1938
YES- RIGHT YOO ARE-BLrr LET'S GET BACK AND ea
HOW THE
DIGGING
IS
COM*NG ON-
[657]
^
Chicogo Tribune. New York News Syndicate,
Inc.,
1938
[658]
Maw
Green
Chicago Tribune-New York Newj Syndicate,
269
Inc..
1936
[659]
EH? VOO SPTf YOO DONX BELIEVE GUCGE IS IM THE BcrrroM of that OLD WELL-TVe< WHSiE IS HE?
[660]
[661]
[662]
[663]
[664]
gj Tnbun«-Nftw York N«wj Syndicate.
Inc..
1938
[665]
Maw
Green
Chicago Tribune-h4ew Vofk News Syndicate.
271
Inc..
1938
-
[666]
[667]
VEAH-
BOTTOM OF THEWELL.m" UiST AND THi3!E---ONLY A MET?1. CftH. SEALED, AECRESSED TO JUDCE SILAS BUTTON
YES-
I
AM
FAMILIAR
FAIRLY
WTTM THE
CASE AS EVERYONE
!BUT WE FOOND
•KXTRE JUST
TYPeT>«rl WOULD BE FOR f THAt e»iqTVB? -
I I
,
FOR YOO. JUDGE
KCREABOUTS IS. BEUEVE--HA\ HA'. BUTTOMNO CORPUS OB.ICT1QOITE A DSAPPOINTMBfT TO THE MORBID DARE SAY I
I 8
THAT METAL
SHANGHAI. THE
EH''
?1
OLD PEG-LEG PRINTED THAT ADDRESS -WETJE CERTAIN O'
COMT AIMER?
MMM-M---
MY NAME, ALL
RIGHT— COO OOO INDEED-
/
THAT-- I'D BE CAREFUL WHEN rrS OPENED
nonsense!
rrS NOT HEAVY AT AU.---HERESEE YOU HAVE I
TOOLS THERE
O.K.--Y0U HOLD IT. CHIEF
1
1
\
READY---OPEN
UP AND WEU. HAVE 1^ LOOK-
rr
WHILE CUT THROUGH THIS TOP END-
I
AH-H-H--
I
THOUGHT SO-" PAPERS- -DEEDS TmjES - HM-M-M' AND WHAT-S THIS? WHAT--? GREAT -
GOSHEN". THIS IS
SOMETHING-
y
[668]
[669]
r
[670]
[671]
c-Nc* Vofk Newi S/ndicole.
Inc. 1938
[672] IT IS. PRINTED RX.LIN THE PAPER
HERE IN '•
I,
URIAH GUDOe, OF FREE WILL.
MY OWN
CONFESS THPrr
1
PLANNet)
AND DIRECTED THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN CALEB ALDEN-"
HE GOES ON TO CONFESS HOW HE THEN GOT HOLD OF
NEARLY ALL O F CA PTAIN ALDEN'S PROPeirrY--HE EVEN TELLS HOW HE HAD HIS MEN KILL THREE OF JACKS TROCK DRIVERS
VNTI-CUMAX? PROBABLY-- CERTAIKLY IT
WAS A TERRIBLE DISAPPOINTMEHT TO THE MORBID ONES WHEN DEAR MR. GUDGE WAS NOT DISCOVERED RECUNING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OLD WELL- ONLY Aw SEALED METAL CAN FULL OF PAPERS WAS FOUMD THERE— BUT WHATT PAPERS '
Maw
Green
Chicogo Trtbvne-New York News Syndicol*,
273
Inc.,
1938
TerT>-
[673]
and the
Pirates
Milton Canilt
1940
-ajjgg_
^X...
T
r^a^.A^'
T
HPAPn
^^S
C676]
[677]
[678]
[679]
© News
275
Syndicote Company,
Inc.,
1940
[680]
5
News Syndicote Company.
[681]
WE SHOT POWN THE CAIC SICINMED ONE, VOU ALLOWED A WO/MAN TO RUSH OUT OP THE HOUSE AMP CARKV HIM AWAV
IN
A
CAR.'
Inc.,
1940
HE 15 HERE.' TXE HANPSOME ONE^ WAS ABOUT TO POLLOW HU SHEE.TD HELP ' HIS Y0UNi5 PEIENP BUT TWO 6JCH MAP CASHES COULP NOT BE 60 U^JKy.' TD THE PEA60N HE IS TOO SAUUABLE LAPV TO BE WA6T6P THU6... SO I JUST STeuCC HliM ON THE HEAD ^HARP ENOUSH TO SAVE HIAA PDR . . .
,
—
PirrWE REPERENCe.'
I?
[682]
Newi
Syndicate Company.
Inc..
1940
[683]
[684]
[685]
[686]
©
277
Newj
Syndicate Company,
Inc.,
1940
t687]
l
avs;-
©
News
Syndicot0 Compony,
Inc.,
1940
In their early days [the comic strips had an importajit function! as a form of crude but vigorous satire at a time when American literature in general was saccharine and imitative.
The meaner and littler aspects
of American life amd character were lampooned in the funnies long before
Sinclair Lewis discovered Main Street or Babbitt .
And strip pictures
caricatured U.S. manners and mores at a time when the motion picture had
Mary Pickford, America's sweetheart, as its fairest flower.
Corrupted
by neither a literary training nor a literary tradition, taking their
material from the life they observed around them, the comic-strip artists presented a series of extremely pointed (and fundamentally ill-natured) comments on the American public, which promptly roared with lau^ter and came eagerly back for more,
"The Funny Papers," Fortune
278
.
April 1933
Dick Tracy
Chester Gould
1935
[688]
CO
AM£AvD, AR'30M-SMA>P
HERE SOME TO
C3UR. PICTURE ST*^^^1D1MC Llt4E TWlS. U.BZP THAT CiCAJJ. IM -touR.
MOUTI-t.TORA.
I'LL
S>EMD
THE PAPERS ME>a TIME I'M IM TCrv^M. Uk.& POR 'EM TO PRIMT COOP PICTURES OP ME AS LOkJC *>.<=> TMEW'RE PRiwtimG TMEM. ^!Ti"«i\ I
^
\^JHtKJ-
DO
Sou TMIM^C OP- OUR CWAMCES. TRACS? THIS COUkirRWS CETTIMC VJILDER \MITH EVERW r^lLE
THIS IS OME JOB ^ WERE GOIMC TO SEE
THROUCM RC^T THERe WtU. BE t40 .
TURKIIKIC BACK TILU THE ^RSON
OOO
IS
CAUGHT.*
Chicago Tribune-New York Newi Syndico'e,
279
Inc.,
1935
[689]
cof^& oar wEAE awd SWOOT TWROUGM 7W6 SWviE BULX£T MOL£ JuST FOR I'Vt OJUV PRACTICE' kOsiocxED rr oe* tvu^t POST owce iNj I
FOUR VEAJ?S»
[690]
[691]
[692]
[693]
[694]
rork
News
Syndlcols,
Inc..
1935
[695]
®
281
Chicogo Tribune-New York News Syndicare,
Inc.,
1735
[696]
guioeo BV VH.IOW>OHV, OtCK TRACV, P« PATTOM AJJO TH6 INOl^U HAN'S OSMe TO THE .
,
VERV DOOR OP
••CL)TI6" DiAjvtoNDX Hiosioe c*>/e.»
[697]
[698]
[699]
[700]
[701]
)
Chicago Trtbune-Now
Yoflc
N«wi Syndkote.
Inc..
1935
TUB PIRST CA.VE DOOR, DO< TR^CV OBSERVES TMfc TWO WIUDCKTS CuAROiKlG TME REA-R ROOM OC TME C*.s/E WW6i:?E BORIS A^kJD TORA AJISOM AJJO "CLITIE" DlAJ^lOMD AJI.E: IM MOIMG BUT BBPORE WE CftJsl PLAJO A*JS ACTOM/CUTIE" SPRIMGS TO TM6 IMMER, DOOR OP Tl-te C*«VE AMD CIRBS k. MAO-IIME CUM *kT TMB lp&TEC-nV&
CJPeKJIMC
.
©NJLN BW MURLISJC MIMSSLP SUDDiMLV B^CuCwA,RO AJJD PulLIMC TVIE C300R CLOSED, DOES TSAC-^ AtJOID DEAT)-I, "CuTiE" CXJMTWUES TO piRE TMROUCM TME OUTER DOOR MOWEVER AT R6CUL^R iWTERVAiS SO THAT TRAOV AWD MIS MEW D^RE NOT ATTEMPT 6MTRAMC6 TO TME CfcVE BUT AT LAST A PLAW HAS BEENJ .
wORi^ED UP TO DRiVt THE CRIMIMALS OUT.
Ov<1W - QulET MOW 'CUTI6"f BOR\S.» WB'Re
~
.'
GOIMC TO R3RC& YOU TO .Wt'RE COIMG TO DRIVE VOU our WITH CARBON t*OHOXlDE CAS/
COME OUT.
.
rTH^VET
1
WANT ^
[702]
[703]
CPS FROM THE OF THE potice c*kR
iijONOXIDE EXKAOjrr
oaNC
ITS vwoRx! 'iirne'' D(A>«N3.'ZORA.AND BORIS ARSOM, W!£ FORCED TO WOTE THE O.VE.» \s
[704]
[705]
[706]
[707]
(£)
[708] S'fc«s TO l~^<5WTN
TMt
Tv.e sec<:»jo
cusoa
'CLmt' CMJ^ONO StN^eS
OOAMNG OC Tve CHEAT
BLACK CUtTA»J CatX BEH>MO g6Xuttj~iS
Am ok* last c668Le ea:oRT TO v.jfcHD OCC 4E-ViTA8L.e CAtnuRE. WE £kjtE«=. TWfc BOOM «JllT>«9T DOUWI TH6 MAU. AWO POBTIPCS WIKOSB-C
Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicote,
Inc.,
1W5
[709]
©
285
ChicoQo Tribune-New York Newj Syndicote, Iac, 1935
,
[710]
V^ WILL,
Atrrsa ewtERimS TWE WOUS6 AjX> PMOlKXa 'CUTIE'
DIAMOND
IC
SENOJO ML>.^AjsJ Ua.P, DCii TRACW n»a«ES aioc -ra t^je CA-PaJHE ST.-L
UO
80RS iiRSOW. W-O l-o
I
'^
CAJs) CSET
OC THESE BARS
>S
I
TWE S6CO»JO
C'GLiaEO OUT ^ MA' THERE w£ ARE
IVEGOTTWE
[711]
[712]
[713]
[714]
[7151
<£)
Chicogo Tribun«-N*w York N«w» Syndicate.
Inc.,
1935
11 Cats, Dogs,
Possums, Counts,
and Others A Comics Miscellany, 1928-1950 This section offers a selection of Sunday pages from some memorable
strips.
The
pre-
ponderance of half-page and tabloid-page layouts rather cheerlessly indicates the encroaching reduction of space allowed comic-strip first
half century.
artists
But the ample and colorful use of
this
toward the close of the
strip's
halved area by cartoonists
is
sometimes admirable.
Notes on strips in
this section
The
by one
and inwhose Nize Baby, Count Screwloose, and Dave's Delicatessen are among the most consistendy and irrepressibly daffy of strips. Flowing from one into the other, with some of the same characters traipsing into one feature and out of the other, Gross's strips use names only as tags of convenience. They are all slices of the great Gross comic cheesecake from which two dozen delectable books and films were pared in his lifetime [716-718]. The comic strip Felix the Cat was drawn by Otto Mesmer, although it was signed first
three selections in this section are
imitably individual talents in the strip
by Pat Sullivan
how
all
of the great original
Milt Gross,
field,
until the latter's death. Felix, a feisty, inventive, restless, yet
delicate adventurer in his glass menagerie world, never attained the
following that the charming enchantment
of his
have earned him [719]. Al Capp's irreverent and crudely hilarious
Li'l
weekly and daily
Hejfi
strip,
activities
strip
might
Abner, the veritable yawp of the
was at a creative peak from 1934 are from three of those Abner years [720-722].
newspaper comic
some-
wide
to 1944; the
examples here
was begun when the Hearst chain raised its Simday comic section from sixin 1935, and it provides this wonderful example of what hap-
teen to thirt>'-two pages
pened when Dr. Seusss gorgeous lunacy moved briefly into comics [723]. Abie the Agent, Harry Hershfield's nervy and pioneering development of the first definitively Jewish strip hero, from 1914 through the thirties, was a subtle, adult work of humor and unspoken compassion, which deserves more analysis and discussion than it has received. Here are two examples in the relaxed mood which the strip acquired in Hershfield's later years [724-725]. This
final selection of
Herriman's Sunday Krazij Kat pages [726-733] are from the
great color tabloid period of 1934-44, eight examples of the rare
287
work which, during
)
the
decade, appeared consistendy in only two United States newspapers,
artist's last
New
the Saturday
York Journal and the Saturday Chicago American. Herriman's
comic work, a national treasure comparable
manence
Daumier's in France, deserves the per-
to
and complete collection in boards, and the dignity of repubsize and color from beginning to end. ( Meanwhile, Nostalgia
of a definitive
lication in the original
Press has provided an anthology,
now
available in softcover.
Pogo [734-737] was a brilliant newspaper adaption, in and Sunday format, of a major strip which was originated and essentially per-
^^'alt Kelly's
daily
insouciant
—the only
fected in comic-book format
moving medium. Pogo became the first daily episodes reprinted virtually complete in book form, seinstance of a comic-book creation
wholly and permanently into the newspaper
comic
strip to
have
its
strip
quentially, year after year.
Gus
Arriola's
Gordo, with a cast of
delight in today's papers, with
human and animal
Sunday pages
characters, remains a daily
of e.xceptionally individual graphic de-
sign [738-7,39].
Casey Ruggles [741], Warren from
May
rative
1949 until
late
1954
and brutal point-of-view
Leone (A
Fistful of Dollars,
Tufts's somber, adult ^^'estem adventure strip, lasted
( and was ghosted
in its later
months )
clearly anticipated the Italian
among
.
Its
strong nar-
Westerns of Sergio
others) and their imitations on both sides of the
Atlantic.
Krazy Kat, the daily comic strip of George Herriman, is, to me, the most amusing and fantastic satisfactory work of art produced in America today. be a work of art I shall not traffic,
having produced,
sind
.
.
.
With those who hold that a comic strip cajinot
Such is the work which America can pride itself on
can hastily set about to appreciate.
has delicacy, sensitiveness, and an unearthly beauty.
...
It is wise with pitying irony
Throu^ them
it
foajn
meauiders Krazy, the most tender and the most foolish of
creatures, a gentle monster of our new mythology.
Gilbert Seldes "The Krazy Kat That Walks By Himself," The Seven Lively Arts
288
j
The strange, unnerving, distorted trees, the
language inhuman, unanimal, the events so logical, so wild, are all magic carpets and faery all charged with unreality.
ajid
.
192^4-
—
Nizc Baby
Milt Cross
1928
(716]
NIZE
BABY
lUa
U
>
Fi.
o*
By
Milt Gross
Count Screw-loose
[717]
Milt Gross
1929
r OIL!!.
COUNT SCREWLOOSE OF TOOLOOSE
By Milt
Gross
rrr
(B Pr«»> Publlthins Co.
290
(N.w Ywkl. I9»
Dave's Delicatessen
Milt Gross
1932
[718]
Dave's Delicatessen 1
CC»-^&.MUKXr C«,A^.' >OU'RE A Pl-A-y-pRCCXiCERS vvn=E. ^4C?W / vVE. V\U£T
TO
n^^E.
TV(e -meA-nirE. ora
PCJR
Tvie.
K.ng Fea'ures Syndcafe,
291
Felix the Cat
Pat Sullivan
(
Otto Mesmer )
1931
[719]
Nawtpopsr Feotur*
292
S«rvict, Inc., 1931
Li"!
Abner
Al
Capp
(
Alfred Caplin
)
1938 / 1940 / 1942
AdYicre ^o' ChillLiT^
jLIX
SEE THAT LI'L KID PASTED HIM ONE
MY KID . BROTHCR.'J
I
YfiTIDCflf'-FOR
NUTMIN
by
AL CAPP
"^^c^^^:^^^^^
HAS BEIEN TRYING TO HELP HER SPINSTER COUSINS
MAY AND JUNE. HUNKS CATCH
A couple: of
t
CARCTUL WHEN YOU'RE SPEAKlNft TO
OC
H*i)cuN€PC)L^T.cwKLANC>.Ha»imi-^mrrnoim?
^^HOW KIN A GAL ^m A YOUNG G.IT
^^MANI ROMANTICAL ^F^ 'BOUT HER WHEN
*
7^
THREATENi> BASH HER V;F
HE.
T'
A
CLUB efshe:
-fCOME5 NEAR HIM?
HUSBANW.
UNFORTUNATELY
THE VICTIMS
SELECTED, HAIRLESS JOC ANP LONESOME. POLECAT FAIL TO CO-OPERATE-
t.
293
United Feolu^e S/ndtcole.
Inc..
1938
[720]
[721]
LIL AL CAPP MOTH ER, OLD THIf«3 PREPARE YOOR'SCLF
f!o'
ChiUcm
Chiixuh which holos back each shoulder dont get nolmd ome5 when they-re oldersevr^tayGeoffSf TAKsry*. s^ff^ h^ula. cmih IF HER FAMILY IS REAUY MATTER or FACT, MAY MOTHER, OLD BEAN- ARISTOCRATIC CONSENT TO YOUR MAVE^f r ASKE^ HER MARRlAGEr-IF HC. ABOlTTHER TAMILY YOU MUST FORGET YET.'-BUT FROM HER HERr-MAKE CERTAIN REGAL MANNER, IM
,
.
FOR A BIT OF A SfOCK.'-YOUR
CEMUC
AayJcTc
I
i
IS IM
<0 Unil«d F«otura Syndicote. Inc.. 1940
294
L
SISEJ
AL CAPP
G-GULP.'-HYAR'S
FO'TEEN CENTS, .
TH-
SAM .'/
)
ILIUN. DO YOua SCHOOCWORK ON TIME. OR SOMEDAY VOU rWh' BEG A DIME SENT IN EST RKHAAO A/£LSOK SIOUX fAlLS. j.q
THANK VO'.'.' TSKr-WAS AH SHOCKED WHEN AH
SAW
VO'
TRVIN'T'SNEAK OFF WIFOUT PAVIN' ME.AFTER , AH MADE VO' / INVISIBLE.'/
si.
295
Unit«
[722]
Hejji
Dr. Seuss
(
Theodor Geisel )
1935
[723]
WATOQF has STRANXSE WAVS
IN)
MOOMTAIMS OF BAAKO. IM LAKES ON) OLD \
.
WHAT A tmis
WHEW.'two cjOAts that
WEAR ONE.
COMES MEJJI
BETWEEK)
A
SnZANGER
\
1.
It^^^L AND MERE'S
COUMTCy/^
TURTLES THAT
land
.
y
«^
SOME snjNT, ^ "^^ A *^ ^-~>y•'A FLOWEK
BROAOCASTING MUSIC
r
/•
;C.
Abie the Agent
Hairy
Herslificlcl
1938
[724]
';
MEs. This owe is> from The Public uBRARy = l^tK^ SHOOLb 1 RUIN)
SA^AE v;oLUME inJ WouR Bookcase
,
\
hKi FiKie
'
y
King Fco'yres Sy
c.
T^
EbiTioros?
FtLU^R MWASO Minsk
ft
li
COMlM Ai VJlTWESiES.THAT I
AMb WllMSV: MBJER. REPAIb ME Fx QOT SBJEM lAllTMEStE^"' THE »OMt>REB *OLV>Rl - ' '^^ WHO SAW ME RETURM THE MOkJEv TO ABE. TUlO WITNESSES UJHO SAUJ I
I
ME
LOAN HIM THE AAONEy
k
A WEEK
LATER
(5A\m IT
TO
VOUR HOWOR.TC SMOul VOO WHAT A LIAR THIS MlHStC \«>-I'M TELLIMQ "VOU NOW T>*AT I NEVER LENT HIM ,jrVIE MOMEy
\ti
King fca
[725]
Krazy Kat
George Heriiman
1936-1939
[726]
Kmg
f«otur«i SvndiCOTe,
Inc..
1936
[727]
OLE. TT^Xfe'S
rut
~\r
(?e/Mpe
4^ Ji^c? ^Ji' ^e.
'^>'
—
m^.
'^fex 'WV f*'^
' ,
[y
>^ ^^
CouCr CCHG, A(yo iw^s-A ^/^ppy Dw
^'^^
[D06e
fOftTJVfe
P0iePU6. Pb&/B
ALL IN F«VC>^,
—
t>AV
/^y^
/
[728]
[729J
<.vniiiff*»m
!»•
10^7
[730]
(T;.
King Fcaiufei Syndtcole,
Inc.,
1937
[731]
\
-**^^^^'*««V»^-
•^4> ._^-.:;.5S)/S.v^v
)
King feolures Syndicate.
Inc.
1938
[732]
[7331
£
King Feafurfls Syndicoia,
Inc.,
1939
Pogo
[734]
Walt KeUy
1950
©IMVe THE BORKy OF WHILST
I
VO' BAIT P060
FEEDS THESE BIRD CHuO-UN'
AN'r TELLS
>OU HOW COME 1 D1?ESCUP LllCe A JACK KAB6it!|
®
Poil-Holl Syndicate, Inc.. I9S0
'
I 306
[735]
(V Post-Hall Syndlcoie, Inc..
307
I9S0
[736]
PoitHoll Srndicai*.
308
Inc.,
1950
[737]
(ij
309
Posi-Holl Syndtcoto, Inc., 1950
Gordo
Gus
Arriola
1948 / 1949
[738]
]
f*A °4
i
^
Unired F«oture Svndicoi«.
Inc..
1948
Texas Slim and Dirty Dalton
Ferd Johnson
1943
[740]
Casey Ruggles
Warren Tufts
1951
KIT CO)(...P0N'T
»E COOUISH/ IT. .IT WA'S A J 7UEL YOU «££...
YOUe PEIENP
[741]
mm Little People,
Wise Guys, and Witches The Return What
follows
is
Funnies
o£ the
a frankly subjecHve, perhaps even cursory, selection of comics, picked dominant event on the comic pages during the recent past. And
to represent the
much
of the recent history of the comics centers on the arrival, success,
and influence
of Charles Schulz's Peanuts.
The old family strip formula has been turned completely around, for what we have not a bunch of adults behaving like children but a group of children behaving like neurotic adults. And the traditional American "bound to win" has quite often is
become
bom to loose. More than that, the influence of the tiny, sparse panels of Schulz's strip, plus the increasing cost of paper and printing, have shrunk the size of all comics. So that we not only see graphics clearly derivative of Schulz's style, but a general shrinkage in
comics strip size.
width and depth. Indeed, the venerable Dick Tracy is but one example of a drawn so that its bottom quarter can be cropped off entirely, leaving it Schulzin
And some
papers have been
knowm
to shrink all
comics back to a mere two-col-
umn width. Suffering the most, perhaps,
is
the
Sunday color comic
section, with
most comics
now
available in either a third-page or a quarter-page format, with panels either shrunk or cropped off or dropped out.
Comics have long had a
flexible format. In the 1930s
instructed to provide three expendable panels.
could become a half-page by dropping
and the Duchess, and omitting
three of
its its
A
full
King Features cartoonists were page of Blondie,
companion top
for example,
features, Colonel Potterby
Blondie panels.
Currently, the different syndicates use different methods for possible squeezing, but the alert reader will notice herein several examples of the expendable (or expended) top, whereby a comic could be easily condensed by dropping its top Hne of panels,
leaving
it
two deep
Another
may be
result of smaller panels
delivered,
and often
is
a static quality to
are, in a three-panel
some
except for the dialogue balloons, an approach observable caricatured Tumbleweeds sequence reproduced here.
Fewer papers using fewer
313
strips also
strips.
Very good gags
format which virtually repeats
means fewer
in
itself
the otherwise keenly
outlets for cartoonists, with the
producing two (and sometimes more)
result that
one cartoonist
in order to
keep up. But more on that matter later.
finds himself
For now, enough of complaints and abnost enough of
history.
humor. Humor, and a gradual moving away from the "soap opera"
dominated the comics pages "adult," "sophisticated,"
for three decades.
and the
about, and tumble, however,
rest. If it
it is still
United States
is
of
only different
whom
the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In a major aspect.
chasing spinster stereotype
Notes on
strips in this section
we
all
know from
fairy tale as
fantasy.
The
much
left is
sort has
have been called
adult on the whole reflects the
way
a
to college, sees itself in
Broom Hilda
is,
after
all,
drama
of
the manall kinds.
of comics. Jack Kent's King Aroo
the same sophisticated approach to the naif materials of the
choice of King Aroo strips here
is
Bamaby had done
to a child's
Jack Kent's own, by the way.
influence of Peanuts [742-743] on both Mell Lazarus's Miss Peach [756] and
on Johnny Hart's B.C. [755] also
it
traditional popular
Krazy Kat had done to the animal fable or
The
less
—and
have gone
A short-lived strip, but one much loved by devotees [744-749] took
is
strips that
contains less out-and-out slapstick, knock-
probably no more or
humor in the past. It with more citizens, more
than was comics
But humor of that
What
strips
now
given us
Momma
will
be obvious, and
is
acknowledged. But Lazarus has
[759], a comics manifestation of the general consciousness
of the manipulative, possessive mother, be she Jewish or gentile. half the team, with Brant Parker, of the quasi-medieval farce
What
And Hart
The Wizard of Id
is
also
[757].
has been called the "Mort Walker factory," with Dik Browne and Jerry
Dumas, produces ( or has produced ) Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Hdgar the Horrible, Boners Ark, and Sam's Strip. The first three fit into dramatic-comic and strip traditions and the fourth is about those traditions. Bailey is "service comedy, tellingly updated [752]. Hi and Lois is a suburban family strip, but with a not always obvious element of distaste and even dislike [758]. Hagar, when he is not looting, is as gloriously henpecked as were Jiggs and Dagwood [753]. And Sam's Strip was about strips, their characters and conventions, themselves. It is therefore a fitting way to end our volume [761-763]. Meanwhile, there has been Doonesbury [754], which began as a student's strip at Yale, and was inspired, in its early days, probably equally by Peanuts and by Jules "
Feiffer's rhetorically
For our omissions cade and a
314
half,
we
conceived panel cartoons. in this final
survey
we
apologize. For our brief overview of a de-
hope to incur your enfightenment and your pleasure.
Peanuts
Charles Schuiz
1972
2j,z(zeia)
(imS ©11"
ATaeof Two
Cities
King Aroo
-me
Jack Kent
1956
picTUKEi),
MK.EUEPHAKVT?
(£)
316
McClure Newipopvr Syndicol*. 1956
[748]
[749]
©
Tumbleweeds
Tom
K.
Ryan
McClure Newspoper Syndicate, 1956
1971
[750]
lOi WHAT'S PIS?i A LILLIPUTAN FRAIL WIT'CIN PA WOIRSO'PA IMMORAU PARP) *P16 ROUN' TEARS COURSlU' ONE ANUPPER POWN CAT INNVCENT SNOOT, IN mVOUS CHASE"! WHAT, 6IVES, ME CHILE?!
9,28
© Lit 0NE,1LDW/
ME T'
VEH...SN00K1E'5 A MITE URGE FER HIS AGE!... A
INTERPUCE
ME PA^V CRUPPER ^SNOOKlE'YA&e 12)i...SN0OKlE, PEAR, MEET PIS WEE 0ROAP WHAT GOES PV PA NOM PEPLOOMO'
HE'S
ONLY 12?!
1
PHENOMYNON PRUNfrAWUT PY A ALTERATION r HIS P'TUITAR/ aANP WHILST HE
WAS A
The Register
&
Tribune Syndicote. 1971
1751)
PA WY'S CHRISTENIN, OUR OIL MAN, IN HIS EXUP'RANCE,EMPLOY'P
...AT
A MAGNUM
0'
CHAMPAGNE INSItAP
C PA USUAL CHIANTl POTTLE!
PAPEi!
«ECHO"i
Jkl
]M--
ii
ca ©
317
The
Rttgiiter
&
Tribune Syndicot*. 1971
Beetle Bailey
Mort Walker
1953
[752]
®
Hagar the Horrible
Dik Browne
King Feoturei Syndicote,
1953
1974
[753]
Yoj'pB SPECIAL-
OF
AG'S.
iM
A Very
PLACE ... FULL AMD MYsTeCY..
(^
318
Inc.,
King Feoturci Syndtcole.
Inc..
1974
Doonesbury
C. B. Trudeau
1971
[754]
^Dooqesbury
^
^(5^^^ ruMKS FCHK PICKING
t^e
UP...
NO PROBLEM, AiACK. I
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319
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1965
[7551
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Publiiheri
New»pop«r Syndlcote, I9AS Johnny Hon ond Fi«ld
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320
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Miss Peach
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1965
[756]
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Publiihefs
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Miss Peach by
321
MeM
Lozorus. Covrlesy of M«ll Lozorus
and
Fiald
N«wspap«r Syndicoie
The Wizard
of Id
1976
Johnny Hart
[757]
S>>
f\6WT\
>
[758]
/
i
Broom Hilda
Russ Myers
1974
mmmm
[760]
The Chicago Tribune. 1974
Sam's Strip
Jerry
Dumas
1962
[761]
SAM, yi>
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323
King F«alures Syndicate,
Inc.,
1962
)
A Selected, of
Introductory Bibliography
Books and Articles on Newspaper Comics
Note: The editors do not recom-
Abel, Robert H., and David
mend
New York: The
all
of
the
titles
listed
equally informative and factual.
number ily
as
A
are perfunctor\' and sketch-
researched, and the data given
are often contradictory. But these
are the best
known and most
available
titles
covered
in
a
readily
shallowly
field.
Manning White,
eds.
The Funnies: An American Idiom.
Free Press of Glencoe, 1963.
Aldridge, Alan, and George Perry.
The Penguin Book
of Comics.
Harmondsworth,
England: Penguin Books, 1967. Becker, Stephen.
Comic Art in America.
New York:
Blackbeard,
"The
Superhero of
in
Bill.
First (Arf, Arf!)
Color For a Dime, ed. Dick Lupoff and
Simon and Shuster, 1959.
Them All" (on Popeye). Don Thompson. New Rochelle,
In All N.Y.:
Arlington House, 1970. .
LupofiE
"Mickey Mouse and the Phantom
and Thompson. .
Comics. Boston: Houghton
Thomas
(with
Peter C. Marzio. .
New Rochelle,
New
The Endless
Comic York: Harper & Row, 1976. The
ed.
Mifflin, 1973.
Inge). "American
Art:
The Comic Book Book,
In
Artist."
N.Y.: Arlington House, 1973.
Literature of the
Art." In
Comic
A
Nation of Nations, ed.
New York:
Strip.
Oxford Uni-
versity Press. Forthcoming. ,
ed. Series of classic
comics reprints. Westport, Conn. Hyperion Press. Forth:
coming. Couperie, Pierre, and Maurice Horn.
A
History of the
Comic
New York: Crown
Strip.
Pubhshers, 1968.
Craven, Thomas. Cartoon Cavalcade. Goulart, Ron.
New York: Simon and
The Adventurous Decade.
New Rochelle,
Shuster, 1943.
N.Y.: Arlington House, 1975.
Horn, Maurice, ed. The World Encyclopedia of Comics.
New
York: Chelsea House,
1976.
Murrel, \\'illiam A. for '
Donald Phelps, one of (he most perceptive critics of the comics, listed
A
Whitney Museum
History of American Graphic Humor. of
American Art (2
vols.
),
New
1933 and 1938
York: Macmillan,
(o.p.
Phelps, Donald. "Rogues Gallery/Freak Show." In Prose (no. 4),
New York,
1972.°
is
here for onl) the most readily
oi>tainahle of his inaf^a/ine pieces.
Robinson, Jerr\ G.
P.
.
The Comics: An
Illustrated History of
Comic
New
York:
Cushman and
Flint,
Strip Art.
Putnam's Sons, 1974.
Mis other essa\s on the comics ha\'e l)ei*n
pnl>hshe
ephemeral, sometimes mimeo);raplied
Giwxis or
little Till'
niu^a/ines like Mi/nlfriinis Barri-
tildes.
His work on the .American
comic
strip cries out
for anlliol-
Sheridan, Martin. Comics
and Their
Creators. Boston: Hale,
1942 (paperback edition: Luna Press, 1971).
Waugh, Coulton. The Comics. New York: Macmillan, 1947 (paperback Lima Press, 1974).
ogizing.
324
edition:
An Annotated Abbie
an' Slats
[485-496]
began
Index of the Comics
in 1937, its eccentric characters
Al Capp,
who
lustrator
Raeburn \'an Buren
also
wrote the
brother, Elliott Caplin,
who
and
its
strip for its first
to
later
[724-725]
first
by
locale created
draw it. Capp became a prolific plotter of strips
by
was succeeded as the writer
continued to write Abbie an Slats until the
Abie the Agent was
somewhat amorphous
nine years and persuaded magazine
strip's
demise
il-
his
of all kinds. Caplin
in 1971.
introduced by Harry Hershfield as a minor character
drama Desperate Desmond. Abe Mendel Kabibble appeared
in his
in his
burlesque melo-
own
strip in
1914
as a sympathetically conceived ethnic type, a perpetually worried, fiercely active,
lower middle-class
New
bom
York businessman. Hershfield himself was
Cedar
in
Rapids, Iowa, and had been a journeyman cartoonist since the age of fourteen in
Chicago and San Francisco. Abies success, and as a writer life as
Alley
Oop by V.
[432-434]
and and and and
his creator's
and speaker and raconteur, took Hershfield
to
own subsequent
New York.
career
Abie ceased
his
a Hearst feature in 1940.
Newspaper Enterprise Association feature in 1933 lived it as a comic caveman. Then in 1933, Hamlin introduced Professor Wonmug his time-machine, and that device carried Alley forward to the twentieth century then backward again to any era where the possibilities for a comic adventure seemed for strong graphic design and (on Sundays) the fanciful use of color T.
Hamlin began
his life as a
—
promising. Hamlin, a native of Perry, Iowa, retired from the strip in 1971.
Mutt by Bud Fisher began as a sports page [41-46] five months. See Mutt and Jeff. A.
feature in 1907.
He was
joined
by
A. Piker Clerk appeared in the Chicago American in 1904, a pioneer cross-page daily [47]
strip,
horse-racing background, and the direct progenitor of A. Mutt, above.
Clare Briggs, was
known
bom
in
Redsburg,
for his daily panel feature,
Friend, There's
One
in
Every
^^'isconsin, in 1875. Briggs
which was variously called
Office,
and other
titles,
When
Jeff
was
Its
within
with a author,
later better
a Feller
and Mr. and Mrs.,
his
Needs a Sunday
page. Briggs died in 1930.
Barnaby, Crockett Johnson's (David Leisk's) delightful, somewhat literary fantasy of a boy and his cigar-chomping fairy godfather. Mister O'Malley, began in PM in .\pril 1942. [505-539] the feature over to others between late 1946
The author turned
Bamaby was
dropped, to be briefly revived in 1962. Johnson,
He
York, had begun as a magazine cartoonist.
{Harold and
his Purple
he devoted himself Barney Google and Spark Plug began [149-150; 278-319]
Crayon and
its
and 1952, when
bom
in
1906
in
New
turned to children's books in the 1950s
sequels). In his later years (he died in 1975)
to nonobjective painting.
as a harassed
husband, an offshoot of
its
author Billy
De
Beck's previous car-
toon work, but reappeared as a sports-oriented strip in the San Francisco Herald-
Examiner
in
June 1919. Barney developed into a widely popular, picaresque rogue of
the big city during the 1920s and the Great Depression era. After a wistful, knock-
kneed race horse. Spark Plug, appeared in 1922, the strip changed its name, as it did again soon after Barney encountered the hillbilly Snuffy Smith in 1934. De Beck,
bom
of middle-class parents in
Chicago
attended that
in 1890,
Fine Arts and went immediately into cartoon work
Google and Snuffy Smith continues today
Baron Bean was one of George Herriman's early
strips.
in
in 1910.
He
city's
Academy
of
died in 1942. Barney
Fred Lasswell's version.
See Krazy Kat.
[54-77]
B.C. [755]
first
appeared as a comic
1958. Its author, similar idea of a
325
strip
through the
New
York Herald Tribune Syndicate in
Johnny Hart, bom in Endicott, New York, in 1931, had tried out a caveman community in earlier magazine cartoons. Hart began as a
cartoonist in the Pacific Stars
Korean
conflict.
Bear Creek Folks was an early
and
Stripes
when he was
See also The Wizard of Id.
strip
in the Air
Force during the
•
by C. M. Payne, better known
Pop?
for his S'Matter
[24-25]
Beetle Bailey was the [752]
first
(1950) of the
Mort Walker, who had already
strip successes of
gag and panel cartoonist
estab-
The Saturday Evening Post indeed Beetle, as "Spider," first appeared there. \\'alker was bom in El Dorado, Kansas, in 1923 and raised in Kansas City. He received only a few casual art lessons, served in the infantry in World ^^'a^ II, and worked as an editor for Dell Publications in New York while cartooning in his spare time. Walker is also founder and guiding force behind the Museum of Cartoon Art in Greenwich, Connecticut. See also Hi and Lois, Sara's Strip, and Hagar the Horrible. lished himself as a
in such publications as
—
Blondie was begun [173]
in
The
strip
Bobby Thatcher, George
who pursued
was soon converted
died in 1973.
[179-190]
1930 by cartoonist Murat "Chic" Young of Chicago as a
concerned a gold digger
The
strip
is
into the
a naive but rich playboy,
girlie strip. It
Dagwood Bumstead.
most popular matriarchal family
series.
Young
continued by son Dean and John Raymond.
Storm's second boys' adventure strip, set standards for graphic style, char-
and narrative invention and pace between 1927 and 1937, after which Storm decided to discontinue his tale. Storm was earlier responsible for Phil Hardy, which began in 1925 and has been called the first boys' adventure strip.
acterizations,
Boob McNutt, Rube Goldberg's Sunday-only strip, lasted from 1915 to 1934. Begun as a low-comedy [157-158] gag strip, it was converted to comic adventure with the addition of Boob's girlfriend. Pearl, a rival named Major Gumbo, the twins Mike and Ike (they look alike), and Bertha the Siberian Cheesehound. Goldberg,
bom
in 1883,
began
as a cartoonist with
campus magazine of the University of California at Berkeley, and was a major contributor to the development of the comics. Best remembered for his zany cartoon inventions, he created and drew many other comic and sports page and even editorial the
cartoons before he died in 1970.
Braggo the Monk was one [34]
Bringing
locko the
of several alternating titles given to
Monk and Hawkshaw
Up Father, George McManus's
[144-145; 479-484]
Gus Mager's "Monk"
strips.
See Sher-
the Detective.
low-comic saga of
Jiggs,
an Irish-American bricklayer made sud-
denly wealthy by the Irish Sweepstakes, and Maggie, his socially ambitious wife,
began
McManus, born
as a daily strip for the Hearst papers in 1913.
in St.
Louis in
had been a cartoonist for that city's Republic, beginning at age sixteen. Bringing Up Father juxtaposed his broad caricatures with his fine draftsmanship and sense of space and depth. The strip has been continued beyond McManus's death in 1954 (although it had sometimes been ghosted meanwhile ) See The Newlyweds and Nibsy 1884,
.
the Newsboy.
Broom
Hilda, Russ Myers's cigar-chomping, beer-guzzling witch
[760]
married to Attila the Hun),
bom
in Pittsburg, Kansas, in
first
(
who
claims once to have been
appeared on the comics pages
in 1970.
Myers was
1938 and spent his apprenticeship conceiving humor-
ous greeting cards for the Hallmark Company.
Buck
humanized animal Yak See Old Doc and The Gumps.
Nix, Sidney Smith's early
[92-95]
1908.
strip,
began
in the
Chicago Examiner
in
Buck Rogers concerned a twentieth-century American who awakes after a sleep of five centuries. [427-428] It began as pulp fiction, Armaggedon 2415 by Phil Nowlan, and in 1929 became the first science-fiction comic strip, as plotted by Nowlan and drawn by Dick Calkins. The feature continued until 1967, the work of a number of writers and illustrators after 1947.
The Bungle Family, Harry [163-169; 540-541]
of
Tuthill's penetrating
burlesque of the compulsive and harassed big-city
George and Jo Bungle, has been called one
326
of the
most inventive and
lives
artistic of all
comic
strips. It
born
Tuthill,
began
in the
New
in the
Chicago slums
York Evening Mail
in
1918 as
in 1886, led the life of
Home
Sweet Home.
an itinerant salesman from
the age of nine, offering everything from newspapers to fake patent medicines, while
would carry
trying to teach himself a drawing style that
human
character and relationships.
He
landed his
the Post-Dispatch in the art department in
courses with the income.
He
because of syndicate pressure
first
his
wryly comical sense of
newspaper job
in St. Louis
1910 and took some night-school
on art
folded the successful Bungles in mid- 1942, apparently to
make
eight months later and distributed
it
it
a
more cheerful family
himself.
He
retired in 1945
strip,
and
but revived
it
died in St Louis
in 1957.
Buster
Brown was [3-5]
R. F. Outcault's second important strip, the adventures of a likable, upper-class
brat, in contrast to his lower-class
bom
1863
in
old Life
Kid
Yellow Kid (see Hogan's Alley). Outcault was
in Lancaster, Ohio, and had established himself with gag cartoons in the and Judge magazines before introducing his hearty urchins and the Yellow
to the
New
York World. Buster's adventures began
in
1902
in the
New
York
Herald, and, although they were discontinued in 1920, Buster and his grinning dog
Tige remained familiar figures in American popular culture, even after Outcault's death in 1928.
Captain Easy was (also as Washington Tubhs [435-437]
II
and Wash Tubbs) the premier comic adventure
in 1924 as a humor strip but soon began its journeys to the far comers and imaginary world. Roy Crane, whose inventive and innovative graphics carried the strip as much as did his narrative fancy and sense of pace, was bom in Abistrip. It
began
of the real
lene, Texas, in 1901. In
1943 Crane began Buzz Sawyer, while Easy and Tubbs were
taken over by his former assistant, Leslie Turner. See
Wash Tubbs.
Casey Ruggles was the work of ex-actor and radio and television scripter Warren Tufts, bom in Fresno, Calif omia, in 1925. Tufts had little formal art training, but his strip work was [741] thoroughly professional from the start. He did the short-lived science fiction strip The Lone Spacenmn, as well as Lance, a full-page art feature with highly sophisticated color treatment. Casey Ruggles began in May 1949. Chantecler Peck. Beyond the fact that [38]
World,
we
it
appeared on March
11, 1911, in
can offer no further information on
Joseph Pulitzer's
this feature or its artist.
New
concept of the rooster, and his name, go back to a whole series of medieval course, one of
Count Screwloose [717]
which Chaucer
York
The popular tales, of
retold.
was one of several zany strips by Milt Gross. He began it in 1929 and bottom or top Sunday feature until 1934, when the Count joined the company of clowns at Dave's Delicatessen. Gross 1895-1953) was a native of New York Cit>' who began drawing at age twelve, and created a variety of strip characters {That's My Pop, Nize Baby) and books of humorous doggerel verse, frequently in Yiddish dialect {Hiawatta Witt No Odder Poems) (
of Tooloose )
continued
it
either as the
(
Dave's Delicatessen began as a 1931 daily and Sunday feature by Milt Gross. In early 1935, [718]
by Gross's other
favorite.
Desperate Desmond was Harry Hershfield's [37]
Count Screwloose
first strip
for the
(
it
was joined
see preceding )
Hearst papers and a direct imitation of C.
W.
Kahles's Hairbreadth Harry. See Abie the Agent.
Dick Tracy was created by Chester Gould in 1931. Gould, bom in Pawnee, Oklahoma, in 1900, the son of a newspaper publisher, had been a sports cartoonist and had done a movieburlesque strip, Fillum Fables. With his plainclothes detective, he discovered an ex-
[688-715]
ceptional talent for strip narrative and a bizarre, sometimes bmtal, sense of characterization
Dok's Dippy
and atmosphere.
Duck by John "Dok" Hager appeared
[84-91]
locally in the Seattle
Times
in 1917.
Hager had been
a dental surgeon (hence the "Dok") with an interest in caricature until he
from Terre Haute, Indiana, tired in
327
to Seattle in
1889 and went to work for the Times.
1925 because of blindness, and died
in
1932 at seventy-four.
moved
He
re-
Doonesbury began [754]
Record
as Bull Tales in the Yale
(named
following year, and
for
paper syndication in late 1970.
York City in 1948 and
is
one of
It is
moved
Yale Daily News the moved into national newsGarry Trudeau, who was bom in New
in 1968,
to the
protagonists)
its
the work of
a graduate of the Yale School of
.\rt
and Architecture. His
has occasionally been censored by having daily episodes dropped by subscrib-
strip
ing papers for his satiric but candid treatment of politics, drugs, and sex.
The Family
was The Dingbat Family, George Herriman's early
Upstairs. This
[48-53]
Felix the Cat [719]
strip, in
whose basement
Krazy Kat first appeared.
began
an animated cartoon, the work of Australian-bom Pat Sullivan, and moved to the comics in 1923. The strip was ghosted by several hands. Otto Mesmer being as
the most frequently mentioned and talented candidate.
Flash Gordon was the work of magazine and comics illustrator Alex [430]
born
plot the strip),
New
1909 in
New
Raymond although he did
not
(
York. Ra>'mond
had previously worked with Russ Westover on Tillie the Toiler and Lyman Young on Tim Tylers Luck. Raymond's best work was a unique combination of physiological realism and graphic fantasy. During the Second World War, when Raymond served in the Marine Corps, the strip was taken over by others. When Raymond retmned to civilian life, he began the detective strip Rip Kirby, and continued it until he was killed in an in
Rochelle,
automobile accident in 1956. Gasoline Alley began (at [151-156]
as a single panel) in 1918,
first,
fascination with automobiles. It in "real time"
as
(
opposed
to
became
"dramatic"
and was devoted to the country's then-new which the characters aged
a family strip in or,
one might
say, "strip time" )
with the
in-
troduction of the foundling "Skeezix" on "Uncle Walt" Wallet's doorstep in 1921 and
The
Walt's subsequent marriage to Phyllis Blossom.
King, was ist
bom
Cashton, Wisconsin,
in
on the Minneapolis Times
in 1901.
in
strip's author-illustrator,
Frank
1883 and began as a professional cartoon-
Moving
to
Chicago, he tried several unsuccess-
Bobby Make-Believe
( in 1915 ) and then Gasoline Alley. King's gentle continuity reached its narrative best in the 1930s and 1940s. King died in 1969 but his strip has continued and is today done, daily and Sunday, by Dick Moores, who
ful strips until
on
carries
Gordo, Gus [738-739]
its
Arriola's brilliant graphic fantasy
lor,
began
the
start. Arriola,
in
animator on
The Gumps, Sidney began
on the
interest.
of a contemporary
life
bom
MGM
in
1917 in Arizona, grew up in Los Angeles and worked as an
He was also the only artist to suspend World War II and resume it after his discharge.
cartoons.
Smith's enormously popular serial
drama
in
animal
Bloomington, strips.
Smith was
Illinois, in
of lower middle-class family Hfe,
character,
its
early years). Smith
was
1877 and had been responsible for the humanized
Buck Nix and Old Doc Yak, in both the Examiner and Tribune. When The Gumps was continued by his assistant, Gus Edson.
killed in 1935,
Hagar the Horrible was begun by Dik Browne [753]
his daily strip
conceived by Chicago Tribune publisher Joseph Patterson and exe-
in 1917,
cuted by Smith (and sometimes ghosted by others, even in
bom
Mexican bache-
1941 and featured strong characterizations and attractive graphics from
during his service in
[96-102; 128-129]
and
tradition of graphic resourcefulness
who
in
1973 and became an almost instant success. The
looks remarkably like
Browne
himself,
is
title
a sort of cross between an
ancient Viking plunderer and the traditional henpecked husband and father. See Hi
and
Lois.
Hairbreadth Harry was the work of C. [143]
the age of
six.
W.
Kahles,
bom
in
Germany
in
1878 and raised in Brooklyn after
Kahles had already been a cartoonist for several years
when he
first
drew Harry in 1906. Harry began as a boy hero, but around 1916 had reached young manhood. On Kahles's death in 1931, the strip was continued for eight more years by F. O. Alexander.
The Hall-Room Boys was [35]
the work of illustrator-cartoonist H. A. (Harold Arthur) McGill and began in the
New York American in
328
1906.
It
was
at first a three-column, upright panel, usually di-
vided into
six
frames, and presented the adventures of two of Mrs. Pruyn's ambitious
boarders. McGill later continued the strip as Percy
ami
by the
Ferdtj, distributed
Sun-Herald's syndicate. McGill died in 1952 at age seventy-six.
Hans und
Fritz.
See Katzenjammer Kids.
[7]
Happy Hooligan was [9;
159]
the classic Irish-American tramp. Fred Opper's strip began in Hearst's Sunday
comic sections ison,
Maud
Hawkshaw
in
both
New
York and San Francisco
Opper was born
in 1900.
in
Mad-
Ohio, the son of Austrian immigrant parents, in 1857. Opper also introduced
as well.
Mule and Alphon^e and Gaston, and became a Hearst political cartoonist Failing eyesight forced him to discontinue Hooligan and most of his other
work in
1932.
the
He died in
1938.
Gus Mager's Sherlocko the Monk in 1913 when the American repreConan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, threatened a lawsuit. Sherlocko was quickly humanized along with his assistant, now called "the Colonel." Mager discontinued Hawkshaw in mid-1922, but he was later revived as a companion feature to Rudolph Dirks's The Captain and the Kids. Mager sometimes did the strip on this revival, but during other periods it was ghosted (as was The Captain) by the gifted Bernard Dibble. Hawkshaw retired with Mager in the later
the Detective was born out of [31]
sentatives of A.
1940s. See
Hejji [723]
Braggo the Monk.
was a Hearst-King Features Sunday page of comic fantasy by Dr. Seuss that appeared briefly in 1935. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) had previously done magazine cartoons (a well-remembered series in Liberty) and advertising drawings ("Quick, Henry, the Flit!" was his ) He later, of course, became famous for his children's books ( The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Hoo, et al. ), and he was a master of comic doggerel verse. .
Hi and Lois by Mort Walker (scripts) and Dik Browne (drawing) is a suburbanite family strip which first appeared in 1954, and which frequently reverses the attitudes and char[758] acterizations of older strips in its genre. Browne was bom in 1918 in New York City and worked his way up from newsboy to cartoonist on the old New York Journal. Before joining the Walker group, he had done advertising art. See also Beetle Bailey and Hagar the Horrible. Hogan's Alley was one of several slum place-names given to R. F. Outcault's Sunday feature page in the New York World. It was also the name which stuck. Hogan's Alley featured [1] a bald child in a yellow nightshirt who quickly became known as "The Yellow Kid,"
and Outcault's page was renamed again. See Buster Brown.
Jimmy, [10]
Jimmy, was James Swinnerton's most famous strip, begun in 1904 (but appearing sporadically at first) and continuing until 1958, except for a break in the 1940s when Swinnerton switched to Rocky Mason. Swinnerton was bom in Eureka, California, in 1875, and raised in Stockton, where his father was a newspaper publater Little
lisher
and
politician.
ings. Little Bears,
The younger Swinnerton began
on the San Francisco Examiner
a series of
weekly bear draw-
children's page, the
first
contin-
uously presented graphic character feature in a newspaper. Swinnerton also did Mr. Jack, the well-remembered, female-chasing,
humanized
turned to landscape painting, and died in Arizona
tiger.
He
retired in
1958,
in 1974.
Johnny Wise, by Thomas Aloysius "Tad" Dorgan, was a short-lived, weekly 1902 color-page effort by a man who was later and better known for his slangy sports cartoons and "Indoor [2] Sports" panel feature. Dorgan was born to laborer parents in San Francisco in 1877 and had been urged to develop his drawing talents while recuperating from a factory accident at age thirteen. His drawing style and comic attitudes had an effect on early cartoonists
Katzenjammer Kids [6;
146-148]
and readers
alike.
He
died unexpectedly on
Long
Island in 1929.
German slang of the time "the hangover kids" was begun in 1897 by Rudolph Dirks when Rudolph Block of Hearst's Neic York Journal suggested he model a comics feature on the captioned German cartoon series of Wilhelm Busch depicting the (
in
329
)
Max und
combined strip continuity and time in comics history. Dirks was bom in Germany in 1877, and emigrated to Chicago at age seven with his parents. At twenty he was selling cartoons to Life and Judge, popular humor magazines of the time. In one of the most destructive brats
Moritz. In the result. Dirks
talk balloons for the first
went
interesting events in early comics history. Dirks
1912 and Hearst had
on a European vacation in and after much litigation he
off
his feature continued. Dirks sued,
was awarded the rights to use his characters, but Hearst retained tide to the strip. Thus Dirks began Haas und Fritz, later The Captain and the Kids, and Harold Knerr (1883-1949), of Bryn Mawr and Philadelphia, took over Katzenjammer Kids and continued their adventures in sometimes superbly conceived destruction. Dirks died in 1968.
The
Both
strips,
however, continued into the 1970s.
Kin-der-Kids was created by painter and illustrator Lyonel Feininger for the Chicago Tribune in [16-18]
1906 at the suggestion of James Keeley. Keeley undoubtedly had the Katzenjammers in
mind, but Feininger wrought a motley crew of kids and adults and put them into
uniquely ludicrous adventures. Feininger, a musical education in illustrator for
Germany by
magazines there and
bom
in
New
in 1871,
had been given
he began a career as an
France and the United
in
few months after a contractual dispute with
after a
York
his parents. In 1894
He quit the
States.
his publishers
and pursued
Kids
a suc-
cessful career in painting until his death in 1956.
King Aroo [744-749]
is
one of the most celebrated
largely
among devotees
strips of
the recent past in the comics, but celebrated
and appealing largely to members of the readerand Little Nemo. The King was the crea-
of comics,
ship that loved Krazy Kat, Bamabij, Togo, tion of Jack Kent,
bom
in Burlington,
Iowa, in 1920.
formal art training that led him to a loose-lined art
It
st\'le,
was probably Kent's lack with panels
of
of characters
full
was surely his innate artistic ability that kept those panels from lookThe strip began in 1950 in national syndication but was discontinued after a few years. It was kept on in limited syndication until 1965 by Stanleigh Arnold's small Golden Gate Features. Today Kent devotes most of his time to chiland
activity. It
ing cluttered.
dren's
book
illustration.
Krazy Kat, the most highly praised of all comic strips, was begun by George Herriman [170-172; 726-733] and-mouse chase, a part of his Dingbat Family strip. Krazy got his own strip ber 1913, and thus the imaginative fantasy
life
other inhabitants of Kokonino County began.
William Randolph Hearst liked
It
of
in Octo-
Krazy and Ignatz Mouse and the
was continued, often
solely because
although a mass public did not, until Herriman
it
died in Los Angeles in 1944. Herriman had been
was
as a cat-
bom
in
raised in Los Angeles. Estranged from his family, he
1880 in
New
Orleans but
was drawing cartoons and
boy at the Los Angeles Herald before he was t\venty. He rode the New York and finally landed a staff cartoonist job at the World in 1901, eventually ending up with Hearst for whom he did several strips before settling down to Krazy Kat alone. working as an
office
rails to
Abner began with almost instant success lin), whether he was really aware [720-722] Li'I
in
the favorite American story of the
August 1934. Cartoonist Al Capp
(
Alfred Cap-
own feisty variation of yokel (or, in this case, Yokum) who exposes the slickers simply by maintaining his own naivet^.
of
it
or not,
was
offering his
and corruptions of the city Capp, who still manages to people his strip with memorably lampooned characters and events after more than forty years, was born in 1909 in New Haven, Connecticut,
foibles
who wrote and drew his own comics for the amusement of his family. Capp attended a number of art schools and did some work at the Associated Press be-
to a father
fore he Little Joe
[438-439]
became an
assistant of
Ham
Fisher, creator oijoe Palooka.
was a Sunday feature by Ed Leffingwell, Harold Gray's cousin, assistant, and letterer on Little Orphan Annie. The story concerned a thirteen-year-old on a modem cattle ranch owned by his widowed mother and managed by Utah, a cowhand with a shady past. Gray himself wrote and drew much of the strip. When Ed Leffingwell died his
330
brother, Robert,
who
also assisted Gray, took over as Joe's
nominal author. The
continued into the late 1950s in both the Chicago Tribune and
New
strip
York Sunday
News comic sections. Little
Nemo
[11-14; 140-142]
undoubtedly grew out of Winsor McCay's
which showed the nightmarish
earlier
Dreams
of a Rarebit Fiend
Nemo New York
results of his protagonist's overeating.
(
1904),
first
ap-
Little Nemo in Slumberland the following year in the and represented pictorially the feelings and transformations experienced in the dreams of McCay's boy protagonist. When McCay moved to Hearst's papers in 1911, he simply retitled his feature In The Land of Wonderful Dreams and continued Nemo's nocturnal adventures until 1914. Nemo reappeared in 1924, this time back in the
peared as
Herald (and, of course, Michigan,
in
its
syndicate) until 1927.
1869 and received basic
McCay was
born
in
from a teacher
art instruction
Herald,
Spring Lake, in Ypsilanti.
When he was
seventeen he was in Chicago seeking more instruction but working professionally on posters as well. He began as a cartoonist on the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1903. McCay was also a pioneer in film animation, beginning in 1909. His best-known
movie cartoon fantasy.
Next
is
to
Gertie the Trained Dinosaur, but he had also earher filmed a Nemo George Herriman's, McCay's comics work has probably received the
widest recognition and praise. Little
Orphan Annie reputedly began [644-672]
as a
redheaded orphan narrative
began
He
died in 1934.
boy in Harold Gray's original conception, and was changed to a by Joseph Patterson of the New York News. In any case, her 1924 and lasted beyond her creator's death in 1968 in contin-
girl
in
uations of ever-decreasing interest until reprints of Gray's earlier strips replaced in Kankakee, Illinois, in 1894 and served his apprenticeship Sidney Smith on The Gumps. With Annie he established a feature of excep-
them. Gray was born assisting
and pace. Although, of course. Gray did use assistants, he to draw or plot Annie, and maintained his personal interest in
tional narrative interest
hired no ghosts either his
Mama's Angel Child, [23]
work
for forty-five years.
was the work of Penny Ross of whom little is known except that he was a man, and that he had assisted Outcault on Buster Brown and possibly ghosted that strip Esther,
on occasion.
Maud was [8]
established as
Happy Hooligan
And Her Name Was Maud
in 1926.
[161]
as
was and
Oh! Margy is
best
in his earlier strips.
in the late 1920s
known
Fred Opper's
But the character of the grinning, stubborn, kicking mule,
Maud, had been used by Opper Merely Margy began
as a topper strip to
See
and was a comics
Happy Hooligan. effort
by John Held,
Jr.,
for his depiction of leggy, flat-chested 1920s "flappers."
who
Bom
Held was from Salt Lake City. He had begun as a cartoonist when barely sixteen, and had also been a sports page and, later, magazine illustrator on Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Margy lasted until 1935. Held died in 1958, having long since in 1889,
turned to sculptiire.
Mickey Mouse was not the first star of animated cartoons to gain a strip of his own, but he had one by January 1930. Three months later, when the Walt Disney studios turned the project [542-643] over to Floyd Gottfredson, and he introduced broadly burlesqued adventure and melodrama as its basis, the strip began to thrive. By the early 1950s, however, King Features, which distributed the feature, had urged the elimination of all action-adventure from humor strips, and Mickey returned to a domestic gag-a-day. Gottfredson, bom in 1907 in Kaysville, Utah, was delighted with the comics as a young man, and took correspondence courses in cartooning.
He moved
to
Hollywood, applied
and was put on as an apprentice animator. Until 1938, he charming Mickey Mouse Sunday color strip.
ney's,
Midsummer Day Dreams by Winsor McCay. See
Little
also did the
at Dis-
frequendy
Nemo.
[40]
Minute Movies, the creation of Edgar Wheelan, began as Midget Movies in 1918. It not only parodied movie serials, it also helped establish the idea of continuity in the daily strip. [191-196]
331
his own imaginary studio and stable of stereotypical stars and conRalph McSneer, Hazel Deare). He cast them in mysteries, adventm-es,
Wheelan created tract players
(
The
love stories, and (later) the classics.
mid-1930s (but
was
bom
in
later
appeared
San Francisco
in
new
in 1888,
on the comics pages
strip lasted
until the
episodes in the Flash Comics book).
and graduated from Cornell.
Wheelan His mother had been
a comic-strip cartoonist, and he began with the Hearst papers as an editorial and sports cartoonist.
Miss Peach [756]
first
appeared
He died in Florida in
1966.
to instant success in 1957.
Admittedly and obviously inspired
Peanuts, the feature was the work of Mell Lazarus, 1927, where, as he has said, he hated school
See
Momma [759]
bom
and "even flunked
in part
New
in Brooklyn,
by
York, in
high school."
art in
Momma.
was Mell Lazarus's second successful
strip,
introduced in late 1970.
sion of the possessive, manipulative "Jewish mother,"
the temi
if
A
comic-strip ver-
taken to
is
mean
a
generic and descriptive and not necessarily ethnic type. See Miss Peach.
Moon
Mullins, Frank Willard's winning rogue, put in his
[138-139; 221-277]
first
appearance in the Chicago Tribune
in
1923, partly as an answer to Hearst's success with Barney Google. As the strip accuits own ( Kayo, Emmie Schmaltz, Lord Plushbottom, Mamie, and a narrative pace of its own, it became one of the classics of the comics page. Willard was bom in the Chicago area in 1893, the son of a physician, and he early determined to become a cartoonist. He died suddenly in 1958. His assistant (and sometime ghost) Ferd Johnson continued Moon, but today the continui-
mulated characters of
Uncle
ties
Mr. E.
Z.
Mark was [32]
^^'illie)
of
its
the
past are gone
work
of F.
and
it is
a gag
M. Howarth
1890s probably helped pave the
(
strip.
1870 ?-1908), whose
way
strip
drawing
in
Puck
in the
was approached was the Luhi and Leander pages. Howarth
for the
comic
strip.
In 1903 he
by William Randolph Hearst and the result never employed talk balloons, even in the Hearst section. Mr. Jack, James Svvinnerton's humanized, pop-eyed, skirt-chasing [33]
arate feature in late 1902
and ran almost weekly
tiger, first
appeared as a sep-
until early 1904. It
was revived
an
as
occasional daily from 1912 to 1919, only to be revived again as a top feature above Little
Jimmy in
the 1930s. See Jimmy.
Mr, Twee Deedle was a Sunday [20]
Mutt and
Jeff
[28-29; 108-125; 136-137]
feature, a fantasy-fairy tale for small children by Johnny Gmelle, creaRaggedy Ann. The strip replaced Little Nemo in the New York Herald when Winsor McCay moved his feature over to Hearst. Gruelle, born in Illinois but raised in Indianapolis, was the son of a landscape painter, and was a cartoonist with the Indianapolis Star and Cleveland Press when still in his late teens. He contributed illustrations, cartoons, and children's stories to a number of magazines, and wrote the Raggedy books and others. Gruelle lived in Connecticut after 1910. He returned to the comics with the Sunday strip Brutus in the late 1930s. He died in Miami in 1938. tor of
began
as A. Mutt,
when H.
C.
"Bud" Fisher established the
first
continually published
six-days-a-week strip on the San Francisco Chronicle sports page on
November
15,
1907. Fisher, born in Chicago in 1885, left for a job at the Chronicle during his third
year at the University of Chicago. His unique drawing style and comic point of view
developed quickly during the early years when he did the
strip himself,
moving
it
from syndicate to syndicate as the value of his services rose. Fisher died in 1954, but the strip had by then been ghosted for years. And, of course,
The Naps
of Polly Sleepyhead [21]
was Peter Newell's contribution his fanciful children's
to the early
it
continues today.
comics page. Newell, better known for
books (Topsys and Turvys, The Hole Book, The Slant Book),
was bom in Bashnell, Illinois, in 1862 and was largely self-taught, although he did some work at the Art Students League in New York. He died in 1927.
Naughty Pete was the work [22]
of Charles Forbell,
tural perspective
332
drawings
who was
in Puck, Life,
best
known
and Judge.
It
for his cityscape
appeared
in
and
architec-
Judge from
after
1910 until
demise
its
in the late 1930s.
that of other cartoonists)
The Newlyweds [19]
for
to Forbell's
name (and
Arthur Crawford, a cartoonist's agent and gagman.
The Newhjueds and Their Baby) was the feature which George McManus did for Pulitzer's VV'orW between 1904 and 1912. When he moved over to Hearst in that latter year, McManus renamed the feature Their Onhj Child. When his Bringing Up Father had established itself by 1918, he discontinued Their Only Child. But in the 1930s, he brought it back on Sundays as Snookutns, a cofeature to Maggie and Jiggs. (or
Up Father.
See Bringing
Nibsy the Newsboy, another early George [15]
was
The "& A.C." appended
McManus
feature,
appeared
in
New
the
York World between
April 1905 and late Jul\' 1906. Nibsy 's imagination could turn any
'Funny Fairyland" and a kind of lower-class takeoff on
Little
New York street into Nemo. See Bringing
Up Father. Sunday color page), appeared in the New York World (and its syndicate ) between 1927 and 1929. However, the wild adventures of the nefarious infant and Looy Dot Dope were abandoned by the restlessly inventive Gross for Count Screwloose.
Nize Baby, by Milt Gross (his [716]
Old Doc Yak was Sidney [
103-107]
first
Buck Nix when he moved the Chicago Tribune. See The Gumps and Buck Nix.
Smith's very successful transformation of his
from the Chicago Examiner
to
Our Boarding House, with the braggart Major Hoople, began in 1923 as a single daily panel in comics form for Newspaper Enterprise Association. On his Sunday page, the Major (in true strip [497-504] form was joined by the top-of-the-page "Nut Brothers" Ches and Wall ) in a surreal comic fantasy. The strips were the creation of Gene Ahem, born on Chicago's South )
(
Side in 1895.
He
attended the Chicago Art Institute for three years, hoping simply to become a funny cartoonist. Ahem moved to King Fea-
acquire enough technique to
tures in 1936, doing a variant of the
same Boarding House
while his former syndicate continued
strip as
Room and
Our Boarding House, and does
still.
Board,
Ahem died
in 1960.
Out Our
Way
[175-178]
began national
November 1921
distribution in
as a single-panel, daily feature
and
soon developed a set of memorable recurring characters and a unique comic viewpoint. The author was J. R. \MUiams, born in Nova Scotia in 1888 of American parents,
and raised
in Detroit.
He
left
home
to shift for himself in his mid-teens,
worked
the railroads, and did a hitch in the cavalry before settling into a factory job, where
he did his
his
cartooning for the company's catalog. After Williams's death in 1957
first
drawings were frequently reissued by
tant,
Ned Cochran,
contributed
Peanuts, introduced on October [742-743]
recast the size
2,
and shape
new ones
his syndicate,
NEA, while
his
former
assis-
to the series.
by Charles Schulz, revived interest in the humor strip, strips and the format of the comics page, and became one of the comics. Schulz was bom in Minneapolis in 1922
1950, of
of the great success stories
by a correspondence course before he graduated from high school. He had placed a few gag panel cartoons in newspapers and the Saturday Evening Post before finally placing his strip, which he originally wanted to call L'il Folks, with and studied
art
United Features Syndicate.
Pogo, by ex-Disney animator Walt Kelly, actually began [734-737]
1943 under the
title
Bumbazine and Albert the
Animal Comics in Pogo the Possum was
as a feature in
Alligator. In
it,
a minor character at best. Very soon the clownish Albert was more promiBumbazine (a boy) dropped out, and Pogo got a bigger role. By the featured, nently
initially
moved the feature to newspaper format in the short-lived New York Star in 1948, it had become simply Pogo, and in it humanized animals daily dramatized the idiosyncrasies of their human counterparts. The political spoofs for which the strip probably became best known in the mid-1950s had actually been impUcit time that Kelly
somewhat earlier.
(
See nos. 734-737) Kelly was
of a painter of theatrical scenery.
333
bom
in Philadelphia in 1913, the
He had been a reporter and
son
cartoonist for the
Bridgeport Post just out of high school.
continued by
Her
Pals (at
[130-135]
first
was begun
Positive Polly in 1912)
period. Its author
was
Kelly died in 1973, Pogo was briefly Kelly's
widow, who devotes
herself
for the
New
wanted
to
as
one of several "daughter"
strips of the
bom in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, in 1883. He atNew York for two years, and he began as a staff artist
Cliff Sterrett,
tended the Chase Arts School in
New
When
was soon withdrawn h\
books which collect his work.
to editing
Polly and
others but
York Herald in 1904, moving to the Titnes in 1908. However, Sterrett be a cartoonist, and three years later he began four different strips for the York Evening Telegram. Settling on Pollij, he gradually developed one of the
most whimsically individual graphic st\les in the comics section, particularly on Sunday color work. He and Polly retired in 1958 and he died December 28, 1964.
his
Popeye. See Thimble Theatre. Prince Valiant began in 1937 as a carefully researched, meticulously illustrated Sunday saga of imag[431 ]
was created by Harold R. "Hal" Foster, bom in Nova Scotia in young Foster bicycled his vva\' to Chicago, to the Art InNational Academy of Design, and Chicago .Academy of Fine Arts. He was an
inary Arthurian times.
It
1892. In 1921 the ambitious stitute,
established advertising illustrator illustration strip
new Tarzan
the syndicators of a first
text-and-
daily Tarzan sequence in early
Sunday episodes from 1931 until he began Prince Valiant. He from the drawing of Prince Valiant in 1971 but continued to plot his tale. See
1929 and retired
when
approached him. Foster did the
later did the
Tarzan.
Sam's
Strip, unsuccessful
[761-763]
with the public, was a well-remembered
which fondly spoofed the conventions, characters, and \\'alker
conceived the idea with
Detroit in 1930, his school days.
had very
He
little
Jerr\'
make
histor>' of
Dumas, who did the
a
comic
strip
comic
strips.
Mort
art.
Dumas,
bom
in
formal training, but has been cartooning steadily since
on most of the Walker
assists
effort to
strips, lettering, pencifing, inking.
See Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois. School Days was one of several Sunday and daily strips by Clare Victor Dwiggins [26-27; 197-208]
(1874-1959)
which depicted the almost idyllic small town life of a group of school boys. One of his strips was an authorized version of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Dwiggins was himself bom in mral Ohio and attended country schools. He undertook cartooning while working as an architectural draftsman. to 1932.
Between 1945 and
his death,
He drew
Dwiggins worked
as a
School Days from 1917
book
illustrator.
Secret Agent X-9 was
[475-478]
begun by Hearst's King Features Syndicate in 1932 as one of several efforts to answer the success of the Chicago Tribune-New York Daily News detective feature, Dick Tracy. The syndicate hired mystery writer Dashiell Hammett
to plot
(he did the
first four sequences) and Ale.x Raymond to illustrate. The strip has been through numerous transmutations since that time, with various writers and illustrators con-
tributing. It continues
Sherlocko the
Monk was Gus [36]
five.
Mager's Holmes burlesque, later transformed into
See the
latter
and
Skippy began his cartoon Hfe [
174]
today as Secret Agent Corrigan. See Flash Cordon.
also
Hawkshaw
the Detec-
Braggo the Monk.
in the
pages of the old humor magazine Life as a somewhat
sar-
donic ten-year-old commentator on the passing scene and the world adults had made. In 1928, Skippy
ued
until
became
a King Features comic strip, daily
Percy Crosby withdrew the feature
ized commercial use. Crosby,
whose drawing
and Sunday, and
in 1943, in protest against its
contin-
unauthor-
was always closer to sketch-illusYork, in 1891 and did newspaper and
style
was born in Brooklyn, New York World and for the McClure Syndicate before Skippy tracted the attention of King Featiires. He died in 1964. tration than cartoon,
strip
work on the
New
Slim Jim, an early and all-but-forgotten [30]
notably by
334
its
originator,
at-
was drawn variously by several cartoonists, most Charles Frink (who died in 1912), and his successor, Raystrip,
mond Ewer, who contributed in 1910,
and continued
S'Matter Pop? was one of several similar [39; 160]
Payne was born
in
our
until 1937, titles
fine selection here.
Slim Jim began as Circus Solly
mostly distributed to rural papers.
assigned to the best-known strip of Charles M. Payne.
Queenstown, Pennsylvania,
hired by the paper as a
staff cartoonist.
use of the page as well as
its
He hung around
in 1873.
the Pittsburgh Post and offered cartoon ideas while
still
the offices of
a teenager; later,
he was
S'Matter Pop?, notable for Payne's decorative
humor, began
in the
New
York World
tinued for thirty years. Payne died in poverty and obscurity in
New
in
1919 and con-
York
in 1964, the
victim of a mugging. See Bear Creek Folks.
Sunday feature in the New York Herald Tribune (and its syndicate) by New Yorker illustrator and art editor Rea Irvin (1881-1972). Irvin was from San Francisco and was an established magazine illustrator and cartoonist both before and after his stylized interlude on the comics page.
The Smythes was [126-127]
a
Somebody's Stenog, distributed by the Philadelphia Public Ledger's syndicate, was one of the best of several "working girl" strips that began in the late 1910s. It was the work of A. H. Hay[162] ward, who was hired away from the New York Herald by the Ledger. The strip lasted into the late 1940s.
Stumble Inn was another of George Herriman's early
strips.
See Krazy Kat.
[78-83]
Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs's jungle lord [429]
tribe of African great apes strip
—a
titled
English heir raised from infancy by a
—entered the comics page
rendered by Hal Foster
via a daily illustration-and-text
in early 1928. Foster also
tween 1931 and 1937, including the
much
did the Sunday version be-
celebrated "Lost Egyptians" sequence. See
Prince Valiant.
Terry and the Pirates began in late 1934, the work of Milton Caniff who revitalized the style of newspaper adventure strips with his effective use of impressionist graphic techniques and his [673-687] somewhat exotic adventure narrative. Caniff was born in Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1907. He
most notably Dickie Dare, before approaching Captain York News with Terry. The strip was his answer to for a "blood and thunder" suspense adventure strip "with desire Patterson's expressed a juvenile angle." Terry was taken over by George Wunder when Caniff began Steve
had done
several features,
Joseph Patterson of the
Canyon
New
in early 1947.
Texas Slim and Dirty Dalton, a Sunday-only slapstick cowboy strip, was the work of Ferd Johnson, who otherwise assisted Frank Willard on Moon Mullins ( and continued that latter strip after Wil[740] lard's death ) Johnson was bom in 1905 in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, and was draw.
ing published cartoons before he entered high school.
demy
of Fine Arts in 1923, but his
first
He
attended the Chicago Aca-
job resulted from his spending most of his
time hanging around the cartoonist's desk at the Tribune, where he attracted Willard's
sympathetic attention. Texas Slim began in 1925.
Thimble Theatre, by E. C. Segar, is one of the most celebrated comic-adventure strips. It began as Wil[443-474] liam Randolph Hearst's idea of one way to replace his recently lost Minute Movies. It was the work of Elzie Crisler Segar, bom in Chester, Illinois, in 1894, the son
He diligently taught himself to draw, with the help of a correspondence school course, and presented himself at the Chicago Herald, where he got his first work. Once founded, Thimble Theatre developed a set of mnning charof a house painter.
Oyl and her husthng brother. Castor. Popeye the Sailor first appeared in an adventure in January 1929, and immediately captivated the strip's growing audience, as well as its author. A series of memorable adventures acters, chiefly the spinsterish Olive
and characters
(J.
Wellington Wimpy, the Sea Hag, Alice the Goon, the Jeep)
fol-
lowed. Segar generally kept the story continuity in his daily episodes separate and
used his Sunday pages for self-contained gags. On the one occasion when he broke with that practice, he produced the masterly "Plunder Island" adventure which is
335
reproduced here. Segar died in others,
His feature has been continued since by
but usually with quite different intention and quality.
Toonerville Folks, Fontaine Fox, [209-220; 442]
late 1938.
Jr.'s
and Sunday
daily panel
habited his imaginary, then
strip
on the engaging eccentrics
semirural suburbs, was
still
who
in early 1915.
Mickey "Himself" McGuire, the
vignettes of the trolley's Skipper, the tough kid
rible-tempered Mr. Bang, and the
begun
in-
The ter-
1955. Fo.\, born in 1884 in Louis-
rest, lasted until
Kentucky, went to work for the Louisville Courier right out of high school, do-
ville,
ing reporting and cartoon work.
but dropped out to become
He
later briefly
attended the University of Indiana,
began in the nationally. Fox died in
a full-time cartoonist. Toonerville Folks
Chicago Post before the Wheeler Syndicate distributed
it
1964.
Tumbleweeds
is
[750-751]
to
Tom K. Ryan, born in Anderson, a cartoonist. He began in commercial art,
the work of
be
did a burlesque Western comic
strip.
Indiana, in 1926,
who
always wanted
read Western novels, and eventually
Tumbleweeds began modestly
in
1965 and has
built gradually in popularity since.
Wash Tubbs,
b\'
Roy Crane, began
as
Washington Tubbs II
in 1924.
See Captain Easy.
[320-426]
White Boy [440-441]
first
appeared
as a
Sunday, half-page
sequently also in the
New
several changes of focus, format, to realism,
juvenile readers. strations for
Chicago Tribune
York Daily News. The
youngster captured by an Indian tribe
switched
strip in the
in the late
and even
strip, initially
The
feature fiction
historical time. In
was the work and
his
concerning a white
them, fantasy narrative in efforts to
of Garrett Price, best
New Yorker
cartoons.
and continued
The Wizard
of Id
[757]
is
Wyoming
known
appeal to
for his illu-
White Boy became SkuU
Valley toward the end and disappeared in August 1936. Price,
Kansas, graduated from the University of
1933 and sub-
nineteenth century, went through
switched to gags, and back again, possibly
magazine
in
bom
in
Bucyrus,
and the Art Institute of Chicago,
art studies in France.
the collaborative effort of Brant Parker (ideas and drawing) and Johnny Hart
was a Disney cartoonist and later an illustrator for International Business Machines. He judged an art show in Endicott, New York, that included the work of a highschooier named Johnny Hart in the late 1940s and a friendship developed. The vaguely medieval Wizard first ap(ideas). Parker, a Californian born in Los Angeles in 1920,
peared
336
in 1964.
I
Bill
Blackbeard
cisco
Academy
is
of
the director of
Comic
tlio Sail
Fran-
Art, a nonprofit educa-
devoted to the study of popureproduced in this collection were obtained from its archives. Blackbeard founded the academy in 1967 in the
tional institution
lar narrative arts. Tlie strips
course of planning a book on the comic
strip,
dismay that there were only a few books, superficial and inadefjuatc, existing in the complex comic-strip field. To properly prepare his work, he was forced to create his own public research and study center, accumulating what is now a vast collection of bound newspaper files, popular fiction and cartoon periodicals, books in all genres of fiction and associated background data, and literally after discovering to his
millions of comic-strip episodes.
Blackbeard has written and edited extensively in
many
the narrative arts fields, including
ar-
and books. He prepared a sizable number
ticles
World Encyclopedia Comics (Chelsea House). Blackbeard is now editing a series of fifty or more reprint volumes of the entries in the recent
of
of classic
comic
strips
in
complete sequences, worth
starting with the earliest daily strips of
Hyperion Press ), and is also preparing a factual and critical history of the comic strips Oxford for which much of the contents of this Smithsonian volume will serve as illustration.
(
(
)
Martin Williams has been an English teacher (Columbia University) aiKl book editor (Macmillan), but most of his time has been spent as a critic of the popular and performing arts. He has written on literature (including children's), theater, films, radio, television— and comic strips. Chiefly, his work has been in jazz. As editor, his books include Tlw Art of Jazz (Oxford) and Jazz Panorama (Collier); as author, Where's the
A
Melody? (
Listener's
Introduction
Pantheon ) Jazz Masters of ;
millan
)
;
The Jazz Tradition
New (
Oxford
)
Jazz
to
Orleans ;
(
Mac-
and Jazz
(Macmillan). He has written on jazz for dozens of magazines and newspapers in
Transition
and was
for nine years the regular jazz critic for
the Saturday Review.
Since 1971 Williams has been the director of the Jazz and Popular Culture Program of the Division of Performing Arts, Smithsonian Institution,
where he produced the much acclaimed album The Smithsonian Collection of
record
Classic Jazz.
Needless to say, Williams aficionado.
is
also
a comics
ii
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