Stripper's Guide

 For the 1988 survey we had two papers that printed their last editions (Springfield Leader and Press (MO) and News (Paterson, NJ)) also we had 5 papers missing their information for this month so for this survey we had 273 papers.

In the Top 30 strips this year we had 31 because the 30th position was a tie. Two strips enter the Top 30, one new and one returning after dropping out. Calvin & Hobbes is our new entry and Berry’s World is the returning strip. The strip that fell out of the Top 30 was Funky Winkerbean.

The biggest movement was the Far Side which gained 5 places, going from 13 to 8. Andy Capp makes the biggest drop, losing three spots and going from 16 to 19.

Garfield gained 4 papers and now is one strip away from knocking Blondie out of the 2nd spot. No new strips entered the 100-paper club keeping its membership at 15, but a few strips are getting closer to that magic number. Cathy and Born Loser continue their small gain and if Calvin & Hobbes continues its big gain, it should join the 100-club next year.

Here are the Top 30 strips:

The popularity of the universal comic section continues to grow. Here is the breakdown:

Top 2 – 178 (Up 3)
Top 3 – 156 (Up 6)    
Top 4 -     131 (Up 7)
Top 5 – 85 (Up 2)    
Top 6 – 57 (0)    
Top 7 – 37 (0)    
Top 8 – 33 (Up 4)
Top 9 – 27 (Up 6)    
Top 10 – 18 (Up 4)
Top 11 – 13 (Up 2)
Top 12 – 10 (Up 2)
Top 13 – 2 (Down 3)
Top 14 – 1 (Up 1)
Top 15 – 1 (Up 1)

The Tampa Tribune takes back its crown of the most universal comic section with every one of the top 15 strips.

Here are the remaining strips that appeared in the Top 300 papers, ranked by newspaper count and increase/decrease:

40 – Funky Winkerbean (0), Mother Goose and Grimm (+2)

36 – Alley Oop (-3), Heathcliff (-1), Sally Forth (+3)

34 – Eek and Meek (-5)

33 – Lockhorns (0)

32 – Judge Parker (+1)

31 – Arlo and Janis (+1)

29 – Bugs Bunny (-5), Nancy (-2)

27 – Amazing Spider-Man (-5)

24 – Apartment 3-G (+2), Tiger (-4)

23 – Dick Tracy (-7), Geech (-1), Phantom (-2)

22 – Grizzwells (R), Kit N Carlyle (0)

21 – Tumbleweeds (-3)

18 – Broom Hilda (-1), Mark Trail (0)

17 – Captain Easy (0), Luann (0), Snafu (+1)

16 – Archie (-4), U.S. Acres (-16)

14 – Buz Sawyer (-2), Rose is Rose (+4), Steve Canyon (-6), What A Guy (R)

13 – Fred Basset (0), In The Bleachers (+6), Kudzu (+1), Steve Roper and Mike Nomad (-1)

11 – Brenda Starr (+2), Crock (-5), Drabble (+1), Dunagin’s People (-3), Gil Thorp (-1), Mr. Boffo (+2), On The Fastrack (-3), Redeye (-3), Small Society (+2), They’ll Do It Every Time (-1)

10 – Adam (0), Donald Duck (0), Gummi Bears (-11), Hazel (-3), Little Orphan Annie (0), Middletons (+4), Momma (-1), Mr. Tweedy (0), That’s Jake (-3), Zippy (+4)

9 – Willy N’ Ethel (0)

8 – Animal Crackers (0), Francie (-3), Grin and Bear It (0), Motley’s Crew (-1), Mr. Men and Little Miss (0)

7 – Bizarro (+2), Neighborhood (-5), Our Fascinating Earth (+4), Robotman (0), Ryatts (-1)

6 – Crankshaft (R), Gamin & Patches (R), Graffiti (-1), Heart of Juliet Jones (-2), Pavlov (0), Pop’s Place (-3)

5 – Better Half (-1), Elwood (-1), Hocus Focus (0), Love Is (-3), Outcasts (+1), Sylvia (+2)

4 – Belvedere, Caldwell, Flash Gordon, Flintstones, Girls, Hartland, Henry, Laff-A-Day, Love Handles, Miss Peach, Moose Miller, Out of Bounds, Play Better Golf with Jack Nicklaus, Rip Kirby, Sherman on the Mount, Tales of Hans Christian Anderson, Trudy

3 – Agatha Crumm, Amy, Arnold, Boomers’ Song, Briefcase, Catfish, Charlie, Ferd’Nand, John Darling, Professor Doodles, Quigmans, Scamp, Single Slices, Smith Family, Sniglets, Winnie Winkle, Wright Angles

2 – A Little Leary, Ben Wicks, Boner’s Ark, Bringing Up Father, Captain Vincible, Dollars and Nonsense, Duffy, Inside Out, Mickey Mouse, Off The Leash, Popeye, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Winnie the Pooh

1 – Better Tennis with Stan Smith, Betty Boop and Felix, Brother Juniper, Ching Chow, Eyebeam, Furtree High, Good News Bad News, Guindon, Guinness Factflle, Gumdrop, Iota, Kaleb, Laffbreak, Modesty Blaise, Mr. Abernathy, Ponytail, Rivets, Sadle, Sam and Silo, Salt Chuck, Strahle’s Bailiwick, Wild Life, Wordplay, Yecch Is

As always, you can get a complete list of features and the specific newspapers in which they appeared, just shoot an email request to strippersguide@gmail.com.

Labels: Paper Trends

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

The biggest gainer for 1988 was Calvin and Hobbes, which had tied for second place last year with an increase of 20 papers. This year the strip gained a massive 48 papers. Coming in second was last year’s biggest gainer The Far Side with 27 papers. Over the last three years The Far Side has gained a total of 92 papers. The rest of the biggest gainers continue their trend in gaining more papers. Here is the rest of the best.

Bloom County - 9
Family Circus – 8
Wizard of Id – 8
Frank & Ernest – 7
Berry’s World - 7
Born Loser – 6
In The Bleachers – 6

The biggest losers are two recent strips, U.S. Acres down by 16 papers and Gummi Bears dropping 11 papers. The rest are the adventure strips on their slow downward spiral, and the incremental loss of popularity of the NEA package. Here are  the rest of the biggest losers:

Dick Tracy – 7
Steve Canyon - 6
Eek & Meek – 5
Bugs Bunny – 5
Amazing Spider-Man – 5
Crock – 5
The Neighborhood – 5

And again we track the continued losses of the adventure strips. The only one gaining was Brenda Starr, perhaps reflecting the writing of relative newcomer Mary Schmich, a respected name in newspaper circles:

Alley Oop – 36 (-3)
Amazing Spider-Man – 27 (-5)
Dick Tracy – 23 (-7)
Phantom – 23 (-2)
Mark Trail – 18 (0)
Captain Easy – 17 (0)
Buz Sawyer – 14 (-2)
Steve Canyon – 14 (-6)
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad – 13 (-1)
Brenda Starr – 11 (+2)
Little Orphan Annie – 10 (0)
Flash Gordon – 4 (0)
Rip Kirby – 4 (-1)
Popeye – 2 (0)
Modesty Blaise – 1 (0)
Brick Bradford – 0 (-1) – strip ended
Secret Agent Corrigan – 0
Mandrake the Magician – 0
Tim Tyler’s Luck – 0

Adventure strip slots are down 26 from last year; that is a 10.7% drop.

It is interesting that 1988 will be the last year for both Steve Canyon and Captain Easy. When we started this survey with the year 1978 Steve Canyon had 62 papers and Captain Easy only had 42 papers. Now in its last year Captain Easy had more papers than Steve Canyon, though of course both are way down from those 1978 figures now. Maybe in the future we can go backwards and see what their highest totals were. Also, it is clear that the syndicate did not want to continue with Steve Canyon after Milton Caniff passed away. I wonder how many years the strip would have continued if Caniff hadn’t passed away.

On the soap opera strips it was a much better year, They only lost 4 spots.  

Mary Worth – 63 (-3)
Rex Morgan – 50 (0)
Judge Parker – 32 (+1)
Apartment 3-G – 24 (+2)
Gil Thorp – 11 (-1)
Heart of Juliet Jones – 6 (-2)
Winnie Winkle – 3 (-1)

Labels: Paper Trends

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

The most popular rookie strip starting in 1987 continues a pattern we had in previous years -- a strip from the NEA package replacing another NEA strip that was cancelled. The last time this happened was in 1985 when Arlo and Janis replaced Levy’s Law. This time we had the Grizzwells replacing Snake Tales. The Grizzwells debuts with 22 papers which is an increase of 5 more papers than Snake Tales had in 1986.

Coming in second is What A Guy with 14 papers. This is by Bill Hoest, who now offers his third comic strip, along with Agatha Crumm and The Lockhorns. This is case of the previous success of the artist being rewarded with editorial trust and approval.

The rest of the rookies of 1987 did not make much of an impact on the daily newspapers, at least early on. The best only ran in 6 papers. The trend continues to be that editors are being very conservative in changing their features, mainly adding strips that have been successful in other newspapers. Here is the breakdown of the rest of the rookies.

Crankshaft – 6
Gamin & Patches – 6
Love Handles – 4
Tales of Hans Christian Anderson – 4
Briefcase – 3
Single Slices – 3
Guinness Factfile, Iota, Sadie (aka Clyde), Wild Life (local feature), Yecch Is (local feature)– 1

Top Strips that began between 1977-1987

Garfield (1978) – 206
Far Side (1979) – 139
Bloom County (1980) – 127
Shoe (1977) – 117
For Better or For Worse (1979) – 104

Top Strips that began in the 1980’s

Bloom County (1980) – 127
Calvin and Hobbes (1985) – 82
Marvin (1982) – 48
Mother Goose and Grimm (1984) – 40
Sally Forth (1982) – 36   

Labels: Paper Trends

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

Here's another Foolish Questions postcard from Rube Goldberg, issued as part of series #213 by Samson Brothers. Another lackluster entry in this series, which seemed to use Goldberg's cartoons more or less at random, offfering both masterpieces and clunkers from that very popular series.

Labels: Wish You Were Here

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

March 12 1910 -- I know what you've been thinking. Sure, it's all well and good for Herriman to be doing all these sports cartoons, but when will he get around to an editorial cartoon about prunes? 

Well, my friends, that long-awaited day has finally come. It seems that food prices have been going through the roof, led by meat, dairy and grains. Luckily for Californians the state is practically awash in dried fruits, including that king of dessicated fruit, the prune. Herriman extolls their virtues for replacing all that other expensive stuff in the Angeleno diet.

Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

I'm always delighted to feature our favorite completely bonkers cartoonist, Eddie Eksergian, on the blog. Today we cover one of his highest profile series, Billy the Bell Boy. This strip generally ran on the front page of the St. Louis Star's comic section during its run. 

The strip's unvarying plot involves the dream fantasies of a sleeping bellboy. The kid imagines himself being cuddled, coddled and generally treated like royalty, only to be rudely awakened by the desk manager, who flings a city directory (the precursor of the phone book) at him. 

The art is as wild as anything in the Eks pantheon, but I get the feeling that Eddie was holding his bizarre imagination in check on this feature. Billy's fantasies are pretty firmly grounded in the comic strip version of  reality, not the Bizarro world we often visit in an Eddie Eks production. Maybe with Billy the Bell Boy occupying a marquee position on the comics section covers he wanted to offer a more reader-accessible version of his esteemed brand of dementia. 

Billy the Bell Boy ran from February 8 1903 to June 19 1904. While I think of this (and all Star material) as having been distributed by World Color Printing, it was not the version that was contracted through the New York Daily News, but rather the homegrown material that ran in the Star and a few syndicate client papers. For the extended discussion on this whole Star-WCP brouhaha, check out this post. 

Thanks to Cole Johnson for supplying the samples.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

One day a rash reporter asked Woodie Cowan, the cartoonist and sports writer, to tell him the, story of his life. No more was necessary.

“I’m glad you asked me, old thing,” said the obliging Woodie. “I’ll start at the very beginning and spare neither time nor imagination to make it interesting. To begin with I, was born on Friday at 3:17 a. m. My full name is Woodson Messick Cowan, which you will admit is so full that it staggers. I was a howling, success for six months and then became a democrat. As late as two years I objected to kissing, but I soon learned better. At three, having attained self-consciousness, I turned republican. I showed a fondness for bread and jam in 1896, was dumb at school, but struggled hard and became a bricklayer at 15.

“Work was not in my line, however, so I entered the Chicago Art institute in 1908, where I learned to exist on $2.50 a week. I turned waiter and later sang in cabarets and movies. Then I became proficient in art, and 30 cents sufficed me for a week.

“I first did cartoons for the Chicago Inter-Ocean which is now no more.The rumor that my art was responsible for its demise is false, however. Then I went to the New Orleans Item where I did a humorous column, a court sketch, and a cartoon every day, and slept the other hour. The war found me with the Washington Times. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1914-06-27/ed-1/seq-13/#date1=1777&index=2&date2=1963&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&lccn=sn84026749&words=COWAN+WOOD&proxdistance=5&state=&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=wood+cowan&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 At the opening of the 1916 shearing season, I plunged into Wall street, and am still trying to get even. I am now doing cartoons, comic strips, and articles on sport subjects with a New York syndicate. …

New Orleans, Dec. 10. 

Wood Cowan, cartoonist of the New Orleans Item, makes his stage debut next week at the local Orpheum.

Local Drawer Debuts.

New Orleans, Dec. 17. 

Wood Cowan, local cartoonist, made his stage debut at the Orpheum Monday. He sings while sketching conventional characters in the conventional way. His act lacks coherency evidencing hasty production. It is hardly pretentious enough for the better grade of vaudeville. Cowan is of the staff of the New Orleans Item.

“Newfangles” Artist Is a Genuine Ruralist

Wood Cowan, who draws “The Newfangles”

Truly rural ... but with a New York accent ...  is Wood Cowan, who draws “The Newfangles.” He lives at the end of the end of the trail ... somewhere in Connecticut ... in an old farmhouse, with oak beams and a flagstone walk. In cold weather, though he becomes a city feller, and moves to a studio apartment in New York. Cowan has a reputation for being one of the finest tellers of tall yarns on the Eastern seaboard ... strong men weep when they hear his imitations of nutmeg Yankees. At 15 he had learned the rudiments of bricklaying ... and three years later entered the Chicago Art Institute. Been a cartoonist ever since. He’s happily married ... has one youngster ... is proud of his home-made wines ... and disapproves of spats ... but wears them.

O. I. See

One fine old name not in the directory any longer is that of Orbal I. See. Mr. See, who is really Wood Cowan, the comic artist who draws “The Newfangles,” has moved to Connecticut. Some years ago, though, he went into the phone company’s office to apply for service in his town apartment.

“What is your name?” asked a clerk.

“What did you say?” asked the artist.

“I said I must have your name,” replied the clerk, a little impatiently. 

“Oh, I see,” drawled Cowan. 

“And your first name Mr. See?” Inquired the clerk, busily scribbling on a card.

This so amused the applicant that he invented as name on the spot. “Orbal,” he said. And Orbal I. See it was, through four issues of the directory. His friends had heard the story, so they had no difficulty remembering his nom de telephone. 

Wood Cowan, 90, Dies; Cartoonist, Ex-Official

Weston—Woodson Cowan, 90, of Godfrey road, a former First Selectman here and a nationally recognized professional cartoonist best known for “Major Hoople,” died Friday in Norwalk hospital.

Mr. Cowan drew “Major Hoople” from 1931 until his retirement in 1956. He also drew political cartoons for the Bridgeport Post-Telegram and the New Haven Register, as well as newspapers in New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia.

He was co-author and illustrator of “Famous Figures of the West,” and the author of “Iowa Cracker Barrel.”

Mr. Cowan was born in Algona, Iowa, the son of a pioneer homesteader in that state, where he lived in a sod hut on the Iowa prairie during his first two years. He came to Weston in 1927 and resided here the rest of his life.

He was the town’s First Selectman foam 1955 to 1957 when a dispute with the Republican town committee led to his retirement from politics. Previously, he had also been elected to three terms in the State House of Representatives on the Republican ticket.

During his tenure as First Selectman, Weston obtained its first post office, its first state trooper and the first town fire department, accomplishments Mr. Cowan pointed to with special pride at an Historical society meeting in October 1974.

But the cartoonist’s chief claim to fame was his “Major Hoople,” the fat major who is the chief character in “Our Boarding House,” which still appears in Bridgeport Telegram and Sunday Post.

“When I drew him,” Mr. Cowan said in a 1974 Bridgeport Sunday Post interview, “Major Hoople would do the most outrageous things, but always with a reason. Like crossing a lightning bug with a bed bug so he could read in bed at night.”

Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Frances Cowan; two sons, Thaddeus Cowan [1934–2012] of Manhattan, Kan., and Conrad Cowan [1931– ] of Santa Monica, Calif.; and five grandchildren.

Memorial services will take place Tuesday at 3 p.m. in the Norfield Congregational church, with the Rev. Evelyn Towle officiating. Burial will be private.

The Lewis funeral home, 210 Post road east, Westport, is in charge of arrangements.

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

# posted by Alex Jay @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

The US Treasury Department, tasked with the relatively easy job of selling War Bonds during World War II, nevertheless wasn't above the hard sell to squeeze the last few dollars they could out of the wallets of those not in uniform. 

The panel cartoon series American Heroes offered tales of heroism from the warfronts, always with a stinger about the need to buy War Bonds. The panels were presumably sent out in batches, and newspapers were free to use them as they wished, whether on a regular basis or to fill holes whenever needed. 

The first batch went out in February 1943, and were bylined "by Leff." In my book I mistakenly assigned these to Mo Leff, but later I looked at the microscopic signatures that were inscribed on a few panels (most were unsigned) and see that it actually says "M & S LEFF", indicating that the brothers Mo and Sam both worked on the series, presumably with Mo pencilling and Sam inking. 

The Leffs were responsible for most of the series, but with the batch that went out in November 1944, the new artist was Julian Ollendorff, who offered up the most hell-raising illustrations for the series (see above), showing that at 60-some years old he still had some lively ink left in his pen.

He didn't last long though, as the batch sent out in April 1945 switched to veteran cartoonist Wood (or Woody) Cowan. The batch by Cowan was the last batch sent out, as the war was soon over, though War Bonds did continue to be sold for awhile after the end of the conflict. Although newspapers continued running the panels well into 1946, I'm pretty confident that Cowan only produced a single lot of them. 

I presume the series was weekly, but I confess I haven't beaten the bushes to figure out exactly how many panels were actually produced. There may not have been enough offered for that frequency. If someone wants to put in the work to figure that out, you'll find plenty of papers running them in online archives. 

On a side note, I was able to verify the stories of the men cited in all the panels above except that of Henry G. Bohlen. No one by that name seems to have won a Silver Star, and I find no trace of the name in wartime newspaper accounts. Did Ollendorff make up a hero from whole cloth?

Labels: Advertising Strips

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 4 comments

Here's another of those postcards distributed with Hearst Sunday papers in 1906, the ones they might have called the "Little Arsonist" line of juvenile amusements. 

I wonder if a single person was surprised to see Der Captain magically appear once the heat was applied? You'd think the cartoonists would think just a little about the point of these cards when creating these designs and come up with something ... anything ... a little unexpected.

Labels: Wish You Were Here

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 2 comments

March 11 1910 -- A very strange cartoon by Herriman, odd enough that one wonders if Garge might have had a little TOO much fun at the ballpark before dipping his pen. Or, maybe if we knew the details of that game everything would be perfectly reasonable. I dunno.

The strip is made only more impenetrable by the condition of the paper. Beyond the typical woes of dealing with microfilm, this paper was torn, missing the upper left side, and looked like it had gotten wet, making the ink blot and bleed. Thankfully most of the Examiner material is in better condition than this.

Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 2 comments

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

# posted by Alex Jay @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

Travelin' Ted was a weekly panel cartoon that ran in the Chicago Sunday Tribune's travel section each week from September 17 1950 to March 2 1952. Each episode would offer information about a particular vacation destination, including a special tip from the panel's mascot, Travelin' Ted himself. 

The creator, Ray Hudson, was employed by the Tribune as a designer, and apparently he was responsible for the much of the very attractive graphic content of their Sunday travel sections, supplying art for advertisers who contracted with the paper for ad design services. 

As far as is known, this was Hudson's only foray into newspaper cartooning.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 2 comments

Today Clare Briggs is mostly remembered, by those who remember him at all, for his daily series with running titles like When a Feller Needs a Friend, The Days of Real Sport, and Somebody's Always Taking the Joys Out of Life. What is seldom recalled is that in his days at the Chicago Tribune he created a long-running and popular Sunday series titled Danny Dreamer. That was a strip about a kid who's imagination was compared in each episode with considerably different reality.

After about four years milking that plot, Briggs tired of it and shifted the focus to Danny's father, who luckily enough also turned out to have a vivid imagination. Shortly after making that switch, though, Briggs seems to have realized that Senior was too generic of a character for the comics section, so he gave him a wacky black sidekick to liven things up, and dropped the reality vs. imagination schtick in favour of physical comedy with the inevitable racial overtones. 

That sidekick was Sambo Remo Rastus Brown, and he came completely equipped with all the hoary black stereotypes typical of the era. Brown's role in Danny Sr.'s life is never fleshed out, but he seems to live with the Dreamer family, so perhaps he was what was then called a "hired man", sort of the male version of a maid, tasked with all manner of male-oriented work around the house. 

After almost a year of Dreamer Sr. and Brown sharing the spotlight, Briggs decided that Sambo Remo was the only real draw and so he put the whole Dreamer family out to pasture. Since the new star needed to go out on his own, Briggs decided it would be hilarious to have a black man as a policeman. Not that black policemen were totally unknown in this era, but it can be safely assumed that their patrols were generally limited only to black neighborhoods. 

In the new series, with the unwieldy title of Sambo Remo Rastus Brown is Now a Policeman, much of the comedy would come from Sambo Remo interacting with white folk who don't take well to him being a figure of authority. Since you can easily imagine how those gags went, I've decided to instead include the above superb fourth-wall breaking strip that is not at all typical fare for the series. 

Sambo Remo Rastus Brown is Now a Policeman, which I count as a separate series though it has family ties to Danny Dreamer, ran from October 13 1912 to February 23 1913. 

A minor mystery about this series: for some reason Briggs never signed the strip once it gained this new title. It certainly appears to be his work, so I don't know why there would have been such an abrupt change.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

Here's a card from Carmichael's "If" series, published by Samson Bros. as Series 262 in 1910. I think this series represents some of Carmichael's best work; he's really getting the hang of things, and maybe Samson paid well enough that he could afford to spend a little extra time refining his drawings on these cards.

Labels: Wish You Were Here

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

March 10 1910 -- Fireman Jim Flynn has signed on to duke it out for a third time with Sam Langford, a fighter who pretty consistently had his number. In the first fight he lost by knockout, in the second he was either awarded a close decision or it was a draw, depending on who you believe. 

This fight will be different in that it is scheduled for a whopping 45 rounds, a rare long bout that was generally out of fashion by 1910, and unusual enough for Herriman to devote a strip to it.

Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

Here's a pair of ads for the 1926 children's book "All The Funny Folk", which starred the whole galaxy of Hearst comic strip stars. The Rochester Journal-American is willing to discount the large hardcover book to a mere 98 pieces of copper. I don't know what the regular price was, but I have seen that Cliff Sterrett autographed copies in a Brooklyn department store that Christmas, and charged a buck apiece. Two cents for the autograph of a famous cartoonist seems quite the bargain, even in 1926! 

If you're trying to remember what this book looks like, simply look at the cover of your copy of American Newspaper Comics -- An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. The cover is adapted from that 1926 tome.

Labels: Archives Sub-Basement

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

Chester Gould, later of Dick Tracy fame, spent several years at the Chicago Evening American in the mid-1920s honing his craft and producing a slew of material. Unfortunately this early work by Gould is little known, and the histories I've read only talk of it in vague generalities and offer a lot of incorrect information. To that problem I have not been immune, and the information about early Gould material in my own book ticks both boxes -- it is vague and offers incorrect information.  

For instance, I have since learned from Jean Gould O'Connell's book about her father that The Radio Catts and The Radio Lanes (which I list separately) are actually the same strip -- it went through a title change partway through the run. 

O'Connell also shows a few samples of an untitled panel cartoon series Gould produced, but doesn't really say anything about it in her text. She seems to consider these editorial cartoons, even though most of them are strictly gag-oriented. 

I recently got a sampling of the cartoons, all of them dating from August 1925. Although some are vaguely and limply editorial in nature, like the bottom example here, most are strictly playing for laughs. In fact, there was at least one running title used (Things That Can't Be Done) that would seem to indicate that Gould was trying to achieve something at least adjacent to the Briggs/Webster mold. 

Based on this sampling I believe there was a series worthy of listing in my book, though my information is essentially a mere few shards of a smashed pot. O'Connell's book seems to show a sample of the feature from 1926, so I gather it ran a good long while. I also note with some bemusement from my examples that they are copyrighted to just about any newspaper Hearst owned, the choice apparently being based on nothing more than what the typesetter took a fancy to at the moment. 

If anyone knows of a source for good primary source information on Gould's early series, I'd sure like to know about it. I confess that I haven't kept up with the various Dick Tracy reprint books, wherein there might very well be the occasional article about his early work. Of course, the ideal solution would be a trip to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield Illinois, the only library that has a substantial amount of Chicago Evening American microfilm, albeit missing some important months. Sadly, crossing the Canada-US border in these days of covid is a major undertaking and I won't be making that trip anytime soon.

Labels: Mystery Strips, Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 2 comments

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

# posted by Alex Jay @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

Here's a Charles Dana Gibson card from the British postcard firm, Henderson and Sons. Others that I've seen are numbered, but this one isn't. It features one of Gibson's more famous cartoons, "The Expert." The expressions on the three subjects make this a real tour-de-force.

Labels: Wish You Were Here

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 4 comments

1. A particularly offensive racial slur in the headline.

2. An image of Jeff Johnson running away with a white woman ... we know what that's all about.

3. A possible new coinage for a racial slur, which actually seems sort of complimentary -- 'maduros' likens Jack Johnson to strong cigars with dark wrappers.

Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 5 comments

The Columbus Dispatch is well-appreciated by serious cartooning fans for its deep roster of great ink-slingers -- Billy Ireland, Dudley Fisher, Ray Evans, Harry Keys and, oh, who was that other guy ... oh yeah, Milt Caniff. 

But these are only the cartoonists who made a lasting impression. The Dispatch editors really seemed to have a deep abiding love for cartooning, and there are others who were invited to take a stab at it for the paper. One of those was Richard Brand, who created a short-lived weekly panel of vignettes about autos, public transportation, commuting, well, basically everything that happens Along Our Street.  The cartooning itself was a little rough, but I think Brand's perceptive observational gags work quite well for the feature, not counting the mushmouth black stereotypes.

Along Our Street began on September 12 1926, and used that title through October 3, then changed to using different titles each week. The feature ran until December 5 and was seen no more. Brand may have considered cartooning pretty much just a hobby, because he was also employed as a reporter on the Dispatch, and continued in that capacity for various papers for the rest of his working life.  His obituary didn't bother to mention his apparently short foray into the graphic end of newspapering.

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

(This profile is an update of the 2016 version.) 

Carl Ryman was born Carl Adolph Reimann Jr. on May 10, 1903, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, according to his World War II draft card. Ryman’s birth name was found in his father’s biography in the book, German-American Artists in Early Milwaukee: A Biographical Dictionary (1997). 

Reimann, Carl A., b. 3-13-1873 in Milwaukee, d. 12-17-1937 in Milwaukee. Muralist, religious painter, and designer of stained glass windows whose name is sometimes given as Charles A.F. Reimann. The son of a Swiss immigrant father and German immigrant mother, Reimann grew up in Milwaukee and was educated in Lutheran schools. He was a pupil of Richard Lorenz and later studied at the Weimar Art School under Max Thedy (1858–1924)….Reimann’s name appears in Milwaukee city directories from 1891 until his death, his occupation being variously given as artist, designer, and craftsman in stained glass. His church decoration firm, the Carl A. Reimann Company, went under during the Depression….Reimann’s son, who spelled his name Carl Ryman, was a cartoonist and gag writer living in California.

The 1905 Wisconsin state census recorded Ryman and his parents in Milwaukee. 

In the 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Ryman, his parents and brother, George, lived at 844 Fourth Street in Milwaukee. Ryman’s father was producing art glass works.

The Milwaukee Journal, November 3, 1949, profiled Ryman and said he attended a Lutheran parochial school where he  was “drawing comics for the other kids in exchange for school supplies and candy.” He went to the Lutheran high school and “graduated from Northwestern college, Watertown, where he was welterweight boxing champion and a top swimmer.”

On September 11, 1918, Ryman’s father signed his World War I draft card which had his address as 914 Island Avenue, Milwaukee.

The 1920 census said Ryman was a Milwaukee resident at 168 Wright Street. The Journal said Ryman worked for his father as a stained glass artist and salesman. They also raised dogs. 

Ryman was married with three children in the 1930 census, which said Ryman was 21 years old when he married Edna. The family resided in Milwaukee at 1679 4th Street. Ryman was a designer of art glass. The 1933 Milwaukee city directory listed designer Ryman at 116 East Wright Street. He was a painter, at the same address, in the 1936 directory. The Great Depression ended his father’s stained glass business. 

According to the 1940 census, Ryman’s widow mother was the head of the household which was in Milwaukee at 116 East Wright Street. Ryman was the proprietor and designer of a stained glass studio. He had attended college for three years. 

The Journal said Ryman had been a taxicab driver, brewery worker, swimming pool attendant, tea salesman and gag writer. 

On February 14, 1942, Ryman signed his World War II draft card. HIs description was six feet, 150 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. According to the Journal, Ryman was rejected for military service, and “worked as an inspector in a defense plant until 1944.”

The Journal said Ryman had a chronic throat ailment and sinus trouble, causing him to experience bouts with pneumonia. In 1944 he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he was, at different times, a stained glass worker and caretaker of a park. Ryman’s 1948 voter registration, at Ancestry.com, said he was a Democrat who lived at 7015 St. Estaban Street in Los Angeles.

According to American Newspaper Comics (2012) Ryman produced the strip, Alfred, for the McClure Syndicate. Alfred debuted October 17, 1949 and ended in 1954. The Alfred character was created by Foster Humfreville who produced the panel, which was published in Collier’s magazine, beginning in 1941. Editor & Publisher, October 1, 1949, explained how Humfreville and Ryman produced Alfred. 

The gag-a-day strip ... is the outgrowth of a Collier’s panel drawn by Foster Humphreyville [sic] with Carl Ryman supplying the gags. Mr. Humphreyville relinquished the character to Gag Man Ryman and trained another artist who will draw the strip under Mr. Ryman’s direction. 

After leaving Alfred, Humfreville found work in advertising and the aerospace industry. 

Ryman was selling Alfred original art in Writer’s Digest, January 1953. 

“Alfred” Comic Strips. Genuine Originals of Nationally Syndicated Feature. $2. Three for $5. Carl Ryman, 1012 2nd St., Santa Monica, Calif.

The Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series, Volume 5, Parts 7–11A, Number 1, Works of Art, etc., January–June 1951, listed three cartoon characters by Ryman. The following year, Ryman and his wife, Edna, received copyrights on two cartoon characters. 

Ryman illustrated a BarcaLounger advertisement in the December 1952 issue of Esquire.

According to Ryman’s California voter registrations, he was a Republican who lived in Los Angeles at 1311-C 23rd Street in 1950, 1952. Santa Monica, California city directories, from 1952 to 1954, listed Ryman as a cartoonist who lived in the Fairmont Apartments at 1012 2nd Street, apartment 5. The 1958 directory said Ryman was a salesman with the Trans-Western Land & Investment Company in Los Angeles. In 1962, Republican Ryman was a Joshua Tree, California resident on Sunny Vista Road. 

The Journal, July 24, 1963, reported the passing of Ryman’s mother and said in part: 

…Mrs. Reimann, the former Sarah Geiger, died Monday of a heart attack at St. Mary’s hospital. She lived at 116 E. Wright st.

Her husband, who died in 1938, operated the Carl A. Reimann Co., which specialized in church decoration. Their son, Carl, jr., Joshua Tree, Calif., is a comic strip artist. His strip, “Alfred.” formerly appeared in The Milwaukee Journal Green Sheet….

Ryman passed away September 23, 1963, in San Bernardino County, according to the California Death Index. He was laid to rest at Westminster Memorial Park. 

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

# posted by Alex Jay @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

Born in St. Joseph, Mo., Foster Humfreville blossomed in Hollywood and Pasadena, where he was not, he admits, a genius at school, having attended fifteen and having been graduated from none, chiefly because his principal interest was in collecting snakes and lizards.

His first job was in a Los Angeles bank, which he left at the end of two years to attend art school. Later he migrated to New York to become an artist via sculpture, painting, drawing, and designing museum displays. However, having doodled with cartoons and caricatures since childhood, our subject naturally would up as a comic man. In 1941 he sold his first gag to Collier’s and has drawn for that publication exclusively ever since.

In the summer of 1942 the Foster father of Alfred returned to California but continued to entertain Collier's readers with Alfred's antics. 

Humfreville says he knows very little about the Navy and that used to get his ideas and backgrounds by talking to sailors about ships and Navy life. As the war progressed, this proved to be more and more embarrassing, and he has had to curb his queries in order to prevent landing in the hands of certain Federal officials.

Like Alfred, Mr. Humfreville has never been married. “Who would have us?’ He asks. Wistfully, it seems.

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

# posted by Alex Jay @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

Here's a nice Christmas-themed card from Margaret G. Hays. This card is copyright 1908 by the Rose Company, which is the only company for which I've seen her produce cards.

Labels: Wish You Were Here

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

The Chicago Tribune ran a half page of Christmas wishes in their Sunday section on Christmas Day 1955. Nice enough, but where are Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, Winnie Winkle, the Gasoline Alley gang, the Teenie Weenies, Moon Mullins .... I guess the 'A' listers got the day off!

Merry Christmas Stripper's Guide readers!

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

Labels: Christmas Strips

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments