Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Arnold L. Hicks
Harry C. Maley Company Augments StaffWilliam C. Faul, William E. Prickett, and Arnold Lorne Hicks have joined the Harry C. Maley Company, Chicago advertising agency. Mr. Faul, who will be art director, was formerly with the Ethridge Company, and the Wm. H. Rankin Company. Mr. Prickett, formerly with Critchfield & Company, Chicago advertising agency, becomes an account executive. Mr. Hicks joins the art staff.
Art Director Named by Advertising AgencyAppointment of Arnold L. Hicks as art director of Nolan and Twitchell Advertising Agency, Albany, was announced today by Paul S. Twitchell, president.Mr. Hicks has done advertising art work for Wilson Sporting Goods, New York Telephone, Westinghouse and Gillette Razor companies and was commissioned by the Federal Government to paint a series of murals on the U.S. postal system.
East Chatham Artist Takes Popular Award in Albany Art ShowArnold L. Hicks, well known East Chatham artist, captured the popular award in the fourth annual “Greenwich Village” art exhibit held at Albany last week.Mr. Hicks’ portrait of his granddaughter, Christy Nelson, age 8, was chosen by the public as the outstanding canvas at the exhibit.Mr. and Mrs. Hicks have resided in East Chatham a little more than a year. Their daughter is Mrs. Steve Nelson, also of East Chatham.
Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Hicks have sold their home on the Chatham-East Chatham road and have moved to Schodack.
Woodward & Voss, Inc., Albany ad agency announces appointment of David L. Sprung as account executive, Arnold Hicks as commercial artist and David Deporte as copy and layout specialist.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Monday, March 20, 2023
Obscurity of the Day: Jennifer
The Christian Science Monitor had sort of a mini-golden age of comics in their staid pages during the 1940s. Well, maybe not quite gold, but at least high end aluminum foil. These were the years when Adventures of Waddles, The Bells, and other fine strips ran regularly there. Amid the many new features that came and went in this dcade was Jennifer, a strip (or sometimes panel) about a pig-tailed little girl who thinks rather grandly of herself. As with most CSM strips, it wasn't a daily, but just ran a few times per week. It first appeared on November 25 1944 and ended July 26 1946.
The strip is bylined to Isabelle Grover. I can find not a peep about her on the 'net. That might just be me not searching well enough, or that old single/married name bugaboo. Another possibility is that the creator used a pseudonym -- some artists who worked for the Christian Science Monitor felt it prudent to keep their real identity a secret rather than to be known for practicing Christian Science.
UPDATE: Paul DiFilippo sends a short article from the Oakland Tribune, January 13 1948 with a mention of Isabelle Grover, so it was apparently not a pseudonym. Oddly it mentions her character Jennifer as if ythe feature is still running. Thanks Paul!
Labels: Obscurities
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Wish You Were Here, from Grace Drayton
Here's card #500 from Reinthal & Newman, featuring a Drayton cherub who has a very healthy appetite. She's ready to chow down, so hop to it mom.
Labels: Wish You Were Here
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Herriman Saturday: May 20 1910
Halley's Comet is finally reaching the general environs of the Earth, and while some ordinary people are up in arms at the scary prospect, the scientists are happy to explain that everything is going according to predictions.
Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons
Friday, March 17, 2023
Firsts and Lasts: The Final Spat of Mr. & Mrs.
Mister & Mrs. is a truly odd success story, a strip that survived for over forty years with essentially no fan base that I am aware of, or, for that matter, that I can imagine.
The strip debuted in 1919, helmed at first by the great Clare Briggs. Mr. & Mrs. sure didn't have much of the touch of greatness that Briggs could impart, though. The strip was about a bickering couple, Joe and Vi Green, and was quite depressing in its horrifically negative view of marriage. The couple were constantly at each other's throats and honestly seemed to be just one more fight away from either divorce or even homicide. The regular tagline of the strip, in which the couple's young son meekly whispers to the adult combatants, "Papa love mama?", heartbreaking as it is, seems to say it all.
Why would anyone want to read this? If the reader is unmarried, this strip is scary enough to make them swear off the institution. If happily married, it's a horror show of what could eventually be. If unhappily married, a confirmation that this is a perfectly normal situation, not one that will ever likely improve.
But what do I know? People read and seem to love Andy Capp and The Lockhorns, which are more of the same. So perhaps there's some weird fascination, a "there but by the grace of God go I", that draws an appreciative audience.
My guess is that Briggs had little to do with the Sunday strip; he probably took primarily a supervisory role once the ball was rolling. When he unexpectedly died in 1930 the strip was taken over by a series of lesser creators, without even the guidance of a brilliant manager. The new creators seemed content to continue the formula as long as the paychecks kept coming.
The last creator was Kin Platt, whose work on the strip began as artist only, from scripts by Arthur Folwell, in 1948. Platt's work at the outset was marginally attractive, but by the mid-50s was looking so crude and slapdash that you might think he was a doddery octogenarian; he was actually just in his 40s.
Folwell dropped out in 1957, and the daily strip (added after Briggs' death) was dropped in 1958, but Platt kept up the Sunday until September 22 1963. You might expect that Platt would have finally given readers what I'm sure they were hoping for all those years, a nice day in divorce court for Joe and Vi. But no, he elected to end the strip with a breaking of the fourth wall episode, and some final bickering from Jo and Vi before they went forever back in the inkwell.
Labels: Firsts and Lasts
Maybe marital strife fascinates some folks. Other people's, even make believe ones, social agony is quite interesting to the busybodies of the world, that's why there's soap operas. Unhappy couples seems to be niche comedy genré, look at The Bickersons or the Honeymooners.
The article says it's Capp railing against the treatment of Superman's creators, but it's focused tightly on newspaper comics so inspiration was probably closer to home. The evil syndicator rips off strip creators at every turn, finally by selling it to newspapers cheap -- if they buy an expensive feature by his own mother.
Is it possible Mr. & Mrs. served a similar function, a property owned outright by the syndicate (or an executive) that had to be bought to get more popular titles? Did every paper that bought it print it?
To EOCostello -- yes, and of all the platinum books out there, the Mr. & Mrs. is the one most often seen in really nice clean condition (mine was practically mint). Almost as if no one bothered to crack 'em open more than once.
--Allan
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Harley Griffiths
Griffiths—On October 3, 1917, Harley Bradley Griffiths, beloved husband of May Mulcahy Griffiths. Funeral from his late residence 28 St. Mark’s place, at the convenience of the family. Interment Cypress Hills Cemetery.
Griffiths—On Sunday, Feb. 3, 1935, at 349 St. John’s Place, Edgar Charles Griffiths, beloved son of Mary M. And the late Harley Bradley Griffiths and brother of Harley M., Gloria J. and Muriel J. Griffiths. Funeral Wednesday, 9:30 a.m.; solemn mass of requiem St. Teresa’s R. C. Church. Interment in St. John’s Cemetery.
Miss Maher to Wed on July 10Is Bride-Elect of WesternerMrs. Francis Langford Maher of 395 Clinton Ave. announces the engagement and approaching marriage of her daughter, Miss Elizabeth Maher, to Harley Griffiths of Coronado Beach, Cal.Miss Maher, daughter of the late Francis L. Maher, is president of the Alumnae Association of the College of New Rochelle, She is also a graduate of St. Angela Hall and received her Masters Degree from Fordham University.Mr. Griffiths is the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Harley Bradley Griffiths of Brooklyn. He is a graduate of. St. Augustine’s Academy and attended Pratt Institute and the National Academy of Design. Mr. Griffiths is associated with Consolidated Aircraft Company in San Diego, Cal.The wedding will take place on July 10.
Cathedral Is Scene of Miss Maher’s BridalMiss Elizabeth Maher, daughter of Mrs. Francis Langford Maher of 885 Clinton Ave. and the late Mr. Maher, was married yesterday to Harley Griffiths, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Harley Bradley Griffiths of Coronado Beach, Cal. The ceremony was performed in the Lady Chapel of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Manhattan, by Monsignor Joseph F. Flannelly and a reception followed at Sherry’s.Miss Maher was attended by her sister, Mrs. Edward T. Kelly of Kew Gardens, and Mrs. Amedeo Giorando of Manhattan. Francis L. Maher gave his sister in marriage. The bride wore a gown of white satin made with a sweetheart neckline. Her tulle veil was fastened by a braided satin cap and she carried her mother’s prayerbook with a marker of white orchids. The attendants wore turquoise blue crepe gowns and carried bouquets of pink delphinium and wore headdresses of similar flowers and blue tulle. White stock and blue delphinium decorated the chapel.William E. Frost of Forest Hills was best manned the ushers were Dr. Edward Brennan of Brooklyn and Ensign Daniel Sullivan of Cedarhurst.The bride received her education at St. Angela Hall and the College of new Rochelle and received her masters degree at Fordham university. She is president of the Alumnae Association of the College of New Rochelle. The bridegroom attended St. Augustine’s Academy, Pratt Institute and the National Academy of Design.Following a trip to Canada, the couple will reside in Allentown, Pa.
Harley Griffiths386 Weaver St. 2-1150Larchmont, N. Y.
Mr. Griffiths exhibited his work at galleries in Larchmont, Pelham, New York City and Nantucket His shows included the annual show of the Greenwich Art Association and the 50th annual show of the Hudson Valley Art Association.For more than 25 years, he was a commercial artist and illustrator for B. Altman & Co. He retired in 1975 and became a free-lance artist. Mr. Griffiths lived in Larchmont for 46 years and spent most of his summers on Nantucket. In Larchmont he was a parishioner of St. Augustines Church. Mr. Griffiths was a member of the Nantucket Artists Association and the National Arts Club of New York.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Monday, March 13, 2023
Obscurity of the Day: Scroogie
In the 1960s and 70s, Tug McGraw was a star relief pitcher for the Mets, then the Phillies, and a gregarious colorful character embraced by baseball fans. He chose to parley that goodwill into, of all things, a daily and Sunday newspaper comic strip.
The strip was titled Scroogie, starring (who else?) a major-league relief pitcher, playing for the Pets. Scroogie's main co-star is Tyrone, his best buddy and outfielder. Other characters include Homer, a dimwitted slugger; Millicent Cashman, owner of the team; and Royce Rawls, a starting pitcher. Many characters were loosely based on McGraw's real-life teammates, and real player names were often dropped for gags in the strip.
The strip, which was syndicated by the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate, offered a somewhat different take on the world of pro sports owing to a creator who was actually experiencing that world from the inside. The strip was much more realistic than old-school baseball epics like Ozark Ike. Gags often target the fans, managers and owners, and predictably there's a lot of material about the existential dread of a relief pitcher, the perennial hero or goat in every appearance.
The real problem with any baseball strip, though, is what to do in the off-season. Options are slim -- you can either ignore reality and have your team blithely playing away in January, or you can find other things for your characters to do from November to March. Scroogie gave its characterts an off-season, and filled much of the time with what players do on their vacations. Scroogie and Tyrone also took a shot at playing pro football, a ridiculous contrivance also favoured by other sports strips in the past.
Although Tug McGraw conceived the strip and tried to keep a hand in it, the day to day creation of Scroogie was handled by the uncredited writers Dave Fisher and Neil Offen, and the credited artist Mike Witte. The strip debuted on March 17 1975* (just in time for spring training) in a pretty healthy number of papers. The other shoe fell, though, when the baseball season was over and papers inevitably started dropping the strip. With two writers, an artist, a syndicate and a pro baseball player all on the payroll, the strip soon failed to pull its weight. Scroogie was retired after just over two years, on April 24 1977**. The final Sunday strip (with a very funny gag) is our bottom sample. Oddly enough, McGraw made claims that he was going to revive the strip, self-syndicated. As far as I know this never came to pass. What did come to pass, though, is that McGraw had some costumes created of the characters and booked actors to wear them for personal appearances for several years after the strip ended:
![]() |
Mall appearance in Allentown, March 1979 |
During its short life Scroogie appeared in two paperback collections, Scroogie (Signet, 1976) and Hello There Ball (Signet, 1977).
Oh, and why name the strip's main character Scroogie? That's baseball jargon for a screwball pitcher, an infamously tough pitch for pitchers to master, and when thrown correctly, for hitters to hit. Tug McGraw was a screwball pitcher, one of the best.
* Source: Editor & Publisher, February 15 1975
** Source: Oakland Tribune
Labels: Obscurities
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Wish You Were Here, from Little Nemo
What an odd little snippet of poetry in this Little Nemo Valentine's postcard issued by Tuck:
Though, princess,
Nemo's far away.
He'll love but you,
For aye and aye.
I sure don't get that 'aye and aye' business, but a quick Google reveals that the phrase has currency in other poems as well. Basically it seems like it's a fancy way of saying 'forever'. Who says comics don't teach you stuff.
Anyway, the game with these Little Nemo cards is to find the source of the scene in the original McCay Sunday strips. Can you find it?
Labels: Wish You Were Here
https://www.comicstriplibrary.org/display/410
Saturday, March 11, 2023
Herriman Saturday: May 19 1910
May 19 1910 -- Halley's Comet is now passing close to Earth, and some people are blaming it for all sorts of imagined effects.
Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons
Friday, March 10, 2023
Obscurity of the Day: Slang How It Looks
After stints at a number of papers in San Francisco and Chicago, including the Chicago Tribune, Pete Llanuza seems to have had a short stop-over at the Trib's sister paper, the New York Daily News. His only known cartoon series for them is the awkwardly titled Slang How It Looks, a small panel cartoon illustrating slang phrases taken literally. It only ran in the Sunday paper, and even then seems to have missed the occasional week. It ran from May 1 to July 10 1921.
If this was actually done while Llanuza was on staff at the Trib, it does not seem to have been used in the flagship paper.
Labels: Obscurities
Wednesday, March 08, 2023
Jeffrey Lindenblatt’s Paper Trends: The 300 for 1991 — Results
This year no papers that we surveyed went out of business or merged with another paper, but we still have some missing information on 5 papers making the total for this survey is 268.
In the Top 30 spots, Calvin and Hobbes continued its climb moving one spot from number 5 to number 4 knocking Beetle Bailey down one spot to 5. This is the second time since we started this survey that Beetle Bailey has moved down one slot. Cathy had the biggest movement, up 3 spots from 15 to 12. This year no new strip entered the Top 30.
Title |
Place |
Movement |
+/- Papers |
Total Papers |
Peanuts |
1 |
Same |
1 |
218 |
Blondie |
2 |
Same |
0 |
212 |
Garfield |
3 |
Same |
0 |
211 |
Calvin and Hobbes |
4 |
Up 1 |
23 |
198 |
Beetle Bailey |
5 |
Down 1 |
2 |
189 |
Far Side |
6 |
Same |
13 |
176 |
Hagar The Horrible |
7 |
Same |
7 |
167 |
Doonesbury |
8 |
Same |
1 |
149 |
Family Circus |
9 |
Same |
1 |
144 |
For Better or For Worse |
10 |
Same |
8 |
137 |
Wizard of Id |
11 |
Same |
-3 |
124 |
Cathy |
12 |
Up 3 |
12 |
121 |
Shoe |
13 |
Down 1 |
-2 |
114 |
B.C. |
14 |
Down 1 |
-2 |
108 |
Frank and Ernest |
15 |
Down 2 |
-3 |
107 |
Hi and Lois |
15 |
Up 1 |
1 |
107 |
Born Loser |
17 |
Same |
3 |
95 |
Dennis the Menace |
18 |
Same |
-2 |
86 |
Andy Capp |
19 |
Same |
-4 |
69 |
Marmaduke |
20 |
Same |
-3 |
67 |
Herman |
21 |
Up 1 |
-1 |
57 |
Mary Worth |
21 |
Same |
-2 |
57 |
Mother Goose and Grimm |
23 |
Same |
1 |
56 |
Ziggy |
24 |
Up 1 |
2 |
55 |
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith |
25 |
Down 1 |
-3 |
51 |
Sally Forth |
26 |
Up 2 |
5 |
48 |
Rex Morgan |
27 |
Down 1 |
-3 |
46 |
Marvin |
28 |
Down 1 |
-2 |
43 |
Arlo and Janis |
29 |
Same |
0 |
41 |
Funky Winkerbean |
30 |
Down 1 |
-1 |
40 |
Again this year the Universal Comic Strip is getting stronger. The biggest movements are the top 4 to top 8 strips appearing in more papers. This year's Universal Comics winner is the Central New Jersey Home News (New Brunswick, NJ) which ran the Top 16 strips.
Top 2 – 185 (Up 1)Top 3 – 164 (Up 1)
Top 4 – 148 (Up 14)
Top 5 – 124 (Up 16)
Top 6 – 100 (Up 16)
Top 7 – 78 (Up 12)
Top 8 – 62 (Up 19)
Top 9 – 48 (Up 5)
Top 10 – 37 (Up 3)
Top 11 – 26 (0)
Top 12 – 21 (0)
Top 13 – 17 (0)
Top 14 – 15 (Up 10)
Top 15 – 12 (Up 7)
Top 15 – 1 (Down 4)
Here are the remaining strips that appeared in the Top 300 papers, ranked by newspaper count and noting increase/decrease:
39 – Gasoline Alley (0), Winthorp (-1)
36 – Fox Trot (+1)
35 – Alley Oop (-2)
33 – Heathcliff (+1), The Lockhorns (-1)
32 – Eek and Meek (-3), Grizzwells (+3), Tank McNamara (-4)
28 – Geech (0), Judge Parker (+1)
26 – Dick Tracy (+4), Rose is Rose (0), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (R)
23 – Berry’s World (-3), Kit N Carlyle (-2), Nancy (0)
22 – Snafu (-3)
21 – Crankshaft (0), In The Bleachers (-5), Robotman (+16)
19 – Curtis (-1), Pogo (-13)
18 – Amazing Spider-Man (0)
17 – Luann (-2)
16 – Apartment 3-G (-7), Phantom (+2), Tiger (-5), Tumbleweeds (-1)
15 – Broom Hilda (-1), Fred Basset (0), Mark Trail (0)
13 – Jump Start (+7), Kuduz (0), When I Was Short (R)
12 – Adam (+1), Archie (0), Drabble (0), Dunagin’s People (+2), Ernie (-6)
11 – Donald Duck (+1), Mr. Boffo (-2), Safe Havens (0), Willy N’ Ethel (+1)
10 – Bizarro (0), Brenda Starr (-1), Crock (0), Gil Thorp (0), Rubes (+4), Steve Roper and Mike Nomad (0)
9 – Hazel (0), Herb and Jamaal (+1), Mickey Mouse (+7)
8 – Baby Blues (R), Hocus-Focus (+1), Momma (0), Zippy (0)
7 – Batman (-8), Middletons (-2), Suburban Cowgirls (R), They’ll Do It Every Time (-1)
6 - Animal Crackers (-1), Fusco Brothers (+1), Horrorscope (R), Little Orphan Annie (-1), One Big Happy (+2), Phipps (-5), Redeye (-1), Sports Hall of Shame (+5), Sylvia (+1)
5 - Bent Offerings (0), Dilbert (+1), Duffy (+2), Francie (-1), Grin and Bear It (-1), Love Is (+1), Motley’s Crew (-1), New Breed (-2), Off The Leash (-1), On The Fastrack (-2), Overboard (R), That’s Jake (-1), Trudy (0), Word For Word (-3)
4 - Moose Miller, Rip Kirby, Small Society
3 - Agatha Crumm, Better Half, Catfish, Chubb & Chauncey, Counter Culture, Dillon, Heart of Juliet Jones, Long Overdue, Miss Peach, Our Fascinating Earth, Pickles, Play Better Golf With Jack Nicklaus, Ryatts, Smith Family, Stanley Family, What A Guy, Winnie Winkle
2 – Airwaves, Alex, Ben Wicks, Boner's Ark, Bringing Up Father, Flash Gordon, Flintstones, Good News Bad News, Graffiti, Ophelia & Jake, Pavlov, Phoebe’s Place, Popeye, Queen of the Universe, Quigmans, Sibling Revelry, Single Slices, Warp Factor, Wit of The World
1 – Belvedere, Dad’s-Eye-View, Defunitions, Family Business, Ferd’Nand, Henry, Jasper, Kaleb, Laff-A-Day, Laffbreak, Modesty Blaise, Moon Mullins, Normal, Outcasts, Out of Bounds, Pop’s Place, Potluck, Pot-Shots, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Sam and Silo, Stan Smith’s Tennis Class, Strahle’s Bailiwick, Tom and Jerry, Wild Life, Willie, Yecch Is
You may request Jeffrey Lindenblatt's complete list, in DOC format, of every paper that ran every feature mentioned in this set of posts. Just write to strippersuide@gmail.com and let me know what year(s) you want.
Labels: Paper Trends
--Allan
Tuesday, March 07, 2023
Jeffrey Lindenblatt’s Paper Trends: The 300 for 1991 — Winners and Losers
You could call 1990 a throwback year, or say it continues the status quo. First the status quo: Calvin and Hobbes continued its growth, adding 23 papers, making it the biggest winner of the year. Another big gainer was The Far Side with 13 added papers and Cathy with 12. With the end of NEA's Bugs Bunny strip on the last day in 1989, we also had a newer NEA strip, Robotman, gaining papers.
As for the throwbacks, in 1955 some King Features sitcoms strips abandoned the light continuituy format and became just gag a day strips. One of these strips was more of an adventure comedy strip and became a gag a day strip. In 1990 the strip decided to return to its root and became an adventure comedy strip again, though not every day. What they did was run a 3-to-4-week adventure story and then run a week of gag strips. This new format gained them 7 new papers that year. The strip was Mickey Mouse.
Here are the strips that gained 5 or more papers:
Calvin and Hobbes – 23
Robotman - 16
Far Side – 13
Cathy – 12
For Better or For Worse – 8
Hagar The Horrible – 7
Jump Start – 7
Mickey Mouse – 7
Sally Forth – 5
Sports Hall of Shame – 5
As in previous years the big rookies from last year followed that up with big losses the next year: Pogo with 13 and Batman with 8. Also, we have a big drop for a soap strip; Apartment 3-G lost 7 papers.
Here are the big losers this year:
Pogo – 13
Batman - 8
Apartment 3-G – 7
Ernie - 6
In The Bleachers – 5
Tiger – 5
Phipps – 5
Good News Bad News – 5
With the introduction of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the return of Mickey Mouse, the adventure strip category has its first gain in over 10 years with an 18.3 % gain from last year.
Alley Oop – 35 (-2)
Dick Tracy – 26 (4)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – 26 (26)
Amazing Spider-Man – 18 (0)
Phantom – 16 (2)
Mark Trail – 15 (0)
Brenda Starr – 10 (-1)
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad – 10 (0)
Mickey Mouse – 9 (9)
Batman – 7 (-8)
Little Orphan Annie – 6 (-1)
Rip Kirby – 4 (0)
Flash Gordon – 2 (0)
Popeye – 2 (0)
Modesty Blaise – 1 (0)
Secret Agent – 0
Tim Tyler’s Luck - 0
The soap strip category had a drop of 6.8% mainly because of papers dropping Apartment 3-G:
Mary Worth – 57 (-2)
Rex Morgan – 46 (-3)
Judge Parker – 28 (1)
Apartment 3-G – 16 (-7)
Gil Thorp – 10 (0)
Heart of Juliet Jones – 3 (0)
Winnie Winkle – 3 (0)
Labels: Paper Trends
Monday, March 06, 2023
Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 for 1991 -- Rookies of 1990
Last year Creators Syndicate premiered the new version of the comic strip Batman, piggybacking on the successful movie series. That strip debuted in second place in our rookie survey from last year. Well, this year Creators tried again and this time they did even better, giving the syndicate its first rookie win. The strip was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with 26 papers. This is also the first time since 1979 that a story strip was the top rookie strip -- the last was Star Wars.
Syndicates and newspapers think that these sorts of strips will bring in more kids to reading newspapers. With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles they upped the ante by encouraging reader participation; first having the Sundays and later Saturday daily strips displaying reader submitted drawings of their favorite Turtles. This may have helped the strip a little bit, but it only lasted for six years before going into reruns, which lasted at least another 5 years.
Coming in second with 13 papers is When I Was Short, by Michael Fry and Guy Vasilovich and syndicated by King Features. This strip would only last 2 years. Fry would have greater success with the strip Over the Hedge which will start 5 years later.
Creators also takes the third spot with Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman’s Baby Blues, which debuts with 8 papers.
Here are the rest of the rookies from this year:
Suburban Cowgirls – 7
Horrorscope – 6
Overboard – 5
Pickles – 3
The Stanley Family – 3
Airwaves – 2
Alex's – 2
Phoebe’s Place – 2
Queen of the Universe – 2
Warp Factor – 2
Wit of The World – 2
Dad’s-Eye-View, Family Business, Jasper, Normal, Potluck, Strahle’s Bailiwick, Wild Life – 1
Let’s take a look at the top five strips of 1991 that debuted in past decades:
Before 1950:
Blondie (1930) – 217
Mary Worth (1934) – 57
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith (1919) - 51
Rex Morgan (1948) – 46
Gasoline Alley (1918) – 39
1950s:
Peanuts (1950) – 218
Beetle Bailey (1950) – 189
B.C. (1958) – 108
Hi and Lois (1954) - 107
Dennis the Menace (1951) – 86
1960s:
Family Circus (1960) – 144
Wizard of Id (1964) – 124
Born Loser (1965) – 95
Winthrop (1966) - 39
Eek and Meek (1965) – 32
1970s:
Garfield (1978) – 211
Far Side (1979) – 176
Hagar the Horrible (1973) – 167
Doonesbury (1970) – 149
For Better or For Worse (1979) - 137
1980s:
Calvin and Hobbes (1985) – 198
Mother Goose and Grimm (1984) - 56
Sally Forth (1982) – 48
Marvin (1982) – 43
Arlo and Janis (1985) - 41
Interesting that over thirty years later, only four of these top 5 features have ended (not counting those in reruns)!
Labels: Paper Trends
Sunday, March 05, 2023
Wish You Were Here, from J.R. Williams
Here's another Out Our Way postcard published by the Standley-May concern. This one is coded Series 1 W524.
Although I think I get A gag here, the one I'm reading depends on readers being familiar with the Buddhist/Hindu belief in reincarnation. That seems somehow less than likely, for the readers or the cowboys in the cartoon. So is that THE gag, or just one I misinterpreted?
Labels: Wish You Were Here
Obviously they dodged the death,to be able to tell the tale. It's commonality through human history is dispersed through all cultures and religions, and It would seem unlikely that Williams had anything as wieghty as an understanding of Karma, or Hindu philosphy on his mind.
Saturday, March 04, 2023
Herriman Saturday: May 20 1910
May 20 1910 -- On May 19 Herriman published a cartoon, "If Jack Johnson Wins", showing the Black folks enjoying the high life. Today he offers his impression of what happens if Johnson loses -- empty pocketbooks due to all the lost bets.
Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons
Friday, March 03, 2023
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: R.H. Webb
Lynchburg—Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Marshall Panck have announced the engagement of their daughter Ethel to Robert Hayward Webb son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Miller Webb of Bridgeport, Conn. and brother of Mrs. Charles E. Warner of Lynchburg. They will be married in early fall.
…‘Kidnapped,’ the first in a series of ‘Illustrated Classics’ in striking four-color comic strip form will be presented in four installments, four full pages each on successive Saturdays as an extra attraction of the Post’s brimful week-end edition.
Stokes, Manning L.Mysterious island, by Jules Verne, adapted by Manning L. Stokes, illustrated by Robert Hayward Webb and David Heames. [New York, Gilberton co., 1947] 55 p. col. illus. 26cm. (Classic comics. Feb. 1947. no. 34) © publisher; 11Mar47; AA53546.
... After leaving the comics field, he turned to boatbuilding and later roared with laughter as he told Hames Ware, “I used to draw boats, and now I build them.”
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
Wednesday, March 01, 2023
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: August M. Froehlich
August M. Froehlich, cartoonist of the Staats Zeitung, is going into vaudeville, offering comedy cartoons and finishing with an artistic painting On a glass transparency. He is under the direction of Paul Durand.
With the closing of Morgan Lithograph Corporation office attached to Universal, August M. Froehlich, art director, and Ben Wells, poster artist, will join the regular Universal art staff. Mr. Froehlich has been with Morgan for 20 years, while Mr. Wells has served the company for 50 years and has been attached to Universal since its inception. …
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles