Tuesday, March 14, 2006
The Long, Slow Demise of Just Kids
Augustus "Ad" Carter's Just Kids began losing papers at a good clip in the 1940s. Even the Puck section dropped the strip in the early 40s. Carter had been doing this strip and it's predecessor, Our Friend Mush, since 1915, so it's not particularly surprising that the quality of the strip began to ebb.
Until recently the latest Sunday I had for the strip was from 1947, but I just recently came across a few examples from 1953 (one of which is shown here). You'll notice that the strip was retitled to Mush Stebbins And His Sister; that change took place in 1950 according to the E&P listings. You'll notice also that the sample strip is credited to Hannah Carter in addition to Ad. That could well mean that Ad had retired, but I don't know, and I also don't know who Hannah is - wife, daughter?
E&P continued to list the strip as late as 1956. Has anyone seen an example from that late? Can anyone shed light on the situation with Hannah, and whether Ad was still actually working on the strip?
Comments:
"Ad" Carter was Augustus Daniel Carter, not the political cartoonist Robert Carter. He died in 1957. I believe Hannah was his second wife. He was previously married to Florence Hampton and had a daughter named Hope. I don't have any information about Hannah contributing to the strip.
# posted by 
: 10/01/2008 11:57 AM
: 10/01/2008 11:57 AM 
Hannah was his third wife. Florence, his second. Next I'm going to correct Wikipedia to reflect this :) I'm Ad's granddaughter, daughter of Hope, the child from his second marriage. Unfortunately Ad died before I was born so I never met him. Thank you fro much or keeping his memory alive. It helps me to know my grandfather a little better.
# posted by : 12/01/2019 12:15 PM
: 12/01/2019 12:15 PM
Hello Allan-
Don't know if you've ever heard of this one, but it seems Ad Carter and his missus created a daily strip for General Features called "Ann Shannon." This was a family strip, Mrs. Motley Shannon being the mother, and her husband, kid son Pep and teen daughter Kit filling out the cast. It ran in the News-Dispatch of Jeanette, Penna. from it's debut on 3 January 1949 to it's demise, at least here, three months later on Friday, the 4th or Saturday the 5th of March.(apparently the News-Dispatch didn't have weekend editions, so it may have really been, logically,on the Sauturday.)
In the 3 January ish they ran a photo of the Carters and a blurb about them to introduce the feature. It had an unusual, maybe unique componant; every several episodes, the last of the four panels contained a recipie! I have to say though, this is truly among the worst strips I have ever seen. It is stunningly in it's feeble artwork,and the gags are not just weak, they're paralaytic. It is no wonder at all why it flopped so quickly, but even though Carter was a name cartoonist, and General was a tiny syndicate, they should have seen the loser they were taking on.
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Don't know if you've ever heard of this one, but it seems Ad Carter and his missus created a daily strip for General Features called "Ann Shannon." This was a family strip, Mrs. Motley Shannon being the mother, and her husband, kid son Pep and teen daughter Kit filling out the cast. It ran in the News-Dispatch of Jeanette, Penna. from it's debut on 3 January 1949 to it's demise, at least here, three months later on Friday, the 4th or Saturday the 5th of March.(apparently the News-Dispatch didn't have weekend editions, so it may have really been, logically,on the Sauturday.)
In the 3 January ish they ran a photo of the Carters and a blurb about them to introduce the feature. It had an unusual, maybe unique componant; every several episodes, the last of the four panels contained a recipie! I have to say though, this is truly among the worst strips I have ever seen. It is stunningly in it's feeble artwork,and the gags are not just weak, they're paralaytic. It is no wonder at all why it flopped so quickly, but even though Carter was a name cartoonist, and General was a tiny syndicate, they should have seen the loser they were taking on.
# posted by : 4/04/2023 3:52 PM
: 4/04/2023 3:52 PM 