Obscurity of the Day: Daddy Dusk, The Sandman

From the pages of the New York Evening Graphic, a newspaper so racy that it was nicknamed the Porno-Graphic, we find ... a strip for the kiddies.

Daddy Dusk, The Sandman was thus doomed from the start. Few copies of the Graphic would ever fall into the hands of children. This paper was bought by single men, and by commuters looking for a stimulating read on their way home from work. A paper to be deposited in the trashcan at the train station.

Though the strip had an awkward name, the art and story were surprisingly well done. Jack Smith, perhaps a pseudonym, did an excellent job on the strip, obviously inspired by the fantasy world of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo. Hard to say, though, whether Smith was creating a minor classic, because his stewardship on the strip lasted only a little over a month. The strip began on November 15 1926 and Smith last signed it on Christmas day of the same year.

Frank Hopkins, creator of the long-running Scoop The Cub Reporter, may have been falling on hard times, because he took over the orphan strip on December 27. He kept it going until May 14 1927. The veteran Hopkins was not inspired by the concept and the strip, true to its name, sleepwalked through the remainder of the run.