Obscurity of the Day: Mister Ex

We discussed the Chicago Tribune Comic Book in this blog entry; here's another of the new strips that was created especially for it. Mister Ex was a secret agent, forever embroiled in international intrigue of all sorts. His gimmick, that he was a master of disguise, seldom figured into the plotlines in any significant way.

Bert Whitman was the creator of the strip, after having failed to get off the ground with a Green Hornet strip (which yours truly is still trying to determine if it ever actually made it into a paper). Mr. Ex started in the Trib's comic book on January 19 1941 and ran until the end of that special section on April 4 1943. The strip was one of the few that survived, and it was graduated to the regular comic section. This reprieve, however, was short-lived. The strip ended in the Trib on July 4.

But that's not quite the end of the story. In the final panel of that July 4 Sunday it was announced that the strip would continue, renamed The Whizzer. However, the next Sunday no whizzing was to be found in the Trib's comic section. It wasn't until September 5 that a strip bearing that name appeared. The renamed strip only ran once more, on September 26, before it disappeared for good. Question is, did The Whizzer appear on a regular basis elsewhere? All I can say is that I haven't found it anywhere. Anyone?