With the possible exception of Oaky Doaks, I think it's fair to say that all the Associated Press Sunday comics qualify as obscurities. The AP inaugurated their new Sunday comics line-up in either 1941 or 1942 (no one has come up with proof of a definite start date), and the client list never rang up healthy numbers. Yet the AP, for reasons unknown, doggedly continued to offer them to the bitter end when they finally gave up and dropped their comic strip business completely 1961.
Sport Slants, a sports editorial cartoon masquerading as a comic feature, started along with the new Sunday offerings, and ran until March 6 1955. Tom Paprocki, who signed himself Pap, was the AP sports cartoonist for so long that this almost decade and a half run probably seemed like a blip on the map to him. The art, as always with Pap, was inspired, the commentary on the untimely side since the lead time for Sunday pages is so long.
I've frequently heard that AP shut down their comics operation in 1961, but never heard the day.
ReplyDeleteDo you, or anyone, know what was the last day AP strips appeared and what were the strips that appeared that day?
Hi DD -
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Lindenblatt's research indicates that the last AP dailies appeared on 12/30/61. The end date of the Sundays is a bit of a mystery - they were listed as available in E&P until the bitter end, but no one I know of has managed to find any samples later than 1956.
As to which AP strips lasted until the end, we believe they are:
Oaky Doaks
Modest Maidens
Scorchy Smith
Buckley (probably)
-- Allan
Hello Allan
ReplyDeleteWe have referenced Tom Paprocki's Sports Slants as a prime example of the AP News Features Infographics, What is Old is New Again.
Thanks for saving this classic.
Regards --Mark Jensen