Here's an early entry into what would become a popular genre for comic strips in the 1920s and 30s. The College Chumps follows the tanglings of a pair of college men who are endlessly competing with each other. The strip ran in the Philadelphia North American's comic section from 3/29 to 10/25/1908. It was signed by one George Henry, a gent with no other comic strip credits, but I suspect this just might have actually been Walter Bradford working under a pseudonym. Bradford was providing a lot of material to the North American, and it wasn't uncommon in those days for a paper to ask the artists to sign only one strip at a time so as not to make them look like a small-time outfit.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Obscurity of the Day: The College Chumps
Here's an early entry into what would become a popular genre for comic strips in the 1920s and 30s. The College Chumps follows the tanglings of a pair of college men who are endlessly competing with each other. The strip ran in the Philadelphia North American's comic section from 3/29 to 10/25/1908. It was signed by one George Henry, a gent with no other comic strip credits, but I suspect this just might have actually been Walter Bradford working under a pseudonym. Bradford was providing a lot of material to the North American, and it wasn't uncommon in those days for a paper to ask the artists to sign only one strip at a time so as not to make them look like a small-time outfit.
Hello, Allan----The actual artist on THE COLLEGE CHUMPS is (to my eyes, anyway), is Hy Gage. Look at the letters, shape of balloons, faces---no doubt to me. Perhaps he didn't want to rattle his long-time employers at the Philadelphia Press, whers he thumped out MRS. RUMMAGE. ----Cole Johnson.
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