Stripper's Guide

After a long layoff I'm finally back to listing mystery strips. Today's post is brought to you by the letter D. If you don't recall what I'm doing here, read this post. Any and all information is greatly appreciated and rewarded as well.

Dad Allen - Leonard Merrill - Thompson Service - daily panel - 1932-33
Dad Burns - Al Ware - self-syndicated - twice weekly panel - 1966
Daffy Demonstrations - Ray Rohn - Ledger Syndicate - daily panel - 1926
Dairy Boy - Ferd Himme - Lowery Cartoon Corp - weekly panel - 1932
Daisy Daily and Dotty Dawn - Larry Whittington - General Features - weekly strip - 1937-42 [found! by Art Lortie in Hastings News]
Dan Dennis - Sam Gilman - Watkins Syndicate - weekly strip - 1939
Dan Hastings - Jack Binder, Fred Guardineer, Ken Fitch - Harry Chesler Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1937-38
Dan Savage - Bob Goodbread - Dickson-Bennett - daily strip - 1981-82
Dash Sanders - Frank Cunningham, Hal Sharpe - Thompson Service - daily strip - 1938
Dash Of Humor - Art Bouthiller - Creative Comic Syndicate - weekly panel - 1991-92
Davey Dollar - Steve Byrne - R-GAB Features - daily/weekly panel - 1980
David Copperfield - David Volkmelker - Jolyon Features - daily - 1939
The DeBrees - Barsotti, Kipp - LA Times Syndicate - unknown - 1975 (found! by Cole Johnson in the Philadelphia Inquirer - thanks Cole!)
Deadwood Gulch - Gordon (Boody) Rogers - Eastern Color - weekly strip - 1930-34
Dean Denton - Harry Francis Campbell - Walkins Syndicate - weekly strip - 1939
Dear Gods - Leonard Bruce, Ross Osterman - Leoleen-Durck Creations - daily strip - 1991-92
Deb's Diary - Earl Reeder - National Newspaper Service - daily panel - 1928 (found! by Ray Bottorff Jr in Harrisburg Telegraph)
Deep River Dan - Joe Buresch - Newspaper Art Features - daily strip - 1939
Demetrakis - Manos Pavlidis - Mid-Continent Features - daily - 1975
Dennis Dull - Phil Young - Chronicle Features - daily panel - 1993
Derby Dan - Bozz - Press Alliance - daily strip - 1940
Desprit Danny & Tess Turrible - A.C. Sells Jr. - Thompson Service - daily strip - 1935
Detective Dolt - Walt Clay, Don Easton - United Feature Syndicate - unknown - 1933
Detectives Nehi & Skyhi - Joe Buresch - Thompson Service - daily strip - 1934-36
Diamond Challenge - Jim Evans, Jim Johnson - United Fetaures - daily and Sunday strip - 1991-97 (found! by Ray Bottorff Jr in Oakland Tribune)
Diary Of Dr. Hayward - Curt Davis - Eisner-Iger Associates/Pan American Press - weekly strip - 1939-50
Diary Of A Good Girl - Melisse - King Features - daily panel - 1937 (found! in Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph)
Did You Know? - John Jarvis - Community & Suburban Press Service - weekly panel - 1978
Didja' Hear? - Herman - Western Newspaper Union - weekly panel - 1948 (found! in Titonka Times)
Different Blokes - Kevin Miller, David Watkins - Suzerain Group - daily strip - 1993-94
Dilly - Dell Healy - Trans World News Service - daily strip - 1979
Dim Wits - David Rogers - American International Syndicate - daily panel - 1979
Ding Bats - Nonnee Coan - Chicago Daily News - daily panel - 1973
Dinky Doyle - Frank Thomas - Consolidated News Features - daily strip - 1946 (Thomas says it never reached syndication in Alter Ego #151)
The Dinosaur Circus - Elena Steier - DBR Media - weekly - 2001-03 (found! by Charles Brubaker in the Drumright (OK) Gusher - thanks Charles!)
A Dip In The Future - A.A. Goodrum - Thompson Service - daily panel - 1932
Diplomatic Pooch - Jim Asher, Phil Evans - Evans & Cooke - daily strip - 1970-71
Dizzy Heights - G. Melikov - Nu-Way Features - daily panel - 1936
Do You Believe - Steve Feeley, Ed Kuekes - Lafave Syndicate - daily panel - 1955-62 (found by Alex Jay in Aberdeen American-News-- cartoon turns out to be a minor element, more of an illustration, not eligible for SG listing)
Do You Know That - George Gunderson - Star Syndicate - daily panel - 1930-31 (turned out to be a Canadian feature)
The Dobbs Family - Chris Decker - Lloyd James Williams - daily and Sunday strip - 1938-41
Doc - Hy Gage - Ledger Syndicate - daily panel - 1925 (Found! in Detroit Free Press)
Doc Doodle - Ross E. Bunch - Wilson Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1979
Doc Perkins' Tickletones - T.C. Buxton - Thompson Service - daily panel - 1937-38
Doc Savage - uncredited - Ledger Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1966-73
Doctor Proctor - Eddie Germano - Trans World News Service - daily strip - 1976-79
Dodie - Peter Garvey - Trans World News Service - daily panel - 1976
Doggone - John Broudhecker - Allied Features - daily panel - 1958-60
The Doghouse - Dave Allen - Worldwide Media - daily and Sunday strip - 2000-03
Dogs Of War - Buzz Williams - Miller Features - daily strip - 1938-39
Dolf's Fortune - Kenyon Brooks - McClure Syndicate - daily strip - 1928
Domestique - uncredited - Spadea Syndicate - weekly strip - 1975
Don't Do That - Sylvia Robbins - Associated Press - weekly panel - 1950-56
Don't Laugh - Tony Weier, John Whelan - At Large Features - daily strip - 2001-02
Doors - Woodie Hall - Mike LeFan Features - thrice weekly - 1976
Doozies - Edmund Gross, Joe Roy Santoro - Features Unlimited - Sunday panel - 1974
Dork Tower - John Kovalic - Sheffield Productions - weekly strip - 1998-present (I am told that this strip was never really aimed at a mainstream newspaper audience and likely has never appeared in one)
Dorothea - Glenn - Miller Services - daily strip - 1937
Dot And Dash - Tony Basso - Associated Midwest Newspapers - daily strip - 1937-38
Dottie Date - Ray Doherty - self-syndicated - daily panel, Sunday strip - 1948
Double Bill - Bill Buttle - Miller Features - weekly - 1999 (according to the creator this was a puzzle feature)
Double Duty - Al Liederman - American International Syndicate - daily strip - 1987-92
Doctor Aha - Bob Adam - Winford Company - daily panel - 1975
Doctor Crystal's Cosmic Kid's Stuff - Jean & Jim Anton - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1985-86
Doctor Justice - E. Letkeman - Star Newspaper Service - daily strip - 1945
Doctor Remedy - Adolph Schus - George Matthew Adams Service - daily panel - 1939
Doctor Sam And The Space Monsters - Jim Westermann - Editorial Board Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1967-69
Doctor Tombs - Tom Lowell - Independent Features - daily - 1965
Doctor X - M.R. Mont - Editors Press Service - daily strip - 1946-47
Drawn Out - Bill and Eric Teitelbaum - LA Times Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1980
The Drimbles - Agoo - Ledger Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1971-72
Driver Ed And Edna - Ross Bunch and the Dintimans - Trans World News Service - daily panel - 1976-78
Drug Chuckles - Everett Lowry - self-syndicated - weekly panel - 1932 (Found! by Charlie Thompson in Winnona Republican Herald)
Drugs & Guns - Edward Bryant - self-syndicated - weekly - 1991-92
Duckie - J. Carver Pusey - United Features - daily strip - 1928
Ducking Out - Tom Mikionis - Universal Press Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1994 (found! by Jeffrey Lindenblatt in Berkshire Eagle)
Duckville Doings - Bill Bly - Wheeler-Nicholson - daily strip - 1926
Duffer - Art A. McCourt - Feature Syndicate - weekly - 1979-80
The Duke Of Manhattan - Edwin Homer, Delos Lovelace - McClure Syndicate - daily strip - 1946 (found by cartoonist's son Nick Homer -- see Obscurity of the Day post)
Dumb Blonde - George Davies - Transatlantic News Features - daily panel - 1948
The Dwigginses - Russ Bender, Guy Nonnan - Century Features - unknown - 1937

Labels: Mystery Strips

Not many people know it, but the socialist paper The Daily Worker went through quite a long period where they ran their own comic strips. The earnest folks at the paper were seriously humor impaired, but they gave it the ol' college try. Here's one of their earlier efforts, Red Builder Tales. The main purpose of this very short run strip is to recruit people to sell the paper.

The strip ran every two to three days from June 19 to July 20 1934. The cartoonist, who was with the paper for many years and was their most consistent comic strip producer, signed himself only as 'del'. I believe his real name was Fred Ellis.

EDIT: Thanks to Steven Rowe, 'del' has been correctly reidentified as Maurice del Bourgo, a prolific comic book artist of the 40s. Here's a great sample of his editorial work showing that the signatures are identical. Thanks Steven!

Labels: Obscurities

I was moving a bunch of files around this morning, when what pops to the top of the stack but a series of caricatures Jim Ivey drew a few years ago of some of the press barons. Neat caricatures, so I thought I'd share. I especially like the Brisbane one. He really was an old sourpuss, just as depicted. Many cartoonists who worked for him commented that he was one of the only people they'd ever met that had not even a trace of a sense of humor. It is rumored that when he had to evaluate cartoons for publication that he handed them off to his secretary who would tell him which ones were funny.
Jim Ivey, famed editorial cartoonist, cartooning historian, raconteur and bon vivant, is now an octogenarian, but still as sharp as a tack, and still producing great cartoons. He's also a prolific, entertaining and erudite correspondent. I welcome and suggest that anyone interested in corresponding with a cartooning great, a guy who knew practically every cartoonist of note for the past sixty years, drop him a line. You'll be glad you did. You can write to him at:

Jim Ivey
5840 Dahlia Dr #7
Orlando FL 32807

Walt McDougall is on of the greatest creators of comic strips in the early decades of their existence in American newspapers. He was also a free spirit, a curmudgeon, and, from his own admission, a major pain in the behind to his employers.

In April 1905 McDougall had a tiff with the management of the Philadelphia North American. He left the paper to start what he called a "trolley park" in his biography This Is The Life. He's a bit hazy on what a trolley park is, presumably it would have been obvious to someone reading his book in the 1920s. Best I can make out from searching about the web is that it would have been an amusement park operated at the terminus of a trolley line.

Anyway, McDougall seems to have worked his trolley park for about a year before the management at the North American asked to retain his services once more. In the meantime, though, McDougall's cartooning hand was not completely idle. I am aware of two series by him in this timeframe. Today we look at one of them, Mr. Makepeace. This strip I have only found in the Washington Star (the other appeared in the New York World). Both features prominently display McDougall's own copyright, as you can see in the lower left of the samples for today.

How these features were distributed I don't know for sure, but given McDougall's nature, I'm guessing that he sold the features directly to the papers.

Mister Makepeace ran in the Washington Star from June 11 until November 30, 1906, generally three times per week. By this time he was actually back with the North American, but I assume he sold the feature before that occurred.

The strip is not one of his best efforts. Although McDougall was notable for having a keen wit in addition to his considerable prowess with the pen, this strip has a pretty basic premise. Makepeace, as the name implies, is a pacifist, and he goes around trying to broker disagreements and prevent fights. The kicker is that he's also hard of hearing, so he spends all his time trying to act as a referee in circumstances that he misunderstands due to his handicap. Hilarity, in theory, ensues.

One further observation on Mister Makepeace - the lettering on the strips is so tiny that I have to guess that McDougall was trying to sell this as a Sunday page feature, not in the smaller daily format in which it was presented in the Star. Another clue is that there is very little crosshatching or shading, which also bespeaks his intention to get color reproduction for the feature.

NOTE: Once again this post was uploaded only with superhuman effort. Blogger is a free service, and one of my favorite sayings is "you get what you pay for". Obviously Blogger is no exception. Looking for alternatives right now.

Labels: Obscurities

Note: Now Blogger is allowing me to upload images, but when I try to upload my text posts its locking up my browser. Sigh. Couldn't post yesterday, we'll see what tomorrow brings...

Seems like I never stop finding these Believe It Or Not-style features. This one, by Henry McCarn, uses the form to tell tidbits from the history of North and South Carolina. Only place I've found this series is in the Lenoir (NC) News-Topic, a weekly paper, and they only ran this feature for two weeks. Presumably it ran longer elsewhere, since the panels they printed were copyrighted in different years. The copyrights on the two installments are from 1938 and 1939, and both appeared in the News-Topic in late January 1939. I'd be willing to bet that the paper ran the pair of samples sent to them by the cartoonist, who was probably attempting to self-syndicate his brainchild. Given the frankly amateurish drawing, I can't imagine it ran all that long in any venue, but then again, look at Girls & Sports.

Labels: Obscurities

Here's a real obscure one. I don't know much about it, but I'll tell you what I can, and maybe someone who knows more will enlighten us. Joe And Judy was bylined to someone named Walsh, and was signed B. Derfla (that last name's Alfred backwards). The strips were numbered, and the highest one I've seen is #80. All my samples come from the Catholic Herald Citizen of Milwaukee. The strips I have all came from 1951 issues of the weekly newspaper and were not printed in numerical order.

Since the strips aren't at all religious in nature, I'm betting that they weren't done particularly for this paper. Perhaps a rejected syndicate submission? I also notice, and it may not mean anything, that in all my samples the two title characters never appear together in one strip. Just sorta odd.

The art, competent but nothing to write home about, doesn't ring any bells for me, but the style of the signature seems naggingly familiar. Try as I might, though, I just can't place it. Can anyone think of a cartoonist who might use the name Alfred B.?

Labels: Obscurities