Stripper's Guide

Here's a cute Sunday strip from 1902. Hardy Hiram ran from 3/2 to 4/13/1902 in the New York Tribune. At first glance you'd think that the cartoonist failed to sign the strip, but if you look at the chicken on the right in the last panel you'll see that its tailfeathers spell out V E T. So the question is, who is VET? Anyone know?

Labels: Obscurities

Jeffrey Lindenblatt called me yesterday to discuss a head-scratcher he'd encountered in his research. He was finding new information on Jack Wilhelm's That Certain Party strip that indicated it ran much longer than previously supposed. That brought up the question of how Wilhelm could have been handling two daily strips at the same time; the aforementioned strip and Frank Merriwell's Schooldays. Well, to make a long story short, we did a little bit of E&P research on the phone, and then I delved into my files, and I've ended up rethinking the history of the Frank Merriwell strip. Or rather, strips, plural.

The few comic strip histories that mention Merriwell state that it began in 1931. Well, I know better because I have a run that starts in 1928, and I have a contemporary E&P article that tells me that the strip began on 3/26/1928. Case closed? I thought so. Well, case reopened. I'll spare you the sleuthing involved, and just get to the results - there were two separate strips. The first, titled Young Frank Merriwell, seems to have run 3/26/1928 - 9/28/1928. It was syndicated by McClure and featured art by a very rushed and/or disinterested John Hix. The second run, usually titled Frank Merriwell's Schooldays, started 7/20/1931 and ended 7/14/1934 (to be replaced by Chip Collins Adventures, discussed at length in this blog entry). It was drawn by Jack Wilhelm from start to end and syndicated by Central Press Association.

As long as I had all my Merriwell strips out, I scanned in the first five strips of the first series to show you. At least I think they're the first five, but they either ran a week or so late in this paper or there were some introductory strips missing from my run (notice that the numbering starts with #1, though). Fair warning before you start reading - caution - turgid prose ahead! Oh, by the way, the reason for that incredibly moronic subtitle "The Son of His Father", is that the hero is Frank Merriwell Junior, son of the 1890s hero of dime novel infamy.

Here it is Memorial Day, so let's find an obscurity with an armed forces angle. Easy to do, too, if you look at wartime comic strips. Many features wholeheartedly embraced war themes in World War I and II, far fewer in later wars. Later wars, of course, did not have the benefit of having public opinion so solidly in their favor, so few cartoonists felt it in their best interest to dwell on them.

Here we have Terry And Tacks, which takes an unusual spin on the perenially popular 'a boy and his dog' theme. Young master Terry's constant companion is a parrot, a pet with the distinct advantage of being able to talk. This becomes the springboard for most of the gags in the strip, as Terry employs his feathered friend to pull off all sorts of Katzenjammer-style stunts, aided by the prodigious vocal capabilities of Tacks.

Terry And Tacks ran from 2/13/1916 to 7/7/1918 in the McClure Syndicate's preprint Sunday comic section. The strip was by Joe Farren, a journeyman cartoonist with a distinct lively style. The strip was later reprinted in the World Color Printing preprint sections in 1925 and then again in 1930.

A note to any servicemen and women reading this. Thank you for your service, and always remember that no matter what goes on politically regarding the sometimes ill-conceived military actions waged by the USA that the citizens of your country love, respect and admire each and every one of you for heeding the call to duty.

Labels: Obscurities

I mentioned Dink Shannon the other day in connection with his work on the resurrected Constable Hayrick feature. Today we have a rare self-portrait of our man Dink at work in 1901. The feature is a one-shot display of single-panel gags and it ran in the World Color Printing Sunday section. As far as I know, Shannon did his only syndicated cartooning work for this poor-man's Sunday section, where he started in 1901 and was one of the foundations of their success until he disappeared in early 1909.

Few comic strip fan have heard of any of Shannon's strips, but amongst the best and longest lasting were Mooney Miggles And The Magic Cap, Sammy Small and Mister Pest, Book Agent. If you look for Shannon's work, keep in mind that he often signed with just a four-leaf clover symbol.

The sample above has double the fun, because in addition to the delightful Dink self-portrait, the gags are all related to crazy inventions. Don't let anyone spoof you with the claim that Rube Goldberg invented the concept! Goldberg certainly took the idea to a new level of lunacy, but lots of cartoonists were plowing the same ground well before the great man.

Yet another Believe It Or Not knockoff, this one was produced by Walter Galli for the Western Newspaper Union syndicate. WNU catered primarily to weekly papers with a line-up that included a combination of their own material, like Mickie The Printer's Devil, The Featherheads and Finney of the Force, plus reprints from other syndicates.

Galli's other verified syndication credit is Stranger Than Fiction, also a Ripley simulacrum, and it was produced from about 1934 to 36. Then Galli switched syndicates, switched titles, and kept on doing the exact same material with But It's True. This feature is known to have run at least 1937 to 1939, but perhaps longer. Western Newspaper Union was pretty lackadaisical about advertising their wares in the E&P syndicate directory, so I can only go by the tearsheets in my collection for running dates. Do you have any earlier or later?

You'll note that our example includes a text piece at the bottom giving further information about the illustrated items. Not many people realize that this was for a long time a typical feature of the 'oddities' panels. Ripley's original included it for many years as did most of the better knock-offs. However, most newpapers seemed to consider the text portion a throwaway and few printed it. Some oddities panels, instead of further discussion of the illustrated item, just printed an address and offered to send proof of any item by return mail. Curiously, I've never seen any of these proof letters offered for sale. Have you?

Labels: Obscurities

One of the earliest continuing features from my beloved World Color Printing was The Adventures of Constable Hayrick, The Rustic Sleuth. It started on 8/11/1901 in a comic section otherwise monopolized by one-shot strips and panels. As can be seen from our example, the art by one Albert Bloch (or Block, I've never been sure) is primitive as can be. The cartoonist (or perhaps the pressmen) didn't even know to leave the background white on the word balloons, so not only is the art amateurish, the entire presentation leaves a great deal to be desired.

The strip is pretty standard fodder for the time. Cartoonists in these early days seemed never to tire of spoofing the rural folk. A comic section without a dumb farmer or a cornfed fish out of water in the big city just wouldn't have seemed complete. Occasionally a cartoonist would get the bright idea of having the farm folk outsmart the city slickers, but even that turnabout was a pretty hackneyed concept by 1901. Bloch throws in the minor wrinkle of making his half-wit farmer a wannabe Sherlock Holmes, but doesn't really do anything all that interesting with the idea. Hayrick's sleuthing is mostly confined to outwitting farmboys stealing apples and giving hobo grifters the bum's rush out of town.

Bloch produced the Constable Hayrick strip pretty much every week, as well as contributing a lot of additional one-shot material to the section. But Bloch left the syndicate soon and Hayrick was put on ice after the episode of 10/6/1901. However, the feature was revived in 1902 by Dink Shannon, an excellent cartoonist. His stewardship lasted just three weeks, from 9/7 to 9/21/1902. The constable made one final appearance in the section of 10/12/1902, this time signed by Bloch again. My guess is that this is either a rerun from the first series or a leftover strip that never made it into the section back in 1901.

Labels: Obscurities

And that's the end of our little visit to the world of Us Boys. So what did you think?

After enjoying today's helping of Us Boys, take another look at the blog post on Roy Rogers. Alberto Becattini has sent on a lot of information that has been added to to the post.

Like many people, I tend to ignore a comic strip if the art is unattractive. That's a bit unfair, because in some cases those badly drawn strips were successfully syndicated based on the strength of the story or gags. So while there are plenty of strips around that make you scratch your head in wonder that any editor picked them up, some badly drawn strips are jewels in spite of their artistic shortcomings.

I admit to not ever having read any of Tom McNamara's Us Boys until recently despite plenty of opportunities. The strip is downright painful to look at, with amateurishly drawn characters, no backgrounds, and a surfeit of text in many strips. But I was clipping a month's worth of 1921 Columbus Dispatch strips the other day, and I was looking for a good candidate for running on the blog. So I forced myself to give Us Boys a chance.

As you can guess from its appearance here on the blog, I think I've stumbled upon a minor gem. First of all, I didn't even realize that the strip had a continuity. Nor did I realize that the continuity seems to have included the Sundays , a rare thing in the early 20s (the Dispatch didn't run the Sundays but there are obvious gaps and recaps that indicate such). The gags are thoughtful, sometimes quite inventive. And most importantly, the strip had a humanity about it that I never would have guessed from the primitive drawing style. In this sequence McNamara has a low-key way of presenting the societal ill of poverty that is powerful in its understatement. He teaches kids morality lessons in such a sly off-hand way that they won't realize they're being educated (naturally, kids are instinctually repelled by entertainment with a lesson ).

So give Us Boys a try and let me know what you think. The sequence, which ran in the Christmas season, will only be about three and a half weeks of strips. And if you care to share with other blog-readers and myself some of your picks for undiscovered gems, by all means please do.

Futurist illustrator Art Radebaugh was in the waning years of an impressive career when he created Closer Than We Think for the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate. He had been producing advertising art and illustrations featuring his unique visions of the future starting in the mid-1930s. His sleek air-brushed fantasies were used on magazine covers, in automobile ads, even in Coca-Cola marketing.

Closer Than We Think was a Sunday panel that ran from 1/12/1958 through 1/6/1963. Each week Radebaugh would look at some aspect of future life with a few paragraphs of text and a detailed drawing replete with arrows pointing out points of special interest. Radebaugh's future vision was Jetsons-like, full of floating cars, flying saucers and push-button technological magic.

If only newspaper comic sections could have reproduced airbrush drawings, Radebaugh would have had a huge hit on his hands. The artist's airbrush work was gorgeous stuff. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of high-speed color presses, Radebaugh was forced to use alternative methods. As a substitute for the airbrush he used stippling and shading techniques to supply a simulation of the depth and startling realism of the drawings he had usually produced for fine coated magazine paper stock.

The shading method was a disaster from the start. The finely drawn details turned to mud on the newspaper page, giving the feature a dark and dingy appearance. For reasons that I can't guess, he continued using the technique despite the problem. It has to be considered a huge tribute to Radebaugh's unique vision that the feature lasted even as long as it did.

To enjoy a much more thorough biography of Art Radebaugh, and see an eye-popping sampling of his amazing creations, be sure to visit the Palace of Culture.

Labels: Obscurities

More mystery strips - today is 'I' for 'I dunno'! As always, provide proof that any of these ran in U.S. newspapers and win a great package of comic strip goodies.

I Like You Because - Naida - Dickson Feature Service - daily strip - 1979
I'm Telling You - Proctor Brown, Irwin Kostin - Associated Midwest Newspaper Syndicate - daily panel - 1937
I.D. Clare - W.F. Peters - Publishers Feature Service - weekly panel - 1946-49
Idiosyntrics - R.S. Broughton, Proctor Brown - Associated Midwest Newspaper Syndicate - daily panel - 1937
If I Had My Way - Kern Pederson - Trans World News Service - weekly panel - 1976-78
Igor - Harry Privette - Boston Features - daily strip - 1985-87
Illustrated Crimes - Stookie Allen - Service For Authors - daily/weekly strip - 1933-39
Impressions - Emil Abrahamian - self-syndicated - daily/weekly panel - 1983-94
In Their Own Words - Paul Howle, Don O'Briant - Asterisk Features/United Features - Sunday panel - 1987-present
In The Land Of Midnite Fun - Sarge O'Neill - Southern Cartoon Syndicate - daily panel - 1971
Inane Incidents - S.R. Vic - Better Features - daily panel - 1932
Indian Summer - John Zima - Atlas Features - weekly strip - 1951-59 (found! in Redwood Journal-Press-Dispatch)
Inklings - John Jarvis - Western Newspaper Union - weekly panel - 1949-50
Inky - Hal Borden - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1961-65
Inner Circle - Lochlan Field - Watkins Syndicate - weekly strip - 1939
Insight-Out - E.J. Myer - Winford Company - daily - 1971
Intimate Biographies - William Jacobson - Fox Features - weekly strip - 1929-30
It Does Happen - Treve Collins - Thompson Service - daily panel - 1931-34
It Has Been Noted That... - Leshod - American International Syndicate - daily panel - 1996-97
It Just So Happened - Kern Pederson - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1978
It's A Cockeyed World - Joe Kaliff - Republic Features - weekly panel - 1948-80
It's A Fact - Jerry Cahill - Atlas Features - weekly panel - 1948-59 (found! in Redwood Journal-Press-Dispatch)
It's A Laugh - Rube Weiss - Blackstone Press Features - weekly panel - 1971-76
It's A Living - Burdette Inch - John M. Meissner - daily panel - 1938
It's A Tough Life - Ed Hampton - American International Syndicate - daily strip - 1992-95
It's For You - Nick Frising - Allied Feature Syndicate - daily panel - 1982
It's Just As True Today - Franklin Van Zelm - Globe Syndicate - daily panel - 1948-50 (found by Bill Mullins in Chester Times and Sheboygan Press - thanks Bill!)
It's Love - Chuck & Gwen Bowen - Universal Press Syndicate - daily panel - 1972-73 (found in Sacramento Union)
It's Really Great - Charles Bowen, Barbara Jones - Allied Features - daily panel - 1985
It's Really A Racket - Cliff Durr, Charles Tepper - Allied Features Syndicate - daily strip - 1938
It's Your World - Ted Goff, Dan Harris - self-syndicated - daily and Sunday strip - 1985-86

After a pregnant pause, here's letter H of the mystery strips. If you can prove that any of these ran in US newspapers (via tearsheets, photocopies of tearsheets or other positive proof) you receive a goodie package full of all sorts of cool comic strip related treasures! All other information that you can pass on about features in the list is also much appreciated.

Hairbreadth Harry - Joseph Petrovich - Ledger Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1967-72
Hal Hepp - Warren Gates - Atlas Features - weekly strip - 1951-59
Half Pints - Mike Gray, Bob Hyde - Nationwide Features - weekly panel - 1949-50 FOUND - Germund von Wowern supplied proof that these were advertising panels, and thus not qualified for Stripper's Guide listing
Half-Buck - Slim Heilman - McClure Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1951
Halo And His Dog - Bill Wright - Southern Cartoon Syndicate - daily strip - 1971
Hambone - M. Flanagan - Adventure Feature Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1994-97
Hampy - Laurie Campbell - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily - 1988
Handiboy - uncredited - International Syndicate - weekly panel - 1936-39
Hang-Ups - Betty Runyon - Allied Press International - daily strip - 1980-81
Hannibal - Harry Mace - Consolidated Features - daily strip - 1956-57
Hans Schnupps - Walt Triciak - Bryl Syndicate - daily strip - 1936
Hap Holiday - Phil Martin - Globe Syndicate - daily strip - 1948
Happy Days - Cliff Knight - Matz Features - weekly strip - 1937-38
The Happy Days - Norman Maurer - Crown Features - daily panel and Sunday strip - 1960
Happy Happy - Cosmus - Oceanic Press Service - weekly strip - 1982-92
Happy Hunch - H.L. Kruckman - Graphic Syndicate - daily strip - 1926 (Found! Cole Johnson supplied samples -- thanks Cole!)
Happy Returns - Cecile Mills - Mordell Features - daily panel - 1946
Harry Fig - Peter Wallace - United Feature Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1984
Hasty Pudding - Man Martin - Lew Little Enterprises - daily strip - 1992
Hattie - Gertrude Espenschied - Roberts News Service - weekly panel - 1962-67
Have Fun! - Lee Bryan, Rube Weiss - Blackstone Press Features - weekly panel - 1956-76
Hawks Of The Seas - Willis Rensie (Will Eisner) - Eisner-Iger Associates - weekly strip - 1937-40
He's The Guy - R.N. Palmer - Select Features - daily panel - 1948
Head Set - Dennis Ellefson - Ed Marzola & Associates - daily panel - 1976
Head Of The Family - Robert & Sally Batz - Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate - daily panel - 1971
Heads And Tales - Joe Laurie Jr - Press Features - daily panel - 1948
Heart Throbs - Gladys Ripley - Editors Syndicate - daily strip - 1927
Heavenly Days - Jack Bonestell - Wilson Features - daily strip - 1979
Heavy Hannah - John Haslemo - Atlas Features - weekly strip - 1951-59 (found! in Redwood Journal-Press-Dispatch)
Hector Hicks - Lank Leonard - George Matthew Adams Service - daily strip - 1933
Hector The Director - Rama Braggiotti - Ledger Syndicate - daily panel - 1967-73
Helen Homemaker - Gean & Lloyd Birmingham - Columbia Features - Sunday strip - 1968-73
Henry Henpeck - Irv Hagglund - A.S. Curtis Features - daily panel - 1949-61
The Hep Catts - Ray Herman - Allied Features - Sunday strip - 1945
Herd Of Laughter - Terry Willis - Liberty Features - weekly - 1997-98
Here And There - John Rosol - King Features - weekly strip - 1941
Heroglyphics - Don Eaton - Trans World News Service - daily strip - 1978
Hey, Mac - Mike Arens, A.S. Curtis - A.S. Curtis Features - daily and Sunday strtip - 1947-61
Hi And Jinx - Mal Hancock - Davy Associates - daily strip - 1991-97
Hi-Lo - Daloisio - Transworld Feature Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1952-62
Hi-Way Henry - Oscar Hitt - Wheeler-Nicholson - daily panel - 1926
Hick'ry Twigs - Jack Knox - Associated Newspapers - daily strip - 1938
Highlights Of Industry - Arthur E. Jameson - Triton Syndicate - weekly panel - 1936
Hobbs And Hink Adventures, Inc. - Julius King, Kurt Wiese - Metropolitan Newspaper Service - daily strip - 1928
Hold That Deadline - Herb Hunter - Newspaper Promotion Service - daily panel - 1947
Hollywood Hannah - Bob Moore - Nationwide Features - daily panel - 1949-50 [Charles Thompson supplies proof that Nationwide was a producer of advertising strips; not eligible for SG listing]
The Home Front - Pat Miller - Press Alliance - daily panel - 1942
Homefolks - V. Kolarov - American International Syndicate - daily panel - 1996-98
Homer Sapiens - William J. Mikulka - Trans World News Service - daily strip - 1978
Homer's Groaners - Ed Stanoszek - LA Times Syndicate - daily strip - 1978-79
Honeydew - Henry Gaines Goodman Jr. - self-syndicated - daily panel - 1971-83
The Honeymoon's Over - Charles Wagner - Humor Books Syndicate - weekly strip - 1995-96
Hoo-Dunnit - Fred Lamb - Columbia Features - daily panel - 1976
Hookup Henry - Tousey - NY Herald-Tribune Syndicate - daily panel - 1925
Hoot 'n' Annie - Eli Bauer - Newsday Specials - daily panel - 1965
Horace Scope The Star Gazer - Winn McCourt, William Sullivan - Associated Midwest Newspaper Syndicate - daily strip - 1937-38
Horse Shoe Sam - C.E. Bidinger - National Newspaper Service - daily panel - 1928
Hospital Quips - Rube Weiss - Blackstone Press Features - weekly panel - 1971-76
Hot And Tot - Ray Harris, Charles McGirl - Fred Harman Features - ? - 1934
House Of Hazards - Mac Arthur - Miller Services - weekly strip - 1939-40
How They Made Good - David Fishback - Hopkins Syndicate - daily panel - 1939
How To Be A Supermother - Dick Harris - self-syndicated - weekly panel - 1973-77
How To Do Or Be - George Beatty - Readers Syndicate - daily panel - 1924
Howard Banks - Michael Passannante, Nick Trezza - Global Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1991-93
Hub Caps - Jay Howard - Crown Features - Sunday strip - 1960
Huber And Friends - Frank Cummins - Sun News Features - daily strip - 1960-63
Hubert Henpec - Fantasio - Transworld Feature Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1952-62
Hunchback of Notre Dame - Dick Briefer - Eisner-Iger Associates - weekly strip - 1937-39
Hunk The Dinosaur - Dean Norman - Ecology Cartoon Features - Sunday strip - 1993
Hutch At Random - G.E.Hutchison - Pat Anderson Features - weekly panel - 1970-75

There was a well-known Hearst series titled Embarrassing Moments that ran in the 20s and 30s. Among the luminaries that worked on that series were Billy DeBeck and George Herriman. What few people know is that it was actually a revival of an earlier Hearst series, An Embarrassing Moment. The original series started 3/2/1916 in the New York American, and was a tag team affair by A.C. Fera (better known for Just Boy, aka Elmer) and Fred Locher (Cicero Sapp). The joint effort only lasted a week, and then the series disappeared for five months (though it may have been running in papers outside New York). Locher resumed the series as a solo effort on 8/25/1916, but it was passed off just two months later to Jimmy Swinnerton (who supplies all our samples). Swinnerton produced the strip until July 1917 for the American, though it ran there only sporadically. It seems to have been produced and run in other papers on a more frequent basis.

The second and more famous series started sometime in 1922.

Labels: Obscurities

Mary Hays was definitely a relative of the better known distaff cartoonists Margaret Hays and Grace Drayton, possibly a sister though no one is quite certain. Mary seems to have been younger than the other two, and certainly was not nearly as gifted artistically. Her only long-running strip was Kate And Karl, done for the Philadelphia North American. All of the cartooning Hays clan worked at the North American in the first two decades of the 20th century, the others most notably with the long running popular series The Turr'ble Tales of Kaptin Kiddo. Mary definitely was trying to echo the style of Grace Drayton, but her version comes off as flat and lifeless by comparison. Her storytelling ability, too, leaves something to be desired as our sample attests (I had to read it three times before I could even decipher the continuity and the gag).

Kate And Karl ran 9/24/1911 through 11/30/1913, and was later reprinted in the World Color Printing Sunday sections of 1917-18. It's my understanding that Mary Hays went on to be a well-regarded paper doll designer.

Labels: Obscurities

In mid-1912 the Rocky Mountain News ran Chris and Christena's Courtship as sort of a banner on the front page of their Sunday classified section. I have a run of the strip from July through August, but it may well have run longer.

Notice that this strip is in (limited) color, even though it ran in what is normally a black-and-white section of most papers. The papers of Denver (the Post, the Times, the Republican, the Express, the Rocky Mountain News and perhaps even others) were in a pitched battle for circulation, though, so many of the papers brightened their paper with a liberal use of color. The color extended to the news coverage as well -- the Denver papers of the 1900s-1910s are some of the yellowest journals you'll ever find. If you're a fan of sensational newspapers like I am, you'll find nirvana in the pages of these old Colorado papers.

I don't know whether this strip originated at the News or if it was syndicated from elsewhere. The cartoonist Artigue has a few comic strip credits in Boston and Philadelphia in the 1906-09 period, but I lose track of him after that with this one exception from 1912. Can anyone offer more information on either Artigue or this strip?

Labels: Obscurities

As promised a few moons ago on this blog, I have been looking for the list of newspapers given to me by Greg Theakston. These newspapers are supposed to have run Jack Kirby's ultra-rare material for the Lincoln Features Syndicate. Though we've found a few papers now running Lincoln material, most of the more interesting Kirby work (like Socko The Sea Dog, Cyclone Burke and The Black Buccaneer) are still only know from proofs in the collection of Roz Kirby.

Greg Theakston got a short list of papers from Roz that are presumed to have run some of the more obscure Lincoln Features material, and he passed it along to me. I have been unable to obtain any of these newspapers on microfilm. If any of you have access to these papers I beg, chide and admonish you to index the Lincoln material (which starts around 1935):

Nassau Bulletin
Hillsdale Herald
Tripoli (IA) Leader
Cuyahoga Falls (OH) News
Darby (PA) Progress
Clifton (NJ) Leader
Newark (NJ) Issue
Putnam County (NY) News
Irvington (NJ) Herald
Clifton (NJ) Weekly
unnamed paper in Beverly Hills CA
unnamed paper in South Bend and Fort Wayne IN

Thanks very, very much to D.D. Degg, who alerted me to a great resource for historic photos from the Chicago Daily News archives at the Library of Congress website! Here, tucked away among all the old news photos, are portraits of some of the Daily News cartoonists. Degg not only found O'Shaughnessy's full name to be Thomas Augustin "Gus" O'Shaughnessy, but even a picture of our man:

Here's Charles F. Batchelder. I just knew he'd look like this. Just from his cartoons you could tell that he was obviously the grand old man amongst the comics page crowd right from the beginning. Not only was he amongst the most accomplished of the artists, but he was also usually responsible for the extra large panel cartoon that would often act as the central hub of the comics page:

Here's Fred Richardson. He actually predates the regular daily comics page in the Daily News. He did a full page Sunday cartoon that began in 1899 (the daily page began in 1900) and ran until 1901. I never saw him contribute to the daily page. He disappeared for 6 long years, then popped back up in 1907, once again getting a special spot for a closed-end strip commemorating something called the Jamestown Exhibit:

Here's Ted Brown. He was an absolute whirling dervish of the drawing board, producing more material for the daily pages than anyone except the great George Frink. He signed his work simply 'Ted':



Here's Pierre Kinder. He only showed up on the daily page sporadically in 1905-1906. He must have had other regular duties on the Daily News, I guess, and just moonlighted on the comics page every once in awhile. His longest running strip was Burglar Bill. Here he is doing his Dracula impression:



Here's Richard Thain. He joined the comics page crowd in 1907, and frequently subbed for George Frink on his strips. He also created the long-running Lord Longbow strip:



Here's Austin Williams. He was a Johnny-come-lately who took over The Inventor from Ted Brown at the tail end of its run in 1917. His only other known credit is Red and Skeeter, which ran for a short while in 1915 on the Saturday kids page:

Now here's a mystery photo from 1907. The caption just says that these are 5 young Chicago Daily News artists:

And last but not least, here's a 1904 photo whose caption says these fellows are dressed up as comic strip characters. No doubt about it, the gents are dressed up as Drowsy Duggan and Brainy Bowers, the News' flagship comic strip characters:


Oddly enough, there are no photos of the great George Frink, who worked at the Daily News for well over a decade, nor of K.E. Garman, another comics page mainstay. Nor, for that matter, photos of some Daily News cartoonists who went on to hit it big elsewhere - R.B. Fuller, Harry Hershfield and H.T. Webster.

All photos above are from the Chicago Daily News negatives collection, courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society.

PS: this post took a lot of time to compile, and I've got to get ready for a business trip this week, so I'm not going to post on Sunday. See ya Monday!

Some of you might have been thinking that Holtz fella was pulling your leg. Back in this blog entry, I discussed how Eddie Eksergian had a fetish for umbrellas. Well, here's a 1901 sample as proof. And I promise you, this is by no means the only one of these.

What a strange fellow.

There was a fellow named O'Shaughnessy (hmm, sounds like the opening line of a limerick - let's start over).

The Chicago Daily News was the first newspaper to have a regular daily comic page that was syndicated to other newspapers, and this fellow O'Shaughnessy was a constant contributor from 1901-1905. He never signed his full name, which isn't surprising since the News ran their vast daily outpouring of daily comic panels and strips mostly at practically microscopic size to fit everything in. If his first name was half as long as his last he would have had to devote a separate panel to it.

O'Shaughnessy didn't start his first continuing comic strips until 1902. In 1901 he contributed one-shot comics, as did most of the other contributors. This great example at left is one of his earliest offerings. I really love to find these self-referential strips, they serve as a window into the minds and lives of these obscure early comic strippers. In this strip he seems to be taking a jab at the sophomoric level of humor that many aspiring contributors were trying to get published. Notice on the cartoonist's 'masterpiece' that he has a labelled arrow showing the funny bit. What a hack!

Notice also that the artist's comic is shown hanging on a wall, not on a drawing board. What's up with that?

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Billy Ireland often took a vacation in mid-summer. The people of Columbus who were stuck at home couldn't do without their weekly dose of The Passing Show, so substitutes were called on to take his place. Ray Evans, second-in-command editorial cartoonist at the Dispatch was usually fingered for the job.

Evans, with a nod to the big shoes he was being asked to fill, named his pages Filling The Gap as a sort of tug of the forelock apology to the readers. Evans did in fact, though, do a fine job of pinch-hitting. His mastheads had much the same level of Ireland inventiveness, and his busy pages were filled with the sort of material that Columbian Ireland addicts had come to expect.

Filling The Gap ran anywhere from two to six weeks per year, started in the early to mid-1920s and ran as needed until Ireland's death. It seems a bit odd, then, that Evans didn't take over the feature. Unfortunately my Dispatch indexing notes don't tell me if Evans left the paper somewhere in this general timeframe (I don't usually track editorial cartoons). Perhaps he left the Dispatch around the same time Billy died? Anyone know?

Labels: Magazine Cover Comics, Obscurities

William (Billy) Ireland had no interest in hitting the big-time of New York, even when they came calling with a blank check. As can be seen here in our sample, it was definitely New York's loss.

Ireland was the editorial cartoonist on the Columbus Dispatch for essentially his entire career, 1898-1935. While his editorial cartoons were first-rate, it's safe to say that his crowning achievement was the weekly The Passing Show page. While I think I can reasonably label it an obscurity, it is certain that the people of Columbus would dispute that. The feature was a much-beloved fixture of the Sunday Dispatch, both for its graphic inventiveness (the mastheads alone are worth the price of admission) and all the local color. Ireland seemingly knew everyone and everything in Columbus, and he lovingly lampooned it all each Sunday. The pages were always jam-packed, like the one above, filled to the brim with local happenings, oddball news, and personal anecdotes.

The Sunday full page version of The Passing Show began on February 9, 1908 and was administered by Ireland until his death. His last published page was 6/2/1935. The creator took a vacation every summer, during which substitutes would be called upon to keep the Show rolling, as it were (more on subs tomorrow).

Billy Ireland was noted for his kindnesses to aspiring cartoonists. He was Dudley Fisher's mentor in the 1910s, and later gave Milton Caniff his first pro cartooning job at the Dispatch. Noel Sickles also acknowledges a great debt to Ireland for giving him early encouragement.

After Ireland's death The Passing Show was continued by Harry Keys, who renamed it We Folks in 1938. Others who took a crack at the Ireland legacy page were Bob Vittur and Myron Dixon. As We Folks, the feature ran until at least 1944 (which is as far as I've indexed the Dispatch). Anyone know when it ended?

If the sample above has whet your appetite for more Billy Ireland, seek out the huge reprint book "Billy Ireland" published by Ohio State University Libraries in 1980, ISBN 0-88215-051-0. Not only does it reprint a huge helping of Ireland's art (and at a decent size, yet!), but there's also several fine essays on Ireland and his legacy.

By the way, I have a query regarding the World Encyclopedia of Cartoons entry on Ireland. Therein it is stated by Rick Marschall that Ireland spent a few years working in Chicago prior to getting his job at the Columbus Dispatch, specifically at the Chicago Daily News in 1897 and at the News-Advertiser in 1898. The Ohio State University book claims he only worked at the Dispatch and, for a short time, the Chillicothe News - never outside of Ohio. On checking into this myself, I can find no record of a newspaper in Chicago titled the News-Advertiser. Rick, if you're out there, can you help set the record straight?

Labels: Magazine Cover Comics, Obscurities

Long before Dudly Fisher used the overhead panorama gimmick as the main draw for his syndicated Right Around Home With Myrtle Sunday, Fisher did Skylarks for the Columbus Dispatch. The gimmick was the same, but the gigantic full page panels had a local flavor, showing places and events related to the Columbus area. Our sample today takes Skylarks on the road, showing the local baseball team on the field at Gulfport Mississippi.

Dudley Fisher was, along with his mentor Billy Ireland, a font of graphic delights in the Dispatch. Skylarks only ran for a short time as a regular Sunday feature (5/29/1927 - 9/30/1928). Fisher's mainstay was another full-page Sunday feature, Jolly Jingles, which we'll discuss some other day.

Although Skylarks ran weekly only for a bit over a year, he sometimes reprised the feature on special occasions, so you may come upon one from later than end date cited.

Labels: Magazine Cover Comics, Obscurities

Here's a delightful short run Sunday strip from the New York Herald. The Gentle Citizen by C.J. Taylor ran 4/6 to 7/20/1902 (dates from Ken Barker).

C.J. Taylor was a mainstay at Puck in the 1890s, and earlier at Life and the New York Graphic. Richard Marschall cites him as an influence on Charles Dana Gibson.

By the 1900s his lovely willowy pen lines were reminders of an earlier era of humorous illustration art. Taylor did quite a few one-shot comic strips and newspaper illustrations, but only did two known continuing series, both for the Herald. Thee other was Half-Back Harold and Simple Sibyl, which ran in 1903.

Labels: Obscurities

Here's another one of those comic strips that ran in farm publications. This one is by the team of Madsen and Entwhistle. I have no idea who these guys are, but the art and gags are pleasant enough. The strip ran at least 1947 through 1952, and perhaps much longer. My samples are from the snappily named Wisconsin Agriculturist & Farmer, but it may have been appearing in other farm papers as well.

Can anyone contribute more information on this strip or its creators?

My hat is off to anyone who can keep straight all the newspapers of New York City. I know I can't. This nifty little chart shows a complete capsule history of the comings and goings of New York City papers for 1900-1967, and I for one couldn't live without it. Anyone doing research on comic strips, for which New York is the eye of the storm, will find this invaluable.

I wish I could give credit to whoever created this thing, but I got it second-hand as a photocopy (I can't even remember who gave it to me; perhaps Jeffrey Lindenblatt?). If anyone knows where this was originally published, please let me know so I can give proper credit.

The image here, even at full size, is still quite small. If anyone would like a larger TIF scan suitable for printing please email me and I'll send a copy to you.

Here I go to all the trouble to weave a proof that would satisfy Kant and Wittgenstein, an argument so bulletproof that not even Plato would stand a chance in a debate, and here comes that Castelli fellow with this ever so inconvenient item shown above. Some people just caan't leave well enough alone.

So here's the deal. Alfredo sends this scan, which shows Dem Boys running in February 1915, and thus not only demolishes the whole argument that the strip started in November 1915 or later, but also may call into question the idea that they took over the space previously occupied by Anna Belle and Duke. Alfredo, do you have the whole section? What else is in there?

Thankfully, Alfredo's tearsheet includes a masthead, and even better, the Cleveland Leader is a paper that I should be able to obtain through inter-library loan. However, I am currently hobbled in my microfilm activities. The dear sainted Rita who handled my voluminous ILL requests at the Leesburg Public Library has left their employ (quit to raise a family without even getting my assent!). The person who has temporarily taken over her job, and who was trained in the arcane arts of ILL by Rita before she left, has made it obvious through her resolute inaction, that she has no interest in keeping me supplied with 'film.

Supposedly the library is looking for someone to fill Rita's post, but its now been four months since she left and nothing has happened. I fear that I may be permanently frozen out from getting my regular ILL fixes. Doubly annoying considering that I have donated most liberally to the institution over the past few years in appreciation for their services.

So Alfredo, and other blog readers, I promise to look into the Dem Boys issue as soon as I can and report my findings.

By 1915, the World Color Printing syndicate seemed to be running on fumes. They still had their great Slim Jim feature for the front page, but the interiors of their 4-page color comics section had been reduced to running reprints of Philadelphia Press features from the early teens. The back page had the long-running paper doll feature Anna Belle and a strip titled Duke featuring a horse.

Both these back page features disappeared abruptly on November 14, 1915. They were replaced either immediately or soon thereafter by a new full page feature titled Dem Boys. The feature was occasionally signed Karls, but was most often unsigned.

Looking at the sample above, its about as obvious as can be that the strip was an unabashedly exact copy of the Katzenjammer Kids. Now there's no denying that there was plenty of this sort of thing going on in the early days of comic strips. For every successful strip, there were plenty of cartoonists trying to duplicate their success simply by copying the formula. Dem Boys, though, may be the most egregious ripoff ever. The character designs are so close to the originals that if you changed the names of the characters, the casual reader would surely think they were reading a Knerr or Dirks strip.

What is perhaps most interesting is that the series ran for a long time, until at least sometime in 1918. Surely if there weren't already two 'legally' competing versions of the Katzies, the hammer of the Hearst or Pulitzer legal departments would have fallen quickly on Max and Chulius. But I suppose it would be hard to make a legal argument that Dem Boys was unfairly stealing the plot and characters of the original, when there were two originals!

I have no exact running dates on the strip. My files of World Color Printing have some long gaps in late 1915 and 1918. Regarding the starting date, I do know that the prior features that used that space ended 11/14/1915, so a seemingly likely starting date is 11/21. On the other hand, Cole Johnson in StripScene#19 states that the strip began on 2/20/16. Cole is a researcher par excellence and I find it rarely fruitful to dispute his pronouncements. On the third hand, Alfredo Castelli in a draft of his forthcoming book claims a start date of 11/29/1914, which seems highly improbable unless there were multiple versions of the World Color Printing section in circulation (I don't believe that is the case).

On the end date, the best Johnson can come up with is "late 1917 or early 1918", while Alfredo Castelli cites 3/2/1918. Since I have samples as late as 3/17/1918 that can't be right. The strip that presumably took over for it, The Kelly Kids, is not known to have started any earlier than December 1918. So somewhere in there is the best I can do so far. Can anyone help?

Annibelle began life on 12/29/1929 as a single tier strip that ran on Sundays in NEA's Everyweek magazine section. The strip ran on the womens page of the section. The cartoonist was Dorothy Urfer. Urfer had a blotchy, ink-stained style that worked out alright in the black and white version, but wasn't especially suitable when Annibelle made the jump to the colored comic section in 1935. In March 1936 the strip was taken over by Virginia Kraussmann.

The strip had no continuity, and the gags were of a catty, gossipy type that sought to emulate the conversations of the rich and spoiled debs of the day. These were the same young aristocrats seen in hundreds of Hollywood movies in the 20s and 30s.

Kraussmann apparently had some ghosts or assistants helping out, because the quality of the artwork varies considerably from week to week. I've picked examples with better artwork, presumably those in which Kraussmann took the most charge.

Annibelle last ran on 10/15/1939.