Monday, November 26, 2007

 

E&P Mystery Strips - "M" Listings

After a loooong layoff in the mystery strip listings, here's my list for letter M. Rather than rehashing what this list represents I refer you to this post that explains all.

As usual I'm looking for proof that any of these features ran in U.S. newspapers. Proof must be in the form of tearsheets from a newspaper. For the purposes of listing features in the Stripper's Guide Index documentary proof is needed. If you don't have any samples you can scan or photocopy for me but do know where a mystery strip ran, please let me know the name of the paper and I'll try to get hold of the microfilm to verify it.

Don't forget that if you can supply proof that a title listed below did indeed run you get not just my gratitude (cash value 1/20th of a cent) but also a goodie box of neat comic strip related stuff (vintage tearsheets, reprint books, even original art find their way into these) for your trouble. (SORRY - as of 2018 goodie boxes are sadly no longer available - I now live in Canada and our postal rates are so outrageous that I cannot afford to send out goodie boxes - SORRY!)

MD - James Whatley - Interpress - weekly panel - 1974-82
Modern Oxygen / MO - Marc A. Vargas - American International Syndicate - daily panel - 1993-94
Machamer's Corner - Gene Machamer - Dickson-Bennett - daily panel - 1981-82
Machine Head - Syder Webb - Copley News - weekly strip - 1987-88
Mad Lewis Mad Caps - Fred Lewis - American International Syndicate - daily strip - 1988-90
Madge the Badge - Al Liederman - Trans World News - daily strip - 1978-79
Maggie McSnoot - uncredited - Ledger Syndicate - daily strip - 1945-50
Malfunction Junction - Mal Hancock - Whitegate Features - daily - 1990-93
Mama's Boy - Will Gould - Kay Features - daily strip - 1931
A Man Called Horace - Andrew Christine and Roger Kettle - North America Syndicate - daily strip - 1992-98 (British strip)
Man in the Street - Jett Black - Schwartz Cartoon Service - daily strip - 1928
Man's Wings - John McCormick and J.M. Richardson - King Features - daily strip - 1929-33
Mandy Capp - Carla Ostrer - North America Syndicate - daily strip - 1997-98 (British strip)
Manny From Mars - Fred Treadgold - BP Singer Features - weekly panel - 1963-69
March of Science - John I. Hudson - Science Service - daily panel - 1936-38
Margie - Stanley Metz - Century Features - daily panel - 1937-38
Maria - Griz - Columbian Comics Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1991-96
Marsh Mellows - Len Borozinski - Copley News Service - daily strip - 1977
Marty - Gerald Bennett and Roy Sanchez - R-GAB Features - daily strip - 1978-79
Marvin - Pat Moran - World News Syndicate - daily panel - 1973
Mary Jane (aka Mary Lou) - Stanley Matz - Matz Features - daily strip - 1936-46
Masked Invaders - William Sherb - Jolyon Features - daily strip - 1939
Masked Marvel - Ben Thompson - Watkins Syndicate - weekly strip - 1939
Masked Pilot - uncredited - Beacon Newspaper Service - daily and Sunday strip - 1940
Mata Hari - J.D. McFarland - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1970
Matt Marriott - Tony Weare - Piccadilly Press - daily strip - 1966-68 (British strip)
Maya - John Heine - Publishers-Hall Syndicate - daily panel - 1973 (found in Philadelphia Inquirer)
Mayme The Manicurist - uncredited - Chicago Tribune - daily panel - 1930 (found in NY Daily News)
The McNabs - Leonard Bruce - Leoleen-Durck Creations - daily strip - 1983-88
The Meanest Man In The World - Bob Battle - Transworld Features - daily strip - 1956-59
Memoirs of a Housewife - Juli Tarpin - Lew Little Syndicate - Sunday panel - 1965
Memories of a Former Kid - Bob Artley - Extra Newspaper Features - weekly strip - 1986-95 (aware of this appearing in Good Old Days and Reminisce magazines, still looking for newspaper appearances)
Men From Mars - Stanley Miller - Unique Features - daily panel - 1945
The Merriers - Stan Campbell - Eric Jon Associates - weekly strip - 1958-62
Merry Mixup - Barbara Jones - Allied Features - daily panel - 1970-71
Merry Moments - Eg Margo - Queen Features - weekly panel - 1939 (found! in Goltry Leader)
Merry-Go-Round - Jerry Marcus - Roberts News Service - weekly panel - 1962-67
Michael Brand - William Barry - Adventure Features - daily strip - 1975-76
Miffy - Dudley Buxton - Miller Services - daily strip - 1934
Mighty O'Malley - George Merkle/Dean Miller - Chricago Tribune-NY News Syndicate - Sunday strip - 1947-49
Mike O'Kay - Roberts - Wheeler-Nicholson - daily strip - 1926 (found! in Lowell Sun)
Millie - Roger Mahoney and Andrew Pilcher - North America Syndicate - daily strip - 1992-96 (British strip?)
Milly - C. Decker - Lloyd James Williams Co. - daily panel - 1939
Milo - Ronald Boerem - Danny Ball Productions - weekly strip - 1978-79
Mimi - Mary Dorman - National Newspaper Service - daily panel - 1974
Mind's Eye - Jerome Chamberlain - Trans-World News Service - daily panel - 1976
Mini-Poster - Don Addis - Willow Creek Syndicate - daily panel - 1969 [found! by Brubaker in Raleigh News and Observer]
Minit Movies - Irving Phillips - Thompson Service - daily panel - 1933-34
Minstrel Lore - Robert Larsen - Pat Anderson Features - daily panel - 1976
Mr. Cheerio - Milt Lichtenstein - Leeds Features - daily panel - 1933
Moccasin Trails - Mike Roy - Royal Features - daily panel - 1960-61 (alternate title for Hoss Laffs?)
Modern Planes - Les Marshall - Eisner-Iger Associates - weekly panel - 1937-39
Mojoe - Edward Bryant - self-syndicated - weekly - 1991-92
Mom's Boarding House - Gerald Bennett - Dickson Features - daily panel - 1979
Mona - uncredited - Vaz Diaz International - daily strip - 1954-69
Moonshines - J.D. McFarland - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1968-69
Morgan Rogers in Days of Queen Elizabeth - A.S. Curtis - Curtis Features - daily strip - 1949-50
Mother Goose - Eleanor Schorer - Columbia Newspaper Service - weekly strip - 1926-27 (do have the 1915 series)
Motorization of Mr. Man - James Henderson - Ullman Features - weekly panel - 1931
The Mountain Ranger - Ralph Matz - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1940
Movie Epochs - R. Dale Armstrong - Fred Harman Features - daily - 1934 [John Mackenzie tells me that this feature was photo and essay, no cartoons involved, and so ineligible for SG]
Movie Gig - Jim Richardson - Dickson-Bennett - daily strip - 1983-84
Mr. 2 by 4 - Jack O'Brien - Nationwide Features - daily panel - 1949-50 [Charles Thompson supplies proof that Nationwide was a producer of advertising strips; not eligible for SG listing]
Mr. Big - Tim Newlin - self-syndicated - daily and Sunday strip - 1992
Mr. Dilly - Bil Dwyer - Globe Syndicate - daily strip - 1948
Mr. Housewife - Clayton Strohmeyer - Creators Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 2002-03
Mr. Magic - Shirley Spillman - Pacific News Service - daily and Sunday panel - 1961-62
Mr. McCivic, Taxpayer - MEB - Eagle Syndicate - daily strip - 1934 (did NOT run in Brooklyn Eagle)
Mr. Sandman - Frank Vydra - National Newspaper Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1970
Mr. Skooch - Charles Saxton - Atlas Features - weekly strip - 1951-59 (all Atlas Features material has been found in Bessemer Herald and several others)
Mr. and Mrs. Homer - Everrett Lowry - self-syndicated - weekly panel - 1932
Mrs. Weber's Diary - Posy Simmonds - Feature Associates - weekly strip - 1983 (British strip)
Muldoon - Bob Meyer - Oceanic Press Service - weekly strip - 1983-95
Murfy - Buzz Gambill - self-syndicated - daily panel - 1994-present (found by Charles Brubaker in several papers; see comment below)
Murphy's Law - Nick Frising - Allied Features - daily panel - 1979-89
Muscle Movies - uncredited - Wheeler-Nicholson - daily panel - 1926 (found but not really comics; diagrams for exercising, sports)
Musings of the Mad - His Mark - Fine Arts Syndicate - weekly strip - 1932
Musk Malone - Larry McNeil - Midwest Syndicate - daily strip - 1946
My Big Brudder - Frank Engli - Eastern Color Printing - weekly strip - 1930-34
My Stars - Ken Bruns - LA Times Syndicate - daily panel - 1976 [found! B. McNamara supplies proof that the panel ran in the Knoxville News-Sentinel --- thanks B!]

Labels:


Comments:
Mark Tonra's bio page (http://tonra.com/mark_tonra.html) has no mention of "Jack And Tyler", so I presume it never got printed. But you could always ask him.

By the way, while you're at it again, there are many comments on previous pages that should be incorporated into the lists.
 
And an update on Tonra: even though he omits it in his own bio, there's an interview at http://www.astronerdboy.com/comic-strips/kiosks/advice/MarkTonra.htm where he says it was distributed by King Features in 1995-6, but sold poorly. Sorry for the red herring above.
 
Hi Anon -
Re Jack and Tyler, Tonra told me it did run but he couldn't recall a paper I could check for it. So we're in a holding pattern until someone spots it.

As to the comments, I read and respond to every comment as necessary and apply the results to the list as applicable. Could you be more specific as to what I missed? Did you see something that I should have followed up on?

--Allan
 
No proof positive about Bob Artley's "Memories of a Former Kid", but this recent Worthington (Minn) Daily Globe article
http://www.dglobe.com/articles/index.cfm?id=7323§ion=News
makes it sound like that paper would be a good place to check.

As for "Jack and Tyler"; again no proof, but I have reason to believe that it ran in the Deseret News in the Spring of 1996 until it got cancelled.
 
I see a few strips commented on in past posts that should be followed up on:
Afterworld
Babs and Aldo
Bachelor Party
Berenstain Bears
Everybody's Business
Ffarm.com
Greg-Jim Humorous Adventures
In Their Own Words
 
Hi DD -
Bob Artley's feature is sort of a special case because there's no doubt it MUST have run somewhere. I've read and enjoyed his many reprint books of the material. Problem I see with Artley's feature is that I suspect it wasn't necessarily issued on a regular basis, and/or the cartoons may have been one part of a text feature (wither of which can take it out of SG indexing territory). Thanks for the link, I'll put this paper down as one to check if and when I get the opportunity. BTW, isn't it weird that newspaperarchive, with all those little midwest papers, can't seem to find a single one that ran Artley?

As for Tonra's strip, I'll add Deseret News to my research list (the list that rival's Santa's for length).

--Allan
 
Hi Anon -
Fair 'nuff, I did overlook a few items, or at least not report back. Let's run through them:

Afterworld - I had corresponded with Todd Showalter before embarking on the mystery list and never had any luck getting the name of a newspaper or sample tearsheets from him, so you're right, I didn't follow up on his msg. Either he's shy or doesn't have newspaper clients. Todd, if you're out there, help us out buddy!

Babs and Aldo - oops, I did follow up on that one, but then forget to mark it off the list. It ran in the Deseret Morning News. Taken care of now.

Bachelor Party - Charles Brubaker gave me a list of papers to check. I haven't had an opportunity to look at any of them yet. Should have on my last trip to the Library of Congress but time was short and I had a lot of material to cover.

Berenstain Bears - when Cole Johnson talks you bet I pay attention ... but I should have followed up. I assumed that Cole got this nugget from his brother Mark, who works at King. Am I right Cole? Can you give us any details?

Everybody's Business - it was on Copley's website, but I still haven't found it in a paper. Copley features are notoriously hard to find - most of them don't even run in Copley-owned papers. Very weird syndicate.

Ffarm.com - It's on my research list but I haven't had the opportunity to look at the Hartford Courant yet. Inter-library loan, especially with the volume of material I need to look at, is a long, slow process.

Greg-Jim Humorous Adventures - W. Morgan said it probably ran in the Toronto Star. Probably did, but I'm looking for appearances in U.S. newspapers only.

In Their Own Words - This msg came in while the blog was inactive, on hiatus while my wife was dealing with some major health issues. I'll follow up on it now.

--Allan
 
"A MAN NAMED HORACE", MILLIE" as well as "SCORER" LAUGHTER CARTOONS","THE PERISHERS" and "GARTH" were series from the London Mirror that NAS had the syndication rights for America in the 90's.
 
Hi Anon -
But did they manage to sell them to anyone in the US? I don't even recall seeing them in the weekly syndicate books of that era.

--Allan
 
Endearing Species - Dean Norman - Environment Cartoon Features - weekly panel - 1993-2002

I have reason to believe that this feature ran in Delphi (Ind.) Sun-Journal starting at least around November 1992.
 
Hi Charles -
I'll add it to my 'papers to check' list.

--Allan
 
Hi Allan,

Not sure if this is much help, but Comic Strip Wiki claimed a start and end date for Mr. Housewife

Title: Mr. Housewife
Began: November 10, 2002
Ended: February 7, 2004
Syndicate: Creators Syndicate
Cartoonist: Clayton Strohmeyer
http://comicstripwiki.wikispaces.com/Mr.+Housewife

And there was a write-up for the strip in Cartoonist Profiles (which you probably know), from MSU

"Mr. Housewife" / by Clayton Strohmeyer. p. 30-41 in
Cartoonist Profiles, no. 137 (Mar. 2003). -- Strohmeyer
writes about his strip, Mr. Housewife. Includes sample
strips and a photograph of the artist. -- Call no.:
NC1300.C35no.137

Of course, this doesn't mean it actually made it to a paper. Would Creator's Syndicate have any contact information for him or any of the others?

my best
-Ray Bottorff Jr
 
Apparantly I have too much free time. Some miscelleanous Googling on some of the strips...

Memories of a Former Kid - Bob Artley - Extra Newspaper Features - weekly strip - 1986-95

It seemed to have enough material to have a book published of the material:

http://www.amazon.com/Bob-Artleys-Memories-Former-Kid/dp/0896584933

Its possible some of the author's other titles maybe reprint books too...

Artley, Bob. Cartoons: From the Newspaper Series Memories of a Former Kid. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1989.

Since most of his books seem to be published by Iowa publishers, perhaps the strip appeared in Iowa papers?

my best
-Ray
 
A bio for Bob Artley...perhaps the strip will be found in the Worthington Daily Globe (Minnesota) or papers in Des Moines...

http://www.pelicanpub.com/Biog.asp?artist=Bob%20Artley
 
Hi Ray -
Re Mr. Housewife, glad to have the dates, now all I need is some proof that it did indeed make it to papers. Anyone?

Re Artley's feature, those points were covered in the comments above yours.

--Allan
 
It's official,in the 1990's the London Mirror titles were syndicated by North America Syndicate but ONLY for non- North American papers. It's a funny world.
 
Hello, Allan-----JACK AND TYLER ran daily from 9-18-95 to 4-28-96, and Sunday from 9-24-95 to 5-5-96. It was in about 20 papers, including the DALLAS MORNING NEWS, the KANSAS CITY STAR, and the DESERET NEWS, according to my brother Mark.-----------Cole Johnson.
 
Hi Cole -
Thanks much for checking with Mark on this strip. Now all I have to do to put this one to bed is get hold of one of those papers. Unfortunately easier said than done because few libraries will do inter-library loan on 'current' (!) papers. For instance I just got a rebuff from CT on the Hartford Courant -- they're happy to loan out older film, but the newer stuff is off-limits. Sigh.

If only we had blog readers in these cities who were willing to do a little local library research in exchange for fabulous goodie boxes we'd be all set.

Am I begging hard enough folks?
--Allan
 
Hi Ray,
I wrote Millie, one of the London Daily Mirror strips you're asking about, from 1990 through to 1995. Did we get published in the States? The answer is yes, but it's a yes with an asterisk against it.
All the pull sheets I used to receive from the Mirror prior to publication were copyrighted to the Daily Newspapers Limited and distributed by Syndication International. However, I always thought that our interests in the States were handled by King features - they always used to send a Christmas card. To my knowledge, we never had a sale in the States, but strangely, I used to get a lot of fan mail from US prisons - maybe someone can explain to me the connection between comics fandom and incarceration, it used to puzzle the hell out of me! Occasionally I'd get a round robin letter from a US charity asking for a mention during a fund raising event (invariably arriving on my doorstep in the UK three months after the event). So someone knew about us...
Around 1994/95 a thinly localised version of the Mirror was printed in the States and distributed in areas with high populations of ex-pat Brits. I can vouch for this as I bought a few copies in San Francisco on holiday one year. So that's my yes with an asterisk.
Hope this helps.
Andrew Pilcher
 
Hi Andrew -
Thanks for the very interesting info! Regarding King Features, they operate North America Syndicate so they're really the same thing.

I'm completely at a loss regarding your prison fan base. I know the US incarcerates a greater percentage of our population than any other country, but I don't think they're publishing their own papers with syndicated strips ... yet.

--Allan
 
Allan,
According to this August 11, 2008 article in the Worthington Daily Globe, Bob Artley seems to be residing in your neck of the woods.
http://www.dglobe.com/articles/index.cfm?id=13713&section=homepage
Well, at least in your state.
 
Here's a strip i haven't seen mentioned anywhere: "Mr Nugent."

On weekends, the NY Post ran a kid's strip named "Mr Nugent's *"
(*I can't remember the rest of the name.)
The strip included puzzles, picture games, etc.
I remember enjoying it, but when i Googled it, I found no mention anywhere.
Maybe I've mispelled it, but I don't think I have.
 
Hi rb-
The feature you're thinking of is "Uncle Art's Funland" by Art Nugent.

Check this link:
http://www.featurebank.com/?title=Bio:Uncle%20Art's%20Funland%20Sunday

Best, Allan
 
My Stars ran in the Deseret News in 1976. It was a parody of Star Trek; in fact, the spaceship looked like the Enterprise.
 
Hi Henkster --
I checked a representative set of 1976 dates of the Deseret News in the Google archives, find nothing of that description.

I rechecked newspaperarchive though, and did find My Stars by Ken Bruns in th Charleston Daily Mail. It was an astrology cartoon.

--Allan
 
Bob Artley passed away on Ocyober 21, 2011. The Worthington Daily Globe obit makes it sound as if Memories of a Former Child was exclusive to that paper.

"One of his most popular editorial features was a series of cartoons based on his memories of growing up on a farm near Hampton, Iowa.

“About once a week, as relief from the world and politics and so forth, I started doing this ‘Memories of a Former Kid,’” recalled Artley in a 2007 feature story in the Daily Globe marking his 90th birthday. 'I think, actually, what happened was they had a special (section) they’d put out once in a while, a farm special, and I did some drawings that were like ‘Memories of a Former Kid,' and we called it that in this one issue, and that’s where the name started. Then I started doing a weekly cartoon to replace the editorial cartoon.'"
http://www.dglobe.com/event/article/id/52645/
 
Here's an "M", albeit a local one;
MANDY by Walter W. Blackman in the Birmingham Age-Herald. He was the A-H's ed guy. On Monday 13 July 1914 he does a panel showing Mandy, an unflappable old black Mammy type servant washing dishes as her mistress is giving her a long list of tasks.
Two weeks later, 27 July, she appears again, now looking much different, in a week long series of long panels where she being pursued, to be "Captured", and brought back to the paper.
On Sunday, 2 August She makes the Cover of the Sunday comic section, knocking out a Phila. Press page, the rest of their section was ChiTrib. In the first episode, Blackman himself bags Mandy, bringing her back to the Age-Herald, explaining he'll lose his job otherwise. So almost two years follow with "Mandy" taking a page every Sunday, doing more or less standard stereotypical black humor, until 14 May 1916.
I see that Blackman lived until 1939, but if this was him in his prime, it's no wonder this never got syndicated, he's an unusually poor cartoonist!

 
Thanks for that rare item, Mark. I'll add that this was the second incarnation of the "Mandy" series, which first ran from 1909-11. It even had a companion strip for awhile, "Well - What Did You Expect".

--Allan
 
The only thing I can find about "Mr. Sandman" (full title "Mr. Sandman with Wide-Awake Willie") is that it was a children's story that ran as a insert in Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1969. It was written by Doris Achtenhagen, drawn by Ted Iugel, and "produced by" Frank Vydra (Vydra was a sales executive in Chicago, according to a blurb that the Tribune ran on May 28, 1969).

https://imgur.com/a/yMJMNV1
 
I'll leave it on the mystery strip list, in case Vydra produced (?) it as a strip as well.

--Allan
 
I found "Mini-Poster" by Don Addis appearing in The News and Observer (Raleigh NC). Earliest I found is July 22, 1969 (a Tuesday), running as a filler in the Op/Ed section whenever they have space. Most recent I can find is January 30, 1970

https://imgur.com/a/zCByPkZ
 
Thanks Brubaker! Also found in Jackson County Florida, about the same dates. Probably starts earliest in Addis' home paper, the St. Pete Evening Independent, which I do not find online. --Allan
 
I also found "Murfy" by Buzz Gambill running in Union Springs Herald (Alabama), Columbian Progress (Mississippi), Mason Valley News (Nevada), The Magna Times (Utah), and possibly others (including at least one in Canada).

https://imgur.com/a/uhjuNcE
 
Another one: I found "Mr. Skooch (actually spelled out as "Mister Skooch", not "Mr.") in several papers, including Tracy Press, Livingston County Daily Press and Argus, and Falls Church Echo https://imgur.com/a/B2YyPps
 
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