Stripper's Guide

Cole Johnson, comic strip scholar extraordinaire, sent me a goodie package of photocopies that I want to share with the blog. His reason for sending was to contribute Happy Hunch strips to eliminate that title from our Mystery Strips list (this was before I found a few samples myself). His strips come from the Tampa Evening Globe, a paper that unfortunately does not seem to exist on microfilm. Here are his two samples (the second of which required a bit of reconstructive surgery on the final panel - sorry about my bad lettering). Both are from February 1926:

In addition to these rarities, Cole sent some more goodies. Here's a promo cartoon that Rube Goldberg did in connection with a CBS radio show he hosted. According to Cole it was a 15-minute twice a week program that ran on CBS starting December 3 1935. The robot was named Irving Q. Ironsides. Anyone know if the recordings of these programs still exist?
And here's the inaugural episode of Hickory Hanks, a strip that Ben Batsford penned for Plane News. Cole says this was a weekly paper for factory workers at the Grumman Aircraft plants, and that Batsford also contributed editorial and spot cartoons to the publication. This first episode ran in the February 4 1943 issue:


And here's a still from the 1946 film Li'l Iodine. Cole says that there are no known copies of this comic strip-based film still in existence. It starred Hobart Cavanaugh and Irene Ryan, with Jo Anne Marlowe as Iodine. The movie was produced by Buddy Rogers, husband of Mary Pickford. I hope it was funnier than the strip, which remains my nominee for the unfunniest (successful) comic strip of all time.
Cole sent even more rare material, the rest of which I'm going to hold for a later date. Of course Cole earns a goodie box for his submission of the Happy Hunch photocopies, but choosing goodies for him is a real head-scratcher considering he has a stupendous collection. I solved the problem, though. Since Cole is a big fan of movies as well as comic strips, he'll be the recipient of one of the odder items in my collection - a huge, and I do mean HUGE, movie poster from one of the Bringing Up Father movies of the 1940s. Being a big Jiggs and Maggie fan I bought it years ago but then realized I have no place to display it in my home.

All of which I mention not only to reinforce that my goodie boxes are worth the effort involved in getting them, but it brings me to a burning question: do any of the Bringing Up Father movies exist on video? I've never found them and I'd love to see one.

EDIT: Cole Johnson writes to tell me that this may well not be the first episode of Hickory Hanks - it's just an assumption I made based on reading the strip. Cole also reminds me that it's not "Li'l Iodine", it's "Little Iodine" - okay, Cole, but I still stick by its being the unfunniest successful humor strip of all time. Cole also says that he's seen really awful 10th-generation copies of Maggie and Jiggs on video, but none of a quality worth watching.

Cole also asks if anyone has every tried to come up with a serious list of comic strips that were made into films. He volunteers a list of really obscure ones -- Mischievous Willie, Wille Westinghouse, Desperate Desmond, Everett True, Smitty, Uncle Mun, Lady Bountiful, Mr. Jack, The Newlyweds, Mike and Ike, Let George Do It. Sounds to me like the best candidate for the job is Cole Johnson...

Fairy tale strips have been tried many times, but seldom have they attained any great popularity. Once Upon a Time is no exception to the rule. Walter J. Enright penned this one that adapted classic fairy tales to the comic strip medium.

The strip has a bit of a checkered history. Syndicated by McClure starting on June 1 1925, the strip in some papers went under the moniker of Make-A-Book, and in those cases included instructions for cutting out the strips to form a booklet (not exactly rocket science). The original run of the strip seems to have ended on August 5 1926, but McClure continued selling the strip in reprints as late as 1929. In 1933 Whitman Publishing issued a Big Little Book based on the strip even though McClure seems to have quit selling it four years earlier.

W.J. Enright first pops up on my radar in the oughts, illustrating a few books, and then drops out of sight until the advent of this strip. By 1929, however, he was producing illustrations for the New York World and did a short-lived Sunday panel titled Here and Thereabouts. Then he disappears again. He, or perhaps more likely his progeny, pops up again in the 1950s as W.J. Pat Enright, when he has a few children's books published.

Be sure to read the above samples, a complete tale with some rather 'Grimm' doings. Doctor Wertham would not be pleased!

Labels: Obscurities

Thanks to all of you for voting!

First, my apologies for not posting yesterday. I'm training a new software tester and it's keeping me extra busy. And at night I'm busy watching those poor Ottawa Senators get the crap beaten out of them in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Tallying the web and email votes so far, the results are ~80% in favor of running all the material, ~20% for highlights, and one voter who wants both Herriman and stripper photos. Sorry buddy, you'll have to visit Craig Yoe's blog for that material! So it looks like we're going to post everything unless there's a real surge in votes going the other direction.

Some of you have commented that the material should be published in book form. With the advent of lulu.com that has become a possibility, but I have to nix the idea for this particular project. I wouldn't be comfortable putting my name on a book of this material unless I was also going to do all the research on L.A. politics so that I could explain all the cartoons. Having taken years educating myself in turn of the century New York City politics I know what a huge project that can be, and I have to wimp out on you guys -- I'm just not willing to put in such a big effort for a book that could very well sell just a couple dozen copies. I've got my hands plenty full with Stripper's Guide research, not looking to add more to my plate. That being said, if there is some LA history expert out there who would like a collaboration I'm all ears.

Despite wimping out on this particular project, I would like to put my two cents in that I am nevertheless a big supporter of annotating cartoons. I see a lot of reprint books coming out with material that really cries out for explanations. The typical reader cannot be expected to fully understand and appreciate the subject matter in early comics and cartoons, and I think publishers should consider having someone write annotations for the material. And I'm not just thinking about editorial cartoons. There are plenty of comic strip reprints that would benefit greatly from annotations.

For instance, when I read reprint books of Gasoline Alley, Terry and the Pirates, Out Our Way and such, I can't help but wonder if the average reader goes away not understanding what's going on half the time. For those not immersed in the pop culture of the time, do they know what Walt Wallet means when he refers to a woman as a 'grass widow'? Or when Mutt is called a 'plunger'? Or Tillie refers to a fellow as a 'sheik'?

I doubt that it would reduce the charm of these strips to be annotated when necessary, and it would certainly help readers to follow the nuances of the story better, making them more likely to be customers for more reprints.

Labels: Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics

I just got back from a marathon session at the library working through the Los Angeles Examiner for 1906. As you may know, George Herriman worked there from 1906 to 1909 in between stints in New York.

All the stars lined up just right for me today. The microfilm was in beautiful shape, the microfilm printer wasn't being balky, and best of all, someone at the library screwed up and set the copying price on the machine to a dime instead of the usual quarter. With the light of providence shining brightly upon me, I took on the task of making copies of all the Herriman cartoons I found, a task that took all day because ol' Garge was a very productive little worker bee at the Examiner.

So here I sit this evening with a cornucopia of 1906 Herriman cartoons. They run the gamut from editorial and sports cartoons to a previously undocumented comic strip series. It was initially my plan to start a Saturday blog posting series that would share with you folks all the treasures I had found. The series would run for months, posting cartoons at the rate of two or three each Saturday.

But then I got to wondering if you readers of this blog are fans enough of Herriman that you want to see all this material. For instance, today's cartoons (Herriman's first for the Examiner, printed on 8/18 and 8/21/06) are all but incomprehensible because they deal with local politics of a century ago. They're good cartoons, but it would take a degree in California history to fully understand them. Many of the cartoons will fit into this category -- delightful art but impenetrable subjects.

So here's the deal. I've asked you to vote before on things and I usually get just a few responses. But I know you're out there, doggone it, and I need to know where you want to go with this thing. Here's your options:

1. Post 'em all. I love Herriman and I can't get enough.

2. Post just the highlights. I like Herriman but this material is of minimal interest.

3. Go on to something else. I don't get Herriman at all, or don't care about his early work.

4. Hell, take Saturdays off from now on. I really couldn't care less if you post anything. I thought this site would have pictures of strippers on it.

If I don't get a reasonable number of responses in the next week (hey, I do know how many visits the blog gets every day, you know) I'm going to assume the vote is for #4. So post a comment or, if you prefer, email me at stripper@rtsco.com to cast your vote. Voters, thank you for your interest and support!

If you thought Hagar the Horrible was the only humor strip to feature Vikings you'd be close to right. But Hagar was prefigured by this obscurity, Norse by Norsewest, a comedy featuring a troop of mod Norsemen.

The strip was written by John Brinkerhoff (perhaps a relative of R.M. Brinkerhoff?) and cartooned by Bob Campbell, neither of whom have any other syndication credits. Both art and gags bear the indelible marks of the late 60s. The art was good, but influenced by the 1960s pop art craze it looks a little dated today. The gags were on the weak side, relying a bit much on the Laugh-In style when they weren't strictly jokebook material.

The strip, syndicated by McNaught, first appeared in a very small number of client papers on November 17 1969. I can only vouch for the strip lasting a mere month and a half, to December 27. If it lasted longer I can find no evidence for it. Perhaps a strip so tied to late 60s sensibilities just couldn't bring itself to tackle the 70s.

UPDATE 12/15/2023: Lots more digitized papers now, and it can be safely stated that the end date was 2/28/1970 based on Austin American-Statesman and several others. 

Labels: Obscurities