Tuesday, January 08, 2008
The New York Post Turns a Corner
For most of its existence the New York Post was one of the most staid papers imaginable. It was the paper of Wall Street, concentrating mainly on financial news. In the 1930s, though, it went through an ownership change and the paper that had only appealed to the gents in the board rooms took a populist turn. The Post added lots of new features including daily comics. It wasn't until the beginning of 1942, though, that the Post took the really big plunge and added a Sunday (well, actually a Saturday) color comics section.
The strips above were printed in March 1942 as advertisements of the new feature. As you can see, most of the Post color comics section was to be composed of the new AP Sunday strips (themselves only as old as late 1941) , including Dickie Dare, Homer Hoopee, Scorchy Smith and Oaky Doaks. To this they added Mutt and Jeff, Abbie 'n Slats, Captain and the Kids, and Nancy.
The last strip is Post staffer Stan MacGovern's Silly Milly commenting on the new addition to the paper. MacGovern tries to be jaunty but it's pretty obvious he's not entirely happy with the addition. Guess he didn't want the competition.
A tip of the tam to Jeffrey Lindenblatt who sent me these delightful ad strips.
Comments:
This set of changes were implemented not long after the Schiff family bought the Post (in 1939). At this point in time, it was a broadsheet (having been, briefly, a tabloid), before reverting to tabloid format in 1942. One imagines that with the Journal-American in town until the 1960s, they didn't get much King Features product.
The Post did, for a while, experiment with colour comics again in the early 1990s, though today they don't run Sunday comics, and have a very slim, largely forgettable comics section. Pity. Either the Sun or the Post could make a splash by allowing for new talent.
Post a Comment
The Post did, for a while, experiment with colour comics again in the early 1990s, though today they don't run Sunday comics, and have a very slim, largely forgettable comics section. Pity. Either the Sun or the Post could make a splash by allowing for new talent.
