Obscurity of the Day: Boot's Pup

By the 1910s what had once been a generally high quality comic section in the Philadelphia North American was running out of gas. I guess they figured they could get away with low-rent material since the Inquirer and Press had pretty tired line-ups, too. One of the North American's saddest entries was Boot's Pup by Bill Killeen.

Killeen, who has no other credits that I can dig up, gave us amateur hour art and a rather unsettling plot concerning an unbalanced fruitcake bent on torturing his dog. Another weird little conceit was that although Boot appeared to be an old man he seemed really well-versed in the latest hip slang. Shrug.

Killeen probably didn't think all that much of his own creation because although he produced it for an entire year (February 23 1913 - February 15 1914) he never got around to naming it. I call it Boot's Pup but in reality there never was a running title.

Tip of the hat to Cole Johnson for the scans. Thanks Cole!