Obscurity of the Day: Andy the Ad Man

Jack Wilson alit at NEA for a short stint in 1915-16,and created a few features, including Andy the Ad Man, for them. Now if you read these samples you'll wonder why I call the strip by that name. There is no indication that Andy is in the advertising business, and besides, the strip is clearly titled Andy the Wise Guy.

Well, all I can tell you is that the strip bore that name in the NEA archives and in quite a few papers. Maybe Andy's advertising angle only lasted the first few strips, and the Atlanta Journal, the paper from which these samples originated, had the sense to come up with a different name. I dunno. But that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Andy the Ad Man ran from October 22 to December 10 1915. After that the strip was revamped, dropping the Andy character and making Harrigan the star. And that strip will be covered some other time.

Thanks to Cole Johnson for the samples!