Stripper's Guide: (Not Really) Obscurity of the Day: Citizen Kane

Thursday, June 18, 2015

(Not Really) Obscurity of the Day: Citizen Kane

Here's a strip that had me perplexed for a long time. I have had the above tearsheet for years, and hadn't been able to find out anything about it. I did know a few things -- the 1979 Sunday strip titled Citizen Kane is:

by Larry Wright, the editorial cartoonist and creator of Wright Angles and Kit 'n' Carlyle
was distributed by United Feature Syndicate
had only seen one other tearsheet of it, photocopied many years ago for me by collector Gordon Campbell, and also dated 1979
that there is no record of the strip in the E&P yearbooks or in the United Features in-house database

Seems like an obvious obscurity, right? That's what I thought for years. That is, until I did some microfilm research on the Miami Herald. What should I find there but a Larry Wright strip titled Citizen Kane running as late as 1984. Hmm, says I, that seems like an awful long run for such an obscurity. So I expended some further research time, and finally came up with the real explanation. The rarely heard surname of the family in Wright Angles turns out to be ... Kane! So apparently the Miami Herald ran Wright Angles under the title Citizen Kane for some reason. Why? Well, that I still don't know. Maybe the Herald already had a column or other feature called Wright Angles?

Why do I tell you all this? I just discovered that although I correctly noted this alternate title for Wright Angles in its listing in my book, I failed to remove the bogus listing for Citizen Kane. So if you have a copy of the book (and if so, bless you!) get out your magic marker and put a big X through listing #1172. Then Kyu!

.... Rosebud ....

Labels: Obscurities