Thursday, July 21, 2016
Obscurity of the Day: Cuppy the Newsboy
Cartoonist Joe Appalucci broke into newspaper syndication with the George Matthew Adams Syndicate in 1962 with a daily panel about a newspaper carrier. Many newspaper editors have a soft spot for features about the newspaper business, even tangentially like this, and Cuppy the Newsboy found just enough clients to get out of the gate.
The gags were frankly lukewarm and the art just so-so, but as a hole-filler in the classified section or such, it was perfectly fine. A few oddities about the art I can't help but mention. First, Appalucci's title character strikes me as looking like a paunchy senior citizen, and his girlfriend like a middle-aged hausfrau, but they were indeed supposed to be kids. Second, the unusual panel borders, which Appalucci smartly added to make his feature stand out a bit, remind me of nothing more than razor wire -- ouch!
Cuppy the Newsboy (which was advertised in E&P as Cuppy the Newspaperboy) ran from October 8 1962 until March 7 1964. Appalucci had already sold George Matthew Admas another feature, The Byrds, in 1963, and presumably it was doing well enough that Cuppy got his retirement papers.
Thanks to Mark Johnson for the samples!
Labels: Obscurities
