February 20 1909 -- Here is a VERY interesting entry for Herriman Saturday. This comic strip about a cat named Clarence is, to the best of my knowledge, the only appearance of this strip in the LA Examiner. Yet the strip seems to assume we're already acquainted with the characters, and the last panel of this strip seems to imply further episodes to come. Neither is the case, at least in the Examiner.
But that's not the end of the story. This cat and its owners are the spitting images of the characters in Alexander, a cat strip Herriman sold to World Color Printing . Even the cat's predilection for hats is shared between Clarence and Alexander (see the WCP 'cat in the hat' strip here). However, Alexander would not debut in the World Color Printing Sundays until November of 1909, over eight months later.
Why did this single example of Clarence / Alexander appear in the LA Examiner? I can't really figue it. If Herriman was shopping the strip around, why would the Examiner print one example, and not the first one from the series? Why would the cat's name be different? Dunno, but it sure is interesting.
On an entirely different note, HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!! My country is 150 years old today, and I am writing to you from the birthplace of our country in Annapolis Royal Nova Scotia, the first permanent European settlement in Canada started in 1605.
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