The New York Tribune was never by any means a powerhouse in comic strips, but they may have reached their nadir when they added Dinny Doodles to their Sunday line-up in 1920. This strip was, as best I can tell, a fantasy about a boy who lives in a world of anthropomorphic animals. I say as best I can tell, because the drawing is so bad and the lettering so impenetrably crude that there may be room for alternate interpretations.
When the strip debuted on April 4 1920, it began with the additional conceit that the page's rhymed story could also be played on the family piano. Creator F.C. Collinge soon tired of that additional labor, and switched over to standard word balloons. At this time it became more apparent that he was an incredibly bad letterer. You'd think someone in the art department of the Tribune would have been tasked with fixing his mess, but no. This crime against New York newspaper readers was mercifully put out to pasture after a mere four months of torture, its last episode appearing on August 8.
F.C. Collinge seems never to have had another newspaper comic strip credit. The world fails to weep.
Interesting comments about this 'obscurity'. Where is the top strip from ? (I know it's the NYT) It seems to be colour-enhanced.I have the majority of the originals. I think the interaction between the illustration and the score is rather more complicated than you give credit for. Thanks.
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