In February 1951 Associated Press science and medicine writer Alton Blakeslee contributed a series of ten short articles about the latest advances in the treatment of various diseases. For some reason the news service decided to present them in the form of comic strips which seems like a remarkably unlikely choice considering the serious, even grim, subject matter.The series went under the title The Latest On... and seems to have been distributed as a batch of ten with no particular directions as to presentation dates. Some papers ran them daily, some weekly, but most ran them haphazardly. Therefore I cannot offer definitive start and end dates.
Sylvia Robbin (nee Sneidman) did a beautiful job on the strip, respectful and clear without sacrificing dashes of her lovely clean-line style. Sylvia, for that's how she generally signed herself, had done a fine job taking over on Flapper Fanny back in the 1930s, holding her own against two superb predecessors, Ethel Hays and Gladys Parker. After the war she worked out of the AP bullpen, contributing style illustrations, spot cartoons, and illustrated the syndicate's Christmas stories.
Much more on Sylvia Friday, with Alex Jay's Ink-Slinger Profile.
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