Wednesday, July 06, 2022
Obscurity of the Day: Josephine
In the early 1940s Robbie Robinson was working for the Indianapolis News in their sales department while moonlighting as a gag cartoonist, submitting to the magazine markets. According to Robinson's Cinderella tale, someone at the paper happened to see a packet of submissions he was about to send out and swiped it to show the bosses. The rest, as they say, is history. The bosses decided to run the cartoons in the paper, dubbing the gag series Just Hearsay. By 1945 the feature was syndicated and three years later Robinson had also become editorial cartoonist for the paper, a post he would hold for 22 years.
In 1948 Robinson started featuring an unnamed little girl in the daily panel. She was prone to asking absurdly philosophical questions of her elders, embarrassing them with undiplomatic remarks in front of company, and trying to act like a grown-up in an eight year old body.
Just Hearsay was not exactly burning up the sales charts, but then again, it was syndicated by the New York Herald-Tribune, which was almost absurdly bad at placing their generally fine wares with client papers. So it was evidently decided that the panel might be more appealing if it featured a continuing character. Thus Just Hearsay disappeared, replaced by Josephine on November 8 1948*.
The panel still didn't take off, but apparently the client list was just enough to keep the feature afloat. Things were on an even keel until June 1950**, when syndicate salesman Harry Cook decided that he could do better on his own than at the Herald-Tribune Syndicate. He talked a few of the H-T's minor creators into coming with him, including Robbie Robinson, and Josephine got a new syndicate slug, from the Harry Cook Syndicate.
Mr. Cook's sales abilities did not seem to live up to his belief in himself, because Josephine certainly didn't take off in spite of having a syndicate salesman working almost exclusively on her behalf. Harry Cook's few features struggled, and in November 1955 he finally threw in the towel. He sold off the syndication rights to Josphine and one or two other remaining features to General Features. Their syndicate slug debuted on the panel on December 19 1955**.
Robinson seemed to end up over and over with organizations whose sales abilities were not exactly legendary, and General was no exception. The panel continued to limp along with a short client list. To bring on a partner on a low-paying feature seems like a case of slicing the pie a little too thin, but on June 2 1958*** Robinson relinquished the art chores on Josephine to veteran gag cartoonist Charles Skiles. Skiles' artwork on the feature was a little more modern-looking than Robinson's, and he changed Josephine into a cuter, smaller little girl (Skiles art is on the last two samples above). These changes may have helped to pick up a few more papers, so maybe it was a smart move.
Robinson stopped taking writing credit after 1962****, leaving Skiles as a solo act. Skiles continued producing the panel until his death in February 1969. The panel continued on, using up backstock, until May 3 1969*****. Ironically, Robbie Robinson passed away just months later, in October 1969.
* Source: Oakland Tribune
** Source: Indianapolis News
*** Source: South Bend Tribune
**** Source: Editor & Publisher Syndicate Directories
***** Source: Sacramento Bee
Labels: Obscurities
