Friday, October 06, 2023
Toppers: Bozo's Diary, This An' That and It Seems That
The Sunday Joe Jinks went through a few toppers before it finally settled on a golf strip, Divot Diggers, for most of the 1930s. In the 1929-1930 period the Sunday page sported two or three different toppers -- depending how you count them -- that ran more or less concurrently.
The first of the triad to debut was This an' That, a catchall title if there ever was one. The one-tier topper had no continuing characters and started on March 24 1929*. Creator Vic Forsythe apparently was unhappy with this topper running every week, and on May 19 he added a second strip, Bozo's Diary, in which diary entries from a little dog's perspective supply the gags. This was an absolute rip-off of The Diary of Snubs Our Dog, and it would not surprise me a bit if the gags were cribbed from that strip as well. At least he stole from the best...
This an' That last ran on March 2 1930, and was replaced on the 16th (after an intervening episode of Bozo's Diary) with It Seems That, an identically unthemed strip that perhaps should just be considered a title change for This an' That.
Bozo's Diary last ran on September 28 1930, perhaps dumped after Paul Carmack or some of his fans voiced their objection to the me-too strip. From then on It Seems That ran alone, but it too was dumped after the installment of January 4 1931.
* Source: All dates cited from Detroit Free Press or San Francisco Chronicle.
Labels: Topper Features
