Stripper's Guide

An early McClure section gagfest which ran in the Thanksgiving week issue of November 24 1901. 

Going clockwise from upper left, we have a gorgeous drawing by Bert Cobb with a rather hoity-toity gag referring to the Dead March from Handel's Oratorio "Saul". Cobb is an almost completely forgotten master. Next we have a funny Thanksgiving gag by William F. Marriner; then a well-worn boarding house gag by Mark Fenderson, and finally George Herriman, with an over-long gag line that isn't really worth the trip. But I do like the cartoon very much. Love how the tramp has wedged himself into the gate. I do wonder what the thingamajig is on the step, though (no, I don't mean the old maid).

Labels: One-Shot Wonders

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 4 comments

Normally it's a treat for me to feature George McManus on the blog as he's one of my favorites. Today's obscurity by McManus, though, is such a misfire that I half want to sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened. But Cole Johnson sent me scans of this rare series, so after letting it sit and grow moldy for years, I'm going to air it out and let you have a look. It proves, I guess, that even a genius like McManus can have his off days. 

McManus already had a pair of really popular stips running at the World in 1906, The Newlyweds and Panhandle Pete. Nevertheless he was still throwing new ideas up to see if anyone would salute. Suffice to say there was little saluting going on when Snoozer started appearing in the New York World's Sunday comic section on January 28 1906*. The plot is that this kid Snoozer falls asleep a lot. We see his dreams, we see the trouble caused by him falling asleep, and then we get the big zinger when Snoozer says, "Not Yet!" Not one aspect of which manages to be funny in this strip series.

Snoozer ran until May 6 1906*, and you can bet no one missed him when he stopped showing up in The Funny Side. Especially since he got canned in favour of a new McManus strip that was anything but a clunker, Nibsy the Newsboy in Funny Fairyland.

* Source: Ken Barker's New York World index in StripScene #14.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

The Sunny Side didn't last long, and my guess is that it was seen at the syndicate as offering a little more adult-skewed gags than they'd like to see on a property like Felix. The panel only ran on the Sunday from February 24 to March 31 1935*. After that the third topper feature was dropped on Felix, with Laura going back to taking the complete upper third of the page. Although it too would soon be changed to a new strip, Felix never went back to offering a double-helping of toppers. 

Addendum: I didn't realize when I wrote the post about the Laura topper that Messmer finally dropped the gags about the parrot learning to repeat phrases. As you can see in the sample above, by 1935 that strip was engaged in a light continuity with the parrot now inhabiting a funny animal world, not interacting exclusively with humans. The post has been corrected. 

* Source: Columbus Dispatch.

Labels: Topper Features

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 2 comments

American Greetings, the #2 greeting card company in the world trailing behind Hallmark, was on a real roll in the 1970s and 80s creating running characters that appeared not just on their cards but were also merchandised on pretty much any object on which an image could be printed. Holly Hobbie, Strawberry Shortcake, the Care Bears -- these were all cooked up at American Greetings. Even good ol' Ziggy was born there. 

In 1979 Walt Lee (artist) and Mike Fruchey (writer) brought a proposal for a new character to American Greetings, this one for the consumer who likes a little religion with their treacle. Sherman on the Mount is a monk with a sweet disposition, a quick wit, and a running conversation with the nicest and most supportive God around -- no smiting or condemning to Hell in Sherman's world. Sherman is just filled to bursting with love for everything, so he feels no compunctions about taking silver for appearing on stickers, music boxes, figurines, pot holders, coffee mugs, sheet music, etc. etc. 

Sherman never quite took off the way some of American Greetings other 'personalities' did, but on September 7 1986* his visibility got a boost with a new daily and Sunday comic strip syndicated by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Fruchey, whose writing role had been usurped by the corporate writers at American Greetings, presumably was allowed to come back as writer, not just a copyright holder listed on the masthead. 

Sherman on the Mount debuted with a solid new strip client list (150 papers according to Fruhey) and included some high profile and high-paying client papers. It seems to me that the strip was set up to become a perennial sort of half-forgotten feature, one that offered the sort of quick, good-hearted but vapid gags that could sustain a strip for the grandma audience. And you know what happens with grandma strips -- a newspaper that dares drop them is going to catch, er, a darn good talking-to. 

For good or ill, Sherman never got the chance to become a newspaper fixture. By 1986 when the strip debuted American Greetings had already cut way back on new Sherman paraphernelia; they obvious had lost interest in him. Evidently selling the comic strip was not enough to encourage them to make another attempt at turning Sherman into the next Ziggy. My guess is that the strip was cancelled on October 2 1988** because American Greetings felt it wasn't worth their time and effort to oversee. 

I can find exactly zero information on Walt Lee, perhaps because he shares the name of another earlier cartoonist. I did find a short bio of Fruchey here (scroll to page 9). . 

* Source: Elmira Star-Gazette

** Source: Boston Globe

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

Time to inflict another Cobb Shinn card on you. This one has no maker credit, but was postally used in 1910. In this case Shinn's art is not bad at all, but he manages to mystify us with the three ring design, the acres of whitespace, and the sand dune scenery. Why, Cobb, why?

Labels: Wish You Were Here

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 2 comments