Stripper's Guide

Labels: One-Shot Wonders

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

Boots and her Buddies by Edgar Martin had debuted as a daily strip in February 1924 and NEA clients seemed to really take to it. It was essentially a flapper strip, which could have been strictly a me-too affair, but Martin put his own stamp on it by making Boots an interesting and multi-faceted character and populating the strip with an interesting troupe of second bananas, too. 

By 1926 Boots and her Buddies was firmly ensconced as an NEA A-lister and it could easily have merited a Sunday strip. But NEA at the time was uninterested in supplying more than a 4-page Sunday comic section*, considering that the majority of their clients didn't even publish Sunday editions. But there was a simple solution to that problem when toppers became the latest fashion; make Boots and her Buddies into a topper. For presumably no reason other than a roll of the dice, the Boots topper was paired with Our Boarding House, and the two were wed on September 12 1926**. 

The pairing lasted for five years until NEA finally started relenting on the four-page Sunday strip limit and expanded their Sunday offerings. The final Boots and her Buddies topper ran on October 18 1931. The new topper to Our Boarding House was The Nut Brothers, which was produced by Gene Ahern himself.

An interesting footnote is that the new Boots full page Sunday had already debuted over a month earlier, on September 6, so there were actually two Boots strips running simultaneously for that short period. And that explains the mystery of why the new Sunday page was initially titled Girls rather than Boots and her Buddies. It was to avoid confusion about the duplicate strips.

* The four Sundays were Out Our Way, Freckles and his Friends, Our Boarding House and Salesman Sam.

** All dates from NEA archives at Ohio State University.

Labels: Topper Features

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 1 comments

Starting his artistic career in the 1880s, Louis Wain quickly became a popular and incredibly prolific artist in British publications, where he specialized in humorous cartoons of cats. By his constant appearances in publications like the Illustrated London News, which enjoyed worldwide circulation, his fame spread to the U.S., where William Randolph Hearst saw his material as being a good fit for the New York Journal's new colour comic section.

Wain's densely populated cat cartoon panels, which had no regular recurring title, debuted in the New York Journal on October 17 1897 and ran there for a little over half a year, apparently disappearing after the installment of June 5 1898*. These dates are based on the documentation of the SFACA collection at Ohio State University. However, Dave Strickler's indexing of the early Journal claims an end date of December 11 1898. Perhaps both are right and the Wain cartoons in the latter half of 1898 appeared outside the comics section. Not having seen late examples myself, I cannot say who is right.

Wondering if the Journal cartoons were original material or just reruns from the British press, I tried searching for a few of the individual titles, like Tabby Social Club, on the web. I found no other references to them other than in the Journal, so I assume that these cartoons were original material created for the paper, not reprints. 

Wain's initial series of cat cartoons didn't seem to set New York on fire, and his work was not seen in newspapers here for the next decade. However, on a trip to New York in 1907 Wain succeeded in selling his wares to the Hearst organization once again, eventually leading to a number of series spanning the next decade.

Thanks to Cole Johnson for supplying the scans of this series.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 2 comments

Virginia Man Gets Marriage License Here

A marriage license was issued here yesterday to Charles F. Tashlein, of 620 West Grace street, Richmond, to wed Augustine Deloy Maury, age 30, dressmaker, of West Forty-eighth street, New York city. Tashlein’s first wife died in New York city May 13, 1911. Mrs. Maury’s first husband died in New York six years ago.

9/17/1934

12/11/1934

Miss Dorothy Hill, fiancee of Frank Tashlin, whose wedding will take place next Saturday in Westwood Community Church, was guest of honor at a tea and linen shower given last Sunday by Mrs. Manly Nelson at her home at 10121 Tabor street.

Mrs. Jennings Brown will assist her sister as matron of honor and other attendants will include Misses Dorothy McCarthy, Mary Mahoney, Dorothy Melaby and Mrs. Nelson. George Manuel will serve as best man and ushers include Frank Hee, J. W. Jenkins, Nelson Demorest and Manly Nelson.

Frank Tashlin Co. Formed

Frank Tashlin Co., Hollywood, has been incorporated to produce television films. Frank Tashlin, director-writer, is president. Other officers are Lester Linsk, v.p., and Charles E. Trezona, secretary-treasurer.

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

# posted by Alex Jay @ 6:00 AM 3 comments

Here's a 1909 card that was probably self-published by Walter Wellman. The gag somewhat depends on the postcard recipient being aware of an organization known as "The Black Hand", an old-timey name for what we now call the Mafia. The Black Hand was the subject of cartoon gags on a semi-frequent basis back in the early years of comics, so I was surprised to find I've only referred to it once before here on the blog, way back in 2009.

Thanks to Mark Johnson, who scanned this card from his collection.

Labels: Wish You Were Here

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 3 comments