Stripper's Guide

A very special guest star makes an appearance in this one-shot strip by Carl Anderson. It ran in the New York Journal on January 24 1897.

Labels: One-Shot Wonders

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

Hans and Gretchen ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer from September 23 to November 4 1906*. It's an odd strip on several counts.

The strip is about a couple of stereotypical Dutch children, dressed in traditional garb right down to the wooden shoes. The strip tells its little storybook tales in verse, and the level of the writing and plots seems to be intended for very young children -- very simplistic, very banal. While this sort of material, meant for the smallest kiddies, wasn't totally unknown in the Sunday comics sections, in most cases it was jazzed up just enough so that the older kids and adults didn't feel cheated. In this series the stories are so shallow I'm really surprised that the Inquirer would run them. Of course, none of that criticism applies to the sample above, which was (perhaps not surprisingly) the final installment. I've certainly seen plenty of strips about cannibals in these early comics, but never witnessed a case of them actually chomping on a little girl. And in a strip that had, up until then, been intended for the smallest children, too! Get ready for kiddies having nightmares tonight, ma.

The other weird thing is that this series by "Allen" would seem likely to be T.S. Allen in some ways but not in others -- there's a number of pros and cons to that ID. The signature could pass for his, though its not quite a dead ringer. Also, T.S. Allen was famed for his cartoons of tough slum kids, not namby-pamby fairy tale children. The art is not typical for him -- he favoured a more sketchy style -- but he was definitely capable of modifying his style when the situation required. The timing of the strip's appearance is perfect for him, though, as late 1906 is when he seems to have been dropped by Hearst in New York, and he was very soon to spend some time at the Philadelphia Press. So a stopover at the Inquirer would be very reasonable. So is this T.S. Allen? In my book I gave him the credit, but now I'm not so sure...

* In my book I say it lasted until November 18, but it turns out on digital review that the extra strip on that end date is a one-shot titled The Little Hollander; nothing to do with this series other than the nationality of the subject. So nice to be able to compare strips without having to dig out a different microfilm reel!

Labels: Obscurities

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

Among the many comic strip series George Frink created for the Chicago Daily News was Buddy and Banty. At first glance it seems like yet another Katzies rip-off, but the plot had a little extra nuance to it in that Banty is a mischievous halfwit, and Buddy is a comparative angel. Of course in any setup of this type, the inevitable upshot is that poor Buddy pays dearly for Banty's hellraising. 

Even though this isn't exactly grade-A Frink material, he employs his gift for portraying anarchy to relatively good effect. In this sample strip, I particularly like the graphic device of being able to see an X-ray view between the two floors of the house, a nice touch. 

Buddy and Banty ran on occasional weekdays on the Chicago Daily News back page from June 9 to September 22 1906. Then after a long layoff it came back for a single engagement on February 21 1908. 

A footnote on this sample strip is that Frink had a series starring Uncle Bellamy back in 1902-03. But this doesn't seem to be a return appearance of his old character, who had rather unique muttonchops that stuck out from his head like overgrown cat whiskers.

Labels: Obscurities

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

Mac Divot was a true original in newspaper comics; a serious continuity feature about a golfer. Golf was no stranger to comics at all -- earlier entries included The Dubbville Foursome, In The Rough, The Meadowlarks and others. But they were all played for laughs. 

But in 1955 creators Jordan Lansky, writer, and Mel Keefer, artist, noticed that while there were successful strips about baseball and boxing, other sports were for the most part unrepresented. Since both were avid, if not expert, golfers, they decided they might just have the perfect timing for a serious golfing strip. 

In the earlier 1900s golf had been a popular sport, but then the Depression and World War II put the damper on it. In the 1950s, though, Americans were once again beginning to enjoy more leisure time, and the economy was on the upswing. Golf became a newly popular way to spend both time and money. And then in 1954 an exciting young phenom named Arnold Palmer won the U.S. Amateur and created for golf another type of fan, the armchair golf aficionado glued to his or her TV all weekend.  

U.S. newspapers were generally slow at cluing in that golf was becoming important to readers, and now were caught searching for interesting golf content. Syndicates were similarly slow on the draw at creating it for them. Lansky and Keefer were perfectly positioned to jump into that void, and the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate wisely put these creators under contract when they brought the idea to them. 

With a few quick tweaks to the original concept the new daily-only strip was rushed out on April 18 1955*. The initial client list was very impressive, with some starry-eyed reports putting it around two hundred papers (E&P reported a more down to Earth 22). Compared to the general market for continuity strips, which was pretty well glutted at this time, that kind of debut was a notable achievement, even if the true number was just 22. Some client papers put Mac Divot on the comics page, but most wisely added him into their sports sections where it was more likely to find an appreciative audience.

The strip's plot was reasonably simple; Malcolm Mac Divot is the golf pro at Grassy Knolls Country Club, and his early-20s age son Sandy Mac Divot is a gifted golfer looking to make his mark on the circuit. Throw into the mix a love interest for Sandy in Marla Brooks, and things were off to the races. The strip concentrates mostly on Sandy going to tournaments, following the golf play with loving detail (or excruciating detail if you're not a golf fan). Sandy wins in skin-of-the-teeth fashion practically all the time amid improbable dramas and incredible shots on the links. Father Malcolm acts as the wise sage giving Sandy, and readers, words of golfing wisdom when the crises loom. In between tournaments, we meet various characters at Grassy Knolls, all of whom need the ministrations of Malcolm to improve their games.

The strip originally strove to offer not just golf action but off-the-links drama as well, especially regarding Sandy's romance. It was soon realized, though, that the strip's audience was not especially keen on soap opera, and Sandy's love life was all but forgotten. Girls out of the way, Mac Divot was pretty much wall-to-wall golf from then on, with practically all the drama confined to the course. 

An interesting aspect of the strip was that as Sandy became a world-class golfer, the creators decided that instead of making up fake tournaments for him to win, they'd have him play in real tournaments and rub elbows with the real leading lights in golf. Keefer's ability to draw recognizeable famous faces became another big plus, as golf fans could hardly pass a comic strip by if they saw Jack Nicklaus or Billy Casper making an appearance. The tournaments had their real names, but Sandy Mac Divot's exploits at them were, of course, entirely fictional. And so while famous golfers strolled through the strip constantly, readers never got to see Sandy beat the pants off Gary Player at the U.S. Open, but rather fictionalized equivalents. 

The Mac Divot comic strip cruised along with a decent number of papers, and new clients seemed to generally compensate, or even outnumber, cancellations. Client papers tended to stick with the strip over the long haul, showing an evident reader appreciation. But in 1973 the Chicago Tribune dropped the strip from their own pages, and that's seldom a good sign. Despite what seems like a still reasonably healthy client list, the strip retired to the 19th hole on February 2 1974**, falling just short of the two decade mark.

If Keefer or Lansky ever explained why the strip was cancelled, I can't find it. Has anyone got the straight skinny on this unexplained end to a reasonably popular strip? 

 * Source: Chicago Tribune.

** Source: Tampa Times.

Labels: Under The Radar

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

Here's a card for the traveller who is lonely and homesick. This is from Grace Drayton's long series for Reinthal & Newman, and this card is -- I think -- coded #249. Hard to tell as the first number is smudged on my card. The card was postally used in 1914 by a lonesome traveller, and I know it because it says so in the message on the back.

Labels: Wish You Were Here

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