Stripper's Guide

After a loooong layoff I'm finally getting back to compiling the list of Editor & Publisher mystery strips. For those of you who are new here, a capsule explanation. E&P has printed an annual directory of syndicated features, including comic strips and cartoon panels, ever since 1924. Some of the features documented there are very obscure, possibly to the point that they never actually ran in any US newspaper. What I'm looking for from you, fellow researchers and comics fans, is documentary proof that any of these listed features did indeed run in US newspapers. If you have a newspaper tearsheet of any of these features or other equivalently concrete documentary proof, get it to me and you will in return get a goodie box of cool comic strip related goodies for your trouble.

Today we cover the mystery strips of the letter J:

Jack And Tyler - Mark Tonra - King Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1995 (Found! in Deseret News)
Jack Knife & T. Spoon - Sarge O'Neill - Southern Cartoon Syndicate - 1970-78
Jackie - Al Smith - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1951-52 (turns out this is the original title of Smith's "Rural Delivery", which is not a mystery strip)
Jackson's Law - Pedro Moreno - United Cartoonist Syndicate - 1981-84
Jason - Foster Moore - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1993-99
Jasper of the Jungle - Eric Erickson - George Matthew Adams Service - daily strip - 1948-50
Jellybean - Bennett and Burkhardt - Press Alliance - weekly panel - 1982
Jennifer - Art Gates - Gates Features - weekly panel - 1968-69
Jericho Jones - Stephen Graham and Kirk Luehrs - Telefriends - daily strip - 1974-76 (found - apparently an alternate title of "Pilgrims")
Jerry Junior Air Warden - Al Zere - Bell Syndicate - daily strip - 1942
Jerry Dare - Clark de Ball - United Features - daily - 1933
Jerry The Giraffe - Ralph Matz - Matz Features - daily panel - 1945
Jes' Smith - Johnny Pierotti - Columbia Features - daily strip - 1953-73 (Hans Kiesl found Greensburg Tribune ran two weeks of syndicate samples -- still looking for a more substantial run on this one)
Jest A Moment - Hugh Kennedy and Bert Nelson - Buffalo Courier-Express Syndicate - daily panel - 1962-64
Jest For Fun - Christine Decker - Lloyd James Williams - daily panel - 1937
Jest For Laffs - Audie Bransford - Centurion Press - daily and Sunday panel - 1972-79
Jest For Laughs - Paul Fung Jr. - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1978-83
Jest For You - Robert Orben - Comedy Center - weekly panel - 1977
Jewish Panorama - Sauberman - Seven Arts Features - weekly strip - 1935
Jill And Judy - Gene McNerney - Watkins Syndicate - daily strip - 1938-40
Jimmy Rivers' Adventures - Joe Buresch - Matz Features - daily strip - 1937
Joe Blow - William J. Miller - Miller News Services - daily panel - 1939
Joe Briggs - Dennis Austin - Bell Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1948
Joe Fann - C.T. Jones - American International Syndicate - daily panel - 1980-81
Joe Gish - Terry Gilkison - Publishers Autocaster Service - weekly panel - 1930-34 Found! by D.D. Degg in the Cass City (MI) Chronicle - thanks DD!
Joe And Judy - Walsh - National Catholic Welfare Conference - weekly strip - 1940-57
John Dough - Susan Wyatt - Mid-Continent Features - thrice weekly - 1976-77
The John Smiths - Harold Magin - Federated Press - weekly strip - 1937-40 (Found! by Hans Kiesl in Kenosha Labor and other labor newspapers)
Johnnie Jones - Bill Savage - Federated Press - weekly strip - 1946
Johnny Scribe - Schaub - Thompson Service - daily strip - 1933-34
The Jones Sisters Ed Gillum - The Comic Factory - weekly - 1991-93
Joshua Trust - Cash Orcutt - Crown Syndicate - Sunday strip - 1960 (ran in Shopping Bag/Family Funnies, a weekly magazine distributed in southern California supermarkets and was done by Russ Manning under this pseudonym)
Judge Pudge - David Watkins - Suzerain Syndicate - daily strip - 1992-93
Julian of the Jungle - Frederick Toran - Editorial Board Syndicate - weekly strip - 1967-68
Julius - Harry, Joan and Nelson - Oceanic Press Service - weekly strip - 1982-94
Junior - Bob Moore - Nationwide Features - daily panel - 1949-50 [Charles Thompson supplies proof that Nationwide was a producer of advertising strips; not eligible for SG listing]
Junior Hall of Fame - Kenneth Cromwell - Junior Features - daily strip - 1935-37
Juniors Viewpoint - C. Mozier - Associated Press - daily strip - 1935
Just Add Walter - Tim Faherty - King Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1992 [found! in Lakeland Ledger]
Just Imagine - Fola - Transworld Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1952-58
Just Like Junior - Stan Asch - McClure Syndicate - daily panel - 1937-38
Just Once - Bob Orso - Feature Associates - weekly - 1979-80
Just So Happened - Kern Pederson - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1980 [found! as "It Just So Happened" in Marengo Beacon-News]
Just For Fun - Ram Onas - Sun News Features - daily panel - 1960-63

More mystery strips, today the letter G.

G. Whiskers - Geoffrey Foladeri - Press Alliance - daily strip - 1940-58 (found! by Cole Johnson in NY Post, SF Chronicle, New Hampshire's L'Avenir Nationale)
Galloping Galaxies - Lillian Bono - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1983-84
G.R.A.B. - David Dunning, Sally Wilson - self-syndicated - weekly panel - 1978-79
Gabby Flynn - Ken Ernst - Watkins Syndicate - weekly strip - 1939
Gabe & Loki - Ross Bunch - Centurion Press - daily strip - 1972-78
The Games Afoot, The Sherlock Holmes Crime Scene Chronicle - Howard Bender, Jack Harris - Singer Media - 1996-2003 (Ray Bottorff Jr. reports that Bender says it never sold in the US, just in Europe)
Garden State Digest - Gar Schmitt - self-syndicated - weekly panel - 1969
Gargoyle And Gadget - E.B. Sullivan - National Newspaper Syndicate - daily strip - 1936-45
General Friendship - McCann & Tepper - United Feature Syndicate - Sunday strip - 1946
Generation Gap - Kennison Keene - Community & Suburban Press - weekly panel - 1971 (found! in Nashua Reporter)
Geographic Oddities - Leon A. Dickinson - Queen Features - weekly panel - 1939
George - George Wolfe - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1969
George And Jacques - Adrian Raeside - Miller Services - daily strip - 1979 (Charles Brubaker asked Raeside about this strip, turns out in ran only in the Toronto Star, thus doesn't qualify for Stripper's Guide indexing)
Georgi - Sharaga Caltoon - American Internation Syndicate - weekly strip - 1992-94
Geraldine - Mike Rose - Atlas Features - weekly strip - 1951-59
Geriatrix - Paul Norris, Lyle Swigart - Copley News Service - weekly panel - 1978-85 (existence verified by DD Degg in Oswego County Messenger - thanks DD!)
Gerties Gig - Suzanne Farrow - LA Times Syndicate - daily panel - 1976 (found! by Ray Bottorff Jr. in Ventura County Star, but it is a later self-syndicated version. Still looking for an LA Times version)
The Ghost Rider - Stanley Matz - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1939
Ghoulsville - Peter Garvey - Trans World News - daily panel - 1976
Giggle Gags - Cecil Danner - Paramount Syndicate - daily panel - 1938
The Gilmore Brothers' Music Scene - Douglas and Keith Gilmore - Telstar - weekly strip - 1975 Miscategorized -- was a text column feature. Thanks Ray Bottorff Jr!
Ginger - Gene McNerney Jr - Watkins Syndicate - daily strip - 1936
Ginger Blue - Al Carreno - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1954 Found! by JohnAdcock in Hory County News
Gino - Gene Machamer - self-syndicated - daily panel - 1982-91
Girl About Town - Melisse - United Feature Syndicate - daily panel - 1936
Glamorettes - Woody Kimbrell - General Features - daily panel - 1950
Gleeb - Paul Lowney - Copley News Service - weekly panel - 1981-85 FOUND! by D.D. Degg in Oswego County Messenger
Glombo - Glen Sherman - Humor Books Syndicate - daily strip - 1995-96
Going Down - Leonard Bruce - Leoleen-Durck Creations - daily strip - 1982-92
Going West -Frank Thomas - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1951-54 (aka Hossface Hank?)
Goldbrick & Company - Tom Gibb - Exmark News Service - weekly strip - 1980
The Golden Age - Robert Hoover - Dispatch Features - thrice weekly panel - 1968-74
Golden Spurs - W. O'Forest - Jones Syndicate - Sunday strip - 1940
Goo-Gags - Pat Pending - King Features Syndicate - daily panel - 1926
The Good Old Days - Walter Schwimmer - Feature Sales Syndicate - daily panel - 1938
Goodbyland - Charles Biro, George Nagle, Bob Wood - ? - Sunday strip - 1937-38
Goofy Golf - H.C. Weagant - King Features Syndicate - daily panel - 1926 (found! in Port Arthur News)
Goomer - Nacho & Ricardo - Creators Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1992
Gopher Hole Gazette - Evans - Harper Features - weekly panel - 1934 (turned out to be an illustrated column and thus not eligible for SG listing)
Grace And Looie - Al Wiseman - LA Times Syndicate - daily panel - 1966,73
Gramps - Patrick Rice - American Way Features - daily strip - 1987
Grandfather Clause - Chris Wright - Creators Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 2000-01 FOUND! existence verified by Charles Brubaker; thanks Charles!
Grandpa Noah - Gus Edson - Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate - weekly strip - 1955 (verified - replaced Cousin Juniper as topper to The Gumps)
Great Little Lovers - Grace Drayton - DP Syndicate - weekly strip - 1926
Great Moments - Dick Leahy - Continental News Service - weekly strip - 1995-present
The Great Pierre - Marc Swayze - Bell Syndicate - daily strip - 1956 (DD Degg says Swayze in Alter Ego article said the strip never sold)
Green Force Five - Osvaldo Blanco, Miguel Repetto, Alfredo Grassi - King Features Syndicate - daily strip - 1985-87
Green Scene - Pat Hines - Richard Lynn Enterprises - daily panel - 1978
Greenhouse Effect - Jeff Barfoot - Paradigm-TSA - daily and Sunday strip - 1999
Greenwood - Keith M. Manzella - self-syndicated - daily and weekly strip - 1988-94
Greg-Jim Humorous Adventures - Gregory Clarke, Jim Frise - Star Newspaper Service - weekly - 1938-40 (apparently a text story series with illustration, and therefore not eligible)
Grimes the Butler - Joe Busciglio - Publishers Feature Service - weekly panel - 1946-49 (found by Ray Bottorff Jr. in a number of papers but turns out it is a syndicated ad strip -- see comments below -- oh, and it seems to have pretty much run its course in 1946-47)
Gripes And Grins - Lin Streeter - Associated Newspapers - daily panel - 1945 (found! by Ray Bottorff Jr. in Tacoma News-Tribune and a few others)
Ground Zero - Tim Haggerty - United Feature Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1987 (Found! in LA Times)
Grumps - Roger Price - Manson Western Syndicate - daily panel - 1976
Guess Who - William Feld - Stuyvesant Feature Syndicate - weekly panel - 1970
Gully Foyle - Reginald and Stanley Pitt - Ledger Syndicate - Sunday strip - 1967-71 (Art Lortie and Steven Rowe both say it was never successfully sold - case closed!)
Gunther - John Roman - McNaught Syndicate - daily strip - 1980-81

Labels: Mystery Strips

Time for another letter of the mystery strips. If you don't know what this is about, look down about 5 posts for an explanation (I gotta figure out how to use those permalinks one of these days). EDIT - figured it out, here's the link.

C.B. Gordon - Mark Der Marderosian - Dickson-Bennett - weekly strip - 1981-82
Cactus Gal - Jack O'Brien - Nationwide Features - daily panel - 1949-50 [Charles Thompson supplies proof that Nationwide was a producer of advertising strips; not eligible for SG listing]
Campaign Button - Kearney Egerton - Interocean Press Syndicate - daily panel - 1972
Campus Laughter - Pedro Moreno - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily panel - 1979-84
Can It Be Done? - Ray Gross - self-syndicated - daily panel - 1934-39 [Found! by Robert Brooke in Boynton Index]
Can You Imagine - Art Radebaugh - General Features - daily panel - 1947
The Candy Man - Bill Murray - Minority Features - weekly - 1981-present
Cap'n Kadd - Pat Anderson - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1970-75
Cap'n Knot - Howard Swift - Russell Enterprises - daily strip - 1968-69
Capitaine Bonvent - P.J. Kuhn - Douglas Whiting Ltd - daily strip - 1965-69
Capital Carnival - Gerald A. Bennett - Dickson-Bennett - weekly strip - 1979
Capital Hills - Jack Anderson and Mort Gerberg - United Feature - daily and Sunday strip - 1982
Captain Wings - Flowers - Editors Press Service - daily and Sunday strip - 1946-47
Captain Skid - Richard Benavidez - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily - 1988
Captain Cockle - Peter Garvey - Transworld News Service - daily panel - 1976
Captain Flame - Pat Boyette, Bruce Darrow, Don Sherwood - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1954-58 (Found! by John Adcock in Horry County News)
Captain Flight - Ray Tobin, Bob Robson - Allied Features - daily strip - 1945-46
Captain Freedom - Farrell - Allied Features - Sunday - 1941
Cargo Smith, Navy Seal - Bill Barry - Adventure Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1996-97
Caricatoons - Buzz Gambill - self-syndicated - weekly panel - 1995-present
Carol Day - David Wright - Piccadilly Press - daily strip - 1966-69 (looking for proof that it ran in US)
Cars And Stars - Ray McNamara - Christy Walsh Syndicate - weekly panel - 1926 [Alex Jay found this -- it's a photo and column feature, not a cartoon of any kind, so miscategorized by E&P]
The Cartoon Bug - John Gallagher - Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate - weekly strip - 1970-74
Cartoon Comedy Club - John Shepherd - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1994-95
Castles In The Sand - Henrik Rehr - At Large Features - daily strip - 2001-02
Catesby - William Ferguson - Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate - Sunday strip - 1952-53 [found by Todd Hillmer - thanks Todd!]
Caught In The Act - Horace Knight - Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate - thrice per week panel - 1956
Chameleon - Al Wiseman - Altair Inc. - daily strip - 1973
Channel Jockeys - Phil Evans and Jim Asher - Wheller-Evans - daily strip - 1977-78
The Chargers - Ross Bunch - Grand Prix Features - daily strip - 1971-78
Charley - Nathan Diggs - Amadou Features - weekly panel - 1973
Charley Sez - David Brown - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1974-75
Charley The Chump - Jim Navoni - Wheeler-Nicholson - daily strip - 1926
Cheerful Earful - Hazel Duncan - Fortune Features - weekly panel - 1948
Chester - William Hatch and Tony Ortiz - Feature Service - daily strip - 1991-2002
Chickita - Ed Hechtman - Dickson-Bennett - daily panel - 1984
Chip's Place - L. Stuchkus - Dickson Bennett - daily strip - 1980-81
Chris The Li'l Martian - Pedro Moreno - Transworld News Service - daily strip - 1976-82, 1993-94
Christina Anders - Robert Acomb - Chicago Sun-Times - daily strip - 1950 (turns out to just be an alternate name for "Jack and Judy in Bibleland")
Christopher Strong - Bill Scott and Jim Seed - Register & Tribune Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1950
Chubby - Guy Hooks - Agnes Kelleher - daily panel - 1937
Chuck And Sally Ann - Rhoda Burton - Allied Features - daily strip - 1979
Church Chuckles - Charles Cartwright - Chicago Tribune/Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1959-97 [Found! by Alex Jay in Wichita Times]
The Circle - Aaron Kerns - Universal Press Syndicate - daily strip - 1970 [Found! by Jeffrey Lindenblatt in Minneapolis Star and Philadelphia Daily News]
Citizen George - George Wolfe - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1970-73
Citizen Senior - Dave Berg - Whitegate Features - daily - 1989-93
Clancy Boys - Dan Cortor - Dickson-Bennett - daily panel - 1983-84
Classic Stories - uncredited - Ledger Syndicate - daily strip - 1950
Classie Addie - Ellen Conner and Lorene Rutherford - Agnes Kelleher - daily panel - 1939 (Found! by Cliff Erickson in the Altus Times-Democrat. Thanks Cliff!)
Claude Hopper - Lorna Caviness - R-GAB Features - daily panel - 1980-82
Clean Ups - Richard Johnson - Richmond Syndicate - weekly panel - 1976
Clem's Best - Clem Scalzitti - Dickson-Bennett - daily panel - 1981
Click - Gordon Shepard - World News Syndicate - daily panel - 1973
Clipper - L.F. Van Zelm - Globe Syndicate - daily strip - 1950
Clipper Williams On Courage Island - Dick Calkins - National Newspaper Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1937-38 (turns out to be an alternate title for Skyroads)
Close-Ups - Hinderer and Leitner - Wade Allen Syndicate - daily panel - 1968 [Found! by Charles Brubaker in Red Bluff Daily News; thanks Charles!]
Coby's Corner - Dick Smith - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1991-93 (sorta found -- ran VERY sporadically in Orem-Geneva Times in 1991-93, not often enough to qualify as a regular series -- still looking for regul,ar appearances)
Codgie - H.F. Voorhees - National Newspaper Syndicate - daily strip - 1924
Coffee-Oddities - C.M. Payne - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1938
Colonel Hush - Theodore Scheel - Queen Features - weekly strip - 1939
Colonel Cracker - Lloyd James Williams - Thompson Service - daily panel - 1931-33
The Colonials - Richards and Wetherholy - Gordon Langley Hall News Service - daily and Sunday strip - 1967
Color Blind - Orrin Brewster - Creators Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1999 FOUND! by Charles Brubaker; thanks Charles!
Comet Bill - uncredited - Press Alliance - weekly strip - 1940
Comigraph - W.F. Peters - Publishers Feature Service - weekly panel - 1946-49
Concrete Jungle - Dale Patterson - Copley News Service - weekly panel - 1982 FOUND! by D.D. Degg in Oswego County Messenger
Condemonium - Lee Martin - McNaught Syndicate - daily panel - 1981
Congressman Dripp - Ben Youman - Federated Press - weekly panel - 1946-56
Consolidated Enormous - Bob Zahn - Feature Associates - weekly - 1980
Cookie Pushers - Buford Tune - EAS - weekly strip - 1930-34
Cooking With Gags - Bob Archer - Royal News Syndicate - weekly panel - 1949
Copp Twins - D. Orme - Jolyon Features - daily strip - 1939
Copy Boy/Copy Cub - Homer Fey - Western Newspaper Union - weekly panel - 1947-50
Copycats - Robert Ranger - Transworld News Service - daily strip - 1978
Cornflakes - Nellis Johnson - Superior Features - weekly strip - 1978-81
Cosgrove - Martin Duffy - Transworld News Service - daily panel - 1976-78
Cosmic Critters - Jim George - Dispatch Features - daily strip - 1966
Count of Monte Cristo - Jack Cortez - Eisner-Iger Associates - weekly strip - 1938-40
Coupons - Bob Vojtko - Pat Anderson Features - daily panel - 1976
Courthouse Squares - John Jarvis - Community Press Service - 1973,76,78,81-82,2001-present Found! in McHenry Plaindealer
Cowboy Joe - Joe Buresch - Unique Features - daily strip - 1938
The Cowboy - Gloria Jacquart - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily - 1987-89
Cranberry Cafe - Tom Roy - Creators Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 2000
Crazy Quilt - Courtney Dunkel - Independent Features - weekly panel - 1965
Crazy Zoo - Hsaio Yen Chung - Sparks Syndication - weekly - 1991
Cringely - Al Fagaly and Harry Shorten - McClure Syndicate - Sunday strip - 1946
Critters - Jerry Cardona - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily panel - 1980-84
The Critters - Gene Patterson - Allied Features - daily panel - 1969-71
Croaker (aka Crocker?) - John Jarvis - Community Press Service - weekly panel - 1983-2002
Crosby's Country Cousins - Joe Buresch and Abe Crosby - Crosby Newspaper Syndicate - daily strip - 1938-42
Cross Bones - Bob Ashley - Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1974
Cross-Cuts - L.L. Cross - Fact Features - weekly panel - 1936-38
Crosscut - Morrie Brickman - National Newspaper Syndicate - daily panel - 1957-62 [turns out to be continuation of "Do It Yourself" -- thanks D.D. Degg for the info!]
Crowe's Feats - J.D. Crowe - Copley News Service - weekly strip - 1986-88 [found! by Charles Brubaker in a bunch of papers. Thanks Charles!]
Crowley Chronicle - Pat Crowley - Copley News Service - weekly strip - 1987-94 [found! by Ray Battorff Jr. but only a few isolated examples -- still looking for a paper that gave it regular appearances]
Cuff & Rubin - Curt Brando - American International Syndicate - daily strip - 1993-94
Curior-Rarezas - John Harvey - Inter-American Syndicate - daily panel - 1934
Curious Creatures - Richard Addison - King Features - daily panel - 1930-31 [Found! in Boston American]
Curious Facts - C.J. Petersen - Matz Unique Features - daily strip - 1935
Curley's Cranes - Roger Curley - Allied Features - daily - 1972
Cy Cylinder - Bob Moore - Nationwide Features - Sunday panel - 1949-50 [Charles Thompson supplies proof that Nationwide was a producer of advertising strips; not eligible for SG listing]
Cybil Action - Dibble and Hatch - Feature Service - daily - 1991-92
Cynth Hiddle - Wing - Johnson Features - daily panel - 1925
Cyril - Bob Battle - Transworld Features - daily strip - 1952-55

Labels: Mystery Strips

Here are the mystery strip B listings. Read yesterday's post to see what this whole mess is about.

I'm going to stop with B for a few days to see what sort of response comes in. Putting together a letter's worth of listings takes anywhere from 2 - 6 hours, so it's a major time investment. I'd like to see if the investment has any dividends...

Babs & Aldo - Buddy Valentine - King Features - daily/Sunday strip - 2003 (found! ran in Deseret Morning News - thanks to Charles Brubaker)
Baby Bee - Garcia - RDR Syndicate - daily panel - 1983
Baby Lynn - Tony Marchese - Trans-World - weekly panel - 1978
Bac Talk - Bob Howard - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1973
Bachelor Bill - Bill O’Malley - Independent Features - daily panel - 1965
Bachelor Party - Adam Miller - Creators Syndicate - daily panel - 2002-03 (found! by Charles Brubaker in Salt Lake Tribune -- albeit running only selected dailies on Sundays)
Bachelors - George Castillo - United Cartoonists - daily strip - 1988
Back Home - Homer Box - Editors Copy Syndicate - weekly strip - 1986-present
Backfire! - George Leeds and Henry Riddick - Family Features - daily panel - 1948-49
Bad Example - Carlton Winford - self-syndicated - daily panel - 1971
Bad Libs - Ronald Boerem - Danny Ball Productions - weekly strip - 1978-79
The Baffles - Mahoney - National Weekly Newspaper Service - weekly panel - 1956-62 (found! in Soda Springs (ID) Sun)
The Bag Line - H.F.Voorhees - Dille - weekly panel - 1925
Ballads Of Classified Clara - Clarence W. Payne - CP Syndicate - daily panel - 1936
Balloonatics - Ernest Hix - Bell Syndicate - daily panel - 1948
Balloonatiks - Mark Gandy and Fred Goodman - Animagic - daily strip - 1996-97
Baloney - Martin Duffy - Trans-World - daily panel - 1976-78
Bannister Babies - Constance Bannister - Columbia Features - thrice weekly panel - 1972
Barbs & Brickbats - Allen and Owen Richardson - Dickson Features - weekly panel - 1979
Bargain Daze - Harley Schwadron - Davy Associates - weekly panel - 1990-present
Barkis And Family - Crockett Johnson - George Matthew Adams - daily panel - 1955 (FOUND! in Oakland Tribune)
Barklay - Laing - Interpress - daily strip - 1973
Barnacle - Alexander Monroe - Singer - weekly strip - 1978
Barnacle And His Friends - Alex Moore - Oceanic Press Service - weekly panel - 1983-95
Barnstormers - Frank Tabor - Trans-World - daily panel - 1976-81
The Barnyard Gate - Sarge O’Neill - Southern - daily strip - 1970-78
Baron Nobux - Jack Thomas - Queen Features - daily strip - 1939
Barring None - Burck - Chicago Times - daily panel - 1941
Barry Finn - Tarpe Mills - Watkins Syndicate (Brooklyn Eagle) - weekly strip - 1939
Basic Nature - Dick Lancaster - Continental - weekly panel - 1995
Batch - Marty Bartels and Bill Lane - Chicago Sun-Times - daily strip - 1994-95
Baz And Company - Mike Higgs - News America - daily panel - 1993
Be A Detective - Bruce Patterson - Matz Features - daily strip - 1937
Be A Sport - Jim Janeway - American International - daily strip - 1992-94
Beaker - Leonard Bruce - Leoleen Durck Creations - daily strip - 1991-92
Beat This - Tip Brady - McClure Syndicate - daily panel - 1958
Beau Geste - P.C. Wren - Register & Tribune Syndicate - daily strip - 1933-34 (never mind -- turns out this is an alternate title for Flying To Fame)
Beau Peep - Andrew Christine and Roger Kettle - The Syndicate - daily strip - 1987-90
Beauregard - Jack Davis - McClure Syndicate - daily strip - 1961 (Ger Apeldoom says the strip didn't sell, ran in a humor magazine instead)
Beautiful! - Charles Bowen and Barbara Jones - Allied Features - daily panel - 1977-86 (found! by Jeffrey Lindenblatt in Indianapolis News)
Beautyettes - Aldine Swank - Associated Features - daily panel - 1935 (note: name is a pseudonym of Faith Burrows)
Becky - Frank Tabor - Anderson Features - weekly strip - 1970
Becky’s Senior - Evans Krehbiel - Weekly Features - daily strip - 1986-89
Bee Smart - John Prinkey - Other Dimensions - daily strip - 1971-79
The Beehive - editors of Childlife - Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate - Sunday strip - 1957-61
Beep-Beep - Robert Leduc - Service Offset de Presse - daily and Sunday panel - 1968-71
Begger - Ken Muse - Dickson-Bennett - weekly strip - 1982
Belly Laughs - Sarge O'Neill - Southern Cartoon Syndicate - daily strip - 1970-73
Benny Kukoe - T.J. Garlan - Thompson Service - daily - 1932
Berenstain Bears - Stan & Jan Berenstain - King Features - daily panel - 1982
Berserkers of the 21st Century - Bob Tuna - Lew Little Enterprises - daily and Sunday strip - 1998 (creator tells me that the strip has so far appeared online only)
Bert 'n' Gert - Jack Levin - General Features - daily strip - 1954 (found! turns out to be continuation of "Hands 'n' Faces")
Best Years - Ed Heckman - American International Syndicate - daily strip - 1992-94
Best of Church Humor - Jack Hamm - Religious Drawings Inc - Sunday - 1960 (not the same as Church Humor from the 1970s)
Best Of Press - L. Hughes - Editors Copy Syndicate - weekly panel - 1976
Bettey And Her Pals - William Miller - Unique Features - daily panel - 1945
Betty Blurbs - J.C. Beesley - King Features - daily panel - 1929-30 (FOUND! in Lethbridge Herald)
Betty Botch and Bob Botch (listed separately) - Mel Millar - Pat Anderson Features - weekly panel - 1972-75
Betty Brighteyes - Bill Seidcheck - General Features - weekly strip - 1937-42 [found! by Art Lortie in Hastings News]
Betty Lee - Ralph Matz - Matz Features - daily strip - 1935-38
Between Us Girls - Ashton Wing - Allied Feature - daily panel - 1964-69
Bi-Focals - Ruth Marcus - McNaught Syndicate - daily and Sunday panel - 1977 (found! in Clearfield Progress)
Bible Stories in Color - La Sorgente - Spadea Syndicate - weekly strip - 1973-75
Bible Story - Glen Cassel - American International - daily strip - 1990-94
Bible Today - M. Roget - Mark Morgan Inc - weekly panel - 1970-72
Bibs - Mickey Jai and Martin Kormic - Dickson Bennett - daily panel - 1982
Big Boss & Company - Richard Davies - Community Features - weekly panel - 1980
Big Boy - Ferd Himme - Lowery Cartoon Corp - weekly panel - 1932
Big Brother - Clem Scalzetti - Dickson-Bennett - weekly strip - 1980-82
Big Feet - Pedro Moreno - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily panel - 1979-85
Big Flat City - Richard Kolkman - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1994-97 (FOUND! Creator reports it ran in college papers 1988-96)
Big Foot - Robert Beasley - Danny Ball Productions - daily strip - 1979
Big Little Things - Walter Galli and Dick Thomas - Watkins Syndicate - weekly strip - 1936
Big Moments - Ving Fuller - self-syndicated - daily panel - 1950
Big Town Follies - Mike Gray and Bob Moore - Nationwide Features - weekly panel - 1949-50 [Charles Thompson supplies proof that Nationwide was a producer of advertising strips; not eligible for SG listing]
Big World Of Little Things - Alfred O. Shedd - Science Service - weekly panel - 1927
Bigg's Business - Bob Zahn - Centurion Press and others - daily panel - 1972-79 and 1990-present (found in Syracuse Post-Standard, 1972-76 only; in 1979 Zahn said he was no longer producing the feature)
Bill And Hazel - Harlan Wade - Transworld News Service - daily panel - 1978
Bill Bunker - Henry Formhals - United Feature - unknown - 1933
Billy And His Dog/Billy The Kid - Lloyd James Williams - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1939-40
Billy The Beaver - James Rodriguez - Comic Art Therapy - daily - 1993-95
Bing And His Buddies - Ed Brennon - General Features - weekly strip - 1937-42 [found! by Art Lortie in Hastings News]
Bizness Peepul - W.O. Evans Jr - Thompson Service - thrice weekly panel - 1933-34
Bizz And Biff - F.H. Cumberworth - Watkins Syndicate - daily strip - 1940
Black Bart - Dick Locher - Winford Co. - daily - 1971
Black Sheep - W.A. Dillard - Columbia Inc - daily strip - 1935
Black And White - Weihrauch - Select Features - daily panel - 1948
Blaze Braden - Paul Morgan - Crown Features - Sunday strip - 1960
Blisters - Jeb Ladouceur and Neel Roth - Transworld News Service - daily strip - 1978
Blockheads - John Gile - Register & Tribune Syndicate - daily panel - 1979
Bloop - Joseph Morton - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily - 1988
Bob Bannon - Prentice Phillips and Ray Tucker - Ray Gross Features - daily panel - 1938
Bob Sledd - Stuart Welsh - McClure Syndicate - daily strip - 1928
Bobby Babysitter - Ron Fritz - American International - daily strip - 1992-94
Bodities - Dr. Kruidenier - Esquire Features - daily panel - 1939
Boids - Peter Garvey - Transworld News Service - daily panel - 1976
Boldo Inc - Steve Moore - Star Group - weekly panel - 1984-85
Bonzer U - Kearney Egerton - LA Times Syndicate - daily strip - 1968
Boomers - Kent Whitaker - Kentoons - thrice weekly panel - 1994-97
The Boomers - William Feld - Stuyvesant Syndicate - weekly strip - 1970
Boosterville - Leonard Bruce and Douglas Nelson - Leoleen-Durck Creations - daily strip - 1985-86
Born Lucky - Bruce Plante - Universal Press - weekly panel - 2001-present (found! verified by creator Bruce Plante)
Bossy The Rooster - R.S. Matz - Unique Features - daily strip - 1946
Botony Boy - David B. Wood - Transworld News Service - weekly strip - 1977-78
The Brain Trust - Jack Roman - Press-Craft Features - weekly panel - 1978
Brain Wave - Ed Wilkens - Transworld News Service - weekly panel - 1978
Brass Tacks - Nick Frising - Allied Features - daily panel - 1978-86
Breaker, Breaker - J.W. Lynch and Mike MacCormack - Copley News Service - daily strip - 1977
Brother Simon And Lucas - Pedro Moreno - Transworld News Service - daily strip - 1976-88, 93-94
Brothers-In-Law - Jacquin - Premier Syndicate - daily strip - 1926 just a messed up listing in E&P -- this is an already documented strip by Darrell McClure
Brothers-In-Law - Edward Bryant - self-syndicated - weekly - 1991-92
Buccaneers - Al Ciederman - American International Syndicate - daily strip - 1989
Bucksaw - Randy Muir - American International Syndicate - daily strip - 1987
Bud 'n' Bub - Ed Kressy - Publishers Autocaster - weekly strip - 1931 DD Degg found this strip running in Cass City (MI) Chronicle - thanks DD!
Bud Broker - KmC - Feature Associates - daily - 1984
Buffo - Howard Rands - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1989-91
Buford - John Marshall - Syndicated Newspaper Services - daily strip - 1982
Buford's North Forty - Chris Carr - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1986
Bug - Rand Renfore - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily - 1985-87
Bug Movies - Stookie Allen - EAS - weekly strip - 1930-34
Bugwine - Arthur Akers and Dudely Williams - Allied Features - daily strip - 1935
Builders Of America - George (Jimmie) Smith - Transatlantic News Features - ? - 1942
The Bumbles - Al Smith - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1982-83 [found! in Burleson Star by Charles Brubaker. Thanks Charles!]
The Bumpalumpkins - Robert J. Alberts - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily - 1987-88
Bumper T. Bumper - Robert Laughlin - Transworld News Service - daily - 1979
Bumpy - C.D. Russell - Famous Features - daily strip - 1925
Bus - Woody Gelman - Solomon & Gelman - daily strip - 1947
Bush League - John Bianchi and Ken Shaw - LA Times Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1975
Bush League Barry - Victor Pazimino - EAS - weekly strip - 1930-34
Business Card - Anne and Gene Bass - Cartoonist & Writers Syndicate - thrice weekly - 1992
Business As Usual - Harley Schwadron - Allied Press International - daily panel - 1980-81
Buster - Aaron Bacall - Transworld News Service - daily strip - 1976-77
Buster And Lester - Virgil Maldonado Jr - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily - 1986-87
Butter And Eggs - Norcross - Wheeler-Nicholson - daily panel - 1926
Butterball - Bill Danch - Select Features - daily panel - 1957-62
Button's Bunch - Ford Button - Dickson-Bennett - daily and Sunday strip - 1980-86
Button-Up - Ford Button - R-GAB Features - daily panel - 1980
Button-A-Day - Ed Moore - United Feature - daily panel - 1972-73
Buzz And Biff - F.H. Cumberworth - Watkins Syndicate - daily strip - 1939
Buzzy - Brian White - Watkins Syndicate - daily strip - 1935-36
By George - George Callahan - Dickson-Bennett - daily strip - 1982
By Murphy's Law - Robert Howell - Journal Syndicate - daily - 1982-86

Labels: Mystery Strips

More mystery strips - today is 'I' for 'I dunno'! As always, provide proof that any of these ran in U.S. newspapers and win a great package of comic strip goodies. (SORRY - as of 2018 goodie boxes are sadly no longer available - I now live in Canada and our postal rates are so outrageous that I cannot afford to send out goodie boxes - SORRY!)

I Like You Because - Naida - Dickson Feature Service - daily strip - 1979
I'm Telling You - Proctor Brown, Irwin Kostin - Associated Midwest Newspaper Syndicate - daily panel - 1937
I.D. Clare - W.F. Peters - Publishers Feature Service - weekly panel - 1946-49
Idiosyntrics - R.S. Broughton, Proctor Brown - Associated Midwest Newspaper Syndicate - daily panel - 1937
If I Had My Way - Kern Pederson - Trans World News Service - weekly panel - 1976-78
Igor - Harry Privette - Boston Features - daily strip - 1985-87
Illustrated Crimes - Stookie Allen - Service For Authors - daily/weekly strip - 1933-39
Impressions - Emil Abrahamian - self-syndicated - daily/weekly panel - 1983-94
In Their Own Words - Paul Howle, Don O'Briant - Asterisk Features/United Features - Sunday panel - 1987-present [Charles Brubaker found, it is not a cartoon feature but a game with minor cartoon element]
In The Land Of Midnite Fun - Sarge O'Neill - Southern Cartoon Syndicate - daily panel - 1971
Inane Incidents - S.R. Vic - Better Features - daily panel - 1932
Indian Summer - John Zima - Atlas Features - weekly strip - 1951-59 (found! in Redwood Journal-Press-Dispatch)
Inklings - John Jarvis - Western Newspaper Union - weekly panel - 1949-50 (found! in Lime Springs Herald)
Inky - Hal Borden - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1961-65 [not a mystery after all; panels were actually titled Little Inky and were documented]
Inner Circle - Lochlan Field - Watkins Syndicate - weekly strip - 1939
Insight-Out - E.J. Myer - Winford Company - daily - 1971
Intimate Biographies - William Jacobson - Fox Features - weekly strip - 1929-30 (found! in Cincinnati Enquirer)
It Does Happen - Treve Collins - Thompson Service - daily panel - 1931-34
It Has Been Noted That... - Leshod - American International Syndicate - daily panel - 1996-97
It Just So Happened - Kern Pederson - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1978 (found! in Sequoyah County Times, and others. Thanks Brubaker!)
It's A Cockeyed World - Joe Kaliff - Republic Features - weekly panel - 1948-80
It's A Fact - Jerry Cahill - Atlas Features - weekly panel - 1948-59 (found! in Redwood Journal-Press-Dispatch)
It's A Laugh - Rube Weiss - Blackstone Press Features - weekly panel - 1971-76
It's A Living - Burdette Inch - John M. Meissner - daily panel - 1938
It's A Tough Life - Ed Hampton - American International Syndicate - daily strip - 1992-95
It's For You - Nick Frising - Allied Feature Syndicate - daily panel - 1982
It's Just As True Today - Franklin Van Zelm - Globe Syndicate - daily panel - 1948-50 (found by Bill Mullins in Chester Times and Sheboygan Press - thanks Bill!)
It's Love - Chuck & Gwen Bowen - Universal Press Syndicate - daily panel - 1972-73 (found in Sacramento Union)
It's Really Great - Charles Bowen, Barbara Jones - Allied Features - daily panel - 1985
It's Really A Racket - Cliff Durr, Charles Tepper - Allied Features Syndicate - daily strip - 1938
It's Your World - Ted Goff, Dan Harris - self-syndicated - daily and Sunday strip - 1985-86

The Al Smith Service was a small syndicate that produced material for weekly papers. Smith, better known for his many years of work on Mutt & Jeff, ran the company as a sideline. He got into the syndicate business in 1951 and managed to keep it going after practically all the other weekly syndicates had long ago bit the dust.

Syndicates that produced material for weekly newspapers were never a particularly lucrative business. Small papers paid small rates, often under $10 per week for a whole menu of features. Worse yet, the weeklies had a well-deserved reputation for not even paying those small bills, so syndicate owners were just as busy in collections as producing material.

Al Smith offered an entire weekly page of material, including upwards of a half-dozen comic strips. At rates of $5-10 per client you can imagine how even with a large subscriber base the contributors were paid a pittance. Smith, however, managed to put together a stable of excellent cartoonists that made the offerings of other weekly services look pretty dismal.

One of those fine features was Deems by Tom Okamoto, a Japanese-American cartoonist who went by the name Tom Oka on this strip. Okamoto was an animator with Disney before World War II, then was put into a relocation camp for the duration. I don't know if he continued in animation after the war, but I presume he did (animation buffs, a little help?).

Okamoto opted to do the strip in pantomime, a genre that most cartoonists consider the hardest type of feature to produce on an ongoing basis. Okamoto, though, seemed to have a wonderful knack for it. His pantomime gags rarely seem stale or trite, and he came across with a lot of real winners (I particularly like the last sample above where he adds a delightful twist to the old 'painted into a corner' gag).

How hard is pantomime? Jim Ivey once told me that he had a long-standing order from a well-known cartoonist responsible for such a feature. He begged Jim to gather every pantomime strips he could find, no matter what feature or what subject, and send everything to him with bills for whatever he felt was fair. The cartoonist was that desperate for pantomime gags that he could mine for his feature.

Anyhow, back to Deems. The strip was a charter member of Al Smith's syndicated weekly page in 1951 (and after all these years I'm still trying to determine the exact start date of the offering). Deems was such a standout that Smith also tried to sell it as a daily, something he very rarely tried. The daily offering went on until 1955, but I've only found one paper that ran it daily, the Pasadena Independent, and then apparently only for a short stretch in 1952.

Deems was a part of the Al Smith weekly offering until 1980, a run of thirty years. Quite a few of Smith's strips were in re-runs by the 1970s, and I don't know if Okamoto's strip was one of those. However, if Okamoto did actually produce the strip for daily frequency from 1951-55, the backlog for the weekly would have been enough to keep it going with new material even if Okamoto never put pen to Bristol board again after that year.

Labels: Obscurities

As you'll no doubt recall from previous installments of this series, the following features were all listed in the Editor & Publisher annual Syndicate Directory listings. Problem is that I have not been able to find these ones in any American newspaper. I'm looking for positive proof that (1) these features did indeed exist, (2) they are actually comics of some sort and weren't just mislabeled in E&P, and (3) they ran in U.S. newspapers. If you have any information about any mystery strip on this list please, please, please tell me all about it. And if you can provide positive proof that the mystery feature did indeed run in U.S. newspapers (a tearsheet is ideal proof) and qualifies for listing in the Stripper's Guide index, you can be the recipient of a goodie box chock full of all manner of comic strip ephemera -- could be reprint books, old tearsheets, magazines, original art or all of the above. Trust me that my goodie boxes do not disappoint! (SORRY - as of 2018 goodie boxes are sadly no longer available - I now live in Canada and our postal rates are so outrageous that I cannot afford to send out goodie boxes - SORRY!)

If you prefer to contact me privately rather than posting a comment on the blog, send it to strippersguide@gmail.com. Please be sure to mention Stripper's Guide in your subject line or I may miss your message in amongst all the spam.

Here's the mystery features starting with letter "P" as in "please get me off this list!". Each listing has the title, years advertised, creator(s), syndicate and format. Sorry, I'd put these in a more attractive tabular form, but Blogger plays havoc with tables:

P.J. Abominable, 1968, John Gallagher, United Feature Syndicate, daily strip
The PO Box, 1993-97, Earl T. Musick, self-syndicated, weekly (author says it sold primarily to specialty publications - thanks Earl!)
Pa and Abie, 1926, Russell, Wheeler-Nicholson, daily strip
Pa and Ma, 1926, Voorhees, John F. Dille, daily strip
Padded Cell, 1942, Charles J. Dunn, Watkins Syndicate, daily panel
Paddy Pigg, 1937, Richard Decker, Allied Features, daily and Sunday strip
A Page For Every Age, 1936, G. Melikov, Nu-Way Features, weekly strip
Pan-Dee-Monium, 1982, Jackson Gray, Mid-Continent Features, daily strip
Pandora, 1948, Kaye Spence, Press Features, daily panel
Panel of Fun, 1939, C. Decker, Bell SYndicate, daily panel
Pantomime, 1975, Sara Black, Spadea Syndicate, daily panel
Paperclips, 1981, Doug Brunner, Community Features, thrice weekly
Paradise Park, 1994-99, R. Claude, Singer Media, weekly strip
Parents Plus, 1968-69, Justin Manning, Four Corners Syndicate, weekly panel
Parking Space, 1931, Russell Askue, McClure Syndicate, daily panel
Party Gators, 1998-2004, Elaine Sandra Abramson, A&A, weekly strip
Party Ranks, 1986-87, Mike Pascal and Joe Stuart, JSA Publications, daily/weekly strip
Pat the Paris Shopper, 1932-35, Joan Carson, John F. Dille, daily strip (fashion feature?)
Patent Nonsense, 1999, Roy Doty, Paradigm-TSA, daily strip
The Patsy, 1933-34, Irma Harms, Thompson Service, daily strip
Patterson's People, 1968-73, Gene Patterson, Allied Features, daily panel
Patty Lee, 1933, Edwin Finch, Henle Features, daily
Peanut Butter Soup, 1990-92, Joe Amadeo and Tom Kerr, Syndicated News Service, weekly
Pebbles, 1951, Henry Boye, McClure Syndicate, daily panel
Pee Wee's Pencil, 1979, Joe Rice, Copley News Service, daily and Sunday panel (found by Charles Brubaker, activity panel, doesn't qualify for SG)
Peeping Tom, 1981, C. Crist, Globe Syndicate, weekly strip
Peg, Ann & Barbara, 1928-30, Mabel Whitney, International Syndicate, daily panel
The Pennypockets, 1939, Wes Dennis, Consolidated News Features, daily strip
People & Things, 1940, Prescott Chaplin, Bell Syndicate, daily/weekly strip (likely illustrated column)
PeraNormal, 1996-98, Jim Pera, Second Ring Syndicate, weekly strip
Percy's World, 1961, Howie Schneider, Page One Syndicate, daily strip
Perfect Couple, 1986, Rick Geary, Copley News Service, twice weekly strip
Peter Panic, 1973-2003, Lo Linkert, Singer Media, daily/weekly panel
Peter Pupp, 1937-39, Bob Kane, Eisner-Iger Associates, weekly strip
Petey, 1935, Lou Darvas, Thompson Service, daily panel
Pews, 1982-85, Joe McKeever, Copley News Service, weekly panel [Charles Brubaker reports that McKeever says he never saw the panel in print -- Copley told him they didn't know which papers, if any, actually ran it]
Phil Ossifer, 1934-36, Clyde Campbell and O. DeCaillet, Thompson Service, daily panel
Phillip's Flock, 1968-85, Doc Goodwin, Dispatch Features, Sunday strip (found in Columbus Dispatch, actually a weekly strip in daily format)
Phoney Photos, 1925, Bret Hart Jr., Readers Syndicate, daily panel
Phrog, 1985-86, George Albitz, Al Smith Service, weekly strip (Found! in Laurel Outlook)
Phyllis, 1939, Bernard Baily, Keystone Press Features, daily strip
Pig Newton, 1983, Mal Hancock, Field Newspaper Syndicate, daily panel/Sunday strip (found! in Philadelphia Daily News)
Pilot Storm, 1959-72, Henk Sprenger, Douglas Whiting, daily strip (Dutch - appeared in U.S.?)
Pinhead Pete, 1928-31, uncredited, Premier Syndicate, weekly panel (found! by Bill Mullins in Cleveland Plain Dealer and Portland Oregonian -- thanks Bill!)
Pinny and his Pals, 1937, Barney Bravman, Foreign Press Syndicate, daily/weekly strip
Pipe Dreams, 1957-63, Rud, Sun News Features, daily/Sunday panel
The Pit, 1957, Morris Turner, Pioneer Press Service, daily panel
Pixel, 1985, Frank Hill and Ted Mancuso, Al Smith Service, weekly strip
Playmates, 1924-25, Lloyd Jones and H.F. Voorhees, John F. Dille, daily strip
Plympton, 1978-81, Bill Plympton, self-syndicated/Universal Press Syndicate, weekly-4 times weekly panel (possibly political cartoon, originated in Soho Weekly News before syndication)
Pollutocrats, 1972, Larkin and Gordon, Allied Feature Syndicate, daily panel
Polly Esther, 1971, Ed McNally, Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate, daily panel
Polymericks, 1978, Steve McKinstry, Enterprise Features, 3 times weekly panel
Ponder This, 1965, Leonard Andrews, Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate, daily [Charles Brubaker finds this was a poetry feature, incorrectly categorized in E&P - thanks Charles]
Poor Little Rich Man, 1948, Courtney Dunkel, Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate, daily panel (found! by Michael Vassallo in New York News)
Pop Winters, 1935, Cliff Knight, Triton Syndicate, daily panel
Possum Holler, 1936, Boody Rogers, McClure SYndicate, daily strip
Pre-Columbian Mysteries, 1976, Mario Bertolini, Ed Marzola & Associates, daily strip
Prince, 1986, Winthrop Prince, Chronicle Features, weekly panel (author says it was syndicated as Free Zone to several papers and appeared in the SF Chronicle under this title - thanks Winthrop!)
Private Stuff, 1953, Jack O'Brien, Editors Syndicate, daily panel (found, but only in military base paper The Hilltop Herald -- still unfound in a mainstream paper)
Professor Naturebug, 1971, John Hazlett and Edward Thomas, Dispatch Features, Sunday strip (found in Columbus Dispatch, but very text heavy and doesn't qualify)
Professor Pi, 1959-72, V.T.Born, Douglas Whiting, daily strip (Dutch - appeared in U.S.?)
Professor Unquote, 1948, Bill Henry, Globe Syndicate, daily strip
Proven Proverbs, 1962, Bill Zaboly and William Davy, Select Features, daily panel
Pud, 1989-98, Steven Nease, Southam Syndicate/Liberty Features, daily strip (Canadian - appeared in U.S.?)
Punch Line, 1975-78, Palbo, Community Press Service, weekly panel
Punchline, 1995-96, Tim Newlin, self-syndicated, Sunday strip
Punchy and Judy, 1945, Loy Byrnes, NY Post, daily strip (found! in NY Post)
Puzzy, 1953, Jack Fitch, Editors Syndicate, daily panel

Labels: Mystery Strips

 

Al Smith's eponymous syndicate served weekly papers with comic strips for almost fifty years, accomplishing the nearly impossible task of separating a goodly number of tight-fisted small town newspaper proprietors from a little cash each week. Many prospective syndicates tried marketing to weeklies, certain that they were going to wow an overlooked market, and almost all crashed and burned. Small town newspapers are not only produced on a shoestring budget, but they know that their audience is mostly interested in seeing their names and the names of those they know in those weekly pages. Comic strips might be a nice addition, but they rarely pay for themselves with additional subscriptions to the Podunk Weekly Demopublican. 

The very first offering of the Al Smith Service was this strip, Jackie, and it predates the rest of his offerings by about a year or so. Why Smith would start a syndicate with a blackface throwback strip I don't know, but I do know that it sold well in Alabama. The earliest I have found the strip is in the Birmingham Weekly Review in April 1949*, and that paper proves that Smith really knew how to sell, because that is a black paper. Granted, there's no real overt racism in Jackie, but even way back in 1949 black folks were not too fond of this visual portrayal. 

When Smith started offering a whole roster of strips in 1950, Jackie remained Smith's only artistic contribution. In late 1951, though, contributor Paul Gringle left the popular Rural Delivery strip, and Smith took that over as well. Between the two strips, and Al Smith's 'real' job of producing the 7-day per week Mutt and Jeff, and handling sales and distribution chores, he must have been one busy guy.

He soldiered on though, and it wasn't until two years later that due to either overwork or a sense that Jackie was a relic of a bygone time, Smith made a change. Or at least a baby step. He cancelled Jackie in March 1953, and moved the character over into his Rural Delivery strip, renaming it Jackie In Rural Delivery. Jackie remained a titled player in the strip until early 1954, and an occasional player well past that (often in reused old strips). 

Jackie is not in my book, and I completely misunderstood what I was seeing in the spotty microfilm archives of the weeklies back then. In the book's listing for Rural Delivery I said that it was advertised as Jackie in 1951-1952. With much better online archives now available, the history related here is hopefully much more accurate.

~~~~

* I have an unattributed note saying that the strip started in 1948, but I can't find any proof of that.

Labels: Obscurities

Uncommon now, newspapers that served the black community were available in most every city back in the pre-Civil Rights days. The Chicago Defender and Pittsburgh Courier were the most important and they both have a rich history of comic strips produced by the black community for the black community. Black papers in other cities often bought syndicate content from these two leading papers, but they also purchased from individual cartoonists and from the mainstream (white) syndicates.

The examples above are interesting anomalies. They appeared in the Atlanta World in 1944, both titles having short runs. The World was a very unusual black paper in that it was published daily, not weekly as most of these papers were. The daily frequency gave them a voracious appetite for material without the budget to pay for much. They used a lot of cheap reprints from King Features (including the bizarre choice of "Tim Tyler's Luck", a strip whose setting was 'darkest Africa', where young white boys ran around barking orders at the natives). The World also occasionally bought material from small syndicates like the Elmo Feature Syndicate - I believe that the above examples, though uncredited, are from that bargain basement syndicate. A second layer of interest comes from the fact that both strips were done by Al Smith, who uses pseudonyms on both. Al was not only the successor to Bud Fisher on "Mutt & Jeff", but he also started his own syndicate (The Al Smith Service) in the early 1950s. I guess he needed a bit of extra cash so he did these quickies for H.T. Elmo. Perhaps his experience with this grade-Z syndicate was the catalyst for his creation of the Al Smith Service just a few years later on.

Remember, you can see a larger view of each image by clicking on it. And sorry for the quality of reproduction - these images came from badly deteriorated microfilm.

Here are the L for Lost features. Help them find their way off that crazy island!

Laff It Off - Vance van Demark - Thompson Service - daily panel - 1941
Laff Toons - Mike Gray and Bob Moore - Nationwide Features - weekly panel - 1949-50 [Charles Thompson supplies proof that Nationwide was a producer of advertising strips; not eligible for SG listing]
Laff Track - Marty Brucella - R-GAB Features - daily panel - 1980
Lamentin' Luke - Art Gates - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1956
Land of the Midnight Fun - Sarge O'Neill - Southern Cartoon Syndicate - daily strip - 1974
Larger Than Life - David Gallagher - Public Syndicate - daily panel - 1992-93
Larry Brannon - Winslow Mortimer - National Newspaper Syndicate - daily strip - 1961-68 (Alberto Becattini says it ran in the Toronto Star - did it appear in any US newspapers? Yes, it ran in the Kingsport Post!)
Lars And June - Ray Rhamey - Rayr Thoughts - daily strip - 1977-78 (found! by Jeffrey Lindenblatt in Philadelphia Daily News)
The Last Straw - Dan Juravich - Superior Features - weekly strip - 1983-present
The Late Late War - Fred Fredericks - Adcox Associates - daily strip - 1960 (found in Hayward Review)
Laughing Gas - Bill Freyse - Feature Sales Syndicate - daily strip - 1937-38
Laura Good - Ellis Eringer and Russ Manning - Crown Features - Sunday strip - 1960 (Alberto Becattini says it ran in Shopping Bag/Family Funnies, a weekly magazine distributed in southern California supermarkets)
Law And Disorder - George Koukos - Creators Syndicate - daily strip - 2000
The Law - Charles Schwab - Unicorn Features - daily panel - 1972-73
Lefty Betts - Bob York - Globe Syndicate - daily strip - 1948
Legal Laffs - Rube Weiss - Blackstone Press Features - weekly panel - 1971-76
Leisure Hour - Newton Pratt - Globe Syndicate - daily panel - 1950
Lemont Brown - Darrin Bell - Continental News Service - weekly strip - 1996-99 (D.D. Degg says this ran in the UC Berkeley Daily Californian, a college paper, before it was renamed "Candorville" on syndication)
Les Moore - Philip Jewell - self-syndicated - daily panel - 1992-96
Lest We Forget - Joe Archibald - Wheeler-Nicholson - daily panel - 1926
Let's Go - Grace Brown and Marion Moran - Conde Nast - daily strrip - 1929
Let's Go Town - William Spear Jr. - Western Newspaper Union - weekly panel - 1927, 1936-37
Li'l Chief Hot-Shot - Frank Stevens - Associated Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1945-46
Li'l Peanut - Lou Paige - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1951 (found! in Audubon News-Guide)
Li'l Philosopher - Constance Bannister - Miller Services - daily panel - 1960-62
Libby - Jeff Sinclair - Kartooning Advertising - daily strip - 1980-81
Life Lines - L.C. (Les?) Carroll - Crosby Newspaper Syndicate - daily panel - 1938
Life's Little Dramas - Bart Hodges Jr. - NY Post Syndicate - twice weekly panel - 1946-47 (D.D. Degg reports that this was a text column with a caricature graphic, not eligible for SG. Thanks DD!)
Life's Little Temptations - Phil Hummerstone - Words & Pictures Service - daily panel - 1949-50
Life-Laffs - Ralph Hershberger - Century Features - daily panel - 1937
Lippy The Yippy - Sarge O'Neill and Bill Wright - Southern Cartoon Syndicate - daily panel - 1970-76
Listen Ladies - Mark Beebe - NY Herald-Tribune - daily panel - 1953
Little Evy - Evy Caroll - King Features - daily panel - 1945 (found! in New York Mirror)
Little Ezra - Ed Jona - Allied Features - daily/weekly strip - 1938
Little Folks of Circleville - Rome Siemon - N.E.W.S. - daily and Sunday strip - 1949
Little Green Man - Jaime Diaz - Ed Marzola & Associates - daily and Sunday strip - 1976
Little Ideas That Grew Big - Frank Cheesman - North America Sportsmens Bureau - thrice weekly panel - 1938
Little Island - Collins Clive - United Press International - daily strip - 1984
Little Jackie - Stanley Miller - Matz Features - daily strip - 1936
A Little Leary - Bill Leary - National Newspaper Syndicate - daily panel - 1963-86 (doesn't qualify for listing, art was reused from day to day on this homilies panel - thanks to Bill Mullins for sample)
The Little Major - Bob Kane - General Features - weekly strip - 1937-42 [found! by Art Lortie in Hastings News]
The Little Man - Ray Salmon - self-syndicated - daily panel - 1980-2001
Little Moonfolks - Rome Siemon - Associated Press - daily and Sunday strip - 1952 [Jeffrey Lindenblatt has found the daily running in the Greenwood (MS) Commonwealth. Thanks Jeffrey! Anyone find the Sunday?]
Little Otto - H.T. Elmo - Wheeler-Nicholson - daily strip - 1926
Little People of the Air - Isabelle Stewart Way - Giblin Features - daily panel - 1925 (doesn't qualify for listing, turns out to be an illustrated text column about birds - thanks to Bill Mullins for sample)
Little Rodney - Jimmy Caborn - Arthur J. Lafave - weekly panel - 1937-39 (FOUND! in Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Little Rowdies - Marsh and Mulholland - Thompson Service - daily strip - 1934
Little Sampson - Paschall - Graphic Syndicate - daily - 1925
Little Strokes - Elena - self-syndicated - daily and Sunday panel - 1973
Little Wild-Heart - Carl Moon - Independent Syndicate - weekly strip - 1930
Live 'n Laff - Rube Weiss - Blackstone Press Features - weekly panel - 1967-76 (Found! by Robert Brooke in Eastern Oklahoma Journal)
Live It Up - Tony Victorian - World News Syndicate - daily panel - 1973
Lola - Inigo - Picadilly Press - daily strip - 1966-68
Lonely Heart - Herc Ficklen - Avalon Features - daily panel - 1968-79
Long Shots - Frank Hill - Continental Features - daily panel - 2003-present
Looking Around - Sid Hathaway - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1970 (Ray Bottorff Jr finds that this was actually a text column, listed in the wrong E&P section. Thanks Ray!)
Looney Land - Jim Navoni - Premier Syndicate - daily panel - 1926 (Found! by Bill Mullins in the Lowell Sun. Thanks Bill!)
Loony Limericks - Jerry Schiller - Blackstone Press - weekly panel - 1957-61
Loop Carew - Ted Miller - Press Alliance - daily - 1940-48
Lord, I Said - Hank Hartmann and Martha Merrill - LA Times Syndicate - daily panel - 1978 (Found! in Kokomo Tribune, Carlisle Sentinel, Alexandria Town Talk -- but it was self-syndicated, not thru LA Times -- thanks to Ray Bottorff Jr.)
The Losers - Bob Kane - Ledger Syndicate - daily panel - 1966
Love And Laughter - Maria Molnar - Oceanic Press Serv ice - weekly strip - 1983-95
Love, Love, Love - Chuck and Gwen Bowen - Universal Press - daily panel - 1970-71 (found! in Sacramento Union)
Lucky Breaks - C.R. Miller - Distinctive Features - daily panel, Sunday strip - 1930

Labels: Mystery Strips

Today's post is brought to you by the letter F. If you don't recall what I'm doing here, read this post. Any and all information is greatly appreciated and positive proof is rewarded as well.

Fair Game - Stephanie Piro - Chronicle Features - daily panel - 1996-98 (found! in SF Chronicle and several others, and lasted much longer in self-syndication)
Faith, Hope And Sue - Lisa Wild - Davey Associates - daily panel - 1994
Familiar Folks - Bill Nickel - Editorial Services - weekly panel - 1947
Family aka Doug Wright's Family aka Nipper - Doug Wright - Toronto Star Syndicate - weekly strip - 1980 (known in Canada, but did it appear in any US newspapers?)
Family K624 - Tim Jackson - Creative License Studio - weekly - 1999-2002
Family Popcorn - Shel Dorf, Tom Reese - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1997
The Family - Wildt - American International Syndicate - daily strip - 1991-94
Familyades - Lois Gilbert - Associated Midwest Newspaper Syndicate - daily panel - 1937-38
Famous Fighters - John Wentworth - National Newspaper Service - daily strip - 1932
Famous Monuments - Hendrick van Loon - Christy Walsh Syndicate - weekly strip - 1927 (found by Bill Mullins in Pittsburgh Press, but turns out to be drawings of famous landmarks with extensive printed discussion - not eligible for SG listing)
Famous Pastimes - Paul Sell - Leeds Features - daily panel - 1933
Fantom Of The Fair - Paul Gustavson - Watkins Syndicate - weekly strip - 1939
Farm Life - Harlan Wade - Trans World News - daily strip - 1978
Fast Lane - Harley Schwadron - Davey Associates, Copley News Service - weekly, daily panel - 1993-present
Father Victor - John T. O'Brien - National Catholic Welfare Conference - weekly strip - 1958-60 (so far found only in Catholic newspapers, still looking for it in a mainstream newspaper)
Faulty Fables - Rick Stromoski - Whitegate Features - daily - 1990-91 (Charles Brubaker contacted the creator who said "it was negotiated to be syndicated but as far as I know nothing came of it")
Faxtoons - Dan Rosandich - Great Lakes Features - weekly - 1991-92
Feedback - Doc and Rebecca Blakely - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1987
Ffarm.com - Bob Englehart, Pat McGrath - Paradigm-TSA - daily and Sunday strip - 1999 (Found! in Hartford Courant)
The Field Family - Al Brooks - Humor Books Syndicate - weekly strip - 1993-96
The 52 Club - Rooney W. Davis - Quality Art Service - weekly panel - 1967-69
The Fighting Chaplain - Carl Pfeufer - Eric Jon Associates - weekly strip - 1955-61 (Alberto Becattini says it ran in the Catholic Weekly - not a newspaper by our definition)
Figleaves - Greg Curfman - Sandcastles Syndicate - weekly strip - 1976-79
The Final Frontier - Dawn Munson - American International Syndicate - daily panel - 1993-95
Fireman Sam - Joe Buresch - Miller Features - daily strip - 1939
The First Lady - Madeline Brogan - Tribune Media Services - daily and Sunday strip - 1993 (found! by Charles Brubaker in Victorville Daily Press. Thanks Charles!)
First World War - Laurence Stallings - Register & Tribune Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1934 (found by Bill Mullins in El Paso Herald; turns out to be a photo page, so definitely not eligible for SG listing)
Fish Story - Randy Bisson - American International Syndicate - daily panel - 1988-98
A Flash Of Luck - S. M. Nemer - Thompson Service - daily panel - 1934
Fletcher Of The 4-H'ers - Joe Buresch - self-syndicated - weekly panel - 1958-86 (Alberto Becattini quotes Buresch as saying that it ran in farm publications)
Flight - J.H. Mason, W.D. Tipton - McNaught - daily panel - 1935 (found! by Fram in Salt Lake Tribune)
Flip Art - Al Goring - self-syndicated - weekly panel - 1975-77
Fluffhead - Jacques Boivin - Miller Services - daily panel - 1979
Flying Legion - William Winston - National Newspaper Service - daily strip - 1939-42 (Alberto Becattini says it was a topper to Skyroads - I have never seen a Skyroads Sunday)
Focus On Fact - Neville Randall - Interpress - daily strip - 1973
Fodor's Follies - Laszlo Fodor - Bell Syndicate - daily panel - 1938-39 (found! by Ray Bottorff Jr. in Paterson Evening News)
Folly's Thinkshop - Richard Jarrett - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1979-82
A Fool There Was - Pete Keenan - International Syndicate - weekly panel - 1927-28 (found by Bill Mullins in Hamilton Evening Journal)
Footsies - Bill Shelly - Wade Allen Syndicate - daily panel - 1968 [found by Charles Brubaker in Johnson City Press-Chronicle. Thanks Charles!]
For Better Or Worse - Justin Manning - Four Corners Syndicate - weekly panel - 1968-70
For Heaven's Sake - Ruth Davis, Bob Maley - Heavenly Comics Syndicate - daily panel - 1969-72
For Pete's Sake - Robert Righetti - Danny Ball Productions - weekly panel - 1978-79
For Warped Minds Only - Ralph Hamellmann - Global Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1991-93 (known in Canada - Calgary Herald -- but no US appearances yet; oh and there it is a weekly panel)
For Women Only - Isabelle Ziegler - Carlile Crutcher Syndicate - daily strip - 1939 (found by Bill Mullins in St. Louis Star-Times; turns out to be a text column, not strip)
Fortune Kookies - Charles Glass - Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate - daily panel - 1973-77 (found by Bill Mullins in Fremont Argus and several other papers)
Foto Finish - Charles McKenzie - United Cartoonists Syndicate - daily - 1988
The Fourth Floor - Todd Schowalter - Plain Label Press - daily strip - 2001-03
The Fox And The Crow - Jim Davis - McClure Syndicate - daily strip - 1950
Fractured Facts - John Locke - Syndicated News Service - weekly panel - 1994-present
Francie Frills - Vic Herman - McClure Syndicate - daily panel - 1948
Freak Patents - Harvey Peake - Carlile Crutcher Syndicate - daily panel - 1936 (found by Bill Mullins in Louisville Courier-Journal, but it is an illustrated column, not eligible for SG listing)
Fred - Leonard Bruce, Charles Durck - Leoleen-Durck Creations - daily - 1983-92
Freddie Fix It - Mike Gray, Bob Hyde - Nationwide Features Syndicate - daily panel - 1949-50 [Charles Thompson supplies proof that Nationwide was a producer of advertising strips; not eligible for SG listing]
Free Zone - Winthrop Prince - Chronicle Features - weekly - 1985-90 (existence verified by author - thanks Winthrop!)
Froyd - Philippe Grabowski, Bob Keleman - Syndicated News Service - daily and Sunday strip - 1991-present
Frustration - Ray Hanson - Register & Tribune Syndicate - daily panel - 1974
Fun Bug - Howard Rands - Al Smith Service - weekly panel - 1978 (Todd Hillmer found this feature, turned out to be an activity panel, not eligible for the SG index)
Funnigrams - W.F. Peters - Publishers Feature Service - weekly panel - 1946-49 (found by Bill Mullins, but its a generic panel cartoon feature paired up with local ads, not eligible for SG)
Funny Form - Charles Barsotti - Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1974 (Charles Brubaker checked with the creator, who says it was never sold or syndicated)
Funny Money - Dan Shefelman - King Features - weekly - 1991 CONFIRMED by creator (see post below)
Funny Side Up - Trent - World Feature Service - weekly strip - 1931
Funtime - Edo Anderson - Smith-Mann Syndicate - weekly strip - 1951-54
Fusebox - Greg Panneitz - Continental Features - weekly strip - 2002-present
Future Eye - John Mayo, Jerry Siegel - McClure Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1953
Fuzzy - Leonard Bruce - Leoleen-Durck Creations - daily - 1983-92

Labels: Mystery Strips

One of the things about our world that makes me despair is that most of us lack even the most basic knowledge of history. No, wait, that's not quite it. I have pretty much come to terms with the idea that many people don't know who was president during the American Civil War, or when the Great Depression occurred. What actually bothers me is not outright ignorance, I guess. It is the fantasyland people have built around the past. Witness Art Beeman's Those Were The Days, which affords a perfect example. This genre of feature, in which the cartoonist paints an idealized portrait of the past, has been popular since the dawn of newspaper cartooning.

Many of us idealize the past, forgetting all the ills of those times, and repainting them in gay Disney-bright colors. Everything was better then, and if only this horrid modern world would stop moving forward, everything would be just great. This attitude goes well beyond nostalgia, which I suppose is pretty harmless, to an absolute rejection of the world as it is, in favor of one that supposedly, but didn't, exist in the past.

The past was not some idyllic time when everyone was nice to each other and everything cost a nickel. There were the same murders, kidnappings, rapes, and every other vice known today. For every decade you go back, sicknesses become more and more deadly, and it's not too long you have to go before simply being born becomes a crapshoot. Government was not once full of earnest Jimmy Stewarts; it was corrupt in many truly spectacular ways that make today's politicos seem downright angelic. Rapacious businesspeople ran roughshod over workers and ruined the environment with impunity. Minorities were treated with all the courtesy of lepers when they weren't being taken advantage of, or, if we go back far enough, enslaved outright.

Every generation longs for the world of its youth. Life and the world seemed so simple then. Well, of course it did, for crying out loud! You were a child. You didn't worry about keeping your job, you weren't wondering if that weird pain that won't go away is cancer, you didn't sit in traffic for two hours a day, and you didn't have a honey-do list a mile long waiting for you when you got home.

You can bet your prized mint-in-box Flash Gordon raygun that people who had rotten childhoods don't feel much love for the 'good old days'. Being smacked around at home as a kid, or worse yet, not having a home at all, is a sure way to avoid the pitfall of revering the "good old days."

Okay. Got that off my chest. On to business.

Those Were the Days was by Art Beeman, the only comic strip credit by him of which I'm aware. The strip was produced for Al "Mutt and Jeff" Smith's weekly syndicate service. It debuted in 1951, almost certainly as one of the original line-up of strips and panels for the new service. (I still haven't been able to pin down an exact starting date for the service -- anyone?). As with most of the Al Smith Service features, Beeman's strip probably went into reprints at some point, but the strip was included in the service's offerings until 1983, an impressive 32 year run. I just don't know how much of that 32 years was new material, and how much recycled.

The strip was consistent not only in content but in format -- each strip began with a superfluous title panel, ignoring that the strip was titled in a headline above, and a middle panel with the caption "But now -- Wow!"

Labels: Obscurities

Here's the list of undocumented strips for the letter K. Help!

Keeping Up With The Kids - J.R. Harington - International Features - daily strip - 1950
The Kid From Brooklyn - Woody Gelman - McCay Features - daily and Sunday strip - 1945-46
Kidbits - J.H. Kerber - Select Features - daily strip - 1962-63
Kidoodles - Leo White - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1984-90 (found! by Charles Brubaker in Lynn Item)
The Kids Next Door - Sarge O'Neill - Southern Cartoon Syndicate - daily strip - 1971
The Kids - Joe Buresch - self-syndicated - weekly panel - 1973-86
Kilroy, The Cartoon - Jack Anderson et al - Associated Features - daily panel - 1993-2001
Kingston - Evan Tweed - International Syndicate Group - daily - 1987
Kith And Kin - Becky - Chicago Tribune-NY News - Sunday panel - 1946-50 (found! in Chicago Tribune)
Kitten Kaye - Leo Beroth - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1957-61 (existence verified in Hayward Daily Review by Todd Hillmer - thanks Todd!!)
Knowing Gnome - Beatrice D. Miller - Independent Features - daily - 1965-66
Komical Cartoons - Stanley Matz - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1941
Kool Roo - Peter Dare - Al Smith Service - weekly strip - 1987-89 (found! in Langley Advance)
Koopersmith's Kreative Kingdom & Kalendar:Return To Utopia - Adrienne Sioux Koopersmith - self-syndicated - thrice weekly - 1999-2000
Krass & Bernie - G. Trosley - Oceanic Press Service - weekly strip - 1976-95 (Charles Brubaker says this was a feature in CARToons magazine) 

Krazy Cat - James Rodriguez - United Cartoonist Syndicate - daily - 1988-95

We've discussed Al "Mutt and Jeff" Smith's weekly comics service before, and for the record, I'm still looking for newspapers that ran the complete output of the syndicate for long periods of time. Anyone? Bueller?

The syndicate's offerings were pretty well cemented in during the 1950s, but a latecomer was Life in the Suburbs. It was drawn by Al himself, who was already contributing Rural Delivery to the syndicate page. I'm guessing that Smith was looking to add a feature that was geared specifically to non-rural newspapers, which were his typical clients. Suburban papers were a good market (they generally paid better than rural papers) and so Smith evidently swept the hayseeds away in hopes of appealing to them. In fact, to make sure his appeal was broad, Smith offered this panel series under an alternate title, Community Capers, to further appeal to newspapers that were non-rural, but also not in the 'burbs.

The weekly panel was first advertised in 1964, but Mark Johnson has managed to find what might be the first panel, appearing in the first week of December 1963. Under the title Life in the Suburbs, the series was advertised until 1994, whereas the Community Capers title seems to have been dropped after 1972. I'd lay a pretty sizeable bet that in later years Smith recycled material for this series, as he did with most of his other offerings.

If you have my book, it's time to get out your red pen. Even though I knew at the time that the two panels were the same (the fact is noted in the Community Capers listing) somehow I goofed and ended up giving entries to both titles. So take your pick, but put a big red X through either the Community Capers listing (#1257) or Life in the Suburbs (#3582).

Labels: Obscurities

There's a whole laundry list of state history cartoon features, and Builders of Wisconsin was pretty typical of the genre except that unlike most it ran in color in the Sunday comics section rather than in black and white. The feature was by Kern Pederson, who is at least slightly better known as the creator of Little Farmer, a long-running weekly strip of the Al Smith Service.

The Sunday feature appeared in the Milwaukee Journal from October 22 1972 to sometime between May and October 1973. If it appeared anywhere else I'm unaware of it. A close look at the examples above reveal that the feature may have run as more of a daily style-panel at some earlier point -- notice that there are two numbered panels per Sunday episode. I've not found the feature running in that configuration, though.

One additional note -- don't blame Pederson for using such a muted and repetitive color palette on his feature. The Milwaukee Journal's whole Sunday comics section looked like this in the 1970s. Although they were definitely employing a 4-color press all the colors were washed out. I don't know if they were using cheap inks or what, but the whole section looked awful.

Labels: Obscurities

Tomorrow we'll start on a program of Christmas posts at the Stripper's Guide blog, but here's some mystery strips for you to ponder over the holidays. As you'll no doubt recall from previous installments of this series, the following features were all listed in the Editor & Publisher annual Syndicate Directory listings. Problem is that I have not been able to find these ones in any American newspaper. I'm looking for positive proof that (1) these features did indeed exist, (2) they are actually comics of some sort and weren't just mislabeled in E&P, and (3) they ran in U.S. newspapers. If you have any information about any mystery strip on this list please, please, please tell me all about it. And if you can provide positive proof that the mystery feature did indeed run in U.S. newspapers (a tearsheet is ideal proof) and qualifies for listing in the Stripper's Guide index, you can be the recipient of a goodie box chock full of all manner of comic strip ephemera -- could be reprint books, old tearsheets, magazines, original art or all of the above. Trust me that my goodie boxes do not disappoint! (SORRY - as of 2018 goodie boxes are sadly no longer available - I now live in Canada and our postal rates are so outrageous that I cannot afford to send out goodie boxes - SORRY!)

If you prefer to contact me privately rather than posting a comment on the blog, send it to strippersguide@gmail.com. Please be sure to mention Stripper's Guide in your subject line or I may miss your message in amongst all the spam.

Here's the mystery features starting with letter "O" as in "Oh no! More mysteries!". Each listing has the title, years advertised, creator(s), syndicate and format. Sorry, I'd put these in a more attractive tabular form, but Blogger plays havoc with tables:

O'Malley's Law, 1979-83, Scott Smith, Feature Associates, weekly strip
O. Johnny, 1960-63, Ghilchik, Sun News Features, daily strip (British feature by David Ghilchik?)
O.O., 1978-81, Stan Meritakis, self-syndicated, daily strip
Odd But So, 1950-54, Joe Fabian, Words & Pictures Syndicate, daily panel
Odd Ball, 1983-93, J. Kuchera, Oceanic Press Service, weekly strip
Odd Truths, 1935, Carl Kuhn, Thompson Service, daily panel (Canadian?)
Oddities of Nature, 1947-61, Chuck Thorndike, A.S. Curtis Features, weekly panel (Found! in Miami Herald)
Oddities of the News, 1937-42, Al Blum and Alex Boon, General Features, weekly panel [found! by Art Lortie in Hastings News]
Odditowns, 1935, Mike Brady, Allied Features, daily panel
Oddograms, 1935, James Burke and Edward Mason, Allied Features, daily panel
Offline, 1996-2005, Herb Stansbury, Davy Associates, daily and Sunday strip (found by Ray Bottorf Jr., but is reprints of Smart Chart [1970-83] and seemingly marketed only outside the US)
Office Frolics, 1979, Art McCourt, Feature Associates, weekly
Oh! Oswald, 1948-52, Jean Leo and Martine Martin, Press Alliance, daily
Olaf, 1961, R.D. Hassler, Chicgo Tribune-NY News Syndicate, daily strip
Old Is, 1979, Dominic Poelsma and Marcella Markham, NY Times Special Features, daily panel (found! by Ray Bottorff Jr. in Wilkes Barre Times-Leader)
The Old South, 1936, Wilbur G. Kurtz, Triton Syndicate, daily panel
Old Timer, 1939, Ed Wheelan, Bell Syndicate, daily panel
Oliver Twist, 1939, C. David Vormelker, Jolyon Features, daily strip
On The Beat, 1998-99, Oliver Gaspirtz, self-syndicated, weekly panel (apparently a magazine feature, not eligible for SG index)
On The Way Out, 1991, Craig Rogers, Sparks Syndication, weekly
One Liners, 1973, Henny Youngman, N.E. Coan, daily panel
One Up, 1963-66, Lew Saw, National Newspaper Service, daily strip (found by Ray Bottorff Jr. but syndicate thru Toronto Star to Canadian papers only -- did NNS manage to find any clients in the US?)
One For The Road, 1976-79, Kern Pederson, Trans World News, weekly panel
Oscar the Giraffe, 1946, R.S. Matz, Unique Features, daily strip
Oscy, 1985-88, Mike Liper, United Cartoonist Syndicate, daily
Otto Knox, 1924, Sidney Light, Hoosier News Service, panel
Our America, 1938-39, Frederick Polley, Esquire Features, weekly panel (found by Ray Bottorff Jr. but it is a text history column with illustration, not eligible)
Our Country Cousins, 1939, Joe Buresch, National Art Features, daily panel
Our Faith, 1955-61, Carl Pfeufer, Eric Jon Associates, weekly panel
Our Oscar, 1971, Edgar Allen Jr., Register & Tribune Syndicate, daily panel (found! by Ray Bottorff Jr. in Baytown Sun)
Our Paper Boy, 1976-78, Kern Pederson, Trans World News, weekly panel
Our Parish, 1959-79, Peg O'Connell aka Margaret Ahern, National Catholic Welfare Conference, weekly panel (so far found only in Catholic newspapers, still looking for it in a mainstream newspaper)
Out Of This World, 1956, Charles Addams, McClure Syndicate, Sunday panel (Found by D.D. Degg in Pasadena Independent - thanks DD!)
Over Fifty, 1989-94, Keith M. Manzella, Newspaper Features, daily strip
Overheard At America's Lunch Counters, 1985, Susan Catherine, Willow Creek Syndicate, weekly

Labels: Mystery Strips

We're going to knock off a whole syndicate company in one post today!

DBR Media was formed in early 2000 by a group of folks who had previously been at the helm of the King Features Weekly Service. I could tell you a lot about the interesting circumstances behind this based on an interview I did with David Cohea, the current head honcho of KFS Weekly, but that will have to wait for another time and place. I have an extensive audio interview with this gentleman that's been in the can for over six months now, but so far I lack the free time to transcribe it for publication.

Anyhow, suffice to say that DBR Media was formed by some folks with plenty of savvy about syndication to weekly newspapers. With the Al Smith Service going out of business in the 1990s, and the Chicago Tribune's weekly syndication arm seemingly determined to keep themselves a very well-kept secret, KFS Weekly was pretty much the only game in town for weekly newspapers. With a client list of well over a thousand newspaper subscribers they had a reasonably lucrative business going despite the penny ante fees they charge. The folks who formed DBR felt that they could compete for a slice of that market.

Weekly syndicates typically offer a complete package of features, and as far as I know DBR supplied not only comics, but all the rest of the typical goodies -- puzzles and columns to suit a wide range of tastes. As best I can tell, when they started their package included a group of five comics. I say as far as I can tell because I did not find a paper that ran the syndicate's offerings until much later. Which is a bit of a story in itself...

When I learned about DBR Media back in 2001 I called their office and explained that I was a researcher seeking to keep track of their offerings. I asked for the name of a paper that I could subscribe to that ran the material. The person I talked to was skeptical at first; I think she figured me for a spy, maybe from King Features. I repeatedly assured her that my motives were entirely innocent, and she seemed to warm up just a little. Eventually with a little more prodding she gave me the names of four publications but warned me that DBR doesn't keep track of how much of their offering these publications actually run. I told her I understood and that I'd call them to make sure before subscribing.

The names of the publications were themselves a bit of a letdown. Two of the four were obviously company newsletters, not newspapers by any stretch. These I discarded. That left me with two publications, and both of them sounded like "Pennysaver" type papers. Those papers don't normally qualify for the attentions of Stripper's Guide, but I figured that the main thing was to document the material appearing somewhere and that as time went on perhaps I'd find them in a qualified paper. I called the business office of the first paper on the list and explained that I wanted to subscribe if they ran the DBR comic strips in their paper. The person I talked to wanted to be helpful but she had no clue what DBR Media was and assured me that their paper ran no comics. For that matter there was essentially no editorial matter at all -- it was purely an ad paper. She even asked around the office and no one seemed to have heard of DBR. By the end of our conversation she was asking me for DBR's phone number so she could call them and find out if they were paying for something they weren't using!

I called the second paper, a black weekly, and was gratified that they'd at least heard of DBR Media. However, I was told that they used only one feature (I don't recall what it was) and that they were already planning to discontinue it to save the expense of the subscription. The person I talked to was glad that I'd called because it reminded her to call DBR to cancel their subscription, a job that she'd been putting off. Oh great, turns out I may as well have been a corporate spy. Despite my completely innocent purpose I was losing papers for DBR! Of course now I would be persona non grata at DBR so there was no point in calling back asking for more papers to try.

In the following years I always kept an eye peeled for DBR features, checking every weekly paper I came across. It wasn't until late 2006 that I finally hit paydirt with the Lake Region Times, a weekly published in Madison Lake Minnesota. They published DBR's complete roster of comic strips. I purchased a subscription and was finally able to track DBR's output. Unfortunately the party lasted only a year as DBR closed it's doors in early 2008.

Anyway, after that long digression let's get back to the features. Here are capsule reviews of the whole brood (or rather, the ones I know about):

Butch and Dougie by Alex Howell
This well-drawn, innocuous 'boy and his dog' strip was originally with King Features Weekly and, according to an article in Editor & Publisher, switched over to DBR a year after they started up. Howell's strip seems to have been one of the first original strips distributed by KFS Weekly and probably started there circa 1990. A consistently attractive strip, sort of Walt Disney meets William F. Marriner, with mild gags designed never to offend the mayonnaise on Wonder Bread crowd.

George by Mark Szorady
Szorady has made a long career out of his anthropomorphic dog strip, George. It originally ran in his college paper, Ohio State University's Lantern, circa 1979. It was picked up by King Features Weekly in 1990 when they added original comics, and switched, along with Butch and Dougie, to DBR when they opened their doors. When DBR closed down Szorady fell back on self-syndication, marketing George through a company called, appropriately enough, Georgetoons. George the dog, along with his apparently unnamed wormy companions, generally act out run-of-the-mill gags occasionally punctuated with a jarring liberal-bashing example like the one shown here.

Stormfield by Wes Alexander
A new creation for DBR, Stormfield ran from the beginning of their syndication business. Alex Stormfield stars with a supporting cast of his classmates. Alex is a smart-aleck and a proto-slacker, obsessed with girls despite his apparent pre-teen age. Consistently strong personality-driven gags make this feature a cut above the rest, and a surprising amount of snarkiness, unusual for a strip designed for rural papers, keeps things lively.

Charles Brubaker breaks the bad news the Wes Alexander died right about the time DBR did, and that Stormfield was run in reprints in the final months. Here's a web page about Alexander.

The Dinosaur Circus by Elena Steier
This feature was one of the original DBR offerings. In July 2003 Steier decided to discontinue the strip because it was a simple case of too much work for too little pay. From what I can tell based on the samples at Steier's website, it started out with a premise exactly defined by the title but then went quite far afield in some interesting directions.


Suzy Q Toy Repair by Elena Steier
Steier did double-duty as DBR came out of the gate, providing Suzy Q Toy Repair along with The Dinosaur Circus. Another excellent strip, this one is about a girl who repairs toys for various bratty kids. Another original premise very well-executed. For some reason DBR put the kibosh on this one after about a year and asked Steier to replace it with The Block (see below). A heapin' helpin' of Suzy Q can be found here on Steier's website. Iwent there just to snag a sample and ended up reading every strip. Fun stuff.


The Block by Elena Steier
In Steier's own words, "after DBR canned Suzy Q, they asked me to do a black strip. As a white suburban woman, I told them this would be no problem at all". The Block was what more racially diverse strips ought to be -- a funny feature about people who just happen to be some other hue than the Bumsteads, the Flagstons, the Mitchells, the Worths, the Starrs, the Parkers, etc. etc. etc. Very funny stuff, archived in quantity here at Steier's site. Based on the samples there, it looks like the strip ran circa May 2001 - June 2003.


Hamster Alley by Polly Keener
An odd but often fun strip this one. Our cast is made up of a group of hamsters, a cat, and a rabbit, all of whom live together in relative peace except when the cat gets a hankering for a hamster sandwich. The characters are aware that they are in a comic strip, and many of the gags break the fourth wall. Polly Keener also betrays an avid interest in quilting with her occasional gags on the subject. Hamster Alley is now distributed by Georgetoons.

The Leftersons by Colin T. Hayes
As usual, I'm at a disadvantage not having been able to keep up with DBR's output, but my guess is that The Leftersons was the replacement for The Dinosaur Circus in mid-2003. It's a comic strip about schoolkids designed to appeal to political conservatives (a viewpoint that apparently plays big in weekly papers). It's liberal-bashing gags have the rather rare property of actually being funny. More than can be said for most such strips, like the consistently nasty and unfunny Mallard Fillmore.

Based on a reading of Hayes' website, The Leftersons actually started in 2002, presumably web-based at the time, and new episodes were added at a clip of three per week. Hayes stopped producing the strip in April 2007 but it continued to run from DBR until the bitter end. Whether DBR ran reprints of strips they'd already used, or used the extras Hayes had produced earlier is unknown.


Jet News by Bill Murray
In order to balance the conservative viewpoint of The Leftersons DBR added Jet News around 2004. Bill Murray is a veteran cartoonist who has spent most of his time under the mainstream radar producing strips for black papers. As his first major foray into mainstream syndication Jet News is a really odd misfire. Although at first glance it looks like a comic strip, it is actually a pair of editorial cartoons, usually on unrelated subjects, grafted together to no good effect. I suspect that Murray just took his editorial cartoons that he produced for other papers and pasted them together to create Jet News.

The Golden Years by Bill Murray
Bill Murray added a second feature to the DBR line-up in 2005, this one at least an actual comic strip. The Golden Years features a senior citizen duo usually known simply as Gramps and Granny, along with a pair of snotty grandkids and assorted other foils. Predictably, gags about doctor visits, retirement and the rotten younger generation abound.

Night Lights and Pillow Fights by Guy Gilchrist
Night Lights and Pillow Fights, a vertical activity feature for Sunday comics pages, began in 1998 first in self-syndication, then was picked up by Copley News Service in May 2001. It then switched from Copley to DBR on May 4 2003. My impression is that Night Lights and Pillow Fights was distributed separately to holdover clients because DBR wasn't really set up for distributing features for Sunday comics sections. In 2006, Your Angels Speak (see below) became a sort of sub-feature in the page and it was renamed Night Lights and Fairy Flights. After DBR's demise, Night Lights went back to its self-syndicated roots until Gilchrist called it quits with the episode of September 6 2009.


Your Angels Speak by Guy Gilchrist
Around 2004 Gilchrist brought his religious-themed panel Your Angels Speak to DBR after a short two year run at United Feature Syndicate. In 2006 the theme of the feature was incorporated as part of the Night Lights and Pillow Fights feature and this panel was dropped. Your Angels Speakwas a gorgeously-drawn feature, not infrequently featuring 'babe angels' that make it darn hard to think pious thoughts.


Marvin the Calf by Ralph Hagen
Probably the last addition to DBR's line-up was the cow-centric strip Marvin the Calf. It came along sometime in 2005. The delightfully spare fine-line cartooning, reminiscent of the wonderful style of Mark Tonra, got your hopes up only to have them dashed by a tin ear for gag writing. Early strips of Marvin the Calf are, and I cannot put a better face on this, truly awful. If gags could be tortured, Marvin was Torquemada. By 2007, though, Hagen was getting the hang of the writing part of his gig. His dialogue was smoother, he could construct a coherent gag, and he even elicited the occasional chuckle. DBR closing was probably a blessing to him. Having now hit his stride as a cartoonist, he promptly went out and got a big-time syndicate contract at Creators Syndicate for his new strip, The Barn. What is with this guy and farm animals?

DBR Media closed its doors in March 2008, issuing statements that they were no longer able to pay their contributors. Apparently the Lake Region Times had a premonition that DBR was sinking and jumped ship in January (switching to -- what else -- King Features Weekly Service), so I didn't get to see the last few months of their material. Charles Brubaker tells me that the last strips ran in papers dated the week of March 24 2008.

So that's my brain dump on DBR Media. Obviously my informations is fragmentary, so anyone who has additional information on the syndicate and their features is cordially begged to fill me in on the details I missed or just got wrong entirely.

Since this post took the better part of a whole day to put together, I'm going to have to call a recess for the rest of the week while I continue to attend to pressing business.

Labels: Obscurities