Stripper's Guide

I'm currently corresponding with a researcher who, as part of an ongoing project, is trying to track down some background material on the Smith-Mann Syndicate. This is the syndicate that produced the color comics for the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper from 1950-55, a national paper for black audiences (you'll find a series of posts about this comics section in the blog archives for July 2006).

I always assumed that the Courier was administering the Smith-Mann Syndicate in-house, but this researcher has found a very interesting and informative article in the July 21 1951 issue of Editor & Publisher that shows otherwise. But, as usual, when we learn new information it just creates a new set of questions. I believe that, unlike me, some of you folks are comic book experts, and we're hoping someone with that background can shed some light on Ben B. Smith and John J. Messman, both of whom apparently were in the comic book business in the 1940s.

We're also looking for any information on the Carousel comics section, of which we've never seen a copy. It was advertised in E&P 1951-54. Just a wild guess, but I wonder if this was also known as the Arrow Family Comic Weekly, an insanely rare preprint Sunday section that ran in only one known paper in 1953. The roster of features dovetails rather well.

Here's the article that prompted the questions:

Smith-Mann to Launch Comics Supplement
by Erwin Knoll

Carousel, an eight-page tabloid comics section with a set of entirely new comics, will make its entrance into the syndicate field this fall.

Intended primarily for the general group of smaller newspapers, Carousel will be distributed in mat form or as a pre-printed four-color supplement.

Distributors of Carousel will be Smith-Mann Syndicate, New York, established 18 months ago by Ben B. Smith and John J. Messmann. The syndicate prepares a weekly comics section for the Pittsburgh Courier and distributes several weekly and semi-weekly columns.

According to Mr. Messman, the syndicate's aim in establishing Carousel is "to supply a top-notch 4-color comics supplement to papers which previously could not afford it because of prohibitive costs or because top features were not available in their areas."

The supplement will include 11 features covering the major comic strip categories, including secret agent adventure, science fiction, sea adventure, historical romance, private eye, fairy tales, jungle adventure, a page of puzzles and games and three "fact" panels. All features will be written in the Smith-Mann office and farmed out to cartoonists for the artwork only.

As for advertising in Carousel, Mr. Smith pointed out that "we are not going in with the intention of soliciting advertising. If advertisers wish to buy space, however, we will sell it and share the profits with the participating newspapers."

Mr. Smith's experience before entering the syndicate field includes ten years' work in distribution and general management of comic magazines. He originated the Negro comics supplement which Smith-Mann services to the Pittsburgh Courier.

Mr. Messmann is also a veteran of the comic book field, and utilized the comic strip technique in an education program conducted for the UN information office.

An interesting genre of newspaper comic strips are those that ran in the black papers; that is, newspapers intended to serve the African-American segment of the population.

Most larger cities have a black paper, or did at one time. Some of the biggies were the Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, the Atlanta World, the Baltimore Afro-American and the New York Amsterdam News. All these papers dabbled to one degree or another in comic strips, and several of them even syndicated their comic strips to the smaller papers of other cities.

Unfortunately the history of black comic strips is necessarily sketchy. Most of the creators are long dead without having published memoirs or given interviews, and the microfilm records of the papers themselves are in a terrible state. I have done what I could by indexing the material in most of the major papers; but even my indexes are incomplete because microfilm versions of the papers are incomplete, mutilated, or just so badly photographed as to be indecipherable.

The comic strips of the Smith-Mann Syndicate, apparently run with or through the Pittsburgh Courier, have suffered because of the poor microfilm record. The Smith-Mann color comic section is the only such section ever to be attempted for black papers, and the microfilm of the Pittsburgh Courier (at least the version I've indexed), the only paper known to have run it, is missing the majority of these sections. The Smith-Mann color section was definitely offered in syndication, though, so perhaps lurking out there is another paper that ran it, and perhaps in that case it made it intact through the microfilming process. I hope so, but I think the chances are slim.

Over the next week or so I'm going to present all the comics from a rare copy of the section that I recently acquired (only the third I've found, though I've been searching them out for years). The date of this section is August 8, 1953. Our first strip, from the cover page of the section, is Guy Fortune by Edd Ashe. This strip ran from the inception of the section on August 19, 1950 through October 22, 1955. The color section ended in 1954, but the strip continued in black and white after that.

Labels: Obscurities

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

The Pittsburgh Courier color comics section was so full of adventure strips, they almost forgot the humor element. However, they did grudgingly allocate one page for gag strips, one of which was Woody Woodenhead (the other was Sunny Boy Sam by Wilbert Holloway). This feature had a simple formula -- a dimwitted kid innocently puts his foot in his mouth and faces the wrath of an adult. It wasn't exactly Shakespearean in depth, but the strip was always nicely executed and the gag well-told.

The creator, Edo Anderson, I know nothing about except that he did a few things for Smith-Mann Syndicate and the Courier, chief among them being Woody. He certainly did have an interesting drawing style -- note for instance the noses on the characters which look like they were chiseled out of a block of wood.

Woody Woodenhead debuted along with the Smith-Mann color comics section on August 19 1950 and ran until August 4 1956, outliving the color section in the Courier by two years. After the first few years the title of the strip was often abbreviated to just Woody.

Thanks to the University of Michigan Special Collections Library for photos of their collection of Courier color sections. They have the only known run of the early color sections from 1950-51, and were very gracious in sharing photos of the strips in their collection with me. Above are the first two strips in the Woody Woodenhead series.

Labels: Obscurities

I saved the best for last. Lohar is the story of a leopard, and it is as well-written and drawn as it is unusual. I can't think of another strip that chronicled, in a serious manner, the life of a wild animal (surely I must be forgetting one?). Yet it seems like such a perfect subject for the comics page.

The story of Lohar, credited to Tom Brady, is so interesting that I had to take the time to read quite a bit of the continuity while I was indexing the Courier microfilm. It's a luxury that I seldom allow myself in the rush to get as much indexing done as possible on my research trips. Lohar is a strip that I would love to see reprinted in its entirety - most likely an impossible dream since the source material is so rare, and even the microfilm record is far from complete.

Lohar started with the Smith-Mann comic section in 1950, and lasted until October 18, 1958, long after the color section folded. Later strips were copyrighted by Eric Jon Associates -- I have no idea what that is.

Labels: Obscurities

Neil Knight of the Air was another new feature created for the Smith-Mann color section, this one a science fiction opus. Credited only to 'Carl and Mac', the feature outlasted the section. The last raygun was fired on October 22, 1955. Notice the Kirby swipe in panel three of our example - always steal from the best!

The strip usually ran full page, but here is abbreviated in order to run ads for Sal Hepatica and Ipana. Ads for national mainstream products were slowly filtering into the black papers in the 1950s. Whereas ten years earlier ads were mostly limited to products with a specific appeal to the black community, by the 50s there were now the occasional car, cigarette and beer ads before seen only in the white papers. Some advertisers used their regular ad campaigns, others, like the two seen here, did different versions specifically aimed at a black audience.

Labels: Obscurities

Most of the Smith-Mann Sunday section material was new, but one real old-timer to make the jump to color was Sunny Boy Sam, a strip that had been running in the Pittsburgh Courier since way back in 1928. It was created by Wilbert Holloway, and he was credited on the strip until 1969, an impressive run by any standard, though I get the feeling that some portions of the run might have been reruns. The long run continued under the pen of Clarence Washington until sometime in the 1970s, long after comic strips had become unfashionable in the black papers.

The last I know of is from 1976, but it may have run much longer - the film archive I was working from ended with that year.

Labels: Obscurities

Woody Woodenhead was yet another new creation for the Smith-Mann color section, and one of the few humorous strips to appear there. The star of the strip was named not in the Pinocchio vein but for the the kid not being the highest wattage bulb.

The strip was seldom if ever signed, but was credited in Editor & Publisher to Edo Anderson. The strip ran for the whole life of the color section, and then was downgraded with the rest of the strips to running in black and white. Woody's last hurrah came on 8/4/56.

Labels: Obscurities

Here's your chance to rescue some obscure strips from the graveyard of undocumented features. As many of you know, Editor & Publisher, the trade journal of the newspaper business, publishes an annual syndicate directory. They've published them since 1924, and they are a treasure trove of information. In fact, my friend Dave Strickler has published a book wherein he lists all the features that appeared in those directories (his website is here).

Most of the E&P listings are for standard mainstream features, but they have also listed many additional more obscure stuff over the years. Some are from tiny syndicates (including self-syndicators), others are strips that came from mainstream syndicates but ran only for a short time in few papers. Others are true phantom features - strips that the syndicates tried to sell but failed, amateur cartoonists who deluded themselves into thinking their feature was publishable, and so on. Many listings these days are for strips that run only on the web.

The E&P syndicate directories, then, are a valuable source of information, but full of pitfalls if we just assume that all the features listed actually ran in newspapers. And as most of you know, I'm working on a project called the Stripper's Guide Index that seeks to document every recurring comic strip and panel cartoon feature that ran in US newspapers. The most important rule that I have for including a feature in Stripper's Guide is that I have to have seen it for myself actually running in a newspaper. One reason for that rule is the E&P phantom strip listings - some other researchers have fallen into the trap of documenting features based only on that resource with absolutely no additional evidence to support the existence of the feature. I won't let that happen in Stripper's Guide.

A reader recently suggested that I should publish more on the blog about features that are a mystery to me, in hopes that you guys will be able to provide information. Of course I'm only too happy to oblige. So today I'm starting a series of posts listing the E&P information on features that I've not been able to find running in any newspaper.

Here's the deal. What I need from you is documentary proof of the feature's existence. Photocopies or scans of a few sample tearsheets work great (especially if you can provide dates and the name of the paper), but I can also when necessary check out leads, like "sure, I read that one every day in the Splutburg Chronicle back in 1970-71." On the other hand, please cool it on leads like "that sounds vaguely like something I half-remember from somewhere".

So what do I offer in return? Undying gratitude of your peers, of course, goes without saying. Credit in Stripper's Guide for your contribution as well. But let me sweeten the pot. For documentary proof of any feature listed here I will reimburse you with a goodie package of collectible old newspaper tearsheets from my collection. Your goodie package may also include original art, old comic books, reprint books or magazines. Believe me, I'll make it worth your while. Sound fair? Great. (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!)

Here we go with the list of mystery strips for the letter "A". Each listing shows the title, creator(s) credited, the syndicate, the format and the years listed in E&P.

AC In DC - Edwards De Lon - Future Features - daily strip - 1996
AD-LIBerties - Ney Talbot - N.E.W.S. - daily strip - 1949-50
Abe Martin Junior - E.B. Sullivan - Dille - daily panel - 1938-39 (apparently replaced Abe Martin these two years?)
Academy Of Fame - A.S. Curtis - Curtis Features - Sunday strip - 1946-50 (suspect this might just be “Medal Of Honor” under a different title)
Ace Of The Staff - Leon P. Snowe II - Trans World News - daily strip - 1978
Acme Woods - Dyke Williams - Dickson Features - weekly strip - 1980
Ad-A-Line - Henri Arnold - Editors Syndicate - daily panel - 1955 (FOUND! in Great Bend Daily Tribune)
Ad-Ribs - Bob Poet - Richmond Syndicate - daily strip - 1979
Adam Apple’s Adventures - Don Herold - Dille - daily panel - 1932
Adam’s World - Wayne Phillips - Consolidated - thrice-weekly panel - 1974 (Found! in Camden Courier-Post)
Addled Ads - Harry Lutke - Chicago Sun-Times - daily panel - 1950-51 (FOUND! in Lowell Sun)
Addles - Shar Durksen - American International - daily panel - 1993-97
Adventure In Nature - Robert Peterson - American International - daily strip - 1988-98
Adventure, Culture And Humor In Proper English - uncredited - Cartoonics - daily and Sunday strip - 1942
Adventures In Death Valley - Stanley Miller - Matz Features - daily strip - 1940 (probably advertising comics?)
Adventures In Wonderland - Bob Pilgrim - Independent Syndicate - daily strip - 1930 (FOUND! by Bill Mullins in the LaCrosse Tribune and Leader Press - thanks Bill!)
Adventures Of Arsene Lupin - Maurice LeBlanc and Georges Bourdin - Service Cooperative de Diffusion d’Articles - daily strip - 1948 (French - did it run in US?)
Adventures Of Melisse - Melisse - Melisse Syndicate - daily panel - 1950
Adventures Of Mister A. Worm - Charles Sarka - F-Bean Syndicate - weekly panel - 1926
Adventures Of Skuddabud - Columba Krebs - Skuddabud Creations - daily strip - 1936-38
Adventures Of Ted And Jed - Raymon Naylor - Feature Sales Syndicate - daily/weekly strip/panel - 1936
Adventures Of Tiny Turtle - Brint Schorer Jr. - Tiny Features - daily strip - 1968-71 (FOUND - turned out to be a coloring and game page - not qualified for SG listing)
Afterworld - Todd Schowalter - Plain Label Press - daily/weekly strip - 1992-94
Agile Man - Rex Walthall - Dickson-Bennett International Features - daily strip - 1981-82
Agony - uncredited - Interpress of London & New York - weekly panel - 1976-81
Ahead Of Time - Ken Muse - Dickson Features - weekly strip - 1980-81
Air Fair - Dick Locher - Winford Company - daily strip - 1971-73
Air-Sub DX - Carl Burgos - Watkins (Brooklyn Eagle) - Sunday strip - 1939
Aladdin McFadden - Jim Lavery - Arthur J. Lafave - daily and Sunday strip - 1937 (Found! in Newark News)
Aladdin And Company - Jaime Diaz - Ed Marzola & Associates - daily and Sunday strip - 1976
Alan O’Dare - Carl Pfeufer - Smith-Mann - Sunday strip - 1951-54 (probably topper to “Chisholm Kid”)
Albert - Robert Nunn - American International - daily strip - 1992-95
Alexander Gate - Gene Mora and Frank Bolle - McNaught Syndicate - daily and Sunday strip - 1970-71 (Existence verified by Jeffrey Lindenblatt!)
Alfonso - Romano Garofalo, Regnal Adams, Charles Russo - Dickson Bennett/American International - daily strip - 1982-91 (Alberto Becattini says this is an Italian strip there titled "Mostalfonso")
Algy - Gene Rowls - Bryl Syndicate - daily strip - 1936
Ali Baba - Ostrup - Select Features - daily panel - 1948
Ali Katt - Walt Trag - unknown syndicate - daily strip - 1958
Alias The Skull - Kevin Miller and David Watkins - Suzerain - Sunday strip - 1993-95
All In America - Tom Ward - Winford Company - daily and Sunday strip - 1972
All In The Family - Bill Murray - Minority Features - weekly strip - 1980-2003
All-American Family - Lesnier - Popular Press Features - weekly panel - 1951 (FOUND! in Hearne Democrat)
Almighty Dollar - Lo Linkert - Feature Associates - weekly panel - 1980
Along The Rail - John Williams - Community Features - weekly panel - 1980-81
Alpha Ant - Leonard Bruce and the Humane Society - Leoleen-Durck - weekly panel - 1983-88 (presumably a giveaway?)
Amanda y Rocinante - Resurrecion Espinosa and Dorthy Torres - self-syndicated - weekly strip - 1996-present
Amateur Etiquette - Dick Calkins - Dille - daily panel - 1925-30 (FOUND! in Edwardsville Intelligencer - more of an illustrated column, not qualified for SG listing)
Amazing But True - Albert Edward Wiggam - Dille - daily panel - 1931-32 (early name of “Let’s Explore Your Mind”?)
Ambitious Ambrose - Oscar Hitt - Wheeler-Nicholson - daily strip - 1926 (found! in Lowell Sun)
Amby - Dwight Parks - Dille - daily and Sunday strip - 1958 (never ran -- see comment by Ger Appeldoorn below - thanks Ger!)
American Scoreboard - Henry Riddick and Antoinette Leeds - Family Features - weekly panel - 1948
Amos The Analyst - Mick Stevens - Lew Little Syndicate - daily panel - 1966-67
Anabel And Rupert - Reub Allen and M.O.Doyle - Columbia Inc. - daily strip - 1935
And Bob Created Woman - David Watkins and Kevin Miller - Suzerain - daily strip - 1993
Andy Lane - Eustace Adams and Dick Brown - United Feature - unknown format/frequency - 1933
Anggie - Dawn Munson - American International - daily strip - 1992-94
Animal Chatter For A Clean Environment - Emil Abrahamian - self-syndicated - 1995-96 (ran in Arab News - ever in US?)
Animals On Parade - John Meissner - self-syndicated - daily panel - 1939
Another Day Another Doll - Henry Gaines Goodman - Beroth Features - daily panel - 1958-61
Anthracite And Bituminous - Ferd Himme - Lowry Cartoons - weekly panel - 1932 (ad panel for coal??)
Antics Of The Allens - Leonard Merrill - Thompson Service - weekly panel - 1932
Antoinette And Cleopatra - Joanne McGuire - Copley News - daily strip - 1979
Aphrodite - uncredited - Interpress of London And New York - weekly panel - 1985-97
Apple A Day - Richard Gerchak - Community Features - weekly panel - 1980-81
Applesauce - Dick Calkins - Dille - daily panel - 1924
Aram - Piet Wijn - Douglas Whiting Ltd - daily strip - 1959-60 (Dutch - ran in US?)
Ardith - Ken Muse - Dickson-Bennett - daily strip - 1982
Are You A Kopy Kat? - Robert Gill - National Features - Sunday strip - 1980-82
The Aristocrats - Bob Kane - Ledger Syndicate - daily panel - 1967-70
Armadillosaurus - R. Shirley - Famous Features - weekly strip - 1995
Arnaki - Aspro Coolidge - Mid-Continent - thrice weekly panel - 1978-79
Arnie - Arne Stockholm - Singer Features - weekly strip - 1973-99
Around Town - Rube Weiss - Blakely Features - weekly panel - 1970-76
Around The Dial - uncredited - Audio Service - daily panel - 1927
Arty Facts - Ray Fisher - Singer Features - weekly panel - 1983-99
As You Were - Jim Baker - Pioneer Press - daily panel - 1972-99 (FOUND! in Elyria Chronicle-Telegram)
Assignment Top Secret - Bill Barry - Adventure Features - daily strip - 1981-93
The Astronits - Pat Anderson - self-syndicated - daily strip - 1970-79 [found! by Charles Brubaker in Ville Platte Gazette, Macon News]
Astronuts - Dave Berg - Singer Media - weekly strip - 1994-99
At Andre’s - Sandy Brier - McClure Syndicate - daily panel - 1961
Atila - William Grosso - Colombian Comics - daily strip - 1990-96
Aunt Effie - Edgon Margo - Queen Features - weekly panel - 1939 (found! in Goltry Leader)
Auntie’s Antics - uncredited - Keystone Features - daily strip - 1938
Auto Comics - Kenny Hall - Avanti Features - weekly panel - 1996-97
Auto Sense - Jack Williamson - Associated Editors - weekly panel - 1925-26 (FOUND! in Oshkosh Daily Northwestern)

Labels: Mystery Strips

Here on page four of the Pittsburgh Courier's comic section we find the delightfully drawn Chisholm Kid. The strip was by Carl Pfeufer. His credits include the Flash Gordon clone Don Dixon, done for the Brooklyn Eagle-based Watkins Syndicate, and Bantam Prince for the New York Herald-Tribune Syndicate (blogged here).

The Chisholm Kid was a new strip created for the Courier's color section on August 19, 1950. As with many of the other strips, it outlasted the color section and was demoted to daily-style black and white format. The Kid rode into the sunset on August 11, 1956.

Labels: Obscurities

Jim Ivey was a charter member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists way back in 1957. In honor of his role in the founding of the organization Jim was invited to attend their semi-centennial convention in Washington. R.C. Harvey must be given huzzahs for his lobbying efforts which resulted in the invitation, and AAEC president Rob Rogers for getting on board with the idea with no reservations.

Jim did have some trepidation regarding the trip. He was worried that his role at the convention would be as a dinosaur on display. Being so long out of the profession, Jim quite reasonably wondered if he would be able to connect with his younger compatriots, few of whom with which he'd had any contact. So it was that he requested I operate as a one-man posse on the trip. The AAEC proved doubly generous in adding me to the invitation not only as Jim's travel companion but with full privileges to attend all convention events. I suspect that the AAEC, recognizing that Jim is north of eighty years, might be in need of some assistance. Jim is, in fact, hale and hearty, but considering that he hasn't done any major traveling in many years, and has a sense of direction rivaling Wrong Way Corrigan, I was thrilled to get the invite, but also relieved that Jim was to be afforded a wrangler for the trip.

We both dreaded traveling to Washington on July the 4th, especially right after the bombing attempts in London. Airport security is notorious for behaving like a bag of cats in proximity to such events. However, both the Orlando and Washington airports were, amazingly enough, a breeze. And Washington, famed for having some of the worst summer weather in the country, was actually quite temperate during our stay, and the summer storms all took detours in honor of our visit.

The first event on our itinerary was a cocktail reception. Jim and fellow founding members Jim Lange and Hy Rosen were asked to say a few words. Unfortunately either the sound system left something to be desired or my tinnitus-inflicted ears weren't up to the task, because I could only hear a few isolated sound-bites. Otherwise it was a delightful event.

I got to renew one old acquaintance, Lucy Shelton Caswell, the curator of Ohio State University's Cartoon Research Library. She had me beet red with her extravagant compliments for my Stripper's Guide Index project. We talked shop and she brought me up to date on the library's progress in cataloging their huge Bill Blackbeard collection. To give you an idea of the massive undertaking, Lucy says that it took eight semi trucks to haul the materials from San Francisco. She assured me that the collection listings are now available on the OSU website -- I'll be looking further into that in coming days and reporting back here.

I met Lucy's husband Jeff for the first time, and was fascinated to learn that his father was a salesman for Western Newspaper Union, a company that ran a syndicate for weekly newspapers from the 1920s-50s. Turns out that WNU apparently let the syndication business slide into oblivion because their main business by the 40s and 50s was selling newspaper supplies like paper and ink.

Also got to meet Tim Jackson, an editorial cartoonist whose work appears regularly in the Chicago Defender. Tim, in addition to his editorial cartooning, is a historian with a keen interest in the cartoonists of the black newspapers. We've corresponded via email in the past, and it was great to meet him in person. We had a little talk about the Smith-Mann syndicate, a subject of fascination for both of us. Unfortunately our time together was brief -- Tim is a very soft-spoken fellow and I didn't want to drive him to distraction with my incessant requests for him to repeat himself.

Also got to meet my very favorite of the new crop of cartoonists, Keith Knight of K Chronicles and Th-Ink. I was astounded to find out from him that his style, which to me is so obviously reminiscent of Harvey Kurtzman, owes no debt to that great cartoonist. Keith says that his style evolved without ever having heard of the great Kurtzman, and that it was only after his work started getting published that cartoon fans pointed out to him the resemblance. I was also fascinated to learn that Keith, a young whippersnapper by any measure, is a fan of pioneering great Clare Briggs. A further delightful bit of news from Keith (and I hope I'm not telling tales out of school) is that we will likely be seeing much more of his work very soon -- I'll not let the cat out of the bag any farther than that.

The one disappointment to me on this evening was that I missed meeting Ann Telnaes, who only attended this one event. Jim and I both agree that Telnaes is without peer in editorial cartooning (or for that matter, cartooning in general). Her one-two punch of hard-hitting ideas and powerful drawings sets her squarely at the very pinnacle of her profession. Jim was lucky enough to find her in the crowd and he reports that he fawned on her like a fanboy. Ann, if you happen to read this, everything Jim said goes double for me.

After the reception Jim and I went to dinner with R.C. Harvey. It turned into a bizarre affair when the eatery we picked had their fire alarm going off all through our dinner. The entire restaurant was bathed in the staccato drumbeat of strobe lights, and occasionally a siren was added to the mix. The siren was a fine counterpoint to the screaming babies at the next table. With all three of our group in the hard of hearing category we spent our time unsuccessfully trying to read lips.

Enough for today ... I'll continue my report tomorrow. Don't miss the exciting tale of Holtz taking a snooze on the street in Washington DC!

Our next page of the Pittsburgh Courier features Mark Hunt, another adventure strip. The strip's continuity was told in the first person by our hero, and so the only credit it ever carried was to Mark Hunt himself. However, in the E&P syndicate directory credit was given to a Michael Tam, and comics historian Paul Leiffer tells me that the strip was actually don by Edd Ashe. Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

The strip did not start with the new section but shortly thereafter it was added, sometime in 1950. Mark Hunt outlived the color section, demoted to black and white, and ran until October 22, 1955.

Labels: Obscurities

The eight-page color comic section produced for the Pittsburgh Courier is the only attempt I'm aware of to do a color comics section in a black paper.* Although the Courier's section, produced by the Smith-Mann Syndicate of New York City, did have an all-black cast of characters, quite a few of the strips were drawn by whites.

One black creator who did get space was Courier regular Sam Milai. Milai's work appeared in the paper for over three decades, starting in 1937.  By 1950, when the color section began, Milai was already practically an institution at the paper. He was an ambidextrous cartoonist, quite at home with both bigfoot humor and straight illustration. Milai sought to show off his ability to do a realistic adventure strip for the color section, and came up with a sports feature titled Don Powers. The strip featured a clean-cut hero who is the Joe DiMaggio of baseball, Muhammad Ali of boxing, and Red Grange of football all rolled into one. He gets into all sorts of scrapes with gamblers, gangsters, rivals and so on, and triumphs mainly by being so pure and faultless.

The strip debuted with the new color section on August 19 1950, and outlived the section by many years. After the color section was dropped in August 1954 the strip switched to black and white, slowly reduced in size to a daily-style strip, and lasted in the Courier until November 1 1958.

Thanks to the University of Michigan Special Collections Library for photos of their collection of Courier color sections. They have the only known run of the early color sections from 1950-51, and were very gracious in sharing photos of the strips in their collection with me. Above are the 1st, 2nd and 4th strips in the Don Powers series.

* There was one other color comic strip, but it was just a single strip, not a section.

Labels: Obscurities

Here's page three of our Pittsburgh Courier section featuring the adventures of Don Powers by Sam Milai. Milai was was one of the mainstays at the Courier; he did comics for them from 1937 through at least the early 1960s (his work appeared there until the early 70s but the later material was most likely reprints).

In this strip Milai shows himself to be a fan of George Wunder; many of the faces are drawn in Wunder's distinctive style.

Don Powers is yet another strip that was created especially for the color section - it started with the first issue August 19, 1950 and ran through the end of the color section in 1954. The strip then continued on as a black and white daily style feature until November 1, 1958.

Labels: Obscurities

Jackie Ormes' Torchy in Heartbeats hits on all cylinders as an interesting obscurity. Ran in a black newspaper, written and drawn by a woman, and the subject is romance. That's like the unassisted triple play of rarity in newspaper comics. Torchy in Heartbeats started with the color section on August 19, 1950, and outlasted the color section by a while, ending September 18, 1954. The strip also had a paper doll topper called Torchy Togs, which here in our example was bumped in favor of an ad (the ad is pretty interesting, though).

Jackie Ormes created her Torchy character much earlier in a series titled Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem. This strip ran in the Pittsburgh Courier 5/1/37 - 4/30/38. Ormes' longest-running series, though, was a humor panel titled Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger - that one ran in the Courier for over a decade starting in 1945.

The ad for Black and White Soap is a typical example of the preaching that went on in the black papers of the time. All through these papers -- not just in ads -- were constant reminders to use good manners, dress properly and generally behave in a manner that reflected well on the black community. Most papers took the philosophy that good manners were vital in the cure for the racism endemic to the U.S. This preaching went out of favor in the newspapers by the 60s, but was harped on constantly before that. Quite a few comic panels in the black papers had this as their subject matter, for instance As Others See Us and Folks We Can Get Along Without.

Labels: Obscurities

Alvin Carl Hollingsworth was born in New York, New York, on February 25, 1928. His birthplace is from Who's Who in American Art 1989–90 (1989), and his birth date is from the Social Security Death Index. (The Social Security Death Index misspelled "Hollingsworth"; it left off the second "H". Who's Who said he was born in 1930 but that is incorrect.)

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles

Frederick Lawrence “Fred” Meagher was born in Clearfield, Pennsylvania on April 11, 1912, according to obituaries in the Reno Evening Gazette (Nevada) and Nevada State Journal, both published January 28, 1976. The Progress (Clearfield, Pennsylvania), August 17, 1971, said his surname is pronounced “Marr.”

In the 1920 U.S. Federal Census, he was the oldest of three children born to Charles and Emma. His father was a Western Union telegraph operator. They lived in Clearfield at 615 Turnpike Avenue. The Progress, August 31, 1950, said:

…at the age of nine, he won his first prize—a blue ribbon at the Clearfield County Fair art exhibit.

Later, as a student in the Clearfield High School he originated the “Bison,” which became the official symbol of the school as well as the name of the annual yearbook.

Turning his talents into dollars and cents the you artist accepted his first commercial assignment while a senior at the high school, painting the mural on the walls of the Dimeling Hotel Coffee Shop. Visitors to the Coffee Shop still pause to admire the murals which depict the Indian legend concerning the history of Clearfield.

He graduated in 1929.

The 1930 census recorded him in Clearfield, at 715 Turnpike Avenue, where he was the oldest of seven children. The Progress, January 31, 1930, reported his brief return high school: “…A chalk talk by Fred Meagher made a most pleasing interlude in the musical program and showed he had improved greatly in ability both as an artist and as a performer since last year.” Two years later he was a ceramic art major at Alfred University in Alfred, New York. The school yearbook, The Kanakadea 1933, said he was a freshman and a Theta Kappa Nu pledge. Instead of continuing his education, the Progress 1950 profile said: “…he worked a year at Kurtz Brothers factory illustrating calendars, catalogs, etc., before branching out on his own and opening an advertising firm….” His new venture was reported in the Progress, December 30, 1933:

Unique Business Is Organized by Local Young Men
Fred. L. Meagher Who Did Dimeling Murals Sets Up Organization to Carry on Diversified Work
A “New Deal” in Art 

Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles