But let’s start with someone who isn’t so fond of the good old days.
A letter to the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colorado) speaks out against legacy/zombie strips:
Quantity is not the same as quality. Camera editor John Vahlenkamp explained the changes in the Sunday comics on Sunday, August 18, and tried to justify them with the argument “more is better.” A buffet of bad food does not make it good.
The median age of Boulder residents is 27.2 (2022) and Boulder County is 37.2. Over 1/3 of Boulder residents are between the ages of 15 and 24. Yet many of the comics added are older than about half of our population. Basset Fred came out in 1963. Dennis the Menace was in 1953. Peanuts and Beetle Baily came out in 1950. Blondie? Almost 100 years ago in 1930. Most of the others came out in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the original artists are dead…
We never saw the editorial about the change in their Sunday Funnies (our last notice was a year ago).
We would be extremely grateful if someone could share with us the before and after dates of the changeover.
…I know there are more important issues: street diets, airports, housing and development, etc. But can’t we at least have comics that reflect the artists and humor of this century? I’m glad to have a smaller selection that I can actually digest.
On to the waybacks.
In one of the most harrowing sequels to 1935’s Betty Brown, Ph.G., the plucky blonde pharmacist faces off against a gang of ruthless drug dealers who force her at gunpoint to fill their forged prescriptions. When she refuses their demands, they throw a vial of acid in the face of Dimples, the sweet abandoned baby left outside their door. Undeterred, Betty manages to infiltrate the gang by posing as a gangster’s bride who has romantic intentions toward Diamond, the gang leader. She then warns off a team of G-Men who show up disguised as her bridesmaids to her staged wedding to Diamond. in women’s costume...
Unfortunately for American newspaper readers of the time, these action-packed adventures were not continued in the comic pages of the Chicago Tribune or the New York Daily News. Instead, they captivated readers of Drug Topics, a weekly trade magazine for pharmacists and druggists.
With its wonderful drawings and great storyline by “Smilin’ Jack” creator Zack Mosley and later by “Sparky Watts” creator Boody Rogers (both working under the pseudonym Cliff Terrell), the comic strip, which ran from 1934 to 1948, is as captivating as Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy and as crazy as Al Capp’s Lil Abner.
Fortunately for comic book lovers, (Hogan’s Alley publisher Tom) Heintjes has now lovingly preserved, edited and annotated the entire run of the groundbreaking comic in a beautiful new book, “The Complete Betty Brown, Ph.G.: Her Full Story, 1934-1948” (Hogan’s Alley, $24.99).
Richard L. Eldredge interviews editor Tom Heintjes about the comic, the cartoonists and the book.
Eldredge: The comic strip started in 1934 under the title Bob Steele, Ph.G. and was drawn by a guy named Grant Powers. It was a kind of gag comic, right?
Heintjes: Yes, and then there was a creative change and Zack Mosley took over the strip and Betty was introduced. Let’s say she staged a bloodless coup and Bob Steele was written out and Betty took over and it became Betty Brown, Ph.G. in August of 1934. Well, in 1933, Mosley had introduced what was originally a weekly strip called On The Wing, which later became Smilin’ Jack. That strip became a phenomenon, a big hit that crossed over into comics and movies. Zack Mosley became a cartoon star and his (newspaper) syndicate didn’t want him to sign his name to anything that wasn’t Smilin’ Jack. He was a hot commodity. So they forced him to come up with the pseudonym Cliff Terrell. That name stayed on the strip until it was discontinued in 1948.
From the Wayback to the Here and Now and back again as Flash Gordon Meet the Death Patrol.
Of course, if Dan Schkade introduced the Death Patrol (is this their first appearance or are they part of the Flash Gordon story?), I thought of the Military Comics of the 1940s and Jack Coles and David Bergs Death Patrol.
Brian Kanethe outstanding Prince Valiant scholar and Gary GrothPrince Valiant’s outstanding publishing house have settled their differences and the result will be a treasure for Hal Foster fans.
On his Facebook page “Hal Foster’s “Prince Valiant” Legacy,” Brian shared the following with us:
I am pleased to announce that I have just signed a six-book publishing deal with Fantagraphics.
“Hal Foster’s Sketchbooks for Prince Valiant: An Illustrated Autobiography”, Volumes 1-6 will begin publication in 2025. If all goes according to plan, there will be two books per year (summer and fall) for three years. (Emphasis added). A special “thank you!” to Rick Norwood for leading the negotiations.
This series started as an idea of mine in 2012. My plan was to collect as many of the pencil sketches of the page layout that Hal Foster did art for John Cullen Murphy from 1971 to 1979. I thought they would make a nice art book – I found 366 of them (77%). All but three are printed at full size 8.5″ x 11″. The series also includes 40 original character sketches (also full size), 577 pages of text with design notes and captions for each image, 104 photos, 123 private letters (most from Foster to Murphy), and much more. This is six 10.25″ x 14″ volumes, each 144 pages (864pp), containing a total of 1,350 images – all fully annotated by me.
The series is a deep dive into Foster’s creative process, his aesthetic, the people who shaped him, the events that inspired his storytelling, his theories about art, his homesickness for New England, and his crippling, slow physical and mental decline…
The comics of the past have helped define and shape the new comics of today. Without the iconic comics we have all come to know and love, other artists would not have the inspiration to become comic artists themselves. Despite all their simplicity, comics have evolved into their own unique and peculiar art form that fans around the world can’t get enough of.
In particular, comic strips that came out in the 80s left a lasting impression on the comic world. This era saw the emergence of new art styles and dynamics that translated into comic strips that are still around today. Some people who grew up with the comic strips of the 80s are still around to experience the continuation of the comics.
Remember when I mentioned a comic a while back that “never was”? Here’s Jamie Lovett to remind you:
As Vault stated in its press release, “the daily newspaper Child Maroon Comic strip about a hardened young detective who investigates gruesome crimes in his hometown of “Crimeville”. The series quickly generated considerable controversy as the stories addressed Shepard’s nihilistic attitude, penchant for violence, and obsession with bathtub laudanum. The backlash against the series, coupled with the increasing popularity of the Comics Code, led to the strip being canceled after only 216 episodes. This led to Shepard completely rejecting the comic medium and burying all of his original drawings in a presumably undisclosed field in South Dakota. Despite all this, Child Maroon became an enormous cult hit that has inspired underground and independent comics ever since.”
Now ComicBook.com gives us a preview of the retro comic.
Prepare yourself for a metafictional mystery in Child Maroona new Vault Comics series from the author Christopher Cantwell (Stop and catch fire, Iron-Man, Doctor Doom), artist Victoria Santos (Polar, Violent Love), colorist Mattia Iacono (Child poison, The dead lucky man), type designer Andworld Design (The many deaths of Laila Starr), designer of Adam Cahoon (The evil). The series is a revival of a forgotten comic strip from the 1940s, created by a cartoonist named Pep Shepard, about a young small-town detective who outgrows his harmless local crime cases and moves to the city, where crime is more frequent and serious.
