Looks like Dennis and I were on the same page, featuring Comics of Christmas Past, but, as usual, I’ll be more long-winded.
Let’s turn the calendar back to 1925, which isn’t a round number but was astonishingly better than 1920. I don’t know what happened in those intervening five years, but newspapers suddenly exploded with comic strips, to the point where, while this will be a long post, I had to pick and choose to keep it even within this length.
Comic history buffs are welcome to comment — Please!
Though I can start by saying that this Billy DeBeck fellow seemed busy, having drawn these two.
Oh, yeah, and this one.
And Thimble Theater was around, but Castor Oyl hadn’t hired that sailor yet.
Nor was Fritzi Ritz quite yet the girl we came to love. Note that the paper hadn’t updated the byline in awhile — that kid who signed the strip had taken over in May.
Most of the editorial cartoons were variations on the day, but we can’t leave Gaar Williams out, so we’ll let him speak for the category.
And if you’ve never read any Edgar Guest, here ya go. He was immensely popular, though perhaps not with lit majors and other high-minded sofistikits.
Lots of fun ads, but, in the interest of space, we’ll just contemplate how Lane Bryant still goes after the same customers, but has become a little more subtle about it. (And there was nothing wrong with having an armful of gal in those bygone days.)
Enough chatter. Here’s an embarrassment of riches — what a time to be a comics buff!
(Two from Briggs – different features but each distinctively his)
(Did not know Ripley also did editorial cartoons. This Believe It or Not appeared on a sports page.)
(This did not. Different meaning of “sport”)
(Golf jokes at Christmas? Who cares when the artist draws like this!)
And, inevitably, the day after …
Finally, from 1925, here is the first electronically recorded record, featuring a massive collection of glee clubs at the Met, produced as a demo of the new technique and mentioned in this discussion of 1920s Christmases:
Merry Christmas, Mike, and thank you. Thanks for this glimpse of Christmas past. Thanks for all the columns this past year which helped my sanity and sense of humor. Wishing you and your readers a peaceful-as-possble new year.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas from the ghost of rec.arts.comics.strips past!
Merry Christmas and the Happiest New Year, Mike.
Also to all your faithful followers, the same best wishes.
Thanks for that great review of cartoons from years past.
Your columns are a highlight to my mornings.
Wonderful collection, thank you for posting it and Merry Christmas! The scrawny little guy with eyeglasses in the “Fussy Foursome” strip looks like Robert Crumb. Very appropriate, since Crumb loves that time period (many of us do!).
Was also fascinated (and amused) at how several of the comic strips referenced the Florida Land Boom of the time, because I’m a Florida native! Ha ha
Thanks, Mike, for the great collection. I grew up reading a few of them in the Tampa Tribune in the ’50s – it’s a particular pleasure to remember Moon Mullins. For a while I wished I could sleep in a dresser drawer like Kayo, but I never could make it work. Best wishes for the New Year!
Merry Christmas, Mike.
It always surprises me to see a pretty-near century-old cartoon and remember that I grew up reading it. Thanks for all your effort gathering, posting, and editorializing.
Mike