First and Last(?) – Alley Oop
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above: the first four Alley Oop comic strips, December 5 – 8, 1932.
The Alley Oop comic strip began on December 5, 1932 from the small Bonnet-Brown Syndicate.
above: the last Bonnet-Brown strip, April 24, 1933
The strip ended abruptly on April 24, 1933 with the bankruptcy of Bonnet-Brown.
The strip disappeared for four months, during which time some readers and editors were advocating for the strip’s return.
[So if Alley Oop returns to new material come January 2019*, it won’t be the first time there was a gap in the strip’s production.]
NEA heard the clamor and picked up the strip beginning the new syndicated run on August 7, 1933.
above: the first three Alley Oop comic strips from NEA, August 7 – 9, 1933.
The strip was a success!
Successful enough that a Sunday page was added a year later.
above: the first Alley Oop Sunday page from September 9, 1934.
Eighty-five years after the NEA version began the strip has ended (maybe*).
The last(?) new Alley Oop strip ran September 1, 2018* from UFS/Andrews McMeel Syndicate.
Alley Oop was created by cartoonist V. T. Hamlin. He worked on it until 1972 (signed until 1973).
Jack and Carole Bender have been working on the strip for 27 years. The GoComics archive of Alley Oop goes back to 1996, covering most of their work.
The link from Hamlin to The Benders is Dave Graue. He worked on the strip from 1950 to 2001. I would be remiss to not include a sample of his handiwork. So:
Big hat tip to Steve Cottle, Jr. for strip archives and to Allan Holtz for date confirmations.
* update:
Alley Oop to return with new strips in January 2019 by Joey Alison Sayers and Jonathan Lemon.
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