The Spokane Spokesman-Review on Sunday (July 28, 2019) gave readers a two-page color center spread in the their first news section to a look at the history of comics in the newspaper.
Put together by Charles Apple the piece opens with the purpose of comics:
The first newspaper comic strips developed about 124 years ago — give or take a couple of voice balloons — but why? Not to make readers smile — although that’s a good reason to have them. Not to sell plush animals and calendars and paperback book reprints. Not to give artists something to do. No, newspapers created comic strips in the 1890s for one main purpose: To sell newspapers, of course. They’ve done a pretty good job of that for more than a century.
Next to that introduction is a short item on the default father of U.S. comic strips – Richard F. Outcault and his Yellow Kid.
Below that they reproduce the September 9, 1928 Sunday comics section of the Spokesman-Review, which was from the Chicago Tribune Syndicate.
At the bottom of the spread are a couple advertising strips.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see future comics pages featuring strips sponsored by local (or even national) businesses.
Along the side of all this they run an image of all 30 of the comics they run with brief creator credits; amazingly giving the starting dates of the features. This surprises me because the paper is publicizing how old the comics are – only two are created in the 21st Century. Newspapers usually prefer not to announce the age of comics and that half of them are either legacy/zombie strips or reruns.
A page one blurb explains why this all came about, and why the Non Sequitur entry is in boldface.
Further Review:The Funny Pages
We take a look at comics past and present prior to Wiley Miller‘s Aug. 5 appearance at the Northwest Passages Book Club. News, 6-7
The pages can be had in a digital edition.
Speaking of Non Sequitur…
Dateline Tulsa World: Carpe Diem replaces Non Sequitur
When you seize your Tulsa World Scene Section on Sundays, be prepared for droll humor of “Carpe Diem,” the new single-panel comic joining the Tulsa World’s comics roster.
The comic will appear in the Sunday and daily editions of the Tulsa World, taking the place of the strip “Non Sequitur.”
