Cartoonist Basil Wolverton made a name for himself as a comic book artist, with weird humor and art. Like most cartoonists of the time he tried to create a syndicated newspaper comic strip. But he never made it – well, he did make it for one panel.
One of Basil’s attempts at syndication was a Buck Rogers knockoff he called Chuck Rawjors.
There have been a few humorous comic strips about outer space (currently Brewster Rockit), but it’s a shame newspaper readers of the 1930s(?) never got to enjoy Basil’s take.
More down to Earth were popular movies and TV shows starring Lassie. The successful movies of the 1940s featuring the collie adapted well onto the TV screens of the 1950s and 1960s. So, as was common with comic strips and comic books, as the show started to wane it was decided that the late ’60s would be the time to transfer the strip to an adventurous comic strip continuity.
John Celardo, fresh off comic strip tours with Tarzan, Tales of the Green Berets, and Davy Jones (and while contributing to comic books), gave a good effort at the project; but it didn’t sell.
Ger Apeldoorn has the first nine dailies and some background.