On December 9, 1991 Betty by Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen
debuted from United Feature Syndicate.
Here is how The Camden Courier-Post introduced the new comic strip to its readers:
But there was some Betty before “Betty”:
Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen first met as senior high school students in a local art competition. Their paths crossed again the following fall, when they each enrolled in the Fine Arts program at the University of Alberta. Delainey and Rasmussen first worked together in 1976 on the comic strip Bub Slug, where the character of Betty first appeared.
From 1976 to 1978 The “Bub Slug” comic strip ran in the University of Alberta paper The Gateway.
That is archived online! So from October 5, 1976 is the first Bub Slug strip:
Bub Slug’s wife Betty first showed up on October 20, 1976:
A few years after this version Delainey and Rasmussen
got their strip into a full page Saturday slot at the Edmonton Journal,
that ran from May 1985 to December 1989.
The farewell strip that was to run in the
December 30, 1989 edition was nixed by The Journal.
Delainey and Rasmussen got The Gateway to run that
strip in their January 4, 1990 issue.
Then Gary and Gerry went south of the border to UFS.
The editor took to the pair’s cartooning abilities but wanted a change in direction. So Betty replaced Bub as the star with the focus changing from working woman to wife and mother (though she still worked outside of the house) – and Bub gaining a few IQ points.
The “new” syndicated Betty comic strip debuted thirty years ago today.
Occasionally there are reminders of the old days.
© Gerry Rasmussen & Gary Delainey
