Comic Chronicles – An Age Still Dreamed Of
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From around the internet some recent posts about comic strip history.
© Tribune Content Agency
Kyle Anderson, at The Nerdist, remembers and compares
the Rogues’ Galleries of Dick Tracy versus The Batman.
One of the very best things about the Batman mythology (some might even argue the best thing) is the wild cadre of baddies who populate Gotham City. From the gimmicky to the gruesome, Batman’s villains all have something which sets them apart, and more than anything else, some distinctive visual element tied to them. Whether it’s a costume or some physical attribute, Batman’s baddies truly stand out. But he wasn’t the first to fight a whole host of weirdos. A decade before Bob Kane with Bill Finger gave us Batman’s rascally rogues, Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy kicked the trend off in strange and signature fashion.
This will come up again later this year…
Readers of the comic strip Nancy, about a plucky child cared for by her thirtysomething aunt, might be equally surprised to learn that levelheaded Aunt Fritzi was once not only the focus of the strip but also a boy-crazy, roaring ’20s flapper.
Karen Harris informs the readers of History Daily about the origins of Fritzi Ritz.
Larry Whittington’s Fritzi Ritz, which debuted on October 9, 1922 in the New York Evening World newspaper, told the story of fun-loving 19-year-old actress living in New York City and working for a kindly cheapskate named Mr. Blobbs. Fritzi lived with her parents, but the majority of the stories happened at her workplace or relaxing at the beach or the mountains.
We can read the entire year of 1922 Fritzi strips thanks to Hogan’s Alley.
Sally the Sleuth came a dozen years after Fritzi and was a bit more “spicy.”
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She’s audacious, savvy, and she’s always cheerful. Here she is, the infamous Sally the Sleuth by Adolphe Barreaux*. First things first, to give us a timeframe: this strip was published in “pulp” magazine Spicy Detective Stories between 1934 and 1943, then moved to Speed Detective Stories in a new format** until 1950 then, finally, to Crime Smashers until the comic’s demise in 1953.
redscaper at Who’s Out There reveals the history of Sally the Sleuth.
Sally the Sleuth features a tightrope act that’s not that easily achieved: fearless, self-sufficient Sally is so adept at spotting (and landing into the middle of) trouble that she frequently requires outside help to be rescued in the nick of time, with the role of the rescuer oft being played by her boss, the Chief, who usually bursts in through the door. What’s interesting is the way this rather typical damsel-in-distress set-up does not take anything away from our sense of Sally as a take-charge, go-getting kind of gal.
© Marvel Entertainment
In 2000 [Stan] Lee took a step back from writing [the Spider-Man comic strip], with stories being plotted or ghost-written by Marvel Comics great Roy Thomas under supervision by Lee. The comic strip was largely separate from events in the comics, with the exception of the 1987 wedding and the dissolution of the marriage two decades later.
Casey Donahue, at Screen Rant, tells of The Amazing Spider-Man comic strip
rejecting the canon of The Amazing Spider-Man comic book.
While Spider-Man fans have waited decades for Marvel to undo the damage done in the much maligned One More Day event, Stan Lee used the Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strip to fix the hated storyline.
[U]nlike in the books, the change in the newspaper strip would only last about five months.
In the early decades of the 20th century, before there were comic books, there were comic strips. And among those strips was The Outbursts of Everett True. Its premise is simple, and each strip has only two panels. In the first, Everett True, a large and perpetually frowning gentleman, is annoyed by someone. In the second, he exacts violent revenge by throwing, yanking, stomping, shaking, punching, or yelling at the object of his annoyance, often as passersby look on in delight.
Everett True was created by A.D. Condo and J.W. Raper.
Eileen Gonzalez introduces Book Riot readers to Everett True.
More Everett True at ComicStripHistory where it is a daily feature.
From Peanuts Begins the rare Peanuts strip with an adult talking:
© Peanuts Worldwide
Gil Kane preliminary art and the finished Tarzan comic strip.
© Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.
the first four weeks of the unpublished Green Hornet daily comic strips (Monday-Saturday). Fran Striker wrote the plot, Bert Whitman was responsible for the art.
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