Comic history Comic strips

Wayback Whensday Wonders

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D. D. Degg June 14, 2023 1 minute 3 comments

Jimmy Dodge-a-Job and the Little Folks of Tumbledown Town

Allan Holtz presents us with most wonderful samples of cartooning from 1918. Two full pages of Jimmy Dodge-a-Job from the mysterious James Stewart makes one wonder why he did not reach a justly deserved fame.

Teena by Hilda Terry

HIlda Terry gained fame more for reasons other than her twenty years career as a comic strip cartoonist.

Redscraper explains:

Theresa Hilda Fellman, later Theresa Hilda D’Alessio after marriage, generally known as Hilda Terry (1914-2006), holds the historical footnote of being the first woman to be accepted into the National Cartoonists Society… And so Terry tends to get mentioned in articles about female cartoonists because of her ground-breaking inclusion in the NCS… but focusing on the aforementioned trail-blazing tends to overshadow Terry’s main comic strip Teena, which is genuinely fun…

So Who’s Out There celebrates Hilda Terry’s cartooning abilities.

From Rocky to Elzie to Popeye

_{above photos from The Southern Illinoisan via Snopes}

For 10 years, [Elzie Segar] had been drawing the syndicated “Thimble Theatre” comic strip. After a slow start, it gradually developed a following during the 1920s as more and more newspapers began carrying it…

Now Segar was looking for a new wrinkle. Ham Gravy and Castor Oil devised a scheme to break the bank at a casino on Dice Island. But first, they needed an experienced sailor to skipper their boat…

As Segar mulled the sailor he needed for his comic strip, he ultimately decided, “Why create someone from scratch when I already know the perfect one?”

Rocky was the town character. And that was putting it mildly. In a region known for colorful coots, Rocky stood out from the pack.

J. Mark Powell, for The Courier Journal, profiles Frank ‘Rocky’ Fiegel.

A Typical Golden Age Comic Section

Tarzan, Ella Cinders, Chris Crusty, Dixie Dugan, James S. Brown, Jr. – Ace Cameraman, It’s Papa Who Pays, Toots and Casper, The Gumps, Aunt Min, Tillie the Toiler, Tillie the Toiler Fashion Parade, Joe Palooka, Charlie Chan, Hoosegow Herman

Rosie’s Beau, Bringing Up Father, The Nebbs, Simp O’Dill, Alexander Smart, Esq., Daffy Doodles, Elmer, Li’l Abner, Captain Easy, Peter Rabbit, Dinglehoofer und His Dog, The Katzenjammer Kids, Prince Valiant

Toonerville Folks, Napoleon, Ming Foo, Little Annie Rooney, Alley Oop, Scientists Say:, Colonel Potterby and the Duchess, Blondie, Hall of Fame of the Air, Ace Drummond, Nicodemus O’Malley and His Whale, Gran’pa, Just-Kids, Curley Harper, Tim Tyler’s Luck

Animation Resources presents the three-section 24-page 42-comic Times-Picayune Sunday Funnies from June 25, 1939 with Burne Hogarth, George McManus, Fontaine Fox, Ham Fisher, Al Capp, Roy Crane, Hal Foster, Nick Afonsky, V. T. Hamlin, and many others famed cartoonists.

Walt Kelly, George Ward, Henry Shikuma and POGO

We end as we began – with wonderful samplings of cartooning as Todd Klein takes us on an extended look at Walt Kelly‘s lettering of his early comic books and Pogo, following up with Pogo letterers George Ward and Henry Shikuma.

_{images © King Features Syndicate, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., the Estate of Fontaine Fox, Okefenokee Glee and Perloo Inc.}