A New Strip Scene Issue

Featuring Fort Knox, Alley Oop, Ink Pen, Crankshaft, Vintage Judge Parker, Close to Home, and JumpStart.

The 15th year of Fort Knox by Paul Jon Boscacci!

Fort Knox began on October 1, 2009 which is odd because that date was a Thursday. Most newspapers that picked it up started running it on Monday October 5, 2009 and their readers missed the first three daily introductory strips. We present them here from The (Carlisle, PA) Sentinel via newspapers.com.

The only place I know that it runs, other than your local newspaper, is at Arcamax.

If only Joey and Jonathan had started writing the Ooola as superhero arc now instead of months ago.

From Reuters:

Sept 26 (Reuters) – A U.S. Trademark Office tribunal has canceled a set of “Super Hero” trademarks jointly owned by comic giants Marvel and DC at the request of a London-based comic book artist, according to a Thursday order.

The USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled for S.J. Richold’s Superbabies Ltd, after Disney’s Marvel and Warner Bros’ DC did not file an answer to Superbabies’ request to invalidate the marks.

As Law.com notes the joint Marvel/DC trademark gift was silly from the start and it was way past time that somebody challenged it. Alley Oop went through three months of not calling Ooola what she had become.

Phil Dunlap went through seven years of Ink Pen without calling his ultra-powered people superheroes.

Well. maybe he slip up once or twice:

So… with Sunday’s Crankshaft I was wondering if Dan Davis copied Chuck Ayers style or if Tom Batiuk got Chuck to return to drawing Ed for a few panels. Turns out neither. From 1988:

By the way – is it just Crankshaft or do many of the other comics have jackas idio commenters posting remarks when they have no idea what is happening or has happened in the storyline.

While We are in the past … I’m having problems with the Vintage Judge Parker strips. They are from early 1969 in the Comics Kingdom daily feed and I am terribly distracted by the art.

I wasn’t seeing Judge Parker regularly until something like five later, around 1974/75, and the art then, still by Harold LeDoux, was completely different, at least to my tired old eyes.

Celebration Time, Come On!

The GoComics Blog is celebrating a couple of anniversaries.

With Close to Home it’s celebrating the book celebrating the panel’s 30th anniversary (which was two years ago.)

The GoComics team interviewed cartoonist John McPherson.

What is one thing readers don’t know about “Close to Home”?

I did not start drawing until I was 25, and never had any background in art. I taught myself to draw by looking at other cartoonists’ work and emulating different aspects of drawing styles that I liked. My first paid work was doing a cartoon twice a month for a bi-monthly newspaper. I was paid $5 a cartoon and was thrilled about it.

I don’t think your drawing ability is much of a secret, it’s the outrageously funny gags that keep us coming back.

JumpStart is celebrating 35 years of syndication tomorrow.

Originally launched on October 2, 1989, this family-centric comic strip is packed with humor and heart.

The GoComics team also interviewed Robb Armstrong:

What is one thing readers don’t know about “JumpStart”?

Readers might be surprised to learn that I’m nothing like the main character, Joe. The only character I really share any traits with is Vic Van Streck, a seldom-seen character in the strip. Like me, he is a well-known cartoonist with a successful career. I’m more interested in writing fiction and creating these characters than in documenting my own personal thoughts and opinions. I believe that turning my strip into a widely published diary is not a good idea! I let my characters think and act for themselves.

The Washington Post’s switch to daily color comics has generated letters. Among them:

In a world darkened daily with lies, murders and wars, I saw rainbows and confetti when I read that The Post is brightening my day by publishing the daily comics in color.

If you had asked me whether I would like to trade original news, sports or feature content for color comics, my answer would be a resounding no. Of course, you didn’t ask. Instead, you have been steadily gutting The Post’s unique and informative content and getting rid of excellent journalists who made The Post a first-rate paper, crying poverty all the while. But now you pour money into color comics.

In the ads promoting comics printing in color every day starting Sept. 23, the comics were legible. We could read the words!

Why, then, print the daily comics in sizes that render them illegible? They’re now colorful, but we still can’t read what they say. Please add a little size as well as color.

Hat tip to Carl Horak’s Strip Scene, what may be the best ever comic strip fanzine, for the headline.