Comic Strips 2022: Girls Are People!

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Why do you read this thread anyway? This poll is closed.
I enjoy reading contemporary newspaper comics.	64	26.02%
I hate reading contemporary newspaper comics.	42	17.07%
I enjoy reading historical newspaper comics.	88	35.77%
I enjoy reading newspaper comics from foreign countries.	52	21.14%
Total:	246 votes

[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Happy New Year!

(Fred G Cooper)

For the past few years, this is where I rattle off the comic strips which are newly dedicated to the public domain in the US (and thus available for artistic reimagining without legal repercussions), but for 1926 that list is a little harder to come by than usual. The one thing that sticks out for me is a final late-period run of Winsor McKay's Little Nemo before the master retreated to the editorial pages and eventual retirement, meaning the entire Slumberland saga from end to end is now available for retooling. Besides, the big ticket "get" for print media liberation from copyright jail is the first Winnie-The-Pooh book.

So instead, let's thumb through a random January 1, 1926 newspaper and see what merriment we can OH CRAP...

One unfamiliar strip that popped at me was Just Kids by Ad (August Daniels) Carter (January 2, 1926)

It's one of what seems like a platoon of Little Rascals-style strips that were sprouting like weeds in the 1920s and early 30s, originally designed as a knock off of Gene Byrnes' better-remembered "Reg'lar Fellers".

(November 15, 1924)

But like all the things that catch our attention, it wasn't that simple in the long run.

Lambiek Comicopedia posted:

Despite starting out as a rip-off, 'Just Kids' gradually became more Carter's own thing. It spawned a bunch of merchandising and comic book reprints, no less thanks to Hearst's aggressive marketing strategies. 'Just Kids' had its own Safety Club as well, which informed children on how to be careful. According to some reports it once had 3.000.000 members. The comic also lasted far longer than 'Reg'lar Fellers', which already ended in 1949. As the daily 'Just Kids' ended in 1949, its Sunday page kept running for another eight years. The only major change during this period was that the title changed to 'Mush Stebbins and His Sister' in 1950.

Anyway, apart from a dearth of new-to-me titles, a lot of from-the-newspaper-morgue thread favorites kept unspooling over the year, including...

Whoops. You haven't even met Mickey McGuire yet. Forget you saw this drawing.

Mutts (Patrick O'Donnell) was a spur-of-the-moment addition just a few weeks ago, so I don't really have much to say about the current version of it just yet. Starting in 1994, it's the story (if you'd call it that) of a Jack Russell terrier, a tuxedo cat, and...well hell, I don't know, you tell me. Charles Schulz loved this strip back in the 90s, giving it a honey of a cover quote for the book collections. I remember there being more dialogue in the early years, but the art style is still deeply appealing to me, so here it is.

Sally Forth (Francesco Marciuliano and Jim Keefe) is either one of the best bits of reading in post-millennium newspaper comic stripdom or a wall of words with occasional pictures. I'm the guy posting it, so you tell me which side I'm on.

In some ways, Pearls Before Swine (Stephan Pastis) fits perfectly in the "everything on fire forever" hellword that can't seem to escape, to the point where one sequence about a government overthrow that was scheduled to run the week after the Capitol riot got shelved until things mellowed out a little. When that didn't happen, they just punted it to the middle of summer. Another interesting year.

Skippy (Percy Crosby) was created for the first version of Life Magazine (which we pull from for Skippy on Sunday). As summed up by Don Markstein: "Once, the name "Skippy" was associated in the public consciousness with an extremely popular comic strip about a little boy and his small town adventures. Comics historian and critic Coulton Waugh (whose cartooning credentials included having taken over Dickie Dare from Milton Caniff) said it "was no routine, ordinarily good job". It's no exaggeration to call it the Peanuts of its time. Now, the name only refers to a brand of peanut butter. There's a connection between the two, and the story behind it appears even more sordid than what's been going on between Disney and the licensor of Winnie the Pooh." (April 20, 1934, and yes, this is yesterday's, since it only goes up on a Monday-Friday schedule.)

Peanuts (Charles Schulz), the 50,000-watt border blaster of mid-to-late 20th century newspaper cartooning. (January 1, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean (Tom "Goddamn" Batiuk and Chuck "Not Enough Soap To Wash Those Hands Clean" Ayers) continues to find new and "exciting" ways to piss us off when it's not boring us to tears. The "highlight" of 2021 was a storyline about overdue recognition of women who worked in the Golden Age-era comic book industry...which got hijacked by a reunion of TomBat's Stan Lee and Jack Kirby surrogates. That's a hell of a trick, since he killed off his not-Jack years ago.

Crankshaft (Tom "Goddamn" Batiuk and Dan "Your Crosshatching Is Freaking Me Out And I Can't See That As Anything But A Pube Couch" Davis), presents the other side of the Funkyverse. This is where I talk about how this strip is set ten years in Funky Winkerbean's past, but both are supposed to represent the present day (as seen through a one-year buffer that makes any current events jokes completely pointless), but 2021 was the year that TomBat effectively broke the timeline to tell a hamfisted "small business in the year of the plague" story, so there doesn't seem to be much of a point to hanging a lampshade on it this time around.

Mutt and Jeff (Bud Fisher, but really, who the hell knows? (keep reading)) was inserted when 9 Chickweed Lane descended into deeply creeptastic territory. Here's how I set it up last spring:

EasyEW, friend to cartoons everywhere, posted:

In many ways, Bud Fisher's creation is the granddaddy of everything you've seen in every . While it may not have been the absolute first daily strip in American newspaper history, it was the one that sparked the trend. The way Fisher told it, it took some time to convince his editor that people would read something laid out horizontally across the page. He also managed to nail down the copyright to his own characters, not only avoiding the type of wrestling matches other creators had over Buster Brown and the Katzenjammer Kids, but making himself a mint in the process.

In another grand tradition of newspaper ink slingers, Fisher got tired of drawing Mutt and Jeff long before he got tired of spending that sweet, sweet Mutt and Jeff money, so by the 1920s he started handing the work off to assistants while he lived the life of a wealthy idler. He thoroughly forgot the newspaper people he stepped on during his ascendancy, and they didn't seem to have a high opinion of him either. The strips that are currently holding the trademark in place were drawn by longtime assistant Al Smith in the late 1940s-early 1950s; Fisher only showed up to sign his name to the finished work (and the paychecks). Smith held down the gig for 48 years, retiring a few years before the original strip closed shop in 1982.

For the crowning touch of its current status as a mega-zombie corporate asset, the name on the current copyright is Pierre S. de Beaumont, the founder of Brookstone, who died ten years ago and whose only claim to the property is that he inherited the rights from his mother, who was once married to Fisher and they never got divorced.

As for the premise, Augustus Mutt (the tall one) is a family man with a wife and son, and Jeff (the short one) is a runt that he met in an insane asylum. They bonded over a love of horse racing, but as we join the parade, we're at least 40 years beyond that piece of the premise.

Basically, we're getting a few decades of the strip on shuffle play. Sometimes you can tell, but mostly it all runs together like the mirth automaton it was by the the 50s. Anyway, y'all seem to dig it much more than 9CL, which no one has dared to start posting on a regular basis since then.

Rip Haywire (Dan Thompson) is a send-up of the type of square jawed, two-fisted action hero that only jerks like us seem to read anymore.

Thimble Theater (Elzie Segar), the story of a mutant sailor and his many hangers-on, is reaching a point of departure, although nobody involved could possibly know that at the time. The departure is strip creator Segar himself, who's been fighting leukemia throughout 1938. It doesn't end well. (August 2, 1938)

Out Our Way (J.R. Williams) Cowboys, machine workers, nostalgia , moms, BOYZENDORGS! Goldie (first panel) became sort of a break-out star last year. That is, a lot of you wanted to see that adolescent overachiever break out in measles, mumps, maybe even explosive diarrhea. Anything that would pick him up and shake him. (December 27-29, 1937)

Toonerville Folks, a world of rickety trolleys, town characters, and proto-feminist icons. (Fontaine Fox) (July 11-13, 1918; spoiler because even if there's a "warts and all" policy on all of the vintage stuff, I reserve the right to drop a curtain over the type of racial caricature that has aged about as well as milk on a radiator. The presence of antique racist humor in any of the really, really old strips I post does not reflect my implicit approval. It's pretty much industry-wide background noise for the period I'm sifting through.)

The Duck. By Dok. (Dok Hager, later known as "Dok's Dippy Duck"). The story of a smartass Seattle-based duck hanging out on a street corner. Sometimes he picks fights. Sometimes fights pick him. Created by a dentist who took up cartooning in middle age and became a regional legend. (November 30, 1913)

Little Lefty (Maurice del Bourgo (d/b/a "del")) would make a good centerpiece in a hypothetical People's History of the United States Cartooning Industry anthology. It was published in The Daily Worker, the literal mouthpiece of the United States Communist Party back when Trotsky and Stalin were still alive to antagonize each other. The Worker's circulation never got higher than 35,000 a copy, but that Lefty even exists at all shows a Yankee Red interest in counterprogramming the mega-capitalist bootstrap narratives of Harold Gray's Orphan Annie and the industry standard of racial depictions. Or to spin a Phil Ochs quote, to turn Elvis Presley into Che Guevara.

Lefty obviously didn't do that. But from the evidence so far, it wasn't from lack of creative effort.

Del Bourgo was effectively doing Lefty on the sly for the Worker so he could still take commercial gigs to keep the lights on at home, but it's really obvious that once he warmed up to the job he brought his A-game. Some of his panels look like they could be sketches for WPA murals.

(December 1, 1935)

And unlike a number of other talents who had a cup of coffee with the Depression-era Reds, he seems to have had a solid career in the Cold War era, contributing art to numerous Golden Age-era comic books, including Classics Illustrated.

When the Detroit Jewish News printed a mini-bio of Del Bourgo in 1954 (which matched point-for-point a slightly more anonymized bio he contributed to Worker in '35), his work on Lefty didn't come up at all, for what I hope are obvious reasons. However, because Dr. Wertham had published Seduction of the Innocent in the same year, his comic book work didn't come up either. The key achievements they listed? His advertising art agency and a syndicated diet feature called "Kalorie Kate".

Anyway, Del and Lefty deserve better. This is a slice of invisible America, my favorite type of history. So pull up a chair and take a bite. (November 11-13, 1935)

On the off chance you haven't been following along, Peanuts just beat the tar out of a racist bully and then scared the compatible-with-Marxism equivalent of the love of God into him with superior numbers. What comes next?

A note that says, "Hi, Comrade Del can't come to the revolution right now. Please accept this temporary substitution." This already happened once before, but subbing in whole other features does mix up the mix in interesting ways.

And here's where I usually post early-days Blondie, but holy crap, I've already burned a couple of hours putting this much together. Effort posts are efforts, dammit. I'll make it up to you tomorrow.

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Jan 2, 2022

# ¿ Jan 2, 2022 05:58

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 20:11

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

I AM GRANDO posted:

So did Crankshaft have covid appear in the strip and break the timeline, or is it that Funky Winkerbean is set in 2041?

What broke the timeline was Ed's grandson running the movie theater that hosted the Starbuck Jones premiere ten years after he closed it for good during COVID in a Crankshaft sequence, and the new owner turned it into a strip club. And then suddenly it was a strip club in Funky Winkerbean, too. When that stuff happened in Back To The Future, at least they played fair by continuity rules.

The only thing Ed himself got in the timeskip Cancerverse was older and more decrepit.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2022 06:24

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

gleebster posted:

I can't quite agree with some goons' ideas on this. Apart from a couple strips, these three seem to dog this kid's every waking step, acting like some self-bemoaning Greek chorus. Get yerselves a dog and snap out of it!

Well, there was the time that he seemed to be running a grift on them, which resulted in them trying to grift him back. But again, the trio were our POV characters, so who the hell knows what was really going on in Goldie's head.

Anyway, where'd I leave off last night? Oh yeah, Blondie (From Zero).

Murat "Chic" Young had spent the past several years working on Dumb Dora, a hit flapper strip, and was making a comfortable living, but October 1929 put enough of a financial pinch on him that he asked for a raise and an ownership stake in Dora. Eventually, after a summer of brainstorming, the syndicate agreed to a new strip, one starring a "reformed gold-digger" named Blondie Boopadoop and her rich doofus boyfriend Dagwood Bumstead.

According to Young, Blondie was intentionally designed as a break with the recent past. ""Dora was a typical flapper strip, and in 1930 when flappers were on the way out, I tried to picture the average girl of that age, the kind who led in the complete return to femininity--a reaction from sports clothes, boyish figures and flapperism in general." But as our esteemed OP has sussed out, the premise creaks like nobody's business when you lean on it for long enough, so the adventures of a party girl and a millionaire failson weren't catching on in the Hooverville era. More troubling from a business standpoint was that the strip wasn't exactly setting sales records for the syndicate either. In fact The New York American dropped the daily strip entirely in 1932. Some major surgery was required, but it wasn't immediately obvious where they should make the first incision.

It was in the middle of this crisis that Joe Connolly, the King Features general manager who okayed the strip in the first place, asked Young a million dollar question: "Why don't you have them marry? You know more about married life than you do about flighty dames anyway." And the rest is history...just not the part of the history we've gotten to yet. (June 29-July 1, 1931)

Mutts

Sally Forth(coming Announcement)

Pearls Before Swine

Peanuts (January 5, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Up until very recently, I called this next Sunday gimmick "Life (With Skippy)". The reason is that Percy Crosby's "Skippy" began in the first version of Life Magazine, back when it was a humor magazine packed to the gills with cartoonists and, by the 1920s, a sizeable representation of the Algonquin Round Table limbering up for the New Yorker. The problem is 1925 was the year that Skippy migrated to the newspapers, meaning that there have been long stretches of the magazine where Mrs. Skinner's baby boy doesn't show up at all anymore. But there are still some really good cartoonists to pick and choose from, and oh, please save me from flipping through old magazines filled with things that I'm totally fascinated by...

So until I come up with something better to call it, here's another installment of Life (While We Wait For Skippy To Come Home) (December 31, 1925)

No Crosby this week, so instead we start with a thematically appropriate Ellison Hoover contribution.

John Held, Jr::

Ethel Plummer, an influential illustrator who was the first female cartoonist published in issue #1 of The New Yorker.

And Edwina Dumm, one of the earliest women in the field, whose greatest claim to fame was five decades of service on the Cap Stubbs and Tippie strip. Tippie also found its way to Life Magazine (and the London Tatler, where the dog was renamed Sindbad), which I'm pretty sure is what we're looking at here.

Life (With Tippie)? We'll see how it goes.

e: because I forgot to mention my quiet pleasure that vintage comics are winning that weird poll. :unsmith:

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Jan 2, 2022

# ¿ Jan 2, 2022 21:04

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (April 21, 1934)

Peanuts (January 6, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 4, 1938)

Out Our Way (December 30, 1937-January 1, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (July 15-17, 1918)

Dok's "That Ol' Hesitation Rag" Duck (December 2, 1913 (December 1st is AWOL).)

While Lefty's off in parts unknown, your Party-approved gap-plugger is I See By The Papers, by "a comrade called MacCormick". (November 14-16, 1935)

And a technical glitch delays Blondie tonight. Thank you for your continued tolerance for my excuses.

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Jan 4, 2022

# ¿ Jan 4, 2022 04:52

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Nostalgamus posted:

For the people in this thread who are scanning old comic books: What do you use?

I've been advised that flatbed scanners are a poor tool for the job, and trying to find more information about the alternatives.

I use a flatbed too, and yeah, it's very obvious that its not the greatest fit for what I'm trying to get it to do (as you'll see in tonight's weird patch jobs where the dialogue closest to the spine shows up as a barely legible smear).

Mutts

Welcome back to The Sally Forth Retro-Fest-O-Rama! (or whatever we're calling this)

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (April 23, 1934)

Peanuts (January 7, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 5, 1938)

Out Our Way (January 3-5, 1938)

Spoilered because NOW LISTEN YOU. This appeared in a family newspaper in 1938 and I expect you jerks to behave yourselves.

Toonerville Folks (July 18-20, 1918)

Dok's Dippy Upper Respiratory Virus (December 3, 1913; I did a lot of cleaning up on this one, but the last panel was a little trickier.)

I See In The Papers (subbing for Little Lefty; November 18-20, 1935)

Blondie (From Zero) (July 2-4, 1931)

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Jan 5, 2022

# ¿ Jan 5, 2022 04:58

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

The Sally Forth Retro-Fest-O-Rama

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (April 24-25, 1934)

Peanuts (January 8-9, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 6 and 8, 1938)

Out Our Way (January 6-8, 1938; spoiler for the usual reasons)

Toonerville Folks (July 22-24, 1918)

Dok's Dippy Doomsday Weapon (December 4, 1913)

I See By The Papers (still subbing for Lefty) (November 21-23, 1935)

(Something about Barbara Hutton, for what it's worth.)

Welcome back to Blondie (From Zero), and the chase is on. (July 6-8, 1931)

# ¿ Jan 7, 2022 03:19

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Darthemed posted:

Popcom

So heartwarming, all those readers who learned to resent Goldy getting to do it all over again in four-color glory. :allears:

Mutts

Sally Forth Retro-Fest-o-Rama

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (April 26, 1934)

Peanuts (January 10-11, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 9-10, 1938)

Out Our Way, featuring unadulterated monochrome Goldy comics. (January 10-12, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (July 25-27, 1918)

Dok's Dippy Bringer Of Bad Tidings (December 5, 1913)

I See By The Papers (That Lefty's Coming Back Next Time) (November 25-27, 1935)

(Another lopsided day, so Blondie will have to wait a bit longer.)

# ¿ Jan 9, 2022 04:51

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Selachian posted:

Comics Kingdom is down, probably due to crazed Wilbur fans, so today's Rhymes with Dustin is courtesy of Arcamax.

If you want a plan B, I figured out by accident that it's the front end that's borked, not the image server. So you can Google image search by domain, like <Insert Comic Name Here> site:comicskingdom.com, click the tools button, limit time to "past 24 hours". The one you're looking for is probably be the first one, so click on that, then right click on the big image in the sidebar that pops up and select "open image in new tab".

And that's how we end up with today's Mutts.

Sally Forth

Ces on Medium Large: "This may be one of my favorite Sally Forth Sundays of all time (and that may include when we had Godzilla whip a train full of the characters at King Ghidorah�s head)."

Pearls Before Swine

Peanuts (January 12, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Life (With All The Cartoonists Who Aren't Drawing Skippy For The Magazine Every Week Anymore) (January 7, 1926)

Percy Crosby:

Alice Harvey:

John Held Jr.

Al Frueh:

# ¿ Jan 9, 2022 19:28

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

RIP Lupin. A good kitty and a fine journalist.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2022 04:50

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mister Beeg posted:

I can't recommend that site enough. Been an avid reader for over a decade at this point.

Stripper's Guide is what got me started chasing Lefty strips. It's a great resource.

Mutts

Sally Forth Retro-Fest-O-Rama

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (April 27-28, 1934)

Peanuts (January 13-14, 1975)

Funky Winklebean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 11-12, 1938)

Out Our Way (January 13-15, 1938; spoilered for the usual reason)

Toonerville Folks (July 29-31, 1918)

Dok's Shaken-By-A-Harbinger-Of-Doom Duck (December 6, 1913)

Little Lefty (November 28-30, 1935)

Blondie (From Zero) in which the Bumsteads are in hot-and-cold-running pursuit. (July 9-11, 1931)

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Jan 12, 2022

# ¿ Jan 12, 2022 04:41

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth in "Ted of Two Worlds"

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (April 30, 1934)

Peanuts (January 15, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater refuses to share its recipe for smoked Olives. (August 13, 1938)

Out Our Way (January 17-19, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (August 1-3, 1918)

Dok's "It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know" Duck (December 7, 1913)

Little Lefty (December 2-4, 1935)

Blondie (From Zero) (July 13-15, 1931)

# ¿ Jan 13, 2022 03:24

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Hostile V posted:

I know it's been said but Jesus Dethany quit your loving job.

Archduke Frantz Fanon posted:

she never will because in line with her entire persona she loves being her boss's renfield

I mentioned several times that the in-universe explanation is "blackmail", but sometimes you just gotta find those receipts. And turns out that storyline was slightly more nuanced than what I remember. But still vaguely unsettling, in the traditional Holbrook manner.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2022 17:39

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

https://twitter.com/fmarciuliano/status/1482353550055424001

Mutts

Sally Forth Retro-Fest-O-Rama

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 1-2, 1934)

Peanuts (January 16-18, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 15-17, 1938)

Out Our Way (January 20-22, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (August 5-7, 1918)

Duck's Dippy Delusion (by Dok) (December 8, 1913)

Sometimes Little Lefty isn't nearly as in the past as we'd prefer it to be. (December 5-7, 1935)

I'm assuming that pre-fab buildings that have been cluttering up the former playground of my former elementary school for the past (checks calendar) couple of decades don't have these specific problems. Also, I don't remember our school having a cellar, so that's a leg up on depression-era New York City, I guess.

Today in Blondie (From Zero): A happy ending? This early on? Oh, pull the other one. (July 16-18, 1931)

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Jan 15, 2022

# ¿ Jan 15, 2022 20:29

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Sneaking the Sunday payload in before the snow and freezing rain takes me out of the running, starting with a forecast-appropriate Mutts.

Sally Forth (with commentary)

https://twitter.com/historysmith/status/1482406470893273091

Pearls Before Swine

Peanuts (January 19, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Life (Just Isn't The Same If There's Not A Skippy In Every Issue). Well, anyway, here's a Crosby panel to get us started. (January 14, 1926)

Ellison Hoover continues in his attempts to class up the joint:

Al Frueh:

And...um...look, this is another signature I'm struggling with, but I spent the week powering through one of the "big six" Sinclair Lewis books, so this cartoon sought me out.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2022 07:38

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

A few selections from the 1739 edition Joe Miller jokebook, just to show you that the classics never die. No matter how hard we try to kill them.

A melting Sermon being preached in a Country Church, all fell weeping but one Man, who being asked why he did not weep with the rest? O! said he, I belong to another Parish.
A Gentlewoman growing big with Child, who had two Gallants, one of them with a wooden Leg, the Question was put, which of the two should father the Child. He who had the wooden Leg offer'd to decide it thus. If the Child, said he, comes into the World with a wooden Leg, I will father it, if not, it must be yours.
A Gentleman happening to turn up against an House to make Water, did not see two young Ladies looking out of a Window close by him, 'till he heard them giggling, then looking towards them, he asked, what made them so merry? O! Lord, Sir, said one of them, a very little Thing will make us laugh.
A Countryman passing along the Strand saw a Coach overturn'd, and asking what the Matter was? He was told, that three or four Members of Parliament were overturned in that Coach; Oh, says he, there let them lie, my Father always advis'd me not to meddle with State Affairs.
A Gentleman said of a young Wench, who constantly ply'd about the Temple, that if she had as much Law in her Head, as she had had in her Tail, she would be one of the ablest Counsel in England.

Such jocularity. Tears of amusement stain my pinafore.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2022 17:39

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth Retro-Fest-O-Rama

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 3, 1934)

Peanuts (January 20, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 18, 1938)

Out Our Way (January 24-26, 1938)

And this is where everything else would go, except I spent a little too much time chasing another one of those ideas that I just couldn't shake. I'll let you see it in the morning if it still seems like a good idea.

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 05:56 on Jan 18, 2022

# ¿ Jan 18, 2022 05:42

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Ah, screw it. Here's my audition for the OOW reboot.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2022 07:56

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth...Or Maybe Eighth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 4, 1934)

Peanuts (January 21, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 19, 1938)

Out Our Way (January 27-29, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (August 8-10, 1918)

Dok's Dippy Plot Resolution (December 9, 1913)

Little Lefty (December 9-11, 1935)

Angelo Herndon still had a ways to go from here, but sometimes the wheel of justice moves in the proper direction.

My scanning time for Blondie got eaten up by clearing the driveway. Yeah, let's go with that for now...

# ¿ Jan 19, 2022 04:24

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Crisis On Infinite Forths

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 5, 1934)

Peanuts (January 21, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 20, 1938)

Out Our Way (January 31-February 2, 1938; spoiler for the usual reasons)

Toonerville Folks (August 8-10, 1918)

Dok's "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This" Duck (December 10, 1913)

Little Lefty (December 12-14, 1935)

Double shot of Blondie (From Zero) cos I've been letting down my side on this one. (July 20-25, 1931)

e: because whoops, my finger slipped and hit post too soon.

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Jan 20, 2022

# ¿ Jan 20, 2022 03:33

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Safety Dance posted:

Does anybody get this? This is my second time reading it, and I can't make heads or tails of what's going on. Is Vernon McNutt about to get shot?

somepartsareme posted:

My read is they're threatening him under punishment of death to keep rocking that boat as punishment for rocking a real boat with women and children in it as a joke

Yeah, it's been established that Vernon's that kind of a card.

The Bloop posted:

Teddy Roosevelt is going to shoot that man dead if he stops rocking that boat

Nice to see him making up with William Howard Taft on the issue.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2022 06:14

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Forths All The Way Down

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 7-8, 1934)

Peanuts (January 22-23, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 22-23, 1938)

Out Our Way (February 3-5, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (August 15-17, 1918)

Dok's "Call Me 'Suavecito'" Duck (December 11, 1913)

Little Lefty (December 16-18, 1935)

Blondie (From Zero) (July 27-29, 1931)

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Jan 22, 2022

# ¿ Jan 22, 2022 04:06

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Another partial dropoff tonight...

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Peanuts (January 24, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 24, 1938)

Out Our Way (February 7-9, 1938)

Dok's Rhythm Method Duck (December 12, 1913)

Little Lefty (December 19-21, 1935)

I'll pick up the stragglers tomorrow. :shrug:

# ¿ Jan 23, 2022 04:56

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 9, 1934)

Peanuts (January 26-27, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean featuring AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH GODDAMMIT LES MOORE!

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 25, 1938)

Out Our Way (February 10-12, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (August 19-21, 1918)

Dok's Swivel-Hips Duck (December 13, 1913)

Little Lefty (December 23-25, 1935)

And as a Red Xmas "treat" here's an excerpt from a "real letter" to Santa published under that last strip. Mom went to the hospital, dad lost his poverty wages WPA job, they got kicked out of their apartment for nonpayment. The stuff they don't sing carols about.

quote:

I'm not telling Mamma that I'm writing to you, because she just came out of the hospital, and she feels terrible anyway, she's so sure we won't get anything for Christmas. I don't blame her much, because we really have been having an awful time since Pop went on the WPA.

There are seven of us, counting me and the rest of the kids and Mamma and Dad. From September to the middle of November Pop worked as a day laborer on the WPA, for less than 60 dollars a month, and we didn't get any supplementary relief. They shut off the gas and electricity and finally kicked us out of the house we lived In because we couldn't pay any rent.

( about mom's condition sending her to the hospital, and that's why dad lost his job, and the grocer gave them credit but the Relief Bureau ran them off of him. It goes on like that.)

So you see we can't expect much of a Christmas. The kids have been talking about the toys they want, but I guess they'll be lucky if they get the white bread and cocoa we usually eat, or oatmeal and potatoes.

Mamma's back from the hospital now, of course, but she can't do anything. The housekeepers will keep on coming for a while till Mamma can get out of bed. but what can they do when the relief money's gone and the grocer has to stop giving us credit? Mamma told me yesterday that Dad applied to the Salvation Army for a Christmas basket and they said they couldn't do anything, he should have applied a month ago. So I guess there won't be any Christmas here unless you come around. Our name is O'Connor and we live in the lower Bronx, in case you want to come.

Now that you know all about us, maybe you'll know what to give us for Christmas. There's so much I want to ask for, that I don't know where to begin, Another bed, or a stove for the front room, or some clothes. Little Margery is three and she doesn't have any clothes at all. She's around the house now with an old blue summer dress on and nothing else. And Dad needs clothes for the WPA Job. Or maybe you could bring us some extra blankets, or a little meat. Mamma ought to have about a pound of beef liver a day, and we can't even afford to buy chopped meat. I guess I'll just leave it up to you.

MARY O'CONNOR

And that's where I leave you for tonight, cos Depression-era Commies don't screw around.

_{e: because I stopped typing too soon last night. Yes, again. Sorry.}

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Jan 25, 2022

# ¿ Jan 25, 2022 06:08

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Interesting conversation today.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2022 20:09

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

don Jaime posted:

I don�t really post much, but please revive Lucky Lefty.

It's tempting, but if I had to make Uncle John explain why the party endorsed Joe Biden (besides the obvious reason), it'd probably break us both.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 10, 1934)

Peanuts (January 28, 1975)

The Continuing Afterlife of Saint Lisa of Cancerwife

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 26, 1938)

Out Our Way (February 14-16, 1938; spoilers for the usual reason.)

Toonerville Folks (August 22-24, 1918)

Dok's Dippy Heist (December 14, 1913)

Little Lefty, featuring the closest we've come so far to seeing Butch's real eyes. (December 26-28, 1935)

Blondie (From Zero) (July 30-August 1, 1931)

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 04:51 on Jan 26, 2022

# ¿ Jan 26, 2022 04:36

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 11, 1934)

Peanuts (January 29, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 28, 1938)

And now we have reached a turning point in the legend of Popeye, because this is the last daily strip signed by series creator Elzie Segar. His illnesses were gaining ground again, and he would succumb to a combination of leukemia and liver disease on October 13, 1938. So please take off your hat in memory of the master...

...and try not to be too horrified by the Popeye golem carrying him away.

This brings us to an interesting point of departure, because in both sets of Thimble Theater books that reprinted this story, the end of Segar's participation was the rather abrupt cutoff point.

As a tribute to a singular artist, it makes a certain type of sense to cut things off when he leaves the stage. But as someone who roots around in old newspaper scans for something I haven't seen before, I kind of want to see how this story ends. So obviously, I'm very interested in seeing how Comics Kingdom handles the permanent creative team transition.

Out Our Way (February 17-19, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (August 26-28, 1918)

Dok's "Suspiciously Rapid Recovery" Duck (December 15, 1913)

Little Lefty (December 30, 1935-January 1, 1936)

Blondie (From Zero): Now with violence! (August 3-5, 1931)

# ¿ Jan 27, 2022 04:15

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

A short stack for another scrambled-brain Thursday.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 12, 1934)

Peanuts (January 30, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater is still chugging along. Let's see how long the stockpile lasts. (August 29, 1938)

Out Our Way (February 21-23, 1938)

# ¿ Jan 28, 2022 05:05

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 14, 1934)

Peanuts (January 31, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 30, 1938)

Out Our Way (February 24-26, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (August 29-31, 1918)

Dok's Grifty Ducks (December 16, 1913)

Little Lefty (January 2-4, 1936)

There's a little extra Lefty art in the 2nd edition because The Daily Worker was launching a Sunday edition!

Coming soon to the Daily Worker: a comic strip adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel about the rise of an American fascist dictatorship. Fun for the whole family!

And yes, I will be looking for it in my source. Posting it might be another matter altogether.

Blondie (From Zero) (August 6-8, 1931)

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Jan 29, 2022

# ¿ Jan 29, 2022 05:01

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Peanuts (February 1, 1975)

Les Moore Can't Tell The Different Between His Neighbor And His Dead Wife

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (August 31, 1938)

Out Our Way (February 28 - March 2, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (September 2-4, 1918)

Dok's Dippy Unfair Business Practices (December 17, 1913)

Little Lefty (January 6-8, 1936)

Hey, just because you're in a permanent state of revolution against the capitalist overlords, that doesn't make you immune to a little cross-promotion.

And that's where we leave off for a bit...

# ¿ Jan 30, 2022 04:33

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Darthemed posted:

Popcom

A redo of one of my Life favorites.

Mutts

Sally Forth vs. The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave

And (deep, cleansing breath) another Pearls Before Swine designed to get an oversized reaction.

Peanuts (February 2, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

A Sketchy Life (January 21 and 28, 1926)

Leading this week with a cover from New Yorker lifer Garrett Price.

We do actually have a Percy Crosby-adjacent contribution for the 21st, as a poet takes a blank canvas from a Christmas Eve cover and shows you what they used to do with it before Dick Butt was invented.

Two from Ellison Hoover, including a nod to a Rube Goldberg creation.

T.S. Sullivant:

Robert L. Dickey:

L.F. van Zelm

John Held illustrates Robert Sherwood's review of the 1925 version of "Ben Hur". Sherwood's verdict: "Colossal--tremendous--gargantuan--and just the least bit overwhelming. [...] Most of the time, this bigness makes for extreme impressiveness and visual thrill. At intervals it makes for confusion and fatigue." Which suggests Michael Bay would run him through the ringer.

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Jan 30, 2022

# ¿ Jan 30, 2022 19:45

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 15, 1934)

Peanuts (February 3, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (September 1, 1938)

Out Our Way (March 3-5, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (September 5-7, 1918)

Dok's Dippy Counterattack (December 18, 1913)

Little Lefty (January 9-10, 12, 1936)

So who is the "old friend" they're talking about? Well, you'll have to wait a little bit longer because...

This is the week the Sunday Worker started, which looks shockingly close to a regular Sunday paper, albeit with a very unique editorial slant. There's a sports page, a movie review (a glowing review for Chaplin's Modern Times), and a Sunday magazine, which is where the comic strips live.

And Little Lefty on Sunday? It looks like a Little Lefty dropped in from any other day. Literally, in this case.

But since I brought it up a couple of days ago, you're probably wondering about It Can't Happen Here: The Comic Strip, based on the Sinclair Lewis novel. So let's take a taste of that, as illustrated and heavily condensed by Ned Hilton.

_{(Retyped because microfilm processing doesn't do the tiny typeface any favors.)}

Blondie (From Zero) promised us that Dagwood was taking a trip to the punchsport pagoda, but it's taking its sweet-rear end time getting around to it. (August 10-12, 1931)

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Feb 1, 2022

# ¿ Feb 1, 2022 03:06

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 16-17, 1934)

Peanuts (February 4-5, 1975)

Harry Dinklebean

Meanwhile, Crankshaft threatens us with a Les Moore crossover.

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (September 2-3, 1938)

Out Our Way (March 7-9, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (September 9-11, 1918)

Dok's "Vicious Businessman" Duck (December 19, 1913; timg'd because I don't even know, man...)

Little Lefty's pen pal is revealed (for our purposes, anyway). (January 13-15, 1936)

Jacob Burck was a Polish-American political cartoonist and muralist who was active in the US Communist party (including The Daily Worker and The New Masses magazine) from 1926 to 1936. And this sequence is right at the beginning of '36! Wow, what a coincidence!

Well, the story is that Burck's trip to the USSR was the straw that broke the camel's back. He was in Moscow supervising the installation of one of his murals in the Intourist offices in Moscow, but it was the peak years of Stalin's "cult of personality", and the officials demanded a few too many "Stalin ROCKS!" changes in his work. Eventually he walked out on the job and the Communist movement.

Burck didn't do too badly for himself in the long run, though. Within a few years he started a highly influential, award-winning 44 year run with the Chicago Sun-Times, but his Red past made things highly uncomfortable during the McCarthy years. Because he never formalized his citizenship, the government tried (and failed) to have him deported.

Blondie (From Zero): Match called on account of parents. (August 13-15, 1931)

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Feb 3, 2022

# ¿ Feb 3, 2022 03:59

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 18-19, 1934)

Peanuts (January 6-7, 1975)

Harry Dinklebean

Les Moore Brings His Poison To The Other Strip

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (September 5-6, 1938)

Out Our Way (March 10-12, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (September 12-14, 1918)

Dok's Dippy Figurehead (December 20, 1913)

Little Lefty (January 16-19, 1936)

Sorry if I accidentally spelled too much of the following correctly.

A kid who just had her home address published in the paper posted:

Dear EDitor:

I would like to know if I could get a penpal from the SOVIET UNION. I am a girl of 12 years old. I would like a girl or boy about my age. Please send me an address and ages. I also think I will like the sunday paper. I don't like the sunday paper that Hearst prints because every think in the funny papers can not be true. I like Flash Gordon and many others. I like Lefty because

It Can't Happen Here (the comic strip) (January 19, 1936 (again with the retyped libretto, just to be safe))

It's here you start to suspect that Hilton boiled Lewis's plot down a little too much. The small town editor knows that the candidate will throttle all civil rights because...he read the novel?

Blondie (From Zero) (August 17-19, 1931)

# ¿ Feb 5, 2022 04:38

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Small payload tonight...

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine gets its very first curtain of shame, because OOF.

Peanuts (February 8, 1975)

Harry Dinklebean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (September 7, 1938)

Out Our Way (March 14-16, 1938)

# ¿ Feb 6, 2022 03:32

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Peanuts (February 9, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

A Sketchy Life (February 4, 1926)

Al Frueh:

T.S. Sullivant:

A cleverly hidden signature that I haven't found yet:

Our good friend Mr. Crosby only chips in for a subscription ad.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2022 03:40

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 21-22, 1934)

Peanuts (February 10-11, 1975)

The Funky Winkerbean Dinner Theater presents "Oh, These Assholes Again." A play in one interminable act.

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (September 8-9, 1938)

Out Our Way (March 17-19, 1938; spoiler for the usual reasons)

Toonerville Folks (Septermber 16-18, 1918)

Because reasons, we skip ahead to Little Lefty (January 20-22, 1936)

And we're a little late, so good night, folks...

# ¿ Feb 9, 2022 05:02

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 23, 1934)

Peanuts (February 12, 1975)

The Continuing Adventures of These Two Old Farts

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (September 10, 1938)

Out Our Way (March 21-23, 1938)

Toonerville Folks (September 19-21, 1918)

Dok's Dippy New Contender Has Entered The Arena (December 21, 1913)

Little Lefty (January 23-24, 26, 1936)

And yes, one more time...

It Can't Happen Here (Which We've Titled As Something Else, Because I Dunno, You Tell Me) (January 26, 1936)

e: Okay, this one scrambled my brain just a bit. He proposes inflation? So I had to go for the book.

Senator Windrip's campaign issued a policy statement called "The Fifteen Points of Victory for the Forgotten Men." Point number 8 is "Congress shall have the sole right to issue money and immediately upon our inauguration it shall at least double the present supply of money, in order to facilitate the fluidity of credit." Jessup translates that as "by inflation, big industrial companies will be able to buy their outstanding bonds back at a cent on the dollar." But yeah, as the strip implies, Windrip's racial policies would make an apartheid supporter blush.

Blondie (From Zero) (August 20-22, 1931)

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Feb 10, 2022

# ¿ Feb 10, 2022 04:41

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Skippy (May 24-25, 1934)

Peanuts (March 1 and February 22, 1975)

Oh, These Assholes Again...

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (September 12-13, 1938)

Out Our Way (March 24-26, 1938; spoiler for the usual reasons (as adorable as the situation would be otherwise))

Toonerville Folks (September 23-25, 1918)

Dok's "Sizing Up The Competition" Duck (December 22, 1913)

Little Lefty (January 27-29, 1936)

Blondie (From Zero), in which our heroine needs to get away from it all. (August 24-26, 1931)

# ¿ Feb 12, 2022 04:58

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Small payload night again...

Mutts

Sally Forth

Pearls Before Swine

Peanuts (February 13, 1975)

Funky Winkerbean

Crankshaft

Mutt and Jeff

Rip Haywire

Thimble Theater (September 14, 1938)

Out Our Way (March 28-30, 1938)

Little Lefty (January 30-February 2, 1936)

There apparently wasn't an "It Can't Happen Here" installment in the February 2nd Sunday magazine, so instead, here's a feature called True Enough, a compatible-with-Marxism knockoff of Hearst lackey Bob Ripley's "Believe It Or Not".

# ¿ Feb 13, 2022 04:11

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 20:11

EasyEW: Mar 8, 2006; I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

Mercury Hat posted:

Any historians who can clue me in on how much was known about the USSR under Stalin outside of the propaganda at the time? I absolutely love Little Lefty for being so on the money about the United States government while having this big blind spot for the Soviet Union, but I'm assuming it's just because the people involved didn't have all the information we do from a modern perspective. I know EasyEW posted a bit about it here when this artist visited, I'm just curious to know more.

If contemporary readers didn't get the full picture of the Soviets, or at least an unassailable version of it, state censorship had something to do with that, but Stalin having some key reporters willing to play ball didn't hurt either. Walter Duranty's now-infamous Moscow coverage for the Depression-era New York Times is a good place to start on that point, if for no other reason than because it's one thing for "everything's fine in Russia" reporting to come from a US Communist house organ with a circulation that never got out of the tens of thousands, and another to read it in the Times, even if Duranty's accounts were often at odds with the paper's own editorial page.

Malcolm Muggeridge summed up Duranty as "the greatest liar I ever knew". "There was something vigorous, vivacious, preposterous, about his unscrupulousness which made his persistent lying somehow absorbing. I suppose no one--not even Louis Fischer--followed the Party line, every shift and change, as assiduously as he did." That the Soviet censor held Duranty up as a model to the others in the foreign press corps is the worst type of endorsement. It wasn't until the 1990s that the Times admitted he was responsible for some of the worst journalism in the history of the paper. But yeah, basically Uncle Joe's press agent, and influential enough at the time that he was widely credited with influencing the establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and the USSR.

Duranty wasn't the only one on the Times Stalin beat who has credibility issues in retrospect. The first wave of show trials is on the horizon in the Lefty timeline, and at least one of the other Times Moscow reporters, Harold Denny, represented them as a response to the genuine outrage of the Soviet citizens. "In the opinion of Russians an offense involving the life of Stalin can have but one penalty." His source for these "opinions"? Pravda.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2022 20:10

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > Comic Strips 2022: Girls Are People!

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