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CSotD: 55 Years Again
Received an early physician’s appt at the moment — nothing vital, simply the one time it may occur — so right here’s a glance again to 1966. Fifty-five isn’t a spherical quantity, however it’s a Sunday in a reasonably good period.
Our comics will start proper after this phrase from Hen of the Sea. I’m undecided there’s a lot of a connection between tuna and Inexperienced Lantern, however I suppose Aquaman didn’t have a whistle. And I by no means noticed the present, since we didn’t have an ABC affiliate wherever round — It was nonetheless often called the “Nearly Broadcasting Firm” in these days.
I observe, nevertheless, that the Batman cartoon appears a mashup of the intense, traditional comedian ebook and the campy TV present which started that 12 months.
Beetle Bailey, against this, had began in 1950 and so was nearly my age. Oddly sufficient, he nonetheless is.
My dad cartooned for a pastime, so Vip was a giant presence in our home, although Huge George wasn’t in our native paper. Unsure multi-panel work was his sturdy go well with, however the artwork was good.
Lesbians hadn’t been invented but, however I ponder if anyone puzzled about Hank, or if they only noticed her because the “smart” kind. Reality is, we had a woman in our class who all of us knew was “smart,” however she was our buddy and we didn’t care a complete lot. Such have been the occasions.
Dennis was additionally about my age, one in every of a flood of post-war cartoons, however he’d mellowed quite a bit since his early days and, wanting again, his dad appeared just like the brat within the household.
Which makes this a superb time to slide in Peanuts (1950) and Miss Peach (1957). I notably preferred Miss Peach when it got here alongside as a result of the gags have been kid-friendly, whereas Peanuts was actually written for adults, no less than till Snoopy started to take over the strip.
Hello and Lois was additionally fairly kid-friendly and this was one the place each child sufficiently old to learn it was sufficiently old to get a chuckle at a youthful child.
Gasoline Alley, against this, was extra in, and for, my father’s technology. He was born shut sufficient to the primary look of the little foundling that his mother and father referred to him as Skeezix.
Which makes this a superb time to fit in a few different oldies, Smokey Stover (1935) and Moon Mullins (1923). I observe that Miss Swivel appears a bit forward of her time. In these days, after all, a reasonably woman who didn’t need to be chased across the desk was suspected of being smart.
Dad used to work “Notary Sojak” into issues infrequently, however I had no thought what he was speaking about, Smoky Stover not being in our newspaper.
Dad additionally made one thing of a recreation of pretending to take The Phantom significantly, solemnly proclaiming one thing or different to be an “Previous Jungle Saying,” largely, I believe, to harass my mom, much like the best way he’d reward the Andrews Sisters, understanding she was a devotee of extra severe swing.
“Phantom say let no man comply with” turned such a working gag in our household that I used to be stunned, in later years, to seek out individuals who actually did take the strip significantly. However, then, the Andrews Sisters offered loads of data.
We have been, then again, required to take Prince Valiant significantly, not just because Hal Foster was an excellent artist and storyteller however as a result of he lived down the road from my mother’s folks in Connecticut and welcomed neighborhood children, together with my uncle, into his studio to see the way it all got here collectively.
I’d forgotten “Hatlo’s Historical past” however I at all times preferred “They’ll Do It Each Time,” by this time the highest survivor of a preferred kind.
I additionally preferred Iodine, largely as a result of she was a wise-ass on a a lot increased degree than Dennis Mitchell. Jimmy Hatlo had, by then, handed over each strips to Bob Dunn and Al Scaduto, however they maintained the flavour of the character.
Attention-grabbing subject in Choose Parker, provided that it might be one other half-dozen years earlier than Thomas Eagleton was outed as having suffered from despair and compelled to drop off his spot as VP candidate on George McGovern’s ticket.
Rex Morgan was nonetheless an academic strip in these days, and this Sunday began a return to a subject he’d famously covered a few years earlier, however this time round with seemingly much less Joe Friday-style hysteria, as we see in a few the dailies that prolonged the brand new arc.
Although, after I say “instructional,” I don’t imply as instantly in order Athelstan Spilhaus’s strip. Spilhaus was one thing of a Neil deGrasse Tyson kind, utilizing his well-established experience to tell the general public, and this post-Sputnik effort was popular and well-done.
Sunday Mark Path was additionally instructional and, as a rustic child who spent loads of time within the woods, I appreciated the traditional strip’s assumption that I wasn’t seeing a tree for the primary time, even in a case during which we have been all seeing this specific tree for the primary time.
The replace to this one being that, not only have the Chinese fostered it there, but there are three examples in Central Park’s Strawberry Fields section.
I suppose Pogo was additionally instructional, however provided that you paid shut consideration.
L’il Abner additionally supplied social commentary, this being shortly earlier than Al Capp went off the rails into Rush Limbaugh territory.
Talking of going off the rails, I’ll confess I by no means had a lot affection for the Moon Maid storylines in Dick Tracy and, in truth, I bear in mind the NYC children at summer season camp making enjoyable of them. Apparently there was some radio host studying the funnies down there, who needed to resort to gibberish for Moon Maid’s earlier faux-dialogue, which they discovered hilarious and never in a great way.
Mary Price was pure cleaning soap opera and at all times had been. And nonetheless is, bless her coronary heart, although she’s turn into extra campy lately. The tut-tut in that penultimate panel is a traditional judgmental-old-lady take, although she invariably proved to be proper.
Lastly, an appreciation of Rick O’Shay, a compact little Western that informed quick tales with sleek, enticing artwork that I at all times loved, whether or not it starred Marshal O’Shay himself or the marginally sinister however philosophical gunslinger, Hipshot Percussion.
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