V.T. Hamlin and the Caveman Everyman!

Born May 10, 1900, today would have been the 110th birthday of V.T. Hamlin!

V.T. Hamlin was an ambitious, energetic, imaginative young boy. A penchant for athletics but being on the smallish side he created a fantasy world where the average guy, not of great intelligence, but very capable and resourceful was the star.

A veteran of World War One he also got an adult dose at an early age of the ordinary guy in EXTREME situations. From this foundation he gave us Alley Oop, the time-traveling everyman caveman!


There was such a good response the other day to my posting on Floyd Gottfredson's birthday of scans from "Nemo" magazine, I just couldn't resist leaving it on the scanner stack when I saw that the cover feature was Alley. I am so enamored by things that happened "before-my-time" I sometimes assume that if it appeared "after" everyone else must have it. "Nemo" was a great magazine that I would read cover to cover with every issue and I happily have the entire run sitting here on my bookshelf where it belongs...had cover or no.

This first page is NOT from Nemo, but rather the intro to a Ken Pierce reprint of Oop strips.

Here's the Nemo article. One of the drawbacks of printing technology is that color is so cost-prohibitive, especially in publishing for a niche market. As great as Nemo is, there was a little lacking when they would reproduce Sunday strips in black and white. But hey, they still offer a great opportunity for letting us see these great strips.

And it gives me another level of appreciation for blogging and digital technology, where I hope to see these strips in glorious full color one day. Until then...enjoy!

Thanks V.T.! Your melding of humor and adventure was inspirational. Like E.C. Segar and Roy Crane you saw what a gorgeous well of inspiration and great story-telling it can be!

See y'all tomorrow!