Sunday Funnies - March 12, 1960 - part 3 of 4!

Part 3 of my posting of "The Toronto Star" from March 12, 1960.  Thanks to Katherine Collins who in last week's comments, pointed out the city of the paper.

This time around, the "Superman" newspaper strip.  May be the first time I've posted any of those in the ol' blog and it's a Lori Lemuris!  Awesome!

Here's some post-Caniff "Terry & the Pirates" by George Wunder.  This is one of the few examples of a comic strip, where it changed creators hands and became something just as valid, albeit totally different.  The Hal Foster to Burne Hogarth "Tarzan" is the other that come to mind.

"Bringing Up Father" still in his cut-away coat and spats and without George McManus.  The syndicates just won't let a cash cow die.

Harold Grey is still at the helm of "Little Orphan Annie" in 1960, but as crazy old man conservatism gripped the guy, THIS strip became something all together different than in it's salad years as well.  

Splitting the page is Ferd Johnson's "Moon Mullins" another strip from an earlier time that the syndicates kept on life-support too long.  Still with all these aged features short-comings, they were nice to see.

Talk to you soon.

"Little Orphan Melvin" - Wally Wood - Mad Mondays!

1954's Mad THE COMIC BOOK swooped in with a story that almost makes my head explode for all of my favorite things it contains. Wally Wood doing some fine dense comical work parodying one of my all time favorite comic strip, Harold Grey's "Little Orphan Annie"!

And he manages to squeeze one of his comically hot femmes in it by the end...what's NOT to like.

Enjoy!

Talk to you soon.

Little Orphan Annie and Mr. I. Am - Nemo 23 - pt. 1 of 2

Sunday Funnies kiddoes, and once again "Nemo: the Classic Comics Library" shines the spotlight on one of my all time top 5 favorite comic strip/cartoonists, Harold Gray's immortal "Little Orphan Annie"!


The entire first half of Nemo's 23rd issue is dedicated to reprinting a complete 1937 story of everyone's favorite orphan.

I can thank the efforts of Richard Marschall and Bill Blackbeard and all the folks behind "Nemo" and Fantographics books for giving me my first opportunity to finally read complete runs of this strip I had always heard of and just glimpsed excerpts from. Between their clear devotion in this great magazine as well as 5 volumes of "The Nemo Bookshelf" I was in hog heaven...and still am whenever I re-read them.

Reading this sequence in particular with Mr. Am shows Annie is the most adopted and cared for orphan ever born. Not only does Annie always have Sandy, whatever family she moves in with from town to town, Daddy Warbucks, The Asp and Punjab looking after her...she sometimes has God hisself!

I don't feel so guilty having friends like Superman, Jesus and The Flying Spaghetti Monster to hang with at Ye Olde Drink Hole now.

Eat this one up kids...it's a corker!!

Be back next week for part two of Nemo #23. Family gatherings with Hi and Lois, an overview of the work of Fontaine Fox and more Sam's Strip await!

Talk to you soon.

Nemo #8: All Things Little Orphan Annie part 4 of 4

"Nemo: the Classic Comics Library" issue 8 brings it's insight into "Little Orphan Annie" to a close and saves the best for last! An entire Little Orphan Annie story...kind of...

Harold Gray's stories in Annie would sometimes last an entire YEAR, and as stated in the intro for this reprint, at the least 8 months! Gray could take you into a new year with Annie at the top of the world (following her triumph at the end of the previous story) and follow her sinking into a crisis of some sort and finally bring her back out on top and never make it feel drawn out. The stories were told like they happen to me and you in real life...one day at a time.

A unique quality to Gray's storytelling was, the strip was told in real time (even though Annie never ages) and one days strip represented a day in Annie's world, then the next day would be...well...the next day. No drawn out sequences in which it would take 3 weeks to cover a ten minute piece of business.

This story that Nemo reprints is an Annie story from 1929 that was reprinted back in the day in hard cover and edited by Gray himself (see full story in the article) and is truncated from the actual strip length. For you comic "book" readers, it's still a little different than a standard comic book story as each page represents 5 Annie comic "strips" or 5 days of a newspaper run. They don't read like a comic book, but are just as smooth once you get into the proper rhythm.

I've read a few complete reprints of the Little Orphan Annie strips as published by Kitchen Sink Press and they read like a fine novel.

You're in for a treat.

There...now don't you feel like you've just had a satisfying meal? Great stuff!

Coming Attractions for the next issue of Nemo featuring even more great stuff!

I'm glad so many of you are enjoying my posting of the "Nemo" issues. It's afforded me to lay back for a few weeks and let my scanner do the talking as well as forced me to finally digitize this great magazine and make it much more searchable for myself when I want to reference something.

While Nemo is rich and diverse in it's coverage of "things worthwhile" which is a HUGE part of why I started this blog, another reason was to keep my creativity flowing and force myself to pick up my own drawing pen on a regular basis. Nemo is wonderful inspiration and my drawing hand is itching.

So rather than my posting piece-meal portions of this great magazine every day, I'll be switching to full issues posted on Sundays beginning next week (July 11) with issue #9. That should keep the scanner humming for another 22 weeks or so and give me freedom to let my meandering mind meander here.

I hope to see you all back for the next issue of Nemo, and hope you check in to see what else I may come up with in the weeks in between.

Talk to you soon!