Sunday Funnies - May 14, 1949 - part 1 of 2

Happy Sunday, kiddoes!  And more Sunday supplement 4 color treasures to feast over with your oatmenl.

To start off our 2 week exam of the Chicago Daily News from My 14, 1949, it's that front page perennial, Al Capp's "Li'l Abner".  That Dogpatch gang must have sold a lot of newspapers in it's day.

More "Dotty Dripple" by Buford Tune bringing up page 2.  As discussed in past posts, the "poor man's 'Blondie' from the poor man's Chic Young.  Still with it's own charm though.

More Al Capp along with Raeburn Ban Buren with the soap opera strip that put other soap opera strips to shame, "Abbie and Slats".

And the gorgeous and informative "Mark Trail" by Ed Dodd finishes up this weeks 4 color collection.  

This is another in a batch of Sunday pages I bought off of ebay a few years back.  This one seems to be missing about half (or more) of the pages.  It's still nice to finally have them scaned before they completely crumble though.

See ya next Sunday for the second half.  Auto-loaded, as that will be my last "away day" and "travel day" from the San Diego Comic-Con...which I will for sure report on for y'all.

Talk to you soon.

Sunday Funnies! - 6-10-12

Now that we know where Jeffy is (trapped all up in his head) we'll give him a coupla days more to stew there and resume a few regular features of the blog.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!  This week the first 4 pages of the Chicago Daily News for SATURDAY June 4, 1955.  Chicago (and other big cities I suspect) competed fiercely for their readerships and one of the most powerful tools was their features and one of the brightest and easily spotted was their color Sunday supplement.  So why not slap it on on Saturday TOO?!?

These are some pages from an actual 1955 supplement I bought off of Ebay a few years back.  It's nice to get them scanned and not fret about them just disintegrating and turning to newsprint dust.  

This is a 16 page supplement, so rather than overwhelm, I'll post it over the next few weeks and let all you readers drink it in slowwwwwwwwwwwly and get all the good 4-color nutrition you can from it.  This week, the almost ubiquitous front-pager, Al Capp's "Li'l Abner".  

Here's a strip that popped up LAST Sunday Funnies that I didn't know much about, but we got a few comments on.  It's the poor man's Blondie, "Dotty Dripple" by Buford Tune.  I knew a Buford Tune once...he had a good beat, but you couldn't dance to him!  (Ah, it's good to be back...where else but on this blog could I unleash such pearls of humor?)

Al Capp's other strip, which he wrote while Rueben Van Buren provided the wonderful artwork, Abbie and Slatts.  This strip was the epitome of continuity and serial strips, but with much deeper characterization, LIKE ABLE characterization and depth of story than your average Mary Worth, Rex Morgan or Judge Parker.

Finally a favorite of mine (and fellow art appreciator and blogger Thomas Haller Buchanon, Ed Dodd's lovingly drawn and researched "Mark Trail".  Trail makes me really long for a time when this type of thing was appreciated more.  I picture LOTS of kids in the 1950's clipping and saving these strips.  You're missing out on reading this and NOT smelling the musty newsprint it's on.

That's it for this Sunday, kiddoes.  Tomorrow is "Mad Mondays" and then on Tuesday back to see what Jeffy's doing up inside his head and why he can't get out.

Talk to you soon.

Chicago Daily News - November 13, 1948 - Sunday Funnies!

Sunday Funnies this week gets it's lead from a few newspaper comics sections I bought at a reasonable price off of eBay a few years ago.  This one;s from the November 13, 1948 edition of the Chicago Daily News and has some real honeys in it!

Two helpings of Al Capp with "Li'l Abner" and "Abbie and Slats" with Raeburn Van Buren.  A pretty much forgotten adolescent strip called "Dotty Dripple" by Buford Tune.  Some of Ed Dodd's tried and true "Mark Trail".  A fashion type strip that looks about 20 years too late for it's art deco stylings, but pleasant to the eye none-the-less...with even some fun paper doll action.  A little soap opera action with "Rex Morgan, M.D.".  Another forgotten children strip that has a really interesting drawing style (if a bit forced feeling) by someone named Cecil Jensen and finally a sign that the good ol' days weren't always so good...Fred Neher's "Life's Like That" - ugh!

All in all though a fun and varied grab bag that oughta make yer oatmeal taste good as you longe over it this Sunday!

Talk to you soon!

"Mark Trade" - Mad Mondays - Jack Davis!

"Mad Mondays" continues (after about a months delay...where have I been, anyway?) with it's look at "Mad" (THE COMIC BOOK) #12 dated June 1954, and Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis' spin on Ed Dodd's comic strip "Mark Trail", entitled "Mark Trade".

Even my love and admiration for the classic American newspaper comic strip fails to see how anyone ever was devoted to Dodd's fact-based wild-life strip.  It was a product of it's time, I suppose.  Pure post-WWII homogenization of America.  The 1950's were a strange combination of cutting-edge and middle-of-the-road milquetoast and a decade I would love to go visit in my time machine because of both.

At any rate, Messrs Kurtzman and Davis found the fun...and here it is.

Enjoy!

In the meantime...I'm going to go sick Mark Trail off on MY trail and see where the heck I've been.

Talk to you soon.