Okay. I know very few of you are old enough to assist with this. And those who may be old enough will really have to scratch your heads over this.
Are you familiar with the Kerry Drake comic strip?
Have you ever seen the strip’s character Champagne?
When I was too young to know any better, or even to know what the feeling was, I had a major crush on Champagne. Something about the way she looked, I can’t even describe it.
For the past however many years I have been searching the web for any sites that might have old issues of the strip. All with no luck whatsoever.
If you have at least heard of that character, please let me know.
If you know where on the web a picture of her might be, I would be a happy camper.
There. It’s out. I’m still in love with a comic strip character!
Thanks for these links, NoClueBoy. I only saw one cover in that scroll. Gal tied up with guy in background jumping over something. Can’t decide if that gal matches my memory of Champagne, though.
The rack was definitely a feature of her appearance, but for a pre-schooler I have to wonder how much the rack was critical to my appreciation.
I do recall being fascinated by the black-haired movie stars of the day: Hedy Lamarr, Joan Bennett, Ruth Roman, etc., and I have to think the hair for Champagne was black to the point of having blue highlights.
That’s quite possible, NCB, but I’m pretty sure my awareness of Bettie Page came much later in life, as in adult years. After Playboy had been out a while.
I do suspect the raven-haired beauty was enough of a popular attraction for Champagne to have been selected for that (among others) reason. It’s just that whatever other strips were in the paper in those days (mid-to-late 40’s let’s say) none of them had the appeal that Kerry Drake did for me.
Later on, Al Capp’s females were competitive. Li’l Abner’s playmates and Long Sam, for instance.
But the Champagne of my pre-school years was a standout, having nothing to compete with but those funny-looking Dick Tracy characters, Blondie, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon, and others I can’t even remember.
While we’re on the subject (possible hijack – who cares?) do any of you remember a single-frame strip character named Hambone? Old black fellow along the lines of Uncle Ben or Uncle Remus, dispensing down-home wisdom. Gone the way of the stereotyped old black guy after the Civil Rights uproar, but a very wise strip before then.
