Kerry Drake–a strong-jawed detective of the Dick Tracy mold. I still remember one of his glam villainesses, because she was nbamed Eve Adams.
I idolized Brenda Starr; I think she’s still running, but is not a patch on her old high-camp, glam self. She lived at the Lovely Arms Apartments, a building I’ll kill for a two-bedroom in. By the way, her creator, Dale Messick, is still alive at the age of 98!
Tumbleweeds.
That one started out funny, then moved into suckitude rather quickly. Sorta like Garfield.
And now that I think of it, Jim Davis worked on Tumbleweeds before he created Garfield.
Still, a few memorable characters though. Hildegard Hamhocker, the lust-crazed single gal, Greasy the cook, Limpid Lizard, Bucolic Buffalo.
Coulda been so much better. Oh well.
Getting back to the OP, I found Dondi strangely compelling a a kid growing up in the 70s. I used to marvel at how long story sequences would last. For a kid it seemed like years, it was probably months. You could do that because each day’s strip only consumed about 10 seconds of action. I used to crave the Sunday version because you could get a whopping 30 seconds!
Anybody remember They’ll Do It Every Time
Another was “There Ought to be a Law.” Couldn’t find any links on that, sorry.
There was a short-lived strip in the '80s which I loved, but no one remembers it now but me, apparently. It was called “Rudy”, and it was about a talking chimp who was a sort of old-time entertainment act trying to get back into show biz. He had a parrot housekeeper named “Bonita”. It was a funny, quirky strip that ended all too abruptly. Anyone else remember it?
I remember reading one when I was a kid in the '70s–it was called “Major Hoople,” but I think it was also called “Our Boarding House” at some point (or perhaps the two were closely related). That strip was like a train wreck for me–I thought it was terrible, I didn’t get it, I couldn’t figure out why the weird guy in the fez had his mouth sewed shut or why they always had some unrelated (or tangentially related, maybe) comment down in the corner of the panel–but nonetheless I read it religiously every day, perhaps hoping that at some point I would Get It ™ and then I would finally be able to consider myself a grownup.
I saw it again years later and it still wasn’t funny, so I guess that didn’t work out. Can anybody explain this strip to me?
Not familiar with that strip-try this link for a better understanding.
This mentioning of Nancy made me realize something. Nancy’s hair and the pubic hair in the instructions on a box of condoms look exactly the same.
“Smoky Stover” is where the term “foo fighter” comes from (as in the rock band “Foo Fighters”). Smoky was fond of saying “where there’s foo there’s fire”, so WW2 airmen who had read the strip applied the term to various unidentified objects during the war. The objects were always glowing balls of orange, red, or white light, seemingly under intelligent control, that followed an aircraft for a while, then turned away and disappeared from view.
How about Hello Carol ?
It was a warm & funny strip, B&W, but nicely drawn.
I miss it. 
BTW-- Lil Abner and Pogo can be had in printed collection, for a few scheckles.
Dooley’s World: Nobody else I’ve talked to remembers this, but I swear it ran in the late 70s. It had roughly the same premise as “Calvin & Hobbes” (although it was nearly as funny or imaginative as C&H). Dooley was a little boy who had conversations with his toys, including a wind-up soldier and others. The toys were just toys when his parents popped into panel, but otherwise they were “real.” Anyone remember this?
Prince Valiant.
Has it ever done a formatted book following his life? He’s been around forever.
Brenda Starr was one of my favorites growing up. Blaze made this prepubescent gal swoon every time I gazed at his rugged eye patched face.
The movie, which is hard to find, staring Brooke Sheilds, was fun in a bad-campy kind of way. Timothy Dalton played Blaze.
excuse me. The mystery man’s name is Basil. whoooo basil.
I remember:
-Little Iodine, about a little girl who always caused trouble. Her father’s name was
Henry Tremblechin[a most henpecked sorta’ guy]who had a boss name Mr.
Bigdome.
-Penny, primarily interactions between a father and his teenage daughter. The
drawing was very angular, with harsh lines, lots of closeups. The father was a
Ward Cleaver-type.
-Moon Mullins, about a kooky, extended family.
Al “Li’l Abner” Capp was, indeed, a comic genius, and a very gifted writer.
To all accounts, though, he was also conservative to the point of durn near bein’ a Nazi (depending on to whom you speak), and a remarkably vicious s.o.b. as well – one of his former assistants remarks about how when Capp cut his salary in half, he tried to quit, at which point Capp did his damndest to destroy the man’s career.
Capp failed, but it would be years before Frank Frazetta would work in comics again…
As to Bil “Family Circus” Keane letting the kids draw the strip… well… considering that eldest son Billy was a lead animator at Disney for years (at least, until Disney destroyed their animation department), you’d think the kid could do better than that.
In the case of Dik “Hagar The Horrible” Browne, they did just that, in fact. After he died, his sons took over Browne’s two syndicated cartoon strips, and were still doing them, last I heard.
This is amazing. This morning I was thinking about the Katzenjammer Kids which my mother loved (too long ago for me) and now I see this thread.
There was a comic strip years ago in Argentina that was so critical of the junta that they supposedly prohibited its publication. It was called Mafalda and it was very good. People said the junta had Mafalda assasinated.
If only Hallmark wrote like that… 
Sounds like you’re conflating Capp with Ham Fisher. Capp worked for Fisher on Joe Palookaand wrote an article that blasted Fisher for his habit of hiring young artists and paying them nothing. Fisher went absolutely nuts. He advertised that “Joe Palooka” was really the first to feature “hillbilly” characters, not “Abner” (true – since it was Capp who was writing them). Later, in the world’s championship “What was he thinking?” moment, Fisher doctored a bunch of “L’il Abner” newspaper strips and tried to have Capp arrested for pornography. It was a ridiculous charge – especially since Capp’s defense was to just show the original strips as they ran in the newspaper. Fisher was finished after that.
I’d find it hard to believe Capp would treat his assistants that way when he was so critical of Fisher doing it.
As far as politics, it’s somewhat complex. Capp was a liberal in his early days, but in the 60s, he got disgusted with the hippie scene and moved to the right.
And while “L’il Abner” was an important strip, Capp weaknesses as a storyteller kept it from being a great one (he was terrible with endings).
Walt Kelly, OTOH, is an absolute ever-lovin’ blue-eyed genius. Only George “Krazy Kat” Herriman surpassed him.
As far as obscure comics I barely remember, I just recently rediscovered the title of The Jackson Twins, which ran in Newsday in the early 60s.
I also recall things like “Smokey Stover,” “They’ll Do it Every time” (and “Little Iodine”). There was also the incredibly weird “Odds Bodkins.” And I wish I had been old enough to see “King Aroo.”