Alley Oop. A prehistoric comic.
From the 70s, I remember Conchy. And there was another one called “Kelly” about a boy and his giant dog Duke. That cartoonist was Jack Moore. Both pretty much forgotten nowadays.
Crap! I could have sworn, when the Denver Post dropped it a decade ago, it was because the strip had been discontinued. Those rat bastards!
You can read the latest here.
Is it too soon to reminesce about B.C.? It was one funny strip until Johnny Hart got saved, and even after that it wasn’t bad.
Ah, yes, and with a range of tips for more successful living. Like, when one is out of rolling papers, there are better substitutes than toilet tissue.
And for those who like the silly, good-humored teenage years, there was Emmy Lou, with Alvin and Taffy
and parents, by Marty Links. Before she went on to other activities, she re-published and re-drew her strips. I prefer the originals, panels too, for example. Two other examples: Emmy Lou, sweet talking and hugging her bug-eyed father, “Daddy, I have a date with Alvin tonight. Will you be using your wallet?” And, in another panel, talking enthusiastically on the phone, “Sure, sure, I’ll give you another chance!..Who is this again?”
It had passed its glory days by the time I started reading it around 1960, but I was a big fan of Smilin’ Jack. I always liked the little promo “stickies” for upcoming stock car races Mosley would sneak into a panel.
Terry and the Pirates.
Hello Carol was a short-lived little strip from the Reagan era.
Witty, fun, & with attractively-drawn characters.
And I will not give up my printed collection.
Another odd one from that era was Eyebeam. I love it, but I can’t describe it.
comics.com has many of the comics mentioned here – Johnny Hart’s “BC” & “The Wizard of Id.” They also have “Alley Oop” & old “Lil Abner.”
toonopedia.com has information on nearly all of the old comics mentioned, plus cartoons, old & current. If anyone knows a website that shows the old comic strips, can they let us know?
Rest in peace, Mr. Tweedy (1954-87).
My dad and I used to agonize over the ridiculous adventures of the original Brenda Starr, Reporter. (I know there is a current version, but the artwork bears no resemblance to the former Brenda, the one I knew growing up.)
I also used to enjoy Gordo. The artwork was beautiful and I especially loved the various animal characters: the cat, the chihuahua, the beatnik spider.
Does anybody remember “Rudy”, a short-lived strip in the '80s? It was about a talking chimp who had had a career in early show business, and he was trying to make a comeback in new Hollywood. He lived with a parrot named Bonita. It was very sharp, clever satire and very funny, but ISTR it was too far over a lot of people’s heads and was dropped. The last daily strip showed Rudy packing up to leave, acknowledging the strip’s “cult status”, but saying that cult status was another way of saying that nobody read it. I was sad.
Another shout out for Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes.
In high school, I wrote for the school newspaper, and published an obituary when Calvin and Hobbes ended. I still have all of the books (and would recommend Get Fuzzy for those who liked it).
I recall a couple of strips that have gone away.
The first was from the late 1960s written by military man. A single panel strip, it was called With Sargent Mike. Two of them that I recall
Scene: grunts standing on a road in front of a sign that reads “We’re two miles up the road -Signed the VC” One grunt says to the others, “I don’t like it.”
Scene: Grunt talking to an officer “Thought about reenlistment? Yes sir, I thought about reenlistment. Thought about it, laughed about it, and forgot about it.”
The other strip was also a single panel strip called That’s Jake!. Jake always wore a cowboy hat, and was a blue collar kind of guy.
My favorite which I wish I had a copy of was this one:
Tittle at top Jobs that are worse than yours #47 in a series
Scene: Jake is carrying a large (and very heavy anvil up a sidewalk in a hilly area.
Caption: Door to door anvil salesman in a hilly neighborhood.
I miss Cheech Wizard
I miss the dailies of Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, Far Side and now Fox Trot.
C&H was the most consistently humorous.
Bloom County was so good in it prime that I own every Bloom County book.
Far Side had many misses, but its also had many instant classics.
Fox Trot was a consistent performer, and even had Jason take over Calvin’s Snowmen stuff a few times. It was fading towards the end, but I loved the mainstream geek humor in Fox Trot. A Paige once said, only Jason could make the Internet geekier. (They were typing in IP addresses instead of web addresses to be more L33t).
Jim
It’s still around, albeit as a collaboration between Fred Wagner and Ralph Dunagin. Here’s today’s panel.