Today we’re going to bring a little civic spirit to DailyINK and share some messages at you to make you a better citizen.

King Features’ comic strip characters care about doing good and have donated some of their valuable time toward community causes — in the form of free Public Service Announcement spots (PSAs), which endorsed causes and organizations that would fight polio, promote buying war bonds or show support of public charities. Newspapers would donate free space for these announcements, especially during fund drives.

In the 1940’s and 50’s, some cartoonists often would take previously used art, sometimes not all that well selected, and redo the word balloons for the message. Here are some interesting samples I have gathered from that period:

One panel from the BRINGING UP FATHER Sunday of August 29, 1943 was recycled as a 1944 March of Dimes spot.

A panel from the March 17, 1945 POPEYE strip was modified for a 7th War Loan spot that summer.

The RIP KIRBY strip of April 13, 1953 and the Christmas Seals spot it became seven months later.

The December 17, 1954 BLONDIE strip morphed into a 1955 American Cancer Society ad.

See you next week. Until then, don’t litter. Only you can prevent forest fires.

Now it’s time for Reader Questions and Comments!

To Bhob:

We would like to colorize the old time vintage Sunday strips here at King Features, but the cost in time alone would make it prohibitive. There are thousands of pages in those files, after all.

To Jon Yim:

I have not heard that Hank Ketcham had given ”Half Hitch” to the U.S. Navy. I know that many years ago, while the strip was still being published (1970-75) presumably, the Navy paid royalties for the use of the character in Navy-related PSAs and such.

Yours,

The Archy Vast

The penguins of ARCTIC CIRCLE are trying horse burgers:

GIL is gorging on stale Easter Candy:

In BARNEY GOOGLE AND SNUFFY SMITH, Snuffy’s deliberately misinterpreting doctors’ orders:

And over in THE PIRANHA CLUB, we’re seeing a rather…dubiously-executed theft:

Mooch of MUTTS sends Earl on a mission to find out if a doghouse is edible:

Jeremy and Hector prepare to camp out for concert tickets in ZITS:

BUCKLES manages to down an entire box of dog treats:

While Sarge of BEETLE BAILEY manages to get Cookie to toss him treats:

TODD THE DINOSAUR cuts out the middle man at the coffee shop:

And Ted of TAKE IT FROM THE TINKERSONS can’t tell if his hummus is good to eat:

Those are some pretty tough finalists, but I’m pretty sure Maeve of BETWEEN FRIENDS takes the, er, metaphorical cake for poor dining choices: going out to dinner with her ex-husband!

…Be right back, I think I need a snack.

The world’s longest running strip almost ended a century ago. In fact, it did for a little while.

The final Rudolph Dirks’ KATZENJAMMER KIDS page for Hearst.

In the spring of 1913, the KATZENJAMMER KIDS was the pride of Hearst newspapers and the top comic strip in the land. But all was not well concerning the strip’s cartoonist, Rudolph Dirks.  It seems Dirks felt that he could take time off from his drawing board whenever he wanted, but the syndicate didn’t agree. He didn’t see it their way, took an unauthorized vacation and was fired. Unfortunately, this brought the beloved strip to a halt because Dirks contended that he, not William Randolph Hearst, actually owned the characters. Dirks had created them and had been authoring the Katzenjammer Kids’ adventures for the past fifteen years, an impressive feat in those early days of comics. See the first episode here.

Hearst countered that Dirks might have created them, but as an employee, his output belonged to the company. This argument went to the courts. In the end, both parties won — sort of. Hearst and Dirks could each have their own versions of the characters, though we (here at the Hearst Corporation) could keep the KATZENJAMMER KIDS name and characters. Dirks could do a strip that was almost the same. (Hans and Fritz switched names.)

From the Chicago Examiner, May 21, 1914.

Hearst’s  KATZENJAMMER KIDS returned after more than a year, on May 23, 1914. Dirks’ new version made its debut two weeks later, titled at first “Hans Und Fritz,” and then a few years later as “The Captain and the Kids,” and syndicated by the Pulitzer organization (later United Features).

From May to November 1914, unsigned Ghosts did the revitalized page. This is one is probably by Billy Liverpool.

The first few months of the new Hearst series were unsigned, some were likely done by Billy Liverpool, one-time ghost for Bud Fisher on MUTT AND JEFF. In November 1914, Hearst finally acquired the services of the man who would take the helm for the next 35 years: Harold H. Knerr. From 1903 to 1914, Knerr had been doing a competing, fairly popular KATZENJAMMER-like strip, “Der Fienhiemer Twins,” for the Philadelphia Inquirer Company. Something that Mr. Dirks could not fail to notice, I’m sure.

Harold Knerr’s debut page. He would draw the KATZENJAMMER KIDS from then on until his death in 1949.

RESPONSES TO READER MAIL:

To John Rose:

Thanks for your support, I try to keep it interesting. There is all kinds of fascinating things in the KFS world still to come.

To Tim Fisher:

Hope you saw the interview with Mr. Rose from last week, if not, click on:

http://kingfeatures.com/2013/05/interview-with-cartoonist-john-rose-on-the-return-of-barney-google-and-spark-plug/

To post_coast (fighting_dogs) :

To answer your query: No, we do not receive royalties from the Google company. As for the CALVIN AND HOBBES reference, specifically, it doesn’t mean anything. I also suggested we should rename BEETLE BAILEY after other names of things everybody knows, like The Battle Of Waterloo, Godzilla vs. Monster Zero or Name That Tune, but these proved to be totally incoherent and inappropriate. I’m still not allowed anywhere near Camp Swampy.

Yours until next week,

The Archivator

Hope you’re all making summer plans as exciting (but significantly less violent) than Todd’s!

For all you avid BARNEY GOOGLE AND SNUFFY SMITH fans, you already have seen that this is an unusual week in the strip, where Barney pays a visit. If you aren’t a fan, you may think the appearance by a strip’s lead should hardly be special, but in this case it has been like this for many years.

And by “lead,” I am going by the name that the strip has had since the 1930’s. Barney’s name still takes precedence in the couplet. Back in the 1920’s, Billy DeBeck’s BARNEY GOOGLE was a huge success in every sense, including licensing. He had shot to the top by offering a strip that gave readers his slangy, unsentimental brand of humor and stayed fresh by making changes in the cast and locale every so often. Barney started out as a gag-a-day about a little man with a large bullying wife, with the world at large seemingly against him — yet you would have little pity for him because he was just as bad to the world at large! Very funny slapstick stuff, but DeBeck was never one to let something go stale. He changed the premise in the strip’s third year (1922) to a continuity strip when Barney acquired Spark Plug, the unpredictable race horse. Barney rode Sparky, so to speak, through many races won and lost, through adventures in all kinds of big cities and out-of-the-way dumps, acquiring and losing various semi-permanent characters, and finally exhausting the whole racehorse scenario in 1934.

That summer, Barney traveled to hillbilly country, where Sparky pretty much just stopped showing up, as Barney got involved with the colorful residents. One of them was a right ornery uncle of a temporary character who was threatening to bust up a wedding, that being Snuffy Smith.  The man was so mean and antisocial, he had unlimited possibilities as a match for the more worldly Barney, and they have been together ever since. But it has been a truly off and on friendship.

Barney meets Snuffy for the first time, November 24, 1934.

Debeck had Barney stick around in the hills for some time, but Smith would follow him to the big city, where his love of corn squeezins’ and firing his shootin’ ‘arn caused many fiascos for our hero. World War Two put them in uniform, with Barney in the Navy and Snuffy in the Army, which is where most of the strip took place. By then, I think, Debeck was perhaps seeing Barney as a bit played out. He, his assistant, Fred Lasswell, and the fans were much more interested in Snuffy and how he was adjusting to camp life. Debeck died in 1942, when Lasswell took over the strip, and Barney started making fewer and fewer appearances. Illogical ones too, because Barney, the sailor, had to keep returning to the Army base to see Snuffy! Clearly, the strip had completely changed over to a hillbilly saga. Lasswell himself identified with Snuffy, regarding himself as the Snuffy character, and DeBeck as Barney.

January 7, 1945: a War-time Sunday by Joe Musial, who briefly took over the strip while Fred Lasswell served in the Army.

Through the following decades, Lasswell continued to use Barney very infrequently, concentrating more on the mountain folks he loved and expanding the cast as he went. Barney Google’s appearances would sometimes come down to one daily a year, sometimes a variant of the same gag two years running, and sometimes none at all. It would seem that the character would be seen only as a legal obligation to show that he was still being used, and so Spark Plug would also be present for these rare drop-ins.

Two Fred Lasswell samples of Barney and Spark Plug’s visits to Hootin’ Holler, March 4, 1962 and May 20, 1979.

Today’s Barney/Snuffy helmsman is John Rose, who has kept up the tradition, though he has been a little more generous with the Google visits, which took place twice last year, and is taking place now during the week of May 6, 2013.

The last time Barney showed up was only five months ago.(December 8, 2012) So there you have it, the first one and the last one (for now).

Now on to DailyINK readers comments:

To Dennis Kjolso:

I don’t know what the value of the PHANTOM wedding print is going for. It could very well be worth a C note, maybe more. It depends on how much a fan would want it and if he would pay that.

The art print market is one that waxes and wanes with good times and bad. Still, this print is 35 years old and they aren’t making any more of them, so it is a collectible item. I’ve seen the poster. In fact, I have one as well, and it is on a slightly pebbled finished, thin card stock with a nice full-color image of the art seen in the Archivist post about the great event HERE.

To Fighting Dogs:

As George McManus’s occasional “down memory lane” type Sundays were about Jiggs and Maggie’s (and his) old Irish neighborhood days, their old Uncle Carb would probably be listening to John McCormick, not Frank Sinatra.

We don’t yet have BONER’S ARK archives up for your perusal. Maybe someday, but renaming it “Zoner’s Ark”  isn’t a really hot idea. You could get in trouble, especially with Mort. Once, I suggested we rechristen BEETLE BAILEY and call it “Calvin and Hobbes.” He yelled at me and called me names. So, we didn’t.

Yours,

THE ARCHIVISITOR

This week, it seems like the kids of DailyINK are up to their eyeballs in activities and summer fun!

Zoe and Hammie of BABY BLUES are taking swimming lessons:

GIL and Shandra are building an awesome box fort:

The very large man-eating children are all getting their chance on stage this week! TODD THE DINOSAUR is in the second grade talent show:

And Herman of SHERMAN’S LAGOON has a (female) lead in the school play:

EDISON LEE is at the amusement park. Which might not be so amusing to those around him:

Carly of EDGE CITY is raising chickens:

And Amy of THE PAJAMA DIARIES is getting ready for her Bat Mitzvah:

Of course, if we give them another few years, they might settle down a little bit. For DUSTIN, the big activity of the week has been watching “Vikings:”

We wonder what he’d think of HAGAR THE HORRIBLE!

In keeping with our centennial observation of the milestone strip, BRINGING UP FATHER, today’s post is an anniversary within an anniversary.  The first day of BRINGING UP FATHER was covered back in January here. This is the anniversary of the first Sunday page which was 95 years ago.

Jiggs and Maggie had become an overnight hit in the comics world. Though McManus’ strip was new and popular, it remained a daily series as few strips were ever a daily and Sunday in the early years. But, things changed five years into the run when a color page was launched. McManus was always an eager and tireless worker, as his many titles will attest.

The first page was printed on April 14, 1918. In the Hearst newspapers, it was intended  to be a used as a back page. At that time, the KATZENJAMMER KIDS had pride of place as the cover of the chain’s comic section, in a day when there was one strip per page, and there were only four pages. But, in a matter of weeks, BRINGING UP FATHER pushed Hans and Fritz, (or by that time, under their temporary wartime names of Mike and Aleck), to the back page, and Jiggs was the “face” of the Hearst comic section. He then held that position for just short of 37 years, until March 1955. (McManus had died the previous October.)

The Sunday debut of BRINGING UP FATHER. Chicago Examiner April 14, 1918. (Courtesy of Cole Johnson).

The last BRINGING UP FATHER Sunday page that McManus signed, December 19, 1954, probably drawn by Zeke Zekely. (The last daily McManus had anything to do with was November 6, 1954).

We’ll see more of BRINGING UP FATHER through the rest of the year.

Now on to DailyINK readers comments:

To Joe:

Joe asks if readership dropping off for BONER’S ARK led to its demise. I would say that it did, as much as newspaper feature editors seeing it was a strip they could bump in favor of another. As time went on, fewer papers took it, and it’s a lot harder to find in the 1990’s than back in the 1970’s.

Yours,

THE KFS ARCHIVIST

The strip, JUST KIDS, joined the Hearst line up 90 years ago this July, and I covered some of its history last week.

There is a very memorable part of the story that we will look at today: the Just Kids Safety Club.  This was a great early newspaper promotional tie-in with a strip and garnered much goodwill for newspapers that participated.

Ad Carter’s primary fans were younger readers who could identify with the series protagonists: Mush Stebbins, Marjory Jones and Fatso Dolan, etc. He would add little reminders about crossing the street in the strip, even if it was just two background characters talking away from the main action. He had two young children of his own — a daughter named Eileen and a son named Wallace, who were both grammar-school age in the late 1920’s, so traffic would naturally concern him. This led to the Safety Club.

All the details were worked out in advance, and by March 1928, the promotion began, first by having Mush get hit by a truck, apparently not looking both ways before crossing a busy street in the mythical town of Barnsville. Poor Mush was taken home, where he recovered slowly.  I have remarked about the gentle, uncomplicated tone of the strip. This most dramatic moment was handled the same way, with the accident and doctor’s scenes pictured with the action obscured so the sight of Mush hurt would not disturb tender sensibilities. The lesson about careless street crossing was there, though.

By the end of the month, the promotion began in earnest, with client newspapers offering membership in the new club. Some newspapers were talking about the Safety Club before Mush’s accident, but it would make more sense if they had not jumped the gun. A member had no dues to pay, all he or she would have to do is send in the filled in application blank that the paper would publish. These would have a pledge the child would solemnly agree to, which was:

“I,………  (Name)  Age……… hereby pledge myself to observe all traffic regulations of ………. (Name of City)

To be alert, keen, self-reliant and always REMEMBER TO LOOK UP AND DOWN BEFORE CROSSING THE STREET.”

A parent would have to endorse it, and then send it along with a self-addressed envelope. Soon, the lucky boy or girl would receive a membership certificate and a  button with one of the Just Kids and the name of the newspaper on it. The characters would cheerfully proclaim “I’m careful,” one of several mottos used.

Some examples of the Just Kids Safety Club buttons. These were a huge success with fans. Now, nearly ninety years later, thousands of them survive.

This is what the club certificate looked like, though the Lockport Union-Sun Journal altered it for a story illustration.

The appeal was terrific! Kids clamored for the buttons, often overwhelming the supply that newspapers had to send out. It was a winner for adults too, and it got the full roaring twenties-style ballyhoo. Civic organizations and public figures from fire chiefs to governors endorsed the campaign, as well as famous people anxious to get in on the publicity, like Boy Scout pioneer Dan Beard, ex-heavyweight boxing champ Jack Dempsey and Democratic presidential nominee Al Smith all getting in on the proceedings. All of them received a button (even though members were supposed to only be fourteen and under) and some photo face time.  The Postmaster General , Walter F. Brown, endorsed it. Teachers saw the club’s educational benefits, and would sign up all of their students. New members would see their names and addresses proudly printed in the newspaper’s columns covering the club.

From the Syracuse Journal, April 21, 1928.

A particularly crass bit of exploitation for the club. San Antonio Sunday Light June 3, 1928.

More than just a public service stunt, there were actual club meetings and activities. One club even had a film made of their members acting out a “Just Kids” story. Carter himself made public appearances to address the constituents.  In the end, the Just Kids Safety club lasted about three really active years, and seems to have just wound down in the early thirties, its’ novelty or ability to further interest the public had evaporated.

Stay safe!

Now on to DailyINK readers comments:

To The Fourth:

I might do an entry later this year on Jim Shepherd, who was the publisher of, and number one PHANTOM fan in Australia. I knew Jim, and for many years, he was a drinking/eating buddy of mine.  Last September, I showed off the cover of the first PHANTOM comic book that Jim’s firm, Frew, published back in 1948. See it HERE.

To Thomas Reale:

Mr. Reale recalls a strip in the Sunday Journal American (the Hearst flagship paper here in New York) which featured characters who lived in the depths of Hell that both scared and amused him as a child in the 1950’s.  He needs to know the name of this odd premised series.  Well, I can assume you are referring to the one and only Jimmy Hatlo’s add-on panel to THEY’LL DO IT EVERY TIME,“THE HATLO INFERNO.” Check out a sample in one of my Hatlo entries HERE.

Yours,

THE ARCHIVE GUY

Did you know that comic strip characters pay taxes, too? I didn’t, until I read this week’s comics. I’m not sure how that works—maybe they pay by the word balloon?

Here’s what some of our comic denizens had to say about paying their taxes this week:

BIZARRO by Dan Piraro

CURTIS by Ray Billingsley

DENNIS THE MENACE by Hank Ketcham, Marcus Hamilton and Ron Ferdinand

DUSTIN by Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker

HI AND LOIS by Brian Walker, Greg Walker, and Chance Browne

MALLARD FILLMORE by Bruce Tinsley

RHYMES WITH ORANGE by Hilary Price

And I guess the cartoon taxes were pretty bad for some folks, because Abby from EDGE CITY is getting paid in eggs:

Which, to be fair, I wouldn’t mind. Farm fresh eggs are delicious!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Here we are again with another old time King Features Syndicate favorite. JUST KIDS was by Ad (August) Carter. The strip began as a panel in 1915 for the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. The panel lasted only about three years before he moved to the Philadelphia Inquirer company, which was an early player in the syndication business but was definitely in decline after World War One. There, he was given Sunday page space, and the title became OUR FRIEND MUSH. The old panels were resold many times over the years to smaller papers.

Ad Carter (1895-1957) at his drawing board. He often wore his hat indoors, as he was bald and apparently sensitive about it. Sandusky Register July 21, 1929.(Courtesy of the late Bob Bindig.)

This did well, indeed, a strong competitor for the similar WIDE AWAKE WILLIE that Gene Byrnes was doing for the New York Herald syndicate. By far, it was the Inquirer’s leading strip, in fact, it was one of the only new titles that “the Inky” had offered in years. But its’ building popularity was not unnoticed by King Features, who could and did easily lure Carter to their stable, in the summer of 1923.

From the Helena Independent (Montana), September 21, 1923.

The star of the series was Mush Stebbins, a typical lad of about 10, with the usual boyhood problems as he learned about the world from the view offered from the small town of Barnsville. His companions included: sometimes bespectacled Peanut, a neighbor; a taller boy with the memorable handle, “Bagears”; Marjory Jones, the female interest; Pat Finnegan, a Chinese boy dressed in full national costume; and Fatso Dolan, best known for being fat. Ad once said most of the names for the boys were nicknames of classmates of his from boarding school.  Mush had a mother, father and grandparents, too, and the friendly cop on the beat, Mister Branner, was a constant fixture. He was named after fellow cartoonist and good friend Martin Branner (of WINNIE WINKLE fame.)

JUST KIDS ran for many years, and stayed pretty much the same, with its’ very gentle humor, giving it appeal to younger readers.

One of the first Sundays. (This was run on a Friday during an experiment where the Boston Evening American ran a two page comic section daily.)

This 1924 episode was called “Kids”. I don’t know why, but the Chicago Herald and Examiner put it out this way. It’s part of a “Magic Pictures” comic section where trick ink was actually watercolor, for readers to paint with. Maybe the Word “Just” is invisible until you wet it. Too bad they don’t do things like that in today’s comic sections.

A 1925 strip fromthe San Francisco Call and Post showing some of Carter’s mild but dubious humor.

In 1950, the characters still looked like it was 1915. As the strip’s popularity waned (the daily strip ended in 1947), Carter’s wife, Hannah, became more involved. She earned co-author status and updates began taking place. First of all, Mush’s parents went to the barber and beauty shop, coming out looking more contemporary. The kids all had a change of wardrobe. The most dramatic change took place with the sudden introduction of Mush’s sister, Stelle. The title of the strip was changed to MUSH STEBBINS, and soon after to MUSH STEBBINS AND HIS SISTER. The comedy dynamic of older sister/younger brother was new to the strip, but it was a pretty well-trod path for family sitcoms by then. This modernization came about probably in an effort to save it. Perhaps, it did for a little while but it was retired by KFS along with ELMER (which it was often paired with in half page size) on December 30, 1956.

The strip’s name changed on March 5, 1950 as Mush’s sister, Stelle, was added to the cast. Even with his wife assisting, Carter’s artwork just kept declining.

Next week, I’ll write even more on JUST KIDS.

Yours,

The Archive  Guy