26 November 2019

Cynical Susie And The New, Odd Little World

As mentioned yesterday, Cynical Susie veered into Damned Odd territory at the end of the run in Comics On Parade. And it all started, appropriately enough, when she met a Hermit...



Comics On Parade changed format with issue #30. They started focusing on a single strip or creator in each issue, and the variety strips were swept away - including Cynical Susie. Her newspaper comics stopped the same year, and she never came back home from that odd little world.

page art by Bernard Dibble(?) from Comics On Parade #s 24-29 (1940)

25 November 2019

If Only A Fish Would Fly Down From Heaven With A Job In His Bill!

Today we've got a little dalliance with three ladies from the '30s - Becky(Helen), Laverne, and Susie. Becky Sharp wrote and Laverne Harding drew a Sunday comic about Cynical Susie. (There was a daily, too, but just barely. It was soon a Sunday Only strip.) The series debuted in 1933 and ran through the end of the decade, though both creators left before that point.

One of the especially noteworthy aspects of Cynical Susie is the artist; Laverne Harding became the first female animator in Hollywood. She was already working with Walter Lantz at Universal when Susie started publication, and was promoted to Animator in 1934.

We come in at the end of Laverne's run on the strip, with Bernard Dibble taking over the art in her absence. Some may recall another strip from Dibble that appeared here previously, Looy Dot Dope. These come to us from Comics On Parade - one of those early comic books that re-packaged newspaper strips. That included L'il Abner, who pushed Susie, and everyone else, out of the book a few years later. 

Let me just say right now - "I don't know."

I only have one or two issues before we're jumping in, and the $50,000 debt was already incurred. How this happened or what the debt is supposed to cover...? 

That's one of Life's Little Mysteries for me. Just acknowledge how very special Lily Whey must be to stand as collateral on that much cash in 1930s dollars.


Before too long, Susie managed to turn things around, though things seemed to fall apart first. The Director discovered that Susie was back on the lot...


Before the end of her time in Comics On Parade, things would get damned odd and outright weird...

page art by Laverne Harding and Bernard Dibble from Comics On Parade #s 7-10, 12, & 15-18 (1938, 1939)

23 November 2019

Connie's Curious Cousin Ken?

As you may recall, one of the very first Fly Girls was Connie Kurridge, debuting way back in 1927.

Just over a dozen years later, another guy came along with a similar name. Perhaps, as was often the case, the same family name was given different spelling as they immigrated, and Kurridge became Kurage? Perhaps this is all a bit of damnfoolery?

Perhaps.

But, Joe Simon brought us Ken Kurage and the Solar Patrol in the second issue of Silver Streak Comics at the beginning of 1940 -


But, Ken didn't have Connie's staying power. In his second tale, Kurage became Keen as he downsized from Solar Patrol to Planet Patrol...

(Sorry - I don't have this one, and microfiche was the best i could find)

...and the following issue he lost both Joe Simon and the colours blue & yellow...


A couple issues later he faded into the aether, another hero lost in space...

page art by Joe Simon and ??? for Silver Streak Comics #s 2-4 (1940)

20 November 2019

Return To Comics

You folks remember "Comics" McCormick, - "The World's No. 1 Comic Book Fan" - right?
If not, the link in his name above will take you to the previous posts on our reality warped hero from Ed Wheelan

Either way, while the mind is off wandering, i figured we could do with a bit of revisiting, so here's trio of tales from his short run in Terrific Comics -




That brings us to about half of his published adventures. I suspect we'll get to the other half eventually, eh?

page art by Ed McWheelan for Terrific Comics #s 3, 5, & 6 (1944)