For our Sunday Morning Funnies this week, let's revisit Supersnipe. The comic, not the hero, this time. We spoke previously of some of the back-up features and promised to come back to them later. I checked the calendar - it's later.
All three of our strips today come from issues for which we've already seen the covers, so they're presented here in smaller size, just for reference:
So, first up, let's visit with Dotty.
As we've seen on previous covers, "Dotty Loves Trouble". In later issues, they added a dog named Trouble, perhaps to soften the character a bit. Here in her first appearance, there's no dog named Trouble - she's just fond of the concept. While Koppy McFad is "the boy with the most comic books in America," Dotty "gets into more trouble than any other little girl in America." An interesting counterbalance they attempted here, before the cultural assumption became "comics are for boys" in this country. Like Supersnipe, Dotty was also drawn by George Marcoux.
Dotty for the win. As speculated above, they may have added the dog so she didn't come across as a completely wicked child.
And speaking of "wicked children" - it's well past time to take that promised look at Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer and their Robot Duck!, don't you think? We'll skip to their second episode, because that's when they find it. The first episode had them find a haunted house and have a first encounter, setting things up for the strip to really get going...
But we won't be following along on their adventures. Unlike the Wing Woo Woo strip we peeked at previously, which seemed to be trying to be a positive character portrayal, in a fumbling way, Dwig has no such intentions. In the following episode we get one page...
...and then they go to the jungle. Even the sea monsters...
So, anyway - now that we've had our cultural sensibilities jarred, how about screwing with how perceptions of people over time. Today, one can't hear the name Lou Gehrig without the word 'Disease' following right behind. Once upon a time...
Here, his death was merely a too soon end to a stellar career. Now, his death defines him. A little reminder of how perception of people (and things, and ideas) shift over time.
Hmm.
That wasn't very Sunday Morning Funnies-y, was it?
All three of our strips today come from issues for which we've already seen the covers, so they're presented here in smaller size, just for reference:
So, first up, let's visit with Dotty.
As we've seen on previous covers, "Dotty Loves Trouble". In later issues, they added a dog named Trouble, perhaps to soften the character a bit. Here in her first appearance, there's no dog named Trouble - she's just fond of the concept. While Koppy McFad is "the boy with the most comic books in America," Dotty "gets into more trouble than any other little girl in America." An interesting counterbalance they attempted here, before the cultural assumption became "comics are for boys" in this country. Like Supersnipe, Dotty was also drawn by George Marcoux.
Dotty for the win. As speculated above, they may have added the dog so she didn't come across as a completely wicked child.
And speaking of "wicked children" - it's well past time to take that promised look at Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer and their Robot Duck!, don't you think? We'll skip to their second episode, because that's when they find it. The first episode had them find a haunted house and have a first encounter, setting things up for the strip to really get going...
But we won't be following along on their adventures. Unlike the Wing Woo Woo strip we peeked at previously, which seemed to be trying to be a positive character portrayal, in a fumbling way, Dwig has no such intentions. In the following episode we get one page...
...and then they go to the jungle. Even the sea monsters...
So, anyway - now that we've had our cultural sensibilities jarred, how about screwing with how perceptions of people over time. Today, one can't hear the name Lou Gehrig without the word 'Disease' following right behind. Once upon a time...
Here, his death was merely a too soon end to a stellar career. Now, his death defines him. A little reminder of how perception of people (and things, and ideas) shift over time.
Hmm.
That wasn't very Sunday Morning Funnies-y, was it?
pages from Supersnipe v.2, #s 2, 3, 7, & 9 (1944)
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