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)

Jack Of If

It's been a goodly while since we ran any Un-Comics. Long enough that i feel the need to explain them once again.

Un-Comics is what we call comics that didn't appear in typical comics. Sometimes that means special promotional comics. Other times, like today, it means comics that came from magazines that featured text stories. They might come from books or other places. 
Today, they come from the '30s & '40s editions of Thrilling Wonder Stories.

One thing that often tweaks my attention is things that force a little perception shift. Most are likely familiar with at least the Otto half of EandO Binder - one of the great Old Men of the industry and a leading voice of Science Fiction in the comics back in the day.

But, did you know that Earl and Otto had a big brother who led the way? (Okay, if you know the name Eando, you probably did) It skews my brain a bit thinking of back when a venerable old man of the industry was the punk kid brother breaking in.

Jack Binder both wrote and drew a science fiction strip for the magazine for a few years called IF. In later decades it likely would have been What If-?, but i guess we were saving that name. 

These were short pieces, only one or two pages each, so here are a dozen and a half of them for you to check out the series -

There was at least one other Un-Comic from Thrilling Wonder Stories, and a bunch of interesting connections to comics yet to come.

We'll definitely be back to look deeper into the magazine.

page art by Jack Binder for Thrilling Wonder Stories (see file names for individual months) (1937-1940)