Finally!
On the third attempt this morning, Blogger deigned to allow me to add images to the post. We may proceed...
I mentioned that we'd be cruising past Blond Abner and Starving Abner on our way to Ringer Abner, but we really need to stomp on the brakes here as we hit Blond Abner.
Eustis or Eustace Hayseed, depending on the point in the run, had a most unusual, and rather discomfiting, sidekick early on. Perhaps we got some greater detail on him along the way; if so it's fallen through one of the holes in my mind. In the first episode, the only explanatory reference is in the first sentence - "...his newly acquired friend, Chief Blackfeet..."
The Chief is named and speaks like a stereotypical "Injun" which is perhaps not too surprising for a strip about a backwater hayseed. But his appearance is that of a rudely caricatured African headhunter style native of the times. And he speaks like a British blue blood, when not "Ugh"ing and "You betchum"ing. In all, he's the very definition of Cringe-worthy.
Eustis continues to embrace the cringe, as highlighted in the next tale by his righteous anger at someone beating a woman - who is not his wife...
Hayseed appeared in a couple dozen issues of three different titles, primarily the first 21 issues of Joker Comics. Along the way his look varied, he switched from blond to redhead, and he dumped the Chief in favor of a girl named Choo-Choo.
Eventually, they gave up trying to hide his Abner origins and just went with it...
Eustace had a real self-image problem, too.
On the third attempt this morning, Blogger deigned to allow me to add images to the post. We may proceed...
I mentioned that we'd be cruising past Blond Abner and Starving Abner on our way to Ringer Abner, but we really need to stomp on the brakes here as we hit Blond Abner.
Eustis or Eustace Hayseed, depending on the point in the run, had a most unusual, and rather discomfiting, sidekick early on. Perhaps we got some greater detail on him along the way; if so it's fallen through one of the holes in my mind. In the first episode, the only explanatory reference is in the first sentence - "...his newly acquired friend, Chief Blackfeet..."
The Chief is named and speaks like a stereotypical "Injun" which is perhaps not too surprising for a strip about a backwater hayseed. But his appearance is that of a rudely caricatured African headhunter style native of the times. And he speaks like a British blue blood, when not "Ugh"ing and "You betchum"ing. In all, he's the very definition of Cringe-worthy.
Eustis continues to embrace the cringe, as highlighted in the next tale by his righteous anger at someone beating a woman - who is not his wife...
Hayseed appeared in a couple dozen issues of three different titles, primarily the first 21 issues of Joker Comics. Along the way his look varied, he switched from blond to redhead, and he dumped the Chief in favor of a girl named Choo-Choo.
Eventually, they gave up trying to hide his Abner origins and just went with it...
Eustace had a real self-image problem, too.
page art by Gar Dean, Kosti Ruohomaa, and ??? from Joker Comics #s 1 & 2 and Gay Comics #21 (1942, 1945)
