Strips « The Comics Journal

The frisky unrest of Billy De Beck’s style did not prove hospitable, in those early decades of the century, to ingenious plot architecture. The veerings of his inventions often supplanted suspense with the narrative veerings of a Henry Fielding or Tobias Smollett: a little more erotic, and Barney might have been a humorous gallivanter. But balcony scenes, innocuous or otherwise, found no place in Billy De Beck’s celebration of middle-aged buoyancy and enterprise.

D&Q Classics, Part III: Nipper, 1963-1964

Posted by Rob Clough on February 5th, 2011 at 5:28 AM

Rob concludes his look at Drawn & Quarterly’s reprints of classic comic books and strips with Doug Wright’s Nipper (1963-1964).

I love that Drawn & Quarterly will occasionally remind its readers that it is still a fundamentally Canadian comics publisher. …

X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan by Al Williamson and Archie Goodwin, introduction by Mark Schultz

Posted by R.C. Harvey on January 27th, 2011 at 12:01 AM

Corrigan is virtually a textbook lesson, day by day, of how to do a continuity newspaper comic strip.

Another Redheaded Ending Part 2 of 2

Posted by R.C. Harvey on December 28th, 2010 at 12:01 AM

R.C. Harvey concludes his two-part essay on the end of Brenda Starr by filling in some details about the strips’ creator and her successors.

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Another Redheaded Ending Part 1 of 2

Posted by R.C. Harvey on December 27th, 2010 at 12:01 AM

The first of a two-part elegy by R.C. Harvey on the passing of the the Brenda Starr comic strip.

Lang Syne Both Old and New

Posted by R.C. Harvey on December 23rd, 2010 at 12:01 AM

For as long as anyone can remember, the Newspaper Enterprise Association has served up a special three-week holiday comic strip to subscribers to the NEA package. In the December 1981 issue of Cartoonist PROfiles, Ernest L. “East” Lynn was among several NEA officials who were surveyed for comment on the Yuletide custom. Lynn was dean of comic art at NEA from 1924 to 1964, and he said the Christmas Strip had started before his time. And that would make this year’s offering at least the 86^th return engagement. But Lynn was probably wrong.

Treasure Awaiting Rediscovery? (Maybe)

Posted by Donald Phelps on December 17th, 2010 at 12:01 AM

Frank Owen’s Ossie Tittle — an eccentric, outdoorsy Goon Show of a strip, fascinated this writer’s semi-infancy (6-7 years) during the corresponding calendar year of 1936. A Sunday strip in the all-color comics supplement of Hearst’s Sunday Mirror, for at least a couple of months, it was a solid chunk of imagine fodder, judging by my memories of the drawing. The cast recalled Washington Irving’s Ichabod Crane: a positive flock of scarecrows, grown-up Raggedy Anns and Andys, bolted from the cornfields.

Lio versus Calvin: Freudian Funnies

Posted by Kristian Williams on December 1st, 2010 at 12:01 AM

Lio’s direct referencing of Calvin makes the difference a matter of one’s attitude toward the past, toward tradition — in this case, toward comics. Calvin digs up trash, and calls it treasure; discovers, instead, that the tradition is dead and rotting. The very symbol of the decay is Calvin. But death, here, is not necessarily bad. Lio is by disposition morbid — curious about the monsters under the bed, a friend to aliens and zombies. So Lio is thrilled to find the dead boy, just as Calvin was thrilled to find some bugs. Maybe corpses are treasure. Lio’s is a gleeful nihilism.

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