Diana Dillpickles returns in “Miss Dillpickles Builds a House After Her Own Design, Showing What a Bright Girl Can Do When She Has Full Swing.” From Fred Shaefer with W. Aird MacDonald supplying the visuals this time around. Six parts; start with the one above.
Clifton Meek’s Nobody sprung out of nowhere near the beginning of 1912 to frustrate folks in need of a hand but sadly did not make it to 1913. The repetitive nature of the gags probably did it in, though looking at our few samples, Meek certainly manages to wring some chuckles out of these initial offerings at least. I definitely appreciate the look of the title character, no body and all…perhaps a bit too on the nose, but when has that ever been an issue for the funny pages?
Hopefully you enjoyed Gibson’s full length tale a few days ago; this time around we have one from our ol’ pal James Montgomery Flagg. Like A Widow and Her Friends, The Adventures of Kitty Cobb was published in book form and subsequently became a special weekly feature in newspapers across the land. It’s the exciting tale of a small town girl going to the big city, or as an ad for the book touts, “[Mr. Flagg] tells, by means of thirty-one inimitable pictures and short descriptive legends, a delightfully humorous and tender love-story.” For some odd reason the paper from which I culled our run, The Washington Herald, chose to re-write the captions for many of these; I can’t help but wonder why they decided to go this route as the new text is a big step down from the original material. Compare the Sanford & Son(!) outings from the Herald to the original nos. IX and X to see what I mean. As well, the Herald stops running the story at no. XXV; far be it from me to question the wisdom of a newspaper editor from 101 years ago, but why not just see the thing through if you made it that far?! I’ve cheated and collected the final episodes under names that reflect the dates they should have appeared. Start here and enjoy!
This one is long overdue; tonight is the grand opening of our Charles Dana Gibson archive! To honor an artist of this stature, we’re kicking it off with a complete 24 part story: A Widow and Her Friends. This story was originally published at the turn of the century, but I luckily stumbled upon a weekly reprint from 1913. This series of illustrations was extremely popular in its day; it’s not hard to see why. Enjoy!
We’re heading back to the Nell Brinkley archive for another short series of portraits: I Know a Girl There! Once again I’ve only located a handful which is hard to believe as this seems an idea that could easily sustain itself for dozens of cities. I’m hopeful I’ll at least stumble upon Chicago some day…for now enjoy the few we have.
I’ve added a handful of these odes to old flames to our Nell Brinkley archive; I’m guessing there may be more of them out there, but these are all I’ve been able to find thus far. If you think the illustrations are overwrought, wait until you get to the text…sheesh! I say that with affection, of course.
If you’ve spent this week waiting for a giant talking bunny to show his face, you will want to check out our newest feature: E. Warde Blaisdell’s Bunny Bright, He’s All-Right. The title ran on Sundays for several months in the middle of 1906 and if my math can be trusted, we have roughly half of the run. It’s a fun little strip; basically Bunny Bright tricks his other animal friends into doing his dirty work for him. Blaisdell’s animals are cutely drawn and the minimalist backgrounds add to the charm. Why don’t you grab yourself a creme egg and maybe a peep or two and spend a few minutes this afternoon getting to know our new friend Bunny Bright?
During our last outing, we bid adieu to our friend W.W. Denslow with his August 03, 1902 strip. Billy Bounce would remain dormant for nearly two months until his return on September 28. The title still proudly featured a copyright in the name of Denslow, but something had definitely changed. Denslow’s name was nowhere to be found the next week and the following Sunday now had C.W. Kahles’s signature in the final panel, as seen above. Kahles would remain on the strip for the rest of its run. I have added the remainder of the 1902 pages, most of which are entirely new to the site (December 28 has been replaced by a better version).
We know you love Condo. We know you love cowboys. And we know you think you’ve seen it all, but beware! your brain might just crack in half as two worlds collide…ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Deadshot Bill From Nurseryville! Bill is actually just a kid who fancies himself a cowboy, and his adventures are more cute-kid-stuff than Wild West shoot-em-up action, but I say close enough.
Well, blow me down! Who knew that, decades before Segar’s transcendently wonderful Popeye made his first appearance, there was another sailor who navigated the funny papers with a similar penchant for broken English and fisticuffs? Binnacle Jim set sail in early 1904, and though today’s catch only runs until the middle of 1905, the strip kept chugging for a couple more years. I love the “captioned illustration” school of comics as much as I do the traditional word balloon type, and Binnacle Jim employs both methods to wonderful effect, with Jim’s take on affairs running across the bottom while the action unfolds above, with terrific color commentary provided by a monkey and parrot duo. I won’t dare make the claim that Binnacle Jim approaches Thimble Theater’s greatness in any fashion (save for the, um, fashion), but it’s a fun strip all the same.
