Near the end of its run, J.R. Bray’s Stuttering Sammy employed a desperate (dare I say clever?) change of direction: Sammy learned to overcome his stammering by singing everything he wanted to say. The name of the strip changed, but it was for naught…Singing Sammy lasted only a few weeks before disappearing forever from the funny pages.
Lazyest Gallery cannot access Bad Bill/
Hey, cowboy fans, I’ve rounded up another one…and he’s a real ornery outlaw! Allow me to introduce you to Victor “Vic” Forsythe’s Bad Bill. This was another short lived title; it ran on just a few dates in November, 1911, presumably a slight diversion from Vic’s long running Flooey and Axel. It’s a bit surprising this one didn’t last as it is a very nice looking strip with a solid sheriff vs. desperado hook upon which plenty o’ gags could be hung.
I have more Denslow pages to share! We’re picking right up where we left off in January 1902, moving forward to the St. Patrick’s Day episode. Last time we, of course, saw the introduction of Billy, but there were a couple other mainstays introduced in the early episodes as well: Fuzzy White gets a page dedicated to his first meeting with Billy, while Prunes the Pieman quietly enters a scene and keeps to the background. His time in the spotlight certainly increases as we move on! This time around the “Cigar Indian” (treated with all the sensitivity you’d expect from this time period) makes the scene in an episode that also features Billy’s first turn as a circus clown.
Big news Billy Bounce fans: I am revamping the archive! And I’m starting with the Denslow material; the image above is the very first appearance of Billy Bounce from November 10, 1901. In fact, I’m putting up Billy’s first ten outings and plan to add more in the near future (as well as replace some images, fix some dates…but I’m getting ahead of myself). For now, maybe we can designate a day of the week for these. What do you say, folks?
