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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 I have added the remainder of the 1902 pages, most of which are entirely new to the site (December 28 has been replaced by a better version).

Lazyest Gallery cannot access Deadshot Bill From Nurseryville/

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.

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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.

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Great Hyenas! What am I up against? That would be The Giggledy Girls, my good sir! We have all run into a pair like these two…no matter the situation, no matter how inappropriate, they just can’t help but laugh and laugh and laugh. Lowry caps off each episode with a bit of characterization that I think really rings true – the punchline “aren’t we the sillies?” These two think they are just so fun and adorable, no matter the hard feelings created by their laughing fits.