Blog: christmas 2019

The Ripples, December 21, 1946

The Ripples, December 21, 1946

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The Ripples, also known as Our Neighbors, The Ripples was the Sunday version of George Clark's comic panel The Neighbors. It was a slice of life strip similar to Out Our Way, in which the idea was to depict scenes from life without necessarily having a joke. They might be funny, but didn't necessarily have to be; the point was more that they were relatable or nostalgic.

Here we have young Butch having a Little Nemo moment with Santa, which looks fun at first, but quickly becomes so boring that he falls asleep in his own dream. Santa needs his help, for some reason. I guess he's supposed to watch the reindeer while Santa goes in the house, which he fails to do. It's a really fun strip to look at either way, as the artwork is superb.

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Little Annie Rooney, December 24, 1936

Muggs McGinnis, December 22, 1937

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Blatant knock-offs were quite common in the early days of comic strips, and even the biggest syndicates were known to copy popular strips by launching their own. Little Orphan Annie was an extremely popular strip published by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, and which ended up running for an impressive 86 years, as well as spawning a broadway musical with 3 movie adaptations to date. It was popular enough a mere 3 years after it debuted that King Features Syndicate decided to publish their own comic strip about an orphan girl and her dog, called Little Annie Rooney.

While the concept was nearly identical, the execution was a bit different. Little Orphan Annie was adopted by Daddy Warbucks, but Annie Rooney was constantly running from her evil caretaker Miss Meaney and fending for herself. She was fortunate enough now and then to have kind people allow her to stay with them for a short while, as we see in this strip. As we also see, both Annies are incredibly positive a…

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Muggs McGinnis, December 22, 1937

Muggs McGinnis, December 22, 1937

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Muggs McGinnis was an attempt by the small Central Press Association syndicate to capitalize on the popularity of King Features syndicate's Skippy by creating an extremely similar comic strip. Unfortunately, it didn't do well enough to keep the CPA syndicate afloat, as King Features acquired them, and Muggs McGinnis, in 1930, merely three years after the strip debuted. CPA remained a subsidiary of King Features and retained control of most of their strips. In 1936, however, King took over Muggs McGinnis, renaming it "Muggs and Skeeter." As we can see here, however, not all newspapers printed it with the new name right away, as this paper was still running it under the old name in 1937.

As for this strip, I wonder why it is that Peewee isn't happy that a halo has appeared over his head. I guess he doesn't want grown-ups' expectations of him to be too high. Either that, or it shines too brightly and keeps him awake at night.

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High Pressure Pete and Officer 6 7/8, December 24, 1937

High Pressure Pete and Officer 6 7/8, December 24, 1937

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Here's another High Pressure Pete, which was published exactly a year after the last one. Here, Officer 6 7/8 (whose civilian name is Joe) tries his best to help out his friends with their Christmas decorating, but is too dimwitted to do it right. It's not a total loss, though. There's nothing stopping them from hanging some things from that, uh, trunk. Plus, they can use the rest for firewood.

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High Pressure Pete and Officer 6 7/8, December 24, 1936

High Pressure Pete and Officer 6 7/8, December 24, 1936

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I posted a High Pressure Pete strip a few years ago, but I can't get enough of George Swanson.

One of the more popular characters that Swanson created for the strip was Officer 6 7/8, who, as shown here, eventually found his way into the title. As we see, he's a good hearted fellow, though not too bright. I guess we know where all of his Christmas money is going.

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