Richard Felton Outcault is most notable for creating the first widely popular comic strip character, The Yellow Kid, for the New York World in 1895. Only slightly less notable is the fact that he also created the first widely licensed comic strip character, Buster Brown, for the New York Herald in 1902. Interestingly, the latter seems to have had a much larger effect on American culture than the former, due to the popularity of one particular license.
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Up until now, when I've written about words or phrases that end up being popularized through comic strips, the stories behind them have been fairly simple. They generally haven't involved trademark infringement, FBI and IRS investigations, (alleged) staged suicide attempts, and (alleged) false imprisonment, but this one (allegedly) involves all of those, and more.
And all because of peanut butter.
Researching and writing about this has been an odd experience, partially because I've never really thought peanut butter could have such an effect on someone's life, but mostly because Percy Crosby's story is incredibly tragic. There are certain facts that are in dispute, but where he ended up and how it affected his family are not, and it's awful to think about. At times I found myself laughing due to the absurdity of all of this stemming from a peanut butter dispute, but I had to continually remind myself of the ultimate result, which is not at all funny.
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Mortimer and Charlie was a comic strip based on Edgar Bergen's Mortimer Snerd and Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist dummy characters. It was originally illustrated by Ben Batsford, and then by Carl Buettner, who did this particular strip. Even though the strip is credited as "by Edgar Bergen," at least one source claims he didn't script it, though it doesn't say who did. There are gags in the strip taken directly from the Charlie McCarthy radio show, so I guess at least some of Bergen's own material made it into the strip. This iteration of it lasted for less than a year, though there was another, longer lasting Charlie McCarthy strip in the late 40s and early 50s.
Here we see Mortimer Snerd somehow breaking a New Year's resolution in record time, and encouraging Grampaw to break his as well. The final punchline is fine, but I think the joke in the third panel is funnier. Besides, the other rollerskate was left there before Mortimer made the resolution, so it shouldn't count.
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To me, it doesn't seem like a barn roof would make a good ski jump, since there isn't a whole lot of room to build up momentum. Still, it does seem like one of those things that a kid would imagine working really well in his head, only to have it turn out much like this does. Still, if you have to run into a tree while skiing, I guess this isn't the worst result.
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It looks like Santa delivered on what Honey asked for in a previous comic. I guess the bribe worked. She's still not happy, though, because she doesn't get to play with dangerous objects, but maybe she'll get a toy can opener next year or something.
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Priscilla's friend Hollyhock is having the kind of Christmas I would love to have. Not when I was a kid necessarily, but now. Some nice classical music and new books to read sounds great. Priscilla doesn't seem impressed though, and I understand that. Books are great for kids, but they need toys, too. Since Hollyhock likes learning, maybe next year her parents and/or Santa can give her some educational toys along with all the books.
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This is not a great strip, and it basically just reinforces the "lives of the rich and famous" theme that is present throughout Annibelle, but I think the joke is kind of clever. I guess she'll just have to use all of that winter gear when she gets back from the cruise.
Here's to hoping that you got everything you wanted for Christmas, and happy Boxing Day!
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Tales From the Great Book, by John Lehti, was a Sunday only comic strip that retold stories from the Bible. It had fairly wide circulation and had an impressive run, from 1954 to 1972. The focus was mainly on Old Testament stories, but as we see here, at times Lehti would cross over into New Testament territory as well (though with an emphasis on the Ten Commandments).
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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Going to bed on Christmas Eve is always difficult when you're a kid, though I never remember staying up all night and not getting any sleep at all. There was always the Christmas Eve sleep paradox: you don't want to go to sleep because you're too excited, but you want to go to sleep because then the time will seem to pass more quickly. I usually ended up somewhere in between, staying up later than normal but going to sleep eventually, and of course needing to have an extra nap in the middle of the day on Christmas. Christmas in our house was generally very relaxed and unstructured, so that was never a problem.
Also, spare a thought for Priscilla's dog, who didn't get a wink of sleep either and stayed up the whole time with her. That's a loyal pet if I ever saw one.
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One of the running gags in Priscilla's Pop involved Priscilla continually asking her pop to buy her a horse, and of course he always refused. Naturally, since her father was unwilling to get her one, she would also ask Santa Claus to bring her a horse every Christmas as well. This, of course, never happened, but as we can see here she went to every length necessary to ensure she would get one.
There's a kind of interesting kid logic going on here. It's true that it would be difficult to get a horse down a chimney, so it would make sense for Santa to bring it through the door instead. However, it seems that Priscilla thinks that the reason why Santa uses the chimney in the first place is because he doesn't have the ability to open doors himself, which is why she opened it for him. I wonder how she thinks he gets in and out of his own house. Maybe in her mind there's just a bunch of chimneys, and no doors. That would be interesting to see.