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I guess now we know the only thing that's going to go on all those blank Christmas lists that Herby's parents have been hiding everywhere. I guess their plan backfired. Instead of going all those other places and causing mischief, he's always underfoot asking for a bike.
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I posted an Elsworth strip previously, and was hoping to find a bit more information on the strip to share along with this one, but it seems there really isn't any. Despite running for 12 years in many high profile papers, no one on the internet seems to care much about it (either that or my search engine skills aren't as good as I think they are).
This particular one is odd, because it appears that a panel is missing. The dialogue at the beginning seems to start in the middle of a conversation. Either there was a panel or two cut in order to save space, or the first and the second panels were mixed up somehow, or something. Also, the top and the bottom row of panels seem like they're from two separate strips, because there's no connection between them. Very odd.
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I've posted some Christmas Bill Holman art before, but this is the strip he's the most known for, Smokey Stover. It was a popular comic that ran for roughly 40 years, and featured a firefighter, the titular Smokey, as its main character. Hollman was known to put various side gags in the background of each panel which were usually plays on words, as can be seen in several panels here. At Christmas time there would always be a sign somewhere saying "notary sojac." According to Holman, this was a reference to the Gaelic phrase "Nodlaig Sodhach," which means "Merry Christmas." Others in this particular strip include the valet Forge, a foreign policy, and hoss scents. This may be what made the strip so popular; even if you didn't laugh at the final punchline, there was at least something in one of the panels that might make you grin.
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Emily and Mabel started out as a single panel gag strip by Mike Angelo called Funny Angles. While the strip didn't start out with any recurring characters, Angelo started featuring the twin older ladies Emily and Mabel more and more as the years went on, and eventually renamed the panel after them. The strip centered around the titular characters doing their best to woo various men, usually unsuccessfully. They are always shown together, and I'm not sure if it's ever made clear which is Emily and which is Mabel, but I guess it doesn't really make a difference.
Here we see Emily or Mabel on an impromptu date with a mall Santa. It's interesting to note that often in the strips there is only one man that's the object of the ladies' affection, which makes me wonder whether they just happen to go everywhere together, even dates, or if they are competing with each other for the same man, or if there's some kind of bigamy thing going on. I'm not sure. Hopefully Mabel or Emily also has a Santa at a different mall that she plans to visit at work later.
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I posted some Mr. and Mrs. strips last year, from when Clare Briggs was doing it. Here we have one from the later, Arthur Folwell and Kin Platt years. I find it interesting that the art here focuses mainly on the faces of the two main characters and the new friends that they meet, without doing anything to establish a sense of place or position relative to anything else. However, in doing so it captures the feeling of cramped discomfort that you would have while carrying a bunch of packages through the big city while trying to find your car. It's amazing what you can do with some snappy dialogue and facial expressions.
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I've posted Smitty Christmas comics twice before, but those were from some of his earlier days and focused on Smitty himself. Here we see Smitty's younger brother Herby trying his best to be a Dennis the Menace, but being foiled by his own desire for Christmas presents. It's a clever way to get Herby to be good, but I wonder if they'll stay blank the whole month or not. It would kind of spoil the surprise, but it would be interesting to slowly add things to the "hidden" lists to give Herby some extra incentive. Maybe some of the things could get crossed out, too, to really make him wonder.
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Penny, created by Harry Haenigsen, was a fairly long running comic strip about a teenage girl, the eponymous Penny. Haenigsen created the strip in 1943 at the suggestion of the wife of the New York Herald Tribune's publisher. It seemed she was tired of seeing so many comic strips about boys, and asked for one about a girl. Haenigsen was already drawing a comic strip about a teenage boy, called Our Bill, so he did something similar, but with a girl. Both strips are about as authentically mid-century teenager as you can get, and Haenigsen did his level best to keep them that way. To make sure the slang terms he used in the strip were current, he hung out at soda fountains and often invited groups of neighborhood kids to his house on weekends. He even invented some of his own slang terms rather than use ones that he knew were out of date. He was assisted on art duties by Bill Hoest, who took up a majority of the workload after Haenigsen sustained a serious injury in 1965. The strip unfortunately ended in 1970 after Hoest left to start his own strip, The Lockhorns.
This particular strip highlights some Haenigsen's wonderful art style. He's clearly trying to imitate the style of various Christmas cards, but it still has the dynamic look of his regular panels, so you're not quite sure what's going on until you reach the last panel. My only criticism of the strip is that Penny doesn't necessarily look like a teenage girl as much as an adult woman playing a teenage girl in a 1950's movie. Much like those movies, though, there's enough charm to it that you don't really think about it too much.
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Leo the Little Leaguer, or in this case just Leo, was a single panel comic created by Walt Lardner that ran for a fairly short time, though it did get picked up by a few high profile newspapers. It was, as its name suggests, about a kid who plays Little League baseball, and generally had jokes revolving around that and other sports. From what I could find, it started in March of 1966, and most client newspapers didn't carry it past October, but at least one stuck it out until the end of the year. Lardner's art style was delightful, and the gags weren't too bad, so it's a shame that it didn't last longer than it did.
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I begin my annual tradition of posting winter and Christmas themed comic strips in December with a new personal favorite, The Timid Soul. I wrote about Caspar Milquetoast earlier this year, and here he is in a situation that I could definitely empathize with. While I'm not quite as milquetoast as Caspar, I'm pretty close. I think my personal approach would be a bit different, though. I'd probably just close my eyes and root around in the drawer or closet until I found what I was looking for. Sure, there is the risk of feeling something unfamiliar and wondering if it's a gift, but it would still allow for some kind of surprise. Besides, if she's smart she'll hide it in the drawer where I put all the shirts that I don't like and never wear, so there's no chance I'll ever look in it.
Here's one that surprised even me, and one which comes with a little bit of uncertainty that I hope to clear up.
I was, in fact, quite uncertain about this myself when I first started researching it. I have been aware for many years that there was a comic strip called Keeping Up With The Joneses, created by Arthur Momand, that first appeared sometime between 1913 and 1916. The strip revolved around the McGinis family, who were always trying to one-up their wealthy neighbors, the Joneses. The Jones family never appeared in the strip, of course. They were merely referred to by the McGinises constantly, usually in reference to how jealous they would be if they saw what one of the McGinises had purchased or done. According to Momand, this was inspired by his experiences after he moved to New York, and he and his wife's attempts to not be shown up by their wealthy neighbors. He realized how futile it was to do so, and wrote a comic strip to satirize this. The Jones name was, according to him, chosen due to how common it was and how much more interesting it sounded than "Smith." It was never meant to refer to any actual people named Jones.
This is not the story that some people believe. It's the story that they should believe, because it's true, but there are other stories that circulate regarding this phrase that are more convincing to people. I, unfortunately, have previously been one of those people.
The main problem is one of dating. As previously stated, the start date is disputed. Some sources say sometime around 1913, others say 1916. Allan Holtz, author of American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide, and the most trustworthy source I've found, puts the start date at March 31, 1913. This is the date of the earliest published Keeping Up With The Joneses strip that he could find.
This is important, because if the strip started in 1916, there's no way it could be the origin of the phrase. The phrase appears in print outside of the comic strip as early as late 1913 and early 1914. A 1916 start date would suggest the strip had taken its name from the phrase, not the other way around. This discrepancy has caused people to try to find an alternate explanation, and there is one that has become popular. There was a wealthy family who lived in New York in the mid-19th century by the name of Jones, and who had a large mansion overlooking the Hudson river. The family were so wealthy, and keeping up with their wealth would have been so impossible, that people assume the phrase must have been referring to them. This would be a fine assumption to make, if the phrase had appeared in any 19th century publications, which it doesn't.
This was the assumption that I made, however, back when I believed the erroneous sources that gave the 1916 start date. Thankfully, I now know better, and have happily added this phrase to the list of phrases that originated in comic strips.
For more information:
Don Markstein's Toonopedia, about the strip (just don't trust that "First Appeared" date)
The Stripper's Guide, about Arthur Momand
Word Histories, about the phrase