The Milwaukee Journal's Green Sheet comics are remembered

[D.D.Degg]

For decades, the Green Sheet -- which ran Monday
through Saturday in the afternoon newspaper,
The Milwaukee Journal -- was a primary destination
for readers looking for a laugh, some advice,
some nostalgia, a smile.
According to former Green Sheet editor Dan Chabot,
the first incarnation was as a sports section,
launched during World War I, then halted because
of a shortage of green newsprint.
It was revived in the 1920s as a two-page,
tabloid-news wrapper, filled with sensationalized content...
In 1927, a new editor, Larry Lawrence, began weaning
the Green Sheet from its scandal-seeking ways and
shifting it toward more family-friendly fare. In 1934,
the section, the home of comics, puzzles, humor and
light feature stories, was expanded to four pages --
the format it retained for the next 60 years.

The above was excerpted from a lengthier
Green Sheet history from last year. see:
http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/green-sheet-which-offered-readers-a-respite-for-60-years-returns-b99503162z1-304874681.html

But, to get to this thread's point, a wave of
nostalgia about the Journal's comics has
resulted in a weekly (Thursdays) series recalling
the comics that appeared in the Green Sheet.

Today's featured comic is The Far Side
http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/the-far-side-found-a-home-in-the-green-sheet--eventually-b99698905z1-374830081.html

Last week it was Pogo
http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/for-a-quarter-century-green-sheet-knew-walt-kelly-pogo-b99694791z1-374069691.html

And before that, the first in the series, it was Mr. Tweedy
http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/mr-tweedy-the-green-sheets-long-running-lovable-loser-b99690137z1-373282091.html

D.D.Degg

[D Heine]

I wonder if the Milwaukee Juurnal GREEN SHEET FLASHBACK will feature Peanuts.

[Jimmy Delach]

> I wonder if the Milwaukee Journal GREEN SHEET FLASHBACK will feature Peanuts.

Peanuts is still (kinda) considered an active strip even though the Journal-Sentinel no longer carries it. Don't think so.

[D.D.Degg]

> But, to get to this thread's point, a wave of

> nostalgia about the Journal's comics...

Also walking down a comic inspired memory lane
is an alternative/underground newspaper in Seattle
that remembers some of their local cartoonists.
"...starting in 1981, with the paper's first reocurring strip,
Seattle Weekly officially embarked on a comix journey that,
despite periodical ups and downs, has survived to the present day."
http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/963525-129/panels-from-the-past-looking-back

D.D.Degg

[D.D.Degg]

> nostalgia about the Journal's comics has
> resulted in a weekly (Thursdays) series recalling
> the comics that appeared in the Green Sheet.

The fourth installment features Priscilla's Pop.
http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/priscillas-pop-was-a-milwaukee-favorite-even-with-mashed-potato-sandwiches-b99703107z1-375623891.html

Back in the day a local paper ran a comics page
made up of NEA strips and panels.
Priscilla's Pop is a nostalgic thing for me.

D.D.Degg

[Jimmy Delach]

We used to have something like that in Spring Hill where I live. The Brooksville Sun-Journal/Spring Hill Sun had an entire comics page of NEA strips (almost all strips were used). It ran from 1979 until the papers folded in 1992.

[D.D.Degg]

> > nostalgia about the Journal's comics has
> > resulted in a weekly (Thursdays) series recalling
> > the comics that appeared in the Green Sheet.

Today sees the sixth (of ten) installment of
the Green Sheet's Throwback Thursday - Comics Edition.

"Working girls' romance, usually of the complicated variety,
was the recurring theme of the comic strip "Apartment 3-G,"
by Nicholas Dallis and Alex Gotzky[sic]."
http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/apartment-3-g-was-a-green-sheet-three-peat-for-strips-creator-b99711844z1-377358441.html

A nice summary of the strip and its creation,
all the way to the end.
RACSter Joseph Nebus gets a link.

Last week's chapter of this series (the fifth) was on Li'l Abner.
http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/lil-abner-al-capp-were-bigger-than-life--until-they-werent-b99706953z1-376458811.html

Elsewhere, from this past week, is R. C. Harvey's
essay on Bill Holman and Smokey Stover. Notary sojac?
http://www.tcj.com/smokestack-foo-mania/

D.D.Degg

[D Heine]

Nice for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel to honor a strip that ceased last year - Apt. 3-G - though with only 1 comic strip that ended at the start of the 2016 year (Edge City), I am still waiting for the ending fate of cut back to first run Sunday/rerun daily mode since November 2013 comic strip Get Fuzzy to happen this 2016 year.

[D.D.Degg]

D Heine wrote:
> Nice for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel to honor
> a strip that ceased last year - Apt. 3-G - though
> with only 1 comic strip that ended at the start of

> the 2016 year (Edge City)...

Well,
Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog ended syndication early this year,
though it is now available online at gocomics.

Guigar's Evil, Inc. and Wilkinson's Penn's Place
have ended their runs in Philadelphia papers this year.

> ...I am still waiting for the ending fate of cut back

> to first run Sunday/rerun daily mode since November 2013
> comic strip Get Fuzzy to happen this 2016 year.

Coming in a couple of months for your 2017 pleasure is
http://www.amazon.com/Fuzzy-2017-Day-Day-Calendar/dp/1449476821

D.D.Degg

[D.D.Degg]

> the Green Sheet's Throwback Thursday - Comics Edition.

This week, the seventh of ten, is There Oughta Be A Law.
http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/there-oughta-be-a-law-tapped-readers-for-material-b99707747z1-378193161.html

D.D.Degg

[D Heine]

I know There Oughta Be a Law never had a spin-off comic strip unlike They'll Do It Every Time which had a spin-off comic strip called Little Iodine.

Al F., who did There Oughta Be a Law, was also an artist for Archie comics (I notice his art in the Super Duck comics of the past that I have read in Archie comics digests).

[D.D.Degg]

"Our Boarding House" was in the Green Sheet
before the Green Sheet was the Green Sheet.
http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/green-sheet-checked-into-our-boarding-house-for-nearly-50-years-b99720287z1-379069741.html

Initially, Major Hoople was just Mrs. Hoople's
long-gone husband, who returned home — after being
gone 10 years — on Jan. 27, 1922. But he quickly
became the center of the comic, known for his
outlandish get-rich-quick schemes, his bluster
and bragging, his unusual choice of headgear
(he usually wore a fez), and his collection of
arcane exclamations, especially "Egad!" and "Harrumph!"

I seem to remember "Fap!" among Major Hoople's exclamations.

Fap (and Drat)
https://i0.wp.com/arnoldzwicky.s3.amazonaws.com/MajorHoople.jpg

Egad
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a8/123131hoop.jpg/370px-123131hoop.jpg

Harrumffing
http://www.leevalley.com/us/images/item/Woodworking/Books/49l8126-av2.jpg


D.D.Degg

[D.D.Degg]

The penultimate installment in the series
is about Dick Cavalli's Winthrop (née Morty Meekle).
http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/generation-gap-strip-changed-from-morty-meekle-to-winthrop-b99724571z1-380036711.html

D.D.Degg

[D.D.Degg]

> ...about Dick Cavalli's Winthrop (née Morty Meekle).
> http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/generation-gap-strip-changed-from-morty-meekle-to-winthrop-b99724571z1-380036711.html

Here's a six year old column by Jerry Dumas
about his friend Dick Cavalli:
http://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/Dumas-A-friend-who-could-write-and-letter-with-338522.php

"Dick thought no collection of his strips
had ever been published, but apparently
Dick had never heard about this one."
http://stuartngbooks.com/images/thumbnails/350/798/detailed/0/cavalli_winthrop_4214.jpg
"It's a good thing Cavalli didn't know about this book,
because, while his drawing was on the cover, someone
else had lettered the words in the balloon. Dick, a
supremely gifted prose stylist, would have groaned at
the punctuation error in one sentence"

Says Dumas: "I recognized right away that the words
had not been lettered by Cavalli, whose style was
lucid, masterful and original."

"When Cavalli had his second heart attack,
I filled in for him on "Winthrop" for three months.
The syndicate provided me with a large batch of old
strips, I made copies, cut off the words, wrote new
gags and lettered the words into the balloons,
copying Cavalli's style. Cavalli himself could see
the difference, but I don't think anyone else did."

"[Dick] Hodgins has always done the lettering for
Browne's "Hagar the Horrible," ever since its start
in the 1970s. When Hodgins was in the hospital several
years ago, Orlando Busino penciled and inked "Hagar"
and did the lettering.
You could see the Busino imprint instantly."

Hodgins died earlier this year, but stopped his
Hagar work last year. Wonder if the lettering changed?

D.D.Degg
hat tip to Comics Research Bibliography
for digging up the old Jerry Dumas column.

[D.D.Degg]

Installment 10 of 10 is about Bloom County.

"Making its debut in 80 newspapers...
At its peak, it ran in 1,200 papers.

http://www.jsonline.com/greensheet/bloom-county-gave-us-opus-bill-the-cat--then-took-them-away-b99729786z1-380886381.html

Though they do mention "Outland" and "Opus"
it is not made clear if The Journal ran those strips.

D.D.Degg

[Jimmy Delach]

Some evidence...

Outland (9/3/1989) Pg. 102

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=jvrRlaHg2sAC&dat=19890902&printsec=frontpage&hl=en