Newspaper Comics Index - Rarities

[D.D.Degg]

The Newspaper Comics Index lists here occasionally
contain a features I don't recognize, so I go googling...

June 26, 1983
Omaha World-Herald
"Ribbons"

March 25, 1984
Aberdeen Daily News
"Ribbons & Haywire"

Turns out Ribbons and Ribbons & Haywire are the
same strip, merely retitled in February of 1984.

It came from King Features Syndicate and the
KFS Archivist actually did a column on it:
http://comicskingdom.com/blog/2012/11/14/ask-the-archivist-going-haywire
"Thirty years ago, a little strip by Steve Carpenter and
Ed Wallerstien(sic) appeared in the King Features’ talent
stable about an adorable Yuppy puppy named 'RIBBONS.'"

Thirty years previous to that column would be November 1982
which seems to be when it started.
Here's a November 28, 1982 Sunday that seems to be a strip
still early in the introductory process
https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B7%2F5%2F6%2F7%2F7567869%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D
but not THE first Sunday (Ribbons, the dog, is not prominent
enough in all the panels).

In the above Ask the Archivist column the last daily is shown
and is dated April 20, 1985. The following week's column
reveals that April 21, 1985 was the last Sunday strip.
"...the last episode of all was the Sunday of 21 April 1985,
the day after the daily shown last week. It showed Walter,
raking leaves, getting a stiff neck that makes him have to
hold his head back. People gather around trying to see what
he’s looking at. Well, guess that’s not happening in Florida,
so it seems out of place. They should have had a wrap-up there too."
http://comicskingdom.com/blog/2012/11/21/ask-the-archivist-thanksgiving-with-blondie-and-dagwood-bumstead

There is very little (nothing?) in the comic history books
about the strip or about the creators; as noted above the
strip was by Steve Carpenter and Ed Wallerstein.

Online there is not much either.
Here is Labiek's page for Carpenter
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/carpenter_steve.htm
They have no page for Wallerstein.

Both gentlemen were employed by Hallmark Cards in Kansas City.
Steve Carpenter, according to his son, "worked for Hallmark Cards
for 41.5 years as an artist, designer and creative director."
http://gdusa.com/peopletowatch2017/tad-carpenter

Carpenter's LinkedIn profile lists him as
International Creative Manager - Hallmark Cards
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-carpenter-a282791b

Ed Wallerstein was a humor editor for Hallmark.
https://www.google.com/#q=ed+wallerstein+%22humor+editor%22+hallmark

Their attachment to Hallmark explains a couple licensed
products for these little known comic strip characters:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-1983-HALLMARK-RIBBONS-AND-HAYWIRE-7-STICKERS-1-SHEET-/351158059218
and
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ribbons-amp-Haywire-Comic-Strip-Plush-Dog-Hallmark-1982-Carpenter-and-Wallerstein-/152465417374

Steve Carpenter was the artist (and co-writer/gagman?),
while Ed Wallerstein was the writer - as revealed a
letter from Wallerstein to a fan: "Steve Carpenter is
the artist of the strip and my 'doodling' consists
mostly of sitting at a typewriter."
https://www.terapeak.com/worth/ed-wallerstein-hallmark-ribbons-cartoon-artist-signed-typed-letter/371493677241/

Around the time that the strip was retitled Ed Wallerstein's
name dropped off the strip. The Archivist column starting off
this missive shows a January 1984 strip with both signatures,
while a few March 1984 strips show only Carpenter's signature:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1907&dat=19840310&id=a2crAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6dgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3464,5410427

That's about it.
The strip apparently made it into at least one Canadian paper
https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/la-bd-de-journal-au-quebec/images/3/35/Rosette.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151027135138&path-prefix=fr
and it also got a (mass market paperback?) collection after it ended
https://www.amazon.com/Ribbons-Haywire-Steven-Carpenter/dp/0812576659
though I haven't been able to find a cover reproduction.

RIBBONS aka RIBBONS & HAYWIRE
November(?), 1982 - April 21, 1985
by Steve Carpenter and Ed Wallerstein
King Features Syndicate

D.D.Degg

[D.D.Degg]

> The Newspaper Comics Index lists here occasionally

> contain a features I don't recognize...

December 26, 1982
Omaha World-Herald
"Ribbons"

> June 26, 1983
> Omaha World-Herald
> "Ribbons"
>
> March 25, 1984
> Aberdeen Daily News
> "Ribbons & Haywire"

[D Heine]

The Chicago Tribune carried Ribbions daily and Sunday in Fall 1982, but by early 1983 cut the strip back to Sundays and dropped the strip for good by Summer 1983.

[Jimmy Delach]

> The Chicago Tribune carried Ribbons daily and Sunday in Fall 1982, but by early 1983 cut the strip back to Sundays and dropped the strip for good by Summer 1983.

A little off on the start date. "Ribbons" was added 1/3/1983 (it was the paper's "Doonesbury" replacement when Garry Trudeau took its' first lengthy sabbatical).

Dailies ran until 3/5/1983. Its' last Sunday appearance was 5/22.

[D.D.Degg]

>The Newspaper Comics Index lists here occasionally
>contain a features I don't recognize, so I go googling...

> Newspaper Comics Index: June 24, 1973

> PANAMA CITY NEWS-HERALD
> Sgt. Stripes... Forever

> BLOOMINGTON (IL) PANTAGRAPH
> Sgt. Stripes... Forever

> SEDALIA (MO) DEMOCRAT
> Sgt. Stripes... Forever

> DECATUR (IL) HERALD/SOUTHERN ILLINOISIAN
> Sgt. Stripes... Forever

In the early 1970s, leading up to the Bicentennial celebration,
about a half dozen comic strips were datelined The Colonies
during The American Revolution.

Sgt. Stripes...Forever by Bill Howrilla was one of those.
http://www.comicconnect.com/data/Image/gallery800/bil14.2a.jpg
and
https://p1.liveauctioneers.com/436/11954/3181334_2_l.jpg?version=1
and
https://dyn3.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B6%2F9%2F3%2F5%2F6935469%5D%2Csizedata%5B850x600%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D

Per Allan Holtz it began on May 1, 1972 and ran until November 18, 1973.
A mere 18 months (an extra day if you got the April 29, 1972
Pittsburgh Press that carried a preview strip).

A couple years later, in the Fall of 1975, it reappeared
in newspapers as a weekly strip and ran into 1977.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/y8v6zloj
Whether the 1975-77 strips were new or reruns I don't know.

As for those other Bicentennial Funnies - the aforementioned
Allan Holtz has done Obscurities on most of them:
http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/search?q=bicentennial
The last (and only Sunday) of that Sons of Liberty can be read at
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iPP1w4dL-VM/VlOAlN4bvnI/AAAAAAAAHy8/m7hWFB4ShME/s1600/15-Lynn%252C%2BRichard%2BJo-Sons%2Bof%2BLiberty%2BFull%2BPage.jpg
or
http://preview.tinyurl.com/y8obsun3

John Platt featured another Bicentennial Obscurity at
http://bicentennialcomics.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-bicentennial-obscurity-200-years-ago.html

As for Bill Howrilla, the creator of Sgt. Stripes...Forever,
he retired (draftsman/designer) quite a while back
but has been keeping busy with his woodworking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaYcuEuP8hs

D.D.Degg
who thought it was suitable posting
what with The 4th of July approaching.

[D.D.Degg]

> >The Newspaper Comics Index lists here occasionally
> >contain a features I don't recognize, so I go googling...

Newspaper Comics Index: April 27, 1958
> WASHINGTON (D.C.) STAR
> The Romance Of Flowers

> LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL
> The Romance Of Flowers

The Romance of Flowers
by Eugene Tasset Du Pont
and Charles Rodney Thornback
was syndicated by Spadea Columns/Spadea Syndicate
from around 1956 - 1958.

And was not really a comic strip:
https://tinyurl.com/yayu6gxw
(scroll to bottom of page)

Spadea Syndicate was most famous for its sewing patterns
that showed up in newspapers through the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
http://tcmuseum.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/92531E9E-A3CA-417B-A427-614595925673

Found very little about author Eugene T. Du Pont,
and not much more about artist Charles R. Thornback.

Thornback was heroic in World War One action as part of the British Tank Corps.
A few years after that he abandoned his family in the Yukon.

D.D.Degg

[Allan Holtz]

Romance of Flowers actually lasted until at least 1960 -- 1/3/60 in the Tacoma News-Tribune is my latest. In May 1959 the format of the feature changed a bit, reducing the text a bit so that I for awhile toyed with the thought of including it in my listings. But in the end the text-heaviness seemed just too much.

The art was actually supplied by a whole cadre of signed artists, who seemed to take turns. I have samples by:

Joan Cromwell
Edward Fernsten
Dixi Gail Hall
Paul Proehl
Tom D. Raki
Charles R. Thornback
Lucille Webster
Pete Winter

In addition to the sewing stuff, I think Spadea syndicated quite a bit of short fiction. Their few forays into comic strips never took hold.

Best, Allan Holtz

[D.D.Degg]

Allan Holtz wrote:

>D.D.Degg wrote:
>> The Romance of Flowers
>> by Eugene Tasset Du Pont
>> and Charles Rodney Thornback
>> was syndicated by Spadea Columns/Spadea Syndicate
>> from around 1956 - 1958.
>
>> And was not really a comic strip:
>> https://tinyurl.com/yayu6gxw
>> (scroll to bottom of page)
>

> Romance of Flowers actually lasted until at least 1960...

> The art was actually supplied by a whole cadre of signed artists,
> who seemed to take turns. I have samples by:
>
> Joan Cromwell
> Edward Fernsten
> Dixi Gail Hall
> Paul Proehl
> Tom D. Raki
> Charles R. Thornback
> Lucille Webster
> Pete Winter

Thanks for the added information Allan.
I don't have access to newspapers.com so I linked to
the single sample I found thru the Fulton History site.

Of that list of artists, only Pete Winter rings a bell:
https://archive.org/stream/ohioalumnusoctob401ohio#page/8/mode/2up

> In addition to the sewing stuff, I think Spadea syndicated quite a bit of short fiction. Their few forays into comic strips never took hold.

And at least one political/current events column (On The Record)
which, like the Flowers item, featured a rotating roster of writers.

I mentioned the sewing columns/ads because I remember them being
ubiquitous in the newspapers of my youth, whether they were Spadea
or someone else I wouldn't know. The sewing patterns seemed very
popular in the 60s.
That also seems to be the starting point for James and Jean Spadea:
https://thevintagetraveler.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/the-spadea-pattern-company/

And yes, I naturally went to your <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/2133963/american_newspaper_comics">American Newspaper Comics</a>
to check the (less than a dozen) Spadea Syndicate comic strips.
The only one I recognized was Chateau and Briand.
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=376679
Creator Don Vannozzi died last year.

Again, thanks for straightening things up,
D.D.Degg

[Default User]

On Tuesday, July 18, 2017 at 8:21:17 PM UTC-5, D.D.Degg wrote:

> I mentioned the sewing columns/ads because I remember them being
> ubiquitous in the newspapers of my youth, whether they were Spadea
> or someone else I wouldn't know. The sewing patterns seemed very
> popular in the 60s.

The Post-Dispatch had "Sew Simple" with Eunice Farmer, a local woman. Back in the pre-internet days, I used to read the entire newspaper.

Looks like the column is still going, with her daughter at the helm:

http://kingfeatures.com/features/columns-a-z/sew-simple/


Brian

[D.D.Degg]

> September 26, 1965
> SANTA ROSA (CA) PRESS-DEMOCRAT
> Boots & Her Buddies/The Gooneys
> Babe 'N Horace

> June 26, 1966
> SANTA ROSA (Calif.) PRESS-DEMOCRAT (Tabloid)
> Boots & Her Buddies/The Gooneys
> Babe An' Horace

> July 30, 1967
> JACKSON (TN) SUN
> Boots & Her Buddies/The Gooneys

> June 23, 1968
> SANTA ROSA (Calif.) PRESS-DEMOCRAT (Tabloid)
> Boots & Her Buddies/The Gooneys
> Babe An' Horace

> September 29, 1968
> JACKSON (MS) SUN
> Boots & Her Buddies/The Gooneys

Per Allan Holtz's American Newspaper Comics
"The Gooneys" by Les Carroll ran
June 6, 1965 - October 6, 1968 as
the topper to Boots and Her Buddies.

Babe 'n' Horace ran as a topper to Boots
from March 19, 1939 - October 6, 1968.

Boots and Her Buddies also ended on October 28, 1968.

I'd heard of Babe 'n' Horace
http://www.comicstripfan.com/newspaper/b/babenhorace.htm
but The Gooneys was new to me:

https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B1%2F6%2F1%2F1%2F1611628%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D
and
https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/comic-strip-art/a/15112-16535.s
and
http://bp0.blogger.com/_4Puw9WJRY0U/SItuThExWBI/AAAAAAAAAQE/XC6KfubCUD0/s1600-h/7-26+-+LES+CARROLL+-BOOTS+%26+HER+BUDDIES+SUNDAY+5-5-68+ORIG+ART.jpg

I wonder if the Santa Rosa Press Democrat printed the whole run?

It looks like Les Carroll could fill a tabloid page
with his Sunday features during these years.

Boots and Her Buddies
with
The Gooneys topper
and
Babe 'n' Horace
with the
Boots' Fashion Show panel companion!

Les Carroll's Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay
http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2016/03/ink-slinger-profiles-by-alex-jay-les.html

D.D.Degg

[D.D.Degg]

D.D.Degg wrote:
> Per Allan Holtz's American Newspaper Comics
> "The Gooneys" by Les Carroll ran
> June 6, 1965 - October 6, 1968
>

> Babe 'n' Horace ran as a topper to Boots
> from March 19, 1939 - October 6, 1968.
>
> Boots and Her Buddies also ended on October 28, 1968.
>

correction -
Boots and Her Buddies also ended on October 6, 1968.

I have no idea where that "28" typo came from.

D.D.Degg

[Allan Holtz]

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 1:26:28 AM UTC-3, D.D.Degg wrote:

> It looks like Les Carroll could fill a tabloid page
> with his Sunday features during these years.

Not just a tabloid, but a full page! The Arizona Republic ran Boots as a full page, with all attendant toppers, until at least 1967.

Who woulda thunk that Boots would have been one of the last full page comics, along with Prince Valiant!

--Allan Holtz

[D.D.Degg]

June 14, 1953
> DALLAS MORNING NEWS
> PORTLAND OREGONIAN
> Wade Cabot In The Middle East

A comic strip so rare I can't find an image on the internet!
(I don't have access to newspapers.com)

But...
from The Funnies: 100 Years of American Comic Strips
by Ron Goulart (Adams Publishing, 1995)

"The first new adventure strip inspired by the Cold War
was Wade Cabot, introduced in the spring of 1953. A joint
effort of Bob Robertson and Pat Sammon, with some help from
Len Dworkins, the strip was set in the Middle East. 'Here
the forces of the Free World engage in a mighty undercover
struggle against Communist powers...with untold wealth of
black gold, hidden beneath the sands...with vital military
positions as the prize to the victor...All humanity watches
- and waits!' Cabot was handsome and looked a bit like Burt
Lancaster, the gray at his temples attesting that he was
experienced. He was a former OSS agent, but his current
affiliation was never made clear.
...<snip>...
"Although not badly drawn, Wade Cabot didn't especially
shine in the script department. Even though it espoused an
increasingly popular view of how to deal with Russia, it
expired before year's end." (page 199)
https://www.amazon.com/Funnies-Years-American-Comic-Strips/dp/1558505393

Kinda makes one wonder if the Government maybe put an end to it.
Hitting too close to the U.S. and U.K. undercover machinations
with the 1953 coup of the Iranian Prime Minister and setting up
their preferred (puppet) government to protect "our" oil.

Allan Holtz's American Newspaper Comics entry:
Wade Cabot In The Middle East
Daily/Sunday strip
Running dates: May 11, 1953 - February 13, 1954
Artist: Pat Sammon. Writer: Bob Robertson
Syndicate: John F. Dille Company
Notes: Sunday started May 17, 1953
Sources: Start date from author's collection,
end date from San Antonio Express microfilm.
https://www.press.umich.edu/2133963/american_newspaper_comics

D.D.Degg

[D.D.Degg]

June 14, 1953
January 8, 1956
> MEXIA (TX) DAILY NEWS (Tabloid)
> Brenda Breeze/Otis

July 10, 1955
> AUGUSTA CHRONICLE (Augusta, GA)
> Brenda Breeze/Otis

January 8, 1956
> HELENA (MT) INDEPENDENT RECORD
> OGDEN (UT) STANDARD-EXAMINER
> Brenda Breeze/Otis

March 31, 1957
> FORT LAUDERDALE (Fla.) NEWS/SUN-SENTINEL
> Brenda Breeze/Otis

April 27, 1958
> HELENA (MT) INDEPENDENT RECORD
> Brenda Breeze/Otis

Brenda Breeze by Rolfe is not the rarity here,
http://www.art4comics.com/brendab.jpg
that has been covered, though not as an obscurity,
by Allan Holtz in a couple of strippersguide postings:
http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/search?q=rolfe

No, I'm going with the Sunday "topper" to Brenda - Otis as the rarity.
http://www.comicstripfan.com/newspaper/b/brendabreeze.htm

Above from 1952, below from 1962
https://dyn3.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B4%2F5%2F7%2F457207%5D%2Csizedata%5B850x600%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D

Allan Holtz's American Newspaper Comics says
it ran from May 7, 1944 until sometime in 1962.
That's a heckuva run for something I'm calling a rarity!

D.D.Degg

[D.D.Degg]

August 24, 1980
> TAMPA TRIBUNE
> Cat

"Cat" by B. Kliban

This is like Charles Addams' "Out Of This World",
a syndicated feature by a famous cartoonist that
didn't make it big in the newspaper syndicate market.

According to Allan Holtz' American Newspaper Comics
"Cat" ran from May 4, 1980 to February 8, 1981
as a Sunday panel.

A thumbnail sample can be seen at
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/200033998/

[Good News: The Chicago Tribune has updated their
archives well into the 21st Century
Bad News: The archives are now behind a paywall]

As seen above The Chicago Tribune didn't run it in the
Sunday Funnies but in their Home and Leisure section.

KFS Archivist Mark Johnson did a column on comic cats
where he reproduced a Sunday sample of the strip:
http://comicskingdom.com/system/blog/2011/11/archivist_CAT19801102.png

Archivist Johnson's intro to the Kliban feature read
"Perhaps the oddest of cat strips was the mysterious
CAT by Bernard Kliban, who was famous for cat-themed
art about thirty years ago. Register & Tribune put out
this short-lived series. Each week, a baffling couple
of cartoons featuring cats appeared. I call it a rare
foray into Zen humor for the Sunday comics world."
http://comicskingdom.com/blog/2011/11/09/ask-the-archivist-here-kitty-kitty

The title panel is the cover of Kliban's immensely popular
1975 book of the same name. (By the time of the 1980 syndicated
panel the book had run through dozens of printings.) And,
as seen in the copyright notice, the panels are reprints
from the book, not new material.

From Kliban's agent Toni Mendez's papers comes this tidbit:
Box TM.P87B / Folder 38
Kliban/Register & Tribune Correspondence, [1977-1984]
Scope and Content: Materials related to Register & Tribune
Syndicate distribution of cartoons from Kliban books in U.S.
and Canadian newspapers, begun in May 1980, with syndication
agreement terminated in December 1980, due to newspaper
cancellations; subsequent proposals from Toni Mendez for
other approaches to newspaper syndication.

So, it seems, some newspapers' initial enthusiasm for the panel
quickly turned into disappointment for the bizarre feature.
[While a fan of Kliban's cartoons in general,
I am not a cat person and have never found
his cat stuff particularly interesting.]

Also from the Toni Mendez papers:
Box TM.P90 / Folder 42
Kliban - Cat Murdoch News Feat. Syn. Inc., [1978-1979]
Scope and Content: Correspondence regarding: syndication
of cartoons from Cat by Murdoch News Features Syndicate
and the Register & Tribune Syndicate; terms of syndication;
promotional activities.
http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/view?docId=ead/xOhCoUCR0002.xml;chunk.id=c02_1DK;brand=default

That backs up Holtz's assertion in his Cats entry that,
"The feature was offered by Murdoch News Features in 1978.
I've never found [the 1978 incarnation] running anywhere."
https://www.press.umich.edu/2133963/american_newspaper_comics

D.D.Degg

[Jimmy Delach]

FWIW the Tampa Tribune did carry the entire run of "Cat".

[Mark Jackson]

On 10/4/2017 3:47 PM, D.D.Degg wrote:
> August 24, 1980
>> TAMPA TRIBUNE
>> Cat
>
> "Cat" by B. Kliban
>
> This is like Charles Addams' "Out Of This World",
> a syndicated feature by a famous cartoonist that
> didn't make it big in the newspaper syndicate market.
>
> According to Allan Holtz' American Newspaper Comics
> "Cat" ran from May 4, 1980 to February 8, 1981
> as a Sunday panel.

GoComics runs cat cartoons by Kliban on Tuesdays and Thursdays,
alternating with other Kliban cartoons M-W-F.

> So, it seems, some newspapers' initial enthusiasm for the panel
> quickly turned into disappointment for the bizarre feature.
> [While a fan of Kliban's cartoons in general,
> I am not a cat person and have never found
> his cat stuff particularly interesting.]

ISTR reading that Kliban himself, while welcoming the breakout success
of /Cat/, was not all that fond of the animal himself.

(We still have a set of the original Kliban bedsheets and pillow cases,
featuring tabbies in capes, flying.)

--
Mark Jackson - http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~mjackson
Whatever may be tolerated in monarchical and despotic
governments, no republic is safe that tolerates
a privileged class. - Frederick Douglass

[Joe Morris]

Not so long ago, D.D.Degg wrote:
> "Cat" by B. Kliban

Thanks for this info! I didn't know Kliban had ever tried a strip

> So, it seems, some newspapers' initial enthusiasm for the panel
> quickly turned into disappointment for the bizarre feature.
> [While a fan of Kliban's cartoons in general,
> I am not a cat person and have never found
> his cat stuff particularly interesting.]

That doesn't surprise me. I have so many favorite Kliban
cartoons but none of them are the cat ones :)

Thanks again for digging up these sources!!

--
Joe Morris Atlanta history blog
jol...@gmail.com http://atlhistory.com