Screwball Sunday Supplement - Hairbreadth Harry, Petty Patty, Squirrel Cage, Dave's Deli, and Goldberg

Welcome to the fourth Screwball Sunday Supplement. This issue features two consecutive examples from 1913 of the early screwball masterpiece, Hairbreadth Harry, by C.W. Kahles, in which all the water is drained from an ocean and much silliness ensues. The strip's title, "Hairbreadth Harry" comes from the fact that the hero always escapes from mortal danger by a hair's breadth, a cliche even in 1913. 

We also see a rare example of Rube Goldberg's comic strip advertisement for Pepsi Cola, a late Squirrel Cage, and a terrific example of the forgotten romantic screwball comic Petting Patty by Jefferson Machamer.  All this, plus a mind-blowing Milt Gross!

As I am fond of clucking, HEN-joy it!

Screwily,

Paul Tumey

Screwball Sunday Supplement Vol. 3 No. 33 - The Squirrel Cage, Swinnerton's Hilarious SAMs, & Count Screwloose

GREETINGS FROM THE LAUGHING ACADEMY!

Welcome to the third issue of our Screwball Sunday Supplement. This issue is packed with comics that ALL have produced guffaws and laffs amongst me self and me pals. 

We kick off with a superb Milt Gross Count Tooloose that could well be the prototype for Tex Avery's classic Droopy cartoon, "Dumb-Hounded." We also get a Milt Gross Banana Oil topper. This was a very popular strip in itself back in the day, with folks saying "banana oil!" instead of "bullshit!"

In the interior spread, we get the extra-special treat of 4 Squirrel Cages, all from the 1946 detour from Foozland into Goonia. This is Gene Ahern at his most inspired, most trippy, most sublimely screwball.

On the the back page, we find two truly funny rescued 1905 Jimmy Swinnerton gems from the Platinum Age of American newspaper comics that I hope you will take the time to read, as I think they are something special, racial stereotypes aside. 

Swinnerton's SAM strips echo Gross' Banana Oil and Count Screwloose comics in that they both provide a surrogate observer into the strip in the form of the Count, and Sam. Where black American Sam laughs at pomposity, Jewish American Screwloose is aghast at hypocrisy. Sam may have the more light-hearted  response, but in all fairness, he "mp-mp-mps" in an earlier and more innocent era, before the horrors of the 20th century transpired.

Just as Sam and The Count are doorways into their comic strip worlds, Ahern's Paul Bunyan-as-bewitched-gnome is a surrogate figure for us in The Squirrel Cage, through which we can comfortably explore the weird worlds of Foozland and environs. Ahern fractally inserts a multitude of additional doorways into his strip, going ever deeper into the labyrinth, until it's impossible to tell the dream from the dreamer -- do we dream of the snarky citizens of Goonia, or do they dream of us?

Ump, Ump ~

Paul Tumey

Screwball Goes to the Dogs - Doc Syke, Milt Gross, Swinnerton, and Smokey! (Vol.1 No. K9)

Welcome to the second Screwball Sunday Comics Supplement! In this issue, we have literally gone to the dogs. Here's your chance to bone up on some forgotten screwball classics. With one exception, these are all scans from my own paper collection, and the first time these appear on the Internet. This faux newsprint supplement is designed by me, Paul Tumey.

In this survey of cartoon screwball dogs, we note the prevalence of black-spotted orange dogs. In every example, we also see dogs interacting with us fellow humans. One of the surprising aspects of screwball comics is how they often reveal the underlying truths of life. In this weeks' Sunday supplement, we see cartoonists turning over and over to the theme of dogs and people as constant companions.

Please let me know how you like this. Your comments and emails are so important to me!
paultumey@gmail.com

And, if you have the chance to plug this blog, it would help spread the word about these worthy comics.

The day this post went up, Google celebrated Winsor McCay's 107th birthday with an astonishingly good point-and click interactive comic.

Screwily Yours,
Nuthouse Tumey

Screwball Sunday Supplement V17 No 148 - Ahern,Goldberg,Gross, Bradford,Holman,Capp

A big thank you to Dan Nadel and the folks at the The Comics Journal for the link - your support is greatly appreciated and very helpful. 

ANNOUNCING a change in direction. Instead of a daily posting, we have shifted to a weekly Sunday posting for the fall of 2012, to be called "Screwball Sunday." This will mimic a Sunday newspaper comics section, but will be assembled by me and be composed entirely of noteworthy screwball comics from all eras, with notes by me (of course). The first issue is above.

I will also occasionally write and post illustrated essays on screwball comics as well, as time and inspiration allow.

To be clear, the pages above are all designed by me, Paul Tumey - they are not scans of any existing paper document (although they contain plenty of scans from my paper collection that you will only find on this blog).

Tune in every Sunday for a NEW collection of startling, saliva-spewing screwballistic delights.

Please remember to help promote this blog if you can. A link, a mention, or just a comment -- it all helps. Let's spread the word, Alphonse. I think Alphonse is a purrfectly good word to spread, although butter is margarinely butter.

Hope you henjoy! Drop me a line or a comment and let me know what you think. paultumey@gmail.com

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My friend and fellow comics scholar Frank Young has co-authored with David Lasky an outstanding graphic novel, The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song (from Abrams ComicArts). The book will be reviewed in the October 14 issue of Time Magazine, along with Chris Ware's landmark work, Building Stories.

I've read both of these books and highly recommend them.

Click here to read Frank and David's absorbing post detailing the enormous craft that went into a single page of their book.