Tuesday Comic Strip Day.
In the thirties it became usual for Sunday strips to have 'toppers'. A seperate strip, usually running on top of the now slighty less than page filling main feature. Chic Young's Blondie started out without a topper, but added one in 1934, Colonel Potterby and the Duchess. This now forgotten oddity which seems to be in the manner of Otto Solow's more succesful (and funny) Little King, concerned the silent adventures of an elderly rich guy and his nobel girlfriend. Not an uncommon sight in the higher circles in those days. This charming strip always was better drawn than it was funny. The more I read of Blondie, the funnier I find. Colonel Potterby often leaves me cold. Sometimes I really have to force myself toread it. A good silent strip draws you in and lets you read it panel to panel. This strip sort of seems to invite you to skip over it. Still, it looks nice...
To show how little recpect this strip gets, I am adding three originals taken from the Heritage Auction site. The first one sold for $40 in 2009, the second one for $70 in 2010 and the third one was part of a whole page including Blondie which together sold for $100 (which isn't strange, as it is from 1963 and attribute dto The Chic Young Studio rather than Young himself or his main assistant for the forties and fifties Paul Fung Jr.). I don't know how much Fung had to do with the earlier samples, though.
3 comments:
Thanks for sharing, Ger! I loved this strip as a kid, probably read it in the comic books.
Janet Gilbert
According to Don Markstein this strip was reprinted in Harvey and later Charlton comic books, never as the mai feature.
This comic strip was a regular in The Journal American, one of the great newspapers of New York City.
Post a Comment