The Fabuleous Fifties

Brief, Briefer, Briefst

Wednesday Advertising Day.

One of the great joys of this blog is being able to share unknown material by name artists and writers. In the past I have proudly shown early cartoon series by Mel Lazerus en Bud Blake, rare comic strip series by George Roussos, Paul Reinman and Ogden Whitney and early cartoons by Mort Walker, Hank Ketcham and Many others.

Last week, while looking through some papers, I came across a cartoon series that even surprised me. Want Ad Whoppers was a weekly cartoon series in a cartoon style that was aimed especially at the want section in the midfifties. It was drawn by Dick Briefer, a very well respected comic stripa artist who worked for all sorts of companies in the forties and fifties, but is best remembered for his Frankenstein comics. There is even a book by Craig Yoe celebrating his work on that strip. It also shows (as did an issue of Alter Ego featuring his work) he tried to sell Frankenstein as a funny continuity strip in the fifties. Frankenstein had been both a serious and a funny strip at different times and Briefer clearly managed both styles. Aound the time of the comic strip tr-out, he also did this specialty cartoon. Want Ad Whoppers was only made once a week, dates on a Sunday, but not always published on that date. Dick Briefer drew it from the start of January 1955 to the end of March 1956. After that several other artists helped out, until someone called Jacques took over. The jokes remainded as bad as during Briefer's run, which make me think it was concieved and marketed by someone else and Briefer was just a hired hand. I have been able to find a pretty complete run, but it will take some time to take them all down. So here are the first four months. The rest will follow later, so you can find this hidden oddity here forever.