Today it was announced that political cartoonist and comic strip artist Dick Locher has died at the age of 88. Most obituary mention his run as the artist of Dicjt Tracy in the eighties but fail to mention that he had already assisted Chester Gould on Tracy in the late fifties. In that same period he also worked on the Tracy 'topper' The Gravies, which was actually a 'bottomer' and only produced for and used by the Chicago Tribune to fit their particular first page lay-out. This uniquely funny strip was produced by Cheter Gould with his team of assitants, who were all mentioned in it as well. Locher only features in the first few years. He left the Gould for a commercial career in 1961 and we see his name leaving the last panel on April 9 of 1961. This long later run of the strip is actually only a part of a longer selection of Chicago Tribunes I have and will scan in the future. At some point I had started in 1957 and you see those first one at the beginning. I had been waiting to show these until I was done scanning the rest, but as a tribute to Mr. Locher, I am sharing them today as an extra.
5 comments:
Thanks for posting these wacky-cracked "Gravies" strips! They're welcome to see in color!
Those are pretty funny! That crow cracks me up! The crew looks like they had fun with these.
Hi Ger --
Somehow I never noticed those credits before in The Gravies. How cool is it that Gould credited his assistants. So now of course I had to index the credits. Here is what I get:
Chet: 12/2/56 - 11/16/58
Chet, Al, Ray and Dick: 11/23/58 - 4/2/61
Chet, Al, Ray and Jack: 4/9/61 - 8/13/61
Chet, Al, Ray, Jack and Rick: 8/20/61 - 1/26/64
So, who are these guys? Here are my assumptions: Al Valanis, Ray Gould, Dick Locher, Jack Ryan and Rick Fletcher. Have I got the right fellas?
--Allan Holtz
Seems just about right, Allan. Thanks for the additional info. I still have to do the early years.
Thanks for Ger's work documenting a comic strip rarity from the 50's to the 60's - incredible stuff!
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