What fun. Today I get to share another of the rare oddities of my collection. I have seen samples of this strip before, but never scanned them because it is what the British call a bit 'tweedy'. But when I came across these three tier versions from the forties I just had to scan them. If anything, it proves the strength of the three tier format. I have never seen a strip that wasn't better in this format than in the more commen two tier abbreviatation.
According to the Lambiek Comicopedia, the Toodles were created by Sol Hess (creator of The Gumps)'s daughter and her husband Betsy and Stanley Bear, when a discussion about the writing quality of her father's strip led to the challange to try one of their owm. Not being able to draw, the Bears found illustrator Rod Ruth to do the job. Ruth worked a an illustrator for Ziff-Davis' pulp magazines, alongside big names such as Edd Cartier. He was trained in the Chcago School of Art, which fits in nicely with my assesment that he was one of the 'Chicago School' of artists, people in comic strips and comic books, who resisted the lure of Milt Caniff's fast and easy brush style. This is not an official term, only one I use for myself, because most of these clear line realistic artists came from a Chicago background.
Later in his life, Ruth did a couple of Dinosaur books, that were quite succesful and influenctial.
2 comments:
Actually, Sidney Smith created The Gumps; Sol Hess was a jeweler who supplied gags to Smith. The strip Hess did create was "The Nebbs" - drawn by Wally Carlson, and very much inspired by "The Gumps." The Baers would take over "The Nebbs" and merge it with "The Toodles."
Right, I quoted a very poorly researched site.
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