Friday Tonic Day.
One of the most remarkable characters in a popular newspaper comic strip was Fearles Fossdick in Li'll Abner. A parody of Dick Tracy, he was introduced by Abner reading about him in the paper. Even more remarkable is the ad campaign for Wildroot Tonic Water he hosted throughout the fifties. I gathered as many as I could form this Lake Erie paper. I thought there would be doubles, but scrolling through them just now, I could not find nearly as many as I would have suspected. Probably done by his assistants, the strips are completely in the style that was established by Capp.
3 comments:
Stuart Hample (Inside Woody Allen) wrote these.
Hample: I conceived an idea from nowhere: He had a parody of Dick Tracy, Fearless Fosdick. I thought maybe I could use that character for Wild Root Cream-Oil ads. I talked to Capp, and he said "Well, it’s a very good idea, but I don't do a gag-a-day strip, I do a story strip." So I wrote one and he loved it, with Fosdick. I invented Anyface. The strip is four panels. The first panel has a gorgeous girl, then Fosdick pointing a gun at a character who looks just like him— Anyface, the world’s trickiest criminal.
We did a whole year, made a deal to run in Life, made a deal that it would run in the paper first, then in Life. He fell in love with that. He made $100,000 that year, 1954, so he hired me. We were going to do ads, and I moved to Boston. I did not do the strip, but I have such anecdotes. He was some wild, larger than life character. He would give the strip to Andy Amato, Andy would rough out the characters, draw them all, then Al would redo the faces of Daisy and Abner and Mammy and Pappy. Another guy inked the bodies, and then another guy lettered it.
We did a whole year, made a deal to run in Life, made a deal that it would run in the paper first, then in Life. He fell in love with that. He made $100,000 that year, 1954, so he hired me. We were going to do ads, and I moved to Boston. My fiancé was at Wellesley, so I lived up near the campus, and I worked with Capp doing this kind of stuff. I did not do the strip, but I have such anecdotes. He was some wild, larger than life character. He would give the strip to Andy Amato, Andy would rough out the characters, draw them all, then Al would redo the faces of Daisy and Abner and Mammy and Pappy. Another guy inked the bodies, and then another guy lettered it.
Nice info. Where did the interview appear?
You can find the whole article about Hample's career here: https://www.cbr.com/stuart-hample-eyewitness-to-history/
There is also a very entertaining interview with Hample, where he talks about Capp and »Inside Woody Allen«: https://podbay.fm/p/inkstuds/e/1285135217
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