Don't Try It Until You've Knocked

Sunday Monkey Business.

Gus Mager was a very funny early cartoonist, who had a style that wa svery similar to that of Harold Knerr. Most of his first strips revolved about monkey characters who all had a name ending in O. The most famous was Groucho, whose name was adopted by a young comedian. But there were others, some of which have shared earlier. One of those monkey characters was later used as the basis for Mager's Sherlock Holmes parody Sherlocko the Monk. Mager ended up doing a Sherlocko topper on Dirks' original Katzenheimer Kids (while Knerr did The Captain and the Kid). For a later revival on, Sherlocko was changed into a human. Here are some strips I have not shared, with a new monkey called Knocko. Col;lecting some more of those, I came across a Sunday as well featuring another monek. And Mager also did a seperate panel about the Animal Kingdom. 

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Gusso Takes a Turn

Sunday Surprise Day. 

Somewhere last year I went and picked a lot of Gus Mager Monk comics. I haven't processed all of them, but here are the Groucho the Monk ones. One of the many Monks he used, and which is famous for inspiring the Marx Brothers' nicknames. My biggest surprise in this series is that most 'daily' newspaper strips from the Hearst group in that period ran only weekly (and whenever they felt like it). There were one or two comics every day, but most creators had several series and seems to have rotated without any order. My guess is they really were on staff and filled theor spot (with a gag or with a political cartoon if that's what they preferred) whenever they had a new idea.

 

Captain Dirkhead

Saturday Leftover Day.

I was afraid I had already cleaned these two Captain and the Kids Sundays by Rudolph Dirks, one with a Gus Mager Sherlocko topper and one with another one which may very well be by Dirks' assistant Mager as well. I couldn't find it, so here it is (possibly again).

No Mager Feat

Tuesday Comi Strip day.

Some time ago I clipped a whole lot of Gus Mager's early Monk strips, a funny animal series that predated his more famous Sherlock Holmes spoof Hawkshaw the Detective. One of Mager;s gags in this irregular daily strip was the way he started naming his monkeys, as you can see here: first as Mufti the Monk, later Rhymo, Braggo and even Sherlocko. Famously, this way of naming was taken up by the Marx Brother, who based their own names on the same principal.