A couple of years ago I wrote an article for the comic strip history magazine Hogan's Alley about Jack Coles strip Betsy and Me and how it was continued after his deat by the commercial Chicago artist Dwight Parks. I have used these pages to collect all of Parks' work, which I consider to be a very well drawn and well written continuation of the original. He filled out the syndicate's contract for 1958 and the strip ended on December 27. This has been taken by some to meaan that Parks couldn't hold the strip, while in fact it seems he even added papers during his run. I always felt it deserved a better look and a better place in comic strip history, so I tried to get them all. I managed to find all the Sundays in color (although the search goes on, because some of them are in the two tier format rather than the complete three tier half page), but my sources for the dailies dried out in early December. Thankfully this year I came across anoher source and this time I was able to get what I needed.
So here is the last month of Dwight Parks' Betsy and Me. For earlier months and the Sunday, use the links.
And if David or his sister run across this post, please contact me because a lot happened since our last talk.
5 comments:
nice one get to know a lot about comics from your blog
will you post something about davey jones by al williamson
i think it was published in 1960's
in newspaper like washington reporter, lodi news sentinal news dispatch .....
Davey Jones was not by Al Williamson, but by Alden McWilliams. At least some of the time. Actually Davey Jones was the continuation of Curly Kayoe, a strip about a boxer by Sam Leff. That in itself was a continuation of Joe Jinks, which Sam Leff did together with his brother Moe. Moe (Leff) left and started working as Ham Fisher's main assistant on the very similar Joe Palooka. He took over the writing and artwork in the early fifties (at least), when (or probably even before) Fisher committed suicide. Anyway, Curly Joe was a sort of poor cousin to Joe Palooka. In 1961 Sam Leff stepped back as the artist and the name of the series was changed to Davey Jones. Alden McWilliams took over. At some point (probably when McWilliams became too busy ghosting yet another strip, Dan Flagg) he was replaced by Win Mortimer. I believe I read somewhere that some of those later strips were actually written by Joe Siegel.
thanks a lot for your information
hope someday we get some scans davey jones from you
McWilliams had an incredible career as main artist and/or as an assistant on several significant strips. His "Davy [not Davey] Jones", "Dateline Danger" and "Twin Earths" are all eminently collectible.
Hello Ger,
Wow, just saw the post you put up on my dad. Good stuff.
Please feel free to contact me at:
Daparks62@yahoo.com
Most sincerely,
David Parks
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