Monday, March 08, 2021

Sporting Chance

Sunday Surprise Day. Movies buffs who also collect comics will know there was a famous newspaper feature in the thirties and forties that combined movie titbits with extremely well done portraits in gorgeous color. Many of these Surday tearsheets fetch high prices if the depict a well know star, like Walt Disney of Stan and Ollie. A couple of years ago, I was surprised to see that there was a daily version as well, just as well executed. It was never as big a seller as the Sunday version, maybe because it was smaller and in black and white. Of course, I went and clipped a lot of them and shred them here. But most remain unseen after their first publication - even though they may depict very famous stars. Followers of this blog will also know that there was another similar panel by George Scarbo, a very prolific and well loved artist from the same period. He is best know for his Sunday only animal strip The Comic Zoo, but in the thirties he did various movie panels under various names. Some of which seem to have predated even Seein' Stars, going back to the twenties (and a whole other set of movie stars). All of the above can be found through the links. But what I did not knwo is there was another similar daily panel, at least in the early forties. I came across it, looking for some other stuff and cliped what I could find from a whole month. According to several sources, the artist, simply signing Bruno, is none other than early comics talent Bud Thompson. I would not have known. For more you can look here: https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/thompson_bruno.htm

2 comments:

Larry Rippee and Molly Rea said...

There’s some good biographical information on Bud Thompson aka Bruno in Roger Hill’s book”Mac Raboy: Master of the Comics”.
Thompson/Bruno also spent quite bit of time drawing Capt. marvel, Jr.

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Yes, Thompson was a great early comics talent.