Thread by @jeffs_comics

#comicbook history
Let's look at Famous Funnies no 1

1934 Eastern Color Printing Co
Scan courtesy Digital Comic Museum

100 Comics and Games - Puzzles - Magic

#comicbook history

While the contents are reprinted comic strips, the cover was new.
Who did the cover? I don't know

Who is on the cover?
Looks like that comical duo, Mutt and Jeff,

and Rudolph Rassendale, that beastly blackguard from Hairbreadth Harry.

#comicbook history

Here is the back glossy cover of saddle sticked Famous Funnies no 1

The lady in red might be from Somebody's Stenog
The crooked little house might be from Toonerville Folks
The guy in the green vest might be from Smatter Pop?

#comicbook history

The first strip in Famous Funnies 1 is Toonerville Folks, by Fontaine Fox

Its color Sunday strip. The series ran almost 50 years, most famous for its small trolley madly driven by The Skipper

#comicbook history

Fox also has a 'Little Stanley' color strip at the bottom, possibly related to Toonerville Folks.

Toonerville had numerous comedy shorts, some starring Mickey Rooney (then billed as Mickey McGuire, one of the characters)

#comicbook history Famous Funnies no 1

Next we get "Amaze a Minute Scientifacts by Arnold"

I don't know who Arnold was, but science trivia would pop up in comics through the Silver Age at least.

Today, we'd probably say "Fake Milkman News"

#comicbook history

Famous Funnnies no 1 also has Screen Oddities by Captain Roscoe Fawcett

Wait...Captain Fawcett? Of Captain Billy's Whiz Bang and Whiz and Fawcett comics.

Actually, this is Captain Billy's son, Roscoe. He was about 20 at the time (so maybe honorary title)

#comicbook history Famous Funnies no 1

Tailspin Tommy is an action adventure aviation strip, begun after Lindbergh's flight made all things aero amazing

There are several Sunday strips with a dirigible (this being several years before the Hindenburg disaster - oh, the humanity)

#comicbook history Famous Funnies 1

Here we get a 'topper' strip by HJ Tuthill, Little Brother

Tuthill's early biography is loopy - assistant to a foot surgeon, medicine show barker at a carnival, baking powder salesman, and milk can washer

#comicbook history Famous Funnies 1

HJ Tuthill is best known for The Bungle Family

The Bungles are a familiar couple, beset by the many petty problems of Depression era city life. As Don Markstein says, not very likeable, but funny

Next up in Famous Funnies 1 is A.E. Hayward's Somebody's Stenog

Don Markstein says its the first regular comic set in an office of women. The stenographer is leggy Miss Cam O'Flage, and her boss, Mr Smithers

Notice the 'registered in US Postal Office

Next up in Famous Funnies 1 is The Back-Seat Driver.

I don't know anything about this three panel strip, but its got the humor down

Next up in Famous Funnies 1 is High-Gear Homer

This is another small three panel 'topper', this one by F.O. Alexander (Hairbreadth Harry)

One funny thing is 'High Gear Homer' has a Tijuana Bible

#comicbook history Famous Funnies 1

Here is one strip that should have sold this comic book all by itself - F.O. Alexander's Hairbreadth Harry!

Its like reading Dudley Do-Right!

Beautiful Belinda Blinks kidnapped by 'that uncivil wretch', Rudolph Rassendale

Harry, Where R U

The next exciting chapter in our Hairbreadth Harry strip!

The strip was created by Charles Kahles way back in 1906

According to Don Markstein, Harry married Belinda when it looked like the end of the strip, but was renewed and the marriage retconned away

Holy Peter Parker!

The next chapter of Hairbreadth Harry

Thought you'd actually like to see Harry show up - trapped in a burning building 70 stories up! Holy King Kong!

Don't we got fun, Boss?

Cue the chase music

And let's complete this little Hairbreadth Harry story in Famous Funnies 1

Many of the comic strips have multiple appearances in the comic

Curses! I knew I should wear pajamas

If I had a dime for every time I've said that, Rudolph

One more post to finish up today's journey through Famous Funnies 1 for #comicbook history

There are lots of puzzles in this comic - and they're hard!

See if you can find ten intentional mistakes
(the unintentional ones don't count - like encouraging kids to smoke!)

Parading through one of #comicbook history most famous comics - Famous Funnies no 1 from 1934. It took until no 12 to turn a profit, but ran 218 issues

Scan courtesy of @DCMCaptainDJ Digital Comic Museum

Two more of the puzzles - in general, these aren't easy

@DCMCaptainDJ #comicbook history Famous Funnies 1

Dixie Dugan by JP McVoy

This was still at the beginning of what would be a run into the 1960s

Dixie is the tall slim showgirl (but eventually would move on to other jobs)

@DCMCaptainDJ Dixie Dugan had also been in some novels by 1934, which had been made into films (one with music and sound effects, the 2nd a true talkie)

There are also Golden Age comics with Dixie too
(Famous Funnies is often called 'Platinum Age')

@DCMCaptainDJ Famous Funnies no 1

Since there seem to be people who love to know 'what actress inspired which character' so

Dixie Dugan is said to be inspired by actress Louise Brooks - an icon of the flapper days, like a
1920s version of ... oh, never mind.

Louise Brooks everyone.

Famous Funnies no 1:

Here is the 'topper' strip for Dixie Dugan - Good Deed Dotty, also by McEvoy and Striebel.

The title character goes around doing good deeds - well, one a day, and then she checks it off for the day.

I assume then becomes an agent of Chaos

#comicbook history Famous Funnies no 1

Here is an image of JP McEvoy I found - it looks like it should be a History Channel show about "Haunted by Dixie Dugan's Creator"

McEvoy wrote a fairy tale where Raggedy Ann appears (The Raggedy-Verse?)

He coined "Cut to the Chase"

#comicbook history Famous Funnies no 1

Here's one everyone has heard of: Bud Fisher's Mutt and Jeff

Augustus Mutt is the tall one, who likes to gamble or have a get rich quick scheme

Jeff is the short one with the muttonchops.

(Like Gilligan, Jeff has no last name)

#comicbook history Famous Funnies no 1

Apparently "Good Cop/Bad Cop" is a "Mutt and Jeff"

There are far better authorities out there on the history Mutt and Jeff than I, so I'll leave it there except does anyone else think Jeff is the Monopoly Guy?

That's all for tonight!

#comicbook history Famous Funnies no 1

Many of the comic strips make several appearances over the 64 pages.

Here is part of the 2nd Dixie Dugan strip. Humor aside, the fashions of the day are strikingly captured by Striebel, as well as a little cheesecake pose

#comicbook history Famous Funnies no 1

There is a set of two strips by A.W. Brewerton. Its not one main and one topper, but two equal half page strips - and with two very different art styles.

Remember though that this is 1934, and the ornate Gibson Girl was yesterday

The first is PAM - Pam Potter, I believe, another independent young girl - notice that Eastern had a difficult time printing it. The characters talk about water colors, pastels and oil, as the model has a line of head shots painted for a beauty cream ad.

#comicbook history Famous Funnies no 1

The second is Donald Dare Demon Reporter

Notice Brewerton chooses a totally different art style for this comedy strip. Don is no Dick Tracy (1931), that's for sure - although they each like bright yellow fedoras.

We are going to take a small detour here in Famous Funnies no 1, but this thread is a bit like a box of chocolates.

Back at the end of WWI, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune suggested a domestic comic strip about a none too bright, none too attractive couple.

The Gumps

And so in 1917 was born the comic strip - The Gumps

Written and drawn by Sidney Smith

Why 'Gump'?

Apparently it was a word for the unwashed, uneducated masses.

Check out chinless Andy Gump below

The strip was popular, and one of the gag writers, Sol Hess, said Why not me?

#comicbook history

So in 1934, Famous Funnies 1 has Sol Hess' The Nebbs, which Hess started in 1924 after Smith decided to not share the wealth with this writer

Why The Nebbs?

Apparently its derived for Yiddish for someone who doesn't stand out in any way

Rudolph Nebb below

And here's the topper strip for The Nebbs, Simp O'Dell.

Perhaps because the gags are done so quickly compared to the Nebbs, I like the topper better.

#comicbook history Exploring 1934's Famous Funnies no 1 by Eastern Color Printing Co of Connecticut, often cited as one of the first retailed comic books

Another Simp O'Dill topper by Hess with a "Post No Bills" gag

I guess "Post No Bills" was the Spam of the early 20th Century

Famous Funnies no 1 - another Game!

Higgleby Piggleby My Black Hen
She lays eggs for Gentlemen
Sometimes nine and sometimes ten
Higgleby Piggleby My Black Hen

- Find six hidden 'Gentlemen'

A twitter "no-prize" to the first person who finds all six

#comicbook history - Continuing exploring Famous Funnies no 1 (1934)

Smatter Pop? is a long running domestic strip from CM Payne.

I can't say much for the gags, but Pop looks like a well dressed denizen of Suess' Whoville!

The lower half is another of Payne's strips - Honeybunch's Honey

Another of the chinless men dealing with domestic issues, this time his full figured female spouse - Honeybunch. Originally "Mr Mush". In this strip she gets the upper hand, but in others the tide turns.

Famous Funnies No 1 is full of color newspaper comic strips

Next up is Nipper by Clare Victor "Dwig" Dwiggins, who began as a cartoonist in 1897. His comics focused on rural boyhood

Its actually Nipper's Topper that will catch the modern reader's eye.

One response to Famous Funnies no 1 (1934) is how archaic it feels - but not this topper.

Why - well, look at this recurring gag in Keane's Family Circus - the footprints showing Billy's path

And now compare it to Dwig's 1934 Footprints on the Sands of Time

Bill's mother sends him to the store to get a cake of yeast - here he goes

Same gag (even 'Bill') - so I'd guess the late Bil Keane (1922-2011) read this strip growing up.

The next strip in Famous Funnies no 1 is Frank Godwin's Connie

Connie (1929) is (According to Don Markstein) the *first* female adventurer hero in American comic strips

She is an aviator too - created just as Amelia Earhart is becoming a public figure.

Here is the exciting conclusion of the Connie strip in Famous Funnies no 1.

I like the fact that Connie is created as aviators become national figures. Colonel Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers was created before her, but Col Deering is a supporting character.

Here is Frank Godwin's humorous topper for Connie, called Wet Blanket

Notice the change in art style too.

And just for fun, as we are recounting Frank Godwin's strips in Famous Funnies no 1, here are two of his book illustrations for Treasure Island.

#comicbook history Famous Funnies no 1 (1934)

Frank Godwin's Connie has several adventures in this issue

Here we see a Dick Tracy-esque scene of crooks plotting to get rid of her

Famous Funnies no 1 also includes several of J Carroll Mansfield's

High Lights of History!

Here is part of The Story of New France, starring Jacques Cartier

#comicbook history

So, years before Superman or Batman began their four color careers in comic books, we get fantastic stories like Pocahontas leaping between Captain John Smith and the executioner, begging for his life!

Fact or Fiction - you make the call!

#comicbook history Famous Funnies no 1 (1934)

Here is one of the many puzzles and games in that foundational comic book

Can you find the spider's web-picture of a:
Hen
Squirrel
Duck
Dog

They are right before your eyes!
Can you locate them?

Here's a game for kids of 1934

Display this picture on your mobile phone
Lay your phone on the ground showing this picture
drop a toothpick from about a foot above the phone
All dogs the toothpick rests on are caught

First to 25 wins
(I guess you can catch the same dogs over)

Let's start to wrap up our look at Famous Funnies no 1 (1934)

We get Edwin Alger's Ben Webster's Page

Written by Jay Jerome Williams, instead of stories of Ben Webster, young boy hero and paragon of virtue, but here we get him recounting biographies like a Prof Von Drake

#comicbook history

In this color strip, we get the biography of Roy Chapman Andrews, beginning with (of course) his boyhood where he shows "Ambition"

This boy will become one of those adventurers that would inspire the pulps and the serials (and later Indiana Jones)

Roy Chapman Andrews was a proponent of the Out of Asia theory for human origins - and while there found many dinosaur bones and famously, a nest of dinosaur eggs.

These were long thought to be protoceratops eggs, but are now thought to be oviraptors!

Must drive faster!

Chapman became a Carl Sagan / Neil DeGrasse Tyson kind of science popularizer of his day, writing several books.

Dateline: 1934

You can still get a copy of Chapman's All About Dinosaurs (and other books) today.

Other bios in Ben Webster's Page in Famous Funnies no 1 are about sculptor Gutzon Borglum and newly minted US Vice President Jack Garner (under FDR)

Also included in Famous Funnies no 1 (1934) is the obligatory for postal reasons 2 page text story - Dick Whittington and his cat

Its the tale of a boy from poverty who sold a cat to a country plagued with rats (yikes! Plague!) and made a fortune.

Its a folktale.

And that about wraps up our Adventure of Famous Funnies no 1 (1934) for #comicbook history

I guess we can say "Auks well that ends well"

G'night and save those dimes!

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