Here’s another example of F.M. Howarth’s strip The Love of Lulu and Leander from 1903. Click the image to read the strip.
You can see more examples of this strip (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press.
Here’s another example of Frederick Opper’s strip Happy Hooligan from 1904. Click the image to read the strip.
You can see more examples of Happy Hooligan (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press. Here are some other Opper strips at Barnacle Press.
Here’s another example of F.M. Howarth’s strip The Love of Lulu and Leander from 1904. Click the image to read the strip.
You can see more examples of this strip (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press.
Here’s another example of Frederick Opper’s strip Happy Hooligan from 1905. Click the image to read the strip.
You can see more examples of Happy Hooligan (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press. Here are some other Opper strips at Barnacle Press.
Here’s another example of F.M. Howarth’s strip The Love of Lulu and Leander from 1904. Click the image to read the strip.
You can see more examples of this strip (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press.
Here’s another example of F.M. Howarth’s strip The Love of Lulu and Leander from 1904. Click the image to read the strip.
You can see more examples of this strip (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press.
Here’s a fun example of F.M. Howarth’s strip The Love of Lulu and Leander by F.M. Howarth from 1903. Lulu and Leander is apparently one of the earliest domestic strips. The big-head artwork for this strip is pretty bizarre. Click the image to read the strip.
You can see more examples of this strip (and many other classic comics) at Barnacle Press.
Here’s what Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has to say about Lulu and Leander.
I have scanned a LOT more examples of this strip coming soon to this blog.
A Katzenjammer Kids strip from 1903 by Rudolph Dirks. Click the image below to read the strip. The coloring on a lot of these early strips is pretty interesting. A lot of time they have areas of the line art appear in a solid color, rather than just leaving it black… note how the line art for the bricks in this strip is red and the other line work is blue. Note also you can see Happy Hooligan soaking through from the other side of the page. Click the below image to view the entire strip.
Here’s what Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has to say about the Katzenjammers.
I’ll have more Katzenjammer Kids cartoons coming in the near future.
Here’s a Happy Hooligan strip by Frederick Opper from 1904… click the image to see the strip.
Pictured in the panel above we see (besides the gemsbock), from left to right, Happy Hooligan and his brothers Montmorency and Gloomy Gus.
In spite of being easily one of the most popular comic strips of its era, Happy Hooligan, as far as I know, has only been the subject of ONE modern reprint book.
As usual, esteemed comics historian Bill Blackbeard was the culprit… he had a Happy Hooligan volume in his wonderful Hyperion Library of Classic American Comic Strips book series from 1977.
I don’t believe Opper’s other strips (which were also quite popular… Alphonse and Gaston, and And Her Name Was Maud) have had modern reprint books at all. There were only books that came out while the strips were still running.
This is a pretty awful oversight, as besides his massive popularity in the early part of the last centrury, Opper is a very funny cartoonist and excellent artist. You can also see samples of Opper’s work in some comics history overviews, like The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics and 100 Years of Comic Strips (both wonderful books also edited by Blackbeard).
How funny is Opper? Happy Hooligan wears a tin can on his head for a hat. A tin can! That, my friend, is genius.
Here’s a fragment of the February 15th, 1903 Happy Hooligan strip… click the image to view it.
Here’s what Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has to say about Happy Hooligan.
I’ll be reprinting some more Opper stuff that I’ve scanned in the coming weeks, among other things.
Here’s the other side of the Uncle Pike page I posted the other day. Today we have Billy Bounce in “Billy Bounce Cheats the Cannibals Out of a Nice Stew” and The Teasers in “Bobby Gets the Reward.” Billy Bounce is a bizarre character… he’s a big, fat, bouncing ball-boy. His cast is very odd too… I have another one of these I will be posting sooner or later.
Billy was created by W.W. Denslow of Wizard of Oz book illustration fame, which makes a whole lot of sense looking at the characters. It was taken over in 1902 by C.W. Kahles, who did this one (Kahles later went on to create Hairbreadth Harry). This one is by Kahles… it’s a fun, weird strip.
The Teasers is also by Kahles… the main character looks pretty much like Billy Bounce after losing weight, although I actually hadn’t made the connection that the two were drawn by the same person until checking the Ohio State Cartoon Research Library site. Neither strip has a signature, and they have a stylistically very different feel to them. The Teasers uses a bizarre technique of using both word balloons and printed copy below the panels to convey dialogue.
Click the image below to see the full page (warning: contains offensive racial depictions, as is often the case with old comics).
