Comic Strip Squibs
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Big Nate’s relief pitchers, a true comic strip crossover, not a boring Van Boring collection, the comic strip bad guys, and valuable comic strip art.
Relieving Big Nate
This past weekend it was noted that Wallace the Brave had replaced the discontinued Big Nate daily comic strip in The Washington Post. Mike Rhode at Comics DC provides the photographic evidence.
It was also mentioned that The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald has Red and Rover as a replacement. Here’s the notice to their readers.
Starting today, “Red and Rover,” by Brian Basset, will replace “Big Nate” Monday through Saturday. The comic strip chronicles the adventures of 10-year-old Red, who loves baseball and dreams of space travel, and his loyal dog Rover. We think it will appeal to fans of “Big Nate.”
The Mon Valley (PA) Independent also told readers of the change, but I can’t break the paywall.
No other notices that I find.
Spoiler Alert
Spoiler Alert
Spoiler Alert
Don’t know if Walt and Skeezix’s search for Snuffy Smith will come to fruition tomorrow in Gasoline Alley but it does in Barney Google and Snuffy Smith as a true crossover happens on the comics pages.
The Tish Tash Comic Collection
Historian Kurtis Findlay is attempting to gather famed animation and live-action filmmaker Frank Tashlin‘s comic strip Van Boring (He Never Says A Word) and other magazine cartoons into a definitive collection.
The book is slated for a late 2026 publishing date but as Jerry Beck tells us Kurtis Findlay needs some help. It isn’t the Van Boring newspaper strip he needs, it is the many magazine cartoons he drew:
CALLING ALL COLLECTORS! Tashlin produced hundreds of gag cartoons in the early 30s for humor magazines such as Hooey, Slapstick, and Ballyhoo, among others. Kurtis would like to include as many of these cartoons as possible in this Van Boring book, but he needs your help! Do you have any humor magazines published between 1931 and 1935? Check to see if any of them have cartoons signed “Tish Tash”. Unfortunately, there is no documentation on which magazines contain these cartoons. Our best option is to look through every page.
20 Favorite Comic Strip Villains
Steve Smith, who knows his comic strips, has created a list of his favorite comic strip evil-doers. And unusually for these kinds of list I can’t really argue with his choices. Especially since he includes Bull Dawson among the villains. But…
I think I prefer Miss Asthma as my favorite Little Orphan Annie nemesis over who Steve picked though I certainly understand his choice. And I would have picked a different favorite from Dick Tracy’s Rogues Gallery. But this is Steve Smith’s favorites from the forgotten to the still famous.
Anyway chooses 20 blackguards from as many comic strips from the early 20th Century to a few that are currently featured in new comic strips these days. Smith breaks his choices into four posts of five reprobates each: Part One; Part Two; Part Three; Part Four.
25 Old Comic Strip Collections and Sunday Funnies That Are Worth Real Money
Now here’s a list I can object to.
Jaycee Gudoy for Go2Tutors has name checked some cartoonists whose original art has impressive values. No argument about the original art values or the cartoonists featured. Here’s my problem:
The portion discussing Winsor McCay art is illustrated with a picture of a Little Nemo dvd, the Frank King piece shows a Dick Moores comic, Dick Calkins’ Buck Rogers section shows TV’s Gil Gerard. And so it goes: to illustrate Charles Schulz original art they showcase a Snoopy plushie. Instead of Milton Caniff art we are treated to a Lee Elias comic book cover. For Rudolph Dirks we get a Joe Musial signed Katzenjammer Kids cover, while the Happy Hooligan – Fred Opper segment highlights The Katzenjammer Kids. Rather than an E.C. Segar Popeye we get a generic Popeye drawn by who-the-heck-knows.
An article about original art should show, if not actual original art from Heritage Auctions or some such, at least art by the cartoonists discussed. Fact check: they did do that with about half the cartoonists mentioned.
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