Check out rejected comic strip by Jack Davis

Renee French has posted samples of a comic strip submitted for syndication by Jack Davis. The comic was entitled Bo Reargard and was about a soldier in the Civil War. Renee opines that the syndicates weren’t interested because, “it was from a Southern point of view and many Northern papers wouldn’t want to carry it.”

Fantastic artwork. The samples aren’t even signed, much less dated. I can’t find anything on the web regarding the strip. From the headline, I’m inferring that it was created around 1963-ish(?).

6 thoughts on “Check out rejected comic strip by Jack Davis

  1. There’s a great deal of his “Beauregard” material in The Art of Jack Davis book. He drew a month’s worth of strips in pen & ink, (this looks like one of them), then completely re-drew them all using a brush, thinking it made for a more commercial, cartoony look. The McClure syndicate were excited about it and they shopped it around for 4 months before stopping their efforts. They explained they couldn’t sell it in the south because, the editors explained, “We just don’t take the Civil War lightly”.

  2. Pete, your explanation sounds more likely than the other. Go in any civil war museum in the South and they are still living it. Probably the more impressive story is how the country moved on afterwards (for the most part).

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