above: “Walt Kelly’s Pogo” from November 17, 1991 by Neal Sternecky
The Sunday before Thanksgiving can only mean one thing,
a Gasoline Alley banner by Jim Scancarelli.
Jason Chatfield has me confused.
Is the new Ginger Meggs story a late Halloween tale? A Thanksgiving parable?
Or will it stretch into late next month and be a Christmas story?
I know it is giving thanks season, but…
I gotta complain about what seems to be the new normal for Biographic.
The days of viewing it at GoComics as a full-tab page are apparently over. For weeks now it has been posted in a third-page format, making it harder to read. Not to mention appreciating the Steve McGarry portrait art.
On the other hand…
I do want to thank King Features for the Popeye’s Cartoon Club comic strips this year.
Today’s Funny (above) is by cartoonist John Kovaleski of Daddy Daze and Bo Nanas fame.
Not sure that it was meant as a Thanksgiving strip, but it’s heartwarming.
I like the latest Sheldon by Dave Kellett, and the one before is also very nice. But don’t get the impression that the strip is ALL touchy-feely. Keep clicking the archives and you will find laughs aplenty. (Yeah, okay; it isn’t a Sunday strip, but it is in that format and it is the most recent.)
Hey! Didn’t someone say something about Steve Roper and Mike Nomad?
It’s not just a cameo, it is the beginning of a true crossover. After 15 years Steve Roper and Mike Nomad return to the funny pages with today’s Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Joe Staton.
I thought maybe Mike Curtis discovered King Features had let the copyright/trademark lapse. But that last panel has a KFS copyright notice in the gutter, so Mike and Tribune Content Agency must have got King Features’ approval.
Steve Roper is almost as old as Dick Tracy, debuting March 25, 1940 as an action hero:
Mike Nomad first appeared June 19, 1956 as a mystery:
The strip ended 15 years ago in December 2004; daily December 25, Sunday December 26.
The Steve Roper comic strip was carried to the very end by The Toledo Blade, home paper to creators Elmer Woggin, Don Dean, and Allen Saunders. The entirety of the Steve Roper saga can be read in The Blade via Google Newspapers (scroll forward to the comics pages).
Finally, a reason for thanks – Dick Tracy writer Mike Curtis had a medical scare recently, but now:
GOOD NEWS! After an intensive test, the doctors said that I have an enlarged blood vessel, NOT an aneurysm. There are veins running off of it, but they found no weak spots.
After the doctor bills come in, we will be sending a donation to ST. JUDE’S CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL in Memphis.
Thank you to everyone that is helping and has helped. We are sincerely grateful for your prayers and good wishes.
Mike and Carole
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad last ran in the comics where I live in January 1985 (The Chicago Sun-Times dropped that strip that month).
Now my hopes are raised that Rudy (Overgard’s solo strip) will show up in Tracy.
I hadn’t heard about Mike Curtis’s health problem. I’m just as glad to have come into the story at this point, when he’s better.
Typical Miggle signage, the best of which I recall was on a jar on the counter:
“Have a penny?
Leave a penny.
Need a penny?
Get a job!”