What is the significance of Mr. Gabriel using the old-fashioned linotype to print his sheet?
Is Mr. Gabriel a muckraking messenger of God or a publisher of tabloid journalism?
Does “etaoin shrdlu” make as much sense to young people as “Klaatu barada nikto” does?
Is catching up on Dick Tracy more convenient on Comics Kingdom or on GoComics?
Commenters at GoComics for the May 28th Dick Tracy, where Linotype first arose, do a good job of explaining for us not brought up in the printing business.
On the subject of newspapers…
I’m always happy when Shoe gets back into the newsroom of The Treetops Tattler.
Again – your choice of GoComics or Comics Kingdom.
A typical subscriber reaction?
I tried and tried and still could only come up with 38 of the original 39 in today’s Pearls Before Swine.
I was getting ready to heckle Thatababy because that is not the way the Bumsteads watch TV.
This is the way the Bumstead family watches television:
But then today’s Blondie backs up the Thatababy version.
From Wallace the Brave – Whatcha’ gonna do? They’re your children.
Good timing for Macanuda. For many people “It’s morning in America again.”
Though it would take five and a half years to reach its greatness,
84 years ago today Will Eisner’s The Spirit debuted in newspaper Sunday editions.
World of Monsters shares the first three seven pagers from June 1940 and a bonus post-WW2 episode.
And back to the process of printing newspapers.
The linotype is a thing of the past and papers don’t even put all their pages together in house.
Pagination services arrange syndicated comics pages for most editors, except when it doesn’t:
From The Clark County (WA) Columbian:
If memory serves me right, it was back in 1981 when I joined the staff of my college newspaper, the Daily Evergreen. One of the first things I learned is that newspapers and technology sometimes aren’t compatible.
It’s still true, as Columbian readers noticed when we weren’t able to print the Monday and Tuesday comics on schedule (they finally appeared in print on Wednesday).
Here’s what happened: We buy the page, ready to download and make into printing plates, from a vendor. A while ago the vendor sent its customers an email explaining that beginning with the Monday comics, the download process would be changed. Somehow we missed the email, and didn’t find out until Sunday, when the vendor’s customer service department was closed for the holiday weekend. A phone call on Tuesday morning cleared things up, and we are now back in business.
-30-
Your initial instinct to heckle THATABABY was correct. When Dagwood watches TV with Blondie, they sit in the separate chairs, with Blondie’s chair at that awkward viewing angle. When he watches TV with Alexander, they sit side-by-side on a couch. As THATABABY showed Blondie and Dagwood watching TV, they should have been in the separate chairs with Blondie’s chair at that awkward viewing angle.
I thought the original 39 names were pretty easy: Mark, Will, Sue, Dean, Rob, Bill, Eve, Sly, Rich, Guy, Jimmy, Olive, Violet, Chase, Skip, Hope, Dusty, Peter, Drew, Rose, Cliff, John, Art, Buck, Frank, Norm, Penny, Peg, Patty, Bob, Tad, Ward, Jack, May, Wade, Lance, Pierce, Nick, Rod. That doesn’t even count the vocalized me a (Mia), is he (Izzy) or way in (Wayan). Pearls always puts in the work on Sundays.
Apparently in a hurry to get to the names, I sailed (whoosh) right past Will in the first panel. Repeatedly.
I did the same with May in panel 6.
Apparently in my hurry to get my comment in I conflated Wayan with either Wayland (Flowers) or the Wayans brothers (surname.) Thank you for your good work as well.