Friday Funnies Free-For- All
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Where we bounce from one comic strip topic to another in a helter skelter fashion as we visit Gil Thorp, Mark Trail, Crankshaft, Legend of Bill, Dick Tracy, Rabbits Against Magic, and Beware of Toddler, with special appearances by Defenders of the Earth, Richard Sherry, Broom-Hilda, Thatababy, and Goat-Daughter.
Congratulations Rachel! For some reason I checked Henry Barajas‘ Instagram and found out why Rachel Merrill has been away from Gil Thorp these past two weeks and Jason Margos had taken on the art chores:
We’ve got @jason.margos.art filling in for Gil Thorp because @ohhhaeee got married during the holidays. Congrats to her and Travis!
Sorry Jules, but I have to disagree with Cliff that Las Vegas is surrounded by many large forests as he told Mark Trail. Humboldt-Toiyabe is 250 miles from Las Vegas, in the middle of Nevada and isolated from any major population centers. And using “forests” to describe the desert parks and conservation areas surrounding Las Vegas is stretching the definition of thickly wooded.
Tom Batiuk continues to use the “BatTom” cartoonist character in Crankshaft to tell the origins of the Funky Winkerbean comic strip and Dan Davis is doing a good job portraying the characters.
From Tom’s Komix Thoughts Blog of June 8, 2016:
For the rest of the day, my calls ran the gamut from syndicates where someone would only step out in the hall to talk to me to the McClure Syndicate, where an editor actually pulled out a Mutt and Jeff strip with someone slipping on a banana peel and told me that my strip needed that kind of action. At the Chicago Tribune–New York News Syndicate I ran into another gentleman, Henry Raduta, who spent the better part of One of the Moondog panels I took to the syndicates in New York in 1970. the morning with me going over my submission in detail. He offered several suggestions, one of which dealt with a way of introducing my characters that eventually became the very first Funky strip. The day ended at Publishers-Hall Syndicate, where no one would see me at all and where the best I could do was leave some copies with a receptionist. In later years, the story was told that when Publisher-Hall’s editor Richard Sherry saw my submission, he ran out into the hall looking for me. But I tend to discount that version, because I remember walking very slowly and looking back over my shoulder all the way to the elevator. But the day after I got home, an airmail letter from Publisher’s-Hall arrived. In it Sherry said that they were impressed by the cartoons I had left and that he wanted me to give him a call. I never thought of this until now, but it’s quite possible that airmail letter and I flew home together on the same plane.
After another happy dance, I called and Sherry again expressed his interest. I told him that NEA was interested as well, and he asked if he could send me a ninety-day option agreement. I said fine. When we were done talking, I called Flash Fairfield to see where things stood at NEA. Flash said that they had decided to take a pass, so when the option letter from Publishers-Hall arrived, I signed it.
David Reddick, in Legend of Bill, has replaced hypnotically gesturing magician with a witch that can cast actual wizardly spells in his version of Defenders of the Earth.
Halfway through the Dick Tracy Mr. Mirror story and Matthew K. Manning gives us background on it:
This week marks the halfway point of our latest story for the Dick Tracy newspaper comic strip, so I thought I’d give you a peek behind the two-way glass, showing exactly what goes into making a daily comic.
When artist Howie Noel and I were hired to return to Tracyville, we were given six weeks worth of daily strips to play with (and seven Sundays). I’d already brainstormed this particular story somewhat back in 2024, when I was writing our first two-week Dick Tracy story (which you can read here). In that comic, Howie and I had introduced a new character, Mr. Mirror. Right off the bat, I knew I wanted to showcase that villain and eventually reveal Mirror’s secret identity. I even planted clues back in that first original story, but so far, no eagle-eyed readers have spotted them…
Joseph Nebus who also catches us up on the current Dick Tracy
Jonathan Lemon sneaks an Easter Egg into today’s Rabbits Against Magic. Not for the first time.
From Alex Garcia and Inside the Kingdom:
This week on Inside the Kingdom, we sit down with George Gant, creator of Beware of Toddler, the weekly Sunday comic on ComicsKingdom.com. The strip follows a stay at home dad trying to survive daily life with his wild two year old daughter, and somehow finding laughter in the mess.
George shares how the comic started, how he finds the joke in real parenting moments, and what it has been like growing the strip from webcomic roots into a wider audience through King Features and Comics Kingdom.
Read George Gant’s Beware of Toddler
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