Some Super Sensational Seventies Strip Surprises!

I know strip collectors that purchase only certain examples that fit their "theme," such as their date of birth, or only night scenes, snow and rain panels, certain autos, and it looks like for the images selected here, you could also collect characters with sprained left arms if you so desired. But there are a lot of deals today on strip art, from those forgotten features that never found an audience. If you're lucky, you still might be able to get some seventies prices. The best pieces offered in the Comics Buyers Guide were by two dealers who joined together for one large collection. Cartoonist Representatives, Inc. of Long Branch, New Jersey, and Creative Services, in Costa Mesa, California had much of the greatest material of the time. They had discovered a huge collection of originals that had everything, adventure and story strips, gag panels, editorial cartoons, humor features, all the different genres were covered. Popular world renowned strips and totally unheard of lost gems were listed side by side, but don't take my word for it just look at some of these incredible prices!

Lets start off with a nice little daily like Ed Nofziger's amusing funny animal strip, Buenos Dias form 1965 offered for a mere $5, a favorite of mine since these cute little critters spoke in Spanish, with the English translation below. Or you could just get a wonderful 1957 Johnny Hazard action strip by Frank Robbins' for only fifteen bucks. Early Bob Montana Archie dailies ran $30, which was the same price for a Bob Lubbers' Tarzan, while his work on Long Sam or The Saint could be snapped up for $10 each. Alex Kotzky's Apartment 3-G dailies would also set you back a ten spot, but a Jack Kent King Aroo Sunday from 1953 would only be twice that small amount, still very cheep all around. And don't forget to pick up some Stan Lynde Rick O' Shay dailies for $15 dollars each, since in a few years they become much harder to find due to his studio fire that unfortunately destroyed most of the originals. Hindsight really is twenty-twenty.

A Fontaine Fox Toonerville Trolley piece from 1951 was $80, not a bad price at all, but I would take a Frank Godwin Rusty Riley Sunday for the same price any day over a single panel strip. Save up for something bigger and you might get an early Milton Caniff Terry and the Pirates daily from 1937 for $250, or perhaps another terrific daily from '46 with the infamous Dragon Lady for $150, or just pop for a Terry Sunday from 8-27-44 for $175. But don't forget the Steve Canyon dailies from the late sixties priced at forty dollars each from these dealers. Time for a real deal, how about a Frank Frazetta Johnny Comet Sunday from the mid forties for the whopping sum of $120, best thing I've seen so far. But you don't have to look very far to find the real "heavy hitters" including a 1940s George Herriman Krazy Kat Sunday for $500, or a zany 1937 daily for just $200! What about one of the greatest cartoonists ever, Harold Foster, on his signature strip Prince Valiant, a full Sunday from 5-6-56 was only $475, or pick up one from his talented successor, a John Cullen Murphy Val from 1973 for $120.

How about a wonderfully illustrated 1952 Cisco Kid daily by Argentinean artist Jose Luis Salinas for fifty bucks, or you could choose from three late sixties Al Williamson Secret Agent Corrigan dailies for $40 each. Chic Young Blondie strips were the same price, and an Al Capp Li'L Abner Sunday from 1938 would cost you $60! OK, here are the real big deals, you've all been waiting for. Anybody want an Alex Raymond Flash Gordon Sunday from 5-15-38 for $2900. Clearly the most expensive piece in the ad, but just a steal in today's strip art market. Jungle Jim Sundays were $325, and an absolutely gorgeous Rip Kirby could be yours for $90! A historic Windsor McCay Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend Sunday from 1907 was listed at $700. But the biggest deal by far would have to be the Charles Schultz Peanuts pieces, with a Sunday from 1955 for one hundred dollars. Dailies from the early fifties were shown @ $40 each, and some exceptional later sixties pieces for a mere $100 each. This solid 1951 Snoopy example below sold three years ago at auction for the grand sum of $40,250 for the 4 panel daily, that's $10,062.50 a panel! If you were lucky enough to buy this from these dealers,(if they had it for sale) it would have increased in value 1006% over the past thirty years. Too bad I was still reading my beloved comic strips, instead of collecting the original art for them.

National Cartoonist Society Profile: Jack Kent

Another favorite in my series of cartoonist from the National Cartoonist Society archives is the whimsical beloved strip King Aroo by Jack Kent. The artist's open loose-lined art style coupled with its many sophisticated puns and wonderful wordplay had many fans compare his work to classic strips like Pogo, Barnaby, Little Nemo, and Krazy Kat. Here is Kent's short from the NCS archives in his own words: Getting from 1920 to the present with a minimal loss of parts and faculties has been my most noteworthy accomplishment. Along the way I have drawn a few cartoons and magazine gags before and after my stint with the army in WWII (1st Lt, FA). The very comic strip King Aroo, which ran (or jogged) for fifteen years, beginning in 1950, made me world famous for blocks around. Since 1967 have been writing and illustrating children's book's. There have been over forty up to this time, (2:45 PM but my watch may be slow) and more are in the womb. I'm having more fun, my wife is an angel, my son is a genius, and I am thrice blessed.

National Cartoonist Society Profile: Harold Gray

The National Cartoonist Society was formed in the mid forties and over the years the became the largest and best know society of professional cartoonist in the world. With over five hundred members worldwide, the Society's home offices are in Winter Park, Florida, with an additional sixteen chartered regional chapters throughout the United States and one in Canada. Continuing in my series of favorite NCS members that are no longer with us today, is the talented artist Harold Gray and his sensational strip, Little Orphan Annie. How could a feature started in 1924 still be published eight decades later and inspire her own radio program, several motion pictures, and a hit Broadway show? The phenomenal success of the feature must be how Gray make us care about his charming characters with his wonderful stories he told that entertained one generation of readers to the next. Here is his short biography that he provided to their archives.

Born: away, way back podner, in Kankakee, Illinois on 20 January 1894 -- graduated Purdue University, 1917 -- rose in army to shavetail, bayonet instructor. Chicago Tribune art department -- then assistant to Sidney Smith on "Gumps" five years. Started "Annie" in New York News and Chicago Tribune, 1924. " Now appearing in numerous papers." As they tell it in "who's who" -- Home: Green Farms Connecticut -- West Coast base: La Jolla California. Doing business under firm name of Gray & Gray -- Drive average of 35,000 miles per year, trying to keep even with ninety million readers exposed to our lovable (?) little monster -- hope to carry on till Annie is elected president -- why not? Her "Daddy" is rich; and Annie wouldn't be the first "old lady" who ever made it!

Frank Godwin's Rusty Riley

In 1948, after a successful seventeen year run on the beautiful comic strip, Connie, Frank Godwin decided to propose a new idea to King Features Syndicate about a young boy and his cow on a rural Kentucky farm. When King Features expressed interest in the feature, but with a horse instead, Rusty Riley was born. The first Rusty Riley daily debuted on January 26, 1948, by writer Rod Reed and illustrator Frank Godwin. A Sunday page was added on June 27 of the same year and was written by the artist's brother. Godwin used the blue grass section of the Kentucky hills as the setting for his new creation, depicting the adventures of a boy, who after running away from an orphanage with his feisty fox terrier, Flip, ended up deep in thoroughbred horse country. In search of adventure, Rusty comes upon wealthy racehorse owner, Mr. Miles, who hires the lad to be a stable boy on the celebrated Milestone Farm. Rusty eventually realizes his dream of becoming a first-rate jockey and over time, winning the Kentucky Derby on his beloved horse, Bright Blaze. The storylines continue with Rusty and his pals involved in horse breeding, amateur crime detection, foreign adventures, and even a little romance with his employer's daughter, Patty Miles.

Frank Godwin made two brief visits to Lexington in the late forties shortly after he began drawing the feature. The first trip was to get some background information and reference material for the strip. Godwin had always loved the beauty and grandeur of horses, but unfortunately had never made any detailed studies of them. He quickly made the mistake of picturing blue grass farms and their horses before he had seen any of them first hand. A few weeks after starting Rusty Riley, Godwin received some complaints from the locals that the barns, gates, and fences he drew, just didn't look like Kentucky barns, gates, and fences. Furthermore, some of his horses didn't even look like thoroughbreds, which they were supposed to be. Instead of ignoring these complaints, as some cartoonists might have done, Godwin made another trip to Lexington to visit his critics. For more than a week, he toured the central Kentucky horse farms, took pictures and made numerous sketches of the horses, fences, gates, barns, farm homes, horse cemeteries, country lanes, trees, and other references necessary to make his strip correct. He talked with the thoroughbred horsemen, standard-bred horsemen, saddle horsemen, racetrack officials and newspapermen to get all the information he needed. He also took many pictures in and around the Keeneland and Lexington Trotting Tracks, which were a couple of the sites he later used frequently in his comic strip. Godwin was now ready to make his strip better than ever.

Ed Ashford was the local reporter assigned to escort Godwin to the various places he wanted to visit on his stay in Lexington. He stated that Frank was so sincere in his desire to make Rusty Riley authentic in every way, that he bombarded him with questions by the score night and day. A lot of those questions were about little things that would appear to be of no consequence, but to Frank Godwin, they were all important. "It's those little things you get wrong that people notice," he said.

The following year, Godwin made a return trip to Lexington to attend the 1949 Plug Horse Derby. He enjoyed the event so much that Frank featured it several times in some of the most popular episodes of the strip. Over his many trips back to Kentucky, Godwin made a number of friends in Lexington and would never fail to remember them at the holidays. Every Christmas, from his home in New Hope, Pennsylvania, cleverly drawn personalized greeting cards from Frank and his wife, Georgiana, Rusty, and the whole comic gang went out to all his new friends down south. Frank would also draw local figures in the dailies like newspaper reporter Ashford, for a few days, and a week later Ed would receive letters from several of his old army buddies who were happy to have seen him, "in the funny papers."

One of the last great penman in the business, Godwin had forty years experience as an illustrator, painter, and cartoonist when he started his last great story strip. Being influenced by both James Montgomery Flagg and Charles Dana Gibson, he developed his own unique style in his ability to create tones and especially facial characteristics with his pen and brush. His skill at portraying recognizable and realistic characters, animals, and lush outdoor scenes made Rusty Riley one of the most beautiful comic strips ever produced. Using every panel to its fullest, Godwin's richly textured compositions, meticulous cross-hatching, and attention to detail made this purely an artist's strip. After a wonderful eleven year run and appearing in more than one hundred-fifty newspapers, the feature ended in 1959, just a few weeks before Godwin's death.

I remember the first Rusty Riley I ever saw was a wonderful Sunday page with a birthday party in which the cook burned the cake and smoke curled out the oven. I was amazed by the amount of work and realistic effect down to every last delicate brush stroke wisp of smoke. That piece alone quickly helped me change my focus from collecting comic book art to the photorealistic illustration of classic story strips. My search for new examples of Godwin's work fortunately lead me to Godwin's family and my chance to represent his estate in selling some of his works. A family member related how they had recently discovered a large collection of dailies in the attic of the old Godwin estate when cleaning it out in preparation to sell the home. They were giving the originals away at church raffles and carnivals and trying to sell them in garage sales. The family was surprised that there was still interest in comic strips that ended over forty-two years ago, but were happy to sell these newly found examples to Godwin's many fans. Unfortunately, in their extensive search, none of the rare Connie strips were found and very few paintings or illustrations have survived. After a few years of successful sales, the family decided to keep the remainder of the collection. Surely, Godwin should be remembered as one of the premier penman of his day, a man who could perform miracles with brush and ink. Anyone with a Frank Godwin piece would have to agree he was one of the finest illustrators of our time and a rare talent to have worked in the comics' field.