First Post of 2012
Hi Readers, welcome to the first post this year. Barker Bill continues the “Gelt” story line from 11-29 to 12-11-1954. Gumshoe Googan, police detective, is on the job, looking for stolen money. The Gelt eats a counterfeit $50 bill, which makes him sick. Googan is so dumb that he changes five tens for one on the counterfeit fifties. More Kuwahara hi-jinks next time. All but the first two strips this time were courtesy of Yowp. Make sure you visit his blogs, “Yowp” and “Tralfaz” by clicking on the links in the blogroll.
 Felix, from 5-6 to 5-12-1935, continues the adventures of Danny Dooit and Felix on the tropical island. They escape from the ape, only to be attacked by a panther, an adroit design halfway between real and cartoon. The ape clobbers the panther with a coconut and they fight. I love that beautiful silhouette of Felix and Danny in the 5-8. The Sunday has Felix still stealing food from the Giant, and fending off a dog who is after Felix’s buried bone. Note that Felix has three fingered white gloves in this page. Looks like the deadly Mouse fever has hit Felix’s Dreamland.
 Krazy this time, from 3-17 to 3-22-41 tries to sort out Goose, Geese, Ganders, Drakes and Cobs, among other waterfowl. He encounters a bad tempered “Swomm” in the 3-21.
Patrick, from 1-16 to 1-21-1967, features Patrick emulating the early Charlie Brown in the 1-17, frustrating poor Elsa. Godfrey takes his usual lumps, and Nathan the baby makes fun of an icon of Comicana.
Here come the monthly Yogi pages in imitation of Yowp’s fine example. They are from 1-7 to 1-21-1962. Go over to his blog for notes on the strips and see a black and white “tab” version of the 1-28 strip with Quick Draw McGraw as a guest character. The art on the 1-14 and 1-21 episodes and perhaps the 1-7, seem to be the work of Harvey Eisenberg. Some of my readers don’t read me too often because they don’t like to read comics on the Internet. Mike Barrier gets terrible headaches when he tries to read them. My solution, always click on the small strips to enlarge them, and get a Logitech Mouse! There is a little wheel in the center of the mouse. When you spin it, it blows up the contents of the page in front of you. You can even fill the screen with the image, which makes the artwork and inking really stand out for study. If you get this tool, maybe your head won’t hurt so bad. Thanks again to our kind suppliers, my brother Kurt, the good dog Yowp and the fine people at ProQuest newspaper archive and the Glendale Public Library. See you soon.
David Gerstein says:
Felix with gloves is a peculiar sight—especially when he isn’t wearing any other clothing. If he’s going to effectively have brightly colored hands, he needs brightly colored feet or pants so his lower half balances out the overall contrast.
That said, Messmer does give Felix gloves now and then into the 1950s, seemingly with no real consistency.