We start today with the great cartoonist Henry Boltinoff, whose work went unheralded, mostly as filler, in National Comics for more than twenty years! Here’s a selection of his Warden Willis one and two pagers.

http://www.dcindexes.com/boltinoff/strips.php?feature=warden

Speaking of cartoonists, here’s a 1966 selection from Charles Rodriguez, described as a black humorist here but nowhere near as dark as his humor became a decade later when he was working at the National Lampoon.

http://learning2share.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-cartoons-by-charles-rodrigues.html

Our pal Jerry Beck has been saluting Archie’s fondly remembered Cosmo, the Merry Martian by Bob White lately over on Facebook. Someone even suggested Craig compile a book collection! Anyway, our other pal, Pappy, has compiled a few himself this morning with some background material.

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2010/08/number-794-comical-comics-week-cosmo.html

Finally today, a brief but nicely illustrated tribute to the Good Dutch Duck Artist, Daan Jippes, a cartoonist whose work I discovered when Gladstone began offering his strips in English for the first time in the 1980′s.

http://cloud-109.blogspot.com/2010/08/daan-jippes-carl-barks-passes-on-baton.html

The Quarter Bin is a wonderful, if seemingly long ago abandoned, site with some overthought articles on comics continuity. Just exactly the kind of thing aging fanboys love. I could spend hours here!

http://www.fortunecity.com/tatooine/niven/142/index.html

When I was a kid Sundays meant Dick Tracy! Here’s a wonderful “Who’s Who” retrospective of the hawk-nosed detective featuring scores of supporting characters as well as many representatives from his legendary Rogues Gallery.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2010/08/chester-gould-1900-1985-dick-tracy-is.html

“Hey, laaaaaady!” Somehow National/DC’s Adventures of Jerry Lewis managed to survive for nearly two decades, long past the point where its “star” was considered still to be funny. Toward the end there were superhero team-ups to up sales. Here’s a look at Superman’s turn.

http://www.thefifthbranch.com/gorilladaze/?p=1208

The Magic Whistle unearths a heavily illustrated 1971 Esquire piece on the history and future development of the comic strip medium from Harvey Kurtzman who was, of course, himself a major influence on said history.

http://themagicwhistle.blogspot.com/2010/08/takin-lid-off-id.html

Born 130 years ago on August 22, 1880, George Herriman is known today as one of the most imaginative cartoonists of the 20th century. But early in his career, The Bookman magazine published an article that quoted him arguing that cartoonists are impervious to inspiration, preferring instead to serve the "inartistic majority." Herriman’s quote contains the visionary landscapes, incongruous juxtapositions and curious contradictions that would later become stylistic hallmarks of Krazy Kat.

George Herriman

From American Caricature and Comic Art, Part II by La Touche Hancock
The Bookman, November 1902

Art combined with poetry is the characteristic of George Herriman. Were his drawings not so well known one would think he had mistaken his vocation. Listen!

"Inspiration! Who ever heard of a comic artist being inspired? Take him out into a field where the green grasses, swept by caressing zephyrs, bend and nod in rapt delight, dodging the nibble of the frisky, hungry lamb as it gambols hither and thither, and see if he (the artist, not the lamb) can see in this any blissful clutch, grasping heart, mind and soul in a grip of steely delight. No! He’ll draw a lamb all right – a lamb so distorted that the green nodding field will rise in disgust to smite him.

"What does he know of the inspiration to be obtained from blue, azure, turquoise skies with fleecy clouds riding on and on, whither no one knows. Now take the clouds and skies of which I speak, blend them with the green grass and gambolling lambs, and a few trees, a few red-roofed barns, little hamlets in the distance, a lake, a creek, a rustic bridge, a nestling home amid clinging vines, and lots and lots of other things so dear to an artist’s heart, place them in full view of the inspired one and see the light of imagination fire him. They never will. His mind and soul have lost that delicate sense of the poetic and artistic, which one would naturally think were indigenous and he will turn away with a sigh, sit down at his desk and continue to worry out idioticies for the edification of an inartistic majority!"

As Herriman entered his 56th year, the Tiger Tea series was in its fourth month. Today’s episode features the strip that was published on Herriman’s birthday in 1936:

Krazy Kat – "Home, James" by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 22, 2025

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – "Home, James" by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 21, 2025

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Note to Krazy Kompletists: Yesterday’s episode featured the Tiger Tea strip from August 18th, 1936. Today’s episode is the strip from August 20th, 1936. The August 19th cartoon is included in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in “Tiger Tea“ (BUY THE BOOK! It’s a great collection and the best deal in Coconino County! More info below!).

Today’s episode:

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in “Tiger Tea,” a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Thanks to guest appearances by the Justice Society of America in DC Comics by the age of eight I was technically aware of the Golden Age of comics, but really didn’t ‘get it’ until my brother, God rest his soul, started ordering specialty publications through the mail. Things like Alan Light’s Flashback series of b&w reprints and especially the first volume of Steranko’s History of Comics. When the latter arrived I remember being absolutely astounded by the concept that before my birth there had been thousands upon thousands of comic books. And since these comics were now rare and expensive collector’s items chances were I’d never get to read most of them.

I accepted the pain and spent the next forty years of my life buying all of the comic books I could and geeking out over every new edition of Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. I poured over every page, ogling the tiny cover reproductions and wishing it was a catalog I could order from. And when modern comic book publishers finally started printing collections that reprinted some of these comics I bought as many as I could afford. Yet, I’ve never self-identified as a comic book “collector”.

I mean, sure, I kept what I bought, and there were some comics I treasured more than other, but mostly I just wanted to read them. Plus I could never get too attached to them because the day would come when my income couldn’t meet my expenses and I would trot my treasures down to the comic shop (the pawn shop for nerds). There I’d exchange them for a fraction of what they were worth, let alone what I’d paid for them. And then I’d promptly go and buy some more comics and the cycle would begin anew.

Then my Grandmother died. While coming to grips with the knowledge that no one in this life would ever love me half as much as she did I was made executor of her estate. She had worked hard all her life, and as someone who had emigrated from Europe and survived the Great Depression was frugal by nature. She scrimped and saved in ways that seem impossible to me even as I struggle through the Great Recession and always took meticulous care of the few ‘nice’ things she owned. But in the end all that care, industry and effort was only worth a couple of hundred dollars on the open market.

This was when I came to a couple of conclusion; first, material things are essentially worthless. Now, I’m no Commie, I like stuff as much as the next guy, and if there is one thing I learned in twenty years of comic book retailing is no system ever designed by the mind of man has ever come up with a way of stopping people from wanting to own things. The fact that people can download movies, music, TV shows, comics, etc. for free and still want to buy the actually article should be proof enough of that.

Second, time was passing and if I was ever going to read all those comic books I had better get a move on. Coincidentally enough, this was when I discovered digital comic books. They had a lot of advantages over print comics, besides being free. Reading comics on a computer proved to be a lot easier on my deteriorating eyes, I no longer had to dig through dozens of long boxes looking for a specific issue and now my entire collection was literally at my fingertips. Plus they take up almost no space and barring a virus or electro-magnetic pulse they’re impervious to harm. But probably most importantly come hard times I would never be tempted to try and sell them because they were effectively worthless, to anyone other than me anyway.

I’ve always been able to make a distinction between comic books and their contents; comics being the medium, comic books are just the current delivery system. I really do love comics, I just flat out refuse to fetishize them (though I do see their appeal; I’m not made of wood). Some people have trouble accepting this, but the comic book is going to be replaced by the digital download the same way the comic book replaced the pulp magazine which replaced the dime novel.

It’s going to happen; it’s just a matter of when. Not today and not tomorrow, but someday soon; me I’m giving the comic book as we know it another twenty years. I’m sure someone will still be publishing them; the way some people publish facsimile editions of old pulp magazines for a small niche market. And if I seem sanguine at the prospect it’s probably because someone has been predicting their eminent demise since at least 1972. Plus, I’m fifty-one; I imagine if I’m still here in twenty years I’ll have bigger problems.

My downloading habit began innocently enough a couple of years ago; all I wanted was to read the comic books I had read about when I was a kid. I admit my selections were pretty superhero centric at first, but then my search expanded to include all genres, and then I started downloading Silver and Bronze Age comics, comic strips, British boys weekly ‘story papers’ and translated European albums.

First I filled up my computer’s hard drive then burned roughly half a hundred DVD-R discs. Then for someone was foolish enough to give me an external hard drive for Christmas and now I have very nearly 14,000 comic books – with more coming in every day. I suppose you could explain away my obsession as the remnants of the ADHD I had as a kid or as just a plain old fashioned mid-life crisis.

But I’d much prefer to see my efforts as a kind of Old Man and the Sea larger than life and death kind of a deal. An epic struggle between a man of a certain age armed only with a high speed internet connection and entirely too much free time vs. seventy years worth of comics. The same say I’d prefer to think the problem with me isn’t that I read too many comic books when I was a kid, it’s that I didn’t read enough of them. So, clearly, I’m an old hand at self delusion.

In the process of doing all of this I’ve learned some things; unfortunately they’re things about comics. But one thing that keeps me doing all this so far past the point of diminishing returns is I keep discovering comic books even I, a semi-professional know-it-all on the subject, didn’t know existed. I used to be afraid eventually I would run out of comics, but now I know there will always be more.

And, not to get too pretentious, I plan on sharing some of that experience with you.

You’re welcome.

Neal Adams is back drawing Batman these days. If you don’t know why that’s a big deal, here’s a primer showcasing quite afew covers Neal drew featuring the Caped Crusader back in the day.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2010/08/neal-adams-handful-of-batman-covers.html

Here’s The Sorceress of Zoom, an unusual anti-heroine from the early 1940′s who traveled around on a cloud with her own city! She was drawn and possibly written by the prolific Don Rico.

http://fourcolorshadows.blogspot.com/2010/08/sorceress-of-zoom-weird-comics-1941.html

Blondie and Dagwood were comic book staples for many years at several different companies. Here’s a fun collection of covers from Dagwood’s own title, each reflecting one of Dagwood’s sandwich-fueled dreams.

http://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2010/08/dagwood-dreams.html

Finally today, a nifty and unsolicited preview and review of Craig’s just released book spotlighting the inventive comic book stories of Felix the Cat! Check it out and then order yours elsewhere on this page!

http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-book-otto-messmers-felix-cat-1950s.html

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – Paradise Lost by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 18, 2025

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Can’t go wrong starting the day with some images from Tower Comics. Here we have quite a few covers and some original art by Wally Wood, Gil Kane and more from the legendary and now nostalgic company that brought you T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2010/08/tower-comics-1965-1967-cover-art-by.html

Speaking of Gil Kane, here’s a “chilling little nugget” from DC’s Witching Hour comic of a few years later as presented today over at the Kingdom Kane site where one can always find cool stuff from Gil!

http://www.kingdomkane.com/2010/08/double-cross.html

Here’s a little history lesson from the War Between the States as published in a 1967 issue of the Phantom and crudely drawn by Jeffrey Catherine Jones who would go on to one day be described by no less than Frank Frazetta as “the greatest living painter.” Things change.

http://westerncomix.blogspot.com/2010/08/today-in-history-sort-of.html

Finally today, here’s a long and nifty interview with author and comics historian Mike Madrid on super-heroines. The descriptions of the illustrations are a bit off but the text is interesting!

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/fightin-femmes-unmasking-female-superheroes-with-comic-book-historian-mike-madrid/

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – Riffraff! by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 17, 2025

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com