Here’s a Rudolph Dirks Katzenjammer Kids strip I scanned from 1904. Watch as the little imps attempt to murder the Captain for our amusement. O rewar! Dod gast yer binnacles!
Go here to see more Katzenjammer Kids strips on this site.
Here’s what Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has to say about the Katzenjammers.
Click here to go to the Barnacle Press collection of Katzenjammer Kids strips.
Read about the Katzenjammer Kids on Wikipedia.
Click here to the Toonopedia entry on the Katzenjammer Kids.
Here’s a Rudolph Dirks Katzenjammer Kids strip I scanned from September 4th, 1904. The bottom half of the strip is missing, alas.
Go here to see more Katzenjammer Kids strips on this site.
Here’s what Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has to say about the Katzenjammers.
Click here to go to the Barnacle Press collection of Katzenjammer Kids strips.
Read about the Katzenjammer Kids on Wikipedia.
Click here to the Toonopedia entry on the Katzenjammer Kids.
Above: Article from The Carroll County Independent, Friday, July 24, 1925 edition found at the Paper of Record website.
This seems like a good time to share this list of online historical newspaper resources for folks to dig for comics with if they are inclined. This list was obtained from a recent message thread from the fantastic Yahoo Platinum Age comics group. I’ve only looked at some of them, but they vary wildly in quality. The comics reproductions generally seem to be of very poor resolution… none of them would be really adequate for printing (the lowest resolution you generally want for printing is 300DPI… web resolution is generally 72DPI).
For wonderful old comics without all the other stuff, check out:
My friend Donn Ha, made the following comment on today’s Katzenjammer post, which I thought was important to elaborate on:
The Katzenjammer Kids count as crumbling paper? I’d always ass-u-me-d their stuff was pretty well preserved and accessible.
Here is the response, which I felt was worth putting up more prominently here.
Thanks for commenting, Donn.
ALL old comics are disappearing… the vast majority (including most of the Katzenjammers) have not been reprinted in any form. Of the ones that have been reprinted, few have in their entirety, and generally the reprints are at a much smaller size than the original published size.
Besides the fact that newspapers and comic books were considered disposable media, newsprint crumbles with age.
Most libraries have gotten rid of their huge books of newspapers, considering microfiche a replacement. The books take a huge amount of space and shit crumbling paper everywhere, so they provide serious preservation challenges. Microfiche isn’t at all adequate; the initial images on microfiche are very low resolution (totally inadequate for preserving comics, and frequently inadequate for even preserving text), and microfiche deteriorates even faster than newsprint.
Very few books preserve the art at its original size (which is a logistical nightmare), and any reduction in size results in a loss of information.
It’s really a grim situation, unfortunately.
We are in a golden age of comics reprints, but we’re still barely scratching the surface of what needs to be preserved. Attempting digital preservation on a massive scale is the only hope for most comics… I hope someone with the resources realizes this sooner or later.
Beyond the comics, most of the newspaper news of the last century is getting lost (which is probably the best document you can find on historical daily life and attitudes)… you would think some folks would be concerned about that.
Comics preservation is an ongoing battle… no preservation is permanent. Fantagraphics has had trouble finding some dates of Peanuts strips for their reprint series, for Pete’s sake! Digital preservation (at high enough resolution for printing) is the best hope for long-term preservation of the comics.
Here’s a Rudolph Dirks Katzenjammer Kids strip I scanned from 1905.
Go here to see more Katzenjammer Kids strips on this site.
Here’s what Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has to say about the Katzenjammers.
Click here to go to the Barnacle Press collection of Katzenjammer Kids strips.
Read about the Katzenjammer Kids on Wikipedia.
Click here to the Toonopedia entry on the Katzenjammer Kids.
I always get into threads on the Comics Journal message board where people discuss dream reprint comics… here’s the current thread, and below is my response.
These are indeed the best times ever for comics reprints. I second or third much of the above. Barnaby was the first one that popped in my mind… and boy do I wish someone would do for the Barks stories what Dark Horse is currently doing with Little Lulu. An affordable complete Wash Tubbs/Captain Easy would be fantastic too. A complete Polly and Her Pals would be wonderful.
I’d start with Humbug, Trump and Help! by Kurtzman, but it sounds like that is all happening this year! Huzzah! About damn time.
Then I’d move to Pogo, but Fantagraphics has that covered soon too.
In no particular order:
The Doo Dads by Arch Dale
The Complete Comics of Johnny Gruelle
Everything by Walt Kelly that is not Pogo
The Non-Disney Carl Barks (the Barks Bear Book is very cool, but the reproductions are abysmal)
Jingle Jangle Tales by George Carlson
The Gumps by Sidney Smith
Barney Google by Billy DeBeck
Stumble Inn by George Herriman
The Complete Steven by Doug Allen (this would be a best-seller if it was marketed well, I think… one of the funniest strips ever. How does this not already exist?)
The Complete Heiji and other comic strips of Dr. Seuss (if there are any other comic strips… I don’t think this would be a very big book, but it would certainly sell well)
A library of the Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse adventure strips
The Complete Odd Bodkins by Dan O’Neill
The Complete Non-Freak Brothers work by Gilbert Shelton
A collection of Craig Thompson’s Kids Strips Drawn for Nickelodeon Magazine
The Otto Messmer Felix the Cat Library (again, the Dark Horse Little Lulu format would suit this perfectly, and I can’t think of a better comic for small children… if marketed to the children’s book market, these would sell wonderfully, I think)
Richard Outcault’s Buster Brown
The Compleek Gustave Verbeek
Big, Heavy, Book of A.D. Condo’s Everett True (usable as a projectile)
The Comic Strips of Milt Gross
A Complete Caricatures of Al Hirschfeld book along the lines of The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker
Boob McNutt by Rube Goldberg
The Complete Cartoons of Gluyas Williams
The Comics of Jimmy Swinnerton
The Comics of Tad Dorgan
The Comics of Harry Grant Dart
Mr. and Mrs. by Claire Briggs
Happy New Year! Here’s a new year’s strip from 1904, featuring bizarre ball-boy and ball-buster Billy Bounce, drawn here by C.W. Kahles. Note this strip uses a joke in the title I erroneously had attributed in my mind to Wayne’s World… apparently it is much older. A brilliant joke it is- not.
I posted Billy Bounce strip earlier here.
Click the image below to see the full page (warning: contains offensive racial depictions, as is often the case with old comics).
No holiday season would be complete without the foodog guardians on either side of the chimney… for as we know, a roaring fire does not guarantee protection from rosy-cheeked elf invaders. The moon-born guardians of dreams are now available on mugs in which you can ironically drink caffeine-laden beverages in a vain attempt to avoid their fearsome and inevitable wrath. Click here to purchase the right-facing canine, and here to purchase his left-facing comrade.* These murderous beasts of Morpheus are also available (for a limited time) on a variety of garments that, unfortunately, will offer you no protection at all from them once they have your scent burning in their firey nostrils. Chain mail would really be more appropriate, but we’re all on a budget this time of year, aren’t we? Wear these fine threads and know, at least, that when you are devoured you will have seen them coming. Happy holidays!
*We take no responsibility for any hint of urine under the holiday tree corpse offering.
My friends at Barnacle Press just posted a WHOLE LOT more of Johnny Gruelle’s obscure Mr. Twee Deedle (which I mentioned with an example the other day)… they just more than doubled the number of these fantastic and gorgeous strips that I’ve seen in my life. Don’t miss them… click the image to go to Barnacle Press’ Mr. Twee Deedle collection.
Here is a portrait I did the other night of my friend Bud Burgy’s characters (with his brother Fud) Meatfist and Gronk…
Below is a logo I entered in the logo contest for the third volume of Bud and Amado Rodriguez’s ongoing Muscles and Fights anthology (I’ve had work in the first two volumes which came out this year… you can see a slideshow with a preview page of my collaborative strip with Zander Cannon from volume 2, and a lot of other great stuff from that volume, here). Note that the third volume will be coming out soon, and Bud and Amado are still looking for more comics… the deadline is January 15th (submission info can be found on the site). They just put a very flattering write up about me on the site too, currently at the top of the home page! Aw, shucks, I’m blushing… Thanks fellas.
