{"id":2069,"date":"2009-03-03T10:18:51","date_gmt":"2009-03-03T18:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stwallskull.com\/blog\/?p=2069"},"modified":"2009-03-03T10:18:51","modified_gmt":"2009-03-03T18:18:51","slug":"hey-kids-comics-header-strips-and-more-courtesy-of-hogans-alley-march-3rd-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stwallskull.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/03\/hey-kids-comics-header-strips-and-more-courtesy-of-hogans-alley-march-3rd-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Header Strips and More Courtesy of Hogan’s Alley : March 3rd, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"STWALLSKULL'S<\/a><\/p>\n

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Hogan’s Alley<\/em><\/a> has a wonderful gallery of full-color topper strips<\/a> courtesy of Bill Blackbeard as a supplement to the latest issue of their always wonderful magazine (#16)…. there are some other great supplements at the link as well<\/a>, as usual. Topper or header strips, for those who don’t know, are secondary comic strips that used to be published in conjunction with the main strip back when cartoonists were afforded an entire page of a Sunday newspaper to practice their craft on. <\/p>\n

Most of these wonderful strips are largely forgotten today, and many are quite wonderful… examples of some of my favorite header strips are featured… Otto Messmer’s Laura <\/em>(a header of Felix<\/em>… which they have attributed mistakenly, although understandably, to Felix credit-stealer Pat Sullivan) and Segar’s Sappo<\/em> (a header of Thimble Theatre<\/em>) notably. Cliff Sterrett, Billy DeBeck, Rube Goldberg and many other greats are featured as well. There are no examples of Sterrett’s wonderful silent Dot and Dash<\/em> topper, unfortunately (another of my favorites), but multiple examples of his variously titled marriage-lament topper strips (all headers of Polly and Her Pals<\/em>).<\/p>\n