See you in the funny papers
The comic page from the Feb 2, 1929, edition of the Washington Reporter
The front page of the Feb. 2, 1929 edition of the Washington Reporter trumpeted the arrival of a full page of comics appearing on page 12.
Joe Wos, who was invited to be the first visiting resident at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, is the creator of MazeToons, which will be syndicated by Creators Syndicate.
Book by Charles Schultz, Schultz and Peanuts, of the cartoon Peanuts.
While American newspapers began running comic strips in the 1890s, readers of Washington’s afternoon Reporter didn’t get a daily dose of full-page funnies until February 1929. A look back through microfilm of the newspapers of that time reveal President-elect Herbert Hoover wintering in Florida before taking the oath of office that March. Fashion photography on the society page featured a full-length, flowing, cool-weather “bathing beach costume” for women that showed very little skin under a parasol-sized hat. Pupils could enroll in school at midyear, and a composite photograph of Washington High School’s February graduating class was front-page news.
So was a box on the upper right-hand corner of the Reporter’s masthead teasing readers toward an entire page of laughs inside. Previously, the box promoted listings of radio programs and coverage of sporting events. The newspaper was running a half page of comics earlier in the 1920s, but the cartoon panels were writ so large – for whatever reason – that this translated into only three or four strips.
The timing was fortuitous. No one knew that the world economy was about to go into a tailspin that October 1929, ushering in a decade known as the Great Depression with unemployment rates of 25 percent, soup kitchens and bread lines. In that era, people would need a good laugh.
There were no speech balloons coming from the mouths of animals in the Reporter’s comics. The website FunTrivia.com lists Buster Brown’s dog Tige as the first cartoon animal with a speaking role. The eight or so strips in the Reporter featured a human cast of characters: “Benny,” “Big Sister,” “High Pressure Pete” and “Mom ‘n Pop” have been consigned to cartoon history. “Fritzi Ritz” a Jazz Age flapper who had yet to achieve respectability as the aunt of the bristly-haired “Nancy,” lives on in some comics sections, but, not in today’s Observer-Reporter.
Some strips don’t stand the test of time.
The name of the “Looy Dot Dope” strip may look like a typo or a reference to drugs, but, according to toonopedia.com, it means, “Louie, that Dope,” a transliteration of a New York City accent.
“Joe Jinks” on Feb. 1, 1929, (the Reporter’s first full page of comics) features a black buffoonish character that would be highly offensive to today’s readers.
There’s something to be said for longevity, or perhaps, in the case of comic strips, it’s continuity.
“Mark Trail” has appeared in the Observer-Reporter since 1955, and a decision to drop the strip about 35 years ago resulted in a such a hue and cry from the readership that Mark and his furry friends were quickly reinstated, along with published installments from the lapsed time to get people caught up.
When the Observer-Reporter purchased the Waynesburg Democrat-Messenger and Monongahela Daily Herald in 1986, coming with it was the right to publish Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts,” but only in the Greene County edition because of syndication agreements. After the Pittsburgh Press was folded into the Post-Gazette in 1993, the Observer-Reporter obtained full rights to the strip.
Schulz’s “Peanuts” gang, the biggest money-making comic strip of all time, first appeared in syndication in 1950. Because Charlie Brown was, perhaps, in the age range of a 5- or 6-year-old, he and Violet, Frieda and Shermy would be eligible to collect Social Security by now if they were actual humans. The strip itself is a tad older. “Sparky’s Li’l Folks” and “Li’l Folks By Sparky,” Schulz’s nickname, appeared in June 1947 in Minneapolis-St. Paul newspapers.
Because of a similarly named strip from the 1930s, United Features Syndicate christened the strip, “Peanuts,” after seeing the Peanut Gallery on the Howdy Doody Show on television, a choice that Schulz despised, according to “Schulz and Peanuts,” a biography by David Michaelis.
It’s been 15 years since Schulz’s death was announced, shockingly, on the same day his farewell strip appeared. Joe Wos, founder of Pittsburgh’s Toonseum, freelance writer and artist behind the newly-syndicated “MazeToons,” was the first visiting resident cartoonist of the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif. He weighed in on the continuing popularity of “Peanuts.”
“It is common for an artist’s characters and work to outlast them, passed on to other artists and writers and left in the hands of the syndicates to continue a long fruitful life in the funny pages,” Wos wrote as part of an email interview.
“However the concept of ‘comic classics’ is a relatively new one. Rerunning vintage strips really began because the public and papers couldn’t bear to be without their beloved ‘Peanuts.’
“It only works with certain strips; they have to be universal and timeless. The characters in ‘Peanuts’ never age, and their stories are about the human experience, so it works. Ultimately I think Snoopy is who we all want to be, and Charlie Brown is who we all really are. That is universal. The stories from the 1950s are completely new to these audiences.
“Mickey Mouse is over 80 years old and yet remains one of the most iconic characters in history. Snoopy is right up there with him. You have to look beyond the funny pages to see how popular a character really is. The licensing products are key to that. You have to also look beyond the United States. Snoopy is hugely popular in Asia, and his likeness is sold on everything.
“I think that the end of the strip isn’t the end of the characters. With a new animated feature coming out this year, ‘Peanuts’ will be introduced to new audiences.”
Wos makes it a point to return yearly to the Schulz Museum.
“Each visitor brings with them a snapshot of time that captured the moment they fell in love with the characters. Memories of reading the Sunday funnies in the 1950s or watching the holiday specials in the ’70s. I see 4-year-olds with stuffed plush Snoopys and 70-year-olds wearing Charlie Brown sweaters … and I share in their love for those characters. It connects us. It reminds us of our own humanity. Each of us share the foibles of the Peanuts gang. We are insecure like Linus, crabby like Lucy, passionate like Snoopy, and even dejected like Charlie Brown.”
Erin Faulk, content manager for the office of communications of Washington & Jefferson College, is a lifelong fan.
“Still – at 29 years old – I have my Snoopy radio doll sitting on my bookshelf and I set up a Charlie Brown Christmas tree in my office every year. If I ever have children, I’ll share the (TV specials) with them, too. As I’ve grown up, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for the history of the series, what went into creating it initially, and how it made the shift from print to television. I think that is what has kept me a fan.
“There is so much history behind it that there’s always something new to learn and appreciate beyond the comic strip itself. Plus, Snoopy is interactive now. Thanks to ‘Peanuts” online presence, I can follow Snoopy and Woodstock on Instagram and Twitter and get a little dose of it every day.”