<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cartoons have been one of my life-long obsessions.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean \u2018obsession\u2019 as in \u2018I collect them\u2019, I just love reading them.\u00a0 Since the first days I picked up the <\/span>Marquette Mining Journal<\/span><\/i>, my habit has been to start with the comic page.\u00a0 In the past, I have mentioned that the <\/span>MMJ<\/span><\/i> comics were always printed on the back page of the paper, leading me to another life-long habit;\u00a0 reading newspapers and magazines from the back to the front.\u00a0 Yeah, it is weird, but I have found over the years that I am not the only one who reads like this (except books;\u00a0 I do read books from the front to the back).\u00a0 When the <\/span>Alley Oop <\/span><\/i>franchise changed hands a few years ago, I began pondering what happens to old cartoons when they are put to pasture.\u00a0 More about Alley and Ooola a bit later, but I would like to start this journey with <\/span>Snuffy Smith.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i>In order to discuss the character Snuffy Smith, we must first go back to June 17, 1919 and the publication of a cartoon titled <\/span>Take Barney Google, F\u2019rinstance.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>I find myself interested in things today that were born in 1919 like the National Football League and my father.\u00a0 Created by cartoonist Billy DeBeck, <\/span>Barney Google and Snuffy Smith <\/span><\/i>(as it would later be called) was an American cartoon with a large international readership.\u00a0 It would eventually be found in 900 newspapers in 21 countries.\u00a0 The scope of its appeal can be measured in how the franchise grew to include film, popular song, animation, and television.\u00a0 Bits and pieces of this \u2018toon eventually entered popular culture as well;\u00a0 it added several terms and phrases to the English language, inspired songs in 1923 by Billy Rose (a hit titled <\/span>Barney Google (with the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes), <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Come On, Spark Plug!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Since its debut, the strip has been penned by DeBeck (1919-1942), Fred Lasswell (1942-2001), and John R. Rose (2001 – present) and at 103 years old, it shows no sign of ending.<\/span><\/p>\n Only two other cartoons have a longer track record;\u00a0 Rudolf Durk\u2019s <\/span>Katzenjammer Kids<\/span><\/i> and Frank O. King\u2019s <\/span>Gasoline Alley.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0 Even though the strip\u2019s main character was Barney Google, he was eventually phased out of his own \u2018tooniverse.\u00a0 Like the characters <\/span>Mutt and Jeff<\/span><\/i>, Barney first appeared in the sports section of two Chicago papers.\u00a0 His character was \u201cAn avid sportsman and ne\u2019er-do-well involved in poker, horse racing, and prize fights.\u201d\u00a0 Comic historian Bill Blackbeard further described him as, \u201ca Google-eyed, mustached, gloved and top-hatted, bulbous nosed, cigar chomping shrimp who was hen pecked by \u2018<\/span>a wife three times his size\u2019 <\/span><\/i>(as the song lyrics went)\u201d\u00a0 (though Mrs. Google sued for divorce and disappeared from the strip early on).\u00a0 King Features Syndicate picked up the strip in October of 1919, a move that led to it being published in newspapers nation-wide.\u00a0 Rumor has it Barney\u2019s name was the inspiration for the word \u2018googol\u2019 that is used to describe a very large number which in turn may have inspired the company name \u2018Google\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Barney\u2019s \u2018brown-eyed baby\u2019 of a race horse named Spark Plug was supposed to be a one story line adventure leading up to the bow-legged nag\u2019s one and only race.\u00a0 It turned out Sparky\u2019s race became a national media event.\u00a0 Public fascination over the character earned \u2018Sparky\u2019 a permanent place in the strip and co-billing with Barney Google for a while.\u00a0 Any kid who liked the strip a lot earned the nickname \u2018Sparky\u2019 like Charles M. Schultz of <\/span>Peanuts<\/span><\/i> fame.\u00a0 Other characters would appear (and sometimes disappear) like the jockey \u2018Sunshine\u2019, a troublesome ostrich named \u2018Rudy\u2019, a wrestler dubbed \u2018Sully\u2019, and a mysterious hooded fraternity known as \u2018The Order of the Brotherhood of Billy Goats\u2019.\u00a0 Barney was elected as the Order\u2019s \u2018Exalted Angora\u2019 in 1928 and they based their secret password (O-K-M-N-X) on the standard breakfast order of the day, \u2018Okay, ham and eggs\u2019.\u00a0 The most notable addition to the Barney Google \u2018tooniverse would arrive in 1934 in a story line that had Barney and Spark Plug visiting the mountains of North Carolina.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In this mountainous backwoods,\u00a0 they met up with an equally short moonshiner named Snuff Smith.\u00a0 With Hillbilly humor in vogue (see Al Capp\u2019s <\/span>L\u2019il Abner), <\/span><\/i>DeBeck\u2019s strip focused more and more on the goings on in the southern Applicachian berg known as \u2018Hootin\u2019 Holler\u2019.\u00a0 Snuffy Smith took center stage in a town where the suspicious residents kept their eyes on outsiders (\u2018flatlanders\u2019) and government agents (\u2018revenooers\u2019).\u00a0 Barney\u2019s role diminished to the point where a 1954 storyline had him return to the big city with only occasional visits to his own \u2018toon.\u00a0 In fact, he wasn\u2019t in the strip at all between January 5, 1997 and February 19, 2012.\u00a0 This fifteen year plus absence ended with a set of strips about his return (Baney made a permanent return to Hootin\u2019 Holler in May 2021).\u00a0 Barney is still an occasional visitor to \u2018his\u2019 strip but since the storyline switched over to Snuffy \u2018Smif\u2019, the title no longer mentions Barney.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What endeared Snuffy to the comic reading public?\u00a0 He is best described as, \u201cAn ornery little cuss, sawed-off and shiftless.\u00a0 He lives in a shack, mangles the English language, and has a propensity to shoot at those who displease him.\u00a0 He makes \u2018corn-likker\u2019 moonshine in a homemade still and is in constant trouble with the sheriff.\u201d\u00a0 I dare say, if Snuffy Smith was a real person, there would be a reality series built around his Hillbilly ways (and yes, if you are thinking, \u201cSounds a lot like a series called \u2018<\/span>Moonshiners\u2019<\/span><\/i>, then you know why my tongue was planted firmly in cheek when I started this sentence).\u00a0 It sounds as dated a concept for a TV show as the <\/span>Beverly Hillbillies<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>Green Acres, <\/span><\/i>but in these progressive days, such an exaggerated stereotypical approach to entertainment would not be tolerated, would it? (said again with tongue firmly in cheek).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though Billy DeBeck passed on at age 52 on November 11, 1942, the popularity of his work is still with us in a number of catchphrases his strip passed on into popular culture.\u00a0 When you hear \u2018heebie-jeebies-, \u2018horsefeathers\u2019, \u2018hotsy totsy\u2019, \u2018balls of fire\u2019, \u2018time\u2019s a-wasting\u2019, \u2018touched in the head\u2019, or \u2018bodacious\u2019, they are a testament to the lasting nature of <\/span>Barney Google\u2019s<\/span><\/i> influence.\u00a0 Though some complained he perpetuated stereotypes of hillbilly culture, his characters were more rooted in the real world than Capp\u2019s <\/span>Li’l Abner <\/span><\/i>denessins.\u00a0 None-the-less, change would come when Fred Lasswell took over the reins after DeBeck\u2019s passing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lasswell came to DeBeck\u2019s attention when the latter saw the former\u2019s work on a poster he drew for the Tampa Chamber of Commerce Jamboree in 1933.\u00a0 The then 17 year old was offered a job assisting DeBeck as a letterer which he took (promptly dropping out of high school to go to work for Billy).\u00a0 The two toured the rural south to seek inspiration for the introduction of the Snuffy Smith character and DeBeck mentored Fred by sending him to work with and learn from other noted illustrators.\u00a0 Lasswell took over the strip when DeBeck died but was informed the strips dwindling popularity would lead to cancellation if the dialect used for the dialogue wasn\u2019t changed – many readers had a hard time understanding DeBeck\u2019s \u2018hillbilly-speak\u2019.\u00a0 Lasswell moved the series away from \u2018continuity stories\u2019 to more of a \u2018gag-a-day\u2019 format which caused a surge in the strip\u2019s popularity.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lasswell ran the strip for 59 years and during this time showed himself to be quite the renaissance man.\u00a0 He invented things (like a mechanical citrus harvester he patented in the early 1960s), and was an early adopter of certain technologies.\u00a0 In the 1990s, Lasswell became one of the first cartoonists to use computers to produce his strips.\u00a0 He began lettering the strips digitally and submitted them to King Features Syndicate via email.\u00a0 Fred also ventured into the education field producing games and books that made learning fun.\u00a0 According to U.S. Secretary of Education Shirley Hufstedler, \u201cFred Lasswell has created a unique and whimsical way to bring fun and focus into our K-6 classrooms\u2026The simplicity, low cost, and genuine effectiveness of his teachers\u2019 manuals and methods are a breath of fresh air for our children and their teachers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Snuffy Smith<\/span><\/i> was taken over by Fred\u2019s longtime assistant John R. Rose when Lasswell passed away from heart failure in 2001.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0An editorial cartoonist when entered the <\/span>Snuffy Smith <\/span><\/i>\u2018tooniverse as Lasswell\u2019s inking assistant, Rose took over the strip when his boss died.\u00a0 Besides his \u2018toon work, he continued as the editorial cartoonist for the Ogden Papers in Virginia.\u00a0 He also creates the <\/span>Kids\u2019 Home Newspaper, <\/span><\/i>a weekly syndicated puzzle feature for Creators Syndicate.\u00a0 He has numerous books to his credit that rode the wave of compilations being released for such cartoon staples as <\/span>Garfield, Dilbert, Peanuts, <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Pearls Before Swine.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>To celebrate a century of <\/span>Barney Google<\/span><\/i>, Rose penned a series of strips featuring Barney in June of 2019.\u00a0 Rose had poor Barney wandering lost among the other funny page strips like <\/span>Dagwood, Beetle Bailey, Popeye <\/span><\/i>and more as he tried to find his way back to Hootin\u2019 Holler.\u00a0 When he finally made it to his birthday party, he hobnobbed with a lot of <\/span>Barney Google and Snuffy Smith <\/span><\/i>characters, some of whom had not been seen in years.\u00a0 Rose also penned tribute panels to DeBeck and Lasswell.\u00a0 In July of 2022, Spark Plug also got a weeklong story line to celebrate his 100th birthday.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Another old time cartoon I began following in the <\/span>Mining Journal <\/span><\/i>back in the day was <\/span>Alley Oop.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Created on December 5, 1932 by V.T. Hamlin and syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), the <\/span>Alley Oop <\/span><\/i>\u2018tooniverse is populated by a host of colorful characters.\u00a0 At first the strip centered on Alley\u2019s life in the fictional land of Moo.\u00a0 In 1939, Hamlin greatly expanded his topic areas when Alley was pulled from the \u2018Bone Age\u2019 by a scientist named Dr. Wonmug (a slight distortion of another famous Dr named Einstein – \u2018One Mug\u2019 equals \u2018Einstein\u2019) via a time machine.\u00a0 The ability to escape from the ancient realm of \u2018Moo\u2019 allowed Alley and his girlfriend Ooola to explore many topics outside the cozy confines of their prehistoric home time.\u00a0 Hamlin stated, \u201cI really can\u2019t recall just how I struck upon the name \u2018Alley Oop\u2019, although it might be from the fact that the name is a French term used by tumblers.\u00a0 Alley Oop really is a roughhouse tumbler.\u201d\u00a0 This makes a lot of sense because he further states \u2018Ooola\u2019 is a play on another French phrase, \u2018oh la la\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hamlin hired Dave Graue as an assistant in 1950 and he took over the stip in the 1970s when Hamlin retired.\u00a0 Jack Bender came aboard in 1991 as an art finisher and after September 3, 2001, the strip was drawn by Jack and written by his wife, Carole.\u00a0 Sadly, Hamilin was killed in North Carolina at the age of 75 when a dump truck hit his car on December 10, 2001.\u00a0 Since January 2019, writer Joey Alison Sayers and artist Jonathan Lemon have taken over the Alley Oop \u2018tooniverse.\u00a0 With the <\/span>Daily Globe<\/span><\/i> now publishing weekly, I have had a hard time keeping up with the Sayers\/Lemon story line.\u00a0 I checked out the story line on the <\/span>GoComics <\/span><\/i>website to see what they are up to.\u00a0 In late December 2022 and into January of 2023, they were focusing on a space fungus turned baby named Myc.\u00a0 Alley and Ooola are turned into short term parents as Myc has a very short life cycle and has aged from baby to an old woman in a matter of days.\u00a0 It seems time travel isn\u2019t the only plot device the cave couple have been exposed to.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I originally asked, \u201cWhat happens to cartoons when they are put to pasture?\u201d\u00a0 In the case of Barney Google and Alley Oops, they are still with us.\u00a0 The writers and authors may change, the story lines may be updated, but it seems cartoons don\u2019t have a life cycle like humans.\u00a0 If the idea is to explore cartoons that have actually \u2018passed on\u2019, I am afraid that discussion will need to wait for another day.\u00a0 We can finish up this thread by looking at a slice of what is happening in the cartoon world more recently.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of the great things about cartoonists, in my mind anyway, is their ability to thumb their noses at the status quo from time to time.\u00a0 A great example of their independent streak happened on April Fools\u2019 Day of 1997.\u00a0 Without warning their editors, a group of cartoonists orchestrated an event known as \u2018The Great April Fools\u2019 Day Switcharoonie\u2019.\u00a0 Masterminded by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott (creators of <\/span>Baby Blues)<\/span><\/i>, a large group of cartoonists traded strips for the day.\u00a0 Some of the switches were obvious to avid readers while other writers and artists played it pretty close to the vest.\u00a0 It was a massive practical joke and I can not say whether or not it caused an uproar in the ivory towers of the cartoon syndicates.\u00a0 It certainly stirred the public\u2019s interest and put them on the watch for another such event.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There have been other \u2018Switcheroonies\u2019 since 1997 (too numerous to mention here).\u00a0 There have been some variations involving smaller groups of both print and internet based cartoons.\u00a0 For example, on April 1, 2005, Stephan Pastis (<\/span>Pearls Before Swine)<\/span><\/i>, Bill Amend (<\/span>Foxtrot<\/span><\/i>), and Darby Conley (<\/span>Get Fuzzy)<\/span><\/i> ran nearly the same dialog in their respective strips only with their characters saying the lines.\u00a0 Guest characters have also appeared in many strips like the May 27, 2000 and October 30, 2005 tributes that were done for Charles M. Schultz and <\/span>Peanuts.<\/span><\/i> A complete list of the cartoonists involved and the switches they made can be found in <\/span>Wikipedia <\/span><\/i>under the heading \u2018<\/span>Comic Strip Switcheroo.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>In the meantime, \u2018Happy \u2018Tooning\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Just in case you thought I was kidding about the Barney Google song . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cartoons have been one of my life-long obsessions.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean \u2018obsession\u2019 as in \u2018I collect them\u2019, I just love reading them.\u00a0 Since the first days I picked up the Marquette Mining Journal, my habit has been to start with the comic page.\u00a0 In the past, I have mentioned that the MMJ comics were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2770"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2778,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770\/revisions\/2778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}