Milestones in the Comics World
- Dennis L. Peterson
- 1 minute ago
- 5 min read
One of my earliest memories as a child is of waiting for the afternoon newspaper to be delivered to our mailbox by Jonesy, our "paperboy." (He was actually an adult driving an old, beat up, blue, late-Fifties Chevy.) I couldn't wait to plop down on the grass beside the driveway and open the paper to the comics page. I read every one of the strips, but among my favorites were Pogo, Nancy and Sluggo, Lil Abner, Beetle Bailey, and Dick Tracy.
Comics later took second place to the baseball box scores, but I've enjoyed the comics ever since. So my attention immediately was arrested when I learned that today marks two landmarks in the world of comic strips. One commemorates a beginning; the other marks an end.
First, on this date in 1937, the comic strip Prince Valiant made its debut. It was the creation of Harold R. Foster, a Canadian-American who had gained a modicum of renown with his earlier strip Tarzan.
Prince Valiant was about the adventures of a Nordic prince, beginning when he was only five years old and following him through adulthood. Valiant grew up, moved with his father to England, and arrived at Camelot as a young adult. He eventually gained the favor of King Arthur and became a knight of Arthur's legendary Round Table. The strip's narrative follows Valiant across Britain, Continental Europe, and even the Holy Land as he fights Goths, Huns, Saxons, and creatures of every description, including witches and "marsh monsters."
Foster's style was noted for "its high level of draftsmanship and attention to detail." He was not, however, historically or chronologically accurate or consistent, but his strip did include many historically accurate details.
Both of Foster's strips were different than those of most other comics in that he eschewed dialogue "bubbles." He preferred to provide narration in boxes within each frame of the ongoing, chronological plot line. Spoken words never appeared in bubbles.
The first frame always contained a synopsis, briefly cluing readers as to what had happened and providing context for what was about to happen. Subsequent frames carried that narrative forward, and the final frame of the Sunday-only strip always included a teaser: "Next week...." That kept readers returning the next Sunday to find out what else would happen.
Syndicated by King Features, Prince Valiant eventually amounted to nearly 2,000 strips. Critics praised "its realistically rendered panoramas and the intelligent, sometimes, humorous, narrative." Edward, Duke of Windsor, allegedly declared it to be "the greatest contribution to English literature in the past hundred years." To my mind, that's a stretch, but to each his own opinion.
By 1970, Foster was suffering badly from arthritis, which made it hard for him to continue his work. He chose from several candidates John Colton Murphy to become his collaborator and helper with the strip. For the next nine years, Foster continued to do penciled layouts of the strip while Murphy finished them for publication.
Sadly, because of having been administered prolonged anesthesia during hip surgery, Foster lost much of his memory. He could no longer recall even having drawn either Tarzan or Prince Valiant.
The other comic strip that is commemorated on this date is much more familiar to everyone and is clearly more popular than Prince Valiant. That strip is Peanuts, the last installment of which was published on this date in 2000.
Unlike most other cartoonists, Charles Schulz never had any other person help him with his strip. He wrote, drew, inked, and lettered it all himself.
Peanuts was always a four-panel strip featuring "simple but expressive graphics," which allowed editors to run it vertically, horizontally, or two panels over two. It also ensured that it didn't suffer when editors reduced the size of their comic pages to accommodate more ads or news content.
The Peanuts cartoon strip debuted in October 1950 in seven newspapers, but that number grew to 35 the next year, 41 the next, and 57 the fourth. By Schulz's death, the strip was running in more than 2,600 papers worldwide.
Peanuts began as a typical gag strip, but over time the characters developed adult-like characteristics and personalities. This made it appealing to both children and adults. It was "the perfect marriage of simple graphics, sophisticated humor, and commercial adaptability."
The original cast of characters of Peanuts consisted of Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty, and Snoopy. Over time, other characters were added: Schroeder, Violet, Lucy, Linus, and Pigpen.
Each character had a defining quality or symbolic object. For Schroeder, it was his piano and classical music. Linus had his security blanket. Lucy had her psychiatrist booth, and Snoopy his doghouse. And Pigpen, of course, had his ever-present cloud of dust. And all of the characters had "childlike innocence with grown-up concerns."
The strip featured recurring themes: the kite-eating tree; baseball games; Charlie Brown's attempts to kick the football, which Lucy always pulled away at the last second; Snoopy's imagination, pitting him against the Red Baron; and the Great Pumpkin.
Schulz, nicknamed "Sparky," readily admitted that his strip was largely autobiographical. His philosophical side came out in Linus. Like Charlie Brown, he felt insecure. And, like Lucy, he admitted, he was sometimes crabby.
Late in life, Schulz began to become unsteady in his hands, making it difficult for him to draw, but he persevered in bringing laughter to millions of readers.
So popular was his strip that it became a commercial success far beyond the comic pages of newspapers. It was adapted into plays, musicals, and TV shows. Who can escape its Thanksgiving and Christmas specials, during which Schulz insisted prevailing (against network pressures, I might add) that the real reasons for those holidays be clearly communicated? The strips were compiled into hundreds of books. All of these various media were the result of massive merchandising and marketing campaigns.
The end of Schulz's life and that of the strip came in February 2000. Sparky died in his sleep on February 12, shortly after he had delivered his strip in time to meet the deadline. His last Peanuts strip appeared just hours later on February 13.
As Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 says, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die...." In this case on this date, one comic strip was born and another died. Yet, both strips have left a continuing legacy.
Can the same be said for us? What kind of legacy are we leaving?