The Madness of March

What am I going to post this month?

I've gotten in the habit of using a holiday to guide my posts for the given month, and this month we have both Saint Patrick's Day and Easter.  How is one to pick a fitting theme with these competing holidays. They've sorta canceled each other out in my mind. Although it's not that I'm sitting on a amazing stash of fascinating Saint Patrick's Day and Easter related stuff either.

Maybe I could use this post to rant about the upcoming daylight saving time.  It's nothing but a pain.  A quick word to the world leaders and captains of industry who I know are fervent readers of this blog - isn't it about time we pulled the plug on this nonsense people?

Hey speaking about "rich and powerful" readers, I suspect many famous comic artists read my blog also.  For example how many saw the comic strip Lio by Mark Tatulli that ran on Sunday February 17, 2013...

Now check out the blog post I made on December 5, 2007.  It was about homemade Christmas cards I made back in 1990...

Card Front

Inside

I'm sure it's totally a coincidence, or possibly a homage.  

Well back to figuring out what the heck I'm going to post for the rest of the month.

Obscure Newspaper Comic Strips from 1973

Whoa it's 2012, and it's time for my first post of the year so I better make it an extra good one...

Umm, to be honest, this post is just OK, but I swear there will be some good ones this year sometime - I just don't know when.

So anyways I was looking through an old newspaper the other day, looking for something that might make for an interesting post.  It wasn't a "major" newspaper, but the Redford Township edition of The Suburban News for the week of May 30, 1973...

Redford is a suburb of Detroit, and like many hometown papers the contents seems to focuses on things like school fairs and civic activities.  But as I leafed through the want ads  I was rewarded with a number of obscure and mysterious comics sprinkled here and there.  Like this one called Half-Past Teen...

I have no idea who the creator is, and Google was no help at all.  Heck, I'm doubting this comic has anything to do with teens.

Near the back of the want ad section was over half a page of comic strips.  I like to think I know a little something about comics, but at fist glance I didn't recognize a single one.

Do you recognize anything?

This first one is a Mutt and Jeff by Al Smith.  Mutt and Jeff is a name I recognize. The only problem is whoever laid out this page left off the title and artist name.  This now concludes the only comic that I was even remotely familiar with.

 

This next strip is Grubby by Warren Sattler.  Grubby is not a strip about a bear, but an old west prospector.  I like the layout on this one.

Deems by Tom Oka looks like a strip that would have been a favorite of mine as a little kid, you know, before I could read.   I think Deems is a character like Henry who never speaks. Also Google doesn't really turn anything up on who Tom Oka is.

Sonny South by Courtney Alderson.  Can't find any info on  Courtney Alderson or this strip, but someone has been auctioning off the original art.

 

This Grandpa's Boy by Brad Anderson.  Brad Anderson is best know for Marmaduke, and well, that's what I know him for too.

 

Those Were The Days by Art Beeman.  Art has a nice classic old-timey style that fits this strip well.

Above was another unidentified comic, but I think it is Citizen George by George Wolfe.

Of all the comic strips on this page I think this drawing of the deep sea diver reading a newspaper might be the most fun thing.

Lastly, this is the most bewildering thing I found in the want ads.  It looks like a classic Ripley's Believe It or Not! comic, but why is it named Nothin, But The Truth by Arnold?  When searching for info on Deems I found this comic page from the July 6, 1956 issue of The Deming Headlight (Deming, New Mexico) the with another "Nothin, But The Truth by Russ Arnold."  What's going on here? These are obviously "Ripley's" what's the deal with the name change?