Reply #69: Fun comic history stuff

[demobabe]

Russell did his Potts feature for 62 years! Pretty amazing even though most Americans haven't heard of him.



As for Ernie Bushmiller, he TOOK OVER Fritzi Ritz from Larry Whittington, who had drawn the strip for about three years. And the tone MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT STAY THE SAME!

Check out old Fritzi Ritz strips! You won't believe it. She was a wild woman - nothing like the "Aunt Fritzi" she became to Nancy - the non-descript woman who would poke her face into a strip once in a while with some distraught expression over something Nancy had done.

http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/features/fritzi/fritzi.asp

No, what Ernie Bushmiller did with the strip was a complete 180 - a complete repurposing of the strip.

Johnny Hart created B.C. - nobody else. He was solely responsible for the strip's content, and like many other cartoonists, changed over the years. Yes, what he did was more dramatic, and maybe you didn't like it (I wasn't fond of his religious strips, either), but it was his strip to do with what he wanted. Editors tolerated it, else it would have been gone. They certainly have no qualms about pulling an offending Doonesbury or even a Cathy once in a while.

Even Charles Schulz's work changed dramatically in tone over the years. The later strips were nothing like the early ones...

Cartoons are commercial art ultimately, and while they have the forum, cartoonists will draw what they can - if there isn't a market, then their views are automatically censored. Fair? Right? What in life is, fellow cartoonist friend?

;)

Was wondering, did you ever meet Johnny Hart?