A Side of Clyde
We called them "the funnies" when I grew up. Today they call them comic strips, and they aren't funny anymore. Sunday morning comics have a better past than future because parents don't read them to their kids like they used to, and a lot of us can't relate to today's characters.
Doonesbury has some ironic comedy, but it's for grown-ups. Peanuts and Lynn Johnson's "For Better or For Worse" have their moments, but nothing compares to those nostalgic newspaper comics we shared Sunday mornings after church.
I have fond memories of sitting on my grandmother's lap after church while she read "The Little King" out loud. We never knew his name, or what his kingdom was, and what he did wasn't always kingly.
"The Gumps" was everyone's favorite. Grown-ups were always laughing and talking about Andy Gump, his wife Min, and their young son, Chester. The Gumps looked strange because they had no chins.
You had to read "Blondie and Dagwood" every Sunday or you would miss something. In the beginning, there was just Blondie and Dagwood, but along came Baby Dumpling followed by his sister, Cookie and the fuzzy-faced dog, Daisy. The comic strip was the beginning of a series of movies starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake as the title characters.
Who can forget "Alley Oop?" He was a caveman living in the Kingdom of Moo and rode a dinosaur named Dinny. He would enter a time machine and go anywhere he wanted. One week you would find him fighting at the side of King Arthur, and the next week he would be in a soldier's uniform fighting for his life at Gettysburg, swinging his stone ax and scattering enemies in all directions.
"Little Orphan Annie" and her dog, Sandy, were always searching for Daddy Warbucks.
The favorite of most older boys was "Ozark Ike." He was a big handsome baseball and football player who played for a major league team called the Bugs. Joe Palooka was the heavyweight boxing champ and never bragged. When World War II came along, he was the first comic strip character to join the Army.
There also were "Buck Rogers," "Flash Gordon," "Our Boarding House," "Tillie the Toiler" and "Tarzan." Try matching them with today's syndicated comics in the Sunday morning papers.
The folks in the funnies were my friends. My friends made me laugh and sometimes cry. They taught kids valuable lessons. It's a form of culture that today's comic strip can't match.
One popular strip I would love to see again is "Maggie and Jiggs." Jiggs was a brick mason and Maggie, a washerwoman. They were dirt poor until they won the Irish Sweepstakes and became instant millionaires. Maggie turned into a rich snob and wanted to forget her roots. Jiggs just wanted to get away from Maggie and meet his old chums at Dinty Moore's Tavern for some corned beef and cabbage. Like Jiggs, I can't forget my roots.
Clyde Noel is a longtime contributor to the Town Crier.