Sunday Comics

Hi Puzzlers,

Don’t you just love Sundays? It is a day when you can lounge around in your pajamas, have a second cup of coffee and leisurely read the Sunday paper. Ah! It's like a little piece of paradise. The first thing I do is pull out all the coupons then I head to the comic page(s). I like starting my Sunday on a happy note not stressed out by the happenings of the world. And, it appears people have been doing this very same thing since the inception of the comic strip.

The first American comic strip was created at the end of the nineteenth century as a way to increase sales of the Sunday paper. In 1895, staff illustrator Richard Felton Outcault created a one panel cartoon called "Down Hogan's Alley" for the newspaper called "The World".

The cartoon featured a buck-toothed, big-eared, bald boy dressed in an oversized frock usually worn by peasants. Within weeks of his first appearance the color yellow would be added to his smock and the character would soon be known as the “Yellow Kid”.

Journal America also had a one panel cartoon created by James Swinnerton called the "Little Bears". This panel would soon add kids and tigers to the strip. The strip would eventually morph into the extremely popular “Mr. Jack”, which featured a philandering tiger bachelor.

The first multi-panel comic strip appeared on December 12, 1897, it was created by Journal American’s Rudolph Dirk. The "Katzenjammer Kids" were the first comics to use a “word balloon” to indicate the speaker. “The Katzenjammers combined both the aspect of internal dialogue and panelized continuity, and in the process designed and solidified the form of the modern visual narrative strip.”

An astounding 150 comic strips were in syndication by the early 1900s. Comic strips of this time consisted only of single episode-humorous strips, no political satire or storyline. It would take almost thirty years before comics strips would make references and build a story lines based on the previous day’s strip.

It's so amazing to think about how a simple thing like a word balloon can add so much life and personality to a drawing that it becomes your Sunday morning coffee friend. You know the one you have to check in with once a week to see what they are up to.

Happy Puzzling!

April Fool's Day

Hi Puzzlers,

Today I would like to take a look at my Nannie’s favorite holiday, April Fool’s Day. This feisty woman will celebrate her 80th birthday this year, and you may remember reading about her on the Lucky Strike post. Poor Lou, her husband of 60 plus years, has had to endure numerous pranks through the years but fortunately he is a great sport. I can’t wait to see what she will come up with this year. Among my favorites (that I can talk about) has to be sewing his underwear’s front opening closed, short sheeting the bed, or the famous salt in the sugar bowl. Then there is the plastic wrap over the toilet seat, or how about the Vaseline on the broom handle. She has done them all; she may have even invented them!

It is generally believed that April Fool’s Day, or All Fool’s Day, began around 1582 in France. This is when Charles IX introduced the Gregorian Calendar and New Years Day was moved from the week of March 25-April 1 to January 1st. At this time news traveled slowly across the country, for some it was years before they knew of the changes. A select few refused to acknowledge the new calendar and continued to celebrate New Years Day on April 1st. This group was thus labeled “fools” by the general populace, they were made fun of and sent on “fools errands” and were the butt of many practical jokes.

Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University, provides another explanation for the holiday. He believes the holiday began around the time of Roman emperor Constantine when court jesters and fools told the emperor they could do a better job of running the country. Entertained by the notion, the king allowed a jester named Kugel to be king for a day. "In a way," explained Prof. Boskin, "it was a very serious day. In those times fools were really wise men. It was the role of jesters to put things in perspective with humor." (This reminds me of John Stewart.) The first ordinance Kugel passed was a calling for “absurdity on that day, and the custom became an annual event.” Ah, alas the truth is told, Boskin made the whole thing up, and it took the Associated Press several weeks to realize they’d been victims of an April’s fools joke themselves!

Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell". When asked about the sale, White House press secretary Mike McCurry replied tongue-in-cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

Left-handed Whoppers: In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side. Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the "old", right-handed burger. I wonder if Nannie was in on this?

Another interesting factoid is in Scottland April Fool’s Day jokes and spoofs all involve the buttocks. The “Kick Me” sign can be traced back to the Scottish.

So remember: The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. -- Mark Twain

Happy Puzzling!