Arnold Zwicky's Blog

In the “Ask the Archivist” column on the Comics Kingdom Blog (from King Features) on the 14th:

It’s been thirty years since Bill Griffith’s underground comix star Zippy The Pinhead went above ground and joined King Features Syndicate. Zippy had been around since 1971, so he’s in the midst of a forty-fifth anniversary, too.

Zippy, as you might know, was inspired by Griffith’s real-life interaction with a Pinhead, as well as Pinheads in popular culture, like the co-stars of the infamous film, “FREAKS” (MGM 1932).

But Griffith has always been more interested in the way culture has impressed him, especially that which addressed kids many years ago. At any time, incomprehensibly, long-dead actors or forgotten corporate mascots might appear, and interact with Zippy or Griffith’s cartoon alter ego. It’s like a surreal dream, often punctuated with misty bits of philosophy and out-of-date advertising catchphrases.

Today I’ve picked some of the Zipster’s various encounters with comic characters

Six examples, which I’ll take here in pairs:

(#1&2)

#1 has the tv clown character Bozo the Clown:

(#1A)

And #2 has Herb Gardner‘s characters from The Nebbishes; from Wikipedia:

The Nebbishes was a syndicated comic strip by Herb Gardner, better known today as a playwright and screenwriter.

Gardner’s characters were white blob-like creatures who expressed their attitude toward existence in mottos and quotes on greeting cards and statuettes. In the comic strip they engaged in dialogue in balloons in the standard comic strip format.

(#2A)

On to the second pair:

(#3&4)

#3 has Barney Rubble, a major character in The Flintstones; see my 9/3/15 posting on the strip and its characters.

#4 has Dick Cavalli’s Morty Meekle; from Wikipedia:

Richard A. “Dick” Cavalli (September 28, 1923 – October 16, 1997) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strips Morty Meekle and its successor, Winthrop, which consecutively were syndicated to newspapers from 1956 to 1994.

(#4A)

And then the third pair:

(#5&6)

#5 shows Hi and Lois; from Wikipedia:

Hi and Lois is an American comic strip about a suburban family. Created by Mort Walker and illustrated by Dik Browne, it debuted on October 18, 1954

(#5A)

Finally, #6 has the character Fearless Fosdick, from the Dick Tracy strip — on Fosdick, see my 5/4/15 posting on Fosdicks.

This entry was posted on July 16, 2016 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Comic conventions, Linguistics in the comics, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.