Here’s an old article I wrote and some pages to illustrate it from the book ‘Skippy and Percy Crosby’ by Jerry Robinson. It might take some doing to get yourself a copy of the book, but if you ever want a fascinating story about the history of comics, this is a prime one.
I wonder if this is where Bill Watterson got his inspiration…
Watterson was known as a deep lover of comics strips and knew his business very well. You can be sure he had seen these. But don’t forget that Berke Breathed used to draw his characters barreling along on Cutter John’s wheelchair. Charles Schulz had Rerun on the back of his mom’s bicycle. Johnny Hart put his characters on stone unicycles. Flying along and ruminating is a great visual and storytelling device.
gnger meggs is australia has been doing this sort of comic since the 1930’s
Right! Another excellent example.
Ginger Meggs is also an example of the kind of comic strip that I’m giving a talk about at the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning- comic strips that have handed control over to new artists. There are a LOT of examples of that, but Ginger Meggs is a good one. Other primary examples are Gasoline Alley, Snuffy Smith, Dennis the Menace, and plenty of other classic comic strips. My own feature, The Buckets, originated with another creator, but he’s not dead yet, so it’s a little different.