Six comic strip stars who lost the spotlight

As I learn more about comic strip history through my work on the U of C's comic art collection, it's interesting to see how many strips evolved over the years - in some instances by casting off their original protagonists in favour of a new one, sometimes with dramatically different results!

Here are six starring characters who found themselves diminished - or outright put out of work.

Barney Google

Began as the star of: Take Barney Google, F'rinstance, 1919, wherein our pint-sized hero debuted as a gambling sportsman; over the years he would acquire his famous horse Spark Plug, appear in animated shorts, become featured in one strangely-preserved song ("Barney Google Foxtrot") and have a search engine named after him.

Supplanted by: Snuffy Smith, a hillbilly who indulges in hillbilly antics; he entered the strip in 1934 and took it over in 1954; you may be surprised to learn this strip is still being published as Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, albeit Google's name is little more than a legacy.

Lesson learned: Horse racing jokes become dated; hillbillies are a bottomless jug of comedy.

Mitzi McCoy

Began as the star of: Mitzi McCoy, 1948, presented there as the glamourous heroine of a soap opera.

Supplanted by: Kevin the Bold, her swashbuckling 15th century ancestor who shamelessly took over the strip in 1950 and held on 'til 1968 (Mitzi is such a minor footnote I had tremendous difficulty finding just one image of her).

Lesson learned: Unless Geena Davis or Roman Polanski are involved, swashbuckling always wins out.

Castor Oyl

Began as the star of: Thimble Theater, 1919, wherein our pint-sized hero headed an ensemble cast in comical variations on melodramatic stories.

Supplanted by: A new ensemble player named Popeye the Sailor, who swaggered his way into the strip in 1929 and within a year made it his own and has remained so featured to this day; although Popeye served as the primary romantic interest of Castor's sister Olive, ensuring Castor would never be forgotten, his presence diminished to the point where Castor is as much a piece of trivia as anything.

Lesson learned: Beware the character whose personality is more outrageous than yours; you yam what you yam and that's that you yam.

Fritzi Ritz

Began as the star of: Fritzi Ritz, 1922, wherein our glamourous protagonist engaged in comedic/romantic escapades much like other lady "flapper" stars of the time (ie, Winnie Winkle, Tillie the Toiler).

Supplanted by: Nancy, her adorable niece who debuted in 1933 and took over by 1938, delegating her aunt to a subservient role as a "mother type." Nancy runs in papers to this day.

Lesson learned: The public's not interested in beautiful, independent women. Cute kids, that'll never get old.

G. Washington Tubbs III

Began as the star of: Washington Tubbs III, 1924, wherein our pint-sized hero went on largely comedic adventures, seeking to find his place in the world through the circus, acting and even soldiering.

Supplanted by: His pal Captain Easy, who helped Tubbs out of one jam during 1929 and - excepting occasional absences - never left. In 1933, Easy took over Tubbs' Sunday pages and by the 1940s, Tubbs had been virtually retired; the strip kept his name, but Captain Easy remained in charge 'til the end in 1988.

Lesson learned: We empathize with your everyman hero who struggles to make a mark in this world, but all told we'd rather be the muscular, no-nonsense tough guy sidekick.

Big Chief Wahoo

Began as the star of: Big Chief Wahoo, 1936, wherein our pint-sized hero with his hilarious mode of speech engaged in comedic escapades while brushing up against paleface society.

Supplanted by: Steve Roper, an adventurous photojournalist who began edging Wahoo out in 1944, then renamed the strip after himself in 1947 and kept it 'til the 2004 finale; along the way, Roper picked up his own subordinate, Mike Nomad, pushing the strip's original star even further into obscurity.

Lesson learned: Stereotyping the indigenous peoples will always be funny, so the lesson must obviously be the fickle public just aren't into pint-sized heroes.

"A fella has to die sooner or later. Let them come." Captain Easy: the Complete Newspaper Strips Vol.1

I keep having ideas about where my recent interest in newspaper comic strips is going to wind down... and then I unearth something from our comic art collection at work and have to completely reassess my plans. I knew practically nothing about Roy Crane's Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy comic strips when I began sorting the collection; after browsing through just a sampling of the strip, I knew I had to see more for myself - and from the comfort of my home!

The advertisements for Fantagraphics's Roy Crane's Captain Easy Soldier of Fortune: the Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips Volume 1, 1933-1935 (deep breath) didn't do the tome justice; as you can see above, it's a beautiful big hardcover book, measuring 15 inches high. Gosh, I love giant comics.

In fiction, I find myself more interested in seeing where ideas originated as opposed to where they are now; so often I find authors borrowed concepts from creators who inspired them while those inspirations themselves delve back even further. Having already seen where much of the development of the adventure strip came from while reading Terry and the Pirates, I was interested to look back even further to Captain Easy. This is probably where my journey ends unless I develop a sudden yen to read Hairbreadth Harry.

To those who know nothing of Captain Easy (I was one of you some 6 months ago): Captain Easy began as a supporting character in Roy Crane's humour/adventure strip Wash Tubbs circa 1929, proving to be far more macho than the strip's own hero; in 1933, Crane began featuring Easy in his own strip on Sundays while Tubbs held down the daily strip. Captain Easy was one of the earliest adventure strips and also among the most influential. Like a progential Indiana Jones, Easy traipses across the globe looking for adventure, rare artifacts and lost civilizations - but his primary objective is to make some money. He has no particular need of the money, spending what he makes on just having a good time and funding further adventures. He's essentially a hand-to-mouth adventurer.

And yet, despite his mercenary origins, Easy has a heart; when the slave girl Rose Petal insists on being his property he repeatedly refuses her: "...You're free. I won't have you for a slave. Understand?" The monarch Mogul tries to put Easy to death but later needs Easy's help to escape a bandit hoarde; rather than abandon him, Easy first smuggles food to Mogul, then breaks him out from the bandits and carries on to save Mogul's life several times over.

In the course of this tome, Easy goes treasure hunting in a remote part of China, only to be forced to aid the local emperor against the greater threat of mountain bandits; next, Easy acquires a slave and carries her home, enduring attacks by pirates and thieves; following this, Easy goes diving for treasure in a sunken city but attracts the attention of a fierce tribe of warriors and another band of pirates; finally, Easy helps a princess return to her eastern European kingdom only to be thrown into local intrigue when a nobleman challenges him to a duel, then plunges the entire nation into war!

Although Captain Easy is a mix of humour and adventure, the war storyline at the end of the book becomes a little more grim than typical episodes; the above sequence is like a very twisted Looney Tunes cartoon - first soldiers depart on a train; second, dead soldiers are sent back on a train complete with cars marked "Without Legs" and "Without Arms;" third, a body is strewn over barbed wire. By 1935, obviously the fear of another World War was on people's minds and here Crane seemed to be channeling the horrors of World War I, which is what people would have anticipated seeing replayed (but as Will Rogers said, "You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.").

After the increasingly-realistic efforts of Milt Caniff, it's something to go back to Crane and see how while he used realism in some things (such as the European castles or industrial factories), he usually eschewed realism. Animals (including bears, elephants and tigers) tend to be very cartoony; the horrors of war seen above are also depicted in very simple and (darkly) comical lines. Rather than realism, Crane's strip seems to have had its own continuity of form and design and stuck with it. It certainly suits the high-flying adventurous spirit of the strip - and of Captain Easy himself.

Captain Easy is well-aged fun and Fantagraphics seems to have done right by it; highly recommended!