Prehistoric Days

The Gremlin is banished (for a while at least), let's try this again, adding a few more pages than last time.

Thanks go out to OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum for sending over these scans of some early Alley Oop strips, as reprinted in The Funnies—in the prehistoric days of comic books.

Gremlins!

Some sort of gremlin got into the machinery, the other day, here at The Pictorial Arts, and dropped out a published post featuring some Alley Oop pages. I'll repost them some other day with more pages added to em, once I pinpoint the gremlin in charge.

In the meantime, let's see if this portrait of Oop sticks around.

VT Hamlin — Oop promotional drawing — 1961

(I think it's that gremlin hiding behind Saturn)

My biggest regret about losing the post was that the comment went with it—from 'charlie', our blog friend who in his 90s just celebrated his 65th wedding anniversary and informed us that his cancer is under control, and is doing relatively well. charlie is a huge fan of Pogo, Alley Oop, and all the great comic strips of the past, and it's always a pleasure to hear from him.

You Haven't Heard the Last of This

Well, we had to skip another strip getting here, and this is the last strip I have from this storyline. We don't get perfect closure for the story, yet it seems appropriate enough to end it here.

It's sad to think I used to have nearly every Oop strip for a 6 or 7 year run, and then tossed them when I was overwhelmed with owning too much stuff. That was before I knew that other people had a manic fondness for this kind of stuff (cuz I prolly would have sold or given those strips away), and way before I could have dreamed that an ordinary guy like me would ever own a scanner.

But for some reason I kept this much of a storyline, and I've got some other intermittent Oop strips that will show up soon enough on this site. Anyway, all these Oops have been dedicated to charlie, one of those people with that manic fondness I was talkin' 'bout.

Well, Now, Isn't That Sweet

Aw, For Pete Sake

There's something perversely comforting about watching Oop's troubles.

Be prepared now, after this one there's only two strips left in this storyline. Enjoy Ceelee while you can and realize we won't have 'closure' to this arc.

I'd Have Bet My Whiskers

One more Oop for now, then we'll mix in some other stuff.

An Impossible Mission of Diplomatic Thievery

Again, we've skipped a bit, but we're all smart people here and kin figger out the stuff between the panels. Poor Oop is constantly being put between rocks and hard places. And Ceelee is like a yo-yo or a boomerang or a sumpin'.

charlie! email me, tell me more about yourself and your history, and your history of interest in comics. I want to do a little profile on you! email me at HallerBuchanan@hotmail.com

A Threat to th' Peace of th' Whole World

These Alley Oops are 'specially for charlie, but hopefully one or two of you are enjoyin' 'em as well.

We Mistook 'im

I toldya there would be some gaps here and there, and here we jump a week. We can sorta tell what's goin' on.

Oh well. The story's still fun for the tellin'.

Jungle at Night

Let's get back to the Alley Oop sequence we started a while ago. It would be two years after this current time period that VT Hamlin would retire from drawing the Sunday strips, but his drawing seemed as fresh as all the decades before. Hamlin and Walt (Pogo) Kelly were two old-school masters still delivering the goods in the early 1970s.

For the decline of the comic strip, some folks blame the shrinking newspaper sizes, some blame the readers' changing tastes, some blame the zeitgeist. But let's face it, it's the individual cartoonist that makes all the difference, and when Hamlin and Kelly left the stage, the golden age of the comic strip left with them.

Let Nature Take Its Course

Not only am I swamped with deadlines, but I'm in process of moving home and studio. Major move. I'm without internet during the switchover, so I'll be back when I can.

Until then, bonsoir mes amis.

Mebbe You Think It's Funny

Unavoidably skipping 2 weeks from last time, I'd say we can pretty much tell that Ooola has met Ceele.

Footprints in Your Whiskers

Good golly, I thought I was busy before! I've had brand new deadlines sneak in on top of old deadlines, and they're all deadlining together. I have a choice to either go on hiatus for a couple of weeks, or keep posting an Alley Oop every once in a while, since I have those lined up. Sorry to say, there's just no time for any other choice.

I've got some wonderful stuff down the road, but I gotta make a living!

Spoils of Combat

BONGGggg

I can't stop myself from posting these Alley Oops! They're like candy, all colorful and chewy. Can ya put up with a few more of these before I change the subject?

Still dedicated to charlie, our favorite nonagenarian, who can't get enough Oop!

The nice thing about Alley Oop strips is that you don't need to see every strip in a sequence for it to make sense and be fun. Like here, we've skipped over one that's missing. Oh well.

If There's Ever a Guy You Can Depend On

Ding-Donged, Apple-Knockin' Stumble Bum

Wotta classic panel!

Wotta fun strip!

Kidnaping On Your Mind

Let's keep looking at a few of these Alley Oops and then we'll intersperse them with other stuff. These are so nice and colorful.

Princess of Gonwanda Land

Alley Oop has kind of a cult following, with people who are forever seeking a strip here and a strip there to collect. I wish I had more, but at least I do have a few to share. This post starts a partial sequence of 18 strips, starting in the middle of a storyline, missing some here and there, and stopping abruptly. But that doesn't matter to cult followers, and hopefully not to the rest of you either.

I only have time to scan, clean up and post one strip every few days, but maybe that will keep some of you coming back again. And the rest of you . . . well, try to enjoy them anyway.

These strips are dedicated to our friend charlie, who is krazy about komic strips!

I'm calling this arc Princess of Gonwanda Land.

Gee Whiz!

Hi. My name is Thom. I'm an Oopaholic.

I just can't get enough of Alley Oop, by V.T. Hamlin.

Here's a little present to you other Oopaholics (and I know you're out there) from my little stash of Alley Oop strips—this starting on Christmas eve of 1967.