Clarence - 39 Newspaper pages & strips - 1924/1933

Rare surviving episodes from various Sunday Comics sections, featuring episodes of Clarence by Crawford Young and Frank Fogerty on one each single full page in the period 1924-1933. 39 pages
Most pages are from 1929 and 1930

Only some images are selected.

Comics on the back: Mr. and Mrs. by Briggs Winnie Winkle by Branner,...

Clarence debuted in the New York Herald on July 10 19211 (not 1924 as is commonly reported). The creator of the strip was Crawford Young, who had made somewhat of a name for himself penning cartoons for the major humour magazines. Apparently, though, he preferred to swap the vagabond freelancer life for the security of a regular paycheck. This was his second try at a Sunday page for the Herald. The first was The Finkles, which is a pretty similar sitcom — other than father’s avoirdupois — which for reasons unknown was dumped after a mere two months.

Young’s strip differed from all the other family sitcoms (and this assessment comes straight from Crawford Young) in that instead of the stereotypical big domineering wife and diminutive henpecked husband, he offered a big fat man and a petite woman, and to shake things up further the wife wasn’t a stereotypical harridan, and the husband wasn’t a milquetoast. As an original invention maybe it was not quite on the Edison level, but with decent gags and expressive sketchy art, it was perfectly acceptable fare. In syndication it did not do all that well, but then that could be said of just about anything in the New York Herald stable of features. Whether Clarence failed to interest buyers or the Herald simply didn’t market it effectively is a toss-up.

Due to the less than stellar syndication figures Crawford Young was no doubt receiving paychecks that he found underwhelming. And so, at perhaps the worst possible moment, Young was sweet-talked by the Hearst camp into leaving the Herald and creating a similar feature for them. Young’s last installment of Clarence ran on February 24 1929, and months later he debuted a new but not much different family sitcom Sunday strip titled Mortimer for King Features. The Great Depression ensued mere months later and the new strip found very few takers. For Young everything was downhill from there. The closest thing to a success he would have in the future was the daily panel The Tutts, penned for the Central Press Association, sort of the bargain bin division of Hearst in the 1930s.

Clarence, however, soldiered on. A new creative team was assigned to the strip. Writer Weare Holbrook and artist Frank Fogarty took over, with Fogarty immediately revamping the art from simple and sketchy to a more polished yet somewhat bland style. I’m assured by Maurice Horn in 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics that the strip was immediately overhauled into one about a constantly bickering couple. I confess I have not found that to be true, but then again I haven’t made a project of reading huge swaths of the run, which fails to clear the not terribly high comedy bar established by Crawford Young.

The New York Herald Syndicate still did not do an effective job of selling the strip, but apparently it was profitable enough, so it stayed on the roster for almost another two decades. Finally on March 13 19493 the strip was cancelled. Why then? I have no clue. Both creators continued working, just not on this strip. And, as befits its Under The Radar status, there seemed to be absolutely no outcry from fans that it had disappeared. I imagine Coulton Waugh was bereft, though.

The pages are in very good condition, wrinkles, tears, flaking and missing pieces occur.

Will be shipped with track&trace.

The lots in this auction can be shipped combined. This is taken into account up to a weight of 5 kg. If packages need to be split due to weight, an additional charge will apply. In this case, we will contact you.

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