My earliest reading materials were the Big Little Books and newspaper comics pages. We didn't call them comics pages then; we called them, "the funnies." The funnies were not all funny, although most were.
My favorite "funny" for a long time was the Katzenjammer Kids. The kids were Hans and Fritz, and they were always in some kind of mischief. Their father was called the Captain, and he was troubled with gout. The boys' favorite trick was to whack the Captain on his leg to arouse him. Then, the funny would start. The boys' mother was simply called Mama, and her specialty was pie baking. She always set the freshly baked pies on the window seat to cool. Of course, the boys would steal them, and the fun would start.
I had other favorite funnies in those days that included Mutt and Jeff, Bringing Up Father (Maggie anda Jiggs), Popeye and Skeezix. Some of the nonfunny funnies were Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Dick Tracy and Charlie Chan.
Most of the funnies of that day seemed to appeal more to boys than to girls. Most, but not all. One of the most popular strips was Little Orphan Annie. There was also Tillie the Toiler and Invisible Scarlett O'Neill.
I believe it was in the late 1930s sometime that a new funny burst on the comics pages that became almost everyone's favorite. The title was simply Li'l Abner, and the author was Al Capp. Li'l Abner Yokum was a country bumpkin who had a girl friend named Daisy Mae. His parents were Pansy and Lucifer (Mammy and Pappy). The strip was peopled with numerous other finely drawn characters that included Marryin' Sam, Earthquake McGoon, Moonbeam McSwime and Joe Btfsplik (always walked under a cloud). The strip centered around Li'l Abner's attempts to escape the clutches of Daisy Mae an other females during Sadie Hawkins Days when Marryin' Sam did big business.
Al Capp retained his popularity with Li'l Abner until he began to introduce perhaps too much social commentary into his humor.
There was one other funny that was a particular favorite of mine, The Toonerville Trolley. "The trolley that meets all trains" was captained by the Captain, and the funny included such other characters as Mickey (Himself) Mcguire, Aunt Eppy Hogg (fattest woman in three counties), the Powerful Katrinka (strongest woman in three counties), and The Terrible Tempered Mr. Bang.
These are the favorites that I remember.
Do I read any "funnies" today? Oh, I read a couple, but I get most of my humor from the editorial pages. I do read, Pickles, which is written mainly to satisfy us old-timers. I also read, For Better or For Worse, a well-written strip with realistically featured family situations.
I just checked the funnie pages to see if any of my old favorites are still featured. I found, Blondie, and I noticed that Dagwood is still making monstrous sandwiches and is still running to get to work on time.
Walter Higbee is a retired college educator living in Spearfish. Write him at the Rapid City Journal, Box 450, Rapid City, SD 57709.
