Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.
Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.
Slide Show: Want to see the pictures as a slide show?
[Slideshow]
Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]
Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
NWFUN_171005_010.JPG: What's So Funny?
These familiar faces are but a few of the newspaper comic-strip characters that have made us laugh out loud or otherwise captivated us for more than a century. More than just "the funnies," comic strips document our cultural history, offer social and political commentary, stir controversy, and provide a daily dose of humor, adventure or drama.
Comics have been a unifying thread in U.S. history. "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz called comic strips "poor man's poetry," and some became memorable. "We have met the enemy, and he is us," the possum Pogo famously declared. Even presidents acknowledged the power of comics. "There are only three major vehicles to keep us informed as to what is going on in Washington," President Gerald Ford once said. "The electronic media, the print media and Doonesbury, and not necessarily in that order."
Comics are no thrilling matter, according to newspaper editor Steve Smith. "I've always found a certain irony in the fact that no decision [journalists] make -- from determining front-page content to endorsing presidential candidates -- generates as much response, passion and anger as comics decisions."
NWFUN_171005_013.JPG: The First Comics:
The bitter circulation competition between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst helped popularize the American art form that later took root in other parts of the world. In 1895, a cartoon panel called "Hogan's Alley" became a top attraction in Pulitzer's New York World. Hearst's New York Journal responded by hiring the cartoonist -- R.F. Outcault -- away from the World. Other cartoons were soon to follow; publishers quickly realized their potential as circulation builders.
NWFUN_171005_022.JPG: The Katzenjammer Kids:
"The Katzenjammer Kids," created by Rudolph Dirks, was the first strip to consistently use word balloons for dialogue and a sequence of panels to tell a story. It was launched by Hearst's New York Journal in 1897 and is the oldest comic strip still in existence.
NWFUN_171005_024.JPG: The Yellow Kid:
Although cartoons of various types had been published in newspapers for years, the Yellow Kid character of "Hogan's Alley" -- an irrelevant urchin in a bright yellow nightshirt -- was the first widely popular comic character. Indirectly, the Yellow Kid helped inspire the term "yellow journalism," which is still associated with sensationalism and journalistic misconduct of all kinds.
NWFUN_171005_030.JPG: Yellow Kid Merchandise:
The Yellow Kid was the first comic-strip character to inspire merchandise, such as this metal figure from the late 1890s. These game cards were given away with Adams chewing gum, and the buttons were used as promotions for High Admiral cigarettes.
NWFUN_171005_036.JPG: The Daily Strip:
Weekday black-and-white comic strips appeared several times a week in William Randolph Hearst's newspapers by the early 1900s. Bud Fisher created the first successful daily strip with "Mutt and Jeff" (originally "A. Mutt"), which was an overnight phenomenon in the San Francisco Chronicle. Interest in daily strips soared. In 1912, Hearst introduced the first daily full page of comics in his New York Evening Journal. It was widely copied. Early comics reflected and reinforced prevailing racial attitudes of the era, stereotypically portraying immigrants and minorities as savages, servants or, at best, sidekicks.
NWFUN_171005_039.JPG: Little Nemo in Slumberland:
In 1905, the New York Herald introduced Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland," chronicling a boy's dream adventures. The story line sometimes lasted several weeks, foreshadowing the development of popular serials.
NWFUN_171005_044.JPG: Sambo and His Funny Noises:
Minorities were often portrayed in stereotypical ways, as shown in this 1911 "Sambo and His Funny Noises" cartoon by William F. Marriner.
NWFUN_171005_049.JPG: The Gumps:
Sidney Smith portrayed "The Gumps," a middle-class family featuring the chinless Andy. Smith was the first comic-strip creator to get a $1 million contract, and "The Gumps" was one of the first strips to be adapted to a radio.
NWFUN_171005_054.JPG: Mutt and Jeff:
In this strip from 1952, Mutt and Jeff's nostalgic recollections end with a brick tossed at Jeff's head, a common occurrence.
NWFUN_171005_059.JPG: Krazy Kat:
Brick-throwing was also a problem for Krazy Kat, who was always getting beaned by Ignatz Mouse. George Herriman's popular strip ran in newspapers from 1913 to 1944.
NWFUN_171005_067.JPG: "Eight pages of iridescent polychromous effulgence that make the rainbow look like a lead pipe!"
-- Ad for American Humorist, the New York Journal's eight-page Sunday color supplement, which was launched in 1896
NWFUN_171005_068.JPG: Wee Pals:
"Wee Pals," the first comic strip syndicated in the mainstream press to feature black characters in everyday roles, did not appear until the 1960s. Cartoonist Morrie Turner sometimes included a panel featuring historical facts about African Americans.
NWFUN_171005_074.JPG: This vintage pinback buttons were given away by newsdealers to spur sales of newspapers. Some buttons introduced a new comic or were part of a contest, while others simply helped build a fan base for comic strips.
NWFUN_171005_156.JPG: Rise of the Syndicates:
By the 1920s, comics had gained a national readership. Marketing organizations, called syndicates, vied to get cartoonists under contract and to sell their strips to newspapers across the country. "Peanuts," Charles Schulz's beloved strip, long held the record as the world's most syndicated comic strip. But by 2002, when newspapers were printed recycled "Peanuts" strips following of Schulz, the strip was overtaken in popularity by "Garfield," the fat cat who struggles with human problems. Created by Jim Davis, "Garfield" appears in more than 2,500 newspapers worldwide. In markets where two or more newspapers competed for circulation, popular comic strips became valuable assets.
NWFUN_171005_159.JPG: Peanuts:
Charles Schulz's classic "Peanuts" was populated by bumbling Charlie Brown, bossy Lucy and the dreamy beagle, Snoopy.
NWFUN_171005_163.JPG: This ad announcing the debut of the "Peanuts" comic strip ran in The Washington Post in 1950.
NWFUN_171005_168.JPG: "The liberal sprinkling of our newspapers with comic strips is a decidedly beneficial thing from a health standpoint."
-- Neurologist Dr. Frederick W. Seward, 1925
NWFUN_171005_169.JPG: Li'l Abner:
Al Capp created the memorable characters of L'il Abner and Daisy Mae in 1934.
NWFUN_171005_174.JPG: Garfield:
This 1992 "Garfield" strip by Jim Davis highlights a typical moment in the lazy cat's life.
NWFUN_171005_179.JPG: In the 1970s, when The Washington Star was able to snatch "Doonesbury," "Cathy" and "Tank McNamara" away from the rival Washington Post, the coup merited a Page One story in the Star. In retaliation, the Post stopped publishing the strips prior to the switch-over date -- setting off howls from readers and a wave of news coverage, including this Time magazine story.
NWFUN_171005_185.JPG: Zap! Pow! Vroom!
The birth of serious dramatic strips such as jungle hero "Tarzan," outer-space adventurer "Buck Rogers," dashing detective "Dick Tracy," swashbuckling "Terry and the Pirates," Intergalactic explorer "Flash Gordon" and the daring "Prince Valiant" between 1928 and 1937 created a new narrative genre with heroic characters and suspenseful plots revolving around adventure, crime and science fiction. Females were represented by crime-fighting vigilante "Miss Fury" and redheaded, globe-trotting reporter "Brenda Starr."
NWFUN_171005_187.JPG: Buck Rogers:
In 1929, writer Phil Nowlan and artist Dick Calkins launched the first science fiction comic strip with the outer-space adventures of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."
NWFUN_171005_199.JPG: Terry and the Pirates:
Milton Caniff's "Terry and the Pirates," launched in 1934, featuring intrigue and adventure in the Far East.
NWFUN_171005_200.JPG: Brenda Starr:
"Brenda Starr" was created in 1940 by Dale Messick, who is believed to be the first American woman to draw a syndicated comic strip.
NWFUN_171005_205.JPG: "The comic strip reading public in time becomes weary of nothing but funny jokes and gags. They want comic strips with suspense, romance, danger and thrills in them."
-- Harold Gray, creator of "Little Orphan Annie"
NWFUN_171005_207.JPG: Dick Tracy:
Legendary detective Dick Tracy, created by Chester Gould in 1931, hunted down villages and rogues.
NWFUN_171005_211.JPG: Family Life:
"The Newlyweds," begun in 1904 by cartoonist George McManus, was the first family strip. He later created "Bringing Up Father" (1913), which set the pattern for the domestic comic-strip wars between the sexes. The theme of a charming, capable wife and her bumbling husband became a comics standard, most memorably in "Blondie" (1930). By the mid-1970s, the joys and frustrations of the single-and-dating "Cathy" made her a symbol of her generation. In the 1990s, "Calvin and Hobbes," a little boy and his stuffed tiger, had devoted fans; one of today's top 'toons, "Zits," is a timeless tale of teen angst.
NWFUN_171005_214.JPG: The Newlyweds:
Anxious parents leave their baby with the nanny for the first time in George McManus's popular strip, which was renamed "The Newlyweds and Their Baby."
NWFUN_171005_217.JPG: Bringing Up Father:
Domestic wars were a constant feature of life with Jiggs, an Irish immigrant worker who made good, and Maggie, his ambitious, social-climbing wife, in "Bringing Up Father."
NWFUN_171005_220.JPG: Calvin and Hobbes:
"Calvin and Hobbes," the wry story of a six-year-old with a big imagination and a stuff tiger, was carried in more than 2,400 newspapers at its peak until creator Bill Watterson ended it in 1995.
NWFUN_171005_225.JPG: The Family Circus:
Bil Keane's panel, "The Family Circus" (1960), portrays the funny moments inside family life.
NWFUN_171005_228.JPG: Blondie:
In "Blondie," Chic Young explored the timeless themes of marriage, work and child-rearing through the Bumsteads, the all-American family.
NWFUN_171005_232.JPG: Cathy:
The self-deprecating drawings that cartoonist Cathy Guisewite included with letters to her parents were the inspiration for "Cathy," which debuted in 1976.
NWFUN_171005_240.JPG: Lapel button that was used by the Milwaukee Sentinel to promote the "Bringing Up Father" strip.
NWFUN_171005_241.JPG: Zits:
Comics phenomenon "Zits" made the scene in 1997 with the tale of high-school freshman named Jeremy and the classic struggles of adolescence.
NWFUN_171005_245.JPG: Soap Opera Strips:
Frank King's "Gasoline Alley" set the stage for "soap opera" comic strips when confirmed bachelor Walt Wallet found baby Skeezix on his doorstep in 1921. Chicago Tribune co-editor Joseph Patterson devised the plot to attract female readers. Soap opera strips tell long-running stories in brief daily episodes. "Mary Worth," which began in the 1930s, is typical of the genre, along with "Judge Parker," which debuted in 1952. One of the most famous and longest-running strips is "Little Orphan Annie" (1924), which combined soap opera with adventure and political commentary.
NWFUN_171005_247.JPG: Little Orphan Annie:
The continual stream of episodes with action and international intrigue in Harold Gray's "Little Orphan Annie" attracted a loyal audience.
NWFUN_171005_254.JPG: A major moment in comic-strip history was the first meeting of Annie, the red-haired orphan, and Daddy Warbucks, a conservative capitalist.
NWFUN_171005_257.JPG: Mary Worth:
Mary Worth has been dispensing grandmotherly advice since 1938 in one of the longest-running soap opera strips, written by Allen Saunders and illustrated by Ken Ernst.
NWFUN_171005_263.JPG: Political Satire:
From the conservative political values of "Little Orphan Annie" to political skewering in "Pogo" to the liberalism of "Doonesbury," comic strips have held a mirror to society on political and social issues, sometimes blurring the line between editorial and humorous cartoons.
NWFUN_171005_265.JPG: Pogo:
Walt Kelly's "Pogo" often engaged in social and political satire. The strip caricatured Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s as a power-hungry bobcat named Simple J. Malarkey, who wanted to rule the local bird-watching club.
NWFUN_171005_268.JPG: Doonesbury:
Garry Trudeau's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Doonesbury," launched in 1970, is well known for its biting political satire.
NWFUN_171005_271.JPG: "Criticizing a political satirist for being unfair is like criticizing a 260-pound nose guard for being too physical."
-- Garry Trudeau, creator of "Doonesbury"
NWFUN_171005_273.JPG: Shoe:
"Shoe," set at a newspaper run by birds, was created in 1977 by political cartoonist Jeff MacNelly. Chris Cassatt and Gary Brookins took over the strip after MacNelly's death at age 52.
NWFUN_171005_277.JPG: The Boondocks:
In "The Boondocks," which debuted in 1999, Aaron McGruder skewered contemporary life and examined racial issues through the angry eyes of Huey Freeman.
NWFUN_171005_280.JPG: Doonesbury:
Garry Trudeau's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Doonesbury," launched in 1970, is well known for its biting political satire.
NWFUN_171005_288.JPG: Don't Touch that Comic:
Newspaper comic strips have fervent fans. Editors feel the heat when a popular comic is moved or canceled. In 1925, the Chicago Daily Tribune's switchboard lit up with a record number of calls from readers irate that the "Little Orphan Annie" strip went missing one day. The absence "caused more rumpus on The Tribune switchboard than a world war, a big league baseball game or the bombing of the post office," the newspaper reported. Readers feel personal connections to comic-strip characters. In the 1990s, The Washington Post got more than 15,000 calls and 2,000 letters when it asked readers for their favorite comics.
NWFUN_171005_290.JPG: "Who is the Pinhead responsible for canceling 'Zippy'? "
-- Letter to the Editor, The Washington Post
NWFUN_171005_292.JPG: Comics Over the Air:
New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia read popular comics over the air on radio station WNYC during a 1945 newspaper strike so readers could follow their favorite funnies.
NWFUN_171005_295.JPG: Naming Contest:
When Chic Young's "Blondie" had a baby in 1941, nearly half a million people wrote in suggesting names, and "Cookie" was the winner. The Bumsteads' first child, Baby Dumpling (Alexander), arrived in 1934. Both children grew to teenagers in the strip, an age the then maintained.
NWFUN_171005_301.JPG: Generations of Laughter
"My father liked to laugh, and my fondest childhood memory is of seeing him doubled up in his chair after reading 'Moon Mullins' on a Sunday morning. His face was red, and tears streamed from his eyes. He was obviously enjoying himself. If he didn't choke."
-- Mort Walker, creator of "Beetle Bailey"
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
2017 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Trips this year:
Civil War Trust conferences in Pensacola, FL, Chattanooga, TN (via sites in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) and Fredericksburg, VA,
a family reunion in The Dells, Wisconsin (via sites in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin),
New York City, and
my 12th consecutive San Diego Comic Con trip (including sites in Arizona).
For some reason, several of my photos have been published in physical books this year which is pretty cool. Ones that I know about:
"Tarzan, Jungle King of Popular Culture" (David Lemmo),
"The Great Crusade: A Guide to World War I American Expeditionary Forces Battlefields and Sites" (Stephen T. Powers and Kevin Dennehy),
"The American Spirit" (David McCullough),
"Civil War Battlefields: Walking the Trails of History" (David T. Gilbert),
"The Year I Was Peter the Great: 1956 — Khrushchev, Stalin's Ghost, and a Young American in Russia" (Marvin Kalb), and
"The Judge: 26 Machiavellian Lessons" (Ron Collins and David Skover).
Number of photos taken this year: just below 560,000.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Limiting Text: You can turn off all of this text by clicking this link:
[Thumbnails Only]