Existing comment:
(69) Gasoline Alley. "This is the life Skeezix!" 1923.
Published by the Chicago Tribune, June 24, 1923.
India ink, watercolor and opaque white
over graphite underdrawing.
Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature
Prints and Photographs Division
LC-DIG-ppmsca-03292
© 1923 by Chicago Tribune (69)
In this thirteen panel feature of Gasoline Alley by Frank King (1883-1969), Uncle Walt and little Skeezix enjoy a ride in Walt's roadster until the radiator boils over. Walt uses his hat to refill the radiator from a nearby stream, making sixty two trips. The strip debuted in 1919 but changed radically with the appearance of Baby Skeezix on Walt's doorstep on February 14, 1921. From then on, the characters began to age normally, a groundbreaking development in comics. King's clear, clean drawing style and use of pure bright colors suited the gently humorous tone of the strip. This long-lived, beloved strip is still being published today. |