Anybody here hear of a comic strip named "Gasoline Alley"?

[WI_DEM]

apparently they have just celebrated there 90th anniversary, but I don't think I've ever seen the strip--though I vaguely think I've heard of it. Just wondering.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Hell yeah. AND Smokey Stover!

[no_hypocrisy]

15. Foo!

[Captain Hilts]

22. My dad wrote "Foo" on all sorts of things!

Notary Sojak!

[riqster]

30. Weren't there also many notations of "Notary Sojac" in Smokey Stover?

Never did find out what that meant.

[awoke_in_2003]

77. Here is what I found

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1902/whats-the-origin-of-notary-sojac

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Stover

On edit: put the wiki entry in, too. Not sure which, if either, is correct.

[riqster]

84. Thanks! nt

[dbt]

81. Try this for cryptic:

Scram Gravy Ain't Wavy. Useta see that in Smokey Stover thousands of years ago...

[Gidney N Cloyd]

92. I have framed reprints of Gasoline Alley, Smokey Stover and Moon Mullins...

...on the wall in my home office. They came out of a Chicago Tribune special commemorative comics section some years back.

[Donnachaidh]

2. it was in the NY papers years ago

Evidently it's still being published somewhere. :shrug:

[villager]

3. Yes -- I used to read it in the papers when I was a tot (I'm nearing the half-century mark, now!)

I mention my age by way of calibration -- it used to be distributed a lot more widely, through the 60's, at least...

It doesn't pop up nearly as much anymore...

It had such longstanding continuity that MAD magazine satirized it -- in the 50's!

[Oeditpus Rex]

34. Can you tell me where I can get this veeblefetzer repaired?

:D

[enlightenment]

4. I used to read that (and I'm not that old!)

[KittyWampus]

38. Admit it, you're older than dirt :-) Everything about that page screams 1920's.

[damntexdem]

54. Looks like Thirties to me.

[PatSeg]

56. Its dated June 1923

I had no idea it went back that far!

[timtom]

82. It started in 1918.

[PatSeg]

95. After I typed that

I realized we were talking about the ninety year anniversary. 1918! That IS a long time ago. That comic strip was old when I was I kid and I didn't have a clue.

[polmaven]

55. 'specially the date

in the upper left hand corner....1923.

[enlightenment]

74. Where's that snarky smiley, dang it??

:)

[Speck Tater]

5. here

http://www.gocomics.com/gasolinealley/

[monmouth]

6. That was a fav strip of mine along with Nancy and Sluggo and Brenda Starr (girl reporter)...n/t

[Speck Tater]

9. Don't forget Little Lulu and Tubby, and Smokey Stover. NT

[monmouth]

17. Winnie Winkle and egads....Mary Worth....

[WI_DEM]

25. Dr. Morgan, too.

[Captain Hilts]

27. Rex Morgan, M.D. nt

[Captain Hilts]

26. Apartment 3-G!!! That's three 'girls'. nt

[demokatgurrl]

49. Ah, my old faves!!!!

and yeah, I'm old.

[Dervill Crow]

52. Little Itch and her aunt, Witch Hazel.

I wonder if reading those comics when I was little made me the Pagan I am today? And they say Harry Potter influences kids! :rofl:

[kskiska]

91. Those were spin-offs of Little Lulu

[Dervill Crow]

96. Yes, and I recognize that Little Lulu cover!

I had boxes and boxes of comics and my older brother's Mad magazines stored at my parents' house. It's probably a blessing they were stolen; I'm such a packrat and my husband is even worse.

[az chela]

7. Yah when i was a little kid a million years ago

[evlbstrd]

8. I grew up reading it.

Along with Dick Tracy, L'il Abner, Snuffy Smith and tons of others I can't remember right now. The "funny pages" used to be a lot thicker.

[charlie]

10. Yeah

It was unique in that the characters aged in real time. If you were a regular reader, the strip would grow up with you.

[Fumesucker]

23. Not quite unique..

Funky Winkerbean also aged in real time, IIRC.

[charlie]

33. So does For Better or Worse

Gasoline Alley had been doing it for at least a half century before those two debuted, though.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. It still gets printed.

It's in pretty sorry state.

The originals, by the original artist, were pretty good.

They kind of remind me of Calvin and Hobbes in terms of quality.

[ACTION BASTARD]

51. Really? How does the genius of C&H to the tired and way past it's shelf life Gasoline Alley?

It's like comparing a flashlight to super-nova. Not being a jerk, just curious as to how you compare the two.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

64. I'm talking about the early Gasoline Alley.

If Watterson were still working to day it'd be crap.

[Sebastian Doyle]

12. No, but I remember the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAun0WoPNDU

[riqster]

13. AND Pogo!

Can't leave out Mr. Kelly's swamp denizens.

[bemildred]

29. Indeed. nt

[charlie]

35. Rowrbazzle!

The finest strip ever.

[riqster]

40. Ahead of its time, but still popular

... a neat trick.

[KansDem]

43. Remember the classic line?

"If I could write, I'd write my Congressman if only he could read."

:rofl:

[riqster]

46. One of many

"We have met the enemy and he is us" is another.

[damntexdem]

57. Was that Pogo Possum?

Or Mammy Yokum from Lil Abner?

Whichever, Mammy wins the award for philosophy: "Goodness is better'n evil because it's nicer."

[Hannah Bell]

65. pogo.

[timtom]

94. THIS is the Pogo scene and quote that has always stood out in my mind.

[madamesilverspurs]

70. Ahh, Mammy Yokum!

We sure could have used a few of her whammies over the last eight years. For that matter, we could do with a few shmoos right about now...

[riqster]

73. That was actually Churchill la Femme (Churchy), IIRC

... but I could be wrong, it's been a long time. First time I saw it was in Pogo, I am sure of that at least.

Dogpatch, ah, another paradise. Just north of Okeefenokee, yes?

[MineralMan]

14. Oh, you bet...

Best way to see a bunch of the old strips is to use Google Image Search for Gasoline Alley.

Some great stuff.

[Deep13]

16. Saw it in the 1970s.

Never read it.

[no_hypocrisy]

18. Sure, Skeezix and Walt.

They started out together with Walt finding an abandoned baby who he named Skeezix.

[Captain Hilts]

24. My dad called our small cat and ANY young kid "Skeezix." And I recently read...

of a wolfpack of US subs in the Pacific in WWII being named "Skeezix."

[hedgehog]

60. My uncle and Skeezix were born the same day.

[lamp_shade]

19. Yup.. back in the days when we read the "Sunday Funny Papers".

I was just a kid, but I remember it.

[RedLetterRev]

20. Yup, that and

The Phantom, and Alley Oop, Pogo, Little Iodine, and a mess of others I haven't seen in ages. That's how my granddad got me hooked into reading the paper. I got the comics, then the columns next to them, then the crosswords, then little by little, I got the rest of the paper as he got through with it. Sneaky Granddad... good Democrat. He got me thinkin'.

[Cleita]

21. I remember it from a long time ago, although I stopped reading

newspapers except on line a long time ago.

[awoke_in_2003]

79. I do miss

the inkstained fingers.

[monmouth]

28. What strip had "Trixie"..She was someone's aunt or guardian or

something. My 4-year old brain couldn't quite digest that at the time...And of course, First strip on the first page (for us at least) was Blondie...Dagwood's sandwiches always looked so good and made me hungry...Haha... For many of us this was either WWII years or right after, only radio, no TV, it was our "visual" entertainment if we didn't go to the movies. Comic books were the best.

[TlalocW]

32. Nancy (on edit - nope, I'm wrong)

Aunt Trixie was hot! Heheheheheh.

On edit: I was wrong. Nancy's aunt is Fritzi.

TlalocW

[monmouth]

37. Ahh, you're right, Aunt Fritzi...Dick Tracy's gal pal was Tess, now..

maybe Trixie was a strip by itself, can't remember..

[damntexdem]

61. I thought it was Moon Maiden.

Think Dick would trade in his two-way wrist radio for an I-POD?

[damntexdem]

58. Wasn't Trixie the nextdoor neighbor in Blondie?

[monmouth]

71. Ah yes, Herb and Trixie..LOL.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

93. I think that's "Tootsie" nt

There was a Trixie on The Honeymooners, though.

[shraby]

67. That was Hi and Lois and the baby Trixie.

[TlalocW]

31. Read it when I was a kid in the 1980s

And now that I read my comics online, I've included it in my list of ones I read. It's an interesting genre of comic strip, and it's interesting to see the characters age. The larger Walt character in some of the above strips is now a very, very old man. He'll probably be dying soon.

TlalocW

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

36. Yes

it was one of the first strips where the characters aged. Haven't read it in years, but I assume the characters of my youth have been dropped and new ones added.

[TlalocW]

44. Depends when your youth was

Skeezix and Uncle Walt are still around and in their 70s and 90s (possibly 100s). Rover, a young boy with a gift for lock-picking in the 1980s, is grown up and married. Rufus and Joel (the guys who live in the junkyard) are still around. Slim and his wife, Clovia, run the mechanic shop now...

TlalocW

[slackmaster]

39. I used to read that and Lil' Abner back in the '60s

And there was Gordo, which I loved.

[Hekate]

41. Sure, but until the 90th anniversary was announced I thought it was defunct.

Skeezix started out as an orphan on Uncle Walt's doorstep, though that was considerably before my time.

Hekate

[rasputin5]

42. Gosh yes...and Mutt and Jeff, The Katzenjammer Kids,

Little Orphan Annie, Joe Palooka, Dick Tracy, Mandrake the Magician, Li'l Abner...wow I can't believe I'm recalling all those oldy moldies. :D

[alfredo]

45. Love this Gasoline Alley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLBFyS2hlhw

[yy4me]

47. I've got one for you, anyone remember "Dondi"? Post Korean

War comic. We all followed it for the whole many year span. How about Prince Valiant?

[Dervill Crow]

50. Yup, I remember those.

I'm not that old -- I refuse to feel old.

My parents were really old at my age (50-something), but I'm not.

[Hekate]

76. I thought Dondi was an Italian war orphan. ? Loved Prince Valiant, too. nt

[yy4me]

80. Dondi may have been Italian, I don't remember that aspect but

I do remember as a kid, grabbing the "funnies" to read of his plight and I can still visualize the strip with him and the soldiers.
Back in those days, the "funnies" were funny, now I just read Doonesbury and dispose of the rest.

[Dervill Crow]

48. Yes - it was in the Oregonian.

Might still be.

[damntexdem]

53. Haven't seen it for decades -- didn't know it had survived to be 90 or whatever.

But, yeah, it was a big deal when I was growing up -- though not as big as Alley Oop or Lil Abner.

[Arkansas Granny]

59. I haven't read it in years, but it was in the local paper when I was a kid.

[damntexdem]

63. Haven't remembered any of these in years -- in their honor, a Christmas Carol:

Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Washington, and Kalamazoo.
Nora's freezing on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alleygaroo.

(Name that strip!)

[Arkansas Granny]

68. Pogo Possum!

[progressivejazz]

85. It's the first line of the second stanza that slays me:

"Don't we know archaic barrel". It's so close to the original I sing "Deck the Halls" with this line and have never been caught out. Walt Kelley was a genius.

[Doc_Technical]

62. I remember another strip called "Snuffy Smith."

http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/bgoogle/aboutMaina.php

[WI_DEM]

72. We still get "Snuffy" in our paper

[damntexdem]

66. The answer is in the url.

http://www.pogopossum.com/deckus.htm

[hootinholler]

69. Skeezix!

Wow, haven't seen it in a while.

-Hoot

[bdamomma]

75. I do.

[likesmountains 52]

78. The Shmoos! Yes, I remember that!

[progressivejazz]

86. As a kid, I had a paperback book of the schmoos.

Not a comic book, but a paperback full of comics of the schmoos. They were handy little creatures.

I seem to remember having another one with "Fearless Fosdick", but that was so long ago.

[Waiting For Everyman]

83. Also Andy Capp, The Wizard of Id, and B.C.

[acmavm]

87. Oh yeah. Skeezix and the family. Haven't see it for years though.

Amazed that it's still around.

[salguine]

88. This comic dates back to Vaudeville days, when simply putting on a

plaid suit made you the greatest comic of your generation.

[Vidar]

89. It's originally from the 20's but was still around when I was kid.

Unfortunately, I'm 53, so that wasn't exactly yesterday.

[Lerkfish]

90. I recall it as a child, but have not seen it in recent newspapers