Saturday, March 31, 2007

 

Obscurity of the Day: Outline of Science



Educational strips used to occupy a pretty sizeable niche in the newspaper world. In fact, for the McClure Syndicate one of them, Highlights of History, may well have been their biggest seller in the 20s and 30s.

McClure didn't have nearly as much success with this strip, Outline of Science. The numbered strip tried to tell the history of science in imitation of J. Carroll Mansfield's Highlights of History. Max Hahn, who otherwise has no comic strip credits that I know of, supplied the text and pictures.

Hahn's mistake with the strip was in not telling a story. His strips read like something out of a middle school textbook, a dry rundown of facts and figures without any drama to make the history come alive. Whereas Mansfield's strip sought to entertain as well as educate, Hahn's strip sounded like a series of lectures.

The highest numbered strip I've been able to find is #249 and I doubt that it ran much longer than that. Based on strip numbering in my samples I place the start of the strip at October 18 1926.

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Comments:
Hello! I found a cartoon sketch of a political cartoon signed by Cy Hungerford. I wonder if it has any value to it and if you could help me to find out more about the artist? Thank you. Deb
 
hcollectibles out of Oregon has two strips listed on his site. One for $10 & one for $20.
 
HELP!! Oh i go to auction sale .I came across this comic section, it say--Baltimore American, Sunday,February,23,1913.....the comic is called
The Pursuer Pursued By Sambo&Co! I can't find anything about this.Well i am not as good as some people. i would like to find out about this if anyone could please help. Thank You So Much
 
The comic strip is from a series called "Sambo and his Funny Noises".
 
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