The Air at the Top of the Bottle

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Nicodemus O’Malley and His Whale Palsy-Walsy

January 30th, 2012 · 2 Comments

nicodemus.jpg

In the days of big Sunday comics sections, many strips spread out over a whole page, and included a “topper strip”: a sort of short subject before the feature.  Some cartoonists used them to spin off a character from the main strip (particularly children and cats); some to revive an older idea; some to indulge a wilder brand of fantasy.

For years, Ad Carter drew a rather generic strip called “Just Kids.”  He seemed to be having fun with its topper strip, which carried one of the most exuberant titles I know of.  This one is from November 21, 1937.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Tags: Animals · Cartoons

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Lisa // Jan 31, 2012 at 3:04 pm

    Wonderful whale! And I especially like the Chinese laundryman’s reply to Nicodemus’s pidgin English: “very good, sir.”

  • 2 Doug // Jan 31, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    There was a Chinese boy in “Just Kids” too; he talked like the other kids.