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John Hix
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Perhaps of interest here. -----Original Message-----
From: Buddy Lortie <alortie4@...> To: Buddy Lortie <alortie4@...> Sent: Tue, Aug 30, 2022 1:17 am Subject: John Hix https://ilovecomixarchive.box.com/s/syikbi5cw493r27nv787fl0y17rjc2dq This is why I can't get anything done! I was putting the finishing touches on a HEART OF JULIET JONES archive and reached the boring, tedious task of renaming 300+ undated dailies. So I took a break. I saw AusReprints had posted scans of WAGS #39, that 30's international comic "book" that featured reprinted US strips and had original content like HAWKS OF THE SEAS and Bob Kane's PETER PUPP. Dating most of the strips was easy, but John Hix's SCRAPBOOK and STRANGE AS IT SEEMS don't OCR well enough to search the archives for a particular strip. No problem; I found a paper, The Commercial Appeal, that carried both Hix strips from 1935-03-17 (the first SCRAPBOOK!!) to 1938-03-13. And found the strip that ran in WAGS. I already knew STRANGE AS IT SEEMS lasted well into the early 70's (and I wasn't about to take on that task), but wondered how long SCRAPBOOK ran. Stripper's Guide surprisingly didn't give a definitive end date, just "1942", Well, that's only another 200 strips or so to grab ... Found a paper on another archive that carried the pairing into the 40's, though of inferior quality. And off I went ... Turned out SCRAPBOOK lasted all the way to 1943-04-25; I only missed a handful. Then I found Hix died at the incredibly young age of 36 of a heart attack on June 6, 1944 (D-Day) so I grabbed the strip to the end of 1944. His last Sunday byline was 1944-08-06 before his brother Ernest took over. Some background -- Hix was the friendly rival of Robert Ripley and his BELIEVE IT OR NOT franchise. Both had radio shows and movies in addition to their daily and Sunday strips. When John was given an exhibit at the1939 World's Fair, Robert "retaliated" by opening his museum right across the street from the Fairgrounds. STRANGE AS IT SEEMS ran dailies and Sundays from 1928 to 1970. The earliest I can find is an undated daily on March 26, 1928 in Stockton (CA) Evening and Sunday Record (a Monday). The Sundays began 1930-02-16. The last daily I can find is 1970-06-13. The last Sunday I saw was 1970-04-26, surprisingly a full tab in black and white. I threw all the STRANGE AS IT SEEMS I had in thee archive, plus a video on its history, and may go back someday for the 1930-34 Sundays. I also included MOST of the comic book reprints I had, though I didn't try to put dates on them, and the covers to the books I was aware of. There are some movies and radio shows at archive.org and 63 radio episodes (of over 600) at https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/drama/strange-as-it-seems 61 radio episodes are at https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=3029 Enjoy And now back to the HEART OF JULIET JONES. Finally. :) Art Lortie |
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