I wonder if Gene was renovating his home around this time. Three of the four comics have to do with house repairs and bills.
I like the sour notes in the silhouetted third panel of the April 3rd comic. The clamshell/bell on the dial phone in the April 10th comic is imaginative (I’m sure the TV series had the same thing) and Baby Puss makes an appearance in an interestingly laid-out opening panel on April 17th. Nice end gag, too. Note the dinosaur off into the distance. It looks like little dinosaurs decorate the lamp shade in the long opening panel on April 24th.
Pebbles shows up in two of the four comics, and only incidentally. Barney and Betty are absent altogether. The focus this month is on grouchy Fred.
The colour comics come from the collection of Richard Holliss in England. Apparently, some of the papers used two-tone instead of full colour. Try to ignore the skunk stripe down the middle of the page of the others. These are the only scans I can find.
April 3, 1966
April 10, 1966
April 17, 1966
April 24, 1966
It's Funny 'Cause It's Redundant Dept: the whiskers on Fred's permanent five o' clock shadow in the 4/24 strip.
ReplyDelete"Only" works...as long as the comic strips keep comin'! Thanks, because I know it's getting harder!
ReplyDeleteWe learn a few things in these strips...we learn that the cookie-loving postman is named Emmet. We also learn that it takes much dental care to keep Mo (the lawn mower) in top operation, and we also find out what kinds of gifts Wilma gives Fred for Christmas. Also I notice that sometimes it's "The Loyal Order of Water Buffalos" but on occasion as this month it's "The Royal Order of Water Buffalos." And evidently when they are not entering barbershop quartet contests (reference to the HBR album "SASFATPOGOBSQALT")the Lodge brothers get together for instrumental jam sessions as well.
I, too, love the little clam shell bell on the phone. There are a lot of great visual touches. I like the scene of Fred putting Pebbles to bed, showing the master bedroom in relation to Pebbles' room.
The humor seems skewed primarily toward adults this month. It does indeed look as though Gene might have had some home repair experiences during the period preceding these strips. And what adult doesn't ask himself why he suffers through getting up and going to work every day?
Great stuff! Thanks!
Materials 100% Gene Hazelton.
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