Of the five strips shown on the web site,I would leap to the defense of "Dick Tracy." The "artwork" in the panels shown was not done by Chester Gould, the cartoonist who originated the strip. Gould's work was pretty primitive, but it was a whole lot better than that shown on the web site (looks like the work of some semi-talented high school kid trying to copy Gould's work, but still not getting it).

At the age of about six, "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" turned me on to comics and to science fiction in general. At the time (late 1930s), there were two different people doing the art work. Whoever did the Sunday strips was quite good (CLICKY #1), but whoever did the dailies set the style that most people associate with the strip (CLICKY #2), which was pretty goofy in a lot of ways, including anatomically.

I copied the drawings (in the Sunday strip) initially, then started drawing my own stuff. I got serious. Got books on professional cartooning, what materials to use, art books and such, and around twelve or thirteen, I had chosen my career. I was going to draw comic strips. In particular, I studied the drawings of Hal Foster ("Prince Valiant") and Alex Raymond ("Flash Gordon"), and Burne Hogarth ("Tarzan"), probably the best actual illustrators in the field (I got a copy of Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy. Excellent!).

I got a look at some of the first of Bob Kane's "Batman" strips (first published when he was eighteen – CLICKY #3), and if I do say so myself, at the age of fourteen, my stuff was a lot better (in terms of anatomy, line-work, general panel layout, etc.) than his.

I learned the hard way that I could waste a lot of time, ink and paper by drawing the strip as I made up the story. I managed to get my hero into predicaments that I couldn't get him out of without doing something ridiculous and unbelievable. So I started writing the story ahead of time. I'd write a sentence or two describing the drawing in each panel (like distance "camera angle," etc.), and write the dialog for the speech balloons. The scenarios looked like movie scripts. Problem was, I got so interested in the stories that I didn't get around to going back and doing the drawings. I wound up deciding to become a writer instead. And other things attracted my attention. Along came folk music. But I still draw the occasional irreverent cartoon from time to time.

In the 1950s, comics kind of fell on hard times. The EC comics brouhaha, and then the development of Marvel Comics style "bull-pens" where all of the artists have to draw the same style. No individuality. You could always identify Chester Gould's stuff, or Milton Caniff's (CLICKY #4), or Burne Hogarth's, or Hal Foster's, or Alex Raymond's. But you look at a Spiderman or any other Marvel comic book you can't tell who the artist is. Actually, one person writes the story, someone else pencils the drawings, someone else does the ink work, and another person does the color. Assembly line. (Boo! Hiss!)

I agree about "Mary Perkins, Onstage." Kind of a soap, but very well drawn, interesting stories, likable main character (early strip).

Don Firth

P. S. Not Michelangelo or da Vinci, but a Classic, nevertheless.