Abbie and Slats was one of the most beautifully drawn strips ever. Created by the noted illustrator Raeburn Van Buren and Al Capp (creator of
Lil Abner, who wrote the scripts for Van Buren's artwork), it featured the adventures of , Abbie, the bighearted but prickly maiden aunt and Slats, the rough-edged young man who often found himself at odds with the bluenoses of little Crabtree Corners.
The real star, at least in the more comic Sunday adventures, was "Bathless" Groggins, the reprobate father of Slats' girlfriend Becky. As you can see from the above example especially, "Bathless" had a knack of getting under other peoples' skin.
I only discovered this strip years after its heyday (it ran from 1937 to 1971, but never in a paper I saw as a kid). But it made an immediate impression and deserves to be remembered as the classic it was, every bit as good as contemporary "good art" strips like
Terry & the Pirates and
Prince Valiant.
Abbie and Slats was one of the most beautifully drawn strips ever. Created by the noted illustrator Raeburn Van Buren and Al Capp (creator of Lil Abner, who wrote the scripts for Van Buren's artwork), it featured the adventures of , Abbie, the bighearted but prickly maiden aunt and Slats, the rough-edged young man who often found himself at odds with the bluenoses of little Crabtree Corners. 
The real star, at least in the more comic Sunday adventures, was "Bathless" Groggins, the reprobate father of Slats' girlfriend Becky. As you can see from the above example especially, "Bathless" had a knack of getting under other peoples' skin. 
I only discovered this strip years after its heyday (it ran from 1937 to 1971, but never in a paper I saw as a kid). But it made an immediate impression and deserves to be remembered as the classic it was, every bit as good as contemporary "good art" strips like Terry & the Pirates and Prince Valiant.
No comments:
Post a Comment