Tuesday, January 19, 2021

THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS by Joe Musial

Here's a popular entry first posted in 2015, with a few added strips as requested.


Hello Dollinks! Here are a few hi res scans from the tiny KATZENJAMMER KIDS paperback collection of Sunday strips by Joe Musial. It's copyright 1970 by King Features.

THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS were created by Rudolph Dirks who, at William Randolph Hearst's request, nicked them from the German cartoon MAX AND MORITZ. 

"The strip relates in the frenzied style the war-to-the-death carried on by Hans and Fritz against any form of authority, whether parental, educational, or governmental."

I had this paperback when I was a kid and studied it. It was lost and so, last week, I bought a copy off of eBay. Such wonderful manic writing and terrific cartooning by Musial. Reading it now for the first time since I was nine years old, I was surprised at how many of the gags I remembered. 

Obviously, these are great fun (if not politically correct) to read out loud. 







That last panel, where Hans and Fritz kiss with a "smak!!" is funny and chilling and perverse at the same time.

And, as requested, here are a couple more great Sunday strips dealing with theft, smoking, lust and deception. What fun!



 

1 comment:

Shawn said...

Thank you! The last time I saw these comic strips was back in 1979. The book was passed around so many it feel apart. These two strips still made me laugh. It's hard to believe that I bought this book almost 50 years ago in 1972. Comedy is timeless, lol! How about posting the strip where the boys put cactus on Der Captains feet? And another funny one is when mamma told Der Captain to "Get busy" and paint something for her. Der Captain forces Der inspector and Der Inspector forces the boys to paint. It was quite a mess. Mama was looking for Der Capatain with a rolling pin; Der Captain was looking for the Inspector with a shotgun. Der Inspector was looking for the boys with two ice cream cones, but he had a baseball bat behind his back , lol!