PRIVATE BUCK by Clyde Lewis

PRIVATE BUCK was a King Features panel created by Clyde Lewis. Mr. Lewis (1911 - 1976) drew a number of strips at NEA (including a strip about kids called HERKY and a gag panel one called HOLD EVERYTHING), and then jumped to King Features in May 1940 with a panel titled SNICKEROOS. Amongst the many characters, like a hobo and a couple of old maids, was a little guy who one day joined the army. The panel was retitled after this fellow and PRIVATE BUCK was born. When WWII started, Lewis enlisted, and the feature was seen in Stars and Stripes. Clyde Lewis was in good cartoonist company, appearing in the paper with Dave Breger, Bill Mauldin and George Baker. 

After the war, Buck joined civilian life. The panel was renamed THE PRIVATE LIFE OF BUCK. It would continue until 1952. 

The gags are your basic innocent fellow misunderstanding the military world and getting into scrapes. Here are a few gags from the PRIVATE BUCK book, copyright 1942-43 by King Features.

More about Buck at the King Features "Ask the Archivist" blog. 

My thanks to Jeanette Stout for this book!