Thursday, April 20, 2023

THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS by Joe Musial


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.

 

- Edited from an original blog entry of February 26, 2019.

1 comment:

Billy Hogan said...

I had a copy of this book also when I was a kid back then!