HENNY by Henny Youngman and Art Cumings

There is nothing new, only the history you don't know. I have seen a lot of these strips pop up on Facebook this week. It'd otf interested to me since the artist was a friend and fellow Berndt Toast Gang member. So, here's an edited version of my blog about the Henny Youngman comic strip that I originally posted in July 16, 2013.

There have been a lot of showbiz related comics. I knew about the Woody Allen comic strip, but I had not heard of this "King of the One-Liners" one until chancing upon it in an old issue of Cartoonist PROfiles magazine (No. 32, December 1976).

The HENNY comic strip, from the trove of musty, misogynistic old jokes that Henny Youngman celebrated, and illustrated by my friend Art Cumings, ran for about a year. Art does his best with a strip that's appeal is verbal, not visual.  The format was always the two panels: the set up and the gag.

Syndicated by Field Enterprises (and copyright 1976 by same), here is a smattering of strips from 1976, its debut year. Same year as the Woody Allen comic strip, which would run until 1984.

Related: Stu Hample and Dick Cavett talk about DREAD AND SUPERFICIALITY: WOODY ALLEN AS COMIC STRIP at the Strand book store in NYC on November 23, 2009. Here is part one: