Watchcat Wednesday: August 23

Animation related Birthdays: Gene Kelly, Kobe Bryant, Ed Benedict the designer of the Flintstones, Barbara Eden is 82, Nik Ranieri, supervising Animator of Disney characters Lumiere, Meeko,  Hades, and currently animation director for World War Toons videogames and Oscar Grillo  
and of course, how about that solar eclipse...

And on this Watchcat Wednesday or close to it, "Gasoline Alley" a cartoon strip created by Frank King, premieres in the Chicago Tribune in 1919. “Gasoline Alley,” would become King’s long-running comic strip about the Chicagoan Walt Wallet and his adopted son, Skeezix, an infant left on his doorstep in 1921. He nicknamed the boy “Skeezix,” after a ranching term for a calf with no mother; Skeezix would always call him “Uncle Walt.”

In real life, King’s relationship to fatherhood was never easy. His wife Delia’s first pregnancy ended in a stillbirth in 1913. Three years later, their son, Robert Drew King, was born, but according to King-family diaries they were emotionally distant parents. By 1924, they sent Robert to boarding school. “I never knew who my parents were,” Robert said years later. “I only saw them in the summer.”

In 1954, King donated 283 of his comic strips to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida where they still are today. Rollins College is same college that Fred "Mister Rogers" Rogers attended. Rogers' famous tennis shoes and sweater are also apart of their library collection. 

http://social.rollins.edu/wpsites/libraryarchives/2011/07/15/gasoline-alley-comic-strips-a-rediscovered-treasure/

 

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