Kelly & Duke revisited

Months ago I posted a bunch of old Kelly & Duke strips on this blog.

I've posted some Sunday comics, with the intention of adding more when I got them. Here they are. I got them months ago, but only adding them now. Hey, better late than never.

These six are all from 1979.








That's it. That's all the Kelly Sundays I have, unless I acquire more..

Here's Kelly again

Google proves itself more useful when they began putting up archives of old newspaper microfilms. If you want to see how comics looked decades ago, this is the place. It's a bit of a pain to use, but it's worth it.

One of the papers Google is archiving is St. Petersburg Times. One of the strips they were running was Kelly & Duke (back then, the title was just Kelly). Here are some daily samples.

Note how the artwork has more detail than the later run.

A little light on Jack Moore

Okay, one other thing about Kelly & Duke. I just recieved an email from a person named John Neel with an interesting discovery: a political cartoon by Jack Moore.

I have no doubt to believe that this is from the same artist behind Kelly. The artstyle is different, but the artist's signature matches with the one found in his strip.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what newspaper Moore drew for and when, but it does at least shed some light on his cartoon career.

More Kelly & Duke Sundays

...and here's another set of five Kelly & Duke Sunday strips (see the other post here).







That's it for Kelly for a while. But tune in next time when I post about some other stuff. What it will be about, I do not know.

More Kelly & Duke.

I finally found them on my computer. Here are some (poor quality) scans of Kelly & Duke. And as I wrote in the edit of the original post, more can be found here.

I've purchased some Sunday samples, which I will post when they arrive.

Kelly & Duke

This is one of those strips that I know next-to-nothing about, but I'll give it a shot, anyway.

Kelly & Duke was one of the first strips picked up by the newly established Universal Press Syndicate. It ran from 1972 to 1980. The strip's title was originally just Kelly, but the title changed in 1974. The cartoonist was Jack Moore.



The strip was about a boy (Kelly), and his dog. Duke was a big, talking dog who always walked on his two legs and had a southern accent, evident by how he talks. Once in a while, a beatnik cat named Roscoe showed up.

Beyond that, I don't know much about the strip. I have no idea what happened to Jack Moore, and what his cartooning history are (assuming he has any besides Kelly)

The only reason I've heard of this is because the strip is often mentioned in comics forums and newsgroups. The strip had fans, at least.

I've found few samples of the strip. The strip was pretty unusual at the time. The artwork caught my eye. It was sorta inbetween the cartoonish style and the "serious" style seen in soap strips. Maybe that's why it had fans.

Universal Press seemed to had a goal in what comics they were looking for, judging by this and two other comics they picked up at the time, Doonesbury and, some may argue, Ziggy.

If anyone has more information about Kelly & Duke and the creator Jack Moore (including more samples, articles, etc...) please email me at cbrubaker@gmail.com

EDIT (7/27) - Well, that was fast. I've found more samples at this site. I've also ordered some Sunday samples from eBay. I'll post some when I get them.