iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Gasoline Alley

This article is about the comic strip. For other uses, see Gasoline Alley (disambiguation).


Gasoline Alley

Frank King's Skeezix Out West (Reilly & Lee Co., 1928)
Author(s)Frank King (1918-1959)
Dick Moores (1956-1986)
Jim Scancarelli (1986-present)
Website[1]
Current status / scheduleActive
Launch dateNovember 24, 1918
Syndicate(s)Tribune Media Services
Gasoline Alley is a long-running classic comic strip, created by Frank King, that was first published on November 24, 1918.

Early years

The strip's origins lie in the Chicago Tribune, which ran a Sunday page, The Rectangle, where staff artists contributed one-shot panels, continuing plots or themes. One corner of The Rectangle was home to Frank King's Gasoline Alley, where characters Walt, Doc, Avery and Bill held weekly conversations about automobiles. This black-and-white panel slowly gained recognition and eventually the daily Tribune picked up the feature, either on August 25, 1918 or January 1919, according to varied accounts.

It became a daily strip, and the Sunday version moved from The Rectangle to a full-color page of its own. The 1930s Sunday pages did not employ traditional gags but instead presented a gentle view of nature or imaginary daydreaming with expressive art.

The early years were dominated by the character Walt Wallet. The Tribune's editor, Captain Joseph Patterson, wanted to attract women to the strip so it was decided to introduce a baby into it. The only problem was that Walt was a confirmed bachelor. This was overcome when, on the 14th February 1921, he found an abandoned baby on his doorstep.

The baby was called Skeezix (slang for motherless calf) who called his adopted father Uncle Walt. Unlike most strips (like the Katzenjammer Kids) he did not remain a baby or even a little boy for long. In fact, as the years went by, he grew up to manhood, the first occasion where real time continually elapsed in a major comic strip over generations. By the time the US entered World War II, Skeezix was a fully-grown adult, courting girls and serving in the armed forces. He later married and had children. In the late 1960s he faced a typical mid-life crisis.

Walt Wallet himself eventually married Phyllis Blossom and had other children, who grew up and had kids of their own.

During the 70's and 80's, under Moore's authorship, the characters did briefly stop aging - when Scancarelli took over, the natural aging was restored.[2]

Recent years

The strip is still published in newspapers today. Skeezix has become an octogenarian. Walt's wife Phyllis, aged an estimated 105, died in the April 26, 2004 strip, leaving Walt a widower after nearly eight decades of marriage.

King was succeeded by his former assistants, with Bill Perry taking responsibility for Sunday strips in 1951 and Dick Moores, first hired in 1956, handling other days in 1959. When Perry retired in 1975, Moores took responsibility for Sunday strips as well. Moores died in 1986, and since then, Gasoline Alley has been written and drawn by Jim Scancarelli, formerly assistant to Moores.

The strip and its creator, Frank King, have been recognized with the National Cartoonist Society Humor Strip Award for 1957, 1973, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1985, plus a 1958 Reuben Award. Scancarelli received the National Cartoonist Society Story Comic Strip Award for 1988 for his work on the strip.

Reprint collections

Examples of the full page Sunday strip were printed in The Comic Strip Century (1995, reissued in 2004 as 100 Years of Comic Strips), edited by Bill Blackbeard, Dale Crain and James Vance.

Dick Moores' dailies and Sundays have appeared in Comics Revue monthly, as well as the first strips by Jim Scancarelli.

In 1995, the strip was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative US postage stamps.

In 2003, Spec Productions began a series of soft-covered collections titled Frank King's Gasoline Alley Nostalgia Journal, reprinting the strip from the very first "Rectangle" panel from November 24, 1918. To date, four volumes have appeared:
  • Volume 1, Nov. 24, 1918 to Sept. 22, 1919
  • Volume 2, Sept. 23, 1919 to March 2, 1920
  • Volume 3, March 3, 1920 to July 25, 1920
  • Volume 4, July 26, 1920 to December 31, 1920
In 2005, the first of a series of reprint books, Walt and Skeezix, began, published by Drawn and Quarterly and edited by Chris Ware. The first volume covers 1921–22, beginning when baby Skeezix appears:
  • Walt and Skeezix: Book One, 1921–22, ISBN 1-896597-64-5
  • Walt and Skeezix: Book Two, 1923–24, ISBN 1-896597-99-8
  • Walt and Skeezix: Book Three, ISBN 1-897299-09-5 (October, 2007)
In 2007, Sunday Press Books published a collection of Sundays entitled Sundays with Walt and Skeezix, which collects several early Sundays in the original size and color.

Radio

There were several radio adaptations. Gasoline Alley during the 1930s starred Bill Idelson as Skeezix Wallet with Jean Gillespie as his girlfriend Nina Clock. Jimmy McCallon was Skeezix in the series that ran on NBC from February 17 to April 11, 1941, continuing on the Blue Network from April 28 to May 9 of that same year. The 15-minute series aired weekdays at 5:30pm. Along with Nina (Janice Gilbert), the characters included Skeezix's boss Wumple (Cliff Soubier) and Ling Wee (Junius Matthews), a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. Charles Schenck directed the scripts by Kane Campbell.

The syndicated series of 1948-49 featured a cast of Bill Lipton, Mason Adams and Robert Dryden. Sponsored by Autolite, the 15-minute episodes focused on Skeezix running a gas station and garage, the Wallet and Bobble Garage, with his partner, Wilmer Bobble. In New York this series aired on WOR from July 16, 1948 to January 7, 1949.

Films

Gasoline Alley was adapted into two feature films, Gasoline Alley (1951) and Corky of Gasoline Alley (1951). At the time these films were in production, it was announced that the Gasoline Alley film series would replace the Blondie film series which came to an end in 1950 with Beware of Blondie.

Listen to

External links

 •  • [ e]
Universal Press Syndicate Comics
Currently publishedAdam@home Agnes BaldoBob the SquirrelThe Boondocks Calvin and Hobbes Cathy Clear Blue Water Cleats Close to Home Condorito Cornered Cul de Sac Doonesbury The Elderberries The 5th Wave The Flying McCoys For Better or For Worse FoxTrot Fred Basset The Fusco Brothers Garfield Gaturro Gil Thorp Ginger Meggs Heart of the City In the Bleachers Ink Pen James Bond Judge Dredd La Cucaracha Leyendas Mticas Liberty Meadows Liō Lucky Cow Maintaining The Meaning of Lila Modesty Blaise Monica's Gang Mutt & Jeff Non Sequitur OverboardPeanuts (reruns) Pepe Pooch Caf Preteena Prickly City Princess Ai Real Life Adventures Ronaldinho Gaucho Tank McNamara Tom the Dancing Bug Tutelandia Ziggy
Gasoline Alley could refer to:
  • Gasoline Alley, a comic strip by Frank King.
  • Gasoline Alley (album), an album by Rod Stewart.
  • Gasoline Alley, the name for the garage area of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

..... Click the link for more information.
This article or section is written like a personal reflection or and may require .
Please [ improve this article] by rewriting this article or section in an . (, talk)


“Authorship” redirects here.

..... Click the link for more information.
Frank King

Birth name Frank O. King
Born March 9 1883(1883--)
Cashton, Wisconsin, United States
Died May 24 1969 (aged 86)
Winter Park, Florida, United States

..... Click the link for more information.
Dick Moores is a comic strip creator whose best known work was for the comic strip Gasoline Alley. He received the National Cartoonist Society Story Comic Strip Awards for 1973, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1985, and their Reuben Award for 1974 for his work on this strip.
..... Click the link for more information.
Jim Scancarelli is a cartoonist who has been writing and drawing the comic strip Gasoline Alley since 1986. He received the National Cartoonist Society Story Comic Strip Award for 1988 for his work on the strip.

External links

  • NCS Awards

..... Click the link for more information.
A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN.
..... Click the link for more information.
November 24 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 380 - Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal entry, into Constantinople.

..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1880s  1890s  1900s  - 1910s -  1920s  1930s  1940s
1915 1916 1917 - 1918 - 1919 1920 1921

Year 1918 (MCMXVIII
..... Click the link for more information.
Tribune Media Services ("TMS") is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.

The company is divided into two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products".
..... Click the link for more information.
comic strip is a drawing or sequence of drawings that tells a story. Written and drawn by a cartoonist, such strips are published on a recurring basis (usually daily or weekly) in newspapers and on the Internet.
..... Click the link for more information.
Frank King

Birth name Frank O. King
Born March 9 1883(1883--)
Cashton, Wisconsin, United States
Died May 24 1969 (aged 86)
Winter Park, Florida, United States

..... Click the link for more information.
November 24 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 380 - Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal entry, into Constantinople.

..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1880s  1890s  1900s  - 1910s -  1920s  1930s  1940s
1915 1916 1917 - 1918 - 1919 1920 1921

Year 1918 (MCMXVIII
..... Click the link for more information.


The December 6, 2005 front page
of the Chicago Tribune
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet

Owner Tribune Company
Publisher Scott C. Smith
Editor Ann Marie Lipinski
Founded 10 June 1847
Price US$0.50 (Chicago)
US$1.
..... Click the link for more information.
Frank King may refer to:
  • Frank King (cartoonist) (1883 – 1969), American cartoonist
  • Frank King (cricketer) (1926 –1990), West Indian cricketer

..... Click the link for more information.
Black-and-white is a broad adjectival term used to describe a number of monochrome forms of visual arts. Most forms of visual technology start out in black and white, then slowly evolve into color as technology progresses.
..... Click the link for more information.
August 25 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 325 - Council of Nicea convened by Emperor Constantine.

..... Click the link for more information.
Joseph Medill Patterson (January 6, 1879 – May 26, 1946) was an American journalist and publisher, the grandson of publisher Joseph Medill, owner of the Chicago Tribune and a mayor of Chicago and older brother of fellow publisher Cissy Patterson.
..... Click the link for more information.
worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.


A woman is a female human. The term woman (irregular plural: women
..... Click the link for more information.
The Katzenjammer Kids is a comic strip created by the German immigrant Rudolph Dirks. It debuted on December 12, 1897 in the American Humorist, a Sunday supplement of the New York Journal owned by newspaper king William Randolph Hearst.
..... Click the link for more information.
Allied powers:
 Soviet Union
 United States
 United Kingdom
 China
 France
...et al. Axis powers:
 Germany
 Japan
 Italy
...et al.
..... Click the link for more information.
Ageing or aging is any change in an organism over time. Aging refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change (Hultsch and Deutsch). Some dimensions of aging grow and expand over time, while others decline.
..... Click the link for more information.
April 26 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

It is the first day following the spring equinox which cannot be Easter Sunday in Western Christianity.
..... Click the link for more information.
20th century - 21st century - 22nd century
1970s  1980s  1990s  - 2000s -  2010s  2020s  2030s
2001 2002 2003 - 2004 - 2005 2006 2007

2004 by topic:
News by month
Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun
..... Click the link for more information.
Dick Moores is a comic strip creator whose best known work was for the comic strip Gasoline Alley. He received the National Cartoonist Society Story Comic Strip Awards for 1973, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1985, and their Reuben Award for 1974 for his work on this strip.
..... Click the link for more information.
Jim Scancarelli is a cartoonist who has been writing and drawing the comic strip Gasoline Alley since 1986. He received the National Cartoonist Society Story Comic Strip Award for 1988 for his work on the strip.

External links

  • NCS Awards

..... Click the link for more information.
The National Cartoonists Society is the world's largest organization of professional cartoonists. It presents the Reuben Awards.

The NCS was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops.
..... Click the link for more information.
The National Cartoonists Society is the world's largest organization of professional cartoonists. It presents the Reuben Awards.

The NCS was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops.
..... Click the link for more information.
Comic strip formats vary widely from publication to publication, so that the same comic strip may appear in half a dozen different formats, with different numbers of panels, different sizes of panels, and different arrangement of panels.
..... Click the link for more information.
Bill Blackbeard is a writer-editor and the founder-director of the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, a comprehensive collection of comic strips and cartoon art from American newspapers. This major collection, consisting of 2.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter