Obscurity of the Day: The College Chumps

Here’s an early entry into what would become a popular genre for comic strips in the 1920s and 30s. The College Chumps follows the tanglings of a pair of college men who are endlessly competing with each other. The strip ran in the Philadelphia North American‘s comic section from 3/29 to 10/25/1908. It was signed by one George Henry, a gent with no other comic strip credits, but I suspect this just might have actually been Walter Bradford working under a pseudonym. Bradford was providing a lot of material to the North American, and it wasn’t uncommon in those days for a paper to ask the artists to sign only one strip at a time so as not to make them look like a small-time outfit.

One comment on “Obscurity of the Day: The College Chumps

  1. Hello, Allan—-The actual artist on THE COLLEGE CHUMPS is (to my eyes, anyway), is Hy Gage. Look at the letters, shape of balloons, faces—no doubt to me. Perhaps he didn't want to rattle his long-time employers at the Philadelphia Press, whers he thumped out MRS. RUMMAGE. —-Cole Johnson.

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