From the Sub-Basement of the Archives: Comic Strip Characters Behind the Iron Curtain

From the giant “to be filed” piles: a clipping from a circa 1960s English language magazine that seems to be a USSR government publication that extols the virtues of the country to Americans.

This bizarre comic strip features Little Orphan Annie, Fearless Fosdick, Albert the alligator and Winnie Winkle, all discovering the wonders of Russia’s permanent winter. Forty below? Book me a flight!

Maybe something … a lot … got lost in translation.

4 comments on “From the Sub-Basement of the Archives: Comic Strip Characters Behind the Iron Curtain

  1. Looks like it's from the pages of the communist satirical magazine KROKIDIL. (Note thrir mascot crockidile in the last panel)That "Fearless Fosdick" looks more like Col. Bullmoose. Is there a second page to this? It seems kind of pointless.

  2. Hi Cole —
    This was just an isolated page I found, already clipped out of a magazine. If there was a second page to it, the information is lost to history.

    The alligator character made me think it might be Krokodil, too, except that the reverse of this clip is a rather high-brow article (in English) about the museums of Leningrad. I didn't think that sort of thing was fodder for Krokodil. But maybe the highbrow magazine took this as an excerpt from Krokodil (since Commies don't care about copyrights).

    –Allan

  3. A hello from the Hinterlands (joe from San Diego) – I have a copy of a compilation from Krokidil – 1950's..can't lay my hands on it at the moment.

    I did some microfilm reading in my time…. historical research… and have found old newspapers on line now…searchable. I've been looking at the beginnings of the comic strip in various newspapers. Very interesting. And fun!
    aloha,
    joe t.

    more as I go forward and read thru the archives….there's a bunch.
    Just finished 2nd couple years of Dick Tracy and am on Bloom County. (best loved so far: first book compilations of Gasoline Alley and Popeye)

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