Obscurity of the Day: Mr. Clown Sr. and Master Clown Jr.

Here’s a series loosely called Mr. Clown Sr. and Master Clown Jr, by that amazingly odd cartoonist Eddie Eksergian. This is a particularly unfunny series, even by Eddie Eks standards. I can’t even tell which character is supposed to be which, not that it would help the gags along anyway. Thankfully these couple of pages aren’t a complete loss for the Eddie Eks aficionado, as the masthead on the top example is vintage Eks — “Wow! Big Type”. Now that is the sort of meta-weirdness that makes our boy’s work worth perusing.

The strip appeared in the St. Louis Star from August 17 1902 to January 4 1903, and then one last time on February 1 1903, this time signed by one G.V.H. rather than Eddie Eks. Who that might be I haven’t a clue, but it’s hard to imagine someone wanting to filch a series title from Eddie Eks, so he probably had some screws loose himself.

Thanks to Cole Johnson for the scans.

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