For today’s post, we have a guest writer! John Lund is a big fan of the obscure strip Dick and Jane by Chuck Roth, and wrote me with a lot of detailed information, and even provided the samples you see above. So, take it away John …

I am writing to tell you
that I went to The University Of Massachusetts Amherst library to see a copy of your book, “American Newspaper Comics: An
Encyclopedic Reference Guide.” The night before, I did research on
the title and author of the book, checked to see if it was at the
university, and wrote down the code number, to save time before I
arrived. Sources said that this book covers pretty much every U.S.
newspaper comic strip, and what little I’ve read of people’s
reviews
at Amazon.com, it sounded to me like a reference book, a type of
source I enjoy.

Mainly, I was
curious to see if it mentioned one of my all-time favorite obscure
comic strips, “Dick And Jane.” Sure enough, I found that it was
mentioned, but was surprised to see my name mentioned as well,
something I didn’t expect. It also mentioned a fanzine called “The
Funnies Paper,” which I received in the mail back in the later
1980’s.

I am writing to
update information about the “Dick And Jane” comic strip. I
eventually came to the conclusion that it is likely that daily
episodes from February 4 to March 16, 1985 likely never existed.
The
reason I came to this conclusion about the end dates of “Dick And
Jane” is because, eventually, I found out about some other comic
strips that had their Sunday runs end on a different week than
when
their daily runs ended. One example is “U.S. Acres,” which ended
its daily run on April 15, 1989 and its Sunday run on May 7 that
same
year. The run of the “Dick And Jane” comic strip series is likely
this: daily strips – March 5, 1984 through February 2, 1985, and
Sunday strips – March 4, 1984 through March 10, 1985.

I am positive that
the last Sunday strip is March 10, 1985, because The Arizona Daily
Star seemed to have published every later Sunday
episode, and did not seem to publish it beyond this date. Also,
another Sunday paper, The Lincoln Journal-Star, seemed to have
stopped publishing the Sunday run on the same date. As for the end
of
the daily run, this date is likely February 2, 1985, the last
daily
episode that appeared in The Lincoln Journal. By 1985, it seems
that
“Dick And Jane” appeared in fewer newspapers,
although it appeared into 1985 in the Journal. It is likely
because
they began to run “Dick And Jane” on October 22, 1984—later in
the strip’s run. If most papers began to run “Dick And Jane”
earlier, I find this quite unusual that the Journal began it
later.

Other
newspapers that ran “Dick And Jane” were: The Boston Herald
(March 4, 1984 – December 23, 1984, except for the Sunday episodes
of August 5, September 9, and November 18); The Springfield
Evening
Daily News (April 2, 1984 – September 29, 1984, except for May 28,
July 4, and September 3); The Springfield Sunday Republican (May
27 –
September 23, 1984, except for June 24 and August 19); The
Columbus
Republic (Editor & Publisher of May 12, 1984, says that this
comic and “The Neighborhood” were published in large size in this
newspaper at the time); the Tampa Tribune (according to Jim
Ellwanger at the rec.arts.comics.strips newsgroup); the
Sacramento Union (dropped the strip in early December 1984, and
carried it Sundays as well); Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph
(ran
it on Sundays around November 1984, to my knowledge); Winnipeg
Free
Press (ran it on Sundays from April 8 through September 2, 1984 in
three-row format—including the picture of the schoolhouse next to
the title); The Philadelphia Inquirer; Detroit News; and The
Dallas
Times-Herald (about the last two newspapers mentioned, it is
unknown
to me if the comic ran at all in them).

I also have some
information about the cartoonist who did “Dick And Jane,” Chuck
Roth. For many years, he ran a greeting card company called Roth
Greeting Card Company in southern California and a design company
called Roth International, probably until about the somewhat later
1980’s. I also have an idea when he was born and when he died.
According to records that I’ve found on a few websites that seem
to
match, he was apparently born on January 28, 1921 (though one
source
says February) and died on January 1, 1989. Some of these same
records indicate that he was born in Canada (or specifically in
Toronto), and died in Thousand Oaks, Ventura County, California.
One
record also mentions about a “civil” on the date of October 14,
1949, whatever a “civil” is. Perhaps when he became a U.S.
citizen? Some records even mention his Social Security number,
although one record that I find odd is that the state SSN issue is
New Mexico, although he lived in California. These records
refer
to him as Charles Roth, or sometimes Charles Sollie Roth, and also
say that his mother’s maiden name is Zilberman. I
was
able to find an article about how he died, of which I have a
photocopy. It said that he was suffering a heart attack, but did
not
want to bother the paramedics, so he attempted to drive himself to
the hospital, but died before he could get there.

I first saw the
“Dick And Jane” comic strip two weeks after it debuted, discovering it in The Boston Herald. I instantly took
a great liking to it. I became such a big
fan, in fact, that I actually remember what happened in every last
episode for each date. I collected “Dick And Jane” mostly from
The Boston Herald, but had to get a couple of the Sunday strips
from
The Sunday Republican, three daily strips (July 23-25, 1984) with
dates whited out in The Boston Herald from Sacramento Union
microfilms, plus one that had a printing glitch (August 1, 1984)
in
The Boston Herald from The Sacramento Union as well, and, whatever
daily strips that did not appear in The Herald, I got from
microfilm
of The Lincoln Journal, and Sunday strips not from my local area
at
all from microfilms of The Arizona Daily Star.

The comic
strip started out with four characters: Dick, Jane, little Sally,
and Spot. At the end of the strip’s run, it had five characters.
Puff was introduced on November 25, 1984.


I am disappointed
that CARTOONIST PROfiles never published any articles about “Dick
And Jane” or its cartoonist Chuck Roth. I would have loved to find
out more about both of them. The only promo article that I know of was in the March 24,
1984, edition of “Editor & Publisher.” They even had a
picture of Chuck Roth.
 
I have been doing some work on my own website, uploading some comic
strip episodes that I created myself. If you’re curious, the website address is http://www.johnlundscomics.com. 

Thank you John for a  great (and very complete!) write-up about Dick and Jane!