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Alley Oop
Alley Oop is a syndicated comic strip created December 5, 1932, by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin, who wrote and drew the strip through four decades for Newspaper Enterprise Association. Hamlin introduced a cast of colorful characters and his storylines entertained with a combination of adventure, fantasy, and humor. Alley Oop, the strip's title character, is a sturdy citizen in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo. He rides his pet dinosaur Dinny, carries a stone axe, and wears only a fur loincloth.
Alley Oop's name was derived from the French phrase allez, hop! ("here we go"). In the 1933 press release that accompanied the launching of the strip with its new distributor NEA, Hamlin was quoted as saying "I really can't recall just how I struck upon the name 'Alley Oop', although it might be from the fact that the name is a French term used by tumblers. Alley Oop really is a roughhouse tumbler." The name of Alley's girlfriend, Ooola, was a play on a different French phrase: oh là là.
The first stories took place in the fictional "Bone Age" (similar to the Stone Age) and centered on Alley Oop's dealings with his fellow cavemen in the kingdom of Moo. Oop and his pals had occasional skirmishes with the rival kingdom of Lem, ruled by King Tunk. The names Moo and Lem are references to the fabled lost continents of Mu and Lemuria.
On April 5, 1939, Hamlin introduced a new plot device which greatly expanded his choice of storylines: A time machine was invented by 20th-century scientist Dr. Elbert Wonmug; the name Wonmug was a pun on Albert Einstein, as "ein" is German for "one" and a "stein" is a type of drinking mug.
Oop was transported to the 20th century by an early test of the machine (in the daily strip of April 8 and the Sunday strip of April 9, 1939). He became Dr. Wonmug's man in the field, embarking on expeditions to various periods in history, such as Ancient Egypt, the England of Robin Hood, and the American frontier. Oop met historical or mythical figures such as Cleopatra, King Arthur, and Ulysses in his adventures. In addition to the time machine, other science-fiction devices were introduced. Oop once drove an experimental electric-powered race car, and he has space-traveled to Venus, the moon (twice), and "Earth-Two". During his adventures, he was often accompanied by his girlfriend Ooola and by the sometimes-villainous, sometimes-heroic George Oscar Boom (G. O. Boom). Laboratory assistant Ava Peckedge joined the cast in 1986.
Alley Oop was first distributed by the small syndicate Bonnet-Brown on December 5, 1932, but this run ended on April 26, 1933, when Bonnet-Brown became defunct. NEA picked up the strip and, starting on August 7, 1933, the earlier material was reworked for a larger readership. A full-page Sunday strip was added on September 9, 1934; the strip also appeared in half-page, tabloid, and half-tab formats, which were smaller and/or dropped panels. During World War II, newspapers eliminated full-page comics to save paper; starting on December 1, 1940, Alley Oop's Sunday comic was offered in a smaller format which could, at an editor's discretion, be further reconfigured to save space. Daily comics were first reduced in size on April 20, 1942, and have become smaller since then, but they have been appearing in color since September 15, 2008.
When Hamlin retired in 1971, his assistant Dave Graue took over. Graue had been assisting Hamlin since 1950 (starting as a letterer) and creating the daily solo since July 15, 1966,[citation needed] although co-signed by Hamlin. Hamlin's last signed daily strip appeared December 31, 1972, and his last signed Sunday was April 1, 1973. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Graue wrote and drew the strip from his North Carolina studio. In 1974 Graue retained an assistant, Dave Olson, to ink and letter the strips. Olson worked on the strip until his retirement at the end of 1990; starting in 1991, Graue hired Jack Bender to finish the daily strips and produce the Sundays.
Graue initially decided to retire at the end of 1991, and the syndicate selected Jack Bender as the strip's new creator. However, Bender was primarily interested in the art chores; he re-hired Graue to stay on as writer and recruited his wife Carole, a calligrapher. This team produced the strip from the last week of December 1991 through the end of August 2001; Graue wrote the strip and thumbnailed the art, from which Jack drew the strip and Carole lettered it. Graue finally retired in 2001, satisfied in having completed fifty years working on the strip. NEA then hired Carole as the new writer, based largely on the strength of an Alley Oop Christmas story that Carole had written and Jack had drawn, separately from the main Alley Oop strip, for the 1997 holiday season. Starting September 3, 2001, Alley Oop Sunday and daily strips were drawn entirely by Jack Bender and written, lettered, and colored by his wife Carole Bender. (On December 10, 2001, the 75-year-old Graue was killed in Flat Rock, North Carolina, when a dump truck hit his car.)
Alley Oop
Alley Oop is a syndicated comic strip created December 5, 1932, by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin, who wrote and drew the strip through four decades for Newspaper Enterprise Association. Hamlin introduced a cast of colorful characters and his storylines entertained with a combination of adventure, fantasy, and humor. Alley Oop, the strip's title character, is a sturdy citizen in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo. He rides his pet dinosaur Dinny, carries a stone axe, and wears only a fur loincloth.
Alley Oop's name was derived from the French phrase allez, hop! ("here we go"). In the 1933 press release that accompanied the launching of the strip with its new distributor NEA, Hamlin was quoted as saying "I really can't recall just how I struck upon the name 'Alley Oop', although it might be from the fact that the name is a French term used by tumblers. Alley Oop really is a roughhouse tumbler." The name of Alley's girlfriend, Ooola, was a play on a different French phrase: oh là là.
The first stories took place in the fictional "Bone Age" (similar to the Stone Age) and centered on Alley Oop's dealings with his fellow cavemen in the kingdom of Moo. Oop and his pals had occasional skirmishes with the rival kingdom of Lem, ruled by King Tunk. The names Moo and Lem are references to the fabled lost continents of Mu and Lemuria.
On April 5, 1939, Hamlin introduced a new plot device which greatly expanded his choice of storylines: A time machine was invented by 20th-century scientist Dr. Elbert Wonmug; the name Wonmug was a pun on Albert Einstein, as "ein" is German for "one" and a "stein" is a type of drinking mug.
Oop was transported to the 20th century by an early test of the machine (in the daily strip of April 8 and the Sunday strip of April 9, 1939). He became Dr. Wonmug's man in the field, embarking on expeditions to various periods in history, such as Ancient Egypt, the England of Robin Hood, and the American frontier. Oop met historical or mythical figures such as Cleopatra, King Arthur, and Ulysses in his adventures. In addition to the time machine, other science-fiction devices were introduced. Oop once drove an experimental electric-powered race car, and he has space-traveled to Venus, the moon (twice), and "Earth-Two". During his adventures, he was often accompanied by his girlfriend Ooola and by the sometimes-villainous, sometimes-heroic George Oscar Boom (G. O. Boom). Laboratory assistant Ava Peckedge joined the cast in 1986.
Alley Oop was first distributed by the small syndicate Bonnet-Brown on December 5, 1932, but this run ended on April 26, 1933, when Bonnet-Brown became defunct. NEA picked up the strip and, starting on August 7, 1933, the earlier material was reworked for a larger readership. A full-page Sunday strip was added on September 9, 1934; the strip also appeared in half-page, tabloid, and half-tab formats, which were smaller and/or dropped panels. During World War II, newspapers eliminated full-page comics to save paper; starting on December 1, 1940, Alley Oop's Sunday comic was offered in a smaller format which could, at an editor's discretion, be further reconfigured to save space. Daily comics were first reduced in size on April 20, 1942, and have become smaller since then, but they have been appearing in color since September 15, 2008.
When Hamlin retired in 1971, his assistant Dave Graue took over. Graue had been assisting Hamlin since 1950 (starting as a letterer) and creating the daily solo since July 15, 1966,[citation needed] although co-signed by Hamlin. Hamlin's last signed daily strip appeared December 31, 1972, and his last signed Sunday was April 1, 1973. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Graue wrote and drew the strip from his North Carolina studio. In 1974 Graue retained an assistant, Dave Olson, to ink and letter the strips. Olson worked on the strip until his retirement at the end of 1990; starting in 1991, Graue hired Jack Bender to finish the daily strips and produce the Sundays.
Graue initially decided to retire at the end of 1991, and the syndicate selected Jack Bender as the strip's new creator. However, Bender was primarily interested in the art chores; he re-hired Graue to stay on as writer and recruited his wife Carole, a calligrapher. This team produced the strip from the last week of December 1991 through the end of August 2001; Graue wrote the strip and thumbnailed the art, from which Jack drew the strip and Carole lettered it. Graue finally retired in 2001, satisfied in having completed fifty years working on the strip. NEA then hired Carole as the new writer, based largely on the strength of an Alley Oop Christmas story that Carole had written and Jack had drawn, separately from the main Alley Oop strip, for the 1997 holiday season. Starting September 3, 2001, Alley Oop Sunday and daily strips were drawn entirely by Jack Bender and written, lettered, and colored by his wife Carole Bender. (On December 10, 2001, the 75-year-old Graue was killed in Flat Rock, North Carolina, when a dump truck hit his car.)
