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Our Snooty Neighbors: When The Smythes Moved In
If you let the original art designer of The New Yorker loose on the Sunday comics page, then Rea Irvin’s The Smythes is pretty much what you would…
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Steven Smith
Review: Emanata and Lucaflects, Blurgits and Maladicta: Mort Walker’s Lexicon of Comicana
Like the comics art it dissects, Mort Walker’s legendary Lexicon of Comicana is unseriously serious.
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Steven Smith
Alley Oop’s BFF: Chris Aruffo Reanimates the Caveman
Chris Aruffo may not have planned to be a publisher, but somehow he managed to accomplish something that others couldn’t.
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Steven Smith
“Who Is Fluffy Ruffles?”: The Forgotten Cartoon Feminist of 1907
“Bah, for Mr.
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Steven Smith
The Great Buster Brown ‘Scheme’ of 1906: Inventing Celebrity Endorsement
A 43-year-old man, something over 3 feet tall, is dressed in the signature, foppish, Buster Brown garb and wig.
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Steven Smith
“Tycoons of Comedy”: Building the Myth of the Modern Cartoonist
“But the [comic] strip has suffered from mass production and humor hardening into formula….
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Steven Smith

September 2025

August 2025

© 2025 Steven Smith
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