Broom-Hilda

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Broom-Hilda
Author(s)	Russell Myers
Current status / schedule	Still in publication
Launch date	April 19, 1970
Syndicate(s)	Tribune Media Services (formerly Chicago Tribune Syndication)
Genre(s)	Humor

Broom-Hilda is an American newspaper comic strip created by Russell Myers. It is distributed by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate and first ran in 1970. Myers won the National Cartoonist Society Humor Comic Strip Award for 1975 for his work on the strip.

1 History
2 Characters
3 Appearances in other media
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] History

The original idea for the strip came from Elliott Caplin, brother of L'il Abner cartoonist Al Capp. He described the main character to Myers, who responded with a sketch of the witch and several sample strips. Caplin, acting as Myers' business manager, submitted the strip to the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, which quickly accepted the strip. The first strip ran on April 19, 1970 and became an immediate success. The strips have also been collected in several anthologies during the 1970s and 80s.

Caplin died in 2000. Myers continues to write and draw the strip. He is famous in the industry for compiling a large "back-log" of strips, in the event poor health were to prevent him from meeting his syndication requirements.^[1]

[edit] Characters

Broom Hilda: The strip's title character, Broom Hilda (a play on Brünnhilde) is a 1500-year-old witch with green skin, a wart on the end of her nose, and stringy hair. She wears a black dress, black shoes, and a black hat with a flower on top. According to the strip's official site, Broom Hilda is Attila the Hun's ex-wife. She is perpetually looking for a new husband, but due to her abrasive nature, the quest has thus far been unsuccessful. Early on in the strip run, she gave up cigar smoking and alcohol; she served in the United States Marine Corps for two days, and was discharged for unnecessary roughness. A hint to her rough-hewn side occurs in one strip where she is buying underwear. The clerk suggests a set of underwear, each one bearing the days of the week. She asks if she can get a set with the months of the year.

Irwin Troll: Irwin has a lot of fur and very little smarts. He is a good-natured, kind character, very unlike Broom Hilda.

Gaylord Buzzard: Gaylord is the intellectual of the strip, as evidenced by his thick glasses. He is egotistical and enjoys playing practical jokes on the other characters, particularly Broom Hilda. He bears the scar of a youth spent in movie theaters: he's hopelessly addicted to popcorn.

Nerwin: Nerwin is Irwin's nephew, attaining the name from a newspaper contest (Irwin broke the fourth wall to address readers) as a blend of "nerd" and "Irwin". Nerwin is often drawn wearing a propeller beanie, giving him the look of a stereotypical comic strip representation of a bratty juvenile delinquent, and he has also been known to frequently behave as such.

Grelber: never seen except for eyes, Grelber hides out in a hollow log perched on the edge of a cliff, and dispenses insults.

Wolfie: Broom-Hilda's small, timid pet wolf. Though an animal who never speaks, he is capable of intelligent thought a la Snoopy.

[edit] Appearances in other media

Broom-Hilda has appeared in two animated television series. The first was part of 1971's Archie's TV Funnies, an animated series set in a television station run by Archie Andrews and his friends. Broom-Hilda was one of the comic strips featured on their show, along with Dick Tracy, Moon Mullins, and Smokey Stover. The series was produced by Filmation Associates. Broom-Hilda's voice was provided by Jane Webb (also the voice of Veronica Lodge).

Broom-Hilda appeared again in another Filmation-produced series, 1978's The Fabulous Funnies. 13 episodes were produced, and ran for one season on NBC. The show featured animated versions of several famous comic strips, including Tumbleweeds, Alley Oop, and Nancy. Voices were provided by June Foray (Broom Hilda), Bob Holt (Gaylord), and Alan Oppenheimer (Irwin/Grelber)

In 2004 it was announced that there would be a Broadway musical^[2] based on the comic strips characters, written by Martin Charnin (Annie) and Kurt Andersen (Spy magazine). The music was composed by Leroy Anderson. While there has been some discussion of casting (author Andersen suggested Catherine Zeta-Jones^[3] for the title role), the show has not yet been produced.

Grelber also appeared as a computer program on old Unix mainframes. Typing the command 'Grelber' would cause the computer to insult the user.